Volume 1 - CH 9

Taiwan — 8:15 AM

A few days had passed since the day senior came. There are still three days left before school starts. Just as I was intending to use this time to sort out my feelings, to match it with the day I’ll be starting school, an unexpected visitor came to my house.

“Yang Yang, Yang Yang, let’s go out and have fun!” From outside the window, came a girl’s yell, giving off a very pure and sweet kind of feeling.

At that time, I was currently eating my breakfast in the kitchen on the first floor. As soon as my mother heard a girl’s voice calling my name, she immediately rushed towards the porch. In my whole life, up until today, there has never been a time where a girl would come over to my house. The girls in my class thought that being in contact with me would cause them to get infected by my unluckiness, so I only have a few male friends.

Thus, I can definitely understand why my mother immediately headed outside.

However, the problem does not lie here, “What are you trying to do!” I immediately followed her out. Before my mom’s loud voice could attract our neighbor’s attention, I reached the door a step earlier than her.

My mother had been very troubled for a really long time by the fact that no girls would come to find me. She had always been proud to say that my sis was always hot in demand and was pursued since kindergarten until now. However when it came to me, for some unknown reason, I was like an unmarketable good, so she felt very unbalanced.

“I’m helping you to open the door for your friend.” My mother stated as a matter of fact.

“No thanks, I can open it by myself.” Who knows if my mother rushes out, her first sentence might be a background check.

“You still haven’t finished your breakfast, go away and eat!” My mother was obviously very persistent.

“Didn’t you just mention you wanted to make apple pie? Quickly go and bake your pie.” I was even more persistent than her.

Both mom and son were in a deadlock.

“Yang Yang, come out and have fun!” The girl outside shouted again one more time.

My mother finally decided to take out her dignity as a mother, “Open the door or I’m going to beat you up and then feed you rubbish for three meals.”

A very severe threat.

Submitting towards the excessive power, I can only unwillingly open the door.

A cute girl really was standing outside; wearing a white dress with blue floral patterns, some slightly curled blonde hair which was tied up on both sides of her head, looking just like a little princess.

The most eye catching part was her facial features, which were more partial towards a Westerner.

“Miao Miao, why are you here?” Totally surprised, I never thought Miao Miao would come to my house, stand in front of it, shouting for me to go out and have fun.

“There’s no work today, so I came to find Yang Yang to go out and have fun.” Miao Miao ignored my shocked expression, smiling sweetly, “Hello, Chu-mama.” She noticed my dumbfounded mother who was standing behind me, and bowed politely.

My mother immediately came back to her senses, “Whoa whoa, such a cute girl. Little girl, what’s your name? You’re our Yang Yang’s classmate?” She patted my back twice and smiled generously while she greeted Miao Miao.

“I’m Mikayla, I’m Yang Yang’s classmate starting this year.” Miao Miao lifted her hand and, there was a beautifully packaged fruit basket hanging on her arm, “This is something Mikayla’s family produced, hopefully Chu-mama will like it.” She passed an expensive basket, filled to the brim with cherries, to my LaoMa.

I saw it, very expensive imported cherries.

“This is too expensive. Chu-mama cannot accept this. Little La, take it back and eat it yourself.” My mother’s form of addressing her, immediately jumped up three by levels, as though she was already familiar with Miao Miao.

Then, I was treated as air and was forgotten at the side.

“This is a product of Mikayla’s family. When I was going out, my Papa said I definitely must give this to you, so it’s okay, please accept this, Chu-mama.” Miao Miao was still smiling sweetly.

“Then Chu-mama will accept this.” My mother was also rather embarrassed as she kept rejecting the offer and it was rather rude, so she finally accepted the fruit basket, “Yang Yang is still eating his breakfast. Little La have you eaten? Come in and have a seat first.”

“Okay.”

Hey, hey, what about my opinion?

Looking at my mother and Miao Miao, who were happily chatting while going into the house, I, who was treated like air, had three black lines sliding down my face. I had a premonition that I probably won’t be able to have a peaceful day today.

* * *

At around nine or so, I finished my breakfast, changed my clothes, after which, I was then unknowingly and innocently cast out of the house by my mother. And following beside me was one Miao Miao.

“Since you are here to find me, is there anything I can do for you?” After crossing the road headed towards the city, both of us were walking behind the other. The park, where the explosion occurred a few days ago all thanks to the explosive charm, was still being repaired. However, the speed it was being restored was unexpectedly fast and, it was already starting to look like its original state.

“Yes, Miao Miao doesn’t have work today, so I came to find you and go out to play.” Still with her sweet smile, she took out two tickets from her little backpack and waved it around, “They’re complimentary tickets, so let’s go for a movie, and senior Geng is also waiting for us there, oh.”

Senior Geng was the beautiful girl who jumped from the train platform on the first day.

“Senior Geng is here, too?” But why would senior Geng be there? I don’t have a deep friendship with her, and in fact it’s the same with Miao Miao, too. So I was really surprised when she appeared in front of my house.

“Nn, GengGeng said Senior asked her to pass something to you. It was perfect timing that we are free today, so we came to watch movies together with you.” Miao Miao smiled while as she answered, “There’s an adventure movie just released, we saw the trailer earlier, and it looks nice, so we can go and watch it. Unfortunately Senior didn’t come, I’ve heard Senior likes this kind of movie.”

It’s hard to imagine Senior would like adventure movies. I thought that he would prefer bloody movies, not that I’m absolutely confident with my guess. It was more of an intuition.

“Is your family really selling cherries?” I was feeling rather skeptical about the expensive gift from Miao Miao just awhile back.

Sure enough, Miao Miao shook her head, “Our family is a family with an ancient ability.”

According to manhuas, it should be in the category of some strange hereditary job, “I’m sorry you need to spend so much.” No matter how I look at it, the basket should cost about a few thousand dollars (at least $60 USD), and for me, the amount was not considered small at all.

“No, there’s no need. I didn’t spend any money on it at all.” Miao Miao revealed a smile, “Our family has a collateral family, who are doing normal jobs. The basket from earlier was brought over from a house of a relative, for free, so I actually did a good deed with someone else’s product.”

…

I suddenly felt Miao Miao was a daughter of some very wealthy family.

The city wasn’t too far away from my house. From the destroyed park, it only takes fifteen minutes to reach the city. Normally I would ride my bike to the city for a stroll, but since Miao Miao was with me today, I couldn’t ride my bike. While the two of us walked and talked, it made the distance feel less than it actually was.

“GengGeng has already arrived.”

Since today wasn’t a holiday and it was still rather early, there wasn’t much of a crowd in the city. However, it would start to get crowded after noon.

Miao Miao waved at a dark shadow, who was at the other end of the road, under the signboard of the cinema. The other person made the same action.

After the both of us crossed the road, senior Geng, who was full of smiles, was already standing there waiting for us. Today senior was wearing a set of tight black clothing, looking superbly elegant. There were several working people taking a peek at her as they passed by.

“Yang Yang, morning.” Geng smiled at me.

“Senior, morning.” I immediately responded, looking at senior and then at the schedule for the movie, “Are you guys planning to watch another movie today?” I felt rather embarrassed, as this was the first time I was going out alone with girls who were not part of my family, and also with two of them at the same time. One was a temperamental beauty, while the other one was a sweet little princess. I think all the boys passing by wanted to use their line of sight to stab me to death.

“Nope. It’s just that I have not been here for quite some time, and felt like it had changed.” Saying so, Geng then took out a small envelope from her sling bag and passed it to me, “This is the thing your senior asked me to pass to you.”

I took the white envelope, which looked a lot like the one used at a funeral. I opened it and looked inside — there was two pieces of paper. I took it out and my eyes widened, “This is…”

One of the papers was a bill and another one was an international check.

“We’ve heard from Tyre that Yang Yang blasted the park. So one is for the expenses for the maintenance done by the school for the destroyed park, and the other one is the payment for the ghosts Yang Yang got rid of.” Miao Miao moved closer to my side and said, “Although it’s not a lot of money, this should be the payment for your first mission. That’s amazing.” She said while clapping her hands.

Not a lot of money?

The screaming statue inside my heart appeared once again.

Oh god oh god, not a lot of money!?

The top of the bill was covered with the school’s emblem and was filled with a ten in front of a ten thousand*, which can cause one to feel dizzy. However, the check, which can immediately be cashed in, was unexpectedly also filled with an astronomical ten in front of a ten thousand.

[T/N: A hundred thousand and more. Approximately ~$3,350+ USD]

I was feeling a little faint. Wait a moment! I finally understand! In fact these two are fake pieces of papers right!?

“After paying for the cost of the bill, there should still be a few ten thousands left (~$350+ USD). ” Geng quickly glanced at the figures on top and then helped me to calculate, “This time the cost of the bill is rather low. The other time Miao Miao blasted some historical site, and as a result, a huge effort was spent on restoring the historical site into its original appearance without anyone noticing and, was also asked to pay a huge amount of money.”

“GengGeng was also asked for payment before.” Miao Miao and her senior started counting their tabs.

You guys are trying to tell me that my bill is actually very low right? For a normal person like me who doesn’t use much money, I can’t understand their strange concept of money.

“Yang Yang, you must thank your senior.” I don’t know why but Geng suddenly said that, looked at me, and smiled. It was obvious she was not going to continue her sentence.

Thank senior? Ah, I know, I’d caused a lot of trouble for him. After school starts, I’ll go and thank him, and then buy something for him to eat…

Just as I was thinking of what to buy for senior, Miao Miao’s attention was attracted by something. She kept staring at a certain place nearby.

There was a small street vendor which had already been set up although it wasn’t noon yet.

Nowadays, the city would usually only start to have people bustling around after eleven o’clock. So I felt rather strange to see such a thing appearing at the empty and cold sidewalk.

It was a booth full of jewelry that most girls would love. They were shining and glittering under the sun.

* * *

That adventure movie took two and a half hour to finish. When the three of us came out, our hands were still holding onto our unfinished coke and popcorn. Miao Miao’s eyes were red because the supporting character she just liked in the movie, was assassinated by the enemy in the end. So she was mourning.

“When the DVD is out, I want to buy it and watch again.” Miao Miao said while sniffling, “That hateful villain. If I ever saw her on the street, I’ll beat her up.”

It should be really difficult to meet her in the street right?

However, I was a little scared, scared of seeing a horrible news headline such as “A famous movie star was beaten up by a giant cat at midnight” a few days later because I’m absolutely sure Miao Miao had the ability to do such earth-shaking thing.

“Dong died so horribly.” Miao Miao grabbed onto Geng’s hand, only to repeat the same sentence for the umpteenth time.

Incidentally, Dong was the supporting actor from the adventure movie we just watched, and he kicked the bucket in the end.

“The stall from earlier is still there.” Geng looked at the other side of the street; I followed her line of sight and the stall she mentioned, was the small jewelry vendor on the sidewalk, “Let’s go and take a look.”

“Yes, let’s go.” Miao Miao immediately threw the supporting actor, Dong, in the back of her mind, held onto Geng’s hand, and smiled.

Accepting my fate, I could only silently follow them across.

It was a jewelry booth, filled with many products that were currently very popular. For example: silver, traditional style, leather, and etcetera. The small booth had almost everything, everything that should been available were all being sold there.

The vendor greeted them, “Dear ladies, take your time and have a look.”

For some reason, both Geng and Miao Miao didn’t reply immediately. Both of them were staring at the exact same thing — a necklace.

A traditional styled necklace, which depicted the moon — the small crescent shaped colored stone was neatly trimmed, just as if the moon was quietly brushing against the ground.

“GengGeng, this…” as if she was asking, Miao Miao looked at her senior, “Want to get it?”

I didn’t understand why Miao Miao asked in this method. If she liked the necklace, buying it should be fine, right?

Noticing there were two customers who were interested in buying his wares, the hawker immediately put down his cup of red tea and went to greet them, “Beautiful miss have such good eyes. This necklace is something I’ve brought back from overseas not too long ago. It is a limited edition, handmade by the natives, there is no one who would have the same ornament. Today I’ve not yet started my business, if two pretty miss have something you like, just name the price, I will try my best to accept it.” Keeping his smiling face, he then took down the necklace hanging on the box so Miao Miao can have a better look, “Want to try putting it on, there is a mirror over here.”

Miao Miao held onto the necklace, and suddenly looked at me, “Yang Yang, do you think this looks nice?” She took the necklace and placed it in front of me, so I could have a better look, but it didn’t seem like she’s planning to wear it.

I inspected the necklace.

Oddly enough, although the work done on the necklace was very refined, for some reason, I vaguely felt something was a little weird, as though something, somewhere, was not right.

“Want to take a look at the other products?” I looked around for a bit and saw another moon-like jewelry with an almost similar design of on the table, “I think this one looks better.”

Both were the same moon-like jewelry, but this one was a bracelet, made with leather where the middle was a moon-shaped charm, giving off a feeling as if though had its own personality.

Geng and Miao Miao looked across.

“Indeed, this one definitely looks better.” Geng suddenly smiled. She picked up the bracelet and said, “Miao Miao, don’t buy that necklace.”

In fact, this should be considered as a normal dialogue of girls shopping. However, for some reason, I vaguely felt there were some hidden meanings behind their words. What were they secretly conveying to each other?

Miao Miao passed the necklace back to the vendor, “Then we’ll buy the other one.” She seemed very happy for some reason, “Sure enough, Yang Yang have a very good insight.”

What? My face was full of confusion.

Suddenly, something shining brightly at the right hand corner caught my attention, I turned and looked at that direction. The innermost box was a leather necklace buried in a very inconspicuous place; the plate hanging at the top. Nowadays, there were many people who would wear this kind of thing. My mother even called it a dog collar.

The surface of the plate was bright silver. At the corner, was a cluster of flames — silver flames.

This made me involuntarily think of one person. When I came to my senses, I had already picked up the necklace.

“Brother, you like this one? That necklace has already been here for a long time. If you like it I’ll just sell it to you at a loss!” The vendor immediately came next to me and said.

My instinct was telling me to buy this. This feeling made me rather surprised, because I’m not someone who would buy this kind of trinkets, “Alright then, I’ll get this one.”

“This is a pure silver plate, since you have such fate with it, I’ll sell it to you for a thousand and eight hundred (~$60 USD).”

“Ah!?” That’s damn expensive! I thought it would be only around a hundred and fifty.

Geng took the necklace from my hand and looked at it, “It is indeed pure silver.” She looked like she knew how to do some appraisal, and then she promptly passed the chain back to me.

Since she already said that, I could only dig out my flat wallet and bitterly took out two pieces of a thousand dollar bills (~$34 USD) that I saved from my New Year’s money and gave it to the boss.

“Then I’ll get this one.” Miao Miao didn’t even ask for the price. She just held onto the moon-like bracelet and took out a few pieces of thousand dollar bills.

The boss was surprised to see the money Miao Miao took out, “That’s the exact amount, pretty miss. You’re really good at pricing.”

Miao Miao only smiled and then she winked at me.

* * *

“Yang Yang, on what basis did you decide on when choosing that necklace?”

When we left the city, Geng chose a Chinese-styled tea-house for us to sit down and rest.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Buying stuff would also need a basis? Isn’t it just because it looked nice that’s why I bought it?

Miao Miao and Geng exchanged a look and then both of them smiled.

“The things in that shop all had rather strong obsessions.” Miao Miao said, while playing with the delicate teacup, “Me and GengGeng were guessing the boss personally went around to many places to get the stock, but for some reason, the items were not so good.”

I didn’t quite understand what they were trying to say. Wasn’t it just buying something because it looked pleasing to the eyes?

“Ugh… won’t going around and buying stuff at different places will present more characteristics?” Nowadays, such small items were usually bought in quantity from wholesalers, so wasn’t finding items at different places more popular?

“It is not wrong to say that.” Geng smiled slightly, putting down the cup in her hands, “But while picking those things, the thoughts, obsession were attached on it, are very important things we need to take note of, after all, the place we are in is not the human world. So even if it’s a small little thing, there will be some side-effects.”

Not the human world. My ears selectively accepted this sentence. I knew it, the school was definitely not for humans to study in!

“Miao Miao noticed most of the things being sold there were handmade, and it’s handmade items that are most likely to cause problems.” Completely unaware of the storm and heavy rain were currently occurring inside my head, Miao Miao poke at a piece of sticky rice (mochi) and popped it into her mouth, “But the thing Yang Yang chose was really good, Yang Yang has a really good insight.”

Good insight?

“When school starts, you will learn things relevant to this, after all even now, Insight is considered as an important lesson. Even your senior also selected this as an elective.” Pausing for a while, Geng said, “Yang Yang just needs to keep your instinct intact, I believe your insight will certainly become one of the best.”

She had too much of a confidence in me. If my insight was really good, then, in the first place, I wouldn’t have chosen a spoilt lunchbox, and then was thrown into a school not for humans to study in. I sincerely thought so.

Just as Geng wanted to continue saying something, there was a sound coming from her bag. She then smiled apologetically, took her cell phone, and headed outside.

“Seems like GengGeng’s job is here.” Miao Miao told me.

Sure enough, after Geng finished talking on the phone, she came back and embarrassedly smiled at us, “I received an urgent job, I have to go first. Yang Yang thanks for accompanying us for a walk today.”

“Ah, you’re welcome.” I smiled back. Actually, today we only went for movies, and it was quite pleasant too.

“Miao Miao has a date tonight, too. Thank you Yang Yang.” With a polite bow, Miao Miao smiled cutely, “Yang Yang, see you again when school start.”

I was stunned for a moment, and then I immediately replied, “Right, see you when school starts.”

Geng, who had left first, already paid for us and hurriedly disappeared.

I suddenly felt the reason Geng and Miao Miao came to look for me today wasn’t to improve our student relationship.

Could it be they already knew that I originally didn’t want to go?

“Yang Yang must come to school, oh.” Miao Miao waved at me, “Let’s have fun again together.”

Miao Miao then also disappeared at the shop’s door.