Chapter Eight Neighbors

  Usually, Su Tong was used to running around, and she always thought her physical condition was pretty good. She wouldn't say she had a particularly lithe figure, but at least she didn't need to eat anything special to be able to climb several floors in one breath without getting tired. However, today, for some reason, whether it was because she twisted her ankle or because she hadn't rested well the night before, after coming down from Changqing Mountain, she felt especially exhausted. Her whole body's energy seemed to have been sucked out of her, and her limbs were soft and light, like cotton. Her head felt heavy, as if filled with lead, so much that she could hardly lift it up. She sat in the taxi for a while before entering a state of being half asleep and half awake, until the car stopped at her own building, when Wang Li woke her up. It was unclear whether sitting in the car and resting for a bit made her more sensitive to pain, but originally Su Tong could still walk with difficulty, limping along. After getting out of the taxi, however, her injured ankle hurt badly, so much that even if she just touched her toes to the ground and applied a little force, it immediately hurt so much that beads of sweat broke out on her forehead.

  Wang Li saw that she was in so much pain, and immediately changed her mind, insisting on taking her to the hospital. Su Tong had been tired all day and was now exhausted. Just thinking about the crowded scene at the hospital during the day made her give up, and she quickly persuaded Wang Li, saying: "It's nothing, just a twisted ankle, I probably pulled a tendon, so it hurts badly. Resting for a night will be fine, no need to go to the hospital specially. Besides, look at my legs now, from here to the hospital, running around with the medical records, doing checks on each floor, wouldn't that make things worse?"

  Wang Li originally had no room for negotiation and was determined to take Su Tong to the hospital. After hearing her say that, he also felt a bit reasonable, so he relaxed his tone: "Okay, I'll help you upstairs, tonight you just rest at home honestly, tomorrow morning I'll call you, if it hurts badly, I'll help you ask for leave from Lao Dong, and then sneak out to accompany you to the hospital for an examination. If it's a fracture or something, that wouldn't be good!"

  "Hey, don't worry about me, I might be fine tomorrow morning and can even run a 100-meter dash!" Su Tong joked to reassure Wang Li, not wanting to add to her troubles.

  Wang Li glared at her: "You? The bars are almost up to your chest, are you going to jump over it or is it going to jump over you?"

  "Have you ever heard of people crossing bars?"

  "There's nothing you can't do! You want to cross, but your legs aren't long enough, no way, you can only crawl under the railing, isn't that just the same as the railing crossing you!" Wang Li teased Su Tong, who stretched out his hand to tickle her, scaring her so much that she wanted to hide, but was afraid that if she hid and let go of Su Tong's hand, he would lose his balance and fall. She hurriedly begged for mercy, "Okay, okay, I won't say it anymore! Look at you, this little heartless kid, I'm taking good care of you, this 'disabled person', but you're fine, haven't even crossed the river yet and already want to burn the bridge, if you make me angry, I'll throw you off the building and not care, see how you get back up!"

  "Well, in that case I'll just have to literally 'climb the stairs'!" Su Tong made a crawling motion with her hands and feet, and the two of them burst out laughing. Wang Li put Su Tong's arm around her shoulder and supported her as they went upstairs.

  Su Tong currently lives in the old house left by her parents. Because her grandparents are getting older and need someone to take care of them, Su Tong's parents, who were also born when they were older, gave birth to a daughter at an advanced age. Although Su Tong is only 25 years old, her parents have already passed their retirement age, so they gave the house to her and moved back to their hometown to take care of their aging grandparents. This house has been Su Tong's home since she was in college, and she has lived there for many years. The surrounding facilities are quite good, and she is used to living there. However, like many people who live in high-rise communities, Su Tong is familiar with the environment around her home but not very familiar with her neighbors.

  Especially the man who claimed to live in his own home opposite the door, Su Tong was supported by Wang Li and walked into the unit door when he saw the elevator door far away, and involuntarily thought of the experience during the day.

  But she didn't have the leisure to recall the events of the day, as on the elevator door was posted an A4 paper with a few large characters - "Out of order".

  "My goodness, you can't joke like that! Why did the elevator have to break down today of all days? You live on the 10th floor! With your leg like that, how are you going to get up there?" Wang Li was stunned. Su Tong wasn't tall or fat, but he had twisted one foot and couldn't put much force into his walk. Wang Li herself was also weak and frail, with no great strength to speak of, and she was wearing a pair of high-heeled shoes that made it difficult for her to climb. The elevator breaking down was no ordinary problem for the two of them to get up to the 10th floor.

  "Otherwise, you can come to our house tonight, let's go out and take a taxi now, I don't believe that all the elevators in the city's communities will strike collectively today." Wang Li also didn't know what to do.

  "Never mind, I think if we try hard enough, we might be able to make it work." Su Tong smiled wryly and shook her head. It wasn't that she was being polite to Wang Li; firstly, the two of them had always been quite close, and secondly, the fact that she had sprained her ankle was right in front of her. If there was any way to avoid climbing ten floors, she didn't want to drag Wang Li down with her either. The problem was that both Wang Li and Lao Lu's families were from out of town, and their financial situation wasn't exactly great. They had only just managed to scrape together the down payment last year and had taken out a mortgage on a small apartment, which was only about 40 square meters in size - one bedroom, one living room. It was cozy, but the space was a bit cramped. For just the two of them, it was perfectly fine, but if Su Tong were to join them, it would be very inconvenient.

  Wang Li said, after realizing the problem herself, her own home's small apartment had a bathroom and bedroom together, if Su Tong were to stay, both she and Lao Lu would be very embarrassed. So she also looked embarrassed, hesitated, looking at the stairs, then at Su Tong's ankle: "Then... climb?"

  Su Tong gritted his teeth: "Crawl!"

  Since the elevator showed no signs of resuming operation, and there was no sign of maintenance personnel except for a fault notice, Su Tong had no choice but to climb the stairs. She tried her best to jump on one foot, with her arm lightly resting on Wang Li's shoulder, not daring to put too much weight on it, fearing that it would add to Wang Li's burden and make her unable to bear it. She just leaned against it slightly, helping herself maintain balance, slowly jumping up the stairs level by level. At first, it was okay, but after jumping for a layer and a half, her calf began to ache and swell, and she had less and less energy. She had to grit her teeth and jump up another half layer, then stand there and rest for a while. Even so, when she climbed to the fifth floor, she was still drenched in sweat and exhausted, wishing she could just stay overnight in the stairwell.

  Wang Li was also in a sorry state, her originally soft and smooth blouse stuck to her body with sweat, because she and Su Tong were supporting each other, their clothes and skirts became wrinkled and messy, later on they simply took off their high heels and carried them in their hands, so as not to hurt their feet while climbing the stairs.

  When they reached the fifth floor, both people had almost exhausted all their strength. Wang Li supported Su Tong and let her sit on the stairs to rest for a while. She stood aside, using her hand as a fan to fan herself. After resting for a short while, there was the sound of doors closing from upstairs, followed by footsteps coming down the stairs. It was probably someone who had no choice but to walk down because there was no elevator. Su Tong sat on the stairs, worried that she would be in the way of others passing by. She struggled to hold onto the handrail and stood up, making room for others to pass. After resting for a while, her physical strength recovered a bit. Sitting there made her feel dizzy and sleepy, so she thought that since she had gotten up this time, she might as well take advantage of it and go up a few more floors with one burst of energy. The sooner they got home, the better they could rest thoroughly.

  The footsteps from upstairs grew louder, and a man wearing light khaki pants and a white shirt came down the stairs. He turned around to see Su Tong standing by the staircase, looked taken aback for a moment, then broke into a warm smile and greeted him, "It's you! We've met again!"

  Su Tong originally didn't have the mind to pay attention to who was coming, and only looked up when he heard someone talking to him. He was stunned at first glance, wasn't this the man he met in the hospital elevator during the day? The clothes and pants were still the same set, even the smile on his face was identical, the only difference was that he wasn't wearing glasses now, those deep eyes were unobstructed, feeling more piercing and spirited.

  "Ah, we meet again! You live here too!" Su Tong blurted out, only to realize afterwards that he had said something foolish. He wished he could swallow his own tongue. The other person had already introduced themselves in the elevator earlier and said they lived next door, but now Su Tong's reaction made it seem like either he was very silly or he hadn't believed them at all. This was truly too embarrassing.

  Fortunately, the man didn't mind and nodded with a smile: "Yes, as soon as I saw you, I was even more certain that I hadn't mistaken you during the day. You really are my neighbor across the hall."

  His answer didn't seem to be anything special, yet it seemed like he was helping Su Tong resolve the awkwardness. As he spoke, his gaze quickly swept over Su Tong's body and finally landed on her ankle.

  "Are you hurt?" he asked, his face almost imperceptibly clouding over.

  "Can't really tell?" Wang Li, who was listening to the two people exchanging greetings, had curiosity in her eyes. Now that she heard the other person ask with concern about Su Tong, she chimed in and asked back.

  The man's eyes flickered for a moment, and his answer was serious and calm: "Oh, I figured it out from her standing posture. It looks like she doesn't dare to put too much force on one foot, relying on her body to shift the weight onto the handrail of the stairs."

  Su Tong was told by him, and found that he indeed had such a posture. Wang Li smiled and looked at the man with ambiguous eyes, then looked at Su Tong: "Observing is quite careful!"

  The man smiled back at her and looked at Su Tong, asking: "Are you going upstairs? I'll help hold the ladder too."

  "No, no need, how can I be so presumptuous." Su Tong hastily declined, although now it seems that this person is indeed her neighbor, but from start to finish she didn't know for how long they had been neighbors, and just today they ran into each other twice and exchanged two sentences, she wasn't so bold as to ask him for help in such a straightforward manner.

  "It's okay," the man said, his gaze shifting from Su Tong to the high-heeled shoes in Wang Li's hand, seemingly slightly amused. "You don't have to be polite with me, just consider it helping your friend lighten her load a bit, I think she's quite tired too."

  Su Tong looked at Wang Li, Wang Li helplessly shrugged her shoulders, her bangs were already wet with sweat and stuck to her forehead. Although she didn't say it out loud, in reality she was also exhausted, letting her carry herself up the five-story building had already exceeded Wang Li's capacity.

  Su Tong was a bit embarrassed on this side, but the man was quite proactive and had already walked up to her, putting one of his arms around her shoulder. Although Su Tong felt a bit awkward, as a modern woman, she couldn't be too reserved or petty when someone was trying to help her, so she quickly thanked him. Wang Li also hurried over to support Su Tong's other arm, and the two of them helped her slowly walk up the stairs.

  The man was wearing a loose-fitting shirt, and apart from being tall, it wasn't immediately apparent whether he was lean or muscular. However, as he supported Su Tong, with her arm wrapped around his neck and resting on his other shoulder, in order to get some leverage, her hand had to grasp the top of his arm, and the taut muscles bulging beneath his sleeve seemed to confirm that this man wasn't as slender as he initially appeared.

  Rather than saying that the man and Wang Li helped Su Tong up the stairs, it would be better to say that he carried Su Tong all the way up by himself. The stairwell was quite narrow, so the three of them couldn't walk side by side. Later on, Wang Li simply panted heavily as she followed behind them, climbing the stairs on her own. The man had a lot of strength, and Su Tong felt like he hadn't even exerted himself at all, yet somehow he found himself being supported all the way to the door of his home on the tenth floor.

  Just as they had just arrived at the tenth floor and hadn't even had time to catch their breath, the elevator that was originally out of order suddenly made a rising sound, and the floor numbers on the display screen also started jumping up one by one - the elevator had been repaired and restored to operation.

  Three people looked at the elevator that had returned to normal operation, and they couldn't help but laugh and cry. Wang Li pointed at the elevator and said in exasperation: "What a crappy elevator! It's simply a nemesis!"

  The man also lost his smile, he let Wang Li support Su Tong to stand firm, and he himself stretched out his hand to press the button for the elevator: "It's good this way, I don't have to walk down the stairs. Once you're home, rest well, I still have something to do, I need to go out for a bit."

  Su Tong hurriedly thanked him again, the man just smiled and didn't say anything else. The elevator arrived, he walked in, nodded to Su Tong and Wang Li, closed the elevator door and went downstairs.

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