Huanying! Welcome to Shanghai, China. The place of all the peculiarities. Where everyone have their own stories about the families living there, especially the Xu's. Their ancestral house that they own for many generations have an infamous garden w...
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It has been three days when Mei started working at Franck Provost and also the third day without a single customer wanting him to cut their hair, not even some salon regular wants him to do their shampoo when their stylists are running behind.
And that was the high point.
At lunchtime, since he doesn't have anything anything else to do and he had already eaten his lunch packed by Timmy, he offered to fetch the other stylists lunches. They were nice but it doesn't extend to sharing their clients. He had to find some ways to get how good he was out there and start bringing people in.
At the coffee house and near establishments, Mei chatted up the workers and offerred them discounts if they want to come to Franck's and let him cut their hairs. None seemed enthusiastic but it was a start. He walked back to the salon and put the bags of lunches in the break room, he placed the lattés and iced coffees at the stations where some stylists were still working.
The last station he went to was to Mi's. Mei smiled and put her latté on the counter.
"Thanks, Mei-Ren," Mi said, elbow deep in highlighting her client's dark hair. The clients head shot up and Mei saw that it was Leila Liu.
Despite Mei's initial desire to demand for an apology, to what she had put him and Timmy through that night, Mei held his tongue and walked away without a word. He wants to salvage what was left of his day.
Leila Liu, however, had other ideas.
Later, Mei was sweeping around a station at the other end of the salon when Leila walked up to him. Kelly looked a lot like her mother, same dark hair, same brown eyes, same confident swagger. A little bit standoffish. When Leila didn't move from the only spot left to sweep, Mei finally stopped.
Mei managed a polite smile, even though he was choking the broom handle. If he was going to make a success out of this venture, he couldn't whack Franck's client over the head with a broom, no matter how much they deserved it.
"Hello, Mrs. Liu. How are you? I saw you at the party. I'm sorry we didn't get to say hello," Mei greeted sarcastically.
"Understandable, Mei. You were working. It would have been inappropriate," Leila's eyes slid down the broom to the sad pile of hair Mei had swept up. "You're working here, I've heard."
"Yes," Mei answered.
"You don't actually... cut hair do you?" She asked, as if appalled by the thought.
"Yes, I do actually cut hair,"
"Don't you need some sort of degree to do that, Mei?"
His fingertips were going numb and turning white from gripping the broom handle so tightly, "Yes," he replied.
"Hmm.. so I've heard you have a son. Who is the mother?"
Mei knew enough not to let Leila see his vulnerable spots. Once some people knew how to hurt you, they would do it again and again. Mei had a lot of experiences with that. "No one you know,"
