Chapter 4 Crescent Coffee Cup
Lorenzo took off around five on Sunday evening.
I whipped up a simple dinner, and Alicia came down, took a few bites, then headed back upstairs with a cup of coffee.
I cleaned up the dishes, tidied up the café, and called it an early night.
By the time I got to my room, it was already ten. I read a book about coffee, yawned, and hit the sack after a quick wash.
The unique smell of the storage room made it tough to fall asleep once I settled down. I tossed and turned for a bit before finally drifting off.
It felt like I had just fallen asleep when a light knock on the door woke me up.
I opened my eyes, still half-asleep, and asked, "Who is it?"
"It's me, Alicia."
Upon hearing her voice, I rose from bed and opened the door. There she stood in her reindeer pajamas and slippers. "You hitting the hay this early?"
I glanced at the clock on the wall. "Alicia, it's already one in the morning. I'm not like you, working all day."
Alicia ignored me, pushed past, and started rummaging through the storage cabinet, not caring about my underwear hanging in front of the door.
I frowned and walked over. "Alicia, what are you looking for?"
She didn't answer. She kept searching through the cabinet for a while, then turned to me and said, "Turn on the light."
It was only at that moment that I noticed the room was enveloped in darkness, with only a faint glow seeping in from the hallway. Alicia's face was obscured in the dimness.
I turned around and reached for the switch. With a click, the light came on.
As I gazed at Alicia, who was still rifling through the cabinet, I was taken aback!
Just three feet in front of me, Alicia was bent over, searching through the cabinet. But her feet, hidden under her pajamas, looked strange. I looked closer and realized they weren't human feet at all but the tail of a white snake!
Under the room's light, the white snake's tail even playfully wiggled at me!
I swallowed hard and instinctively took a step back, bumping into the edge of the bed and falling with a thud.
"What's wrong?" Alicia turned around at the sound and looked at me.
In the light, I saw a human-sized white snake head with black eyes staring at me!
I jumped onto the bed in fright, but the snake head turned back into Alicia's in the blink of an eye.
I rubbed my eyes, half-convinced I was still in a daze and imagining things. Alicia glanced at me, clearly perplexed. "Hey, what's up with you?"
I quickly glanced at her feet and saw they were perfectly normal, just wearing slippers. No snake tail in sight!
I forced a smile and shook my head. "Nothing, I just tripped. Did you find what you were looking for?"
"Yeah." Alicia opened her hands, revealing a white jade coffee cup.
The cup was exquisite, with intricate carvings and plum blossom paintings on the outside, making it look pure. Under the light, it was as enchanting as a crescent moon.
But as I looked at the cup, I thought I saw a white snake flash across its surface.
"This was my mom's." Alicia looked at the coffee cup, lost in thought. "My dad probably didn't tell you, my mom passed away in an accident eight years ago. She loved coffee, and this cup was her last gift to me."
Alicia's eyes reddened as she reminisced.
This brought to mind Lorenzo's earlier revelation about the accident eight years ago, leading him to abandon divination and establish this cafe in town.
It seemed that the accident was the loss of his wife.
I didn't know how to comfort Alicia, so I said, "It looks like this was your mom's favorite cup."
"Yeah." Alicia nodded. "Do you know what my favorite coffee is?"
I had noticed because she drank the same coffee every night. "I know, Blue Mountain Coffee."
Alicia smiled. "Good job! Alright, I'm going to make a cup of coffee. You go back to sleep."
With that, she turned and went downstairs to make coffee.
I followed, intending to close the door and rest, but curiosity got the better of me. I turned off the light, left the door ajar, and hid in the corner at the end of the hallway, peering through the railing down to the first floor.
The bar's corner light flickered red as Alicia skillfully picked coffee beans and started grinding them by hand.
A few minutes later, she brewed a fragrant cup of Blue Mountain Coffee in the white jade cup, carefully carried it upstairs, and disappeared into the darkness on the other side.
I heard her door close and waited for a while until there was no more noise. Then I stood up and shrugged. It seemed I was indeed half-asleep; Alicia was perfectly normal.
Thinking this, I walked back to my room, glanced at the dim light, and grabbed the door handle to open it.
Instead of immediately pushing it open, I broke into a cold sweat, vividly recalling that I had left the door slightly ajar earlier. Who could have closed it?