Surveillance—this noun buzzed in Alain's mind like a swarming bee.
But soon, he denied this conjecture.
Because he discovered that the content of these two photo walls did not feature a single Mita at all.
During the Rental Apartment period, Alain only met Misha towards the end.
Therefore, Alain reached a conclusion: Yang Wanhua had indeed monitored him, but the timeline of the surveillance stopped at the early-to-mid stage of the Rental Apartment period.
Let alone Misha, there wasn't a single photo from the current Large Flat period either.
After that, something must have happened that caused her to stop the surveillance.
"No... too little information." Alain held his forehead, his gaze focusing on the third, which was also the final, black curtain.
"A-Alain, are you really going to open it?" Mila hesitated. "Is it going to be some explosive content again?"
"It won't." Alain didn't voice the "probably" that was in his mind.
He walked to the final black curtain and pulled it open directly—
Swish, the curtain fell.
Very good. He retracted his previous statement about "no more explosive content."
This wall was even more... "explosive" than the previous two combined.
"Eh? What are th—" Because it was too explosive, even Mila couldn't understand it.
"Um, Mila, you go out first. Remember not to wander too far from me, okay?" Alain turned back and smiled.
"Oh, oh..." The young girl's brain spun rapidly, but she obediently walked out of the basement.
Inside the room, Alain was left alone to appreciate Yang Wanhua's masterpiece.
The final wall was a veritable wall of shameful items.
The content on the wall was absolutely not photos, but various collectibles saturated with Alain's DNA.
"F*ck..." He couldn't help but swear, reaching out to tear down two random items.
One was a small jar, about the thickness of a pinky finger, containing a viscous, yellowish-white liquid inside.
Inside the other small jar was a strand of hair. Judging by the length and context, it should be his.
Besides that, from clothes to undergarments... From some residues on the outside of the body to whatever else.
Everything was there. Alain didn't know how to describe it anymore; the churning in his stomach was the best explanation.
"This damn thing..." He was referring to Yang Wanhua.
This woman... had absolutely no bottom line.
Alain packed everything on this entire wall into the black curtain, bundled it into a huge "trash bag", and took it to the bathroom. Wielding the fire extinguisher as a blunt weapon, he smashed the bag along with its contents into pieces.
Then he closed the door; out of sight, out of mind.
"Done?" Outside the basement, Mila poked her head in, looking curiously at the light shining through the bathroom's frosted glass.
"Don't look."
"Oh..." Mila nodded obediently and walked back into the basement.
"Besides that, did you discover anything else?" The young girl looked around at the three surrounding walls. "This is obviously your ex-girlfriend's 'Merch Collection Room', right?"
"Don't talk about merch..." At this moment, Alain's face was terrifyingly dark. He now increasingly felt that this basement was simply a complete waste of his time.
Not only was the information pitifully scarce, but he was also severely disgusted...
"Only the last thing remains..." Alain's gaze landed on the chair in the exact center of the basement, the only thing he hadn't checked.
"?"
He hadn't seen it without looking carefully just now, but Alain discovered some traces.
He walked to the side of the chair, focused on the seat cushion, and discovered a small paper strip.
"What is it, what is it?"
Curious Baby Mila leaned close to him, watching Alain open that paper strip.
The content written on the paper strip was particularly simple. Yet simple to the point where... neither of them could understand it.
[Tricked you~]
Only three Chinese characters plus a baffling tone symbol. Besides that, there was nothing.
"What the heck—" Mila clasped her hands behind her head, speaking with utter boredom. "I thought we could find some good stuff entering this basement, but it turns out to be all this incomprehensible junk."
She glanced at Alain. "Don't you agree?"
But she discovered that at this moment, the young man was staring straight at the paper strip, his eyes wide and dilated, cold sweat flowing down his forehead.
"...What happened to you suddenly? Spacing out?"
"N-No..." Alain crumpled the paper strip, threw it casually onto the ground, and sat on the only chair in the basement.
Seeing him like this, Mila didn't speak to disturb him and stayed quietly to the side.
Letting Alain's thoughts wander.
He leaned against the back of the chair, recalling scene after scene of entering the basement in his mind.
From those three walls, as well as the sound of running water in the bathroom, what Alain could think of was—this basement possessed a level of protection exceeding its actual function.
From the Failed Works stationed at the basement entrance, to the iron door without a keyhole that couldn't be breached by brute force, which had troubled him and Mila for several hours.
The difficulty of entering the basement was completely disproportionate... to the information obtained.
[Apart from being disgusted, Alain hasn't obtained any decent information so far]
However, how is this point not a piece of information in itself?
He held his forehead, his thoughts drifting from Monika to Yang Wanhua...
Then to those locksmiths, and the property agents of Yalin Villa.
Indeed, this basement was wasting his time.
Or rather... this entire residence was stalling Alain's time through some strange methods.
[Stalling]—Alain grasped the key point of this word:
Stalling for time.
Thinking carefully, Alain had encountered a total of two methods of stalling for time so far:
First, what the Yalin Property Management said: To enter the residence, one must undergo a seven-day application process.
Second, when reaching the basement, they wanted to find a locksmith, but all the locksmiths in the city said they needed three days to restock some special "Wonder Tools".
Hypothetically, taking a step back—from Yang Wanhua's perspective: Assuming Alain didn't have Monika's help on his side, his movements would be:
Alain wants to investigate the residence's situation → The property management delays for seven days → Enters the residence and finds the basement, but finds it can't be opened; Locksmiths are known to be [definitely] able to open it, but it will take three days.
All of the above assumes Alain excludes the two "Window Openings" from Monika's hints.
One [Window] was the bedroom window; the other [Window] was the window in the secret room photo.
And those locksmiths or property management were all means to stall Alain's time.
And the Residence Control Console in the secret room saved Alain a massive amount of time and let him know—the strangeness of this real world.
It was as if the whole world was stalling Alain.
If he really followed the procedures and spent 7+3 days to open the basement, what Alain would have faced was—this [Tricked you~] paper strip.
What a tragic joke...
____
New Story: Starting from Their Seventeen Years Old
🔥We're handing out that '30% bonus' that makes your wallet smile. 😄
✅ Get immediate access to 40 early chapters for all stories.
✅ Enjoy exclusive material and special announcements!
Help us unlock these community rewards:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone
🚀 140 MEMBERS = +5 extra chapters across ALL STORIES!
👻 P - Walnutchan