“Of course you can.” With that, Sister Ma set aside whatever she’d been doing, went back inside to fetch the keys, called out to Lin Hai, and without asking a single question hopped on her three-wheeler to take Ye Yi to the very south end of town.
She pedaled for about ten-odd minutes, then stopped at the gate of a strangely shaped residential complex.
Ye Yi climbed down from the three-wheeler and looked up. The tallest building in this complex had to be at least twenty-some floors, and its shape was oval, truly bizarre.
Most apartment buildings were square and boxy, but this one was round. She couldn’t imagine what the designer had been thinking.
“Auntie, what made you decide to buy a place here?” Ye Yi asked curiously. Usually older folks were reluctant to buy property, and if they did, it was a wedding home for a son or daughter.
Sister Ma parked the three-wheeler and led the way, talking as she walked. “This used to be an abandoned construction project, no one looking after it. The government organized people to tear it down and rebuild. After our house in the countryside was demolished, the government allotted us a unit here.”
“So it’s a resettlement flat. That’s pretty nice, renting it out even brings in some extra income.” Ye Yi felt a pang of envy. A big resettlement winner, no less.
Sister Ma walked to the entrance of Building 16, Unit 2, went in, and continued, “In our little town there are only so many people, and just about every family already owns a place. Aside from the out-of-towners who come here to work, who’d be renting?” Sister Ma spoke offhandedly. She’d cleaned this place up purely because it had sat empty too long, and leaving it vacant felt like a waste.
“Right, I never asked, how long do you plan to stay in our town?” Getting into the elevator, Sister Ma pressed the button for the 12th floor and asked in passing.
“I can only stay here a month. I don’t know if you have any time requirement for the rental, Auntie.” Prompted by the auntie, Ye Yi only now realized she’d followed her out without asking anything at all.
If the auntie didn’t agree, wouldn’t she just be wasting the woman’s time? She patted her own head in annoyance, how could she forget something so important?
Seeing the girl only now catch on, Sister Ma burst out laughing. “No requirement. Getting it rented at all is a plus, I’m not counting on it for money. Rent it if you can, and if you can’t, no harm done.”
“Auntie, you’ve really got a relaxed outlook on things.” Ye Yi said it with envy. Truly the words of someone with a solid foundation to fall back on.
When would she ever have a place of her own?
“Haha, I’ve just got a good attitude.” Watching the 12th-floor elevator doors open, Sister Ma pulled out the keys and said as she walked, “Little miss, my name’s Ma Lan, just call me Sister Ma. You keep calling me ‘Auntie, Auntie,’ and it feels a little odd to my ears.”
Used to everyone calling her “Sister Ma,” she found being suddenly called “Auntie” rather unfamiliar.
“Ah—Sister Ma.” Ye Yi, following behind, called out with a smile. “Sister Ma, you can just call me Xiao Ye.”
Ye Yi stared at the all-metal door before her, a little dazed. “Sister Ma, your place has an iron door.”
“That’s right. I don’t come by often, and I was afraid of burglars, so I had an iron door installed. There’s a wooden door inside too.” Sister Ma pulled out a ring of keys, sorted through them, picked out two, opened both doors, and walked in.
Ye Yi followed close behind. What met her eyes was a spacious living room, by her estimate about the size of two rooms. It really was too big. “Sister Ma, how many families live on this floor? I only saw one door out at the entrance just now.”
“There’s only our one household on this floor. Looks pretty big, doesn’t it?”
“This isn’t ‘pretty big,’ it’s enormous.” Seeing such a huge space, Ye Yi’s heart sank. If the living room was this big, never mind the other rooms, it had to be expensive. At least several hundred a month. She swallowed and forced out the question, “The rent here must be pretty steep, right?”
“Not steep. 200 a month.” Watching the conflicted look on Ye Yi’s face, Sister Ma knew exactly what the girl was thinking.
“That cheap? No way!” Ye Yi couldn’t believe it, such a huge place for only 200 yuan. “Do I need to pay a deposit?”
“No need. Deposits are for outsiders, we won’t bother with that hollow stuff.” Sister Ma waved a hand. “But you’ll have to pay your own water and electricity. As for the things inside, use them however you like, just put everything back the way it was when you move out. Have a look, and if you’re happy with it, we’ll settle the deal.”
Ye Yi took a rough tour of the place. There was a kitchen, a living room, three bedrooms, and a study, all quite large, about 200 square meters in all.
What was there not to be happy about? This was obviously Sister Ma looking out for her.
Ye Yi felt a little embarrassed, but she didn’t want to miss out on such a good place, an opportunity like this wouldn’t come twice. After thinking it over, she agreed.
Seeing her reaction, Sister Ma nodded with satisfaction. That was the way, out in the world, people helped one another, give and take, nickel-and-diming instead only made you look small.
Ye Yi paid the rent and got the keys. A glance at the time, 6:30 already. She quickly said goodbye to Sister Ma, grabbed a bite at a breakfast stall on the way, and dashed off to the place where she’d agreed to hand out flyers the day before.
She started handing out flyers at 7 a.m., took a half-hour break for lunch, and worked until 3:30, then settled the day’s wage of 100 yuan with the floor supervisor.
Walking out of the mall, she found it had actually started to drizzle. It had rained all last night, and today it was raining again, something about the weather felt off no matter how she looked at it.
Remembering she still hadn’t gathered her supplies, she hurried to a nearby supermarket. Inside, people came and went, all of them shopping like mad.
Ye Yi grabbed a clerk and asked where the grains were, then dashed over, only one bag of rice left. She checked the price, 44 yuan, and hurried to grab it, then picked the cheapest jug of corn oil, 30 yuan.
Pushing her cart to the daily-goods section, she took 2 bags of salt (3 yuan), 4 five-liter jugs of drinking water (40 yuan), 1 small bag of flour (10 yuan), 1 big bag of instant noodles (11.5 yuan), 1 carton of eggs (15 yuan), 5 packs of noodles (10 yuan), 5 packs of frozen dumplings (40 yuan), and 6 packs of compressed biscuits (18 yuan).
Then she went to the vegetable section and took 2 carrots (3 yuan), 1 bag of leafy greens (5 yuan), 10 potatoes (15 yuan), 5 tomatoes (15 yuan), 1 bottle of soy sauce (7.5), 2 knobs of ginger (2 yuan), 3 heads of garlic (2 yuan), 2 stalks of green onion (3 yuan), 4 chicken breasts (24), and finally couldn’t resist grabbing 4 bottles of fat-house happy water (12 yuan). [1]internet slang for cola/soda, the “happy water” of homebody otaku jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2933353_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2933353_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
She did a rough tally in her head, hadn’t gone over budget, and only then pushed the cart to the cashier line to check out.
The checkout line was long, with a huge crowd. Ye Yi observed that most of them were people wearing wristbands, they must have discovered the wristband’s information too.
Nobody was stupid, everyone knew to stockpile grain.
Between them, this crowd had nearly stripped the whole supermarket by half. If not for running short on money, they’d have carted the entire store away.
It was past 6 by the time she reached the register. She checked out, spending 310 yuan.
Pushing the heaping cart, she reflected that the town’s prices weren’t too high yet, she just didn’t know whether they’d still be like this a few days from now.
By the time she walked out of the supermarket, the sky had already begun to darken. Looking at the supplies piled in her cart, she suddenly realized: she’d been so focused on buying that she hadn’t considered how she’d get this much home alone. She glanced around at the others, some just hoisted everything onto their shoulders, and some who’d bought less could simply carry it off.
Only she had foolishly bought so much at once, and all by herself, no less. She was terrified of being marked as a target.
At the thought, Ye Yi looked down at her wrist. Good, it wasn’t showing. If this crowd set their sights on her, there was no telling what would come next.
The mysterious consciousness could stop them from hurting the natives, but it wouldn’t necessarily stop them from butchering each other.
“Xiao Ye.” A hand suddenly patted her shoulder, and a man’s voice sounded by her ear, nearly scaring the heart right out of Ye Yi. Her whole body jolted, she whipped her head around and, seeing it was Lin Hai, let out the breath she’d been holding.
Feeling her reaction had been a touch excessive, Ye Yi squeezed out a smile. “Uncle, what are you doing here?”
“Came out to shop. We’re almost out of rice and oil at home, so your auntie sent me out to buy some.” Lin Hai scratched his head, he seemed to have startled the girl just now. “What’d you buy so much stuff for?”
“I only just got here, right? Didn’t have anything, so I bought a bit of everything.”
“Oh. My cart’s out by the road, let me give you a ride home.” To make up for scaring her, Lin Hai quickly pointed at the three-wheeler by the curb.
“Wouldn’t that be too much trouble?”
“No trouble at all. If your auntie found out I ran into you and didn’t take you home, she’d definitely chew me out. Just think of it as doing me a favor, don’t feel bad about it.” With that, Lin Hai loaded his own purchases into the three-wheeler, then came back to help move Ye Yi’s things from the cart into it.
Ye Yi carried her own things, and she and Lin Hai jogged back and forth twice through the drizzle before everything was loaded.
Sitting in the back of the three-wheeler, wearing the raincoat the uncle had just given her, she reached out to feel the falling rain. There really were more good people than bad in this world.
They hadn’t gone far when they came to an intersection where a scrawny man was surrounded by a group of tall, hulking men.
She froze at once. It couldn’t be what she was thinking, could it? Thank goodness the uncle had shown up, otherwise the one surrounded in the next moment might have been her.
By the streetlight, she opened her eyes wide and looked at their wrists, faintly making out a flash of red. Before she could confirm it, the uncle’s three-wheeler had already carried her off into the distance.
Sitting in the back, thinking about the scene she’d just witnessed, she’d completely lost the good mood of a moment ago.
These people had already begun preying on one another. She feared the days ahead would only grow crueler. She’d have to get used to living like this and protect herself well.
After about ten-odd minutes of jostling along, they reached the complex Sister Ma had brought her to that morning.
Lin Hai helped carry all her purchases up to her door before heading back to the elevator, at ease.
Just as the elevator doors were about to close, Ye Yi remembered she’d forgotten to tell the uncle something. She quickly ran over and pressed the button, and the doors reopened.
Seeing the doors open again, Lin Hai asked, puzzled, “What is it, Xiao Ye? Did you forget to take something?”
“No, Uncle. The weather’s been strange lately, stock up on more cold-weather supplies!” Ye Yi warned him, her expression grave.
“Haha, the temperature’s off every year. It’s fine.” Lin Hai didn’t take it to heart, assuming the girl was just joking.
Seeing that Lin Hai didn’t believe her, Ye Yi had no choice but to start making things up. “I have a relative who works at the meteorological station. She said the temperature might suddenly drop to a dozen-odd degrees below zero soon, and told me to find somewhere to hole up and not go out. What good would it do me to lie to you about this? Auntie’s helped me so much, I know I got a bargain on this place. If you don’t believe me, keep an eye on the weather these next few days and see whether it isn’t a lot colder than in past years.”
With that, she stopped holding the elevator doors and let them close.
She’d said what needed saying. Whether they believed her was up to them.
She turned back, opened the door, and carried all the supplies at the entrance inside, arranging them neatly in the bedroom cabinet. She counted the money she had left, 450 yuan. She had to save this for cold-weather items.
Her mind spun. Extreme cold and blizzards would surely mean cut-off water and power. Under those conditions, how would she stay warm? Burn wood? But where would she find wood, and there was no place in the apartment to have a fire either.
She remembered from childhood there’d been a kind of coal stove that burned charcoal. She didn’t know whether this town had them. Maybe she should go ask Sister Ma tomorrow?
But she’d already troubled the woman enough. Better not. She should be able to manage it on her own.
Busy all day, Ye Yi hadn’t had time to test her Gathering System. She went to the kitchen and rummaged around to see if there was anything she could use for an experiment.
At last, at the very back of a cabinet, she found a bottle of baijiu that was two-thirds gone, probably left behind by Sister Ma. She reached in, took it out, and silently thought, “Gather.”
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