In the dark night, I arrived at the residential area where I had lived for more than 2 years. Mi Cai’s purple-red Q7 was parked downstairs. She had arrived before me.
I whistled as I went upstairs. Along the way, the motion sensor lights lit up one after another. Under the light, the corridor looked even more dilapidated. I couldn’t understand why Mi Cai chose to live here, leaving me with nowhere to go but to stay in Robben’s filthy den.
I knocked on the door, and Mi Cai, dressed neatly, opened it for me. I immediately complained, “I’m exhausted!”
“Then go take care of it and come back to rest quickly,” Mi Cai said in a caring tone.
I gave her an annoyed look and said, “You may be pretty, but your emotional intelligence is lacking. When I say I’m tired, I mean I want you to help me get a cup of hot water.”
“I haven’t been staying here for several days. There’s no hot water.”
“There’s an electric kettle and a gas stove at home. If there’s no hot water, you can boil some. By the way, I like goji lemon tea. I didn’t bring the goji berries and lemons when I moved last time. Go and make it for me now.” I sat down on the sofa, crossed my legs, and took out a tangerine from the fruit plate to eat.
Mi Cai’s face turned ugly, but she still went to the kitchen to get water and started boiling it with the electric kettle. She stood opposite me, looking somewhat resentful.
I felt triumphant. It was not the time to take advantage of her. After she had used me up, she might use malicious words to choke me half to death.
“These tangerines are really good. Where did you buy them?” I said as I peeled another one.
“If you like them, you can take them home. But can you help me with the important matter first?”
I calmly replied, “Last time, I thought your cherries were good, and you let me take them home. This time, I think the tangerines are good, so you should let me take them home too. Can I take anything I like from this house?”
“In principle, yes. I can’t argue with someone like you because you have an incredibly thick skin,” Mi Cai said patiently.
I smiled and continued, “Then I really like you. Come with me tonight.”
Mi Cai’s expression suddenly turned stormy, and she glared at me angrily, saying, “Please don’t say things that can be said to every woman in front of me. I will think you have no shame!”
I remained calm and said, “I’m just following your logic. If you don’t want to, I don’t like you either.”
Mi Cai glanced at the boiling water and looked as if she wanted to stuff me into the electric kettle.
I felt triumphant. This was the first time I had the upper hand in our many verbal disputes. The feeling of recapturing the city was truly satisfying. I was so proud that I couldn’t help but hum Faye Wong’s song “New Tenant.”
“Waiting for the night, welcoming the day, cleaning during the day, praying at night, leaving the noise, seeking troubles, the ends of the earth, whimsical, is anyone there, who is looking for someone, I say hello, you say disturb, neither early nor late, thousands of miles away…”
Mi Cai stared at me as I finished singing the song, but she was helpless. Of course, she was helpless because she didn’t dare to be as shameless as me.
I said to Mi Cai again, “Do you know what song I just sang?”
Before Mi Cai could answer, I interrupted and answered myself, “It’s Faye Wong’s ‘New Tenant.’ Don’t you think the lyrics describe our relationship?”
Without waiting for Mi Cai’s response, I continued analyzing, “Every day, I wait for the night in this house, welcoming the day, cleaning during the day, praying at night. One day, you moved in here on a whim, and as the landlord, I said hello to you, the new tenant, but you said disturb to me… and then you kicked me out of this house!”
Mi Cai sighed for a moment and said, “You really have a vivid imagination!”
“This is not imagination. It’s a true and tragic story that happened not long ago!” I stood up from the sofa, feeling wronged, and glared at Mi Cai.
Mi Cai didn’t respond to my words. She looked at the boiling water and said, “I’ll go get the water. Where did you put the lemon slices and goji berries?”
“Next to the toilet in the bathroom,” I said sarcastically, but it was to disgust Mi Cai. After analyzing it myself, I also felt greatly wronged.
Mi Cai made a disgusted expression, knowing that I did it on purpose, and said with a stern face, “If you don’t tell me, forget it. You can make it yourself.”
“You’re so principled. You promised to make tea for me, so you must make it.” I took the opportunity to mock Mi Cai’s principles.
Mi Cai finally got angry with her words, “But did you really put the lemon slices and goji berries next to the toilet in the bathroom?”
“Go ask the cockroaches in the bathroom. They live there, so they must know whether I put them there or not.”
Mi Cai became frustrated and said, “I won’t drink it then.” She walked into her room without saying another word to me.
Feeling like a petty person, I sang “New Tenant” again in front of Mi Cai’s room.
…
Finally, I found the lemon slices and goji berries in my old room. I brewed a cup with hot water and sat comfortably on the sofa, enjoying the moment of a beautiful life.
After finishing a cup of tea, I thought about going to the bathroom to clean up the dead cockroaches for Mi Cai, but my phone suddenly rang. I looked at the number, and it was Robben calling.
I answered the phone, but it was a woman’s voice. She said to me, “Are you Zhao Yang?”
“Who are you? Why are you using Robben’s phone?” I asked in confusion.
“Lily, the Lily from last time.”
“Oh, what’s up?”
Lily spoke to me in a consultative tone, “Robben went downstairs to buy cigarettes. I called you to tell you not to come back tonight. I want to spend the night here with Robben.”
I was a bit hesitant, but I had already caused trouble for Lily once before. If I caused trouble again, it wouldn’t be fair. After a while, I finally said to Lily, “Okay, I won’t come back tonight.”
Lily’s words suddenly became cheerful, and she instructed me, “Then call Robben later and tell him you’re not coming back.”
“No problem.””Remember, don’t tell Robben that I was the one who called and told you not to come back,” Lily reminded.
“Okay, I’ll just say I have something going on tonight and won’t be back.”
“Zhao Yang, you’re really nice. I’ll treat you to a meal when I have time.” Lily said, hanging up the phone with joy. I forgot to remind her to return the hundred yuan she took from me last time.
After ending the call with Lily, I was in a dilemma again. If I didn’t go back to Robben’s place tonight, where else could I stay overnight!
…
With the worry of having nowhere to go, I went to the bathroom to help Mi Cai clean up the cockroach corpses. There weren’t many, because the insecticide we used last time didn’t work at all. After a long search, I found a cockroach that was not completely dead behind the toilet. But this one was enough for me to feel justified in reporting back to Mi Cai.
I wrapped the cockroach in toilet paper, stuffed some cigarette butts in as the cockroach’s body, and then came to Mi Cai’s door. I knocked and said, “I’ve cleaned up all the cockroach bodies. They’re wrapped in toilet paper. Do you want to come out and check? That insecticide really works.”
—————-
I don’t write very fast, and I don’t have much of a backlog. Starting tomorrow, I’ll return to my normal pace of two updates a day.
Of course, there will be occasional extra updates. That’s three updates for today.
Don’t forget to vote… When there’s a flower-adding event, I can receive up to 1400 a day, but when there’s none, it drops to 900 instantly. Guys, do you really have to be so frustrating!
Do you remember in my last book, I mentioned a girl on Sing Bar who fits Chen Qingyi’s image? For this book, she specially recorded a song mentioned in the book, “The New Tenant”. She recorded it a long time ago, you can go and listen to it.
Download Sing Bar on your phone, search for AvaS, and you can find her. “The New Tenant” is a bit off-tune, but I really like it, and AvaS sings it very well. Consider this a treat for you all. Also, urge her to record new songs.