Chapter 1: Application – Part One

My name is Shen JianGuo, 26 years old. I just graduated from graduate school this year and I"m in the job-hunting phase of life. In the past few years, I"ve often shared personal information and my subjective opinions about my major on my profile. Of course, no one has even read it. Now that the semester is over, I"m faced with the awkward phrase of searching for a job. Many seniors have said that this is a very difficult period. Starting today, I"ll record my own experiences and insights during this period on my profile, hoping to provide a little bit of help and experience to students who are about to graduate and are facing difficulties while searching for a job.

My major is ideological and political education and the employment prospects for that aren"t as good as some popular majors. As my undergraduate graduation approached, I tried to find a job, sending out a lot of resumes, but most of them sank into the sea without a trace. Generally, only large companies have the ability to recruit for political and government work, but the response I received at the time was that their minimum threshold was a graduate degree.

So I made up my mind to go to take the graduate school entrance examination, to double up on enriching myself, both to improve myself and to meet the requirements of the employers.

During the first half of this year before graduate school graduation, I took the examinations for civil service, inst.i.tutions, teaching, and so on. Unfortunately, I wasn"t prepared enough and lost too many points on the postgraduate performance test. I didn"t even pa.s.s the written portion. The practical test was more focused on digital computing skills, meticulous logical a.n.a.lysis, graphical reasoning, problem solving speed, and the ability to plan and pace yourself. My ability in these areas was a bit lacking, so I missed this year"s opportunity. Before taking the test again next year, I"ll definitely review these aspects and overcome my weak points.

I"ve been circling around in the talent market for a whole month, looking everywhere for recruitment information postings to pitch my resume, but now some small companies feel that my postgraduate education is too high; they only need some solid, hard-working undergraduate or specialist graduates. I raised my hands to express my youthful, hard-working att.i.tude, but they still refused me on the grounds that my base salary would be too high.

As for the big companies, there are occasionally some big companies recruiting a few talented people for political and government work. This time, my threshold level was enough to get in the door, but unfortunately, my interview performance wasn"t good. The recruiter thought that I wasn"t mature enough and rejected me politely.

To be honest, I"m a little lost. The post-graduate test is supposed to provide more choices and opportunities for the examinee"s employment. But now, it"s frustrating to be faced with such a situation where I"m high up but not high enough.

Additionally, I"ve already graduated. In a few days, I"ll have to move out of the school dormitory, so the stress of life is growing.

It seems I"ve reached the end of the line. I"m so depressed that my hair is falling out piece by piece and every morning I find I"ve lost a little pile of it. This has me very worried. Many of my friends and seniors that I"ve known gradually lost their hair after the age of 30 and they"ve slowly developed a bald patch in the middle of their head (Mediterranean hairstyle). I"m 26 years old, not far from 30.

If I can"t find a job again, I might have to change my bushy-haired avatar picture to that of a Mediterranean hairstyle too.

Fortunately, the heavens will not disappoint the one who tries1. When I was looking around everywhere for a cheap rental room, a training inst.i.tution where I"d previously submitted a resume responded to me.

This is an all-encompa.s.sing training inst.i.tution, with post-graduate test training courses, self-taught night school courses, civil service examination courses, college entrance prep examination courses, and Band 4 through 6 CET English courses, and so on. It isn"t famous, I"d never even heard of this training inst.i.tution called “Midnight Harbor” previously.

I remember that it was at midnight three days ago, when I refreshed the recruitment website and suddenly saw a message with “base salary of 5,000 yuan, including room and transportation. Not limited to any professional, gender, age, or academic qualifications” as the posting information. It had looked very unprofessional, without even a contact phone, just an email address, but the conditions were really good, especially the included room, and it could greatly ease the pressure on me from unemployment.

I sent in my resume with the mentality of a “wide-cast net” and then threw the incident behind me. I didn"t expect this would be the olive branch that was finally extended to me

—

I was ecstatic when I saw the email confirming the employment offer, but after my initial joy, I felt that this was really strange too.

There was no requirement for recruitment information and there wasn"t even an interview. They just read my resume to determine if they"d hire me. It seemed more like the means of some pyramid scheme organization or scammer.

Fortunately, there was a phone number included in this reply, so I could call it first to check it out.

After dialing the number ending with “94444”, the call was soon answered by someone. It was a mechanical female voice, “I"m sorry, multinational companies sometimes have a time difference. Please call again after midnight.”

I thought it over carefully and thought that I couldn"t miss such a good opportunity. What if it was true? So at midnight, I dialed the number again.

This time someone answered. It was a lady whose speech was very lethargic and whose voice sounded somewhat cold and cheerless, “Bzz……bzz……Hey……bzz……”

The signal was very bad, with a constant background noise.

I cleared my throat and used the most of my projection ability, “h.e.l.lo, I"m the Shen JianGuo who sent in a resume a few days ago. I received a reply from your organization today. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity, but you all haven"t interviewed me yet. Are you sure you want to hire me? You know that I am the one you need without even seeing me?"

“Bzz…… Shen JianGuo……bzz…… Youthful and neat…… No grievances with people at school……bzz……that"s……good bzz……We……have investigated……"

The signal was so bad. What did “good bzz” mean? You better have been trying to say I"m a good student!

I was a little relieved when I heard this. To be able to investigate me on the side, that meant this was a serious and responsible recruiter. Unlike pyramid scheme organizations and scammers, who just wanted people and didn"t consider character qualifications at all.

“I"m very glad that your evaluation of me is so high, then……excuse me, where should I go for the onboarding process? There was no address written in the reply email.” I swept my gaze towards the computer screen and couldn"t help but secretly shake my head. This email was just too ugly.

The message was dark red, and who knew what special effects had been added to the font, but if someone stared at it for a long time, there was a sense of blood flowing down. This email screen made it feel like my computer was going to bleed after a while and looking at it was shocking.

While on the phone, I closed the page. I clicked the cursor in the upper right corner, but the computer froze and the window didn"t close smoothly.

I had bought this laptop the year I first went to college. It still used Windows XP, which had been eliminated from the market. The configuration was also pretty low quality. The running memory was only 1GB and the boot time could only defeat 1% of the computers in the country. It would freeze practically every day and it never shut down unless the battery was pulled out.

I didn"t have time to pull the battery this time, so I just closed the computer and continued to chat.

“Bzz……right now……go to the BiAn2 Community……Building 4, Unit 4, Number 404……bzz……bzz……beepbeepbeep……”

Uh?

Was the call dropped? I tried to dial back and got the prompt of “The number you dialed is not in the service area.”

Was she really abroad, where the signal wasn"t good, and was now boarding a plane?

I was puzzled. So I directed my thoughts back to the address she mentioned and hesitated over going.

It was now midnight, wouldn"t I be treated like a miscreant if I went around the community? But if I didn"t go, I"d have to move out of the dorm tomorrow……

After all, it was poverty that forced me to overcome all difficulties. I decided to check the information of this community online first.

I opened the computer screen and the b.l.o.o.d.y email was still open, really so ugly. I went to pull the battery and found, as a result, that the battery seemed to be stuck in the computer today. It couldn"t be pulled out at all.

I banged on the computer as roughly as I would with an old TV. Then, the stuck battery finally came out and the computer shut down and restarted smoothly.

The BiAn Community, Building 4, Unit 4, Number 404 – I really did find a post about it online. Some people on the local forum said that this was a haunted house. In the past, most hotels and apartment complexes would skip the number 404 because it sounds unlucky (4 in Chinese sounds like the character for death), and most people in the business viewed this number as a taboo. But when the developer built the building, who know what was wrong with his thoughts, but he actually made a number 404. What a surprise that they couldn"t sell it and finally ended up cutting the price. Then some people actually bought it but the head of the household less than half a year later after buying it was in a car accident.

His family transferred the household at a low price to another family and, after they had lived there for less than a week, this second housewife lost her mind.

In order to pay for her treatment, the apartment was sold again.

It really seemed like the feng shui was bad. The head of each household in that house had a terrible ending. The developer later on was stabbed too and it looked like it was the second housewife who lost her mind who did it. It wasn"t clear who finally took over the household, but the information about the rental state was posted for the household year round, but no one paid any attention to it.

I"m a staunch materialist who studies politics, so of course I didn"t believe in this nonsense, but I could also understand why my employer rented this apartment.

Very simple, very cheap.

At this time, I stopped hesitating about the included room. I immediately packed up my bag and rushed to the BiAn Community. Although it was midnight, would somebody really receive me?

Just as I walked out of the dorm, my phone rang again.

It was the “94444” number, probably having a signal again, so I answered and listened to the other side of the line, “Bzz……don"t……walk over……bzz……there"s a school bus……bzz…….”

"There"s a school bus? That"s great!" I was thrilled. "No wonder that the recruitment posting previously mentioned the transportation was included. I was worried about the bus schedule since it"s late at night!"

Of course, it was impossible for a poor student like me to call a taxi. I had been about to ride over using a timeshare bike.

“Mmm, you….go to the school gate……and wait……bzz……bzz…….the number ends with……444……beepbeepbeep……”

The call was dropped again. I hadn"t had time to ask the lady what to call her. But she was such a kind and considerate lady, preparing a school bus for a student like me.

I stood at the school gate for a while. The fog was particularly thick today, so the visibility was very low. I was a bit worried about the bus driver"s safety, bothering him so late to pick me up.

Within five minutes, two pale spots of light appeared in the fog. A red bus slowly stopped in front of me. The license plate number ended in “444” and the first few letters or numbers were obscured by the fog.

The door slowly opened and I got on the bus. I didn"t see anyone else on the school bus except the driver who was wearing a black hat on his head. I couldn"t see his face clearly in the dark. Had my myopia worsened again?

Seeing that there were a lot of empty seats, I picked a nearby one to sit on, but the driver suddenly said, “Don"t sit there.”

I looked at him doubtfully.

"That seat has just been painted, heh, heh, heh," The driver said slowly with a smile.

I looked at the seat and yes, there was red paint on it. It was sticky, so I really couldn"t sit there.

I had to grab the handrail and stand while riding to BiAn Community

—

Footnotes:
1. The heavens will not disappoint the one who tries (皇天不负有心人): idiom, hard work pays off ↩
2. BiAn (彼岸): the far sh.o.r.e/other side, Buddhist term for perfection ↩

—

Chapter 2: Application – Part Two

It was obviously summer, but it was a little cold in the bus and the back of my neck was chilly, as if someone was standing behind me blowing on my neck.

“Sir, can you turn the air conditioner down?” I asked, embarra.s.sed.

The driver-dage didn"t turn his head, he just threw a cold sentence back at me, "Asking the pa.s.sengers to please settle down a little. Don"t casually provoke people."

(t/n: the driver uses a term that means both provoke and flirt with)

I was struck speechless. I was the only one in the vehicle and had only spoke a few words to the driver-dage. Was he saying I was flirting with him? Without even mentioning the issue of s.e.xuality, I took this as an insult to my personality.

I, Shen JianGuo, born on China"s founding National Day, born under the red flag, who grew up successfully, from childhood to adulthood as a “top three student,” “excellent society member,” and “outstanding student leader” – he could question my ability to properly enter the workforce, but he absolutely could not question my character!

I really wanted to argue back logically, but after the driver-dage finished this sentence, the draft weakened greatly, so it seemed he really did help me out by turning down the air.

My heart suddenly softened. The driver-dage had to go to school alone to pick me up so late, so he must have just been venting his grievances. I put myself in his shoes. I was running to get a job in a haunted community in the middle of the night and my mood wasn"t particularly good. The driver-dage had probably been sleeping at home and then was called up, so it was understandable for him to have a bad temper.

It was just a spat. There was no need to talk harshly to him.

“Thank you, sir,” I smiled at the driver-dage.

Unfortunately, the driver-dage still wasn"t very friendly. He looked back at me. I couldn"t make out his face in the darkness, I could only see a pair of eyes reflecting the light, with a sharp gaze.

“Hmm,” he sneered at me, “I hope I can still see you tomorrow.”

So it turned out that he was wishing me to be officially hired so he could see me again. Such a cold-faced but kind-hearted driver-dage. Unfortunately, his temper was a bit rough, could make people feel uncomfortable. But if you took a closer look, you"d understand he"s a very nice guy underneath that.

“Thank you!” I responded enthusiastically.

The driver-dage‘s driving was very stable. Even though it was very foggy now, he still safely drove the bus to the BiAn Community without any b.u.mps.

When I got off the bus, I asked, “Sir, I"ll probably have to go back to school tomorrow to move my luggage……”

Before I could finish speaking, the door was closed coldly and the school bus quickly drove away, not even leaving exhaust.

I knew that I had done wrong. While not even employed yet, I had dared to ask the driver-dage to help me with my luggage. The company bus had no obligation to help me with these private affairs. I would need to find a moving company in order to move. However, I had been strapped for cash lately. Hey, I"d just rent a small pedicab tomorrow, it"d be cheaper.

In order to make a good impression, I was wearing the only thing I had prepared for an interview – a formal suit, shirt, and tie with black leather shoes. Heading down the stairs to the entrance of Building 4, I nervously re-adjusted my tie and made sure that I was clean and tidy, and then I walked into the elevator.

The lights in the elevator were flickering on and off, on and off, which was a little scary in the middle of the night. The BiAn Community managed seemed to have gone lax because of the developer"s grave incident. When I checked the forum before, some people had complained that no property management services were in place and right now seemed to prove that true.

I secretly cheered myself on, Shen JianGuo, be strong! Gra.s.sroots college students who have just stepped into a job have to go through difficult times. But having room accommodation set up is already pretty good treatment. How can I be picky about the environment of the accommodations? So what if the elevator isn"t safe? The fourth floor isn"t too high, next time I"ll take the stairs!

The quality of this elevator was really pretty average, so the speed was quite slow. The time it took to reach the 4th out of 10 floors made me feel afraid the whole time, fearing that the elevator wouldn"t be able to reach the next floor.

Fortunately, this didn"t happen, I managed to reach the fourth floor smoothly.

Number 404 had its light on and its door open. I knocked on the door and asked politely, “Is anyone there, please? I"m the recruited teacher, Shen JianGuo. A lady asked me to come check in at once at the staff dorm.”

“Princ.i.p.al Zhang asked you to come?” A small man wearing a jacket and beret came out, “Please come in.”

I followed him into Room 404 and observed the environment of my future dorm while walking in.

The lights were a little dim – it seemed like I should change the light bulb when I was paid, because this environment wasn"t conducive to lesson planning.

The curtains were too thick, as this was originally a room on the shady side of the building which wouldn"t easily receive sunlight. Such thick curtains only gave off a sense of oppression. We needed to change them to muslin.

The room was very neat and tidy and the area wasn"t small. There were three bedrooms and one living room. There was a desk and two chairs in the center of the living room. The small man sat on the chair on the desk side and motioned for me to sit opposite him.

He was really short, probably not even 160cm. I had noticed that he had been walking on his tiptoes and probably wanted to make himself look taller that way.

Ay, I understand the pain of stunted height too. When I was a child, I had been malnourished. I was only 150cm in the first year of high school, thin and small. I was even shorter than girls, so I was often mocked by my cla.s.smates and felt very inferior. Fortunately, I partic.i.p.ated in a compet.i.tion and got a scholarship, so I improved my diet, drinking more milk and eating more meat. I grew more than 20 centimeters over the three years of high school. Now I"m 178cm tall. Sadly I didn"t reach 180cm, but this is still a good height in China, so I"m very satisfied.

(average male height in China is 169.4cm)

“Shen JianGuo, is it?” The little guy"s face didn"t look very good, it looked pale and bloodless under the light. He had probably stayed up too late. “Princ.i.p.al Zhang said that you can sleep in the master bedroom for one night and you can go to work if you"re alive tomorrow.”

“Princ.i.p.al Zhang is the lady whose phone number ends with ‘94444"? Is she the head of our training inst.i.tution? Besides it"s just one night"s stay, how could something happen? Do you also believe the rumors only that this is a haunted house?” I said with a fearless smile.

The small man looked up at me. I saw that he had an injury on his forehead. So I couldn"t help but ask out of concern, “What happened to your forehead?”

“Oh, I hit it,” the small man looked back at me with a wooden expression.

“You already know my name. What are you called, sir?” I knew that this could be my future colleague, so I reached out a hand to him as I asked in a friendly manner.

He didn"t shake my hand, keeping his hands both under the table. He smiled at me, “My surname is Ju.”

“Is Ju like the ju in furniture (jiaju) or like the ju of residence (ju)? This surname is very special.” I took back my hand with some embarra.s.sment. I hadn"t expected I"d be treated unkindly by a colleague when I first got to work.

I had heard from some seniors that some immature elderly people in the workplace would bully newcomers, mainly because they were worried that their job would be stolen. However, most of the people who did such things did so because they themselves weren"t strong enough, not confident enough, and thought that new people would pose a threat to themselves, so they would do such childish things.

I told myself not to be angry, to smile nicely at the man.

The small man kept staring at me. Then he shook his head slowly, “Neither.”

“Then which word is it from?”

“It is the ju from chainsaw (dianju).”

I frowned slightly, was there such a surname in The Book of Family Names1?

"Are you a minority?" I asked curiously. I had met several ethnic minority students in school and their surnames had been somewhat unusual, not recorded in The Book of Family Names.

He shook his head again. He tilted his head and slowly stood up, “I, well, I was short growing up and I was bullied by tall boys when I was young. They kicked me and beat me, saying that since I was so short, I definitely wasn"t a man. They forced me to take off my pants and let them check out my body. Once they"d bought a bag of milk powder and pour it into my mouth, saying that I should drink more milk and grow tall. I almost suffocated to death, grabbing my throat and begging them to give me a drink. They just laughed, saying that I should drink p.i.s.s.”

My heart ached as I listened and somewhat understood why he had a bad att.i.tude towards me. A tall boy was the shape of his psychological trauma. He wasn"t targeting me specifically, but just had an aversion to that kind of man.

But I believed that through future interaction, he would come to understand what kind of person I am. I was going to try to help him out of this predicament using my own experience.

I stood up, leaning over the desk to pick up his hand. I held his right hand between both of mine and said in my most sincere tone, “This was not your fault, it was their fault! No matter what age or reason, bullying others is wrong!"

"I know." Mr. Ju"s expression was very stiff and his smile was a little fake. "Of course it wasn"t my fault, it was all their fault. Wasn"t it all about those tall, long legs? But that"s okay, they can just be sawed off!”

“……”

Looking at his happy expression, I was speechless for a moment. I didn"t study psychology, so I had no experience in this area. I didn"t know how to persuade him away from this extreme idea.

“One tall long leg, two tall long legs, three, four……tall, long, I measured them exactly according to my height, so that each of them was as tall as I am.” Mr. Ju looked as if he were intoxicated. He seemed to be immersed in some happy memory.

This wasn"t right, hey. I let go of his hand and snuck my hand into my pocket, intending to call the police.

“When all the legs were sawed off, their voices sounded really good, like the sounds of the heavens. I jumped off to the sounds of those wonderful voices, that was the happiest day of my life.” Mr. Ju stood up and gestured to his forehead, “Because of the incident of jumping off the building, I have this injury on my head now. I don"t want to take off my hat to show you.”

“Mr. Ju, have you ever gone to see a therapist before?” I reached my phone! I quickly unlocked it and fumbled to dial 110. Smartphones aren"t as good as the old-fashioned keyboard phones for this kind of thing. I couldn"t find any of the b.u.t.tons by touch.

Mr. Ju was still talking, “You"re not particularly tall, but your legs are really long. I like your legs. Let me saw them a bit?”

“Of course not!” I refused. I stood up and slowly stepped back.

Mr. Ju also stood up and he lifted the left hand that he had been hiding under the table. He was holding a chainsaw in his hand.

“Then I"m just going to have to do it the hard way. Don"t worry, it won"t hurt.” He slowly walked towards me.

I didn"t dare to look behind me, I stared at him without blinking to prevent him from surprise attacking me. He moved forward and I continued to retreat until my back pressed against the wall. The cold feeling of the wall informed me that this wasn"t far from the door, so I slid down the wall in the direction of the door.

Mr. Ju didn"t seem to be in a hurry to attack me. He tiptoed, licked his lips, and watched me touch the doork.n.o.b and pull on the door forcefully.

The door handle didn"t move, who knew when he had locked the door!

“You can"t get out of here,” he flipped the switch on the electric chainsaw. The buzzing noise cut through the peaceful silence of the night. “Good, just go ahead and give me your legs, then I"ll let you go.”

“If I give them to you, I won"t be able to walk out!” There was no way to escape at this point. I had to fight him. I threw myself at him, grabbing his wrist, planning to grab the chainsaw.

—

Footnotes:
1. The Book of Family Names (百家姓): Song dynasty record with a listing of 438 surnames ↩

—

Chapter 3: Application – Part Three

Mr. Ju"s strength was unexpectedly low, I held down his arm with one hand and he couldn"t even lift the chainsaw.

“You!!!” He looked at me with an expression of surprise, it seemed like he wanted to ask me how I was so strong.

Of course, it"s because I diligently work out and often partic.i.p.ate in extracurricular activities, plus I chose Taekwondo as my physical education elective. I was a gongfu jack of all trades, so I had no problem dealing with an average person.

Mr. Ju struggled desperately and the chainsaw was a dangerous tool, after all, as I was scratched on the back of my hand when I grabbed the chainsaw.

Fortunately, it was just a flesh wound. I was able to grab the chainsaw in time and pressed the switch.

The chainsaw seemed to be a bit insensitive. It didn"t turn off at first. Just as I was pressing it again, the blood from the back of my hand dripped on the switch. This time the chainsaw smoothly turned off and the buzzing sound stopped.

I kicked the chainsaw far away. After taking care of the dangerous weapon, I immediately turned to deal with Mr. Ju. If he had really sawed off a lot of people"s legs, as he said, then the police would have to be called.

But who would have known when I looked back, I would see Mr. Ju"s lying on the ground with his eyes rolled back and gagging with his tongue out.

I quickly ran over and began compressing his chest, but then his face became even worse, white and bloodless, like a corpse in a TV show.

“What happened to you?” Even though he had just tried to attack me, I still spoke up in the spirit of humanitarianism. If something really happened to him, I didn"t want to get involved in a case on the side of the self-defense. If it was stuck on my resume, it would be even more difficult to find another job.

“Blood, blood……” His legs were constantly pedaling against the ground. He looked very awful and seemed to be foaming at the mouth.

“Blood?” I looked at my scratched hand and waved the wound before his eyes, “Are you talking about this?”

“Blood, blood……” Mr. Ju looked pained.

A hunch came to mind and I took off my suit jacket and shirt. As my heart wrenched, I wrapped my newly-bought white shirt around the wound to stop the bleeding.

Once Mr. Ju could no longer see the blood, he really did improve. He slowly climbed up using the wall, watching me vigilantly. He kept glancing at the chainsaw.

I thought he was waiting for the opportunity to pick up the chainsaw and attack me again. But who would have known that when he saw the chainsaw, he would collapse again. He turned his eyes away, saying, “Blood, blood……”

I became even more convinced. I took some paper towels out of my bag and wiped my blood off the chainsaw.

After all the blood in the room was thoroughly cleaned up, Mr. Ju finally returned to normal. He pressed himself against the wall and looked at me with a sullen expression, “Blood of pure yang1. You"re 26 years old and still a virgin?!”

I had been preparing to have a good talk with Mr. Ju and blushed when I heard this.

“So what about virgins?” I was very angry. I hated this kind of personal attack and att.i.tude toward s.e.x. “I concentrated on my studies while at school. I didn"t choose partners at will based on my physical impulses, playing with other"s feelings. This was having responsibility for myself and for others. What"s wrong with being a virgin? Is it necessary to do thousands of people to be a man? Even if I"m a virgin, I"m still able to support both heaven and earth2 and have a clear conscious and heart!”

Mr. Ju probably didn"t expect that I wouldn"t be as ashamed as some boy with crooked self-esteem and instead would be reasonable. He was so stunned that he couldn"t speak for a long time, just staring at me.

I had just experienced a huge fight, so I had no more energy. I pulled the chair over and sat properly in it upright. I said to Mr. Ju, “There are some things I think we need to talk about. Whether or not I call the police depends on what conclusion we reach while talking.”

Mr. Ju looked at me gloomily.

I waved his injured right hand at him so he could see the blood soaked in the shirt. His jaw dropped in horror.

At this point, I was finally sure of my hunch, so I asked, “Mr. Ju, do you have hemophobia?”

As I said that, he immediately turned his head to look at me.

“After you saw that I was bleeding, your grip on the chainsaw weakened greatly and your hands lost their strength. That"s how I was able to grab the chainsaw,” I laid out my a.n.a.lysis of the matter, “After that, you showed a pretty uncomfortable expression.”

Mr. Ju hammered hard on his chest as he coughed violently. I moved forward to help pat him on the back, but he immediately screamed when he saw me draw near, “Ah! Don"t come over here!”

I couldn"t do anything, so I could only return to the chair, quietly waiting for him to calm down.

"You really don"t need me to call an ambulance? Although this is only a mental disorder, it"s very dangerous for a person with cardiovascular disease or asthma to experience a panic attack at the sight of blood."

Mr. Ju"s face looked quite awful, his lips are purple, looking particularly like he couldn"t breathe.

“No!” he yelled at me in anger. Then he repeated, “Why are you a virgin, why are you a virgin? What time period of the day were you born?”

(the day is split into 12 2-hour periods, called shichen)

I really didn"t want to argue with him about the issue of virginity. The worldview of a person is established over the acc.u.mulation of their experiences. Such ideas shouldn"t be dealt with as arguments, they should be changed over time. So I just answered the last question, “I was born around 12 noon on National Day.”

“The day with the most yang energy of a year……” Mr. Ju began to hitting his chest hard again. He didn"t seem to show much concern for himself. He used a great deal of force and the *thump thump thump* sounded uncomfortable to me.

“Don"t hit yourself again!” I stopped him. “You answer my questions honestly and I"ll decide whether to call the police according to your answers.”

“I have hemophobia.” He looked at my shirt-wrapped hand in fear, “You keep that wound away from me.”

I put my right hand behind my back and asked, “Since you have hemophobia, how could you cut off someone"s leg? That"s not scientific.”

“Scientific?” he turned a blank gaze to me.

Mr. Ju was not cooperating, so I could only continue to guess, “Do you often have hallucinations? Did my height bring a bad memory to mind, so you took what happened in a hallucination as reality?”

To be honest, I didn"t want Mr. Ju to really be a violent chainsaw madman. He was short and very unconfident, so he must have had a hard life. If he had actually committed a crime and had to go to prison, his road ahead will be even more difficult to walk.

Now that there was evidence of hemophobia, I naturally preferred to think that Mr. Ju had just had a temporary onset of a disorder and that he didn"t hurt anyone in the past.

If that was the truth, then as long as I didn"t pursue Mr. Ju for a malicious injury and instead advised him to actively treat his mental illness, then he would gradually improve his circ.u.mstances.

I had asked a few questions in succession, but Mr. Ju was refusing to cooperate, not answering my questions directly.

There was no other way. I could only pull out my phone to dial 110. If Mr. Ju was innocent, the police would treat him fairly.

The signal in Number 404 wasn"t good. I tried several times in a row, but the phone couldn"t dial out. I wanted to go out and find a signal, but it wouldn"t be good to leave Mr. Ju alone here. What if he went crazy again and ran out with the chainsaw?

Just as I was stuck in this limbo, the phone actually rang. It was the number ending with “94444”.

At this time, suddenly there was a signal……

I picked up the phone and took the initiative to speak, “Hey, excuse me, are you Princ.i.p.al Zhang?”

“Yes……I……bzz…….” The voice of Princ.i.p.al Zhang was still so slow and the signal noise was still so loud.

“There"s something I want to discuss with you, a question about the reception staff for Number 404. He claims to be called ‘Mister Saw" and won"t tell me his real name. Do you have any idea of his psychological condition?”

“I……know……bzz……”

“He tried to attack me with an electric chainsaw today, but I subdued him. This action was really dangerous. I think it"s necessary for the inst.i.tute to take some sort of action here. Additionally, he said that he has killed people and then jumped off the building. There are many loopholes in this statement. And he said that he is dead. I think his mental illness is very serious and he needs systematic treatment."

"He……didn"t kill……any……people……when he was……alive……bzz……"

How come everyone in this training inst.i.tute can"t hold a conversation! Do you have to call this living adult a dead man?

I said with some anger, “Princ.i.p.al Zhang, Mr. Ju just has a mental disorder. He is not dead yet. We should help him, care for him, not ignore his existence.”

At this time, I also couldn"t bear to consider the person on the phone my future boss. This kind of staff with a member who was p.r.o.ne to sawing legs, I didn"t want to join.

“Bzz……I understand……Tomorrow……I will send……a professional who……to……bzz, tonight, you……stay……account…I"ll give you……psychiatric compensation……bzz……”

Princ.i.p.al Zhang"s call was dropped again. I was too angry to do anything. So I just send my account number and username to Princ.i.p.al Zhang in the form of a text message and turned my head to look at Mr. Ju.

He had closed his eyes against the wall, his face wore a very tired expression and he seemed to have fallen asleep.

I looked at the three bedrooms, each had a bed. So I picked Mr. Ju up to take him to bed to rest.

Mr. Ju woke up, opened his eyes, and saw me. His expression became frightened and he struggled to escape.

I was struck speechless, why is he afraid of me?

“Which one is your room?” I asked in an unkind tone.

He looked up and pointed to the darkest room.

I put him on the bed and sighed, “Since Princ.i.p.al Zhang said that you didn"t kill anyone, I"ll trust you. Tomorrow, the inst.i.tute will ask a psychological counseling professional to help you. You mustn"t hide your sickness for fear of treatment. I"ll accompany you at that time.”

When he heard that I would accompany him, Mr. Ju became terrified.

Seeing that he was too afraid of me, I left the room. As I closed the door, I said to him before leaving, “I"ll sleep in the next room, call me if you need anything. Don"t try to escape with the chainsaw in the middle of the night, I sleep lightly.”

To prevent him from attacking again, I picked up the chainsaw and placed it on the bedside of the master bedroom. If someone came to get the chainsaw, I would definitely sense it.

Lying in bed, I thought of how Mr. Ju was afraid of me, probably because he viewed me as someone who used to bully him. My heart filled with a bit of a bad taste. I didn"t know if I should sympathize with him or be angry.

My body was very heavy and this night had been too chaotic. I closed my eyes and gradually fell asleep.

When I opened my eyes again, the sky was already bright. I wiped the saliva from the corner of my mouth and reached out to touch the chainsaw. It was gone!

Did I sleep too deeply and it was taken away by Mr. Ju?

I jumped from the bed like a carp leaping from water and rushed to the living room. I saw a young man wearing a yellow duijin robe embroidered with a divinatory Eight Diagram pattern on the back, with a wooden sword in his hand, and a fangjin on his head, with sword eyebrows and star eyes3, standing in the middle of the living room.

I had a sense of time traveling like in a TV show and asked, puzzled, “Uh…… you are?”

He looked me up and down, huffed a breath through his nose, and said coldly, “You actually are extremely lucky (blessed/well-fated).”

—

Footnotes:
1. yang (阳): the bright/positive/"male" principle in yin-yang philosophy ↩
2. Able to support both heaven and earth (顶天立地): idiom, of indomitable spirit/gigantic stature ↩
3. sword eyebrows and star eyes (剑眉星目): a phrase to describe men who are very handsome, who look heroic; the sword eyebrows are thick and straight, looking like they belong to a general, the star eyes are bright and straightforward, looking like they can see through good and evil with a glance ↩

Basically the outfit is like this:

in yellow + this on the back

+ this style hat

—

Chapter 4: Inauguration – Part One

Hearing his tone, I understood that this person was the professional brought in by Princ.i.p.al Zhang. His clothes were quite unprofessional.

I went to Mr. Ju"s room. Not only was the chainsaw gone, Mr. Ju was missing too.

“Don"t look for him, I already worked it out.” The young man crossed his arms and looked at me, “You dared to sleep for a night in this room. You"re pretty bold. Go ahead, go. If you stay in this house any longer, I don"t know if you"ll survive.”

As he spoke, he zoomed out of the room, coming and going like the wind, not even giving his name.

I was stunned stupid for a moment, not quite understanding what he meant by “solving” and by “don"t know if you"ll survive?” I didn"t see Mr. Ju. Was it that young man who had sent Mr. Ju to therapy?

If that was the case, I could rest a.s.sured. But the young man"s outfit, att.i.tude, behavior, and habits didn"t appear like those of a psychiatrist or policeman. I felt restless inside. I wanted to take out my phone and contact Princ.i.p.al Zhang to ask exactly what this professional did for a job.

Just as I unlocked it, I saw that my phone had two text messages, which I"d received after falling asleep last night. One was a bank transfer notification: Ms. Zhang had transferred 15,000.00 yuan to me; the other was the text message for a number ending with “94444”:

“10,000 yuan is the trauma fee and 5,000 is your first month"s advance salary, so that you can resettle into your new home. Mr. Ju has been taken away by a professional and will be handled properly. You don"t have to worry anymore. There are two other colleagues for Number 404. One of them will move into Mr. Ju"s room. They will have work during the day and will stay in at night. They won"t disturb you. All the cla.s.ses in our inst.i.tution are scheduled for the evening. I"ll send you the cla.s.s schedule tonight. During the day, you can allocate your own time.”

I haven"t said that I want to join your training inst.i.tute. Who would work on the staff the next day after a colleague attempted to saw them the previous day!

But when I saw the 15,000 yuan, I……

I decided to contact Princ.i.p.al Zhang to have a good talk about this issue. As long as she could guarantee that Mr. Ju really hadn"t committed a crime and would be properly treated, that the other two colleagues had no interest in sawing off legs, in the face of 15,000 yuan, I"d be willing to work in this training inst.i.tute.

But the princ.i.p.al"s phone number was still not in the service area. Was she in some mountainous area abroad? Why was the signal so bad?

I paced around the house a few times. I thought that the 15,000 yuan in the bank was a real hot potato. The employer had shown plenty of sincerity, so if I still refused, wouldn"t that be a bit unreasonable?

At this time, the dorm manager called and asked me when I would be moving out of the dormitory, because there was a new graduate student wanted to move into the dorm.

I took another look at the 15,000 yuan transfer message, I gnashed my teeth harshly and told the manager that I"d found a new job and would come back to move soon.

I couldn"t miss out on this job because of an individual employee, move, I had to move!

With the money, I no longer thought about renting an electric pedicab. When I returned to school, I immediately packed my bags and hired a moving company to help me move.

After transferring the baggage to the BiAn Community, I ran to the supermarket to buy some necessities. I changed the sheets and cleaned my room, then I replaced the curtains with gauze ones.

I didn"t dare touch the rooms of the other two colleagues, so I just cleaned up the public areas.

The room was incredibly dusty, I couldn"t imagine how my former colleagues had lived, to be able to put up with living in such a dirty room.

The furniture in Number 404 was pretty complete, with a washing machine, refrigerator, and water heater. It was just that the pots and pans were full of rust, which made them really useless. I intended to cook for myself in the future, in order to save some money, so I bought new kitchenware.

The old ones weren"t thrown away, but instead brushed clean with a strong detergent.

Who knew how long it had been since someone used the kitchen faucet, but when the faucet was turned on, the water was blood-red, full of rust. It took a while for the water to run clear. The same was true of the faucet in the bathroom.

It was a big project to clean such a dirty house. It was already 6pm when I cleaned up the room. I didn"t have time to cook either, so I just ordered a delivery meal. I ate it and threw away the trash, then went back to my room and took a shower.

Speaking of the shower, thanks to my cleverness, I thought of the rust in the bathroom and kitchen water in a timely manner. Good thing I let it run in advance for a while for the water to be clear before I dared to wash with it, otherwise I would have been dyed red.

After bathing, I just felt tired. I lay in bed and fell asleep in the afterglow of the sunset.

When I blinked awake again, it was already dark. I opened the phone and looked to see it was 23:59, with no text messages or calls.

Didn"t Princ.i.p.al Zhang say that she was going to send me a cla.s.s schedule tonight?

To earn money, I couldn"t be a slacker. I once again took the initiative to call Princ.i.p.al Zhang. This time, the signal was good and the call got through.

“Princ.i.p.al Zhang, why don"t we add each other on WeChat? Your signal hasn"t been very good, my micro signal is my phone number.” When I got on the phone, I took the opportunity to take the lead in the conversation. The important part had to be said first, in case the call dropped again and there was no chance to say it.

“Bzz……o-……kay……”

Was Princ.i.p.al Zhang suddenly aging? Why was her speech so slow?

After we added each other on WeChat, I immediately sent a message:

【Princ.i.p.al, how is Mr. Ju? 】

【Hospitalized. 】

She also sent a picture of Mr. Ju wearing a hospital gown. It seemed like she was still abroad, because the nametag on the chest wasn"t in Chinese, but said “jutuigui” in English characters.

(t/n: Ju Tui Gui translates to saw(ing) leg ghost with certain characters)

It looked like Mr. Ju"s surname really was “ju“. What was his full name? Ju TuiGui like “return”? Ju TuiGui like “honorably return”? Ju TuiGui like “withdrawn cinnamon”?

I guessed for a long time but couldn"t figure out what the characters were, but I could see Mr. Ju was staying in the hospital, with a nice environment. The heart in my throat finally sank back down.

【Mr. Ju really didn"t hurt anyone else, right? 】

【No.】 Princ.i.p.al Zhang"s answer was as succinct as always.

I believed her words, because I personally was inclined to the idea that Mr. Ju had not harmed people. After all, he had hemophobia, so it was impossible for him to hurt others on his own initiative.

This time he"d get professional treatment and I hoped he could walk out from under the shadow of his past and face life with a positive att.i.tude.

【Princ.i.p.al Zhang, please send me the cla.s.s schedule and textbooks, I"d like to give myself some time to prepare my lessons. 】

【Tomorrow at 12 o"clock in the evening, RenAi Middle School, Year 3, Cla.s.sroom 4, just talk about whatever you like. 】

(RenAi means compa.s.sion or benevolence)

Me: “……”

The working hours came as a huge surprise to me. It wasn"t like this was a multinational company that needed to sync up with foreign partners. Why should we schedule our cla.s.ses at night? Moreover, RenAi Middle School was closed three years ago. It had been said that a student jumped from the building and many students transferred away after. The private school, which used to have a high rate of conversion to higher education, had gone bankrupt. How would I get in the cla.s.sroom to teach? However, the school building was still there, so it would probably be possible to rent it.

But let"s set aside those two points. That last sentence, what do you mean by ‘just talk about whatever you like"? Do you know not even know what to say when you run the training inst.i.tute?

Just as I wanted to bring this up with Princ.i.p.al Zhang, I saw her quickly send two messages:

【I"m going to sleep. 】

【Good night. 】

Immediately after reading them, she withdrew her messages, as if to prevent me from taking a screenshot. From the first one “hospitalized” to “I"m going to sleep” were all withdrawn, leaving only the last line of “Good night.”

Had we been chatting for more than two minutes? She could even withdraw the earliest messages. What was this black technology?

This was really too irregular. I called again and, sure enough, she wasn"t in the service area.

I was shocked by her casual style, staring at the wall in a daze, then I heard the sound of the toilet flush coming from the bathroom, so I thought it was a colleague coming back.

Why not ask my colleagues? I"d listen to the advice of my predecessors, the ones who had worked at this training inst.i.tute for a period of time. So things like what subjects to lecture on, what group of students I"d be facing, should be made clear.

I walked out my door and saw the two rooms were closed, so I didn"t know which one to knock on.

It didn"t seem to be very good to disturb people in the middle of the night. I hesitated and then walked into the bathroom. I thought that I"d try asking again in the morning, since it was already twelve o"clock so I should go to bed too.

I would go to sleep after using the toilet, but who could have known that when I opened the toilet lid, I"d see a bunch of long hair floating in the toilet.

When I saw this sight, all the blood in my body flowed backwards. I immediately left the bathroom and stood in the middle of the living room, saying, “Who is so immoral to actually throw a wig into the toilet? It"s going to be blocked, don"t you know? Is there no civility!”

I was so incredibly angry!

The author has something to say:
JianGuo-laoshi: I cleaned all day long!
(laoshi: teacher)

—

Chapter 5: Inauguration – Part Two

After I yelled in the living room for a bit, the two bedroom doors remained closed.

What could I even do? I couldn"t pick up a chainsaw like Mr. Ju to vent my anger. So I just ran “thump thump thump” down the stairs and went to 24-hour supermarket at the entrance of the community to buy plastic gloves, scissors, and a leather plunger.

Back in Number 404, the hair was still floating in the toilet and, probably because of the water flow, there was even more hair. I put the leather plunger aside for the moment and tried to flush the water. The thick wig was clogged and couldn"t be flushed down and now the toilet was full of water.

It was time to use my newly-purchased "toilet dredger"!

I pointed the leather end at the mouth of the toilet and the violent and fierce pressure emerged. The water level lowered a bit, but the hair was still floating. It had neither been drawn up or flushed down. According to the instructions, I had to keep adding water, applying pressure, and flushing for more than half an hour. The hair was sucked down for a bit and then floated back up. I still wasn"t able to solve this toilet blockage problem.

No other way, I could only use my last resort.

I put on the rubber gloves, took out the scissors, and picked up the hair to cut it. The principle of the plunger was to force the air into the pipe and create a vacuum. The pressure could be used to loosen or disperse the blockage in the sewer pipe. But this hair itself was thick and tangled up, so I was afraid this pressure might not be enough. But as long as I cut the hair into pieces, I should be able to reduce the tangles among the hair.

Speaking of this, the quality of the wig was really good. It was probably made of real hair. This kind of wig was much more expensive than using chemical fiber materials. I didn"t know which colleague was such a wastrel, able to just throw away such an expensive thing.

I cut down all the hair and then again I used the leather plunger to apply pressure. This time, it was effective. Just then, I heard a “thump” and the entangled hair was finally freed. I pressed down the flush again and the hair was all flushed down this time.

In order to prevent some hair from flowing back again, I flushed a few more times to rea.s.sure myself.

After all of this, I had exerted myself quite a bit, so I was all sweaty. I carefully cleaned the gloves, the plunger, and myself, then put everything in order and left the bathroom.

I had a fright when I went out. A man wearing black-rimmed gla.s.ses wearing a zhongshanzhuan stood in the living room, looking at me quietly.

I was a little embarra.s.sed, so I pointed to the bathroom as I said, “Sorry, did I wake you up? The toilet was blocked, but I cleared it out.”

He stared deeply at me and didn"t speak, so I could only keep talking while searching for a topic, “I don"t know who it was who threw a wig into the toilet. I was afraid it would affect other people"s use, so I tried to flush it down on my own. My name is Shen JianGuo. I just moved in today. We"ll be roommates from now on. What shall I call you?”

I enthusiastically held my hand out to him.

However, his hands were stuck in his trouser pockets and he didn"t take them out. His gaze swept over my hand and then he replied in a hoa.r.s.e voice, “Liu SiShun, I"ve lived here for a few years.”

I remembered that I had just been working on the toilet. Even if I washed my hands after, some people might mind that, so I retracted my hand in embarra.s.sment, “I"m really sorry to have bothered you.”

Liu SiShun looked so genteel and didn"t look like he"d dress as a woman, so the wig likely wasn"t his.

“It doesn"t matter, I slept in late.”

“Are you also a teacher at the training inst.i.tute?” I asked.

“Sort of.”

“Oh, I heard from Princ.i.p.al Zhang previously that there would be two other roommates in Number 404, not usually seen during the day. You must be one of them? We"ll live under one roof from now on, so please take care of me.”

“Mmm.” Liu SiShun took a few steps back. He didn"t seem to want to be near me.

I was a little hurt. Was it because I carried the stench of the toilet? I hoped so, otherwise it would be very to be rejected by a colleague who I had just met.

“Where"s the other colleague? I hope I didn"t bother them.” I had no other words to offer.

“She was just flushed down by you……Oh, no, her wig was just flushed down by you, so I don"t think she"s going to move in,” Liu SiShun replied.

“Why? Did I do something wrong? The wig…… wasn"t that something she tried to throw out?” I hadn"t considered that roommate purposefully blocked the toilet.

“No, she originally planned to move into Old Ju"s room, but since you"re in the house and it"s not convenient for an unmarried man, so she decided to move out.”

“So the other colleague is a lady, that"s a little inconvenient. But if she doesn"t live in the accommodation a.s.signed to her, will she face economic difficulty?” I was a bit worried, after all, I understood the taste of poverty.

“It"s fine. She doesn"t spend money to live where she does, but she"ll be driven away after living there for a while. Occasionally she gets beaten.”

“Beaten?” My heart ached a bit. “Is it a domestic violence at a boyfriend"s house? How can this be, does she need my help calling the police?”

Liu-laoshi, who had been expressionless this whole time, suddenly smiled. He approached me slowly, his face leaning towards mine, and didn"t seem like he was going to stop. I didn"t have a hobby of putting my face up against a stranger"s, so I had to back off, but he kept pressing forward. I finally pressed myself against the wall, frozen, and Liu-laoshi took his left hand out of his pocket and pressed it against the wall.

“You walk the bright, sunshine road, we cross the bridge of no avail1. Princ.i.p.al Zhang hired you as a teacher, so we won"t touch you, but there"s just one little thing, don"t meddle.”

This…..Am I being threatened? Why am I being threatened when I"m just concerned over a colleague I haven"t met yet?

I"ve also watched Detective Conan and Sherlock Holmes and I quickly traced back the previous dialogue in my mind. Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth!

“Have you ever abused that female colleague too? Her throwing her wig in the toilet, was it silent retaliation?”

In my heart, I quickly outlined the image of an emaciated woman who had suffered from abuse. After she received the key for Number 404 from Princ.i.p.al Zhang, she opened the door in the middle of the night, threw the wig in the toilet angrily and then turned around and left, leaving the place where she had suffered.

Liu SiShun"s face froze for a moment. I slapped his hand away from the wall and looked directly into his faintly dark blue eyes without fear, “I"m a newcomer who has just entered the workforce. In the workplace, I may encounter many of the industry"s unspoken rules, but I"m mentally prepared for that. As long as it doesn"t violate the law, I"ll be able to suppress my emotions and silently accept the lesson in humility. But what you"ve done has risen to the level of personal injury. In this case, I absolutely cannot sit idly by and ignore it. Please give me the contact information of the female colleague. If she doesn"t dare to, then I will get justice for her!”

A job could be hunted for again, but the principles of being a human should not be lost. If crimes happened under my nose, I couldn"t turn a blind eye.

Probably shocked by my energy, Liu SiShun took a step back. I followed closely and he kept going to keep me from closing in. This time, Liu SiShun was the one pressed against the wall.

I hammered the wall hard, saying loudly, “Speak, have you bullied that female colleague?!”

“N-no……” Liu SiShun"s hands shook unnaturally, his legs began to weaken, and he lost his previous arrogance.

“Then why would she be beaten again if she"s living somewhere for free?”

“She, she often sneaks into strangers" houses in the middle of the night and is beaten when she is discovered.” Liu SiShun crouched down slightly and held his head in his hands. “Yo-your wound has cracked open. D-don"t come near me……”

Being beaten after sneaking into a stranger"s home in the middle of the night, is she a thief or a trespa.s.ser? Who are all these colleagues around me!

I picked Liu SiShun up, “You contact her, make her move into Number 404, so she won"t do anything else illegal! I personally guarantee that she will never be touched. As long as she is law-abiding, I"ll never let anyone else hurt her again!”

“I-I"ll contact her, don"t touch me!” Liu SiShun screamed.

He was so imposing on the outside but he was really just a paper tiger on the inside. I had only smashed my fist against the wall and he"d become terrified.

I clenched my fist at him and Liu SiShun got so scared that he took out his phone and turned around to make the call. I loosened my hands after he turned his back. I hadn"t had time to go to the hospital today, so I had just put on a cursory bandage. The wound hadn"t been treated and had cracked open, so it was really painful.

“Hey, you gotta get back here,” Liu SiShun said to the phone. “No way, you have to come back, otherwise I will……”

It wasn"t right for me to listen to someone else"s phone call, so I went back to my room to find the medicine box and bandaged the wound again.

When I walked back out of my room, I saw a short-haired woman wearing white standing in the living room, drenched. She was looking at me with a sullen expression.

Liu SiShun was pretty efficient, having her return so soon. But she had just thrown the wig, so she shouldn"t have made it too far.

“h.e.l.lo, my name is Shen JianGuo. I"m a first-time teacher. May I have your name, please? What kind of work do you do?” I said to her in a friendly tone.

“Li YuanYuan……toilet……cleaning……” Li YuanYuan stretched out her words as she spoke.

(the Yuan in her name means "beautiful woman")

She probably had some minor myopia, because when I looked in her eyes, she didn"t even blink or shift her gaze.

“What happened to you? Were you bullied?” I looked at her wet clothes and couldn"t stand it. It really wasn"t easy for a girl to be outside alone.

She seemed to intend to nod, but then she looked at me and shook her head slowly, “No……I went to the sewer……to swim……”

What a huge mess.

Li YuanYuan didn"t want to talk about it, so I wouldn"t ask anything else. Everyone has their own troubles, so I couldn"t interfere with her life. As long as she would guarantee that she wouldn"t sneak into anyone else"s home and that I wouldn"t be ejected from the dormitory, I wouldn"t do anything more.

Not to mention she looked like she had been nibbled on by a dog, her haircut was so ugly!

After we became more familiar, I"d be sure to ask her which hairdresser she used for haircuts and I would purposefully take a detour and never go in to get a haircut there!

“You just moved in, where"s your luggage?”

“No need……” Li YuanYuan slowly shook her head again.

I took a new towel and a new set of toiletries out from my room, which I had bought today so even the tags hadn"t been taken off yet.

I said, “Here you are, go take a hot bath now, don"t catch a cold in the middle of the night. Rest a.s.sured, I"m not interested in women, so I won"t do anything to you. Live here with peace of mind.”

In order to give Li YuanYuan breathing s.p.a.ce, I grabbed Liu SiShun and went into my bedroom.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Liu SiShun shrunk into the corner and asked in fear.

“Don"t worry. Even if I like men, you"re not my type either!” I explained, “I just wanted to let Li YuanYuan feel at ease. By the way, as my senior, I"ll ask you what cla.s.s I need to lecture on tomorrow.”

The author has something to say:
Shen-laoshi: Today, I helped a woman colleague who was almost kicked out. Do a good deed every day: check. I"m so happy.
Li YuanYuan: Today……a bully……moved into……my dorm, who……cut my hair……flushed me……down the toilet……and forced……me to live……next door……to him.

—

Footnotes:
1. yang guan dao (阳光道), nai he qiao: the sunshine road, the law-abiding path; from the idiom, you walk the easy, wide-open sunshine road, I"ll cross the difficult single-plank bridge ↩

—

all this time I thought the single-plank bridge line was something MXTX wrote for MDZS, lol whoops