Fantasma detrás de ti

Capítulo 17

Every day, Xiaofen's hands have to wash at least twenty heads. Outsiders can hardly understand the hardship she endures. Car wash workers can wear gloves to protect their hands, but Xiaofen's hands are soaked naked in chemical agents. No matter how mild the agent is claimed to be, chemical agents are still chemical agents. After a day of washing, the skin on Xiaofen's fingers is wrinkled and rough, and her wrists are so painful that she is almost too weak to turn the key in the hole when she gets home.

If it weren't for my dreams, I really wouldn't be able to keep this job.

"Is there anything else that needs improvement?"

Xiao Fen liked this line the most, as it meant that "this head" was now in the final stages.

"No." The woman was very satisfied with Xiaofen's hair washing and also with chatting with Xiaofen.

"Thank you, then I'll rinse you off." Xiaofen turned on the tap and poured the water down her palm onto the woman's hair. "Is this water temperature okay?"

"Can."

"Thanks."

Thank you for this job; you can never have too little.

For a shampoo girl to become a designer, it could take anywhere from three to five months.

Xiaofen is self-aware. She has always been an ordinary girl since she was a child. She is just an ordinary girl in everything she does, neither good nor bad. Since the process of becoming a designer can be fast or slow, and she is so ordinary, she probably has to endure this kind of life of washing her hair and rinsing her face every day for another year.

A barbershop can't possibly be without shampoo girls; if someone is cutting hair, someone has to wash it. Since I'm the most junior employee in the shop, this kind of job naturally falls to me.

Just washing hair, washing hair over and over again, endlessly washing hair, is incredibly boring. Even conversations with customers have become part of the routine. Washing hair is like repeatedly solving the same mathematical problem by factoring it.

After becoming highly skilled at washing hair, Xiao Fen could serve customers with complete ease without even using her brain. She couldn't resist multitasking, trying to secretly learn her senior's haircutting techniques through the mirror. "Having an extra pair of eyes" seems to be an essential step for every apprentice.

I learn a little bit every day, and there's still sweet homework to do when I get home after closing time.

The homework consisted of one plastic head after another. Xiao Fen would recall the knife skills of her predecessors while watching her dreams dance lightly on the uncomplaining mannequin heads.

They tweaked this and trimmed that, the mannequin head responding with a faint smile, as if in affirmation.

Starting as a shampoo girl in a tiny barbershop, practicing diligently and persevering, one day you'll have the chance to pick up scissors and style the latest trendy hairstyles for a big star. Isn't that how all great designers started?

"Then I'll give you a quick blow-dry!"

Xiaofen picked up the hair dryer, smiled, and pressed the switch.

2

Another day's work has come to an end.

I washed a total of 26 heads today, 17 from women and 9 from men. Even my fingernails are numb.

"Remember to lock the iron gate again after you pull it down."

"The toilet paper is almost full, by the way."

"Please take care of the ground. Remember to bring in the umbrella stands outside."

"Remember to turn off all the lights, bye-bye."

After putting away the expensive special scissors in the drawer and locking them, the seniors yawned and went home with umbrellas.

It's closed for business, but Xiaofen's other job is just beginning.

First, lock the cash register, then pull the iron gate down to a height where only a child can crouch down and pass through.

Xiaofen swept the hair off the floor by herself, and after sweeping, she had to mop it again. She also had to carefully sort and organize the bottles and jars of hair dye and perm solution on the table. The toilet, which she had used all day, was also a small battlefield.

However, Xiaofen quite enjoys the feeling of being in "control" on her own.

No one is watching me, no one is scolding me, and most importantly, I don't have to wash my hair anymore.

She switched the radio to a 24-hour music channel, turned the volume up to the maximum, and sang loudly while sweeping the hair on the ground into a dustpan.

"What should I get for supper? Or should I seriously start dieting? I think, with this heavy rain outside, should I just rush home and make instant noodles? Or should I wait until the rain subsides a bit..."

Just as Xiaofen was lost in thought, the half-closed iron gate suddenly made a series of rapid banging sounds.

"?" Xiao Fen, holding a broom, bent down and looked outside.

A middle-aged man in a black suit was stuck outside the iron gate, trying to force his way in while pushing the gate upwards with one hand and bracing himself against the floor with the other.

"Ah!" Xiaofen gripped the broom warily and shouted, "What are you doing!"

“…I…” the middle-aged man said indistinctly, but his body had already completely entered him.

He was so reckless when he came in that he slammed his head against the iron gate, making a loud clattering sound.

It was raining outside, and the man was soaked to the bone. As soon as he came in, he made a mess of the floor.

"What?!" Xiaofen was so frightened that she forgot to wave the broom in her hand in a show of bravado. "Let me tell you, the boss's wife took the key to the cash register! Get out of here!"

The middle-aged man who barged in did not stand up immediately, but instead bent over and hunched over.

His face was pale, he was sweating profusely, and his right hand was pressed against his lower abdomen, with a faint trace of bright red liquid seeping out between his fingers.

"That's...blood, isn't it?" Xiao Fen calmed down after seeing this.

—This person meant no harm; he was just an injured man in need of help. She instantly realized that.

The middle-aged man, who looked to be at least forty-five, glanced around indifferently before realizing where he was, and then slowly said, "I want to get a haircut."

A haircut?

"Shouldn't you go to the hospital?" Xiaofen tilted her head and put her hands on her hips.

The middle-aged man, soaking wet, ignored everything and went straight to a seat.

He kept pressing his right hand firmly against his injured lower abdomen, making it impossible to see how serious the injury was.

“Sir, you can’t keep bleeding like this.” Xiao Fen wasn’t afraid at all and walked over to the man boldly: “I’ll call an ambulance for you. You can sit here for a while until the ambulance arrives.”

The middle-aged man closed his eyes, unwilling to answer. He probably didn't have the strength to answer either.

At that moment, a series of chaotic and urgent shouts and curses erupted from the doorway:

"Damn it! Where are you going!"

"How could they just disappear after running around? They must be hiding!"

"Damn it, it's too dark to see the blood on the ground... Don't get so close, go over there!"

"He took a hit and couldn't have run far! You go over there! You! You! Come with me!"

"Find him and kill him in two hits. Whoever gets him, he'll take a hit for them, you hear me! Do it!"

The shouts and curses rose and fell, growing ever closer.

The middle-aged man's expression changed slightly; he was most likely aware that the shouting and cursing outside were directed at him.

But he didn't run away, nor did he ask Xiaofen to pull the iron gate down completely. He simply continued to sit or lie on the chair facing the dressing mirror. Perhaps foreseeing his fate five minutes later, he only let the unease flash across his face before regaining his previous indifferent composure.

Drip, drip, drip.

The leather shoes were dripping water.

"Let's wash our hair first," Xiaofen said.

The middle-aged man with his eyes closed frowned slightly, feeling a large blanket draped over him, which he found very warm and comforting.

Then, a cool, refreshing shampoo was poured over my hair, followed by a little warm water, and then lots and lots of foam began to grow on my hair. My scalp tingled instantly, and I could feel ten very soft fingers slowly moving through the foam.

The touch of the fingers is very gentle, and the massage pressure is just right.

"Is this force okay?" Xiaofen asked as usual.

"Okay," the middle-aged man answered involuntarily.

The foam seemed to be increasing, so much so that it was about to fall from her hair to the ground, but Xiaofen skillfully wiped it back up.

The shouts outside grew louder and louder, as if they were about to reach the door, but the middle-aged man's body slowly relaxed.

Clang clang clang...

The moment the iron gate was yanked open, Xiaofen simultaneously smeared a huge amount of foam onto the middle-aged man's face. Xiaofen glanced at the three men who had barged into the store and continued piling the foam onto her hands.

"?" She looked at the three fierce-looking men with suspicion.

"Did you see it! Did you see it..." A man holding a bloodstained machete muttered incoherently.

"I'm the only one left in the shop now, so you'll have to wait a while." Xiao Fen casually stepped on a smear of blood on the ground. "Is half an hour okay?"

The three men didn't even exchange glances before turning and leaving, pulling the iron gate down halfway as they went.

Gently wiping away the life-saving foam covering the man's face, Xiao Fen continued to hold the man's hair and massage his scalp with the acupressure method she had figured out, proceeding slowly and methodically according to her daily work routine.

The shouts faded into the distance.

Although the angry shouts and curses could still be faintly heard, they were no longer as threatening as before.

Xiao Fen walked over, pulled the iron gate down completely, and locked it from the inside.

Then she started helping the middle-aged man rinse off the water.

Is this water temperature okay?

"……Um."

"Thanks."

The warm water flowing from Xiaofen's hand onto the man's hair retained an indescribable temperature.

After cleaning the man's hair with foam and drying it, Xiaofen took a hairdryer and started blowing it.

"Didn't you say you wanted a haircut?" the middle-aged man said slowly, his body warmed up and full of energy.

"My skills aren't good enough yet. I'll help you cut it another day when I've mastered the craft," Xiaofen replied calmly.

The middle-aged man slowly opened his eyes. He was about to say something like thank you when he saw in the mirror that the young girl who was drying his hair had tears streaming down her face.

"Why are you crying?" The middle-aged man was stunned.

"I've been so scared all along," Xiaofen said awkwardly, hastily wiping away her tears with her sleeve.

Too.

A girl who looks to be under twenty years old suddenly bumps into a shop where a seriously injured man barges in and says he wants a haircut. Then three rude thugs with machetes barge in and ask where they can chop someone up. How could she not be terrified?

"Why did you help me?" The middle-aged man asked, looking at Xiaofen, whose face was streaked with tears.

"……I have no idea."

"Actually, I'm not a good person either."

The middle-aged man sighed, looking at the large blanket in the mirror, stained with dark brown blood. What a sorry sight today.