The Unreturnable Refrigerator - Chapter 3
Chapter 03: The Refrigerator
Five years later, Sheng Xiali still vividly remembered the morning she wrote that line. A light rain was falling outside.
When she left, the person in bed wasn’t fully awake, and groggily reminded her to take an umbrella.
Everything was as ordinary as it was before every business trip. So ordinary that Sheng Xiali couldn’t accept the shock of coming home to an empty apartment.
That person had left behind a short note and half a month’s rent, and then completely disappeared.
…
Lu Yin waited for a while but heard no door opening. Puzzled, she poked her head around the side of the fridge, craning her neck to look at the person who wasn’t moving.
“What’s wrong? Can’t open the door?”
She saw that her neighbor’s door was also one of the standard ones that came with the apartment. It should be the same as hers: besides the half that was used for daily entry and exit, the other smaller half had a floor lock. When fully opened, it created an opening about 1.5 meters wide.
More than enough to fit a refrigerator through.
“Do you need help?”
She guessed that maybe the neighbor didn’t know how to open that part of the door. She looked like someone who wouldn’t even know where the electrical box in her own home was.
Generally, workaholics were like that.
She needed to plug in the fridge as soon as possible. There was a lot of ice cream inside.
Thinking of ice cream, Lu Yin recalled that her favorite rum-flavored ice cream was mostly in this fridge. She’d have to take a few back home later.
She wondered if her neighbor liked rum flavor. If not, she could take them all back and let her pick some different flavors from her place.
Just as Lu Yin was about to walk around the fridge to ask this question and help open the door, she heard a ‘click.’ The light from inside the room spilled out, illuminating a large section of the doorway.
Seeing that the door was open, Lu Yin stopped talking and quickly pushed the refrigerator into the apartment.
Once inside, without waiting for instructions, Lu Yin pushed the fridge directly to the side of the kitchen entrance. She had already scoped out this spot. She adjusted the fridge against the wall and plugged it in.
It fit perfectly, as if the fridge was meant to be in this exact spot.
Lu Yin smiled proudly, happy with the good idea she had, happy that she could help her neighbor, and also happy that she could get rid of some of the things she had hoarded too much of.
In short, it was killing three, four, five, six birds with one stone. Absolutely perfect.
“No need to rush to give the fridge back. Take your time eating through everything. When you’re almost done, you can return it to me.”
With just one person, it would take some time to finish everything in this fridge. She would wait until her renovation was complete before moving it back.
Truly perfect.
Just as she was feeling pleased, she heard an unexpected sentence.
“What if I say no?”
The clear, cold voice from behind her, brushing past her head, startled Lu Yin, who instinctively took a small step forward, getting closer to her fridge.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a hand reach out and press against the fridge magnet directly in front of her nose.
Although the person’s fingers were slender, they still inevitably touched the chalk writing on the blackboard sticker!
Lu Yin’s heart lurched!
She had forgotten to take the fridge magnet off first. This writing couldn’t be erased.
Lu Yin reached out to remove it, but the hand behind her was faster.
Seriously, what was wrong with this neighbor?
At this point, Lu Yin’s good mood vanished instantly. Her earlier plan to build a good relationship with her neighbor was now marked with a big X.
She was just like that—she seemed enthusiastic, but was actually cold. Anyone she marked with an X in her mind was forever “sentenced to death” in her book; she would never associate with them again.
This rude neighbor of hers was now one of those people.
Lu Yin looked at the fridge magnet being pressed down, her face dark. She was now planning to push the entire fridge back out.
“I’m sorr—”
The moment Lu Yin turned around and saw the person, the ‘y’ sound turned into a sharp intake of cold air that was sucked into her lungs.
It turned into an uncontrollable fit of coughing.
The person in front of her held the fridge magnet she had just taken in one hand, and a seemingly dried-out face mask in the other. The expression on her face was one of indescribable mockery.
“I paid for this fridge. I still have the receipt. Strictly speaking, it’s my fridge.” Sheng Xiali paused and sneered, “Isn’t that right, Lu Yin?”
Lu Yin was like a student who was called on unprepared. Her eyes darted around, feeling lost, her mouth opening and closing without a single word coming out.
Thunder boomed in her head. She felt like she saw a series of caution tapes rapidly being pulled up, trapping her.
She didn’t even hear what Sheng Xiali said. She only clearly saw the mockery in her eyes, which brought her back to reality. She quickly put up a shield over her erratically beating heart.
After the shock, and while still unable to accept this sudden turn of events, Lu Yin instinctively crossed her arms over her chest, activating her usual defense mechanism.
“Who are you?”
As Lu Yin spoke, she glanced down and saw their two shadows merging together at their feet.
In the past, she often had nightmares. Sometimes she couldn’t even distinguish reality from dreams. Someone had told her that as long as there was a shadow, she wasn’t dreaming.
It wasn’t a dream…
Lu Yin wanted to bash her head against this fridge!
Hengcheng was so big. Why was the person she thought she would never see again living right next door to her?
Looking at the face she had forbidden herself from thinking about countless times, those slightly upturned phoenix eyes were still stunning at a glance, if not for the mockery they held.
Lu Yin slightly averted her gaze, not wanting to look any longer.
Sheng Xiali looked at the innocent-looking face in front of her. After all these years, she was still the same. If there was a third person here now, they would probably be fooled by her naive and innocent appearance.
Just like she had been in the past.
Sheng Xiali let out a soft laugh: “What day did you leave?”
“What?”
The question came out of nowhere. Lu Yin answered without thinking. After speaking, it was a step down to pretend not to know her. Lu Yin felt a bit annoyed.
“Seven days. What day did you leave?”
Sheng Xiali looked at the blackboard sticker in her hand, and her slightly damp fingers tapped the ‘7’ written on it.
Lu Yin frowned fiercely, staring intently at that hand, watching as she rubbed off a small part of the bottom of the ‘7’.
“Give it back to me!”
Lu Yin reached out to snatch it, but Sheng Xiali easily evaded her by raising her hand.
She really hated that she wasn’t 180 cm tall!
She couldn’t climb up her arm to snatch the item now, so she just huffed, her cheeks puffed out, not saying a word.
Sheng Xiali sneered, but she was laughing at herself.
Her first job after graduation required her to rotate through branch offices, which meant frequent business trips. Lu Yin had bought this blackboard sticker and set a rule for leaving a message before each trip.
She said that way, she could change the number every day, and when she saw a ‘0’, she would be ready to welcome her back.
Sheng Xiali looked at the blackboard sticker in her hand. The ‘7’ on it was written by her. Lu Yin had never changed it.
Seeing Lu Yin with her cheeks puffed out and not speaking, the temperature around Sheng Xiali dropped a few more degrees: “What, did you lose your memory?”
Lu Yin knew what Sheng Xiali was asking. She also remembered everything that happened that day, but there was no need to say any of this to Sheng Xiali.
Sheng Xiali was her college classmate. In their first year, they had only met a few times as schoolmates. For the next three years, they were superficial acquaintances who weren’t close. After graduation, they happened to be roommates who rented an apartment together.
The day she moved out, their connection should have been severed. She just considered those past events as a time when they were both young and naive.
Meeting again now was an accident. As long as she corrected it in time, it would just remain an accident.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. If you like this fridge magnet, it’s yours. Please move aside.”
She really regretted having a sudden whim to bring warmth to her neighbor.
Was Sheng Xiali the kind of person who could be warmed?
After finding out the owner of this apartment was Sheng Xiali, all of Lu Yin’s previous emotions vanished.
If it was Sheng Xiali, this empty apartment was very suitable for her.
Everything was cold.
Seeing that the person in front of her was not moving aside, Lu Yin turned and hugged the fridge, intending to push it out directly.
Her back bumped against Sheng Xiali, but Lu Yin didn’t care. She used a defensive posture like she was playing a ball sport, inching her way backward, trying to get to a good position to break out.
When Lu Yin pressed against her, the fluffy bunny ears on her hoodie brushed against Sheng Xiali’s chest. She took a step back, increasing the distance between them.
“I advise you to let go. Your actions now constitute breaking and entering with intent to steal.”
Lu Yin’s footsteps stopped. She turned to look at the person behind her, who was twisting the facts, and her voice involuntarily got louder: “Me? Breaking and entering with intent to steal?”
She had clearly given so many things to this ungrateful person: “I think you’re the one who’s a con artist!”
Sheng Xiali laughed mockingly, unlocked her phone, opened the dialing screen, and held it right under Lu Yin’s nose, showing her the three digits, 110.
“My apartment, my fridge. You came into my apartment to push away my fridge. You can explain to the police what that action is called.”
Lu Yin was speechless for a moment. After a long pause, she considered whether she had the ability to get past Sheng Xiali’s defense and successfully push the fridge back to the other side before the police arrived.
Just then, the phone under her nose vibrated. Lu Yin’s eyes immediately caught the slightly shaking profile picture and the familiar name that came with the vibration.
Sheng Xiali put her phone away, looked at the voice call display, and then at Lu Yin, who was looking down and seemed lost in thought. Just before the call ended, she answered the phone.
“Hello, Xinlei.”
Names might be the same, but she had seen the profile picture clearly. It was Song Xinlei, with her usual selfie showing the left side of her face.
She couldn’t believe they were still together after all these years.
But it wasn’t surprising. They were “good friends” who had been in the same school from kindergarten to elementary, middle school, high school, and even university.
Lu Yin remembered some details from when she met them in college, and she was surprised she still remembered so much.
She remembered the first time Song Xinlei brought Sheng Xiali to their dorm. Sheng Xiali was wearing a slightly faded light blue t-shirt, and form-fitting jeans that made her legs look straight and long.
At that time, she hadn’t yet permed or dyed her hair. It was a natural black, and she had a lot of it, all tied up in a high ponytail. A few wisps of hair at her temples swayed in the breeze from their dorm’s electric fan.
Lu Yin was sitting on the top bunk, munching on a pear and swinging her feet. When the person looked at her, she tossed a pear over, but before she could say anything, Song Xinlei threw it back.
She said, “Xiali doesn’t eat pears.”
Song Xinlei’s nervous, protective manner towards her “treasure” was what made Lu Yin remember this treasure.
Lu Yin looked at the person who was now clearly not speaking in a cold voice after answering the phone. She let out a small scoff. Had Song Xinlei finally gotten the treasure she had been coveting for so long?
Looking at the empty living and dining area behind Sheng Xiali, could Song Xinlei handle this person’s minimalist lifestyle?
But none of this had anything to do with her anymore.
Lu Yin glanced at Sheng Xiali, who seemed to be ending the conversation, then looked at the fridge and made a decision in an instant.
She didn’t want the fridge anymore!
Lu Yin ran back to apartment 901 as if she were fleeing, locked the door, and rushed into her bedroom. She wrapped herself in a blanket and covered her head.
Just sleep it off. Maybe when she woke up, she would find out it had all been a dream!
After she hung up the phone, Sheng Xiali walked to the door and looked at the other closed door, just seven or eight meters away.
After the motion-sensor light in the hallway went out, the only light came from Sheng Xiali’s apartment.
The metal doorplate of 901 reflected the light faintly.
901, just one number away from hers.
Sheng Xiali absentmindedly rubbed her fingers, which were stained with chalk dust. When she came back to her senses, there were only two words left on the blackboard sticker in her hand.
She gave a self-deprecating laugh and used a little force to wipe the two childish-looking words clean.