Common Sense

Chen De wiped the sweat from his face.

It had been two hours since he had carried everything back from the store.

Standing in the middle of the room, he looked around and felt as though a lifetime had passed.

The newly made bed was neat and smooth, and the pillow was fluffy enough to bury his face in and never want to come out.

The curtains had been replaced too. The sunlight streaming in was finally no longer the fragmented light leaking through tattered cloth.

A brand-new frying pan and ceramic knives sat on the kitchen counter, reflecting a cold gleam. It finally looked like a proper kitchen.

The box of whole milk piled in the corner was simply the finishing touch.

The entire home had been completely refreshed.

Except for the packaging trash and cardboard boxes still scattered across the floor.

"Perfect."

Chen De put his hands on his hips and nodded in satisfaction.

It felt like finally upgrading from a straw hut to a stone house in a survival game.

It was still far from being a villa, but at least it was no longer the lifeless dump it had once been.

"Chen De."

Qubi suddenly spoke.

"What?"

"You... didn't go to class today, did you?"

Chen De paused.

"Why do you care about that?"

His tone carried a hint of confusion.

A cat caring about his attendance rate was wrong no matter how he looked at it.

"Just asking."

Qubi's tone was as flat as ever.

"I took leave."

Chen De crouched down to pick up a plastic wrapper from the floor.

"That dean already has a problem with my hair."

"Even if I went to school, he'd probably order me to come back and get it cut."

"I see."

"Instead of worrying about that, you could help me take out the trash a few more times."

Chen De stuffed a ball of wrapping paper into a black garbage bag.

"I'm just an ordinary little kitty. I don't have physiques as tough as you magical girls."

Qubi gave a perfunctory laugh and neatly ended the subject.

"You've got four legs. What's so hard about carrying a garbage bag downstairs in your mouth?"

"My mouth is small."

"Your mouth is small? You weren't saying that when you slurped down half my cup of instant noodles in one go."

"That was to help you control your calorie intake."

"Thanks, nutritionist."

Chen De rolled his eyes and continued cleaning up.

He flattened and stacked the cardboard boxes, then picked up every stray plastic tie and label from the floor.

The trash filled two large bags.

He lifted them and weighed them in his hands. They were pretty heavy.

"Alright, I'm going downstairs to take out the trash."

"Watch the house."

"What house am I supposed to watch? What is there here worth stealing?"

"My box of whole milk."

"...Who would steal milk?"

"You don't understand. You have to keep a close eye on good stuff."

Chen De carried the two bags of trash out the door.

After taking out the trash, he bought another pack of garbage bags from the convenience store downstairs.

He also picked up a bottle of iced black tea for two and a half yuan.

He used to buy only one-and-a-half-yuan bottled water.

Today was an exception.

After all, he was now a man with more than 150,000 yuan sitting in his bank account.

Though to other magical girls, that amount was probably only enough to buy a few little trinkets.

But for Chen De, it was the largest sum of money he had ever seen at once in all seventeen years of his life.

He twisted open the cap and took a gulp.

Sweet.

The happiness of the rich was this plain and unpretentious.

When he returned to the room, Qubi was squatting on the new pillow.

"Get down."

"Why?"

"That's my pillow."

"I'm warming it for you."

"Who needs you to warm their pillow in the middle of summer? Get down."

Qubi leisurely hopped off the pillow.

Chen De checked it for fur.

There was none.

Qubi looked like a cat, but thankfully, it did not shed.

That was probably one of its few merits.

"Oh, right."

Chen De unscrewed the iced black tea and took another drink.

"You said before that Fierce Calamities might start appearing more frequently?"

"Mm."

"So when will the next Fierce Calamity probably show up?"

"Not sure. Maybe in a week, maybe in three days, or maybe tonight."

Chen De nearly choked on his iced black tea.

"Tonight?"

"I said maybe. That depends on others."

"Could you not say terrifying things in such a calm tone? And why does it depend on others?"

"This is common sense."

"It's common sense to you. To me, it's a sudden horror incident."

Chen De set the iced black tea on the table.

"The last Fierce Calamity nearly slapped me into the wall and turned me into Chen De-chan. I don't want to risk my life again before I've even properly slept on my new mattress."

"Don't worry. With your current strength, low-level Calamities won't be too difficult to handle."

"The key word is 'low-level.' What if a high-level one shows up?"

"Then I'll notify you in advance."

"How far in advance?"

"About... three seconds?"

"Three seconds?!"

"The appearance of Calamities is inherently random. A lot of the time, they suddenly crawl out from some obscure corner."

"I specifically found last night's one. It had been incubating in that place for half a month already."

"If it hadn't come out soon, I would've thought that Calamity had suffocated to death in there."

Chen De's expression changed subtly.

"So you deliberately found me an enhanced version?"

"Not an enhanced version. It was simply fully developed."

"What's the difference?"

"The difference is that an underdeveloped one is weaker, but you gain less practical combat experience from fighting it."

"Alright, alright, stop talking."

Chen De waved a hand.

"Every time you explain the details, it ends with me possibly dying."

"I can put it another way."

"No need. I get the idea."

Chen De leaned beside the newly replaced curtains and looked at the sun outside.

It was noon. The sunlight was scorching, and there were not many people on the streets.

Everything looked quiet, normal beyond normal.

Who would have thought that an unknown number of monsters were hidden in the cracks of this city, ready to emerge at any moment?

"I should think about how to get through this afternoon's classes first."

Chen De sighed.

"You're planning to go?"

"I have to. Taking half a day off is fine, but if I take a whole day off, that dean will chase me all the way home."

"Is your school that strict?"

"It's not that the school is strict. That dean just has it out for me."

"You have a grudge against the dean?"

"Not really a grudge."

Chen De scratched his short hair.

"Before, he said my long hair violated school rules and told me to cut it short."

"I figured it didn't seem that long, so I refused."

Qubi fell silent for a second.

"So he thinks you're provoking him?"

"Probably."

Chen De casually tossed the empty iced black tea bottle into the trash can. It traced a beautiful arc and landed neatly inside.

"Fine."

Qubi nodded.

"Enough about that. I need to go to school."

Chen De slung on his backpack and walked to the entryway to change his shoes.

"Are you staying home to watch the house, or what?"

"I'm coming too."

Qubi expertly jumped onto Chen De's shoulder.