The Rental Shop Owner

Chapter 4

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The whole thing ended just like that and I went back to running my little rental shop.

Summer came in the blink of an eye. Students went on summer break and business was good.

The girls liked reading romance novels so I stocked up on pirated pocket books from Taiwan despite the strict watch on piracy from the ministry of commerce. I mean I could not just let money slip through my fingers. I hid the pirated books in the back room and only regular customers could go in. If people came to investigate, I would lock the back room door. I made it through quite a few surprise checks and built a good reputation. Many girls would come from the other side of town to borrow books.

Later, some of them asked me to get some manga. There actually was manga in the shop—Slam Dunk, Case Closed, Saint Seiya, all the ones airing on TV—but they pouted and complained. “It’s 1998 for G.o.d sakes!”

Are those out already? I wondered. To be honest, my generation grew up watching martial arts movies and movies from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the only cartoon we had were Havoc in Heaven, Astro Boy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers and the like. All I knew about these things they called manga was that they were like comic strips, thus the manga books I bought were not up to par with my videos. The girls kept nagging me about Zetsuai 1989, Ranma ½,Rurouni Kenshin, RG Veda and other stuff I had no knowledge of, but kids were the biggest market for my business so I had to keep learning. I bought Zetsuai 1989 and some of their so-called cla.s.sics, as well as a set of j.a.panese romance novels they recommended countless times to me.

In the end, business was absolutely great. Wave after wave of girls lined up to rent my books.

I was utterly puzzled. We had not been this excited back then to read about Qiao Feng, Chu Liuxiang or Xiao Qiushui! Tsk, tsk.

My little shop was small but busy and became an oven in the summer. I considered getting an air conditioner but it seemed like a waste of money too. The money I earned in a month would go entirely to pay for hydro.

That day was scorching hot and no one was coming in during the middle of the day.

I wiped myself off, stretched for the sky and turned on the TV. I could only watch TV. My second-hand Shinco VCD player had finally gone to its last resting place so I was also considering getting a DVD player.

Ah, it all cost so much money!

“Oi, Qian!” Three thugs came into my shop. I took a good look at them. They turned out to be Shen Bin’s buddies.

How long has it been now? And they’re here again?

“What, you don’t recognise us no more?” They didn’t look friendly but they didn’t sound too bad either. I let out a sigh of relief.

They were kids after all. There was nothing I could do but I could not help but think that the rascal would not have ended up behind bars if it were not for me. I mean, ten years! He was eighteen and would be twenty-eight when he came out. There was no way that prison life would be nice. All the naughty pups that went in came out as big bad wolves. I had a wild imagination and immediately thought of a lot of prison-themed novels and movies.

Sigh. I just felt like I had wronged him.

Therefore, I said in a rather kind tone, “Of course I do. You’re Shen Bin’s bros. How is he doing in there?”

Only the leader of the three was okay to the eyes; he looked like a mini-sized “Chicken” Chiu. The other two had not yet even hit their growth spurt, yet they were acting all high and mighty with a half-burnt cigarette in their mouths. I wanted to laugh so badly.

“Yer not such a bad person. He’s doin’ fine!” The smallest one bragged.

“What can I do for you? You want to rent videos? I can give you a dis—.”

“f.u.c.k your movies. Only Shen Bin likes that s.h.i.t!”

They shared a look with each other and then Mini-Chicken spat, “Hey, you Qians made Shen Bin go in the slammer for ten years. Shouldn’t you at least show some goodwill?”

Were they trying to wring money out of me?

I closed the shop and got dragged along by them. It was so d.a.m.n hot that I was sweating too much to keep my eyes opened.

I arrived at the Shen pig sty on the old street once again.

“Stop it. I can walk myself,” I grumbled as I was pushed into the house.

Last time I had only gone into the living room. This time I was pushed into the room where you sleep (I couldn’t find it in my heart to call it a bedroom). There was a wooden bed that still had some colour on it with a black, grimy white canopy, and someone was lying on it, probably Ding Hongmei. I almost did not recognise her dishevelled hair, bloated stomach and thin, twig-like arms and thighs.

Apparently, she was about to die.

How could that be? I was dumbstruck.

This was none of my business.

But they also said she had had terminal breast cancer for a long time and did not have the money to treat it. Now the cancer had spread to the body and she was waiting to die at home.

Yeah. She got the disease herself. It had nothing to do with me.

But last time I saw her, she was only a bit old and dirty, not sick.

Maybe it had gotten worse because of the stress?

I became even more confused. Why had they made me come here when it had nothing to do with me?

The three of them were not shy about it either, shouting, “She’s gon die. Shen Bin’s in the slammer and they don’t got no family and we ain’t got no money. There should at least be a whatchamacallit—service or whatever! You or your family…shouldn’t you help out?”

Memorial service? I laughed. Who would come to commemorate a promiscuous widow like her?

It turned out they came to me to get money to cremate her and buy a container for her ashes. Mini-Chicken even became red in the eyes. I suppose they were still kids after all.

Ding Hongmei woke up. The final surge of energy kicked in and she was fairly conscious. She took a long look at me. “Comrade Qian, you came to see me. Our Lil’ Bin said you’re a good person. You have to look out for him! He’s not bad. It was my fault. I tell you, he’s not bad…”

Her claw-like hand clasped around my wrist. It was cold. I did not feel sweaty at all despite the burning temperature, and actually felt chilly.

I arranged her undertaking behind my mom’s back.

I stuck to the simplest options but even so I spent over one hundred bucks. It was enough for me to buy half an air conditioner, or over two hundred disks, or hundreds of books…

That widow actually had not saved a single penny! Even their house was state-owned. The department that the abuser worked for had not given them the boot out of pity. Now that no one was living here, they were going to take it back. I went through it again but there really wasn’t much except for garbage. It made me very curious as to how she had the money to get the fruits for me.

Wait a second. I felt something was off.

I searched through the dump again and finally found a flat cardboard box inside a beaten wood box underneath Shen Bin’s metal cot. Inside was some plastic wrap and inside that, was a half-new BBK VCD player. It was not dirty or dusty at all.

Shen Bin’s buddies started buzzing, “Oh man! How could we’ve forgotten about this? It could prolly sell for some dough!”

“You wish. Shen-ge treasures this s.h.i.t. No way he’d let you sell it!”

“But it’s to bury his ma. Gotta sell it no matter what.”

“But what could we get for this antique?”

“Oh yeah. Qian-ge, how much could we get?”

They really were kids. They had started calling me ‘Qian-ge’ since I helped with the funeral.

I brought that player to my shop since I needed one. Now I did not have to buy a new one.

Huh! This junk’s pretty darn good. Can read all sorts of formats too!

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