“I really wonder if you act like this at school too, making your room such a mess.”
“Otherwise, how could your classmates not get along with you and refuse to let you stay in the dormitory?”
Bai Huizi pinched her nose. After finally finding a place to settle, she immediately started scolding Chi Qingya.
The filthy and chaotic room made her unable to hold back; she regretted not bringing a mask when she came here.
“Mildew’s grown into broccoli, and you still don’t ventilate! Someone who doesn’t know might think you’re trying to cultivate some biological virus.”
“More than twenty takeaway boxes and you don’t throw them out—planning a Manchu Han Imperial Feast? Aren’t you afraid the food in these boxes has gone rotten? It’s a good thing you chose to live alone, or if you dumped this garbage in the corridor, I’d worry this entire building wouldn’t be rentable.”
While forcing herself to endure the discomfort in her heart, Bai Huizi slowly moved forward.
Suddenly, she lifted her foot and kicked away a pile of dirty socks blocking her path. The honey-colored flesh of her legs, squeezed by the stockings, trembled fiercely beneath the skirt’s hem. Her heel crushed a dried rice grain precisely. “Cockroaches have brought their whole families! Do you think this is some kind of insect museum?”
But then again, maybe the only difference between you and cockroaches is that you actually pay rent.
Those who know assume you live alone; those who don’t might think you’ve dragged an entire clan to live here.
Bai Huizi entered Chi Qingya’s room, bent down, and lifted the mattress—then immediately withdrew her hand: the dehumidifying mat had grown mushrooms!
“Are you trying to drive me crazy or what?”
“Do people in your village all live outside, so you’re used to sharing your space with bugs?”
She had no idea until now. Once she saw it, she was shocked. She never imagined Su Li had once lived in such an environment.
If she had stayed longer, Bai Huizi even suspected that Su Li might have been carrying a swarm of viruses when she was around.
Chi Qingya timidly followed behind Bai Huizi, not daring to speak, filled with grievance.
She even felt the urge to quit school and go home after being scolded like this.
All she could do was keep nodding and apologizing, tears already welling in her eyes.
So this is how others saw her—so utterly hopeless?
Bai Huizi then went to Su Rui’s old room and found it was a clean sanctuary.
Only the bed was still piled with various small toys, and the floor had a crumpled ball of tissues.
Looking around, she immediately understood everything, her eyes flashing with disgust as she glanced at Chi Qingya.
Bai Huizi hadn’t expected Chi Qingya to trash her own room and then come to ruin Su Rui’s room as well.
Even lying on the bed Su Rui once slept on to do those kinds of things.
Chi Qingya’s cheeks flushed deep red, and she looked even more aggrieved. She could only keep her head lowered, hiding her expression from Bai Huizi.
Finally, Bai Huizi arrived at the bathroom.
An inexplicable rage welled up in her chest.
The murky black water had already risen past her ankles. Floating balls of hair drifted halfway cut, and empty shower gel bottles spun in the whirlpool.
Yellow-brown liquid oozed from the tile gaps, soaking the anti-slip mat into a doughy pancake, its edges covered with fuzzy green mold.
Three plastic ducks were stuck in the drain, their beaks facing up, sucking in sticky foam. The bottom half of the shower curtain was soaked in filth, its toothpaste-stained parts slowly spreading into a map-shaped yellow stain.
In the corner lay soaked toilet paper, spread out like stranded jellyfish into translucent thin sheets. A cockroach drifted along the swollen paper tube.
The shampoo cap bobbed on the water’s surface, releasing a rotten pineapple stench with every sway, mixed with sewer gas rising up, condensing into a visible gray-green mold fog on the ceiling.
The pungent smell made Bai Huizi want to gag.
She didn’t even have time to care about her already wet shoes and stockings.
“Chi Qingya… you really have your ways!”
Her head spun. Supporting herself against the nearby door, she struggled to speak coherently.
All the filth in the bathroom reminded her of her own sister.
No matter how many times she said it, her sister insisted she was very clean but always had her own ideas.
In the end, things only got messier and dirtier.
When she scolded her, her sister would go complain to the family, saying she was being bullied.
If others didn’t side with her, she’d accuse them of favoritism.
“Are you even human?”
Rubbing her forehead, Bai Huizi muttered doubtfully.
She regretted coming here to check the situation.
If she had known she would see something so nauseating and disgusting, she should have just called the repairman directly.
In her mind, Chi Qingya was like a ticking pile of shit; only Su Li could tolerate her.
“How have you even survived until now?”
“Three days. I’m giving you three days!”
“If you don’t clean this up properly, just get out!”
Bai Huizi said angrily, her body already trembling.
She just wanted to change into a pair of shoes and take off the wet socks.
She felt dirty.
Staying in this filth for too long, she’d get sick sooner or later.
Only Su Li could fix this mess.
She was desperate to see Su Li now, to ask her for help cleaning up.
“There are some repairs needed too. I’ll send you an invoice later.”
“Because of you, the tenants downstairs have been affected, so those costs will be your responsibility.”
“Of course, you can also find someone yourself to fix it.”
“If you’re not satisfied with how I handle this, you can leave immediately. Like I said before, I’ll refund the extra rent you paid and waive your deposit. Just take your stuff and disappear from my sight.”
After speaking, Bai Huizi took off her shoes right in front of her, then peeled off the stockings that wrapped her long legs.
She looked around carefully, fear and helplessness flashing in her eyes. Finally, she forced herself to put the shoes back on.
She realized there wasn’t even a container to put all this garbage in. If she left barefoot, her feet would be ruined outside.
She might not even last until Su Li came to see her.
“No, don’t make me leave. I’ll clean it up properly.”
Chi Qingya’s voice trembled, full of grievance.
This humiliation felt even worse than when she tried to hire the janitor and they demanded extra money.
She clenched her fists tightly but couldn’t find words to argue back.
“You can hire someone to clean up, but can you maintain it yourself?”
“You don’t even know how a normal person is supposed to live, do you?”
“You don’t throw out trash, don’t wash your clothes, can’t even aim right on the toilet hole. What right do you have to expect others to care for you? You’re the one who owes others an apology!”
“You only drag others down!”
“What about the little girl who used to live with you?”
“She probably got disgusted and left a long time ago, right?”
“I even thought you moved out because you were bullied in the dormitory.”
“But once you whip out your biological weapons, who would dare bully you?”
Chi Qingya’s situation honestly confuses me a bit. It’s like she forgot how to be a human. She lived by herself before Su Li became her roommate, and it didn’t sound like it was like this at the start, so its mildly astonishing to me that this girl, this self described neat freak, has managed to somehow unlearn a lifetime of knowledge and skills and is now capable of turning her apartment into a disgusting biohazard after only like, 2-3 days max. Thats not an ordinary level of being a slob. You have to actively put effort into doing this.