My Landlady

"He can't stay here!"

"Mom, just think of it as renting him a room, even if it's the basement. He's pitiful. He was framed and has nowhere to go."

"How many supplies did they give you to buy your filthy soul? You actually brought a stranger into our home!"

"A lot, I have to admit, but that's not the point... The point is, his uncle handles logistics somewhere close to Upper City. Anyone in logistics is no small fry. As long as the younger kids can build a good relationship with him, even if they go to Middle City someday, they'll have someone looking out for them. It's an exchange, Mom!"

"They don't need to go to Middle City! Middle City is a prison that extinguishes human nature! You've changed! Hua! You've changed!"

Inside the study on the first floor of the little wooden house.

"Old Goat" Thomas was engaged in a fierce argument with the kindly landlady.

Outside the wooden door, cracked in several places, several children pressed their ears against it to listen to the commotion in the study.

Wang Jixuan stood in a corner of the living room that also served as a dining room, hands behind his back as he waited for his "fate."

Lost in thought, he seemed somewhat distracted.

Qi;

Qi was the beginning of all things;

Qi did not lie;

And Wang Jixuan could not possibly mistake the clump of Qi inside Wen Heisen's body.

This elderly woman, Thomas's adoptive mother, had a trace of Wen Heisen's Qi on her hands. They had been in contact recently. That thread of Qi was slowly dissipating; if he had arrived tomorrow, he might have missed this crucial clue.

But this was deep within Emerald Manor, Wanlijin Gang territory.

Wanlijin and the Black Fire Gang were still engaged in sporadic firefights. When he and Thomas had driven past the border between the two gangs' territories, he had even heard gunfire popping like beans in a pan.

Though the actual distance between the two gangs was not that great, vast stretches of continuous dark zones lay between them.

But this elderly woman's body had already begun to decline. There was no Qi inside her at all; she was just an ordinary person. It was unlikely that she could have crossed all those ditches, barbed-wire fences, and hidden mines.

One of Thomas's words echoed in Wang Jixuan's heart:

"They can keep expanding their territory downward, by digging tunnels."

Digging tunnels?

Wang Jixuan lowered his head and looked beneath his feet. Closing his eyes to sense it, he gradually detected a two-meter-high arched tunnel ten meters below.

There really was an underground passage...

"Hello! My name is Ye Zi!"

A slender, overly pale hand from long-term lack of sunlight entered Wang Jixuan's field of vision.

Wang Jixuan looked up and saw a petite, clean-faced girl smiling at him.

Thomas had introduced her earlier. Her name was Ye Zi, and she was the Big Sister among the current group of orphans. She was thirteen this year, and having just entered puberty, she was already fairly tall.

"Hello, my name is Zhou Tian."

Wang Jixuan smiled and shook his head. "Men and women should not touch hands."

"Hm? What does that mean?"

Ye Zi blinked, looked Wang Jixuan up and down, and asked softly:

"Did you really come from Middle City?"

"Yes," Wang Jixuan answered quietly.

"Is Middle City full of lights? Can you see light everywhere?"

"More or less." Wang Jixuan nodded, trying to make himself seem a little more talkative. "Though many places keep their lights at the lowest setting, so they still look rather dim."

"That's still so much better than here. So many places have no light at all... Does Middle City also hand out anti-darkness medicine and vitamins on a regular basis?"

"Anti-darkness medicine is distributed regularly, but vitamins have to be bought with quotas," Wang Jixuan explained. "And vitamins are classified under Food Quota."

A few indistinct sounds of amazement slipped from Ye Zi's little mouth.

Then, wanting to liven things up, she could not find a suitable topic.

After a while, Ye Zi asked again, "Do you want to sit down and rest?"

"I'm fine."

"Why did you come down here? Isn't Middle City great?"

"I was framed and offended some powerful people," Wang Jixuan replied, remembering the backstory Thomas had prepared for him.

Ye Zi muttered softly, "Wow, like offending the gangs here... I really hope you can stay."

Wang Jixuan was a little puzzled. "Why?"

"Then you can help me with chores!"

Ye Zi said softly:

"I have to learn so many things every day: arithmetic, world geography. I also have to clean the first and second floors, help Mom look after the little ones, and bathing them is the most exhausting part.

"The moment I open my eyes, I'm busy with all sorts of things. I can't even go outside to play."

She lowered her head and complained, her ponytail swaying gently.

Wang Jixuan noticed a barcode tattoo on the back of Ye Zi's neck, more than half of it rubbed away.

He asked, "Can you tell me about your adoptive mother?"

"Of course! Mom is everyone's mom. She lived here long before the Wanlijin Gang was founded, and altogether she's helped more than three hundred children! More than three hundred!"

As Ye Zi spoke of this, there was a glimmer in her eyes, and she emphasized the number.

"Her temper may seem bad, but she's actually very gentle inside. Whenever we get sick, she stays up all night by our side.

"Before I was five or six, I was with the Black Fire Gang. They treated me like livestock, keeping me as an organ reserve for the important people in Upper City. If one of those old people suffered organ failure, they might have harvested my organs.

"Then, during a gang conflict, people from Wanlijin rescued me... A lot of us were rescued like that.

"Look here. The barcode here proves I was Black Fire Gang material. When I was little, Mom had to scrub really hard to rub it off when bathing me.

"After that, Mom raised me, taught me to read, and told me many principles about being a person. Mom often says that even if we're in darkness, we can't give up hope. As long as we keep holding hands, even if we're all just tiny, weak individuals, we can still change the world step by step."

Wang Jixuan nodded and raised his brows. "That makes a lot of sense."

He glanced toward the study, his expression slightly complicated.

The light in a person's eyes could not lie. Ye Zi's gaze was pure and kind, and there was not the slightest trace of baleful aura about her.

The same was true of the elderly woman inside, the one tainted with Wen Heisen's Qi. There was not the slightest baleful aura on her either.

What was baleful aura?

Simply put, killing someone generated baleful aura. The malice radiating from within a person intertwined with the resentment of the living beings they killed, giving birth to baleful aura.

Many demonic arts specifically cultivated baleful aura, even using it to refine vicious magical artifacts such as Ten Thousand Souls Banners.

He was surely covered in baleful aura too, but... it seemed only he could sense it.

—Daoist Wang had exclusive interpretive rights.

So what exactly was going on? Who was this elderly woman?

"What kind of work did you do in Middle City before?" Ye Zi asked softly.

Wang Jixuan answered casually, "Assembly line worker."

"Then I'll call you Brother Tian," Ye Zi muttered. "I really hope Brother Hua can convince Mom. I desperately need someone to help with the housework."

"Then you may be disappointed," Wang Jixuan said with a smile. "I might have to go out and work, earn some gang currency."

"Don't! Please!"

"I have to support myself."

The study door suddenly opened, and the children who had been eavesdropping immediately tumbled into a heap.

Thomas winked at Wang Jixuan. "Done! You can live here! My mom will arrange some work for you later. She has a lot of local connections, but two-thirds of the supplies you earn must be used to buy food for the children. Is that okay?"

Wang Jixuan immediately nodded. "Okay. This place is very nice, and also... very interesting."

Very nice referred to the spiritual energy environment around them.

Interesting referred to the underground passage beneath his feet.

"Yay!"

Ye Zi cheered and jumped up.

Most of the children did not understand what had happened, but since their Big Sister had started bouncing, they started bouncing too.

"Mission complete! Bam bam bam bam bam!"

Thomas cheered, pointed both index fingers at Wang Jixuan, then swayed his sexy, perky ass toward the dining table, his body constantly rocking in rhythm with his mouth.

It was obvious that he was truly relaxed here.

"Ye Zi, go fry me a few doughnuts! I'm leaving after I eat!"

Ye Zi grabbed Wang Jixuan's arm and dragged him toward the kitchen. "Come help me! The kitchen rule is that whoever works gets to sneak three bites!"

Wang Jixuan laughed helplessly.

She really was lively.

This was the first time Wang Jixuan had eaten a pastry made with pure flour since coming to this world.

Ye Zi's cooking was quite good.

Thomas hurriedly left after eating two doughnuts. Something had happened at his shop in the Pervert Zone of the City of Joy; apparently someone had gone there to cause trouble.

Thomas also had to put on that bewitching makeup again on his way back.

While Daoist Wang sampled the fried pastry, diligent Little Ye Zi had already led several eight- and nine-year-old younger siblings to clean up the room in the corner of the second floor for him.

His room was directly opposite the girls' room, so there would inevitably be some noise in daily life.

Fortunately, Wang Jixuan was not picky about such things. He usually meditated rather than slept.

He was now very interested in the mistress of this house, sixty-nine-year-old Kong Lianmei.

The underground passage;

The kindly old grandmother who had lived here all along and continuously rescued orphans;

The Qi of Wen Heisen, the hidden Psionicist and third-in-command of the Black Fire Gang.

What connection was hidden behind all this?

His new room was not large, only a little over two meters long and wide. The ceiling sloped downward from left to right, and near the outer wall, he could not stand upright. A narrow single bed and the desk beside it already filled two-thirds of the space.

Several text posters hung on the wall, each bearing large letters: "T.E.R."

Wang Jixuan did not know what those three letters meant.

From Ye Zi's endlessly chattering mouth, he learned about the room's former occupant. He was a twenty-four-year-old young man who had left this big family three years ago to work for the Silver Party Gang on the forty-sixth floor. The last time he returned was half a year ago, when he brought them some nearly expired cosmetics and the like.

The bed was covered with clean old sheets, while the weak light on the desk was barely hanging on.

Wang Jixuan sat down, intending to meditate and feel out the pace of cultivation.

Before going to Thomas's bar, he had already sent his luggage to the forty-ninth floor, hiding it in an abandoned shack near the border of Black Fire Gang territory.

He planned to make a trip there later and retrieve some small items that would not attract attention.

Knock knock!

A sound came from the drafty door, and a pair of big sparkling eyes peered through the gap.

Wang Jixuan said, "Come in."

Creak—

Ye Zi bounced inside carrying several loose cotton-and-linen garments. She placed the clothes and two pairs of patched cloth shoes on the bed.

"I saw that you didn't have any luggage, so I found some clothes and shoes that belonged to the older brothers. They should be about your size. If they're too small, I'll go change them! There are lots stored in the basement."

Ye Zi reminded him:

"But you have to take good care of them. After you leave, I'll need to wash them clean and put them away again."

Wang Jixuan smiled knowingly. "Thank you."

"Hehe, you rest up. I'm going to bathe the little ones now."

Ye Zi waved her hand, her ponytail swishing slightly as she quickly left.

She's quite a cute little girl.

Wang Jixuan gave her a simple appraisal in his heart. It was truly rare to see such a spirited young girl in this Earth Realm.

He only wondered how long Little Ye Zi's liveliness could last.

Knock, knock knock.

A sound came from someone knocking on the wall outside the door.

He felt it again... that thread of Qi that was about to dissipate completely.