The next day was Sunday, and there were no classes.
Ling Yi left home early in the morning.
He didn't tell his third uncle's family where he was going, since no one cared anyway.
My third uncle drank too much on Saturday night and is still sleeping at this hour.
Third Aunt took Ling Xue'er to her maternal grandmother's house and they wouldn't be back until evening.
Ling Yi walked down the street, the warm March sun shining on him, and the air already carrying the scent of Spring.
Long queues formed at the breakfast shops along the roadside, and the aroma of soy milk and fried dough sticks filled the air. Several middle school students in school uniforms ran past him, laughing and joking.
He bought a steamed bun and a cup of soy milk, and ate them as he walked.
The destination is a new residential development near Wanda Plaza in the Eastern District.
This is what he asked his assistant to look up yesterday: a small one-bedroom apartment. It's not big, but its location is great.
It's a 15-minute walk from No. 3 Middle School, and there are supermarkets, hospitals, and banks nearby, making life convenient.
Most importantly, the security system of this building is very comprehensive, with security guards patrolling 24 hours a day, and entry and exit require both card swiping and facial recognition verification.
He needs a safe place.
It wasn't to hide from my third uncle's family, but to prepare for any unforeseen events that might occur.
The sales office was deserted; not many people came to see the properties on the weekend.
Ling Yi walked in wearing his old school uniform. The receptionist glanced at him, her gaze lingering on his old sneakers for a second before she smiled politely.
"Excuse me, are you here to look at apartments for your parents?"
"I'll see for myself."
Before the receptionist could say anything, Ling Yi continued, "Are there still one-bedroom apartments available?"
The receptionist paused for a moment, then gave a professional smile, "Young man, the total price for this apartment is 870,000, and the minimum down payment is 260,000!"
Ling Yi didn't say much. He took out his flagship phone from his pocket, opened the bank's app, brought up the balance page, and handed it to the cashier.
The receptionist glanced down, and her expression instantly froze.
The long string of zeros after that number made her think she was seeing things.
She rubbed her eyes, looked at him again, and then suddenly looked up to examine the boy in the old school uniform in front of her.
"Please... please wait a moment, I'll get the manager."
Thirty minutes later, Ling Yi signed the purchase contract.
Full payment, 870,000.
When the manager personally saw him off, he bent over at almost a ninety-degree angle, his smile as bright as the March sun.
"Mr. Ling, the property ownership certificate will be processed within fifteen working days. We will notify you as soon as it is ready. The handover date is two months from now, at which time..."
"No."
Ling Yi interrupted him, "Do you have any fully furnished apartments available? Any in the same complex is fine, I don't care about the floor."
The manager was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed.
"Yes, yes, yes! There are two fully furnished apartments available in Phase II. They were handed over last year, and the owners bought them but haven't moved in yet. Shall I take you to see them?"
An hour later, Ling Yi received the keys to her new home.
Unit 1602, Building 7, Phase 2, 83 square meters, fully furnished, ready to move in.
The total price is 920,000, also paid in full.
He stood in the empty living room, looking at the city skyline in the distance through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Sunlight streamed in through the window, illuminating the entire room brightly.
This is where his true beginning lies.
It wasn't that dilapidated residential building on the old street, nor was it the cramped little room at Uncle San's house where they couldn't even afford to turn on the heating.
Rather, this place is a safe space that belongs only to him, undisturbed by anyone.
He wrote down the address of his new home and the initial combination lock in his phone's notes app, then put the key in the innermost pocket of his backpack.
After leaving the residential area, he didn't go straight home, but instead turned into a small alley.
There's an inconspicuous hardware store in the alley, with a faded sign hanging at the entrance: [ Old Zhang Zhang's Hardware, Everything You Need].
Ling Yi pushed open the door and went in.
"Boss, I'd like to buy a lock."
What lock?
Behind the counter, an elderly man with gray hair looked up.
"The most expensive kind."
The old man glanced at him, then pulled a black metal box from under the counter, opened it, and inside lay a complexly designed mechanical lock.
"Class C lock cylinder, resistant to technical opening for over 270 minutes."
The old man said, "Young man, what are you buying this for?"
"Lock the door," Ling Yi said.
The old man chuckled, asked no further questions, took the money, and handed him the lock.
Ling Yi put the lock in his pocket and walked out of the hardware store.
Upon returning to his home in the old street, the first thing he did was change the lock on his room door.
The original lock was a very common pin tumbler lock, which could be pried open with a screwdriver.
After the new lock was installed, he tried turning the handle from the outside, but it wouldn't budge.
He nodded in satisfaction.
Three months.
The agreement will expire in three months.
Three months later, my third uncle's family will get the house, and he will finally be free from the shackles of the past ten years.
But Ling Yi knew things wouldn't be that simple.
My third uncle's family won't be content with just one house.
Ten years of suppressing their emotions and ten years of suppressing their greed had caused them to accumulate too much emotion.
The expiration of the agreement is not the end for them; it may be the beginning of a new round of demands.
They will ask for more money.
They would ask Ling Yi for "gratitude".
They would use the "gratitude for raising them" to morally blackmail them, use "family ties" to exert pressure, and use every conceivable means to squeeze the last bit of value out of this "money-losing child" they had raised for ten years.
Ling Yi wasn't afraid of any of that.
He was afraid of something else.
He walked to the window, looked down at the empty street, and his gaze fell on the pale blue dot of light at the intersection in the distance.
That camera.
He took a detour to observe the area when he went out today and discovered that the camera was not isolated.
Centered on the Third Middle School, there are at least twelve similar devices distributed within a one-kilometer radius.
They are installed on streetlights, utility poles, and even on the balconies of residential buildings, and their appearance is almost identical to ordinary surveillance equipment.
But the pale blue cesium indicator light gave them away.
These devices are definitely not ordinary traffic monitoring equipment.
They are more like some kind of... Scouter.
What are we detecting?
Ling Yi didn't know.
But his intuition told him that the answer might appear soon.
He looked away, drew the curtains, sat back down at his desk, and opened a math textbook.
No matter what secrets this world may hold, there is only one most important thing right now—the college entrance examination.
This is the daily task he must complete in this world.
With his abilities, getting into any university would be a piece of cake.
But he doesn't need the best university; all he needs is a reasonable, unremarkable grade.
Scoring 20-30 points above the first-tier university cutoff is enough to get into a decent university without attracting anyone's attention.
This is the goal he set for himself.
Just like every day of the past ten years—not too much, not too little, just right.