"THOMAS, hurry up, THOMAS, let's get in the elevator!" Ms. Yang led her new pet—a corgi—into the elevator.
THOMAS... his self-chosen English name is Thomas Liu...
Xiang Kun glanced at the little corgi speechlessly, but didn't try to intimidate Ms. Yang's new pet again.
It seems she had experience raising huskies before, and knew she could only "handle" smaller breeds. However, judging from the corgi's expression, it still didn't seem very obedient to her.
The two nodded casually as a greeting, Xiang Kun looked up as the elevator doors slowly closed, naturally having no intention of speaking.
Ms. Yang, however, took the initiative to say, "Oh? You know about Miss Lin on the seventh floor, the one with the chubby daughter in kindergarten, right?"
Xiang Kun stared at the elevator door without replying, seemingly lost in thought.
As Ms. Yang pressed her floor button, she muttered to herself, "She's someone's mistress! I really can't believe it, not at all! It's unbelievable! Judging from her usual attire and demeanor, I thought she was a perfect wife and mother! You live on the same floor, didn't you hear? Last Friday, the wife's relatives came to her door and beat her up horribly. Apparently, her screams were heard throughout the entire building. I was in Japan that day, so I wasn't in the complex... What about you? Didn't you see it either? Sigh, I heard her family has already moved out, and they've sold the house for much less than the market price. Well, after what happened, they definitely couldn't stay..."
Last Friday, wasn't that the day that tall, thin man who owns the bar came to cause trouble? The screams that echoed throughout the building that day, were they from that tall, thin man?
With Xiang Kun's current superhuman hearing, even without deliberately eavesdropping, he can still often hear Shiling's Mother from the conversations of housewives chatting in the community and elderly people he meets while taking a walk.
These people may not have any malicious intent towards Shiling's Mother; they may simply be gossiping. But unknowingly, rumors can become distorted, especially when it comes to topics like "mistress," which can easily provoke one-sided criticism.
Therefore, Shiling's Mother to move out and sell the house so quickly can be seen as a correct and decisive choice.
As for Ms. Yang, she probably had a sense of schadenfreude. Xiang Kun knew that Shiling's Mother and she had had a few minor arguments over things like taking out the trash, cleaning up pet waste, and walking the dog.
Sensing that she was about to speak, Xiang Kun suddenly said, "Ms. Yang, your boyfriend's surname is Chen, right?"
"Boyfriend? I don't have a boyfriend... uh, why..."
"Does Mr. Chen know that you often bring different men home to spend the night?"
"You... you're talking nonsense! You... I didn't... I didn't bring... I didn't..." Ms. Yang stammered, but her eyes flickered, as if she had thought of something, and then she looked at Xiang Kun with some suspicion. "You..."
The elevator reached the 7th floor, and the doors slowly opened. Xiang Kun didn't look at her. Before stepping out of the elevator, he said quietly, "You're enthusiastically spreading rumors about others, but others are spreading rumors about you too."
Ms. Yang hesitated for a moment, but ultimately didn't dare to chase after him out of the elevator.
Xiang Kun expressionlessly took out his keys, opened the door, and went inside. He sighed inwardly; normally, he wouldn't have said those things.
He didn't want to judge the relationship between Shiling's Mother, her husband, and his other wife back in their hometown, nor did he want to know about their circumstances or any hidden difficulties. These were things that had nothing to do with him and that he wasn't interested in.
However, ever since they moved here, Shiling's Mother and Liu Shiling have always treated him with kindness and have been actively giving him help within their capacity—although it may not be what he needs, it has indeed made him feel the neighborly relationship he had when the three of them lived in their hometown when he was a child.
So deep down, he certainly didn't want Liu Shiling and her daughter to be hurt, nor did he want to hear any bad things about them, especially since many of these bad things were already rumors that were not true.
Of course, now that the mother and daughter no longer live in this community, Xiang Kun, even with his strong hearing, can hear what others say, talk about, or spread from afar, but he doesn't care. As time goes by, the matter is naturally forgotten.
But he couldn't tolerate people slapping rumors in his face and trying to gain his approval.
If we're talking about who in this building knows the most about the gossip of each resident, probably no one can Xiang Kun.
When he doesn't go out, he sometimes practices his hearing and smell at home to "refresh his mind" during breaks from reading or other training.
At times like these, you can always overhear private conversations and gossip from various families.
Sometimes these gossips involve other residents of the building, and he occasionally hears different versions of the same story from those involved, as well as different residents' perceptions and judgments about the same person.
Xiang Kun wasn't interested in gossip. He found all sorts of trivial and self-serving stories utterly tiresome, so he only listened to them for the purpose of controlling and practicing his hearing.
Regardless of whether he was interested or not, Xiang Kun eventually learned a lot of gossip and even secrets about the residents and property management staff of this building and even other buildings in the community.
He never intended to use these things for anything, or to tell anyone or interfere in other people's lives.
He was just really annoyed with Ms. Yang. He couldn't hit her, and he couldn't scold her. Fine, then he'd just use rumors against rumors and give her a taste of her own medicine.
As for what he said, it wasn't from listening to the residents gossip, nor was he deliberately eavesdropping on Ms. Yang's house; rather, it was from listening to the gossip among the security guards.
Ms. Yang lives alone, but a "Mr. Chen" who frequently drives luxury cars to visit her and occasionally stays overnight. Besides "Mr. Chen," several other men have also stayed overnight at her place. What might happen between a lone man and woman in a room? The security guards' speculations were naturally quite varied.
Ms. Yang probably thought that since she hadn't been seen with those men in the neighborhood, and it was always at night, no one would know.
Xiang Kun didn't want to judge Ms. Yang's private life; that was her life. He just wanted her to understand that in the system of spreading rumors, every rumor-monger could become the subject of rumors, and to stop coming to him and saying bad things about Shiling's Mother.
When Xiang Kun got home, his first thought was that there was a bird dropping smell.
If someone has a canary at home, it's normal for him to be able to smell bird droppings, given his sense of smell.
The problem is, he smelled the bird droppings not from the birdcage, but from the bathroom sink.
Xiang Kun went over and took a look, and sure enough, he found some bird droppings on the sink, proving that the canary had been there.
Xiang Kun wasn't surprised by this, because he had kept the birdcage open all this time, letting it come and go freely, but it seemed like it hadn't come out before.
When I returned to the living room, the canary was back in its cage with the door open, as if it had never left before.
Thank you to the new guardian for the Do Not Ask About Past Sorrows, and thank you to readers White Wolf Snowwalker, LG1972, and l Mu Su l for their generous donations.