Chapter 7: Strange Neighbor 07

The wind rustled through the tree shadows. After a brief moment of pause, the neighbor continued on toward his home.

Under the dim streetlight, Yu Bai’s face registered surprise while Li Nanxiao thoughtfully watched the departing figure.

Yan Jing cautiously edged out from behind Uncle Police, craning his neck to peer around.

“He actually looks like a normal person,” he muttered, a bit begrudgingly. “But that build of his? Clearly not as good as mine from all my training. I could take ten of him with one punch.”

Yu Bai rolled his eyes and ignored him.

The Criminal Investigation Captain chuckled. “He does seem a little strange at first glance, but not in a bad way.”

What made it odd was how a perfectly ordinary bit of small talk had been answered with such earnest sincerity.

Li Nanxiao said, “He probably smiled because he overheard me say you like gifts.”

Having seen the source of Yu Bai’s imagined danger with his own eyes, he could finally relax.

From a cop’s gut instinct, this neighbor didn’t pose any threat whatsoever.

If he were lined up with a bunch of suspects, he’d be the first one crossed off the list.

Those bizarre, outlandish fantasies were surely just psychological scars from the elevator mishap.

Before leaving, Li Nanxiao clapped Yu Bai on the shoulder with a smile. “Making a few more friends is a good thing. A close neighbor is better than a distant relative, after all.”

Yu Bai mumbled in vague agreement. “Got it, Uncle Li.”

Li Nanxiao happened to be heading the same way as Yan Jing, so he dropped them off just outside the neighborhood and watched until their car disappeared into the distance.

The nighttime streets were quiet and empty, most shops shuttered, the air carrying a melancholy loneliness that daytime never brought.

Yu Bai stood at the neighborhood entrance, staring off into space for a moment, his emotions a tangled mix.

The non-human neighbor’s reaction inexplicably reminded him of a dog left alone at home for ages, finally lighting up at its owner’s return.

…Why look at him with eyes that suddenly brightened like that?

Yu Bai scratched his head in bewilderment, then shoved the thought aside.

As he turned to head back into the neighborhood, he noticed four buzz-cut men in floral shirts clustered at the doorway of the only shop still lit nearby. They were pretending to play cards.

Their eyes met, and the men froze, straightened their backs, and waved at him in perfect unison.

“Good evening, Young Master Yu!”

Yu Bai reflexively glanced around the area.

Fortunately, no one else was nearby.

These were the bodyguards who had faithfully protected him for years now. Their leader—a floral-shirted man with a knife scar across his face named A Qiang—stood at the front.

Staring at the intimidating A Qiang, Yu Bai made his usual futile protest. “Don’t call me that.”

“Sure thing, Young Master Yu!”

What difference did that make?!

Determined to get revenge, Yu Bai gritted his teeth. “Little Qiang.”

A Qiang responded cheerfully. “Yeah! What’s up, Young Master Yu!”

…

Yu Bai smoothly gave up the struggle, as always. “Why aren’t you guys off resting yet?”

He was safe when holed up at home, so the bodyguards usually only shadowed him full-time when he went out.

A Qiang turned serious at once. “Captain Li showed up, so Tian Ge had us pull overtime to keep an eye out.”

He didn’t ask what Captain Li had been doing there, but he lowered his voice to add, “Young Master Yu, if you need anything, just call us anytime. Whatever the cops can handle, we can too—and what they can’t, we’ll make happen!”

…Don’t say stuff like that so dead seriously to a law-abiding citizen!

Yu Bai hurriedly brushed it off. “Nothing like that. I was just chatting casually with Uncle Li.”

“Sure, Young Master Yu!” A Qiang replied promptly, then asked with concern, “Did yesterday’s scare get to you? Want us to post up inside the neighborhood? Or find a new place to live?”

The other three bodyguards behind him jumped in with a barrage of chatter.

“Tian Ge already called in people to swap out the elevator, but the soonest it’ll be done is a week from now.”

“The neighborhood’s decent and all, but we can definitely find something better. We’ll handle it right away!”

Yu Bai listened quietly without interrupting.

The moment help from the police hadn’t panned out, he’d certainly considered packing up and leaving right then.

Having lived through all those weird events firsthand, he knew they weren’t delusions. He was certain the neighbor next door wasn’t human and possessed inexplicable powers, so steering clear seemed like the safest bet.

But he’d just signed a one-year lease, and the landlord wasn’t the easygoing type. Plus, the old flower pot that had belonged to the late Old Grandma had inexplicably turned into a watermelon farm.

Sun Tiantian—clueless about all the weirdness—had called in a crew overnight to replace the elevator, worried it’d malfunction again. The new one was still being installed.

The Criminal Investigation Captain had just concluded it was PTSD from the elevator incident, confirmed no anomalies around, and advised making more friends.

And the non-human weirdo neighbor didn’t seem malicious.

So Yu Bai decided not to move for now.

The hassle of leaving might end up worse than whatever trouble came from staying.

While Yu Bai was lost in thought, the Flower Shirt Guys picked up on it and fell silent.

When he snapped back to reality, five pairs of eyes full of eager anticipation stared at him, waiting for orders.

Yu Bai sighed and said earnestly, “If you guys aren’t in a rush to get off work, there is something I could use your help with right now.”

“Sure thing, Young Master Yu! No problem!”

“…”

Young Master Yu calmly instructed, “Go grab some burlap sacks.”

Moments later, at the neighborhood entrance.

It was a dark and windy night. The well-trained buzz-cut men shouldered hefty-looking sacks, emerging one by one from the apartment building with brisk, silent steps.

Gatekeeper Grandpa crouched in his booth, his face gradually twisting in horror.

As he watched them load the heavy sacks into a car, the old man mustered his courage, brandishing his patrol baton as he shakily rushed out to block them. “Hold it! What’s in those bags? Where’s that young guy who led you in earlier?!”

The knife-scarred leader immediately turned back.

With a blank expression, he set down his sack and untied the mouth in one swift motion.

Heart pounding, Gatekeeper Grandpa squinted at it.

And then…

He saw a sack full of plump, green watermelons.

“My goodness—huh?”

Yu Bai brought up the rear, cradling an extra watermelon that wouldn’t fit in the sacks. The moment he emerged, he met Gatekeeper Grandpa’s relieved gaze, one brimming with “Thank goodness you’re still alive.”

He paused awkwardly before steeling himself to explain. “Grandpa, I grew a bunch of watermelons on the rooftop—they came in big—so I called some friends to help haul them down.”

“Oh, oh! Last time I thought you owed them money or something. Turns out you’re friends! Sorry about that.”

In a friendly gesture, Gatekeeper Grandpa rapped his knuckles on one of the watermelons in the sack and marveled, “Whoa, what a crisp sound!”

Knife-Scarred A Qiang beamed with pride, chiming in sincerely, “You bet! Our Young Master Yu grows the best!”

Young Master Yu had nothing to say—and desperately wanted to chuck the watermelon in his arms at him.

These weren’t his watermelons.

Compared to when he’d checked the rooftop earlier with Li Nanxiao, they’d grown quite a bit larger.

At this rate, one more night and they’d be the size of yoga balls—a whole pile of them.

Yu Bai figured the area around the rooftop flower pot had accelerated time flow. That’s how Yan Jing’s watermelon seeds from last night had shot up to regular large watermelons overnight. And one seed that had accidentally fallen in earlier had become the massive yoga-ball monstrosity from yesterday.

If he’d called Li Nanxiao back just now and let him see this scene defying all scientific logic, the captain might have started believing Yu Bai and Yan Jing’s other “delusions.”

A responsible cop’s approach to the supernatural wouldn’t be as laid-back as two carefree guys like them.

He’d probably haul the “person” off to a research institute for study.

In that instant, Yu Bai’s mind flashed to those blue eyes suddenly losing their melancholy.

So he’d stood there amid the watermelon patch, thought it over, and ultimately hadn’t called the Criminal Investigation Captain. Instead, he’d summoned the bodyguards who’d gone to fetch the sacks.

No matter what, the watermelons had to go.

He still dreamed of dying peacefully of old age—not getting crushed by a collapsing rooftop one day.

The next morning, the first thing Yu Bai did after waking was head to the rooftop for a look around.

The weather was bright and clear. The old flower pot sat empty, and a fresh note reading “No Littering” fluttered by the rooftop door in the breeze.

Perfect—a barren wasteland, no trace of any giant produce.

Relieved, Yu Bai turned and headed downstairs to grab his takeout.

He couldn’t shake the feeling he’d just cleaned up after someone.

…Oh, right. Not someone human.

He retrieved his lunch from the delivery locker and was about to head back to the building when Gatekeeper Grandpa called out from the booth.

The old man rubbed his hands together, his eye crinkles deepening with a sheepish smile as he handed over something.

“That watermelon you gave me yesterday was delicious—so sweet,” Grandpa said. “I figured you like growing stuff, so I brought a pot of flowers from home. This one’s super easy to keep alive. Just water it daily, and when the sun’s out, it blooms right away. Gorgeous colors.”

He offered a full pot of sunflowers—a common park plant with plump, rice-grain leaves and vibrant, multicolored blooms bursting with life.

Yu Bai wanted to say he didn’t actually like gardening.

But looking at Grandpa’s enthusiastic yet anxious expression, he decided against it and politely accepted. “Thank you.”

Back home, Yu Bai casually set the potted flowers on the kitchen counter.

He rarely cooked, so he simply treated the kitchen like a balcony. This apartment’s kitchen had a better orientation than the actual balcony, with more abundant sunlight.

When he set down the sunflower, Yu Bai instinctively glanced toward the neighboring kitchen.

The cooking oil, iron wok, and plastic bags that had been on the neighbor’s counter were gone. The surface was now completely bare.

It seemed the non-human neighbor had abandoned any plans to blow up the kitchen again.

Excellent ×2.

Yu Bai thought optimistically that as long as this neighbor stopped causing any more shocking disturbances, he could continue living here peacefully.

As for the occasional minor ripples, he could try to adapt.

Humans were highly adaptable, after all.

He had already grown used to such days by a smidge. After all, he’d navigated ups and downs for years, making him something of a veteran.

The watermelon and the explosions were temporarily resolved. All that remained were the strange noises from inside the wall at night.

He wondered if Yan Jing’s slap had thoroughly scared away the “person.”

To nip any potential problems in the bud, Yu Bai pulled up a map app on his phone and searched for nearby hardware stores. The closest one was Jianbin Hardware Store.

He dialed their number. “Do you sell soundproofing foam?”

“Sure do. Where are you planning to use it?” The middle-aged man on the other end replied on reflex before suddenly exclaiming in delight. “Hey! Aren’t you from Building 2? We were stuck in the elevator together that day!”

Yu Bai paused, the aroma of fried chicken flashing through his mind on instinct. “…Master Wang?”

“That’s me! Wow, you remember!” Master Wang sounded thrilled. “I knew it was you the second I heard your voice. I’ll never forget that day for the rest of my life!”

Yu Bai certainly hadn’t forgotten it either—that day truly was the root of all evil.

Master Wang fired off questions in a rapid barrage. “Soundproofing, huh? Which room? What’s the problem? I’ll grab the stuff and come help you out right now. Jianbin Hardware is my place. Name’s Wang Jianbin!”

“Uh… Room 1205. The water pipes get noisy at night.”

The ever-enthusiastic Wang Jianbin soon showed up lugging bags of materials and tools. As a fellow resident intimately familiar with the building’s layout, Master Wang swiftly installed full soundproofing around the pipes and even added soundproof strips to every door and window seam.

“I guarantee you won’t hear a peep of noise at night!”

The oblivious Master Wang thumped his chest with utter confidence and refused to take a dime.

Yu Bai watched with an amused yet helpless smile as Wang Jianbin finished up and slipped away like he was making a getaway. Maybe he should pick up fried chicken from the neighbor’s store a few more times and drop it off for him.

Good things did happen in his dramatically eventful life, after all.

In any case, he no longer had to worry much about noise.

That night, Yu Bai hunkered down at his computer to write. During a break, he noticed faint sounds coming from inside the wall.

They weren’t knocks, or Little Star, or crying.

It almost sounded like crisp laughter.

He wasn’t entirely sure—the noise was so faint it was nearly inaudible.

The soundproofing foam was doing its job.

Yu Bai thought so calmly as he slipped on his headphones, blocking out even that last whisper of sound.

Music filled his ears alone.

Excellent ×3.

With all three bizarre incidents resolved, his life had returned to perfect calm.

In truth, Yu Bai had noticed other oddities as well.

His floor had ten numbered rooms, but only four were occupied; the rest sat empty.

Of those four occupied units, one was on the far side of the elevator, while the other three were right next to one another.

Room 1205 was his. Room 1204 belonged to the non-human. And Room 1203 housed a long-haired young man.

Yu Bai had bumped into him a few times in the hallway. He only remembered the man seeming cold and distant.

Living right up against the non-human like that, did he suffer from the abnormal noises too?

It couldn’t be that only Yu Bai’s life was disrupted by the neighbor, right?

One afternoon, as Yu Bai passed Room 1203, the door stood slightly ajar.

He hesitated for a moment and paused.

The next instant, explosive drumming burst from within.

The long-haired man snuffed out the cigarette nearly burned to his fingers and threw himself back into pounding the drum kit. The room was dimly lit and wreathed in smoke, thick with a decadent, shadowy atmosphere.

… Nothing to see here.

Yu Bai closed the door for him and hurried off without a backward glance.

This guy was louder than whatever lurked in the wall.

Master Wang’s soundproofing really was top-notch; Yu Bai hadn’t heard a single drumbeat from his own place.

As for those two white drumsticks in the long-haired man’s hands that looked suspiciously like bones…

Yu Bai decided he’d never laid eyes on them.

They just resembled bones, that was all.

Watermelons could resemble yoga balls, so why couldn’t drumsticks look like bones?

On the matter, Yan Jing’s assessment was: “I bet you a hundred bucks those aren’t drumsticks!”

“No bet.” With one hand fumbling for his keys and the other clutching his phone, Yu Bai shot back irritably. “You’ve danced around it long enough. Spit it out already.”

He had just dropped off some fried chicken at Jianbin Hardware Store for Master Wang when Yan Jing called. On the walk back, Yan Jing had grilled him in exhaustive detail about everything that had happened lately.

Yu Bai reached his door without even finishing the call.

“I’m just looking out for you!” Yan Jing protested with theatrical flair from the other end of the line. “I’m worried you might run into trouble there. After all, I’m the only one who knows your neighbor isn’t human.”

“Oh.” Yu Bai slid his key into the lock, utterly unmoved. “You’ve got ten seconds.”

As he leaned down to turn the key, footsteps sounded from behind him.

In his peripheral vision, that increasingly familiar silhouette appeared.

But Yu Bai didn’t bother looking. He twisted the key, unlocked the door, and stepped inside.

As if the neighbor who had just returned next door didn’t exist at all.

Since he had chosen to ignore all the weirdness in his life,

Naturally, he would ignore its source twice as hard, pretending the non-human simply wasn’t there.

Befriending a non-human was far too risky—it flew in the face of his life’s ambitions.

“Hey, don’t! My mom wants you to come over for dinner. She misses you. You in?”

Yu Bai let his friend’s voice wash over him as his gaze impassively skimmed the nearby gray-blue figure. He stepped into his apartment and shut the door with a click. “Time’s up. I’m hanging up.”

The first time he’d pretended not to know the non-human neighbor, the man’s initially friendly gaze had turned to bewilderment, leaving Yu Bai feeling a twinge of guilt.

By now, though, the neighbor ought to be used to it.

“Don’t hang up! I’ll get to it!”

Yan Jing quit stalling and cut to the chase, his tone tinged with awkwardness.

“Uh… Want some strawberries? Mangoes work too! Peaches?”

Yan Jing let out a sly chuckle, positively fawning. “I picked up some fruit seeds. When can I swing by your place to hang out?”

“We plant ’em and harvest that same night. These seeds won’t balloon like the watermelon—no collapsing the rooftop!”

Yu Bai: …

He had long known Yan Jing was a few screws short, but the sheer extent never failed to impress him.

Even after hearing about all these bizarre events, Yan Jing was still scheming after those old flower pots.

“Forget it. No chance.”

He crushed Yan Jing’s outlandish notion without mercy.

That said, flower pots did remind him of the sunflower the Gatekeeper Grandpa had given him.

It had gone a day without water.

So he halted midway to the bedroom and veered toward the kitchen instead.

“Come on, just think about it. That watermelon was delicious. The rooftop’s going to waste otherwise. Free real estate…”

Yan Jing was still wheedling when a sharp curse crackled through the phone. “What? What happened?!”

Yu Bai stared at the sight before him in disbelief.

Compared to the other strangeness, this was hardly anything.

Yet he couldn’t hold onto his usual composure.

There on his kitchen counter sat the humble sunflower, blooming steadily as ever.

And in the formerly empty kitchen next door, an identical sunflower had appeared.

Yu Bai spoke in a dazed murmur, his tone bewildered. “He actually copied me and started keeping a flower in the kitchen.”

Yan Jing, halfway through echoing him emphatically, faltered into confusion. “He actually copied you—wait, what?”

The two pots of flowers faced each other through the window, their vibrant little blooms unfurling toward the sunlight.

The plump, millet-like leaves swayed gently in the breeze.