bookpower Chapter 36: Throwing ’Shi’ from a High Altitude
Chapter 36: Throwing ’Shi’ from a High Altitude
Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Throwing ‘Shi’ from a High Altitude
Jiang Yan’s brow furrowed ever so slightly.
The visitor was none other than the chairman of the Shallow Bay homeowners’ committee and the admin of the homeowners’ group chat, a forty-year-old divorced bachelor, Zhang Qiming.
She didn’t have much interaction with Zhang Qiming; they had merely added each other on WeChat when she completed the property purchase and moved in.
It was he who had added her to the Shallow Bay homeowners’ group chat.
At this moment, to say he looked greasy was more a visual impression than anything else.
The weather was too hot, and there was a water outage, making all of Zhang Qiming’s hair stick together, slick and plastered to his head.
His face, flushed from the heat, was also greasy, both on his face and neck.
If one were to swipe a hand over it, it might even be possible to fling off a handful of oil and sweat beads.
The man lingered outside her door for a few seconds before picking up his phone to make a voice call to her.
Jiang Yan was quick, directly pressing the button to power off her phone.
Outside, Zhang Qiming, upon hearing “The number you have dialed is currently unavailable,” found his previously furrowed brow relax.
It seemed that her phone did have battery; she simply had switched it off.
No wonder she hadn’t answered any of the myriad messages he had sent her.
She hadn’t shown up in the homeowners’ group chat either.@@@@
But in his view, this was to be expected.
Many had kept their phones off after last night’s major power outage, to conserve battery and ensure they could use it when it was crucial.
Zhang Qiming didn’t turn to leave; instead, after a second’s hesitation, he lifted his hand to knock on Jiang Yan’s door.
But unexpectedly, the moment his palm hit the iron door, a strong electric current crackled, “zzt”, coursing through his palm and throughout his body.
There was a faint smell of pork lightly scorched emanating from his hand.
“Ow! Ow! Ow!”
The electric shock was sudden and unexpected!
Zhang Qiming trembled violently as if stricken by Parkinson’s, his body reflexively contorting backward like an octopus, leaping several steps away.
The scorching and pain on his palm forced several involuntary expletives before he managed to contain himself.
At this moment, he appeared pale as paper, with beads of sweat falling like rain from his forehead as if a hidden water pipe lay buried in his hair.
Jiang Yan had actually only activated a 110V low-voltage defense.
“Look at the way you say it, Brother Zhang! With your voice so loud and strong, who needs to eavesdrop? By the way, what was that you were calling that crazy girl, Xiao Jiang? You know her? Why not share some gossip with me?” He Chunmei batted her eyes at him and leaned in with an expressive face full of curiosity.
Mainly, the weather was just too hot, and with a son and daughter both sick, she would have otherwise planned to inquire about the background of the person in 3201 at the property management office.
She had asked the property manager, but received no response.
Moreover, word of bad deeds spread far, even if good deeds stay unrecognized.
Her involvement in barring Jiang Yan from returning home had spread throughout the community overnight.
Of course, many were also blaming Jiang Yan for not being more cooperative.
“Chunmei, you’re a mother of two; try not to be so nosy, will you? If it’s not meant for you to know, don’t pry into it!”
Zhang Qiming finished speaking, turned around, and left via the stairwell without looking back.
Some secrets are only valuable if kept to oneself.
If this gossiping woman were to overhear it, all the efforts he had made regarding Jiang Yan would be in vain.
He Chunmei’s smile stiffened as she watched his retreating figure; she cursed silently to herself and dejectedly went back inside.
*
Once Jiang Yan saw that Zhang Qiming had walked far enough away, she picked up her phone again.
As soon as it powered on, a barrage of messages and news alerts pop-pop-popped up.
The homeowners’ group chat was filled with quarrels and pleas for help.
It had continued until after three in the morning.
Most likely, it wasn’t that everyone had gone to sleep, but rather that most people’s phones had run out of battery.
The subsequent messages were sporadic.
Jiang Yan’s fingers scrolled swiftly, but her gaze quickly fixed on a slightly eerie photo.
Someone had taken advantage of the dark pre-dawn hours to use the patriotic phone’s moon-shooting mode, capturing a distant photo of a central garden that was shared in the group chat.
In the blue-gray image, the garden’s colorful plastic pathways were littered with several black figures.
Fewer figures were scattered among the flowerbeds, lawns, and woods.
Jiang Yan zoomed in on the photo, and her pupils abruptly contracted, nearly dropping her phone to the ground.
The black figures were bodies, each one shriveled and unrecognizable!
On one of the comparatively “fresh” corpses were densely packed blood mosquitoes, each the size of a face!
Jiang Yan felt her trypophobia about to act up at the sight.
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