498. Cockroach!
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For Lin Nan, this place was obviously just a rental apartment, but for some reason, the feeling of coming back here was even more comforting and freeing than returning to her grandfather’s house.
As soon as she unlocked the door and stepped inside, a strong aroma of food hit her, invigorating her senses. But once she took in the state of the place, her anger began to bubble over.
She turned to Chen Yao, pointing at the stains on the tiled floor, her expression darkening. “So, I’m gone for a few days, and you don’t clean at all?”
“What? No way! That’s just from when I was cooking!” Chen Yao protested desperately.
As Lin Nan surveyed the living room floor, she couldn’t quite imagine how cooking could have caused such a mess. It wasn’t filthy beyond reason, but those gray slipper prints were everywhere, making the once-white tiles look like a muddy battlefield.
“Let’s see… You only did a quick sweep when you picked me up this morning, didn’t you?” she sneered, reaching down to touch the dust on the coffee table’s drawer. “Haven’t dusted since I left, right?”
Chen Yao sheepishly scratched his nose. “That spot doesn’t really get noticed anyway…”
Ignoring his excuse, Lin Nan opened the bedroom door, poking her head in only to find a bathroom covered in water stains and the bed piled high with blankets, clothes, and empty cola bottles alongside snack bags on the desk.
Her situation was getting worse by the second.
Though she’d experienced worse conditions in her dorm back in the day — where the tiles were perpetually gray and trash was scattered everywhere — this was different. This was a rental apartment!
Chen Yao rushed in, beginning to tidy up in the bedroom while saying sweet nothings. “You go eat! I cooked curry rice; it’s delicious! I’ll clean this up ASAP!”
“I’ve been gone for just a few days…”
“I was busy!” Chen Yao defended himself as he tossed trash into the bin. “I have a debate competition coming up, and I’ve been training! Plus, I had to play ball in the evenings and study at night…”
As he spoke, his confidence faded under Lin Nan’s piercing gaze, his voice dwindling until he grudgingly mumbled, “I won’t let it happen again.”
Chen Yao never did much cleaning growing up. Before college, he lived at home, rarely lifted a finger for chores, and in the dorm, Lin Nan usually took care of everything. Now that they were in this rental, he had become slightly more diligent, washing clothes and taking out the trash, but the cleaning duties still fell on Lin Nan.
With a sigh, her anger softened at Chen Yao’s apology. She turned to her now cold lunch and decided to march into the bathroom to tackle the mess starting with the mop.
“If this is how messy it gets when I’m away for a week or a month, it’ll look like a trash heap!”
He continued to clean his desk, trying not to say too much.
“You knew I’d be back, but you didn’t even think to do some surface cleaning?” Lin Nan fumed at the slipper prints all over the floor.
The household slippers were divided into outdoor and indoor types, and it was peculiar that indoor slippers could leave such markings. It seemed like Chen Yao had been mixing them together recently — only he could turn the floor into a disaster zone!
Soon enough, Chen Yao had sorted out his desk and folded the clothes piled on the bed, scampering off with a cloth to clean the tables and chairs as if he were a diligent little elf.
Where was this industrious spirit earlier?
Lin Nan thought it was perfectly normal for guys to be messy, but based on her observations in their dorm, Chen Yao was doing better than most — at least he knew how to throw out the trash. Just look at Tu Junhui; that guy could hoard takeout waste for three days! And if Chen Yao could just shape up a bit more, that’d be fantastic.
After a solid half hour of cleaning, Lin Nan finally restored the apartment to its previous state. She plopped down on the couch, picked up the curry rice Chen Yao prepared for her, and huffed, clearly displeased.
Even though Chen Yao had helped a bit, Lin Nan felt it didn’t warrant her anger dissipating. “When will I get to come home to a clean place?” She shot an irritated glance at Chen Yao sitting beside her.
Just as she lifted her spoon to eat, Chen Yao eagerly grabbed the bowl. “Let me warm it up for you; it’ll taste better hot!”
“By the way, who were those three people you left the train station with? They seemed pretty familiar with Li Na,” he said, pouring some water in a pot while placing the bowl in it, turning back to Lin Nan. “Their hair was all kinds of crazy; they didn’t look like the good kind of people.”
That’s just their natural hair color!
It was hard for Lin Nan to explain, so she just replied vaguely, “They’re probably friends of Li Na; I’m not too familiar with them.”
“I have a debate competition tomorrow night. Are you coming to watch?” Chen Yao asked, hands stuffed in his pockets as he stood by the induction stove.
Shaking her head, Lin Nan said she had no interest in the debate contest. “I’d rather come home early to clean. I didn’t get to dust the corners, windows, or the floors under the bed.”
If she could ignore the floor under the bed before, while Chen Yao was home alone for a few days, who knew what crumbs might have accumulated there? It could easily attract cockroaches!
As if on cue, Lin Nan watched a massive cockroach leisurely emerge from the bedroom, crawling along the wall.
She instantly exploded in panic, pointing dramatically at the cockroach. “Chen Yao!”
Chen Yao snapped to attention and turned, only to see the cockroach startled, wings flapping as it dove right for Lin Nan’s face.
Lin Nan didn’t have a particular fear of cockroaches, but a flying one aimed at her face? Even the toughest guy would panic!
The glossy black cockroach zoomed towards her, and Lin Nan jumped up, frantically bolting in the opposite direction. But just two steps in, she unexpectedly kicked the coffee table, sending her tumbling face-first to the floor.
“cr*p! Lin Nan!”
“Catch the cockroach!”
The apartment turned chaotic as Chen Yao grabbed a slipper and hurled it at the cockroach, but this little demon scurried away, landing on the sofa and disappearing in a flash.
He hastily pulled the sofa aside, peering behind it, but the cockroach had vanished without a trace.
Turning back, he saw Lin Nan sitting on the floor, fuming with rage, and he nervously tried to explain, “It must’ve come from next door; our place is always clean!”
But Lin Nan puffed her cheeks, glaring at him. He broke under the pressure, swearing, “Okay, maybe it’s my fault for not picking up the chips I dropped…”
“Major cleaning spree! Buy cockroach traps!”
