Chapter 1364: Close Neighbors

After her mother left for work, Wu Lun could go the whole day without saying a word.

She was both alone and not alone. She couldn’t go out, couldn’t work, and didn’t want to contact friends from her hometown, so she spent her days sitting at home, holding the remote control, staring at the screen, switching channels one by one, but rarely staying on any channel for long.

Loneliness, if you could call it that, wasn’t exactly loneliness. Looking out the window, she could see the makeshift ‘guard post’ downstairs, where two men always watched the building she lived in. Occasionally, one would knock on her door to confirm if Wu Lun was home.

Every day before leaving, her mother would lock the door—not to keep Wu Lun from going out, as she could go out even without the lock—but to keep people outside from coming in. She had to go to work, leaving her daughter alone with several men of unclear identity, who seemed like disreputable idlers. No mother could possibly feel at ease with that.

Wu Lun’s mom’s protests against her being confined fell on deaf ears like a gentle breeze blowing against a mountain, eliciting no echo. Her mother was a very gentle woman, who couldn’t afford to complain about her already despondent daughter. Soon, she accepted her fate, adjusting to a new normal to cope with a life over which she had no control.

On this day, when her mother left, Wu Lun saw the uncle from the neighboring family’s door.

Mother and daughter had lived in this building for over a decade, across from Uncle Chang’s family for all those years.

“Uncle Chang, are you going to work?” Wu Lun greeted, but he responded with a silent nod, not even looking at her. The news of Wu Lun’s confinement had spread throughout the entire neighborhood. Except for a few desperate to show concern for her, everyone else suddenly forgot who she was—even Uncle Chang’s family, who used to greet her whenever they crossed paths.

“Be careful yourself,” her mother said as Uncle Chang left without looking back. She silently averted her eyes. “Oh, by the way, I’ll buy groceries and come back at noon. Let’s have lunch together, so you won’t have to make do.”

Wu Lun was taken aback, suddenly remembering that it was her parents’ wedding anniversary today. “Got it,” she said, handing her mother an umbrella from behind the door. “The weather forecast says it might rain, so take it just in case.”

Her mother, getting on in years, had hands that looked rough and calloused, with knuckles stacked together. From several years ago, dyeing her gray hair black had become as routine as trimming her nails. Recently, amidst her fatigue, there was also a hint of fear, as if she were constantly afraid of being taken advantage of.

Wu Lun closed the wooden door and listened as her mother locked it again. Her body sank to the floor, and she leaned against the door for a while; she felt like she had become a child again, not knowing what to do in this suddenly unfamiliar world. When she ran back to her mother, seeking comfort and shelter, she looked up only to find that her mother was already aged.

When faced with adversity, one realizes they are not a snail but a slug without a shell.

She returned to the sofa, feeling the house was eerily quiet. Without thinking, she reached for the remote control. Every channel’s content was more or less the same—whether it was the news, entertainment programs, or dramas, they all seemed to come off the same assembly line. They had the same themes, the same style of speech, and almost identical plots. Except for the characters’ names, swapping scenes and dialogues between shows wouldn’t feel out of place.

After flipping through about eighty channels multiple times, Wu Lun finally turned off the TV. While others had only twenty-four hours a day, her day felt as long as a year. She paced around the house, sweeping the floor, watering the plants, and staring at a book page for half an hour. As the time passed, it was already half past eleven. She heard Uncle Chang returning home for lunch downstairs. Soon, her mother would be back, too.

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With this thought, there was knocking on the door.

Wu Lun tightly pursed her lips and went to the door. Outside, a man’s voice said, “Hey, are you home? Wu Lun, open the door!”

She was checked several times every day, and each time she was asked to open the door, she couldn’t help but feel a surge of anger. ‘Who do you think you are? Why should I open the door just because you say so?’ But she couldn’t voice it out no matter how often this thought crossed her mind. She always ended up like this—opening the wooden door, answering the person outside through the security door, “I’m home, I haven’t gone out.”

The man looked her up and down through the iron railing. “Oh, you’re home?”

“You’re downstairs watching. Isn’t it clear whether I’m home or not?” Wu Lun couldn’t help but ask.

The man didn’t seem angry. He smiled and said, “We still need to check. I’m responsible for social security. We ran out of water downstairs. Do you have water at home? Pour us two pots.”

Even if there was water, Wu Lun didn’t want to give it to him. She just said with a straight face, “My mom locked the door. I can’t bring the water out.”

The man lowered his head and took several keys from his pocket, inserting one into the keyhole.

Wu Lun’s scalp exploded.

The security door was opened.

The man pushed the door open and stood face-to-face with her, still smiling. “Go get the water.”

Wu Lun was rooted to the spot—she couldn’t understand how this man had a key. They were all recruited local idlers, earning some money by doing this surveillance job; how could he have the authority to make her obey him when they had just met, even getting hold of her house key?

As she slowly went to the kitchen, her peripheral vision was fixed on the man. Almost as soon as she entered, the man came in before her hand could touch the kettle, stepped on the floor she had just cleaned, and looked around, saying, “You can’t handle it alone; let me help you.”

“No need,” Wu Lun said, griping the kettle tightly. “The water is here; you can go out.”

“What’s wrong? Am I not welcome?” He still wore a smile, as if his face had become loose, and decided to put on a layer of smiles. But there was always that one sentence upon which this smile would suddenly collapse.

“No.” Wu Lun just wanted to quickly send him away. She quickly handed him the kettle and withdrew her hand, not letting her fingertips touch his skin. “Here, just one pot. You don’t need to return it.”

The man held the kettle and looked down at it, not moving from his spot. When Wu Lun reminded him again, he finally turned around slowly—just as they were about to pass each other, Wu Lun felt a hand press on the root of her thigh.

She couldn’t stop herself from screaming.

The man was startled, taking a few steps back, angrily shouting, “What are you doing? Are you crazy? I accidentally touched you. Why are you screaming?”

“How can you do this?” A surge of strength came from somewhere, making her mind unclear. She rushed up, grabbing the back of his shirt, and shouted, “I’m calling the police. Stay right there!”

“Go to hell!” the man said, turning around and pulling her arm away, almost causing her to stumble. “You’re going to call? Go ahead. I’ll tell you, I’m staying here today. It’s my duty to monitor you!”

Realizing the reality, Wu Lun shuddered violently.. “My mom is coming back soon. Don’t think I’m alone—”

The man suddenly laughed. “Your mom never comes back for lunch. Aren’t you lying?”

Over his shoulder, the neighbor’s door opposite her house shut closed. Wu Lun glanced outside, feeling discomfort in her organs. She screamed again, “Get out!”

“First you tell me to stay, then you tell me to get out.” The man held the kettle handle, not moving. “What do you take me for, your dog?”

“Get out!”

Footsteps came from the stairs—Wu Lun was familiar with the sound of those half-heeled shoes.

Her mother rushed to the door, her face red as fire, almost like two different people from usual, her face red and eyes bloodshot. When she saw the situation inside, she immediately grabbed the back of the man’s shirt, pulling him out of the door and into the corridor, shouting hoarsely, “What are you doing in my house? What do you want with my daughter?”

The man swung the kettle, hitting her mother’s forehead. Water splashed out, drenching her mother.

Wu Lun couldn’t even scream anymore, rushing out like a gust of wind; her mother took a hit on her forehead, and blood immediately flowed down— the man seemed to suddenly lose his temper, continuously swinging the kettle, hitting her mother all over.

As she rushed to stand in front of her mother, she felt like it didn’t matter if she died now. She was hit an unknown number of times in a row. Her head and shoulders were all smashed; her eyes were nothing but blackness and gold stars. Her mother’s angry shouts of “Why are you hitting us?” turned into indistinct voices—until she fell down, something suddenly opened in front of her eyes, and the beating sound of the kettle disappeared.

Lifting her head, she saw the black umbrella from her home in front of her. The umbrella ribs supported the umbrella cloth, both being shaken by the man’s beating.

Her mother tightly grasped the umbrella, turned back, and said, “Quick, go in—”

For the next few seconds, Wu Lun couldn’t remember what happened. Maybe her mother also wanted to come in, so she stood up; maybe to hold onto the umbrella tightly and not let it be knocked away, she swung the umbrella handle—whatever it was, when the dull sound of a body hitting the cement suddenly sounded, Wu Lun realized that the man had fallen down the stairs.

The neighbor’s door opened this moment, and Uncle Chang peeked out, his gaze falling on the fallen man. Wu Lun also saw it: the man’s imposing manner had disappeared entirely, and he lay on the corner of the stairs like a shrimp as if he couldn’t get up.

“Oh no, oh no,” her mother said almost unconsciously, her voice trembling. “If he gets badly hurt…”

“Quickly let her go,” Uncle Chang said in a lowered voice to the shocked mother and daughter. “She can’t stay here anymore, or else she’ll be arrested. Now.”

Wu Lun looked at him blankly, then at her mother. Her mother’s face was covered in blood, holding her hand tightly, seeming like she didn’t want to let go for the rest of her life. She murmured incoherently, “Yes, you must go… you must.”

“Go and call for someone else,” Uncle Chang instructed her mother, then pushed Wu Lun to go inside. “And you, pack some money and things. Wait for me on the balcony.”

The door slammed shut behind her, and Wu Lun stood in the house, feeling like she was in a dream. She wanted to take another look at her mother, but when she reopened the door, she was no longer there. She must have gone downstairs to call someone. Wu Lun walked to the balcony as if in a trance, only to find Uncle Chang waiting on the balcony, just two or three meters away from hers.

“Take this,” he said. He bent down, picked up a pile of something, and threw it over to the balcony. “This is the ladder I left behind when I worked on the construction site. Take it and go!”

Wu Lun’s lips trembled a few times, unable to make any sound.

“I’ll testify for your mother, claiming that he fell by himself, and she had nothing to do with it… but you,” Uncle Chang said, lowering his eyes. “I don’t know what trouble you’ve gotten yourself into, but it seems serious. If you don’t leave, it won’t be just confinement anymore. That’s enough talk. When the man downstairs comes up, leave quickly!”

Wu Lun’s vision blurred. Mechanically, she took some money and a photo of her mother and her, unable to think of anything else to take. Faintly, she could still hear shouts from the corridor, as if her mother’s voice was mixed in. She wanted to take another look outside, say a proper goodbye to her mother, and ask Uncle Chang to take care of her, but she also knew she had to leave.

Trembling, she climbed down the ladder. In this vast world, where could she go?

‘Lin Sanjiu, are you still in the same place?’