Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I opened the door as if I were facing a mortal enemy.

Standing outside was your standard Chaozhou old man: flip-flops, baggy shorts, and a long string of silver keys hanging from his waist.

All that pent-up anxiety suddenly had nowhere to go. I cleared my throat. “Sir, I’ve always paid my rent on time.”

“I’m not here about the rent.”

He was holding a thick stack of notebooks, flipping through them as he squinted at me. “Just asking. When your lease is up at the end of this month, are you renewing?”

“Yes.”

“I’m raising it by five hundred.”

“…”

“Or I can keep it the same. But I have a condition.”

Seeing my expression darken, the landlord tucked the notebook into his shirt and spoke bluntly. “Back then, I saw you were a pretty young girl and figured life wasn’t easy for you. Otherwise, I never would’ve allowed a tenant to keep a cat. You stop keeping pets, and I won’t raise the rent. That’s it.”

“Think it over.”

“…Fine.”

The landlord’s stance was clear, and I really couldn’t argue with him, so all I could do was stall and promise to give him an answer at the end of the month.

In reality, forget a rent increase-I could barely afford the current price.

After seeing him off, I shut the door and looked around, feeling like something was missing.

Wait…

Where was my cat?

I looked outside. The entire hallway was empty. There wasn’t a cat in sight.

This building was pretty old-fashioned. There were only four units on each floor, and because of the design, every layout and size was different.

I lived in 402. The unit next door, 401, was a two-bedroom occupied by a pair of retired teachers. They lived very simply, and whenever we occasionally ran into each other, we only nodded in greeting. We didn’t really have any contact.

The only possibilities left were Room 403 and Room 404 at the end of the hallway.

So I knocked on Room 403 first.

The person who answered was a young woman with a face mask still plastered to her face, and her tone was extremely impatient.

“Who is it?”

“Hello, miss. Sorry to bother you, but have you seen an orange cat?”

I asked politely, and couldn’t help noticing that all ten of her fingers were set with rhinestones. Her nails were a full inch long.

“What cat? Haven’t seen it.”

The woman denied it outright, sounding a little annoyed. “If you’re going to keep pets, shouldn’t you keep them on a leash or something? I’m allergic to cat hair.”

“All right. Thank you anyway.”

She shut the door very quickly.

I suspected her a little, but I wasn’t sure.

People who truly liked cats rarely wore nails that long. Especially with those rhinestones on them-they would definitely snag on cat fur.

Just as I was hesitating, a soft, delicate meow came from behind me.

“Director?”

I turned around and saw my cat standing in front of the door to Room 404, licking his paw at me.

The iron door was tightly locked, and my cat was right in the middle of the doorway.