Chapter 3 (2/2)

Water was dripping off Yuan Zhou’s hair. He sat on a chair and started to record tomorrow’s working schedules on paper.

One hand was writing carefully while the other hand was slowly knocking the table.

Disregarding his semi-dry hair, Yuan Zhou finished arranging his schedule for the next day and then went to sleep. He didn’t even managed to cover the quilt before he fell asleep accompanied by sweet dreams.

April weather in Chengdu was not too hot or too cold, perfect for a good sleep.

The first action people usually take after waking up is to open their eyes. But that doesn’t apply to Yuan Zhou.

With his eyes closed, he groped for the bathroom. After his release, he lay back down on his bed again to continue his dreams, never opening his eyes during the process.

Yet after laying back down for less than a minute, he opened his eyes abruptly and sprung up from the bed.

“System!” he shouted.

No answer came from the system.

It wasn’t until he saw the unfinished mission status in his mind did he confirm that it wasn’t a dream.

This caused Yuan Zhou to be in a good mood. He started to wash up and begun preparations to complete the task from last night.

Standing by the door, he breathed a deep sigh and opened it with a heavy lift. The sound surprised the Boss Tong from the dry cleaning shop next to his restaurant. The dry cleaning shop of Boss Tong had the best business in the whole street. After all, everyone had some expensive clothes. When they couldn’t wash them, they would send them to the dry cleaning shop.

“Hi, Yuan Zhou, are you going out?”

Seeing Yuan Zhou opening the door of his store, Boss Tong was astonished. After all, the shop had been closed for three years, it was the first time Boss Tong seeing the door opened.

“Good morning, Aunt Tong.” Yuan Zhou’s thoughts was interrupted by Boss Tong as he was admiring the achievements of his hard work last night.

“Hey, are you tidying and cleaning the restaurant to open a business? If so, I’m gonna come to taste your cooking some time soon,” asked Boss Tong with a well-intentioned smile on her skinny face. She walked out of her shop and took a look at the clean floor and the pile of rubbish by the door.

“Ok, Aunt Tong. Then I will thank you in advance. By the way, does the man that collects rubbish comes by every day?” asked Yuan Zhou. He was thinking of the recyclable scrap irons that could be sold.

After all, it cost money to purchase things necessary for his new business. Except for the 50 thousand RMB that was unused, Yuan Zhou didn’t have any more money. However little those scrap irons were worth, it was still money. Moreover, he could be free from the hard labor of disposing the rubbish.

“Yes, yes. He comes by every day. You want to sell all that? The man will probably come in a while. Let me inform you once he arrives,” said Boss Tong earnestly.

“OK. Sorry for the bother, and thank you for your help. Let me first send for some people to get the wallpaper and kitchen repaired,” said Yuan Zhou with a grateful smile. He then closed the door and left.

……..

“Hey, Boss. What’s the price of this suit?”

Boss Tong was still sighing with emotions when a customer called out to her. She gave an answer and went back to her shop.

Yuan Zhou hadn’t wandered along this street for a long time. He walked while gazing about. Many stores were no longer what they used to be. Some stores were being renovated while the boss had also changed.

Only 4 stores were left unchanged, including his store, the dry cleaning shop, a hardware store and a shop selling animation and cartoon products.

“Yes. That hardware store…” Yuan Zhou walked into that hardware store after thinking of something.

“Boss Zhao, are you here?” asked Yuan Zhou in the store.

The hardware store was still unchanged. Things were still exactly where they had been, as if they had never moved.