Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Her name was Zhou Xufang. She would come down to this shop every three or four days to buy the same type of marshmallows; the one with the cute pink packaging.
The young lady behind her shook her head and handed her a note.
“It’s been sold out.”
Zhou Xufang stood in front of the sweets rack for a while before picking up bags of marshmallows that looked closest to the ones she originally had in mind. She did so without uttering a single word and with her head lowered. Even so, one could see that the face hiding beneath the cap was small, almost childlike.
The young lady then proceeded to scan the alternative marshmallows which Zhou Xufang had picked. Another note was passed over, this time, indicating the total amount to be paid.
“Thirty-six yuan.”
Zhou Xufang handed over the red-colored note to the cashier. The sleeve of her oversized sweatshirt was very long, covering most of her hand. Only her pale, slender fingers peeked out from underneath the cuff area. Her fingernails were noticeably well-trimmed as well.
The cashier accepted the cash and went on to gather the small change.
“Thanks.”
Zhou Xufang stuffed the change into the clear shopping bag containing the marshmallows, and with a tip of her hat, she departed from the store.
Behind her, the young cashier hurriedly caught up with Zhou Xufang. The girl then presented an open palm to her on which an individual packet of marshmallow rested. Her other hand pointed to the sweet, probably to invite Xufang to accept her simple gift.
Looking back, Zhou Xufang’s eyes fixated on the young lady. It took quite a while before the cautious look in her eyes subsided. Reaching out her hand, the young lady pushed the single marshmallow toward her which she then accepted.
“Thank you.”
After that, Zhou Xufang continued her way back to the small residential area from which she came. On her way home, her fingers would squish the fluffy marshmallow intermittently. It was only after entering her room did she peel open its wrapping and pop the confectionery into her mouth. She blinked a few times near the entrance before slipping on the pair of pink plush rabbit-head slippers.
It was so soft, so sweet.
Zhou Xufang had incredible vision. To what extent, you might ask? Well, to the point where she was able to see the name written on the notebook of the girl from before which was placed near the shop’s counter when she was standing twenty meters away.
Her name was Wen Baiyang, a cashier of the grocery store. She couldn’t speak as she was both deaf and mute. She could, however, communicate with others using a combination of hand gestures, lip movements, as well as the most traditional format, pen and paper, which she made sure to carry around at all times. Her face was round, almost like that of a steamed bun. Her eyes were equally round with pitch-black pupils. There would always be the same two spots of bright pink on both sides of her cheeks, and although she wasn’t the most beautiful girl around, her facial features as well as her meek personality made her uniquely cute.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
A sharp noise suddenly blared out from the computer just as Zhou Xufang tore open the packaging of the second-rate marshmallows. Raising her head, she glanced at the computer screen. First to appear was a skull, followed by Spongebob, the main character of a popular children’s cartoon.
Lastly, a line of words appeared at the bottom of the screen.
“That man is investigating you.”
The words were highlighted in bold and the font was bright-red in color, making it as conspicuous as possible.
“I’ve already eliminated your observer.”
Zhou Xufang replied verbally.
“Thank you.”
The newly-bought marshmallows were equally as colorful as the ones she bought regularly. Tearing open every bag she had brought home, everything was poured into the glass box which sat beside the computer, filling it to the brim. After that was all done, she picked a random one to try out its taste.
Slightly harder, not sweet enough too.
Hm, they were just not as good as the ones with the pink packaging. She only ate a single marshmallow before putting the lid of the box back on.
On the computer screen, Shuang Jiang sent a smiling emoji followed by two words.
“No problem.”
Shuang Jiang was a partner that ‘Mister’ had assigned to her. Although it had been almost a year since they had started working together, not much was revealed about her partner. Shuang Jiang never showed her face nor spoke and they had only communicated through the keyboard. Out of the handful of times that she had spoken, she would always use a voice alteration program to muffle her actual voice. It was either that or she’d send over a recording of what she wanted to say, fed through a text-to-speech program. These all made Xufang suspect that Shuang Jiang must’ve been a veteran hacker.
The only thing revealed to Zhou Xufang was Shuang Jiang’s gender. It was a ‘she’.
“I’ll look him up. Information about him has already been dispatched to you.”
Another line of words appeared on Xufang’s computer screen followed by a pop-up, indicating a new email in her inbox.
“Alright.”
Zhou Xufang immediately clicked on the email in which all information regarding that man was listed down. It seemed that the reason why he was targeting her was because of the abduction incident.
His name was Jiang Zhi, an heir of ‘the’ Jiang family, also known as a member of the imperial capital’s “Big Four” families. There were many tags under his name, but Zhou Xufang’s eyes remained fixed on a single photo.
He looked really good.
“I’m leaving for work,” announced Zhou Xufang.
“Are you really short on cash?” Shuang Jiang asked.
From the errands they would accept, she and Zhou Xufang would split the rewards by 70% and 30% respectively. It was a very lucrative business indeed.
“Nope,” Zhou Xufang replied. “But I need a lot more cash right now.”
As the sky darkened, the orange-tinged sky had now turned indigo. She got up and made her way to the garage in which there were two motorcycles, a small city-car, an off-road vehicle, as well as a small manual tricycle. The tricycle had a carriage which was fitted with a waterproof roof, underneath which, there was a small stool, a portable foldable table, as well as a wooden crate.
She pedaled the small tricycle out of the residential area.
It wasn’t 7 pm yet but the street beneath Bayi Bridge was already sprawling with stalls. Some sold food, some sold toys and trinkets, and like Zhou Xufang’s stall, there were three others that sold phone screen protectors.
Picking an empty area to set up her stall, she placed the wooden crate on the ground, proceeding to retrieve the phone covers and screen protectors stored in the carriage.
The stall beside Zhou Xufang’s was owned by a feisty middle-aged lady who sold roasted sweet potatoes. Immediately after Xufang’s arrival, the lady greeted her with unrivaled enthusiasm.
“G’d evenin’!”
Zhou Xufang nodded and returned a greeting. She had come half an hour early this evening and her spot was much better than before, but unfortunately, business wasn’t as good as she expected. In fact, it was really bad. Half an hour passed by and only a single person had stopped by her stall. That person wasn’t looking to buy a new screen protector and after merely glancing through the phone covers she had on display, he left without making any purchases.
The weather tonight was unbearably humid as if rain was about to pour down from the heavens at any moment. There was a square not far away from the riverside. Back then, this spot would be bustling with life, and yet, there was not a single soul to be seen tonight. Well, with the exception of a young child who appeared to have lost his way, sobbing uncontrollably by himself.
Because of the weather tonight, many stall owners had started packing up, so no one paid attention to the crying child.
Seeing this, Zhou Xufang walked over to coax the poor soul.
“Stop crying.”
It would seem that she wasn’t particularly skilled in handling children.
The child appeared to be around the age of four, maybe five. His eyes were watery with tears and he tried his best to explain his situation while sobbing.
“My hat…sob…was blown into the river by the wind.”
Zhou Xufang looked over to the river’s surface. A breeze was blowing across the surface. Perhaps that was why a hat could be seen stuck on the opposite side of the river. There were also a number of old men fishing on the riverbank on the other side. She stared at the hat for a long time before removing her shoes and disappearing underwater.
As the wind blew, tiny ripples traveled across the water’s surface. The moon was still hiding amidst the clouds, and so, Xufang could only rely on light from the streetlamps that were being reflected across the water surface.
“Old sport, it looks like it’s gonna rain soon. Time to wrap up for the day.” The old man donning a fisherman’s straw hat said to his companion.
Sitting right beside him, his friend replied, “Aye.”
Slowly, he got up and reeled in his fishing line. As he did so, he called out to the rest of his old buddies, “Let’s go, time to drink!”
“Amen to that.”
Just as the old man with the fisherman’s hat rose from his seat, a head popped up from beneath the water’s surface, almost giving him a heart attack. His jaws were agape as he struggled to produce coherent speech.
“Y-you, are you a human or s-spirit?”
The head bobbing on the surface remained silent.
The old men looked at each other with the same look of fear painted on their faces before running off, leaving all their fishing gear behind.
The drenched head slowly rose above the water’s edge. Amidst the darkness, two little dots glowing with a blood-red hue could be seen. Those were the pupils of Zhou Xufang. Her eyes would turn that way whenever she remained in the water for a set period of time as well as whenever her anger was triggered.
This was why she hated being angry.
Her hand reached into the pocket of her sweater and pulled out a pair of dark-tinted sunglasses. Climbing onto the riverbank, she returned the hat to its rightful owner who had stopped bawling his eyes out right after. Sniffing as his tears subsided, the child asked, “Big sis, are you a mermaid?”
Zhou Xufang shook her head.
She was just as clueless as to what species she belonged to. While she could sleep with the fishes underwater, she couldn’t understand what language they spoke in.
Right around this time, echoes of a woman’s voice yelling ‘Ning Ning’ could be heard coming from the opposite end of the square.
The young boy plopped the soaking wet hat onto his head and flashed a great big smile at Zhou Xufang before darting toward the lady calling out to him. He rushed toward her in a straight line, paying no attention to the things or people in his way.
A large bright-red sports car was coming in from the right side, and it braked immediately as the boy unknowingly ran in front of it.
“Screech!”
The screeching brakes stopped the little boy in his tracks, only to find himself in the embrace of Zhou Xufang seconds later. She raised her head to check her surroundings and discovered that there was no one else around, allowing her to sigh in relief.
“Um, big sis.”
The boy was noticeably shaken up by the incident, his face devoid of color.
“You ran so fast! Are you an undercover super-policewoman?”
Zhou Xufang said “no” and placed the boy down onto the ground. The lady, presumably his mother, rushed over and unendingly thanked her son’s savior. The driver of the car also stepped out to check the tarmac before looking over to Zhou Xufang.
“You..aren’t you also in the business?” The man asked in astonishment after scanning Zhou Xufang up and down.
Zhou Xufang raised her head, her eyes remaining hidden behind the sunglasses. She wiped the lenses with her sleeves before replying with another question.
“Mister, are you looking for a new screen protector?” Her voice was cold and monotonous. “It’s twenty yuan per piece.”
“…”
The driver was a stunning young man sporting a neat crew-cut. He wore a fitted racing suit paired with a pair of contrasting blue trousers.
No one other than Xue Baoyi could pull off such a tacky outfit.
Xue Baoyi stared at the young lady who was wearing dark sunglasses at night and was drenched from head to toe.
“Not looking for that!” He replied quickly, his heart still racing from being scared out of his pants as he was forced to brake so abruptly.
Zhou Xufang twisted her sleeve, squeezing some water out before walking back to her stall where she draped a dry long shirt over her body.
Xue Baoyi’s eyes remained fixated on the girl for quite a while before returning to his car, complaining to the person in the backseat.
“D*mn it, she appeared out of nowhere like a ghost. Just where the hell did she crawl out from!?”
The man in the backseat raised his eyelid lazily and uttered, “Xue Baoyi.”
Xue Baoyi, still affected by the incident, replied.
“Wha-what’s up?”
For Master Jiang to say his full name, he must’ve screwed up somewhere.
The man in the backseat cleared his doubts with two concise words.
“Get down.”