I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 333
Chapter 333: Can I Live in Your Heart?
In a dimly lit area near Chaoyang Square in the central district of Shenzhen City, Xiao Mo held me as we descended from the sky, landing on the rooftop of a tall building.
This was another lesser-known small square in the central district, but it had a very long history. Many of the shops here had been around for twenty or thirty years, offering a wide variety of goods from street food and small trinkets to more upscale places like KFC and Starbucks.
It seems that almost every major city has places like “Chaoyang Square” or “People’s Square,” which are popular leisure spots. I’m no exception in liking to visit such places.
My university life…was far from smooth sailing, to say the least. It was actually quite tumultuous.
Children without parents often have it this way. After starting university, I was basically independent and no longer connected to the orphanage. I had to apply for student loans and work part-time to support myself.
Every day was a flurry of activity, leaving little time to chat or hang out with my dorm mates. Building relationships in the dorm was challenging, but the most critical issue was the lack of information, which often led to trouble.
For example, during university, we had a professor who was said to have a prestigious background, possibly the principal of a private school moonlighting as a professor here. His classes often required rescheduling. Sometimes, we would wake up early for class only to receive a notification that it had been moved to the afternoon.
The class monitor was diligent in notifying each dorm of the changes, but since I was rarely in the dorm and was often busy working, I missed many of these updates, leading to frequent tardiness and absences. This eventually resulted in insufficient participation grades and the need to apply for course retakes.
I still remember the end of my sophomore year when a close friend from the orphanage fell gravely ill. The situation was dire, and the hospital urged me to come quickly as my friend didn’t have much time left. In my haste, I called my counselor to explain the situation and received permission to attend the funeral.
After seeing my friend for the last time at the hospital and helping the orphanage staff with the farewell arrangements, I returned to school three days later, only to be informed that I had been marked absent for three consecutive days. As a result, I had to retake two courses and received a disciplinary action.
I asked the counselor, and he countered by asking why I only called to request leave instead of writing a formal leave request. He blamed me for not following procedure and passed the responsibility around. I was left with no way to defend myself since I had no recording of the call. It wasn’t until almost a year after graduation that the school’s administrative office finally removed the disciplinary action after my repeated visits.
There were many similar incidents.
Living alone… it’s pretty much like this.
Independence requires strength.
However, now I think not leaving too deep an impression on everyone during university wasn’t such a bad thing.
Because… Yin Shiren is dead.
On the rooftop of this building labeled “Yunlai Hotel,” I glanced at the girl beside me who was brushing off her dress.
Today, Xiao Mo wore a black dress, with a black rose hairpin in her hair, and a pair of round-toed Lolita-style shoes with thick heels, giving her a particularly sophisticated look.
“Is there no staircase down from here?”
After searching the rooftop for a while, Xiao Mo remarked in surprise, “Is it completely sealed off?”
“Hotels are usually like this. The rooftop needs to be accessed by maintenance workers from below.”
I walked to the edge of the rooftop and looked at the bustling crowd below.
So high up…
This building must be at least twenty stories tall, about half the height of the Nanqi Tower.
No staircase to the rooftop meant no need for railings, so the rooftop was completely open. It felt like if someone with a fear of heights stood at the edge, they could easily fall off with one misstep.
Additionally, because this was a bustling area, unlike the Nanqi Tower surrounded by the sea and forest, looking down from here revealed a street teeming with people, which was quite spectacular.
It was now a little after 9 PM, the time when most residents of Shenzhen City had finished dinner and were out for a walk or some fun, and when couples were out enjoying their time together. Dolly and Yueyue probably wouldn’t be home for another hour or so.
At this hour, the area around Chaoyang Square was especially crowded.
“Why did you decide to bring me here?”
After inspecting the rooftop for a while, Xiao Mo gave up on finding a way down and came over to me, hugging me from behind.
“Does this place hold familiar memories for you too?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded, pointing to the entrance of a pedestrian street not far away.
“Next to that intersection, there’s a barbecue shop that’s been open for over thirty years. Their fried chicken legs, lamb skewers, and fatty beef are especially delicious.”
It’s the kind of place with a family recipe passed down through generations. I haven’t found the same flavor of fried chicken legs anywhere else.
“Apart from that, I remember there’s a seafood restaurant around here that I went to a long time ago. The fish there was amazing and quite affordable. They had pickled fish, three-flavor fish noodle soup, and another dish where fish slices were boiled into a soup served with rice and some kind of vegetable. I don’t remember what that set meal was called.”
My birthday is on December 24th every year, which happens to be Christmas Eve, followed by Christmas Day the next day.
So almost no one remembers my birthday, and even if they do, they just casually say “Happy Birthday” and then rush out to buy apples for Christmas Eve.
The most difficult period of my college years also happened to be around my birthday – my best friend passed away, and because I went back for the funeral, I got disciplined by the school. When I came back, the counselor was clueless and told me the student council would remember, but when I went to them, they said it was the subject teacher’s responsibility.
The subject teacher said they hadn’t kept track of my attendance, so I went back to the counselor. After a few days of going in circles, unable to find anyone to help, I got my phone stolen by a pickpocket while working at the shop that night. After reporting it to the police, they asked me to go to the station. So, on December 24th, I ended up at the police station near Chaoyang Square in the central area. By the time I finished filing the report, it was already late at night, and I figured I’d be locked out of school if I went back, so I had to spend the night in a nearby internet cafe.
It was during that time, feeling down, that I wandered around Chaoyang Square alone, ate some chicken legs and barbecue at the entrance of the pedestrian street, and had some fish at a nearby restaurant that specialized in “pickled fish”.
Big cities can feel cold, but the chicken legs and fish that night were exceptionally delicious.
“Xiao Mo, let me try using that magic again, and you can help me check for any mistakes.”
Seeing Xiao Mo behind me not saying anything, I raised my hand and began to gather the “energy” in my body to the empty space in front of me, following the magic runes I had memorized earlier.
“Small-sized, magic control, talent adaptation, small load-bearing…”
One by one, the faintly glowing magic runes began to rotate and flicker in the empty space before me.
By the way… should I include the “cat ears” magic rune?
When I paused at the “cat ears” part while writing the magic according to Xiao Mo’s instructions, I glanced back at the girl behind me.
Xiao Mo didn’t say anything, just nodded, indicating for me to continue.
Well… let’s add it.
It feels like writing code as a programmer, some lines may seem inexplicable, or there might be a ton of bugs, but without those lines and bugs, it just won’t work.
A pigeon flapping its wings takes off, and with its head spinning wildly, it turns into a helicopter and flies away. Anyway, as long as the program runs, who cares if there are bugs.
So… in the magic circle of the four-leaf clover just now, although I don’t know what role the “cat ears” rune played in it, I still added the “cat ears” rune because I was worried that it might not work without it.
“Done!”
A few minutes later, under Xiao Mo’s gaze, I actually summoned that “Möbius circle”.
However, this time my “Möbius circle” was no longer a four-leaf clover, but… a very large cat paw?
It was a green and white cat’s paw pad, with a radius of about fifty centimeters, looking very fresh and cute.
Wow, it really is a completely random beginner’s magic…
“I knew it, Nuo’er’s body doesn’t just have attributes from the elven side of life and nature.”
Seeing me summon a semi-transparent cat paw, Xiao Mo nodded thoughtfully. “It seems next time I’ll have you try adding runes like ‘little demon’ or ‘demon tail’?”
“Hey, I heard that!”
I dispersed the magic circle with a “poof” and went over to take Xiao Mo’s hand. “Don’t just stand there, weren’t you hungry?”
“Um…”
My sudden hand-holding seemed to catch Xiao Mo off guard.
Under the moonlight, someone’s face seemed to blush slightly.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, let’s go.”
Xiao Mo snapped out of it, took my hand, and then, with the agility of a practiced princess, leaped directly off the rooftop of this tall building.
“W-wait… there are so many people down there…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll find a spot with no one watching, completely out of sight.”
Saying this, Xiao Mo swiftly conjured up that purple magic circle in mid-air as she descended, then kicked off with her legs, using the recoil from the magic circle to land in a relatively secluded alley behind a group of people.
“Thud.”
Like a cat landing, with a faint sound of heels touching the ground, Xiao Mo and I landed in this small alley.
“So exhilarating…”
I glanced around at the people nearby.
Just as Xiao Mo said, nobody had actually noticed us descending from the sky, and there were no surveillance cameras nearby.
This is pushing the limits a bit too much…
Although I was somewhat displeased with Xiao Mo’s flashy behavior, I still jumped out of her arms and instinctively grabbed her hand again, saying, “There are a lot of people around, stay close to me, don’t get lost…”
As soon as I finished speaking, I suddenly realized that I was talking to a grim reaper who had lived for thousands of years.
“Uh… what I meant was, uh… I’m familiar with the streets around here.”
Then I quickly explained, “You just follow me… and walk quickly.”
That also didn’t sound quite right.
If Xiao Mo wanted to, she could even memorize the entire map of the surroundings like Dolly and Yuanyuan, just like a GPS, she could go wherever she wanted.
Ah… what am I saying.
“It’s okay.”
To this, the girl beside me just shook her head. “It’s better to say… Nuo’er, I’m grateful that you can treat me like a normal person.”
“Huh?”
I felt a bit embarrassed, “Because Xiao Mo is a real person to me, we’ve been living together for so long, so… I just habitually treat you as someone like me.”
Although this girl is quite lively at night, her energy is completely unlike that of an ordinary person.
“Well… it’s okay, it’s good like this, I’m happy.”
Xiao Mo walked towards the exit of the alley, “Which shop holds good memories for Nuo’er? Take me there.”
“Okay.”
I followed along, “It’s the one ahead, then turn right, there’s a large department store, it’s downstairs, they have grilled fish, fried fish, and fish hot pot, Xiao Mo will definitely like it!”
“……”
Strangely, when Xiao Mo and I walked to the place in my memory, I couldn’t find that familiar “fish rice” specialty shop no matter how hard I tried.
“Strange, it should be here…”
I looked left and right, desperately recalling the experiences of eating here during my university days.
Forget about university, even after graduation, whenever I received my salary or felt down, I came here to eat a few times. How could the shop just disappear?
Wait, was that shop on the left or right side of the department store?
“Oh? The one selling fish? It’s already 2023, little sister.”
When I found the security booth near the department store and asked the security guard playing with his phone inside about the nearby “fish rice shop,” he looked at me with a very surprised look.
“That shop closed down four or five years ago.”
“Closed down?”
I was stunned, “Was it closed down, or… moved?”
“It closed down. The boss said it wasn’t making money, and the rent was high, so they couldn’t keep it going.”
Like most ordinary people, after seeing me and Xiao Mo, the security guard’s eyes widened, seeming somewhat incredulous that ordinary people could look like us.
“Girls, just the two of you out here having fun?”
“Yeah.”
Hearing that my favorite fish shop had closed down, I didn’t say much more to the security guard, just waved and left.
“Thank you.”
“No need to thank me. Girls should be careful when they’re out.”
“Hmph, someone’s targeting Nuo’er…”
After we walked out, Xiao Mo snorted in the direction of the security guard, “He won’t see the sun tomorrow.”
“Okay, okay…”
I quickly pushed the girl away, “The fish shop is gone. Let’s go check out the barbecue restaurant near the pedestrian street.”
Running a small business is like this, you have to take all sorts of risks, just like a novelist. If readers don’t like the story anymore, the author goes hungry. If the website closes down, the author doesn’t get paid. If the snack shop’s business isn’t good or can’t keep up with the customers’ tastes, it goes under.
Luckily, the super delicious barbecue restaurant at the entrance of the pedestrian street was still open. And unlike the small stall in my memory, this barbecue restaurant had already repainted its storefront. It was no longer the old shabby one, it now had a very eye-catching big sign that read “43-Year-Old Shop, Traditional Taste.”
“Boss, four big chicken legs, honey-roasted chicken legs, and six skewers of beef and six skewers of lamb, all honey-roasted, no chili.”
After waiting in line for a while, it was my turn. Subconsciously, I stood on my tiptoes and peeked into the window of the shop, “Do you have grilled fish here?”
“Little girl, did you used to come here often more than ten years ago?”
Hearing me speak, the boss lady inside laughed, “Calling them honey-roasted chicken legs has been the term for over ten years now. Did your mom used to bring you here when you were a child? But you don’t seem that old?”
I’m an uncle… Never mind, you’re right, I’m still a young elf.
“I did eat here when I was little.”
My gaze fell on several grilled fish in the shop, “Add two more mackerels.”
“Sure thing!”
The boss lady didn’t waste time, quickly packed everything up, and handed it over to me.
I took the package and glanced at the price next to it—it was three times more expensive than ten years ago.
The small chicken legs that used to cost three yuan each, and the large chicken legs that cost five yuan each, now cost nine yuan and fifteen yuan respectively. Even the chicken fillets, which were considered cheap at the time, have risen to eighteen yuan per serving.
“WeChat, scan it.”
“Okay, received.”
Coming out of the shop, I hurried over to where Xiao Mo was waiting silently, handing her the biggest chicken leg from inside.
“Quick, try this, it’s really delicious! I bought a lot. Later, we can go to the snack street over there and get some rice noodles. Although there’s no fish rice, the rice noodles here are also delicious!”
“Really?”
Xiao Mo took the bag, took out the chicken leg from inside, and took a bite right there on the street.
“Mmm, very delicious.”
Then, Xiao Mo nodded and handed me the chicken leg she had bitten into, “Nuo’er, you should try it too.”
“Huh?” I hesitated for a few seconds, then took a bite of the chicken leg with a “crunch”.
The delicious taste from my memory! It hasn’t changed!
“This place must hold a lot of memories for you, Nuo’er, right?” Xiao Mo looked around while eating the chicken leg.
“Yeah, whenever I felt unhappy, I would come here, eat and drink to my heart’s content, and then all my worries would disappear.”
To keep the barbecue warm, I hugged the bag with both hands. “Let’s go, let’s buy some staple food, like rice noodles, and then find a quiet place to eat.”
“That’s nice.”
“Hmm?”
“I mean… Nuo’er, are you willing to share a place like this with me now? Does it mean that I have completely entered your heart?”
Xiao Mo leaned over, “My… dear wife?”
“What… what are you suddenly saying?” I turned my head away. “There are so many people on the street…”
“I never make promises lightly, but here I can swear to you, Nuo’er, from now on, you won’t be alone anymore.”
Under the neon lights around and the moonlight above, Xiao Mo’s voice was very soft, “Sorry, I was being willful today, shouldn’t have been jealous.”
“It’s okay…”
I helped Xiao Mo tidy up her hair, which was blown by the wind.
“Being jealous is normal. Being jealous shows that Xiao Mo’s heart is all about me, and there’s no room for anything else, right?”
“Nuo’er, if you keep saying things like this, I might really turn into a yandere and eat you up.”
“As long as it’s Xiao Mo, it’s okay.” I gestured with a ‘come on in’ posture. “I can accept anything!”
“Bzzzzzzzz…”
Just as I was speaking, the phone in Xiao Mo’s dress pocket started ringing.
“Master Momo! Yueyue is licking me again!”
As soon as the call connected, Dolly’s voice came through from the phone. “Hurry up and deal with her. This girl’s tongue is all spiky, and it hurts like crazy when she licks!”
Then came Yueyue’s giggling voice. “What’s wrong with spiky tongues! Licking represents my boundless love for Dolly, meow hahaha. Come on in, the water’s ready! My beloved centaur!”
“You see! She’s even splashing water on me! Master Momo, you really need to do something about her. She’s gone mad as soon as she got back from work!”
Dolly looked quite aggrieved. “By the way, Master Momo and Master Nuo’er, where did you two go?”
“Us?”
Xiao Mo glanced at me, then covered the phone’s microphone with her other hand and spoke very clearly.
“I’m making a baby with Nuo’er. Don’t disturb us for now.”
“……”
……