“Lu Jian, where are you going to work part-time later? I do not have tutoring today, so I can go with you.”
He wanted to see how Lu Jian spent his childhood, though it was likely just an endless cycle of work. No wonder when he asked if there were any interesting stories to share, there was nothing.
Cheng Shixu followed by Lu Jian’s side. Lu Jian gripped his messenger bag and walked straight ahead. He had thought it was not very far, but it took nearly an hour of walking to reach the next part-time job location.
Fengtang Milk Tea Shop.
He looked at the sign and felt a sense of familiarity, but he could not quite place it. Perhaps he had drunk from there before, though it was not a well-known brand.
“Actually, it only takes ten minutes by taxi. Walking for an hour is a bit of a waste of time, is it not?” The shop door had not opened yet. It was a strange milk tea shop that only opened in the afternoon, and the location was quite remote; he felt students would not specifically go out of their way to come here to buy milk tea.
Lu Jian pushed the rolling shutter up. “My time is not worth much.” He then stood in the doorway. “You should go back.”
Cheng Shixu was taken aback but changed the subject. “I will keep you company. I can help take customer orders.” He peered inside; the counter was filled with many bottles and jars. It was not the kind of milk tea made with real milk powder, but rather the type made by mixing fragrant powder and water. Three yuan a cup? If he remembered correctly, “I will buy a cup.”
Seeing his persistence, Lu Jian turned and went inside to prepare, gathering all the bottles and jars onto a small mobile cart. He took the ice cubes out of the freezer and, upon turning back, saw Cheng Shixu still following him. “Stand to the side; I will make yours.”
“Sure.” Cheng Shixu stepped aside. He wanted to help, but he did not know where to start and was afraid of causing a mess. He stared at Lu Jian’s tin-foil perm. It was the first time he found it unappealing, but as he watched, he realized Lu Jian actually looked quite good with that perm. Unlike when he was thirty, when his facial lines were very sharp, he still looked a bit soft and youthful now, not yet fully grown into his features.
The biggest difference was his eyes.
The young Lu Jian’s eyes had a more rounded arc. His features had probably filled out, lengthening the corners of his eyes later on. The Lu Jian of adulthood had slightly narrower, longer eyes. And the way he looked at people—the difference between being green and being mature was quite obvious.
The refrigerator was about 1.6 meters tall, and Lu Jian stood a head taller than it. He silently glanced at the counter next to it, which was about the same height as the fridge—about the same height as himself.
His own growth spurt had happened like crazy during the summer vacation after the college entrance exam before entering university. He even had stretch marks on his thighs. Although Lu Jian was quite tall, he was only a few centimeters shorter than that in his previous life.
Right now, he was more than half a head shorter.
Eh?
He suddenly slapped his palm. That is right! If he started taking calcium supplements from now on, he would definitely be as tall as Lu Jian when he grew up. As he thought about this, his mood sank. However… those past experiences had all dissipated with his death.
“How much ice?” Lu Jian had finished shaking a cup of milk tea and was about to add ice. He asked, but did not receive an answer. He looked up and saw Cheng Shixu sitting on the threshold, staring at his phone, lost in thought. He set the cup down, walked over, and peered down. On the screen was the photo Cheng Shixu had taken of him earlier and Photoshopped to have a buzzcut.
The screen of this newly released smart touchscreen phone was much clearer than those of sliding or button phones.
It was truly strange. He was right here, so why did Cheng Shixu keep looking at his photos? Was he having strange dreams again? He looked earnestly at himself in the photo. This suit was too weird; it looked like he was selling insurance. Could it be that in Cheng Shixu’s dream, he was an insurance company owner?
Cheng Shixu stared at the photo, feeling dejected. After his rebirth, his relationship with his family remained the same, as did his relationship with his close friends, but the process of his emotional connection with Lu Jian had completely vanished. The young Lu Jian was indeed by his side, but it was different.
Looking at the young Lu Jian, he thought of the Lu Jian from his past life. A thousand words could be summed up in one sentence: he missed Lu Jian.
Suddenly, his face felt cold. He turned back and saw the milk tea cup pressed against his cheek. “Thanks.” After taking it, he bit into the straw and took a sip. Sure enough, it was that artificial flavor—vanilla.
He had loved drinking this in elementary school. His mother would always beat him if she caught him. Later, his mother learned to make milk tea at home, eventually creating her own recipe with many varieties. Auntie He found out and immediately discussed opening an original milk tea shop with his mother.
It was called “Xia Tea.” Auntie He was very good at business; within a few years, Xia Tea became a famous brand with chain stores all over the country, and his mother went back to lying down and collecting money.
Remembering the scene of his mother making milk tea for him, he smiled. Oh, he missed his mother. “I will call my mom.” He turned and noticed Lu Jian had gone into the shop to clean up the cart. Lu Jian nodded when he heard him talking. He dialed the number, and the sound of his mother playing mahjong came through the receiver, along with the voices of aunts and uncles calling her to play her tiles. It was lively. “What do you want, you rascal?”
“I miss you.”
Cheng Xiue held the phone between her shoulder and ear, playing a tile. Seeing it was a ‘two bamboo’, she played it casually. “Have your dad send you money later. I am playing mahjong here, stop bothering me.”
Cheng Shixu: “I…”
Beep, beep, beep…
The call was cut off before he could continue. Cheng Shixu let out a long sigh. It was fortunate he had managed to come back to life; if his mother and the others knew he had died, how sad they would be. They probably would not even have the heart to collect the money even if they won the hand.
He shoved his phone into his pocket and stood up to see Lu Jian pulling the small cart out from the side door. “Lu Jian! Where are you going to set up your stall?” He had thought it was a brick-and-mortar shop; he had not expected it to be a street stall.
“The University Town.”
Experimental High School and the old campus of West University were not far apart, only two streets away. Cheng Shixu chased after him and helped him push the cart. After graduation, West University had a new campus, and the old one only had one or two departments, so he had not come back to visit much. Coincidentally, he could go see that old banyan tree that had not been cut down yet.
He felt Lu Jian was a master of time management. When they pushed the cart to the University Town snack street, it was only 4:00 PM. Everyone set up their stalls early in the summer, and by the time they finished setting up the sign, it was just about time for students to get out of class.
From here, he could see the East Gate of West University and the roof of the auditorium. Graduation parties were always held in the auditorium. He still remembered wearing a cap and gown with He Yu, going up on stage to give the outstanding graduate speech. Comparing people to others was infuriating; they were both outstanding graduates, but He Yu was worth over a hundred million, a company CEO. And him? A small employee in a state-owned enterprise who could not get a promotion in ten years, drawing a monthly salary of a few thousand yuan, not even enough for one of He Yu’s meals.
However, he did have a stake in He Yu’s chain hotels (limited to capital investment), and Fu Chenming had also given him a few shares in his horse racing track. Added to the rent dividends his mother gave him, he was truly living a “mooching off others and waiting to die” life, without any worries.
Customers came in twos and threes. Lu Jian wore gloves and began to get busy. He stood to the side, bookkeeping and collecting money. At this time, there were no QR codes for payment, so everyone paid in cash. He held a plastic bag for change, collecting money with one hand and giving out change with the other.
“One chocolate milk tea, iced.”
Lu Jian: “5 yuan.”
The customer handed over the money. “I will come back to get it in a minute.” Cheng Shixu took it. “Alright.” Then he recorded the sequence number, and immediately another customer arrived.
Cheng Shixu asked while counting the money: “How much is the rent here per month? Do you come here every night?”
Lu Jian picked up a milk tea cup and said: “No, twice a week.” He added chocolate powder, not rushing to put in the ice, and covered it with a lid, setting it aside. He did not know when the customer would come back to pick it up; if he added ice now, it would taste terrible once it melted.
“How much is the rent? One thousand?”
Lu Jian continued making the next order. “200. You could rent a storefront for one thousand.”
Cheng Shixu had forgotten about the cost of living at this time. It was still cheap, unlike the skyrocketing prices more than a decade later. A thousand yuan for monthly rent on the roadside was only possible in “urban villages,” whereas storefronts in University Town were in the tens of thousands. However, the high foot traffic meant you could earn it back.
After recording the number, he looked around to check on the situation of other stalls. “Will you keep setting up your stall here? Will you still come after graduation?”
Lu Jian: “I do not know.” Earn what he could now; he did not know what the situation would be in the future.
“Alright.” Cheng Shixu’s gaze landed on a small antique stall. In reality, they were just some vintage trinkets and could not be counted as antiques, but the sign next to the stall read “Antique Stall.” He said: “I am going to go check out the antique stall.”
The stall owner was an old grandma. As he approached, she said enthusiastically: “Young man, take a look, everything is cheap.” A small wooden sword hung from the keychain on her waist. Cheng Shixu found it familiar. The grandma saw him staring at her keychain. “You like this?” She pointed to a pile of wooden swords in the front left. “These are all the same, three yuan each.”
Cheng Shixu said: “Grandma, could you let me see yours?” The more he looked, the more familiar it became.
The grandma took it off and gave it to him. “Have a look.”
Cheng Shixu flipped through the wooden sword. It was old, appearing to be hand-carved. The blade was slender and straight, preserving the original wood grain, and was very delicate. The hilt had carvings, and the part near the blade had a few seal-script characters engraved: “Ji Er.”
His eyes lit up. Sure enough, he had not been mistaken. This wooden sword was a genuine antique from the Ji Chao Zong Yuan period, over two thousand years old. In his previous life, when he went to an auction with Lu Jian, he remembered that among many antique vases and jade crowns, there was such an inconspicuous little wooden sword. At that time, it sold for a sky-high price of over ten million. The provider of the wooden sword was a young man.
Could he be a descendant of this grandma?
But seeing the grandma treating it as a keychain, she probably did not know its value. He returned the wooden sword to the grandma. Seeing her at such an old age still setting up a stall outside, and her clothes, though neat, being very old, he asked: “Grandma, it is such a hot day, what time do you come out to set up?”
When he and Lu Jian arrived, the antique stall had already been there.
The grandma said: “I came at noon.” Her nasolabial folds were very deep. “This wooden sword cannot be sold to you. Take a look at these instead.”
Cheng Shixu picked up the small wooden swords in the front, their texture completely different. “Then I will take two. You came so early? Your family helped you push it here, right?”
The grandma saw that he was going to buy, so she smiled, her nasolabial folds deepening quite a bit. She agilely packed them for him and became more talkative. “No. My child is in the hospital.”
In the hospital? Is he a doctor?
After the red plastic bag was packed, Cheng Shixu gave her the money and asked casually: “It is good to be a doctor. Really nice.” He did not expect the grandma’s expression to change, and she sighed deeply: “If only he were a doctor.”
Cheng Shixu did not ask further. Carrying the small wooden swords, he returned to the milk tea stall. Lu Jian was still busy. Seeing him return, he teased him: “You are even interested in antiques?”
“Is that grandma always by herself?”
Lu Jian said: “I heard from the neighbor stall owner that her daughter is seriously ill. In the past, it was her daughter who set up the stall here.”
So, she really was ill.
He said: “I am going to go again, you collect the money.”
Lu Jian kept his eyes on Cheng Shixu while making milk tea. He saw Cheng Shixu walk to the antique stall and say something to the owner. The owner took down the small wooden sword hanging from her keys, and Cheng Shixu handed over two 100-yuan bills. He was baffled: a small wooden sword was that expensive? He remembered it only costing a few yuan each. He would not be getting scammed, would he?
Not long after returning, Cheng Shixu said he had something to do and had to leave first. He did not say much. Thinking that a spoiled young master like Cheng Shixu could really keep him company setting up a stall for a whole night was like a fantasy.
On the other side, Cheng Shixu, having sat in a taxi, made a call. As soon as it was connected, he said: “Brother Chen, I have a good item here. I guarantee you will like it.”
In his previous life, the one who bid over ten million for the small wooden sword was exactly Fu Chenming.