The little one's purse connects the two worlds, turning a desolate village into a paradise.

The strawberry vendor listened to the whole thing, finding the back-and-forth conversation between the two children quite amusing, like a stand-up comedy routine.

Just as she was secretly amused, she heard Ya Ya call out to her.

"Boss lady!"

"What's wrong, kid?"

Ya Ya shook the pink watch on her wrist and asked earnestly, "Auntie, could I ask you for some money for the paper, the kind you hold in your hand one by one? I need to pay Brother Zhao's wages."

The stall owner nodded cheerfully: "Of course, but calling it paper money doesn't sound right. This is cash. How much do you want to exchange?"

"I'll exchange it for twenty-eight yuan in cash!" Ya Ya readily agreed and changed her mind.

The stall owner quickly scanned the code to verify the money, counted out twenty-eight yuan from the tin box where change was kept, and handed it over: "Here, twenty-eight yuan, count it yourself."

Ya Ya counted them, thanked the stall owner, and pushed the cart in the direction Zhao Hao Hao had run off to.

Zhao Haohao is squatting by the curb, cosplaying as a stone block.

"Brother Zhao, this is your wages for cooking noodles this morning, twenty-eight yuan, take it!" A handful of warm banknotes was stuffed into his palm.

Zhao Haohao stared down at the cash in his hand, his fingers trembling slightly.

He's struck it rich! He's really struck it rich! This new little sister is so generous! When he gets home tonight, he'll also get a salary from his mom. With money coming from both ends, if he helps out a few more times, Zhao Haohao will be the richest kid in Hongye Elementary School!

Zhao Haohao quickly stuffed the money into his pocket, wishing he could kowtow to Ya Ya on the spot.

"Go through fire and water, Sister Ya! Come on, are you tired from pushing the stroller? Let me help you. Are your shoulders sore? Let me massage them for you." Zhao Haohao snatched the stroller from Ya Ya and patted her back haphazardly with his other hand.

Ya Ya twisted her body to avoid it. Was Brother Zhao possessed?

"Brother Zhao, I'm younger than you, you can't call me sister."

"No, no, you are my sister! My mom, my grandma, my boss, my sister!" Zhao Haohao blurted out a rhyme.

Ya Ya glanced at Zhao Haohao, who seemed a little confused after taking the money, and didn't say anything more. She just turned her gaze to a row of food stalls not far away.

"Brother Zhao, do you know which of these are delicious?"

"Then you've come to the right person! Come on, I'll take you there. Let me tell you, we even have a guide to our Red Leaf Morning Market! Have you seen Douyin (TikTok)? Lots of people love coming to our Northeast Morning Market to check it out!"

"What does 'checking in' mean? And what is Douyin?" Ya Ya asked, looking completely bewildered.

"Hey sis, don't you have a phone? How come you didn't know this? Where's your phone? By the way, do you have any games downloaded on your phone? Like King of Glory?" Zhao Haohao asked furtively in a low voice.

Now Ya Ya was even more confused. She couldn't understand a single word that Zhao Ge was using. Things like Douyin, check-in, and King of Glory were all new words she had never heard before.

Seeing that her eyes were empty and she had no idea what was going on, Zhao Haohao figured she didn't have any ideas and gave up. He decided to take his sister to buy some food first.

"It's okay, it's okay, I'll tell you about it later. Cell phones are so much fun! Let's go buy some food first." He gripped the handle of the cart firmly with one hand and held Ya Ya's wrist with the other, excitedly heading towards the area where the food stalls were clustered together.

"This sesame ball shop is very famous; one of their videos has tens of thousands of likes!"

Zhao Haohao led Ya Ya to a stall with a long queue of sesame balls. The hot, sweet, and fried aroma wafted into their noses.

The large tin wok was bubbling with clear oil, and the stall owner, an auntie, was constantly stirring the round sesame balls in the wok with long bamboo chopsticks, the oil sizzling.

Two stainless steel trays were laid out in front of the stall, piled high with fried sesame balls, all covered in white sesame seeds.

The price list is written on a small sign next to it: two yuan each, five yuan for three.

As she fried the sesame balls, the auntie casually rolled them out, occasionally calling out, "Hot sesame balls! Red bean paste filling, chewy and not sticky!"

"How is it? Does it smell good?" Zhao Haohao asked Ya Ya, staring at the sesame balls that had just been taken out of the pot.

"fragrant!"

"We need to queue, let's go to the back."

When it was Ya Ya's turn, she asked for three, which cost five yuan. She gave one to Zhao Haohao, ate one herself, and gave the last one to Grandma Duck.

Zhao Haohao happily accepted the sesame balls and was just about to head to the next stop when he heard Ya Ya's energetic voice: "Hello, Uncle, I want to buy more, a hundred yuan's worth!"

Zhao Haohao stumbled, his eyes wide with shock. "Are you crazy? One hundred yuan? Huh? What kid buys one hundred yuan worth of sesame balls at once? Can they even finish them all?"

"Do you know how many of these sesame balls cost 100 yuan? Sixty! Even if they're delicious, the two of us can't finish them all."

"I'll bring some for the villagers; they can finish it," Ya Ya waved her hand.

After buying the sesame balls, the empty cart felt a bit heavier. Zhao Haohao led Ya Ya to the next stall, where a large, dark frying pan was densely packed with two kinds of pancakes. One half were golden cornbread pancakes with crispy edges, and the other half were dark brown black rice pancakes.

The stall owner, wearing white gloves, deftly flipped the pancakes with his small shovel, turning them over every now and then.

"This is our local specialty snack, corn pancakes, five cents each." Zhao Haohao stepped aside.

I wonder how many Ya Ya will buy this time.

Ya Ya stared at the pancakes on the stall. She had seen this stall several times before, and it always smelled delicious, but she had never come over to buy any. It turned out to be a famous snack.

For just 50 cents, you can buy two for a dollar...

Ya Ya stood on tiptoe, "Hello uncle, I want a hundred-yuan pancake!"

With a hot cornbread in his mouth, Zhao Haohao helped Ya Ya stuff 199 cornbreads into the cart.

He's quite calm now and understands his sister Ya's tactics; everything she buys starts at 100 yuan.

Then the two bought sticky rice cakes, braised meat, and some more of the steamed egg cakes and sausages they had bought earlier, as well as ten trays of eggs.

"Auntie, we're back."

The shopping trip left Zhao Haohao exhausted.

He didn't actually walk much; he just bought things and ate as he went. He probably ate too much.

"Little Ya Ya is such a big spender." Zhao Haohao slumped into his chair like a deflated balloon.

"Ya Ya often helps the villagers with their shopping, so she must buy a lot," Cao Xiulian said with a smile as she came over to help Ya Ya organize the things she had bought.

"She's so young and already helping with the village business, wow, no wonder she's my sister Ya, she's really amazing!"

Ya Ya puffed out her chest.

Cao Xiulian, too lazy to care about Zhao Haohao's nonsensical switching between calling her "little sister" and "older sister," poked his backpack and said, "You've been mooching food off your little sister quite a bit, haven't you? Your belly's bulging like this. Didn't you bring her a gift? Aren't you going to take it out?"

"Oh dear, I forgot." Zhao Haohao jumped up, unzipped his backpack, rummaged through it, then simply zipped it up and stuffed the entire backpack into Ya Ya's arms: "It's all yours!"