I stood in the living room howling for a while, but the doors of the two rooms stayed shut.

What could I do? I couldn"t be like Mr. Saw and pick up a chainsaw to vent my frustration. I had to stomp downstairs and go to the 24-hour convenience store by the estate"s gate to buy a plunger, a pair of rubber gloves, and scissors.

Back at 404, the hair was still floating in the toilet. Maybe because the water was overflowing, there was more hair than before. I put the plunger aside and tried to flush. The thick wig was clogging it up so that it couldn"t flush at all. The toilet bowl was completely clogged.

It was time to use my newly purchased Toilet Clearing Suction Device!

I aimed the plunger at the pipe and wildly pressed down. The water even went down a little, but the hair was still floating there. It hadn"t come up and it hadn"t been forced down. I followed the instruction manual, pressing down and flushing for over half an hour. Sometimes the hair would go down for a while, then it would fan out again. I couldn"t resolve the clogged toilet problem at all.

There was nothing else to do. I had to use my method of last resort.

I put on the rubber gloves, picked up the scissors and started cutting away the hair. The plunger used air to force the pipe clear, creating a vacuum. It used pressure to force the object blocking the water pipe to dislodge or dissolve. But with the hair itself tangled around the pipe, it seemed this small amount of pressure wasn"t going to be enough. But if I kept cutting the hair piece by piece it should loosen the tangle.

Come to think of it, this wig was pretty good quality. It must have been made out of real hair. This type of wig was much more costly than the kind made out of synthetic fibers. Which of my colleagues was so wasteful as to throw away such an expensive thing?

When I had cut away all the hair, I furiously went at it with the plunger again. This time the result was good. I heard a thunk, and the tangled hair finally came loose. I pressed down on the toilet handle again. This time all the hair was flushed down.

To prevent some strands of hair from coming up again, I didn"t ease up until I"d flushed several more times.

By the time I was through with all of this it was one o"clock. My forehead was covered in sweat. I earnestly washed the gloves, plunger, scissors and myself, put everything away, then finally left the bathroom.

As soon as I walked out, I jumped. There was a man wearing black-framed gla.s.ses and a Zhongshan suit standing in the living room looking at me.

I felt embarra.s.sed. Pointing to the bathroom, I said, "Sorry, did I wake you? The toilet was clogged. I cleared it up."

He gazed intently at me without speaking. I had to find something to keep talking about.

"Someone threw a wig into the toilet. I was afraid it would interfere with other people using it, so I tried to flush it. My name is Shen Jianguo. I just moved in today. We"ll be roommates from now on. What should I call you?"

I warmly held out my hand.

But he kept his hands in the pockets of his suit pants and stared at my hand. In a hoa.r.s.e voice he said, "Liu Sishun. I"ve lived here several years."

I remembered that I had just flushed the toilet. Even though I had washed my hands, there were people who might take issue anyway. I awkwardly drew my hand back and said, "I"m very sorry to bother you."

Liu Sishun looked very refined. He didn"t seem like a transvest.i.te. The wig probably wasn"t his.

"It"s fine. I go to bed late."

"Are you also a teacher at the training school?" I asked.

"You could say that."

"Oh. I heard from Princ.i.p.al Zhang that I had two roommates in 404 who I could only see at night. You must be one of them. We"ll be living under the same roof now. We can look after each other."

"Yes." Liu Sishun backed away. He seemed not to want to get too close to me.

I felt hurt. Did I smell bad after clearing the toilet? I hoped that was it. Otherwise being snubbed by a colleague I had just met would make very upset.

I could only keep talking without having anything to say. "And my other colleague? I hope I didn"t bother them, too."

"You just flushed down... Oh, no, that wig you flushed down belonged to our colleague. I think we won"t be having anyone move in now," Liu Sishun answered.

"Why? Did I do something wrong? Wasn"t that wig meant to be thrown away?" I didn"t make an issue of my colleague clogging the toilet.

"It"s not that. She"d meant to move into Lao Ju"s room, but now that you"re living here, it would be awkward to live with a gentleman. She"s decided not to move in."

"So the other colleague is a lady. That is a little awkward, but if she doesn"t live in the employer"s housing, won"t that put economic strain on her?" I was concerned. After all, I knew what poverty was like.

"It"s all right. She doesn"t pay to live anywhere. It"s only that after a while she gets kicked out. Sometimes she even gets beaten."

Gets beaten? I felt uneasy. "Does she live at her boyfriend"s house? Does she get abused there? That can"t be allowed. Should I call the police?"

Teacher Liu had been expressionless this whole time. Now he smiled and slowly approached me, not stopping even when he was right in my face. I wasn"t in the habit of rubbing faces with stranger, so I was forced to back away. But he kept coming closer, until finally I was stuck motionless against the wall. Teacher Liu took his left hand out of his pocket and pressed it against the wall.

"You walk your sunlit path, and we"ll walk our Naihe Bridge[1]. Princ.i.p.al Zhang hired you to teach, so I won"t trouble you. But take care to mind your own business."

Was I... being threatened? Why would he threaten me for worrying about a colleague I hadn"t even met?

I was a person who had watched Detective Conan. I quickly reviewed the dialogue we had just had. When you had eliminated the impossible, whatever remained, however improbable, was the truth!

"Have you also been abusing this female colleague? Did she throw the wig into the toilet in a gesture of silent resistance?"

I quickly constructed the mental image of a weak woman who had suffered abuse. After getting the keys to 404 from Princ.i.p.al Zhang, she had come here in the middle of the night, angrily thrown the wig into the toilet, then turned around and left this place where she had been hurt.

Liu Sishun"s expression stiffened. I threw off the hand he had pressed to the wall and fearlessly looked directly into his faintly blueish eyes. "I am a person who has only just entered into society. I may encounter many unspoken professional rules at work. I"m prepared for that. As long as they aren"t illegal, I can force down my emotions and quietly accept guidance. But if your conduct has gone so far as to hurt others, I absolutely can"t sit by and watch. Please tell me how to get in touch with this lady colleague. If she won"t dare, then I"ll get justice for her!"

I could always find a new job, but I couldn"t lose my principles of being a good person. If a crime was being committed right in front of my eyes, I couldn"t just look the other way.

Liu Sishun must have been intimidated by my imposing manner. He backed up, and I followed closely, pressing on him the same way he had just done to me. This time it was Liu Sishun with his back to the wall.

I struck the wall and loudly said, "Talk! Have you been bullying this lady colleague?"

"N-no..." Liu Sishun"s arms trembled unnaturally, and his legs began to give way. All the bl.u.s.ter had gone out of him.

"And why does she stay for free at other people"s houses and get beaten?"

"She-she sneaks into strangers" houses at night. When they find out, they throw her out." Liu Sishun folded down into a crouch, covering his head with his arms. "Your-your wound is open, d-don"t come near me..."

Getting thrown out of strangers" houses at night? Was she a thief or a squatter? Who were these people I was working with!

I pulled Liu Sishun up. "Get in touch with her. Tell her to move into 404 and not do illegal things anymore! I can guarantee my moral integrity. I won"t interfere with her in any way. As long as she observes the law, I absolutely won"t let anyone hurt her again!"

"I-I"ll get in touch with her, don"t touch me!" Liu Sishun screamed.

He really was a paper tiger, fierce on the outside but weak on the inside. He had just been imposing, but as soon as I struck the wall with my fist he turned cowardly.

I clenched my fist at him. Liu Sishun fearfully got out his phone, turned away and dialed a number. While his back was turned, I shook out my hand. I hadn"t had time to go to the hospital today. I"d just hastily wrapped up the wound. It hadn"t healed, and now it had opened again. It hurt quite a bit.

"h.e.l.lo. You should come back quickly," Liu Sishun said into the phone. "No, you have to come back, or else I"ll..."

It wasn"t right to listen to other people"s phone calls, so I went back to my room to get my first-aid box and wrap up the wound afresh.

When I left my room, there was a short-haired woman in white clothes standing in the living room. She was dripping wet. She looked at me darkly.

Liu Sishun was pretty efficient! She"d come back so quickly. Fair enough, she"d just thrown the wig away a little while ago. She wouldn"t have gone far.

"h.e.l.lo, my name is Shen Jianguo," I said to her in a friendly manner. "I"m a newly employed teacher. Can I ask your name? What job do you do?"

"Li Yuanyuan... Toilet... cleaner…" said Li Yuanyuan, her voice long and drawn out.

Perhaps she was a little near-sighted. Her gaze when she looked you was very direct, her eyes not moving at all.

"Why are you all wet? Has someone been bullying you?" I couldn"t take the sight of her soaking wet clothes. It really was hard out there for a girl.

She seemed to want to nod, but then she looked at me and shook her head instead. "No... I went down into the sewers... to swim..."

What nonsense was this.

If Li Yuanyuan didn"t want to say, then I wouldn"t ask again. Everyone had their own troubles. I couldn"t interfere with her life. As long as she could guarantee she wouldn"t sneak into people"s houses again and didn"t get forced out of the dormitory by my presence, I wouldn"t pry into her business.

And I also wouldn"t mention that her haircut looked as ugly as if a dog had been chewing on it!

When we knew each other better, I would have to ask her where she got her hair cut. I would definitely go out of my way to avoid that hair salon!

"You"ve just moved in. Where is your luggage?"

"I don"t need any..." Li Yuanyuan slowly shook her head again.

I got a new towel and a new set of bathing utensils from my room. I had bought them all that day. They still had the tags on.

"This is for you," I said. "Go take a hot bath so you won"t catch cold. Set your mind at ease, I"m not interested in women. I won"t do anything to you. Let"s live here in peace."

To give Li Yuanyuan some breathing room, I pulled Liu Sishun into my bedroom.

"Wh-what do you want?" Liu Sishun asked fearfully, retreating into a corner.

"Don"t worry. I like guys, but you aren"t my type!" I went on to explain, "I just wanted to make Li Yuanyuan more comfortable. At the same time, I"d like to ask for your guidance about what I have to teach tomorrow."

[1] 奈何桥 - the bridge souls cross to be reincarnated.