1: Encounter

Dongguan City, Changan Town

Summer in Dongguan was suffocatingly hot.

When Li Zhan got off the long-distance bus at the station, he felt completely dazed.

He had been robbed—everything he owned was gone.

On the bus, he had specifically placed his luggage at his feet to prevent theft.

He had only dozed off for a moment, and when he woke up, everything was gone.

In broad daylight, under the open sky—it was simply absurd.

Especially since the bus had been packed with people.

Not a single person had warned him?

Call the police? Better forget it.

That would just be a waste of time.

To make matters worse,

he felt a stabbing pain in his lower abdomen, his whole body felt weak, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead.

The boxed lunch he'd eaten when the bus stopped at a roadside rest area at noon must have been bad.

The long journey combined with this sudden gastrointestinal distress made him feel lightheaded, even just standing there.

The station was bustling with people,

and Li Zhan felt particularly awkward walking through the crowd.

Everyone else had bags of all sizes, while he was the only one empty-handed.

Li Zhan had come to rely on a relative, a cousin so distant in the family tree that he had never met her.

Now, how was he supposed to find her? All her contact information was in the stolen bag.

He only remembered one name—Wusha Village.

Li Zhan asked around at the station for the general direction and prepared to walk there.

Fortunately, it was only five or six kilometers away.

He didn't dare take a taxi; he only had five hundred yuan left, hidden in the sole of his shoe.

His mother had insisted he hide it before he left, saying there were many bad people out there.

He used to think his mom was nagging,

but now he knew that listening to advice meant he would have food to eat.

It was currently two or three in the afternoon, the hottest time of the day.

By the time Li Zhan dragged his weak legs to Wusha Village, sweat had already soaked his back.

The two-plus-hour trek left his throat feeling like it was stuffed with sand, yet he couldn't bring himself to buy even a bottle of water.

He stood at the entrance of an alley, squinting to take in this place called Wusha Village.

Factory buildings, like discarded toy blocks, were squeezed crookedly on both sides of the road, their tin roofs gleaming with a sickly pallor under the scorching sun.

Utility poles were wrapped in messy, tangled wires, like tattered spider webs.

In the distance, the roar of machinery running came and went intermittently.

Colorful rental signs were plastered like patches on every building, the words "Single Room for Rent" and "Hot Water Available" faded by the sun.

The air was filled with a mixed scent of machine oil and cheap shampoo,

a few young men in faded uniforms squatted by the roadside, smoking, their eyes staring at him blankly.

"Electronics factory hiring directly! Room and board included!"

A man suddenly blocked his path; his shirt was wrinkled, and beneath a sweaty forehead were a pair of shrewd eyes.

Li Zhan instinctively stepped back, but the man had already grabbed his arm,

"Looking for work, brother?

Our factory is hiring for the last day today."

"No thanks, I have a job."

Li Zhan was really intimidated by the man's excessive enthusiasm, even though he truly needed a job.

Seeing there was no chance, the man walked toward the next target.

"Hey, handsome."

Li Zhan habitually turned around. A woman with a perm was squinting at him, holding half a cigarette between her fingers.

"Need a room?

Thirty yuan a night, includes a fan."

He did need a place to stay, but thirty yuan a night?

Seeing his hesitation, the woman crushed her cigarette butt against the wall,

"Think it's expensive? This is the going rate in Wusha Village."

He shook his head and walked away quickly, catching a glimpse of the woman spitting on the ground out of the corner of his eye.

Around the corner was a drab, six-story building, its walls covered in rental ads, layered on top of each other like a rash of psoriasis.

Li Zhan stepped closer to look; the red paper on top was brittle from the sun: "Single room 250/month, deposit one, pay one."

Below that was a line of smaller text— "Utilities extra, no short-term rentals."

"Looking to rent?" It was the same woman with the perm.

Li Zhan nodded. Staying one night cost thirty, while renting for a month was only two hundred fifty, but it was still too expensive.

"Do you have anything cheaper?"

The woman looked him up and down, her gaze lingering on his empty hands. "You didn't even bring luggage?"

"It was stolen on the bus." Li Zhan rubbed his hands together, embarrassed.

The woman's expression softened slightly. "Two hundred fifty isn't expensive."

She suddenly leaned in close. "Do you mind sharing a place? Just squeezing into an apartment with someone else, separate rooms, sharing the bathroom and kitchen."

"How much?"

"I'll give it to you for two hundred." The woman's eyes rolled around,

"However..."

She lowered her voice. "Do you mind if your roommate works the night shift?"

Li Zhan thought, what do I care what shift they work? He looked at the darkening sky. "I don't mind."

"Alright then. Minimum six-month lease, no monthly rentals."

"Do I need to pay a deposit?"

"Deposit one, pay one." The woman held up two fingers and rubbed them together.

"Ma'am..."

Li Zhan lowered his voice even more than hers. "My luggage was stolen, and I don't have enough money on me.

Can I pay two hundred first and make up the deposit next month?

Otherwise, I won't even have money to eat."

Li Zhan kicked the ground. "I only have four hundred left."

The woman stared at him for three seconds, then suddenly laughed,

"Seeing as you're quite pitiful, pay three hundred first.

The rest... pay it next month."

"I still need to see the room first." Li Zhan gripped his pants pocket.

"Follow me."

The woman carried her key ring and walked into the alley, her plastic slippers slapping against the concrete. "Third floor..."

Li Zhan endured the abdominal pain and followed.

The hallway light was broken; Li Zhan counted the steps in the dark.

When they reached the second floor, the woman suddenly turned around. "Your roommate works the night shift and is usually asleep during the day.

Keep it down."

When they reached the third floor, the woman used her key to open the door.

A young girl wearing a camisole dress was standing in the living room, holding a makeup mirror, half her face covered in foundation.

"Auntie!" the girl exclaimed,

"Why are you bringing a man here? I'm just a girl..."

"You still have the nerve to say that?" the woman interrupted her,

"Several tenants have moved out because you keep coming back in the middle of the night. What am I supposed to do?"

Li Zhan froze at the doorway.

The living room was piled with cosmetics and takeout boxes, and a few skimpy pieces of clothing were draped over the sofa.

The girl was barefoot on the floor, her toenails painted a bright, eye-catching red.

"Don't worry,"

the woman waved her hand impatiently. "This young man is very honest; he was robbed of everything the moment he got off the bus."

She turned and glared at Li Zhan. "You work the day shift, right?"

Li Zhan nodded vaguely.

"See!" the woman slapped her thigh,

"He goes out during the day, you come back in the middle of the night; you two won't even run into each other."

She held out her hand to Li Zhan. "Three hundred, pay now."

The girl bit her lip and retreated into her room, slamming the door with a "bang."

Li Zhan pretended to check the bathroom and crouched down to fake tying his shoelaces.

The five hundred yuan in his shoe was already damp with sweat. As he pulled out three bills to hand over, he heard the sound of the girl throwing things inside the room.

"Utilities are split!"

The woman stuffed the cash into her pocket and threw the key onto the coffee table,

"You stay here for now, come find me tomorrow to fill out the forms. If you dare cause trouble, get out!"

The security door slammed shut with another "bang."

Are women these days all this violent?

The door to the inner room opened a crack.

The girl poked half her face out, her mouth turned down. "You... really got robbed?"

Her tone was filled with suspicion and a hint of disgust.

Li Zhan spread his hands. "Do I look like I have any luggage?"

The girl snorted.

"Listen,"

she suddenly pulled the door wide open. The strap of her camisole dress slid halfway down, revealing a glimpse of her bra underneath.

"Don't touch my stuff, don't bring people back, and don't make noise in the middle of the night."

Every "don't" hit him like a nail.

Li Zhan instinctively stepped back, and only then did he see what she looked like—

quite well-endowed.

Pretty, long legs, and big breasts.

"What are you looking at!" The girl fiercely crossed her arms to cover her chest,

"Pervert!"

The girl slammed the door shut with a "bang" again, shaking the calendar on the wall so hard it almost fell off.