Grocery Store No. 514 Chapter 33

Jiamei Villas was located in the east of Huacheng, which was an area for the wealthy. Anyone who has prestige in Huacheng will have property there. As for whether they actually lived there, that was another matter entirely.

Yan Yu drove Ling Hua'an and slowly passed through the gates of Jiamei Villas. Security didn’t stop them at the entrance because Yan Yu's family lived here. When he arrived at the door of Chen Xin's house, Yan Yu parked the car and said, "Hua'an, wait here. I will do it."

Ling Hua’an nodded, looked at Wang Lei on the side, and said, "Careful not to get discovered."

Wang Lei smiled and said, "Rest assured, boss. I’ll definitely finish the task."

Yan Yu and Wang Lei got out of the car one after another, arrived at the door of Chen Xin's house, and rang the video intercom on the door.

"Who are you?" A man in his thirties appeared on the screen.

Yan Yu indifferently spoke: "I'm Chen Xin's friend, there’s something I need to see her for."

The man hesitated for a moment and said, "Sorry, Miss Chen isn’t home."

Yan Yu frowned slightly and said, "Not home? But I already made an appointment with her to meet today."

"Miss Chen really isn’t home, she hasn't come back for several days."

"Then, when did she leave the house? Did she say anything?"

"Ms. Chen left on the 1st. A man came to pick her up. She said that she had a prenatal checkup, but she never came back." The person sighed with an expression of pity.

"Then, did you see what that man looked like?"

"No, he was far away and wore a face mask. I couldn’t see what he looked like."

"Then did you see his license plate number clearly?"

"I only remember two numbers from his license plate, one is 6 and the other is 8, but I’m not clear on the others."

"What about the color, brand and style of that car?"

"It was a black car, but I don’t know what brand it is. Who are you and why are you asking so many questions?" Yan Yu's successive questions made him suspicious.

"You don’t need to be nervous. I’m Chen Xin’s friend. If she comes back, please ask her to call me."

A look of hesitation appeared on the person's face again, and he said, "Okay, if she comes back, I will pass it on."

Yan Yu hung up the intercom and returned to the car, but Wang Lei walked in through the door while they were talking and went directly into Chen Xin's home.

"Chen Xin was picked up by a man on the 1st, supposedly for a prenatal checkup. The man drove a black car."

"Anything else?"

"The babysitter knows that Chen Xin is dead and has become very alert. There is only so much I can ask."

Ling Hua’an nodded and said, "Okay, send me back."

"Hua'an, let's rest at my house today." Yan Yu's tone was faintly expectant.

"No, I can’t fall asleep after changing the environment."

Yan Yu's eyes flashed with disappointment, and said: "Okay, then I will send you back."

Perceiving Yan Yu's emotions, Ling Hua’an sighed in his heart and said, "Let’s go to your house for a meal, I'm hungry."

Yan Yu was overjoyed and said, "Okay, what do you want to eat, I will cook it for you."

"Preserved egg and lean meat porridge, I haven't eaten it for a long time."

The villa where Yan Yu's family lives was far from Chen Xin's home, though it was only two kilometers away. Yan Yu drove the car into the garage and protected Ling Hua’an as he got out of the car. Although the villa was large, there were only two people living there, Yan Yu and the housekeeper. The housekeeper's surname was Zhang and Yan Yu called her Sister Zhang. She worked in his house when his grandfather was still alive.

Sister Zhang saw that Yan Yu had come back and hurriedly went to greet him, "Xiao Yu, why are you back? Oh? Mr. Ling is here too."

Sister Zhang had met Ling Hua’an before, so it wasn’t strange for her to recognize him. Ling Hua’an smiled politely and said, "Sister Zhang, it’s been a while."

Sister Zhang smiled enthusiastically and said: "It's been a long time indeed, Mr. Ling, please make yourself at home."

Yan Yu accompanied Ling Hua’an to the living room and sat down. He looked at Sister Zhang and said, "Sister Zhang, go rest. Just leave it to me."

Sister Zhang was startled, and then smiled, "Okay, it just happens that I feel a little sleepy, so I'll go back to my room and take a nap."

After Sister Zhang and Ling Hua'an greeted each other, she went back to their room. Yan Yu took out a cup of milk from the refrigerator, heated it up in the microwave and handed it to Ling Hua’an, "It’s not good to eat on an empty stomach. Pad your stomach with some milk first. I will cook breakfast."

Ling Hua’an nodded and said: "Okay, go do your thing. Don’t worry about me."

"The milk temperature is just right, drink it quickly." Yan Yu didn’t forget to urge.

Ling Hua’an felt helpless and said, "Okay, I'll drink it now."

The bell in his pocket vibrated and Chen Xin's voice sounded beside his ear, quietly saying, "I really envy you."

"Envy me?" Ling Hua’an downed all the milk in the cup in one go and said, "What for?"

"There are so many people who love you." Chen Xin's tone held concealed envy.

"Everyone has their own suffering, it’s just that you don’t see it." Ling Hua’an fumbled and put the cup on the table: "However, I am really lucky to meet them."

After a brief moment of silence, Chen Xin couldn’t hold back and asked: "Did you live well?"

Ling Hua’an smiled and said, "I’m still living. It’s good to be alive, no matter how hard it is."

"Although I have none of my previous memories, I always feel sad in my heart. After listening to him talking about my situation, I finally understood where the sadness came from." Chen Xin paused, and spoke again with a voice choked with sobs, "Hey, if they didn’t have the time, why did they give birth to me?"

Ling Hua’an was silent for a moment and said, "My father was in a car accident when I was five years old. My mother remarried when I was eight years old. When I was nine years old, she gave birth to another son. Her thoughts were all put on my younger brother, I was like a stranger in that house. When my eyes had a problem, they estranged me even more. At the age of eighteen, I left home to live alone, and it’s been ten years now. Except for my brother who is close to me, they probably don’t even know where I live."

Chen Xin laughed self-mockingly, and said: "Compared with you, I'm lucky, at least I have good ears and eyes."

"Although I am blind, my heart is blind. I don't feel that I am flawed and I have never felt inferior. Compared with those able-people who are blinded with ignorance, I see much more transparently."

Chen Xin was stunned and said with a wry smile: "I am probably one of those blinded people you talked about, otherwise, how could I end up where I am now."

Ling Hua’an sighed and said, "Your life is over. When you find out the truth about your situation and dispel your grievances, you can reincarnate. Then, it will be a new beginning, so you must struggle again."

"Thank you." Chen Xin's ‘thank you’ was much more sincere than before.

"No need to be polite, I’m not helping you for free."

"Seriously, you’re so......" Chen Xin chuckled and said, "I finally understand why they love you so much."

Half an hour  later, the food was brought to the table. There were two bowls of preserved egg and lean meat porridge, a few fried dough sticks and a small plate of pickles. It was a very simple breakfast, but the taste was much more delicious than those sold outside.

"How’s the taste?" Yan Yu looked at Ling Hua’an expectantly.

"Very good. Yan Yu, if you open a restaurant as a chef, it will surely be a hit."

"I only make it for you." Yan Yu's tone was light and natural, almost blurting out.

Ling Hua’an paused, put down the spoon in his hand, looked at Yan Yu, and said, "Yan Yu, you treat me…..."

"Eat, or else it will go cold." Yan Yu interrupted Ling Hua'an and said, "Hua'an, you don’t need to feel burdened. How I treat you is something I’m happy to do."

When Yan Yu said this, he felt as if he had spoken his mind. Ling Hua’an gained some sort of understanding. He sighed in his heart and said: "Yan Yu, maybe I’ll investigate this case myself....."

Yan Yu looked at Ling Hua'an sadly and said, "Hua'an, will you leave me too?"

Blu: Idk what the author was trying to say for this part ("Hua'an, you don’t like me anymore?") because all they wrote was: “华安，就连你也我了吗？”. It’s literally something like “Hua’an, you also me anymore?”

Teh: Maybe it’s like “even you (would leave me)?” like since the way he explained further in the chapter was like people in his life basically left him.

"That's not what I meant." Ling Hua’an was silent for a moment, and said, "For the past few days, I think you should be clear on my thoughts. I like Jiang Chengyan and he also has a good impression of me. All that’s left is to pierce that last layer. Yan Yu, I really treat you as a friend. You are as important as Lu Hao in my heart, but I can’t give you what you want and I don’t want to delay you."

"I know that you like Jiang Chengyan, and I didn't intend to fight with him. In fact, I gave up when I found out that you liked him. I chose to breach this matter today because I want to bring my first relationship to a stop." Yan Yu suppressed the emotions in his heart, and said as calmly as possible: "Hua’an, my parents died young and my grandfather has also left me. I am the only one left in such a big family. It was you who gave me warmth and the motivation to live again. As I interacted with you more and more, I gradually realized that I fell in love with you..."

"Yan Yu..."

"Hua'an, let me finish." Yan Yu interrupted him again, and for the first time, he had the courage to let out his true feelings in his heart, "I know it’s too late to say this, I just want to speak of my true feelings and end my first relationship silently."

"Hua'an, I like you. From the night you hugged and comforted me, I have liked you for 1035 days. I miss you every day and hate to leave you for a moment, but I was also afraid that you  would discover my feelings and leave me, so I guarded this secret carefully and tried to approach you naturally like a friend. I thought that I would have the courage to confess to you one day, but I did not expect you to fall in love with someone else before I confessed."

Looking at Ling Hua’an, Yan Yu was silent for a long time. He quietly wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes and said, "Hua’an, I give up. Before I told you this today, I had already decided to give up. Give me some time, I will work hard to change these feelings into friendship, familial affection, whatever is fine, just..... just don’t chase me away, okay?"

Although Yan Yu tried to conceal it, Ling Hua’an, who was always sharp, could still sense his feelings towards him. He sighed deeply in his heart and said, "Okay."

Yan Yu was startled and tears filled his eyes instantly. He knew that this "okay" meant the end of this relationship that hadn't yet started. He felt despair as if his whole world had crumbled down with only him left. He should feel thankful that he could still stay by Ling Hua’an’s side. He opened his mouth and tried hard for a while before he finally stifled the complex emotions in his heart and said, "Okay."

Ling Hua’an felt Yan Yu's repressed emotions, stood up helplessly, came to Yan Yu's side, and rubbed his hair like a brother, "Cry if you want to cry. You don't have to hide anything from me."

Yan Yu hugged Ling Hua’an tentatively. Seeing that he had no objection, his arms tightened and he began to cry.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTES

Blu: It’s not like I’m some chad veteran but here’s my experience translating 2 chapters of this novel. You can read on or click on, I don’t mind.

Translating this novel got quite confusing and frustrating for me. I had no problems in chapter 32, but for this chapter, it felt as if the author consistently forgot to put ‘不’ in their sentences. Or maybe their keyboard had issues idk.

For example, a sentence from the beginning of the chapter: ‘The man hesitated for a moment and said, "Sorry, Miss Chen isn’t home."’. The raws said that ‘Miss Chen was home’. Later, the housekeeper elaborated that Ms Chen was picked up by a guy. Without clarification from the later part of the chapter, the housekeeper’s words could’ve been interpreted as them lying or playing dumb by saying that Ms Chen was home.

Though it was cleared up within the chapter itself, you might face issues later on as the author might clarify a clue in later chapters (since this is a mystery novel). However, this issue might only be specific to chapter 33 as I only bought and saw the raws for chapter 32 and 33, so I’m not sure about the other chapters.

Other than that, the author’s writing style seems relatively straightforward and I haven’t seen them use too many Chinese idioms. I think there will be a slight learning curve for those who speak little to no Mandarin, but I would still recommend having an experienced speaker you can ask because the author’s writing can’t be taken too literally at times. For example, instead of using ‘老板 (laoban)’, which means ‘boss’, the author is fond of using ‘板 (ban)’ which could mean ‘board, plank, etc.’. If you have zero knowledge of Mandarin or Chinese culture, it could get quite frustrating.

That's all for my comments. I'm sorry if I sounded patronising. Apparently, it's my default state ;-; (according to my dear editor). I hope you enjoyed reading <3