Chapter 9 of 10

Chapter 9

16 min read3,928 words

After obtaining the small space, Tianming immediately resigned from his job. Now, he had become an unemployed wanderer, just short of registering with the employment management department to apply for unemployment benefits.

In the small space, since there was no electricity or internet connection and no cell phone signal, most of the time, apart from walking around and looking at things, Tianming found it very boring.

He thought about whether he should run some electrical and network cables into the small space to live a carefree life as a shut-in.

Shaking his head, he realized this plan had many practical difficulties.

Tianming would need to prepare a wire over 150 meters long and an equally long fiber optic cable.

It would take some effort to buy these two types of cables.

Additionally, for confidentiality reasons, Tianming did not want to make too much noise. To avoid being discovered by his neighbors, every time he entered the small space, he had to close the doors and windows tightly and draw the curtains, giving the impression that he was doing something he didn't want others to see.

The main reason was that the one-bedroom, one-living room apartment he rented, which was less than 50 square meters, had very poor confidentiality. Even the slightest noise could easily be noticed by the surroundings.

For example, the young couple next door, who produced countless love scenes night after night, initially kept Tianming from sleeping. Over time, he gradually got used to their routine and it no longer affected his rest. This process didn't take long.

It seemed that he should find a better place to rent.

To be honest, the reason Tianming chose this apartment and lived there for three years was not only because the monthly rent of 1500 yuan was very reasonable, but also because the area was a residential zone, far from the noise of the main roads, and very quiet. Moreover, he got along very well with the landlord, Uncle Qiu.

The landlord's surname was Qiu, and he was in his fifties. He had a son and a daughter, both of whom were married and had their own careers, but neither lived nearby. Tianming usually called him Uncle Qiu.

Occasionally, Uncle Qiu would come over to chat and catch up on daily life.

"Xiao Ming, you're moving out?" Uncle Qiu said with a hint of regret.

Pouring a cup of hot water and handing it to the landlord, Tianming nodded and said, "I resigned recently. I need to change my workplace, so I also need to change where I live."

"Is that so? Xiao Ming, what do you do? My son runs a design company, doing fashion design. How about I introduce you to him for a job?"

Tianming was somewhat amused and said, "Uncle Qiu, UI design and fashion design are different. I appreciate your kindness, but I've already talked to a company in Haicheng City. I'll start next month."

Uncle Qiu liked Tianming very much. Unlike most messy tenants, Tianming always kept the house clean inside and out and was very polite, leaving a good impression. When he suddenly heard that Tianming was leaving, he felt regretful.

He had even planned to introduce him to a potential partner, but now that was out of the question.

Realizing there was nothing he could do, Uncle Qiu sighed and stood up. "I understand. The lease expires on the 1st of next month. I'll return your deposit in a few days."

"Okay, thank you, Uncle Qiu. Thank you for your care all these years."

"I'll be going now."

"Take care, Uncle Qiu!"

Watching Uncle Qiu, who walked slowly down the stairs with a slightly hunched back, Tianming smiled, thinking about some of the funny things that had happened before.

When Tianming first moved in, Uncle Qiu thought he was a nice young man and had a good impression of him. He started trying to find him a partner every day.

He had a niece, an only child, who was almost 27 and hadn't married yet because she was looking for a son-in-law to move in with her.

During a conversation, Uncle Qiu learned that Tianming, who was 25, had just broken up with his girlfriend and was single. He immediately tried to match them up, praising his niece to the skies, saying that she was the best in the world. He said that if Tianming moved in, he wouldn't need to prepare anything, and he could settle down in Suyun City in just 30 years.

At first, Tianming strongly declined. He didn't want to go against tradition and be seen as a man who lived off his wife.

After several attempts, Uncle Qiu finally brought his niece to meet Tianming, saying it was just to get to know each other and that it was a free choice. Tianming reluctantly met her.

His first impression of her was good. She was very pretty, taller than him, and had a graceful, fair-skinned appearance, giving off an air of a well-bred lady.

Tianming went on a few dates with her and had a few meals together.

Then... nothing happened.

He remembered the day she took out two agreements and, to Tianming's shock, read out clauses about how property would be divided after marriage, how children would be raised, and how her father's inheritance would be handled. Tianming almost spat out his coffee.

The most important clause in the agreement was that the child would take the mother's surname. This made Tianming feel that this proud and strong-willed girl was too powerful.

"You do your thing, I'm not staying." He threw two red envelopes on the table and left without looking back.

Thinking about the cool and confident back he showed as he walked away, Tianming felt he must have looked pretty cool.

From then on, Tianming never saw the girl named Qiu Yunjing again.

...

In the past few days, Tianming didn't enter the small space but started looking for a new place to live and buying some essential equipment.

200 meters of copper core wire and 200 meters of fiber optic cable. He bought the former at a large hardware market and the latter directly from a fiber optic factory in the industrial park at a high price.

He also bought a Huwang brand mountain bike for 5000 yuan and a powerful Haojue motorcycle for over 20,000 yuan. The money in his pocket flowed out like water.

Spending money can be an addictive disease. Feeling that he still needed more, he went to Oushang Home and bought a set of high-end leather sofas worth 8880 yuan, a rocking bed, two rosewood chairs, a set of office desks... In total, he spent nearly 30,000 yuan at the furniture market.

Finally, these items filled his newly rented three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment to the brim.

This apartment, over 140 square meters, was luxuriously decorated with a fully equipped kitchen and bathroom. Apart from the relatively high monthly rent of 3800 yuan, it was no worse than some four-star hotels.

Before renting this apartment, Tianming had considered whether he should sell some of the crystals and gems from the small space or some gold sand to raise a few million and buy a house to settle down.

But after careful consideration, he abandoned this idea.

In recent years, housing prices in major cities had risen to levels that were difficult for ordinary people to bear.

Take Suyun City, for example. The housing price in the third ring area, which was 8800 yuan per square meter two years ago, had risen to 12,000 yuan. A house of 100 to 150 square meters, including property tax, would cost at least 1.2 million yuan.

Many of Tianming's close friends and classmates had become mortgage slaves. With a monthly salary of 8,000 to 9,000 yuan, they had to pay 4,000 to 5,000 yuan to the bank. Even more tragically, this dark and hopeless life would last for 30 years.

As a result, Tianming developed an instinctive aversion to buying a house. Even though he had some savings from his years of hard work, enough for a down payment, he still had no plans to buy a house.

Although I have money, it doesn't mean I'm stupid. Do you think I don't know that these sky-high housing prices are artificially inflated?

So, even though his family kept urging him and his few short-term, materialistic ex-girlfriends had left him, he still had no plans to buy a house until the prices dropped.

Others might laugh at him, but he understood: with such a huge demand, there was no possibility of a price drop. However, he still held to one belief: a house is not everything. The world is vast, and there are many places to settle down. Why tie oneself to a single point in a big city? With money, he could go to any city he wanted to settle in, and there might be better options.

...

The new neighborhood where Tianming moved was a high-end residential apartment complex in Suyun City.

It was far from the city center, with well-developed landscaping, comfortable and quiet, and a closed management system. It had a supermarket, hotel, and other amenities, so all problems could be solved without leaving the complex.

Each household had a 50 Mbps Yixin fiber optic broadband, which was much more stable and faster than the 8 Mbps Xintong broadband he used before.

At 3800 yuan per month, if it weren't for the fact that the landlord's family had immigrated to Canada and didn't want to sell the house to keep its value, Tianming would have found it hard to find a better place.

Three days after moving into the new place, he cleaned the inside and outside of the apartment thoroughly and nodded in satisfaction.

He put the first batch of items he planned to bring into the small space into the ability space.

Alright, let's get started.

Tianming took out the cube and opened the space portal.

As soon as he stepped onto the grass in the small space, he was startled!

A huge gray long-eared creature appeared 30 meters in front of him.

It was over half a meter long and stood as tall as a person. Its two large gray ears were very noticeable.

Seeing it dragging a large backpack and running away quickly, Tianming knew it was the long-missing Little Gray.

How long has it been? The rabbit had grown to such an exaggerated size.

Tianming counted on his fingers. He had been busy for about 6 or 7 days outside, and he had just moved to Lirong Neighborhood yesterday. It had been about half a month in the small space. Had Little Gray turned into Big Gray?

Chasing after it, he finally caught the enormous long-eared rabbit with great effort.

"Seeing your owner, you just run away. Do you think you can live without your owner now? Don't you know your owner will be very angry?" Tianming scolded Little Gray harshly, only letting it go after petting its soft fur enough.

Although he was surprised that Little Gray had grown so big after eating grass for half a month, Tianming had more important things to do.

He found a hill with a relatively flat top and a good height. First, he took out the rocking bed from the ability space and placed it on the flattest spot.

Then he took out the leather sofa.

The 300-pound Haojue motorcycle, the 10- to 20-pound mountain bike.

Several sets of clothes, blankets, and pillowcases, which he threw onto the clean grass.

Although the ability space had over 100 cubic meters of storage, it was clearly not enough to carry everything in one trip.

He went out of the small space again and brought in the office desk and rosewood chairs.

"OK, all done!"

Clapping his hands, Tianming looked at the piles of items on the grass and felt a strong sense of accomplishment.

Next, the two most important things for the shut-in Tianming to do were to get electricity and internet.

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