Kevin stared blankly at the piece of paper in front of him, which had an address written on it for a rather remote place in the suburbs. He was all too familiar with this address: wasn't it his own house?
"What are you looking for at this place?" Kevin wondered why a strange girl he had just met was holding the address to his house. Honestly, he was a little excited at this moment, but he also had a good sense of self-awareness, knowing that all his romantic luck had already been used up when he was seated next to a girl in elementary school, in the third grade. So he remained calm on the surface, just looking at the pretty girl in front of him with a hint of curiosity.
She had a nice figure and good looks. Although her height was slightly disappointing, her lively and cheerful demeanor could definitely make up for it...
"I'm looking for a place to live!" The pretty girl answered very straightforwardly, "I've been looking for a whole day and couldn't find anything, so I decided to ask someone—but you're the only one left in the park that I can ask."
Kevin felt that the girl's familiarity with him was a bit too much, but his attention was quickly drawn to the three words "looking for a house" mentioned by her. His drowsy mind, due to the summer nap, became a little clearer, and he suddenly remembered something: Oh, he was a landlord. He had just placed an advertisement in a local newspaper a few days ago saying that he had a room for rent. So was this girl in front of him looking for a place to live?
It had been a long time since he had any tenants. Today, he could finally collect rent again!
Kevin folded the paper and handed it back to her: "Of course, I know this place. I'll take you there."
The pretty girl immediately showed a happy expression, stuffed the paper into her bag, and patted her purse: "Thanks! I've been looking for so long..."
Kevin stood up and stretched his arms. Just as he was about to step out of the park, a thought suddenly occurred to him: "Hey, wait! Did you say you spent a whole day looking for this address in the city center?"
The pretty girl nodded vigorously, exuding a kind of innocent cuteness: "Yeah, that's right! This place is pretty hard to find."
"Of course it's hard to find!" Kevin almost lost control of his tone. He suddenly wondered if this girl had known him before and had a grudge against him, and today she was specifically coming over to tease him, "Didn't you notice that the address says Southern Suburbs? Southern Suburbs! You spent a whole day looking for a suburban address in the city?"
"But it says Baishi Building here," the pretty girl raised her finger and pointed in a certain direction. Kevin knew that was the location of a commercial building in the city center, "Isn't Baishi Building in the city?"
Kevin froze for a moment before realizing, "It's Baishi Road in the Southern Suburbs, not Baishi Building in the city center!"
He had another half-sentence left unsaid: Did you only read the first two words of the address, lady?
"Oh," the pretty girl quickly recalled and showed an embarrassed expression, "I forgot, I'm usually a bit careless. So you know this Baishi Road in the Southern Suburbs, right? Can you take me there?"
Kevin still felt that there was something off about the girl in front of him, but he was the type of person who didn't like to overthink things. Besides, she was just a tenant looking for a place to rent from him. Having been a landlord for the past two years, he had already grown accustomed to not interfering too much in his tenants' affairs. So he pointed towards the park entrance and said, "We'll have to take the bus; the Southern Suburbs are far from here. By the time we get there, it'll probably be evening. Oh, by the way, I'm the landlord you're looking for. The house you're looking for is mine."
Upon hearing this, the pretty girl immediately showed a surprised expression and became excited, "What!? You're serious?"
As soon as Kevin nodded, the energetic girl almost jumped up, "Wow, what a coincidence! How can there be such a coincidence in the world? Landlord, are we destined to meet!?"
Kevin rubbed his forehead. He had felt that the girl in front of him was a bit eccentric since just now. At this moment, he couldn't help but say what he had been thinking, "Don't you... fear being abducted? What if I'm lying to you?"
This was already a euphemistic way of putting it. In fact, he really thought the girl was a bit... no, extremely naive! Not only did she spend a whole day looking for a suburban address in the city center, but she also believed a stranger after just a few words. She was even about to let a stranger lead the way and take her to a deserted suburban area. How could girls' awareness of prevention be so weak these days? Was she extremely lucky or had human traffickers been slacking off recently? How come this girl hadn't been abducted?
Kevin thought a lot in his mind, but it only took a couple of seconds. The seemingly naive girl (is it okay to say that?) also seemed to realize something just now. She looked at Kevin with vigilance, "Abduct? So are you a human trafficker planning to sell me?"
Kevin: "...Of course not!" He felt that he should stay away from this girl. If it weren't for the fact that she was a "customer," he definitely wouldn't have communicated with such a naive person for such a long time!
The naive girl nodded satisfactorily, "That's good. I'm terrified of being deceived. So shall we go?"
Kevin sighed weakly and felt his steps particularly heavy as he left the park.
The two quickly boarded the bus heading from the city to the suburbs, and the journey was far from boring: Kevin found that his new tenant was not only outgoing, impulsive, and slightly eccentric, but also couldn't stop talking! On the bus, he listened to her enthusiastically chatting away about topics ranging from the current situation of second-tier celebrities at home and abroad to the housing prices in second-tier cities around the country. Kevin had no idea how these topics had started, but she never seemed embarrassed or at a loss for words. As long as he gave a slight nod of agreement, the eccentric girl would find the motivation to continue talking and keep going... However, this wasn't a big issue; listening to her served as a good distraction. Moreover, Kevin took this opportunity to roughly understand the situation of his new tenant, which was a required course for a landlord: to roughly know the tenant's situation in as short a time as possible in order to prevent some troublesome things.
The eccentric girl surnamed Liu, named Liu Lili, generously allowed Kevin to call her "Lili" directly. She claimed to be a pet doctor and a casual writer who had traveled extensively (Kevin wondered what a casual writer was exactly). She had just arrived from another city and planned to stay here permanently. She wasn't picky about her living arrangements; as long as it was sheltered, clean, and convenient, it was fine since her work was flexible...
Based on this information, Kevin judged that his new tenant was very adventurous, didn't have a stable job for the time being, but wouldn't cause any trouble for him. He was quite satisfied with this. Actually, such a little girl couldn't be too troublesome, although her personality seemed a bit eccentric... but that was her own problem, wasn't it? Kevin just needed to do his job as a landlord.
As expected, by the time the超长 route bus (I'll translate this as "the bus with an extended route") finally stopped at a small stop in the southern suburbs, it was almost completely dark outside.
Kevin led Lili off the bus. Before he could even catch his breath, he heard her exclaim, "Is this Baishi Road?"
"The sign says it's the Southern Suburbs Stop! Baishi Road is an old street, and you have to take a side road to get there. Have you ever seen a bus driving into an alley?"
"Oh... haha, I'm prone to mixing things up. Landlord, please forgive me," Lili chuckled. After chatting nonstop all the way, she seemed to have become a little more familiar with Kevin unilaterally. She turned her head to look at the surroundings and slightly furrowed her brows, "It's pretty deserted here."
The bus stop was located beside an old road. All the buildings around were in the style of twenty to thirty years ago. The road was bumpy, the street-side shops were narrow and already closed, and behind the shops were old and cramped five-story apartment buildings. All of these indicated how desolate and outdated the place was. This street and the surrounding area were already the only "downtown" in the southern suburbs. Sometimes Kevin wondered if this area had been completely forgotten by modern society, but at the end of every month, he would regain confidence in society: Don't worry, the water supply bureau won't forget you, the power supply bureau won't forget you, the gas company won't forget you, even the telecommunications company and insurance sellers won't forget you. With so many people constantly thinking about you in the outskirts, what's there to be unhappy about...
"Let's go," Kevin motioned for Lily to follow. "Although the city's security is good, this place is rather remote, and it's inevitable that there might be drunkards lurking around at night. Let's go back to my place first and get you settled. By the way, I'll remind you of this: try not to wander around at night. Your safety will save me some trouble too."
Theoretically, these words shouldn't be said. As a landlord, saying this could easily scare away potential tenants or make them suspicious. But Kevin had always been an honest person. Although he hated trouble, he was even more reluctant to lie or take advantage of others. Therefore, as soon as he opened his mouth, he made it clear about the situation here. This was also one of the reasons why his house hadn't been rented out recently: two potential tenants had come, but they were both scared away.
However, Lily, this petite-looking girl, didn't take it seriously at all. "Don't worry, landlord. I'm good at fighting."
Kevin felt that he had definitely encountered an abnormal person today. "I wasn't talking about that... Hey, let me be frank with you. Aren't you afraid of encountering bad guys at all?"
As a half-stranger who had only known each other for a day, Kevin knew that he shouldn't interfere too much in others' business. But this was the first time in his life that he had encountered such a strange girl, who was outgoing, familiar, and unguarded to the point of being almost eccentric. As a good person, he couldn't help but speak up.
However, Lily just waved her hand happily and carelessly. "Landlord, you're such a nice person. But I'm not afraid of bad guys. I'm very strong, and I'm good at fighting. All the bad guys I encountered before were scared away by me."
Kevin couldn't help murmuring to himself: You really encountered bad guys... Is it because you scared them all away that you're so unrestrained and without caution now?
Seeing that Kevin wasn't speaking, Lily smiled to herself and reached out to pull her extra-large suitcase to follow up. However, with a "thunk thunk" sound, the two rubber wheels on the suitcase fell off and soon rolled away.
"Haha, I guess it's a bit heavy." Lily scratched her head embarrassedly.
"No, it's the road that's a bit bumpy..." Kevin's eyebrows twitched. Looking at the bumpy road, he couldn't help sighing and felt that as a man, he should do something. "Here, let me help you with the suitcase... Wow, what exactly did you put in here?!"
As soon as he touched the suitcase, Kevin felt that something was wrong with it. The weight was as if it contained cement of the same volume. He, a burly man, couldn't even lift it!
However, Lily didn't notice the strange expression on Kevin's face at all. She just laughed and picked up her big suitcase with one hand,(I'll translate this as "slung it over her shoulder"), and the entire process was as easy as grabbing a bag of cotton.
Kevin stood with his mouth open, watching the slim girl, who was shorter than him, carry a suitcase weighing at least a hundred pounds on her shoulder and walk briskly ahead. He almost doubted whether his worldview was wrong. It wasn't until Lily loudly urged him to lead the way ahead that he snapped out of it. As he walked, he muttered to himself: It's okay, she's just naturally strong. Haven't we seen enough of that on variety shows...
The two walked on, one with a slight preoccupation, soon leaving the relatively wide main road and turning into a dark alleyway. At the end of this alleyway lay the so-called "White Stone Road," where Kevin's ancestral mansion was located ahead.
The sky had already darkened, and one of the two street lamps beside the alleyway was out of order. Surrounded by old and dilapidated houses, the atmosphere here became even more eerie and terrifying. If it weren't for the nearly full moon shining in the sky, even Kevin, a big man familiar with the environment, would have felt uneasy walking outside. He couldn't help but glance at Lily walking beside him. The girl was still without any guard and seemed to be in a good mood.
The dark night curtain, the deserted alleyway, the unfamiliar surroundings, and a strange man by her side—any one of these four things would be enough to make a girl with normal values vigilant. But this "Liu Lily" didn't seem the least bit tense. Was she really lacking in common sense, or what?
"Flutter flutter—"
Just as Kevin was lost in thought and worrying unnecessarily about a strange girl, a.... sound of flapping wings suddenly came from above.
Of course, it scared him when a sudden noise broke the silence around him. He immediately looked in the direction of the sound and happened to catch a glimpse of a strange black shadow instantly crossing the narrow night sky between the high walls on both sides.
The black shadow seemed to be a bat, but its size... seemed off?
"Huh... what kind of thing is out at night." Kevin, of course, didn't want to lose face in front of a girl, so he deliberately loudly muttered that he wasn't scared at all, and then looked up at Lily. He thought he would see her frightened expression, but instead...
At that moment, he saw a pair of wolf-like ears suddenly sprout from Lily's head!