Before setting off, Mo Fei made a few modifications to the little tricycle she had previously used for selling fried rice. She wrapped several strands of inexpensive decorative lights around it, then used a black marker to write a large price sign and placed it prominently at the front.
It looked far more presentable than the greasy fried rice tricycle she had used before.
At the security office, the guards, Da Long and Xiao Long, happened to notice on the surveillance monitor that someone was riding a tricycle out of the residential complex. Unable to help themselves, they turned their attention toward it.
Xiao Long scratched his head in confusion. “Bro, do you think someone who can afford to live in this neighbourhood still needs to set up a street stall at night?”
“Why do you care so much?” Da Long smacked his lips and took a sip of tea. “Who ever complains about having too much money? The richer people are, the harder they work. Didn’t you see last night? So many food deliveries were all going to the resident in Block D. They’ve got money!”
“You’re so perceptive, Bro!” Xiao Long said, giving him a thumbs-up.
Mo Fei did not hear the security guards talking about her. The family of three rode the little tricycle toward the nearest night market.
The nearest night market was about three kilometers from the residential complex. It was called Huaimeng Market, a newly established street vendor district created by the southern district to promote employment.
Since it had only recently opened, there was no stall fee during the first month. Spaces were available on a first come, first served basis. If there was an empty spot, you could set up there. Whether they were selling goods or simply browsing, huge crowds gathered there every day.
By the time Mo Fei and the others arrived, although it was only six o’clock in the evening, the place was already packed.
“All the good spots are taken,” Mo Jianian said disappointedly as he stood on tiptoe, looking over the crowd.
“There’s still one over there!” Mo Jiayue pointed toward a small corner.
Mo Fei stopped the tricycle and unloaded the ingredients. With quick, practised movements, she first filled several cups of mung bean soup and placed them on the stall. Then she opened the containers holding the glutinous rice, black rice, milk foam, diced watermelon, and raisins, and began assembling the ice rice by hand.
While Mo Fei concentrated on preparing the ice rice, the two little ones stood in front of their stall and enthusiastically began calling out to customers without the slightest trace of shyness.
“Ice rice for sale!”
“Mung bean soup for sale!”
“Delicious ice rice! Ice rice you’ve never tried before!”
“Kids who eat it will do better in school, adults who eat it will earn more money!”
The two siblings took turns shouting, completely unafraid of strangers. Their young, childish voices stood out especially clearly amid the noisy surroundings.
Mo Fei could not help laughing. “Where did you two learn that from?”
The children did not try to hide it. They pointed toward the surrounding stall owners. “We just learned from them.”
The other vendors were not annoyed. Looking at two children who were this adorable, none of them could possibly get angry. Instead, they all waved at the siblings, trying to coax them over to play at their own stalls.
What Mo Fei had not expected was that the first customer at her stall was brought over by Mo Jiayue.
Standing beside a young couple, fair-skinned and dressed in a pink little dress, Mo Jiayue said in her sweet childish voice, “Big Sister, come try our ice rice. It’s really delicious. And you’re so pretty, our ice rice really wants you to eat it too.”
The young woman in the couple had been looking at her phone. Suddenly being stopped and showered with compliments by such a tiny little girl, she found herself dazedly standing in front of Mo Fei’s stall before she even realized it.
Before coming over, the young woman had been worried that it would be overpriced. But when she saw that the bundle cost only ¥18, she immediately ordered a serving made with purple rice. These days, a single cup of milk tea already cost about the same. Her boyfriend readily paid.
Less than two minutes later, the young woman received a creamy serving of purple rice ice rice topped with coconut milk and raisins, along with a cup of chilled mung bean soup.
Looking at the beautifully presented ice rice, she immediately took a photo before casually handing the mung bean soup to her boyfriend. “I can’t finish all this. You drink this first.”
The young man had already been unbearably hot after accompanying his girlfriend around the market. He inserted the straw and took several large gulps. The moment he tasted it, he could not quite describe the sensation. As though possessed, he instinctively scanned Mo Fei’s payment code again and transferred another ¥5.
“Boss, another cup of mung bean soup!”
His girlfriend looked at him suspiciously. “Is it really that good? Isn’t mung bean soup always the same? How good could it possibly be?” Even as she said that, she scooped a mouthful of the ice rice into her mouth.
Her eyes instantly lit up.
Cold, refreshing, and perfectly sweet. It was not cloying at all, and the purple rice was incredibly soft and creamy.
“Big Sister, what you made is so delicious. I’d like another serving,” the young woman said while her boyfriend was taking the second cup of mung bean soup.
“Sure. Your boyfriend already paid ¥5, so just give me another ¥13. I’ll still charge you the bundle price.”
“Thank you, Big Sister!”
The young couple left happily. As soon as they returned, they posted photos of the food on their social media feed, along with a picture of Mo Fei’s stall.
With the first customer came more customers, and business gradually picked up.
Whenever Mo Fei became too busy, she would have the two children help with small tasks, such as handing over containers or putting orders into takeaway bags.
Two hours later, all fifty servings of ingredients that Mo Fei had brought had completely sold out. Just as she had expected, the purple rice steamed in the large iron wok had been by far the fastest and best seller. However, after discovering that the purple rice had sold out, many customers settled for the black rice and glutinous rice versions, quickly buying those up as well. They even reminded Mo Fei to prepare more purple rice the following day.
Some customers had come after seeing the young couple’s social media photos. Unable to buy any because everything had sold out, they left feeling rather disappointed. They repeatedly urged Mo Fei to come back and set up her stall again tomorrow.
Mo Fei readily agreed and even told them that she would introduce some new flavours of ice rice the next day.
“Time to pack up!” Mo Fei loaded everything back onto the tricycle, then collected the rubbish that had accumulated on the ground into a bag. None of the customers had paid with cash. They had all used either WeChat Pay or Alipay, which made it much easier for her to calculate her earnings.
She had taken a quick look earlier, and her net profit had turned out to be noticeably higher than she had estimated. Today could truly be considered a successful debut. It was an excellent start.
“Are you hot? Want to go enjoy some free air conditioning?”
Seeing that it was only a little after eight in the evening, Mo Fei parked the little tricycle at the entrance to the residential complex and asked the security guards to keep an eye on it for the time being. Then she took the two children to the nearest large supermarket.
The supermarket had only opened three months earlier. It was twice the size of ordinary supermarkets and occupied an entire building. It even had three underground levels of free parking, attracting large numbers of shoppers carrying bags full of purchases.
The moment they stepped through the entrance and the curtain behind them fell shut, a wave of cool air washed over them.
Both children could not help letting out a delighted “Wow!”
“Come on, let’s grab a shopping trolley. We earned so much money today, so buy whatever you want. Don’t even think about trying to save money,” Mo Fei promised the children.
Mo Jiayue clapped happily. Mo Jianian was just as excited, though he still reservedly tugged at his mother’s sleeve.
“Mom, I heard everything in this supermarket is really expensive.”
Mo Jianian had once seen one of the supermarket’s promotional flyers. The prices listed there were generally about fifteen percent higher than those at other supermarkets.
“Money isn’t saved, it’s earned. Seeing you two spend money makes me happy. When I’m happy, I’ll have the energy to earn even more money. Doesn’t that make sense?” Mo Fei always had an explanation ready.
Mo Jianian felt that everything his mother said had to be right, yet at the same time, it somehow felt as though she was tricking him.
Still feeling rather confused, he had already followed her into the snack section and started shopping.
Mo Fei had thought that after hearing those words, the children would finally feel free to buy whatever they wanted. Yet after wandering around for half an hour, she realized that the shopping trolley contained only two bags of potato chips, one box of chocolates, and one bag of boneless chicken feet.
Altogether, they had not even spent ¥50.
“If you only buy this much, I’ll be heartbroken. I worked so hard to earn money, and you won’t even spend it. Then what’s the point of me earning money? I’ll be so sad…” Mo Fei began putting on a rather terrible performance.
The two children immediately panicked. Each grabbed one of Mo Fei’s arms and shook her gently, thinking that she was genuinely upset and about to cry.
Only then did the siblings stop holding back. Even so, after comparing prices, they still deliberately chose the cheaper brands.
Gradually, the shopping trolley became fuller and fuller. Mo Fei left the siblings to continue choosing snacks while she headed over to the stationery section.
“Acrylic markers, poster paints, drawing paper, crayons,” Mo Fei muttered as she placed items into the trolley. “This keyboard looks good. This desk lamp is nice too. These two fountain pens are excellent.”
The pile of items Mo Fei selected cost many times more than the mountain of snacks already in the trolley.
Yet she did not feel the slightest bit distressed over the money. If anything, she thought she had bought too little.
In a way, she was buying these things for her younger self. Back then, she had also wished that someone would appear and buy her everything she wanted.
As she wandered past another shelf, she arrived at the book section. She browsed for a while before tossing several parenting books into the trolley, along with books on cultivation and farming, survival and disaster preparedness, and basic medicine.
After leaving the stationery section, Mo Fei had originally intended to head straight back to the snack section to find the children. Instead, she happened to pass by the gift section.
It displayed expensive tea sets, premium tea leaves, cigarettes, liquor, and similar items.
Mo Fei did not buy any of those. Instead, she purchased a silk quilt costing more than ¥4,000 and a tin of tea worth over ¥1,000.
According to the original owner’s memories, her mother had never slept very well, while her father loved drinking tea.
She simply did not know whether, after eight years, they still liked those things…
Unable to decide otherwise, Mo Fei bought them anyway. After all, she had promised her mother yesterday that she would visit her on Monday.
When it came time to pay, before Mo Fei even had the chance to feel sorry about the money, she heard Jianian and Jiayue continuously gasping and saying, “So expensive, so expensive.”
This shopping trip had cost nearly another ¥20,000. Naturally, most of that came from the silk quilt and the tea.
“Mom, are these for Grandpa and Grandma?” Mo Jiayue asked, looking up at her.
“How did you know?” Mo Fei asked, struggling slightly under the weight of several large shopping bags. The new shopping center was covered with surveillance cameras, and since the children did not know about her space, she had no way to stash everything away.
Mo Jianian carried the lighter bag of snacks while hugging the keyboard Mo Fei had bought for him.
“You told us before that you wanted to buy Grandma a nice quilt and Grandpa some good tea. We both remembered. You even showed us photos of them.”
Every year on Mo Fei’s birthday, the children would see a much sadder side of her. They would watch her take out the photos she had with their grandparents on her phone and listen as she talked about them.
But they had never met their grandparents. They had never met their father or any other relatives either. Ever since they were little, they had vaguely understood that they were different from other children. Their entire world consisted only of Mo Fei, and Mo Fei’s entire world consisted only of them.
“That’s right. Mom wants to visit your Grandma tomorrow. I haven’t seen her in so long, and I want to buy her a few things,” Mo Fei said.
She believed there was no hatred between parents and children that could never be resolved. As long as one side was willing to lower their pride, there was always room for the relationship to mend.
Besides, the natural disasters were coming, although no one knew exactly when. If possible, Mo Fei did not want to watch the original owner’s parents meet with misfortune. After all, the down payment for the house she had just sold had originally been paid by the original owner’s mother.
Yet the one who ultimately benefited from it was her, a traveller from another world. For that reason alone, Mo Fei simply could not stand by and do nothing.