bayedsolid Chapter 5 Farewell
Chapter 5 Farewell
The two took a bus to the city and went to a print shop to ask the owner to help them Photoshop the photos they had taken of their grandparents a few days earlier, as well as the photos of their parents and the two sisters that were stored on their phones, into a family portrait.
Print ten copies, frame them with the best photo paper and frames, put one in each person's shoulder bag, and the rest in their suitcases.
Now the two sisters have received 500 yuan from their grandparents, and they have a total of 900 yuan left.
They checked the time; there were still five hours before departure. They left their suitcases at the train station and decided to go to the ancient city to see if there was anything they could buy in ancient times.
They took a bus from the train station to the ancient city.
This ancient city has a history of over a thousand years and is well-preserved, so it receives a large number of visitors every day.
Lin Chunyi pulled her younger sister along, squeezing through the crowd from the shop sign onwards, unable to even see what the shops on either side were selling.
After walking about a hundred meters, my back was half-soaked with sweat. Then there was a fork in the road. With options to go right, left, or forward, the crowd loosened up a bit.
They each bought a cup of iced fruit tea, and strolled around, stopping here and there. Further ahead, there was a boutique store!
The shop's decor, lighting, and all sorts of sparkly decorations were almost blinding to Lin Lanshan.
She shook her sister's arm, and it was a whole routine of winking and acting cute.
"Sister, these hairpins! These beads! These earrings! Let's buy them! I can hear them calling to me! We can take them and sell them, and even if we can't sell them, we can wear them ourselves. We can wear them for decades without wearing the same thing twice. Let's buy these, let's buy them!"
……
Lin Chunyi didn't dare say anything. That morning, she suddenly remembered that gold has always been a hard currency, both in ancient and modern times, and everywhere. So, full of confidence, she took 900 yuan and wanted to buy gold.
I just passed by a gold shop, and the sign outside had a huge "Today's Gold Price: 560 per gram" printed on it!
I knew gold was expensive, but this is ridiculously expensive! All the money I had before buying supplies could only buy a maximum of six one-gram gold beans.
Okay, it would be shameful to quietly give up on this path.
Just when we were worried about not finding a new way to make money, these little trinkets opened up a whole new world for us. "I think it's a good idea. Let's buy a few more and negotiate the price."
The two sisters asked around in every boutique in the ancient city, and finally, at the cheapest wholesale jewelry store, they shamelessly argued with the owner for half an hour.
Successfully negotiated the price: 8 yuan for a wooden hairpin, 6 yuan for a silver hairpin, and 8 yuan for a pair of earrings.
They acquired 40 wooden hairpins, 30 silver hairpins, and 30 pairs of earrings.
It cost 720 yuan.
They didn't buy the beaded string, but they found a shop selling loose beads. Lin Lanshan's eyes lit up again, and she ended up buying more than a dozen bags of loose beads of different materials and colors.
The shop owner also gave me some flower holders and two rolls of elastic yarn, which cost 120 yuan.
With the last few dozen yuan, I simply spent it all and bought some snacks to eat on the train journey.
Just before boarding the train, the two sisters worried that they might time travel at any moment, so they made a video call to their parents.
"Xiaoyi, what's wrong? Why are you both crying? Did someone bully you?" When Lin's parents answered the video call, they saw that their two daughters' eyes were red, as if they were about to burst into tears at any moment.
When Lin Chunyi and Lin Lanshan heard their parents' concerned voices coming from the phone screen, they couldn't hold back their tears.
They didn't say anything, they just shook their heads.
"So it was you two arguing?"
"No, Mom and Dad, we just haven't seen you in so long, we miss you so much, and we want to see you right away."
"Oh dear, I thought something serious had happened, it gave me quite a fright. It's only been two months since we last saw each other, and you already miss us. When you were home, you complained that we were nagging you every day." Hearing this, Lin's mother relaxed.
Lin Chunyi held her phone in her right hand, clenched her left fist tightly, and smiled, sniffing the air.
"Hehe, this is called 'familiarity breeds contempt'! I just missed you guys, I missed Mom's twice-cooked pork and sweet and sour pork ribs. And I missed Dad... um... the secondhand smoke we had to smell."
"Hahaha, you really miss your mom's cooking. But you probably don't miss me. Hurry up and get on the bus, we'll be home the day after tomorrow. You'll definitely be annoyed with us again in less than a day," Mr. Lin said with a hearty laugh.
"When you come back, Mom will cook a big table of your favorite dishes. Oh dear, you're all grown up now, don't cry anymore. There are so many people at the station, they'll all be staring at you, aren't you ashamed?" Lin's mother comforted her.
Lin Chunyi gripped her phone tighter with her right hand, while her left fingernails dug deep into her palm, oblivious to the pain.
Lin Lanshan burst into tears, covered her face with her hands, and squatted down, afraid to get up. She didn't dare to cry any louder, and could only bite her lower lip tightly.
"Mom and Dad, it's our turn to get our tickets checked. We're going to line up now, bye." Lin Chunyi tugged at her younger sister, who was trying to compose herself, and helped her up after she wiped away her tears.
Before hanging up the phone, the two sisters said in unison to their parents on the video call:
"Mom and Dad, I love you. Whether we are home or not, I hope you are happy, healthy, and live a long and healthy life!"
Lin Chunyi and Lin Lanshan were both confused and silently praying:
Mom and Dad, perhaps we'll never have the chance to see each other again in this lifetime... but don't worry, and don't be sad for too long. Wherever we are, we will try our best to live well.
You must stay healthy and safe. If you can, don't forget us; think of us occasionally!
And we will always miss you, always, always, always... no matter how far away, no matter how long.
Lin Chunyi and Lin Lanshan wiped their eyes hard with their sleeves, held each other's hands tightly, and dragged their luggage with their other hands as they resolutely walked towards the train that belonged to the two sisters.
……
After getting in the car, the two sat on a bed.
"Sis, why can't we tell Mom and Dad? Maybe, maybe they..."
"Maybe, maybe they can do it even when none of us are 100% sure."
Do you really expect us to trust you, report to the government, and then devise a solution within a few days so we won't have to leave?
Even knowing there's no way to stop them, and that being forced to say goodbye will at least spare them sadness.
Seeing her sister getting more and more upset, Lin Lanshan bit her lip and said nothing more.
"Lanshan, you know, even when we considered trying to fly or not take this trip today, your intuition never wavered."
"At least this way, I can bring more things on the train. Let's treat this as a thrilling, long-distance trip." Lin Chunyi forced a smile, adjusted her mindset, and pretended that she wasn't so upset anymore.
"Sister, if we leave, the world will act as if we never existed, and they won't be sad."
That would be... quite good indeed. If it never existed in the first place, no one would care about it, and no one would wait for it.
After all, very few characters in time-travel novels actually manage to return to the modern era, and even if they did, it would be many years later.