无人便利店
The unstaffed convenience store
Name: ________________ Date: ________
十二月中旬，斜对面的无人便利店开业了。它比我们大，比我们亮，门口写着八个字：刷脸进门，自助结账。
上班前，我去里面转了一圈。货架整整齐齐，饭团也是第二个半价。结账的地方放着一块大屏幕，屏幕上有一个卡通店员，一直在笑。门也会说“欢迎光临”，就是没有人。五分钟里，没有一个人跟我说话。走之前，我对着屏幕说了一句“欢迎光临”，卡通店员还是在笑，什么也没说。
交班的时候，黄姐在门口看着对面，看了半天，只说了一句：“挺亮的。”
两点五十，小梅进来，一脸不高兴。她刚才也想去对面试试，可是戴着口罩，门不认识她的脸。
“我在门口站了一分钟，它一直说：请对准镜头。”她说，“我都快贴到镜头上了，它还是不认识我。它还让我摘下口罩。我在医院一天戴十几个小时，早就忘了自己不戴口罩是什么样子了。算了，我还是来这儿交床位费吧。”
她看了一眼对面，又看了一眼我们的关东煮，泡了一碗面，这次没有马上睡。
“你们真的要关门了？”
“三十一号。”
她看着窗外：“值大夜班的时候，有时候一晚上来十几个急诊。我累了，就站到六楼的窗户边，往下看。整条街，只剩你们的灯还亮着。不知道为什么，看一眼就没那么累了。”
我没想到，会有人在楼上看着我们。她睡着以后，我第一次认真地往窗外看。从医院能看见我们，那夜里还有谁，也能看见我们？
斜对面，无人便利店亮得像白天，里面一个人也没有。我再往旁边看：马路正对面，小学的大门黑着，门边的小屋里，却亮着一盏黄黄的灯。
原来，这条街上夜里亮着的，不只我们。
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 亮 | liàng | bright; shiny; to shine; to light up |
| 结账 | jiézhàng | to pay the bill; to check out |
| 转 | zhuàn | to transfer; to pass on (as in 转告, 转发) |
| 之前 | zhīqián | before; prior to; ago |
| 戴 | dài | to wear (a hat, glasses, jewelry, etc.) |
| 样子 | yàngzi | appearance; look |
| 费 | fèi | fee; expense; cost; to spend; to cost |
| 窗户 | chuānghu | window |
| 整 | zhěng | exactly; sharp (as in 十点整) |
| 剩 | shèng | to remain; to be left over |
| 对面 | duìmiàn | the other side; opponent |
| 便利店 | biànlìdiàn | convenience store |
English (for the teacher)
In mid-December, the unstaffed convenience store across the road opened. It was bigger than us and brighter than us, and the sign by the door said: scan your face to enter, pay at the self-checkout.
Before my shift, I went in for a look round. The shelves were perfectly neat, and the second rice ball was half price there too. Where you pay, there was a big screen with a cartoon shop assistant on it, smiling the whole time. The door said “welcome” as well; there just wasn’t anyone there. In five minutes in there, not one person spoke to me. Before I left, I said “welcome” to the screen, and the cartoon assistant just kept smiling and said nothing.
At handover, Sister Huang stood in the doorway looking across the road for a long while, and all she said was: “It’s very bright.”
At ten to three Xiaomei came in looking cross. She’d just tried the place across the road, but with her mask on, the door didn’t recognise her face.
“I stood at the door for a whole minute, and it kept saying: please face the camera.” She said, “I was practically pressed against the camera, and it still didn’t recognise me. Then it told me to take my mask off. I wear one more than ten hours a day at the hospital. I’ve long forgotten what I look like without it. Forget it, I’ll come back here and pay my bed fee.”
She glanced across the road, glanced at our oden, made a cup of noodles, and this time didn’t fall asleep straight away.
“Are you really closing?”
“On the thirty-first.”
She looked out of the window: “On night shifts, sometimes a dozen emergencies come in in one night. When I’m exhausted, I stand by the window on the sixth floor and look down. On the whole street, only your lights are still on. I don’t know why, but one look and I’m not so tired.”
I’d never imagined that someone upstairs might be watching us. After she fell asleep, I looked out of the window properly for the first time. If you can see us from the hospital, who else can see us at night?
Across the road, the unstaffed shop was as bright as day, with nobody in it. I looked a little further: straight across the road, the school gate was dark, but in the little hut beside it, a small yellow light was on.
So we weren’t the only light on this street at night.