My 26-year-old female tenant

Chapter 1：With your baby

On a rainy evening, the cold wind swirled with fallen leaves, ravaging the city. Le Yao and I stood at the entrance of the city's maternity and child health hospital, holding an umbrella amidst the bustling crowd. Her face, pale, looked at me with a certain gravity.

"Zhao Yang, I'm pregnant."

I was taken aback, then stared at her and said, "Find the person who got you pregnant. Why did you call me out?"

"I've only slept with one man in the past year, and that's you. Who else should I look for?"

"I say I've only slept with one woman in the past year, and that's you. Do you believe me?"

"Zhao Yang, are you even a man?"

"Everyone's just having fun. Don't try to pin this on me. If you want me to take responsibility, show me something concrete. Don't play games with empty words. Who the hell wants to be a father without knowing it?"

Le Yao was silent for a moment, then said to me, "The child has already been aborted. Where is there any proof?"

I was getting angry: "Do you think I look like a fool? You've had the child aborted, and then..." I raised my hand, feeling utterly speechless: "And then, you tell me the child is mine, Zhao Yang's. Are you pretending to be naive, or am I just stupid?... Le Yao, we're all adults here. Can we do something decent?"

Le Yao bit her lip and looked at me. After a while, she said, "You're not willing to take responsibility, right? Tomorrow, I'll go to your company..."

"Damn it... Is it really necessary?" I exclaimed in anger.

Le Yao continued to bite her lip, looking at me intently, but I thought she was a good actress. We met in a bar and had a one-night stand. A woman who frequents bars, claiming to have only been with one man in a year—I'd be a fool to believe her.

I didn't want to continue this entanglement, so I took out my wallet, pulled out all the hundred-yuan bills, and handed them to her: "You just want money, don't you? Take it, and don't bother me anymore!"

Le Yao didn't say a word, nor did she continue to argue with me. She nodded, turned around, and walked back into the hospital with her umbrella, as if there were still some unpaid bills...

Watching her lonely figure in the rain, I suddenly felt an indescribable emotion. Although I didn't believe the child in her womb was mine, and although I was annoyed with her, I also felt that she must be going through a tough time, or she wouldn't have tried to pin this on me.

After a long silence, I finally called out to her: "Wait..."

Le Yao turned to look at me.

I took out a bank card from my wallet and handed it to her: "This card can overdraw some money. You've just had surgery; buy something to nourish yourself."

But Le Yao didn't take it: "...No need. Seeing that you're willing to take responsibility is my goal. I came to you because I didn't want to be used and then get pregnant without understanding!"

...

In the bar, I was drinking sulkily, waiting for the only friend and colleague in this city who I could confide in, Fang Yuan.

From the first day I came to this bar, I've seen too many lonely women, empty men, drinking all kinds of alcohol, either in silence or with eyes full of desire, searching for something called "drunken bliss."

In fact, when we cast aside our daytime personas and let our souls get lost in this sea of lights and wine, we have already achieved a state of drunken bliss.

I've forgotten when I started considering this place as my sanctuary. I love the women here, swaying their hips, the swaying lights, the various colored liquors, the mix of perfume and tobacco, and the drunken bliss here. And in this drunken bliss, I've etched my messy past into a tombstone.

I lit a cigarette, pulled off the film from the cigarette box, and placed it over my eyes, watching the flickering lights, my body swaying with them. In the light refracted by the film, I seemed to see a kind of decadent complacency! I couldn't help but be captivated!

...

Fang Yuan took away the film from my hand, and my world suddenly became clear again.

"What's the rush to call me?" Fang Yuan put down his briefcase and took a cigarette from my pack to light for himself.

"Lend me some money, I've been scammed!"

"Did you get another girl pregnant?" Fang Yuan said nonchalantly.

"Again, my a*s! This time, I really have been scammed..."

"Who's scamming you this time?"

"Why are you asking so many unnecessary questions?"

"I lend you thousands of dollars every time, at least let me know who the hell is scamming my money?"

"Le Yao." I said, lighting a cigarette with lingering anger.

"The fashion model?"

"That's the one. Her circle is chaotic. She claims to have only been with one man in a year, me. Do you believe that, Fang Yuan? If it were you, would you believe it?" My fingers drummed on the table loudly out of excitement.

"Such a thing could never happen to me. Besides, she wouldn't need to scam you out of a few thousand dollars, right? She was the one who took all the promotional photos for our department store last month, and her payment alone was over ten thousand..."

I scornfully interrupted Fang Yuan, "You should see how she spends. Would ten thousand dollars last her a month? Now she's in trouble with someone else and needs money to clean up the mess, so she thinks of me as her cheap boyfriend... I'm such an i***t. I shouldn't have introduced her to our company out of kindness. I didn't make her earn less money, and now she's turning around to scam me. Does she have any industry conscience at all?"

Ignoring my anger, Fang Yuan lowered his voice and asked me, "Did you use protection when you were with her?"

I thought for a long time, only remembering that I was almost blackout drunk at the time, and I really can't remember whether I used a c****m or not. After a while, I said, "I did... That's why I feel scammed!"

Fang Yuan looked at me suspiciously, then sighed after a while and said to me, "Zhao Yang, we've been friends for almost ten years. Sometimes I really want to advise you. I know that Jian Wei breaking up with you was a big blow to you, but it's been two years. You really don't have to treat yourself like this... Youth doesn't wait for anyone. Find a girlfriend and settle down, okay?"

When Jian Wei's name was mentioned again, I subconsciously froze for a moment before saying, "Don't worry about it, buddy. I'm doing just fine!"

"No worries, right?"

...

Fang Yuan lectured me for a long time, and I impatiently dealt with it for a long time. In the end, he left with dissatisfaction, leaving behind the matter of me borrowing money from him.

Fortunately, after two years of hanging out in the bar and often bringing friends to consume, I am quite familiar with the bar owner. This time, the cost of drinking was temporarily put on the account.

Walking out of the bar, holding an umbrella on the rain-soaked street, I truly experienced what it means to be alone. I have been struggling in this city for two years, and what I have gained is endless emptiness and loneliness. To get rid of this poison-like emptiness and loneliness, I have to put on a mask to cover my shame and live. With this mask, I can live in indulgence with peace of mind.

But no matter how I struggle on the edge of pain, she will never come back!

...

Walking alone in a state of loss for several stops, I finally returned to my community. This is an old community, so old that there is no property management. In the first year of coming, I heard from the aunts in the community that this community was built in the early 1990s. Under the erosion of the long years, every building in the community looks so decadent, but one is close to another, as if afraid of being lonely. So it seems that each building has life, which makes me feel: when it's quiet at night, they will also say a few words to relieve decades of loneliness.

Holding a cigarette, I took out the key from my pocket and walked towards the building where I live. This building is the only one with ivy in the community. Every summer, the south-facing wall will be very green. If these buildings also have gender, then this building is undoubtedly a woman, an indifferent woman.

Often makes people feel sad for her!

...

To my surprise: there was a red Audi Q7 parked under this dilapidated building. In my impression, I have lived here for two years, and there seems to have been no car worth more than 500,000 in this community.

Without thinking much, I whistled and walked up the corridor towards my house. When I reached the top floor, I was surprised to find that the door of the house was actually ajar. I remember that I had locked the door when I left. I subconsciously thought that there was a thief in the house. I calmed down and then remembered that I hadn't paid the rent to the landlord, Old Li, for two months. It must be Old Li coming to collect the rent.

I pushed the door open, and the landlord, Old Li, and a strange woman were sitting on the sofa. There was a string of Audi Q7 car keys on the coffee table. Undoubtedly, the Q7 parked downstairs belongs to this strange girl.

Then a question flashed in my mind: What kind of divine power does Old Li, a shrewd commoner, have? How could he bring such a noble and untouchable girl like a white lily to appear in this simple house? This really puzzled me!...