Chapter 39: Consumption Brings Happiness
"Achoo!"
Tong Yao, who was shopping for a hairdryer, sneezed and thought to herself: Someone must be talking about her behind her back again.
She knew very well that not many people in the residential compound liked her, hence she tried to avoid them whenever possible. However, it didn’t stop them from bad-mouthing her. The moment she entered the residence, small creatures like mosquitoes, flies, and cockroaches would incessantly chatter about all the gossip going on about her. Tong Yao was fed up with it.
After purchasing a fan, Tong Yao went to the Vegetable Market to buy some vegetables and pork. When she returned home, she heard Chen Yanmei and Li Nuanchun gossiping loudly about the doctors’ personal affairs in the house, seemingly not caring if others overheard.
Chen Yanmei had a black and white television at home, but she only watched it when she was alone or at night. She never watched it when Li Nuanchun was around, feeling it a loss to let others watch the television she had bought with her hard-earned money.
Tong Yao returned to her room with the hairdryer and turned on the fan. The weather was sweltering, and she was worried that the meat she bought would start to smell by noon. So, she boiled it first before retreating back to her room to rest. A few mosquitoes buzzed towards her and seemed keen on landing on her arm. Tong Yao waved her arm to scare them away, only to hear the mosquitoes protesting.
[This skinny woman sure has strength in her! Good thing I was quick]
[Don’t be scared! When she’s out, we’ll suck more blood. Her skin is tender and easy to puncture]
Tong Yao rolled her eyes, then a thought struck her. In a crisp voice, she warned, "I can understand your language. You’d better run away now, or I will kill you all with a can of mosquito repellent when I close the door."
These days, she gleaned from the gossips of the small creatures that they could understand human language, and she could understand theirs too – wouldn’t this mean she could communicate with them without any barrier?