"Name... Hela, sex, female.
Favorite food... likes anything edible.
Strange trait... likes to use the toilet after someone else has... used it?"
Xing Lan's mouth twitched as she gave Hela, whom she was leading by the hand, a strange look.
"Why do you have a habit like that? Do you think the toilet seat's too cold?"
Xing Lan wiped the sweat from her forehead and glanced at the scorching sun hanging overhead.
"In this damn weather, even the fridge is hot. The toilet seat wouldn't freeze your butt."
Hela simply stared at Xing Lan, tilting her head with a blank look on her face.
"Sigh~" Then Xing Lan turned her attention back to the little note.
When she saw one passage, her eyes lit up instantly!
"Because she previously suffered some kind of shock! She lost her memory... and her intelligence dropped severely!" Xing Lan excitedly threw her arms around Hela, repeating, "I get it, I get it!"
"You must be some heaven-defying big shot, right?! But for some reason, your comrades or family died! Or you were hurt in love, so you chose to give up your past, right?! Right?!"
Xing Lan hugged Hela tightly and bounced up and down. If Hela hadn't been so tall, she might have been smothered to death by Xing Lan like that poor wretch before.
"What's going on with that girl?"
"No idea. Maybe she got into her dream university."
"Wow! Is this yuri? I ship them so hard."
People passing by whispered as they watched Xing Lan's bizarre behavior. Some even took out their phones and started taking pictures.
Still hugging Hela, Xing Lan noticed the gazes around her, and her face immediately turned bright red.
She grabbed Hela's hand and hurried forward.
"Damn it, damn it, that was so embarrassing!" Xing Lan muttered to herself. She quickened her pace a little more.
At the market.
"Oh, this cup is pretty. I can use it for my toothbrush.
This quilt is nice too. It looks like a starry sky. I'll take it.
Oh, this SpongeBob SquarePants one is cute too, and this Smurfs one isn't bad either. Hela, which one do you want?!"
Xing Lan held a SpongeBob SquarePants quilt in one hand and a Smurfs quilt in the other, looking at Hela with some excitement.
"Hmm..." Hela looked at the two colorful quilts and fell into deep thought.
The two girls spent a long time shopping. Actually, Xing Lan spent most of that time picking things out, while Hela just stood to one side and watched.
And sure enough, women didn't feel tired when they went shopping. Xing Lan dragged Hela around for the whole afternoon. Any other girl probably would have collapsed long ago, but Xing Lan always seemed to have endless energy, taking Hela from shop to shop.
It was a good thing Hela had plenty of energy, or sooner or later Xing Lan would have worn her to death.
Humming a little tune, Xing Lan skipped back toward the Star Barbershop.
"Beyond the mountains~ beyond the sea~ there's a group of Smurfs~
"Hela~ we bought so much stuff this time, and it cost me quite a bit. But don't worry, big sis has plenty of money! Buy whatever you want from now on, as long as you don't forget me later." Xing Lan carried two small bags and looked full of youthful energy.
Behind her, Hela, with her belongings piled on her like a little mountain, looked considerably less full of youthful energy. For the first time, a trace of speechlessness flashed across her normally expressionless face.
Xing Lan had indeed paid for everything, but after discovering how strong Hela was, she piled a heap of things onto her.
If Xing Lan hadn't bought her two meat sausages as well, Hela would never have carried so much.
The two girls walked toward the Star Barbershop, one in front of the other, bathed in the setting sun. Like the sun about to sink behind the mountains, it was time for them to go home.
The moon hung high in the night sky. A dark cloud slowly covered it, leaving the dim street a little darker.
A black stray cat rummaging through trash by the roadside suddenly looked up in a certain direction. It let out a meow, changed direction, and left.
"There really aren't many people around here. There are stray cats too. I wonder if there's anywhere to rent." A somewhat scrawny young man walked down the street, constantly looking around.
Suddenly, his gaze stopped on an old residential building. There were no other buildings around it, only some greenbelts, trees, and open ground. It looked completely inconspicuous, yet gave off a hint of eeriness.
The man walked up and saw a notice posted by the door.
"For rent... 300 a month, 15 a day! Great! I won't have to sleep on the street!"
Bang, bang, bang-!
Excited, the man gently knocked on the door before him.
After a few minutes, he heard footsteps slowly approaching.
Creak-
The old iron door opened, revealing an elderly person with a head of white hair.
"Are you here to rent a room?" the elderly woman asked in a slightly hoarse voice.
"Yes, I am. Ma'am, are you still renting rooms?" the man asked awkwardly. He didn't know why, but looking at the elderly woman before him made him feel uneasy.
The elderly woman glanced at him, then beckoned him inside.
"Come in." Then she turned and walked in.
The man followed somewhat nervously, remembering to close the door behind him.
The elderly woman glanced at the man after he closed the door and spoke hoarsely.
"Young man, are you alone?"
"Yes. I just came to this city for work, and I don't know anyone here yet."
The elderly woman shook her head. "Even if you've come out to work alone, you still need to take care of yourself. It's late at night and you still don't have a place to stay. If you hadn't run into me, you might have had to sleep on the street."
"Ah, yes." The man awkwardly scratched his cheek.
The elderly woman then walked to an entrance resembling one to an underground garage, though it only had an iron-barred gate.
She took out a bunch of keys, opened the gate, and led the man inside.
The man swallowed, feeling a little nervous, but followed her without saying anything.
"You can stay here."
Once they reached the basement, the elderly woman casually pointed to a room, then turned and left.
"Oh, okay..."
Bang-
As soon as the elderly woman walked out, she shut the iron gate again.
"Is this... how it is in the city?" The man looked a little puzzled, but thought no more of it and pushed open the door to the room.
The room was small, only a few square meters. There was a mattress on the floor, a table, and a lamp, with a mop leaning against the wall by the door. There was nothing else.
The man looked around, then lay down on the mattress and turned off the light, ready to sleep. A day of traveling had left him exhausted, and all he wanted now was to get some rest.
This basement is dark and damp, but the rent's so cheap that it's not impossible to put up with. I need to save more money so I can take care of my mom later.
As he thought, he slowly closed his eyes.
Clatter, clank, clatter, clank-
He had only just closed his eyes when all sorts of banging came from outside. He could tell the noise was coming from the other rooms.
The man turned over and continued trying to sleep.
Clatter, clank, clatter, clank-
But then an even louder noise came. The man tossed and turned until he finally couldn't take it anymore. He sat up and shouted toward the door.
"Are you going to let anyone sleep this late at night? You're making a hell of a racket!" The noise outside came to an abrupt stop.
The man breathed a sigh of relief and flopped back onto the bed.
Clatter, clank, clatter, clank-
But then the noise came back. This time, the man finally couldn't stand it. He got up, grabbed the mop leaning by the door, and stormed outside.
"Who is it?! It's the middle of the night! You might not be sleeping, but other people need to!" He looked around and finally fixed his sights on a rolling shutter door.
He walked over and struck it twice with the broom handle, making a tremendous racket.
"Shut the fuck up! I have to look for work tomorrow!"
Clang-
As soon as he finished speaking, the huge rolling shutter began to rise slowly.
The man stood rooted to the spot. As the shutter slowly rose, his expression grew more and more horrified, as though he had seen something terrifying.
"Ah!" The man cried out in terror, then tossed the mop aside and immediately ran for the iron-barred gate.
The man slammed into the gate with a bang, still shouting.
"Landlord! Landlord! Open the gate, help!
"This place of yours, this place...!" But the only answer was the chill drawing closer behind him.
The man slowly turned his head. Then, before his horrified eyes, a huge hand seized his upper body and dragged him into the darkness.
"Ah!" The man's scream rang through the basement, and at last silence returned. Only a pool of blood slowly seeped out of the darkness.
The next day, the elderly woman calmly opened the iron-barred gate.
Looking at the large pool of blood on the floor, she sighed softly, then picked up the mop lying to one side and began cleaning.
"My dear... after all these years, you're still so messy..."
The bloodstains in the basement were soon cleaned away, restoring it to its former clean state, as though they had never been there.