Mel's grocery store is actually a second-hand store on the South Side. It has everything. Whether you can buy what you want depends on your luck.
Zach pushed open the old wooden door, the doorbell rang loudly, and a head popped out from behind the messy containers. This is the owner of this store, Old Mel. He saw Matthew with a smile on his face, "Matthew! You are here, what do you want today? How is Joseph (Matthew's father) doing lately?"
He seemed to be a familiar person.
Matthew stepped forward sheepishly and pointed at Zach, who had taken only a few fragments from the bridge of his nose and mounted them on the frame, "Mel, this is Mr. Grande."
Old Mel has walked back behind the counter. Although he has a wrinkled face, his movements seem to be very light. He is a healthy old guy.
"Oh, oh! I know you!" Old Mel pointed at Zach with a rough finger, "I know Benjamin! You must be his brother, uh, Zachary! Right!" This is reality, he often goes out to do errands It is indeed Benjamin, and Zach’s face does not often appear in everyone’s sight.
"Just Zach." Zach smiled politely and was already looking at the things in the store. This is simply a warehouse with everything, old carpets, photo frames, plates, farm tools... even clothes!
"That's right! I just said I remember!" Old Mel looked at Matthew, his voice was very loud. The old men in the South District seemed to have the same virtues as Hank, and they all spoke loudly. But this one was much friendlier than old Hank. He looked at Matthew with a smile, "Boy, what did you bring your boss to buy today?"
"Oh, did you sell the video recorder you mentioned last time?" Matthew asked.
"Hey! You want it?! No, no! Here, here!" The old man pulled Matthew, shouted to Zach again, and walked directly to the depths of the shelf, "Get that thing away quickly!"
Matthew turned to look at Old Mel suspiciously.
"Ah! Don't worry!" Old Mel seemed to realize that he had said the wrong thing. "That thing is very good! It's my grandson! He reads it every day! He doesn't even have to do his homework!" Old Mel opened a door at the back of the shelf, and his style changed.
Compared to the clutter outside, it's crowded but clean and tidy. This is old Mel's home. There is a black rectangular machine under the TV cabinet in the middle of the living room. The red indicator light is on. A boy of about ten years old is also staying on the sofa. Instead, he lay down on the soft carpet, staring at the screen motionless, occasionally grabbing a few potato chips by his side and stuffing them into his mouth.
"Boy! Get up!" Old Mel rushed angrily with the boy's neckline, thrown on the sofa, and slammed the TV, "Look! Be careful of your mother!"
The boy blinked, tilted his eyes, curled up on the sofa and started squirming.
Zach and Matthew pursed their lips as they watched the old Mel fiddle around the sensitive TV cabinet. After a while, a black machine entangled with various wires was stuffed into Matthew's arms, "It's yours! Ten dollars! No more bargaining!"
For ten dollars, there is no need to negotiate the price. It is no different from giving it away for free.
But this old man was very interesting, and Zach didn't want to take advantage of him. He smiled and waved his hand, "Mr. Mel. Matthew said there are many more video tapes, and we are happy to buy them together."
"Ah! Yes!" Old Mel remembered something. He quickly squatted in front of the TV cabinet and took out boxes of square plastic boxes. Zach took a look at the cover. The original owner seemed to have a wide range of tastes, from comedy to horror movies, but there were just too many of them.
There was already a pile of videotapes on the carpet. Old Mel stood in the middle and finally everything was cleared. But he frowned, his two white eyebrows squeezed together, and his eyes stared at the two guests, seemingly hesitant.
Zach and Matthew looked at each other. Not sure why.
"Wait!" Old Mel seemed to have made up his mind, stepped over the box on the ground, and walked to the living room behind the living room. Zach raised his eyebrows, who knew what he was doing.
However, the boy who had been squirming on the sofa for a long time quickly jumped up from the sofa after seeing his grandfather leaving, and stared at the two guests with a pair of blue eyes. Then he put his fleshy fingers in front of his lips and said, "Shhh"
Zach and Matthew watched in amusement as the fat boy carefully walked to the middle of a pile of messy video tapes and began to rummage through them gently and silently.
Until he found a box of video tapes without a cover, the fat boy quickly picked up the box, then looked at the bedroom warily and found that Old Mel was still looking for something. The kid looked around, then lay down on the ground and stuffed the video tape without the cover under the sofa.
After doing all this, the boy returned to the sofa, winked at the two of them, and then returned to his coquettish appearance, squirming on the sofa cushions, looking like an arrogant grandson.
"Go do your homework!" Old Mel's voice passed through the corridor and shouted to the fat boy on the sofa. He himself walked out carrying a paper bag and put the paper bag on the machine in front of Matthew with twinkling eyes. , "Okay! That's all!"
Zach was curious to see what was in the paper bag, but Old Mel grabbed him and said, "Come out, come out again!"
Zach shrugged and found that Matthew's eyes were a little evasive when he looked into the paper bag on his chest, and his face was already flushed. As mentioned earlier, the original owner of these video tapes had very comprehensive interests, so comprehensive that some of them could only be hidden in his bedroom.
Matthew and Zach returned to the store, and soon Mel installed all the video tapes and placed them on the counter.
"One plate and one dish, it's all yours!" The old man said with some regret in his tone.
Zach smiled and counted everything. When he paid, he still paid the normal used price for the video recorder. "Does the original owner have any matching accessories? This is our first time to buy this thing. Can you find the instruction manual?" Something like that?”
It's not a shame to admit that you don't know how to use it. Zach asked with a smile.
Old Mel thought for a moment, "I'll look for it." Then he walked out of the counter and started rummaging through the shelves.
Zach and Matthew were not in a hurry and strolled around casually.
"Ah!" Old Mel's voice sounded, "I can't find the instruction manual! But there is a camera! What do you want? I don't know how to tinker with this thing! No one wants it!"
Zach raised his eyebrows, this is a very advanced thing, but people in the South District really don't need it. It seems that the tape recorder hidden by the fat boy was something recorded by the original owner himself.
"Here!" Old Mel walked out with a machine and a tripod. It seemed to be very complete. "These are the rare things. The other things are ordinary things. There is an explanation on this thing and the box is still there." Old Mei I took out another packaging box. It looked very new. It seemed that the original owner had not purchased it for a long time.
"How much?" Zach asked with a smile.
"This thing." Old Mel hesitated, "I'll give it to you. When I picked it up, I just threw it away and I didn't pay for it." What an honest businessman.
Zach pursed his lips, becoming more and more curious about the original owner.
"Okay. We want it." Zach smiled and directed Matthew to pack the things. He still took out more than a hundred coins and asked casually, "Whose do these belong to?"
"Uh..." Old Mel grabbed his hair, with a look of regret on his face, "That, hey, belongs to that boy Alvin."
Zach frowned, Alvin, it sounds familiar, but he can't remember it.
"What a pity!" Old Mel shook his head, and the wrinkles on his face seemed to have increased, "What a nice young man! We just got engaged. I heard that his work at Paisiying is also going very well! That's it. Gone… "
Zach remembered. He had also seen, in the underground morgue of the mill, one of Papa's dead disciples in the South District at midnight, Chris Irvine, one of the people who was persuaded to commit suicide by the Wind and his wife. So the one who left Barton City should be the fiancée who was traded because of Papa Midnight's Dead Apostle Contract.
"That woman is not a good thing!" Old Mel suddenly became angry, "She just left ('committed suicide')! She pretended not to know her! She didn't care about the funeral! She didn't care about anything! What's abominable is that Alvin's Everything is still in her name!”
Zach shook his head, the Death Apostle contract collapsed, and the people bound by Chris's wishes were released, and naturally returned to the state of unknown strangers. It's just that this Alvin eagerly transferred all his property to his fiancee's name. It was indeed desperate enough as Papa Midnight said.
As a result of this desperate prayer and the signing of the Death Apostle contract, Grande now received a free video recorder. Life is full of surprises.
Zach didn't dare to speak for a woman he didn't know, so he shook his head with deep regret, picked up today's harvest and prepared to leave.
The old wooden door was pushed open, and the bright afternoon sunshine briefly opened and closed in this store, which looked like a warehouse. Madison looked at Zach and Matthew in surprise as they held several large bags of cartons, "Why are you here?"
"Madison." Zach smiled and raised his eyebrows, "Can't we buy something?"
Madison curled his lips. He was too lazy to care what the boss was doing. He greeted Old Mel and took out a list, "Mel, look at these books, do you have them?"
"Ah! Madison!" Old Mel wiped away his regret and anger and returned to his previous appearance, "Books! I don't have many books here! You go to Pisk's and have a look!"
"Oh, then I'll find a typewriter." Madison glanced at Zach, "Do you have one?"
Zach smiled, "Madison, have you decided what to write?" Only a pair of light green eyes were exposed above the cardboard, which was a bit ridiculous, "I hope I can still be the protagonist."
"Ah! Yes! I just collected it not long ago!" Old Mel quickly ran into a shelf and started rummaging through it.
Madison looked at Zach, twitching the corners of his mouth, too lazy to answer the question.
"Madison." Zach put down what he was holding and patted Madison on the shoulder, "This is just a joke. You know I will support you in doing what you are interested in."
Madison didn't want to watch this guy who had the makings of a perfect protagonist but no audience. He watched Old Mel holding a typewriter on a container.
"Let's do this." Zach picked up the typewriter and looked up and down, "How about I buy it for you to show my support."
"More than a hundred! No bargaining!"
"Deal," Zach said. (..)