I work in a coastal city in the south, living in a village in the city, with one bedroom and one living room.

It's quite humid there, the walls of the house I rented have some mildew on them. Before moving in, the landlord specifically put another layer of white plaster on the walls to cover up the spots.

Once, I was sitting on the sofa in the living room coding when I suddenly smelled a very unique smell. It didn't quite smell like mildew on the walls, but I couldn't describe it.

I have a very sensitive nose, so much so that when I was a child, I secretly ate the roast chicken my grandpa had hidden away for himself to enjoy in the dead of night. He still doesn't know how his roast chicken disappeared, as the hiding place was one where nobody should have been able to find it.

I don't usually spend much time in the living room, I just come home from work, take a shower, and go to sleep.

I'm too busy with work to spend time in the living room, even when I use my phone, I do it lying in bed.

Actually, a single room would be enough for me, but I find single rooms too cramped, I can't fit anything else in once I put a bed in there.

Having an extra living room serves as a good place to store random things.

I sniffed, trying to figure out where that very special smell was coming from.

I walked around the living room, my gaze fixed on a load-bearing wall.

I stared at that wall for a long time, thinking could it be that the plaster on the wall has gone damp and is now emitting a strange smell?

I approached the load-bearing wall and took a deep breath.

The smell seemed even more peculiar, making me inexplicably anxious.

At that moment, in the tenant group chat, the landlord sent a message: [Dear tenants, please do not let strangers enter your room. Recently, some tenants reported that their homes had been tampered with. After reviewing the surveillance footage, no suspicious individuals were found. However, it cannot be ruled out that skilled thieves may disguise themselves as your relatives and friends to enter this building, then sneak into your room. Please be vigilant, although there have been no reports of missing items, there is still a security risk. As the landlord, I will work with the community security personnel to strengthen patrols and ensure the safety of this building.]

Home tampered with?

That was the only part of the message that caught my attention.

I surveyed the living room carefully, checking for any signs of it being tampered with.

There were none.

The shoe cabinet was still covered in dust.

The drink bottles on the dining table were almost overflowing.

The ashtray on the coffee table, what the cigarette butts looked like when I pushed them in, and what they look like now.

The charging cables and power banks piled up on top of the fridge, I couldn't even remember buying so many.

Whenever I lost one, I just bought another, then found where it was, brought it back, and casually placed it on the fridge.

As for other odds and ends, I only unpacked them when I bought them, then stacked them in the corner, it was quite difficult to dig through them now because they were piled too high.

While in the bedroom, there was only a wardrobe and a bed, I rummaged through my clothes every day, then rolled up in my blanket to sleep, feeling like every day was the same, messy, too messy to look at.

So, it seemed like my house hadn't been tampered with by unknown individuals.

I hesitated on whether to tell the landlord about the strange smell in my living room that wouldn't go away, and thought about asking him to put on a thicker layer of plaster to cover the damp area.

But the landlord was difficult to deal with, if I asked him to put on more plaster, he would probably ask me to move out.

It's peak graduation season now, a lot of college students are coming to stay temporarily in the village in the city, it's difficult to find a house and not easy to find one that's satisfactory.

The one I'm living in now has good lighting, a nice environment around, convenient transportation near the community, downstairs there are supermarkets and convenience stores, and most importantly, the rent is acceptable to me.

I also want to stay here for a long time.

If the landlord thinks I'm difficult to deal with, he might ask me to move out overnight.

Forget it, I don't want to trouble him.

I opened the window in the living room, thinking of going downstairs later to buy a bottle of air freshener to spray and get rid of that smell.

Actually, I wasn't that bothered by the very special smell, it's just that I'm sensitive, always getting distracted by it and wasting my energy.

After buying the air freshener and coming back, I sprayed a lot onto the load-bearing wall, finally I couldn't smell that very special smell anymore, and then I went to sleep.

But after a few days, I smelled that very special smell again.