Tenant's Secret Love

Chapter 128: Street performances in squares

After smoking a cigarette, I returned to the living room. It seemed as if the faint scent of a woman still lingered in the air, but I had almost forgotten the impulse to confess my love to her. So I thought to myself, "As long as I don't see her, I'll be rational."

After washing up, I put away all my emotions and lay down on the bed. I chose to forget the things I couldn't figure out, because it would be better that way. Many times, I really don't want to live too seriously.

The next morning, I got up early, but I didn't want Renee to wake up earlier than me, so I didn't have a chance to cook breakfast for her. But I was even more excited: she would be back from Shanghai this afternoon, and I would cook dinner for her, or maybe even a midnight snack.

The bar was closed, and I had nothing to do all day. I wanted to keep my promise and go to the flower market to buy some plants, but I gave up in the end, because I wanted to use the little money I had to buy Renee a nitro-powered racing car.

I plan to sell my modified car, which is still in pretty good condition, and with the money I have left, I can barely buy a nitro car for Renee.

I turned on the computer to post information and photos of the car on the website, but I happened to see that a nitro car was being sold online. I looked at the specifications and they were all top-of-the-line, but the seller's request was very strange. He wanted to trade cars, but for a battery-powered car.

I contacted him immediately and learned that he had bought the gas-powered car for his son to play with, but because it was difficult to operate, the child could not control it at all, and it was a pity to let it sit there, so he planned to trade it for a battery-powered car for his son to practice with first. Of course, if he wanted to trade, he still had to subsidize him some money, after all, the price difference between the two types of cars was very large.

I met him in front of the Jumei Shopping Center, gave him the car and paid him an additional 2,000 yuan.

When I held the gasoline-powered car in my hands, I was filled with joy. My joy came from the fact that Renee would be happy to see it.

I looked forward to Renee's return even more, and I couldn't wait to give her the car.

I took out my phone and immediately sent her a WeChat message: "Are you coming back tonight?"

A moment later she replied: "No, Abner is also in Shanghai and I plan to spend the evening with him exploring the city."

Looking at this message, I felt as if I had been poured a bucket of cold water over my head. I was disappointed, but there was nothing I could do about it. After all, Renee was not obliged to spend every day with me; after all, she had her friends.

I looked at the racing car in my hands with a helpless smile, and I didn't reply to Renee's message. I just put the phone back in my pocket.

...

Today it was Robben's turn to go to the bar to supervise, so I had even less to do. I took the racing car I had just received and planned to go to the square to show it off, and use this to get rid of the disappointment in my heart because Renee wasn't coming back tonight.

It was dusk when I arrived at the square, which was also the busiest time of the day. So I saw couples passionately embracing and kissing each other from time to time, and young parents with contented smiles watching their children playing around. But all this other people's happiness made me feel even lonelier. I even had to hide behind a tree when I smoked a cigarette, for fear of being fined by the square's management.

Finally, after finishing my cigarette, I came out from behind the tree again, and then I put the racing car on the ground and played with it for my own amusement. The powerful performance of the car quickly attracted many children to come and watch, and in the sound of their chatter, I finally got rid of my depression.

I held up the car and said to the group of children, "Listen up, if you want to play with my car, you have to call me big brother. Whoever shouts the loudest gets to play first."

Suddenly, a bold child, with his feet planted firmly and his stomach full of air, shouted 'Big brother' at me with a popping sound.

Seeing that he shouted so heartrendingly, I felt bad about breaking my promise, so I handed him the remote control. But I was afraid that he couldn't handle it and would crash the car, which I wanted to give to Renee, so I stared at him nervously.

After a few kids had played with it, I finally let out a sigh of relief, retrieved the car, sat back down on the bench, and looked at the group of kids who were still full of energy. Then I thought of Smile again. It seemed that he didn't come to the square to play with cars today.

I looked around and, to my surprise, found Smile in the corner at the other end of the square. He seemed to be running some kind of stall, but I couldn't quite make it out, so I got up and walked over to him.

I stood in front of Smile, who was sitting on a small bench with some newspapers propped up in front of him, on which were some hand-woven shopping baskets.

He then noticed me and shouted happily, "Lucas, why are you here in the square again?"

"What did I tell you to call me last time?"

"Smile" laughed, then corrected himself and called me 'big brother,' and politely offered me his stool.

I looked at the baskets and asked him, 'Did your grandfather weave all these?"

"Yes, 10 yuan each. Do you want to buy one?"

"Kid, you're a real salesman!"

Smile pouted and said in a low voice, 'No one has bought one today!"

I didn't want him to be too disappointed, so I took out 10 yuan from my wallet and handed it to him, saying, "Okay, I'll buy one. It's pretty well-made!"

Smile took the money from me with a smile, exclaiming, "Brother, you're really a good person. If I were as rich as you, my grandfather wouldn't have to weave baskets every day!"

"I'm not rich in any way!"

"You are rich. You can afford KFC and McDonald's!"

Smile's childishness made me feel a little sad. Nowadays, even celebrities get hundreds of thousands of yuan for a simple catwalk show, yet there is still a child who naively thinks that if you can afford KFC and McDonald's, you are rich. I really don't know which class this is ironic about.

With a heavy sigh, I just hate that I am unable to help. The only help I can give Smile now is to buy him a hand-woven basket and take him to KFC.

I decided to help Smile a little more, so I went home and got my guitar, sat by his stall and acted as a street singer, starting to sing on the street...

Soon, people gathered around us. Some of them bought the basket Smile had woven out of pity, while others threw some loose change at me after listening to the song. In short, Smile and I earned some small change in this dusk.

The sky finally darkened, the temperature began to drop sharply, and there were fewer people in the square. I gave all the money I had received from passers-by to Smile, put away my guitar and prepared to leave, but suddenly I saw a graceful figure walking towards us in the distance.

I couldn't see clearly, but as she got closer and closer, I realized it was really Mici. She had returned from Shanghai! I then wondered, wasn't she supposed to stay with Abner?