BXBX NOVEL Chapter 6: Deep Cover
Chapter 6
Feng Juechen removed the plastic bib from around his neck and patted the fine hair cuttings. Recalling the shout he had just heard, he couldn\'t help but ask, "Senior sister, can you sell hair here?"
Song Jixing was fiddling with the garbage bag. Hearing this, she looked up and replied, "Yes, you can sell it, but you are people of the Cultivation World, your hair is different from the people here, so it\'s better not to sell it."
Upon hearing this, Feng Juechen nodded, "Okay."
Song Jixing gathered all the hair in a plastic bag. It was cut into small pieces. She planned to go downstairs and throw it away later.
Although she didn\'t intend to sell it, the old ladies in their community liked to rummage through the trash cans. It would be bad if they saw the hair and got ideas, so it was better to cut it into small pieces.
Shen Feixian used his mouth to clean up the hair clippings on his neck, then skillfully picked up a broom and started sweeping the floor.
Seeing this, Feng Juechen also took a linen cloth and wiped away the dust on the table.
Without any dust removal techniques, they could only rely on their hands to slowly clean up.
With more people, there were more things to consider.
Song Jixing lingered around the refrigerator door and glanced at the sparse contents inside. She also looked at her own snack shelf.
As an actress, she had to watch her figure. Her snack shelf was mostly tea, milk and sugar-free biscuits, gifts from sponsors she worked with.
"I\'ll take you guys out for a walk later and buy you some clothes and food..." Song Jixing thought for a moment and said.
She turned to her fellow sect members and asked, "Do you know how to cook?"
Feng Juechen had just arrived and was still clueless about the various gadgets in this cramped little house.
The senior brother and senior sister had taught him some things yesterday.
Yu Qing said, "I know how to cook rice and porridge with an electric rice cooker."
Shen Feixian said, "I know how to turn on the stove. I\'ve only cooked eggs before and haven\'t tried anything else."
Song Jixing nodded. "What would you like to eat then? I\'ll go buy it and prepare meals for tomorrow."
"Anything is fine!"
"I\'ll eat anything."
"Whatever senior sister decides."
Song Jixing helplessly nodded. Fine, she also had difficulty deciding.
"I\'ll take you guys to buy clothes first, then... to the vegetable market..." Song Jixing said as she thought about what to have for dinner tonight.
Knowing how to cook eggs didn\'t count as cooking. She had to teach her fellow sect members how to use the kitchen gadgets.
At the moment they went out the door, Song Jixing looked over her fellow sect members.
Their clothes were not too weird, just the shoes at the bottom were a bit strange.
Her feet were small. The shoes fit her senior sister but her fellow sect brothers were wearing bathroom slippers cut short by half.
Song Jixing patted her chest to reassure herself - wearing small shoes was nothing!
As long as she didn\'t feel awkward, the awkwardness must be on others! Besides, her fellow sect brothers looked so handsome that people would naturally look at their faces instead of their shoes!
And so, Song Jixing took them out of the house. Fortunately, there weren\'t many people in the neighborhood to notice them.
Once they were out of the neighborhood, Song Jixing took them straight to the nearest shoe store.
Rows of black cloth shoes were stacked messily in the corner, mostly old-fashioned strappy rubber-soled shoes from the previous century, very different from ordinary shoes on the market.
It was more like a sundries shop than a shoe store, with various kinds of odds and ends - large red and purple plastic buckets, old plastic combs, thermal plastic flasks, and even porcelain lunch boxes.
The owner was a gaunt old lady with white hair, wearing a synthetic floral shirt, sitting behind the counter listening to the twittering Peking opera on the radio while nodding her head along.
It was Song Jixing’s first time coming to this place. She had asked the old lady for directions and knew her eyesight was poor and she saw things blurry, but the old lady was still able to point her in the right direction. In subsequent interactions, the old lady was always very enthusiastic.
Song Jixing’s hearing became more acute after transmigrating. She once overheard old ladies in the neighborhood gossiping that this shop owner was the biggest beneficiary of the housing demolition in this community. She got a lot of property from the demolition.
She could have lived on rental income, but instead chose to open this rundown shoe shop. Song Jixing only had one thought - she sure was keeping a low profile.
As she heard more things, Song Jixing also learned more. The old lady had no children or grandchildren. She funded many school dropouts, with only welfare organization staff coming to check on her.
When Song Jixing occasionally walked past the shop entrance, she saw many old men and women in the neighborhood coming to buy things.
The shop was small and shabby, but the quality was still pretty good. Compared to other shoes that would fall apart after one or two years, these could last a long time.
This was also why the old ladies were so fond of this shop.
"Granny, let me see the cloth shoes at your door!" Song Jixing called out.
The old lady turned her head towards the voice. Her cloudy eyes paused for a moment before she slowly replied, "Sure!"
In addition to the old cloth shoes from the last century, there were also a few pairs of rubber-soled canvas shoes mixed in the pile. The thick gray canvas paired with a few simple English letters didn\'t look too tacky.
Song Jixing’s gaze lingered on the shoes for a moment. She picked out a few large pairs and squatted down to compare them with her fellow sect members’ feet.
Close enough was good enough.
"Senior sister, let me." Feng Juechen said.
"It\'s okay, just taking the chance to measure while I\'m at it. These shoes are hard to try on." She was afraid others would dirty the shoes. The old lady worked hard running her little shop.
After roughly determining the sizes, Song Jixing let her sect brothers try on the shoes.
They fit perfectly!
"Okay, we\'ll just take these!"
The sect brothers nodded. They didn\'t have any objections.
One pair was not enough, they needed two for alternation. Song Jixing picked a few more large plastic slippers.
If more fellow sect members were to show up in the future, should she prepare more shoes?
Song Jixing bought three more pairs of slippers on the spot.
After the sect brothers changed into their new canvas shoes, Song Jixing promptly paid. The canvas shoes were 55 yuan a pair and the slippers were 18 yuan a pair, totaling three hundred and ten yuan.
Seeing that Song Jixing didn\'t try to bargain, the old lady happily gave her a discount.
Song Jixing said, "Granny, I\'ll leave these shoes here for now. I\'m going to the vegetable market first and will be back later!"
The old lady nodded along with the opera music on the radio, "Go, go, I\'ll watch them for you."
The characters "Hong Zhaoyang Comprehensive Agricultural Trade Market" were hanging above the main entrance.
Song Jixing took her fellow sect members inside, winding through the various vendors, buying all kinds of spices, flour, rice, green beans, red beans, yellow beans, vegetables, fruits, eggs, salted duck eggs and other odds and ends.
By the time they walked out, everyone\'s hands were filled with things.
"This is the place to buy groceries. You\'ll have to come by yourselves when I\'m not home. I\'ll give you money then. Buy whatever ingredients you want to eat..." Song Jixing introduced, even pointing out the nearby snack street.
The text of the Cultivation World was similar to traditional Chinese characters in this world, though Song Jixing didn\'t know what entanglements were behind it. She only knew that her fellow sect members could recognize most of the words.