I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 12

In places like this apartment, there’s a high turnover of residents. The rental contracts here usually require a minimum lease of three months, but they allow tenants to sublet the property to others as long as you inform the property management. They don’t mind if you become a third or fourth-hand landlord. In fact, they might even act as intermediaries to help you find new tenants, for which they charge a 30% commission.

This means that if they find a new tenant for you, that tenant will pay the rent directly to the property management. For example, if the original rent was 850 yuan per month, the property management would keep 250 yuan as their commission, and then transfer the rest to you. You’d then use an app to pay your monthly rent. While this might result in a small loss, it’s a way to stick to the contract, which doesn’t allow you to break it without forfeiting the deposit. So, you can either forgo the deposit or pay the extra amount each month to minimize your losses. Alternatively, you could find a new tenant yourself and negotiate the price. If you’re a good talker, you might even make a profit. There have been cases where people rented a place for 850 yuan and sublet it to someone else for 1,000 yuan, especially when the tenant was from out of town and unaware of the local rental rates, the existence of tenant WeChat groups, or specific apps for managing rental expenses.

So, as some authors in the “Yae-Do Author Rights Group” previously mentioned, Shenzhen is a huge city with its own unique rules. Without a local guide, you might easily fall victim to various unfamiliar practices.

In response to the property manager’s inquiry, I tried to sound casual and replied, “My ‘brother’ stayed up all night playing games and just fell asleep this afternoon.”

Well, the so-called ‘brother’ is standing right in front of you, once a middle-aged man, but now his soul is trapped inside a little girl’s body.

“Heh, young people, it’s normal,” the property manager chuckled. After hearing my explanation, he seemed to understand and didn’t probe further about whether I was a younger sister or a distant cousin. He even didn’t question why a young child like me was out and about on a Thursday instead of being at school. He turned to the young lady nearby and said, “If there’s nothing else, I’ll head off now.”

She responded, “Okay, I’m leaving when my boyfriend comes down.”

Waving at the property manager, the young lady continued, “And don’t forget to give a red envelope when my child is born, alright?”

The property manager replied, “Haha, sure, 1 yuan should be enough, right?”

She teased him, “Oh come on, 1 yuan is too stingy, how about at least 5 yuan?”

The young lady from Room 602 was familiar to me. If my memory serves me right, she had a boyfriend who wore glasses. They had an unusual work schedule, often coming home very late and sleeping during the day. They also had an American Shorthair cat and frequently shared pictures of their pet in the tenants’ group chat.

“Is everything packed up?” the property manager inquired.

As we were chatting, the young lady’s boyfriend came down the stairs, carrying the cat in his arms. When he saw me, the bespectacled young man seemed a bit surprised. “Who is she?”

The young lady explained, “The property manager said she’s the ‘little sister’ from Room 301, coming to stay for a few days.”

She added, “Isn’t she cute? It’s the first time I’ve seen such a beautiful girl, with fair and delicate skin. I’m totally envious.”

He agreed, “Indeed, she’s really cute.”

The bespectacled young man still had that mild-mannered appearance I remembered. He carried the luggage in both hands and had a strap across his chest to secure the American Shorthair cat, which looked thoroughly disheartened.

“Let’s go,” he said, probably realizing that it wasn’t early anymore, and he gestured toward the apartment complex’s entrance. “Otherwise, it’ll get crowded during the rush hour.”

The young lady replied with an “Mmm.”

The young lady leaned closer to him and stroked the cat’s head, which was secured in place on his chest. She waved to me, saying, “Goodbye, little sister.”

I returned the farewell, “Goodbye.”

She added, “These are things we don’t need anymore. Take a look and see if there’s anything you can use. If you can’t carry it all, ask your brother to come down.”

“Alright.”

As I watched them leave, I finally shifted my focus to the various household items piled up in the corner.

Living in an apartment has its perks, one of which is… if you wish, most of your household items can be acquired for free.

You move in with just your bag, and the rest can be obtained through “free acquisitions,” which can last you for months. If you interact with other tenants in the chat group or build a good rapport with the property management, when those tenants move out, you can inherit a plethora of “inheritance.”

Let’s not forget, items like pots, bowls, spoons, hangers, drying racks, mops, brooms, desks, chairs, full-length mirrors – most tenants don’t bother taking these with them when they move out.

Some tenants, if they have some spare time, might take symbolic pictures of items and post them in the chat group for a quick sale, like a rice cooker for 20 yuan, an induction cooker for 30 yuan, and a stainless steel basin thrown in for free, and it’s always cheaper than what’s available outside.

The couple from apartment 602 should be moving out to their hometown to get married as the young lady is expecting a baby. I recall them mentioning this in the chat group.

There’s a full-length mirror, a storage cabinet, an induction cooker, a rice cooker, what seems to be a vanity table for women, and various miscellaneous items.

I walked up to the full-length mirror, looking at the girl in the reflection.

She was petite, with snow-white skin, incredibly bright and large eyes. Her silky, cascading long hair fell quietly behind her. Her boyish attire lent her a handsome appearance, giving her a mischievous, adult-like charm – just as the young lady had said, the girl in the mirror looked unbelievably perfect.

My face belonged to the cute, “innocent” type. As the saying goes, the eyes are the windows to one’s soul, and even without any filters or beautification, my eyes in the mirror looked lively… I apologize, but I can only use the term “lively” because I truly couldn’t find a better word to describe them. It’s like they hold hope and all things beautiful. Paired with a dainty nose, rosy lips, and a bit of baby fat still remaining on my face, my skin was fair and tender. Honestly, even in my current state, I felt like I wanted to reach into the mirror, hold the girl in there, and give her all the love she deserves.

Well, since you don’t want these things anymore, I’ll gladly take them.

I briefly inspected the furniture before me. I already had an induction cooker and a rice cooker at home, so I would bring back the full-length mirror. I hadn’t needed a mirror to be vain when I was a man, but now that I had become a girl and didn’t know when I would return to my original form, having a mirror as a backup was a good idea. There was also a vanity table – I would need it to take care of my long hair, which would probably need some grooming, and perhaps even skincare in the future. So, I’d prepare in advance.

As for the rest… Well, I had enough hangers, didn’t need the wardrobe, but the toaster oven seemed useful. I could use it to make cakes or other goodies in my spare time.

When you think about it, maybe those four yuan I spent on the cotton candy weren’t wasted?

Crouching down carefully, I lifted the slightly scratched full-length mirror and headed back toward the stairwell. It was clear that these items had just been moved out by the tenant in 602. I happened to encounter them at the right time, and a minute earlier or later, we wouldn’t have crossed paths. If I had gone home a bit earlier, I might have cooked the fish and headed out immediately, bypassing all this entirely.

In other words, if I hadn’t gone to help the guy in the suit at the market, if I hadn’t spent time picking up his scattered coins or gone to find the guy making cotton candy, then I would have returned home much earlier. I wouldn’t have encountered the 602 tenant and the property manager. Naturally, I wouldn’t have known about them giving away furniture.

It’s currently during rush hour, and if the tenant from 602 posted in the chat group, “I’m moving out, my furniture is in the lobby, first come, first served,” those items would be claimed within half an hour.

Four yuan in exchange for so many useful things isn’t bad at all.

As they say, contentment brings happiness. I don’t have many skills, so I’ll rely on this kind of to get by. After quickly moving the full-length mirror back into my room, I took a short break by the door. The thought of making cakes with the toaster oven in the future filled me with determination. “Da da da,” I sped back down and picked up the toaster oven. I promised myself that once I had some money, I’d definitely treat myself to some self-made barbecue!