(1)
The dim streetlights didn’t illuminate much of the road ahead, but the billboard standing at the three-way intersection seemed even brighter by comparison.
Grandfather rode a large electric scooter that had a protective frame installed, slowly twisting the throttle.
This electric scooter had excellent shock absorption and a big seat, making it even more comfortable to ride than Fang Qiang’s little motorcycle.
This kind of vehicle should probably be called an electric moped, and in a big city like the province capital, it was a very common mode of transportation.
—After all, while this place restricted gas-powered motorcycles, it didn’t restrict these “big electric scooters.”
Grandfather’s house was located at the edge of the city center, but the streets were still quite lively.
And unlike the small city, where it was all desolate streets once you left the Dapeng Shopping Street area.
Every street here was bustling, and it seemed like no matter where you went, there were people everywhere. Every shop had customers, so nothing felt empty.
The province capital of Z Province wasn’t big, but it was still a province capital after all—this soaring level of foot traffic was something a remote small city couldn’t even begin to compare with.
A few little boys were chasing a cheap-looking four-wheel drive car toy down the main road of the residential area, the car wobbling left and right as it bumped into things, nearly going under Grandfather’s electric scooter.
Luckily, he braked in time, letting the little thing slip through underneath.
“You little sprouts! Don’t play on the road!” Grandfather’s tone suddenly turned stern. “Don’t you know how dangerous that is?”
The kids grabbed their toy and bolted out of sight. An Jing vaguely heard one of the little ones mutter ‘nosy old man’ as they ran off.
She seriously suspected that ‘Cai Qi’ had picked up that nickname for Grandfather from those little kids…
“Haha, these little rascals.” Grandfather shook his head helplessly. “There’ve been more and more people in recent years.”
“Why?”
“They’re all renters. Most of the old factory workers don’t live here anymore.” Grandfather gave the throttle a twist, letting the electric scooter slowly climb up the slope.
Actually, the scooter could go faster, but since Grandfather drove so carefully, it always seemed slow.
“More renters means more people?”
“Of course. Those houses—take a two-bedroom apartment, for example. The subletters or the agents, they’ll divide it into three or four rooms and have several people live in them.”
“Can they fit?”
“They’re all young people. As long as they have a room to sleep in, it’s fine. And it’s cheap—even some families of three live in those places.”
“No wonder there are more people.”
“Yeah, but fewer familiar faces.”
“If you go play mahjong at the elderly activity center, you can still see plenty of familiar faces, right?”
“Playing mahjong all the time gets boring too.”
“Then what do you usually do at home, Grandfather?”
“Read books, look at the newspaper, copy inscriptions and ancient texts. Nurtures the soul.”
“Is that the retirement life of a cultured man?” An Jing teased.
“These days, every young person is basically cultured. Back in the day, finishing junior high school was enough to become a senior technician at a factory. Now, you need at least a bachelor’s degree from university. Even a Da Zhuan diploma is considered just average.”
“That’s pressure all of a sudden.” An Jing said half-jokingly. “Then I’ll definitely have to get a bachelor’s degree…”
“Never mind a bachelor’s—An Jing, let me tell you, if you want to pursue academics, you’ll need at least a master’s degree.”
“That… that sounds pretty difficult…”
“What’s so hard about it? As long as you dare to dream, nothing is impossible.”
“Then what if I dream about becoming the president of the United Nations!”
“Haha—if you work hard at it, who knows? Maybe you’ll succeed?”
“Forget it…” An Jing twitched the corner of her mouth.
(2)
Walmart was the biggest supermarket in the area.
Unlike other supermarkets that rented out their lower floors to other businesses, every floor of this three-story building belonged to the supermarket itself.
The spacious plaza at the entrance looked quite impressive, with rows of storage lockers all covered in colorful posters that came together to form one giant advertisement.
She remembered being blown away the first time she came here.
The small city had supermarkets inside buildings too, but the biggest one only took up a single floor.
Nowhere near this place—where every single floor was big enough to house a decent-sized supermarket on its own.
The moment she walked through the entrance, a blast of cold air whooshed right over An Jing’s head. She looked around, then turned back with a confused expression. “Grandfather, where are the shopping carts?”
“They’ve moved the carts upstairs now.” Grandfather adjusted his clothes and gently nudged An Jing’s back. “Come on, let’s head up first.”
“It’s been so long since I’ve been here… This place is huge.” An Jing couldn’t help but sigh as she looked at the long escalator.
A worker in a red uniform was dragging a long train of shopping carts onto the escalator. The other people waiting to go up either hurried past him or waited behind for him to go first.
It was almost 8:00 PM, the busiest time for this supermarket.
Many people took advantage of their post-dinner time to browse around, even if they didn’t buy anything… Enjoying the free air conditioning and then going home to enjoy the cheap off-peak electricity rates was also a pretty good deal.
Just as the escalator reached the end, stacks of discounted merchandise came into view. While An Jing was still spacing out, Grandfather had already slipped a coin into a shopping cart and pulled one free.
The supermarket entrance was on the second floor, where the rice, flour, cooking oil, beverages, and snacks were—of course, those only took up half the floor. The other half was dedicated to home appliances and electronics.
If Dapeng Shopping Street was a big mall made up of countless small shops, then Walmart was a massive department store that had almost everything all by itself.
And it looked much more proper too.
An Jing couldn’t wait to walk over to the snack display not far away. She picked up a discounted bucket of chips and examined it—this was a pack of three, and it was cheap, only 9.99.
“Grandfather!”
“Take it.” Grandfather answered readily. “Take whatever you want to eat.”
Since they hadn’t seen each other in a while, there was still a bit of awkwardness between them. An Jing made her usual polite gesture, then immediately got into the groove.
Of course, she didn’t go overboard—she only picked fairly mainstream snacks, and didn’t take too many of any one kind.
After picking and choosing for quite a while, she’d only managed to cover the bottom of the shopping cart.
“Want to get some of these bulk cookies, bread, and candies?” Grandfather chuckled. “Isn’t chocolate your favorite flavor?”
“Uh… yeah… Let’s get some strawberry-filled ones this time…”
“Oh, strawberry, that works too. Let me take a look—these and these, and these, are all the same price, and then…”
Under Grandfather’s direction, An Jing picked up quite a few bulk snacks.
Most of them were the more traditional types—dried tofu, hawthorn rolls, sandwich cookies, and the like.
Grandfather even wanted her to grab some jelly, but only dropped it after An Jing insisted multiple times that she was way past the age for eating jelly.
The person handling the weighing was a woman who looked close to retirement. Whenever Grandfather talked with people that age, he’d instinctively start speaking in dialect first. When he realized the other person couldn’t understand, he’d immediately switch back to Mandarin.
“Bāng yàn kū kū zhè jǐ zhǒng dòu gān shì bù shì dōu yí gè jià de… Hello, can you check if these dried tofu are all the same price?”
“Let me take a look…” The woman’s Mandarin had a noticeable Z Province accent. “Just these few aren’t. These are the egg tofu dried.”
“Oh, okay. Thank you.”
“Anything else?”
“I want all of them—I just meant that if there are different ones, weigh them separately.”
“That’s no problem.”
“Want to get some drinks? Cola, Sprite?” Grandfather looked at An Jing with a smile. “Let’s just buy a whole case.”
“Can we even carry a whole case back?”
“It’ll fit on the front of the electric scooter, don’t worry.”
“Cola and Sprite… I feel like I’ve been drinking too much of those… Uh… Might make me fat?” An Jing scratched her cheek a bit awkwardly, since a skinny “guy” saying he was worried about gaining weight sounded kind of “girly.”
An Jing had already gotten over that hurdle internally, but saying it out loud still made her a bit embarrassed.
“Then let’s get some milk.”
“Ah, let’s get milk then. Maybe I’ll even grow taller…”
“Okay, the milk is in the fresh section downstairs. I’ll go buy a razor first.”
“Are you still using a manual one, Grandfather?”
“That one shaves cleaner.”
“Electric ones are pretty clean too.”
“Those are expensive.”
“Oh…” An Jing, who had never grown a single hair on her face, nodded and subconsciously rubbed her chin.
By now, it was hard for her to even imagine what she’d look like with a beard—she could barely even remember what her former self looked like.
(3)
“Grandfather, are we going downstairs?”
“We’re going upstairs to look at clothes for you.”
“No, no, that’s fine. I have plenty of clothes—Dad’s already bought me quite a few…” An Jing quickly waved her hands.
“Then at the very least, we need to get you a dress set. Something to wear around the house. A sleeping dress.”
“Uh…”
“Otherwise, your dad will say this old father-in-law of his is stingy—his granddaughter comes to visit and he doesn’t even buy her a single outfit.”
“My dad isn’t that kind of person…”
“Hehe—come on, let’s buy a set, and a pair of shoes too. Grandpa’s happy to buy them for you.”
“F-Fine, let’s buy them then…” An Jing really couldn’t bear to refuse Grandfather’s kindness.
The third floor of the supermarket was the area for daily necessities, cosmetics, toys, stationery, and clothing.
The clothing section here wasn’t like the token ones in other supermarkets—it was genuinely packed with clothing racks, with suitable styles for men, women, young, and old alike.
The styles might be a little behind the times, but this was the province capital after all—even the outdated styles were about the same as the “new arrivals” in the small city’s clothing stores…
The moment Grandfather led An Jing into the clothing section, a sales associate immediately rushed over, eagerly asking what they were looking for.
Maybe because… an old man with a young girl looked like the perfect pair of easy marks.
“Help me pick something for my granddaughter—do you have any pretty dresses? And we need a pair of shoes too. Not sandals—sandals will tan her feet. Something like sneakers or sports shoes that stay cool in the summer…”
An Jing couldn’t help but open her mouth—
With that kind of energy, this was definitely not going to be just buying one sleeping dress!