Chapter 74

Chapter 74: Good! Full of spirit!

The landlord stormed over, eyes blazing, reaching to grab Lin Jianyuan by the collar.

Lin Jianyuan kept his head down and continued packing.

He casually pressed a hand to his chest.

Click.

The landlord heard a sharp "click."

The next second.

Bang!

It felt like he’d crashed a car into a wall at two hundred kilometers an hour, and an airbag had slammed him backward.

Luckily, there was a couch behind him!

He stumbled back several steps and landed hard on the sofa, grimacing in pain.

"You, you..." The landlord was shocked. "What did you just do? What did you do to me?! How did I..."

Lin Jianyuan said, "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction."

The landlord said, "Huh???"

The landlord felt like nothing that had happened since seeing Lin Jianyuan today made any sense at all!

He sat slumped on the couch, his face cycling through a dozen expressions.

No, wait!

Suddenly, the landlord realized.

What car crash and airbag?

Lin Jianyuan must have pushed him just now!

Otherwise, how could he have fallen for no reason?!

At that thought, he flew into a rage.

The landlord jumped up from the sofa and jabbed a finger in Lin Jianyuan’s face, shouting, "You crazy bastard! Fucking lunatic! If you’re sick, stay the hell inside and stop bothering people! Damn it, you dared push me? You put your hands on me? Son of a bitch! I’m calling the cops! I’ll call them right now! You really pushed me, you asshole! You deserve to rot in a psych ward for the rest of your life! Who the hell let you out to terrorize people? I’m going to sue that damn hospital!"

Lin Jianyuan paused.

The young man frowned and slowly turned his head, displeased.

"Who told you I was crazy?"

"You're not crazy?" the landlord spat. "If you're not crazy, why do you mutter to yourself every damn day? You think nobody sees you just because you close your door? Everybody knows what you are! Cut the crap! Get the hell out! Stop acting like a nutcase in my place! Get lost! Go die, you psycho!"

If it weren’t for the fact that this idiot always paid his rent on time, he’d have kicked this nutjob out long ago!

Loser! Useless piece of shit! Just looking at him brings bad luck!

The landlord had hated his face from day one!

Now this psycho dared lay hands on him? Fine! Don’t blame him for getting nasty!

Lin Jianyuan stared at him in silence.

Suddenly, he said, "Shut up."

The landlord, burning with anger, roared, "Shut up? You tell me to shut up? Who the hell do you think you are, you lunatic..."

Lin Jianyuan said, "Even squeezing rocks doesn’t make this much noise. My ears are about to explode. Eyes and mouth, settle down, stop twitching. You’ll tear my pocket. Eye Vines? Eye Vines, why are you moving? I thought you didn’t understand human speech? ...Stop. Don’t mess with this idiot. Have some self-respect."

The landlord: "???"

What the hell is this lunatic talking about??

The landlord eyed him suspiciously, suddenly feeling a chill behind him, as if something was creeping closer.

He spun around in fright, but saw only an empty flowerpot.

A huge, empty planter, nothing growing in it, just a gaping hole in the center.

The landlord: "………………"

Shit!

What the hell!

That nutcase is up to something again?!

Wait, no.

The psycho had been standing right in front of him the whole time, hadn’t moved an inch!

So how did that giant flowerpot end up behind him??

Who moved it?!

A cold sweat broke out on the landlord’s back. The whole shabby apartment suddenly felt haunted.

He’d never seen anything like this. For a moment, he didn’t know what to do.

He could only mumble, defeated,

"Just... don’t go crazy in here..."

Lin Jianyuan suddenly smiled. "You reminded me—I forgot I’m supposed to be insane."

The landlord: "???"

Huh???

Wait, what?

What did he mean by that?

Why did that smile send chills down his spine?

A terrible feeling crept over the landlord. He glanced at the door, instinctively wanting to run.

But then he saw Lin Jianyuan reach into his pocket...

The landlord swallowed hard. His heart pounded faster.

In the thick tension, the landlord watched as Lin Jianyuan pulled out... pulled out... a...

...garbage bag.

The landlord: "?"

He could hardly believe his eyes.

He blinked and rubbed his eyes, but it was real.

Lin Jianyuan was definitely holding a black garbage bag.

As Lin Jianyuan packed things into the bag, he said, "Big mouth, sort this out in your belly for me."

The landlord: "???"

Maybe he was imagining things, but after Lin Jianyuan spoke, the mouth of the black plastic bag seemed to purse up and make a sound like, "Got it!"

The landlord: "………………"

Am I crazy, or is he?

The landlord was stunned and utterly shaken.

But everything in front of him looked... perfectly normal!

After all, Lin Jianyuan was broke.

A broke guy moving out without a suitcase, just using garbage bags? Makes sense.

Lin Jianyuan was a nutcase.

Talking to his garbage bag while packing? Sure, that fits.

The only weird thing was, why did the garbage bag make a sound...

Wait.

It’s a plastic bag.

Plastic bags crinkle and rustle. That’s normal, right?

So this... is normal too!

The landlord confused himself.

Yeah! Everything made sense!

So what was wrong here???

He eyed the lunatic in front of him, suspicious.

After a long moment, he finally realized the problem.

That garbage bag—how could it fit so much??

He watched as Lin Jianyuan opened the wardrobe and stuffed every shirt and pair of pants inside.

That was still reasonable.

He rolled up his bedding and shoved the quilt, sheets, even the mattress in.

That was barely reasonable.

Then he went to the kitchen and packed up the pots, bowls, and plates.

That was... sort of... reasonable?

Clothes and bedding are soft, you can squish them in.

But what happened next made no sense.

Because Lin Jianyuan bent down, picked up the robot vacuum—base and all—

—and stuffed the whole thing into the black garbage bag.

The landlord: "???"

Dude, what?

The vacuum was one thing, but the base was bigger than a water cooler!

How the hell did he fit that in there???

He’d already packed in a mountain of clothes, bedding, mattress, pots, and plates!

The landlord was completely dumbfounded.

His mind spun: What kind of garbage bag is this? How can it hold so much?

He didn’t even care anymore if the bag had talked earlier.

Why could this garbage bag hold so much???

He stood there in a daze. The more he thought about it, the weirder it felt—the weirder it felt, the more his skin crawled.

He finally couldn’t take it anymore. As he twisted the doorknob, he said, "Well, uh, you take your time packing. I’ll just... wait till you’re done and then..."

"What’s the rush?" Lin Jianyuan said coolly.

There was a rolling, rattling sound, like marbles on the floor.

The landlord thought he heard little round stones rolling across the floor.

Click, click.

He pressed the doorknob, but the door wouldn’t budge.

The lock was broken?!

Now, of all times?!

Cold sweat poured down his back.

Then the lunatic behind him said, almost lazily,

"Don’t be in such a hurry to leave. Stay and watch, so you can’t accuse me later of stealing anything from your place."

The landlord’s heart skipped a beat.

How did Lin Jianyuan know he’d planned to use that excuse to squeeze more money out of him?!

"N-no, of course not..."

Sweating bullets, the landlord leaned against the door, still desperately twisting the handle again and again.

Click, click, click...

The lock was completely jammed by something. He used all his strength, but it wouldn’t budge.

He could only force a miserable smile. "Alright, alright, of course I trust you. Take your time packing, no rush, really, take it slow, please don’t hurry..."

"Mm." Lin Jianyuan replied lazily. "Just make yourself at home, then. Don’t be shy."

The landlord: "..."

This is my house, damn it!

But facing Lin Jianyuan, who could go nuts at any moment, the landlord was genuinely scared.

He could only watch as Lin Jianyuan muttered to the air and kept packing things into that bottomless black garbage bag.

It felt like standing on the edge of a cliff!

Like walking on thin ice!

But why could that garbage bag hold so much...

When Lin Jianyuan finally finished packing, the landlord didn’t dare try to scam him for extra money.

He hurried to see him out, polite as could be.

Strangely, as soon as Lin Jianyuan was ready to leave, the door lock worked again, good as new.

The landlord could hardly believe it, but he didn’t dare look too closely.

He even felt a secret relief.

Thank God the lock was fixed!

Otherwise, would he have to spend the whole day trapped with that lunatic?

When he slid the key into the lock, it felt like a throat swallowing it down, smooth as silk.

Standing outside, locking the door, he didn’t know why that image popped into his head.

He shivered, a chill running down his spine.

All of this was just too bizarre!

He couldn’t make sense of any of it.

On his way downstairs, he ran into a neighbor and couldn’t help blurting out the whole story, muttering at the end, "How could that garbage bag hold so much?"

When he got home, he poured out the whole day’s events to his wife, muttering again, "How could that garbage bag hold so much?"

He tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep. Finally, he sat up, scratching his head and muttering, "How the hell did that garbage bag hold so much???"

"Will you shut up already!" his wife snapped from beside him.

"No, but it’s really weird!"

"Weird, weird, you’re the weird one! The guy’s a lunatic and you’re catching it from him! Go check yourself in at 700 Jiangchuan North Road!"

"What did you say? You old hag, what did you say?!"

"I said go check yourself in at 700 Jiangchuan North Road, you psycho!"

The old couple jumped out of bed in the middle of the night, slapping and punching each other.

Anyone watching would have to say:

Good!

Full of spirit!