Vanity Fair and City III (51)

Under the same roof---Once there was a Japanese teleplay named “Under the same Roof”. Whenever I read these words I feel warm and cozy inside. After all we share the same house, live under the same roof, and experience the same happiness and sadness. But when this comes to JJ, it becomes troubles.

JJ is in trouble, and the trouble is very troublesome. JJ moved into a new room recently. To be honest, I don’t like that room---Well, the room is not bad, but the house, to be exactly, the neighbours are not so good. I always think that to choose a good neighbour is more important than to choose a good room, but JJ said I worried too much.

And it proves that what I worry is not an unwarranted anxiety.

JJ was so angry when she complained about her neighbours.

“The young boy living on the left of my room is dirty. He turns the kitchen into a hell. I wash it many times, but he messes it up again. And he doesn’t wash his cookers. His food turns bad but he doesn’t deal with it…”

If this is still bearable, then---

“And the old man living on the right of my room is disgusting! He has his wife but he keeps sending me phone messages and invites me to have dinner outside whenever his wife is not there! It seems that he thinks I am just a little girl who can be bullied…” JJ was so angry when she was telling us this big trouble.

“You are not in trouble.” I said. “You are in danger.”

This scared her a lot. Maybe I shouldn’t say it out, but it is objective and true. It is not a bad thing that in fair weather prepare for foul.

So we all gave suggestions to JJ. But I think these suggestions are useless.

“Do not say any word to that man!”

“Tell his wife that her husband is harassing you!”

“But his wife may think that you are flirting with her husband first!”

“OK I ask my husband to call the mobdom and beat him…”

…

So it is not strange that JJ has a bad temper every day.

Who asks her not to listen to my opinion at first? I have told her that it is better to rent a single room with a single kitchen and a single toilet rather than to share them with other unknown people when I helped her to find a room. But she always said that I worried too much. And she feels it is too lonely to live in a single room.

Then I prefer to be lonely rather than to be in trouble. Anyway, I am still satisfied with my current room. Yea, I share the big apartment with other four people, we walk across the same doorway every day, but we have our own room, own kitchen, own bathroom and own toilet, so we seldom meet each other, so the trouble will be less.

Anyway, my neighbour are not too bad. That nurse is very nice to me. Her daughter is very far from her, so she thinks I am just like her daughter---She helpes me a lot. The couple are a little dirty, but thank heaven, they seldom come back. And that young boy is a little… He can not afford his room any more because he lost all his money in the gambling. My landlord is going to kick him out. It is quite cruel, but it is not a bad thing to kick a gambler out.

Once, my mom sighed when she came to my room. “Poor Jan. You pay so much for this room every month, but this room is so small…” She frowned at me, or she pitied me.

Yea, my current room in Shenzhen is even smaller than the kitchen at my own house in the hometown, but I don’t need her pity. As long as it is a clean, quiet, safe room, I don’t care how small it is.

And it can be a warm, cozy nest. Life here is simple, peaceful and free like the wind.