CH 20.2

Chapter 20.2 – Buying a Bicycle

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The phone call lasted for over ten minutes. Su Qin got out of bed after hanging up the call.

Slipping into her slippers and walking to the window, she drew back the curtains and the filtered sunlight mottled the wall.

The sky outside was clear with boundless bluish.

There was a community junk collector downstairs shouting, “Collection – scrap iron, cardboards, pull-top cans ~~.”

Standing on the balcony, Su Qin stretched and saw the opposite grandma cooking on the balcony.

This grandma surnamed Liu is the owner of the kiosk downstairs, who Su Qin is well-acquainted with.

She greeted her with a smile, “Good morning, Grandma.”

Grandma Liu squinted at her and smiled, “Yatou[1], you’re up so early? Don’t you want to sleep more?”

“Not sleeping anymore. Got up to study.”

After breakfast, next door’s Grandma Liu came to give Su Qin a handful of homegrown greens, which Su Qin took without being modest.

Zhang Cheng always gave her fruits a while ago. Since there was no refrigerator at home and she couldn’t finish all by herself, she gave some to Grandma Liu. In the course of time, Grandma Liu gave her some vegetables too.

Su Qin was in a good mood today. The neighbors are friendly and her friends’ lives are gradually on the right path, so she somehow feels a little blessed.

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At this moment, she thought of Hong-hong again. That girl? Where will her brother take her? In the end, who set fire in the village?

Su Qin learned from Captain Lu that Tuling County set up a special investigation team, which would thoroughly investigate the fire incident. After all, the person who set fire did break the law and it was only a matter of time before getting apprehended.

Su Qin couldn’t help sighed thinking about this. This world still needs order to uphold, just like that remote and backward Zhangjia Gorge, where the villagers are ignorant who do not know and understand the law. Wanting the next generation to no longer inherit the remote mountain villagers’ ignorance, only can begin by educating the children.

Su Qin thought of Uncle Wen’s granddaughter, Zhang Xiuxiu.

Lin Xiaoyin had promised Uncle Wen that she would bring Xiuxiu to study in the city after she successfully escaped from the mountain village. Will she keep her promise?

Su Qin has many things she wants to do in this lifetime and many dreams to accomplish. There are some things she is incapable of doing now, so she can only be practical and take one step at a time first.

In the morning, Su Qin went through several junior high’s key Chinese literature and began to sort out bills when it was almost noon.

She has already received two months’ salary, a total of 5,700 yuan. Minus the two months’ living expenses of 600, she still has 5,100 yuan in savings.

The amount is quite a lot for her now. But she still can’t even spare 1.50 yuan for a bowl of cold jelly. Thinking about it carefully, is this also considered the virtue of being thrifty from her previous lifetime?

Su Qin took out 400 yuan and planned to go buy a slightly better bicycle in the market. After all, she couldn’t always let Li Chuan take her home, it’s too strenuous for the man.

The bicycle shops were concentrated in the city west, which was about 2 hours by bus.

Yunyang City’s subway will open Line 1 in 2010. It will be much more convenient to go to the city west from the old city district once the subway starts its service. By then, it will only take about 10 mins or more to get from the old city district to Nanjing University.

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Su Qin was reborn from the year 2025. At that time, not only were the subway routes well connected, bike-sharing and shared cars were everywhere, so one could just leave home with the mobile phone and roam around the city.

Su Qin would miss the future convenience whenever she took public transportation.

When she arrived at the bicycle shop in the city west, Su Qin entered a relatively reputable bicycle brand store and picked a pink bicycle.

The basket in front of the bicycle was big enough for books and convenient for food from the market.

She took it for a test ride, the frame was light with sensitive brakes and the jingling bell was clear.

Su Qin parked the bicycle and asked the boss, “Boss, how much is this small bicycle?”

Seeing that she was a little girl and was alone, the boss deliberately increased the price, “550, little girl. If you are interested, I’ll give you the bicycle pump.”

Su Qin felt it was too expensive. This small pink bicycle was worth at most 350 and the price of a bicycle pump was about 20 yuan. This boss obviously saw that she is young and wanted to swindle her.

Before Su Qin opened her mouth to haggle the price, the deep voice of a middle-aged man sounded behind her.

“Utter rubbish, is this bicycle of yours worth 550? Who are you kidding? How much is a bicycle pump? Daylight robbery?”

When she turned around, she saw a middle-aged man of about 1.8 meters pushing a pink bicycle of the same model over.

With moussed swept-back hair, the man was fat and his round beer belly almost burst out of his belt. Dressed in a black suit with a pair of polished brown leather shoes on his feet, such a boss-like man was pushing a small chic pink bicycle.

This image was somewhat contrastingly cute, a little bit like a huge Hulk carrying a small pink rabbit-eared school bag.

This man looked a little familiar, but Su Qin momentarily couldn’t remember where she had seen him before.

The man threw the small pink bicycle to the assistant behind him, straightened his tie then walked over to the boss and said, “You tell the little girl accurately, how much this bicycle of yours is!”

“Mo … Boss Mo, you this … “ The boss glanced at the little girl embarrassedly and spoke in a low voice, “Yatou, how about I sell this bicycle to you for 350 if you really like it?”

350 is just about the right price, but thinking that the boss just tried to swindle her just now, Su Qin said, “330 and give me the bicycle pump too?”

“Aiyo, you, this little girl, how can you haggle over a price like this? The cost of this bicycle is more than 330 and if I give you a bicycle pump, then I’ll sustain a big loss ah.” The boss appeared in a dilemma.

Su Qin raised her eyebrows and said, “Then I’ll go buy it elsewhere. The market is so big and you’re not the only one selling bicycles.”

She lifted her foot to leave, but the boss hurriedly stopped her, “Okay, okay, okay, because of Boss Mo, I’ll give you a low-priced 330 then and give you the bicycle pump!”

Su Qin’s eyebrows arched, “Thank you boss.”

She followed the boss to pay at the counter, and when she pushed the bicycle out, she thanked the boss surnamed Mo.

Su Qin was stopped by Boss Mo again when she reached the door.

Mo Zongyang, “Little girl, wait.”

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“Uncle, is something wrong.”

Mo Zongyang was stunned and rubbed the flesh on his face, aggrieved, “Uncle?”

Su Qin’s eyebrows curved very brilliantly, revealing two canine teeth then called out cutely again, “This big brother, what do you want?”

“ …… “ Mo Zongyang seemed to see contempt in this little girl’s eyes? He scratched his head fidgetly and turned to her for help, “That … little girl. Look, I helped you just now, shouldn’t you have a grateful attitude?”

Su Qin’s smiling face froze and glanced at him warily. She then swept a glance at the sturdy assistant behind him before instinctively tucked her hand into her pocket to grip the homemade hot pepper water.

Mo Zongyang added, “My son is about to enter high school. I patted my chest to his mother saying that I will definitely pick a stylish bicycle for him, but … there are so many bicycles here which I damn think each looks good that I wanted to buy them all. But my son said he only needs one, isn’t this a problem for me? You and my son are about the same age, so I want to ask you to help me pick … “

Su Qin glanced at the bicycle shop’s owner, then looked at the pedestrians coming and going on the street.

Those who come here to buy bicycles are all adults and it is rare for a little girl like to come buy a bicycle alone. Mo Zongyang had selection difficulties and he didn’t quite believe the older men’s esthetics. Seeing Su Qin and in a desperate plight, he thought a little kid might understand the children’s notion better?

Although this was the main street, Su Qin still couldn’t readily trust any stranger.

She kept a distance from them, raised her chin and pointed to the blue mountain bike behind Mo Zongyang.

“That one, all boys should like this style and the pink one you’re pushing is what girls like.” Su Qin said.

Looking at the little girl’s wariness and apologetic expression, Mo Zongyang knew he had frightened her.

“This one then, thank you.”

Su Qin shook her head, “Don’t mention it.” She rode her bicycle and left the shop after saying that.

Passing by First High School, she bought fashion magazines and the current issue newspaper at the news-stand before her gaze swept over an eye-catching section in the newspaper.

The face of that man just now was printed in the newspaper.

The man’s name was Mo Zongyang.

Su Qin recalled that the man is Yun Fei’s biological father but she didn’t expect that the person himself is much fatter than the photo.

[1] 丫头 (Yātou) – is now used to describe a ‘cute girl’, but it’s best to use this word only for young girl, especially those who are close to you — since it’s very informal.