I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 61

This time, my shopping at the supermarket cost me a total of 98.6 yuan.

“No need to buy a bag, I’ll pack it myself.”

After waiting in line at the supermarket checkout for a few minutes and settling the bill, I asked the cashier, a young lady, to put the items back in the shopping cart. I then went outside, retrieved the shopping bag I had prepared before leaving, and took it out of my bunny backpack.

As far as I can recall, I purchased this shopping bag from the supermarket two years ago. It wasn’t expensive, just 30 cents each, and it could hold a lot of things. At the time, I didn’t want to use it as a trash bag, so I kept it. Since then, I’ve brought this bag with me nearly every time I shop at this supermarket. I would tell the cashier, “I don’t need to buy a shopping bag.”

A bag for 30 cents. Based on my average of visiting the supermarket around four times a month, I could save 1 yuan per month, which adds up to 12 yuan a year, and 24 yuan in two years. This wrinkled bag has become something like a “family heirloom.”

“Miss, please check the receipt!”

After putting most of the items that couldn’t be crushed, those with odors, and the ones with liquid into the bag, and placing the drinks, bowls, chopsticks, chrysanthemum tea, and so on in my bunny backpack, I walked down the stairs carrying the bag. At the entrance, the salesgirl selling accessories stopped me, just as she always did, “Our store has a promotion. Any customer who makes a purchase at the supermarket is eligible for a free lottery draw. Spend over 20 yuan, and you can draw twice. Would you like to have a look?”

You’ve been running these promotions for so many years…

Facing the invitation from this young lady, I simply waved my hand and walked around her.

Similar jewelry and jade shops can be found at the entrance of most large supermarkets in Shenzhen City.

These shops are located at the supermarket exit, and every time someone comes out of the supermarket with purchases, the shop attendants will approach them with a lottery box and encourage them to participate in the draw, hoping to entice them into buying the jewelry in the store.

At first glance, there may not seem to be any issues with this, but the jewelry and jade in their stores are often not very valuable, and many of them are counterfeit.

Their routine is to lure you in under the guise of the “shopping at the supermarket promotion.” They fill the lottery box with mostly “special prizes” and “first prizes.” Once you scratch open the prize ticket, they act very “surprised” and say, “Wow, you’ve won a special prize! It’s been a month, and someone finally won a special prize!” They will then pull you into their store, saying that the special prize is a piece of jewelry worth 8,888 or 9,999 yuan and that you’ll also get an additional bracelet originally priced at 5,000 yuan, but because you’ve won, you can have it for just 300 yuan. If you pay 300 yuan, both pieces of jewelry are yours, and you can give them as gifts to relatives, friends, or loved ones.

I’ve been pestered by these salespeople before, saying I was the only one to win a special prize in months, and this was a unique chance to buy jewelry worth tens of thousands for only 300 yuan. I told them I didn’t like jewelry, and they’d say it could be a gift for parents. When I said I had no family, they’d say it could be a gift for elders or leaders. They just wouldn’t let you leave.

I’ve experienced similar “scams” three times. Once, when I was a child at a train station, someone pretended to be a deaf-mute, holding a sign saying they were disabled but wanted to earn money. They offered 300-yuan jade items, but now you could buy them for just 10 yuan to help them. Another time was at a downtown department store, where a promoter said they wanted to complete a research project, offering free skincare services. They offered free skin checks and skincare but then insisted that using their special makeup remover was essential, or it would damage your skin. They charged 500 yuan for it.

Since then, I’ve had no interest in these types of “promotions,” “sales pitches,” or “help us” schemes. Society is like a giant vat of dye, and as people get immersed in it, they can easily lose trust in others and their own conscience. “Spend over 58 yuan and you can participate in the lottery here!”

Leaving the jewelry shop near the supermarket entrance, I used my experience to find the actual supermarket lottery area on the ground floor of the shopping mall.

“It’s 98 yuan.”

Handing over my receipt, I took the initiative to remove a lottery ticket from the box and used my unfamiliar small, loli-like hands to scratch off the prize area.

Third prize.

Wait, it’s actually third prize?! Not a consolation prize?

“Third prize.”

I handed the ticket to the staff and glanced at the nearby prize display area.

First prize: a refrigerator. Second prize: a small electric fan. Third prize: laundry detergent. Consolation prize: cola or napkins.

“Here’s your third prize.”

Perhaps after working here all day, the staff exuded an overall lazy aura. She brought over the box of laundry detergent and said, “Little miss, are you okay by yourself?”

“I’m fine!”

With laundry detergent in hand, I ran out of the mall joyfully.

Great, I won’t have to buy laundry detergent for the next two months!

With ingredients for tonight’s dinner in my left hand, laundry detergent in my right, and a rabbit backpack on my back, I happily retraced my steps along the main road of the commercial street towards my tiny apartment.

Although laundry detergent was a bit heavy for my current loli-sized body, the fact that it was free made me feel like I had inexhaustible energy. I carried it all the way from the commercial street supermarket to the Apartments across the street, then took a deep breath and climbed to the third floor.

I’m back.

“*Huff huff…*”

I entered the password, opened the door, and temporarily left the laundry detergent at the entrance. I surveyed the quiet living room.

“…”

Strange, the Grim Reaper still hasn’t arrived?

In confusion, I took out my phone and checked the time.

It was already 7:30, if I remember correctly, she found me around this time last night, right?

Or maybe… does that person have to wait for me to finish cooking before appearing?

I carried the ingredients to the refrigerator and removed the note that was taped to it.

There were no obvious signs of tampering.

Whatever, let’s start cooking.

After drinking some water, I went to the kitchen, put on an apron, washed the rice, prepared the pork bones, cut the winter melon, added the seasonings, and started making soup. While waiting for the rice cooker to finish the winter melon pork bone soup and rice, I quickly prepared the fish to remove the fishy smell, fried it until it turned golden, and removed it from the pan. I then sautéed the chili, garlic, and ginger in the hot pan with cold oil, added the prepared pickled vegetables, and finally the fried saury. I covered the pan to let the flavors meld.

After completing all of this, I, covered in sweat, stood in front of the dining table and pondered the small four-leaf table on the cushion.

Normally, this small table is perfectly adequate when I’m alone. Now, with an additional sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl, it seems a bit crowded for two people to sit around this small table.

Oh well, when she arrives, I can ask her to sit on the couch.

I washed the strawberries I bought and placed them on the table, boiled water for the chrysanthemum tea, and the saury was just about done. I went back to the kitchen, grabbed a plate, and poured the fish and pickled vegetables onto it, arranging the fish nicely and cutting the pickled vegetables into two decorative shapes. I then brought the dish to the table.

The winter melon pork bone soup still had about ten minutes left to cook. I casually minced some garlic, stir-fried the pumpkin sprouts, and washed two bowls. I filled the bowls with rice and placed them on the table.

“Hasn’t she arrived yet?”

I had prepared so much, but the Miss Grim Reaper had not shown any signs of arriving. I was a bit puzzled, so I tried opening the door and looked outside, then opened the window to check the sky.

It was already completely dark.

“Are you hiding somewhere to play a prank, or did something come up suddenly?” I said to the empty living room.

No response.

Puzzled, I went back to the bedroom and checked the computer desk and the small bed.

I didn’t find a note or any signs that someone had been here, and the room looked undisturbed.

Well… maybe I’ll just wait a bit longer. After all, the soup still needs some time.

With this thought in mind, I returned to the computer desk, hopped onto the chair, and realized that I hadn’t had a chance to update my writing all day. Now was a good time to write and save some drafts.