The young woman in charge of sales was no different from the mobile phone counter clerks forty years ago. Whatever Alice Grant looked at, she could introduce it with great enthusiasm. “Look, this model, level 4, is the favorite among young people right now. It has the latest 8.0 processor, 128T memory, and comes with eight different configuration options...”

Alice Grant listened for a while, then asked Brian Carter, who was quietly waiting with his hands behind his back, “Do you have money?”

Brian Carter: “Yes, if you like it, just buy it.”

Alice Grant: “I don’t know much about these things. Why don’t you pick one for me?”

Brian Carter: “Old folks like me don’t know much about this either. Mine was a gift from a student, and it’s already a five-year-old model.”

The couple looked at each other for a moment. Alice Grant shrugged. “Alright, I’ll pick one myself.”

After choosing a personal terminal, she had the identity verification chip she got at the police station implanted, and for the carrying style, Alice Grant chose the same watch type as Brian Carter. She fiddled with her new terminal as she walked out, head down. To keep her from bumping into people, Brian Carter had to hold her arm and guide her through the crowd.

After a while, Alice Grant stopped and pointed to a game specialty store in the mall. “I want to buy a game.”

Brian Carter sighed, not the least bit surprised, and spoke in the tone of an understanding parent: “Alright, but you have to play in moderation. Don’t stay up too late at night, balance work and rest...”

Before he finished, Alice Grant grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into the game store.

Chapter 4

This game specialty store was quite large, divided into many sections, and most of the people coming and going inside were young. Although Alice Grant wasn’t familiar with games forty years in the future, she relied on her sharp intuition and went straight to the classic games section. Compared to the most popular section crowded with people, she was more interested in trying out the classics.

There were fewer people in this area. In front of the whole row of experience walls, only two young men in their early twenties were standing, enthusiastically discussing the game in front of them. Each game here had a brief introduction, and if interested, you could try it for free for fifteen minutes. Alice Grant listened for a while, grew a bit curious about the game in their hands, so she stood by and waited for them to pause before asking, “This game sounds pretty fun. What’s it called?”

The two young men turned at the sound of her voice and saw Alice Grant. One of them casually replied, “Desolate Planet.” As soon as he finished, his eyes suddenly widened in shock as he stared at Brian Carter standing behind Alice Grant, stammering, “Mr. Jiang... Jiang...”

This startled his companion, who hadn’t noticed Brian Carter before. He quickly turned to look at Brian Carter with the same “seen a ghost” expression and muttered, “Mr. Jiang.”

The two young men who had just been passionately discussing games instantly shrank into two timid chicks, rubbing their hands together. Running into a teacher while out buying games—even if it was someone as mild-mannered as Brian Carter, who never scolded anyone—was still nerve-wracking.

It was the first time Alice Grant had heard someone call Brian Carter “Mr. Jiang.” When she married him, he was still in graduate school, about to finish and planning to pursue a doctorate. Unlike her, an ordinary person who studied casually, Brian Carter was a top student through and through. It didn’t surprise Alice Grant at all that he became a teacher.

Noticing the two students’ nervousness, Brian Carter gave them a warm smile and greeted them, but didn’t say much more. He tactfully walked away to avoid making them uncomfortable, stopping in a quiet corner not far away, hands behind his back, pushing up his glasses as he looked at a game poster on the wall, waiting for Alice Grant to finish choosing her game.

Seeing Brian Carter walk away, the two young men finally relaxed their unconsciously hunched shoulders. Watching them, Alice Grant couldn’t help but laugh. “Your Mr. Jiang has such a good temper, are you still afraid of him?”

The two young men looked a bit embarrassed. “Mr. Jiang really is easy to talk to, never loses his temper, but none of his students dare to speak loudly in front of him. It’s just a subconscious reaction when facing a highly respected elder.”

Alice Grant: “...” What an exaggerated way to put it.

One of the young men glanced at Brian Carter over there, a little embarrassed. “Actually, I’m not really Mr. Jiang’s student. I just accompanied my girlfriend to a few of his public lectures. My girlfriend’s advisor was once a student of Mr. Jiang’s and really admires him.”

The other young man curiously asked Alice Grant, “Sis, are you Mr. Jiang’s granddaughter? He must really dote on you, coming with you to buy games. He doesn’t look like he fits in here at all. When I saw him just now, it gave me a fright.”

Alice Grant looked at her old husband, who was studying the mecha game poster on the wall with the cautious look of someone exploring an unfamiliar field. For some reason, she wanted to laugh, and casually replied, “Not his granddaughter, I’m his wife.”

There was no way these two young men would believe that.

Sure enough, they both burst out laughing. “Sis, you’re so funny.”

“Sis, are you looking to buy this game? We can introduce it to you~”

Alice Grant didn’t mention her relationship with Mr. Jiang again. She earnestly picked out a game with the help of the two young men, and after making her choice, even added them on WeChat.