Grandma and Grandpa's Stall in the Park

As far as she was concerned, there was nothing much to do in the park. It had no attractions or stalls, just a temple built on a low hill.

Whenever she passed by, she only glanced at the plaza at the foot of the hill.

She hadn't expected it to be so close to the main street. All she had to do was go through an alley, and she was there.

It was far livelier than she had imagined. The bustle of everyday life hit her as soon as she stepped out of the alley, and a fan whirred away at the barbecue stall beside her.

Groups of children on roller skates whizzed across the plaza, and there were so many stalls.

From far away, she could hear Grandma Lin calling out to customers above the noise of the plaza. She truly was the woman whose scolding could carry from the fields across the whole village.

Lin Er followed the sound and took a look. Business really was good. Young children had crowded all around the stall.

A few adults, presumably parents who had brought their children out to play, tried a couple of pieces at Grandma Lin's enthusiastic urging and decided to buy several cups to take home and eat with their drinks.

Grandpa Lin didn't speak the whole time. He simply followed Grandma Lin's instructions, filling however many cups were needed and handing them to her. Grandma Lin took the money and handed over the goods, so the two of them wouldn't get flustered and lose track of who had been served.

Lin Er only took a glance before leaving. It wouldn't be much fun if they spotted her.

She had always thought that their city had been very poor when she was in school and had nothing at all. As it turned out, she had been the poor one, and she had seen nothing.

It was the National Day holiday, and even the busiest seniors in high school got time off, so there were a lot of children around. Besides, unlike in later years, when many parents sent their children to study in big cities, there were still plenty of children in the countryside.

Lin Er moved along with the crowd, looking at one stall and then another.

As long as she didn't get close, Grandma Lin might not recognize her among so many children. Even if Grandma Lin happened to catch a glimpse of her, someone her height would quickly disappear into the crowd.

The phone had only cost 1,500. As she passed through the alley, she had put it and the freebies away.

Choosing her schoolbag as the object on which to cast the Undetectable Extension Charm had been a stroke of genius.

As long as she pulled the zipper wide open, she could put plenty of large items inside.

With her old schoolbag on her back and nothing in her hands, the pickpockets in the plaza wouldn't even bother with her.

She looked like they couldn't steal enough from her to buy a pack of cigarettes.

Lin Er stopped at a toy stall. It sold plastic toys, the kind of little cars that moved on their own when batteries were put in them.

She definitely didn't want to play with them, but her little pen pal was only seven. Children should all like toys, right?

Really, she didn't want to play with them one bit. What was so special about a little figure that could pedal a tricycle on its own? She had even seen remote-controlled ones!

The stallholder cheerfully accepted fifteen yuan. The little girl was still far too inexperienced at bargaining. He had made a profit of ten yuan on the two toys!

Lin Er had gone a long way before she realized that, unlike the toys on display at the stall, the batteries had been taken out of hers—or rather, they had never been put in at all.

With no other choice, she went to a nearby convenience store and bought two pairs of Nanfu batteries. They should last for many days of play.

There were also ring-toss and balloon-shooting games in the plaza. After she spent fifty yuan, Prince, at the other end of the magic book, had gained a ceramic piggy bank, a floppy black-and-white plush panda, a plastic toy with a little figure that pedaled a tricycle as soon as it was set on the ground, and a small pendant engraved with the character Lin from Lin Er's name.

The sky gradually darkened, and the streetlights in the plaza came on one after another. She looked up and saw three large characters gleaming on an ancient tower with upturned eaves at the top of a towering flight of steps.

Wenchang Tower.

Oh wow, impressive. No wonder she hadn't amounted to much in her studies in her previous life. She had never even visited this Wenchang Tower, which looked to be well frequented by worshippers, and had always thought it was just a temple where people burned incense.

She hurriedly pressed her palms together and bowed toward it from a distance. No blame for those who didn't know, no blame for those who didn't know.

She turned her head and saw a place renting out roller skates nearby. No wonder so many children were skating in the plaza.

At the other end of the plaza was a large underground supermarket. Having studied locally for three years, she was stunned. How had she not known there was a supermarket here?

This supermarket even had storage lockers!

How could she not go in and have a look? Of course she had to! Lin Er stored her schoolbag and went inside.

There were all kinds of snacks, biscuits, fruit and bread, followed by potato chips, drinks, towels, bath products and pressure cookers.

Uh, this was what happened when you were a fake child. She had been buying snacks, but as she walked, she ended up in the household goods section and even bought two super-expensive bedding sets.

Still, she checked, and they were filled with down. Once the price of down went up in later years, each set would cost at least one or two thousand yuan.

Finally, she also bought her little pen pal a set of overalls and a little suit jacket. The foreign model looked so good in them, and her little pen pal was foreign too. What was missing? She would definitely look good in them as well!

She had a wonderful time shopping, but when it was time to take everything away, she wanted to cry.

The supermarket shopping carts now required a coin deposit. She pushed hers over to the locker area, and an auntie followed right behind her. One look made it clear she was waiting for Lin Er to take her things out so she could lock the cart back up at once.

Lin Er looked around the locker area. It was neither cold nor hot now, and the plaza was outside, so hardly anyone came to this corner.

But there were security cameras all over the supermarket, except in the restroom at the end. In the end, Lin Er tearfully gave up the one yuan in the cart and let the auntie happily push it away.

She quickly took out her schoolbag and stuffed the smaller items inside. Then, carrying a travel bag in each hand, she went to the women's restroom.

It didn't matter that the quilts were big. She could roll them into long bundles and stuff them in standing upright. Thankfully, the magic book's passage wasn't as fragile as paper, or it definitely would have torn!

Sweating from head to toe, she finished packing and poked her head out to look. There was no one there, only the camera.

She used her wand to direct some toilet paper over the camera. If she didn't use the Levitation Charm now, when would she?

Then she turned and ran.

The magic wore off, and the toilet paper slipped off the camera and fell to the floor, where it was completely inconspicuous. It was perfectly normal to find a scrap of toilet paper at the restroom entrance.

By the time she got home, it was completely dark, and Lin Huihui was crying at the eldest granduncle's house next door!

"Why are you crying? Didn't I tell you I was doing homework in the new house?"

Lin Er called out, then quickly fumbled for her key, opened the door and turned on the light.

Lin Huihui came running back in tears, bent over and tried to butt her with her head.

"You didn't say that! Besides, I went there, and you weren't there!"

"Then you must have called too quietly. I was on the second floor!"

After confidently arguing her case despite being in the wrong, she quickly took the things out of her schoolbag and thrust them into Lin Huihui's hands.

"Instant noodles! What do you think? I'm good to you, right? Let's skip dinner and eat these instead today!"

It was the ultimate trump card. Lin Huihui had only ever seen other families eating instant noodles in cups like these. One cup cost several yuan, and with her fifty fen or one yuan, she couldn't afford them at all.

"Ahhh! Instant noodles! Instant noodles!"

"Keep your voice down. I'll go boil some water for you!"

Lin Huihui immediately covered her mouth and tiptoed after her like a thief. Her tears hadn't even dried, but her eyes were already crinkled with laughter.