Chapter 112
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Lou Yan was so angry that he didn’t even bother with Duan Zege while eating at the barbecue restaurant.
When they finished eating and came out, they found that it was raining outside.
The pitter-patter of raindrops fell from the eaves. In late April and early May, when it rained, you still needed a light jacket. As soon as they stepped out, the wind carried the rain diagonally onto their faces, leaving deep and shallow traces of water on their clothes.
“It’s raining.” Li Sanxin looked up at the dark sky.
Little Yu ran a few steps forward and reached out her hand outside the eaves. The chilly raindrops “pattered” into her palm. Looking into the rain, she saw the raindrops, not yet falling to the ground, shining under the streetlights on both sides of the street as if they were glowing syringes. She exclaimed, “Wow.”
Little Yu met “Little Rain.”
Lou Yan found it amusing and took out his phone to aim at Little Yu, calling out lightly, “Little Yu?”
Little Yu turned to look at Lou Yan, seeing him taking her picture, she smiled brightly, looking silly.
Lou Yan decisively pressed the shutter button. With the night hazy, the colorful lights dazzling, the scene of the little girl under the eaves smiling brightly and reaching out to catch rainwater was successfully captured.
Lu Haoxiu leaned over to look at the photo, holding his heart fondly, “So cute, our Little Yu!”
Duan Zege parked the car near the library, which was a bit of a walk from the library. And this rain, it wasn’t going to stop anytime soon.
The adults were fine with getting wet, but Little Yu was a child who loved playing in the water. However, she couldn’t be allowed to directly get soaked in the rain. Duan Zege had many tricks up his sleeve for daily life. He asked the owner for a large black plastic bag and draped it over Little Yu, leaving a hole for her face, making a makeshift raincoat on the spot.
Lu Haoxiu was itching to have one too, so Duan Zege got one for him as well.
With only one black garbage bag left, Duan Zege grinned and asked Lou Yan and Li Sanxin, “Would you like one too?”
The handsome and noble Boss Lou’s mouth twitched, immediately waving his hand to refuse, “I don’t want one.”
Li Sanxin, who had cleanliness habits and didn’t want to get wet in the rain or wear a garbage bag, looked around at the nearby shops, “I’ll go buy an umbrella.”
Who would want to wear a garbage bag when there’s an umbrella? Duan Zege decisively threw away the garbage bag and happily followed to take advantage, “Buy me one too, Brother Li.”
On the other side, Lu Haoxiu had already excitedly started playing with Little Yu in the water.
Lou Yan watched their cheerful figures and couldn’t help but smile in his heart. Now he was the only one standing at the door of the barbecue restaurant. Lou Yan looked up at the sky, then walked boredly in front of the shops around.
As he walked, he suddenly saw a peculiar shop.
The front of this shop was filled with vibrant, wildly growing flowers and plants, a lush greenery like a forest, brightened by the rain. The door and signboard of the shop were entwined with large vines covered with flowers, giving it a fairy-tale and beautiful style that was eye-catching.
Lou Yan raised his head and saw the name of the shop on the signboard through the rain: “Count Grey’s Shop.”
Each letter ended with a cute little circle, just like the flowers and plants outside the shop, adding a childish charm.
Lou Yan squinted slightly, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a gray business card.
The card read “Count Grey’s Shop” in words, which Lou Yan had found in the amusement park.
Lou Yan agilely rotated the card between his fingers a few times before returning it to his pocket.
He glanced around, noticing that everyone else seemed busy going about their business, as if they hadn’t noticed the appearance of this shop. Except for Lou Yan, no one else stopped.
Lou Yan raised an eyebrow, decisively pushed through the beautiful greenery, and obediently walked into “Count Grey’s Shop”.
A stale dust smell hit him as he entered, and the golden beckoning cat on the wooden counter beside the door waved its arm mechanically, saying, “Welcome.”
Lou Yan glanced at the beckoning cat and quickly scanned the interior of the shop. The shop was not lit, but instead had glass kerosene lamps lit, giving it a vintage feel. The dim light faintly illuminated the interior, and with this faint light, Lou Yan found that the shop was quite large.
Looking up, he couldn’t see the ceiling, only a darkness that engulfed the top. Rows of tall wooden cabinets were neatly arranged, most of them filled with dusty items, with only a small portion empty.
This shop looked very ancient.
The creaking sound of an old rocking chair came from behind the counter, and a voice, weak and despondent, sounded, “Hello, it’s rare to have a guest.”
Lou Yan walked up to the counter and saw a man lying on the rocking chair, wearing a gray suit and a gray cloak. He was wrapped tightly from head to toe, not revealing an inch of skin. His face was covered with a gray top hat, completely covering his hair and upper face, leaving only a pale chin exposed.
This shop was very strange, and so was this person. Lou Yan looked the person up and down and asked, “Are you the owner of this place?”
The gray-clad person lazily rocked on the rocking chair, yawned, and apathetically replied, “Obviously.”
“So, you are Count Grey,” Lou Yan lightly tapped the counter with his finger, also with a smile, jokingly inquired, “Since a guest has arrived, don’t you want to introduce your shop to the guest? I’m curious, why did I see your shop?”
Count Grey rocked the rocking chair a couple more times before lethargically removing his hat from his face and standing up, with an elegant yet lazy posture, he placed the hat over his chest in a gentlemanly gesture.
He was very handsome, with a pair of eyes as green as the clearest lake, which should have been as beautiful as fragmented light. Unfortunately, under those eyes were dark circles, and his eyes were dull and lifeless, giving off a half-dead aura.
But what caught Lou Yan’s attention more than his eyes was Count Grey’s hair, which seemed to shimmer like silver.
It was the exact same color as Fu Xuezhou’s hair.
In Lou Yan’s three lifetimes of memories, he had never seen another person with hair the same color as Fu Xuezhou’s. He couldn’t help but glance at Count Grey’s hair again and again.
Count Grey, with drooping eyelids, slowly said, “If a guest can see my shop, it means you must have a business card from my shop in your hand. And if you can find my card, it means you have fate with my shop.”
“Fate?” Lou Yan inquired.
Count Grey’s gaze roamed over Lou Yan for a few circles, then nodded weakly and gestured for Lou Yan to look at his shop, “Only those involved with the goods in ‘Count Grey’s Shop’ can obtain my business card. If it’s not a product sold in my shop that you have on you, then it’s a product from my shop that you need but hasn’t been sold yet.”
Lou Yan was certain it wasn’t the former. He had never been to “Count Grey’s Shop” before, nor had he ever seen Count Grey, so he wouldn’t have any goods from Count Grey’s shop on him. The only possibility was the latter. There was something he needed in this shop.
But what that thing was, Lou Yan himself didn’t know.
Lou Yan turned his head to look at the nearest shelf.
A red high-heeled shoe, a deer head with a broken antler, a half-rotten apple, a tightly closed diary, a face-sized colorful lollipop… None of them were things Lou Yan felt he needed.
Lou Yan asked, “Can Count Grey’s Shop use cash as currency for transactions?”
“Of course—” Count Grey drawled, then his tone changed as he ruthlessly refused, “No.”
Lou Yan barely frowned, not surprised, “Then what currency does this place use for transactions?”
“My shop doesn’t use currency. If you want to take away the goods you need, you have to exchange them with something of equal value,” Count Grey’s green eyes glinted faintly under the kerosene lamp, and he smiled slightly, “The value is determined by how important the item is to the customer. Like that half-rotten apple, if the customer feels that the apple is more important to them than their life, then they’ll need to exchange their life for it.”
This method was fair, but it was also the type of transaction that capitalists like Lou Yan detested the most.
“May I ask,” Lou Yan curiously inquired, “Count Grey, are you human or an anomaly?”
Count Grey slowly spoke, “I am neither human nor anomaly, I am just an ordinary merchant.”
Not human, not an anomaly… What kind of existence was Count Grey?
Lou Yan was even more curious, trying to read between the lines of Count Grey’s words. From their conversation, Lou Yan discovered that Count Grey was independent of humans and anomaly, more like a spectator of this world.
“Count Grey’s Shop” was a movable independent space, impervious to anomaly powers preventing it from appearing wherever it was needed, just like humans. As long as someone destined needed it, then “Count Grey’s Shop” would appear.
Count Grey lazily asked, “Do you want to see which item you need from my goods? Oh, and I have to remind you, if it’s not the item you need, you won’t be able to take it off the shelf.”
“No need,” Lou Yan decisively refused, “I don’t think I need anything special right now. If I do need something from your shop someday, then we’ll talk about it then.”
With that, Lou Yan remembered the deceptive trading rules of this shop and began to worry.
He sighed and took out the lighter from his pocket, flicking it twice. The flames flickered on and off, dispelling the worries in his heart. Lou Yan put away the lighter, intending to bid farewell to Count Grey. He feared that if he stayed here any longer, he would end up needing something he didn’t originally need.
But as he raised his head to leave, he noticed that Count Grey was looking at him thoughtfully. Lou Yan’s heart skipped a beat, unable to help but ask, “What’s wrong?”
Count Grey shook his head, “Since you don’t want to buy anything, I’ll go to sleep.”
With that, Count Grey yawned again, dejectedly lying back on the rocking chair, covering his face with his hat once again.
Lou Yan took a couple of steps towards the door but stopped, turned around, and asked, “Count Grey, may I ask, is the color of your hair natural or dyed?”
Count Grey’s voice came from under the hat, becoming somewhat muffled and indistinct, “It’s natural.”
Lou Yan thanked him without expressing belief or disbelief, then pushed open the door and left “Count Grey’s Shop”. When he looked back after leaving, however, he found that “Count Grey’s Shop” had already disappeared, replaced by a brightly lit dumpling restaurant.
Li Sanxin, who had bought the umbrella, waved at him not far away, “Let’s go, Yanzi!”
Lou Yan turned back and responded, walking steadily towards him.
An hour and a half later, everyone returned to Lou Yan’s luxurious villa halfway up the mountain.
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