Bai Huizi looked toward Su Li, and as if sensing the gaze, Su Li turned to meet her eyes.
However, there was no change in Su Li’s expression.
Bai Huizi realized that Su Li’s current perspective was that of a bystander.
No matter what happened to Chi Qingya, it no longer had anything to do with her.
Bai Huizi hadn’t expected so many neighbors to gather after she arrived.
Perhaps because everyone had suffered under Chi Qingya for so long, someone had sent word of her arrival to the tenant chat group.
The other renters had flocked to find her, eager to air their grievances.
Over a dozen delivery food boxes were piled haphazardly outside Chi Qingya’s door.
Soup and grease leaked from the gaps in the plastic bags, flowing into an oily, sprawling stain in the corridor.
The containers at the very bottom had already turned black with mold. Green fuzz and sour rice clung to the plastic lids, attracting a swarm of buzzing flies.
The rancid stench, mixed with the pungent odor of chili oil, forced its way into everyone’s nostrils.
Several plastic Malatang bowls were wedged into the top of the trash heap, the red oil having congealed into a dark-red gelatinous substance that dripped down the edges of the bowls and into a pile of paper towels stained with milk tea.
Su Li stared at the familiar scene and fell silent for a moment.
Through this trash, she seemed to recall the time she lived with Chi Qingya.
She remembered how she had carried various trash bags downstairs every single day.
Even though Su Li felt like her emotions weren’t fluctuating much, seeing such a massive pile of garbage caused her to daze for a second.
Bai Huizi stood beside her, pinching her nose in sheer disgust.
“I’ve already warned her. Before, she piled trash inside her own home. If she wanted to ruin her own living space, that was her business,” Bai Huizi said. “But now she’s started blatantly ruining it for everyone else.”
Recalling her previous experience inspecting Chi Qingya’s room, Bai Huizi felt her skin crawl with discomfort.
Looking at the scene before her, Su Li realized she had actually foreseen this happening before she left.
Chi Qingya used to be quite fond of cleanliness.
She didn’t know why, after living together for a while, Chi Qingya had suddenly become so lazy.
Perhaps it was like the old proverb: one monk carries water, two monks haul water together, but three monks end up with no water at all.
Because Su Li handled all the trash on a daily basis, Chi Qingya subconsciously believed there would always be someone else to take care of it.
Eventually, she had developed a habit of procrastination and a complete lack of interest in cleaning up after herself.
In a sense, Su Li had influenced Chi Qingya.
However, Su Li did not believe this was her responsibility.
If Chi Qingya truly wanted to change, she would not have allowed herself to fall into such a state.
Human interactions were reciprocal; they required a sense of mutual consideration.
That was what Su Li believed. Even if Chi Qingya had provided her with a place to live, Su Li had provided other forms of compensation in return.
Once things moved beyond the scope of that compensation, the relationship between the two of them began to erode.
It had also affected the “transaction” between her and Chi Qingya, which had eventually stopped feeling like a transaction at all.
Enduring the discomfort, Bai Huizi asked Su Li to wait where she was. Frowning and pinching her nose, she slowly approached Chi Qingya’s door and knocked.
But even after a long while, the door did not open.
“Is she still not back?”
Even though all the windows in the corridor were open, the foul smell couldn’t be dispersed.
Bai Huizi’s frown deepened, and the others present grew increasingly impatient.
Some even left early, unable to bear the stench.
“She’s likely still at school attending class,” Su Li said. It was indeed school hours.
Su Li hadn’t gone to school because of Cat. To her, Cat was far more important than any knowledge she could learn.
“I’ve already notified her. If she doesn’t deal with this trash, I’m making her move out,” Bai Huizi explained patiently to the complaining neighbors.
She felt she had been more than lenient enough with Chi Qingya.
The girl was acting as if she were throwing that kindness back in her face.
Just as a few neighbors were discussing whether they should just handle the trash themselves—since leaving it outside wasn’t a long-term solution—the sound of hurried footsteps echoed in the stairwell.
Chi Qingya had returned home from school, looking absolutely dejected.
She had used an alt account to add Su Li as a friend, but Su Li hadn’t replied to her messages. She hadn’t even accepted the friend request.
Thinking back to how she had been scolded this morning for not handling the trash, she felt miserable.
She hadn’t even left the trash outside her door before. She didn’t know how it had happened, or how it had started affecting others.
Clearly… clearly there hadn’t been this many problems when the trash was kept inside.
As soon as she entered the apartment building, Chi Qingya felt something was wrong.
Usually, the residential building was incredibly quiet, but now it was exceptionally noisy.
It sounded like a crowd had gathered to do something.
When she finally reached the hallway, Chi Qingya froze, looking at the familiar figure standing next to Bai Huizi.
Su Li!
She stood there, stunned. She never expected the two of them to meet here!
Chi Qingya’s fingers tightened around the large trash bag she was holding, making the plastic emit a sharp, crinkling sound.
She had specifically bought a large bag to clean up the trash in the corridor.
But now, seeing Su Li, she was at a total loss.
Chi Qingya couldn’t move from the corner of the stairs.
Her back was pressed tight against the cold wall, and she didn’t even care that the plaster was rubbing off on her clothes.
The dim, yellowish overhead light in the corridor cast a soft, golden glow over the tips of Su Li’s hair.
Seeing Su Li tilt her head slightly to speak with the Landlord, Chi Qingya felt a crushing sensation in her heart, as if a giant hand were squeezing it.
When Su Li lowered her gaze, her eyelashes cast small shadows beneath her eyes, just like when she used to sit in the first row of the classroom taking notes.
But now, she was standing beside someone else…
A muffled sound escaped Chi Qingya’s throat.
Her knee bumped against the steps before she realized she had already stumbled down two or three steps toward them.
The thud of her shoes hitting the stairs alerted the people who were talking.
The moment Su Li turned her head to look over, Chi Qingya nearly tripped over her own feet.
“Su—”
She opened her mouth but couldn’t form a full syllable. Tears fell faster than her voice, splashing onto the rusty railing.
An apology she had saved up for half a month swirled on the tip of her tongue, eventually turning into trembling fingertips reaching out to touch the other girl’s sleeve.
The smell of mold and sour trash in the corridor suddenly became unimportant.
Through the blurry mist in her eyes, she stared fixedly at that face, terrified that the person would disappear if she blinked.
Even though her fingernails were digging deep into her palms, she couldn’t suppress her sob.
Chi Qingya looked into Su Li’s slightly widened eyes, only to realize that the other girl’s face was filled with utter indifference.
The expression caused a sharp pain in her heart.
Had they really become such strangers that Su Li would look at her with the eyes of someone who didn’t know her at all?