Chapter 96
“WHAT A WONDERFUL winter jasmine, don’t we love it so…”
Gu Fei sang along with the music playing in the supermarket as he pushed the shopping cart along.
“What a wonderful winter jasmine that welcomes glory back to the land;
What a wonderful winter jasmine that blooms in every home…”5
“You may all recognize the person singing right now as the shining star of the Steelworks Morons’ sports event.” Jiang Cheng walked behind him, his hand holding up his phone as he recorded a video. “Let us follow him on his supermarket excursion today… To be quite honest, the shining star’s Cantonese pronunciation sounds pretty okay to our inexperienced ears. It may just give Pan Zhi a run for his money…”
“Bring a branch of the winter jasmine and let the fragrance spread to a thousand homes;
Bring a branch of the winter jasmine and let us all rejoice…”
Gu Fei glanced back at Jiang Cheng as he sang. Just then, the music changed, and without missing a beat, he started up again in a falsetto:
“The god of wealth comes knocking at my door,
The god of money comes knocking at my door,
The god of prosperity comes knocking at my door,
Come, children, let’s light up the lanterns…”6
“Shit!” Jiang Cheng exclaimed, laughing. “Don’t tell me you know all of them.”
“Of course. And I won’t get a single word wrong,” Gu Fei said. “I even bought CDs of New Year’s songs. We used to play them in the store every year.”
Jiang Cheng pointed the camera at him. “How come I don’t hear you playing them this year?”
“The CD player’s broken. Been that way for the last few years,” Gu Fei said, then continued in his high voice:
“May you all have great, great, great fortune in this New Year,
May you all have great, great, great fortune in this New Year…”
The song after that was “Step by Step Higher,”7 an instrumental track, so Gu Fei finally stopped singing along and said, “Are there any snacks you want? I have to get something for Er-Miao.”
“Dunno, let’s go take a look,” Jiang Cheng said, putting away his phone.
The supermarket was bustling today. A lot of people who hadn’t been able to get days off any earlier were in there doing last-minute shopping, and many shelves were emptied before the stores had the chance to restock them.
“Do you eat walnuts?” Gu Fei asked, holding up a box to examine it. “They’re good for your brain.”
“Nope.” Jiang Cheng’s answer was decisive. He wasn’t interested in non-junk snacks. He’d much rather eat pork jerky.
“Good for your brain,” Gu Fei repeated.
“My brain is outstanding already, thank you very much. Its ridges are much deeper than the ones on walnuts.”
Gu Fei ignored him and put the box of walnuts in their shopping cart, then slowly continued down the aisle.
“Hold on,” said Jiang Cheng, glancing at the price sticker. “This is way too expensive. Do you know how much cheaper these are at the market? They’re all the same thin-skin varieties too.”
“The market’s closed already,” Gu Fei said. “You can pick at these as snacks for the next couple of days.”
“I want pork jerky,” Jiang Cheng protested. “And air-dried beef, and mala fish strips, and—”
“Didn’t you say you’re tired of eating meat all the time?” Gu Fei interrupted him.
“And mala green peas,” Jiang Cheng said, swiftly swapping in an acceptable replacement for the “salt-roasted chicken wings” that had been on the tip of his tongue.
“Go on, then.” Gu Fei smiled. “Get all of it.”
“A couple bags should be enough.” Jiang Cheng picked up a bag of air-dried beef, looked at the price, and threw it back in shock. He grabbed the regular beef jerky next to it instead. “Damn, that’s real fucking expensive.”
“Get it, it’s fine.” Gu Fei picked up the air-dried beef and put it in their cart. “I have a gift card worth five hundred yuan.”
Jiang Cheng blinked. “Hm?”
“From Li Yan,” said Gu Fei. “He used to get more, but remember how he’s been fighting his mom? The fight’s not over, so his mom only gave him one.”
Jiang Cheng chuckled. “I guess it’s not a very intense fight, then, if she still gave him five hundred.”
“He’s their precious son, after all.” Gu Fei picked up a pack of jelly pudding cups.
“Don’t you have those in your store? Buy something you don’t have.”
“Er-Miao won’t eat the ones in the store. I told her once that the things in the store are for sale and she couldn’t just eat what she liked. Since then, she’s pretty much stopped eating them—she’ll only eat snacks if I buy them from other places.”
“Oh. Can’t refute that logic.”
“Besides, the ones in our store aren’t as fancy as these,” Gu Fei pointed out. “It’s New Year’s—let’s eat some expensive things.”
After they got everything they wanted, they headed for the checkout. They were still a good distance away when Jiang Cheng looked over and froze, then sprinted forward madly. “Fucking hell! I’m gonna go line up first,” he called back over his shoulder.
The line led all the way from the cash registers into the aisles, so long that it even wrapped around the corner. Every person in line had a shopping cart piled high with items; Jiang Cheng sprinting ahead gave them barely any advantage at all. By the time Gu Fei reached him, he counted four or five people lining up behind him, but he didn’t even have the courage to count how many people there were in front.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to get out of here before noon,” Jiang Cheng said.
“No worries.” Gu Fei pointed at the hot foods section of the store. “We can eat there. I checked.”
“…You’re pretty calm, huh?” Jiang Cheng chuckled.