The natives of this world were so fierce. Chapter 1: The missing slipper
The crackle of New Year firecrackers gradually faded, and with it, the festive bustle that had filled every household slowly died away.
Students returned to school, workers returned to work, and those who studied or worked out of town left the homes where they had briefly reunited with their families.
Qing Town was a small town in Kehua District, Yue City. After the brief clamor of the Spring Festival, it settled back into its usual peace and quiet.
Qin Xiaoxia wandered along the street, bored out of his mind. The balloon-shooting stands, stalls selling loose goods, and other vendors that had crowded the streets over the New Year had almost all disappeared. Stallholders always had such a keen nose for when the holiday spirit had faded.
At times like this, Qin Xiaoxia would also wonder how these people earned a living outside the holidays. Surely they couldn't be like antique dealers, living for half a year off a single sale-not with those knockoffs going for five or ten yuan apiece?
Setting up stalls over the New Year is probably just a side gig, Qin Xiaoxia mused idly.
Up ahead was his destination for this outing: Ruixing Supermarket.
He had come out to buy some food, drinks, and daily necessities. The New Year holiday had pretty much exhausted his supplies.
Outside the large supermarket, bright red advertisements for New Year discounts and free gifts were still plastered everywhere. Inside, festive music continued playing on a loop, as though this were the New Year's last stronghold.
"For me, the only good thing about the New Year is the bigger discounts..."
Qin Xiaoxia picked out the things he wanted and tossed them all into his shopping cart.
"Ah, the places I usually order takeout from still don't seem to have reopened. I really want Old Liu's secret-recipe braised pork noodles and golden fried rice!"
With that lament, Qin Xiaoxia tossed two bags of pineapple buns and a case of instant noodles into his cart. Adding some replacement toothbrushes, towels, and other toiletries, he headed for the checkout with his cart more than half full of loot.
One of the main reasons Qin Xiaoxia avoided supermarkets during the New Year was the long checkout lines.
At one in the afternoon, there weren't many customers. Most people's Spring Festival breaks were over, too, so the crowded checkout queues of the past few days were nowhere to be seen.
Within minutes, Qin Xiaoxia walked out of the supermarket carrying two large nylon bags packed with purchases.
A breeze blew past, making his nose twitch.
At some point, the Wanniqiu River outside Qing Town had gradually become polluted for unknown reasons. Several attempts to clean it up had done little good.
Whenever a northwesterly wind blew, the river's distinctive stink reminded people in certain parts of town of its existence. Ruixing Supermarket was one place where they experienced it firsthand.
Environmental inspections had been strict lately, but supposedly, the environmental authorities had investigated repeatedly without finding the cause. Naturally, ordinary citizens like Qin Xiaoxia still thought first of companies illegally dumping waste and officials failing to do their jobs.
The stench soon drifted away with the wind. Carrying his bags, he quickened his pace to spare his nose any further suffering.
As a freelancer, Qin Xiaoxia didn't have to worry about returning to work once the Spring Festival break ended. Well, in most people's eyes, he was simply a loafer.
Although he did look pretty idle most of the time, Qin Xiaoxia didn't consider himself unemployed. At least he had income from reselling things online and doing creative work on the side, and he was looking for something steadier.
At the same time, he also had to clean and look after an old building every so often in his role as its "caretaker." After all, according to Old Qin, ownership of the building would pass to Qin Xiaoxia when he turned forty. Less than twenty years to go!
Looked at that way, surely he counted as someone "holding down several jobs."
Strolling, looking around, and thinking as he went, he soon returned to Qianlou Residential Community, an old housing complex built almost twenty years ago.
Then he made his familiar way up to the sixth floor, the top floor of Building 12.
Before taking out his key to open the door, he instinctively glanced at his palm. A deep burn scar marked it, and even after all these years, it still seemed to ache faintly.
That damned old man really didn't hold back!
Silently cursing someone who had already passed away, Qin Xiaoxia slid his key into the lock.
With a click, the door opened.
He glanced around inside, entered, and set the bags on the table before going to change into his slippers.
"Huh?"
Qin Xiaoxia let out a surprised sound.
"Why is one of my slippers missing?"
All kinds of shoes were neatly lined up on the shoe rack, but one slipper from Qin Xiaoxia's favorite pair was missing.
Just one.
He wasn't forgetful, and he had been out for less than half an hour.
He clearly remembered leaving his slippers beside the shoe rack.
He then examined his home carefully. Although nothing looked wrong, his instincts told him something was subtly out of place.
Had someone broken in?
That was Qin Xiaoxia's first reaction.
He immediately grabbed a folding stool and peered into each room from the doorway, even cautiously checking under the beds.
After more than ten minutes of tiptoeing around and looking thoroughly suspicious, he finally confirmed that no one else was inside.
Then he hurried around to check whether any valuables were missing.
These days, few people kept large amounts of cash at home, and Qin Xiaoxia was no exception. He wasn't one for jewelry, either.
Aside from the large pieces of furniture, the most valuable things in the apartment were a desktop computer, a laptop, and a tablet.
Clearly, none of those were missing. In fact, nothing elsewhere in the apartment seemed to have been touched.
What kind of thief is bored enough to steal my slippers-and only one of them?
Qin Xiaoxia returned to the shoe rack and stared at the remaining slipper, utterly baffled.
The windows had security bars, so no one could have climbed through them. The door to the rooftop terrace was bolted from the inside and had no keyhole outside, making entry that way impossible too.
He returned to the entryway, opened the door, and inspected the lock. There wasn't the slightest sign of forced entry. Could the thief be an expert lockpicker?
Did my brain short-circuit, and I threw away one slipper before going out?
He shook his head, banishing that absurd idea.
Surely it couldn't have been a ghost?
Qin Xiaoxia was generally skeptical of ghosts and gods. "Generally" because he still visited Old Qin's grave; there were always times when he wanted to remember those who had passed on.
But a haunting involving stolen slippers... give him a break.
After all, he hadn't thoroughly searched the apartment yet. Perhaps something he had forgotten about had been stolen. Then he looked again at the messy rooms and the thick dust in certain places.
Might as well do a thorough cleaning!
Qin Xiaoxia was usually rather lazy. He had even skipped the traditional pre-New Year cleaning to sweep out the old and welcome in the new. He couldn't remember the last time he had given the place a proper clean.
Today, he would take the opportunity to clean it thoroughly and check carefully whether anything was actually missing.
Basically, this was one of the few situations that could get a lazy fellow like Qin Xiaoxia to clean of his own accord.
He hadn't realized how bad it was until he started cleaning.
Qin Xiaoxia discovered that in hard-to-reach spots under the bed and sofa, so much dust had accumulated that it had rolled into fuzzy clumps. That was a bit much.
And so, the grand cleaning campaign officially began.
Mop and broom went into action together, while the rags and detergent saw nonstop use.
Before long, he was sweating all over. Qin Xiaoxia soon stripped down to a thin sweater. Only his hands felt a little chilly from touching cold water; otherwise, he certainly wasn't too cold.
For once, the assorted clutter was sorted and stacked neatly, and corners that had gathered dust for ages finally received some attention.
Qin Xiaoxia even found quite a few things that had been missing for a long time, including a bus pass, two dried-out plums, assorted odds and ends, and a scattering of coins.
By around six that evening, he had finally cleaned the entire top-floor duplex, including the attic and rooftop terrace. Qin Xiaoxia was thoroughly exhausted.
He stretched his back, and his bones crackled.
"I'm getting old... or do I really just need more exercise?"
Muttering to himself, Qin Xiaoxia looked over his considerably tidier "doghouse" with a fair sense of accomplishment.
Although he wasn't sure whether he had overlooked anything, he could be reasonably certain that no important items he could remember were missing.
There was still one small problem, though: he hadn't found that slipper.
Clatter.
The mop leaning against the table fell over, and Qin Xiaoxia instinctively bent down to pick it up.
At that moment, the jacket he had put back on after cleaning caught on the back of a chair beside the table. As he bent down, the motion pulled the chair over with a bang.
Holding the mop he had just picked up, Qin Xiaoxia stared blankly at the overturned chair. Wedged into a gap underneath it was a slipper.