Chapter 2: Junior 7 to Senior 2
Nan Jiu changed into a vest and came out, finally willing to walk with his back straight. Song Ting was unpacking cigarettes at the counter. He took out a pack and put it in his pocket, and put the rest in the drawer under the counter.
Old Man Nan leaned back on a recliner, fanning himself with a palm leaf fan. "You can pay for the cigarettes from the account."
"No need, I can do it myself." Song Ting said, and went to greet the guests.
Nan Jiu brought a small stool next to the recliner, snatched the fan from Old Man Nan's hand, and fanned vigorously, whispering, "You still allow me to smoke while I'm working here? You're really generous."
Nan Jiu knew the brand of cigarettes. Every time Nan Zhendong picked her up from school, he'd buy them at the store downstairs. Nan Zhendong's smoking was a big expense, and his stepmother often argued with him about it, asking him to quit. The cigarettes Song Ting had just bought were twice as expensive as Nan Zhendong's usual cigarettes.
Old Man Nan replied to her: "That cigarette is not his. Your Uncle Song doesn't smoke."
"Then why did he buy cigarettes?" Nan Jiu propped up his head and stared at his grandfather.
Old Man Nan told her, "It's just like the teahouses of the past. Besides customers who came to drink tea, there were also people doing ear cleaning, pedicures, selling newspapers, fortune telling, and pedicures. When there were so many people, it was easy for trouble to happen. There were petty thefts and quarrels. We have to keep an eye on all sides while drinking tea, and quickly mediate if we find that there is a conflict. Now this stall is handed over to your Uncle Song. He has his own way of presiding over the scene. When new faces come to the teahouse, you can pass a cigarette and chat for a while, and you can basically get a general idea of their background. When there is an argument between old customers, pull them aside and light a cigarette, and both sides can calm down.
"He may not smoke, but he must have cigarettes. You need to learn more about social etiquette from your Uncle Song."
Nan Jiu ignored what he said. She was still young and had no interest in the intricacies of running a teahouse. While Song Ting was serving tea, Nan Jiu took advantage of the opportunity to run over to him and return the money left over from the vest purchase.
Song Ting glanced down and didn't take it: "You take it." He walked around her and continued to work.
With the blessing of Old Man Nan, Nan Jiu not only didn't have to worry about other people's feelings, but she became a hot commodity. The old tea drinkers smiled at her and often brought some delicious food to her secretly.
When school started, Nanjiu didn't want to go back to Feng City, so she stayed with Old Man Nan for three months. Her father, overwhelmed with joy at having a new child, ignored Nanjiu. Her mother, hoping Nanjiu wouldn't cause any trouble in her life, ignored her.
Nanjiu quickly made friends with a group of people his own age in Maoer Lane. With no homework or classes, he spent his days like a wild child.
Of course, the teahouse wasn't a free place to stay. Grandpa Nan would have Nan Jiu prepare the snacks. There were certain rules for pairing snacks. Black tea should be paired with tart preserved fruit for a rich flavor; green tea, slightly bitter, should be paired with sweet snacks like osmanthus cake or yam cake to counteract the bitterness; the oils in nuts can counteract the stomach irritation caused by the tea polyphenols in oolong tea. As for black tea and white tea, the snacks that pair well with each other differ.
The presentation of tea snacks is also very particular. Tea drinkers come to enjoy a leisurely and leisurely conversation. Tea snacks cannot be displayed in a messy and unsightly manner. They should be categorized and pleasing to the eye.
Nanjiu quickly understood. She discreetly adjusted the plating, stacking the same pastries in a cross-layered pattern. This ensured the pastries looked visually appealing while also ensuring that one or two pieces were missing without anyone noticing. As for where the missing pastries went—they all went into her stomach.
Nanjiu mostly lived with her father and stepmother. After her stepmother became pregnant, she mostly stayed at her parents' house, with her father visiting frequently. Nanjiu couldn't even get three meals a day, let alone snacks. She couldn't eat at home, so when she went out, she wanted to eat everything she saw.
Occasionally, Grandpa Nan would remind Nan Jiu not to steal food. Whenever this happened, Nan Jiu knew that the guest coming was someone Grandpa valued, so she would behave properly and serve the food according to the amount.
One day, near closing time, two men arrived. They were familiar faces of Song Ting. Song Ting ushered them to a tea table near the back, where the three of them gathered to discuss matters. Nan Jiu, a night owl, sat in a side room watching TV. Steam billowed from the copper kettle's spout. Old Man Nan had to watch and ask Nan Jiu to bring the snacks to the table.
Nan Jiu jumped up and ran to Old Man Nan, picking up the plate and ready to leave. Old Man Nan touched her with his cane and said, "Don't eat secretly."
Nan Jiu's hand, which had just reached for the plate, retracted. Living with Old Man Nan, they ate dinner early, and Nan Jiu was starving. Teenagers are naturally greedy. Nan Jiu put down his snack and glanced at the walnut cake. Song Ting, while chatting with the two people in front of him, raised his hand to pick up the walnut cake, holding it behind his back and handing it to Nan Jiu.
Nanjiu didn't dare to eat it in front of his grandfather. He held the walnut cake in his hand and moved to the flower pot behind Song Ting, then stuffed the walnut cake into his mouth without hesitation.
Nan Jiu passed by her grandfather on her way back, intending to sneak back to her room quietly. Without even looking up, Old Man Nan scolded her in a low voice, "You didn't even wipe your mouth after eating."
Nan Jiu replied unconvincedly: "I didn't steal it, your godson gave it to me."
Old Man Nan picked up his cane and tapped her calf: "Calling her Uncle Song is disrespectful."
Because Old Man Nan adopted Song Ting as his godson, Song Ting's seniority was higher than Nan Jiu's, so Nan Jiu had to call Song Ting "uncle." However, after being here for so long, she had never called him uncle, and Song Ting didn't bother with her child.
Nan Jiu saw his grandfather going to serve tea, so he took his walking stick and stuffed it under the bed.
Even without a cane, Mr. Nan was still able to move freely. After serving the tea, Mr. Nan did not ask where the cane had gone, as if he had forgotten about its existence.
After the two men left, Song Ting locked the door of the teahouse. Old Man Nan fiddled with the beads on his abacus and said, "I told you to watch Xiao Jiu set out the tea and snacks, and she put less in, and you didn't say anything to her?"
Old Man Nan naturally knew that Song Ting knew all about it. Song Ting dealt with the tea table all day long, and with just a glance, he could tell the number of refreshments. Since the old man had made it clear, Song Ting had to explain.
He lowered his head to clear the tea tray and replied calmly, "She is your granddaughter."
When working for Old Man Nan, one has to be very careful. If he were to take things seriously, which Old Man Nan had turned a blind eye to, he would be meddling in other people's business.
Old Master Nan kept counting the abacus beads in his hand, with a smile on his lips. He put the matter behind him and never mentioned it again.
......
Nanjiu retreated to her room to watch TV. The greatest pleasure of staying with her grandfather was being able to change channels at will, a privilege she couldn't enjoy at her father's house. Back in 2008, the TVs in the teahouse still used satellite dishes, and the signal was often spotty. Halfway through, Nanjiu's TV screen flickered into a flash of light. Frustrated, she found a wooden ladder, climbed onto the roof, and began tinkering. She had no idea how it worked, but every time she fiddled with the antenna or tapped the big dish, a signal would come. If it didn't, she'd tap a few more times until it did.
One afternoon, while Old Man Nan was taking a nap on a recliner, Nan Jiu secretly climbed onto the roof again, stepped on the eaves tiles with her butt raised, and cast a spell on the pot. Song Ting went up to the attic to get something and heard a series of muffled noises coming from the roof. He pushed open the attic window, pushed himself up onto the roof with both hands, and saw that the tiles under Nan Jiu's feet were hanging on the edge of the eaves, and there was nothing underneath. Song Ting took Nan Jiu's arm and slid her down.
Grandpa Nan heard the noise and asked what was going on. Fearing being scolded, Nan Jiu ran back to her room and hid behind the door to eavesdrop on the conversation between Song Ting and his grandfather. Song Ting did not mention her climbing on the roof, but asked Grandpa Nan when Nan Jiu would go to school. Grandpa Nan knew that Nan Jiu always stayed in his old teahouse and neglected her studies, which was not a big deal. He asked Song Ting about the situation of the nearby middle schools. The educational resources in Maoer Lane were not good, and Song Ting suggested that if the child could go to a big city to study, they should not delay it.
A few days later, Nan Zhendong was forcibly called back by Old Man Nan. After being scolded, he was asked to take Nan Jiu home.
At this point, Nanjiu’s first journey away from home in his life came to an end.
Before leaving, Nan Jiu pulled out the crutch hidden under the bed and leaned against the old recliner.
......
After returning home, Grandpa Nan paid for Nan Zhendong to find a tutor for Nan Jiu to catch up on the lessons she had missed. Despite Grandpa Nan's instructions for Nan Zhendong to pay more attention to Nan Jiu, it didn't improve Nan Jiu's living conditions at home. As her younger brother began to walk and talk, her living conditions at their father's house became increasingly squeezed. Even the corners of her bedroom were piled with her younger brother's toys and diapers.
At the time, they lived in a house allocated by Nan Zhendong's work unit. Located in Shenghua, it was a bit out of the main city, but the 80-square-meter house had three bedrooms and a spacious living room. Liao Hong, her stepmother, was born in the city center and always carried an air of superiority. Every time she visited her parents' home, she'd say she was moving to the city.
At Liao Hong's urging, Nan Zhendong finally made up his mind to sell his 80-square-meter house and move his family into a 54-square-meter high-rise building in the city center. The place Nan Zhendong and Liao Hong chose was not a formal residential area. Several similar high-rise buildings were closely connected. When he opened the window, he could see an old man in the building opposite eating watermelon in his shorts.
Liao Hong not only did not feel that her living conditions had deteriorated, but her face was beaming. When she saw acquaintances, she would straighten her back and talk about how good the school district of their new house was, how close the vegetable market downstairs was, and how convenient the bus routes were.
54 square meters is the area on the property certificate. Excluding the common area, the actual living area is only 40 square meters. The new house has only two rooms, and the living room is so cramped that it can only fit a dining table.
How should the two rooms be divided? Nan Zhendong and Liao Hong decided to send Nan Jiu to boarding school, naturally eliminating her room in their new home. According to the divorce agreement, Nan Jiu would stay with her biological mother during school holidays. This way, Nan Zhendong and Liao Hong had conveniently gotten rid of the significant problem of Nan Jiu.
In a dramatic twist, the month after they moved in, Nan Zhendong's colleagues told him a subway line was being built right outside their former residential complex. Over the next few years, Fengshi's largest lifestyle plaza was built along the subway line, attracting numerous large chain stores, restaurants, and entertainment venues. Commercial housing and office buildings sprang up around the plaza. A few years later, the urban interface surrounding Shenghua became more integrated with that of first- and second-tier cities. Medical, educational, and business resources gradually shifted from the city center. The wealthy and young flocked to Shenghua to buy property, driving up housing prices in their former residential complex. Most of Nan Zhendong's former colleagues still lived in the former residential complex, reaping the benefits of this urban transformation.
It took less than 30 years for living in Shenghua to become a status symbol.
Nan Zhendong and Liao Hong went from being high-spirited to blaming each other and then arguing constantly. Every time Nan Jiu returned home from school, the cramped and chaotic atmosphere of her home made her extremely irritated. She began to find all sorts of excuses not to go home, even to hang out on weekends.
In high school, Nanjiu cut his hair long, got his ears and belly button pierced, and fell in love with street dancing and skateboarding. Every Sunday, he'd go to the commercial backstreets to show off his skills. Starting in the first half of his sophomore year, Nanjiu's grades plummeted.
Nan Zhendong only realized his daughter's transformation when he received a call from the school. He took Nan Jiu home and suddenly assumed the role of a strict father, trying to influence his rebellious daughter. Nan Jiu didn't argue, didn't talk back, and didn't get angry. The whole time, she looked at her father with a smile that didn't reach her eyes, as if she were watching a joke.
Nan Zhendong decided to discipline his rebellious daughter, and what he meant by discipline was to personally send Nan Jiu to her grandfather's house.
Nan Zhendong told Old Man Nan that Nan Jiu's grades had dropped because she'd hooked up with a group of young men from society, suspecting premature love was affecting her studies. He seemed to think that if he could just send her away, away from the Fengshi environment, Nan Jiu would be able to get into Peking University or Tsinghua University.
Nan Zhendong probably really thought so. After returning to Maoer Lane and having a meal, he felt as if he had unloaded a burden and returned to Fengshi with peace of mind.
The author has something to say:
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For various reasons, I've written eight versions of "South City Alley" over the past few years. When I was doing research on Big Eyes, readers were generally interested in the "rebellious version," so I decided to upload this story.
This version doesn't have perfect characters, as can be seen from the family situations in the previous chapters. The environment they grew up in created some things for them, but it also inevitably took away some things.
If you find that the content is not to your taste, please unsubscribe quietly. Try to keep the atmosphere of other readers happy during the serialization period. Thanks for the red envelope, I will give you a random wave~
So, starting from today, I will update every day [heart]
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