These 25 days.

He used 3 tons of water.

100 kilowatt-hours of electricity.

The water rate here was 5 yuan per ton.

So water bill: 15 yuan.

Electricity rate was 2 yuan per kilowatt-hour.

100 kilowatt-hours meant 200 yuan.

Seeing these water and electricity fees, Jiang Ran almost cursed out loud.

5 yuan per ton for water? 2 yuan per kilowatt-hour for electricity?

This was ridiculously expensive!!!

Why not just rob people?!

It was way more expensive than the water and electricity fees at his previous rental in Nancheng City.

If you didn't know better, you'd think one place was in a poor, backward area while the other was in a major city - except both were in the same city.

Forget about that.

Even with the high unit prices, Jiang Ran was just one person.

Water and electricity combined only came to 215 yuan.

The truly outrageous part was the property fee!!!

Alice Apartment: Property fee per square meter: 50 yuan.

Jiang Ran remembered his Room 304 was exactly 50 square meters, no more no less.

Which meant his monthly property fee would be 2500 yuan?

"Xiao Zhang, isn't this property fee a bit too outrageous?!"

Jiang Ran placed the bill on the table and pointed at the property fee.

If Jiang Ran remembered correctly, that famous Tomson Riviera in Shanghai only charged 15 yuan per square meter for property fees.

Yet Alice Apartment jumped straight to 50 yuan?

This couldn't even be described as just "outrageous" anymore!

Manager Xiao Zhang scratched his head and said: "50 yuan is pretty normal, right? When Alice Apartment first started, the property fee was 70 yuan per square meter!"

"It's already been reduced."

"Besides, Jiang Ran, you need to remember - you're an assistant manager. If Alice Apartment doesn't collect higher property fees from residents, how would they pay your salary? My salary? Other people's salaries? Just you alone cost 10,000 yuan per month! And this month you've been taking overtime voluntarily, so it's even more than 10,000!!!"

Jiang Ran felt somewhat helpless: "But, but I'm also a resident! This would cut 2500 yuan from me all at once..."

Manager Xiao Zhang patted Jiang Ran's shoulder, then took the bill from his hand and tore it to shreds.

Jiang Ran was completely stunned: "Bro, I haven't paid yet? Why did you tear it up?"

On that bill was a unique payment QR code for each resident - just scan with a phone to pay.

Manager Xiao Zhang laughed: "Didn't you not want to pay? Tearing it up means you don't have to pay, right?"

Jiang Ran made an exasperated expression.

Manager Xiao Zhang, now holding his stomach, laughed: "Alright alright, I'm just messing with you."

"Actually, we Alice employees all have hidden benefits."

"For example, take you! You're both a resident here and staff here."

"Therefore, your monthly property fee is covered by the apartment - you don't need to pay."

"Additionally, the apartment covers 500 yuan of your water and electricity fees each month. The apartment pays for anything under 500 yuan, and you pay anything over that."

After hearing Xiao Zhang's explanation.

Jiang Ran was stunned.

Holy shit, according to this calculation.

He originally should have paid 2715 yuan this month.

But just because he was apartment staff, it was completely waived?

This was even better than that "love apartment" thing where couples get half rent and free utilities!

And why was today's encounter with Xiao Zhang and what happened the real reason he ultimately stayed?

Let's do some calculations now.

Last night, Jiang Ran actually had another idea.

That was to sell his Alice Apartment unit, get some money in hand, then resign and completely leave this place where the Danger Warning System kept alerting him.

But after searching online, he found that according to Nancheng City laws, ordinary apartments require 1.5 years after transfer of ownership before they can be sold again.

And for high-end apartments like Alice Apartment, it takes 3 years before they can be sold.

Even though Jiang Ran won his through a lottery, it was still transferred to him, so he must wait 3 years - meaning the apartment couldn't be sold at all.

Not to mention various taxes and fees after selling.

Then, today's water/electricity and property fees created the following situation.

If Jiang Ran decided to leave because this place felt dangerous.

He would definitely need to rent outside, 1000 yuan.

He'd also have to quit his assistant manager job. If he didn't quit and kept working, there would be no reason to move out since he'd still be living here anyway.

Well, assuming he quit and returned to his previous customer service job, he'd take home 3500 yuan monthly.

The Alice Apartment unit couldn't be sold for three years.

But even if you don't live here, you still have to pay property fees - it's your own property, you can't escape it.

That means paying 2500 yuan monthly in property fees.

Just these two expenses would reach 3500 yuan.

Meaning, Jiang Ran's monthly salary would be completely gone after paying these two - no money left!

No money for food or drink, just waiting to starve or die of thirst! Not to mention buying medication for his dissociative identity disorder!

But what if he continued living here and kept working as assistant manager?

No monthly property fees to pay, 500 yuan covered for utilities, essentially free.

He gets at least 10,000 yuan monthly salary.

Comparing both options, which would you choose?

Damn it, Jiang Ran could only choose the second option!

What other choice did he have?

Therefore, this was the real reason Jiang Ran fundamentally couldn't leave this place!

The previous night's thoughts were all illusions.

It's not like you can just leave if you want to - they give you a choice, but if you choose to leave, you'll have to live an extremely difficult life.

At this point, Jiang Ran finally understood everything clearly.

Even though his mind kept constantly alerting:

[Ding! Dangerous person detected! Please distance yourself quickly! Points +4! Points +4...]

This warning was about staying away from Manager Xiao Zhang.

But what could Jiang Ran do? He could only continue living here like before.

The only difference from before was that he needed to be more careful and vigilant.

Besides, from the time he met Manager Xiao Zhang until now, he didn't seem to have harmed him - in fact, he had been quite good to him...

Jiang Ran scratched his head and returned to Room 304.

Of course, before returning to 304, he asked Manager Xiao Zhang about how the clown had been recently.

Manager Xiao Zhang said the clown had gone to perform in another city.

Meanwhile.

In the bedroom of Room 704.

The bedroom curtains were drawn, blocking out the beautiful morning sunlight, with only the ceiling light illuminating the entire bedroom.

Wang Anjian was vomiting blood severely. The bedsheets, quilt covers, and even the white tiled floor beside the bed were all stained with bright red blood forming blood flower patterns.

He lay on the bed, completely weak.

The doctor had said he might not live past three months.

But given his current condition, he felt surviving three weeks would be difficult, let alone three months!

Without exaggeration, he thought if he could last three days, he'd be a hero.

Now when he used the bathroom, both number one and number two contained blood.

His immunity was too compromised now.

This caused him to feel completely weak, his body somewhat cold, unsure if it was a severe cold or a fever.

At this moment, he struggled to push himself up from the bed, leaning against the headboard.

This simple action took about five to six minutes.

After leaning against the headboard, he opened his phone.

If he remembered correctly, he had received 10,000 yuan five times total.

The first four installments had already been completely spent.