Chapter 14: Adventures at the Supermarket

19 June, Afternoon, before 17:00

There were not much people in the supermarket, but everyone was wearing a mask. Some of them were even more exaggerated, wearing raincoats and motorcycle helmets.

Xiao Mo touched his face, he then realized that he did not protect himself before walking out of his home. That was why when he walked pass the ration queue people were looking at him and the kid weirdly- they were attracting a lot of attention.

Xiao Mo referred to the map in his mind- Li Xiao Shuang was very close to them. As Xiao Mo pushed the shopping cart and was about to enter the shopping zone, he was stopped by a worker.

“Besides daily necessities, there is a purchase limit on all food items. Please refer to the notice board for more details.”

Xiao Mo listened attentively and looked at the big notice board.

It said: To avoid intentional stock piling or irrational buying that can cause food shortage, items like rice, oil, flour, meat and other main food items have no stock here. If there is a need, please proceed to the ration points to collect.

Spices, especially salt, only five hundred grams are allowed per person.

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Jwv oyp vbkp hszwxl ldswtb qsa bkx? Dkys Ys osaaklezu vswnble bkp pvsxynb.

“Eblal kp vbl vyatlv?” Mbl jke ypjle.

Mbl xyr oyp hlau kxralppkhl. Gp bl xshle, vbl xyr yzps xshlp; aktbv dso vbl xyr vaydpqsaxle kdvs y vos-ekxldpksdyz xyr sq vbl pwrlaxyajlv.

“She is near us, should be opposite of that shelf.”

“Xiao!”

Xiao Mo turned his head, there was a person with a scarf wrapped around his head. He was pushing a trolley and was headed towards him.

“Are you Old Yi?” Xiao Mo listened closely and laughed, “Such a hot weather, aren’t you hot?”

Old Yi did not notice the kid. He pushed the trolley and walked towards Xiao Mo. He sighed, “As compared to life, what is heat even? What about you, so bold, not even a mask and you are out hanging around.”

“I didn’t get it. Since I didn’t get it three days ago, I think I won’t get it in the future.” Xiao Mo laughed, he wanted to make Old Yi leave faster.

The two of them pushed their trolley while walking side by side. Xiao Mo intentionally maneuvered towards the target, while Xue Li Hong walked closely to Xiao Mo.

“It is best if it is like that.”

“Are you alright, Old Xiao?”

Old Xiao sighed again, “I am lucky and have a long life; I only stayed in the hospital for one and a half days before I recovered.”

“What about your wife and kids?”

“They’re fine, all alright. It’s just Xiao Fei’s grandmother and grandfather are both gone.”

“My condolences.”

“What can I do? They are already over seventy; it is already considered a long life.”

The both of them chatted some more.

Xiao Mo thought that Old Xiao only wanted to say hello, but the conversation long ended and Old Yi was still hovering around him.

Xiao Mo noticed that Li Xiao Shuang was not moving, so he asked Old Yi, “You have something to tell me?”

Old Yi gripped the handlebar of the trolley tightly.

Xue Li Hong controlled himself not to be curious about what was happening to the opposite side of the shelf. He continued to stick closely to Xiao Mo.

Xiao Mo forced himself to look away from the rows of food. A wave of hunger washed over his stomach and slowly crawled from his stomach to his throat. Every cell in his body was screaming in hunger, but he just ate not long ago, he even ate so much.

If he must eat so much, then that Mother of Gluttony, how much must she eat to fill up her stomach?

Xiao Mo inwardly thought that since he was already in the supermarket, it would be weird if he did not buy any items. Thus he decidedly picked up some food items and placed them in the trolley as he waited for Old Yi to speak up.

“Old Xiao, I’m worried.” Old Yi lowered his voice.

“Why?”

Old Yi glanced around and went near Xiao Mo’s ear, “You know, a lot of people are spreading, saying that the virus is a sign and symptom of the end of the world.”

“Nonsense!” Xiao Mo barked out, “Old Yi, don’t tell me that you believe this kind of rumour?”

“I’m also not sure if I should believe or not. I also don’t want to believe it, but…” Old Yi fell into a trance, it seemed like he wanted to tell Xiao Mo something, but he kept stopping himself a few times.

“Wang Lao Er said…”

“Wang Lao Er’s words, you trust it?” Xiao Mo scorned.

Old Yi ignored his scorn, he hesitatingly said, “Wang Lao Er said that we are quarantined because the government wants the source of the virus to be killed, and if the situation is uncontrollable, the upper management intends to kill us silently, burning then burying.”

Xiao Mo frowned, Li Xiao Shuang was near the shelf, how was he going to get near her and speak to her?

“He said that we have to escape, or else there will be no way to live. He also said that the Institute of Infectious Diseases was doing an experiment with us, those that were sent away were actually transferred into the laboratory. Old Xiao, I’m not scared of you laughing at me, I really am genuinely afraid.” Old Yi stared at Xiao Mo, “I heard that those taken away were like me, they naturally recovered, I, I…”

“No such thing, don’t listen to Wang Lao Er’s nonsense, didn’t you come back safely? If they really wanted to capture you as a test subject, they wouldn’t have let you out.”

“Really?” Old Yi’s murky eyes finally shone a ray of light.

“Believe me, everything will be fine.” Xiao Mo consoled him. At the same time, he felt that Old Yi was not such a sensitive person, yet after one illness, he became this afraid?

Old Yi opened his mouth before stopping, “You don’t know.”

What did I not know, Xiao Mo felt that Old Yi was hiding some information from him. But if Old Yi refused to reveal, he would not force him to speak.

“This is mine! I took it first!” Suddenly, there was a loud shout next to them.

It’s Li Xiao Shuang! She was at the chocolate shelf and was pushing a man.

“Ding! Attention, mission target appeared; recycler Xiao Mo, be ready to recycle.”

Xiao Mo tightened his grip on the trolley bar.

“Who says you took it first, can’t you see that it is in my hand? Mad woman!” The man wearing a chemical industrial mask took the last bag of chocolate and threw it in his shopping cart before roughly pushing the woman blocking his way.

Li Xiao Shuang looked benign and gentle, but she was definitely not weak. She stalked forward and violently scratched the man’s eye, scolding loudly, “I took the bag of chocolates first but you snatched it away from me! You are a grown man yet you fight with a woman!”

“Stinky woman! How dare you scratch me! I am going to return it to you!” The masked man felt the woman scratched him and immediately swung his arm to slap Li Xiao Shuang in retaliation.

Xiao Mo could not stay still; he also wanted to make use of this opportunity to get closer to Li Xiao Shuang, to see if he could convince her to visit the hospital or inquire about her condition. He still hoped that he did not need to kill her to resolve the problem. As for whether he would be wiped off if he cannot complete the mission, he also did not know what to do.

Xiao Mo pulled the kid to stand behind him before Xiao Mo pushed the trolley cart and banged on the masked man on the side of his waist.

The man swung his body and his hand did not manage to land on the woman. He turned back and scowled, “Are you blind? Can’t you see properly before you walk?”

“Sorry, I didn’t notice.” Xiao Mo lifted his hand and smiled.

“Didn’t notice and that’s it? You hit my waist and it hurts a lot, what are you going to do about it?” The masked man shouted.

“Oh, I hit you? Let me check, I just happen to have learned massage, do you want me to rub for you?” Xiao Mo was in the line of business, what kind of people had he not seen before? This kind of man who tried to hit a woman in the public were mostly shameless; the softer you were, the harder he gets. The best remedy was to be tougher than him.

“Shit! Do you want a fight?” The masked man spitted out a string of curses before turning his trolley and used both hands to bang it on Xiao Mo.

Xiao Mo merely used one hand to grab hold onto the trolley that was about to crash into him.

The masked man applied more strength onto the carat, but it refused to budge. He pushed again, but it still did not move an inch.

“I see that you can push your shopping cart just fine. So your waist is alright, one hundred percent uninjured, or do you still want me to check it?” Xiao Mo lightly commented, yet he gripped the trolley tightly.

Old Yi approached Xiao Mo.

The woman took the opportunity to snatch the bag of chocolates from the masked man’s trolley while he was distracted. She placed it into her own trolley and turned away quickly.

Xiao Mo stared at the woman’s back, before turning back to glance at the angry masked man. He touched his nose. First encounter with the mission target is a failure.

Old Yi chuckled, patting Xiao Mo’s back as he reassured, “These days, being brave and helping others is out of fashion, it is best to sweep your own door nowadays.”

Xiao Mo shrugged, “Being brave isn’t such a bad thing, it is meeting such unusual quality that is bad.” He had to think of a way to interact with the woman.

“Haha!” The masked man did not dare to confront Xiao Mo, he now wanted to catch the woman, but the woman was too far, so he pointed at the woman’s back and cursed.

The police patrolling around heard him and ran over, warning, “What are you doing? Creating commotion? Is life too easy for you?”

The masked man saw the police approaching. He did not want to create any problems for himself, so he relaxed his body and peered at Xiao Mo in disdain. Snatching his trolley back, he muttered, “Idiot! I thought that woman is related to you, you sure are stupid!”

Xiao Mo took a step forward.

“Hey! What are you doing? Have you paid for these items? Put them down! No eating!” The police that came over was shouting at the other side of the shelf.

The crude masked man walked over to join in. He could hear him sneer, “Where did this refugee woman come from? Started eating even before paying, so shameless.”

Xiao Mo’s heart jumped. He gave up the thought of teaching a lesson to the vulgar man, and instead turned and lead Old Yi and the kid together with their carts towards the other side of the shelf.

At the other side of the shelf, the Li Xiao Shuang who had successfully snatched the bag of chocolates was currently violently shoving potato crisps into her mouth. The cartoon mask that she was wearing was hanging on the edge of her ear; the continuous movements made it about to drop off. On the floor were a few bags of chips that have been torn opened.

Xiao Mo glanced at the floor and realized that she had already cleaned the chocolates that she had snatched away from the vulgar masked man.

It was such a short period of time; how did she even manage to peel off all the individual chocolate wrappings and consume them all.

“Stop eating and put it down right now! Put down!” The police saw that there was no use in shouting at her, so he decided to employ force.

However, Li Xiao Shuang actually continued her actions and entirely ignored him. She forcibly dislodged the policeman’s hand, and went to grab another bag of chips. She then violently opened the bag and poured its contents straight into her mouth.

Gulp. Xiao Mo’s throat moved as he swallowed his saliva.

“That woman indeed isn’t normal. It looks as if she is unable to control her hunger.” The kid tiptoed as he whispered to Xiao Mo.

“Do you see that?” Old Yi mumbled.

“What?” Xiao Mo wanted to move forward and grab Xue Li Hong, but he could not stop himself from staring at the food.

“That woman isn’t the first one.”

“What do you mean by not the first one?” Xiao Mo finally managed to force himself to stop looking at the chips.

Old Yi did not answer him back; he mumbled to himself, “Four vouchers is definitely insufficient. It is not enough for me, and definitely not enough for us. The ration is so little, there is also a limit to purchasing, they are definitely trying to starve us all to death; they are forcing us to die.”

“Old Yi?”

“Wang Lao Er forced me to sell my vouchers to him. After selling them to him, what am I going to eat?” His face slowly transformed into a ferocious look.

The policeman’s shouts had attracted the attention of the shoppers. More people were slowly milling towards the direction. The temporary management staff of the supermarket and the other policemen were also hurrying towards the direction.

Li Xiao Shaung and the policeman were currently entangled together. The police officer didn’t dare to hurt her, and was only trying to restrain her. However, Li Xiao Shuang might look skinny, but she was actually very strong.

Li Xiao Shuang shoved the policeman aside and snatched the bag of chips, ripped them open and guzzling them.

Kacha, Kacha. Some of the bits of chips fell out from her mouth.

The aroma of food instantly became potent and it even started spreading.

Should I go and stop her? But the police are here too.

Xiao Mo suddenly licked his lips. It seems like he had not had chips for a very long while. He used to disdain this kind of fried processed snacks, but as he kept smelling the aroma, the food that he used to dislike abruptly became very attractive to him.

Dong.

Scatter.

Thunk!

There came sounds of items dropping on the floor.

Xiao Mo did not notice, but right after that, shouts started coming from all over the place.

“What are all of you doing? Put them all down! You are not allowed to eat if you haven’t paid! Put it down, put it all down!”

“Old Lee, Old Lee! This is Lian Gou supermarket, quick! Bring the enforcements here. It happened again; there is a group of gluttons, they are all mad!”

“This is mine; I got it first!”

“Give me, give me, I want to eat!”

“I’m so hungry! I can’t take it anymore, I want to eat! Nobody can stop me!”

“Let go! Ah! How can you beat people!”

“Stop! Stop fighting!”

“Where is the police? Quickly get the police!”

“Sir, you have not paid! You cannot push the trolley out!”

“Stop him, quick! Stop him!”

“Daddy, where are you? Uwaa- “

What happened? He just entered for a few minutes and there was such a huge chaos?

Screaming, fighting, goods being ripped open, items dropping on the floor, the police shouting, people screeching madly and kid crying. All the noise traveled into Xiao Mo’s ear simultaneously.