Dimensional Supermarket - Chapter 12

The light blue disposable medical mask on Lin You’s face, paired with his white ramie robe, gives Ye Zhou a strange sense of time and space distortion when he enters the supermarket.

Ye Zhou is still sitting in the monitoring room. He doesn’t want to interact with the locals, not only because he has to maintain his persona, but also because he is a chatterbox, someone who suffers from social awkwardness.

Even when taking a taxi, he can talk with the driver the entire way.

He worries that if he engages with the locals, he will end up talking himself to death in less than two hours.

During this period, Ye Zhou writes in a diary on his phone every day to satisfy his urge to talk.

—Who would write a diary if they were serious? This shows just how close he is to going stir-crazy.

Ye Zhou looks at Lin You in the monitoring room and realizes for the first time that class differences in ancient times can be reflected in appearance.

Lin You has slender hands and feet and is tall. Though he is thin due to illness, his eyes are clear, and his posture is straight.

In contrast, Zhao Er and his friends have large hands and feet, thick fingers, and are not tall—about 1.6 meters. The tallest, Brother Zheng, is barely 1.7 meters. They always seem anxious when they move, and their backs never appear straight.

Ye Zhou sighs. The class divide in ancient times isn’t just about status.

In modern times, even if a person’s family background is poor, as long as they can study, get into college, and put in some effort, they can start from a higher point.

Even if grades aren’t good, hard work can earn a living. Working a month on a construction site will bring in as much as an ordinary white-collar job.

Everyone has the chance to change their fate and class. Even if they don’t, they don’t feel inferior to the rich.

But here, class divides people into different levels. The upper class is born with enough food and clothing, can read and write, and has no desire to change their fate.

Meanwhile, the lower class works their entire lives just to make ends meet. Reaching a standard where they can have enough food is a struggle, let alone learning to read and write. They can only survive by working hard, their fingers thick and short, their feet large and flat. They worry about what to eat next and whether they will have enough food tomorrow. Changing their fate is impossible.

In times of turmoil, they are the first to suffer.

Ye Zhou feels like he is understanding something new.

He never had a strong sense of class before. Although his family has some money, he never feels any different from his classmates who don’t. They study at the same school, receive the same teachers, do the same assignments, and apply for the same universities. He doesn’t think he is superior to them, and never feels a sense of superiority because of his family’s wealth.

But here, he can clearly feel the class difference, and it is something that can’t be changed through personal or family efforts.

It is like a giant suppressing the working class.

The harder you work, the poorer you become.

Although Lin You feels a bit stuffy wearing the “mask,” he can still accept it. He is very careful, afraid of knocking something over.

Everything here is new to him—the wheeled carts, the shelves with strange shapes and materials—everything opens his eyes. He walks slowly through the supermarket, trying not to touch anything.

Ye Zhou notices that Lin You doesn’t pay much attention to the shelves full of food, which is completely different from Zhao Er and the others.

Lin You’s attention is always drawn to steel and iron products. He stands by the thermos cup shelf for a long time, and just when Ye Zhou is losing patience and considering distracting himself with a game, Lin You picks up a thermos cup.

He taps the shell lightly, frowns slightly, and takes a long time before relaxing.

He is also interested in glass products, but porcelain doesn’t catch his attention.

Although Ye Zhou has never seen porcelain from this era, he can imagine that no matter the quality or design, it can’t be worse than the mass-produced porcelain in his supermarket.

Lin You strolls from morning to night and finally leaves without buying anything.

Ye Zhou, who has been hoping for a sale: “…”

Cao’er’s Mother, holding the walkie-talkie, puts on a mask after receiving Ye Zhou’s instructions. She walks towards Lin You and stops two meters away from him. She doesn’t dare to look at his face. When Lin You was sitting earlier, she had dared to look at him, but now that he is standing, she doesn’t want to look him directly in the eye.

She asks, “Young master, why haven’t you chosen anything?”

She mimics the term “young master.” She has never met someone like Lin You before and used to just call people like him “noble one” in private.

Lin You smiles. “I, Lin, have nothing of value.”

He has nothing worthy to offer a celestial. All he has is his life—but that life already has its own purpose and cannot be casually given.

Cao’er’s mother looks at the top of Lin You’s head. “The crown you wear—is that not worthy to be offered to The Lord Immortal?”

Lin You is stunned.

Cao’er’s Mother takes the crown. She has never seen anything like it before and doesn’t know its value, but just by looking at the fine craftsmanship, she can tell it must be expensive.

But now, she is “beyond worldly concerns” and doesn’t think such things are all that precious.

After all, she now drinks water from crystal cups! Even the emperor wouldn’t have seen more fine things than she has now!

After handing over the crown, Lin You takes a hairband and casually ties his hair up into a high ponytail.

He has no fleas on his body, probably because he has been mostly alone during the journey. Cao’er’s Mother doesn’t insist on him wearing a shower cap after checking him.

He doesn’t take fragile items, knowing he can’t protect them on the road, but he does take small handicrafts and plastic products. There is also a box of sewing needles—he takes the most of these little gadgets.

Ye Zhou is confused and asks Cao’er’s Mother about it.

Cao’er’s Mother explains in the monitoring room, “Lord Immortal, needles are not easy to get. My family had no needles when we fled the famine. We had to borrow them from others, and we even had to pay with food! Think about it, how many times does it take to make a needle out of iron? Many needles get wasted to make just one. Only the ladies and girls of wealthy families can learn embroidery!”

Silk thread is hard to come by, and needles are difficult to obtain. The smaller the item, the harder it is to make, and the more likely it is to be scrapped.

Cao’er’s Mother whispers, “If we exchange the eggs saved at home for copper coins, we’d have to save for months to buy a single needle. Young Master Lin picking the needles shows he’s more discerning than those rough people.”

Ye Zhou hadn’t expected ancient times to be this lacking in resources. Curious, he asks, “Don’t you go to the market?”

Cao’er’s mother’s eyes light up. She didn’t expect that The Lord Immortal knows about going to the market. She quickly says, “We do, we do! But not every time. There aren’t many people where I’m from, so the merchants don’t like to come. Even if they do, folks like us can’t afford to buy much.”

“What’s in the market?” Ye Zhou asks, resting his chin in his hand. He is now much more at ease around Cao’er’s mother, probably because he knows she always looks at him through a filter thicker than a city wall, so he doesn’t have to worry about being exposed.

Cao’er’s mother thinks for a moment before replying, “It’s mostly oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and things like that. There’s also cloth, but very few people buy it. If the clothes aren’t completely worn out, no one’s willing to spend money on new cloth. There are people selling meat too! But you have to go early, or all the fatty meat will be gone, leaving only the lean cuts with little fat.”

At this point, Cao’er’s mother has no shortage of meat or oil, so she doesn’t salivate like she used to when talking about fatty meat.

Ye Zhou asks, “Nothing valuable? Jewelry? Rouge, or things like that?”

Cao’er’s mother smiles slightly, a bit embarrassed. “The head of the family bought me jewelry once.”

Ye Zhou raises an eyebrow and looks at her.

Cao’er’s mother adds, “A red hair ribbon. It was very red.”

Ye Zhou: “…”

Cao’er’s mother continues, “Where I’m from, if a girl can wear red clothes when she gets married—even half-used ones—then she comes from a really respectable family!”

Her biggest regret in life is that she couldn’t find a red dress when she got married.

At the time, she’s just sixteen, wearing a new green dress, holding a small bundle in her arms, and leaving her parents’ home to join her husband, who is waiting outside the door. There’s no wedding banquet, no ceremony. That new outfit is already the most formal thing she has.

Ye Zhou smiles and says, “No wonder you like to wear red skirts.”

Most of the skirts Cao’er’s mother chooses are red.

If anyone else had said this, Cao’er’s mother would’ve felt embarrassed. But when The Lord Immortal says it, she doesn’t feel ashamed at all.

Cao’er’s mother lowers her head, and Ye Zhou tells her, “Go get some rest.” He has to go collect the money.

Lin You has finished picking out his items and, under the guidance of the staff, pushes his cart to the cashier.

He looks at the lump of iron on the counter but can’t understand what it is for. Still, he can’t help but stare at it.

When Ye Zhou comes out, Lin You quickly averts his gaze.

Lin You has imagined what an immortal might look like—he thinks an immortal would resemble a Taoist priest, with silver hair like a waterfall, a white beard, holding a whisk, noble and indifferent, looking down on everything in the world.

But he never expects The Lord Immortal to look like a young man!

No long hair or white beard. Instead, he is tall and graceful, with bright eyes, fair skin like jade, and a remarkable presence. He seems as exquisite as a young man from a prestigious family.

But he is completely different from a young nobleman.

Lin You can’t quite say what makes the difference, but just seeing him, he knows—this person isn’t of this world.

It’s just that The Lord Immortal’s short hair… really makes him uncomfortable.

Lin You kneels properly this time.

He has knelt before his parents, his master, and to the gods and Buddhas, so his knees aren’t precious.

Ye Zhou is used to it. He lowers his eyes and says softly, “No need to kneel. Get up.”

Afterward, he walks to the cashier.

Lin You stands up slowly after a moment.

Immortals have immortal ways, and it’s obviously not hard for them to stay young forever. Though he has a particularly youthful face, he might have lived for thousands of years and doesn’t care about mortal etiquette.

This is the kind of character immortals should have, not those Taoist immortals who pretend to be gods and ghosts, seeking the pleasures of the world while pretending to be divine.

Ye Zhou, who doesn’t think he has any immortal qualities, is happily scanning the code.

This crown is worth a lot of money!

This time, Ye Zhou doesn’t directly exchange the crown for money but places it in the warehouse.

The system is still flexible. He can exchange things he collects for money at the local price or store them in the warehouse to resell in other planes.

If he hadn’t been forcefully brought here, this trading system would be quite reliable.

It would be better if the young man in front of him could take off his clothes.

Author’s note:

Lin You: “This is the true dignity of an immortal!”

Ye ‘Black-hearted merchant who wants to strip his customers’ Zhou: “Making money, hehe, making money!”