CHAPTER 20: CHAPTER 20: FAREWELL, ZHOU CHENG

"Captain, something happened over there."

Zhou Cheng pressed his brow upon hearing this.

He glanced reluctantly at Su Xiaoxiao: "Sorry, I have something important to attend to first."

After saying this, he turned and walked away quickly.

Su Xiaoxiao: "Wait a minute..." You haven’t paid me yet.

She had just started to speak when she suddenly met Zhou Cheng’s deep eyes.

Seeing her watery almond eyes looking at him with reluctance, Zhou Cheng’s usually steadfast heart wavered for a moment.

He really wanted to stay with her a little longer, but the mission on his shoulders would not allow him to.

In an instant of meeting those eyes, Su Xiaoxiao couldn’t manage to say the words that followed.

If she were to blame anything, it would be falling for good looks.

Being so poor that she couldn’t even stand the sound of a coin rattling, yet she still had time to admire handsome men, really shows her lack of ambition.

Su Xiaoxiao silently cursed herself in her heart, mustered up the courage to speak again, but before she could say anything, Zhou Cheng suddenly walked toward her.

Seeing his extraordinarily handsome face up close, Su Xiaoxiao found herself momentarily breathless.

What kind of luck did Zhang Dongmei have to find such a man as a fiancée?

While Su Xiaoxiao was silently griping, Zhou Cheng suddenly dug something out from his pocket and without a word, stuffed it into her hand.

Su Xiaoxiao was taken aback, then looked down.

Only to find that in her hand was a thick stack of money.

"Take these and use them for now."

With that, Zhou Cheng turned and left, but the tips of his ears, against his will, were tinged a shade of red.

Su Xiaoxiao roughly estimated that there were at least seven or eight large banknotes, in addition to quite a few one and two-unit bills, and at least six or seven vouchers.

That was too much, more than enough to buy all her shampoo.

She was just about to refuse when she saw Zhou Cheng already striding away, leaving only a tall silhouette behind.

Su Xiaoxiao could only pull out two yuan from the stack, then carefully put the remaining money and tickets into her shoulder bag.

In her mind, she thought about returning it to him when she found the right opportunity.

Right after she took care of all this, she heard a familiar ’ding’ sound,

and the coins in her wallet suddenly changed from zero to twenty.

Having had some experience now, Su Xiaoxiao had already figured out the transaction model in the mall.

She could get a thirty percent rebate in gold coins when she shopped in reality, and if she sold something, the rebate would be a hundred percent.

This meant with this golden finger perk, as long as she didn’t act foolishly, she’d have endless money to spend.

After successfully signing up and selling twenty packs of shampoo, Su Xiaoxiao’s mood was great.

Seeing that it was still early, she planned to wander around nearby, maybe she could sell another two packs of shampoo.

She wandered aimlessly on the street and curiously glanced twice toward the cinema entrance as she passed by.

During this era, most films shown in cinemas were revolutionary movies, reflecting the period’s uniqueness, which did not interest Su Xiaoxiao.

What did interest her were the two girls standing not far from the cinema entrance.

One girl looked about twenty-something, dressed reasonably fashionably, but her face was pale as if devoid of blood.

The most noteworthy thing was, in this hot weather, she was wearing a blue hat that covered her head completely, with the brim pulled low to hide most of her face.

The other girl looked only about fifteen or sixteen, with a round face, big eyes, and a deep dimple on the left cheek when she smiled.

At this moment, she was holding the era’s most popular hair comb, gesturing with it to the other girl.

As Su Xiaoxiao got closer, she could clearly hear their conversation.

"Sister, this is a colored comb I had a friend bring back from Shanghai, you can’t even buy this here, this one is for you."

Zhou Yuanyuan said as she stuffed the colored comb into Zhou Ping’s hand.

"I can’t use it with how I look now, it would be a waste for me."

Zhou Ping sighed, returning the colored comb to Zhou Yuanyuan.

"It’s just hair loss, eat some good food to nourish yourself, your hair will grow back soon."

Zhou Yuanyuan hurriedly comforted her, but Zhou Ping’s eyes were filled with sorrow: "It’s useless."

As she spoke, she lifted her hat a little, revealing the thinning hair beneath, her temple was almost bald.

"How did it get so bad?"

Zhou Yuanyuan was also startled by the scene before her.

She knew many women experience hair loss after giving birth.

But to see someone with hair loss as severe as her cousin’s was a first.

The sides of her temples were bare, and what used to be a thick head of black hair had become thin and sparse.

Faced with her more than shocked gaze, Zhou Ping sighed and put her hat back on.

Just as she’d done so, a soft and pleasant female voice unexpectedly came from behind.

"Comrade, hello, could you please tell me how to get to the department store?"

The two looked toward the sound, only to see a very pretty young girl.

The girl wore clothes that were washed out and old, and her whole appearance seemed drab, yet her eyes were extraordinarily bright, like they were filled with starlight and just one look made it hard to turn away.

What caught Zhou Yuanyuan’s eye even more was the little hair comb in the girl’s black hair.

The hair comb was encrusted with pink diamonds that shone brightly in the sunlight. By contrast, the one in her hand turned dull instantly.

"You follow this street to the end, then turn left and you’re there."

As Zhou Yuanyuan stared at the hair comb in a daze, Zhou Ping had already given Su Xiaoxiao the directions.

"Thank you."

Su Xiaoxiao said and was about to leave.

Zhou Yuanyuan hurriedly stepped forward and grabbed her wrist: "Comrade, where did you buy the hair comb on your head? It’s so beautiful."

Since ancient times, a woman’s nature to love beauty has been undenyingly true, especially for young girls like Zhou Yuanyuan who loved pretty things.

Upon seeing the hair comb on Su Xiaoxiao’s head, she couldn’t tear her gaze away.

Su Xiaoxiao shyly touched the comb on her head: "This was sent by my distant cousin from Hong Kong, I heard it’s quite popular there."

"Do you have any extras? Could you sell me two?"

Zhou Yuanyuan looked at her with bright, hopeful eyes.

Upon hearing this, Su Xiaoxiao’s expression showed some difficulty, although in her mind she was overjoyed: "My cousin only sent me three..."

When Su Xiaoxiao said this, she was a bit guilty because this item could be bought in the mall for ten gold coins for twenty of them.

Before she could finish, Zhou Yuanyuan eagerly spoke: "I’ll give you double the price, please sell me the rest, anyway, you can still have your cousin send more from Hong Kong."

Su Xiaoxiao bit her lip, pretended to ponder a moment, and reluctantly agreed: "Okay, I’ll sell them to you, but you don’t have to pay double, just the original price is fine, one yuan each."

Saying this, Su Xiaoxiao took out the remaining two combs from her pocket.

Zhou Yuanyuan happily accepted them and took out four yuan from her pocket, handing them to Su Xiaoxiao: "Agreed, double is double."

While speaking, she joyfully handed one of the combs to Zhou Ping: "Sister, with one each, we’ll definitely look beautiful when we go out."

Zhou Ping looked at the shining comb in her sister’s hand, somewhat tempted, but thought of her hair and lowered her gaze: "With a worried expression, she began to speak, ’My hair is falling out badly, it’s no use for me, you keep it yourself.’

As soon as she said that, the little girl beside her spoke up.