"Bro, are you telling me you spent all night digging a cellar this big in your bedroom?"
Qin Ziwu turned his head, stunned, and rubbed his face.
"Do you believe me?"
"I do! Of course, I do! I'd believe you even if you said you'd awakened memories from a past life." Qin Ziwu looked at his older brother expectantly. "Bro, did you awaken something…?" he asked, nodding eagerly.
Qin Ziwen said with a grin, "It's not that dramatic. Alright, I'll stop teasing you. I just got a Card and activated my Home."
Qin Ziwen briefly explained what the Home was and summoned the small ball of light in front of his brother.
The Home wasn't a one-of-a-kind thing; others in the Gated Community would eventually activate their own. For now, however, that knowledge was a secret.
Qin Ziwu understood. "So this Home is the reason we were brought here."
TAP. TAP. TAP.
The sound came from the balcony.
The two brothers stopped talking at the same time, both turning to look toward the living room balcony.
Qin Ziwu pointed upward, a questioning look in his eyes.
Qin Ziwen thought for a moment, then nodded. The odds were high that it was the people upstairs.
The two grabbed their weapons for protection and crept slowly toward the balcony.
The moonlight was bright and clear, bathing the balcony in a silvery sheen.
The glass door leading from the living room was locked tight. The balcony was empty. The sound was coming from the right, like something was being tapped.
When they got closer, they saw the tip of a clothes-drying pole extending from the balcony opposite theirs, tapping against the railing.
After a moment of observation, he undid the lock and slid the glass door open.
On the balcony opposite them, a woman in a long slip dress held the other end of the pole, tapping their railing lightly.
The woman's face clearly brightened when she saw Qin Ziwen come out.
She pulled a crumpled ball of paper from the front of her dress and tossed it over.
He picked up the paper ball and unfolded it. It was covered in neat handwriting. "Hello! I'm your neighbor from across the hall. You have to be careful of the family of three upstairs. They aren't good people. The young man was sentenced to ten years for robbery and was just released last year.
When they knocked on your door this evening, I saw them hide someone in the blind spot outside. They might be targeting you."
Qin Ziwen thought for a moment, then went back inside to find a pen and wrote a reply on the paper: "They hid someone when they knocked on your door, too."
Then he tossed the wadded-up paper back.
The woman picked up the paper. After reading it, her expression was one of utter surprise.
She scribbled quickly on the paper and tossed it over again.
Qin Ziwen picked up the note. It was in the same neat handwriting. "Thank you. Can I please come stay with you for a little while? I'm terrified to be home alone, and I think it would be safer at your apartment. I can help with anything."
Qin Ziwen was taken aback. 'How could she be so forward? We're just neighbors who don't even know each other, and she actually wants to come to my place?'
'With the cellar and the Home's little ball of light, bringing a stranger in here would expose everything.'
Besides, Qin Ziwen wasn't about to assume she was harmless just because she was a woman.
'A person's capacity for good or evil has nothing to do with their gender.'
So, without hesitation, Qin Ziwen waved his hand, refusing her request.
He did so even as the woman on the other balcony pressed her palms together, bowing repeatedly and looking utterly pitiful.
Qin Ziwen simply went back inside, locking the balcony door behind him.
As Qin Ziwen left, the expression on the woman's face turned foul.
She turned and went back into her apartment, where two men were sitting.
One of them had a scorpion tattooed on the back of his hand. The other was bald, his cheeks puffed out as he chewed on something.
The man with the scorpion tattoo asked, "So? Did he agree to let you go over to his place?"
The woman rolled her eyes. "He refused."
The man on the bed sounded incredulous. "My cousin's so beautiful, how could he resist? Is he even a man?"
The woman in the long black slip dress gritted her teeth. "How should I know? Do you think he knows about our relationship?"
The man with the scorpion tattoo said, "No way. That kid just moved in. There's no way he could know about us."
The woman said, "Why make this so complicated? Forcing me to sneak over there to open the door for you in the middle of the night... aren't you afraid I'll be at a disadvantage, a single woman alone with them?"
The man with the scorpion tattoo wrapped his arm around her. "I trust you can take care of yourself," he said, comforting her. "Besides, it's much safer for us to make our move while they're asleep.
I've been watching them. They've come back with big bags several times in the last two days, and they were even grilling meat last night. They must've found a good stash of food."
The woman sneered, "Don't tell me you're just scared to face them head-on because they look strong."
The man with the scorpion tattoo grew angry. "Of course not! It's just... we're all stuck in this godforsaken place. If we have to do something, we should keep it quiet. Getting a bad reputation will make things difficult later. I'm doing this for our sake!"
The man with the scorpion tattoo's hand slid up under the hem of her dress.
SLAP!
The woman slapped his hand away. "Someone's still here," she chided.
The man with the scorpion tattoo just chuckled lewdly and buried his face in her chest. "Da Zhuang's my brother. I trust him."
The bald man stood up. "Bro, Sis-in-law, I'm heading back to my room to sleep."
Without turning his head, the scorpion man just waved a hand.
Da Zhuang's eyes met the woman's. She blinked at him, and he guiltily looked away.
After Da Zhuang left, amorous sounds filled the room, lasting for about a minute.
The woman lay on the bed, her face unnaturally flushed and her chest heaving. She fiercely pinched the arm of the man beside her. "Useless trash."
Still unsatisfied, she went to pinch the man's waist, but he caught her hand. His voice was low and his expression serious. "Alright, stop it."
"Tomorrow, find a way to get friendly with those two young men. Guys their age are full of energy. If you make the first move, they won't be able to control themselves."
The woman was angry. "You want me to make the first move? What do you take me for?"
The man with the scorpion tattoo hugged her waist. "My little treasure, of course. Now, be a good girl and listen."
The woman closed her eyes. After a long moment, a quiet hum of assent escaped her.
...
In the early morning, Qin Ziwu rubbed his leg from his post behind the peephole.
"Bro, there's no sound outside the door. No movement at all. It doesn't look like our neighbors across the hall are planning to leave."
Qin Ziwen shook his head, his tone full of meaning. "They're probably worried about the people upstairs."
As for the people upstairs...
He wasn't sure either. After all, it was all just his own speculation.
Qin Ziwu asked, "So, are we leaving now? I saw people from other buildings going downstairs."
Qin Ziwen frowned, thinking. "Let's wait. There are still other people on the floors above us in this building. We'll go out when we see someone else heading down."
'After all, he'd set up snare traps outside the Gated Community. If they were too late, someone else might take whatever was caught in them.'
'But if they left too early, there could be threats lurking in the stairwell.'
'He had to think of a permanent solution to this problem. Otherwise, it would seriously interfere with farming his daily rewards.'