Chapter 2

Zhang Su's home is in Shengqin Garden, nearly three kilometers away from the Yileiwen Convenience Store. The twelve-story building plan keeps the population density of the entire residential complex quite low, and with its low floor area ratio, it can be considered mid-to-high-end in the context of Qincheng apartment buildings!

At Building 3, Room 801, the moment Zhang Su opened the front door, a thick, pungent odor rushed toward him.

"Back already? I just finished my stream and cooked a biiiig bowl of snail rice noodles. Are you hungry?"

In the living room, a girl wearing a loose T-shirt sat cross-legged on the sofa. On the coffee table sat a steaming bowl of snail rice noodles, with a white porcelain bowl and a spoon beside it; it seemed she had intended to share some with Zhang Su all along.

Zhang Su noticed these details and shook his head with a smile: "I just ate at the shop. That... Xinyu, don't be in such a rush to turn off the range hood after cooking snail rice noodles next time."

"Oh!" Zheng Xinyu replied with a hint of disappointment. Suddenly thinking of something, she hurriedly said: "Right, Brother Su, what about the things I bought? Didn't you say you'd bring them back for me tonight?"

Zheng Xinyu is the very streamer Zhang Su mentioned who planned to challenge herself to not leave her room for a month, though Wu Lue had no idea this beautiful streamer was Zhang Su's roommate.

The eighty-plus-square-meter two-bedroom apartment, aside from the bedrooms, was all common area, clearly demarcated; men and women living together wouldn't have any impact.

Because she had just finished streaming, the makeup on Zheng Xinyu's face hadn't been removed, making her look moving and cute. Added to her age of just over twenty, she had a rich, youthful aura. Her two long legs stretched out from under the oversized T-shirt, appearing exceptionally fair under the lights—very pleasing to the eye.

Zhang Su changed his shoes, sat by the bay window, and lit a cigarette, saying indifferently: "Hundreds of pounds of stuff, do you expect me to carry it up for you? I'm a shop clerk, not a mover. Bringing it back for you for free is already good enough!"

"You work out every day anyway, seriously..."

Zheng Xinyu slurped her noodles and muttered under her breath, not understanding why she could never attract Zhang Su's attention. If it were any other young guy living with her, he would have been head-over-heels, not daring to disobey her—unlike this unromantic quasi-uncle.

Thinking back to when she first moved in, Zheng Xinyu had even set three rules for Zhang Su, this and that, but after a while, she realized it was all wishful thinking—Zhang Su had zero interest in her?

Sometimes Zheng Xinyu even doubted whether Zhang Su's orientation was normal.

"That..."

Seeing Zhang Su being lukewarm toward her, Zheng Xinyu looked for a topic: "Did the landlord tell you? The rent is going up by ten percent next year!"

Zhang Su took a deep drag of his cigarette, stubbed it out in the ashtray, and looked out the window, saying neither warmly nor coldly: "Of course he notified me. If it goes up, it goes up. Prices rise every year; it's not strange for rent to rise."

"I think there's something wrong with this! Two days ago, I was just telling you that I've gotten used to living here and didn't plan to move even if the rent was expensive, and the landlord immediately notified us of a rent hike. Do you think it could be..."

Zheng Xinyu put down her noodle bowl and looked at Zhang Su with a mysterious expression.

"Could be what?"

Zhang Su felt his heart skip a beat at Zheng Xinyu's eccentric gaze, but he showed no reaction on his face and asked as if nothing were the matter.

"Could the landlord have installed a wiretap here?"

Zheng Xinyu squeezed her big eyes, scanned the room, and her little brows furrowed as she said quite seriously: "A streamer friend of mine in the Magic City encountered this. Later, she sued the landlord and won 800,000 in damages!"

"Brother Su, I think we should check the house thoroughly. It's best to use those special detection devices from the movies. It's really necessary; we might just get rich!"

The more she talked, the more Zheng Xinyu felt this was possible.

A wiretap?

Not just wiretapping, it could even monitor!

High-tech content, composed of over three billion base pairs, capable of intelligently detecting, identifying, and analyzing all kinds of useful information...

"Paranoia? Haha..."

Zhang Su laughed, stood up, took off his short-sleeved shirt, and shook his head as he walked toward the bathroom, saying: "If you want to look, go ahead. I don't have that kind of free time. I'm going to shower. When you're done eating, clean up the living room—no smells allowed!"

"Oh, okay..."

Looking at the muscular lines on Zhang Su's body, Zheng Xinyu swallowed back the words of refusal she had intended to say. Besides, the common area followed the principle of whoever pollutes it cleans it.

"That!"

Seeing Zhang Su about to enter the bathroom, Zheng Xinyu couldn't help but call out again. Seeing Zhang Su cast a questioning look, she said slightly embarrassedly: "The weather forecast said there's a cold wave coming. Remember to add more clothes; don't catch a cold."

Zhang Su felt the other's concern and nodded with a smile: "You take care to stay warm too."

"I know, I know. Go take your shower. I'm full, I'll get to work cleaning!"

With that, Zheng Xinyu stood up and stretched comfortably; more than half a bowl of snail rice noodles remained.

Zhang Su dawdled for half an hour before walking out of the bathroom. The pungent odor had dissipated quite a bit. Zheng Xinyu had also returned to her room; on the tightly closed door hung a half-meter-tall pink melancholy bear. One could faintly hear the *da-da-da* sound of a mechanical keyboard from inside the room—she was likely playing a game.

Accustomed to a nocturnal life, even after finishing her streaming work, it was hard to calm her mind and enter dreamland in a short time.

*Whoosh... *

A draft blew in from the window that hadn't been closed. Zhang Su, still covered in droplets of water, immediately felt a chill hit him.

"It really cooled down. It's rare for the weather forecast to be accurate..."

Muttering, Zhang Su walked to the window and looked into the distance. Because the floor wasn't high, the night view that met his eyes wasn't spectacular. Inside the complex, a security guard was patrolling with a flashlight; the landscape lights illuminated a corner, soft and quiet.

Closing the window and drawing the curtains, Zhang Su returned to his room, opened his computer, and entered CSGO, fighting heartily until after three in the morning before tossing aside his headset and collapsing into his quilt to sleep soundly.

He liked this regular life—not the early-to-bed, early-to-rise kind of office workers and students, but a routine that belonged to him.

Sleeping at two or three every night and waking up naturally at eleven or twelve the next day, eight or nine hours of sleep left him feeling energetic. However... this time, Zhang Su did not wake up naturally as he had hoped!

"Ah!"

A shrill scream pierced his sleep, followed by *bang-bang-bang* pounding on the door.

"Su, Brother Su, are you up yet... Zhang Su, open the door quickly!"

Panicked shouts rang out from outside the door; one could tell the terror of the voice's owner.

Zhang Su picked up the big Mudmaster on his nightstand and checked the time: 10:30!

"Zhang Su, get up quickly, something happened, something big happened..."

The door-pounding and panicked shouting continued.

"What is this crazy girl doing!"

Zhang Su frowned and threw off the quilt, clearly feeling that the temperature had dropped significantly compared to when he woke up yesterday. While promising "Coming," he pulled on his pants.

*Whoosh*—he opened the door. Before Zhang Su could question Zheng Xinyu, she pointed toward the window, her chest heaving and her face terrified: "Mur, murder, dismemberment, someone was killed downstairs, and they're dead, no, no, more than one!"

After finishing, Zheng Xinyu, for once, didn't admire Zhang Su's abs; she grabbed his wrist and ran toward the living room window.

"A murder case?"

Zhang Su's heart skipped a beat. Public security in China was already quite good, and with Shengqin Garden's excellent security system, how could a murder case occur, and with more than one dead?

Wondering if Zheng Xinyu was playing a prank, he didn't stop his feet and followed her to the window, leaning out to look down.

Eighth floor, about twenty-five meters from the ground. In broad daylight with decent light, Zhang Su quickly saw the situation clearly and couldn't help but curse: "What the hell..."

In the garden downstairs, blood stained the white pebble path red, severed limbs and blood clumps suspected to be organs were scattered everywhere, and someone was lying on top of a wounded person performing CPR.

A moment later, Zhang Su dismissed the absurd thought in his mind!

This wasn't CPR at all; it was clearly gnawing...

The person lying on the corpse had their head buried between the corpse's neck and shoulders; as the head rose and fell, large chunks of flesh were being torn away.

"Woke up too fast..."

The look of horror on Zhang Su's face vanished, replaced by a smile as he turned to look at the panicked Zheng Xinyu, spreading his hands comically: "Woke up too fast, actually saw people eating people. I'm going back to nap for a bit!"

After saying this, he walked toward his bedroom, secretly thinking that he must have been too immersed in the zombie mode of CSGO last night to see this absurd scene.

Hello to all you dear readers, the new book is fresh and tender, welcome to add to your library and follow! Thank you all for your support, salute, salute!

(End of chapter)