At the dining table, Mo Zhicheng poured himself one glass after another. As the alcohol took effect, his face gradually turned red.
The two children each picked up a serving of food with their chopsticks for Mo Zhicheng and Song Yi, their sweet words sounding as though they had been coated in honey.
For the past eight years, they had relied only on their mother and had never met any other relatives.
Now that they could sit down and eat together with their grandfather and grandmother, the two children could not have been happier.
Looking at the smiling faces around the table, all bearing a resemblance to one another, Mo Fei felt as though a soft feather had gently brushed across her heart, making it soften as well.
Just then, the chandelier above the dining table began flickering. Mo Fei’s heart tightened, and her first thought was that an earthquake was coming.
Without even looking at the light, Song Yi said, “It’s been like this for a while. It keeps flickering, and it’s broken several times already. I’ll have your dad fix it tomorrow.”
Only then did Mo Fei relax. After hesitating for quite a while, she finally said, “Dad, Mom, there’s actually something I’d like to ask you to help me with.”
Mo Zhicheng looked at Mo Fei in confusion.
For the past eight years, Mo Fei had been as stubborn as solid bone. No matter how much life had worn her down, she had refused to bow her head to her parents.
This was only their second meeting in eight years, yet Mo Fei was already asking for a favor.
Mo Zhicheng had assumed she was about to ask for financial help. Instead, Mo Fei explained that she needed to travel somewhere far away the next day. At the shortest, she would be gone one or two days. At the longest, three to five.
The two children were only eight years old and had no one to look after them.
She hoped that Song Yi and Mo Zhicheng could stay at her place and help care for the children for a few days.
Song Yi adored the two children so much that she had already been worried Mo Fei would take them away as soon as lunch was over. Hearing Mo Fei’s request, Song Yi immediately smiled and repeatedly said, “Why are you talking about helping when we’re your own parents? Of course! We’ll go!”
“Dad, what about you…” Mo Fei looked at Mo Zhicheng, hoping he would also give his opinion.
With the alcohol still affecting him, Mo Zhicheng’s face was flushed red. It was impossible to tell whether he was happy or not. He simply responded with a calm, “Mm.”
Mo Jianian put down his chopsticks. “Mom, where are you going? Why can’t you take Jiayue and me with you?”
He had never forgotten about the time Mo Fei had fainted, and he was extremely unwilling to be separated from her.
Mo Fei spent quite some time reassuring him, saying only that she had something extremely important to do, something that concerned the future of their whole family.
Only then did Mo Jianian reluctantly agree.
The family of five packed things together at the old house and stayed until the sun had set and the weather had cooled slightly before preparing to leave for Mo Fei’s newly rented apartment.
Besides the passengers, the seven seater vehicle was packed to the brim.
The sight left Mo Fei completely dumbfounded.
Song Yi had practically emptied half the kitchen of ingredients, and more than half of them consisted of cured meat and sausages.
There was so much preserved meat that Song Yi and Mo Zhicheng could never have finished it all by themselves. Mo Fei had no idea why they had made so much.
Mo Zhicheng had taken a nap that afternoon, and the effects of the alcohol had mostly worn off.
Seeing the confusion on Mo Fei’s face, he said in a low voice, “Your mom buys one or two hundred jin of meat every year to make these. You loved eating them when you were little. She was afraid that if you ever came to your senses and decided to come home, she’d be able to make them for you.”
Yet in those eight years, Mo Fei had never returned even once. Every year, the cured meat and sausages would spoil, then they would make new ones. Those would spoil as well, and the cycle repeated over and over. Fortunately, this year, they had finally been able to wait for her.
Mo Fei remained silent for a long time. Only after starting the car did she say, “I’ll eat them. From now on, I’ll eat them all, every meal.”
“Jianian, Jiayue, take Grandpa and Grandma home first. Mom’s going to pick up some parcels,” Mo Fei said after stopping the car at the entrance of Block D. They unloaded everything from the vehicle. The lighter items were carried upstairs first, while she planned to move the heavier ones herself later.
Her phone was filled with missed calls and text messages, all regarding the various parcels that had arrived that day. Since the rented storefront warehouse was too far away and there were too many people watching around the residential property’s management office, Mo Fei had listed the delivery address as a restaurant outside the residential complex. Beside the restaurant was an empty storefront. The restaurant owner planned to turn it into a Cainiao parcel station, but it was still in the planning stages, and no one knew when it would officially open.
Mo Fei had directly given the restaurant owner ¥500 and asked him to receive all the parcels arriving over the next half month and stack them inside the empty storefront. She would come and collect them herself at night.
The restaurant owner smiled from ear to ear and readily agreed. He even handed Mo Fei a key to the storefront. However, he added one final sentence. “I open the storefront at eight in the morning and lock it at eight in the evening. I’ll only receive the parcels. I won’t watch over them. If anything goes missing, don’t come looking for me.”
Mo Fei had no objections. Many of the things she had ordered, such as camping tents, shovels, power drills, and folding beds, were large and highly visible. Even if someone wanted to steal them, they would have to think twice. As for the smaller items, such as toilet paper, towels, toothpaste, candles, canned food, and similar supplies, she had bought them in such large quantities that…
She could not even be bothered checking exactly which items had arrived. After collecting everything, she would simply store it all in her space.
She drove to the front of the restaurant. Because the occupancy rate in the area was low, business at night was poor, and the restaurant owner closed at eight o’clock. By then, the place was pitch black, so dark that one could not see a hand in front of one’s face. That suited Mo Fei perfectly.
She inserted the key into the lock and opened the storefront. She did not even switch on the lights inside. Using only the flashlight on her phone, she immediately began clearing everything away. After all, every parcel inside belonged to her. Once everything was transferred into her space, she could unpack them at her leisure. After unpacking them inside the space, the items would automatically be sorted into categories, while all the packaging waste would automatically be placed into the “Parcel Bags” category. She could take all the rubbish out together later and throw it away.
Once she confirmed that the mountain of parcels had all been collected, Mo Fei locked the storefront and sat back inside the car. With a single thought, she instantly disappeared from the driver’s seat.
She spent more than forty minutes unpacking parcels.
That was already considered fast. Many deliveries, such as boxes of rice and flour, had only labels attached to the cartons and did not need to be opened at all. Moreover, Mo Fei felt that her strength had mysteriously increased. Even tearing open tightly sealed courier bags required almost no effort.
Among the deliveries were everyday clothing and bedding for men, women, the elderly, and children throughout all four seasons. There were also outdoor gear purchased from several of the country’s largest outdoor sports retailers, including outdoor clothing, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, fire blankets, moisture wicking socks, trekking poles, and climbing ropes. She had even bought waterproof matches, camping lanterns, water filters, alcohol stoves, and two inflatable boats.
When she had been placing orders online, the customer service staff had apparently noticed how much she was buying and proactively sent her a high value discount coupon, saving her several hundred yuan. Another pile of scattered deliveries consisted of basic medicines available from pharmacies across the country, including rubbing alcohol, povidone iodine, vitamin C, cold medicine, digestive medicine, adhesive bandages, gauze, and more. Since these medicines were subject to purchase limits, Mo Fei had no choice but to buy a small amount from each pharmacy before finally gathering what she considered a barely acceptable quantity.
Besides the clothing, bedding, outdoor equipment, and medicines, what made Mo Fei happiest was that the three secondhand tablet computers and two 16TB solid state drives she had purchased had finally arrived.
The tablet meant for herself would be filled with every kind of recipe, farming techniques, livestock breeding knowledge, self defence skills, survival knowledge, first aid knowledge, and all kinds of encyclopedias. As for the children’s tablets, she planned to fill them with online courses from primary school through high school, along with survival, first aid, and self defence knowledge. Naturally, essential anime series and television dramas were absolutely indispensable.
Without any entertainment at all, life would hardly be worth living.
Not enough, nowhere near enough. Mo Fei felt like a hamster that had become addicted to hoarding supplies.
She drove back into the residential complex.
Before coming, Song Yi and Mo Zhicheng had worried that there would not be enough room for them in Mo Fei’s apartment. Yet the moment they stepped inside, they discovered that the room nearest the entrance had already been prepared for them.
Mo Fei had moved everything from what had originally been the storage room into her space. She had installed a new air conditioner, placed a large bed with a soft four piece bedding set inside, and had even added what looked like an expensive massage chair.
“Look at you. Before coming, you kept worrying about this and that, insisting on bringing this and taking that. Our Feifei had already arranged everything,” Song Yi said after sitting on the soft bed for a while. She could not have been more satisfied.
Mo Zhicheng merely snorted. Even he could not find anything to criticize.
“Grandpa, come and look. Mom even bought you a tea set!” The well behaved Jiayue held Mo Zhicheng’s hand and led him to a corner of the living room.
Looking at his tiny little granddaughter, a gentle smile appeared on Mo Zhicheng’s face as he repeatedly said, “Alright, alright.”
He always felt that his grandson was not very close to him. Despite being so young, the boy behaved as seriously as an adult. Fortunately, his adorable granddaughter was much more affectionate toward him. Thinking of that, Mo Zhicheng could not help proudly showing off to his wife.
Song Yi could not be bothered paying him any attention.
Not long afterward, Jianian, who had finished pouring water for his grandparents, walked over. “Grandma, would you like me to massage your shoulders? Mom says I’m really good at it.”
“Of course, of course. Our Jianian is such a good boy. You’re exactly like your mother when she was little,” Song Yi said happily, smiling so broadly that she could barely close her mouth.
When Mo Fei returned home, she was greeted by the heartwarming sight of her parents happily spending time with the children. She smiled.
Her flight was early the next morning, flying directly to the northern region of Huaguo, the city known as the Black Land, Hei City.
Hei City possessed vast stretches of black soil. Black soil was humus rich earth formed from the accumulation of countless decayed branches and leaves. It was the most fertile soil in the world and the most suitable for cultivation.
Grain. There was an endless supply of high quality grain there. Even if she could not earn money from running her food stall for a while, Mo Fei still had to make the trip to Hei City first.
Mo Fei did not tell her family where she was going or what time she would be leaving.
However, when she was ready to head out at seven o’clock the next morning with a backpack on her shoulders, she discovered a bank card and a handwritten note placed outside her bedroom door.
The handwriting on the note was strong and forceful. At a glance, it was clearly the writing of an older man.
There were only ten characters on it:
[¥500,000. Password: 384421]
Mo Fei stood there in a daze for quite some time before picking up the note and bank card and walking to the door of her parents’ room.
Inside, everything was silent.
The love parents had for their children was always quiet, and always without reservation.
The original owner’s parents had both been ordinary government employees. That ¥500,000 was most likely every bit of savings they had accumulated over the years.
They had kept nothing back and had given it all to Mo Fei. Even though they had no idea what she intended to do, they had chosen to trust her.
Carrying with her the wholehearted love of her parents, Mo Fei landed safely at Taiping International Airport.
Now in a completely unfamiliar city, Mo Fei did not wander around like a headless fly.
Instead, she contacted an old university acquaintance she had not spoken to in a long time, Luo Zhao.
Luo Zhao was a native of Hei City, an optimistic and cheerful young man from the region.
When the original owner dropped out during her sophomore year, she had essentially cut off contact with all her classmates.
However, Luo Zhao had not been her classmate. He had been one year below her.
At the time, she had belonged to the Student Union’s News Department. Luo Zhao had just joined the department and had been assigned to work under Mo Fei during events.
Other than class hours, the two of them were practically always together, either taking photographs, conducting interviews, or writing articles. They had been known as the Golden Duo, and photos of them working together had even appeared as the headline on the university website’s front page.
Back then, Luo Zhao had mentioned more than once that he was from Hei City, where his family owned a grain processing factory and several farms. He had invited Mo Fei to visit Hei City on several occasions.
Unfortunately, before she ever had the chance to go, she dropped out of university and disappeared.
The Golden Duo had broken apart, and the two of them had gone eight years without any contact. The only reason she was still able to reach him now was because Luo Zhao had never changed his phone number.
When Luo Zhao answered the call this time, he recognized Mo Fei’s voice the moment she said, “Hello, is this Luo Zhao?” He was both shocked and overjoyed. Mo Fei, speaking over the phone, had no way of seeing that Luo Zhao had actually jumped up from his chair.
After learning that Mo Fei was coming to Hei City, Luo Zhao immediately decided to accompany her and show her around for a few days. He had no idea that Mo Fei had only come to purchase supplies, and that the only reason she had contacted him was because she was unfamiliar with the city and wanted a local guide.
Mo Fei checked the weather in Hei City. Located in northern Huaguo, it remained pleasantly cool even while temperatures across the rest of the country had already begun rising. She wore only a simple white shirt paired with dark blue cropped jeans. She tied her hair up high and carried a backpack.
The outfit diminished the worn down aura that life had left on the original owner. The current Mo Fei looked just like a university student.
However, at only one hundred sixty five centimeters tall, she stood out among the people of Hei City, whose average height exceeded one hundred seventy five centimeters. She was almost completely swallowed up by the crowd.
“Senior!!!”
An incredibly enthusiastic voice suddenly called out from behind Mo Fei.