Seeing this, I felt relieved and turned to leave, but a sarcastic voice came from behind.
"Wait! Did you touch my takeaway?!"
I looked back in surprise.
Our takeaway packaging has a sealing strip, how could I... She took it and wrinkled her nose and sniffed the bag. "What's that smell?"
She fanned the air with disgust, as if the bag was emitting some foul odor, "Your packaging is too casual, it smells bad!"
An auntie next to her said, "Yes, it's really hard to say whether the takeout is hygienic now. Besides, who knows if these deliverymen have any diseases...”
I sneered in my heart. I packed the dishes of this restaurant myself, using sealed lunch boxes with insulation bags outside. How could it smell bad?
"Auntie, we all have standard packaging and the lunch boxes are sealed. Look..."
"What are you looking at?"
She interrupted me rudely and started to open the takeout bag, "I have a bad stomach to begin with. Can you take responsibility if I get sick from eating?"
She took out the lunch boxes one by one and placed them on the stone bench next to her. Under the sun, the braised pork was shiny and the green vegetables were green.
"Oh, the amount is wrong, isn't it?" She picked up a box of rice and weighed it.
"Why does it feel less? Did you eat some on the way?"
I took a deep breath and suppressed the anger in my heart.
"Auntie, we have surveillance records for our meals and the portions are standard. And our riders have rules, they can't..."
"Rules? Can rules be eaten?" She sneered, her voice suddenly rising, "I see that few of you in this business have clean hands and feet! You are all dressed in slovenly clothes, running around the gate of our community, how bad it is for the image!"
"Auntie, if you have any questions about the food, you can apply for after-sales service according to the platform process, or contact the merchant directly."
I forced myself to calm down, my voice was a little tight, "If you insist that there is a problem, I can take photos for you and record it and feedback to the company for processing."
"Process? How to process? Refund! You must refund!"
She put her hands on her hips, looking arrogant and unreasonable, "I will also complain about you! Bad attitude! Stealing food! You must lose your job!"
She spitted and the wrinkles on her face trembled with excitement.
There seemed to be more people watching the excitement around.
Those eyes swept over me, accompanied by whispers.
"...young people nowadays..."
"...delivering food is still..."
I slowly loosened my clenched fists and adjusted the angle of the recorder on my chest - I had originally wanted to record it and it just came in handy at this moment.
"Auntie, I have recorded what you just said."
"Regarding refunds and complaints, I will report it according to company regulations. If you have other questions..."
She probably didn't expect me to be so "calm". She was stunned for a moment and then became more angry. "You dare to record? What do you mean? Are you threatening me?"
"It's not a threat, it's just following the process." I looked into her eyes and said word by word.
She was a little scared by my gaze, but she still didn't spare me.
"Hmph, let's see what you can do! Get out! Don't be an eyesore here!"
She waved her hand, as if to drive away a fly.
The timeout reminder on my phone kept broadcasting and the orders behind were about to exceed the time limit. I didn't bother to entangle with her and turned around and left directly.
"What kind of person is this! I was right, wasn't I?!"
Her persistent voice came from behind me again. I resisted the urge to argue with her and left with the security guard.
In the rearview mirror of the electric car, the old lady was still complaining to her neighbor with spit flying and her face was full of pride.
When I returned to the rental house in the evening, Zara was already at home.
Seeing that I looked bad, she came over to give me a massage.
"What's wrong? Who made my love Leon unhappy?"
I turned my head and looked at her smiling eyes. I angrily told her what happened at noon, but Zara smiled nonchalantly.
"Oh, I said that delivering food is not good. Besides, now everyone is delivering food and the quality of the deliverymen is not high... and they like to race on the street... Why are you arguing with the old lady? If it doesn't work, change your job in a few days. It's hard and embarrassing to deliver food..."
"Okay, stop talking," I interrupted Zara in a bad tone and she was stunned.
"I make money by delivering food and I don't feel ashamed. Also, now there is a seal on food delivery and the platform also has requirements. Is this job as bad as you say?"
Because I was angry, I spoke a little fast.
Zara was stunned. She didn't seem to expect my reaction to be so strong. She was stunned for a moment and waved her hand quickly.
"No, no, I didn't mean that."
I looked at her, feeling pissed off, "What do you mean? I was scolded by someone, but you didn't speak up for me. Instead, you advised me to change jobs?"
"Oh, you shouldn’t have to deal with that kind of person." She said impatiently.
"She is old, so she may be difficult to deal with. You should be more understanding of the elderly. Also, don't take your work out on me. I didn't hire you!"
Looking at her confident way, I suddenly felt a little ridiculous.
I met Zara on the street two months ago. She took the initiative to talk to me at the dining place. Since I was about to start researching the takeaway market, I told her that my job was a takeaway driver.
She was not like this at that time.
"I think delivering takeaways is good. I have free time and good income, but it's just a bit hard."
I suddenly felt very ridiculous and didn't argue with her anymore. I went straight into the bathroom.
After dinner, Zara took the initiative to come to my study room.
Her tone softened a lot, saying that she was wrong and shouldn't have said that. She said she wanted to take me home to meet her mother, as a formal introduction.
Although I was angry, I thought that she had already talked to her mother, so I agreed.
But I didn't expect that when I stepped into her house, I was stunned by the scene in front of me.
Looking at the familiar community and the familiar unit, I stopped and looked at her with a puzzled look.
"Which floor is your home on?" I asked her.
"401, I remember telling you?"
Zara looked back at me and when she saw my face change, she seemed to think of something.
"The delivery you told me that day... wouldn't it be my house..."
Her face suddenly became gloomy, but soon returned to normal, pretending to be calm and came over to hold my hand.
"It's okay, my mother is easy to talk to, you will know when you see her!"
Following Zara anxiously, I was thinking about countermeasures quickly in my mind.
But at this moment, the door was already opened.
"Zara! You are finally back!"
Accompanied by an exaggerated greeting, the familiar voice sounded again.
Yes, I heard her voice when Zara talked to her mother on the phone before, no wonder I felt familiar.
The next second, Zara's mother walked out of the room and looked at me impatiently, but was stunned the moment she saw me.
"Where is your boyfriend? Come in..."
The face that was originally smiling like an old peony suddenly turned cold.
"Why is it you!"
After saying that, she turned around and walked in. Zara was embarrassed and forced me in.
Standing at the entrance, her eyes swept me from head to toe like an X-ray and the corners of her mouth almost turned down to her chin.
Zara pretended to be calm and introduced her with a smile, "Mom, this is Leon Brown."
"Leon, this is my mom." My throat was tight and I could hardly speak.
"Hello, auntie."
Her mother laughed out loud and the laughter was sharp and piercing.
"Oh - it turned out to be you." She seemed to have suddenly realized something and her voice was long and full of undisguised contempt.
She turned to Zara and her voice suddenly rose,
"Zara, what kind of person are you looking for? A stinky delivery man? Does our family need you to eat or wear? You want to find this kind of..."
She paused, "...this kind of shameless person who can't be on the stage?"
The air froze instantly. I felt all the blood in my body rush to my head and my face was burning.
Zara's face also changed, embarrassed and helpless, "Mom! What are you talking about?!"
Her mother sneered, "I tell you Leon, our Coldiac family can't accept a son-in-law like you! Hurry up and break up with my daughter, do you hear me?"
Seeing that the situation was a bit difficult to end, Zara quickly pushed and pulled me into the bedroom and then told me to wait for a while, she went to communicate with her mother.
Through the door, I heard countless harsh words coming out of her mouth, something like "lowly..." "dirty...", but slowly seemed to calm down.
After an unknown amount of time, Zara came in and called me to eat with a smile.
Before leaving, she also deliberately whispered to me, "My mother is a person with a sharp tongue but a soft heart, don't worry about it! Be sensible tonight, don't be temperamental!"
At the dinner table, the atmosphere was still particularly awkward.
Zara tried her best to ease the atmosphere.
I lowered my head silently and didn't want to talk, nor did I want to see her mother's eyes that looked like she wanted to kill me.
Just when I thought I was finally going to get through it, an accident happened.
Zara's mother came out of the kitchen with hot soup and when she passed by me, the boiling hot soup poured all over me.
The back of my hand and thigh suddenly turned red.
I screamed in pain and subconsciously pushed her mother.
"Oh my God!" Her mother howled exaggeratedly and lay on the ground, but I clearly saw a hint of pride in her eyes.
She exclaimed, "What are you doing! Are you deliberately taking revenge on me?"
Zara's mother slapped her thigh and sat on the ground howling, "Zara! Look at the boyfriend you found, he is simply the King of Hell!"
I couldn't believe my ears, I suddenly looked up and stared at her. "What else are you saying--"Before I finished my words, a crisp sound rang on my face and my face suddenly felt hot and painful.
