"I would like to let you go, but you people never seem to learn. It's only been a few days and here you are again. You're not afraid? No, you're very daring," Lan Jin said without a trace of emotion, stepping forward once more.
A foul stench suddenly spread through the air. Lan Jin covered her nose and stepped back. She and Ling Jiang looked down—well, well. Did they actually wet themselves from fear? And by the looks of it, more than one had done it.
Ling Jiang played along, grabbing Lan Jin's arm as if stopping her, then barked at the people on the ground, "Get lost. There won't be a next time."
Over a dozen people scrambled away, half crawling, half running through the emergency exit.
Once they were gone, Ling Jiang lifted Lan Jin's arm and inspected the gun in her hand with exaggerated seriousness.
Lan Jin tried to keep a straight face, but her lips twitched before she finally said, "What are you staring at? This is expensive. Over twenty yuan."
Ling Jiang blinked at her, then burst into uncontrollable laughter. "Hahahaha!"
Lan Jin truly hadn't expected them to be fooled by a toy. And not just fooled—scared so badly they wet themselves.
"No, but… this is great. Brilliant. You're too smart," Ling Jiang managed between laughs, patting Lan Jin's shoulder in approval.
Lan Jin's mouth twitched again. Of course it was a toy—what else could it be? As if she could get a real one. Though, she had to admit, she wouldn't mind having the real thing.
When Ling Jiang finally calmed down, she said, "I think it's because you hit them too hard last time. They're still scared."
Before she could finish, Lao Gao and Huang Jinghe strolled down. Lao Gao opened the door, calling out, "Heard they left, so we came down to—whoa…"
His eyes landed on the wooden gun in Lan Jin's hand. Pointing at it in confusion, he asked, "What's going on? You two women playing this big?"
Ling Jiang immediately burst out laughing again.
Grandma Ling walked out of her apartment, expression unimpressed, and smacked Ling Jiang on the back. "You're the one laughing the loudest. Hurry up and wash the hallway—it stinks."
As if on cue, Lao Gao and Huang Jinghe stepped right onto the source of the smell.
With the stench hitting full force, Lao Gao jumped up with a loud curse. His exaggerated reaction made Grandma Ling chuckle despite herself. Without ceremony, she handed him a bucket of rainwater and some cleaning tools. "Here. You two made yourselves dirty anyway, so clean it up."
Lao Gao didn't complain about the work, but his eyes kept drifting to the toy in Lan Jin's hand.
Lan Jin noticed and lifted the toy slightly. "Bought it at the supermarket before. Over twenty yuan. Very expensive."
That was enough to set Ling Jiang laughing again, but before she could laugh herself breathless, Lao Gao had pieced together what happened.
"So this twenty-yuan toy scared off all those people—and even made them wet themselves?" Lao Gao shook his head, still incredulous. Then he leaned closer with an expectant look. "Got any more? You didn't just buy one, right?"
Ling Jiang's laughter stopped abruptly. "Wait… you're not thinking—"
"Compared to her, I look way more like someone who'd use this," Lao Gao said.
She had to admit he had a point. Soon enough, Ling Jiang and Huang Jinghe were asking for one too. It was true, Lan Jin had more than one. The supermarket really had everything, and in her storage space, unopened boxes of these toys were stacked like a small hill.
Seeing everyone's expectant eyes, Lan Jin said, "You clean the hallway first. I'll see if I can find some at home."
She returned to her apartment with Qiao Qiao and Nana, went into the master bedroom, and after some rummaging, discreetly pulled over a dozen unopened toy guns from under the bed.
Ling Jiang had no interest in cleaning. She parked herself on the sofa, waiting. When Lan Jin returned with the toys, she was the first to pick one out.
"Mmm, this one's nice. Too bad it's a toy."
It was a revolver-style toy gun, impressively realistic for just over twenty yuan. If not for the soft foam darts it came with, it could easily pass for the real thing at a glance—especially in a moment of panic.
Ling Jiang didn't hesitate to tear open the package and start playing with it.
Qiao Qiao, curious, grabbed the same toy Lan Jin had used to scare the intruders and started playing too.
When Qiao Qiao's foam dart hit Nana, the dog began his little performance—first covering the "wounded" spot, whining dramatically, then collapsing to the floor to play dead.
Qiao Qiao squealed in delight, reviving Nana only to "shoot" him again, repeating it several times until the apartment was filled with laughter.
…
The hallway wasn't big. Lao Gao and Huang Jinghe soon finished cleaning.
Looking at the toys laid out on the table, Lao Gao nodded in approval. "Yeah, definitely looks worth over twenty yuan. Pretty realistic."
Of course, the pricier ones looked even better. Lan Jin also had toys priced between fifty and a hundred yuan. Lao Gao's eyes locked on the most expensive one immediately. "I'm taking this one."
Ling Jiang frowned. "Isn't that one a bit big? A sniper type? You don't need something like that to scare people—it looks too fake."
"You don't get it," Lao Gao said. "I can modify it. Good quality like this is easier to work with."
He picked up the large one, then grabbed a smaller one as well. After choosing two for Huang Jinghe, the two men headed upstairs.
"Now Lao Gao's got a project," Ling Jiang said dryly. "But let's be clear—no matter how much you modify it, a toy is still a toy. But for scaring people? It might just work. For all his lousy grades, Lao Gao's not bad at tinkering. Let's see how it turns out."
She was about to leave when she asked, "That guy from 3204—think he'll talk to the neighbors downstairs?"
Lan Jin replied, "He moved downstairs already. You didn't know?"
Ling Jiang blinked, clearly surprised. "When did that happen? I didn't notice at all."
"The day I threw that girl into the water. After that, no idea where he went."
Realizing the floor was now free of outsiders, Ling Jiang exhaled in relief. "Good. Now 32 and 33 are the same—only us living here."
"I think you're happy too soon. With the flooding, who knows how many floors are underwater? If the lower floors can't be lived in, people will move up. We can refuse to share food, but we can't leave all the apartments empty."
Ling Jiang was at a loss for words and decided not to argue.