CH 43

Miaomiao’s grandmother was amused when she found out that Miaomiao wanted to use her schoolbag as a grocery bag so that she could carry some vegetables. Simultaneously, she was surprised because she discovered that Miaomiao wanted to use her school bag as a grocery bag just to save 30 cents.

In the supermarket that they frequent, vegetables were packaged in bags that retained the vegetables’ freshness; therefore, putting them into a schoolbag was no problem at all. 

Grandmother said to Miaomiao, “Okay, let’s put the vegetables in your schoolbag for now.”

Great-grandmother decided to stay home.

Miaomiao held her grandmother’s hand when they left their house since the streets thronged with people, and she was a little concerned that someone would take her away.

Grandmother grasped her hand and asked, “What kind of food does Miaomiao want to eat for dinner? We’ll buy whatever Miaomiao likes to eat.”

Miaomiao couldn’t explain why, but she thought everything was delicious and succulent.

Grandmother didn’t get an answer, but she wasn’t in a hurry to obtain one. Instead, she continued to move forward towards the supermarket while holding Miaomiao.

When they entered the supermarket, they noticed an employee sealing some schoolbags that belonged to college students.

When someone brings this type of large schoolbag into the supermarket, the employee puts it in a big red bag, seals it, and then gives it back to them.

Eventually, it was their turn. Elementary school students typically carried large schoolbags, which made it difficult to seal them, so the employee lowered her head and asked Miaomiao, “Do you have anything in your bag that we also sell in the supermarket?”

This question left Miaomiao speechless for a while. A stranger just asked her a question that she didn’t have an answer for.

Her grandmother replied to her, “No, her school bag is empty. She said that she wanted to carry vegetables in her schoolbag.”

“Then, you may proceed.” The employee said kindly. She didn’t put Miaomiao’s schoolbag into a red bag to seal it.

Miaomiao thought, ‘She’s so nice. When I come back tomorrow, I’ll answer her questions by myself.’

Miaomiao couldn’t understand why she had to put her schoolbag into another red bag to seal it, but since the employee didn’t put it into a red bag to seal it, she surmised that the employee was being good to her.

As they proceeded forward, grandmother pulled out a shopping cart from the right, and then she put down the front pedal of the shopping cart that was used for children to sit on. She then said to Miaomiao, “Do you want to sit here?”

There was another shopping cart with a child seated in the child seat in front of them.

With a serious expression on her face, she shook her head and said, “My mom said that I need to sit in a child safety seat while in the car, but there’s no child safety seat here…”

Miaomiao did not realize that she was now able to express her unwillingness to do something.

Before, she wouldn’t have her opinion. In the past, when adults asked to do something, she would do it, and it didn’t matter if she wanted to do it or not. She couldn’t explain why she didn’t want to do it.

She now had the courage because the adults no longer scolded or resented her when she didn’t do something that they asked to do. On the contrary, adults often smiled at her.

Grandmother laughed when she heard this, “Yes, Miaomiao wants to sit in a child safety seat, not his.”

Miaomiao felt very happy since her grandmother approved of her decision.

She continued to traverse forward while holding her grandmother’s hand.

Soon, they arrived at the vegetable aisle. Due to Miaomiao’s height, all she could see were vegetables arranged neatly.

Grandmother said, “Let’s peruse the vegetable section and carefully select the vegetables that we want to buy. Let’s begin with the leafy vegetables.”

Noticing that Miaomiao was too short to see properly, her grandmother lifted her with one arm, “Which leafy vegetable does Miaomiao like to eat?”

There’s lettuce, cabbage, spinach…

Miaomiao remembered, “Spinach. Mom said that eating spinach could make you very, very strong.”

The last time Mother Hua brought Miaomiao to shop for vegetables, she inadvertently said this out loud.

Mother Hua was talking about the Popeye cartoon character when she uttered that to Miaomiao, but Miaomiao was nescient of him, so Mother Hua just told her that he was a strong person, who ate spinach to become even stronger.

Grandmother said, “Then, we’ll listen to Miaomiao and buy some spinach so that we can all become very powerful.”

After the two picked up some vegetables, they placed them into a special bag next to them, and they were weighed and priced separately.

Miaomiao noticed that there was an aunt who was weighing the vegetables on a machine. She pushed two buttons, which made a note come out. She then stuck this note onto her bag. 

As Miaomiao gazed at the machine, she thought to herself, “When I begin selling food, I must also buy this type of machine.”

Miaomiao had already conjured up the scene in her mind. She and Jingjing were standing adjacent to the machine and after two clicks, a note came out. Then, they stuck onto somebody else’s bowl, and then they went to pay for their food.

The vegetable aisle was quite far away from the cashier, and they still had to traverse through large sections of the supermarket.

As they walked toward the cashier, they passed the snack aisle. Various tasty snacks were on display there.

“Do you want any snacks?” Grandmother asked Miaomiao.

Miaomiao shook her head.

Grandmother put the vegetables into Miaomiao’s big schoolbag after paying for them, then she was prepared to carry the schoolbag herself.

Miaomiao replied, “Grandma, I’ll carry the schoolbag.”

Grandmother strapped the bag on Miaomiao’s bag since she was so adamant about carrying the bag.

The grandmother-granddaughter pair quickly purchased the vegetables and returned home. Upon their return, they discovered that Mother Hua had already returned home.

When Miaomiao saw her mother, her eyes lit up. She hurried to her mother, hugged her and told her, “Mom has worked hard…”

Mom had to have worked very hard to get money.

Mother Hua carried Miaomiao and said, “Miaomiao is so good.”

Grandmother strolled over and took out all the vegetables from Miaomiao’s schoolbag.

Mother Hua carried Miaomiao into the study. Since it was time for Miaomiao to do her homework, she prepared a video call with Zhou Yuan and the others.

She made a video call to Zhou Yuan, but he never responded. 

Miaomiao found this a little strange.

Did Zhouzhou also go shopping?

She surmised that Zhou Yuan was out shopping for groceries too since she had just gone grocery-shopping and couldn’t answer his call while she was there.

While waiting for Zhouzhou to return from his grocery-shopping, Miaomiao began to do her homework by herself.

In the end, Miaomiao fell asleep on the table. Mother Hua carried her to wash up. But Zhouzhou still didn’t call back.