Roommates

As soon as the semester ended, Mo Fan went looking for a new place to live.

Buying was out of the question, but renting something decent for a reasonable sum was no problem at all. He'd actually had his eye on the Jinyuan Apartments, on the western side of the Blue District, for quite some time.

The complex was very close to campus, and behind it lay a park with an artificial lake. The lake wasn't large, but the scenery was lovely — on quiet nights, the pavilion standing at the center of the lake was achingly picturesque beneath the moonlight. Rumor had it that bored, lovesick singles liked to drift over here on their days off, hoping fate would do them a favor.

Mo Fan made his way up to the 12th floor and knocked on the door of the unit for rent.

"Oh, you're here! You must be the young man who called earlier?" The landlady greeted him warmly, all smiles.

"That's right. I saw your listing online," Mo Fan said.

The landlady looked him up and down, then nodded. "Come on in, then."

Mo Fan nodded and was about to step inside when two young women appeared from the elevator. One of them wore a long summer dress — pure white as snow, save for a beautiful landscape painting embroidered across the chest...

She drifted over like a cloud, apparently searching for the right room number.

The woman beside her was considerably more petite, though startlingly so — her small frame came equipped with a pair of assets so eye-catching they could commandeer a man's entire brain in a single glance. The girl had dressed in loose, baggy clothes, but no amount of fabric could contain what nature had so generously provided.

"Excuse me — oh? Is that you?" The woman had been about to address the landlady when she spotted Mo Fan standing in the doorway. A flicker of surprise crossed her face.

"Ha, what a coincidence." Mo Fan was equally caught off guard — he hadn't expected to run into a familiar face here.

The woman in the white landscape-print dress was none other than Mu Nujiao — the Blue District goddess who had demonstrated such ferocious power at the freshman competition.

On a campus positively brimming with youthful energy, Mo Fan was fairly certain the biggest topic keeping boys awake in the dorms was women — and the moment anyone brought up women, the conversation inevitably circled back to Mu Nujiao, whose beauty and character were both of the highest order.

Every club Mu Nujiao joined immediately filled to bursting. Every group event she attended drew a crowd of onlookers. She'd simply cultivated too perfect a public image. If Zhao Manyan hadn't seen right through it from day one, Mo Fan might almost have believed it himself.

"Are you here to look at the place too?" Mo Fan asked.

"Mm." Mu Nujiao gave a small nod and said nothing more.

"Oh, you two know each other? Wait — you look really familiar... Oh! You're the Great Demon King!!!" The petite girl let out a startled yelp.

Mo Fan was speechless. So that nickname had really made the rounds. Scary enough to make a girl shriek like — wait. She didn't look scared at all. If anything, her face was lit up with excitement.

Running into Mu Nujiao here wasn't all that surprising, when Mo Fan thought about it.

School regulations required freshmen to live on campus during their first year, but in practice the rule was only strictly enforced for the first semester. By the second semester, students with any means at all tended to move into housing near school — cultivation required a private environment, free from disturbance.

The Jinyuan Apartments didn't come cheap, either. Most students were funneling the bulk of their money into cultivation resources these days and had nothing left over for a luxury place like this. Only someone with Mu Nujiao's kind of wealth could seriously consider it.

The apartment was enormous and exquisitely furnished, laid out across two levels. The ground floor had a large living area with fully carpeted floors, with an entryway that opened directly onto an elevated balcony nearly the size of a standard apartment bedroom on its own — complete with a sun umbrella, lounge chairs, a small ornamental pool, and a reading nook.

The living area itself was fully appointed in a crescent layout: an enormous wall-mounted television, a sofa broad enough to sleep on, all facing an open-plan Western kitchen and a small bar lounge...

In Mo Fan's experience — having grown up without money — a living room was supposed to have a sofa and a TV, full stop. A bar lounge and a Western kitchen were genuinely outside the bounds of what he'd ever imagined.

He hadn't even seen the bedrooms yet, and the ground floor alone was leaving him breathless. Expensive? Sure. But it earned every yuan. Good thing he actually had some money now.

"The bedrooms are all upstairs — would you like to take a look?" the landlady asked.

"I don't think that's necessary. I'll take it," Mo Fan said.

*If the living room is this outrageously lavish, there's no point checking upstairs. The bedrooms can't possibly disappoint.*

"And what about you ladies?" the landlady asked, glancing toward Mu Nujiao.

"I love it! Mu Jie, let's take this one!" the petite, bubbly girl said, just as smitten.

In truth, the two of them had already viewed quite a few places, and most hadn't passed muster. Coming from wealthy families, they found many so-called "premium" apartments laughably bare — barely a step up from the school dorms. This place, though, was clearly the product of serious investment: a duplex with actual taste, not far off from the hotels they stayed at when traveling for fun.

"Well, if you're all happy with it, why not share the rent? To be honest, this unit really is quite expensive — it's very rare for one person to cover it all on their own. We're talking tens of thousands a month. That's no joke," the landlady said.

Mu Nujiao's brow furrowed.

She had no interest in sharing. The money meant nothing to her.

"Oh, let's do it! I've never shared a place before! All those college novels always have people sharing apartments — it sounds so exciting!" The petite girl was a simple soul; she agreed on the spot without a second thought, practically glowing with delight.

The landlady laughed and pressed on. "There are four bedrooms in total — two on the south side and two on the north side, with a simple partition between them. Since you already know each other, it would be a perfect arrangement!"

"Xiao Tu, don't be hasty. Ma'am, we're actually not that close with him," Mu Nujiao said.

"Aw, Mu Jie, it'll be fine! All the rooms are completely separate — there's even a partition between the sides. The only shared space is the living room downstairs; everything else is private. My grandfather is just terrible — he said he'd cut my allowance once I enrolled. Two people splitting this rent is still really steep. Having one more person pitching in would be perfect. At worst, we just make him pay half," the girl said.

"Hey, hey — I never agreed to paying half!" Mo Fan immediately spoke up.

Sharing an apartment with these two? Absolutely irresistible — there was no way he was turning that down. But the finances needed to be settled first.

*You're both loaded. Don't go squeezing the broke guy.*

"Please — other guys would happily fork over the entire rent just for a chance to share a place with Mu Jie. We're letting you off with half, and you still get to live with two gorgeous girls. You should be grinning in your sleep. Alright, it's all settled! I want the room with the lake view. I'll have my backup admirers come over later and move my things in."

"Backup... admirers..." Something twisted uncomfortably in Mo Fan's chest at those words.