Chapter 98: Be A Happy Person
“The work table requires us to deal with the corpses of two children. There is a picture of two children in the worker’s locker.”
The picture was lay slanted against the back of the locker like someone was worshipping it. Gao Ming ran to the frozen aisle and opened the giant freezer. “Do you think the corpses will be hidden here?” The newbie and Zhu Suisui followed him.
“There’s no blood or smell. Therefore, the corpses are probably frozen.” Gao Ming moved away some yoghurts. He didn’t care about them at first, but then, he froze when he glanced at the production date. “How can the production date be a decade ago?”
“A decade?” Zhu Suisui took over the bottle. She opened the cap and took a sniff. “It smells normal. Could it be a printing error?” Gao Ming picked up some other casual products. He realised all the production dates were at least one decade ago.
“Why is everything from ten years ago?”
The bell at the entrance chimed. The countdown on the monitor paused. An old man with a bare chest and holding a shirt entered the supermarket. He was drenched, and his skin was bloated.
“Xiao Gao! I’m here to deliver money!” The elder had a loud voice. His scream chased away the oppressive atmosphere in the supermarket. Gao Ming’s group looked at each other. They had no idea who Xiao Gao was.
“I’ll go take a look. You should keep searching for the corpses.” Zhu Suisui hid the axe behind her. She walked to one side of the shelves and poked half her body out.
“Jing Jing, is Xiao Gao not at work today?” The elder was very kind. He treated Zhu Suisui as someone else and walked over.
“Jing Jing?” Zhu Suisui had never encountered something like this. As she saw the elder approach her, she didn’t know what to say. The elder’s skin was bloated. It looked like he had been soaked in water for a long time.
“Sir, do you need anything?” Gao Ming walked out from behind Zhu Suisui and pressed on Zhu Suisui’s shaking shoulders.
“Are you drunk too? Why are you calling me Sir and not Uncle?” The elder walked towards Gao Ming. Zhu Suisui was so nervous. She had never faced such a strange ghost before.
“Uncle, I’m at work. I’ll drink with you later.” Gao Ming reacted quickly. “I’m surprised you’d come to deliver money in this heavy rain.”
“Your Uncle Li is not one who goes back on his debt.” The elder laughed. He took out some coins from his pocket and gave them to Gao Ming. “Count them. It’s not easy for me to save them. The lady is getting stricter by the day.”
“Are these from your secret piggy bank?” Gao Ming didn’t expect the elder to have a private money stash at his age.
“Stop with the nonsense. Go grab me some alcohol.” The elder’s face turned red, like his secret was exposed. He was more nervous than Gao Ming. He stood beside the alcohol tab. “You have to keep this place going. This is one of the few places I can get my fix.”
Min Long Supermarket was not large. Most customers were neighbours at Min Long Street. The place had the style from decades ago. After taking the money, Gao Ming walked to the tab. He found an urn and filled up one for the elder. “Do you need me to pack it?”
“You say that like I dare to bring this home.” The elder waved at Gao Ming. “I’ll drink this here. Wine on a rainy day. How good is that?”
“This is too much if you’re not taking this home.” Gao Ming poured half an urn back. The elder looked at this with blinking eyes.
Gao Ming passed the elder the urn and took a bag of peanuts. “Uncle Li, my treat.”
“I have such a high retirement benefit. Do I need you to treat me?” The elder took a sip of the alcohol. Even his wrinkles relaxed. “If you’re not happy when you’re alive, what’s the point of living? I’ll bring you the money for the peanuts next time.”
“As long as you’re happy.” Gao Ming laughed.
“Speaking of, how are you and Jing Jing?” The elder leaned close for gossip. “It’s your work shift today, but the girl came to accompany you. Can this be clearer? You have to grab this chance. Plus, make sure to tell Jing Jing to reveal anything. If the old lady knew I was here for wine, you would be scolded too.”
Gao Ming looked at the work table. This elder memorised everyone’s work shift to get his wine.
“Alright. I’ll drink here. You should get back to work.” Uncle Li hummed a tune and continued his drink. The bell chimed again. A female OL with a mask entered the supermarket. She was a bit fat. She didn’t like to speak. She held an umbrella. After picking a lot of food, she came to the cashier with her head lowered. “Can you heat these for me?”
“Okay.” Gao Ming heated the food. The woman put away the umbrella. To prevent the raindrops from wetting the floor, she found a plastic bag to put on the umbrella.
Even though she had the umbrella, the woman’s clothes were wet. She looked very pale. She found a place to sit and took out a camera stand. She fixed her camera and started a mukbang livestream. Once the camera started to roll, there was no tiredness on her face. Using a joking manner, she introduced the food she had for the night.
The woman tried to interact with every comment on scream. She gulped down the food. The woman maintained a smile from start to finish. After eating a lot, her body leaned over unnaturally, and her hand went to her stomach.
“Do you want to keep eating?” Gao Ming came over with the heated food box. He could see the woman’s discomfort.
“Thank you.” The woman took the box and continued to eat. She smiled and praised the food. Gao Ming glanced at the screen. The comments were unforgiving. Some called her a pig, and others said she was fake-eating. Some wanted to see her drenched body. The woman kept a smile on her face. She forced herself to finish the last bite.
“The challenge for tonight is over. It’s 30 seconds earlier than yesterday! Babies, if you have something else you want me to eat, you can private message me. Bye bye.”
Once the camera was off, the smile on the woman’s face froze. She dry-heaved, held her stomach and leaned on the table.
“Here.”
The woman raised her head. She saw Gao Ming with a towel. “Use this to wipe your hair.”
The woman grabbed the towel. Her eyes watered. The feelings she tried to suppress rose again.
She used the towel to cover her face.
“Are you doing this part-time?”
“Yes. I work in the morning, and I do a challenge mukbang at night.” The woman’s voice became calm. “I have a huge appetite, but there’s always someone who can eat more and who is prettier than me.”
“Indeed. Nothing is easy.” Gao Ming sat down beside the woman. “If you need money, I can help you…”
“I don’t need money.” The woman looked at Gao Ming and revealed a different smile. It was shy and introverted. “I’ve been scared to talk to people since I was young. I have a low self-esteem because of my weight. Therefore, I want to change myself to become a responsible and confident person.”
“Your way of training is a bit extreme.” Gao Ming joked with the woman. Zhu Suisui and the bespectacled newbie tried to look for the dead bodies.
The customers didn’t leave, and the bell chimed again. A man in clown make-up walked in with a bag. Rain washed away most of his make-up so his face could be seen.
“No one move!” The clown reached into the bag. Before he could say anything else, Uncle Li walked over with the alcohol. “Zhang Ding, what are you doing in your own shop? You look like you’ve just been beaten up.”
“What did you recognise me? I even paid someone to do this make-up.” Zhang Ding carried the bag and stood on his toes. “I even wore heels for this.”
“How old are you already? Why do you worry me so much?” Uncle Li turned to Gao Ming and Zhu Suisui. “Xiao Gao, come grab your boss.”
“Boss?” Gao Ming looked at the man and the other customers. He suddenly remembered news from a decade ago. The supermarket was rebuilt once. It was said that the former boss was a very good person.
Zhang Ding wiped down his face. He was not ashamed. He walked to the woman, “Did you end your livestream?”
“Yes. I just ended.”
“I wanted to create a surprise for you.” Zhang Ding smacked the table. “You’ve been here for days already. Every time I see your sad face, I want to give you a surprise to make you happy. This will also draw people to your stream and my shop. It’s a win-win!”
“Your surprise is quite surprising.” Gao Ming couldn’t help but grumble.
So far, there had been no anomaly in this anomaly.
“I’ve tried my hardest.” Zhang Ding didn’t act like a boss at all. He treated everyone at the supermarket as his family. He just wanted everyone to be happy.
“I thank you.” The woman said with a sad smile. “When you pretended to be a ghost last time and hid behind the shelf to move the products, my few fans thought you were my hired actor. I lost some fans.”
“Was my acting that bad?” Zhang Ding stood up. “Give me another chance.”
“Brother Zhang, perhaps you should help someone else.” The woman shook her hands.
“We’re neighbours. We should help one another.” Zhang Ding took out a soaked proposal. Before he spoke, the bell rang again. Hearing the footsteps, Uncle Li and Zhang Ding shared a look. They became so serious, like it was war.
“This is bad!”
The air froze. Gao Ming’s heart raced. “Is the danger coming?”
Uncle Li grabbed his urn and ran into the supermarket. Zhang Ding wiped away the rest of the paint and ran to follow Uncle Li. Gao Ming’s heart beat faster. He stared at the entrance. Moments later, a thin old lady appeared. She wore glasses and a patterned shirt. She looked very weak.
The old lady held two umbrellas. She went to the tab and glanced at the urns. She sniffed the scent of wine in the air.
“Stop hiding! Go back for dinner!” Since no one answered, the old lady walked towards Goa Ming. Gao Ming wore the worker uniform. He didn’t know what to do.
He turned to look around. Uncle Li and Zhang Ding were gone.
As the old lady approached, Gao Ming silently swiped the comb from the shelf and walked to meet the old lady.
“Auntie, Uncle Li did come for a drink.” Before the old lady exploded, Gao Ming cut in, “But think about it. Will Uncle Li come here just for a drink with no umbrella in this weather?” Before the old lady could speak, Gao Ming pushed the wooden comb to the old lady, “Uncle Li knew he was wrong. He bought this comb for you. This is our new product. It can massage the scalp. It’s very good.”
The old lady was interrupted several times. Even though she still looked angry, her tone was nicer. “Are you working with him?”
“That’s impossible!” Gao Ming just put on the uniform half an hour ago so that was indeed impossible.
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