Chapter 11: We don’t use cash.

“I’ve explained almost everything that needs explaining. One last reminder: the two bottles of mineral water on the table are drinkable. Don’t drink the ones in the mini-fridge. Those cost money and are quite expensive. I’ll go down later and buy some water for you.”

Tang Yingjie spoke while walking toward the door. Just as he was about to leave, he noticed Alice following closely behind him.

“What’s wrong? Is there still a problem?”

Alice responded with a serious face.

“You said you were going to buy water, right? I’ll go with you.”

“Oh… alright then.”

He thought for a moment. There shouldn’t be many people outside at this hour. Even if Alice’s clothes looked a bit strange and she was a beautiful foreigner, not too many people should notice.

If she wanted to follow, then let her. He could teach her how to buy things here.

He demonstrated how to use the room card in front of Alice once more, then had her keep the card and remember the room number. After that, he took Alice out of the hotel.

Most cities in Hunan have active night lives. Especially since this district was near Changsha and close to a university town, the streets still felt lively even in the early morning.

On both sides of the road, various tables set up by small stalls had people of all kinds sitting in twos and threes.

Some were clearly university students who hadn’t returned to their dorms, while others looked like office workers pulling night shifts nearby.

The air was filled with the tempting aroma of charcoal fire and grease.

Tang Yingjie walked ahead and glanced back at Alice. He found that she didn’t seem bothered by the food smells at all. She simply followed obediently behind him with that familiar cold and aloof expression on her face.

When she saw him turn around, she gave him a puzzled look.

“What do you think of the smell from these stalls?”

“It smells very good.”

Alice nodded in approval.

“Are you going to treat me to some?”

Her cold expression began to melt, revealing a trace of spring-like warmth.

Tang Yingjie breathed in the barbecue aroma mixed with the floral scent from her body. Under the warm night breeze, his heart couldn’t help but feel itchy.

“Cough cough… we can eat after buying the things.”

Breakfast… eating barbecue should be fine, right?

It’s okay. Everything is under control.

“Mm mm.”

Alice nodded. Her expression clearly showed she was quite happy.

Then she took a step forward, and Tang Yingjie felt something warm and soft slip into his palm.

“Then let’s hurry.”

Watching her eagerly pull him to buy things and feeling the warmth in his hand.

The restlessness in his heart gradually became harder to suppress.

He subconsciously tightened his grip on the soft hand.

In return, he received a surprised and delighted glance from her.

The streetlamp’s warm light reflected in her pupils, shining like stars.

“Alice, if after you understand this world and the me in this world, you can still walk together with me, then I… I will definitely be very happy.”

Alice looked at Tang Yingjie.

This was the first time she had seen him so lacking in confidence.

“Alright, I understand.”

She didn’t say much more.

The key was that she gave a positive reply.

But deep inside, she let out a soft sigh of puzzlement.

Dear Tang, why would I need to get to know you in this world again? You are you. You are the hero of the empire, the brave one who saved the world and defeated the Demon King. Your confidence should shine as brightly as the scorching sun, even making others feel its heat.

She didn’t understand why Tang Yingjie seemed like a completely different person after returning to his own world.

But she chose to respect him.

After all, this was a foreign world. There were many interesting things here. They weren’t strong, but their designs were very ingenious. She needed to adapt for a while and fully understand this world first.

However, Tang Yingjie’s doubts were unnecessary.

He was the Hero.

Even after returning to his original world and concealing his halo, without any glory on him.

In Alice’s eyes, he would always be that Hero who stood on a mountain of corpses under a blood-red sunset, arrogantly declaring the Demon King’s sins before beheading him with a single slash.

Tang Yingjie led Alice to a still-open grocery store. After picking a few bottles of mineral water, juice, and cola, he first showed Alice cash.

He had to praise the thoughtfulness of the RMB designers here. The excellent colors and different bill sizes allowed even the illiterate Alice to distinguish the value of the bills based on color and size without understanding Arabic numerals.

“Keep this small change on you. Can you remember these values now?”

Tang Yingjie handed over a hundred-yuan bill to the owner. The owner rummaged through the drawer with a troubled face for a long time before giving back a pile of colorful bills as change, along with a pack of chewing gum as a bonus.

Since he was short one yuan in coins, the owner couldn’t be bothered with a transfer and simply gave him a two-yuan pack of gum.

In the blink of an eye, the owner had emptied all the small change in the cash register and handed it to Alice.

“No problem! But I have one question.”

Alice carefully put away the money Tang Yingjie gave her, then asked a question she had been wondering about earlier.

“You can ask me anything.”

Tang Yingjie nodded, indicating he could answer.

Even if he didn’t know, weren’t there Baidu and AI apps to search?

This is a technological world, girl! This isn’t your feudal era where knowledge is hidden away in vaults.

Do you understand what the internet is? Even if I only know the characters, once I connect to the network, I’m still a knowledgeable god!

“Why does it seem from the currency that your world’s economy isn’t doing well, yet everything appears so peaceful?”

Alice looked back somewhat puzzled at the grocery store they had already left behind.

“Ah? Why would you think that?”

Tang Yingjie was a bit stunned.

“Because that shop owner just now gave you all his money to make change, right? His store only has that one hundred-yuan bill left. How will he conduct the next transactions?”

In Alice’s impression, similar situations had occurred in the empire’s history.

Currency shortages had led to the collapse of the empire’s financial market and economic system, eventually causing the entire market to regress to primitive bartering.

History books described what a miserable period that was.

But from Tang Yingjie’s transaction earlier, this world most likely also had a currency shortage, yet it hadn’t caused any serious impact.

Even when Tang Yingjie’s large bill directly took away all the shop owner’s smaller denominations, the owner remained calm despite the lack of small change in the store.

This was completely different from what was written in the books. Had the history books lied to her?

“Oh, you mean that.”

Tang Yingjie touched the smooth screen of his new phone somewhat embarrassedly.

“In our world, at least in the country we’re in, we rarely use physical currency anymore.”