The ride over was uneventful. After picking up a backpack, Su Jin spent the taxi trip reviewing Fu Qingdai’s intel before getting dropped off outside the Talent Residential Community.
The complex lacked any real perimeter walls. Standing by the curb, Su Jin had a clear view of the drab, six-story apartment buildings inside.
Spaced a decent distance apart, the structures were scarred with webs of gray-black cracks that showed their age.
Apart from their age, they were entirely unremarkable. Fortunately, the building numbers painted on the sides were still legible.
Building Seven—Fu Qingdai’s residence—was visible right from the street.
Su Jin didn’t rush in. Instead, he pulled out Fu Qingdai’s hand-drawn map and began pacing the perimeter, matching her layout to the real world.
Half an hour later, he circled back to the main gate.
Fu Qingdai had been careful. She had drawn each line of her map with a ruler.
Even the scale of the surrounding supermarkets and print shops was remarkably accurate.
It saved him the headache of studying the map himself.
He stepped onto the grounds. There was no access control; the security booth at the entrance was nothing but window dressing.
Standing outside Unit Two of Building Seven, he caught the smell of swill.
Beside the main entrance was a square opening, roughly sixteen inches across, carved directly into the wall.
Food scraps, soup, and plastic bags lay at its base.
A low cement partition separated the doorway from the filth.
He recognized the design from his childhood housing block—an old-school garbage chute.
Every floor had a hatch in the corridor, letting tenants throw their trash straight down to the ground level.
Thanks to the unbearable reek and constant clogging… you rarely saw them anymore except in some older buildings.
An old tree stood right in front of the building.
Su Jin quickly circled its trunk. Sure enough, near the roots, he spotted a dab of red paint—faded, but unmistakable.
This had to be Fu Qingdai’s stash!
A quick glance confirmed the courtyard was empty. Su Jin slipped on a pair of work gloves from his backpack and started digging.
He popped it open. Inside lay tightly bound rolls of crumpled bills and some coins.
He didn’t have time to count it, but he silently offered the girl another round of applause.
Shoving the tin into his pack, Su Jin kicked dirt back into the hole.
Then, he tilted his head back, scanning the glass windows above. A satisfied smirk tugged at his lips.
Fu Qingdai lived on the fifth floor. Rental phone numbers were posted on the second and fifth floors.
If he played this right, he could live across the hall from Fu Qingdai… that would make things much easier if trouble came.
He could rent a place right now!
Memorizing the phone number, Su Jin scanned his surroundings.
Spotting a middle-aged woman, he moved to intercept her.
“Excuse me, sister. Could I borrow your phone for a second? Mine’s dead.”
….
Thirty minutes later, outside the fifth-floor apartment.
A middle-aged man in a gray short-sleeved shirt used a key to open the door. Su Jin stood patiently behind him.
“You’ve got a good eye, Xiao Su. The building may be old. Back in the day, these units were assigned to people with standing in their work units—professors, cadres, and veterans.”
The heavy door groaned open, and the landlord gestured him inside. “Old Fu across the hall? Military. Xiao Cheng, the security captain at the gate? Ex-army. The aesthetics are a bit rough, but you won’t find a safer place to sleep.”
“My son used to live right below me. If he hadn’t begged me to move out, I never would’ve left. I kept the place immaculate. What do you think?”
“Your son is thoughtful, and doing well enough to look after you,” Su Jin smoothly flattered. “If I had that kind of cash flow, my folks would be thrilled. You’re living the dream!”
“Ah, it’s not bad, not bad! You’re doing fine yourself, young man!” the landlord waved it off, though a smug grin betrayed his pride.
Su Jin didn’t waste breath on idle chatter, beginning a look through the rooms.
Two bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom, and a kitchen. There was no electric toilet or other appliances, but the basic furniture—tables, chairs, stools—was intact… the total footprint was a little over seventy square meters.
The landlord followed him. “Got the essentials, enough to get by. You’ll need your own electronics. For cooking, hit up the gas depot right outside the complex. Sixty yuan for a gas cylinder, hundred-yuan deposit. Morning market’s a street over… So, what do you think?”
They both stopped in the center of the living room.
Su Jin cut straight to the chase. “It works. How much per month?” This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
“Five hundred. And for the deposit… since you seem like a straight shooter, Xiao Su, just one month’s rent up front.”
“Done. No problem.” Su Jin paused, shifting his weight. “Brother, you mentioned your son lived downstairs. Is the downstairs unit vacant too?”
“Yeah, it’s empty. That’s his property, though. Didn’t want the hassle of tenants, so it’s been collecting dust.”
“Is he willing to rent it now?”
“Huh?” The landlord blinked, caught off guard. “I mean, the layout’s identical to this one. If you’re paying, sure, I have the final say. But how many people are you moving in here?”
Su Jin adopted a thoughtful look. “Brother, like I said, I’m new to Longshan. This place is just for me. But I’ve got a… friend moving here soon. A girl… I figured if I scouted a place for her in advance, it might, you know, score me some points. I swear to you, strictly one person per unit. No funny business.”
“Ah… chasing a skirt, I see.” The landlord let out a booming laugh. “Alright, no problem!”
Su Jin offered a sheepish grin and thanked him, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “Just one more thing, brother… Being fresh in town, dropping cash for two apartments at once is going to bleed me dry. Especially with her arriving in a few days—I’ll need some walking-around money.”
“I can cover the first month’s rent for both units today. Give me half a month to pony up the deposits—we can lock it in the contract. You can drop by then to inspect the place. If we leave the place a mess or damage it, skip the deposits and toss me out on the street. Deal?”
The landlord hesitated, then patted Su Jin on the shoulder with a grin. “You’re an honest kid. I can’t be the guy standing in the way of you getting together with a girl over a little thing like this! Alright, we have a deal!”
…..
An hour later, the apartment was silent. Su Jin stood alone by the window, chewing on a bitter leaf he could not identify as he gazed out.
Outside, the sun was bleeding into the west, casting everything in gold.
In a single day, he had been ripped from his home, dropped into an alien world, navigated a psych ward, and finally rented two apartments… he was ‘settled.’
While he was moving—while there were tasks to complete, an unfamiliar world to navigate—his raw panic and crushing helplessness had been shoved into a dark box by sheer, desperate rationality.
But now, the tasks were done. He had four walls. He was alone. His body and mind relaxed, and the feelings he had held back came rushing in… it felt like a fever dream, yet sickeningly, viscerally real.
Su Jin leaned forward, pressing his forehead against the glass. He closed his eyes and let out a long, shuddering sigh.
The astringent bitterness of the greens exploded on his tongue. The terror and utter bewilderment he had been suppressing violently clawed its way up his throat.
A job he had been forced into, and a looming, unavoidable apocalypse to prepare for…
Why did I get dragged across dimensions… why the hell is the world ending?!
Why is this my problem?!
I’m just an ordinary person. I never asked for any of this!!
Su Jin pressed a hand to his chest, drowning in the suffocating weight of his new reality.