Chapter 20

“I’ve been busy all day, got all sweaty on the way home. I thought I’d take a cold shower, but I ended up dirtier than before. I wanted to rinse some rice, cook a meal, and then I’d end up in the hospital with a bacterial infection…” Zhu Lin shuddered at the thought.

“What age are we living in now? Even in the village, it’s not like that!” She sincerely suggested to Zhou Rui, “You should move to a different place.”

“I’d like to,” Zhou Rui said, frustrated, ruffling his hair. “But finding a place, looking at it, it all takes a lot of time. Even if I find a place I like, it has to be affordable. I don’t have much of a budget.”

Zhu Lin hesitated for a moment and then made up her mind. “How about you rent a place in my family’s house?”

Zhou Rui looked up in surprise. “Your family has a place for rent?”

“My family is in the countryside. A long time ago, we bought a piece of land, and my dad spent some money building a house there. Later, he divided each floor into several single rooms, bought some second-hand furniture, and did some basic renovations before renting them out,” Zhu Lin explained. “There are several rooms available now. Although the location is a bit far and the decor isn’t very fancy, it’s cheap, and the water and electricity work fine. It’s definitely better than where you’re living now.”

It took Zhou Rui a while to understand what Zhu Lin was saying. He had a peculiar expression. “I never thought you’d be a landlady… You never mentioned it before.”

Zhu Lin looked up at the sky. “The house belongs to my parents. I’m just a humble worker.”

“You’re kidding me,” Zhou Rui scoffed. “There’s a difference between having money at home and not having money at home. My family still has debts, and I have to help pay them off every month. Even if your parents don’t give you an allowance, at least they don’t take your salary. With family wealth, you can spend your monthly salary however you like, and it doesn’t matter if you spend it all.”

“That’s true,” Zhu Lin admitted. “I only have to support myself every month.”

“That’s great,” Zhou Rui said, showing some envy.

“How about we go see the place after work today?” Zhu Lin suggested.

“Okay,” Zhou Rui agreed readily.

Zhu Lin turned to Yun Xin, “How about you? Is your current place okay? Do you want to come along?”

“I was just thinking of moving,” Yun Xin responded eagerly. “I’ll go too.”

And so it was decided.

At 3 p.m., the colleagues on the evening shift took over, and the three of them finished their shift. Zhou Rui asked how they would get there.

Zhu Lin said, “I drove here. I’ll take you guys.”

Zhou Rui was stunned. “Since when did you get a car?”

Zhu Lin turned her face away guiltily. “It’s for commuting. My parents said the distance was too far, and taking the bus was too tiring, so they bought it for me.”

Zhou Rui was stunned. “I’ve never seen you drive before.”

Zhu Lin explained, “I park on the next street and walk five minutes to the shop. Also, since I’m working for someone else, I can’t be driving a car that’s better than the boss’s and flaunting it around.”

Zhou Rui had no response to that.

Zhu Lin continued, “In my previous job, once my colleagues found out my family had rental properties, they constantly talked about it. So when I started this new job, I wanted to keep a low profile and avoid that, which is why I didn’t mention it to you.”

“Alright, no need to explain. I understand,” Zhou Rui said. Initially shocked, he calmed down and thought about Zhu Lin’s usual behavior. It didn’t seem like she came from a poor family, and the signs were always there. He regained his composure and asked, “Where’s the car parked? Let’s go.”

“This way, follow me.”

Zhu Lin led the way, with Zhou Rui and Yun Xin following, making several turns. Soon, they arrived at a corner of the parking lot.

“This is it.”

Zhu Lin unlocked the car and signaled for them to get in. On the way, Zhu Lin introduced the area. “You can ride an electric scooter; it takes about thirty minutes to get to our shop. You can also ride a bike and switch to the subway.”

“The transportation sounds quite convenient,” Yun Xin said.

Zhou Rui added, “Let’s check out the house first and see what the surrounding facilities are like.”

“Take your time to look around. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to rent it,” Zhu Lin said nonchalantly.

In fact, if it weren’t for her slip of the tongue causing Zhou Rui’s injury, she wouldn’t have mentioned her family’s rental property. Co-workers are just people you see at work; after work, everyone has their own lives and doesn’t need to stay in touch. But since it had already come to this, there was no need to hide. She decided to show them around openly and leave the final decision up to them.

With this thought, Zhu Lin drove home.

Twenty minutes later.

“We’re here,” Zhu Lin announced.

Zhou Rui got out and saw a supermarket nearby, which made buying daily necessities very convenient. Along the way, there were many small restaurants, indicating that eating out would be easy. There was also a pharmacy not far away, so getting medicine for a headache or fever wouldn’t require a long trip.

Though Zhou Rui didn’t say anything, he was already leaning toward liking the place.

Zhu Lin parked the car and said, “Let’s go, I’ll show you the rooms. There, that’s the building my family owns.”

Zhou Rui tried to stay calm, but three seconds later, he couldn’t help it—damn, he was envious!

As they were going upstairs, a group of kids suddenly ran out, nearly bumping into them.

“How many times have I told you not to run around like that? What if you bump into someone?” Zhu Lin scolded and started to go upstairs.

Yun Xin clearly saw that each child had a line of text on their body, indicating their time of death ranging from 22 to 30 minutes.

“Where are you going?” she blocked their path, not letting them pass.

“Swimming!” a chubby boy answered loudly.

“Didn’t your teacher tell you that swimming is dangerous and kids shouldn’t go swimming alone?” Yun Xin said on purpose.

The tallest of the six kids rolled his eyes. “We’re six people going together, not alone.”

“Six kids together still isn’t safe. You must have an adult with you to go swimming,” Yun Xin said firmly. “No swimming. Find another activity.”

Hearing this, Zhu Lin remembered Zhou Rui’s injury and felt uneasy. She quickly chimed in, “You heard her, no swimming. If you sneak off to swim, I’ll definitely tell your mom when she gets back!”

The threat of telling their parents worked well.

The six kids sheepishly agreed, “Okay.”

“Alright, go play,” Zhu Lin waved her hand.

Seeing that the black mist and text had disappeared from the kids, Yun Xin stepped aside and followed Zhu Lin upstairs.

“Qiang Ge, they said we can’t go swimming. What should we play instead?” the chubby boy asked dejectedly.

Here is the translation of the text into English:

“You’re silly!” the tallest one watched the adult leave and whispered, “Let’s sneak off quietly so they won’t find out.”

“But Sister Zhu Lin said she would tell our parents…” Little Fatty looked troubled.

“Cowards are afraid of others telling their parents. If you don’t go, you’re a coward,” sneered the tallest one.

Others started teasing, “Coward! Coward!”

“I… I’m not,” Little Fatty’s face turned red, “I’ll go.”

“There are two types of rooms. One type doesn’t have windows but comes with a separate bathroom, a kitchen cabinet, and a small refrigerator, so it’s like having a small kitchen,” Zhu Lin turned on the faucet, “The water is clean, and we haven’t received any power outage notices recently.”

“The washing machine is in the corridor and is shared. If you don’t want to use it, you can buy your own and put it in your room.”

“The air conditioner was bought from the second-hand market. If it breaks down, let me know promptly, and I’ll arrange for someone to fix it.”

“Water and electricity fees are prepaid and based on usage. Other than that, if you need furniture, you can add your own and take it when you move out.”

“There’s another type with a window, better lighting, and a higher monthly rent. I didn’t show it to you because I don’t think you need it.”

Zhou Rhui was very satisfied and politely asked about the rent.

Zhu Lin quoted a number.

Zhuo Rhui did the math and realized it was only two hundred more than where he currently lives, but the quality of life is completely different.

Even though everywhere costs money, there isn’t much left for food, and there’s no extra money to rent a better house. But when he thought about power outages and dirty water from the tap, he felt that even if he only ate two meals a day, he needed to get out of that hell as soon as possible.

With this in mind, Zhou Rhui firmly said, “I’ll rent this place. Let’s sign the contract.”

Yun Xin also said, “I’ll rent it too, but I want one with a window.”

“Okay, I’ll go get the contract…”

Before the words were finished, there was a burst of crying and shouting outside the building, “Help! Brother Qiang and the others are drowning! Someone come and save them!”

Upon hearing this, Zhu Lin opened the window and shouted down, “Didn’t I tell you not to go swimming?!”

“But Brother Qiang said we could sneak off as long as we weren’t caught…” Little Fatty replied, feeling upset and scared.

Zhu Lin sighed; this kids was really difficult to manage.

“Don’t sign the contract yet; let’s go save them first,” Yun Xin said as she hurried downstairs.

Upon hearing that some children were drowning, a few idle adults immediately came out, and Little Fatty led the way.

Crying and running, Little Fatty also pointed out the direction to the adults, “They’re over there.”

I saw five small figures struggling in the water, some even swallowing several mouthfuls.

The adults were very worried.

The man who could swim took off his clothes and jumped into the water to rescue them.

“Over there, over there,” people who couldn’t swim on the bank shouted, hoping to help the drowning kids.

The man ignored them and swam straight to the distant place.

“Hey, rescue the nearest first!! Every life saved counts!” someone shouted at the man.

At this moment, a neighbor pulled his sleeve, reminding in a low voice, “The farthest one is his child; he naturally wants to save his own kid first.”

The man immediately fell silent.

Swimming far away, the man pulled the children back and handed them over to trusted individuals, then jumped back into the water again.

“Hurry, hurry, perform CPR!” One person stepped forward to rescue, pressing several times. Finally, the child responded, coughing up water and opening their eyes.

“It’s alright, it’s alright.”

Little Fatty saw his friends being rescued, crying out in relief.

Meanwhile, the man brought two more children back nearby.

“Quick, perform CPR!”

At that moment, Zhu Lin and the others arrived.

Zhu Lin asked the man, “Are you okay? Can you handle the physical strain?”

In case he ran out of energy halfway, adults would also have to dive in.

“It’s alright, I can do it,” the man said, then plunged back into the water.

Zhu Lin looked around and raised her voice, “Isn’t there anyone else who can swim? Can someone else go down and help him bring the children up?”

“I’ll go.” At a critical moment, Zhuo Rui jumped into the water to help rescue.