Volume 1: Breaking Ground Chapter 4: Living in a Tube Building
Chunsun Apartment has a total of six floors. Except for the commercial buildings on the first floor, the five floors above are residential, with 16 households on each floor.
If this is a square tube building, then the public toilets and stairs should be located at the four corners of the floor - if it is a circular building, the toilets and stairs will be located at four equally divided points of the circle, with four households in the middle.
The terrace is surrounded by a fence painted brick red. Standing by the fence, you can look down and see the circular patio below. Looking up, you can see the doors of most of the residents in this apartment, neatly arranged in a cylindrical inner circle.
The residences of the 13 off-screen characters are mainly concentrated on the third and fourth floors. Only Zhu Haowen and Wei Dong live in the last room 616 on the top floor, the sixth floor.
Ke Xun used the key to open the door of room 411. Because it was a circular building, the doors of the rooms were very close to each other, and the rooms inside were arranged in a fan shape.
The room is a suite, at most 50 square meters, with a small reception room outside, furnished with an old-fashioned chest of drawers, a coffee table with a glass plate, and a pair of small sofas with wooden armrests.
There was only a large old wooden bed in the inner room, with a desk and a bookshelf next to it, and the bookshelf was full of art books.
Ke Xun pulled open the cloth curtains. Outside was the suffocating night, thick and cramped.
The warm orange room makes people feel down-to-earth.
Sometimes, just the arrangement of furniture can give people a glimpse into the family’s past life.
"Did you feel the same discomfort as before when you entered the painting this time?" Mu Yiran placed his simple luggage on the desk.
Ke Xun really didn't think about this question carefully: "Now that you said it, it seems to be better than the previous two times. It's just that I felt a little suffocated when I first walked into this building." Ke Xun also put his backpack on the desk, "By the way, I brought toilet paper this time, take it if you need it."
Mu Yiran: "I brought it too."
It seems that everyone has had their own hardships before.
Mu Yiran looked carefully inside and out the room, looked under the bed, and frowned slightly.
There was a pair of red plastic slippers under the bed, thrown there one in front of the other, like a woman who was about to take a slow step forward.
Ke Xun soon discovered the pair of red slippers. He thought it was creepy to put them under the bed, but he didn't know where to put them after putting them away.
"The NPC didn't say that we can't move things in the room." Ke Xun consoled himself, picked up the red slippers, walked around the room, and finally put them on the simple shoe rack outside. ——It's hard to throw away these things that don't belong to you, so the shoe rack is probably the most suitable place.
The shoe rack was originally empty, but now a pair of red slippers were placed on it, as if there was a woman living in the room.
Ke Xun looked at his hands and felt that they were a little dirty.
"Go to the bathroom and wash your hands." Mu Yiran took out a travel soap box from his backpack.
Ke Xun had never been treated like this before. He took the minimalist-style soap box and went to the bathroom to wash his hands in great excitement.
The public toilet is connected to the public water room. The cement pool is smooth and clean. Ke Xun is in a good mood. The unhappiness he just felt when he saw the red slippers is gone. He washes his hands twice. Mu Yiran's soap smells like coconut, which makes people want to take a bite.
The soap is white , but the foam is light pink. I don't know where she bought such a girly soap...
Soon, Sha Liu also brought some simple travel toiletries to the bathroom to wash up. When she saw Ke Xun, she asked, "Is there anything strange in your room?"
Ke Xun didn't intend to hide it: "There is a pair of red slippers under the bed, is this weird?"
Sha Liu's face was filled with gloom: "Our two rooms are full of books. They fill up two large bookshelves. Even the bedside is piled high with books. There are also boxes of books under the bed."
Ke Xun didn't bring a towel, and simply shook his hands that smelled of coconut: "It seems that the previous landlord or tenant loves reading, maybe he is a scholar."
"No, those books are all romance novels."
“…”
" Those that were particularly popular in the 1980s, such as those by Qiong Yao, Cen Kailun, Xi Juan, Yu Qing..." Sha Liu frowned and was embarrassed to say the rest. Apart from these, the books placed on the bedside were all the ** of the romance world - pornographic books.
Ke Xun picked up the soap box and prepared to leave the bathroom, saying, "It seems that your landlord used to run a bookstore."
Shaliu was alone in the bathroom, looking at the unclear and rusty water flowing from the faucet, and washed herself reluctantly.
In room 410 where I live, those romance novels are actually not scary, but combined with the signs of life that can be observed everywhere in the room, it makes people feel a little weird.
There are two , one small and one big, and I don’t know what they are used for.
Shaliu could understand that people like this who used public toilets might have to use a spittoon, which could be called a urine pot, when they got up at night.
But that big spittoon was simply too big, almost as big as the flush toilet of later generations. It had a lid and a hole dug out of it, and it was obviously used to sit on when going to the toilet.
What kind of person would poop in a house when there is a public toilet in the apartment?
There was also a princess-style dressing table in the bedroom. For some reason, the mirror was removed. On the dressing table were facial oil, perfume, prickly heat powder, a bottle of massage cream for cracked feet, some unknown ointments, and a wide-tooth comb with a few white hairs hanging on it. They were particularly long white hairs. If these hairs grew on a person's head, they would probably be as long as the waist.
But his hair was white, and so long, that it made people feel indescribably weird.
Sha Liu was thinking about these things in the bathroom when she suddenly realized that she was the only one left in the room. She looked up at the pale and somewhat gloomy incandescent light bulb above her head, and she felt a chill and hurried out.
Walking past Room 412 next to the washroom, I saw an old lady sitting at the door, fanning herself to keep cool. She was wearing a floral sweatshirt, a type that was especially suitable for old ladies, with a white background covered with small red flowers.
When Shaliu passed by her, the old lady waved her fan and said, "It's really hot today."
Sha Liu slowed down his pace unconsciously, thinking that he might be able to learn something from the old lady, so he smiled and replied: "Yes, it's still so hot at night, the lights should be turned off soon, right?"
The doorman did not explain in detail about turning off the lights. Sha Liu wanted to understand whether turning off the lights was active or passive.
Sure enough, I heard the old lady say, "The power will be turned off and the lights will be turned off at 11 o'clock."
Power outage and lights off? Sha Liu wanted to ask if the public toilet would have power outages at that time, but the old lady asked first: "Girl, are you new here?"
Sha Liu nodded and asked boldly, "Auntie, who lived in 410 before?"
"Yafen," the old lady said a name, "Yafen has lived here for more than ten years. Now she lives with her parents in a new house in the city center. I heard there is an elevator!"
"Oh, that's really good." Sha Liu smiled, then lifted the curtain and went back to the house - talking to these NPCs for a long time, who knows if it will cause any side effects, so it is better to stop at the right time.
When she returned to the room, she saw Qiu Lu lying on the sofa reading a romance novel. Sha Liu frowned. She didn't want to touch anything in the room.
Qiu Lu closed the book "I am a Cloud" in her hand and dimmed the lamp with a gauze shade beside her. "I just heard you say that the power will be cut off at 11 o'clock," she said, looking at the pink clock hanging on the wall. "There is still half an hour."
Shaliu felt a gust of cool breeze blowing over her. It turned out that Qiu Lu had turned on the electric fan. "Tell me, are the things they said true? In the painting? How could they tell such a romantic lie?"
Sha Liu glanced at the poetess with some sympathy, but at this moment she just smiled and said, "We'll know whether it's romantic or not after tonight."
Qiu Lu turned on the desk lamp again and continued reading the novel.
It was the first time that Shaliu had met such a careless person. She was feeling very restless at the moment and it was impossible for her to sleep in the first half of the night. According to "custom", she could only get a short sleep after the "danger" at night was over.
Sha Liu first listened to the noise coming from room 411 next door. He could vaguely hear Ke Xun's voice, occasionally mixed with Mu Yiran's low responses, but he could not make out the content clearly.
The entire Chunsun Apartment was not so quiet. It even had a bustling feel like a slum. Shaliu opened the curtains a little and looked at the people sitting outside enjoying the cool air. Some children did not want to go to bed early and were still chasing and playing on the terrace.
Some people have their televisions turned up extra loud, playing the theme song of an old TV series: The world is so big, where is my home? The world is so big, what words can I leave behind? …
The old lady sitting outside had returned home at some point.
At this time, a few girls happened to pass by the window, discussing their topic unscrupulously: "Legend of Xiangshuai? When was that TV series released? Was it earlier than Young Justice Bao?"
"There's no My Fair Princess yet! Can you imagine? They are just a group of prehistoric humans!" The girls who spoke were the three long-legged girls, each of them eating an ice cream. "Also, the food here is so cheap!"
"Don't listen to those alarmist people. We may have traveled through time! There is no such thing as a painting! Let's buy stocks tomorrow! Let's buy a house while it's still cheap! I have quite a bit of money in my card!" The three simple-minded girls became more and more excited as they talked, wishing they could take this opportunity to change the world.
Sha Liu looked at them in the dark with some hostility, thinking back to today when she was in front of the fifth exhibition hall of the Rhino-Elephant Art Museum, she had clearly chosen her "companion", but unexpectedly, she was intercepted by these three girls. She asked her "companion" to step back and the three of them came in first!
The number of people suddenly became chaotic. Sha Liu wanted to cry but had no tears. Counting it all, 12 people had already entered, and only one was missing. That person could only be herself...
Suddenly, everything went dark in front of my eyes. The three long-legged girls outside the window screamed at the same time. Then I heard a neighbor shouting, "What are you screaming about? Isn't it just the lights out? Go back to your rooms and go to bed!"
The three girls calmed down and took advantage of the little light coming from the public restroom to find their way back to their residence - Room 402.
Qiu Lu was very calm about the sudden power outage, and said with a smile: "We were like this before college, the lights went out while we were reading a novel!"
Sha Liu had no temper towards Qiu Lu. It would be better if the other party was more timid, and she could analyze the current situation with him. But the other party turned out to be a stupid idiot with a big heart, haha.
Sha Liu watched the three long-legged girls enter Room 402 before turning away from the window. Qiu Lu happened to turn on the light of her mobile phone at this moment. The face looked particularly abrupt and scary in the backlight. Sha Liu was frightened and a little angry.
The two of them lay down on the small bed with their clothes on. Shaliu was not sleepy and did not speak.
Qiu Lu took the initiative to say: "I see you are still a young girl, have you ever been in love?"
"without."
"It would be a shame if you don't have a relationship in college!"
“…”
"Which one do you think is better, Shouzhu or Zhitiao?"
Sha Liu didn't want to talk anymore. His eyes were fixed on the two large spittoons, one tall and one short, in the darkness. To be exact, they were two toilets. After staring at them for a while, he felt more and more that they were two ancient wooden figurines staring at him, so he quickly looked away.
When my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could feel that the entire apartment had become quiet, as if no one lived in this building. It was clearly an empty building in the dark night.
An urgent knock on the door came an hour later.
