Yu Bai stared at the vibrant sunflower on the other side, falling silent for a full minute.
The two pots looked very similar, especially since the planters were identical, but the plants themselves weren’t exactly the same. They hadn’t been copied using some supernatural power.
His pot had eight blooms, while the one opposite had nine.
And the flowers over there seemed even more vivid in color.
…
No, why the hell was this guy copying the way he kept a flower in the kitchen?!
Yan Jing couldn’t hold back his curiosity any longer after hearing the prolonged silence, along with the faint sounds of gritted teeth and deep breaths over the phone. He asked cautiously, “Did he grow a sunflower too?”
“Yeah.”
“Are his flowers especially huge?”
“No, normal size.”
“Do his flowers talk?”
Yu Bai turned and left the kitchen, heading quickly to the dining table. Baffled, he said, “What the hell are you talking about?”
“They don’t talk? So it’s just an ordinary flower?” Yan Jing was equally puzzled. “Then why are you so worked up? It’s not like only humans can grow flowers.”
“…When did I get worked up?”
Yu Bai soon found what he was looking for on the dining table and set his phone aside.
“You’re worked up everywhere! You swore and went silent for ages—that means you care about this a lot.”
Yan Jing marveled with a tsk. “When you heard crying from inside the wall before, you didn’t even change your expression!”
Yu Bai kept working with his hands, trying to brush it off. “I was just spacing out earlier.”
“Huh? Why does your voice sound farther away?” Yan Jing nailed the key point for once. “What are you doing? I hear blowing sounds.”
“Nothing.”
Yan Jing was suddenly struck by inspiration. “You’re not planning some revenge, are you?”
Yu Bai’s expression stiffened. “I’m not!”
“Wow, you really do care. Let me guess—are you gonna blow all the petals off that sunflower next door?”
“As if. You’re so childish. Oh, right—did your mom invite me over for dinner today? I’m free tonight.”
“Yeah, yeah, come on over. Right now.” Yan Jing didn’t mind the topic change at all and said cheerfully, “And tell me how you get revenge on that sunflower while you’re at it.”
“…”
He wasn’t getting revenge.
Finally finishing with the item in his hands, Yu Bai took it to the kitchen and stuck it to the countertop next to his flower pot. He stared at it for a moment and finally felt his mood lighten a bit.
Then he turned off the light and headed out to Yan Jing’s place for dinner.
The room fell quiet at once. The warm golden light of the approaching dusk bathed the sunflower in the kitchen.
…Along with the inflated plastic middle finger swaying gently beside it in the breeze.
Yu Bai had originally wanted to go next door and flip off the inexplicable non-human neighbor who was mimicking him.
But when he thought about those four eyes meeting—about the guy’s eyes that were too clear and pure—he gave up.
Remembering the disposable glove from a takeout order he’d saved earlier, inspiration struck. He blew it up and taped the other four fingers together.
A lifelike, no-effort-required plastic middle finger was born.
He hoped the nosy, quick-learning non-human next door who loved peeking into his kitchen would figure out what that gesture meant.
This was a serious warning from a human.
“Pfft—”
Yan Jing burst out laughing after hearing the story, nearly dropping the joystick in his hand. “That move of yours is way more childish than what I imagined!”
Yu Bai focused intently on the screen, his fingers flying as he took advantage of his distracted opponent to knock him down.
The musclebound character hit the ground hard, his health bar about to be drained by a combo.
Yan Jing fumbled in panic to regain control. “Hey, hey, no fair—sneak attack!”
Yu Bai landed two more punches with bangs.
The old arcade screen flashed a bright KO.
“Damn.” Yan Jing grumbled, “Rematch!”
Yan Mama’s voice came from outside the door. “One more round and then come eat! Your dad’s finishing the last dish!”
“Got it, coming right now—”
The fierce battle resumed.
This time, Yan Jing tried to throw his opponent off.
“Seriously, why do you care so much about that flower?”
Yu Bai ignored him.
“Honestly, I think your neighbor’s kinda fun. No malice or anything—he’s seriously copying your notes and flower-growing. It’s kinda cute. And he can speed up time? What a great neighbor, even if he’s not human—”
Yu Bai stayed unfazed. After a bit of back-and-forth with the characters, he suddenly spoke up.
“What fruit are you planning to grow on the rooftop?”
“Holy shit, for real?!” Yan Jing lit up with joy and turned to him. “Lemme think—strawberries, cherries…”
The musclebound character flew through the air and crashed. Another big KO popped up on the screen.
Yu Bai effortlessly beat his evenly matched opponent again, happily releasing the joystick and stretching his fingers.
“No problem—just kidding.”
Yan Jing finally caught on and clenched his fist. “Fuck, let’s do a real-life showdown!”
Yu Bai calmly headed out, spotting Yan Jing’s mom just in time. He promptly tattled, “Auntie, he says he wants to beat me up.”
Yan Mama immediately gave her son a rap on the head with her knuckles. “What did you say? Don’t you dare bully Little Bai just because you’re bigger and stronger!”
“Holy shit, no! He’s the one bullying me!”
“Try swearing again and see what happens!”
In the ensuing chaos, the lively dinner began.
Yan Mama happily piled food onto Yu Bai’s plate. “Eat more—these are all your favorites. You’ve gotten so skinny. Bet you haven’t been eating properly on your own.”
Yan Papa chimed in. “Little Bai’s writing articles every day, so busy. No time to think about food.”
“Then come over whenever you have time,” Yan Mama sighed. “Things were better back in school. You’d stay with us on breaks—way easier.”
Yan Papa nodded in agreement. “If your old place hadn’t been demolished, that would’ve been perfect. Speaking of, when are you gonna buy a house? Renting forever isn’t sustainable.”
Yu Bai’s father’s small house from back then had been torn down. The demolition payout plus the compensation for his heroic act added up to enough for another place, but he’d never bought one.
The moment he’d no longer needed looking after as a student ended, Yu Bai had chosen to become a shut-in renting on his own.
Yan Jing, mouth full of food, added slyly, “Better get a top-floor unit.”
“What’s good about the top floor? Low water pressure, leaks everywhere!”
“Heh heh, but it comes with a rooftop.”
“…” Yan Mama shuddered at her son’s creepy grin and told her husband, “Sometimes I really wanna beat that kid of yours.”
“Me too,” Yan Papa agreed. “Good thing Little Bai’s never minded him since they were little.”
“Hey, I can hear you!”
“That’s the point!”
Yu Bai smiled as he watched the family bicker, chiming in now and then. That’s how he finished a warm, cozy dinner.
He was stuffed.
On the way back, he declined Yan Papa’s offer to drive and walked home alone.
Not entirely alone—his bodyguards trailed at a distance.
As usual, Yu Bai didn’t greet the Flower Shirt Guys. He just kept walking his path, sometimes picking up the pace.
A Qiang and the others had been watching over him since elementary school, but after all these years, Yu Bai still wasn’t close to them.
He’d actively avoided getting too familiar.
All sorts of dramatic events often happened around him—sometimes to him, sometimes to people he knew.
Some good, some bad.
But Yu Bai couldn’t predict when a really bad one might hit, so after his father’s death, he’d stopped getting too close to anyone.
Except for the Yan family, who ran a funeral parlor and supposedly had tough fortunes.
Yan Jing had asked why he cared so much about that flower.
Maybe because it felt like the precursor to a human connection forming.
With a human neighbor on either side, why had the non-human picked him to copy?
Yu Bai thought about it with mixed feelings as he returned to the complex.
He ran into another neighbor just as he stepped into the elevator.
The Decadent Long-Haired Man from Room 1203.
He seemed to have just come back from the convenience store, carrying a bag of iced beers. His usual icy expression was in place, and faint rock music leaked from his headphones.
A bit of something white and hard poked out from the pocket of his baggy pants. It looked eerie under the dim elevator light.
And somewhat familiar.
In that brief close-up glimpse, Yu Bai drew on his knowledge of human anatomy from researching horror novels and confirmed it: whatever he’d seen used for drumming that day definitely wasn’t just a drumstick.
Good thing he hadn’t bet Yan Jing on it.
Yu Bai calmly looked away.
…It was fine if the non-human didn’t copy him.
No—odds were, the non-human was why he was like that.
Would a normal person use something like that as an instrument?!
Back home, Yu Bai shut the door and forced the image from his mind, trying to ignore all the weirdness around him like before.
Until he bumped right into something in his own bathroom.
The place was pitch black and dead silent. Yu Bai flicked on the light, about to wash up.
But in the suddenly lit mirror, a pair of big, black-and-white eyes stared back.
“Wha—!”
Yu Bai used some serious self-control to keep from yelling “Shit!” on the spot.
He whipped his head around to look.
In the bathroom of his solitary home stood a little girl dressed in an elementary school uniform. She had a childish face, with two thin braids dangling over her shoulders, her expression full of bewilderment.
The instant their eyes met, the little girl panicked and hid the book she had been clutching behind her back.
The air fell into a brief, deathly silence.
The two stared at each other, both looking as startled as startled deer.
A moment later, they spoke almost simultaneously.
Yu Bai forced a friendly tone. “How did you get into my house?”
After a brief moment of thought, he concluded that this little girl was not a ghost.
Ghosts wouldn’t be reading a campus romance novel.
Nor would they scramble to hide it when caught.
The little girl spoke in a slightly aggrieved, teary voice. “I’m sorry, Brother. I slipped down by accident. It wasn’t on purpose.”
…That cry sounded awfully familiar.
Yu Bai suddenly realized what was going on.
He instinctively glanced up at the ceiling.
The ceiling in this room had been slapped together sloppily. Lift a panel, and you’d see all sorts of pipes and wiring.
The day Master Wang had helped him install soundproofing foam, he’d gotten a look at the water pipes up there.
They were definitely not big enough for an elementary school kid to crawl through.
At that moment, Yu Bai finally pieced together the mystery of the strange noises inside the walls that had been bugging him.
He took a deep breath and asked calmly, “What room do you live in? Something-oh-four?”
The little girl replied timidly, “…1104.”
Right below Room 1204.
Seeing Yu Bai fall silent, his expression looking a bit gritted and tense, the little girl hurriedly blinked her eyes and pleaded with him. “Brother, please don’t tell my dad. He’ll kill me.”
“Tell him what?” Yu Bai asked expressionlessly, jogging her memory. “That you were tapping little stars on the water pipes at night? Crying your eyes out inside the walls? Or laughing out loud while sneaking peeks at your novel?”
The faint laughter he’d heard from inside the walls after installing the soundproofing hadn’t been his imagination after all.
He just never could have imagined the source would be this outrageous.
The little girl backed away two steps in shock. “You heard that?!”
“What else?” Yu Bai gave her a friendly smile. “You think the soundproofing here is any good?”
“I was wrong! I was wrong!” The little girl apologized repeatedly. “I promise I won’t make any more noise from now on!”
Yu Bai let out an “oh,” picking up on the implication. “But you’re still planning to keep playing in the water pipes?”
The little girl was at a loss for words. She gazed at him with teary eyes. “I can’t do my homework, and no one’s willing to teach me.”
Yu Bai felt himself starting to crack. “If you can’t do your homework, crack open a textbook. What’s the point of crawling in the pipes? Do you want me to teach you or something?”
“Ah!” The little girl’s eyes widened in an instant, a mix of surprise and delight. “Really? You mean it?”
…Enough.
Yu Bai promptly shut his mouth. He grabbed the little girl by the arm, marched her to the elevator, took her up to the eleventh floor, and watched with his own eyes as she tiptoed back into her home before he returned.
As he passed the quiet door of Room 1204, his gaze swept over it like he wanted to drill a hole right through.
The little girl lived in Room 1104 directly below. The long-haired man lived next door in Room 1203.
And thinking back, the old flower pot on the rooftop had been positioned roughly above Room 1204.
Every anomaly had cropped up around Room 1204.
The accelerating flow of time. Space that defied the laws of physics. And the long-haired man, who defied description.
…Putting his life literally into the music?
So everyone and everything directly adjacent to his non-human neighbor—except for him—had been affected in ways that shattered human common sense.
Why was he the only one perfectly fine?
After quickly figuring out the logic behind the anomalies, Yu Bai was stumped by just that one question.
He scrutinized his seemingly normal apartment.
Then his eyes landed on the utterly ordinary sunflower sitting on the kitchen counter.
And the ridiculously childish inflated plastic middle finger next to it.
They looked a little different from how he’d left them that evening.
Yu Bai stepped closer for a better look.
Over time, the air inside the glove had naturally leaked out, leaving it somewhat deflated.
The index finger, which had been taped up, had come loose at some point and was now swaying lightly in the breeze alongside the middle finger.
Together, they formed a cheerful peace sign.
The polar opposite of what the middle finger was meant to convey.
Yu Bai fell silent for a moment, then glanced desperately toward the neighboring kitchen.
Under the bright moonlight, another sunflower sat there—and beside it gleamed a telltale plastic sheen.
Even this got copied?
…So why the hell had he made that ridiculous thing in the first place?
Damn it.
Had his intelligence been the thing affected?
He really should have just gone over there directly.
Yu Bai couldn’t hold back any longer.
He took a deep breath, turned, and marched out. He pounded heavily on his next-door neighbor’s door.
Footsteps approached from inside, growing louder until the door swung open to reveal that increasingly familiar figure.
Those inhumanly beautiful blue eyes were still as clear and limpid as ever, like one could see straight to the bottom.
Without hesitation, Yu Bai cut straight to the chase. “Can you move out of here?”
His non-human neighbor blinked in surprise, then offered a small smile.
“Sorry, did something disturb you?”
His tone was perfectly friendly.
Clearly, he hadn’t picked up on the middle finger message.
“You don’t know?” Yu Bai forced a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “The guy living next door drums on his racks with bones every day. The elementary school kid downstairs crawls out of the water pipes at night and asks me to help with her homework.”
The non-human neighbor listened attentively, pondering for a moment before offering a perfectly reasonable suggestion with genuine enthusiasm.
“That sounds like a noise disturbance. You should call the cops.”
…He’d already called the cops!
He should have dragged the criminal investigation captain back that day to check out the watermelon!
Finally pushed past his limit, Yu Bai lunged forward and grabbed the mysterious neighbor by the collar. The once-neat fabric crumpled instantly in his fist.
He enunciated each word. “Stop. Pretending.”
Yu Bai stared into those gray-blue eyes, now inches away, and issued his threat without a shred of fear.
“Either fix everything around here back to normal.”
“Or get the hell out.”
As the words left his mouth, he clearly saw unrest ripple through the other man’s eyes.
But the next second, Yu Bai had no time to ponder what those ripples meant.
He only remembered the fingertips clutching that collar brushing against skin that was impossibly cold.
Then the world before him lurched, dissolving into chaotic, churning darkness.
His own anomaly had struck without warning.
When Yu Bai opened his eyes again, blinding sunlight filled his vision. Murmured voices gradually coalesced into a familiar sentence.
“Looks like this move really helped your work.”
Doctor Chen, her hair streaked with gray, smiled at him. Her expression held a mix of indulgence and exasperation.
“Such a wealth of creative energy?”
The psychologist’s teasing words rang in his ears as he lounged on the soft, comfortable sofa beneath him.
Everything felt so familiar.
The brown-haired young man on the sofa blinked in confusion. As dizziness washed over him in waves and he scanned his surroundings, shock bloomed unmistakably across his face.
He’d clearly been standing at his front door moments ago. How had he ended up here?
This was the psychological counseling office he’d visited many times before.
His last visit had been a week ago—the source of all his misery.
For obvious reasons, Yu Bai remembered that day with crystal clarity.
He remembered this sentence. This smile.
It was the exact moment right after he’d finished telling the psychologist the Water Pipe Little Stars Story.
