Day 2 - Shopping with other's money

Huomei, after thinking for some time, decided to go along with Yan long's suggestion. 

She complained to her father about pocket money.

It was just throwing an arrow into the dark, yet, unexpectedly, it worked.

She asked her father why her step mother decided to give her a present meant for those in their sixties. 

Did she intend to imply that her father did not care about her at all, so she better not talk to her father? Did she intend to make her lose face in front of all her friends? Or does she mean to send her off as early as possible, like those old people?

Obviously, HuoMei did not make sense as she got to the end of her complaining, but her father was smart. 

He was definitely smart enough to see what his wife did, and if nothing else, seeds of doubt were planted within him.

If HuoMei thought the gift was from her father, then she wouldn't have talked to him in anger. 

He knew his daughter, her grudge, could last till his death.

HuoMei’s father, in order to placate her, gave her a carte blanche.

When Yanlong came back from her trip to the library, HuoMei told her this news. 

Yanlong is as surprised at her success as Huomei herself. 

After all, this tactic itself came from Huomei of the future. Let's face it, Huomei of the future sucked at schemes as much as current HuoMei.

If it wasn’t for her kind heart, she wouldn’t have allowed Yanlong to hug her thigh as long as she did. 

At that time, Yanlong was leery of this childish scheme, for her own experience is different. 

That could be very much because she is never a precious daughter like Huomei is.

In order to celebrate her success, Huomei decided to take all of them out to play.

Yanlong did not resist. 

They went to L city, about three hundred miles away from their university. Yanlong's own family lived an hour or two away.

Yanlong felt ambiguous about the fact. Ideally, she should go meet her family. 

That’s what all family loving heroes and heroines did. 

However, she did not want to. 

She and her father belonged to two different genres, and she never got along with her father. 

He is a successful elite, and was as selfish as selfish could get, and patriarchal on top of it. 

She did not even attempt to rescue her family in her last life. 

Her brother suffered in the aftermath, not her parents. 

Her own mother divorced her father, and Yanlong had no idea where she went. 

However, her stepmother raised her from the time she was a toddler, so she is relatively close despite the label stepmother. 

Yet, there existed a barrier between them. Yanlong was a good kid, because she recognized the fact both her parents are perfectly capable of throwing her to her uneducated grandparents if she stepped a toe out of line. 

Don’t get wrong, she wasn’t abused or neglected! It’s just that Yanlong is extremely pragmatic, and she realized her situation for what it is. 

"L city, finally..." Biyu said, smiling like a fool.

"I already think this is the best decision I have made in my life." Suyan added.

"I never could have guessed you have it in you to play hooky." Mingzhu mused looking at Yan long.

It is an understandable notion. Yanlong is a scholarship student. 

She could have gotten into the nation’s number one university, but she did not. 

The day before, Huomei told Yanlong to ask for one wish, anything she wanted.

Yanlong suggested they all run away to L city and play hooky. Her purpose was to buy the stuff she could not in the college town. 

She expected some resistance. Only, her roommates took to the suggestion with enthusiasm of prisoners who just had a jailbreak.

After all, they were all prisoners of grades and studies. 

Yanlong is a scholarship student. 

Room assignments are based on grades to some extent. 

Thus, though not as high as herself, grades of the rest must be high enough.

Such high grades don't happen by luck or talent, even if you are brimming with it. Thus, it stood to reason her roommates are almost as repressed as herself.

Huomei offered to bear the cost of the trip for Yanlong. Since Yanlong knew what's coming, she accepted easily.

"Wow, we worried for naught. If I knew it's this easy to buy you, I would have long since." Biyu griped.

Yanlong most definitely would have taken offense at such words if she had been the young and proud girl.

 Now, she is a thirty year old woman who survived the apocalypse.

Pride ? Feed it to the dogs. 

Freebies are always appreciated, and must never be missed. 

Rich and generous is a rare and diminishing species. When one is found, it must be latched on to with all the strength one has.

"Not too late now either. Thousand bucks a day. Auction held at 7 am every day." Yanlong quipped.

"If I knew you were this cool, I would have talked to you a long time ago. To think I was afraid of you." Suyan lamented.

Yanlong always had that lone wolf aura around her. 

It is a natural phenomenon. 

In a country that prized skinny good looks, she is the chubby rugged girl. 

Add to that, she herself had a tomboyish personality with none of the added perks such as athleticism.

Suyan is leery of academic gods in the first place, given she came from an affluent family of career elites. 

She's not quite black sheep, only, her elder sibling was too brilliant.

She suffered for a long time. Now, she did not even want to make friends with people with better grades. 

Last year, They chose their beds based on entrance exam scores.

Yanlong's scores are a little too on the top, even for an elite college. 

Suyan avoided her wherever she could after that.

They went to the most famous Dimsum house in L city. 

Yanlong did not have any qualms at all and ate like a sumo wrestler. 

Even Mingzhu and Meibing got affected with her enthusiasm, eating more than they ever would. They decided to get a sisterhood symbol after that.

"A tattoo." Biyu suggested.

"No. we can never be too sure about their sanitary conditions." Meibing vetoed.

"Dress?" Mingzhu suggested. Everyone contemplated seriously, but no one agreed.

"How about soldier tags and a hunting knife?" Yanlong suggested.

"Aiya! Are you a gamer girl?" Biyu poked fun at her.

"I like it. Soldier tags and knife." Huomei added.

"Whatever birthday girl wants." Meibing cast her vote.

They are both game otakus, that is Huomei and Meibing. Even Biyu is a game otaku, Only, the games she liked are entirely different genres from the Mei sisters.

Yanlong, who did not expect her suggestion would go over so well, was very happy with the outcome.

Thus, off they went in search of a good hunting knife.

"This is a phony knife. Big brother! Don't you have any real ones?" Yanlong asked.

"Ai ya Little sister! In this L city, I sell the best weapons. If you can find one better, I will call you grandmother." the salesman boasted.

"Then do you have a tungsten alloy steel type bayonet?" Yanlong asked.

"Little sister, you sure know your weapons." The salesman said surprised.

He had been showing them useless fancy Comicon knives.

"Let's just take this knife. What's wrong with it?" Biyu questioned.

She liked pretty things. It's not a surprise. Biyu’s family owned an apparel brand. She’s the most fashion sensitive among all her roommates. 

"I am a little curious about a knife Yanlong approves." Meibing intervened.

"I want one she selects." Huomei put her stamp of approval.

If the salesman gets surprised, Yanlong must know her stuff well. 

No woman will ever turn down a shopping expert's advice.

"Fine. Let's go get our legendary grade knife." Biyu cribbed.

Mingzhu and Suyan did not respond. 

Usually they both back up Biyu, but they are also curious about what the elusive weapon approved by Yanlong looks like.

Finally, they went to a swordsmith shop. Yanlong talked shop and got them all a pretty looking dagger.

The pretty looking daggers are also wicked sharp. 

They were told repeatedly they could not take them out in public. 

They need to write a self aware oath of not using the weapons for bad. 

It was a really novel experience for all the girls involved, so they happily followed along with Yanlong.

It is only then they got to know why Huomei approved of this plan of getting daggers.

She's a hardcore gamer girl. The kind of gamer girl who bought customized handmade anime figurines from japanese studios. 

While Yanlong only brought them here to get a dagger and get herself quality thief kit, Huomei went crazy buying a katana, halberd, twin twisted blades, a church blade and a ten sets of various throwing equipment.

Yanlong stood beside her, inspected every weapon, making sure the weapon with the right material, hand grip and balance was chosen. 

This appearance of an expert, and the serious treatment given to their hobbies made HuoMei go even more shopaholic. 

This is the basic knowledge any and all apocalypse survivors ought to have.

On top of this, she added all the other little curiosities that she thought Huomei may need, but did not think of. 

Including a leather battle suit. It's not the anime collector version, but a real one, which she customized for Huomei with a fire symbol and few fake diamonds.

"My father would have all these thrown out if I were home." Huomei said, smiling at the weapon collection she had bought.

Even the quiet Suyan has gone on a little splurge, buying all sorts of little weapons.

It's only Biyu who did not buy much, but after looking at Huomei's battle suit, she bought one too, customized with a purple Yamato Nadeshiko flower.

With Biyu buying a suit, suddenly the suit has turned into haute couture. 

Biyu is a fashionista and a pretty influential one too. 

Thus, all the remaining girls bought a suit, with Yanlong choosing their suit material, Biyu, the accessories.

Yanlong insisted on doing this, along with suggesting other practical customizations too. 

Mei bing got a snowflake, Mingzhu a peony, Suyan a little water droplet. 

Huomei insisted on buying a yanlong one, so, finally she got one too, with a dragon on it's emblem.

By the time they conclude the buying spree in the weapon shop, it's lunch time. 

They went to a famous restaurant.

Yanlong binged herself again with no concern towards calories. 

She was coming back from a diet. 

Even if it only amounted to mosquito leg, she wanted to store up energy, for food is the first thing to become scarce in the apocalypse. 

She had spent almost five days without a single morsel in the past. Worse, she did not think she could eat this kind of tasty food not any time soon.

They went to the central mall in the afternoon for clothes shopping. 

While the rest bought normal clothes, Yanlong bought the sturdiest and cheapest all weather clothes and athletic clothes.

Finally, Biyu intervened to persuade her strongly against all her choices, given that almost all of them are ugly.

They bickered for so long, unable to bear with the raucous, Huomei offered to buy prettier versions. 

Yanlong allowed her to change her shoes and raincoat, but rejected her offer for the rest. 

She knew that the brands she had chosen were the sturdiest ones.

Meibing and Mingzhu both bought uglier versions of the same raincoat and pants in a rare sense of solidarity, just to spite Biyu. 

Sometimes Biyu did get on everyone's nerves.

By the time they finished their shopping, it's six in the evening. 

Yanlong wanted to separate from the group to finish the remainder of her shopping. 

When she told them she is going to buy lock picking tools, the reactions were varied.

"Like in spy movies? With an electronic password calculator?"  Huomei asked interestedly.

"Can it break safes?" Biyu asked as if she had a few safes to break. Knowing her, she probably wants to break into her mother's jewelry locker.

"Whom are you planning to steal from?" MeiBing asked as if she is already planning the heist, and it is daily business for her to steal from people.

"Are you going to steal exam papers?" Suyan asked doubtfully. she really must have thought about that in detail.

The moment she heard those words, Yanlong knew she could not go alone. She took it in stride.

"My! None of you good sisters are interested in being the heroine of justice and stop me from the very crooked path of thievery?" Yanlong asked jokingly.

The answering silence is enough to know they are going to be accomplices rather than a voice of reason.

"Fine. Tag along. We have to skip the bakery and eat on the road though." Yanlong told them.

The girls clambered after her.

Perhaps this is all interesting to them, but these items will prove to be life saving in the future. 

It will not be bad to have two powerhouses like the Mei sisters, dubbed fire star and ice queen. 

None of her roommates turned into zombies, but MingZhu and Biyu were first to perish among them.

It is at this time Yanlong's phone rang with a raucous beep.