A City

Soon the weekends arrived and they had to head to the farmer's market in A City to sell the week's produce.

Chen Mei Ling's parents did own another bicycle before, but they had ridden it when they had their accident, leaving it in crushed waste.

Their only choice was to borrow the one from grandpa Chen.

After all, the bicycle cart had to be fully packed with crops, leaving no space for Chen Mei Ling to sit on as Jia Bi Yu rode it to the city.

Speaking of which, she was not even sure if he knew how to ride a bicycle at first, but he had somehow managed to skillfully ride it after a few twists and turns.

They had gotten up before the sun rose, taking almost an hour loading the cart up.

Cabbages, bitter melons, bok chois, radishes, eggplants, potatoes, chives.

Chen Mei Ling slowly got up onto the seat of the bicycle cart, ready to head off towards the big city.

Jia Bi Yu furrowed his brows together, eyes squinting in disapproval, as he stood in front of her bicycle cart glaring deep into her eyes.

"W-W-what's wrong?"

"Get off"

"Huh?"

Her eyes widened and rapidly blinked twice, with her upper body jumping back slightly.

"Get off the bike," he repeated.

Confusedly she slowly got off the seat landing clumsily between her legs onto the metal bar.

A small high pitched yelp escaped her mouth.

Jia Bi Yu quickly struck out his hand, steadying her and helping her to get off the bicycle cart.

"Be careful. Are you alright?"

"Y-yea. I'm fine. It just gave me a fright. Thank you gege."

"Let's get going then."

He swung his leg up and over the bicycle seat, landing his feet nimbly onto the pedals.

Lifting his body off the seat, he straightened his body, as he tilted slightly forward.

"You walk."

He started moving the bike onto the dirt road at a steady pace.

Chen Mei Ling stood there blankly for a few seconds before hurrying her thin legs after him.

"Gege, wait for me!"

It took 10 minutes before they finally arrived in front of the elderly Chen's plot of land.

Jia Bi Yu rode slowly, making sure the small girl was able to keep up with him.

Grandpa Chen was out in the fields tending to some wheat, his slouching body almost hidden by the golden strands.

She ran up to the elderly, while Jia Bi Yu waited for her on the bicycle cart outside.

Hearing shuffling sounds coming from behind, grandpa Chen turned his head back while still his knees were still bent in a squat, hands grabbing onto a handful of strands that were glistening brightly at the first rays of sunlight.

"Good morning grandpa Chen!"

"Oh my. What are you doing here so early?"

Seemingly just remembering the young girl's usual routine, he looked up towards the sky, before turning back to her.

"Shouldn't you be heading to the market by now?"

She quickly explained their reason for being here at this time.

Understanding their plight, he happily lent them his aged bicycle, directly bringing her to the side of his house, on which it leaned against.

Thanking the old man for the umpteenth time, she finally pushed the old bicycle out of their plot of land and back onto the dirt road, before clumsily getting onto the unfamiliar bike.

It was the first time Jia Bi Yu had seen so many people after getting to this world.

The tall concrete towers were an exotic sight, piercing straight into the heavens, and blocking most of the view.

It was amazing how they managed to not come tumbling down to the ground with how odd they looked.

He had almost thought they were the magical towers back in Trinix, if it weren't for the similar sizes of their bases and tops.

Trinix's magic towers were a lot wider at the base, creating a cone-like shape before tapering off into straight antennas that went past the atmosphere.

There were weirdly shaped carriages moving along without a horse or any beast for that matter.

Before he left on his journey, he had heard that the magical kindgom located in Stella was trying to create such an artifact, but had little to no success.

He did not feel any sort of magical powers from those carriages here, amazed by how a world without any knowledge of magic was able to create something even the best mages in Trinix couldn't.

People made do with what they had, and their abilities were forged over the years to suit their own unique lives.

For the people of Earth, having no magical powers, they learned to create incredible things with just the simple resources around them.

Admiring the willpower of such an impoverished race, he couldn't help but smile, and mentally nodded in approval.

Wrong.

They were not lacking in any way compared to those of Trinix.

They did not need magic at all.

The farmer's market was located on the east side of the metallic jungle.

It had taken the two a full 3 hours before arriving from home, mainly because Jia Bi Yu slowed down immensely to be at Chen Mei Ling's speed.

The market, itself, reminded him of the streets back home in his world, stalls lining up every inch of the street, housewives haggling for a few extra coins.

The familiar environment made his mood dampen slightly, but he quickly got over it, helping Chen Mei Ling to set up her stall at her usual spot, located at a corner of the marketplace.

Surprisingly, all of the crops were sold before noon, most bought by women of all ages, from those in their 90s to those in their early teens.

As they were clearing up their spot, preparing to go home early, Chen Mei Ling looked at Jia Bi Yu through her peripheral vision, shoulders shivering slightly, trying her best to hold back her laughter.

With white porcelain cups of tie guan yin, they sat at the front porch that night with the starry sky as their backdrop, talking about many things.

Like this, time slowly passed, the seasons came and went, the skies ever-changing.