The flea market was an annual event for the entire university.

The location was on a less prominent road, entirely occupied and closed to vehicle traffic. Many security personnel maintained order, measured students' body temperatures at entry and exit, and ensured masks were worn for entry.

Zhou Li was browsing such a market for the first time and was very curious.

After entering the market, he found that the road was divided into many small sections according to academic faculties. Stalls weren't set up haphazardly; instead, they had to be neatly arranged on the sidewalks, leaving the road available for walking.

Little Cousin walked ahead, light on her feet, looking left and right, seemingly in an especially good mood today.

Mianmian and Qian Qian, hand-in-hand, walked behind them.

Zhou Li and Brother Nan followed at the very end.

This was mainly because Brother Nan was extremely curious; she checked out each stall, sometimes chatting with the sellers and asking about prices.

But she never bought anything after asking.

Zhou Li was already used to this; he had gotten used to it when accompanying Brother Nan at the supermarket.

With Brother Nan by his side, he also carefully inspected the items on the stalls and sometimes quietly observed the senior students. He felt that many of the sellers weren't graduates but just happened to have things to sell; however, their items weren't as cheap as those sold by graduates.

Furthermore, he noticed some patterns—

There were far more female than male vendors.

The men sold their goods more cheaply, and sometimes if they took a fancy to a buyer, they'd laughingly slash prices to nearly giving them away.

Most of the merchandise consisted of household items, entertainment goods, or study supplies, like small electric fans, bicycles, computers, computer peripherals, and materials for the Level Four and Six English exams. Apart from these, there also seemed to be differences in the styles of items sold by each faculty, some major, some minor.

For instance, the Foreign Languages faculty and the Architecture faculty had vastly different offerings.

The Foreign Languages faculty's stalls were the most numerous, and their merchandise the most abundant, almost exclusively staffed by female students. At a glance, there were many plush toys, as well as clothes, pants, shoes, hats, and all sorts of miscellaneous items.

There was even someone selling quilts. A senior sister's 'authentic scent'? Zhou Li wondered.

Mechanical keyboards from the Architecture faculty were only eighty yuan apiece! So cheap! Brother Nan thought. She then saw a bespectacled guy consult with his roommate and buy all four mechanical keyboards on display. If she hadn't looked down on these off-brand goods, she might not have been able to resist buying them herself.

But not long after, she saw the stall owner pull out four identical mechanical keyboards from a sack—

"Mechanical keyboards, eighty each, non-negotiable."

"This is interesting!" Brother Nan laughed, turning to Zhou Li. "Where did they wholesale these from?"

"Don't know."

"We should let your Little Cousin take a good look; those guys have a great business sense," Brother Nan grinned. "What else is good for making money? Maybe we should just spend five yuan to get a stall and earn some cash too."

"Do you have to pay for a stall?" Zhou Li was curious.

"Yes, but no one would know if you didn't, and most likely no one would care," Brother Nan said. "But it's not necessary."

"Five yuan isn't much."

"Right."

After making one round, Brother Nan had indeed bought quite a few things: cute little fans, a mouse pad big enough to cover a table, a small desk lamp, and a bizarre pure steel clothes rod, which she held as if wielding a silver spear after purchasing it.

The two then strolled back from the other side.

"I've decided! I'll set up a stall tomorrow. I have to think about what to sell tonight," Brother Nan said, a bit annoyed. "Sigh, if I'd known earlier, I would have stocked up on some cheap and popular items from 1688!"

"How many days does the flea market last?"

"Five days."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Let me think... Should I buy some cheap stuff from the seniors first and then resell it at a higher price? But that doesn't seem quite right..."

"Isn't that malicious price hiking?"

"True."

Brother Nan fell into thought, habitually striding forward.

Zhou Li saw Little Cousin up ahead, squatting at a stall set up by a senior student, seriously fiddling with a camera lens. Mianmian and Qian Qian were struggling to carry a chair with an attractive design, on which a few plush toys and a Ukulele were placed.

For a moment, he thought he saw a figure resembling Huai Xu in the crowd.

In addition to students, many faculty and staff meandered through the market, probably because the goods were really too cheap.

The evening glow was so red that it bathed the ground in its hue.

Zhou Li saw a senior brother give a book to a junior brother who wanted to buy it. A senior sister hesitated for a long time before handing over her guitar. Some people who had sold all their items didn't look very happy, and many others just sat silently before their stalls.

He suddenly realized that this was actually the curtain fall on the youth of a group of people.

Each item was a witness to time.

Leaving the flea market, Zhou Li and Brother Nan each bought a pancake and sat on the flowerbed eating, sharing the sunset. Brother Nan's quiet demeanor made it difficult to imagine that she was the same person who had been practicing her "divine skills" in front of the teaching building earlier.

Zhou Li pondered what he would be like when he graduated.

「In the evening, Dorm 106.」

Mianmian sat on her newly purchased chair, staring off into space.

Qian Qian talked softly to her stuffed doll.

Little Cousin held a wooden item with a back scratcher on one end and a small hammer on the other, scratching her back with great focus. She ultimately didn't buy that lens because it was slightly flawed and her wallet couldn't support the purchase.

Brother Nan emerged from the bathroom, holding her phone in one hand and steadying herself on the wall with the other. She staggered with every step, her face contorting into a different grimace each time.

Little Cousin glanced sideways, sneakily watching her.

"Is your leg numb?" Mianmian asked with concern.

"Yeah," Brother Nan grimaced, then glanced at Little Cousin. "Are your postcards ready? You can start selling them tomorrow. I see at the flea market, it's not just second-hand goods being sold. You could capitalize on the traffic."

"I haven't..."

"How can you still not have them!"

Little Cousin said nothing.

At this moment, Brother Nan laboriously shuffled over to Little Cousin. She was still grimacing as she moved forward when suddenly—SNAP!

It was as if a current of electricity rampaged through Brother Nan's calf!

She felt as if her leg had sprouted a web of dense, fine cracks from a single point, as delicate as a spider's web, ready to shatter.

She looked down.

There she saw Little Cousin, head bowed, intently observing her leg. Unbeknownst to Brother Nan, Little Cousin had taken the back scratcher from behind her back and was now holding the hammer end, the small wooden mallet poised about twenty centimeters from Brother Nan's leg.

Brother Nan's face was a picture of incredulity!

And upon realizing Brother Nan had stopped moving forward, Little Cousin slowly raised her head, looked at her, then lapsed into silence.

It's over, Little Cousin realized. There's no escaping this beating.

So she looked down again—

SLAP!

She glanced up to inspect Brother Nan's expression, then looked down again—

SLAP!

「Ten minutes later.」

Zhou Li finished showering and stepped out of the bathroom. He had a few messages on his phone and casually opened them—

21:59

Baozi: Big bro, save me

22:01

Baozi: Help

22:06

Baozi: Never mind

Baozi: Big bro, I want to eat the cafeteria's rice noodles with a braised egg tomorrow. Can you ask Brother Nan to bring it back for me? I might not be able to get out of bed.

Zhou Li was thoroughly confused.

He stared at the "Help" message for a long time, mentally reconstructing the scene of the "crime." After a long while, he finally typed—

Zhou Li: What's up?

Baozi: It's nothing...

Zhou Li: Why did Brother Nan hit you on the first day of school?

Baozi: I used this

Baozi: [Picture]

Baozi: I lightly tapped Brother Nan's leg with it

Zhou Li: ??

Baozi: [Hmm hmm hmm]

Zhou Li: She hit you just for that?

Baozi: Yes

Zhou Li: That's too much!

Baozi: So what do I do?

Zhou Li: Do you want thick or thin rice noodles?

Baozi: Can't you talk to Brother Nan appropriately and help me avoid getting hit in the future?

Zhou Li: I also prefer the thin ones.

Baozi: …