I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 11

“What’s wrong with him?”

“I don’t know, maybe he’s crazy. Let’s keep our distance.”

“Don’t go near him. He’s probably trying to scam people. Be careful; these kinds of people might turn around and bite you. It’s better to mind your own business!”

“…”

The uncle’s shout immediately drew disdainful looks from the surrounding pedestrians. Many of those who were closer took several steps back, as if they were looking at a plague-ridden man on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.

As if by coincidence, a nearby barbershop was playing Zhang Wei’s song “Ji Qi Ling Kan Cai Dao” at this time:

“How many people, for the sake of dignity, live on others’ misfortunes…”

“How many people live on misfortune just to support their families…”

“How many people, for the sake of their families, roam the world. And how many people, while drifting, yearn for friends and their parents day and night…”

After hesitating for a few seconds, I shifted everything I was carrying to my left hand and crouched down slowly. I picked up each coin from the ground one by one and placed them back into the dropped wallet. Then, I walked up to the uncle and handed him the wallet.

“Um…”

The dirty uncle on the ground was momentarily stunned when he saw my small hand. He then raised his head, met my gaze, and remained silent for a while. Finally, he forced a bitter smile, didn’t take the wallet, turned his face away, and said, “Little girl, you don’t need to bother about me. Just go home…”

Home? I don’t have a home.

I’ve been on my own since I was a child. In high school and college, while I had decent relationships with my male roommates, it wasn’t the kind of camaraderie where we could confide in each other as “buddies.” After graduating and coming out into the world, I rented a small apartment. My daily routine mostly consisted of working, writing, playing games, and watching anime. I’ve long been accustomed to this kind of life.

I didn’t say anything, just tucked the wallet back into the uncle’s coat pocket, and then turned towards the cotton candy cart near the entrance of the vegetable market.

“I’d like a pink one.”

I took out my phone, scanned the QR code, and paid four yuan in one go. I showed the mobile screen to the cotton candy vendor.

“All right!”

The cotton candy uncle gestured with his eyes towards the suited man not far away and asked curiously, “Do you know him?”

“No, we don’t know each other.”

I smiled and replied, “We’re strangers.”

“I saw him shortly after you entered the vegetable market. He took two calls over there. The first one seemed to be from his boss or someone, and I heard him begging not to get fired or something. He hung up after a short while. The second one seemed to be from his wife, and they were talking about daily life stuff. After that call, he just sat down, looking quite disturbed.”

The cotton candy uncle continued to rotate the foot pedal with a “vroom vroom vroom” sound while pouring sugar and coloring into a small hole next to the machine. In no time, the machine spewed out a large amount of cotton candy.

“If you’re alone, little girl, it’s better not to talk to strange uncles. Where are your mom and dad?”

He used a bamboo stick to continuously spin in the middle of the machine. In less than a minute, he made a pink cotton candy and, skillfully, added some other colors of sugar to create a flower pattern. The uncle handed me this big lump of cotton candy.

“Thank you.”

I didn’t answer the question “Where are your mom and dad?” I simply accepted this beautiful cotton candy, went back to the suited man, squatted down, and handed over the fragrant, large, fluffy cotton candy cloud.

“Here…”

With a perplexed look from the suited man, I tilted my head and offered a smile I considered to be very cute. “Even though I don’t know what you’ve been through, but even if life is bitter… at least we can make ourselves sweet like this.”

The man in the suit accepted the cotton candy with some confusion.

“Keep going.”

I stood up, waved at the man in the suit one last time, and then turned and left.

“…”

How should I put it, nobody wants these kinds of situations.

Although I have a carefree personality on the surface and have been scolded by unreasonable bosses to the point where I hid in the bathroom to wipe away tears, and even considered ending it several times, after crying in the bathroom, I would still choose to go back to work. After venting in an empty house and hitting rock bottom, I would quickly adjust my mindset and put on a smile. Isn’t that how the world is?

The world is cruel, but it’s also beautiful. It has always been this way.

—

“I can’t help but feel like I’ve been deceived.”

On the way back, my mind was still replaying the incredulous expression on the man’s face when he took the cotton candy.

Is it possible that this guy was a plant hired by the cotton candy uncle?

Doesn’t seem likely.

Could it be that the guy on the motorcycle and the man in the suit were in cahoots?

“…”

That was four yuan! I must have lost my mind to choose to help a stranger.

He might even find it distasteful. Regular guys probably don’t like such sweet stuff, so it would have been better if I’d eaten it myself.

Waaah, I’ve become so sentimental since turning into a girl. I blame that stupid Grim Reaper for this mess.

Walking in the quiet alley, bathed in the summer breeze blowing in from all sides, I thought bitterly to myself.

However, looking at it from another perspective, can’t I consider that I gave the cotton candy to the man and didn’t eat it, which means I cut down on a bunch of calories?

Not eating it means it wasn’t added, and not adding is like reducing.

Well, if I think about it that way, I can’t say I got absolutely nothing in return.

With a jumble of emotions, I returned to the apartment, climbed to the third floor, wiped the sweat from my forehead, and entered the password on the electronic door lock in front of me, making a “beep beep beep” sound.

“Whew…”

In the kitchen, I poured the fish into a small basin, opened the lid of cooking wine and added a bit to remove the fishy smell. I also took out a few slices of ginger and flattened them with a knife and added them to the fish.

I rarely cook fish normally because it’s a tricky ingredient to handle, and there are bones to deal with when eating it. But to be honest, fish meat is the healthiest among all types of meat. I had just turned into a girl not long ago, and I didn’t know what foods my stomach could handle. However, no matter what, fish meat is certainly more digestible than pork or beef.

It’s now 4:50 in the afternoon, and I’m not very hungry yet. I’ll make dinner a bit later.

After rinsing the melon seedlings and storing the corn and sweet potatoes in another box, I checked the time on my phone, thought for a moment, and then headed out.

The next step is the final stage of preparing for my new life – purchasing basic household items.

If I’m really going to live with this body in the future, one piece of girl’s clothing won’t be nearly enough.

Even if you can wear shoes for ten days to half a month without washing them, you need at least two sets of underwear and other essentials to change into. After washing clothes and hanging them on the balcony to dry, even in this hot summer, it still takes at least half a day. I can’t rely on the little space heater to quickly dry my clothes every time…

Thinking about the space heater reminded me of the fear I once had of being controlled by the cold in the dead of winter.

Shenzhen City is a southern city, but in winter, the lowest temperatures can drop to four or five degrees below zero. It’s located at a latitude where there’s no central heating supply, yet people have to find ways to keep warm. The cold in this region is damp and uncomfortable. For someone like me, a freelance writer who spends long hours working in front of a computer, wearing thick clothes or wrapping up in a blanket doesn’t help. We have to use space heaters or air conditioning units next to us.

However, this leads to a surge in the monthly electricity bill. Similarly, the scorching summer is the same way. If you run the air conditioning all day, then use an induction cooker to cook meals at noon and in the evening, with the exhaust fan on for ventilation, and keep your computer running for six or seven hours, your electricity bill can easily approach 30 kilowatt-hours in a day.

What does 30 kilowatt-hours of electricity mean? In regular residential areas and most apartment buildings, the electricity cost falls within the range of 0.3 to 0.5 yuan per kilowatt-hour. However, rental apartments mostly use commercial electricity, which costs around 1.5 yuan per kilowatt-hour.

Once you turn on the air conditioning during a sweltering summer or a frigid winter and push your electricity consumption to 20-30 kilowatt-hours in a day, your daily electricity bill will be over 40 yuan, which amounts to over 1200 yuan per month, more expensive than the rent.

In the summer, it can be endured, as you can just strip off your clothes if needed. But in winter, it’s unbearable, and you end up buying a small space heater, turning it on just until you no longer feel cold, and then quickly turning it off. If you can’t bear it any longer, you turn it back on for a little while.

I don’t know how others live their lives, but ever since I could remember, I didn’t have the concept of “parents.” After leaving the welfare institution, I relied on loans and part-time jobs to get through college. With no background or savings, I’ve been living frugally like this.

Well… I won’t dwell on those sad things. Right now, my main concern is taking care of my food, shelter, and adjusting to life as a girl. Stay calm, try to live as I did before, and patiently wait for the appearance of that grim reaper girl who transformed me into this state. I’ll deal with her when the time comes.

“When can I get my deposit back?”

“Probably within three business days, but today is Thursday, so one day today, one day tomorrow, and the weekend is off. You should definitely get it back by Monday at the latest.”

—

I left my apartment, went down the stairs to the lobby, and saw that there was a pile of things here that seemed to be household items left behind by tenants moving out. There were a toolbox, a standing mirror, a small desk, a desk lamp, and so on.

“Alright, let the people in the group know about these items and see if anyone wants them. If no one claims them, the management can deal with them.”

At that moment, a young female tenant, probably in her early twenties, was speaking to the building manager while carrying a backpack and dragging a suitcase. When she saw me, she was initially surprised, but then curiously asked, “Huh? I haven’t seen you before, have you come to live with relatives? Why… Wow, you’re so pretty! Your skin is amazing!”

“Well…”

I was a bit hesitant to look at them and replied, “I’ve come to live with my bro…brother for a couple of days.”

“You’re the younger sister from 301, right? He messaged me on WeChat earlier, saying that he had a younger sister coming to stay with him, but I didn’t expect you to be so young.”

The building manager didn’t seem too suspicious of me and gestured to the various household items and furniture in the corner.

“Someone from Apartment 602 moved out, and these are things they didn’t want. You can have your brother come down to see if there’s anything he needs. If he does, he can take them upstairs for free.”