Chapter 40p1
Life is unpredictable, and the same goes for the life of a pig.
A village pig that had been chasing people, within an hour, gained a name, an owner, a keeper, friends, and now…
Standing outside the convenience store, Wei Maomao looked up at the newly added pig product shelf facing the entrance and clicked her tongue. They were so good at stimulating consumption, why were these people making a variety show? Wouldn’t running a business be more profitable?
Wei Maomao and Cheng Tingyan walked faster and had already entered the store, while the others were still a few steps behind, just arriving at the entrance.
“Xixi is very well-behaved, I’ll hold onto it, I won’t let it run around or eat randomly! Just let it come in and have a look!”
Wen Dongyu, wanting to broaden the piglet’s horizons, was pleading with the staff member at the door.
Wei Maomao looked back and saw the staff member holding onto the pig’s rope with a determined expression. It seemed Wen Dongyu would have a hard time getting his wish.
“So mean!” Shen Zilin walked up to Wei Maomao, squatted down, and flipped through the various pig bibs, headbands, and shoes on the bottom shelf, grumbling, “Why are they so expensive!”
Wei Maomao glanced at the price tags. In this convenience store where even lollipops cost twenty Baby Coins, a pig bib being the same price was… acceptable, right?
Wei Maomao, already a multimillionaire, had no idea how hard life was for Shen Zilin, who was broke and burdened with debt.
Shen Zilin touched the only six Baby Coins left in his pocket, thinking about the three hundred Baby Coin loan hanging over his head. No matter how cute the yellow pig bib was, he had to put it back.
“So mean!” Shen Zilin reluctantly returned the bib to the shelf, grumbling again.
The pig products were all very cute, perfectly appealing to a child’s aesthetics. However, as an adult, Wei Maomao wouldn’t fall for the program team’s trap and make impulsive purchases.
Her goal was clear, a bucket of popcorn was all she wanted today!
Wei Maomao pulled Cheng Tingyan along, Cheng Tingyan pulling her small suitcase, and they quickly arrived in front of the popcorn machine.
Just as Cheng Tingyan was about to ask a staff member for a bucket, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that the little chubby bunny, who had been eagerly heading for the popcorn, was now looking elsewhere.
It was…
“Maomao, do you want to eat that?” Cheng Tingyan followed the little chubby bunny’s gaze, pointing to a bucket of orange things on a low table not far away.
Yesterday, when they arrived, the convenience store had only opened the main door, letting them wander around empty-handed for a while, increasing their motivation to dig for treasure later, before sending them away. Today, perhaps to stimulate consumption, all the shutters on the side of the convenience store were rolled up, letting the bright sunlight stream in, illuminating the merchandise, making it look bright and enticing.
On the low table, which Wei Maomao hadn’t paid much attention to yesterday, a ray of light seemed to dance inside a transparent plastic container, giving the orange balls crammed inside a warm, fuzzy glow.
“…” Wei Maomao turned her head, her eyes filled with a complex emotion she couldn’t conceal. “Yan Yan, do you know what that is?”
“The orange balls in the transparent container? I don’t know…” Cheng Tingyan smiled sheepishly, glanced at Yang Yuanming standing at the door, and whispered, “Do you want to know, Maomao? Should I go ask Sister Yang Yang?”
“No need, I know…” Wei Maomao stopped her.
“Then do you want to eat it?” Cheng Tingyan didn’t really care what it was, she only cared if the little chubby bunny wanted to eat it.
However, even after Cheng Tingyan asked twice, Wei Maomao couldn’t give a straight answer. She pursed her lips repeatedly, then asked softly, “Do you want to eat it?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Wei Maomao regretted it.
She shouldn’t have kept staring at it after seeing it, and even less so after catching Cheng Tingyan’s attention and asking that question.
Wei Maomao could still clearly remember what Cheng Tingyan had told her in her previous life.
[Something very unpleasant happened that day, I walked around outside for a long time and didn’t go home. That candied kumquat was given to me as change when I bought bread. It was my first time seeing and tasting candied kumquat. It was so intensely sweet and fragrant that it felt like my entire body was washed by the aroma. After eating it, I felt so fragrant, I felt like… a special fruit? It’s funny, right? I thought it was funny at the time, and my mood suddenly improved. Afterwards, whenever I was feeling down, I would eat candied kumquat. Even later, when I was watching my weight and didn’t eat much sweets, I always kept some on hand.]
Although Wei Maomao didn’t ask what those unpleasant things were in her previous life, it was a fact that candied kumquat later became Cheng Tingyan’s mood booster.
The specialness of certain things perhaps required specific situations and emotions. Wei Maomao didn’t know if those unpleasant things she wasn’t aware of would still happen in this life. But at the very least, she shouldn’t prematurely change the course of events with the candied kumquat.
“I…” Cheng Tingyan didn’t expect Wei Maomao to ask her back. She hesitated for a moment, but was interrupted by the little chubby bunny before she could speak.
“Let’s buy popcorn, Sister Yang Yang is looking over here!” Wei Maomao restrained herself from looking at the jar of candied kumquat and waved at Yang Yuanming in the distance.
Cheng Tingyan’s attention was immediately redirected back to the popcorn.
They received a bucket of freshly made popcorn, still warm even through the paper container.
“Smells good.” Wei Maomao took a deep breath and handed it to Cheng Tingyan. “Here, Yan Yan, eat.”
Cheng Tingyan picked up the small spoon from the bucket, but first fed a popcorn kernel to the little chubby bunny.
Crispy, sweet, and milky! Popcorn was truly delicious! Wei Maomao squinted her eyes, feeling content for a moment, but then was brought back to reality by a voice from nearby.
“Aren’t you guys buying beef jerky anymore?” Wang Zhizhi was a bit confused. “Didn’t we agree to buy it together?”
“I’m out of money… I spent twenty on Xixi.” Shen Zilin was embarrassed to mention the loan and only stated the down payment. He held up a pair of yellow socks. “My last six Baby Coins, I bought socks for Xixi.”
“…” Wang Zhizhi was speechless for a moment, then couldn’t help but complain. “Why does a pig need to wear socks? Even if it needs socks, it has four feet! These two socks…”
Just then, Wen Dongyu raised his right hand, holding a pair of identical socks.
Wang Zhizhi: “…”
Wen Dongyu hesitantly withdrew his hand, glancing at Wang Zhizhi sheepishly. “I could only spend six Baby Coins, I have to control myself, I need to save them and spend them slowly in the future.”
“But Baby Coins can only be used while we’re filming…” Cheng Tingyan couldn’t help but remind him. “When we go home, there won’t be this Baby Convenience Store, we won’t have anywhere to spend Baby Coins.”
“I know.” Wen Dongyu twiddled his fingers. “I want to save more and buy something useful when we leave.”
Wei Maomao raised her spoon, distributing popcorn to them. When she got to Wang Zhizhi, thinking about the Daddy Card he had given her before, she generously scooped a few extra spoonfuls for him. Then she turned to Wen Dongyu, curiously asking, “What’s ‘useful’?”
She really couldn’t imagine anything useful in this shady store, it was all food, oh, and now there were overpriced pig products.
“Like…” Wen Dongyu thought for a moment, then gave examples. “Rice, noodles, potatoes… things that can fill you up for a long time after just one bite.”
What? Buying such useful things?
Wei Maomao’s hand trembled, and a popcorn kernel fell to the ground.
Wen Dongyu’s words left everyone who heard him momentarily speechless.
Cheng Tingyan was the fastest to react inside the store, breaking the stunned silence. “Are you going to eat them yourself?”
Wen Dongyu nodded.
“Do you know how to cook them?” Cheng Tingyan asked again.
Wen Dongyu shook his head blankly.
Cheng Tingyan pursed her lips, seemingly hesitating for a moment, then said firmly in a low voice, “Then rice, noodles, potatoes… are not useful for you. You should buy compressed biscuits, eating half a piece will keep you full for a day, you can eat them straight out of the package, and they’re nutritious. If you have hot water, you can buy some dried vegetable packets and soak them with the biscuits.”
“Yan Yan…” Wei Maomao was so shocked by Cheng Tingyan’s knowledgeable words that she almost dropped the popcorn bucket.
“Yan Yan! You’re amazing! I’m going to buy those biscuits! And dried vegetables!” Wen Dongyu’s excited voice, full of admiration, drowned out Wei Maomao’s soft murmur.
“They’re compressed biscuits, regular biscuits won’t keep you full.” Cheng Tingyan carefully corrected him, then added, “I know where to get cheap ones, you can ask me after the show, I’ll take you there.”
“Yan Yan! You’re the best!” Wen Dongyu clutched his chest, turning to run towards Yang Yuanming, who seemed to be frozen in place. “Sister Yang Yang! Do you have biscuits here, no, compressed biscuits?”
“You guys… why can’t I understand what you’re saying?” Wang Zhizhi felt a headache coming on.
“I… don’t understand either.” Shen Zilin, clutching the pig socks, thought about Cheng Tingyan mentioning expired snacks the day before. If it was just Cheng Tingyan, he might have been able to follow the plot, but what did this have to do with Wen Dongyu?
The others couldn’t understand, but Wei Maomao had a hunch. This was undoubtedly another part of Cheng Tingyan’s past that she hadn’t mentioned to her.
Because she had never heard about it, she was once again shocked, but someone was even faster than her.
“Wen Wen and I bought a bag of chocolate beans, let’s share them with everyone!” Cheng Rongrong, pulling Wen Jiangyue along, came around from behind a couple of shelves, her face beaming with a friendly smile.
But no one knew the resentment and frustration brewing in her heart at this moment.
Yesterday’s events, along with what happened this morning, had made Cheng Rongrong realize that things weren’t quite right. Although these little brats still talked to her nicely, and she wasn’t left out of their group activities, she felt like she couldn’t truly fit in. Perhaps it was the generation gap caused by age and experience, she still couldn’t enter that childish state. In other situations, Cheng Rongrong wouldn’t bother playing social games with these little things whose average age was only five. But here it was different… Cheng Rongrong had to join them to have a chance to become the center of attention, to receive the attention and future she desired.
So she once again chose Wen Jiangyue, persuading her to buy something together and then share it with everyone, hoping to use Wen Jiangyue to integrate into the group of childish fools again.
But she didn’t expect Wen Jiangyue to be so slow in choosing something, and even less so that these people would be mumbling about compressed biscuits.
The chocolate section was some distance from where Cheng Tingyan and Wen Dongyu were talking earlier. Initially, Cheng Rongrong didn’t know what they were discussing, her mind mostly occupied with how to subtly guide Wen Jiangyue to choose something quickly. When Wen Jiangyue finally settled on the chocolate beans, she pulled her along and happened to hear Wen Dongyu praising Cheng Tingyan as the best, then turning to ask the staff for compressed biscuits.
Wen Dongyu, the guy who would hug Wei Chengli’s leg and call him “Dad”, had already been removed from Cheng Rongrong’s list of priority targets. Now what she cared about was, did Cheng Tingyan just mention compressed biscuits?
Others might not know, but Cheng Rongrong knew. When Cheng Feiying was filming, he would be away for months, and Bai Lei would only take her along when she went back to her parents’ house or traveled. Sometimes the nanny would stay at home to look after Cheng Tingyan, and sometimes the nanny would also be taken away, leaving Cheng Tingyan unattended. Cheng Tingyan, at home, lived like a mute, also like a guest, her personal morals seemed to have a strange standard. For a while, Cheng Rongrong was quite curious about how Cheng Tingyan, who never touched the snacks in the cabinet or the food in the fridge, survived when no one was watching. She checked the trash can a few times and found compressed biscuit wrappers…
That wasn’t interesting at all. As expected of the strong female lead from a web novel, she had a backbone.
That was a long time ago, Cheng Rongrong had almost forgotten about it, but now she heard it again.
Come to think of it, Cheng Tingyan was quite obedient at home, but since they arrived here yesterday, she had been acting differently. Cheng Rongrong was a bit worried that she might blurt out something in a moment of impulsiveness, so she quickly dragged Wen Jiangyue over.
For children, changing the topic was enough to make them forget what they were discussing earlier. As long as they didn’t delve deeper, compressed biscuits might just be Cheng Tingyan’s personal preference.
Cheng Rongrong thought it was a good plan, the chocolate beans were being distributed, but someone just had to be so inconsiderate, not following her lead.
“Yan Yan, are compressed biscuits much better than regular biscuits? Are they delicious? How do you know about them?”
Wei Maomao’s voice suddenly rang out, her childish voice sounding incredibly jarring to Cheng Rongrong.
“Of course it’s because older sister has eaten them before, she likes them, she bought them herself. I saw the wrappers in the trash can at home several times.” Cheng Rongrong suppressed her annoyance and replied innocently. “I haven’t eaten them, I don’t know if they’re delicious.”
Damn it! Even now, she still had to take a jab at her for eating alone, huh?
Wei Maomao’s fists clenched.
Wait…
Wei Maomao frowned, then quickly relaxed, feigning surprise. “How do you know those wrappers were from compressed biscuits? Sister Rongrong, you’re only half a year older than me, you already know so many words?”
“… “ Cheng Rongrong froze, a cold sweat breaking out on her back. She quickly realized they were live, she had to answer quickly. “I asked Mom, Mom thinks compressed biscuits aren’t as nutritious as proper meals. But older sister kept buying them herself. Older sister, Mom told you to listen to Dad before we came here, don’t eat compressed biscuits on the show. Dad will be angry.”
Cheng Rongrong rattled off her explanation quickly. This annoying Wei Maomao almost scared her to death. Thankfully, she remembered that she had once shared the treasure she “accidentally” found after knocking over the trash can with Bai Lei. Bai Lei certainly didn’t say anything about compressed biscuits being less nutritious than meals, what she said was “Quite clever, no wonder she didn’t starve to death.” Cheng Rongrong didn’t remember if Bai Lei had told her they were compressed biscuits, but Bai Lei probably didn’t remember either. This question needed an explanation, after all, she was only three and a half years old and couldn’t read yet… As for the rest of her words, they were a warning to Cheng Tingyan.
With this inquisitive Wei Maomao around, she had to remind Cheng Tingyan of what she had promised before coming here, to remind her that if Cheng Feiying was angry, the medical expenses wouldn’t be easy to handle.
Seeing Cheng Tingyan lower her gaze and purse her lips, a look of restraint appearing on her face, Cheng Rongrong was relieved.
Cheng Tingyan understood, and Wei Maomao also understood.
Great, now Cheng Tingyan definitely wouldn’t answer those questions. If she insisted on asking further, Cheng Tingyan might even distance herself from her, destroying the closeness they had painstakingly built.
Another opportunity wasted because of these jerks!
She wanted to hit someone, Wei Maomao looked down at her clenched fists.
“Maomao, here, have some.” Cheng Rongrong offered the bag of chocolate beans.
Leave a Reply