We are also the doctors of the house

After a week of reviewing materials and wandering around the office, Ming Shuzhen finally received her first task.

Assigned by Sister Meilin, it was a residential housing inspection for a client in his late twenties.

Meilin figured the small space was low-stakes, perfect for a newbie to practice.

Ming Shuzhen valued the opportunity. She studied the client’s floor plan and sketched out an analysis of the wall structures.

The house was a two-bedroom, two-living-room layout, thirty years old, with no obvious signs of aging.

The client, however, reported “creaking” sounds in the walls and wanted to check for electrical issues due to aging wiring.

Meilin had already handled the contract, so Ming Shuzhen just needed to bring the toolkit and visit the site.

“The tool room’s next to the print room,” Meilin said, busy and not looking up.

The tool room had racks reaching the ceiling.

Ming Shuzhen followed the labels to find electrical testing tools.

Voltage multimeter, socket tester… she grabbed everything circuit-related.

Qian Duoduo, coming from the break room with jerky in her mouth, spotted her.

“Here’s a toolkit,” Qian Duoduo said, grabbing a nylon bag from a rack by the door.

Ming Shuzhen, arms full of instruments, turned but couldn’t grab the bag. Qian Duoduo unzipped it for her.

“Don’t just take those,” Qian Duoduo said, adding a hollow wall detector hammer to the bag.

“Wall issues can be complex. If these don’t work, you’ll need multiple trips,” she warned.

“No worries. I can’t carry too much anyway. This’ll do,” Ming Shuzhen said, staying laid-back.

Though it was her first project, her easygoing nature kept her from obsessing over perfection.

“Alright, stay safe. Wishing you a great start,” Qian Duoduo said sincerely, knowing too many tools would be cumbersome.

Ming Shuzhen nodded with a grin, hefting the bag—it was hefty.

Following navigation, she rode her scooter to a row of bungalows.

It was an urban village, slightly chaotic but brimming with life.

Her scooter turned into an alley, stopping on a patch of cement.

The cement was stark white, freshly laid, contrasting with the neighbors’ older, weathered ground.

The client, Li Feiyuan, stood at his doorstep, clearly waiting for the inspector.

“Hello, Mr. Li. I’m Full Pockets from Red Brick,” Ming Shuzhen said, shaking his hand.

“Oh, hi,” Li Feiyuan replied, his face neutral but not unfriendly.

“Can I park here?” she asked proactively.

“Yeah,” Li Feiyuan said, standing by his door without offering help.

Ming Shuzhen parked, grabbed the toolkit, and followed him inside.

Self-built homes were often spacious, but Li Feiyuan’s felt poorly planned, wasting its size.

“I moved into this bedroom this year. The noise wasn’t obvious at first, but it’s gotten worse. I’m starting to wonder if the wall’s gonna collapse,” Li Feiyuan said, his face sour, clearly bothered.

Ming Shuzhen followed his gesture to the wall—no visible cracks or mold.

She set the toolkit down and pulled out the multimeter.

“Sister Meilin already coordinated with you, right? Your main concern is the wiring, so I’ll focus on electrical testing today.”

She prepped the multimeter.

Li Feiyuan, seeing her start, asked, “Need to cut the main power?”

“No,” Ming Shuzhen shook her head, her tone gentle. “Voltage testing doesn’t require it.”

A multimeter measures voltage with the circuit live, but resistance testing requires power off.

Though not an electrician, Ming Shuzhen had learned these basics in school.

She put on insulated gloves, plugged the probes into the multimeter, and set it to DC voltage.

“I’ll test this socket first, then the main breaker,” she explained to Li Feiyuan.

He didn’t respond, just gave her a look that seemed to say, “You’re chatty. Hurry up.”

Ming Shuzhen said no more. She’d selected the range, inserted the probes into the socket, and checked the display.

The voltage fluctuated within normal limits—stable.

“Voltage is fine,” she said, standing. “Where’s the main breaker?”

“Back door,” Li Feiyuan said, leading her.

The back door was cluttered with cardboard, a scooter, and wooden boards—hardly room to step.

The breaker was set high on the wall.

“Could you grab a chair for me to stand on? It’s a bit high,” Ming Shuzhen said, struggling.

Li Feiyuan glanced at her, said nothing, and fetched a dining chair from the living room.

“Maybe put something on it so I don’t dirty it,” she suggested.

“No need,” Li Feiyuan said, his tone now tinged with impatience.

Ming Shuzhen took off her shoes and stepped up.

The breaker’s voltage was stable too.

She wiped the chair with tissue from her bag and returned it.

“Wall noises can have many causes—aging wiring, hollow spots, foreign objects, even rats chewing,” she explained.

Li Feiyuan cut her off. “So what’s the reason? I can’t sleep with this noise. Do I need to tear the wall down?”

“Uh, we need to confirm more. Don’t worry yet,” Ming Shuzhen said, remembering the hollow wall hammer.

Thanking Qian Duoduo in her head, she pulled the hammer out.

“I know that thing,” Li Feiyuan said, stopping her. “What if you damage my wall?”

“?” Ming Shuzhen blinked, confused. “It won’t harm the wall, and I won’t hit hard.”

“No way. This house is already faulty. What if you knock it down?”

It was his second mention of collapse. Ming Shuzhen was exasperated.

She handed him the hammer. “Want to try?”

Li Feiyuan didn’t hesitate, grabbing it and tapping the wall randomly.

The sounds varied, all muffled, revealing little.

“You gently scrape the wall with it, then tap where it sounds different,” she instructed.

“Oh,” Li Feiyuan said reluctantly, dragging the hammer across the wall.

“This okay?” he asked, squinting at her. “My parents built this house. No way they cut corners.”

“Mm,” Ming Shuzhen nodded. The sound suggested no hollow spots.

Lacking experience, she considered wall tilting but hadn’t brought a total station and would need another visit.

“Did you live in this bedroom before? Were there noises then?” she asked, seeking more context.

“My mom lived here before. It’s south-facing. I moved in after she passed, about six months ago.”

Ming Shuzhen nodded, understanding.

She’d seen an elderly woman’s portrait in the living room—likely Li Feiyuan’s mother, gone half a year.

“My condolences,” she said sincerely.

“Eh, it’s nothing,” Li Feiyuan brushed it off.

Ming Shuzhen didn’t know what to say. “Uh.”

They agreed she’d return in two days with more tools.

She packed her instruments back into their cases, zipped the toolkit, and rode off on her scooter.

“Your front yard cement looks new. So white,” she said, glancing at Li Feiyuan by the door.

“Yeah, my mom did it before she passed.”

“She did it herself? Impressive,” Ming Shuzhen said, admiringly.

“Yeah, my parents were plasterers,” Li Feiyuan said, then paused. “Wait, we repainted last year. Could that be related?”

“It’s possible,” Ming Shuzhen mused. “But wall issues are usually internal. Simple repainting wouldn’t cause major problems.”

“We patched the walls too,” he added. “The house was too damp, and the walls were bubbling. Also last year.”

“Oh,” Ming Shuzhen latched onto this. “Then it’s likely the patching materials caused issues, loosening the wall. With dampness, expansion and contraction could create noises.”

Li Feiyuan might not have followed or only caught “material issues” and bristled.

“What’s wrong with the materials?” he snapped. “My mom hauled that cement from the market and patched the walls herself! You saying our walls are faulty? That she cut corners?”

“No, that’s not what I meant…” Ming Shuzhen tried to clarify, but he cut her off.

“Look, little girl, I was gonna say earlier—you’re fiddling with gadgets, acting all professional, finding nothing, and now you’re blaming the materials. If my mom heard this from the grave, she’d be furious. Never seen such slander.”

“No…” Ming Shuzhen, not one to back down, steadied herself on her scooter, legs braced.

“Material issues don’t mean cutting corners or using bad cement. Too much water in the mix can loosen walls. Or if cement’s stored outside and gets sand or gravel from rain, that’s possible too. I’m not blaming your mother—just objectively looking for causes.”

“Buildings are like people—they need careful diagnosis. Doctors observe, listen, and ask questions. We’re like house doctors. We can’t prescribe without finding the cause.”

The wind wasn’t strong, but it stung her face with cold.

Looking at Li Feiyuan, his heavy brows and sullen expression gave off a dark vibe.

He was average-looking, short and thin, but his thick, joined eyebrows made him seem sturdier.

Her gut told her he might be tough to deal with. She shrank back, mentally drawing a boundary.

It was too cold to linger. Li Feiyuan didn’t stay long either and went inside.

Ming Shuzhen put the toolkit in her scooter’s basket, adjusted the handlebars, glanced at the white cement, and left.