SSCF Entry 12

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January 13, X
Weather: Cloudy

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Today, this guy ordered takeout from Golden Arches.

I didn’t understand why he was so fascinated with this kind of junk food. Furthermore, he always ordered a Happy Meal every time without fail.

Oh, and then he’d give them to me…

He said that when I was a kid, I was especially fond of the Happy Meals in Golden Arches. Everytime he stealthily took me out to play, I had to eat a Happy Meal or else my eyes would water.

At that time, however, Golden Arches weren’t everywhere like they are now. He had to use his pocket money to purchase the best bicycle, and pedal us to Wangfujing¹ before he secretly sneaked me back home.

As he got to that part, he suddenly sighed with regret. He said we had wanted to see a famous haunted house, but could never go because of the time constraints. 

When we finally had time, the haunted house was long gone.

I raised an eyebrow, smiling without a word.

In my memory, we didn’t go to that haunted house because this guy was too timid. Everytime we got close, he didn’t even dare approach the door, much less go inside. Then, under the pretext of “it’s not good to go home late”, he’d hurriedly pull me away.

But… I still gave him face and didn’t expose him.

I thought the topic of our childhood would come to an end, but this guy suddenly sighed while eating, and said that the food from Golden Arches wasn’t as delicious as before.

I asked him why he still bought it even if he knew it wasn’t good.

He hesitated for a moment, but then said that it was because I liked to eat it.

His answer… I was at a loss for words. 

Maybe I really did like the food from Golden Arches when I was a kid, but after feeding it to me for over two decades, didn’t he think I would get tired of it by now? Moreover, this guy would get me the same thing–a Happy Meal–every time.

With his help, I nearly gathered every single toy Golden Arches launched these past twenty years. My mother even thought I had an addiction for collecting these kinds of things, and bitterly criticized my sense of taste.

I told him this with the intention of getting him to stop buying me Happy Meals. However, this guy misunderstood my meaning and went through great lengths to get all the toys I didn’t manage to collect. When he returned, he presented them to me like they were treasures, his face full of joy and expectations.

What could I do? Reject them? Although they were gifts from the sand sculpture, he still had given them with good intentions, ah.

With no other choice, I had to smile and accept his gift in front of everyone. I even said I liked it very much.

Thinking it was our own private matter, I didn’t expect that someone would record this scene and post it on Weibo. 

I don’t usually use Weibo, so everything was too late by the time I finally realized. My name quickly hopped onto the hot searches along with ‘Golden Arches’ toys’, the ranking constantly rising.

While I was hesitating on telling the public relations team to handle this matter, the sand sculpture posted a comment which instantly hammered down the fact that I liked collecting toys from Golden Arches. 

He wrote one sentence, “It’s time to expose the big boss’ personal collection.”

Then, he attached a photo under his comment.

Clicking on it, I saw that it was the “group photo” he took not too long ago. At that time, he had said he wanted to take stock of the number of Happy Meals he bought for me.

Now that I think about it, I really was too naive, letting him take this kind of shameful photo.

As expected, this photo pushed the discussions to their climax. The comments became increasingly intense–someone even drew fanart of me.

Eventually, this topic made its way to the top of today’s hot search.

I also obtained a magical title: Golden Arches’ Toy Harvestor.

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 Translator’s Note:

^{1. Wangfujing: neighborhood of central Beijing; famous for shopping ↩}

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Entry 11 | TOC | Entry 13