Gan Qing really did not expect him to still remember her because the impression this man had given her was very strong—he obviously belonged to the "Women only know how to make themselves look pretty on the outside; I'll rather look in the mirror and be in a relationship with myself" type.

That was why she stared blankly for a while before finally answering very succinctly, "I just moved in."

"You're working at Boss Meng's place, aren't you?" Yu Lanchuan said. "I remember that he has a relative who stays here. Did he help you find an apartment here?"

He had just finished speaking when Old Master Yang's gaze shifted over to land on Gan Qing. "Meng? Is it that kid Tianyi?"

Gan Qing suspected that Yu Lanchuan had taken the wrong meds. Saying hello was fine but he even condescended to start a conversation with her!

Old Master Yang's eyes taking stock of her made her feel as though she was sitting on pins and needles. As an old man who had immersed himself in martial arts for his entire life, how every muscle and every bone on a person's body should move and exert strength was something he knew like the back of his hand. His glasses might magnify his eyes until they look like alien eyes, but his gaze seemed to harbour the legendary blade of purple lightning and frost. When it swept past, it made a person feel a faint, indistinct pain.

Gan Qing pretended not to notice. Quiet and unmoving, she inhaled, wanting to make herself relax as much as possible. Who would have thought that right at that moment, her right hand dropped the ball—her two slightly crooked fingers spasmed involuntarily.

This tiny movement immediately registered in Old Yang's eyes. He asked amiably, "Young lady, what happened to your hand?"

Gan Qing pressed her lips together and smiled. She moved her luggage to her other hand and said evasively, "My things are a little heavy."

"Go help her," Old Yang exhorted Yu Lanchuan, then continued to ask. "Was your hand injured before?"

Yu Lanchuan made a noise of assent and bent down, taking her large bag from her. At the same time, he noticed her hand. There were calluses on her palm and even in summer, her skin was still very dry. Around her nails that weren't very well maintained, there were a few sparse hangnails, and her nails bore signs of the wear and tear of daily life. She was clutching her right wrist, like she was trying hard to make her stiff right hand relax, but her hand trembled even harder when stretched taut in this way. The long sleeve of her dress quivered along with this movement.

She looked rather pitiful.

"When I was young, I fell down by the roadside and my wrist was run over by a three-wheeled cart," Gan Qing said. "The hospital near my old home wasn't very good and my wrist has never healed properly."

"Ai, didn't it make things difficult for you?" Old Yang let out a slow sigh. "You're so young. Injuries to your muscles and bones are minor things but it would be bad if your meridians are injured."

Gan Qing pretended not to understand him and just agreed nervously.

Old Yang suddenly took half a step towards her. Along with his movement, the walking stick clutched under his arm swayed slightly. The two of them were about a meter apart. To an outsider to the field, it merely looked like the old man was tired from carrying the cremation box and was changing his standing posture.

However, to Gan Qing who was physically right there, more than half her focus was actually on that walking stick. The shifting of the walking stick by that one inch seemed to seal off the space she could move in, from all directions. A stifling sense of being trapped descended on her; instinctively, she wanted to escape.

Yet, Old Yang's eyes were keenly waiting for her to move.

Right at that moment, the elevator door suddenly opened. The air that rushed out carried with it a waft of perfume, directly hitting them in their faces and dispersing that stifling atmosphere. Gan Qing's tense muscles swiftly relaxed and she heard someone say, "Grandpa, what are you holding?"

The three of them looked up in unison. A woman came out of the elevator. Her long hair was bound in a loose ponytail and her age couldn't be told from her artificially plumped up face. The clothes she wore were branded, the bag she carried was branded, and the shoes under her feet were branded ones printed with a large logo. From head to toe, she was like a walking display for luxury goods, and a perfumed breeze assaulted their senses with her every move. Four words seemed to shine brightly above her head: This bitch is rich.

"Don't bring any more trash into the house," the woman said. "I just threw away your pickle jar away this morning."

The moment the cool-as-cucumber Old Master Yang saw her, his blood pressure shot right up and his composure of a skilled master abruptly crumbled until nothing was left. "Who allowed you to throw away my things again!"

"If I don't throw it, it'll just turn into compost." The woman chewed on gum and blew a large bubble at the old man. "You like dressing up like a beggar for no reason, fine, I'll pretend you're cosplaying. But if you're going to beg, then just concentrate on begging. Why are you crossing into another field and collecting scraps too? 'Tch… Handsome, let this jie pass through."

Old Master Yang said, "On a fine weekend like this, where are you going to stir up trouble with that face made up like a demoness?"

"To the gym. I haven't been in a week because of the injections, they really hold things up."

"I told you to learn staff techniques from me but you refuse. You just have to spend so much money to go to that… that whatever place, and lift metal weights with those oafs, you-"

"Grandpa, people want to train their chest and their butt, who wants to learn the staff? I'm not Sun Wukong." The woman flipped her hair. She didn't hold back even with outsiders around, her mouth unstoppable. "Furthermore, please just look at yourself. Are you in any position to persuade other people? What can someone gain by learning from you? Skinny ribs like a washboard?"

For no reason, Gan Qing felt her knees hurting^[1].

Old Master Yang was so angry his face was red and his neck puffed up. He might need a fast-acting heart protection pill.

The woman laughed and sauntered off. When she left, she even gave Yu Lanchuan a flirty look, making Director Yu feel incredibly discomfited. He regretted a little for hurrying too much when he came over today; his outfit was too low-key.

With this interruption, Old Master Yang's attention finally moved away from Gan Qing. He clutched his chest and held shakily to Yu Lanchuan's arm for support. "Our family is unfortunate, so unfortunate!"

Yu Lanchuan entered the elevator, pressed "10," and glanced at Gan Qing. Seeing that she didn't move, he asked, "Tenth floor?"

Gan Qing said, "Yeah."

Such a coincidence? He thought. I guess it's fate.

Old Master Yang hadn't yet calmed down from his fit and was grumbling at the side, "Just look at this disgraceful grandchild, look at what she has become! In the future when I go to the afterlife, I won't be able to face our sect master… Xiao-Chuan ah, it looks like you're the only one left in the younger generation. Old Yu-dage is no longer around, so why don't you move in and stay here in the future? You can get to know more friends too."

Yu Lanchuan brushed him off with a smile, thinking absent-mindedly. I don't want to know them at all. I just want that 8.5 million.

The old-fashioned elevator was small and cramped. Gan Qing was right next to him, not far away. When he lowered his eyes, Yu Lanchuan could see her side profile. Her brow bone was straight and her nose bridge high, with a slight hump that did not detract from her looks. A thin layer of skin covered the bones of her face, without much spare flesh. The lines of her face were very clean.

Maybe it was due to her high nose bridge; this side profile again invoked his memories from long ago. It made Yu Lanchuan feel rather confused because this person and the one in his memories were as different as day and night, complete polar opposites.

He remembered that that person was like a burst of wildfire. Even in the darkest night, that brightly burning spirit could be seen from kilometers away, fiery and incandescent.

Whereas the person before his eyes… 'tch, she was like a lighter that was out of fluid. After flicking for a long time, a tiny, shriveled flame would finally appear, and it would probably fizzle out again before it could even be seen clearly.

Perhaps Old Master Yang was used to being ignored by his granddaughter, he didn't notice that Yu Lanchuan's mind was wandering and was continuing to grumble. "Old Yu's feelings for this apartment are not at an ordinary level. Usually, when his friends from other places come here and can't find a place to stay, they would all come here to look for him. Xiao-Chuan, Grandpa Yang has some busybody things to say—you may not want to come back here to stay and you may not want to bother yourself with this apartment, but can you not sell it to other people?"

Ai, Yu Lanchuan thought in resignation. Please don't test my conscience!

The elevator reached in a flash. The view from the tenth floor was vast. Looking down from the building, the entire serene little courtyard was visible to the eye. Even though the communal corridor was narrow, it was very clean. Someone was stewing meat in one of the apartments and the delicious smell wafted throughout the corridor. It made him remember the time when he was young, when he had come to Granduncle's home during the weekends. Granduncle had always felt that he didn't eat properly at school and would purposely prepare an entire table of dishes for him—sauteed, stir-fried, boiled and fried. If there were any "troublesome" dishes that people typically didn't cook at home, the old man would cook extra portions at the same time. Once it was done, he would get Yu Lanchuan to carry bowls of it to the neighbours.

The neighbours at No. 110 Courtyard seemed to be of a different type from the neighbours elsewhere. Where Yu Lanchuan was staying now, he didn't even know whether his neighbour was a man or a woman.

His heart suddenly jolted. If he really couldn't sell this apartment, it wasn't like he couldn't consider moving in. At least he would save on rental and he also wouldn't need to drive to work. He was just afraid that the old man's scoundrel friends would keep coming to disturb…

"It's here, thank you." Gan Qing tugged lightly on the bag in Yu Lanchuan's hand. "I'm sorry for troubling you."

Yu Lanchuan came back to himself and returned the luggage to her. He looked up at the door plate—1003. The old man lived at 1004, next door.

He remembered that the next door neighbour was...

Before he could recall, the door to 1003 opened from inside. Boss Meng said that his second aunt's surname was Zhang. Gan Qing hurriedly stood up straight. "Gran-"

The word "Grandma" stuck in her throat.

She saw that the supposedly seventy years old lady had a head of large permed curls with pink highlights and makeup on her face, the perky false lashes exceptionally prominent. Her nails were blinged out with enough rhinestones to blind a dog. Even her house slippers had pink butterfly bows.

Beside them, Old Master Yang heaved a heavy sigh. His face looked as though he had no words to describe his feelings.

That's right, Yu Lanchuan thought with an emotionless face. Next door was a Cave of the Silken Web. An old demoness who liked to be overly friendly with little boys stayed there.

The moment Grandma Zhang opened the door and saw Yu Lanchuan, she immediately smiled like a flower blooming. The lashes fluttered like a fan. "Are you the lodger my nephew found? Handsome guy, you look quite familiar. Have we met before?"

"Hello, Grandma. My grandpa had once asked me to bring you some fried lotus roots stuffed with pork." Yu Lanchuan pushed his glasses up, his face wooden. "I'm from next door. I'll take my leave now."

With that, he strode away on his long legs, blowing past the old demoness like a gust of wind.

Only then did Old Madam Zhang see Gan Qing clearly. After falling silent for a while, she gave Boss Meng an exasperated call and bellowed. "Who asked you to find a female lodger for me!"

Boss Meng's even more exasperated reply could be heard leaking out from the phone. "For heaven's sake, I'm already this old, I don't want to get an uncle who's not even as old as my son!"

...Just give up on it, Yu Lanchuan thought.

Your esteemed martial arts world should have closed shop long ago.

T/N:

[1] Different from English, in Chinese, to say someone has a washboard body is to say that they're unattractively skinny and that their ribs can be seen.

Washboards are also used within a family as punishment; whoever's being punished will be made to kneel on a washboard, hence Gan Qing's knees hurting.

[2] Cave of the Silken Web (盘丝洞 pán sī dòng) is from "Journey to the West" and is a cave where spider demons live.