The landlord has multiple personalities and wants everyone to pay him.

Ye Shu had heard many tales about the Spring Festival travel rush since he was a child.

Every year, news reports feature scenes of people crammed together at train stations, airports, and ferry terminals, with phrases like "the Great Migration" and "the strongest population movement on Earth."

When he was little, he watched it on a screen and didn't really understand it. It wasn't until he went to school that he truly understood that the Spring Festival travel rush was just a figure of speech.

Every year, he has this very naive idea: that with the development of the times and the progress of society, transportation has become more developed and private cars are more common, so this diversion of traffic should surely improve the situation, right?

As soon as he arrived at the train station entrance, his last bit of hope was crushed by the sea of ​​heads in front of him.

That place was truly bustling with activity, with drums and gongs, firecrackers, red flags waving, and a sea of ​​people. Ye Shu was almost squeezed under the table.

Ye Shu, pulling a suitcase and carrying a backpack, stood on the steps at the entrance of the station, gazing at the sea of ​​people.

He was very glad that he hadn't asked Sister Zhi Qiu to come and deliver it; with this kind of crowd, it would have taken a long time to find someone to help him.

When he was leaving, Zhi Qiu saw him off at the entrance of the residential area. She was always smiling, but at that moment she held his hand and kept repeating the same few words: "Be careful on the road," "Keep an eye on your luggage," "Call me if anything happens," and the most frequent one, "Come back soon."

It feels really good to have someone waiting for you on one side. I never thought about these things when I went home every year before, but now that I have people waiting for me on both sides, I feel a very magical sense of tug-of-war.

I don't feel bad at all; on the contrary, I feel very happy.

He took a deep breath and plunged into the sea of ​​people.

People were everywhere, and you could only move forward by shuffling.

There were college students pulling suitcases, looking just as hopeless as he did; there were dark-skinned migrant workers carrying woven bags; there were parents holding babies in their arms and dragging around a toddler; and there was a whole family speaking loudly in a dialect that Ye Shu couldn't understand at all...

The long queue at the security checkpoint snaked around several times, and the staff's voices were getting hoarse from shouting. They kept yelling into the queue through a megaphone, "Guaranteed security check! Take out your liquids!"

When Ye Shu saw the middle-aged woman staring at the security scanner screen, her expression went blank, and she sat there like a statue.

Ye Shu finally got through security and entered the waiting hall, but before she could even catch her breath, she was overwhelmed by a wave of sound.

If the plaza outside is like a bustling market, then the waiting hall is like a huge box with excellent reverberation.

The announcement over the loudspeaker broadcast train information, and suddenly a ticket gate began to open, with staff using a megaphone to announce, "Passengers of train KXXX, please move this way! Line up! Don't push!"

All around were buzzing voices, some understandable, some not, from all sorts of dialects.

I don't know where it came from, but another child was yelling at the top of their lungs. Kids are like that; once one starts yelling, everyone around starts yelling too, like it's contagious. It's shrill and noisy.

And the audio from those short videos played aloud on phones...

Ye Shu felt his temples throbbing, and he felt a tightness in his chest, unable to breathe.

He dragged his suitcase, scanning the lobby, looking for a corner where he could stay for a while.

Seats? They were all taken long ago; even the walls and pillars in the middle of the hall were occupied by people.

He dragged his suitcase around like a headless fly for a while before he saw someone standing up next to a trash can. He quickly went over and plopped down on the chair.

The iron chair was rock hard and uncomfortable, but compared to those who sat on newspapers spread on the ground, it was like paradise.

Ye Shu took out her earphones, turned on some music, and tried to block out the surrounding noise.

But as soon as the intro started in his headphones, before Jay Chou could even speak, a very strong voice forced its way into his ears.

"Attention! These ten things should absolutely not be eaten before meals! Especially the last one, 90% of people don't know this! Share this with your friends and family..."

Ye Shu regrets it now. He didn't buy a better noise-canceling headphone back then, and instead got a cheap set from Huaqiangbei. He regrets it now.

He turned his head and saw a man in a leather jacket sitting next to him. He looked to be in his forties and had his hair slicked back. The man was sitting with his legs crossed and was looking very seriously at the list of ten things he absolutely could not eat on his phone.

Ye Shu frowned, turned up the volume on his headphones, and tried to overpower him with Jay Chou's music.

However, the results were minimal.

Do you know eight other ways to use rice besides eating it? You'll definitely not know the last one!

"Be careful with these five things you keep in your home, as they absorb your luck every day!"

Ye Shu was speechless. He wasn't angry because his older brother was playing the video out loud, but because he seemed genuinely curious about what was absorbing his luck!

What? You're asking why we don't go somewhere else?

Just kidding! We finally got a seat, how could we let someone else have it?!

Just as Ye Shu was getting used to his older brother's video style, a voice suddenly came from behind him.

"Grandma! Grandma! Happy New Year! Grandma, please give me a little red heart!"

A group of clearly synthesized children's voices came from behind Ye Shu. He turned around and saw an old woman holding a phone and looking at it intently. The phone contained a video of a cybernetic grandson that was produced in an extremely poor quality.

Ye Shu turned back, leaned forward, and rested against her suitcase, trying to create some distance, but it was no use.

The old woman's phone also started playing a performance; a woman was sobbing and lamenting to mournful background music.

"When I married into that remote mountain village, my husband locked me in the woodshed and only gave me one steamed bun a day..."

Or it's just old men and women lip-syncing:

"Jack Ma, listen to me~ Today I'm going to talk about you~"

The worst part is that this old lady watches the same video five or six times, and Ye Shu is almost brainwashed.

The older man on the left is talking about health and wellness, and traditional Chinese wisdom, while the older woman behind him is talking about her grandson's tearful drama. The two of them are really going at it, each one louder than the last from their phones.

In Ye Shu's headphones, Jay Chou didn't even have a chance to open his mouth in the face of these two torrents.

He felt a sharp pain in his head, so severe that he began to hallucinate.

He saw that the environment before him had transformed into the living room of Cloud Garden, with sunlight streaming in through the glass windows and the air filled with that familiar, comforting fragrance.

Sister Zhi Qiu sat on the sofa, wearing that familiar dress, her long hair tied back, holding a book in her hand, with a gentle and serene smile on her face.

Perhaps sensing someone's presence, she looked up at him, her always smiling eyes crinkling into a smile, and she softly asked:

"You're back? Are you tired?"

Quiet, warm, so beautiful.

Ye Shu opened her eyes; the hallucination vanished, replaced by the words, "Eating these nine things is tantamount to slow suicide!"

A sense of loss left him feeling empty inside, followed by a feeling of irritability and resentment.

He suddenly missed Sister Zhi Qiu terribly. He wanted to rush into her arms right away, bury his face in her neck, and maybe even rub against her a couple of times.

Just imagining that scene makes me feel wonderful.

He held his phone, opened the chat window, and wanted to send Zhi Qiu a message saying, "I miss you."

No! Absolutely not!

Ye Shu suddenly came to her senses. She had only been out for less than an hour, and she had sent such a comforting message to Sister Zhi Qiu just because the environment was a little noisy. How embarrassing!

Have I been spoiled by Sister Zhi Qiu?

He shook his head, trying to shake off those weak thoughts.

Just bear with it, just bear with it a little longer, you'll be fine once you get on the bus...