Chapter 40: Chapter 39: Pee Sitting Down, Not Standing Up
"The dark night gave me black eyes..."
Jiang Liu was groggily woken by the ringing.
He habitually reached over to feel for Tongtong beside him.
Then he opened his blurry eyes and grabbed the phone charging on the nightstand.
"Hello, is this Mr. Jiang Liu?"
"Mmm..."
"I’m an employee of Guangda Bank, ID number 0587. We’ve detected an issue with your account..."
Jiang Liu hung up immediately and glanced at the number—it was an international call starting with 0457.
It was already 10:45 PM.
’What bank works this late? They must have gotten their time zones mixed up since they’re in another country.’
Jiang Liu lowered the air conditioner by a couple of degrees.
He pulled the blanket back over Tongtong, who had kicked it off in her sleep.
Feeling the damp spot on his pajamas, Jiang Liu knew Tongtong’s drool was the culprit.
He couldn’t get back to sleep.
He idly opened WeChat, and a few unread messages popped up with a DING, DING, DING.
He ignored Yang Yixue’s messages outright.
’What a joke. We’re divorced. I can’t be bothered with her.’
He tapped on Jun Qingmeng’s chat.
He had added her when Tongtong first started kindergarten. Jun Qingmeng said it would make it easier to get in touch about any issues, and Jiang Liu hadn’t refused.
Jun Qingmeng: "Are you asleep? I’m on the early shift tomorrow, so you can drop Tongtong off early."
Jun Qingmeng: "I’ll be at the kindergarten by six thirty."
Jun Qingmeng: "Has Tongtong finished her homework? Today’s assignment was to write the 26 letters of the alphabet three times."
Jiang Liu, who had still been half-asleep, was instantly wide awake after reading the last message.
He reread it several times in disbelief.
Only when he was certain did he take a deep breath.
’Kindergarten has homework? Why didn’t Tongtong mention it?’
Jiang Liu’s expression shifted.
He looked down at his soundly sleeping daughter,
who was occasionally mumbling about "yummy buns" and "cola" in her sleep.
Jiang Liu stealthily picked up her SpongeBob backpack and started rummaging through it, pulling things out one by one:
Two cans of eight-treasure congee, a bag of shrimp crackers, three packs of bread, a carton of milk, two rocks, three paper airplanes, ten paper boats, and nine paper frogs.
He’d searched the entire backpack.
’Forget homework, there isn’t even an eraser in here!’
It made Jiang Liu laugh out of exasperation.
At the same time, he felt a pang of self-reproach.
A minute later, Jiang Liu had found a yellow workbook and a pencil and placed them on the desk.
Then he scooped up a dazed and confused Tongtong and plopped her soundly in a chair.
"Whoa! I’m flying..."
"Daddy, why won’t you let me sweepy?"
Tongtong steadied herself on the desk, looking up quizzically at Jiang Liu’s unreadable expression.
"Sleep? Did you forget something?"
Jiang Liu pointed to the workbook on the desk, his face stern.
’I need to show my strict, fatherly side,’ he thought. ’Otherwise, how will Tongtong ever grow into a responsible person?’
"A book? Daddy... Oh! Tongtong already finished her homework at school..."
Tongtong nibbled on her finger, blinking her big, innocent eyes.
Children always have tells when they lie, and as her father, Jiang Liu knew them all.
He smirked coldly.
"What homework? Did I say anything about homework?"
GAK!
The innocent look on Tongtong’s face froze, and she gave an awkward little laugh.
Realizing she’d been found out, she said no more.
Pouting and humming a little tune, she obediently picked up the pencil and started to write.
Suddenly, a strange expression crossed Jiang Liu’s face.
For a split second, he felt a sense of déjà vu...
’It’s like... watching myself as a kid...?’
Ten minutes later, under Jiang Liu’s strict personal tutelage, Tongtong completed the first homework assignment of her life.
Jiang Liu wondered how on earth Tongtong had been getting away with this at kindergarten, but seeing how late it was, he decided not to press the issue for now.
After he got Tongtong settled back in bed,
Jiang Liu went to the kitchen to take out the ingredients for the next day’s morning and lunch rushes. He needed to get a head start on his prep work.
Otherwise, he’d have to get up extremely early, and Tongtong would be dozing off all morning.
Jiang Liu based his shopping on making six hundred of each type of bun.
The filling for a single bun weighed between ten and thirteen grams.
That meant the filling for six hundred buns was around sixteen and a half pounds.
The filling for twenty-four hundred buns would require about sixty-six pounds of ingredients!
But aside from the corn, which was a pain to shuck, the other ingredients were easy enough to handle. The shrimp, pork, and vegetables didn’t need to be minced too finely. He needed to preserve the fresh texture of the ingredients for his buns; mincing them would compromise the taste.
An hour later.
Jiang Liu rubbed his sore arms and wrists. He portioned the filling into round balls, packed them in clean bags, and stuck them in the refrigerator to chill.
He sank onto the sofa and let out a long sigh, suddenly feeling thirsty.
Suddenly, his eyebrows shot up.
’I’m so forgetful. Since no one’s around, this is the perfect time to test out the new products.’
’Gourmet Album, I’d like to purchase one liter of orange juice,’ Jiang Liu called out in his mind, full of anticipation.
Abruptly, a head-sized, pale-yellow sphere of liquid appeared before him.
Its aroma was contained, as if shielded by some special power.
Before Jiang Liu could even react,
SPLAT.
The sphere of liquid landed on the table, splattering the slightly sticky, yellow fluid all over the floor. The scent of oranges instantly filled the living room.
In the bedroom, Tongtong, dreaming of fragrant lands, twitched her little nose and stuck out her tongue, trying to lick something in her sleep.
Jiang Liu stared at the scene, dumbfounded.
’...This isn’t quite what I imagined. Shouldn’t the liquid have been delivered in a container? Oh, whatever...’
Two minutes later,
Jiang Liu had lined up every available bucket, basin, and large bowl on the table.
Then, he ordered one liter of every kind of juice.
He’d tried to order half a liter, but it still came out as a full liter.
Jiang Liu gazed at the four different-colored fresh juices before him.
He swallowed hard, feeling even more parched than before.
He decided to try the orange juice first.
Jiang Liu held up the orange juice, examining it for a few seconds.
Whole, plump sacs of pulp were floating inside.
Normally, it’s almost impossible for a machine to separate the pulp sacs without damaging them.
And separating them by hand was just absurd.
’Does that mean my orange juice is one of a kind?’
Without further hesitation, Jiang Liu took a sip.
The juice was cool on his tongue, with a slight tartness. After the initial sourness faded, his taste buds were overwhelmed by a fragrant sweetness. But it didn’t end there. A few seconds later, the sweetness slowly spread to the back of his tongue, making his mouth water.
He bit down, and the enormous, plump sacs of pulp burst in his mouth like fireworks.
The aromatic orange flavor washed over him again, yet his palate felt no fatigue.
Jiang Liu closed his eyes in satisfaction and took a deep breath. The air, carrying the lingering fragrance from his mouth, seemed to rush to his brain before he exhaled it in a single, blissful cycle.
’This feels a bit like having a cigarette...’
Jiang Liu mused.
Next, he tasted the other three fruit juices.
They were different, yet equally and indescribably wonderful.
The pink watermelon juice was cool and refreshing. It was very sweet and bursting with the unique aroma of watermelon. Floating in the juice were seedless, finger-sized chunks of melon that were crisp, sweet, and incredibly juicy!
The Venus apple juice was a bit cloudy and a very pale yellow. Compared to typical apple juice, it wasn’t at all astringent. The aroma was crisp and invigorating, and the taste was a perfect balance of tart and sweet, not unlike the orange juice, just with a different scent. It also contained small, crisp, and very sweet chunks of white apple flesh.
Jiang Liu took one sip of the Red Star kiwi juice and nearly had his teeth fall out from the sourness.
It was sour, and then more sour, but it would be the perfect palate cleanser.
The juice was a vibrant green and contained tiny, black sesame-like seeds that were tasteless when chewed.
After the taste test, Jiang Liu didn’t dump the leftover juices. Instead, he sealed the containers and put them in the fridge for Tongtong to try in the morning.
When he lay back down on the bed, Tongtong, ever the cuddler, instinctively crawled on top of him to sleep.
Jiang Liu lay with his hands behind his head, thinking as he watched the little teddy bear clock on the wall go TICK-TOCK, TICK-TOCK.
He had now unlocked new juices. They tasted amazing, several times better than any ordinary juice.
He had to figure out how to sell them and at what price.
’The shop doesn’t have any disposable bottles. I’ll need to buy a couple thousand tomorrow. And I should get a juicer and some fruit to keep at home as a cover... Oh, right, there are two empty stainless-steel vats at the shop. I can clean those out and use them to store the juice...’
’I can use the fridge in the shop’s main room...’
’As for the price... fresh-squeezed juice sells for about twenty-five yuan per half-liter. I’ll price mine at thirty-five per half-liter. Juice isn’t exactly a high-end item, so I can use it as a customer-drawing product...’
Before he knew it, Jiang Liu had fallen asleep.
A cool breeze swept through South City in the dead of night. On the burglar-proof window bars, a thirsty potted bamboo plant swayed gently, its yellow-edged leaves fluttering down...
4:50 AM.
Jiang Liu was jolted awake by a piercing alarm. He glanced at the time.
’Is it almost five already...?’
Jiang Liu wondered.
’That was fast. I feel like I just fell asleep.’
He looked over at Tongtong. The little girl had already sat up and was trying to put on her pants with her eyes still closed.
Her little legs thrashed about, but she just couldn’t seem to get them into the pant legs.
Frustrated, the little girl cracked open her eyes.
"Tongtong, why don’t you sleep a little longer? I’ll be back in a bit to take you to school."
Jiang Liu’s heart ached for his daughter.
Tongtong shook her head. "No, I wanna be with Daddy! Forever and ever!"
"Alright, but tell me if you get sleepy."
The two of them staggered into the bathroom.
They picked up their toothbrushes in unison and started brushing in front of the mirror, eyes still closed.
Then they took a mouthful of water, gargled, and spat it out.
Their movements were surprisingly in sync.
With a RUSH of water, Jiang Liu relieved himself, his back to Tongtong.
Tongtong was not pleased. "Daddy, you have to sit down to pee-pee, you can’t stand up!"
"Alright, alright, I’ll remember for next time."
