Chapter 37 Idiot

The new neighbor was weird. Yin Xian clutched his stomach with one hand and switched on the light with the other.

What was wrong with her eyes?

He’d been squatting outside brushing his teeth and saw her walking down the slope. She walked right past him like he wasn’t even there, kicked him over, and then stepped on his stomach and face as she walked by.

He wiped his face with a towel, glanced toward the window, and saw her still standing outside like an idiot.

“Is she an idiot?” he frowned and pulled the curtains shut.

It wasn’t the first time Yin Xian had made that judgment about her.

A month ago.

Yin Xian came home from work. Next to his house were a few rows of wooden townhouses. Walking past them into an alley and deeper in, you’d reach his place.

From afar, he saw a girl he didn’t recognize standing beneath the wooden house.

She looked underage, wore a ponytail, had a broad forehead and big round eyes. She was wearing a light purple hoodie with writing on it and faded jeans.

By the time he got to the house, she was already upstairs.

“Granny, let me help you.” He heard her say.

“Alright, alright.” The old woman put down what she was carrying and thanked her.

There came a clattering of noise mixed with the sounds of stumbling down the stairs.

“Hey, hey!” the old woman called out.

The girl’s footsteps were quick: “Don’t worry, I can handle it.”

“No, no, wait—”

Yin Xian turned his head. The girl was standing at the bottom of the stairs with a big cabinet on her shoulder.

She set it down, clapped her hands, and wiped away her sweat.

She waited for the old woman, a satisfied smile on her face.

The old woman moved slowly, caught up, and quickly went to guard the cabinet, sighing repeatedly.

“Why were you in such a rush? I didn’t even have time to call out. I was trying to move it upstairs—took me half the day to get it to the second floor—and now you’ve brought it back down again.”

The girl’s eyes widened. She froze for two or three seconds before realizing what had happened.

“Oh, oh—I’ll help you bring it back up.”

“…”

Watching from the side, Yin Xian couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“Idiot.”

Two or three days later, he saw her washing her hair at the outdoor faucet in front of her house and realized she was the new neighbor.

“Aaah waaah aaahhh.”

She kept making odd hissing and wailing noises as she poured shampoo on her head and scrubbed furiously. The foam soaked into her hoodie collar, and the cold water drenched half her back.

Listening closely, he realized she was yelling,

“Cold! Cold! Cold!”

She turned on the faucet and rinsed off the suds. Her scream shot up an octave, as pitiful as a pig being slaughtered.

“So cold, waaah! Cold cold cold!”

As if shouting could fight the cold, she scrubbed her hair with all her might, her mouth never stopping.

In weather this freezing, anyone with a bit of common sense or brains wouldn’t use cold water to wash their hair… Yin Xian shut the door and went back to his room, convinced his new neighbor wasn’t right in the head.

The soundproofing in Urban Village was terrible—the walls were like paper.

Yin Xian could often hear his new neighbor talking to herself.

“Did I forget to turn off the lights when I left? So careless. Electricity is expensive.”

“I need to buy curtains when I get my paycheck. No idea where the curtain shop is.”

“I’m so hungry, but I can’t eat. This last bite is saved for tomorrow’s breakfast.”

“Ugh, I’m starving.”

He pulled the blanket over his head to avoid hearing her. She kept saying she was hungry, and it made his own stomach start growling.

“If only I could have a steaming bowl of noodles right now.”

How could someone talk to themselves so much, and with such chatter?

Yin Xian rolled over irritably, covering his ears with both hands.

Little by little, he’d already developed an ear for her voice.

A soft southern accent, rapid speech, and lots of filler words. Her self-talk was even more mumbled than when speaking to people—landing in his ears like a little bee frantically flapping its wings.

In the morning, half-asleep, he once again heard the new neighbor’s voice.

“Hey, you little brat, was it you who took my bag?!”

The old man who collected junk across the street shouted at the top of his lungs, unleashing a barrage of curses: “Aunt Zhao said she saw you. Don’t try to deny it! You stole the recyclables I worked so hard to collect. I’m already so poor, and you still steal from me? You’ve got no conscience!”

Yin Xian got out of bed and looked through the window to see the new neighbor pressing her palms together, apologizing.

“Sorry, I didn’t know it was yours. That black bag was full of trash. I thought it was garbage, so I threw it out with mine.”

The old man waved her off, refusing to listen. “Yeah, right, helping me? You got the nerve to say that? If you don’t know what it is, don’t touch it! You thought it was trash—you thought so. Do you know how much work I put into collecting those recyclables?”

“Sorry.” She swallowed what she was going to say, face falling.

The old man craned his neck higher, more aggressive than before: “You have to pay me back.”

The girl nodded. “Okay… how much?”

The old man gave a number—clearly trying to scam her.

Yin Xian didn’t keep watching.

If someone wanted to be kind and play the good person, that was their business.

It had nothing to do with him, and he wouldn’t get involved.

Wang Jiexiang was sure she was sick.

She came back from the Work Unit and drank lots of hot water, but her throat still hurt. The next day at work, she looked pale and sickly. When the wind blew, she could barely stand.

She pushed through the morning but couldn’t hold on any longer, so she went to Sister Xu to ask for a favor.

“I’m not feeling well today. Can we switch spots this afternoon?”

Sister Xu rolled her eyes and rejected her flatly.

“If you’re sick, go ask the supervisor for leave and go home to sleep.”

Wang Jiexiang went to the supervisor—not to ask for sick leave, but to request that she work inside the supermarket that afternoon, selling cooking oil.

The supervisor was puzzled. “Wasn’t the original plan that you two alternate shifts? Why the request?”

“Sister Xu says she knows the layout of the supermarket better, so I’ve been the one selling outside in the tent.”

Wang Jiexiang wasn’t trying to complain—she just felt unwell and wanted to be somewhere warmer. But taking sick leave meant a pay deduction, and she needed the money, so she didn’t ask for leave.

Even though she didn’t intend it that way, the supervisor still took her to Sister Xu and scolded her.

Wang Jiexiang got her wish: an afternoon indoors.

But after that, her coworkers at the supermarket started to isolate her even more.

When the peanut oil promotion ended, the supermarket didn’t keep her on as a sales assistant. Wang Jiexiang once again found herself on the long road of job hunting.

She had only a junior high education, no special skills, no noteworthy work experience.

And she was a thin, petite girl—no one wanted to hire her for physically demanding work either.

After two months in the City, she didn’t even have a single person she could really talk to. She couldn’t find a job, and no one was there to help her get one.

Wandering unfamiliar streets, Wang Jiexiang felt like a grain of sand swept into the sea by a cold tide. Her joy, anger, sorrow, and existence were all swallowed by the vast ocean.

To this massive City, she was so small she may as well have been invisible.

When she truly ran out of options, she went to find Jiang Bingbing again.

The hair salon where Jiang Bingbing worked had a recruitment notice posted outside.

“Now hiring female hair washing assistant. Must be under 24. Salary negotiable.”

Hope lit in Wang Jiexiang’s eyes. She tore down the flyer and stepped into the shop.