Uncle Li drove the two of them to the entrance of the market, politely explaining that a hourly cleaner was scheduled to arrive today, so he needed to go back to open the door and would come pick them up later once they called him after buying the ingredients.
Consequently, the heavy responsibility of pushing the wheelchair fell entirely onto Shen Jiali’s shoulders.
The glaring sunlight beat down relentlessly, making Shen Jiali feel as though his entire body was being pricked by needles, and he looked visibly thinner.
He hated the sun, hated the hustle and bustle of the market, and hated pushing wheelchairs.
This was his first time pushing a wheelchair for Nan Liujing. Combined with the weight of the person and the wheelchair itself, it felt as heavy as a massive lump of iron. He gave it a hard push, but the wheelchair and its occupant didn’t budge an inch.
He then turned his back and tried using his bottom to shove it. After shoving for a long time, the wheelchair finally moved forward by one centimeter, only to slide backward half a meter in the next second.
Shen Jiali: “…”
Forget it, I give up. Let Nan Liujing act as a door-god at the market entrance.
He walked around Nan Liujing and headed forward.
A kind-hearted middle-aged auntie nearby saw this, hurried over to the wheelchair, and kicked away a small broken brick from in front of the wheel: “Aigoo, no wonder you couldn’t push it a brick got it stuck. Hey young man, don’t rush off, are you really just going to leave your friend here and ignore him?”
Shen Jiali equally detested anyone lacking a sense of personal boundaries.
Because of this, he wouldn’t be able to skim any money off the top right in front of Nan Liujing.
This time, to prevent Shen Jiali from buying the wrong things again, Uncle Li had specifically given him a shopping list.
First on the list was spinach; tonight’s soup would be spinach and tofu soup.
The vegetable stalls were lined up in a row with a dazzling array of varieties. An enthusiastic vendor was shouting that his stall had the freshest yamashita spinach, claiming it was specially supplied exclusively to Michelin chefs and took a huge amount of effort for him to source. The original price was 87 yuan per jin, but today’s special price was only 67.
For a wealthy chaebol young master born with a silver spoon in his mouth like Nan Liujing, he had no concept of market vegetable prices he only knew he wanted to buy the best and most expensive.
The vendor was also very enthusiastic. Spotting Nan Liujing’s expensive attire and guessing he might be some young master from a rich family experiencing life down-to-earth, the vendor immediately pulled out all the stops: “Sir must often eat this kind of spinach. Although the price is a bit higher than ordinary spinach, it matches your noble temperament perfectly, doesn’t it?”
Nan Liujing was no stranger to such flattery, but since the vendor spoke pleasingly, he bought it.
He raised his eyes to look at Shen Jiali, signaling that this was the spinach to buy, only to see that Shen Jiali was already squatting in front of the neighboring stall, picking and choosing.
Most of the spinach he picked up was withered and drooping, with yellowing leaf tips. In the words of the vendor auntie: “Young man, come take a look over here. Those ones are leftovers waiting to be taken back to feed pigs after the market closes.”
Yet Shen Jiali remained unfazed, grabbing a handful and stuffing it into a plastic bag.
Although this spinach looked poor in quality, it was cheap.
Nan Liujing looked down at him coldly, suddenly understanding why this lazy fellow had volunteered to buy groceries—his little abacus had been clacking loudly in his head all along.
“Shen Jiali, do you know how much this spinach costs?”
Shen Jiali didn’t even raise his head: “One yuan fifty.”
Nan Liujing sneered: “Then how do you plan to allocate the remaining money?”
Shen Jiali hoisted a small bag of spinach, weighed it in his hand, handed it to the vendor to be weighed, and casually gave a reply that completely ignored the question:
“Spinach contains a large amount of oxalic acid. Eating it together with calcium-rich tofu forms calcium oxalate, which is very difficult to absorb and can cause stone hyperplasia over time.”
He lazily drooped his eyelids, delivering a soul-searching question:
“Since the goal is to promote kidney stones, why use the most expensive specially-supplied spinach?”
Vendors: “…”
Nan Liujing: “…”
It made complete sense, leaving him utterly speechless.
Nan Liujing was silent for a long moment, then flicked his fingers, signaling to let him do as he pleased.
After buying the spinach, the two went to the potato stall. Shen Jiali passed over the fresh potatoes with thin skins and large sizes, picking only those oddly shaped, honeycomb-pitted potatoes instead. In Shen Jiali’s words:
“Although these potatoes are ugly, they have more starch and higher nutritional value.”
And they were cheap.
Nan Liujing unable to refute ×2
The main dish for dinner was chopped pepper fish head, with the main ingredient being bighead carp. Nan Liujing picked out the largest, fattest, and most energetic one from the fish tank, and just as he was about to call Shen Jiali over to pay, he saw that Shen Jiali was already squatting in front of the fish-cleaning stall, scrutinizing a pile of leftover fish heads that other people didn’t want.
A bad premonition welled up in Nan Liujing’s heart.
He rolled his wheelchair over to Shen Jiali’s side and lowered his voice: “What do you want to do?”
“Make chopped pepper fish head.”
“So?”
“Buy a fish head.” Shen Jiali was concise and to the point, as if saying one extra word would be a disrespect to the bighead carp.
“Buy a whole fish.” Nan Liujing tightened his fingers, squeezing the words out from between his teeth.
“Then what about the fish body?”
“Put it in the fridge, make something else next time.”
“Have you ever eaten meat that wasn’t freshly slaughtered?”
Nan Liujing: “No.”
Shen Jiali: “Boss, give me one fish head.”
Aquatic fish like this needed to be refrigerated, and taking them out next time required thawing them, and thawing required boiling hot water too much trouble. Furthermore, how could a precious young master possibly eat frozen meat that wasn’t slaughtered on the same day?
And most importantly, the fish head was cheap.
All the ingredients for dinner cost a total of 35.7 yuan, saving 464.3 yuan. Shen Jiali’s little treasury continued to expand day by day.
After returning home, Shen Jiali went to work and served a ragged dinner that looked nothing like its original form. Nan Liujing stared at the dinner for a long time, involuntarily recalling the image of the fish head stained with blood tossed into a tattered sack, and instantly lost all appetite.
He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he last ate dinner, but…
Late at night, Nan Liujing sat alone in the study, opened his computer, and clicked into “Divorce Plan 5.0”.
Under the column of “Shen Jiali’s Crimes,” a new entry was added: “Casual joking dinner.” Scrolling from top to bottom, the list of charges took a while just to get through—truly罄竹難書 (too numerous to record).
However, they were all trivial matters of daily life. Submitting them to a court for a divorce lawsuit wouldn’t guarantee a sure win.
There had to be a powerful, fatal blow that would leave the Shen family utterly speechless.
At that moment, the door knelled softly. Nan Liujing closed “Divorce Plan 5.0,” and after uttering a “Come in,” Uncle Li walked into the room carrying a bowl of warm milk-stewed pears.
He placed the sleep-aid soup by Nan Liujing’s hand, worry hidden deep within his eyes.
His young master had visibly thinned over these past few days, presumably because he hadn’t been eating properly.
The young master disliked having outsiders in the house, and thus never hired housemaids or servants. It was precisely because he had taken care of the young master since childhood that he managed to secure a foothold in this cold mansion.
Uncle Li pondered for a long time. Knowing it was impossible, he still asked: “Young Master, seeing as you haven’t been eating much these days and look a bit thin, otherwise let me be responsible for dinner from now on like before.”
Nan Liujing half-drooped his eyes and said in a low voice: “No need, let him cook.”
As expected. Uncle Li sighed, wondering what on earth the young master was being so stubborn about. Although Shen Jiali wasn’t malicious, he certainly wasn’t a smart fellow; having cooked dinner for so long, there hadn’t been a single shred of improvement.
Tonight’s chopped pepper fish head, predictably, had another accident.
A prod with the chopsticks, and blood oozed out and mixed into the soup.
Yet having followed the young master for so long, he had never seen anyone stay by the young master’s side for this long; Shen Jiali could be considered the first. Therefore, as long as the young master could live in peace, he could choose to turn a blind eye to Shen Jiali.
“Uncle Li,” Nan Liujing suddenly said, “what kind of things do boys around Shen Jiali’s age usually like?”
Uncle Li felt a burst of joy in his heart, assuming Nan Liujing was planning to create some romantic little surprise for his wife.
“Mr. Shen is twenty-two, right at the age of leaving school and stepping into society. The current social trend is very harsh on young people; without family backing, most are bound to suffer endless grievances, so providing him with a stable life surpasses all material surprises.”
Nan Liujing frowned slightly: “Speak human.”
“Play games, top up in-game purchases.”
“What does that mean?”
“For young people nowadays, playing games after getting off work is the most relaxing pastime. Firstly, games mostly consist of peers, making it easier to click with them than colleagues; secondly, they can find a sense of self-actualization within the game, such as carrying teammates to victory or showing off paid skins.”
Nan Liujing looked thoughtful.
He conveniently ignored the second point and chewed repeatedly on the phrase “games mostly consist of peers, making it easier to click with them.”
“Uncle Li, could you please find a game with a large player base and a younger demographic?”