Is it good or bad to live with a landlord when renting an apartment?
The first year I came to Shanghai, I lived in Jing’an District and rented a well-furnished two-bedroom apartment with a monthly rent of 900.
That day, my landlord said to me with an ambiguous look on his face, “You’re only 18 years old, and this is worth 3,000 dollars.
“I froze for a while before I realized what he meant.
On the rental software, the rent of the second bedroom of this room, is 3900 a month.
02 My name is Guo Congxiao and I am 18 years old.
I’ve just arrived in Shanghai, and I’m staying in a youth hostel that costs 35 dollars a day.
Twelve people in the dormitory.
I woke up every day stinking of sweat, and went to take a hot shower that I could never take.
Then, I look for a place to live, or a job that covers my stay.
Zhang Ziming may be the man of my destiny.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think that sharing a room, for 900 dollars, could lead to such a nice apartment.
He’s in his thirties, an art dealer.
Rented out a whole two-bedroom apartment, to rent out the second bedroom.
The house had a spacious living room, a clean bathroom, and a double sink made under a huge vanity mirror.
The second bedroom also had pink wallpaper left by the previous tenant, and cat wall art.
And all this for 100 bucks cheaper than a youth hostel.
I read the clauses on the contract that I couldn’t understand, and Zhang Ziming thoughtfully asked me why I hadn’t gone to college and had just come of age to work.
In an instant, all the aggression came flooding back.
I clutched my pen and told him, “I took the exam, I obviously went to college.
“I scored 576 points, which is enough to go to a good university.
However, my parents locked me up at home and prevented me from applying, leaving me with only two choices.
Either work or marry.
I had no choice but to run away to a place where I could breathe freely.
I signed my name on the contract.
One stroke of the pen, the force of the paper.
I gritted my teeth and said, “I won’t go back even if I die.
‘ Zhang Ziming sighed and said softly, ”It’s okay, from now on, if there’s anything you need to do, talk to Brother Ming, be good.”
“He picked up the contract, patted me on the back, and left in a relaxed state.
I stood still, my body stiff.
Because the way he patted me, it was like he was fondling.
Tenderly, lovingly, unrefusively, rubbing a kitten.
Seems to be telling me, that is the discounted three thousand dollars, the right given to him.
03After that day, Zhang Ziming would always inadvertently cross the line.
When handing me a glass of water, he would gently touch my hand.
When eating, he would suddenly wipe my mouth.
When I went to the restroom, he would pretend to come over and open the door as if nothing had happened.
Even half a month later, my underwear, which I hung out to dry on the balcony, began to be lost inexplicably.
I summoned up the courage to ask Zhang Ziming.
What I got was just an outrageous answer like “It might have been blown away by the wind” or something like that.
But I didn’t pursue it any further, I didn’t dare.
Zhang Ziming was always drunk. He was about 1.8 meters tall and his eyes were bloodshot.
I was too afraid of the primal oppression in his body.
I can only comfort myself, as soon as possible to find a job, change a house, everything will be over.
But Zhang Ziming didn’t leave me much time.
I came back from the interview that day and was just about to fall asleep when I heard a strange noise.
I looked furiously at the door lock.
It was the sound of a key being inserted into the lock cylinder.
Someone was unlocking my door?
It was Zhang Ziming?
“Brother Ming!
” I shouted with forced composure and got no response.
The sound of unlocking stopped.
I got out of bed barefoot, pressed the back of my chair against the door lock, half squatted, cupped a pair of scissors in my hand, and stared at the door.
Ten minutes.
After ten full minutes, I heard a sound again.
It was a light footstep that was moving away from my door.
It was Zhang Ziming! He had just …… been guarding the door!04 This night, I didn t sleep.
My calves had gone numb from squatting, and I moved the heavy solid wood nightstand out of the way and moved to the door to block the chair.
That’s when a diary fell from behind the nightstand onto the floor.
I didn’t look at it closely, I just kept staring at the nightstand dead in the face.
Until daybreak.
After hearing the sound of Zhang Ziming going out, I only drilled into the bathroom, hastily washed up, drew light makeup in the mirror, and went out for the interview.
When I returned to the rental house again in the afternoon, I brought back a sharp fruit knife.
I quietly opened the door and tiptoed around the room, Zhang Ziming didn’t seem to be back yet.
I breathed a sigh of relief, hurriedly removed my makeup and showered, returned to the bedroom, unlocked the door, drank a mouthful of cold white water from the bedside, and dove into bed.
Covered up, turned off the overhead light, and closed my eyes.
I just hoped that I could get a good night’s sleep.
But what completely creeped me out happened just a few breaths later.
I sensed something strange in the room and proceeded to hold my breath.
Then I heard, under the bed, the sound of another person’s breathing.
It was Zhang Ziming! He had been hiding under my bed! !05 I couldn’t help but grip the knife under my pillow and tuck it into my bosom.
Then, I let out a faint murmur.
I’m going to feign abdominal pain, go to the bathroom, and leave this bedroom.
I got out of bed.
But as soon as my feet hit the ground, I realized it was bad.
He would have noticed that I was shaking all over.
Without even putting on my slippers, I walked quickly towards the door and opened it softly.
The warm yellow light of the living room spilled over my face.
At the same time, I heard the most desperate sentence in my life.
“Smiley, what are you doing with a knife?
“06 Despair, spreading throughout my body.
I didn’t dare to turn back, I could only pull my legs out and run outside.
In just two steps, Zhang Ziming caught up with me.
He directly dragged me into the bathroom and pushed me roughly to the ground.
Pain instantly hit me.
The knife in my hand was also knocked away by Zhang Ziming who pressed down.
Under the bright light, Zhang Ziming looked at me from above, laughing hideously.
He pressed his voice and said viciously, “Guo Congxiao, you knew that this day would come.
“Have you not been waiting for this day?” “Have you not been waiting for this day?
“Haven’t you been waiting for this day?”
You’ve been waiting for this day, haven’t you? “Little bitch!” Zhang Ziming repeated these words, his putrid odor of alcohol sprayed on my face, and immediately after, he lowered his head and violated my neck with force.
My hands could only twist and swing meaninglessly.
The knife, sliding to the very edge of the bathroom.
There was nothing heavy around me.
Only Zhang Ziming’s hand, firmly clamped down on me.
That was the most powerless thirty seconds of my life.
Until, I touched the shower curtain that still had water droplets on it.
I instantly realized that this cheap plastic shower curtain was my only saving grace.
I yanked down as hard as I could, and just at the moment Zhang Ziming ripped open my blouse, tearing! The shower curtain was ripped off by me in one piece and covered Zhang Ziming’s head, and immediately after that, I wrapped my hands around Zhang Ziming’s head in death.
He struggled frantically, his hands pumping on me from time to time.
I endured the pain and continued to wrap the shower curtain around Zhang Ziming’s neck.
I began to push harder, harder, and harder.
07 Zhang Ziming’s head, wrapped in the shower curtain, lay on my white knees.
He was staring at me with a deadpan look of terror and helplessness.
I just buried my head and moved closer to his ear.
“I did wait for this day, and thankfully it wasn’t too long.
” I whispered in a calm, comforting tone.
“I know, you put a camera in the bathroom, didn’t you?
“Son of a bitch.
“On the day of 08, I saw it.
The diary, which had fallen off, recorded how the previous tenant, had been humiliated by Zhang Ziming by ‘exchanging sex for rent’.
It also recorded how she was threatened by Zhang Ziming with the peeping video in the bathroom.
Zhang Ziming deserved to die.
And I, too, wanted him dead.
During the daytime shower, I broke the hooks of the shower curtain loose one by one in the rising vapor.
Making sure I could pull it down with one hand.
Then I bought a knife and waited to play with Zhang Ziming.
The escape, too, was deliberate.
It was to lure Zhang Ziming to the bathroom, and then let the camera in the corner, record it all.
09 Zhang Ziming s breathing gradually stopped.
The despair in his eyes was more than what I had acted out ten minutes ago.
Much more.
I said softly, “Don’t worry, honey.
“It was a perfect case of self-defense.”
‘ Finally, Zhang Ziming’s blurry pupils lost focus, and his hands dropped limply.
I got up in mock horror and tried to go to my room to get my cell phone to call the police.
I’ll be fine, I’m the perfect victim.
But just as I got up, an inexplicable feeling of weightlessness came over me.
My brain buzzed and the scene in front of me began to fade.
What’s going on?
I remembered the glass of plain water at the bedside.
Zhang Ziming had drugged it?
Unfortunately, he was too eager and revealed too many cracks.
I looked at Zhang Ziming’s corpse and pulled out a faintly invisible cold smile, then fainted on the cold floor tiles.
10 I was woken up by the sound of a car honking outside the window.
My head still hurt a bit, but I was completely awake.
I struggled to get up, ready to rush to the police.
Just after taking a step, I turned my head back.
No …… not right! The shower curtain was hung back, and the knife was on the floor.
The …… body was gone.
11 I was a little panicked, and I was busy washing my face to calm myself down.
I checked my body, it was bruised and purple, and there were still traces of the struggle.
Everything that happened at night was real.
But if Zhang Ziming didn’t die and woke up before me, there’s no reason for him to let me go, right?
His room, my room, the living room, the kitchen, there was no one.
Suddenly, I thought of the most crucial thing – that camera hidden in a corner of the bathroom ceiling.
I moved a stool and poked at the loose tile in the ceiling.
Behind it, there was nothing more than a narrow hole.
The camera that should have been there was gone.
Just then, the cell phone in my pocket rang.
I tapped on the phone.
Seeing that, surprisingly, it was Zhang Ziming, sending me a video.
It was an edited video, with only the process of me smothering him cut out.
12 He said, “Smiley, keep living here.
‘ I sucked in my breath and frowned as I replied, “What do you mean?
“Twenty-four hours.
As soon as you leave this house for twenty-four hours, the video will be handed over to the Public Security Bureau.
‘ This was the last message Zhang Ziming sent me.
No matter what I sent after that, he didn’t reply anymore.
Now that I neither knew Zhang ZiMing’s situation nor what exactly he wanted, I could only continue to live in this empty two-room apartment.
Gradually I realized that no matter what I did, I had a feeling of being gazed at.
Gazing, not watching.
It was like someone watching you silently without interfering or leaving.
I checked every nook and cranny, tried and tried as I had been told on the internet, and didn’t find any more cameras.
The feeling of staring, however, persisted.
Until one day, I was in the bathroom blow-drying my hair after a shower when the power suddenly went out.
For a split second, the sound of the hair dryer, the wind from the exhaust fan, all disappeared.
Startled and quickly recovering, I turned on the flashlight and slowly wrapped my hair in a towel in front of the mirror.
But then, I heard it.
I really heard it.
In the moment of falling into silence, in the pitch blackness, behind the mirror that reflected my naked body, came the sound of something falling.
13 Xie Chuanqiu The most satisfying painting I have ever done was a nude portrait of a woman.
She was my roommate in the two-bedroom apartment across the street.
Two years ago, I rented this apartment and closed down to paint.
But the more I painted, the worse I got. I couldn’t get past myself in every painting.
Finally, one day, I broke down.
During a thunderstorm, I smashed the furniture and vented my frustration.
The mirror in the bathroom broke, and behind it, a dark room was revealed.
It was especially small, less than four square meters, with some cement, boards, and other decorating equipment left behind.
I tumbled in and saw that on the wall opposite the dark room, there was a half-man-high window sealed by a mirror, which should be the mirror in the neighbor’s bathroom.
As I recalled, the neighbor’s house was a rental house that didn’t have a tenant yet.
I had a bold idea.
A few days later, I removed the mirror from the neighbor’s bathroom and replaced it with a double-sided mirror I had bought.
The person on the other side of the room saw a normal mirror; in my eyes, it was just a clear glass.
14 At first, a man moved in.
I watched him plant cameras, I watched him drug the place, I watched him bully every tenant.
I was indignant and excited.
Then a girl named Guo Congxiao moved in.
She wasn’t a standard beauty, but she was the most powerful girl I’d ever seen.
I had a feeling she was different.
That day, I sat in the dark room, looking at Guo Congxiao in the shower, and sketched a nude portrait in my mind.
Passing, but not enough.
Far from enough.
She was like a silent volcano with lava boiling inside, impatient to erupt.
I wanted more.
So when that perverted brute muttered to himself that he was going to go after Guo Congxiao, I didn’t interfere.
All day long, I stood guard in the dark room, waiting for progress on the other side of the mirror.
Finally, that moment arrived! In that instant, Guo Congxiao was pressed down by Zhang Ziming, her knife was thrown away, her hands were clamped down, and a raging hatred erupted in Guo Congxiao s eyes …… It was too, too beautiful!!!! I held my breath, but my entire body was excited by it.
Five minutes later, my excitement, turned into a cold sweat.
I watched Guo Congxiao, personally smothering that beast with the shower curtain.
“Son of a bitch.
“15 She passed out.
110.
In the dark room, I thought about calling the police.
But I realized that once I did, Guo Congxiao would disappear from my sight forever.
I took care of everything quietly.
The bathroom was already clean.
My true life model, Guo Congxiao, was still living there leisurely.
I was still enjoying, as only I knew, time for two.
I knew she had found a job, working as a receptionist in a foreign company.
I know she has a few suitors and a few girlfriends.
I knew that she hadn’t given up on her studies and was still preparing for the Adult Higher Education Examination.
I was not just an observer, and she was not just an object of my gaze.
I was sure I was living with her, separated by a mirror.
It was Saturday, and it was customary for her to go to the living room to listen to an online class after her shower.
But she didn’t.
She stood naked in front of the mirror, draped in a black nightgown I’d never seen before, made of silk.
I knew she hated the color black.
Then she picked up a fruit knife and slipped it into the inside pocket of her nightgown.
She walked out of the bathroom.
What was she going to do?
Commit suicide?
Three minutes later, my doorbell was rung.
I hurriedly rolled out of the window, straightened my mirror, and came to the door.
“Who is it?
“Hello, I’m your neighbor across the street.”
” Outside the door, was a voice I couldn’t have been more familiar with.
It was Guo Congxiao.
