Spring Bamboo Apartment has six floors. Excluding the ground floor shops, the top five floors are residential, with 16 households per floor.
If this were a square tenement building, the public toilets and staircases would be located at the four corners of each floor—in a circular building, the toilets and staircases would be situated at the four equal points of the circle, with four households in between each point.
The terrace is surrounded by a brick-red railing. Standing by the railing, one can look down at the circular courtyard below and look up at the doors of most of the apartment buildings, neatly arranged in a cylindrical inner circle.
The 13 people outside the story mainly live on the third and fourth floors, except for Zhu Haowen and Wei Dong, who live in the last room on the sixth floor, room 616.
Ke Xun unlocked the door to room 411. Because the building is circular, the doors are close together, and the rooms inside are arranged in a fan shape.
The room was a suite, no more than 50 square meters. The outer room was a small living room with an old-fashioned five-drawer chest, a coffee table with a glass back, and a pair of small sofas with wooden armrests.
The inner room contained only an old-fashioned large wooden bed, a desk, and a bookshelf next to it, filled with art books.
Ke Xun drew back the curtains, revealing the suffocating darkness outside, thick and oppressive.
The warm orange hue of the room, however, felt reassuring.
Sometimes, just the furniture and furnishings can reveal glimpses of a family's past life.
"Did you feel the same discomfort you did before when you entered the painting this time?" Mu Yiran placed her simple luggage on the desk.
Ke Xun hadn't really thought about that question: "Now that you mention it, it seems better than the previous two times. It's just that I felt a bit suffocated when I first entered this building." Ke Xun also placed her backpack on the desk. "By the way, I brought toilet paper this time. Take some if you need it."
Mu Yiran: "I brought some too."
It seems everyone had their own unspoken troubles.
Mu Yiran carefully examined the room, glancing at the space under the bed and frowning slightly.
There was a pair of red plastic slippers, one in front of the other, like a woman about to take a step forward.
Ke Xun quickly noticed the red slippers as well, finding their placement under the bed rather unsettling, but unsure where to put them.
"The NPC didn't say I couldn't touch anything in the room," Ke Xun reassured himself, picking up the slippers and walking them around the room before finally placing them on the makeshift shoe rack in the outer room. —These things didn't belong to him, so the shoe rack was probably the most suitable place.
The shoe rack was empty before, but now with the red slippers on it, it was as if a woman still lived in the room.
Ke Xun looked at his hands, feeling they were somewhat dirty.
"Go wash your hands in the bathroom," Mu Yiran said, taking a travel soap dish from his backpack.
Ke Xun had never received such treatment before. He took the minimalist-style soap dish and went to the restroom to wash his hands, feeling quite pleased with himself.
The public restroom was connected to the public water room, and the cement pool was smooth and clean. Ke Xun was in a good mood, and the unpleasantness he felt when he saw the red slippers earlier had vanished. He washed his hands thoroughly twice. Mu Yiran's soap smelled like coconut, making him want to take a bite.
The soap, though pristine white, produced a faint pink lather. She wondered where the other person had bought such a girly soap…
Soon, Sha Liu arrived at the washroom with simple travel toiletries. Upon seeing Ke Xun, she asked, "Is there anything strange in your room?"
Ke Xun didn't try to hide anything: "There's a pair of red slippers under the bed. Is that strange?"
Sha Liu's face darkened: "Our two rooms are filled with books, piled high on two large bookshelves, even the bedside is overflowing with books, and there are boxes of books under the bed."
Ke Xun, without a towel, simply shook his coconut-scented hands: "Then it seems the previous landlord or tenant loved reading, maybe even a scholar."
"No, those books are all romance novels."
"…"
"Those that were especially popular in the 80s and 90s, Qiong Yao, Cen Kailun, Xi Juan, Yu Qing…" Sha Liu frowned, too embarrassed to finish her sentence. Besides those, the books on the bedside table were all forbidden romance novels—pornographic books.
Ke Xun picked up the soap dish and prepared to leave the washroom, leaving behind the remark, "Looks like your landlord used to run a bookstore."
Sha Liu was alone in the washroom, staring at the murky, slightly rusty water flowing from the tap, and managed to wash herself.
The romance novels in her room, 410, weren't actually that scary, but combined with the signs of daily life visible everywhere, it felt somewhat eerie.
In bedroom 410, there were two spittoons, one small and one large, their purpose unclear.
Sha Liu could understand that people using public toilets might use spittoons at night, essentially chamber pots.
But the large spittoon was ridiculously large, almost the size of a modern flush toilet, with a lid and a hole cut into it—clearly for sitting on.
What kind of person would defecate in a room like that? There was a public toilet in the apartment building.
In the bedroom, there was a princess-style dressing table. For some reason, the mirror had been removed. On the table were face cream, perfume, prickly heat powder, a bottle of massage cream for cracked feet, some unidentified ointments, and a wide-toothed comb with several long white hairs hanging from it. These exceptionally long white hairs, if they grew on a human head, would reach waist-length.
But they were white, and so long, which gave it an inexplicably eerie feel.
Sha Liu pondered these things in the washroom, suddenly realizing she was alone. She glanced up at the pale, somewhat eerie incandescent light bulb above her, felt a chill, and hurriedly left.
Passing by room 412 next to the washroom, she saw an old woman sitting in the doorway, fanning herself and enjoying the cool air. She wore a floral undershirt, the kind typical of old women, white with small red flowers.
As Sha Liu passed by, the old woman fanned herself and said, "It's so hot today."
Sha Liu slowed down, thinking she might be able to learn something from her, so she smiled and replied, "Yes, it's still so hot at night. The lights should be turned off soon, right?"
The gatekeeper hadn't explained the lights-out process in detail, and Sha Liu wanted to understand whether it was voluntary or involuntary.
Sure enough, the old woman said, "The power is turned off at 11 o'clock."
Power off and lights out? Sha Liu really wanted to ask if the public restrooms would have their power cut off, but the old lady asked first, "Young lady, are you new here?"
Sha Liu nodded, and then mustered up her courage to ask, "Auntie, who lived in 410 before?"
"Ya Fen," the old lady said, "Ya Fen lived here for over ten years. Now she's enjoying her retirement with her parents in a new house in the city center. I heard it even has an elevator!"
"Oh, that's really nice." Sha Liu smiled, then lifted the curtain and went back inside—talking to these NPCs for too long might cause some side effects, so it was best to keep it brief.
Back inside, Sha Liu found Qiu Lu sprawled on the sofa reading a romance novel. Sha Liu frowned; she had no desire to touch anything in the room.
Qiu Lu closed her book, *I Am a Cloud*, and dimmed the lampshade beside her. "I heard you say the power would be cut off at 11 o'clock," she said, glancing at the pink clock on the wall. "There's still half an hour."
Sha Liu felt a cool breeze; Qiu Lu had turned on the fan. "Do you think what they said is true? In the paintings? How could they tell such romantic lies?" Sha Liu
glanced at the poetess, feeling a pang of sympathy, but simply smiled. "Romantic or not, we'll find out after tonight."
Qiu Lu turned the lamp back on and continued reading.
Sha Liu had never met someone so carefree. She herself was restless, unable to sleep for the first half of the night. According to "usual," she could only manage a short nap after the night's "danger" had passed.
Sha Liu first listened to the sounds coming from next door, apartment 411. She could vaguely hear Ke Xun's voice, occasionally punctuated by Mu Yiran's low replies, but the content was indistinct.
The entire Chunshun Apartment complex wasn't quiet; it even had a lively, tenement-like atmosphere. Sha Liu opened the curtains a little and looked at the people sitting outside, enjoying the cool air. Some children, unwilling to go to bed early, were still chasing and playing on the terrace.
Some people's televisions were exceptionally loud, playing an old drama theme song: "The world is vast, where is my home! The world is vast, what words can I leave behind!"...
The old lady sitting outside had already gone back inside sometime earlier.
Just then, a few girls passed by the window, discussing their topic without restraint: "The Legend of Chu Liuxiang? When was that TV series? Isn't it even earlier than 'Young Justice Bao'?"
"There wasn't even 'Princess Pearl' yet! Can you imagine! They're practically a bunch of prehistoric humans!" The girls speaking were the three long-legged beauties, each eating an ice cream. "And, things here are so cheap!" "
Don't listen to those people's alarmist talk, we've probably traveled through time! There are no paintings here! Let's buy stocks tomorrow! We'll buy a house while they're cheap! I have a lot of money in my account!" The three simple-minded girls became more and more excited as they talked, wishing they could take this opportunity to change the world.
Sha Liu watched them with some hostility from the shadows, recalling how she had clearly chosen her "companion" in front of the fifth exhibition hall of the Rhinoceros Elephant Art Museum earlier that day, only to have these three girls intercept her, leaving her "companion" to the back while the three of them went in first!
The number of people suddenly became chaotic. Sha Liu was on the verge of tears. Twelve people had already gone in; only one more was needed, and that one could only be herself…
Suddenly, everything went dark. The three long-legged girls outside the window screamed in unison. A neighbor shouted, "What are you screaming about? It's just a lights out and power outage! Go back to your rooms and sleep!"
The three girls quieted down and, using the dim light coming from the public restroom, made their way back to their room—402.
Qiu Lu was surprisingly calm about the sudden power outage, even laughing and saying, "We used to do this in college; the lights would go out while we were reading a novel!"
Sha Liu was exasperated with Qiu Lu. If she were a little more timid, she could at least analyze the situation with her. But Qiu Lu was a clueless idiot.
Sha Liu watched the three long-legged girls go into 402 before turning her face away from the window. At that moment, Qiu Lu turned on her phone's flashlight, her face appearing particularly grotesque and terrifying in the backlight. Sha Liu was both terrified and angry.
The two lay down fully clothed on the small bed. Sha Liu wasn't sleepy and didn't speak.
Qiu Lu spoke first, "I think you're still a young girl. Have you ever been in a relationship?"
"No." "It
's such a waste not to date in college!"
"..."
"Who do you think is better, Shou Zhu or Zhi Shao?"
Sha Liu didn't want to talk anymore. Her eyes were fixed on the two large spittoons, one tall and one short, in the darkness—or rather, the two toilets. After staring for a while, they seemed more like two ancient wooden figurines staring at her, so she quickly looked away.
Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could feel the entire apartment becoming quiet, as if no one lived in the building at all, clearly an empty building in the dark night.
An hour later, urgent knocking sounded on the door.