Earth, Yanhuang Country, Yanjing City.
Hengsu Street, Hengyang District.
"Hey, Chen Tian!"
A plump woman stood below and shouted toward one of the windows upstairs.
Then, a head poked out of a fifth-floor window.
"What is it, landlady?"
That was Chen Tian, but he seemed to have forgotten that he had transmigrated. "I've been knocking on your door forever, but no one answered. I thought you'd died in there!" The landlady planted one hand on her hip and said with a fierce look.
Chen Tian muttered a couple of words, pulled his head back, got dressed, opened the door, and walked downstairs.
He twisted his neck, feeling that something about his body was strange.
It was as if something had just happened to him, yet he could not remember any of it. It seemed to have been a dream. He slowly made his way downstairs, and a vision of Peach Blossom Paradise entered his eyes.
That girl! Chen Tian was a little surprised. He ran into her in the stairwell, and his heartbeat seemed to quicken.
Chen Tian composed his stiff expression and greeted her with a smile.
The girl responded politely.
This girl was the landlady's adopted daughter. According to the landlady, she had encountered her at the entrance one night when she was in her thirties.
She had reported it to the police, but because the girl was too young, there was no proper arrangement for her.
The landlady had no choice but to foster her for a while. If her family could be found during that period, she would receive compensation for taking care of the girl.
After hearing this, the landlady, who had originally been unwilling to foster her, agreed to raise her temporarily.
As a result, "temporarily" became twenty years. During those twenty years, the landlady had initially set aside plenty of time to deal with the matter, but the police made no progress.
The girl's family could not be found at all. The surveillance footage around the house had been watched over and over, yet no one had appeared there that night.
The landlady was utterly helpless. She had to pay out of her own pocket to print tens of thousands of missing-person notices.
But it had no effect, and the little girl gradually grew up. During the period when they were distributing the notices, there were even several close calls, with some very strange people coming to adopt the girl.
They all claimed to be the girl's parents, uncles, or aunts. Fortunately, the landlady was well-seasoned and had dealt with countless people like them. She knew exactly what they were after.
Some even planned to seize the girl by force. In the end, the landlady beat them away herself and reported them to the police.
Finally, as the girl grew more and more graceful, the landlady steeled herself and took her to the relevant agency to complete the adoption procedures.
In the end, the girl naturally became the landlady's fifth child.
She had three older brothers and two older sisters ahead of her.
Just like the landlady, they all doted on the girl.
When Chen Tian arrived here, he had just come of age. At eighteen, he decided to stay here and begin his life of turning the tables.
But reality dealt him a brutal blow. At first, everything he did was difficult. He was either bullied by his coworkers or suppressed by his boss.
Sometimes he found it strange. He had clearly done nothing wrong and had only honestly performed his duties, yet he still suffered so many inhuman incidents.
In the summer of the year he turned nineteen, he encountered the girl for the first time downstairs.
At the time, he thought his spring had finally arrived, like a sunflower blooming in winter as autumn winds brushed against his face.
The two exchanged a glance, and the girl let out a light laugh. That was the first time she had greeted him: "Hello! Do you live here?"
Chen Tian scratched his head shyly and nodded awkwardly.
A fierce gust of wind swept past, and the atmosphere between them gradually warmed. Unable to withstand it, Chen Tian left first.
Only later did he learn that she was the landlady's youngest daughter. The girl was named Fang Yan and shared the landlady's surname.
She was around the same age as Chen Tian. However, judging by appearances, Fang Yan had a bright future ahead of her, while Chen Tian looked as if he had just returned from a battlefield. Fatigue was written all over his face.
After being ground down by society, Chen Tian had taken on the appearance of a thoroughly jaded young man.
However, after meeting Fang Yan, he miraculously improved.
Perhaps this was the tragic tale of a lifelong loser encountering a white swan.
In the days that followed, Chen Tian passed by the landlady and heard that Fang Yan planned to stay there for a while.
After that, he began his junk-clearing plan. He gave up the Golden House on the USB drive and started gathering the miscellaneous books and magazines in his room, selling them all to a recycling station.
He cleaned his room until it was spotless.
Finally, he began resetting his computer and phone.
He shaved his head to declare his resolve. He was going to start over from scratch! "Why did you get a buzz cut?" Fang Yan covered her mouth and giggled.
Although she tried her hardest to hold back her laughter, it still showed.
Chen Tian was covered in black lines and did not know what to say. He could only give an awkward smile and quickly walk away.
During the days before his hair had grown back, life was a raging sea and burning fire.
Whenever he went downstairs and passed the enormous front desk, he could always see Fang Yan's gorgeous eyes looking his way.
Chen Tian could only lower his head and hurry outside.
Fang Yan was very beautiful, with delicate brows and clear features. As she grew older, she became increasingly graceful and captivating.
She was like a fairy who had slipped out of Peach Blossom Paradise.
Whenever Fang Yan saw Chen Tian looking like that, she would burst out laughing. She became increasingly curious about this boy who was the same age as her.
Chen Tian did everything he could to avoid her. His evasive behavior only stirred Fang Yan's curiosity further.
At last, a month passed.
Chen Tian looked at the tuft of black hair in the mirror, and two streams of tears flowed down his face.
Damn it, my hair has finally grown out!!! Then he went to a barbershop. He was going to give his appearance a proper makeover.
When he passed the front desk, Fang Yan was nowhere to be seen.
He did not linger and walked into the barbershop beside the house.
After waiting half an hour, he walked out with what he considered a perfectly styled haircut.
It had to be said that Chen Tian really was different after starting over.
His entire spirit seemed to have burst into life all at once.
It was as if the person he had been a month ago was not him. Then he washed up and started walking back.
When he stepped through the entrance, he could finally face her directly.
"Welcome. What do you need?"
After Fang Yan finished speaking, she looked up. The sight before her made her freeze for a moment, and her pupils unconsciously contracted.
At the entrance, a figure stood before the sunlight. The radiance behind him illuminated his body, making him look like the king of Iraq.
"Chen Tian? What are you doing?" Fang Yan asked in confusion.
Chen Tian's thoughts snapped back at once. Faced with Fang Yan's question, he began to panic. He did not dare meet her eyes and glanced around wildly.
"N-nothing."
Chen Tian gave a perfunctory reply. The tips of his ears were already bright red, and he headed straight upstairs.
Then Fang Yan's voice came from behind him.
"Your hair looks really nice~"
Chen Tian immediately turned around, just in time to meet Fang Yan's gaze. At that moment, his mind went blank!
"Th-thank you."
After receiving Fang Yan's praise, Chen Tian tossed and turned on his bed. It was as if ten thousand grass-mud horses were spitting at his heart.
As he thought about it, regret began to gnaw at him. Why had he not seized the chance to have a proper conversation with her?
Thinking of this, Chen Tian wished he could slap himself twice! Just as he was pining away, someone knocked on the door.
Chen Tian wore an irritated expression. Who was ruining his fantasy?! He was about to open the door and curse out whoever it was.
But a gust of wind blew a strand of hair right in front of his dog eyes.
Chen Tian froze.
"Sorry!"
The visitor was Fang Yan. A breeze had blown her hair toward Chen Tian's face, and she felt terribly embarrassed, so she immediately apologized.
"It's fine. It's just that these dog eyes of mine are in the way," Chen Tian said incoherently.
"Huh?!"
"Ahem, you're here to collect the rent, right?"
Chen Tian quickly changed the subject. He noticed that Fang Yan was holding a notebook and a phone.
He glanced at the time. Usually, the landlady came to collect the rent. Perhaps she had sent her youngest daughter to experience the joy of collecting rent.
"Mhm, your rent this month is exactly three thousand." Fang Yan raised the notebook for Chen Tian to see.
Chen Tian did not even look at it. Without a word, he turned around, took out his phone, and prepared to scan the code.
"Aren't you going to check it?" Fang Yan asked, puzzled.
Of course Chen Tian was not going to check. He trusted Fang Yan. After all, a girl this beautiful and knowledgeable could not possibly lie or cheat.
Besides, the landlady was the one who calculated the accounts. Ever since he moved in, he had never seen her make a single mistake.
Make a mistake calculating the rent?
How could that be possible!
The landlady treated money as dearly as her life. She would turn the whole place upside down over even a single cent, so there was no way she could have made an error.
Fang Yan did not ask any further. She opened her phone and accepted the rent Chen Tian transferred.
"All done. Thank you~" Fang Yan thanked him.
From the corner of her eye, she saw the state of the room behind Chen Tian. It was exceptionally neat and orderly.
That made her somewhat unable to believe it. After all, when she had first met Chen Tian, he had seemed to her like nothing more than a fallen, listless young man.
She had not expected that when she saw him again a month later, he would seem like an entirely different person.
"Your room is really clean~" Fang Yan smiled.
Chen Tian instantly erupted like a volcano! His body gradually slipped out of his control!
His fingers and toes kept twitching on their own!
At last, Chen Tian could no longer suppress the evil in his heart and uttered those three utterly outrageous words!
"Beauty, ya xi la you?!"
The End.
Before you continue