The traffic control uncle lived in an old residential complex near that pedestrian street.
On Tuesday, after Lin Nan got the address and checked the map, he realized he didn't need to take a ride-hailing car at all. He could just take the bus to the pedestrian street stop, then walk straight down the road for over a thousand meters.
Following the map, he arrived at the entrance of the residential complex.
Looking up to confirm the complex's name matched the address the uncle had sent him, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Good thing Lilith's terrible sense of direction hadn't been inherited by him.
When Lin Nan had confidently made his promise to the traffic control uncle earlier, he'd been full of bravado—basically planning to sweet-talk his way to the money first and figure things out later. But now that the moment had actually arrived, he was getting cold feet.
Lin Nan felt a bit nervous. Taking a deep breath, he made a voice call to the traffic control uncle on WeChat.
Soon he got the specific address: Building A, Room 704, seventh floor, no elevator, and the steps were considerably higher than normal residential buildings.
His face darkened.
Based on his half-day experience delivering food, he felt these seven flights of stairs might be the death of him.
This residential complex seemed quite old. The buildings were only six or seven stories high, with mottled exterior walls. Walking into the complex, he not only didn't see any property management staff, he barely saw any residents at all.
Lin Nan let out a despairing sigh and slowly began climbing the stairs.
Today he wore a black short-sleeved shirt with floral print that his uncle had given him, plus a sun protection jacket, with ordinary khaki casual pants on the bottom. He wasn't good at fashion coordination—he'd been too lazy to do laundry recently, and these were the only two pieces left, otherwise he would have chosen an all-black outfit.
These casual pants had been somewhat loose on him before, but now they felt tight around his hips, and his thighs and calves seemed even thinner than before. He just couldn't understand why becoming more feminine would also make his butt more perky.
Maybe this was the legendary "big hips are good for childbearing"?
Lin Nan's mind wandered with random thoughts as he finally arrived at the traffic control uncle's door, gasping for breath.
The uncle and his wife still had work and weren't home at this time, so Lin Nan's first challenge was getting inside.
He thought for a moment. Someone who'd been a shut-in for several years had probably developed social anxiety disorder. This type of person was completely unwilling to go out, even more unwilling to talk to people, making it much harder to gain their trust.
After resting for a moment, Lin Nan knocked on the door and said, "Open up, water meter inspection."
A moment later, a thin man in pajamas opened the door with confusion: "Water meter inspection?"
He looked down at the pretty girl in front of him and immediately began stuttering: "You, what do you need?"
This must be Chen Jiang, right?
Lin Nan sized up the young man at the door. Chen Jiang's build was indeed thin, looking malnourished, but his head was quite large—the volume of that head was no less than Tu Junhui's despite Tu weighing over 200 pounds, maybe even larger.
Lin Nan suspected he might have faced discrimination for his big head during job interviews after college graduation, otherwise why would he have been shut in for so many years without stepping foot outside?
But the traffic control uncle's head wasn't that big either.
"Hello, your dad probably mentioned me—I'm here to visit today," Lin Nan replied with a smile.
"He did mention it..." Chen Jiang might not have known Lin Nan's purpose yet, scratching his head as he said, "He said someone was coming to our house for a blind date with me."
"???"
"Please come in." He seemed a bit flustered, hurriedly taking a pair of slippers from the shoe cabinet and placing them on the ground, then looking at Lin Nan expectantly.
Lin Nan was completely confused. Didn't the uncle know he was male? How could he still talk about a blind date? Maybe he'd just used it as an excuse, or perhaps the uncle actually didn't think he was a guy at all?
Maybe the uncle had agreed to Lin Nan's idea while thinking of giving his shut-in son an opportunity?
His expression immediately darkened a bit, feeling like a sheep walking into a tiger's den.
"Um, please come in."
"Mm, thank you."
Lin Nan suddenly regretted his helpfulness and greed for money, but there was nothing he could do about it now. This Chen Jiang looked thin and weak, probably not dangerous.
He entered the house, changed into slippers, and sat on the sofa under Chen Jiang's guidance.
Looking around, he found it was a narrow two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment, probably no more than seventy square meters. The floor was wooden, looking quite cozy, though the furniture seemed a bit old. The TV in the living room was still one of those big-butt models popular over a decade ago.
Chen Jiang nervously sat at one end of the sofa, grabbing the bottled water on the table and gulping it down, stealing glances at Lin Nan sitting not far away.
Pretty cute...
He swallowed, initially quite opposed when he heard about today's blind date. Later, finding out it would be at home, he reluctantly agreed. He'd expected either a tank or an ugly duckling to show up, but instead came this pretty girl, though her face looked really young—like a high school student.
Were even high school students facing marriage pressure now?
"Um..." Chen Jiang felt a bit inferior, but seeing the awkward atmosphere, he steeled himself to speak first: "You probably know my situation. I, I graduated three years ago and have been staying home ever since..."
"No income?" Lin Nan snapped back to attention, tilting his head slightly to look at him.
This look made Chen Jiang even more nervous. He lowered his head like a scolded elementary school student, sitting up straight: "These past two months, I earned just over a hundred..."
"That's even less than me," Lin Nan said with pursed lips, then suddenly felt that this blind date partner identity wasn't too bad, so he naturally continued the conversation: "So why do you keep staying home?"
Chen Jiang was stunned, shrinking his neck somewhat timidly, stammering his reply: "Just, staying home, you know."
"I heard you stay home playing games all day? What games do you play? I quite like games too." Lin Nan planned to use their common hobby to open up the conversation.
"Not really playing much..."
"Hm?"
"Mainly making games..."
Every sentence from Chen Jiang sounded guilty: "I guess that counts as... doing something productive?
"Does your dad not know?"
"He thinks sitting in front of a computer is just playing." Speaking of this, Chen Jiang's tone carried some dissatisfaction.
Hearing about game development, Lin Nan's interest immediately peaked. His face full of curiosity, he fired off three questions in succession: "What kind of game? Did you finish it? How do you make games?"
Seeing Lin Nan's interest and the topic moving to his area of expertise, Chen Jiang swallowed and spoke much more smoothly: "I'm not a professional, but I've been learning these past few years. I did finish a game, but since I'm working alone, it's not very fun."
He paused, seeing Lin Nan's genuine enthusiasm, his tone taking on some excitement: "Since it's just me, I have to handle everything—art, programming, story, everything. Especially the art, I never studied it properly before. Concept art, 3D modeling, I'm not good at any of it. I don't know programming either, so I can only buy books and teach myself..."
Lin Nan listened to him ramble on for a long time, various technical terms making his head spin.