After Transmigrating As The Mother Of The Pitiful Female Supporting Character in a Campus Novel - Chapter 50

Once they reached the market, they agreed on a time and location with Old Man Qiao to meet up for the return trip.

After inquiring with various stall owners, they found a spot with decent foot traffic. They laid out a simple T-shirt on the ground and set their backpack items out to sell.

Xia Shibai pointed at Jin Minxi. “Xiao Xi, your face has high recognition, so you stay here and mind the stall. You set the prices—just don’t go too low.”

“Ah, okay.” Entrusted with this heavy responsibility, Jin Minxi pursed her lips and nodded gravely.

Sheng Liu didn’t really want to walk with Xia Shibai and Qin Zhijin. After all, whenever the four of them were in the same frame, she felt her existence was a bit redundant. Now that only three of them would be walking together, the visual composition would be even more ridiculous, and her “single dog” aura would be even more prominent.

She absolutely refused!

However, in this silent battle of wills, she clearly had no decision-making power and could only follow behind Xia Shibai and Qin Zhijin.

Fortunately, Xia Shibai didn’t insist on tying Sheng Liu to them. She waved her hand, telling Sheng Liu to go find her own way to make money.

Sheng Liu hesitated for a moment. “I’m really going then?”

“Mhm,” Xia Shibai said indifferently.

Sheng Liu started walking, turning back every three steps with a face full of suspicion. As she walked, she kept glancing back at Xia Shibai, fearing this was some kind of conspiracy.

By the time President Sheng turned back for the fourth time and found that Xia Shibai and Qin Zhijin had long since vanished, she let out a questioning “Hmm?”

“Wait, why do I feel like I’ve been dumped?”

What happened to being a team? Just like that? Seriously, just like that?

Xia Shibai had no ill intentions; she just felt that if Sheng Liu followed them, Qin Zhijin would be uncomfortable. Despite her cold exterior, Dr. Qin wasn’t actually fond of social activities or small talk.

Sheng Liu talked too much—she was annoying.

“What do we do next?” Qin Zhijin asked, feeling uncertain.

She had agreed with Xia Shibai this afternoon simply because she trusted that Xia wouldn’t do something she wasn’t sure of. Before hearing it, she hadn’t known Xia Shibai had this plan.

“I don’t know, let’s just look around.” Xia Shibai winked at her with an innocent expression, shrugging with a smile. “If we really can’t find anything to do, we’ll just treat it as giving ourselves the afternoon off. Since our competitors were brought out by us anyway, everyone’s progress is the same. It doesn’t matter.”

Qin Zhijin was silent for a moment and actually found that logical. “True. Okay, let’s just wander around then.”

“Sounds good.”

Xia Shibai said they were just wandering, but as they walked from one end of the market to the other, she would occasionally crouch by stalls to ask about the situation. Eventually, they encountered Sheng Liu at a pancake stall.

Sheng Liu was wearing a dusty-pink kitty-patterned kitchen apron, standing expressionless behind a food cart making crepes (jianbing). Her brow was slightly furrowed. The nearby filming crew couldn’t stop snickering; they kept losing control of their facial muscles and bursting into giggles.

Sheng Liu gripped the pancake spatula, the veins on the back of her hand bulging slightly. “…”

She was truly at her limit.

Qin Zhijin saw Sheng Liu first. Her eyes filled with surprise as she tugged at Xia Shibai’s sleeve. “Look, it’s Sheng Liu.”

“Hmm?” Xia Shibai looked over.

She immediately saw a resentful-looking Sheng Liu. Little President Xia couldn’t suppress her urge to tease. She stepped up to the stall, looked down at the batter on the griddle that barely resembled an egg pancake, and clicked her tongue. “Not bad, President Sheng. Quite a successful career change!”

“…If you don’t need your eyes, you can gouge them out and donate them to someone else.”

Sheng Liu bared her teeth in a threat. “You’re just standing there talking because your back doesn’t ache, right? Let me tell you, even though most of the stuff Xiao Xi is selling is yours, we’re splitting the money 40/60. We get the forty.”

“Fine, we won’t lose out,” Xia Shibai waved her hand dismissively. She verbally directed the cameraman behind her to move closer. “Come, come. It’s rare for President Sheng to learn a new skill. If you don’t get close, how will you capture her heroic posture? We’ll play this on the first floor of the Lan Sui building to encourage our employees to experience the beauty of life and learn new skills.”

“Experience my ass!” Sheng Liu irritably shooed them away.

If it weren’t for the fact that she had circled the market and found absolutely no other work, she wouldn’t have had the thick skin to ask at these stalls. Who knew she’d actually find one?

The stall owner happened to have family business to attend to. She didn’t trust just anyone, but if she closed the stall and went home, she’d lose a day’s income. When Sheng Liu asked, the woman saw all the cameras and hurried to ask what was going on.

Hearing it was a livestream—nowadays, who doesn’t know what that is?—the owner happily invited Sheng Liu in. She offered 40 yuan for the afternoon’s work, which required four hours of help. If the earnings were good, she’d give Sheng Liu a bonus when she returned. “Making pancakes is easy. I’ll teach you two and then be back. Of course, don’t throw away the ones you mess up; put them aside so I can deduct the cost later.”

Sheng Liu, who prided herself on being a capitalist: “…”

There is always someone better; behind every capitalist is another capitalist.

Sheng Liu could honestly say she had never worked for such a low wage in her life. Even during her school days, her hourly rate was 25. But considering this tiny market, 10 yuan an hour wasn’t bad, so she gritted her teeth and agreed.

Combined with the money Jin Minxi was making, hiring someone for the field would definitely be no problem.

After walking quite a distance, Xia Shibai still couldn’t stop laughing. “Sheng Liu is too funny. That stall owner is brave to leave the stall to her. Is she really not afraid that after those pancakes come out, the stall will lose all its customers?”

Egg pancakes all twisted and crooked—Xia Shibai had never seen such ugly ones in her life.

Qin Zhijin smiled at the words; she truly couldn’t compliment Sheng Liu’s cooking. However… she looked at the woman beside her and thought—Xia Shibai’s cooking wasn’t much better. These two were a pair.

Lan Sui Group really needed to add cooking classes to their schedule; at the very least, they should be able to muddle through life by making a bowl of clear soup noodles.

“What do we do next?” Qin Zhijin asked as they finished another lap of the market. She felt like this area lacked for nothing; prices were low, and it was a self-sufficient little economic loop of bartering and subsistence.

Finding a job for them was simply too difficult.

“Storytelling,” Xia Shibai pointed to her own head. “This is what’s valuable.”

“Storytelling?”

Qin Zhijin didn’t understand, and the staff nearby were equally confused about what Little President Xia was planning.

Xia Shibai didn’t explain. She led them to an area where children gathered. They were split into various factions and groups, huddling together to play.

Xia Shibai focused on a group of kids playing marbles nearby. Her fingers twitched slightly as she patted Qin Zhijin’s wrist, telling her to stay there while she went over.

“Hey.”

Xia Shibai approached and watched the kids playing marbles. Seeing an adult close in, the children opened their eyes wide, looking at her warily as if afraid she was a bad person who might suddenly snatch them.

As they played, they realized Xia Shibai was only staring at the marbles and didn’t seem to care about them, so their anxiety slowly faded.

The leader of the group whispered, “Don’t worry. All the adults around here know us; they won’t do anything to us. And look, she’s with the crew. She looks like she’s from the city; she wouldn’t kidnap us.”

“Mhm… but why is she staring at our marbles?” a younger child asked, wiping sweat from their face.

“How should I know what adults are thinking? If you really want to know, ask her,” the little leader said. He licked his lips and intentionally flicked a marble hard. It didn’t hit any others on the field but instead zoomed straight toward Xia Shibai.

Xia Shibai arched an eyebrow and caught the bouncing marble in mid-air. She walked steadily toward them. “Yours.”

“Do… do you want to play?” the youngest child looked up at her. This woman smelled nice and was tall—different from the women in their small village. After staring for a long time and seeing Xia Shibai smile back, the child hid shyly behind the older siblings, braids swaying.

“Of course. But if you lose, you have to listen to me tell a story. How about it?”

“A story?” The little leader scoffed. “What stories can you tell? I’ve heard so many: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Investiture of the Gods… what interesting story could you have?”

“The ones I tell might not be as famous as those, but I guarantee you’ll be satisfied.” Xia Shibai winked. “I can give you a fifteen-minute free trial. After that, if you want to keep listening, you have to give me a little bit of money. What do you think?”

“Pay to hear a story?”

“Yes.”

The little leader thought for a moment, his eyes darting around. “Fine. But if the story is bad, we won’t play with you even after the fifteen minutes are up.”

“Deal.”

Xia Shibai wasn’t worried about her stories being boring; she was only worried the kids wouldn’t take the bait.

As the marble players sat down and crowded around, Xia Shibai began her “story-stitching” method. She forced together elements of tomb-raiding and supernatural feng shui. The opening featured a group of people arriving at a cold, eerie mansion.

There was a strange mansion in town. In it lived a woman wearing a blue cloth top and black pants. No one knew when she had arrived in town, nor did anyone know her name. They only knew she never left her house and lived there alone.

Suddenly, one week, the townspeople realized they hadn’t seen her out for groceries or laundry in a long time. They gathered their courage to knock, but there was no answer. Finally, they brought the town mayor, who broke the old mahogany lock. They went in and found the woman hanging in the courtyard. Her eyes were wide open in death, yet her face wore a bizarre smile.

Everyone screamed in terror and hurriedly summoned exorcists from ten miles around to perform a ritual for her.

The ritual was to last seven days. On the sixth night, the exorcist and the crowd were exhausted beyond belief, so they dispersed, thinking they’d return the next morning. But on the morning of the seventh day, when they arrived, they found the broken lock on the mahogany door had been repaired. The white paper and yellow talismans hanging in front had vanished. The chicken blood splashed on the doorway was gone without a trace.

Everything was back to the way it was before.

Terrified, they knocked on the door. The old mansion door slowly opened, and out walked a…”

“Walked out what?!” The little leader was dying of suspense. Seeing Xia Shibai’s unhurried manner, he wanted to force her to finish the supernatural adventure story immediately.

“The fifteen-minute trial is over. If you want to continue, you have to pay,” Xia Shibai said, holding out her hand. “I won’t charge you much. Two yuan for five minutes. If you pay for an hour upfront, I’ll give you an extra ten minutes.”

“How does that sound?”

The little leader hesitated. Two yuan could buy four marbles! But… listening to the story for five minutes… clearly, five is more than four.

While the leader was thinking, a plump little girl sitting behind him pulled a ten-yuan bill from her pocket. Her chubby little hand handed it over. “I’ll give you money. Is this enough to finish the story?”

Xia Shibai looked at the money, her heart softening. She rolled the bill into her hand. “I can give you an extra five minutes. That should be enough to finish this story.”

“Great! Tell me, and I’ll tell my mom when I get home tonight. I love scary stories!” The girl smiled, showing her teeth, and urged Xia Shibai to continue.

Once the first person paid, more and more people paid to extend the time as the clock ran out. As Xia Shibai attracted more children, adults noticed something was up and came to join the fun. After listening for a bit, they sat down too.

It had to be said that Xia Shibai’s ability to talk nonsense was excellent. Not a single person noticed her mixing up different eras or jumping between genres. By the end of the afternoon, she had collected nearly fifty yuan. Though it was all in small bills, it wasn’t bad.

After all, it didn’t take much effort.

As Xia Shibai finished the third story, she saw the sky darkening. She clapped her hands. “To find out what happens next, listen to the next installment!”

“Will… will you come back tomorrow?” the plump girl who first paid asked reluctantly. “If you come tomorrow, I’ll bring my mom. She loves listening to these.”

“Tomorrow…” Xia Shibai stretched and crouched down in front of the girl. “I might not come tomorrow, because Auntie has other things to do.”

“I see…” The girl pouted sadly but didn’t say anything. She waved her beautiful eyes at Xia Shibai. “Thank you for the stories today. Goodbye, Auntie!”

With that, the plump girl grabbed her bamboo basket and ran to catch up with her friends, afraid of being left behind.

Xia Shibai patted the money in her pocket. At first, she felt a slight guilt, but then… making money isn’t shameful. Besides, she was a capitalist—she had no heart, so it didn’t hurt.

Turning around, Xia Shibai saw Qin Zhijin waiting for her not far away and hurried toward her. There were no streetlights in the market; the only light came from electric lamps hung on bamboo poles by vendors. It wasn’t bright enough and the tone was dim, but it was just enough to see.

Xia Shibai assumed Qin Zhijin had spent the whole afternoon sitting there waiting for her, and she felt a bit guilty. After all, with four people spending money, Xia Shibai had only earned fifty yuan. Even with Jin Minxi’s money, it wouldn’t be enough for an acre of land.

And they still had to eat. Tsk.

This show was getting more annoying by the minute.

The lighting made everything look gloomy. Xia Shibai had been walking fast, but as she got close enough to see Qin Zhijin clearly, she slowed down. Before she could reach her, Qin Zhijin told her to stand still.

Xia Shibai asked, “What’s wrong?”

Her nose twitched. She caught a faint fishy scent in the air—the natural smell of aquatic animals, mixed with a slight metallic scent of blood.

Xia Shibai immediately ignored the command and hurried to her side. She turned on her phone flashlight, shining it on Qin Zhijin along with the electric lamps, terrified she was injured.

Qin Zhijin, who had been suddenly pulled and spun around, felt a bit dizzy. She grabbed Xia Shibai’s wrist. “I’m fine.”

“Then where is that smell of blood coming from?”

“I worked at a fish stall for two hours. A smell of blood is normal,” Qin Zhijin said calmly. “This afternoon, when I saw you getting money, I felt at ease and went for a walk. I saw the fish stall owner was overwhelmed, so I asked if she needed help. I know how to slice fish too.”

“So I worked for two hours, and then it was time to meet, so I came to find you.”

Xia Shibai held her phone, the weak light illuminating Qin Zhijin. She could indeed see small, starlike splatters of blood on her clothes. The fish-chopping apron hadn’t fit perfectly, so blood had splashed onto her. Besides her clothes, there were spots on her snowy-white neck. She hadn’t noticed, letting the drops congeal there like “red moles.”

Xia Shibai couldn’t describe the strange feeling in her heart. Her gaze fixed on the “red mole” on the neck without moving.

The next second, her finger covered the spot. Her warm fingertip rubbed gently, trying to wipe away the dried blood. When that wasn’t enough, she switched from her fingertip to her nail, lightly scraping it off.

The odd sensation made Qin Zhijin instinctively hold her breath. Her body trembled slightly; she wanted to back away but realized the movement would be too obvious. She could only let her surprise and unease show in her eyes, her hands at her sides gripping her hem.

“If it’s too tiring, you don’t have to go.”

“It’s okay, I’m not tired.” Qin Zhijin shook her head. It wasn’t exactly a lie; her ability to chop fish was thanks to her crazed mother.

Because her mother enjoyed belittling her in front of others, in her mother’s eyes, the only “boast-worthy” thing about being a medical student was dissection. She would buy a bunch of chickens, ducks, geese, and fish for Qin Zhijin to butcher—no bleeding, no plucking.

That’s fine. You stay in the kitchen and figure it out. When you’ve figured it out, I’ll buy a second batch of live ones for you.

Qin Zhijin had argued about it many times, but it was useless. That woman wouldn’t listen and would sneer: “You think with your mediocre skills you can really get into a hospital? Learn to kill chickens and ducks; maybe you can find a job at the vegetable market later. You aren’t even as good as your cousin, so what’s there to be proud of?”

While chopping fish today, Qin Zhijin had been recalling her mother’s mocking face, feeling once again the hidden hatred deep in her heart—why do crazy people have children?

Qin Zhijin couldn’t understand.

“Your face is so pale, and you tell me you’re okay?” Xia Shibai looked at her irritably. If the light weren’t so dim that the camera couldn’t capture it clearly, she really wanted the woman to see her own bloodless face.

“Forget it. Let’s go home. We have the sauce at home. Fortunately, the crew is somewhat humane and provided a fridge, otherwise we wouldn’t know what to eat tonight.”

Xia Shibai naturally took Qin Zhijin’s hand and walked toward the meeting spot. When they arrived, they saw Sheng Liu and Jin Minxi already waiting.

Seeing them, Jin Minxi waved her empty backpack and smiled, showing the dimples in her cheeks. “A kind person came by today and bought all our remaining stuff for 400 yuan. I calculated it—we made over 700 in total.”

“Is that so? That’s not bad. The pile of stuff I packed was worth about 1,500.” Some of the survival gear was quite expensive, but they couldn’t use it, so it was better to clear it all out.

They exchanged stories of their day and confirmed they had enough money to hire someone for the fields. Just then, Old Man Qiao finished his business and rode his three-wheeler toward them. The bag of peanuts in the back was gone, but the puppies were still energetic, barking in succession.

“Yo, I almost didn’t recognize you after one afternoon, haha. What did you bunch do? Your scents have changed,” Old Man Qiao joked.

“Don’t even mention it… I’ve been smoked by grease all afternoon. I feel like I’ve become an egg pancake myself,” Sheng Liu said, pulling at her clothes in disgust. She wanted to go back and shower immediately then throw the clothes away; she couldn’t stand it for another second.

“Don’t be like that,” Xia Shibai naturally shielded Qin Zhijin, the two of them squeezed together. “I was planning to add a new dish to the Lan Sui cafeteria after we get back.”

“We’ll call it ‘President Sheng’s Jianbing Stall.’ Buy one at original price, buy two get one free. I’ll make you the general manager of this big project.”

“Xia Shibai!” Sheng Liu exploded in anger.

“Just a joke.”

Xia Shibai teased her but didn’t say more. She frowned at the non-stop barking puppies and turned on her phone light to see the restless dogs. “Ch-ch-ch, what are you shouting for? Weren’t we on the same side this morning?”

When the light hit them, the puppies froze for a second, then started barking incessantly at Qin Zhijin. They were clearly stimulated by the smell of fish on her.

The back of the three-wheeler suddenly became quiet otherwise. Qin Zhijin instinctively gripped her trouser leg, awkwardly shifting her gaze away.

Xia Shibai decisively turned off the flashlight. Seeing Jin Minxi and Sheng Liu staring at Qin Zhijin, she sneered, “What are you looking at? Are you little puppies too?”

Sheng Liu said angrily, “Are you being reasonable? I didn’t bark; why are you insulting people?”

“Then why are you staring? Is it polite? Weren’t you just ‘barking’? Whoever responds is the puppy.”

Sheng (Woof-Woof) Liu: “If I were a dog, the first person I’d bite to death is you.”

Xia Shibai clicked her tongue and gently took Qin Zhijin’s hand, patting it reassuringly. She turned the crate of barking puppies around so they faced Sheng Liu. “Good boys, bark that way. That way is your fellow pancake-scented species. Whoever barks the loudest at her, I’ll take home to enjoy a life of luxury.”

Author’s Note:

Sheng Liu: Seriously, Xia Shibai is insane.

Qin Zhijin: I don’t quite believe that.

Sheng Liu: ??? Don’t take it too far.