Flower among the thorns

Lesson 22

AnQi

"I'm sorry but feeding you is not part of our cafe service," I replied politely to the customer who's sitting that demanded me to feed him the cake he's ordered. "Ridiculous, is this how you treat your customer? You're a maid here shouldn't you listen to my order?" He raised his voice and I looked down apologetically, squinting my eyes at his scary hollering. "Sorry sir. But I'm unable to do that," I apologised once again hoping it would appease his anger.

Instead, he held my hand and pulled me closer to him, "Do what I told you-" Yuxi stepped in between me and the customer, shaking his grip on me off as he pushed me to his left side, away from the customer protectively. "Sorry sir, please do not make things difficult for us."

The customer's face turned red with anger and he shouted, "I'm the customer! How could you be so rude to me!" He slammed his fist on the table and I replied, "I'm sorry sir, but if you are unhappy with our service, you can leave."

The customer glared at Yuxi and me and gritted his teeth in anger. Before we knew it he took the teapot of piping  hot tea on the table and opened the cap, flinging the tea in my direction. I opened my eyes wide in horror at the sudden move. Oh no, I'm going to be scalded and disfigured.

" Be careful!" Yuxi cried out as he turned towards me and hugged me tightly, exposing his back to the scalding hot tea as he cried out in pain when the drink splashed on his back. 

The commotion drew the attention of the other members and they ran towards us. "Yuxi!" Cai Xukun shouted as he ran towards Yuxi who's still hugging me protectively. "A-are you hurt?" Yuxi asked as he pulled away from me and I shook my head. "Yuxi.. Your back.." I muttered and he smiled while patting my head, "Its okay, its good that you're uninjured." His jacket and shirt is now drenched in piping hot tea and the steam was coming out from his jacket. That must be a serious injury..

"Yuxi, are you okay?" Cai Xukun stood beside Yuxi as the latter held onto him for support while gritting his teeth in pain, unable to answer his question. "We need to remove your clothes to assess the injury."

"Let me do it," Jiaqi replied with a worried look on her face. "Help me bring Yuxi to the back." Cai Xukun nodded as he bent down, allowing Yuxi to lie on his back to piggyback him to the back of the cafe.

The customer who caused a scene attempted to walk away but was stopped by Yibo who had a dark grim look on his face." Where the hell do you think you're going?" he gripped the customer's shoulder hard and pushed him down on the table, twisting his arm to the back. "Li Nong, bring him to the staff office."

Jiaqi

"Thanks for carrying Yuxi here, you can leave us now," I said focusing on YuXin who's sitting on the floor of the toilet with a painful expression without looking at Cai Xukun. He closed the door and left without a word and I immediately turned on the water faucet and directed the shower head towards YuXin's back to cool down the burn.

I peeled off her jacket carefully and said, "Your shirt needs to come off too Xiao Xin," as I helped her unbuttoned the white shirt. As the shirt came off, I saw the white bandage around her chest. "Xiao Xin, I need to remove your chest binder too, if not I can't see your injury." She grimaced in pain as I unravel the white bandage around her chest carefully. "Turn to your back and let me see," I said softly. Her back was burning red and swelling from the scalding tea.

"Okay, there's no blisters that's good. The skin does look tender to touch, so I think it's a first degree burn. Let the water run for a while and cool it down before we apply the medication." YuXin nodded her head slightly, clamping her mouth shut trying to prevent herself from groaning in pain. She's always trying to keep her pain in.