As Mu Yiran carefully placed the red slippers back under the bed, Ke Xun watched him with his hands in his pockets. "Are you worried about Qiu Lu like Sha Liu was, afraid I'd startle you and cause a ruckus, so you're trying to cover up the ghost story from last night?"
Mu Yiran put the slippers back, gave Ke Xun a slightly cold look, and was about to say something when he saw the other pick up his minimalist soap dish from the table. "Go wash your hands."
"..."
After Mu Yiran left, Ke Xun squatted down and looked at the red slippers under the bed. Upon closer inspection, they seemed quite ordinary, even somewhat endearing.
Ke Xun recalled his childhood: his mother had a pair of red slippers, his father's were warm brown, and his own were sky blue, each with a little bear pattern, together forming the image of "The Three Bears"...
Thinking of this, the eerie atmosphere from before seemed to vanish. Ke Xun got up and went to his desk, stroking the deeply engraved character "归" (return) on the surface, wondering who the owner of these red slippers was waiting for.
The afternoon was spent searching for the seal.
Without clear clues, they had to resort to the tedious method of sweeping the entire building. They couldn't just enter other neighbors' apartments, and the seal was unlikely to be hidden in someone else's house, so their current focus was on a thorough search of the corridors, stairwells, and public restrooms.
Night fell, and they had clearly found nothing.
The newlyweds looked particularly disappointed. Only Shouzhu said, "There are so many poems written on the walls of the public restroom on the fourth floor, mostly original ones."
People ignored him, except for Qiulu, who asked, "Are you talking about the public restroom on the west side next to room 409?"
Shouzhu waved his folding fan: "Yes, that's right."
"The women's restroom there is also covered in poems!" Qiulu glanced at Shaliu subconsciously, because that restroom was the closest to room 410, so both of them were used to using that one.
Shaliu frowned. He had seen those vulgar poems himself, but he didn't think poetry had anything to do with seals, and he felt these poets were particularly useless.
Shouzhu, however, recited without a care: "Formless like spring water, sharp as a blade, vast, crystalline..."
"The same poem is in the women's restroom!" Qiu Lu interrupted Shouzhu. "Could it be written by the same person?"
Shouzhu seemed to be seriously considering something for the first time, closing his folding fan: "No wonder I felt the font and style were feminine."
"Even if it was written by the same person, what does that prove? A woman secretly went to the men's restroom to write poetry?" Sha Liu found this behavior disgusting—but it satisfied the fantasies of a cultural rogue like Shouzhu.
"I think this is quite strange." Xin Miao's voice was very soft.
Sha Liu didn't want to waste time on this: "What we need to find is the seal."
Everyone was gathered at the restaurant entrance, some listening attentively, some pondering, only Zhu Haowen leaned against the wall, head down, playing a mobile game.
Ke Xun helped Fifth Sister, who was carrying a vegetable basket, lift the bamboo curtain of the restaurant: "Come in, let's eat and talk."
The small restaurant was a bit stuffy, so Fifth Sister planned to move the folding table to the courtyard: "Let's eat outside, it'll be cooler!"
"Good idea!" Ke Xun went in and helped Fifth Sister move the table. "I'll do it! You guys don't just sit there, each of you bring out your own stools to sit on! Haowen, stop playing, bring out a stool!"
Zhu Haowen looked up at Ke Xun and went into the restaurant to get a stool.
Qiu Lu and Xin Miao were still preoccupied with the poem in the restroom and were very dissatisfied with Sha Liu's dismissive attitude earlier. Xin Miao went directly to Mu Yiran's side: "Brother Mu, don't you think it's strange that someone wrote poetry? This person can go to both the men's and women's restrooms, is this person male or female? And they live on our fourth floor!"
Mu Yiran: "We'll go back and check after dinner. If it's confirmed to be the same person's handwriting, we'll go back to our rooms and look for the same handwriting. Maybe we'll find some clues."
Sha Liu looked at Mu Yiran, took off his glasses, and wiped them with the corner of his clothes.
Fifth Sister turned on the light in front of the restaurant, and the courtyard lit up. Everyone was quiet, and many people had little appetite. After all, night was about to fall again.
"Eat something, you'll have energy after eating," Old Man Li Taiyong advised everyone.
"Grandpa, you're right," Ke Xun said, picking up a piece of shredded radish with vinegar and chewing it crisply. "We need to conserve our energy to run away!"
Everyone agreed with this and began to eat.
Mu Yiran, observing Ke Xun's naturally friendly demeanor, couldn't help but glance at him a few more times—this innate quality in Ke Xun, such as his down-to-earth friendliness, was extremely rare in his own environment.
Old Man Li Taiyong smiled, particularly fond of Ke Xun: "While you were upstairs looking for something, I played a few games of chess with Old Zhang."
"Old Zhang? You mean the gatekeeper?" Ke Xun then realized the old man's surname was Zhang.
"Yes, and I also inquired about the dormitory." Old Man Li Taiyong said slowly.
Sha Liu was a little excited upon hearing this: "You've found out about the murders that happened in this building?"
Old man Li Taiyong smiled and shook his head: "You can't just chat like that; you have to proceed step by step."
Sha Liu lowered his head and started fiddling with the steamed bun in his hand: "So, what have you found out?"
Everyone slowly chewed their food, listening attentively to what Old man Li Taiyong had to say.
"This building is an old one, built in the early 1980s. It belongs to the factory; to put it bluntly, it's factory-run dormitories." Although Old man Li Taiyong was old, he spoke slowly and clearly. "A couple of years ago, the factory implemented a shareholding system. Director Liao held the majority of the shares, and he and several other shareholders discussed selling the land where the Chunsun Dormitory is located."
"Sold? Then aren't all these neighbors living happily now?" Wei Dong couldn't help but ask.
"It's said that the factory started evicting people before even selling the dormitories. Those who owned houses or were particularly honest moved out, but most people stubbornly stayed put. The factory manager directly put up the 'Spring Bamboo Apartment' sign and rented it out publicly for a year or two before finally negotiating with a Hong Kong developer and signing a contract to sell the land."
Qin Ci couldn't help but say, "If these residents were still factory workers, the factory should have solved their housing problem."
"The factory did offer a solution: buy the new houses built by the factory. Once you buy them, they're yours. But the location is good, and the price is high. A whole house costs nearly 100,000 yuan. The factory has been struggling for many years, and many people can't afford that."
Indeed, in those days, there were no concepts of down payments or installment payments; to buy a house, you had to pay in full.
"Later, the factory manager and the developer started kicking people out. But directly entering the building and kicking people out is illegal, so these people came up with a terrible idea: they built a high cement wall around the apartment building, almost four stories high, and put a big iron gate outside the wall, trapping everyone on the first floor inside. They could only come out at specific times."
Everyone frowned upon hearing this; these people were truly ruthless.
Ke Xun suddenly understood who had written those menacing red characters on the outer wall—it must have been the factory and the developer.
"That's how Chunshun Apartment ended up like this," said Old Man Li Taiyong, picking up his bowl and taking a sip of rice porridge.
"I think this is part of the larger context of the Spring Bamboo Apartment complex, and maybe it's related to the overall theme of the painting," Qin Ci said.
From the barbershop next to the restaurant, a beautiful woman in a red dress emerged, smiling as she walked towards the table and placed a pack of Marlboros in front of Shou Zhu: "Here's your cigarette."
Shou Zhu, always helpless against beautiful women, beamed: "Thank you so much! Xiao Sang, have you eaten? I'll order two more dishes, let's have a drink together?"
Zhi Shao nudged his companion with his elbow, deciding this wasn't the time to flirt.
Everyone else was somewhat annoyed to hear Shou Zhu inviting outsiders.
Xiao Sang, however, was quite perceptive, beckoning to Shou Zhu: "Let's go to my place, the place next door just moved out, it's been empty for days, we're planning to have a party and dance there!"
Qiu Lu's face was grim, her chin slightly raised as she wiped her mouth with her handkerchief.
"Okay, okay!" Shou Zhu couldn't resist the temptation and hurriedly followed Xiao Sang.
Zhi Shao called out anxiously, "Make sure you're back in your room before ten o'clock! Don't wait until lights out!"
Shou Zhu waved his hand, fanning himself with his folding fan, engrossed in chatting and laughing with Xiao Sang...
After everyone finished eating, they went to check the restroom on the west side of the fourth floor. Most of them were entering this restroom for the first time, so their expressions were all rather subtle.
Wei Dong stared dumbfounded, "These hooligans... the poems are too explicit!"
Ke Xun immediately concluded, "This was written by a woman."
"Ke'er can study women's poetry now?"
"Take a look." Ke Xun pointed to one of the lines—written in red chalk: My hole is waiting to drown you...
After comparing the handwriting in the men's and women's restrooms, it was determined that they were written by the same person, but they were different from the handwriting found in their respective rooms.
Qiu Lu was somewhat panicked: "I think it might be related to our room. Although we didn't find any writing in the room, but... those explicit passages from romance novels were highlighted in red."
Everyone: "..."
Sha Liu also felt something was amiss: "Let's be extra careful tonight, sleep next to the door, and if there's any noise, run to the corridor and call for help."
"Okay." Qiu Lu nodded nervously.
It was already past ten o'clock. Zhi Tiao personally went downstairs to the disco to pull Shou Zhu out, and everyone went back to their rooms to rest.
Soon the lights were turned off, and the whole building was dark, except for the dim yellow light from the public toilets in the four corners.
"Do you think she'll still look for her shoes tonight?" Ke Xun lay on the bed, staring at the dark ceiling.
The shoes were back, so there was no need to look for them anymore. The question was, what would this person do now that she was wearing slippers?
"Let's go to sleep early and deal with whatever comes our way." Mu Yiran was already a little sleepy, having not slept most of the night before.
Ke Xun suddenly rolled over, one arm reaching out to grab him. Mu Yiran grabbed Ke Xun's wrist with one hand, holding his arm in mid-air.
"Ouch, my tendon's numb!" Ke Xun struggled for a while. "I'll go get your fan! The big palm-leaf fan is by your pillow!"
Mu Yiran loosened her grip, rolled over, and tossed the fan to Ke Xun.
Ke Xun caught it deftly and started fanning himself vigorously. The cool breeze felt pleasant to both of them.
But then, the other's voice came along with the breeze, clear and articulate: "Midsummer night, a cool breeze is refreshing~"
Mu Yiran fell asleep immediately.
Ke Xun fanned himself for a while, thought about the day's events, and felt sleepy. Just as he closed his eyes, he heard slow footsteps coming
from the corridor outside. It was the sound of high heels, the steps slow, even rhythmic—pausing every few steps before continuing.
None of the girls in the team were wearing high heels, so who was this woman in the hallway? Was she a neighbor?
Mu Yiran was already awake, her voice soft: "On the fourth floor."
Both of them tried to keep their breathing low until the sound of high heels faded into the distance.
"Shall we go take a look?" Ke Xun pointed to the small window leading to the hallway.
Mu Yiran nodded, and the two men quietly got out of bed, each taking a spot on either side of the small window, peering out through the gap in the curtains.
There was indeed someone walking in the fourth-floor hallway, a woman in a red dress. Judging from her hairstyle, it was clearly Xiao Sang from the hair salon.
Xiao Sang strolled leisurely, pausing briefly in front of each door before continuing on her way.
Her red dress was strikingly bright in the darkness.
Finally, she stopped in front of a door and knocked.