The Third Hospital staff residential compound was old and run-down, looking rather dilapidated, with not even a security guard at the gate.
He first went into one of the residential buildings nearby to take a look, only to discover that none of the rooms had door numbers marked on them.
"The rental ad only listed unit 304 — how am I supposed to find it?"
Standing at the compound entrance with his backpack, Chen Ge wanted to find someone to ask for directions.
After waiting for over ten minutes, a high school student riding an electric scooter entered the compound.
"Excuse me, could you tell me which building has unit 304?" Chen Ge called out from a good distance away, afraid that suddenly stepping forward might scare the kid.
"Unit 304? That sounds familiar." The high school student stopped his scooter and pointed inside the compound. "It should be in there somewhere. I'm not too sure."
"One more question — have any strange things ever happened in this compound?" Chen Ge tried to make himself look as friendly as possible. "The Power Bureau staff compound across the street is also in the old city district, but it looks a lot livelier than this place."
"Nothing strange has happened here." The high school student studied Chen Ge, finding the man before him rather peculiar.
"Yahwen! Who are you talking to!" A middle-aged woman's voice came from the third floor. Chen Ge looked up to see a woman in pajamas staring at him with a guarded expression, then beckoning to the high school student beside him. "Get inside!"
"Okay, got it." The high school student rode away.
"Hold on a second!" Chen Ge didn't want to miss this chance. He had only come for the drawer and didn't want to make things more complicated than they needed to be.
After speaking, he stood directly below the building and called up to the middle-aged woman: "Ma'am, do you know which building has unit 304?"
He had just casually called out, but the moment the words left his mouth, every lit window in the entire building simultaneously went dark.
"That serious?" The residential building in front of Chen Ge now had only the middle-aged woman's apartment still lit.
"Go inside — it's the first building on the left, third floor." The woman's expression was grim. She went back inside and turned off her own lights too.
"Aren't you all overreacting a bit?" Chen Ge didn't leave immediately. Instead, he quietly followed behind the high school student and went upstairs.
After parking the electric scooter, the high school student — still having no idea what had transpired — headed upstairs with his backpack on.
"Mom, what's for dinner?"
The high school student was about to open the security door when the middle-aged woman's voice suddenly came from inside: "Don't touch the door! Stomp your feet before you come in!"
"Stomp what feet? I just got out of night study and I'm exhausted."
"Do what I told you!" The woman's voice suddenly got much louder, as though she was furious, startling even Chen Ge who was hiding on the second floor.
Reluctantly, the high school student stomped his feet a few times. Only then did the middle-aged woman open the door, mumbling continuously: "The child doesn't know any better, no offense meant, bad luck be gone…"
She repeated it several times before finally letting the kid inside with a relieved heart. "Take off all those clothes — I'm going to wash them for you."
"I just changed into them this morning!"
"If you won't take them off, don't eat."
The security door on the third floor slowly closed. Chen Ge stepped out of the stairwell, feeling puzzled: "Are the people in this compound seriously blowing things out of proportion?"