The Unreturnable Refrigerator - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Bringing Warmth

The moment Lu Yin pulled open the curtains, she was met by a golden sunset outside her floor-to-ceiling windows.

“I got up too early,” she mumbled.

Lu Yin let out a big yawn. It had been over half a month since she last saw the sun, and she felt a little unaccustomed to it. She closed her eyes, giving them a moment to adjust to the bright light.

Looking at the sky that had been dyed pink outside her window, Lu Yin took a picture with her phone. This was the first time she had seen such a beautiful sight since returning to Hengcheng half a year ago.

Hoping it was a sign of good things to come, a smile spread across Lu Yin’s still-sleepy face. She always took any rare beautiful sight as a good omen.

Leaving her bedroom and stepping over the large and small boxes piled in the hallway, Lu Yin headed straight for the kitchen. With practiced movements, she filled the coffee machine with water and chose a capsule from the box to put inside.

While waiting for her coffee to brew, Lu Yin unlocked her phone and opened WeChat, which had a notification for 99+ messages.

Most were group messages and annoying ads. After scrolling through them all, she didn’t see any business inquiries, and her heart sank a little. July was almost over, and she hadn’t gotten a single deal. She used to be a somewhat popular unboxing influencer; how had she become so irrelevant so quickly?

Lu Yin tapped on her friend list, where she had one contact pinned to the top. She sent a voice message, letting out a mournful wail: “Beibei, where have all the sponsors gone? Why don’t they look at this poor child? I can barely make ends meet!”

Only three seconds after she sent it, Beibei replied.

“Don’t worry, with your savings, you won’t starve. Even if the apocalypse happened right now, you have enough stuff at home to last you a year or two.”

That was an exaggeration.

Lu Yin glanced around her living and dining room, which she could see in its entirety. While every spot not occupied by furniture was covered in courier boxes, not all of them contained food. She couldn’t remember exactly what was in which box, but surely all this stuff couldn’t last a year?

However, her doubt wavered slightly when she saw the ten-plus cases of luosifen and instant noodles stacked high on the balcony.

Maybe it could last a year or two…

Before she could reply, another message came from Beibei. This time, it was an address.

It was followed by a voice message: “This is the address for the design studio I told you about last time. If you’re in a hurry, you can go yourself. There have been a few confirmed cases in my complex today, so it’s going to be locked down for a while.”

Lu Yin didn’t open the address. She sent a message first: “Are you okay? Do you have enough stuff at home? Do you have any food or medicine?”

“Don’t worry. Thanks to you, I have enough stuff here to last me ten days to half a month.”

Lu Yin chuckled. She had cleared out a batch of things before and sent everything that wouldn’t fit to Beibei.

See? She had said there were benefits to hoarding things, especially in times like these.

She smiled and sent a voice message back: “Okay, you be careful. I’ll go to the studio myself. This is the address, right?”

Lu Yin was in a bit of a hurry to get her place renovated. The apartment she was currently living in came fully furnished, but the decor was very plain, and the storage space was completely insufficient. At least, it was completely insufficient for her. Right now, her home was so full of stuff that the only pathway was a narrow aisle where a single person could barely walk.

Lu Yin felt that besides her love for hoarding, the lack of storage space was also to blame. She planned to take advantage of her free time to redecorate the apartment, making sure to add as much storage space as possible so that she could hoard things while still making the place look like a home.

At least, not like a warehouse, which it was now.

Beibei’s voice message came back: “Yeah, find someone named Amy. Tell her I introduced you, and she’ll take care of you. Don’t let the small size of the studio fool you. Their boss has won international awards and doesn’t usually take on small jobs like yours. I had to pull a few strings to get you this appointment.”

Lu Yin laughed softly and sent a voice message back: “You’re the best, my dear. When you’re able to leave, let’s get hot pot.”

The message was met with an immediate response.

“One meal won’t be enough.”

Lu Yin wasn’t stingy. She laughed and replied: “Okay, we’ll eat until you don’t want to anymore.”

After sending the message, Lu Yin smiled and closed WeChat, turning off her phone. She was now hungry, too, from talking about hot pot. Luckily, she had a plentiful stock. She opened the kitchen cabinet behind her, which was already a little ajar because it was so full. From a pile of instant meals, she picked out a spicy self-heating hot pot and tore open the package.

Coffee with hot pot. Lu Yin’s eyes curved into crescent moons. The start of this night was going to be very special.

While the hot pot was heating up, Lu Yin unpacked a few express packages on the kitchen floor. They were all cartons of eggs she had bought online in a group purchase.

Looking at the hundred or so eggs, she was belatedly filled with a bit of worry. She checked both refrigerators—there wasn’t a single empty spot. The freezer did have some space, but it wasn’t a good place to put eggs.

Lu Yin stared at the eggs for a while, a little fuzzy on why she had decided to hoard so many. It seemed it was because there was a “buy more, get more” promotion, and she had calculated the most cost-effective deal. But she had forgotten to account for her fridge space.

‘Whatever, I’ll finish them eventually.’ Lu Yin took two eggs and fried them, figuring it was better to get rid of at least a couple.

Just as the smoke from the self-heating hot pot died down, her phone rang. Lu Yin grabbed a pair of disposable chopsticks from a drawer packed full of them. As she ate, she unlocked her phone. It still wasn’t a business inquiry. Lu Yin sighed, picked up a piece of kelp, blew on it, and put it in her mouth. She tapped on the property management group to see what notices had been posted.

When she saw that their community was also going to be locked down for a week, Lu Yin immediately forwarded the message to Beibei with the caption: “My hoard is finally going to be put to good use.”

Beibei replied: “Your stuff could probably feed the entire community for a week.”

Lu Yin laughed and sent a cool emoji of a “cat wearing sunglasses.”

She continued to read the messages from the property management.

“@All Owners, if you are short on supplies at home, you can let the property management know.”

…

After finishing the design proposal, Sheng Xiali was about to send a message to her assistant when she opened her phone and saw the message from the property management, which had tagged everyone. She scrolled back and saw the notice that the complex would be locked down for a week.

This was quite a coincidence. Sheng Xiali tapped on her desk. She had just landed from a flight this morning. She was supposed to go directly to a hotel near her studio but had returned home first because Quick Quick was there. After getting home, the client sent new revision requests, and she immediately entered work mode. After all, it was a big client, and if she secured the project, the commission would be a seven-figure number.

The money was nice, but the case was a real headache. The client had all sorts of wild ideas, and if she agreed to all of them, there would be problems with construction later. All afternoon, she had to tactfully guide the client’s ideas toward a feasible direction while dealing with all sorts of questions from their project manager.

Fortunately, the proposal was finally approved, and everyone was on board.

Sheng Xiali pinched her temples. She hadn’t expected to be trapped here after her afternoon of work was over. She got up and went to the kitchen, opened the fridge, took out a bottle of cold water, and chugged half of it.

Since she couldn’t leave, Sheng Xiali took Quick Quick out of its acrylic box and put it back in its original tank. She then went back to her bedroom and changed into a pair of loungewear. Rubbing her stiff neck, Sheng Xiali called her assistant, Amy, and explained the situation, asking her to communicate with the clients who had appointments this week.

After taking care of work, Sheng Xiali began to check her existing supplies at home. It was simple and clear at a glance. The fridge contained seven or eight bottles of mineral water, a bag of bread she had bought at a convenience store on her way home but hadn’t had time to eat, and a box of vegetarian salad.

Sheng Xiali took out the box of salad and opened it. As she ate, she messaged some important clients. Her current experience made it easier to open a conversation without being too awkward. After so many years of working, she was no longer the rookie designer who buried her head in design drafts and knew nothing else. Social etiquette was ingrained in her bones.

In other words, she had the jaded corporate demeanor of an overworked professional.

After replying to various messages, Sheng Xiali tapped into the now-active owners’ group chat. She saw that the residents were creating a list of supplies they needed, which seemed to be something the property management could help arrange.

Sheng Xiali gave it some thought. She had a full bag of bread, which was enough to last her two days, but for the sake of her health, she added a carton of eggs to the list. She had no seasonings at home, but she had a pot, water, and gas. Boiled eggs would be fine.

When the property manager, Xiao Hong, registered the messages, she paused at the numbers 12-902. She had a strong impression of the owner of that unit. They had met before. It was when she had just started working in the community, and the owner of 12-902 came to ask her to contact the owner of a car that was parked in her spot and have them move it.

At the time, she was wearing a smooth silk blouse, and her brown, long, curly hair was casually draped over her shoulders. Although the soft curls slightly softened the oppressive feeling from her sharp features, her nearly 1.8-meter height in high heels and her sharp aura still made people feel a sense of awe.

At the time, Xiao Hong had instinctively stood at attention the moment the 902 owner spoke. The owner of the car, who was of average height, looked tiny in front of her. The owner had originally been self-righteously occupying the parking spot, but their arrogance instantly deflated upon seeing the 902 owner. Just like Xiao Hong, she unconsciously straightened up.

After the 902 owner walked away on her high heels, the car owner let out a huge sigh of relief and said to her, “That woman is too scary.”

Xiao Hong nodded in agreement. She really was too cool. She wished she had that height and aura. Failing that, a girlfriend with that kind of aura would be nice, too.

Snapping out of her memories, she didn’t dare to privately message the 902 owner to ask if she only needed eggs or if there were other things she needed. She could have checked her own home for supplies. But eggs—she was out of eggs herself. She couldn’t help.

She compiled the list of requested supplies into a table and sent it to the owners’ group. Besides the property management, she also called on neighbors to lend a helping hand. If anyone had extra supplies, they could give them to their neighbors for a fee.

Especially things like eggs.

…

After Lu Yin finished her self-heating hot pot and two fried eggs, she felt a little stuffed. She pulled a cigarette from a pack and was about to light it when she saw the new message from the property management. She opened the table and immediately saw the special numbers: 12-902, only one digit different from her own.

When she saw what she needed, the hand holding the lighter paused. “A carton of eggs?”

Her neighbor needed eggs?

Lu Yin cocked her foot and looked at the eggs on the kitchen floor with nowhere to go. Her neighbor needed eggs? Well, she had plenty.

She slowly blew out a puff of smoke. Lu Yin’s eyes lit up. She immediately put out the cigarette she had just lit and excitedly went to the kitchen to grab a carton of eggs.

It was time to let her neighbor experience that a good neighbor is better than a distant relative.

It had been half a year since she moved in, and she had never met her mysterious neighbor. She had thought the apartment across from her was empty until one time, when she was editing a video late at night, she heard some noise at her door around 3 a.m. When she checked the surveillance camera, she saw half a suitcase outside the opposite door, with an airline luggage tag on it. It seemed they had just returned from the airport.

Later, she asked the property manager, Xiao Hong, who told her that the owner had moved in and had even had a parking dispute recently. According to the owner who had illegally parked in the spot, she had only parked there because the spot had been empty for a long time.

Piecing together what Xiao Hong had told her, Lu Yin guessed that her neighbor was probably a workaholic. She used to know a workaholic who was also rarely home and often came back from a late-night flight dragging a suitcase.

Thinking of this, Lu Yin quickly shook her head. ‘Why am I thinking of her again?’ Stop. I can’t think about it.

Lu Yin looked at the eggs in her hand, and decided to take another carton. If she was so busy with work, she needed extra nutrition.

Before leaving, Lu Yin glanced at her reflection in the full-length mirror in the entryway. She had been eating a lot of heaty food lately, and several pimples had popped up at the corners of her mouth. She deliberately pulled up the corners of her lips, and the round face in the mirror produced a gentle smile that instantly made one feel friendly.

Beibei had once described her: she looked a little distant when she didn’t smile, but once she did, it felt as though you had known her for years. It made people feel inexplicably close.

Even though she was almost thirty, her face still looked much the same as it did when she was in school. Time seemed to have skipped over her. Lu Yin was very pleased and practiced a few smiles that would be hard for anyone to dislike.

The fact that her hair hadn’t been washed in three days was a bit of a problem for her image. Lu Yin thought about it and decided to pull the hood of her loungewear over her head. In the summer, she liked to set her air conditioning very low, so she wore fuzzy socks and cotton long-sleeved loungewear at home. Now, with her little outfit, she looked soft and cuddly.

Lu Yin, happy that she was still so youthful and vibrant at almost thirty, made a peace sign. She put on her mask and headed for the door across the hall.

The property manager, Xiao Hong, had told her that her neighbor was a great beauty.

When Sheng Xiali heard the doorbell, she had just put on a hydrating face mask.

In the surveillance feed, she saw a pair of fuzzy rabbit ears. The person’s hood cast a shadow over their eyes, and the lower half of their face was completely hidden by a large mask. Although she couldn’t see who it was, the childish outfit meant they most likely had no criminal intent. Even if they did, they probably lacked the ability to act on it.

Sheng Xiali hesitated for a moment and then opened the door.

“Hi, neighbor. I’m here to bring some warmth.”