Wu Ji didn't reply on the phone again.
He came straight to my door.
"Did you really not hear anything last night? My parents live downstairs from you, and mice gnawed at the screens all night!"
Wu Ji had two big dark circles under his eyes and looked listless.
When chatting on the phone, I thought Feng Yi was just talking nonsense, but now it seems that Feng Yi’s state does not look like he was disturbed at night.
Feng Yi replied, "I just came back last night and didn't see any rats. It may also be that I slept too deeply at night and didn't hear anything. If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have almost forgotten about it. The takeaway garbage was not thrown into the disposal. It was only cleaned up this morning. Didn't the property management organize a rat extermination company to come over? It didn't work?"
"It worked!" Wu Ji said angrily, "It is said that after they raided a few underground nests, the rats all ran upstairs. Some people even saw rats running upstairs along the outer wall in broad daylight. Not only in our community, but also in the surrounding communities, the rat problem has rebounded. It's so annoying!"
Wu Ji took the bottle of purified water handed over by Feng Yi, opened it and drank two sips, and continued: "I think it's not a big deal for mice to steal food. In the past two days, because of the rebound of mice, everyone is a little nervous and irritable. The group can quarrel over the slightest thing.
"But the community leader said that the next step is to completely eliminate the rats. Professionals will be sent to deal with it on site, but some services have to be paid for. I have already reported my parents' and my room numbers, and we are waiting in line for the extermination. If you need any help, you can directly find the person in charge of the property and register."
"Rats extermination at home?" Feng Yi asked.
"We come to your house to show you where your house is not well sealed and rats have gotten in. The family next to me hired someone to come to their house last week. The exhaust pipe, air conditioner hole, and all kinds of holes are where rats get in.
"Due to the material of the exterior wall, some holes are difficult to seal. The price is about 80 to 100, which is the price for sealing one hole. Finding holes is another price, about 500. One family in the group hired someone to seal seven holes at home, and it cost 1,200, which is 500 for finding holes and 700 for sealing holes. But I think if it can be solved once and for all, the money is worth it. I heard that the price of private rat extermination companies has increased again, but it should be cheaper to hire someone in the community. It's a group purchase.
"If you are not sure, ask a professional to come and check it out. If you don't pay attention to the homeowners' group, you may not know that in a building a few blocks away, an owner asked a technician to come and clean the air conditioner. Summer was approaching, so he cleaned the air conditioner in advance for future use. When the technician came and took apart the air outlet, he found a pile of rat droppings... Oh my god!"
Wu Ji looked at the air outlet of the central air conditioner in Feng Yi's home and said, "If you have time, you can also make an appointment to have the air conditioner cleaned at home."
Wu Ji's face fell as he spoke, and he pointed at his dark circles. He raised a finger and pointed at the top of his head: "Have you ever experienced the ceiling dancing at 3 a.m.?"
"No." Feng Yi said.
"I don't know what the mice eat to grow so big. They have no idea of their own weight. I don't know where they got into the ceiling, chasing each other and jumping around. I later wore earplugs to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, I saw that the antique Zen-style carved ceiling that my father liked so much was cracked!"
Feng Yi said: "You don't have pets or children at home, so you can use rat poison."
Wu Ji waved his hand. "You underestimate them. Now there are some variants that are resistant to commonly used rat poisons. Strong rat poisons are strictly controlled and most of them are banned from sale. I am now counting on the launch of rat-killing robots."
"Didn't you go to Qian Feiyang to borrow a cat?" Feng Yi asked.
Qian Feiyang was their college classmate, and they rented a house in the same community. He didn’t live here at first, but because he loved photography, he took some photo editing jobs before graduation. After graduation, he did it as a job to make a living. Half a year ago, he opened a small photography studio and rented a large apartment in their community. Three months ago, the community captured and centralized the disposal of stray cats, and Qian Feiyang, like many people in the nearby community, adopted one.
Wu Ji: "He won't lend it to me! He said his cat doesn't catch mice now!"
Wu Ji gets angry when he talks about this. "How can a stray cat not be able to catch mice? Someone in the owner group gave him an idea, 'If you starve it for two meals, it will catch mice on its own.' Qian Feiyang replied, 'I thought so too.' Two days later, Qian Feiyang said, 'No, as soon as it barks, I forget what I was thinking before.' I can't understand!"
Wu Ji sighed, "So, I'm still looking forward to the rat extermination robot."
Feng Yi took out a tea can and handed it over, "Others gave me two cans, you and Qian Feiyang can split this one."
"What kind of tea is this?" Wu Ji became interested.
His shop at the entrance of the community is called "Auspicious Tea Garden". Young people like to have afternoon tea or find a quiet place to work. Old people can also go there to drink tea, play chess, chat and talk. There are private teahouses so they don't interfere with each other.
As soon as Feng Yi took out the teacan, Wu Ji no longer cared about the mouse's troubles.
"Some kind of... unknown farm tea?" Feng Yi didn't know what kind of tea it was, and Uncle Ya didn't say what kind of tea it was.
Feng Yi took a small amount of tea leaves to try while eating breakfast in the morning. It had a strange sweet taste and was particularly refreshing. Other than that, he didn't feel anything. He was not a tea lover.
Wu Ji took it with both hands and looked at it, much more seriously than when he took the bottle of purified water.
The tea can is divided into several layers, and only the top layer contains tea leaves. No one knows what is in the lower layers. Some are powders, and some are granules. Wu Ji guessed that it was probably to "relieve heat" for the newly made tea.
"Is it some secret traditional method of making tea?" Wu Ji asked.
"I don't know about that. The whole process takes about two hours." Feng Yi said.
"Finished in two hours?" Wu Ji thought: It sounds a bit rough.
However, Wu Ji likes all kinds of novel tea-making methods. I just smelled it and felt that the tea here is not low-quality.
"The people who make tea say you should leave it for two days before brewing it." Feng Yi said.
"I know. I understand. I will give Qian Feiyang his share when the time comes." Wu Ji put it away carefully.
"By the way, Qian Feiyang and I have an appointment to go fishing this weekend. Do you want to go? Uncle Liu and a few others from our community fishing group mentioned it when they came to my shop for tea yesterday. You know, there is an ecological protection area not far from Yongcheng. There are farmhouses outside the protection area. Uncle Liu said it's very nice to spend the weekend there. I plan to take my parents there for two days. They've been too upset recently. Qian Feiyang said he wanted to take some photos and also made an appointment. Do you want to go? I'm not interested in my parents picking vegetables, so the three of us can go fishing!"
Feng Yi recalled the experience of being dragged out fishing before: "Fishing? The kind of fishing where you cast the rod a hundred times but still can't pull up a single fish?"
"Hey, it definitely won't be this time! Uncle Liu said fishing over there is really fun!" Wu Ji opened a video to show Feng Yi.
The fishing group in the community in the video did have a good harvest and the atmosphere was very lively.
Considering the situation on his side, Feng Yi said: "If you have nothing to do on the weekend, add me in. Do you want to bring your own fishing rod?"
"If you have one, bring it with you. If not, rent a rod when you get there. We're just going there for fun this time, unlike Uncle Liu and his friends who go there often, so we can just rent one. There's a full set of fishing gear for rent, and bait is also for sale."
"OK."
After Wu Ji left, Feng Yi checked several air-conditioning outlets at home and saw no signs of rats. Looking at the homeowners' group, the queue for appointments for rat extermination was already scheduled for next week.
Feng Yi searched online and found that all rat extermination companies were very busy and all required appointments, and he didn't know when the appointment would be.
Give up on hiring a rat extermination company to come to your home for the time being.
After a while, Feng Yi searched on his phone: "Natural enemy of rats"
Search shows:
Cats, snakes, eagles, weasels, humans, etc.
Feng Yi searched again: "Natural enemies of snakes"
Search shows:
Eagles, honey badgers, mongooses, humans, etc.
Feng Yi touched his chin and said, "Humans are indeed at the top of the food chain!"
Suddenly I felt at ease.
I am a human, not a snake. I am at the top of the food chain! What am I afraid of
Putting those aside, Feng Yi planned to drive to the supermarket to stock up on some goods. Since the old housekeeper said that he would have some small changes in the next period of time, it would be better for him to go out less in the next two days. If the changes are too big, he will not join Wu Ji and his friends in the weekend farmhouse.
Wearing a mask, the elevator goes directly to the underground parking lot.
I wasn't at home these two days and didn't use the car.
When Feng Yi was unlocking the car door and preparing to get in, he suddenly stopped.
I closed the car door, opened the trunk, and took out a reinforced long-handled clip-type object retriever. I bought this thing two years ago, but I have only used it less than five times and it has always been in the trunk.
After thinking for a while, he took out another pair from the box of gloves and put them on.
He walked to the right front wheel of the car, took two steps back, and suddenly stomped his feet, while quickly reaching out with his hand holding the long-handled tongs!
"squeak!"