Chapter 8 – AAA Professional Locksmith
The key made a clicking sound as it turned in the lock.
At the same moment, footsteps echoed from the hallway.
They were hurried, somewhat messy. Xu Sinian turned his head and saw someone suddenly appear around the corner.
The evening’s golden light slanted through the window, illuminating the floating dust and the person’s tousled hair.
Those light gray pupils looked over, and they visibly brightened.
“Great! You’re home!”
The figure at the corner bounded up the stairs in just a few steps and stood in front of him, grabbing his hand. “Can you do me a favor?”
His tone was earnest, his expression sincere, as he added, “This is my one and only request of a lifetime.”
Xu Sinian lowered his gaze to look at the person in front of him.
—
The sunlight gradually tilted from the hallway to the street, and the quiet atmosphere gave way to the noise of the outside world.
“…”
Standing amidst the crowd in front of the supermarket, Xu Sinian turned to the person next to him, confirming again, “Your one and only request is for me to help you buy a carton of eggs?”
Chen Bai, still clutching the precious flyer, nodded firmly at his words, pointing to the flyer. “Half price on a carton of eggs! If I miss out, I’ll regret it for a lifetime.”
Half price, with a limit of one carton per person.
If he didn’t get it, he’d regret it for a lifetime.
If he could only buy one carton, he’d regret it for half a lifetime.
This is where having a good neighbor comes in handy. He once again thanked his helpful neighbor and said, “Thank you for saving my second half of life.”
The helpful neighbor acknowledged him with a hum.
And so, oddly yet smoothly, the situation evolved into the two of them going grocery shopping together.
Upon entering the supermarket, Chen Bai grabbed the largest shopping cart he could find and headed straight for the egg section.
Once he secured his two cartons of eggs, the smile on his face grew uncontrollably wide.
The two modest cartons of eggs sat in the corner of the shopping cart, surrounded by plenty of empty space. Looking down at the near-empty cart, Xu Sinian suspected this wouldn’t be the end of things.
Sure enough, despite having already bought the eggs, the person pushing the cart was still clutching the flyer, studying it closely. He was so focused that he nearly crashed into the wall.
“…”
In the end, the cart was handed over to the helpful neighbor, while Chen Bai took on the role of flyer-reader and guide.
With his cap pulled slightly lower, Xu Sinian pushed the cart, following behind, stopping occasionally to wait while Chen Bai picked out vegetables.
Though his neighbor appeared young, he seemed to have a lot of life experience. Every now and then, he would lean over to Xu Sinian and whisper complaints about how expensive some of the produce was.
Xu Sinian had no real sense of these things. He glanced at the prices and silently listened.
When they passed by the household goods section, Chen Bai unexpectedly stopped.
He grabbed a pair of slippers and held them up to the cart for comparison, thinking they were about the right size.
Noticing Xu Sinian’s gaze, he explained, “There’s only one pair of slippers at home, so when you come over next time, you won’t have anything to wear.”
The slippers were smoothly placed in the cart.
Xu Sinian wasn’t wrong—an empty cart went in, and by the time they reached checkout, it was full.
There was too much stuff to carry, so Chen Bai had to spend a small fortune on a large bag to barely fit everything inside.
Even with the bag packed tightly, carrying it was still a bit of a struggle. Initially, Chen Bai tried to carry it with both hands, but then, realizing something, he switched to using only his right hand, which caused him to lean awkwardly to one side as he lifted the bag.
In the end, his helpful neighbor took the bag from him.
When the weight suddenly disappeared from his hand, Chen Bai thought for a moment that some mysterious force had intervened or that the bag had torn a hole. It wasn’t until he felt a fleeting warmth near his hand that he realized his kind neighbor had taken on the burden.
What had been a heavy bag now looked light and easy to carry in someone else’s hands, as if it weighed nothing.
By the time they left the supermarket, the sky, which had been bright earlier, was now almost dark, and the streetlights had come on.
Chen Bai squinted up at the dim yellow streetlight until his eyes hurt, then lowered his head. Glancing sideways, he noticed his neighbor’s arm holding the shopping bag.
Perhaps because it was warmer inside the crowded supermarket, his neighbor had rolled up his sleeves at some point, revealing smooth muscles and prominent veins along his forearm.
With both hands now free, Chen Bai tried rolling up his own sleeves, silently comparing their arms. After a moment, he sighed.
The person walking beside him turned his head and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Chen Bai slowly lowered his sleeves. “Just thinking you could probably knock out ten of me with one punch.”
Xu Sinian: “…”
Xu Sinian found it hard to imagine how his neighbor usually saw him.
Crossing the street, they walked up to the residential building. Once they reached the door, the person ahead of him took out the key and unlocked it, while Xu Sinian handed over the shopping bag.
The person who opened the door took the bag and looked up, asking habitually, “Do you want to eat some noodles?”
Then he added, “You haven’t had dinner yet, have you?”
The slippers they bought at the supermarket were put to use that very night.
With the extra trip to the supermarket, there wasn’t much time left to make dinner, so Chen Bai quickly whipped up some egg noodles, which took the least time to prepare.
To show his gratitude to his helpful neighbor, he even put two eggs in one bowl, a real luxury.
Previously, their interactions mostly involved exchanging food at the door with a bit of small talk. The conversations were short, and they never said much. Now, sitting face-to-face, Chen Bai, who naturally loved to talk, chatted away.
This time, Chen Bai finally remembered to ask his neighbor what he did for work.
“I’m an actor,” Xu Sinian replied. He was temporarily staying in the area because it was close to the filming location.
Chen Bai paused mid-bite, processing the information before nodding. “I see.”
Having rarely interacted with the entertainment industry, he hadn’t thought much about it. Seeing that Xu Sinian always wore a mask, Chen Bai had assumed he was recovering from a cold.
With a grin, he rested his face on his hand and said, “Coincidentally, I’m working at a nearby production set too.”
Xu Sinian glanced at him.
If he remembered correctly, this person already had a locksmith job and another job at night.
Three jobs in total. As someone who had once worked eight jobs in a single day, Xu Sinian remained unfazed and said, “Just so you know, I might not be able to make it home in time for dinner sometimes.”
He propped his face on his hand, and as he spoke, his loose sleeve slid down, revealing a pale wrist.
Xu Sinian lowered his gaze, and his eyes lingered on the conspicuous scar for a moment.
Noticing his gaze, Chen Bai casually pulled up the slipping sleeve and smiled, “Just an accident from before.”
That kind of scar didn’t look like it was caused by an accident.
No wonder this person consciously kept that hand free when they left the supermarket.
After dinner, before his helpful neighbor left, Chen Bai finally remembered to add him on WeChat.
Adding a friend only took a few seconds, but when Xu Sinian looked at his contact list and saw that “AAA Professional Locksmith Chen” had jumped to the top, he fell silent for a moment.
Chen Bai ruffled his messy hair and explained briefly, “When you change locks, you have to provide customer service. A name like this makes it easy for them to find me.”
He originally went by “Little Chen the Locksmith,” but upon his landlord’s suggestion, he changed it to the more reliable-sounding “Master Chen.”
After becoming friends, Master Chen sent his newly added contact to the door and, before closing it, smiled and said, “Next time, if you have time, let’s have dinner together again.”
His new friend said something in reply, but voices from an upstairs neighbor coming down drowned it out, so Chen Bai assumed it was an agreement.
After a pleasant dinner came the challenge of waking up early the next morning.
Not only did he have to wake up early, but since he hadn’t prepared breakfast the night before, Chen Bai had to manually buy something after heading downstairs. He ate while rushing to the set.
Every time he headed to the set, he was either racing against time or on his way to race against time.
The director wasn’t exaggerating when he said they’d speed things up—yesterday, Chen Bai had been observing the set, but today, he had half a day’s worth of scenes lined up. Perhaps this was because he was a newcomer.
There were several assistant directors, and the one responsible for his scenes today was the same one present during his audition. However, it seemed the main director was not entirely at ease and watched from the side.
Even though he wasn’t fully awake, Chen Bai remembered to bring his script and lines. He sat in a corner, reviewing his lines one last time, when the director came over with his own small stool and sat beside him.
Although A-Huai, his character, would eventually lose the ability to speak, most of the scenes still involved dialogue. The shots being filmed this morning were for scenes where he still had lines. The director wasn’t expecting a non-professional newcomer to deliver the lines perfectly, so he simply asked, “Can you remember the lines?”
Chen Bai replied, “I remember them.”
He had a decent memory, and as long as he wanted to remember something, he could.
If his memory were worse, the time between live streaming sessions wouldn’t have been enough to memorize lines.
As long as he could remember the lines, that was all the director required. After receiving confirmation, he sighed in relief and, while the crew and camera team set up the scene, he added, “Make sure you remember the lines. If you forget during filming, at least remember the gist of the scene and say something similar so it’ll be easier to dub later.”
Chen Bai asked, “Will someone else dub it in post-production?”
The director confirmed, “It’s best to use the original voice, but lines are hard to perfect. Since you’re new, we won’t push you too hard.”
That’s why, during the audition, they had selected a scene without dialogue. From the start, they had planned to dub over his lines.
Chen Bai asked, “Do the other actors use their original voices?”
The director nodded.
Chen Bai glanced up slightly, watching the figures bustling around him. He noticed the assistant director waving him over.
He closed his script, stood up, and smiled faintly as he said, “Let’s give it a try.”
Author’s note:
The king of odd jobs has done them all, so trust in the king of odd jobs!
