Now she had a dorm room she couldn’t go back to, and people were treating her like a thief.

Still, that was a good thing. At first, Fang Chang had thought people would mistake him for a lolicon!

“I should find somewhere to stay. Maybe rent a place?”

Fang Chang started searching online for rental listings.

Finding somewhere cheap and quiet in this city wasn’t easy.

Maybe being a little girl came with a luck bonus, because she actually found a place.

It was just a bit far away—eight kilometers from the school, and close to the suburbs.

The listing also had a few requirements.

It was a room for rent, not an entire apartment.

The landlord would only rent to women, not men, and definitely not couples!

Add in the out-of-the-way location, and the rental listing was practically gathering dust.

It made people wonder if it was some kind of scam—or even a human trafficking scheme.

Even Fang Chang fell into deep thought.

“It’s only for women? Then I’ll just rent it for a month. Once my walking stand-in is ready, I’ll move back into the dorm!”

Once she’d made up her mind, Fang Chang caught a bus to the rental.

It was in an old part of town. The surroundings were a little run-down, but the neighborhood was pretty safe. Most people living there had been around for decades and knew each other well, so getting up to anything shady wouldn’t be easy.

She got off at the South Street stop. A little farther out, the city gave way to the suburbs. The rental was still about a hundred meters away, but between her and it lay rows of leafy trees, dim passageways, yellow-lit old buildings, and narrow alleys. It wasn’t far, but Fang Chang couldn’t find a way through.

“South Street, Qinxin Garden, No. 119…”

Fang Chang looked around. The street signs had weathered the wind and rain and never been replaced. Their painted lettering had peeled away, exposing the iron beneath. Rust had eaten into the metal, leaving it mottled like bloodstains from a distance. It looked like a ghost market.

But the place was full of life. Noisy voices spilled out of a yellow-lit mahjong parlor. The roadside trees towered overhead, spreading wide patches of shade, and several old men had gathered to move their horses and cannons across a chessboard. A few middle-aged women stood chatting and cracking sunflower seeds outside a nearby corner shop. A lazy old dog lay on the ground. When the shells landed on its back, it merely blinked, completely unbothered.

Holding her phone, Fang Chang walked over to the tree where the old men had gathered, hoping to ask for directions. Just then, a hearty, elderly voice rang out from the crowd: “Haha! Check!”

“Grandpa Ma, you’re picking on me!”

To her surprise, the old man had just called check on a little girl who looked incredibly young and was even a little shorter than Fang Chang.

Fang Chang curiously peered inside. Whoa, what a sight! Red had a horse trampling the cannon and a chariot sweeping across the board, while Black had nothing left but the king.

Wasn’t that a little unfair?

Looking at the old man’s deeply creased, grinning face, Fang Chang silently labeled him a bully who picked on kids.

But finding the place was more important.

Politely, Fang Chang tugged at the sleeve of a lively-looking old grandpa beside her who was watching the game, then held out her phone. “Hello, Grandpa. Could you tell me how to get to this address?”

The old grandpa was enjoying the little girl’s predicament. She’d lost so badly and still wouldn’t accept it, loudly demanding another round.

But when he turned and saw that the one tugging at him was a little girl about the same size, he immediately smiled and reached into his coat pocket for a pair of folding reading glasses.

“Hang on, let me take a look.”

Fang Chang patiently waited for him to put on his glasses, then held her phone up beside his face. As soon as he read the address, he called to the little girl who was angrily rearranging the pieces: “Xiao Qian! Scoot over a bit—someone’s here for you!”

The little girl looked up. “Who’s here for me?”

“Did your family put a place up for rent?”

At that, the little girl immediately stood up and stopped playing. She looked Fang Chang up and down for a long moment. “Are you here to rent it?”

Fang Chang hadn’t expected things to go so smoothly. She’d asked a random person and found the landlord’s child right away. She nodded and asked, “Is it your family’s place?”

“Let me see!”

The little girl climbed down from the chess table and came over to Fang Chang. Fang Chang leaned over, secretly delighted, and handed her the phone.

At last, she could experience what it felt like to look down on someone again.

The little girl only had to glance at it twice before clapping her hands. “Hey! This really is my family’s place!”

She immediately grew smug, then pushed one of the old men toward the chess table and said cheerfully, “I’m taking someone home! You guys keep playing! Grandpa Ma, tomorrow I’m definitely going to beat you so badly you’ll be rolling on the ground!”

Grandpa Ma didn’t mind. He smiled and asked, “Should I still give you a horse, a cannon, and a chariot?”

The little girl lifted her chin. “Of course! Everything takes time and practice!”

With the old men laughing cheerfully behind them, Fang Chang followed the little girl onward. The girl was a lively one, skipping and bouncing along the way and greeting just about everyone she passed.

But the farther she led Fang Chang, the more out of the way it got. They left South Street and wound through the alleys. When Fang Chang looked up, she could see only a thin strip of deep blue sky, sliced into fragments by the crisscrossing power lines. Two feathers drifted down, followed by the flapping of wings, and a returning flock of pigeons blotted out the sky overhead.

The little girl couldn’t keep still. When she noticed Fang Chang watching the pigeons, she offered her own take: “Those belong to Uncle Lin. He raises tons of them. They’re really cute—and make really delicious soup.”

Fang Chang had already finished her cake, but her stomach still felt empty. She answered without thinking, “Yeah, they look delicious.”

“Hehe! My big brother makes the best pigeon soup!” the little girl said with a grin. “He’s amazing. He can do anything, and he’s good at everything. He gets great grades, he’s handsome, and tons of girls at school have confessed to him!”

Fang Chang listened closely to her talk and couldn’t help thinking of her own little sister.

Why was she suddenly so jealous?

Her own little sister was good for nothing but insulting people!

The little girl continued praising her brother. “And he takes really good care of me. Ever since Mom and Dad passed away, he’s been looking after me. Renting out the house was his idea, too. You’re our first tenant, big sis!”

Fang Chang picked up on the deeper meaning behind her words.

Big brother?

Little sister?

Both parents dead?

Renting out the house? And only to women?

Holy crap, was this setting up a harem?!

Was this story really about to turn into an H-story barely fifty thousand words in? And after making me give birth, you still weren’t satisfied? Now you wanted me to join someone else’s harem too?

My heart’s that of a rugged dude!

Waaah!