Chapter 11: Music-Box Dream Cafe

January 2013 | kaiyang

The sound of laughter penetrated my consciousness as I stirred from my slumber. Opening my eyes to look at the clock groggily, I realised that it was almost noon and the sun was shining brightly outside. Sitting up in bed, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes while trying to listen to the muffled voices downstairs. It sounded like there were two persons having an affable conversation. One sounded like Mother Shen but I didn't recognise the other. Was there a guest around?

Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I felt around the wooden floor with my feet for my bedroom slippers. As soon as I stood up, white spots coloured my vision. It took awhile for the dizziness to pass before I trudged out of my bedroom, feeling lethargic and exhausted from sleeping for too long.

"Look, the sleeping princess is awake." I heard a male voice say as I climbed down the stairs.

A young man was sitting in the living room together with Mother Shen. I rubbed my tired eyes. There seemed to be a slight resemblance between them.

Mother Shen turned to look at me, a disapproving frown replacing the earlier wide smile on her face. "Yan'er! Why did you come down without having washed up? We've got a guest."

"Sorry." I combed a hand through my tangled bed hair, turning around to go back upstairs. "I'm going now."

"This girl—when your uncle and I agreed to let her withdraw from school, we didn't think that she'll end up lazing around the house all day," said Mother Shen with a sigh. "I know that she wants to spend time with us, but we also want her to do something fun and meaningful, you know?"

"But Third Aunt, how do you now know that she isn't having fun and doing something meaningful now?" replied the young man.

"Aiyo, don't get me started. Since she stopped going to school, she has spent the past one week cooped up inside her room watching videos and surfing the internet on her laptop. I don't even know what she—"

I closed the bathroom door behind me, shutting out Mother Shen's nagging. The level of Shen Yan's mother's nagging was nowhere near my mother's, but it affected me still. A sense of guilt nagged away at me.

Gazing at Shen Yan's reflection in the mirror, I wondered if she had any unfulfilled wishes. Would she have wanted to become a performer, a choir conductor or a vocal instructor? Or was it a simpler desire like falling in love and experience romance? Unfortunately, I didn't know what her wishes were; and even if I did, I didn't have much time left to accomplish them all for her.

When I returned downstairs to the living room, I was finally told who the guest was as Mother Shen apologetically mentioned that I had lost my memories. He was Yu Sifan, Shen Yan's older cousin and the son of Mother Shen's oldest brother. So it turned out that Mother Shen's maiden name was Yu!

"Yan'er, your older brother recently opened a café in Sanlitun. Do you want to visit it?" Mother Shen asked in a hopeful and cheery tone.

I looked at her and then at Yu Sifan, who was also staring at me expectantly. While I didn't know if Shen Yan had any dreams and desires, I knew that she was loved by her family. As the only daughter of an affluent family, she was pampered and doted on; and based on the photos and videos that her family and friends have showed me, despite having a very small social circle, she seemed to value inter-personal relationships. Shen Yan was well-mannered, gentle and always put others before her. I certainly mustn't disappoint Shen Yan and her family.

Returning the smile, I nodded delicately. "Sure, I would love to."

Mother Shen's face instantly glowed with delight. Clapping her hands together, she rose to her feet and headed towards the kitchen. "Alright then, you'll follow Sifan to his café after lunch. When you're there, don't just be a bum. Offer some help, ok?"

Casting a sidelong glance at Shen Yan's cousin, I mouthed at him: 'Do I really have to?'

With a silent laugh, he shook his head. "Don't worry, I won't make you work. Just enjoy some coffee there—the barista we hired makes some seriously good coffee."

***

On the way, Yu Sifan eagerly explained the concept of his cafe.

I learnt that Mother Shen and Yu Sifan came from a family of restauranteurs that owned numerous Michelin-starred fine-dining restaurants and even fast food franchises across the country. It was no wonder that Mother Shen had married Father Shen, who was then the heir of a large food manufacturing company.

I couldn't care less about how rich families groomed their fuerdai children to eventually take over their family businesses, but I understood it when Yu Sifan explained how the café was a test of his ability and competency. He had made an agreement with his family that if he was able to successfully run a profitable café, they would allow him to venture into the café industry—something that the Yu family had not attempted to do to date.

After some analysis, Yu Sifan discovered that the café culture in the city was not yet well-developed and there was much room for growth. He felt that there should be a gimmick, something more attractive than simply hand-drip coffee and latte art, to be the theme of his café. As he was a music lover, but for some reason disliked drinking alcohol and pubs, he thought that he should open a music café. His music-themed café was therefore named 'Music-Box Dream Café' and featured fragrant hand-drip coffee, picture-worthy latte art and live music.

Music-Box Dream Café had already opened for four months and seemed to be doing well. The café had both indoor and outdoor sitting areas, separated by folding glass doors. As the weather was cold, customers avoided the patio and sought warmth indoors instead. Stepping into the café, I was greeted first by the aroma of freshly brewed coffee. The interior seemed to be dimly lit and I soon realised that it was because there were only a few lights with warm lighting that were turned on—the place relied greatly on the sunlight that filtered through the clear folding glass doors; but it created a relaxed and intimate ambiance. The white walls were adorned with posters of singers and musicians, vintage vinyl records and framed artwork. My eyes were drawn to the raised wooden platform at the side of the café, embellished with a standing microphone, a keyboard, a guitar and a cajon.

Yu Sifan proudly said that if the stage had been bigger, he would have placed a full drum set there so that it would be more ostentatious.

Clusters of tables and chairs formed cosy sitting areas around the small stage but I decided to sit beside the counter to be close to my "cousin" who was tending the cash register. Looking at the other customers and the types of beverages and snacks that they had ordered, I noticed that most of them were females who looked like college students.

"Cousin, isn't this supposed to be a live music cafe? How come there's no one performing up there on stage," I said to Yu Sifan, who was busy playing with his phone. Pointing upwards to the ceiling, I continued, "I only hear Jay Chou's songs being played in the background."

He gave me a sheepish look. "Well, I only hire performers on weekends. On other days of the week, this café lives on musicians who offer to perform for free—in other words, me or my staff."

I rolled my eyes. "You're a cheapskate."

"Excuse me? If you think that I'm a cheapskate, then you better pay for this before you leave," Yu Sifan protested as he served me a pot of ginger-lemongrass tea and a scone topped with a generous amount of apple jam.

I stuck a tongue out at himself before picking up the dessert fork to poke at a glistening apple cube and placed it in my mouth. The sweetness of the apple and distinct notes of cinnamon hit my tongue, evoking a feeling of comfort. I quickly broke off a piece of the buttery scone coated with the thick apple jam and took another bite. Smiling, I turned to Yu Sifan with a thumbs up sign.

"It's really good," I said in between another bite and a sip of the steaming hot tea. "It's my first time having apple jam and I'm really amazed. I can understand now why this place hasn't closed down yet."

Yu Sifan's brow twitched as he observed me with amusement. After a short silence, he wiped his hand on a hand towel and smiled in a smug manner. "It's not because of the coffee, tea or scones, that people still come. It's because of my looks and talent."

"Huh?" I laughed, taken aback by his sudden narcissism.

"People also come for our dashing and attractive Feng Maojing." He jerked his head in the direction of the handsome barista who was practicing his latte art skills.

Hearing his name, Feng Maojing looked over with a blank expression before nodding shyly to greet me. I returned his nod cursorily and gave my "cousin" a half-smile. "Yes, he is indeed good-looking."

At that moment, two young women walked into the café while enthusing about the interior, clearly intrigued first-timers.

"Welcome!" Yu Sifan immediately turned towards them with a huge, inviting smile. "You can take a seat anywhere and come over to the counter to order when you're ready."

As Yu Sifan attended to his new patrons, I noticed that some of the customers had books and laptops opened and appeared to be studying or working. An idea struck me at that moment as a smile tugged at my lips.

A dream of mine since I was in high school, as strange as it sounded, was always to complete writing a novel in Beijing.

Now that I was physically in the capital city and have all the time in the world without any obligations as a student or an employee, it seemed that I was finally able to accomplish my dream.

But first, I had to register an account on Jinjiang Literature City. I would then map out and write a story that would be considered original and intriguing in this era, and try to "market" my web novel to gain as many reads and comments as I could within six months. Although it didn't seem that that was much time, it didn't matter as long as I had the inspiration and perseverance to reach the finishing line!

***

Author's Note: 

As strange as it sounds, it was actually a dream of mine when I was between 15 to 18 to complete writing a novel in Beijing. With interest and fascination, people asked me why, but I was not able to answer, for I did not have answer. Rather than a dream, maybe it was just a youthful fantasy...