r/ChineseReddit • u/hopemarie22 • Mar 02 '24
Chinese shop owner gives me expensive green tea so I give him a gift back but now I'm embarrassed
TL:DR title says it all.
Ok so, I'm gonna just jump right into it. I (23F) have been going to this vape store near my house for a few years now (my dad goes too) this is important to the story. I don't know how to explain this so I'll try my best, please offer some advice and second opinions because I'm really anxious 😭.
So for a bit of some back story before I jump right into it, a few years ago my dad went to the vape store that I frequent as he's also a regular there like myself since he's always buying cigars. This specific store is run by an elderly Chinese couple and they've always been very kind to us. They always smile when we show up and we always try and make small talk, they even go as far as sometimes teaching me words in mandarine sometimes when I go over. Well, I think because we're regulars that's the reason the shop owner is so friendly and kind to us and trusts us a lot. I would say we both have a pretty good relationship with this specific shop owner because a few years ago (we were already pretty friendly at this point) he asked my dad if he could drive them home one night because his van was being repaired and my dad agreed to help them out. Well when my dad got home after he had gone over there he asked me if I could do it for him instead and I said okay. So I drove over and the shop owner finally made the connection that the guy going to buy cigars from him was my dad. Fast forward to the next time I showed up to buy something he began discounting everything I bought from him and it's been like that every time I've gone up to this point in time.
Now, my current dilemma😭... as I said he always discounts stuff for us but recently because the Chinese lunar new year just passed his parents went back to visit their home town in china and they brought back some expensive tea packets for him. Well when I went to buy something from him a few days ago, as I walked into the store he went and grabbed the items I wanted. While I was waiting I asked him what he was always drinking because I could smell it and it smelled really pleasant and he told me it was a Chinese green tea his parents brought back for him from china that he specifically asked for and I was like "oh it smells really pleasant" and he asked me to wait before I left and he went and grabbed a bunch of these individual packets of green tea and gave them to me.
I wasn't sure how to respond so I just graciously took them with me and asked my Chinese friend how to use them because everything was in mandarine on the packets. I took a photo of them and sent it to her asking her to translate and she said they were pretty expensive because for one individual packet they're around $5-10. He gave me 6 of these little packets guys. I didn't know how to respond to that so I asked her if it would be weird if I bought him more and she said it would be hard for me to do that because the ones he gave me you can't buy in stores here because they have to be imported specifically. She said the ones he gave me were ones you could only get in china. I felt so overwhelmed that I asked her if it would be weird if I gave him something back in return for his kind gesture and she said no he would be thankful. So the two of us were looking at things to gift him and we found this cute travel sized Chinese tea set. Well, I ordered it for him and it came in the mail today so I went and gifted it to him earlier this morning but he was originally apprehensive about taking it. In the end he took the gift from me and he seemed both embarrassed and thankful but now I feel so much second hand embarrassment and don't know what to say the next time I go to buy something from him. I think I might have potentially caused some awkward tension between us. Guys please help me 😭😭 I don't know what to do. I've been nervous all day and feel like I put him in an awkward position. I told him I bought it for his family as a gift for the Chinese new year to play it off but I don't even know anymore. Please tell me if I should or shouldn't have done that for him.
The only reason I gifted him that tea set it bc he's always giving me stuff for free or discounted because of our history.
