Wu Ji didn't reply on his phone anymore.
He came knocking on the door.
"Didn't you hear anything last night? My parents live right below you, and rats gnawed at their window screens all night!"
Wu Ji, with two huge dark circles under his eyes, looked drained.
When chatting on the phone, he thought Feng Yi was bluffing, but now, seeing Feng Yi's condition, he didn't seem at all like he had been disturbed by noise at night.
Feng Yi responded, "I just got back last night and didn't see any rats. Maybe I slept too soundly and didn't hear anything. If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have almost forgotten about it. I didn't even dispose of the takeout trash in the processor, and only cleaned it up this morning. Wasn't the property management supposed to organize rat extermination and hire a pest control company? Didn't that work?"
"It did work!" Wu Ji said indignantly, "They're said to have raided a few underground nests, and then the rats all ran upwards. People also saw rats climbing from the ground floor to the upper floors in broad daylight. It's not just our community; the rat infestation in the surrounding communities has bounced back too. It's unbearably annoying!"
Wu Ji took the bottle of purified water offered by Feng Yi, opened it, and took a couple of sips before continuing, "I mean, rats stealing food isn't even the main issue now. With the resurgence of the rat problem these past few days, everyone's getting a bit neurotic, and tempers are getting short. A little thing can turn into a big argument in the group chat.
"But the community manager mentioned that the next step would be a thorough extermination, with professionals coming door-to-door, though some services will cost money. I've already signed up my and my parents' apartments for the waiting list for door-to-door extermination. If you need it, you could directly contact the property manager to register," Wu Ji advised.
"Door-to-door extermination?" Feng Yi asked.
"It means they come to check where in your house you haven't sealed properly and where rats might have snuck in. The people next door had someone come in last week to check. Exhaust pipes, air conditioning holes, all sorts of gaps are potential entrances for rats.
"Due to the exterior wall materials, some gaps are difficult to seal, and the price for one is around 80 to 100. That's the cost for sealing one gap. Searching for them is extra, around 500 I guess. There was one family in the group chat who had someone come over to seal seven holes, twelve hundred in total—500 for the search and 700 for sealing. But I think, if it can solve the problem once and for all, it's worth the expense. I heard these private extermination companies have raised their prices, but it should be cheaper with the community organizing it. You know, a group discount.
"If you're not sure, you should also have a professional take a look. Since you don't follow the homeowners' group chat, you wouldn't know, but in another building of our community, someone had a technician come in to clean their air conditioner, getting it ready before summer. When the technician opened the vent, they found a bunch of rat droppings... Geez!"
Wu Ji took a look at Feng Yi's central air conditioner vent, "When you have time, you could also schedule a cleaning for your air conditioning unit."
As he spoke, Wu Ji's face fell, he pointed to his dark circles, and then pointed upwards with a finger, "Have you ever experienced disco dancing on the ceiling at 3 a.m.?"
"No," Feng Yi replied.
"The rats these days are huge, with no sense of their own weight, squeezing into the ceiling, chasing each other around with leaps and bounds all night. I ended up sleeping with earplugs. When I woke up in the morning, I saw that the faux antique carved ceiling my dad adores had cracked!"
Feng Yi said, "You don't have pets or young kids, so you could use rat poison."
Wu Ji waved his hand dismissively, "You underestimate them. There are now some mutations, resistant to common rat poisons. The more potent ones are strictly regulated, mostly banned from sale. I'm really banking on the release of those rat-control robots."
"Haven't you tried asking Qian Feiyang to lend you his cat?" Feng Yi asked.
Qian Feiyang was their college classmate, who rented an apartment in the same community. Initially, he didn't live there, but as a photography enthusiast, he took editing jobs even before graduating, and eventually pursued it as his career. Six months ago, he opened a small photo studio and rented a large apartment there. Three months ago, when the community actively caught and handled stray cats, Qian Feiyang, along with many others from nearby communities, adopted one.
Wu Ji: "He won't lend it! He says his cat doesn't catch mice anymore!"
Wu Ji got worked up talking about this, "How can a cat with a stray background not know how to catch mice! Someone in the homeowners' group chat advised him, 'Starve it for a couple of meals and it'll catch mice on its own,' and Qian Feiyang was like 'I thought so too.' A couple of days later, he backed out, saying, 'Can't do it. It starts meowing, and I forget what I was thinking.' Unbelievable!"
Wu Ji sighed, "So yeah, I'm still looking forward to those rat-control robots."
Feng Yi took out a tea canister and handed it over, "Someone gave me two of these; you and Qian Feiyang can share this one."
"What kind of tea is this?" Wu Ji's interest was piqued.
His shop at the entrance of the community was called "Ji Xiang Tea Garden." Young people liked to drink tea there in the afternoon or find a quiet place to work. The elderly came to drink tea, play chess, and chat. His place had private rooms and open seating, without disturbing each other.
As soon as Feng Yi brought out the tea canister, Wu Ji no longer cared about the rat troubles.
"Some kind of... unknown farm tea?" Feng Yi didn't recognize the tea, and Mute Uncle hadn't specified what it was.
Feng Yi had tried a small amount of the tea leaves during breakfast, noting an odd sweetness and a particularly refreshing effect. Beyond that, he didn't notice much else, as he wasn't a tea connoisseur.
Wu Ji took the canister with both hands and examined it more seriously than when he had received the bottle of water.
The tea canister had several layers, only the top layer contained tea leaves; the underlying layers held unknown substances, some powder, some granules, Wu Ji speculated they might be used to "reduce heat" in the freshly made tea leaves.
"Could this be some kind of secret traditional tea-making method?" Wu Ji wondered.
"I wouldn't know about that. The whole process takes about two hours," Feng Yi said.
"Done in two hours?" Wu Ji thought to himself, It sounds a bit rough.
However, Wu Ji enjoyed various novel tea-making methods, and after taking a sniff just now, he felt that the tea here wasn't of poor quality.
"The person who fried the tea said to leave it for two days before steeping it," Feng Yi said.
"Got it, I understand. I'll set aside Qian Feiyang's share when the time comes," Wu Ji carefully put it away.
"Right, I've made plans with Qian Feiyang to go fishing this weekend, are you in? Mute Uncle and a few others from our community's fishing group mentioned yesterday while having tea at my shop, that there's an ecological preservation area not far from Rong City, you know, with a farmhouse resort just outside it. Uncle Liu said it is especially nice to spend the weekend there. I plan to take my parents there for two days; things have been too vexing lately. Qian Feiyang said he wanted to go for a photographic outing, so he also agreed to join. Are you coming? I'm not interested in picking vegetables with my parents, so the three of us could go fishing!"
Recalling his past experiences of being dragged to fish, Feng Yi said, "Fishing? The kind where you could cast a hundred times and not pull up a single fish?"
"Hey, it won't be like that this time! Uncle Liu said the fishing there is terrific!" Wu Ji showed Feng Yi a video.
The video indeed showed the community's fishing group having a great catch, and the atmosphere was lively.
Considering his own situation, Feng Yi said, "If there's nothing else this weekend, count me in. Do I need to bring my own fishing rod?"
"If you've got one, bring it; if not, we can rent one after we get there. We're just going for fun this time, unlike Uncle Liu and the rest who go regularly, so renting is fine. They have complete sets of fishing gear for rent there, and bait is available for purchase."
"Okay."
After Wu Ji left, Feng Yi checked the vents of a few air conditioners in his home but didn't see any signs of rat activity. Looking at the homeowners' group chat, the waitlist for rodent extermination services was booked till next week.
Feng Yi went online to research, only to find that all the pest control companies were busy; appointments were required, and who knew how long the wait would be.
He temporarily gave up on having pest control services come over.
After a while, Feng Yi searched on his phone: "natural predators of rats"
The search displayed:
[Cats, snakes, eagles, weasels, humans, etc.]
Then Feng Yi searched: "natural predators of snakes"
The search displayed:
[Eagles, honey badgers, mongoose, humans, etc.]
Feng Yi stroked his chin: "Humans truly are at the top of the food chain!"
Suddenly, he felt a sense of security.
I'm human, not a snake, a being at the top of the food chain! What do I have to fear!!
Setting those thoughts aside, Feng Yi planned to drive to the supermarket to stock up. The old butler had mentioned that he would face some minor changes in the coming days, so it would be better to minimize outings. If the changes were too significant, he would not participate in Wu Ji's weekend farmhouse trip.
Putting on his mask, he took the elevator directly to the underground parking garage.
He hadn't used the car in the last couple of days.
As he unlocked the car door and prepared to get in, Feng Yi suddenly paused.
Closing the car door, he opened the trunk and took out an enhanced long-handled picker. He had bought it two years ago, used it fewer than five times, and it had always been in the trunk.
After some thought, he also took a pair of gloves from the glove box and put them on.
He walked up to the right front wheel of the car, then stepped back two steps and suddenly stomped his foot, simultaneously stretching out the hand with the long-handled picker!
"Squeak!"