Ch20 - Xiao Ming’s Daily Life

Li Yinhang did the handicrafts task and stumbled to complete it. It was just like Shen Jie’s assessment. Li Yinhang’s hands-on ability truly wasn’t very good.

Her brain: You learned it. 

Her hands: Nonsense.

Fortunately, like everyone else before her, there was a smooth transition. She built a ‘home’ without any unexpected troubles. Next was the computer game task and the fitness trainer quickly went online. The game that Xiao Ming played was similar to PUBG. The fitness instructor’s gaming ability was quite limited and he perfectly showed the level of a primary school student.

The thin monkey’s mouth was also mean and he played well as a teammate. He took advantage of the break in the game and instructed the fitness trainer to do the task he hadn’t had time to complete previously—search every corner of the computer for useful information. Unfortunately, the computer was extremely clean.

Social media software: no. 

Recycling bin: empty.

Family photos: no.

Browsing history: no.

Hidden folders: no.

The thin monkey hated things that were useless and was so angry that he wanted to smash the computer. Seeing that the task handover time was approaching, he had to leave the second bedroom and go to the children’s room. He picked up the diary and started to truthfully record today’s itinerary.

The thin monkey was more used to a keyboard and mouse and hadn’t held a pen for a long time. Therefore, his writing ability wasn’t much different from a primary school student. He bit the pen and pondered on how to write about the cake he ate today. Halfway through, the lawyer surnamed Yu who he hated the most came in on the wheelchair. The lawyer looked at his half-finished work and gave a low laugh.

The thin monkey, “……” What was this trivial laugh?

Yu Tuisi told him, “You imitate a primary school student every well.” 

The thin monkey, “……”

Still, these words were good in this situation.

The thin monkey choked up and turned pale as he whispered, “Why are you here?”

Yu Tuisi controlled the wheelchair and moved to the door of the children’s room. He raised a hand to hold the door frame and gestured to shut the door. The thin monkey was stunned. “Hello?” 

Yu Tuisi smiled. “There is something here.”

On the door of the children’s room, there was a ruler with three or four marks drawn. It started from 90cm above the ground all the way to 128 cm with the date of the measurement next to it. Yu Tuisi had found this detail during his nap.

Due to physical reasons, Yu Tuisi’s field of view was different from other people. He often came into contact with environmental objects more frequently than normal people. Thus, he could find things that were hard to notice from a normal person’s point of view.

Yu Tuisi was ready to move the wheelchair back when there was a knock on the door. Yu Tuisi called out, “Please come in.” 

Nan Zhou stuck his head in. “What are you doing?”

Yu Tuisi smiled. It had been less than a day since meeting each other and Yu Tuisi discovered that although Nan Zhou usually looked cold and indifferent, his habits were like a cat. No matter what others did, he wanted to come to see and touch.

“This gentleman is being a good boy and writing the diary entry obediently,” Yu Tuisi replied with a smile. “As for me, I need a helper.”

The thin monkey who was a good boy, “……” 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Nan Zhou squeezed through the crack in the door and the room suddenly became cramped. The thin monkey didn’t dare talk too much and had to pretend that these two people didn’t exist.

Te Kelrl abemtfv atf rmjif bc atf yjmx bo atf vbbg qjcfi. “Obbx tfgf.”

Rjc Itbe kbcvfgfv, “Qtja lr atlr?”

Te Kelrl qjerfv. “Xfcfgjiis, atfgf klii yf j rmjif ja tbwf obg mtlivgfc ab wfjregf atflg tfluta.” 

Rjc Itbe rjlv, “Zs ojwlis cfnfg wfjregfv atlr.”

Te Kelrl vlvc’a jrx abb wemt jcv ragbxfv atf vbbg. “Vwfii la.”

Nan Zhou came closer and sniffed it. The faint smell of wood lacquer drifted into his nose. It wasn’t pungent or strong but it was unpleasant.

“All the door panels in the house use this wood lacquer. It is a wood lacquer from reality,” Yu Tuisi explained. “A few years ago, my partner and I selected this type of paint when decorating our new house. We chose it ourselves and painted it together. Then once we finished decorating, I found that the smell of formaldehyde was difficult to disperse. It took about two years for it to slightly improve.” 

Nan Zhou understood what he meant. “Then this house has been renovated within two years?”

“It should be.”

Yu Tuisi was a good-tempered senior and patiently listed out his findings. “The wallpaper isn’t very new but there is no sign of moisture. Based on the degree of wear and tear of the sofa cover in the living room and the pilling of the sofa cushions, the sofa should‘ve been replaced in the last year or two years as well.”

Nan Zhou looked at the earliest date of the height measurement that was 90cm above the ground. It was one year and eight months away from the date of the last measurement. He speculated, “This house is a new house bought around two years ago?” 

Yu Tuisi shook his head. He moved his wheelchair back again and pointed to a gap in the floor close to the wall. “Look, there are traces of a beauty crack here.”

Nan Zhou asked again, “What is a beauty crack?”

Yu Tuisi, “……”

He found that Nan Zhou’s cleverness was a bit unconventional. He carefully explained, “Tiles in the home will have problems with gaps getting big, discoloration and breaking over time. Thus, they need the cracks to be beautified. It should be considered a small home improvement.” 

Then Yu Tuisi leaned down and scraped the gap between the wall and the floor with his finger. “The result depends on the craftsmanship of the master. It is inevitable that there will be some minor problems such as incomplete filling, overflow filling, etc… the part against the wall is the most prone to such problems.”

He used a bit of effort to break off a small piece of an overflowing, solidified object against the wall and placed it in his palm. “Look, the surface is filled with epoxy resin but the bottom is glued with a bit of an oil-based crack sealer. These are too different crack filling materials.”

Nan Zhou came to a conclusion. “So the cracks have been repaired at least twice?”

“That’s right.” Yu Tuisi nodded. “It is reasonable to say that a period of time must pass before the beauty crack is needed. It is only when there is a certain amount of wear and tear in the floor that it is needed.” 

He continued, “Therefore, either Xiao Ming’s family bought a second-hand house or Xiao Ming’s family has lived here for a long time.”

“Yes…” Nan Zhou wondered, “So what?”

Yu Tuisi instructed, “There is hard work. Tear off the wallpaper here.”

The thin monkey who had been acting as the audience was startled. “Huh?!” 

Yu Tuisi gestured to him to signal for him to stay silent. At the same time, he told Nan Zhou, “Don’t tear too much. Just the piece behind the door is fine.”

Nan Zhou didn’t move.

Yu Tuisi wondered, “Is there a problem?”

Nan Zhou didn’t shy away from the question. “I am wondering why you are letting me tear it.” 

Yu Tuisi was silent.

Nan Zhou said, “Your teammate Chen Sufeng is outside but you didn’t call for him.”

“in addition, you might be sitting down but that doesn’t mean you are unable to tear off the wallpaper.”

There was no response from Yu Tuisi for a long time and Nan Zhou nodded. “You are afraid that something will happen if you tear it off. You want to pit me.” 

Yu Tuisi sighed while touching his forehead. He just said that this guy’s cleverness was really unconventional.

“Yes, I do have this worry.” After being exposed, Yu Tuisi quickly corrected his expression. “This is my problem. It is easy for me to look ahead and think too much. It is difficult to let myself and my teammate take risks unless the certainty is over 80%.”

Nan Zhou was unmoved.

Yu Tuisi continued, “However, if there is a clue behind the door and you tear off the wallpaper, the clue and points will be yours.” 

Nan Zhou reacted very quickly. “This is what you said.”

Yu Tuisi, “……” He wondered if Nan Zhou had been waiting for him to say this. He moved his wheelchair back to give Nan Zhou plenty of room.

Nan Zhou moved very neatly and tore down a piece of wallpaper behind the door. Surrounded by exquisite wallpaper, there were signs of aging on the white wall. There was also a scale for measuring height. However, the time indicated on the scale went back as early as 12 years ago. The time span and height were also much higher than the new scale behind the door.

[Ding—] 

[Congratulations to player Nan Zhou for collecting the clue ‘another family member’.]

[Congratulations to player Nan Zhou of the ‘Cube Boat’ team for winning Xiao Ming’s Daily Life main plot reward x1. You are rewarded with 200 experience points—]

Nan Zhou quietly listened to the reward before raising his finger to touch the marker handwriting on the wall. It was as the reward notification indicated. There was another member of the family. It was a child much older than Xiao Ming.

This child used to live in Xiao Ming’s room. They were pulled behind the door by the parents and stood there to have their height measured again and again. They looked back, trying to see how tall they had grown but their parents smiled and held down their shoulders, telling them not to move. 

The last time the child measured their height, they were 1.65 meters. According to a normal child’s physical growth standard, the time span and Xiao Ming’s height measurement, this child should now be around 20 years old. This was the university age.

Yu Tuisi just shrugged at the loss of 200 points. He preferred being safe and conservative over gaining points. He explained why he thought there would be a clue behind the door. “Judging from the hair, a woman disappeared from the house. She might be Xiao Ming’s sister or his mother.”

“I thought that if they had lived in this apartment long enough or even renovated many times, the sister might’ve lived in the children’s room.”

At this point, he sighed softly. “The Coco Mademoiselle perfume in the closet is indeed a fragrance preferred by young women.” 

“It means it is more likely that a sister, not a mother, lived here.”

They made quite a lot of discoveries today. It was just that the horror they experienced was lackluster. It was almost like a real schoolboy’s routine that flowed quickly.

As her task time approached, Shen Jie’s anxiety became more and more obvious. She bit her nails and her elbows resting on her knees trembled slightly. There was a dead person in the house. The most suitable place to dismember a body was the bathroom. At 9 o’clock in the evening, she was going to wash her hair in a place like this…

The fitness trainer saw Shen Jie’s pale face and couldn’t bear it. “Sister Shen, I will go.” 

Shen Jie calmed down and waved her hand. “It’s fine.”

She was the leader of Shunfeng and she should take responsibility. Once time was almost up, she got up and said, “I’ll get ready first.”

Meanwhile, Nan Zhou got 200 points and was studying the items in the shopping mall. He heard Shen Jie’s tone and couldn’t help raising his head to stare at her back. He asked Jiang Fang, “Why is she nervous?”

“Usually when taking a shower, there are all types of worries.” Jiang Fang explained it. “You are afraid about a ghost reaching out from a mirror, afraid that someone will touch the back of your neck when foam is covering your eyes…” 

Nan Zhou interrupted. “Why? Why would a ghost touch your neck?”

“I’m not wearing clothes and the ghost will see me. A man is fine but if it is a female ghost—” Nan Zhou seriously worried about this question. “Who will be considered the rogue?”

Jiang Fang, “……”

Shen Jie who just walked out, “……” 

Nan Zhou continued to ask, “If something like a ghost appears in the bathroom, will it usually stay in the bathroom?”

Jiang Fang answered, “If it is an earthbound spirit then it is possible.”

“Won’t it have no entertainment?”

Jiang Fang raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps not.” 

“Where would it hide? In the mirror? In the toilet? Will it get bored if no one looks in the mirror? What would it do if someone goes to the toilet?”

“In addition, what about when it comes to home renovations?”

“If repair putty is used to beautify the cracks, will it also be there?”

Jiang Fang couldn’t help smiling slightly. “Perhaps.” 

Nan Zhou nodded. “Then it can’t hide from the formaldehyde even if it hates the smell of formaldehyde.”

Shen Jie’s spirit that was stretched to the limit slowly relaxed at Nan Zhou’s repeated questions. Regardless of whether Nan Zhou deliberately helped ease her fear or not, she thanked him in her heart.

Since the female hair was found in the master bathroom, Shen Jie naturally chose the bathroom of the children’s bedroom to perform the task. However, there was a minor problem with her task. The shower head in this bathroom was broken and only a bit of sparse yellow water was squeezed out.

It was impossible for her to go to the master bathroom, let alone use the bathtub. There would be greater restrictions on her actions if she lay down in the bathtub. If she was in a crisis then she would have no time to react. 

Thus, she chose the same way that Chen Sufeng used to take a shower at noon. She washed her hair in the washbasin. She turned on the tap and changed to hot water mode. The bathroom gradually fogged up.

Shen Jie’s figure in the mirror gradually blurred, making it hard to see clearly. Shen Jie wiped the fog off the mirror and stared at herself in the mirror, gritting her teeth. She had to go back. Her daughter was still waiting for her.

She gritted her teeth, leaned down and soaked her hair completely in the half-full sink. She let her numb scalp calm down a bit in the comfort of the hot water. It was fine. It must be fine. No one had encountered a ghost yet. It didn’t make sense for her to encounter it.

Shen Jie barely calmed down and squeezed out some shampoo on her hand. The shampoo was diluted by warm water and spread out. The bathroom’s infrared heater that was just like the sun caused the light reflecting on the water to be a bit dazzling. In order to avoid looking directly at the mirror-like water surface and to prevent the shampoo from flowing into her eyes, Shen Jie had to look away from the water. 

She kept the posture of bending over and lowered her hair. She placed her hands in her hair, ready to start rubbing. The moment when she completely leaned down…

From the gap under an armpit, Shen Jie saw a pair of pale feet standing motionless not far behind her.