Not Bad, Huh

Ning Yu had originally planned to head straight to the grocery section downstairs.

However, passing by the free trade zone, she suddenly had an idea.

She decided to go in and see if she might get lucky and find another task.

The trade zone was bustling with people in the afternoon, with all sorts of items being traded.

Some people sat on the ground calling out to passersby, others were arguing with vendors, seemingly trying to haggle over prices.

Some stalls had no customers, with their owners holding up signs and staring into space out of boredom.

Ning Yu scanned the area but couldn't find any trace of the young girl who had been buying depression medication last time.

She clearly remembered the girl saying she would be there every day, but it wasn't time for her medication yet, so perhaps she had other matters to attend to.

Ning Yu didn't dwell on it too much and started browsing around.

Just like last time, all sorts of peculiar items were being sold or sought after.

Dumbbells, electric fans, tables, rackets - you name it, they had it.

Unfortunately, none of them seemed to be urgently needed items, so no tasks were triggered.

Feeling disappointed, Ning Yu was about to leave and go grocery shopping as originally planned.

Suddenly, she was drawn to a sign at the edge of the crowd.

It belonged to a peculiarly dressed young man, about 25 or 26 years old - not quite old, but not exactly a youth either.

He had a lip piercing, two skull earrings, and rather dramatic hair that seemed to have been dyed at some point but had now considerably faded.

He wore a black T-shirt with strange graphics and ripped jeans.

His features were actually quite refined, but unfortunately, paired with his attire, he gave off a "keep away" vibe.

When children approached to look, their parents quickly pulled them away, warning them "not to go near strange people."

He sat on the ground with a sign that read:

"Selling household items."

However, his stall was empty, suggesting the items were too large to bring out.

This also meant that potential buyers would need to go to his home to see the items.

Ning Yu was incredulous: Brother, with such an intimidating appearance, you're expecting people to come to your house to look at your stuff?

Nevertheless, she decided to try her luck and approached him.

"Excuse me... what items are you selling?"

[Ding! Task triggered: Trade an item with the man.]

[Task reward: 1 random attribute point, 2000 points]

"Oh, just some things I've collected, and some musical instruments..."

The young man looked up and spoke.

His voice was surprisingly gentle, pleasantly soothing to hear, though it created a stark contrast with his appearance.

Hearing about musical instruments, Ning Yu wondered if he might be some underground musician.

"Could I take a look?"

Ning Yu feigned interest: Points, here I come!

"Um... little sister, do you have any family? Would you like to bring them along?"

The young man showed a hesitant expression, clearly aware of the problem with his setup: nobody would dare follow him home!

Yet here was this beautiful silver-haired girl, actually proposing to go see his items.

Though he wasn't a bad person, he worried about what would happen if her family found out and came to accuse him or take her away.

"It's fine, no need!"

Ning Yu smiled softly, appearing innocently gullible. Nearby passersby who witnessed this wanted to step in and warn her.

They feared she might be falling for some trick, following such a scary-looking person.

"Well... shall we go then?"

The young man stopped hesitating - if she wasn't afraid, why should he be?

So they left the free trade zone together.

Ning Yu followed behind him, carefully observing his thin frame that seemed somewhat malnourished.

"Why are you selling your household items?"

She asked casually.

"Well, I'm about to run out of food, so I'm planning to sell some things from home and find a proper job at the base."

Now she understood what he meant.

Soon, they arrived at his apartment building.

The young man took out his keys and opened the door but deliberately left it wide open, presumably to avoid suspicion and to prevent Ning Yu from feeling scared.

Of course, Ning Yu wasn't afraid of him - she wouldn't be afraid even if there were 1000 of him.

His apartment was surprisingly neat, with everything arranged in perfect order, completely different from what Ning Yu had expected.

As someone with mild OCD, Ning Yu found it quite pleasing to the eye.

The entire room had a subtle, pleasant fragrance - it was hard to imagine from his appearance that he was such a clean and orderly person.

"Please come in."

He gestured and walked in first, beginning to bring out items from the room.

Soon he brought out electric guitars, bass guitars, several MIDI keyboards, a mixing console, an electric piano, and other items.

He continued bringing out many related components, all music-related.

"Were you... in a band?"

Ning Yu asked curiously.

The man scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly:

"Yeah... but now with the apocalypse, these things don't mean much anymore. My friends have all gone to work at the base."

"These items have lost their value along with that."

"Rather than letting them collect dust here, might as well sell them to someone who needs them. Some are also consigned by friends."

He glanced at Ning Yu again, thinking that at her age, she was probably still learning basic musical notation in school.

He suddenly felt disappointed, not expecting Ning Yu would want to buy any of these things.

However, after squatting there for so long, he was grateful that someone finally came to inquire - he had almost given up.

"Little sister, how about this? Are you interested?"

He sat on a cajon, which looked like a stool but was actually an instrument that could produce drum sounds when struck while sitting on it.

He tapped out a simple rhythm and nodded along with it, seemingly already imagining the melody.

He thought that among all these items, this simple instrument might be the only thing that could interest Ning Yu.

However, Ning Yu had different ideas.

She stepped forward and turned on the electric piano, listening to the young man's rhythm.

She placed her left hand on the lower register of the piano and started playing a series of bass notes.

"Hm?"

The young man suddenly turned to look at Ning Yu with surprised eyes: this young girl seemed to be playing a walking bass, a simple 2-5-1 progression.

She wasn't rushing into improvisation, but rather seemed to be building up with the rhythm, still in the introductory phase.

"Little sister, have you studied music?"

"Oh wow, not bad!"

Listening to Ning Yu's left-hand playing, he seemed to get excited and moved to the drum set nearby, starting to play a lively rhythm.

Ning Yu glanced at him, her left hand changing the rhythm pattern as her right hand joined in with the melody.

In this corner apartment during the apocalypse, a spontaneous Bossa Nova improvisation suddenly came to life, performed by Ning Yu and this stranger.

The light, lazy, melodious feeling seemed to transport everything back to the time before the apocalypse.