Li Zhi waited for a long time but heard no more strange noises. It seemed that thing wasn’t coming back.
She took out the sunflower jade pendant, warmed by her body heat, and held it in her palm, silently repeating Li Jianxi’s name a few times. In the darkness, the pendant emitted a faint glow through her fingers, like a secretive response.
Li Zhi smiled quietly, tucked the pendant away, and closed her eyes to sleep. Though no further danger occurred, the sound of people moving up and down the hallway all night, doors opening and closing, and footsteps back and forth, made it hard for her to sleep well.
The next morning, the noise from the bathroom at the end of the hall woke them up.
Meng Yuhan rubbed her eyes and sat up in bed. The morning light had already filtered through the thin curtains, and the spacious single room now felt much safer than it had last night.
There were new toiletries in the cabinet. Li Zhi tied her hair up and, with Meng Yuhan, took the toiletries out. The lanterns hanging outside the doors of the two adjacent rooms had already gone out. Li Zhi made sure to look at the walls on both sides of the corridor.
This apartment building was too old. The walls, covered in putty, had many stains and mildew marks that were hard to distinguish, but there were no traces of anyone pressing against the walls as they walked, like the previous night.
What on earth was that thing?
Li Zhi led Meng Yuhan to the bathroom. A woman was standing at the sink brushing her teeth, wearing a professional OL (office lady) suit. Her figure and demeanor were excellent. When she saw Li Zhi and Meng Yuhan through the mirror, she smiled and nodded at them, a greeting of sorts.
Li Zhi smiled back.
After finishing brushing her teeth, the woman wiped the toothpaste from her mouth and smiled, asking, “Are you new here? I haven’t seen you before.”
Li Zhi squeezed toothpaste onto her toothbrush. “Yes, we live in room 205.”
The woman pointed upwards. “I live in 304. The third floor has more residents, so it’s always crowded during morning wash-ups. That’s why we usually come down to the second floor.”
Li Zhi asked curiously, “Isn’t the second floor occupied? I saw a few rooms with couplets pasted on the doors.”
The woman shook her head. “Not sure, but I’ve never seen anyone in the mornings.” She smiled and extended her hand to Li Zhi. “My name’s Qu Rong.”
Li Zhi smiled and shook her hand. “I’m Li Zhi, and this is my sister, Meng Yuhan.” She paused, frowning slightly in frustration. “This building has terrible soundproofing. There were people walking around outside all night, and we couldn’t sleep well.”
Qu Rong nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it’s not soundproofed. Old apartment buildings, you know. But the third floor was quiet. Everyone goes to bed early there. Maybe the second floor has more night owls.”
Her face, fresh and natural even without makeup, was clear and pure. “I have to head to work now. It was nice meeting you!”
Li Zhi waved with a smile. “Bye-bye.”
As Qu Rong carried her basin upstairs, Meng Yuhan whispered, “Sister Zhi, does that mean there was no huffing and puffing thing on the third floor last night? She seems pretty normal.”
Li Zhi replied, “We’ll find out when we ask the players who stayed on the third floor last night.”
After finishing their morning routine, they put their things back in the room. As they went down to the first floor, they ran into Fu Huan and Xiang Ling coming out of their room.
The moment Fu Huan saw Li Zhi, she anxiously asked, “Big shot, did you hear that noise last night?”
Li Zhi nodded. “Let’s wait until everyone gathers to discuss it. Let’s check outside.”
The four of them stepped out of the building. In daylight, the South Street Apartment didn’t seem as eerie, but it looked even more worn and messy. Outside the stairwell was a public area, with a flowerbed by the wall that held a few crookedly planted green plants.
Directly across from the stairwell was the iron gate to the apartment. To the left, there were a few rusted fitness machines and benches in an open space. On the right, there was a makeshift tent, surprisingly serving as a breakfast stall.
At the stall, three or four people were eating breakfast, with steam rising from the cooking, adding a bit of life to the South Street Apartment.
As they observed the surroundings, other players started coming out as well. Li Zhi saw Li Feng leading Qiao Junyuan down, and she silently breathed a sigh of relief. The air smelled of breakfast, and Fu Huan suggested, “Let’s grab breakfast and talk while we eat.”
They all headed toward the breakfast stall. Li Zhi took a few steps, then suddenly turned to look at the guardroom. Inside the small room by the iron gate sat someone. The landlord had mentioned last night that the old man who slept in the reception room was the only security guard at South Street Apartment.
But the figure sitting in the guardroom now looked upright, not at all like the hunched back of the old man they’d seen last night.
Li Zhi walked toward the guardroom.
Meng Yuhan called after her, “Sister Zhi, where are you going?”
Li Zhi replied, “You guys go ahead, I’ll be right there.”
Since the public area was small and it was broad daylight, no one was really worried. Li Zhi approached the guardroom and knocked on the green-tinted window. The person inside reached out and pushed it open, revealing a handsome face.
Li Zhi couldn’t help but laugh as she looked at the young man inside wearing a security uniform. “You’re working as a security guard here?”
Li Jianxi’s expression was a little awkward. “Yeah…”
The bullet comments were already going wild at the sight of his good-looking face:
[Li Jianxi: Successfully found my wife again today!]
[Ahhhhh my ship is real! It’s really happening!!!]
[He’s back! He’s back again! This time he’s a security guard! And loves eating bear cookies!]
[Does Li Jianxi have a secret technique for finding his wife? How does he always show up so quickly?]
[Dude! Li Jianxi, I just saw you as the mayor in another instance! Quit being the mayor and now you’re a security guard?]
[As soon as I saw Li Zhi enter the instance, I knew the mayor would get replaced. Sure enough, I just checked and the mayor’s been swapped with an NPC.]
[And it’s actually quite logical. The backstory is that the previous mayor suddenly passed away from illness, so they installed a new one. I’m dying laughing.]
[How is Li Jianxi able to come and go so freely between all these instances?!]
[He doesn’t seem like an NPC. It’s more like he’s the system’s golden child, doing whatever he wants in his dad’s world.]
[Maybe he is the system, like a personification of it, haha.]
[Nah, can’t be. The system clearly has ill intentions toward the players, but Li Jianxi is so friendly. Yay, more fresh CP moments to fangirl over!]
Whenever Li Jianxi appeared, the viewers always debated his true identity. In the instance, Li Zhi smiled at him. “What happened to the old security guard, the one named Zhang?”
Li Jianxi answered with a straight face, “He passed away suddenly from illness. I’m the new hire the landlord brought in. Today’s my first day.”
The audience almost died laughing at the identical excuse.
From not too far away, Meng Yuhan called out, “Sister Zhi, do you want soup dumplings or shaomai?”
Li Zhi turned her head and shouted back, “Soup dumplings.”
She leaned her arm against the grimy windowsill. As she turned, a loose strand of hair fell from the casual bun at the back of her head, brushing against her snow-white neck. It was a relaxed and trusting posture.
Li Jianxi stared at her profile, momentarily lost in thought. When she turned back around, he quickly lowered his gaze and said quietly, “Go have your meal.”
Li Zhi smiled brightly. “Alright.”
She raised her hand by her cheek, her eyes curving into a smile as she waved at him.
In Li Jianxi’s gaze, it seemed like his eyes had drifted into the clouds.
Not far away, Li Feng sat at the breakfast stall, looking over at his sister, who was chatting cheerfully with someone outside the guardroom. His expression turned cold, and his brows furrowed.
Li Zhi soon returned to the small table, where a bowl of seaweed soup and a basket of soup dumplings were waiting. The aroma was quite inviting. She picked up a dumpling and glanced at the busy figure inside the breakfast stall—surprisingly, it was the same elderly woman who had been burning paper at the crossroads the night before.
The other players had clearly noticed as well and exchanged looks.
A well-dressed man in a suit and polished shoes sat nearby. After finishing his meal, he said to the elderly woman, “Grandma Qiu, I’ve left the money here.”
Grandma Qiu ignored him, her face cold.
The man showed a somewhat embarrassed expression, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and prepared to leave. A middle-aged man in a floral shirt, sitting next to him, chuckled and asked, “Mr. Chu, why do you come here for breakfast every day? Doesn’t your wife make breakfast for you?”
“My work starts too early, and she likes to sleep in.” The man, referred to as Mr. Chu, responded politely and gently, “I’m off to work now. Goodbye.”
After he left, Grandma Qiu, still looking sour, finally came over to collect the money.
The man in the floral shirt sighed, “Grandma Qiu, you can’t really blame Mr. Chu for what happened. It’s not his fault that Xiao Bo and Qiang Zi didn’t behave themselves…”
He didn’t finish his sentence, as Grandma Qiu shot him a glare, which shut him up quickly.
The players exchanged puzzled glances. Once Grandma Qiu returned to the stall, Fu Huan picked up her small stool and scooted over to the man in the floral shirt, whispering, “Big brother, I’m a new tenant at 104. Can I ask you something?”
Seeing such a beautiful woman approach, the man’s bad mood from being scolded by Grandma Qiu vanished in an instant. He beamed, “A new neighbor! Hello, hello! What can I help you with? I’ve been living here for ages, there’s nothing about South Street Apartment that I don’t know!”
Fu Huan flashed a charming smile. “You’re amazing! I was just curious—what’s the story between Grandma Qiu and Mr. Chu? She seems to really dislike him.”
“Ah!” The man slapped his thigh and glanced sneakily at Grandma Qiu, who was busy making dumplings and hadn’t noticed them. He lowered his voice, “It’s a sad story! Mr. Chu is a victim too. You see, there used to be two guys, Xiao Bo and Qiang Zi, who lived in rooms 102 and 103. They were troublemakers, never doing anything decent…”
He paused and gave himself a light slap on the mouth. “Ah, forget it, forget it. Don’t speak ill of the dead. May they rest in peace.” After muttering this, he continued to Fu Huan, “About a week ago, those two sneaked into room 603—Mr. Chu’s apartment—to steal something. But just as they were in the middle of it, Mr. Chu came home from work and caught them. In their panic, they bolted and ended up falling down the stairwell to their deaths!”
The players all perked up their ears, listening intently.
The man sighed deeply, “You see, it wasn’t Mr. Chu’s fault at all, right? But Grandma Qiu has lived here for years, and even though Xiao Bo and Qiang Zi were troublemakers, they took care of her. So now she blames Mr. Chu for what happened.”
After hearing the story, the players finally pieced together the whole situation.
No wonder Grandma Qiu had been burning paper at the crossroads last night on the seventh day after their deaths. It was for those two young men, Xiao Bo and Qiang Zi, who used to live in rooms 102 and 103. They seemed to have been idle troublemakers in life.
Though it wasn’t really Mr. Chu’s fault, it was understandable that Grandma Qiu, a lonely old woman, would hold a grudge.