Closer to Revealing My True Self-Chapter 43 - 40 Exchange Room_1

He pressed his palm against the pillow and, seeing the wet imprint on his hand, Feng Yi became even more puzzled.

Did someone sprinkle water on him while he was asleep?

Everywhere he looked in the room, there were damp patches, with beads of water covering the surface of the wardrobe.

Feng Yi stood up to take a closer look; as his foot came down, his cloth slippers, soaked as if they had been in water, squelched out a small pool of liquid.

The floor was a miserable sight.

Like a wandering spirit, Feng Yi floated out of the bedroom to see the condition of the living room.

!!!

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Furniture, the ceiling, all his belongings… everything was damp as if they had been soaked, emanating various…

Heart-wrenching odors…

Leaning against the doorframe, Feng Yi felt his liver quiver.

This was the first apartment he had bought by working hard at part-time jobs and starting his own business during college. He had overseen the decoration process, personally selected each piece of furniture, and placed each item in just the right spot. Every detail was the product of his hard work!

Now, it was all ruined…

It took a while for Feng Yi to recover his composure and check the dehumidifier.

The room was so humid, yet the dehumidifier was quiet, obviously malfunctioning.

Feng Yi then checked the dehumidifier’s work log on his phone app. Around one o’clock in the morning, the indoor humidity data had spiked abruptly, triggering the strongest dehumidifying mode automatically, but it had broken down after only two hours.

“One o’clock in the morning?”

He would have still been dreaming at that time, right?

Thinking of something, Feng Yi’s eyelid twitched, and he rushed to the bathroom.

A layer of mist still clung to the bathroom mirror, and the tissues had turned into a soggy mass.

He wiped away the mist on the mirror with his hand and looked at himself.

There was no strange change on his face, and nothing seemed off with his body, but with all that had happened in the room, Feng Yi found it hard to convince himself that it had nothing to do with evolution.

So, was Mute Uncle right that, after the one-month period, evolution would really happen without any warning?!

Feng Yi opened his phone and checked the chat in the community owners’ group.

As expected, the owners’ group was already in an uproar—

[The humidity is too high! The floors are all damp!]

[It’s like this during the monsoon season. But the monsoon season in Rong City hasn’t arrived yet, has it?]

[Nonsense about monsoons! My place is a high-rise, and even during past monsoon seasons, it’s never been this damp! The clothes I washed and hung up last night are even damper this morning than they were yesterday!]

[All the windows in my house were tightly shut, and only the indoor air purification system was on. Can that still not keep out the external humidity?]

[Could it be a problem with the building materials? Or a quality issue with the house? My house is also humid, but not as extreme as you all are describing.]

Once the issue of construction was raised, property management could no longer play dead. They came out to clarify, insisting that it was absolutely not a problem with the houses, saying, “Last night there may have been a ‘layered clouds’ phenomenon, which could have caused extra moisture in the homes of residents on certain floors.”

The so-called “layered clouds,” also known as “high fog,” feels similar to fog but does not touch the ground, often shrouding mountains and high-rise buildings. It may only last a few hours and disappears after the sun rises.

This explanation was actually believed by many, but of course, there were skeptics who questioned whether the conditions for “layered clouds” could even be met in the vicinity of their community?

But other than the explanation of “layered clouds,” no one could think of anything else.

Moreover, this was indeed the case in the community. Although everyone felt the humidity was heavy last night, it was particularly noticeable only for residents of the higher floors in one building and two nearby buildings.

To be precise, residents above the twenty-fifth floor of these three buildings especially felt the humidity, particularly around the thirtieth floor. Residents of the same floors in other buildings did not experience such excessive moisture.

Trembling with fear, Feng Yi was overwhelmed with a sense of guilt as he flipped through those chat records.

On instinct, he felt this issue was related to him, but he couldn’t explain it, nor was it appropriate for him to step in and offer compensation. To avoid causing more trouble for the residents, Feng Yi thought it best to leave as soon as possible.

He sent a message to Wu Ji, learned he was at home, and went straight up the stairs to the 29th floor.

The door was open, and inside the living room, Wu Ji was meticulously blowing his hair dryer on the sofa.

Feng Yi glanced around Wu Ji’s home and noticed the obvious dampness, but it was still salvageable.

As Wu Ji tried to save his beloved fabric sofa, he said, “I’m really worried now. It’s okay for one day, but if there’s this much moisture every night, I’m afraid all my furniture will be ruined. How about your place? It must be similar to mine, right?”

“All ruined. The ceiling probably needs to be redone,” Feng Yi replied.

Wu Ji gave him a sympathetic look.

“How come that ‘cloud layer’ appeared right above us? And it sneaked over in the middle of the night! No one was prepared!”

Feng Yi: “…Yeah, it showed up in the middle of the night!”

After leaving Wu Ji’s place, Feng Yi went up and down the floors to inquire and found that the situation in other residents’ homes was similar to Wu Ji’s—quite damp but still salvageable. However, if it happened a few more times, it was likely that all the home furnishings would be trashed.

Once he got back home, Feng Yi called his butler and reported the situation.

“Water vapor is indeed something that appears in the process of evolution, um… sooner than I expected,” the butler said. “If you don’t want others to notice, you can move out. However, since Madam Feng doesn’t own any property in Rong City, it’s up to you to figure out a solution.”

“I’ll handle the housing issue myself.” Feng Yi’s only goal was to confirm whether this situation was related to his evolution.

After hanging up the phone, Feng Yi opened a real estate app to search for rental listings, looking for a remote standalone villa he could rent.

Buying a house obviously wasn’t an immediate option—he had thought there was still time to look at leisure, but now, it was best to get away fast. If he couldn’t buy a house, he’d rent one, and if he couldn’t find a suitable rental, then…

Sleep in the park?

After browsing for a while, Feng Yi received a call from Lu Yue.

“Remember the house near Yue Mountain I mentioned yesterday? Do you have time to look at it today? The homeowner is my cousin. He’ll be going there this afternoon to pick up some stuff. If you want to check out the house, I’ll give him a heads up. Just to let you know, I’ve never seen the house myself; I’ve only seen photos. But I’ve heard from others that it’s a nice place with a particularly good surrounding environment, though it is a bit remote.”

“Remote is not a problem—I’m free to look at the house today!” Feng Yi said.

Being remote was good—no one would notice his unusual commotion!

And he wouldn’t harm his neighbors if the moisture appeared again.

A while later, Lu Yue added, “He’s there right now. I’ll send you the detailed address, and you can go talk to him directly. I can’t leave work right now.”

“Okay.”

After receiving the detailed address and searching for it on the map, Feng Yi realized it was quite far from the urban area, very close to the Yue Mountain nature reserve. However, the farther from the city the better, for his current situation.

After a brief preparation, Feng Yi drove to the location Lu Yue mentioned.

Upon arrival, he saw the community was indeed secluded with few residents in sight.

The house Lu Yue had spoken of was near the river and the most remote in the community. Perhaps because the owner didn’t live there often and it lacked maintenance, the house looked somewhat desolate.

When Feng Yi arrived, the homeowner was putting a storage box and two books into his car. The owner appeared to be about the same age as Lu Yue, but in contrast to Lu Yue’s sharp business-like demeanor, this man had a sort of… melancholic air of an artist.

Seeing Feng Yi, the man wiped sweat from his brow, “Are you the one Lu Yue mentioned, the one interested in buying the house? The Mr. Feng?”

“Yes, that’s me,” Feng Yi stepped forward to pick up a book that had fallen to the ground and handed it over.

“Thanks,” the man took the book, “My name is Xue Lin, ‘Xue’ as in Erwin Schrödinger, and ‘Lin’ as in retiring to the woods. Lu Yue is my cousin. He mentioned you’re looking for a remote standalone house.”

Feng Yi was momentarily stunned by his “Schrödinger’s Xue” and replied, “I’m Feng Yi, Feng as in tornado, Yi as in Houyi shooting the sun. Just call me by my name, Xue Bro.

“I indeed want to buy a house like this… one that’s closer to nature.”

It’s not good to say he wants to stay away from people and cause trouble, right?

When he saw the chat records in the homeowners’ group chat this morning, he was ready to find a remote village to live a reclusive life.

However, he hasn’t quite reached the point of “retiring to the woods.” Feng Yi temporarily gave up on seclusion; perhaps he would live in isolation for a while in the future due to his evolution, but not now. It would depress him.

Hearing Feng Yi mention wanting to be “closer to nature,” Xue Lin chuckled with a hint of nostalgia as he looked at the house overgrown with weeds, “There are plenty of houses close to nature, but they come with a lot of trouble. I’ll explain a bit.

“This complex, being close to Yue Mountain and near the reserve, is strictly managed. You need to apply for permission for any changes, and only after approval can you proceed. Renovations, reconstruction, even significant changes to your own garden need to be applied for in advance. You can scan this code to apply online. As long as the modifications aren’t major, it will be approved quickly.

“Earlier, some residents thought the procedures for modifying their homes here were too complicated—this was not allowed and that wasn’t permitted—so they all moved out. However, recently, because of the Qing Dragon incident, some homeowners have moved back. And others are taking advantage of the popularity to sell their properties at higher prices, like me.”

As he spoke, Xue Lin heaved a deep sigh, “To be honest, I am selling this house because I want to capitalize on the increased value, but the main reason is that I don’t want to live here. It’s a waste to just let it sit. It’s been almost two years now. During the summer, the weeds in the yard can grow taller than me.”

As he reached this point, Xue Lin seemed to sink into his memories, the melancholic air about him growing stronger: “To me, this is a sad place…”

Feng Yi watched him get lost in memories, wanting to remind him a few times:

There are three big black mosquitoes biting you on your face and arms!

And a group of mosquitoes are circling around, eyeing you eagerly!