The walls of the rental apartment were thin and the soundproofing was poor. Early in the morning, the sounds of gargling, clearing throats, blowing noses, and clattering pots and pans rang out in succession, resembling a chaotic and messy farce. There is nothing new under the sun; day after day, these sounds tore through the chaotic and muggy air of dawn.
Zhong Yu woke up promptly at six o’clock. After washing up, her breakfast consisted of a plain steamed bun paired with a glass of cool boiled water, which she bolted down to stuff her stomach.
Perhaps due to catching the wind and getting caught in the rain last night, she noticed her throat felt somewhat sore. Drinking cold water felt like swallowing shards of glass, and her breathing was not entirely unobstructed either.
She figured she must have caught a cold.
However, Zhong Yu didn’t pay it much mind. Having worked odd jobs out in the world for these past few years, she frequently had to toil day and night, making minor illnesses and injuries inevitable. As long as it wasn’t fatal, she would just muddle through and survive.
Once everything was tidied up, she finally opened her phone belatedly, feeling like a prisoner awaiting a death sentence.
To her surprise, not a single new message appeared in her social software list. It was completely empty, maintaining a facade of peace.
What was going on?
Did He Chengzhi not tell Yang Xiumei about what happened last night?
Zhong Yu had originally expected to receive a notice of dismissal, yet everything remained a complete blank. She couldn’t figure it out and grew deeply suspicious, so she slung her bag over her shoulder and headed out the door.
Just as she pushed the door open, she ran headfirst into a cockroach that had escaped from the elderly neighbor’s home across the hallway. It was fast, fierce, greasy, and sleek, looking as though it was about to scurry right into her doorway.
Zhong Yu was faster than it. With a blank expression, she raised her foot and stepped down with pinpoint accuracy, grinding the sole of her shoe down heavily a few times.
Until she was certain it couldn’t pull off a zombie resurrection, she took out a wet wipe to vigorously wipe the bottom of her shoe, then bent down to wrap up the remains, which had blended seamlessly with the floor.
“Peace and safety through breaking things, peace and safety through breaking things.”
Zhong Yu muttered with a beaming smile, carefully pinching the edges of the paper ball with two fingers.
Passing by the garbage can surrounded by swarms of mosquitoes next door, she tossed it in without changing her expression, destroying the evidence completely.
A neighbor sitting on a small stool drinking soy milk was startled by her murderous movements and rolled her eyes: “Are you trying to kill me? A young girl with zero modesty or poise, making all this commotion bright and early in the morning.”
The pale blue sky cast morning light down into the gloomy little alley, dim, flickering in and out, as if draped in a layer of golden gauze.
The scorching golden gauze enveloped Zhong Yu from head to toe, making her complexion look as pale and soft as a sacred virgin statue illuminated by divine light. She suddenly turned her head sideways and gently reminded: “Aunty, you still have another one on your foot.”
The neighbor sprang up from her spot, emitting a shriek akin to an air-raid siren.
By the time she angrily and frantically discovered that there was nothing inside her slipper, Zhong Yu had already walked far away, boarding the bus on time to head toward the commercial district.
The heavy rain had only stopped early in the morning, leaving the ground still wet. The murky puddles reflected blurred street scenes, bustling with people coming and going during the morning rush hour.
Wearing a face mask, Zhong Yu squeezed her way out of the packed bus and walked into the convenience store.
Looking around, the boss Yang Xiumei was not there. Sitting at the front desk was Yang Xiumei’s daughter, Yang Lan, who was lowering her head to write on a test paper.
Upon seeing Zhong Yu walk in, she spoke without even lifting her head: “Keep it down, I’m doing my homework!”
“Aren’t you going to class today?”
“I asked for sick leave.” Yang Lan twirled her black gel pen around, her voice muffled: “Hmph, I’m going to infect you later.”
Just by hearing her voice, Zhong Yu could tell the young girl had caught a cold. Too lazy to bicker with her, Zhong Yu turned and walked into the employee lounge. Just as she was about to change her clothes, she suddenly felt a sharp chill darting up from the base of her spine.
Instinctively, she turned around, but the employee lounge was completely empty.
Frowning, Zhong Yu scanned the room and pulled open all the lockers, yet found nothing. Deciding not to change her clothes after all, she simply slipped the red vest that came as part of the employee uniform over her outer wear.
As Zhong Yu stepped out the door, Yang Lan glanced at her and sneered: “Narcissist.”
Zhong Yu looked at her: “Has anyone else been in the employee lounge recently?”
“Yeah, my mom, me, and you,” Yang Lan said. “Why, did you find money in there?”
Zhong Yu shook her head, suspecting she was probably just overthinking it, yet she still felt a vague sense of unease. After pondering back and forth, she said nothing more, picked up the mop, and started working.
Yang Lan was currently wrestling with an English test paper, her thin, sharp face looking exceptionally serious. Before mopping the floor, Zhong Yu had watched her write up to the cloze test section; after mopping a round and returning, not a single additional word had been added to the test paper.
Yang Lan was writing with total concentration, facing the paper as if confronting a formidable enemy. Suddenly, a round dark shadow cast downward over the test paper: “Choose A.”
Subconsciously, Yang Lan filled in A and stared at the next question.
“Choose C.”
The next question.
“B.”
“D.”
Following along, Yang Lan finished an entire reading comprehension section, then slammed the desk with a flushed face: “Are you doing my homework or am I?”
Zhong Yu raised her head nonchalantly: “Then do it yourself.”
I don’t like that. The young girl reluctantly grabbed the corner of her clothes: “W-Why is your English so good?”
Zhong Yu offered a faint smile and said nothing.
Since childhood, she had loved running around, enjoying lively family trips to travel all over the world, growing up immersed in different foreign cultures and artistic atmospheres. Absorbing it all naturally, her foreign language proficiency was quite impressive, even if it currently had no useful outlet.
Back in high school, Song You used to ask her for help with oral English, and the two of them would stick together like glue the moment class ended. The delicate young miss rarely had patience and never threw tantrums; she would languidly lean against the desk, opening her mouth to speak fluent, mellow British English, teaching her sentence by sentence.
Song You’s spoken English carried a native accent and lacked her current powerful aura back then. She was tall and thin with a youthful, green face, resembling a novice apprentice clumsily learning the ropes.
“Repeat after me,” Zhong Yu said with a straight face, “Will you still love me, when I got nothing but my aching soul?”
Song You stared at her for a long while, her lips pressed tightly together as she uttered word by word: “I will.”
Her cheeks were burning hot, reminding Zhong Yu of the red maple forest at Kiyomizu Temple on an autumn evening, deep reds and light reds, accompanied by a distant setting sun, light and eternal, as if they could be tucked away into memories to be forever cherished.
Zhong Yu paused for a moment, awkwardly looking away and giving her a gentle kick: “What’s this? I told you to repeat after me, not to answer me.”
Realizing this, Song You let out a low oh and lowered her head. Due to anemia, her skin looked pale, and her overly long bangs obscured those clear eyes and the tiny, trembling mole at the outer corner of her slender eyes.
Reaching out, Zhong Yu brushed her bangs aside, tucking them behind Song You’s ear with a beaming, smiling face: “Unhappy?”
“No.”
“You read it very well.”
“Mm.”
Leaning in close to look at her, Zhong Yu said, “Your eyes are so pretty. You should show your eyes from now on.”
Instinctively, Song You shifted backward a bit, only to be pressed back into place by Zhong Yu. Pouting her lips, Zhong Yu cupped Song You’s lean chin just like holding a puppy: “Youyou is angry. Ah, who is the big bad villain that made her angry? Oh, it turns out to be me!”
“I’m not angry,” Song You smiled somewhat helplessly, as if accustomed to it. “How could I ever be angry at you?”
Acting willfully spoiled like a young miss, Zhong Yu said, “Then swear you’ll never be angry at me.”
Quite seriously, Song You replied, “I swear.”
“I don’t believe it, unless you read that sentence again.”
So Song You followed along and read it once more, her voice muffled, not daring to look at her as she quietly awaited the evaluation. The classroom was filled with boisterous noise, yet the two of them huddled in the corner ignoring the outside world, as if sealed inside the same transparent box, isolated from all external static.
Laughing, Zhong Yu pinched her nose and suddenly leaned right into her ear, enunciating clearly: “I will!”
Stunned, Song You opened her eyes wide and clutched tightly at her washed-white shirt: “Z-Zhong Yu…”
“Zhong Yu! What are you daydreaming about?”
Yang Lan simply pushed the test paper toward her: “I have too much homework, help me do it.”
“Do it yourself,” Zhong Yu snapped out of it, turning to walk away. “Study hard.”
Biting on her pen, Yang Lan glared at her resentfully: “Stingy ghost, big bad villain.”
Zhong Yu: “Just one question.”
Yang Lan raised her arms in cheer: “Oh yeah!”
The morning passed peacefully.
As noon approached, a few delivery orders arrived at the store. Unable to spare a hand, Yang Lan assigned the task to Zhong Yu.
“The company next door ordered two boxes of mineral water, get someone to deliver them over.” Yang Lan looked down at the computer: “You make the trip. I’m afraid I’ll pass my cold on to them.”
Two boxes of mineral water were not exactly light, and felt quite heavy indeed. Fortunately, the address wasn’t far. Glancing at the printed order, Zhong Yu read it: Polaris Entertainment Company, thirteenth floor.
She had never heard of it; must it be a newly established one? Still, she felt a vague sense of familiarity, as if she had heard it somewhere before.
Hugging the two large cardboard boxes, Zhong Yu stepped out of the convenience store and cautiously crossed the street. The towering skyscraper of Polaris Entertainment came into view, its streamlined geometric style and metal elements exuding a high-end feel that stood in sharp contrast to the uniform surrounding office buildings.
The security guard at the entrance had evidently been notified and let her in without a second word.
Upon stepping through the main gates, the fragrant, chilly air-conditioning instantly enveloped her. Having just stepped down from the blazing sun into an air-conditioned room, Zhong Yu couldn’t help but shiver.
At this midday hour, the elevators were packed with employees heading downstairs to the cafeteria in the basement. Every single one of them was dressed brilliantly, and seeing her carrying cardboard boxes up, they reacted with various expressions and hurriedly stepped aside.
With both hands occupied, Zhong Yu stood awkwardly in the corner of the elevator. The tall boxes blocked her line of sight, making her sway from side to side as she walked.
The elevator was heavy with expensive perfume and chilly air. Feeling dizzy, nursing a mild headache, and even wanting to sneeze a few times, she pressed on.
Arriving at the propaganda department on the thirteenth floor, Zhong Yu walked out of the elevator carrying the heavy boxes with labored steps, sniffled, looked around, and made a phone call.
After a moment, a fashionable-looking girl walked over, looked her up and down with a lukewarm expression, and said, “You’re here. Just put the stuff right here.”
Sporting a gorgeous manicure, she pointed a long distance away toward the water dispenser against the wall.
Wobbling over, Zhong Yu bent down and set the heavy boxes on the floor. Using the back of her hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead, she was suddenly hit by a wave of spinning dizziness.
The girl’s expression shifted, and she walked over to her quickly: “Hey, what’s wrong with you!”
Conference room.
Song You sat expressionless, listening to the work reports given by the heads of various departments, her eyes half-closed so that no emotion could be read.
The employees seated below buried their heads very low, barely daring to breathe for fear of offending this cold-faced Yama somewhere along the way.
Suddenly, a knock sounded at the door.
Without even lifting her eyelids, Song You said coldly and indifferently, “Enter.”
The secretary walked briskly to Song You’s side with a somewhat heavy expression and leaned in to whisper: “President Song, a delivery worker bringing water collapsed on the thirteenth floor. What should we do?”
“Delivering water?”
The secretary spoke softly: “The propaganda department ordered two boxes of mineral water from the convenience store across the street. For some reason, when the person came to deliver the water, they suddenly collapsed.”
Convenience store?
Song You lifted her eyes abruptly: “Where is she?”