Fireworks

A little after one in the morning.

Bai Yujun folded up the wooden table and hung it on both sides of the cart, bent down to pick up the folding bamboo stools and put them away, then tied up the trash bag in the bucket and carried it across the street to toss it into a garbage bin. Glass bottles clanged against the bin with a loud crash.

There were few pedestrians on the street. The bustling avenue from daytime was hushed in the dead of night. Beneath a streetlamp, a drunk who had had too much was vomiting, then sat by the greenbelt sobbing and sniffling.

The barbecue stall next door pushed its three-wheeled cart home.

"Off work~"

"See you tomorrow~"

The young proprietress of the barbecue stall left behind a small bag of charred grilled meat. Bai Yujun poured the meat into a bowl, placed it somewhere dry beneath the air-conditioning unit against the wall, poured out another bowl of water, and continued packing up her stall.

Orange Cat smacked its lips as it ate, squinting as it watched the slender figure beneath the streetlamp work.

A huge pile of miscellaneous junk somehow all fit onto the cart. There was also an extra little flatbed cart behind it, loaded with ingredients, seasonings, and other odds and ends, tied to the main cart.

She folded away the paper umbrella, and the white paper umbrella shrank into something the length of a finger.

Lowering her head, she carefully tucked the paper umbrella into her long hair as a hairpin. With a beckoning gesture, the dragon spear shrank and flew back to her ankle, turning into an anklet.

Work was over. Time to go back and sleep well.

She pushed the cart forward slowly, the rope dragging the little flatbed cart