Xing Yingzhuo’s talent training mini-class finally came to an end, but Sheng Zhao didn’t notice any changes in his life.
For him, this skill was only useful for getting extra candy during “class quizzes.” It couldn’t be used for attack or defense, making it overall not very practical.
However, Xing Yingzhu didn’t explain or enlighten him about it. He unilaterally started and ended the class, leaving behind a poor bewildered student.
Fortunately, Sheng Zhao had gotten used to following Xing Yingzhu’s orders in such matters and didn’t feel any imbalance in his heart. Life went on as usual.
On the other hand, Zhang Jian seemed to have taken a liking to Hu Huanyang. He came to the urban area once a month on average, always coming up with all sorts of strange excuses to ask Hu Huanyang out.
Moreover, three days ago, he, as the legitimate heir of a orthodox sect, even came to “borrow” Hu Huanyang.
“Do you really agree to let Hu Huanyang run around with him outside?” Sheng Zhao was a little worried. “After all, Hu Huanyang is a demon. What if they don’t get along well later or have a quarrel? What if he bullies Hu Huanyang?”
“What are you afraid of?” Xing Yingzhu asked without lifting his head. “Anyway, their family has ancestral rules not to harm fox demons.”
“But Hu Huanyang doesn’t seem to want to go.” Sheng Zhao tried to persuade this tyrant indirectly, “You should at least listen to his opinion. I always feel like he’s a little afraid of Zhang Jian.”
“What’s he afraid of?” Xing Yingzhu sneered. “He’s just being guilty.”
Sheng Zhao blinked, intuitively sensing that there was a story here.
“What do you mean?” Sheng Zhao pounced over, leaning next to Xing Yingzhu, and gossiping, “What’s the scoop?”
“Nothing.” Xing Yingzhu pushed his head away impatiently, saying, “You’re asking me; you might as well ask Hu Huanyang himself.”
“Him?” Sheng Zhao sniffed disdainfully. “He’s just a foolish kid. What could he possibly know?”
Xing Yingzhu turned his head, looking at Sheng Zhao with a curious gaze as if he was observing an alien, and asked incredulously, “Sheng Zhao, can’t believe one day you’d say the same thing about someone else.”
Sheng Zhao: “…”
Is it illegal to strangle a boyfriend? And if the other party is a monster, how many years would you get?
“Besides, Zhang Jian taking Hu Huanyang away is just one less annoyance for me,” Xing Yingzhu said as he switched the TV to the local channel, casually adding, “And as for their matters, they’ll solve them themselves—you’re going to buy eggs, right? Aren’t you going yet?”
“Oh… I almost forgot.” Sheng Zhao slapped his forehead, casually saying, “It’s because Hu Huanyang just sent me a WeChat message complaining crazily about Zhang Jian acting like he’s taken the wrong medicine and then went off on a tangent.”
Sheng Zhao had promised Xing Yingzhuo to make a steamed egg custard tonight, but he found out at the last minute that the last egg in the house had already been honored as a boiled egg this morning.
Although Xing Yingzhuo reluctantly settled for a plate of cola chicken wings in the end, he still couldn’t let go of his longing for the egg custard, insisting on saving it for tomorrow’s breakfast.
Fortunately, the fresh supermarket outside the community didn’t close until 9:30 in the evening, so there was still time to go.
Sheng Zhao was in a hurry to get out. He quickly put on his coat, stuffed his keys and phone into his pocket haphazardly, and asked while putting on his shoes, “Besides eggs, what else do you want?”
“Nothing.” Xing Yingzhu said casually, “Just bring yourself back in one piece.”
“You’re saying that.” Sheng Zhao chuckled and said, “How could I possibly get lost?”
Before Sheng Zhao’s last syllable fell, he had already rushed out the door. Xing Yingzhu shook his head helplessly and sighed.
The fresh supermarket outside the community was just outside the main entrance of Biyuan Community. It took Sheng Zhao less than ten minutes to walk there from the community.
Now it was almost nine o’clock, and the fresh supermarket was very quiet, with only one cashier on duty leaning against the counter swiping his phone. Sheng Zhao went in, picked up a basket, grabbed two boxes of eggs, and then thoughtlessly grabbed a box of beef brisket.
At this time, most of the counters in the supermarket had already turned off their lights. Sheng Zhao glanced around, confirming that there was nothing else he wanted to buy, and went to the counter to pay.
When he left, he happened to see the fruit stall outside the supermarket closing. A young man carrying an empty basket emerged from the nearby alley and greeted him as he entered the supermarket.
“So late to buy groceries.”
“Worked overtime during the day,” Sheng Zhao replied casually.
As Sheng Zhao brushed past the young man, he caught a whiff of fresh pineapple scent.
Smells good, Sheng Zhao thought casually, maybe I’ll buy one tomorrow.
As he pondered what to eat tomorrow, something suddenly flashed in his mind. His heart skipped a beat, and he subconsciously stopped, turning his head to look down the nearby alley.
The alley behind the supermarket was used for disposing of expired food and had no street lights except for a small area illuminated by the outside streetlights.
With just a turn of his head, Sheng Zhao saw a stooped figure flash under the light, seeming to be an elderly person.
He hesitated for a moment but decided to step forward.
Behind the rolling shutter of the supermarket were two large plastic barrels, next to which lay two tattered blue plastic baskets with some rotten oranges and bananas. A gray-haired old lady was struggling to bend over and pick up the fruits from the baskets.
Her movements were peculiar, both stiff and clumsy, as if even bending over was difficult for her. She struggled to pick up an orange from the basket, but it slipped from her grip and fell to the ground.
For some reason, she seemed unable to pick up any of the fruits.
A partially rotten orange rolled to Sheng Zhao’s feet, hitting his shoe. Feeling a pang of sympathy, he bent down to pick up the orange and casually called out, “Ma’am.”
“What are you doing here?” Sheng Zhao asked. “Are you looking for these fruits?”
The old lady was startled by his call and shook violently for a moment. Sheng Zhao instinctively stepped forward to help her, afraid she might fall.
But the old lady, fragile as a piece of paper but strong-willed, steadied herself and turned her head.
As Sheng Zhao approached, he could see clearly. The old lady looked to be around eighty or ninety years old, with white hair and cloudy eyes. She wore an old-fashioned indigo jacket with some dusty marks on her pants, and her feet were clad in a pair of worn-out embroidered cloth shoes.
She looked like a lonely elderly person who hadn’t been taken care of for many years.
“I… want to eat some fruits,” the old lady said weakly. “I’m hungry, but I can’t pick these up.”
Her voice was gentle, and she sounded a bit short of breath.
Moved by compassion, Sheng Zhao had already regarded her as a lonely elderly person in the vicinity. After hesitating for a moment, he said, “Ma’am, don’t pick these up. Wait for me here. I’ll go buy some for you. What would you like to eat?”
“Really?” the old lady asked tremblingly. “You’ll bring them to me?”
“Yes, of course,” Sheng Zhao said. “What would you like?”
The old lady was very kind and didn’t hesitate to make a request, pointing to the scattered oranges and bananas nearby.
“Okay,” Sheng Zhao agreed readily. “Wait here for me. I’ll be right back.”
With that, he took a few steps back and then turned into the supermarket next to him.
The old lady followed him a few steps forward, waving her hand tremulously.
The supermarket was about to close, and Sheng Zhao rushed in. Amid the cashier’s puzzled gaze, he randomly picked up two or three pounds of oranges and a bunch of bananas.
“Forgot to buy earlier?” the cashier asked casually while scanning the items.
“No, I just saw an old lady picking up trash outside your door,” Sheng Zhao said. “She looked pitiful, so I’m giving her some help.”
The cashier handed him the fruits, looking puzzled, and glanced outside as if hesitating to say something, but in the end, said nothing.
Sheng Zhao didn’t pay attention to the cashier’s brief awkwardness. He picked up the plastic bags and walked out of the supermarket into the nearby alley, intending to give the fruits to the old lady. But when he raised his eyes, he found that she was gone.
The dark alley was empty, and the rotten orange that had rolled to his feet earlier still lay quietly on the ground, but the white-haired old lady had disappeared.
Perplexed, Sheng Zhao looked around the alley and nearby but couldn’t see the old lady’s figure.
Baffled, he thought for a moment and wondered if the old lady had too much self-respect to accept his help and had run away because of that.
—But he had only been in and out of the supermarket for a total of two or three minutes. It shouldn’t have been so quick for her to leave.
Sheng Zhao was confused but had no choice. He looked at the two plastic bags in his hand, smiled helplessly, and could only change direction and walk home.
As he entered, Xing Yingzhuo was picking nuts from the fruit plate on the coffee table.
The door to the living room rang from outside, and the lock cylinder turned half a circle. Xing Yingzhu raised his head sharply, turning to look at the door.
Unaware, Sheng Zhao unlocked the door, stepped inside, and was about to put the bags of fruit on the shoe rack when a string of chains flew towards him and wrapped around his wrist.
Xing Yingzhu looked at him with a smile that wasn’t a smile and said, “Why did you bring back something meant for someone else?”
“Huh…? Oh, right, how did you know?” Sheng Zhao asked strangely. “I met an old lady, but when I came back with the groceries, she was gone. The fruits were still good, so of course I brought them back.”
“Sheng Zhao,” Xing Yingzhu said, “Are you sure that was really an old lady?”
Frowning, Sheng Zhao asked, “What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you take a closer look?” Xing Yingzhu asked with a mischievous smile. “Was there a shadow under her feet?”
Sheng Zhao: “…”
