Chapter 21- Part 2: My old enemy has a girlfriend

At this hour, Jing City was already scorching at thirty-eight degrees Celsius; if it were just Lin Huaixu and Kong Jiashu, they would have squeezed onto the subway at the chaotic Wuloukou.

But with Tong An’yu present, he hailed a taxi without a second thought.

What was originally an hour-plus subway ride took only forty minutes by taxi; the car stopped on the bustling Jiandong Road, where office buildings stood tall all around and large supermarkets and shopping centers were ubiquitous.

Tong An’yu was quite familiar with this area; since Jiang Yao only had sons, she often dragged Tong An’yu here to shop, and Tong An’yu had sat on every single sofa in the luxury stores in nearby malls.

Her sole purpose for accompanying her aunt was to eat, trying all sorts of delicious restaurants.

The real estate agent had already been waiting under the blazing sun; he met Lin Huaixu’s gaze and quickly hurried over.

“Hello, Mr. Lin. I’ll take you to see it now.”

Lin Huaixu nodded and followed him.

The agent, sweating profusely, chattered on: “You really inquired at the perfect time; we just had a highly cost-effective short-term rental become available because the previous tenant broke their lease.”

“Mhm,” Lin Huaixu acknowledged.

The agent: “The landlord wants to know if you’re interested in a long-term lease; the price could be even lower. As you know, this whole area is considered the CBD, and typical apartments go for ten to twenty thousand yuan in rent. You won’t find another place at this price.”

“We’ll see,” Lin Huaixu said, not committing.

He knew that being enthusiastically welcomed for a two-month short-term rental meant there was definitely an ulterior motive.

The agent: “Right, you go ahead and look at the apartment. Although it’s an old residential compound, the value for money is exceptional.”

The agent led them through several turns, winding behind the shopping center; Tong An’yu found herself in increasingly unfamiliar surroundings. The glass display windows of luxury stores had vanished, as had the congested, bustling intersection. Behind the prosperity was an entirely different scene.

She kicked a piece of fallen wall plaster with her foot, then walked through a narrow, foul-smelling alley, finally seeing a row of sour-smelling, dirty trash cans standing beside the community’s main gate.

Although called a residential compound, there were actually only four block-shaped buildings inside; looking at the rusted gate plastered with “locksmith” ads, one could tell there was no management whatsoever. The only reason it could stand firm in the CBD was because it was built so early and the demolition costs were high.

“Holy crap…” Kong Jiashu couldn’t help but exclaim.

His family’s financial situation had been quite good since his birth, and even with their bankruptcy in recent years, it was merely a move from a large house in Hai City’s city center to a large house in the suburbs.

Although the geographical locations were vastly different, the living conditions hadn’t declined too much; even when he returned to his parents’ small hometown, he had never seen such old and dilapidated housing.

For a moment, he even wondered if this was Jing City or a foreign slum.

He had never seen it, and Tong An’yu had seen it even less; she couldn’t even manage an exclamation, because the sheer amount of information was overwhelming, akin to opening a door to a new world for her.

“Look, to your left, two hundred meters away is Yindi Center, and six hundred meters behind that is Walmart, making it incredibly convenient for daily necessities. Behind the complex, there’s a whole street of cheap and convenient street food. If you want something better, head east across the road, Wanda, Yuehui, Kaisa, they’re all within a kilometer. The location is unparalleled!”

The agent hopped on one foot, lifting his leather shoe to peel off a moving service ad stuck to his sole.

“Which building is the apartment in?” Lin Huaixu waved away the faint scent of mala tang, frowning as he asked.

“Come on, come on, I’ll take you there now.”

The agent wadded up the ad, casually tossed it, strode over the sour liquid seeping from the trash cans, and headed directly towards a dreary, dark red building.

Reaching the building entrance, a rusty security door was kicked open with a bang; a man in a tank top, his belly exposed, spit into a sealed-off trash chute opening beside him, then stared directly at Tong An’yu’s face.

The agent said awkwardly, “This place has few outsiders; it’s mostly old Jing City residents, mostly grandpas and grandmas, living a simpler life.”

Lin Huaixu stopped in his tracks, not turning back, and said in a very restrained, calm tone, “Tong An’yu, you should go back.”

‘It’s too humiliating,’ he thought.

‘So humiliating it makes one feel inferior.’

Tong An’yu saw that his white T-shirt was somewhat damp with sweat; even though he was baking in the sun, he seemed cold, completely devoid of warmth.

She lowered the hand that had been pinching her nose and angrily asked, “Am I just here for a taxi ride?”

The agent smoothed things over: “Since you’re already here, let’s all take a look. Don’t mind that the room isn’t big, but the landlord provided a large bed, one point eight meters wide. Whether it’s two buddies making do or a young couple, there’s enough space to sleep.”

Kong Jiashu reacted strongly: “Whoa, I’m not staying in this dump!”

Tong An’yu, however, was blushing furiously, flustered by the mentions of “young couple” and “enough space to sleep.”

Under the agent’s insistent pulling, Lin Huaixu was finally tugged into the unit’s entrance.

If the outside was already so dilapidated, the inside was even worse; the staircase had clearly not been maintained since its construction, and the ground was coated with layers of aged, settled grime.

Stepping on stair treads that were almost a shoe’s length and smelling a peculiar odor similar to fermenting bean paste, they arrived at the elevator lobby.

As expected, the elevator lobby was covered in small ads, so much so that it made one wonder if Jing City truly had so many locksmiths, removers, and renovators.

The adjacent staircase was piled high with miscellaneous items and old bicycles, leaving barely enough space for people to pass; from a health and safety perspective, this place was severely non-compliant, but the developers and property management companies had long since disappeared, so no one had ever managed it.

“The apartment is on the fourth floor. The secondary bedroom has already been rented out, leaving one master bedroom, which is quite spacious but shares a bathroom and kitchen with the secondary bedroom.”

The elevator creaked open its doors; inside, it too had not escaped the blight of small ads.

The four of them squeezed into the cramped elevator, heard the doors bang shut with a clunk, and then it started rattling and clanging its way upwards.

Tong An’yu was terrified, afraid that if the elevator decided to give up, it would crash from a high floor.

Fortunately, they reached the fourth floor uneventfully, and the elevator spat them out.

The agent sorted through a stack of keys, fumbling around with one under the dim light bulb, and finally managed to open the door.

Stepping inside, it was the only comforting moment.

Despite the old building, the dilapidated complex, and questionable safety, the room itself was well-maintained; though its aesthetic no longer suited the current era, all the furniture was wiped clean and tidy, and even the windows were sparkling clear.

Upon entering, there was a small living room with a sofa piled up, clearly not meant for sitting, as it was covered with a yellow cloth.

The secondary bedroom door was tightly shut, with no shoes placed outside, indicating the occupant was likely out for work.

The agent then took out another key, pushed open the master bedroom door, and said, “Look at this space, it’s decent, and it’s only two thousand yuan a month.”

The door opened, directly facing an iron-frame bed covered with a finger-thick mattress still in its packaging; it was indeed 1.8 meters wide, but its cost was probably less than a school dorm bed.

Inside the room, there was also a yellow desk and a yellow wardrobe, and nothing else.

“This… this is worth two thousand yuan?!” Kong Jiashu could no longer suppress his urge to complain.

“Better apartments can go for ten thousand, but at this price point, this is all you’ll find,” the agent said mercilessly.

Tong An’yu, who truly came to see the world today, circled the iron bed in a feigned professional manner, then asked curiously, “Where’s the light switch?”

The agent tapped the wallpaper-covered wall: “See this string? Just pull it.”

Saying this, he reached out and pulled the string, and the light came on.

Tong An’yu’s pupils dilated in shock.

‘Jing City truly has a long and storied history.’

Lin Huaixu’s gaze followed the darkened string upward, finally landing on the ceiling, where he saw a dim, round light bulb.

‘This feeling was as speechless as the first time he took the subway from Central Park in New York and saw a Black man whose pants were hanging off his butt brazenly jump the turnstile to evade the fare, only to step on and kill a scurrying rat.’

‘Why on earth did he bring her to a place like this?’

“Not renting,” Lin Huaixu said, turning to leave.

A slightly tougher commute was not unacceptable.

The agent: “Fifteen hundred! The landlord doesn’t want it vacant, willing to take a huge hit, fifteen hundred, deal or no deal!”

Kong Jiashu, having experienced bankruptcy, also deeply understood the difficulty of earning money, but he lamented bitterly, “Xu-ge, damn, we never stayed in hotels cheaper than fifteen hundred before! You can’t compromise your principles…”

Tong An’yu silently, quietly, in a voice like a mosquito’s buzz, weakly leaned into Lin Huaixu’s ear and said, “Although, and this is a big although, can I sponsor you?”

‘Then you wouldn’t have to work so hard, wouldn’t have to live in such a dangerous, dilapidated apartment.’

Kong Jiashu quickly interjected, “This can be compromised, this can be compromised! Tong-jie is one of us!”

Lin Huaixu tilted his head to look at Tong An’yu’s pale, flushed, sweating cheek: “What did you say?”

He moved closer, his breath falling upon her, his indifferent eyes narrowed: “Say it again.”

Tong An’yu carefully poked his approaching chest with her finger, feigning seriousness and no ulterior motives: “What I mean is, Cooper is now like a returning Princess Huanzhu found among the common folk, her value soaring. And you, well, you’re the princess’s father. Didn’t Little Swallow help Liu Qing and Liu Hong rebuild the VIP building? So…”

– “Oh, so His Majesty is preparing to bestow a reward upon this humble commoner?”

“……”

‘What “His Majesty”? What “His Majesty”?!’

‘It sounds so awful when you say it.’

‘If you like calling names so much, why don’t you call me your girlfriend?’

Lin Huaixu turned to the agent and said, “Fourteen hundred. If you agree, we’ll rent it.”

The agent: “That’s impossible. The secondary bedroom is only thirteen hundred, and the mattresses are newly bought, and the place is clean. Your price would only be for a one-year long-term lease.”

Lin Huaixu: “Then forget it. I’ll look at other places.”

The agent: “Hey, hey, hey, don’t be in such a hurry. Let me contact the landlord again.”

He also knew that old apartments in this condition were very difficult to rent out; many people preferred to live further away and commute to work.

The agent went to call the landlord.

Tong An’yu slipped out of the room: “I’m going to check the kitchen.”

Her face was burning hot; only she knew how much courage it took to ask that question.

The kitchen door was also extremely old, made of plastic, feeling like it could be punched through.

Tong An’yu twisted the knob, peeked inside, and reached out to feel for the switch by the wall; sure enough, she found a pull string. She yanked it, and the light came on.

Then she saw several feasting cockroaches scuttling out of the sink at a hundred-meter dash!

“Ahhhhhhhh——”

Tong An’yu’s vision went black, her scalp tingled, her mind went blank, and she wished she could swap her legs for rocket launchers, blasting into the sky to see God the next second.

The agent, who had just secured the landlord’s agreement and was about to tell Lin Huaixu the good news, turned around only to see a blur shoot past him, colliding with Lin Huaixu and trembling in his embrace.

“Lin… Lin Huaixu… Ugh, I’ll give you ten million, just blow up the kitchen!”

Tong An’yu’s teeth chattered, and she gagged as she trembled.

The agent: “……”

Lin Huaixu was initially startled by her scream, thinking she had pinched her hand in the door, but when he realized she was scared senseless by cockroaches, he found it a bit funny.

He let her hold onto him, looking down to ask, “Is His Majesty so timid?”

Tong An’yu looked up, her face pale, her eyes both mournful and angry: “It’s all cockroaches, all of them! You can’t rent this! Contact Kangfuxin Solution right now and build a factory in that kitchen!”

She was still trembling, the disgust too strong to stop.

Lin Huaixu couldn’t help but lightly pinch her bloodless, round face; Tong An’yu thought he was going to mock her again for being “His Majesty” afraid of cockroaches, but instead, he placed his hand on her back, stroking it gently, and then said—

“The neighbors in the apartment I rented abroad were an Indian family; they cooked curry every day, and because they didn’t clean promptly, cockroaches would crawl into my room through the drains. Renting a place, it’s unavoidable, and Jing City is no exception. I can’t possibly call Kangfuxin Solution to build a factory every time.”

Kong Jiashu was somewhat surprised; Tong An’yu was yelping like a cat scorched by fire, and he had thought Lin Huaixu would undoubtedly push her away, as for Lin Huaixu, this definitely went beyond the scope of friendship.

He wouldn’t even hug Yuan Qing.

Yet, he didn’t.

Lin Huaixu held her, calmly comforting her, patting her back, and telling her stories about his time studying abroad.

‘How strange.’