Ye Jinyi tossed the two slips of paper into the trash, then sat back on the bed and picked up her phone.
When she unlocked it, she realized it was already afternoon.
“A message from the boss?”
Ye Jinyi opened the message and glanced through it.
The general idea was: “You did a pretty good job, kid, why’re you quitting…”
Then came the twist at the end: “Well, alright then. Hope we meet again someday.”
Not bad.
Didn’t mention anything about this month’s salary at all—very real.
At least the boss made a show of saving face for her. A decent boss.
“Time to get something to eat.”
Ye Jinyi pocketed her phone and got ready to head out for lunch.
After all, she hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch yet.
She left her tiny apartment and headed toward a restaurant.
To save money, Ye Jinyi didn’t even bother with the bus anymore—she walked.
And during that walk, she had no idea how many eyes she was already drawing.
A super cute little loli suddenly appearing on a busy street—there was no way that wasn’t going to catch people’s attention.
A couple of creepy old guys even bumped into roadside trees while staring.
But Ye Jinyi knew none of that.
All she knew was that she was starving.
“I really want a slice of strawberry cake…”
Ye Jinyi walked along the road, daydreaming about the sweetness of strawberry cake.
But then she quickly shook her head and shot down the idea.
“No, no, too expensive!”
Still, that rejected idea popped right back into her head the next moment.
“But I really, really wanna eat it!”
For a second, Ye Jinyi felt like her left brain and right brain were duking it out.
While her brain waged civil war, her feet had unknowingly carried her to the front of a cake shop.
The moment she saw the shop, emotion completely overpowered reason.
“Whatever! I’m already here! Dead early or dead late, still dead—might as well enjoy my last days a little. Buy it!”
Ye Jinyi dashed into the cake shop and asked the staff girl to pack a slice of strawberry cake.
“One slice of strawberry cake, please!”
Hearing the tiny customer’s request, the staff girl quickly paused her video-scrolling, pulled out a packaging bag from behind the counter, and walked over.
She followed Ye Jinyi’s instructions, taking a boxed slice of strawberry cake from the display case and placing it in the bag.
At the register, Ye Jinyi opened her payment app and started looking for the shop’s QR code.
She turned her head around but couldn’t spot it.
“You don’t take QR code payments?”
Ye Jinyi felt a bit puzzled.
In this day and age, wasn’t QR code payment standard everywhere?
The staff girl, hearing the question, suddenly looked a little awkward…
Ye Jinyi’s height was just about three centimeters shy of the counter, and the shop’s QR code was stuck right on top of that counter…
In simple terms—Ye Jinyi was too short to see it.
The staff girl did her best to suppress the awkwardness in her voice as she reminded her, “Um… little sister, could you hand me your phone? I’ll scan it for you.”
“Oh, okay,”
Ye Jinyi didn’t quite understand what she meant, but still handed the phone over.
The staff girl scanned the QR code for her, then handed the phone back.
When Ye Jinyi saw the payment screen on her phone, she instantly felt deeply insulted.
So it was because she was too short!
Still, Ye Jinyi didn’t dwell on it.
She just wanted to pay and get out of this embarrassing place as quickly as possible.
“How much is it?”
The staff girl packed up the cake and gave the price: “That’ll be fifteen yuan.”
Seeing such a cute little loli buying cake all by herself, the staff girl couldn’t help but feel a bit curious.
Was a kid this small really out on her own with no adult?
Just then, the store’s speaker chimed with the sound of payment received.
“Payment of fifteen yuan received.”
After the payment went through, the staff girl handed the bagged cake to Ye Jinyi.
Ye Jinyi grabbed her purchase and was just about to leave.
At that moment, the staff girl suddenly called out, “Wait, little sister…”
“Hmm?”
Ye Jinyi turned back, a little curious. She’d already paid—was there something else?
“How old are you this year?”
“Twenty-three.”
The words came out of Ye Jinyi’s mouth before her brain could catch up.
“Huh?”
Twenty-three?
The staff girl instantly wondered if she’d misheard.
It was only then that Ye Jinyi realized just how bad her answer sounded.
She spun around, frantically waving her hands as she tried to explain, “Not ‘two’—I meant ‘ah’! Like, ‘Ah! Thirteen years old!’ That’s what I meant!”
Thirteen, huh?
That sounded a lot more reasonable.
Though even for thirteen, she still looked kind of short.
“I see. But little sister, you really are a bit short. My cousin’s daughter is twelve and already 160 cm tall. Still, if you’re thirteen, there’s time—you’ll grow if you eat well.”
“Mhm, thank you, big sister. Bye!”
Ye Jinyi swallowed her embarrassment, forced a polite goodbye, and quickly walked out of the shop.
Carrying the strawberry cake in her hands, Ye Jinyi walked home, thinking about what the shop girl had said just now.
Twelve years old… 160 cm tall… what kind of natural-born cool beauty is that?
Is that even reasonable?
No, that’s absolutely not reasonable!
Why not?
Because that kind of height was nothing short of a massive insult to her current self.
“Wait a sec, why am I getting worked up over some kid I’ve never even met?”
For a moment, Ye Jinyi started to feel like something might be wrong with her mental state.
Back in her tiny apartment, Ye Jinyi placed the strawberry cake she’d just bought onto her computer desk, ready to enjoy one of her final meals before “departing this world.”
“Right, if these are my final days, I should make it a bit more ceremonial. A bit more sacred.”
Ye Jinyi had heard that in the island nation of the East, words carried mystical power—what they called kotodama.
Today, she wanted to give it a try herself.
“Hmm… what was that phrase again?”
Ye Jinyi tried to remember from all the anime she’d watched, thinking of that classic line that showed up in nearly every series.
“I remember!”
She pressed her palms together and recited.
“Itadakimasu~”
After finishing her sacred prayer to the meal, Ye Jinyi unboxed the packaging and picked up her utensils to dig in.
After eating, she tossed the trash outside the door, then returned to her computer desk.
She pressed the power button and booted it up.
An endless vacation, endless tomorrows, endless time—all leading to endless laziness. If only she had endless life to match.
Ye Jinyi was determined to make these final days of her life joyful.
It was kind of like the madness people fell into when they knew the end of the world was near.
Except in this case, that end of the world belonged to Ye Jinyi alone.