I will never give in to Miss Death

No. 232 Happiness is... holding hands and walking together?

Under the coercion of Yin Xiamo and Filo, I sat on the cart.

This is indeed a newly opened supermarket, even the carts inside are brand new.

Moreover, it seems that the design here really takes "parents with children" into consideration. The car is designed to be very sturdy. The part reserved for children is much larger than ordinary cars. There is a small seat in the front that can be pulled out. Children under junior high school age can sit on it without any problems, and a lot of things can be placed in the back.

Let alone us, as the supermarket had just opened and it was the peak time for shopping after get off work, many parents brought their children here to buy things, and the short children would be caught by their mothers and pushed in the carts.

But the problem is... I'm not a child!

"Will others laugh at this?"

I looked around a little nervously in the car: "Should I...get off?"

Well, if I have to say... actually people around me don’t laugh at me.

Because besides me, there are really many elementary school students who will sit in it. This car is different from the "baby strollers" in ordinary supermarkets. There is only a little space left for children. It is suitable for children who can't walk yet. This kind of car is really... completely designed to carry people.

Moreover, the notice at the door when I entered just now also stated that the car is suitable for "children under 140 cm in height", and my height just meets the requirements.

Not to mention 140 centimeters, from the time I entered the door until now, I have seen several girls who looked to be about meters tall being carried onto the cart by boys. I feel that this kind of "trolley" is more like a "couple's cart" and has the function of carrying items.

"It doesn't matter. Nuoer is just a child in my eyes."

Facing my "question", Yin Xiamo showed her signature sinister smile: "We'll set off once you're ready, okay?"

After saying that, I felt the small car under me being pushed with a "wooooo" sound.

Ah...is this some kind of weird play?

I felt a little ashamed for a moment.

Although...well...my current dress...is indeed similar to that of a child.

Because it was my menstrual period and it was inconvenient to wear a skirt, I wore the shorts and T-shirt that I bought at the supermarket at the beginning, and simply tied my long hair into two ponytails.

Considering my current face of a young girl, I guess if I tell others that I am an adult, no one will believe that I am a child. They will definitely think that I am a kid in the first or second grade of elementary school.

As for Xiaomo and Feiluo...you might think they are my sisters, right?

Two older sisters, one in college and one in high school, took their younger sister, who had just started elementary school, out to the supermarket. The younger sister was very interested in the new cars in the supermarket and asked to sit in one to experience it. The two older sisters then carried her in... A similar plot.

Moreover, this kind of car that provides seats specifically for people to sit in is the first time I have seen it. I guess it is a marketing strategy of the supermarket owner here.

The global economy is not very prosperous now, and opening a supermarket here is already a very risky thing. If the supermarket itself does not have some "gimmick", it will not be famous.

What should ordinary supermarkets do if they want to become famous quickly? They certainly can’t take the usual route. Ordinary advertising and flyers are useless because everyone is tired of such routines.

Therefore, the owner of this store probably came up with the idea of ​​working on the shopping carts. Almost all the shopping carts here are customized. In addition to those that can seat people, there are also small shopping carts in the shape of "Shiba Inu" and large shopping carts with Pikachu camouflage patterns.

In this way, customers who come to the store will find these strange shopping carts novel and will take photos. Passersby who see them will also take photos. These photos will be posted on various forums and QQ groups, which will serve as free advertising.

When people see such a cute and strange shopping cart, they will probably ask "Where is this?". As people ask this question so many times, the reputation of this supermarket spreads. Even... the boss himself becomes a promoter. He comes to take pictures in person, then puts the watermark of "XX Supermarket, Minaminagi District, Kamihama City" on them and sends them to various QQ groups.

I don't know much about marketing, but the general situation should be similar to this.

"Nuo'er wasn't taken out to buy things like this when she was a child, right?"

Inside the stroller, near the handle, is a cradle-like seat. In front of the seat is a large basket for things. The seat also has a corresponding area for passengers to put their feet on. It can be said that it is very thoughtful. I sat in it with my back to Yin Xiamo and didn't feel uncomfortable at all.

"No."

I looked at the people coming and going around me and blurted out, "I seldom took the bus at that time. When I was very young, I went to school at the beginning of the school year. The welfare home would ask the driver to drive a van over and take all of us in one go. We would sit in the back of the van with our little schoolbags on our backs and chat."

That is the only memory I have in my mind that is similar to this moment.

To be honest, that was a very unforgettable memory for me.

The welfare home was very poor and it was impossible for it to contract a public bus specifically for us to take us to school. At that time, "freight" was cheaper than "passenger transport", so the director of the welfare home would call for freight drivers at the beginning of the school year, sometimes in convertible cars and sometimes in fully enclosed vans.

A group of us kids were behind the car, chatting and swaying left and right as the truck was driving on the mountain road.

It's okay for a fully enclosed van, as you can put a lot of small stools in the back and everyone can sit together and chat comfortably during the three or four hour journey. But it would be uncomfortable if you were to take an open-air truck, as many people would be squeezed into the loading compartment and sit directly on the metal floor, and if it rains lightly they would get wet all the way.

What impressed me most was that the truck driver needed to transport some sugarcane to the city to sell, and picking us kids up was just a side job. A group of us sat directly on the truck that was half loaded with sugarcane. The road in the mountains was not good, it was shaking, and the children who were carsick vomited all the way.

If something like this happened today, it would be a clear violation of the law and the driver would be fined and have points deducted. However, it was a very common thing for people at that time because they were poor.

Thinking back now, we were like children who were kidnapped and sold. However, at that time, we didn’t feel that there was anything wrong at all when we thought about going to school, meeting friends from all over the world, and sharing with them all the interesting things that happened during the holidays. This memory has become a treasure that we can bury deep in our hearts.

"So now Noelle can experience a similar feeling."

After listening to me, Yin Xiamo behind me whispered, "Just think of it as a memory of your childhood."

Whose childhood... involves sitting on a supermarket trolley!

wrong.

I suddenly realized something.

It seems that except for children like me who have grown up without parents, most children in the city seem to have experienced "going shopping in the supermarket with mom and dad and being put into the shopping cart."

Nowadays, almost all shopping carts have the function of "carrying children". Generally, parents don't like their children crying, so they will put children under six or seven years old in the provided space in the shopping cart. However, because I was born in an orphanage, I hardly went to the supermarket when I was a child. When the orphanage had shopping needs, the director would take the employees directly to the city to buy enough for several months at a time.

In other words...Xiaomo is actually right. The me now can indeed be considered as "making up for childhood regrets."

I turned my head and looked at Xiaomo's lively little face under the light.

Next to her was Philo, who was looking around with curiosity on his face.

"What's wrong, is there something on my face?"

Under my gaze, Yin Xiamo tilted her head: "Nuo'er, why are you suddenly acting cute?"

"I'm not being cute."

I turned around and pointed to the "Vegetable and Meat Section" hanging in front of me: "Since we are going to buy vegetables, shall we go there first?"

As they were talking, a familiar musical prelude sounded from several large speakers above the supermarket:

[I can't wait for you to clean the cupboard, but now you're leaving with a code message]

It is the theme song of the recently popular anime "Cyberpunk: Edgewalker".

"Wow, don't play this song. How come I get stabbed just for buying vegetables..."

At the same time, many people nearby also recognized the song and started discussing it with their friends on the spot: "My Rebecca, ah..."

Then his companion asked curiously: "What cyberpunk?"

"Didn't you see it? I told you before, the Cyberpunk 2077 fan anime."

"What's so good about this doujinshi? Isn't it just another promotion for the game to make money?"

"No, no, no, that's just you being superficial. This anime is going crazy right now. Do you remember what the super anime of 2021 was last year?"

“The Battle of Two Cities by League of Legends.”

"Yes, "A Battle of Two Cities". Can you say that it is to make money for League of Legends? That anime is a dimensionality reduction strike for the film and television in the world. Not only does it have no rivals, it is also one dimension ahead of all movies and animations. It is well-deserved to be the best anime of 2021. And I can tell you that the anime that is almost catching up with "A Battle of Two Cities" in 2022 is "Cyberpunk: Edgewalker", which is absolutely hegemonic."

"Now that you say that, I'm going to take a good look at it when I get back. Where can I watch it?"

"This is a bit difficult to find. The age limit is 21+, so you...be mentally prepared when you look at it."

"..."

Amid the soothing music, the person sitting in the car for some reason recalled the scene of himself shopping alone in the supermarket in the center of the commercial street near his small apartment not long ago.

"Crash-"

Suddenly, a girl who looked to be in her twenties, who seemed to have just graduated from college and was wearing a daily sailor suit with short socks, pushed a small cart and slid past us.

The girl seemed to have gotten used to the weight and sliding inertia of this kind of car. She was having a lot of fun playing with it by herself. She first pushed the car forward a few steps, then put one foot on the horizontal bar behind the car, and slid several meters in the air with a faint smile on her face.

It was as if this was one of the few ways in which I could relax and feel happy in my boring life.

Of course, she performed all these actions in an open space far away from the shelves and the crowd. The bike slowed down when it was still five or six meters away from the shelf with candies in front. The girl got off the bike, controlled the handlebars with both hands, and the relaxed expression on her face returned to normal.

"..."

Looking at the table with "XX jelly" in front of her, the girl stared at the price in the middle of the table for a long time, picked up a few jellies, and there was obvious hesitation on her face.

After a few seconds, the girl put the jelly back and pushed the cart away.

"what happened?"

Perhaps because I was silent for a long time, Yin Xiamo, who was pushing the cart behind me, leaned close to my ear and asked, "Did you see your past self in that girl?"

"No way."

I blurted out: "I wasn't that kind of girl before, I... I'm an old man..."

Well, uncle or something like that, I feel a little embarrassed when I say it in this loli voice now.

But to be honest, I was indeed similar to that girl dressed like a college student before.

She should have just graduated from school and started working on her own. She should still be at that age where she is innocent and has a good impression of the world.

Jelly is also one of my favorite snacks, but it is even more "useless" than Crispy Shark. After all, Crispy Shark itself is a "calorie bomb" and "energy reserve food". You can use it to fill your stomach when you are too busy for breakfast, and you can eat it to replenish energy when you are too hungry or have low blood sugar.

What does jelly have? It's just a bunch of sugar and carrageenan. It can't fill your stomach or replenish a lot of energy. It's more expensive than Crispy Shark, and the cost performance is extremely low.

So in the past, no matter how much I liked eating this kind of snack, I would only buy seven or eight portions a year and put them in the refrigerator. I would eat some when I was in a bad mood, and then cheer myself up and continue working.

The girl obviously knew all this. After all, this thing, to put it simply, is a "luxury item" for the working class who have just graduated and started working.

If an ordinary college graduate in Kamihama City is lucky, he can find a job with a monthly salary of around 3,000 yuan, and rent of around 1,000 yuan, which leaves 2,000 yuan and more than 1,000 yuan for food and socializing. A small bag of jelly costs dozens of yuan, which is gone in a few bites. The money for one bag of some larger jellies can buy a bowl of 200 grams of rice noodles in the urban village. It is really unaffordable.

"I know that, right?"

Yin Xiamo said lazily, "At least in the past few years, I have been watching you from time to time in places where Nuo'er can't see. I know what Nuo'er likes, what he hates, and where he has been...Xiao, Ke, Ai?"

Yin Xiamo's somewhat ambiguous words instantly gave me goosebumps: "Eh!"

Are you a yandere?!

Why did I see the shadow of "Azuma Yuno" in you just now? Don't make the word "stalking" sound so refreshing and refined!

"It's really lively here, almost as lively as the market in the city."

At this time, Filo also came over: "Isn't it said that Nan Nagi District is the district with the least people in this city?"

"The city where Philo worked as a bartender before... is it crowded?"

Seeing this, I quickly changed the subject: "Just...will someone drink and not buy it or something?"

"Yes, there are many less civilized people in the other world than here, and they often start fighting over a disagreement."

Philo replied: "But basically no one dares to cause trouble in the bar where I work."

"You're mixing drinks with such thick dragon horns and tail, and those dragon wings."

Yin Xiamo stood up straight and pushed the cart again. “How could someone so blind come here to cause trouble? If you cause trouble under the hands of the dragon clan, you may think your life is too long.”

"Hehe, I don't show my dragon horns every day. Sometimes I like to disguise myself as an ordinary bartender and seduce those blind adventurers. When they say something rude, I suddenly spread my dragon wings and watch them look terrified."

Filo smiled and said, "Tease with humans always makes me feel happy. It is also the source of my daily happiness."

"You're still the same."

Yin Xiamo sighed: "Be careful here, don't overdo it."

"Do not worry."

Philo blinked: "We can't cause a murder, right?"

"Don't make people too miserable."

Yin Xiamo was silent for a moment: "For example, missing limbs or something, this world is very law-abiding."

"Yes, yes, you see, I was very restrained when I beat those guys before."

Filo signaled me in the car with his eyes: "Xiaomo, you killed someone by 20 years with just one knife..."

“That’s when he touched my bottom line.”

"Indeed, if someone wants to target Nuo'er, I will also be ruthless in my place."

After a pause, Philo turned around again and asked: "So Gabriel is really coming?"

"Don't you know the forbidden spell you left there?"

Yin Xiamo said helplessly, "You should know the character of Angel Miss Gabriel very well. You two have been quarreling for thousands of years. Suddenly you lost your presence, and there are forbidden spells left over there. Even if I tried to stop her, she would definitely find a way to cross the dimensional wall and run over here... So what was the quarrel about before?"

"This is... the devil king is dead, and Heaven is planning to hold a... uh, festival-like event, and let Gabriel be the representative of the Angels to negotiate with our Dragons, hoping that we can send a few giant dragons to help them build a temple on the ground."