Chapter 5: Shenhao System in the City (5)

Xie Yang returned home in a pleasant mood.

"Yang Yang, you're back?"

Xie Shuling was sitting in the living room, seemingly looking at her phone, but actually distracted; only when her daughter returned did she let out a sigh of relief.

"Are you hungry? Should Mom cook you some late-night snack?"

"No need, Mom. I'll take a shower and go to sleep."

"Alright, alright, then get some rest early. Mom is going to sleep too."

Xie Shuling still had to go to work at the Hot Pot restaurant tomorrow.

Having taken most of the day off today, she didn't know if the manager would give her a hard time tomorrow, so she thought about going early to do more work before business hours.

After Xie Yang finished her shower and dried her hair, she returned to her room, teased the milky-voiced Shenhao System for a while, then turned off the lights and went to sleep, dreaming of nothing all night.

Xie Shuling, however, fell asleep with tears of relief and woke up with a warm smile.

Opening her eyes to look, oh no! How did she sleep until seven o'clock!

Her biological clock was always set to five-thirty, so after her daughter graduated and moved back home, she had turned off her morning alarm.

The old house had poor soundproofing, so she wanted to avoid waking her daughter; anyway, she woke up early, so she wouldn't be late even without an alarm.

She hadn't expected to sleep until seven o'clock today.

The Hot Pot restaurant opened at ten-thirty, but employees had to clock in before nine; she had to buy groceries before leaving, finish cooking her daughter's lunch and dinner, and then there was the travel time... two hours was a bit tight.

Xie Shuling got up nimbly and tiptoed to the kitchen to brush her teeth and wash her face.

In the two-bedroom, one-living-room old house, there was only one bathroom, and it was sandwiched between the two bedrooms.

So in the morning, she usually went to the kitchen to wash up. She tried to keep the noise to a minimum, and after washing her face and combing her hair, she grabbed her reusable bag and hurried downstairs to buy groceries.

There was still half a piece of spiced beef and two thawed sausages left from yesterday; her daughter had told her not to buy groceries today, saying those two dishes were enough to make do, but after thinking about it, she decided to buy some Shrimp.

Her daughter liked eating Shrimp, whether from the sea or the river; if she were closer to her hometown, this season would be when river Shrimp were at their fattest and most delicious.

But ever since that incident happened, she didn't go back to her hometown much; she didn't want to see the pointing fingers of the villagers.

Although her own family had helped her cover up the real reason for her dropping out, being pregnant out of wedlock was a fact after all.

The countryside never lacked gossip, especially when it concerned the former pride of the entire village who suddenly dropped out, got pregnant, and gave birth to a child of unknown paternity; such gossip could become an enduring topic in the countryside.

She had brought shame upon her family.

So, throughout the year, she returned very rarely; the only mandatory time was New Year's Eve, and usually, it was a hurried trip there and back.

She was afraid that if she stayed for a few more days, relatives and neighbors would use the guise of concern to pry into her private life.

They weren't entirely malicious, but she didn't need that kind of concern.

The only ones she felt guilty toward were her family.

Thinking of her parents with their graying hair, Xie Shuling felt an indescribable pain in her heart.

Her parents had scrimped and saved to put her through university, yet in her freshman year, she had spoken up when she saw an injustice and suffered a nightmarish retaliatory blow.

The other party was powerful, and resisting would only implicate her family, so in the end, she chose to swallow this bitter pill.

Afterward, she fled the familiar environment and came to Nancheng, where she knew no one. Although she had pulled herself together for her daughter's sake, she always felt indebted to her parents.

She had originally been planning to switch to a three-bedroom apartment—her colleagues had even helped her contact a landlord—and move there once the rent here expired to give her daughter a better living environment.

Furthermore, with an extra room, her parents would have a place to stay when they visited, giving her a chance to show her filial piety.

Her daughter didn't talk much with her, but perhaps she would be willing to communicate and open up to her grandparents; when she was little, she had loved it when her grandparents came to stay.

As it turned out, her daughter's online loans had disrupted her rhythm...

But that was fine too; a fall into a pit, a gain in your wit—her daughter seemed to have grown up overnight.

Recalling the scene yesterday where she was held and comforted by her daughter while crying, Xie Shuling slowly exhaled a breath of stale air:

If the money is gone, then it's gone! As long as her daughter has truly woken up and realized the truth, this money was well spent!

On the way to the market, Xie Shuling's mood could be described as a roller coaster, rising and falling, but ultimately rushing toward a high point.

At the entrance of the farmers' market, she saw a farmer selling wild river catch; less than two taels of river Shrimp plus a few small miscellaneous Fish the size of fingers were priced at 60 yuan.

It was truly expensive!

But she still bought them without much hesitation.

"Yo, Xiao Xie! Buying such expensive river Shrimp without a second thought; looks like your daughter found a job?"

Bai Mu had been standing by the river catch stall for quite a while.

Her son also liked eating river Shrimp, but unfortunately, wild river catch was becoming scarcer these days, and the price was getting higher and higher.

A few small miscellaneous Fish and Shrimp actually cost 60; you could buy a whole catty of farmed river Shrimp for that.

Just as she finished grumbling in her heart, she saw Xie Shuling buy them without bargaining, and she couldn't help but make a few sour remarks.

Xie Shuling smiled good-naturedly: "Not yet."

"Not yet? I saw her sweeping the hallway yesterday, sweeping three units in a row, and I thought the community had hired her as our residential building cleaner, heh."

Thinking of how Xie Shuling's daughter had graduated from a junior college and was just staying at home, not earning money but spending it—first online dating, then online loans—so what if Xie Shuling was capable and could earn money? She still had her savings drained by her daughter.

Unlike her own daughter, who had passed the civil service exam right after graduation and was now a respectable Formal Worker at the sub-district office, sitting in an air-conditioned room, warm in winter and cool in summer.

This stark contrast made Bai Mu feel smug.

"What sweeping the hallway?"

Xie Shuling was completely confused.

"What? You don't know?"

Bai Mu's voice rose a few decibels in surprise, intentionally letting everyone around hear:

"Your daughter swept the stairwells of all three units in Building 6 after dinner yesterday; many people in our residential area were guessing if she had been hired by the community as a cleaner!

So that's not it? Then why did she suddenly think to go sweep the hallway? It wouldn't be, like some people say, that she was scouting the place beforehand, right?"

Speaking of this, she suddenly paused, as if she had just remembered this was a public place:

"I'm sorry, Xiao Xie, I spoke too quickly in my anxiety. But those weren't my original words; I heard people from the next unit building saying it..."

"Come to think of it, if your Yang Yang didn't find a cleaning job responsible for the hallway hygiene in our residential quarter, why would she inexplicably be wandering around from unit building to unit building with a broom? That doesn't make sense! Don't you all agree?"

Half of the people coming to this vegetable market were residents of Wanhua Residential Quarter, and upon hearing this, they chimed in one after another:

"That does need to be cleared up. If she really has bad intentions, wouldn't that cause widespread panic? Even though we aren't in Building 6, our residential quarter's unit buildings don't have security gates; who knows if she'll come to our building tomorrow."

Seeing people agreeing with her, Bai Mu spat as she spoke with even more vigor:

"Exactly! My son and his father are both afraid of the heat, and every midsummer, they like to leave the front door open, saying that keeping it closed is stifling."

"If someone were to sneak in while we were in the bedroom or the bathroom and swipe something, we really might not be able to stop them..."

"Ah! Xie Shuling, what are you doing!"

She was slapped by Xie Shuling, whose face had turned red with anger.