Chapter 8: Some Small Scenes on the Weekend
Just as you think of the "report to the landlord" rule in housing regulations, new content automatically loads onto your phone.
It's like leveling up in a game—when a monster appears, the map or items automatically update. But all of this seems too perfect; your intuition tells you things aren't that simple.
After hovering your finger over the chat window with the landlord for a long time, you finally decide to turn off your phone to avoid seeing it.
That roommate is incredibly noisy; the drumbeats feel like they're pounding on your heart. You decide to retract your temporary fondness for this roommate. If you had a choice, you'd still prefer someone who doesn't bully others with noise.
Let's wait and see what happens tomorrow. You close the doors and windows tightly, pull the covers over your head, and try to sleep.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.
Your ears and body have almost gotten used to the explosive rhythm, and as a result, you can now discern many other unusual sounds mixed in with the music:
Someone opened the heavy door to the stairwell downstairs and slowly, mechanically walked upstairs.
You tell yourself that your own little house is safe.
But the next second, someone outside started banging on the door, shouting loudly. With that drunken tone and all that noise, it was hard not to think that the person outside might take your door off the building.
"Squeak—squeak—yah."
At the same time, from the windows that were tightly covered by iron roller shutters, came the sickening noise of fingernails scraping against the metal.
It's as if something is hovering outside your window on the 3rd floor (actually the 4th floor), scratching at your window with sharp hands, trying to break through all your defenses.
You feel like your bones are about to melt away in this indescribably annoying sound.
So annoying!
Fear is no longer your primary feeling; you're simply exhausted and annoyed by the bizarre events that keep popping up. You intended to let things unfold as they will, remaining unmoved, but the noise outside is just too much, and your excessive afternoon nap is giving you a stroke.
Open your phone, type "Not here, go somewhere else," then turn the volume up to maximum and point the speaker at the crack in the door.
"Nicht hier! Geh woanders hin!"
The mechanical female voice reads out in a rigid, monotonous manner. If it doesn't work the first time, you squat by the door and let your translator drive these people away for you, time and time again.
The annoying noise stopped for a moment, and you could almost sense that the people seemed to be in some kind of awkward situation before leaving dejectedly.
You were right again.
Since both locals and outsiders must abide by the rules of the current rental situation regardless of whether they are tenants, then that female roommate probably wouldn't put herself in danger just to annoy you.
Let's rethink the rules. They only say to keep quiet, but it wasn't my female roommate making the noise.
It's her speaker.
Throughout the entire process, she remained completely silent, without even a sound of laughter.
So if you choose to let your phone speak for you, you wouldn't dare try suddenly yelling.
Regardless, as long as it works.
You listened carefully again, and realized that those people weren't there specifically to pick a fight with you; they were genuinely attracted by the music. After you yelled at them, they went to knock on other doors, and by now, they had probably found your female roommate.
My female roommate kept playing music, so it seems she has her own way of dealing with harassment from fellow locals.
What happened to the saying that Chinese people are very law-abiding?
You let out a roar in your heart to shatter stereotypes.
Humans are incredibly adaptable; even so, you still fall asleep very quickly.
It was just another dream.
It wasn't a nightmare; the scene could even be described as dreamlike.
You drift along the shallow sea at the white sand beach, which is as light blue as jelly, with huge notebook pages folded into a sailboat, steadily supporting you.
The sea was so blue, but the sky was a pinkish-purple. The whole world was a vibrant macaron color, making you feel like a little filling inside, and your mood was as sweet as candy.
A few small fish swam past the boat. You were scooping water with your hands when you turned around and saw your lure rod resting on the edge of the sailboat.
So you decide to go fishing, you think, picking up your fishing rod and watching helplessly as the lure sinks deeper and deeper into the water.
Soon, you will feel a slight tremor coming from the pole. You tentatively pull, and instantly a strong force pulls you in the opposite direction.
They really took the bait.
You chuckled, gripped the rod handle, and spun the reel, reeling it in and out repeatedly until the fish was exhausted. Then you suddenly pulled the rod back, the reel spinning so fast it left afterimages.
Just as you were about to be pulled out of the water, a gentle breeze stirred the waves, causing you to sway and fall on your bottom.
It also woke you up.
You were clearly in shallow water, so why did you go through such a long and complicated fishing process? And you didn't even cast your line, so how did you start fishing right away?
The sailboat suddenly began to rock violently, and you felt your legs go weak, but you were lifted up and stood firmly on some unknown high place, surrounded by thick blackness.
One careless step and you fell off a tall building.
Open your eyes.
In your hand, you are actually holding the axle of the iron roller shutter.
I don't know when, but you got out of bed and stood by the window.
Outside the window, men and women of distinctly German ethnicity are scrambling to peek into your room through the half-open roller shutter.
Perhaps you're not entirely right. In your eyes, they, including many Chinese people, all look the same—their extremely large facial features and identical thick hair make it difficult to distinguish them. At this moment, it's even harder to describe, because their facial features are flattened and shrunken into a line on their faces. Combined with their current Spider-Man-like posture clinging to the outer wall, it's like a horrifying version of spot the difference.
You decisively and tightly closed the iron roller shutter, leaving no gaps.
This is your own fault. When you first woke up, you opened the shutter and looked outside, and then you forgot to close the metal shutter completely.
I never imagined that such a hidden danger would be sown.
Now that you're fully awake, get up. There's nothing else fun to do, so you continue studying.
I have to say, my female roommate has amazing energy. You're almost asleep for the third time, and she's still going at it.
envious.
Waking up again, this time you finally have a good night's sleep, and a beautiful Sunday begins when you wake up to a lovely sunny day.
It's just a bit too cold.
You were able to wear a sweater and a short skirt when you went out yesterday, but today you feel a bit cold even sitting in bed.
The temperature difference is too great. Just find the valve core of the indoor heating and turn it on.
A gurgling sound followed, and the originally cold pipes gradually warmed up.
You're not actually cold enough to turn on the heating, but you don't want to break the rule of "keeping the heating on in winter" due to carelessness.
As it turns out, you were indeed prescient.
It's alright during the day, but the temperature drops as night goes on. By the time you're ready to go to bed, you'll be shivering with cold as you walk through the corridor after washing up.
Your female roommate was even more outrageous. She slept all day, and around 10 p.m., you bumped into her wearing thick winter clothes, and even had a warm, fluffy headband on her forehead.
You are shocked by the pampered nature of the German woman, and then you notice that she is cleaning her room with a vacuum cleaner in her right hand and a mop in her left.
Upon seeing you, she exchanged a brief greeting of "wear more clothes" before burying herself in her cleaning work.
The clanging and banging has continued until now and is still going on.
As long as it doesn't get as noisy as it was last night, you can totally tolerate this amount of cleaning noise.
The clock strikes midnight. You rub your eyes, mentally review the words you just read, and are about to rest when there's a knock on the door.
You snapped your phone off, and the last light source in the room disappeared. You stared warily at the door.
There was only your female roommate outside the door, and she was indeed much more "normal" than any of the other locals in every way. When she saw that you didn't open the door, she only said a few words, and then, perhaps out of consideration for you, she kept it short, repeated a few words, and then left.
“Vegetables.” This was the word she emphasized.
time.
What happened to time?
You felt a little lost. After thinking for a while, sleepiness washed over you, and you decided to give up. You yawned, pulled the blanket over your head, and fell into a deep sleep.
You are looking at words.
What I hate most about speaking is having to distinguish between feminine, masculine, and neuter genders. Grammar and syntax are also related to these parts of speech, and all sorts of strange word variations can make your head spin.
However, you secretly rejoice: since you're not actually keeping any pieces, you don't need to memorize such complicated rules; a general understanding is enough.
Furthermore, you are someone who is very good at finding patterns. Names ending in "ung" seem to be feminine, and most of the particularly long and strange words are also feminine. Short names ending in "r" are mostly masculine, while those ending in "s" are mostly neuter.
There are also distinctions based on word meaning. For example, in word formation, words with the suffix "-" are always neutral. For instance, the feminine word "姑娘" becomes the neutral word "小姑娘" when the suffix "chen" is added.
It's actually quite fun, as long as you're not the kind of person who has to take a language exam and get a high-level language certificate, hehe.
After studying for so long, and with your bad habit of not turning on the lights when using your phone, your eyes are a little sore.
Close your eyes and do the eye exercises you used to scoff at in your student days while recalling the words you just memorized.
Knock knock knock.
Someone knocked on your door.
who?
You switch your mood almost seamlessly. One second you're leisurely immersing yourself in Ruko's study life, and the next you're on high alert, even in a battle mode. Quickly turn off your phone and pretend you're already asleep.
It was your female roommate. She rattled off some long sentences, and then, perhaps out of consideration for you, she cut to the chase, emphasizing the key words several times before leaving.
"Vegetable Special".
time.
Time?
You can't understand it. You were already tired, so you just covered yourself with the blanket and fell asleep.
00:59.
01:01.
Your screen lights up again, though you have no idea what it is.
Without you even realizing it, this number has already jumped twice.
The character “冬” replaced the character “夏” that originally preceded the date.
It's winter time.
A note from the author:
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The transition between daylight saving time and winter time really feels a bit like a mannequin.
Has Jinjiang returned to normal yet? I tried to reply to a new comment, but it disappeared as soon as I clicked... Also, I haven't received my reward points for two days. Dear readers, are you even able to see my post?
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