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  • Downstairs 249, Upstairs 251

    Chapter 1. Little Goldfish

    TN before you start reading: Note that there are a lot of internet slangs and play of words in this novel! I try to translate it the best that I can, so I hope you enjoy this comedic romantic novel! This is only a short and sweet novel with 50 chapters.

    Translator sumay

    There was a meme on the internet that was very accurate. There were only two types of personalities in the world, one which was “What does this have to do with you?”, and another was “What does this have to do with me?”

    Shu Shu thought that there was also a third type of personality. For example, when you saw a hundred dollars in the square, the first type person would pick it up and slip it into his pocket regardless of the passersby around him. The second type of person would also pick it up and pass it to the police.

    As for the last type – where most people were – they would turn a blind eye and walk away. They didn’t need to care about their heart or conscience; they just let their morality restrain their greed. They simply walked past to avoid problems.

    Shu Shu belonged to this third type.

    Hence, she would only bend down to pick it up if the money belonged to her in the first place!

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    The story began at this occasion when she was going to “pick it up”.

    “Slow down!”

    The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.

    “Jas, rzlypl rypp blal.”

    “Zlp, rzlypl xshl kv yoyu.”

    “Gb, cl nyalqwz okvb vbyv! Llhlaxkde, R’zz nyaau kv xuplzq.”

    Fbw Fbw nyaakle vbl pxyzz csm nyalqwzzu zkjl y cycu. Qasokdt wr kd yd sarbydytl, kv nsdvykdle vbl zkvvzl ralpldvp tkhld vs bla ewakdt vbspl ulyap. Fsxl olal bla nblakpble valypwalp.

    Ubldt Pwyduk sdnl xsnjle bla ycswv bso xwnb pbl valypwale vbspl sze yde casjld kvlxp, dsv lhld yzzsokdt ydusdl vs vswnb kv.

    Tl jdlo dsvbkdt! Ohlau pkdtzl kvlx nsdvykdle pxyzz pdkrrlvp sq bla xlxsau, vbl zkvvzl zshl pbl’e qlzv.

    Fbw Fbw blyhle y pktb yp pbl qszzsole vbl xshkdt nsxrydu vs bla dlo bsxl.

    Ekvb bla zsdt byka qzsokdt cynjoyaep xyvnble okvb obkvl, alqkdle qlyvwalp, y zsv sq rlsrzl vwadle vs tkhl bla y plnsde zssj. Fbl eked’v nyal, pbl fwpv oydvle vs xshl swv.

    The car was stopped at the entrance by a few guards at the gate. The workers of the moving company had to register their names and let them confiscate their identity cards before being permitted to enter.

    “Miss, what is this place? It’s so restricted.”

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    As long as no one gave her shit, she could be pretty friendly.

    “A gated community, and the land is private property. It is famous for high-performing bodyguards and a good environment. Fewer people means less noise.” It was a perfect fit for a person like her who only wanted to stay at home.

    The house had an expensive rental fee, but it was good that they wouldn’t let outsiders in. There were five floors in one building, each floor had one apartment, and each building was quite far apart from each other.

    It was perfect for people who wanted privacy. They could even pick their neighbor when they moved in, like how she knew a painter lived in 248, an elderly couple lived in 247, while 246 was bought for investment purpose, so it was empty at the moment. They allowed this disclosure because the neighbors needed to know who each other was. As the apartments were only connected by stairs, the upstairs and downstairs tenants would frequently come into contact.

    As for the apartment upstairs 251, it was not rented out yet when she deposited her money.

    Yes, you did not see it incorrectly. Her apartment number was 249, while the apartment number upstairs was 251.

    Only these two apartments were available when she wanted to rent.

    The landowner was something else. He divided the neighbourhood into two sections with two separate exits, namely Section 1 and Section 2. Section 1 started with the number 1, while section 2 started with the number 2. The two sections were numbered separately, and she was in number 49.

    She asked if they had apartment number 250, but they told her that they didn’t have it. Even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to rent it out. 

    [Important TN: Calling someone 250 (二百五) meant that that person is stupid, incredulous, shameless and increditable.]

    Indeed, there was no reason to rent an apartment number 250 if they were capable enough to rent a place here.

    “Won’t you lose your way easily?” A worker of the moving company, Kang Jing, blinked in curiosity. He didn’t think it was a good arrangement. It would be easier to separate it by buildings.

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    “No, there are signs around. I think it’s pretty good and creative. There are around twenty buildings, and each building houses five apartments. I don’t care how he numbers it – perhaps the landowner likes peculiarity.”

    Kang Jing nodded. The landowner sounded peculiar to him too. The facilities in the neighbourhood were built differently as well, showing off its distinctive characteristic.

    Shu Shu smiled at him when her phone rang. It was an unknown number, but she took the call.

    “Hello, who is this?”

    “Shu Shu… you moved away?”

    Shu Shu’s face darkened. Cheng Duanyi.

    “None of your business!”

    “Shu Shu, you are not like this in the past?”

    “Then what should I be like?”

    “Shu Shu, don’t be so cruel to me. There’s really nothing between me and Liu Xuyan.”

    “Huh, yeah, there’s nothing between you. You’ve only slept together.”

    She hung up the phone and blacklisted the number.

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    Shu Shu looked fierce but she had a fragile heart. She could not forgive betrayals.

    After the workers walked away, Shu Shu let out a deep sigh. Don’t be hot-tempered. Don’t get angry.

    She slowly headed towards her floor. When she reached, she saw two groups of people standing at the door.

    “What’s wrong?”

    “Nothing, they’re on the way. They want to move their things, and so do we!”

    Initially, Kang Jing was not in a rush. The speed didn’t matter to him when he helped their client move. But! The opposing moving company was the one who kept stealing their clients away, so he didn’t want to compromise.

    “Please let us move first, we’re rushing for time.” Yu Yu was disheartened after the confrontation with the opposing moving company. He would rather use the time to move his things up.

    He glanced at the time, only one hour left.

    “Huh, you can move first just because you said so? No such thing.”

    She then turned around to them, “Let’s go, up.”

    Since she was a lady, and also one who was elegant and pretty, the workers from the opposing company stepped back. Kang Jing and his fellow workers moved her things immediately.

    “f*ck!” Yu Yu was so angry that he cursed. He stayed on the fifth floor while she stayed on the fourth floor, how could he go up if she was blocking the way?!

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    After waiting for a while, Shu Shu finally finished moving. Yu Yu and his workers quickly moved up. He had an audition to attend and he was going to be late.

    Yu Yu didn’t have a lot of things, so they moved everything inside in one go. He was about to go down after they finished. There was half an hour left.

    Rushing down to the fourth floor, he realized…

    “Excuse me, I’m in a hurry.”

    “It won’t take long, after they move this cupboard in, we can move this in!”

    Yu Yu looked down, the stairway was wide but the cupboard was not small either. Its size pretty much blocked the entire stairway.

    Yu Yu glanced at the time again, about to explode in anger.

    “Can you be faster?!” He sounded fierce.

    Shu Shu accidentally damaged her precious box and was already feeling down, so when she listened to his tone, “Can’t you wait? Can’t you be patient like a gentleman? If we say we will let you pass, we will, not that we don’t allow it! Be more considerate, can you?”

    She then turned to them, “Faster, just put it here.”

    Yu Yu was just about to argue back, but after the cupboard inside moved deeper in, they were able to push the huge cupboard aside, allowing Yu Yu to quickly run down.

    Yu Yu was so unlucky that he even got caught in a traffic jam!

    When he arrived at the audition, he was ten minutes late.

    “I’m sorry, I’m late.”

    A person with a staff member tag told him plainly, “Those who are late are disqualified.”

    “I…”

    “This is what our director said, you better go home.”

    Yu Yu walked out in despair. His company helped him to get the audition after much effort, and he ruined it. Needless to say, his company wouldn’t give him such a great opportunity again.

    Yu Yu went out and let out a deep sigh. He wouldn’t be late if not for the traffic jam! He also wouldn’t be late if he didn’t get held up by his eccentric neighbour.

    ……

    Shu Shu came out of her apartment. One of her important items was missing. It must have fallen somewhere when they were moving. She started searching every nook and cranny of the fourth floor.

    Yu Yu came in at this time. He saw Shu Shu and his face darkened. Holding himself back, he walked past her.

    When he was taking out his keys, an item slipped out of his pocket. His little goldfish.

    He was about to pick it up when he heard, “Wait!”

    He turned to see the woman downstairs rushing up to him, and bent down to pick his little goldfish up. She rolled her eyes at him and was about to go back.

    Yu Yu laughed in astonishment.

    “Where are you going with my stuff?!”

    “What, your stuff, I dropped this today.”

    “Huh, I should trust you just because you said you dropped it? Why don’t you just tell me that my money is kept at your place!”

    “This belongs to me in the first place, you are already a twenty-ish year old man and you’ll even steal a goldfish? I tell you this, even if you sell it off, you won’t gain more than a few hundred yuan.”

    “Huh, then prove to me that it’s yours!”

    Shu Shu began burning up with rage. “Okay then! There are the initials ‘sy’ on top, s is the initial of my surname, Shu.”

    “y is also the initial of my name, Yu!”

    “What’s wrong with a man like you, taking advantage of this petty stuff! You look well groomed but don’t tell me you’re still holding a grudge from this afternoon? Can you have some manners?!”

    Yu Yu widened his eyes and pointed at himself. “You said I have no manners? I’m well-behaved enough! How about you who tried to take other people’s stuff and claim that it’s yours? You dare tell me I have no manners?!”

    “It belongs to me in the first place, I dropped it on the fourth floor, and the only ones who come up to this floor are only me and you. You picked up other people’s stuff and dare say that it’s yours? Toyboy.”

    “What are you talking about, you tomboy?!”

    Shu Shu pulled her sleeves up, her image on the verge of breaking any second from now. She scanned the man from up to down.

    “Me, tomboy? Huh, why don’t you look at yourself in the mirror, you look so gay, you only have an extra d**k than a girl.”

    “You only lack a d**k than a boy then!” He followed suit and scanned her up and down as well. “Airport1As in flat chest. This is a degrading term to describe a girl with small breasts!”

    Shu Shu almost leapt up. “What did you say?! I’ve seen a lot of shameless people but I’ve never seen someone as shameless as you.”

    “You have shame? How dare you tell people off when you have no shame.”

    “You…”

    “You two upstairs, shut up!” A voice came from the third floor.

    “Give it back!” Yu Yu lowered his voice and snatched the fish back.

    “You pervert, give it back to me!” Shu Shu wanted to snatch it back.

    “Bang!” Yu Yu slammed the door shut.

    Shu Shu gritted her teeth angrily, and gave an unrelenting kick on his door.

    “Give it back.”

    Seeing that she was not leaving, Yu Yu who was inside the door rolled his eyes. The fish belongs to him! Even though he didn’t like it much, he had kept it for all these years and it grew on him. He found it when he was moving, so he kept it in his pocket and brought it here.

    When Shu Shu saw that he did not intend to open the door, she grinded her teeth and sneered as she took out her phone.


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    sumay [Translator]

    I am sumay, I love translating novels on my spare time! If you enjoy my translations, do leave a like or comment. Do consider buying me a ko-fi or becoming a patron if you like my translations! Thanks and happy reading!
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    3 Comments

    1. DayLo
      DayLo

      So whose fish is it? Seems like his since he has had it for years, but then what’s with the line that he found it when he was moving??