Chapter 2

At seven the next morning, someone smashed on my door again.

“Liam! Open up! I know you’re home!”

Aunt Wang’s voice cut right through the door, and I could hear a few people laughing with her.

Through the peephole, I saw her standing at the door, with two middle-aged women behind her, all holding bowls.

I took a deep breath and opened the door.

“Oh my, kid, why aren’t you up yet? The sun’s already on your butt!”

Aunt Wang shoved her way in, and the other two followed.

“Here, here, this is the white fungus soup I made, this is the steamed buns Aunt Zhang made, and this is the pickles Aunt Lee brought.”

“Look at you, living alone and not even knowing how to take care of yourself. You’re skinny as a monkey.”

They put the food on my coffee table and started touring my living room.

“Oh wow, why is it so dark in here? And the curtains aren’t even open. It looks like a coffin.” Aunt Zhang went to pull them open.

“This computer is huge. What do you do?” Aunt Lee pointed at my monitor.

“I’m a programmer. I work from home.” I stood beside them, not knowing where to put my hands.

“A programmer? So basically a computer repair guy?” Aunt Wang laughed.

“Perfect. My computer’s broken. Help me fix it.”

“I don’t repair computers. I write code.”

“Write code? What code?” Aunt Wang looked completely unconvinced.

“It’s just typing on a keyboard. What’s so hard about that? Young people shouldn’t be so stingy. What’s wrong with helping out?”

I didn’t want to argue with her, so I nodded. “Fine, let me take a look.”

“That’s more like it!” Aunt Wang patted my shoulder so hard I stumbled forward,

“See? Get out more, talk to your neighbors more. What’s so bad about that?”

She sat down on my couch and crossed her legs.

“Listen, this social anxiety of yours is just something you got spoiled into.”

“Did your parents keep you locked up at home and never let you go out when you were little?”

“I’m telling you, that doesn’t work. People need to socialize, or they’ll get sick.”

“I didn’t—”

“See, there you go again, not talking. I’m telling you, this isn’t okay. You need to change.”

Aunt Wang turned to the other two. “You tell me, doesn’t he have a problem?”

“Definitely has a problem.” Aunt Zhang nodded.

“Such a grown man, not talking, not socializing, just hiding in his room all day. If that’s not sick, what is?”

Aunt Lee leaned closer. “Liam, did your girlfriend dump you and scare you into this?”

“Tell Auntie about it. I can introduce you to someone new.”

“I don’t have a girlfriend.” I took a step back.

“You don’t? How old are you?” Aunt Wang’s eyes lit up.

“Twenty-six.”

“Twenty-six and still no girlfriend? Then there’s definitely something wrong!” Aunt Wang slapped her thigh.

“I’m telling you, this won’t work. A man has to get married and have kids, or he’s just a loser.”

“Look at Old Joe’s son in our complex. He’s two years younger than you and already has two kids.”

My palms were dripping with sweat, and my nails dug into my flesh.

“Aunt Wang, I’m really busy with work. I’m not thinking about that right now.”

“Busy with what? That programmer job of yours can’t pay much.”

“I’m telling you, my niece works at the mall selling clothes and makes five or six thousand a month. She’s pretty too. Want me to introduce her to you?”

“No thanks, Aunt Wang, really.”

“Why are you so ungrateful!” Aunt Wang’s expression darkened.

“I’m trying to set you up out of kindness, and you keep dodging me. Do you look down on me or something?”

“No, I just—”

“Just what!” She stood up.

“I think you’ve got a problem! I’m telling you, people like you don’t last long in this complex. You’ll get kicked out sooner or later!”

She stormed out, and the other two followed.

The door slammed so hard the whole room shook.

I stood there trembling all over.

Not from fear. From anger.

I picked up my phone, and every word from the conversation just now had been recorded.

From the moment they came in until they slammed the door and left, not a single word was missed.

I saved the recording into a folder, then opened the resident group.

Sure enough, Aunt Wang had started again:

“@Liam Tell me, are you sick or what?”

“I kindly brought you food and tried to set you up, and you act all disgusted.”

“Do you think us old people are dirty? Not good enough for you?”

“I’m telling you, a disrespectful piece of trash like you will get what’s coming to you sooner or later!”

Someone immediately replied: “Aunt Wang, don’t get mad. It’s not worth it to argue with someone like that.”

“Exactly. Let him sit there and rot. What a piece of work.”

I stared at the screen and didn’t reply with a single word.

But I took screenshots of this message too.

At two in the afternoon, someone knocked on my door again.

This time it was someone from building management, a man in a uniform, standing at the door and looking a little awkward.

“You’re Mr. Liam, right? Aunt Wang filed a complaint saying you’ve been disturbing the peace.”

“Disturbing the peace?” I froze. “I haven’t even left my apartment in three days. How am I disturbing anyone?”

“She says you’ve been walking around in your apartment and disturbing her rest.”

I almost laughed from anger. “I live in Building 5. She lives in Building 6. There’s another building between us. She can hear me walking?”

The management guy looked even more awkward. “Aunt Wang has a lot of influence in this complex.”

“Maybe you should apologize to her and just let this blow over?”

“Why should I apologize?”

“Mr. Liam, I’m only saying this for your own good.”

“Aunt Wang has lived here for over ten years. She knows people at the neighborhood committee and the district office. If you fight with her, you’re the one who’ll lose.”

I looked at him and suddenly laughed. “Fine, I get it.”

After the management guy left, I opened my computer and listened to every recording from today again.

Then I started writing something.

Not code. A log file.

Date, time, location, event, evidence file.

I wrote it down one by one, neat and precise, like code comments.

By the fourth day after I moved in, the document was already three pages long.