Pats Little Shrike's Tail - Chapter 25

Chapter 25

A week had passed since Shan Ling left Shen Qingyi. She had figured out why she was so hungry she had reverted to her original form.

Ultimately, it was because she had been so focused on accumulating merit that she hadn’t considered how to survive in modern society. With no income, she couldn’t make ends meet. The living expenses of rent and food had steadily emptied Shan Ling’s small savings.

After much thought, Shan Ling decided she had to find a job first.

There were still over seven months until the beginning of summer next year. She couldn’t just live off her savings during that time. She had to find a balance between working and accumulating merit.

Shan Ling sat in front of the garage, basking in the sun, looking at the small recruitment flyer in her hand. Most of them were for agencies; normal people wouldn’t look at small ads like these.

The sun was very warm today. Shan Ling had pulled out a nylon rope to dry her quilt. Although it was an old community, the property management didn’t allow open-air drying, so Shan Ling had to watch her quilt at all times so she could quickly take it back if she was discovered.

Just as Shan Ling was thinking about where to find a job, a middle-aged woman with permed hair walked toward her.

“Hey, you there.”

The middle-aged woman called out to Shan Ling from a distance. “I finally found you.”

Shan Ling looked up from the flyer. It took her a moment to realize this was her landlady.

“Mrs. Landlady,” Shan Ling stood up politely. When the woman walked over, she said, “Were you looking for me?”

“Yes,” the middle-aged woman looked at Shan Ling’s well-behaved and cute appearance and felt a bit sorry for her, but she still braced herself and said, “Where did you go for the past month? I came to look for you several times but couldn’t find you.”

Shan Ling couldn’t very well say she had turned into a bird and flown away, could she?

“Something came up at home, so I went back for a trip. I just came back recently.” Shan Ling looked at the woman with some unease, and carefully asked, “Is there something you need, Mrs. Landlady?”

“You child, can’t I come to see you if I don’t have anything to do?” The landlady was also a bit embarrassed. After a pause, she said, “However, I do have something I need to discuss with you.”

Shan Ling’s heart sank. She had a bad feeling.

“It’s like this. The contract we signed was for three months, and it’s about to expire,” the landlady said. “Don’t think my place is small. There are plenty of people begging me to rent it. And prices have been going up a lot recently, so my rent has to go up, too.”

Shan Ling frowned slightly and said, “You’re raising the rent?”

“That’s right,” the landlady said bluntly. “The fried dough stick sellers at the entrance have raised their prices, so my place has to, too, right?”

“Then… how much are you going to raise it?”

“It’s not much,” the landlady said to Shan Ling. “It was eight hundred a month, and I’m only raising it by five hundred.”

What an “only.”

Shan Ling calculated that the original 800 a month would now become 1300. Since the landlady liked to collect rent every three months, that would be nearly four thousand yuan.

This four thousand yuan was not a small amount, but for Shan Ling, who was currently penniless, it was a huge sum.

The landlady saw that Shan Ling wasn’t saying anything and felt a bit awkward. She then said hesitantly, “Little girl, it’s not easy for you to make a living in the city by yourself. How about this? I’ll give you a discount of 100 yuan. How about 1200?”

Shan Ling looked at her in a difficult position. What was the difference between 1300 and 1200? She couldn’t afford either.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Landlady,” Shan Ling said helplessly. “I really can’t pay the rent. How about… I just move out?”

The landlady was dumbfounded. She gave a dry laugh. “Why are you in such a hurry, little girl? If you think the increase is too much, we can still discuss it. How about 1100? The rent in this neighborhood has all gone up. You won’t be able to find a place as good as mine. It has to go up a little, right?”

Shan Ling thought to herself, Where is this a house? It’s just a garage. What’s so good about it?

And she wasn’t actually bargaining. Not to mention 1100, she couldn’t even afford the 800 yuan rent right now. Since she was going to look for a job anyway, it would be more convenient to find one that included food and lodging.

“No, really. I was planning on moving anyway,” Shan Ling said politely to the landlady. “It’s good that you came. I’ll move out at the end of this month. When can you return my deposit?”

The landlady looked at her awkwardly. She had come to ask for money, but how did it end up with her having to give money to someone else?

Shan Ling was a stubborn person. Since she had decided to find a job that included food and lodging, she naturally didn’t want to delay. The landlady saw that they couldn’t come to an agreement, so she straightforwardly returned Shan Ling’s 800 yuan deposit.

With the few hundred yuan she had left, Shan Ling had at least a thousand yuan in her hand and wouldn’t starve for a while.

Shan Ling looked at the thousand yuan in her hand and thought that she had to find a stable job by the end of the month.

But what kind of job should she look for?

Shan Ling had just turned 20 this year. According to the education system, Shan Ling was also a college graduate, but her school was a bit… unusual. It didn’t normally accept normal people.

A college graduate, young.

Shan Ling thought she should be able to find a job that included food and lodging, right?

The weather got colder as November approached. Shan Ling had come here in the summer, and her suitcase wasn’t even full. But when she was about to move, she found that she had more and more things. She didn’t even have any winter clothes yet, and her suitcase was already not enough.

Shan Ling finally found a job at a playground in a mall. It was one of those playgrounds with a ball pit and a slide.

The manager took one look at Shan Ling and agreed to let her work. He gave her a clean uniform and started teaching her how to operate the equipment.

“We have children here, so you have to be very careful,” the manager said to Shan Ling. “There are already people in charge of the playground, so you’ll be in charge of the cashier for now. After you collect the money, you just have to stick this small piece of paper on the back of the child. This way, you’ll know which child has paid.”

Shan Ling looked at the children in the playground. The oldest of these children were no more than seven or eight years old. The parents were all sitting on small benches outside the playground, playing with their phones. The children played by themselves, and there were some adults wearing the same uniform as Shan Ling inside, to prevent any accidents with the children.

“Our working hours are from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and we provide food and lodging. You get one day off per week. Besides the weekends, you can let me know in advance if you want to take a day off,” the manager said after giving Shan Ling a tour of the playground. He then started teaching her how to use the cashier.

The job was indeed simple and didn’t require much thinking. Besides the long working hours, Shan Ling was very happy with everything else.

Perhaps because there were a lot of children, they would inevitably fall or get into fights. As long as Shan Ling went over to help them up, she would gain a few points of merit.

It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.

…

Unlike Shan Ling’s laid-back life, Shen Qingyi’s condition had not been good for the past few weeks.

Ever since the little bushtit in her house suddenly disappeared, Shen Qingyi felt like she had lost her soul. Her mood was at an all-time low.

The girl from her dreams had disappeared, and her Little Chubby was also gone. Shen Qingyi felt like the treasure she had been guarding for a month had suddenly vanished without a trace.

Zhou Shu comforted her, saying that the bird had probably flown away and that since it came from outside, it must have gone home.

But Shen Qingyi felt very suffocated inside. The pressure was so immense that she couldn’t breathe.

No one would stay with her forever, not even a pet.

Shen Qingyi had always thought that a bird’s lifespan was only three to five years. She believed that as long as she took good care of it, she could protect the little chubby bird from the wind and rain. Unfortunately, that kind of warmth only lasted for a month before it was gone.

Zhou Shu could see that Shen Qingyi was visibly becoming more anxious.

Those visual and auditory hallucinations were sometimes a life-saving remedy, and the fact that Shen Qingyi had lost them was more impactful than Zhou Shu had expected. This led Zhou Shu to prescribe some calming medication for her to ensure she could live a normal life.

But Zhou Shu knew that if she couldn’t distract Shen Qingyi, it was only a matter of time before she had an episode.

After resting for two weeks, Shen Qingyi finally left her house and went to the cafe.

It was Friday today. As winter approached, the cafe’s business was getting better and better. Nuonuo was a bit overwhelmed working alone. Since Shen Qingyi’s condition wasn’t very good, she was thinking of hiring another person.

“Manager~”

Nuonuo closed the shop early. She ran to Shen Qingyi’s car with her scarf wrapped around her neck, opened the car door, and got in.

“It’s so cold outside. The temperature drop these past few days has frozen me,” Nuonuo said, rubbing her face. She was sensitive to the cold and had already started wearing her long johns. Today, she even put on a sweater and a scarf, but she was still complaining about being cold.

Shen Qingyi drove off with her and sighed softly. “It’ll warm up in a few days.”

“It’s not going to get much warmer. It’s already November,” Nuonuo said, sitting in the car with her seatbelt on, turning to Shen Qingyi. “I’ve sent you the list of things we need to buy for the store, right? I’m afraid I might have forgotten something, and it’ll be a hassle to go again.”

Shen Qingyi nodded. “You sent it all. But I haven’t looked at it yet. You should take a look.”

Nuonuo said “Mm” and took out her phone, going through the purchase list item by item.

The cafe’s business had been good these past few days, and the consumables were running low. So today, Shen Qingyi closed the shop early and took her only employee, Nuonuo, to do some shopping.

The traffic was light in the afternoon, and Shen Qingyi quickly drove to the mall she usually went to and parked in the underground garage.

Shen Qingyi got out of the car and went upstairs with Nuonuo to start their shopping.

Nuonuo was a great barista. Although she had just graduated and was still naive about social matters, she was a professional when it came to coffee beans. She could tell if a coffee bean was good or not just by smelling it.

The two of them shopped in the mall for more than an hour, buying everything they needed. They were carrying bags and were ready to find a place to rest.

“The last batch of glassware we bought was not durable. Several of them broke. I hope this batch won’t have any problems,” Nuonuo said, holding a cup of hot milk tea and sighing. “This trip cost us another four or five thousand.”

Although the cafe’s business was better now, they were still tight on money. Nuonuo was so worried that the cafe would go out of business.

Shen Qingyi didn’t feel that way. She had opened the cafe just to pass the time. Business being good actually felt like a hassle, and she was even thinking of raising the prices to scare off some customers.

Just as Shen Qingyi was lost in her thoughts, she saw a familiar figure flash by in the playground in the center of the mall.

She subconsciously turned her head, her eyes wide with shock.

She saw a girl with a ponytail, wearing a brownish-red uniform, helping up a little boy who had fallen. And her face was exactly the same as the girl she had dreamed of!

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