Antidote - - - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Even though Cheng Ke normally didn’t spend too much time dwelling on being viewed as a waste of space by his own family, he did disagree with the sentiment.

But today, he discovered just how incapable he could be.

He spent nearly 15 minutes trying to make his bed with the new bedsheets. If he pulled to the left, the right side was exposed. If he covered up the right side, the left side ended up being uncovered. And the middle always ended up bunched up. No matter how he stretched the sheet, he always ended up with at least three creases somewhere. Despite working up a sweat and even pulling at the wound on his waist to the point of pain, he couldn’t make the bed.

In the end, he gave up. He picked up the comforter cover and spread it on the bed, then spread the comforter on top of it. Since that worked, he repeated the process with the pillowcases and put them on top of the pillows. Then he took his change of clothes and went into the bathroom.

Even though he bathed every day while living at Xu Ding’s place, as he took his clothes off now, he still felt like he hadn’t taken a bath since the day he left home.

Maybe it was because he felt back in his own space only just now.

But then he quickly remembered Jiang Yu Duo, that mental person, has a copy of the key and has also forbidden him from changing the locks. He immediately felt frustrated, though he didn’t know how to change a lock.

Go out, buy one, and then change it yourself?

Do lock sellers help with installation?

Or maybe the property manager?

Do property managers even do this?

What’s their phone number…?

Damned it, is my waist that bad?!

Cheng Ke stared at his half-naked body in the mirror. Because of the sweat, the almost-healed knife wound on the left side of his waist looked a bit red.

Guess he overestimated Jiang Yu Duo’s stabbing abilities.

Jiang Yu Duo was not an expert who could stab wherever he wanted, and this wound wasn’t a pre-planned small wound to serve as a warning.

This was Jiang Yu Duo being damned incompetent with a knife!

When he thought of this, the heat caused by making the bed dissipated and Cheng Ke felt chills running up his spine. If Jiang Yu Duo’s aim had been off a bit more, the knife would have punctured his stomach.

Jiang Yu Duo definitely had a few screws loose to attack at such speed with his lack of skills. If he stabbed at the guts, the knife would probably go right through.

Cheng Ke furrowed his brow, pressed on the wound, and chanted “Namo Amitabha”

under his breath for three times.

[TN: Namo Amitabha is the literal translation, for localization, maybe change it to something like “Thank God” or “God have mercy”]

Cheng Ke had no idea why he had to chant that particular phrase, but his mom always did it.

He sighed and turned on the faucet. After a while, he stood underneath the showerhead and closed his eyes.

Wash away the frustrations of these past few days… fuck!

Cheng Ke jumped a few times from the blast of cold water that came out of the shower. He only stopped after he hit the bathroom door.

Why is it cold water?

Even after letting the water run for so long it’s still cold water!

He yanked over a towel and wrapped himself up in it.

He pushed open the door and walked out to see a water heater hanging on the wall with the words “Instant Water Heater” written on it.

So he went back in, turned on the faucet and came back out but the water heater hasn’t turned on.

Was it not plugged in? Cheng Ke raised his head and saw the cord firmly plugged in.

Maybe the fuel wasn’t turned on?

After he looked around for a while, he realized to his surprise that the water heater wasn’t even attached to a fuel line.

“Fuck me.” Cheng Ke’s anger boiled over and he marched into the living room in just his towel, grabbed the cell phone, and dialed Jiang Yu Duo’s number.

The phone screen showed he was calling “Mentally Abnormal Jiang”.

Jiang Yu Duo picked up pretty quickly, but he didn’t sound polite at all. “Who is this?”

“Me, Cheng Ke.” Cheng Ke said, “The water heater isn’t connected to a fuel line?”

“What fuel line?” Jiang Yu Duo asked.

“Water heater!” Cheng Ke walked back to the bathroom, knocked on the water heater a couple times, and said “How am I supposed to take a bath without hot water? It won’t even turn on!”

“What does that have to do with whether it’s connected to a fuel line or not?” It sounds like Jiang Yu Duo has lit a cigarette, “Even without a fuel line it’ll turn on, there just won’t be hot water.”

“Don’t try to distract me. All I’m asking is…” Cheng Ke was interrupted halfway by Jiang Yu Duo.

“What does it say on the water heater?” Jiang Yu Duo asked.

“I… “Cheng Ke thought that there was just no way to talk to this guy, but he still looked at the water heater with clenched teeth. “Just a model number! Something something instant electric water heater!”

“Yea!” Jiang Yu Duo suddenly shouted, “This is a fucking! Electric! Water heater. It doesn’t need a damned fuel line!”

Cheng Ke was stunned by the sudden shout and had to move the phone away from his ear and turn on the speaker. Then he looked at the words written on the water heater.

It was indeed an electric water heater.

But.

“I don’t give a damn whether it’s electric or gas!” Cheng Ke controlled his volume, trying not to sound like that mentally unstable weirdo, “The point is that it’s not working. There’s no hot water!”

“Is it plugged in?” Jiang Yu Duo’s voice returned to its normal volume.

“Yup.” Jiang Yu Duo looked at the outlet.

“Is the circuit breaker on?” Jiang Yu Duo questioned again.

“What?” Cheng Ke was confused.

“There’s a little box above it, and attached to the little box is a little lid, and when you open the little lid, there should be a little lever.” Jiang Yu Duo explained, “push the little lever up.”

Cheng Ke stayed quiet as he followed Jiang Yu Duo’s instructions delivered with a baby voice. Then the water heater’s screen lit up.

“Is it on?” Jiang Yu Duo asked.

“… On.” Cheng Ke replied.

Right now, he felt so embarrassed and didn’t know how to continue the conversation.

“Wonderful,” Jiang Yu Duo said sarcastically, “So much better than the three-year-old little kid next door. He knows what to do but can’t reach it.”

Cheng Ke kept quiet.

“If you don’t hang up in the next three seconds, I’ll come over and hit you.” Jiang Yu Duo pronounced.

“Is your damned finger broken that you can’t hang up the phone yourself?” Cheng Ke said as he hung up the phone. He stared at the phone for two seconds before throwing it violently at the sofa. The phone bounced twice on the sofa and fell to the ground.

He walked into the bathroom, muttering, “Goddammit.”

He hurled the towel onto the ground and angrily turned the faucet back on. When the water from the showerhead steamed, Cheng Ke stomped underneath its spray and slammed his eyes shut.

After a while under the warm spray, Cheng Ke felt lighter and the frustration bubbling in his chest evaporated bit by bit. But he started to feel a bit woozy and he rested his forehead against the wall, letting himself remain immersed in the warm water and steam.

He let out a long sigh.

Chen Qing sat on the chair with his legs on the desk and couldn’t stop laughing even after five minutes.

“You done anytime soon?” Jiang Yu Duo looked at him.

“No.” Chen Qing laughed as he turned his head. “Is Mr. Jaeger from Mars? He couldn’t even figure out a water heater?”

Jiang Yu Duo ignored him and bent to save Cheng Ke’s number into his phone. Then he poked at the name a few times.

Cheng-Dimwitted-Ke.

“From the looks of it,” Chen Qing analyzed after he finished laughing, “he really is one of those spoiled young masters. Maybe rich people don’t use water heaters and just soak in hot springs directly.”

Jiang Yu Duo bent down and threw his slipper onto Chen Qing. “Shut up for a minute.”

“I’m going to bed.” Chen Qing yawned. “I have to go to the shop tomorrow morning, and then I gotta go see Zhang Daqi in the afternoon. I’ll go as soon as he opens.”

Jiang Yu Duo agreed and advised, “Just bring a couple people and sit there. Don’t start anything. That bastard’s pretty shady.”

“Shady?” Chen Qing thought about it and said, “But he hasn’t done anything these past few years. He just has a violent face but doesn’t look like he’s been in the underworld before.”

“You’re blind, what do you know.” Jiang Yu Duo stood and walked to the bedroom.

“Pull the sofa out. It’s wider that way.”

“No need, I’m so slim.” Chen Qing collapsed onto the sofa.

Jiang Yu Duo slammed the door.

And didn’t sleep that night.

Jiang Yu Duo sat up in the middle of the night to look at the calendar by his bed. His insomnia has been more frequent this month. He took the calendar and marked today’s date with an “X”.

There’s nothing going on recently, why was he losing sleep?

He tilted his head to look at the cat twisted into a pretzel shape and deeply asleep by his pillow. He poked at its belly and sighed in envy.

Chen Qing was up by 6:30 am. As a model youth, he’s never been late his entire career. Aside from often taking the clients’ cars out for a spin, he had no faults.

When he heard Chen Qing leaving, Jiang Yu Duo got up as well. He walked to the window and peeked out from behind the curtains. It was dark and the streetlamps still shone. Everyone who was up early was hurrying along.

Jiang Yu Duo stood by the window for almost 20 minutes. The kitten made its way to his shoulder by climbing up his pants and then mewed into his ear.

“Okay, okay, I know you want your breakfast.” Jiang Yu Duo pulled the kitten off him and tossed it on the sofa. “I’m warning you. Behave yourself. Otherwise if you annoy me, you’re back to eating trash.”

After serving the kitten and watching TV on the sofa for an hour, Jiang Yu Duo walked out the door and sat down at the breakfast stall across the house.

He sat by the wall facing the street. He couldn’t remember when he developed this habit or how long he had kept it up.

He just couldn’t eat in any other position.

Since he didn’t sleep last night, he had no appetite right now, even in this position.

He asked for a serving of soft tofu and a tray of buns and forced himself to eat it all.

He has to eat. Three meals a day, not a bite less. Even if he has no appetite, he has to eat because his body needs it.

After he finished eating, he walked around on the streets. Up ahead was the house Lu Qian rented. Jiang Yu Duo looked at the time and decided on collecting the rent.

He couldn’t allow her to defer much longer. If one delays, others will follow.

As he approached the crosswalk, he saw the man from the second floor pushing his breakfast cart on his way home.

The road is a little uneven. For as long as Jiang Yu Duo has walked this road, he’s never seen anyone come by to repair it. The breakfast cart has small wheels and it struggled as it bumped along the road.

He walked over, grabbed the cart handle, and helped the man push the cart out from another hole.

“Thanks.” The man turned around and said.

“Don’t worry about it.” Jiang Yu Duo returned.

The man paused and his expression changed from gratitude to surprise and then to panic. Finally, it settled on a look of sadness.

“Third Bro,” He pushed the cart and despite leaning most of his weight on it, the cart wouldn’t move forward. “About the rent…”

“Due today.” Jiang Yu Duo said. “Don’t keep asking for extensions. How long has it been?”

“I really don’t have the money for it,” the man said, “You just saw for yourself, we only have this breakfast cart and since the city is being developed, they’ve refused to let us set up. I sneaked over today and got chased back after selling just a few portions.”

Jiang Yu Duo continued to help me push his cart forward. “Don’t worry about this month’s rent. Make up the ones from before.”

“Third bro…” the man’s voice filled with sadness, “my children are young and need someone to watch them, so my wife can’t go work. And then my family back home had something come up last week…”

Jiang Yu Duo interrupted, “if you can’t make it up today, you’ll have to find another place in three days.”

The man fell silent and kept pushing the cart forward.

Jiang Yu Duo remained quiet as well and helped the man push the cart all the way into the building lobby and then followed the man upstairs.

As soon as the door opened, three children ran out and called out to their daddy before running back and forth by the door, playing and shouting in excitement.

Jiang Yu Duo’s head throbbed at the sound and he immediately walked into the room.

The woman inside was picking beans with a worried look on her face and as soon as she spotted him, tears welled up in her eyes.

“Control yourself sis,” Jiang Yu Duo pointed at her, “don’t cry. You know that doesn’t work on me. The more you cry, the more annoyed I get.”

The woman wiped her eyes.

The man sat down and sighed heavily. After a moment’s pause, he dug out a box of cigarettes from his pocket and handed one to Jiang Yu Duo, “Third Bro…”

“Smoke it yourself.” Jiang Yu Duo took out his own cigarette, lit one up and stuck it in his mouth. “This is not the time to be offering me a smoke.”

The man bent his head and took a few puffs, then he bit his lips and said, “Third Bro, just three more days, only three more days…”

“Today,” Jiang Yu Duo said, “If I don’t have the money today, I’ll have someone come help you move in three days.”

The woman burst into tears.

“See?” Jiang Yu Duo leaned back against the chair, “You both know that even if I give you three days, it’ll be the same.”

“We really don’t have the money. There are the kids to take care of and we can’t put food on the table,” the woman sobbed, “Third Bro, even if you kill us, we won’t have the money. Help us out and give us some time to get the money together.”

“Who’s going to help?” Jiang Yu Duo said slowly. “Who will help? Who can help?

Nobody can help you in this world, nobody sees you, do you understand?”

They both looked at him in clear confusion.

If this was Chen Qing, Jiang Yu Duo would have hit him by now. But looking at the two in front of him, all he could feel was annoyance mixed with repulsion.

The man said in a low voice, “You have so many houses and so much money. You don’t need our money, really, can’t you give us a few more days?”

“No.” Jiang Yu Duo refused. “With this attitude, even if I give you ten years you won’t have the money.”

The man had nothing to say.

Jiang Yu Duo stood up, “Get the money together and call me. If I don’t get a call before noon, I’ll arrange to have someone come help you pack in three days.”

By the time he walked downstairs, he heard sounds of argument coming from the second floor. The woman was scolding the kids and the man was shouting something in a low voice.

So annoying.

Jiang Yu Duo lit another cigarette and put it between his lips. Annoying.

He took out his phone and called Da Bin, “Watch the family living on the second floor in building 1. If they want to run, let them run but don’t let them take anything, such as the electronics, from the room.”

“Sure thing, Third Bro,” Da Bin agreed. “We just… let them go?”

“Or else what?” Jiang Yu Duo replied. “Their belongings put together don’t come anywhere close to the rent. Better to have put someone new in there.”

“Then why not chase them out?” Da Bin asked.

“It’s not the same.” Jiang Yu Duo replied.

“Got it,” Da Bin agreed. “I’ll keep an eye out for the next days.”

When Cheng Ke woke up, it was already past three in the afternoon. He looked down at his watch in disbelief. Did he really sleep that deeply?

He sat up and pulled at the comforter, only to realize that he’d kicked comforter cover to the foot of the bed, though the comforter remained on him.

He sighed and got off the bed slowly. After washing up, he stood, thinking, in front of the fridge.

He bought a lot of things at the supermarket yesterday. In addition to the household items, there was a lot of food and he thought about making something to eat at home.

Even though it seemed like an impossible task and one he had no idea how to start, he insisted on taking out a handful of noodles and two sausages from the fridge.

Noodles should be easy. If making ramen ranked 0.1 on the difficulty scale, then making noodles was probably a 0.5.

There was a knife rack with three knives on the counter. Broad, skinny, and long.

He had no idea what each were used for and grabbed the long one. He put the sausage on the cutting board, waved the knife around for a few seconds, and then cut the sausage into chunks.

As he understood things, the next thing would be to boil water. He decided to let his mood determine whether the noodles or the sausages go first and whether he should wait for the water to boil or not.

He took out a small pot, filled it with water, and then put it on the stove.

This was a gas stove.

Not an electric one.

Then he double checked things and made sure the fuse line was connected. He looked again and saw a valve, which he twisted to make sure it was open.

The next step would be to turn the stove on.

He turned the knob and heard a series of soft clicks.

Yes, that’s the right sound. He waited happily for the flame, but until the tapping sound died away no flames appeared.

He repositioned the knob and tried to turn it again. The same clicking sound…

He turned off the gas valve, turned around and walked out of the kitchen. Forget the damned noodles.

He decided to go out and grab a bite while familiarizing himself with his surroundings.

As he stood by the elevator waiting for it to come up from the first floor, he couldn’t resist taking out his phone and typing a few words in the search bar.

How to light a gas stove.

He thought the stove was the problem, but because of his experience with the hot water heater yesterday he didn’t dare call Jiang Yu Duo immediately and complain about the damned stove.

“Before you turn on the valve, press the knob inwards and then turn leftwards until it’s level. This is the maximum setting for the flames. After it’s lit, adjust the size of the flames as necessary.”

Cheng Ke stared at the characters carefully. There were no problems with what he did, but “pressing it inwards” … where exactly was “inwards”?

The elevator dinged and Cheng Ke put the phone back in his pocket. He’ll figure it out when he comes back.

The elevator doors opened to reveal someone inside.

“… You?” Cheng Ke looked at the stoic Jiang Yu Duo standing upright in the elevator. Only the first day and he’s already here for the rent?

“You’re home?” Jiang Yu Duo said without any expression on his face.

“Ah.” Cheng Ke looked at him and suddenly felt nervous.

As a matter of fact, he’s only met Jiang Yu Duo a couple of times. But each time Jiang Yu Duo’s face was expressive. There had been arrogance, disdain, or annoyance.

Looking at his expressionless face right now, Cheng Ke suddenly felt uneasy.

He glanced at the fire axe next to him.

Jiang Yu Duo raised his hand and just when Cheng Ke moved to back off, he realized Jiang Yu Duo was just poking on the elevator’s control panel.

It was probably the “Door close” button since the elevator doors started to close.

When the doors were open just a sliver, Cheng Ke saw the blood dripping out on the left side of Jiang Yu Duo’s forehead and trace the knife scar on his face in a dark red path.

“What happened?” Cheng Ke asked in surprise.

Jiang Yu Duo didn’t answer and the elevator door shut.

Cheng Ke pounced on the button but the elevator was already starting its descent.

“Fuck.” Cheng Ke stood rooted in the same spot by confusion. He subconsciously wanted to help Jiang Yu Duo, but then quickly realized that this was “Third Bro”. It was clear that he was in trouble, and Cheng Ke had no desire to get involved in any more trouble.

But why would Jiang Yu Duo come here when he was injured?

Had this house been his safe haven before he rented it out?

Cheng Ke hesistated for a moment and then took out his phone and dialed the number for “Mentally Abnormal Jiang”.

But Jiang Yu Duo didn’t pick up.

解药

(Antidote)

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