Chapter 6: The Rent-Dodging Deadbeat

Lin Feng drove his car into a residential community called Spring Garden.

After parking in the underground garage, he took the elevator to the 12th floor of Building 9.

Arriving at the door of Room 4, Lin Feng knocked on the door.

A woman about sixty years old opened the door.

"Who is it?"

A man's voice came from inside the house.

Lin Feng shouted, "Rent collector!"

"Bang!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the door was shut.

Lin Feng frowned, looking at some dust that had fallen from the door frame, thinking this old lady still had quite a bit of strength.

He knocked again.

This time the door was opened by a middle-aged man in his forties wearing a black T-shirt.

Lin Feng sized up the middle-aged man and said, "I'm Lin Feng. My father is Lin Xiangdong. You've owed half a year's rent. When are you moving out?"

As soon as he finished, the middle-aged man shouted, "What a load of bullshit rent! This house belongs to us."

Lin Feng frowned and said, "You say this apartment is yours—where's the property deed?"

"I don't know you. What right do you have to see the deed? Just leave and don't bother us again."

Lin Feng laughed and said, "If you keep acting like this, I'll call the police. Then I can sue you for illegally occupying private property."

The middle-aged man chuckled and said, "Listen! My mother has a heart condition. If you call the police, when they come she'll have an attack, and you'll all regret it."

After saying that, he slammed the door shut with a bang.

Lin Feng shook his head, thinking it really wasn't possible to reason with such people.

He took out his phone, preparing to call the property management.

If that doesn't work, he'll call the police.

He had just dialed the number when the door suddenly opened again.

The middle-aged man looked at Lin Feng and smiled, saying, "If you want us to move out, fine! The resale price in this community is over ten thousand per square meter. This 150-square-meter apartment is worth at least two million. Come up with one million and we'll move right away."

Lin Feng merely glanced at the middle-aged man and then left directly.

Reaching the window beside the elevator, he called the property management and explained the situation.

Soon, several property management staff came upstairs.

Next, Lin Feng got to see what a deadbeat is.

No matter what the property staff said, the Yang family refused to move.

Losing his temper, the old lady lay down on the floor, saying the property people were going to anger her to death.

The property management dared not cause a fatality, so they had to leave.

Seeing this, Lin Feng felt calling the police would also be useless.

What should we do?

Cut off the gas and electricity?

Probably wouldn't help much.

If the gas is cut, they can't cook, but they can go out to eat.

If the electricity is cut, they can light candles.

When it gets cold and there's no heating, they can just buy a few extra blankets and pile them up.

Lin Feng, putting himself in the deadbeat's shoes, had already thought of countermeasures for them.

You know, this apartment is so large that the monthly rent is several thousand.

The old lady, the eldest son and his wife, the second son and his wife plus several kids—with so many people, wanting to live in Yanjing, even if they moved to the suburbs, they'd still need to spend several thousand a month.

Those old buildings in the suburbs can't compare to the living conditions here.

Moreover, being far away, any jobs they found nearby would surely fall through.

The trouble is, there's an old lady living in the house.

When something happens, she just lies down on the floor, and ordinary people really can't do anything about her.

Lin Feng went downstairs and came to the property management office.

The property manager wore a helpless expression and said, "Mr. Lin, I'm really sorry, but for now we don't have a good solution."

Actually, we've already visited and communicated many times before, and it's always been like this today.

Lin Feng thought for a moment, then smiled and said, "First cut off their gas, electricity, and water, and wear them down for a while."

The property manager gave a wry smile and said, "I doubt it would help! Mr. Lin, you might not know how tenacious these deadbeats are—if we really did that, they'd surely stir up the whole complex into chaos."

"Pop!"

Lin Feng tossed a cigarette to the property manager, lit his lighter, and laughed, saying, "Then it'll be interesting—anyway, I've got nothing else to do, so I'll just mess around with them."

At the same moment, inside Room 1204, Eldest Brother Yang Long and Old Two Yang Fei were sitting on the living room sofa discussing things.

Their wives were sitting nearby, cracking melon seeds while supervising the four children doing homework.

"Brother, what should we do? They've come again to collect rent."

Yang Fei looked worried.

Yang Long sneered, "What a hammer of rent! The monthly rent is over four thousand, but our family's combined income is less than ten thousand.

The four kids still need to go to school, Mom has to take medicine every day—if we pay rent, we'll be left drinking northwest wind."

"Exactly!"

After spitting out a melon seed husk, the elder brother's wife snorted coldly, "Four thousand a month is like robbery. If you want us to move out, you'd have to come up with several hundred thousand. We've lived in this house for years."

"What if they don't give water and electricity?" Old Two's wife frowned and said.

Yang Long snorted coldly, "Then we'll exert that spirit of not fearing hardship from before and keep dragging it out with them

You've pissed me off, making noise upstairs every day, disturbing the whole estate; the property will definitely give in to appease the other residents."

"Is this plan good?"

That evening, the property cut off the water and electricity for unit 1204.

The family had already prepared, buying a bunch of candles in the afternoon.

No water, we can fetch it in a plastic bucket from outside, and we can eat our meals outside.

Besides, after work, only dinner is cooked at home.

Let's see who can last longer!

Before we knew it, it was midnight.

The Yang family all fell asleep.

Suddenly—

"Thump thump thump…"

Rhythmic rock music came from upstairs.

The sound was loud, as if a speaker were plastered to the floorboard and playing.

Next, the floor also started making a "bang bang bang" sound.

Clearly someone was knocking on the floorboard below.

The whole family, young and old, were all startled awake.

Yang Long and Yang Fei jumped up angrily.

They arrived at the elevator doors, only to find the elevator had no power.

So they took a flashlight and climbed the stairs to the 13th floor.

The noise coming from inside unit 1304 made the door tremble.

They knocked for a long time, but no one opened the door.

Going down to the 11th floor, the door was similarly closed.

Pressing an ear to the door, I could hear people talking inside, but the louder sound was a "bang bang bang" knocking.

Since they wouldn't open the door, Yang Long and Yang Fei couldn't do anything.

Left with no choice, they went to find the night‑shift security guard.

The security guard wore a helpless expression and said, "Sorry, you're not residents of this estate, so we can't handle this."

Yang Long said angrily, "If you can do it on the first, then I'll make sure the estate has no peace at that time, and the residents will complain to you—don't blame us for being unsympathetic."

The security guard laughed and said, "You can make a fuss, but I'll warn you: it's best to do it in Building 9; if you run into another building and get mistaken for a thief and beaten to death, don't blame us."

"My mother has a heart condition…"

Yang Fei was furious and brought out the elderly lady from home.

"Mr. Lin said this morning, if your mother dies in the house, at worst we'll just not want that apartment

You two older brothers, listen to my advice—you can't compete with the wealthy.

You might not know, but the 12 apartments on floors 11, 13, and 12 all belong to Mr. Lin.

They could actually call the police and enforce it—aren't you just relying on an old lady to play the victim?

If relying on an old lady to play the victim lets you do whatever you want, our country would have been in chaos long ago.

Mr. Lin, too, is considering that you have elders above and children below; he doesn't want to push things to the extreme, otherwise he'd send you to eat prison food."

In the dim light, the property security guard finished speaking, gave them a contemptuous look, and walked away leisurely.

"Brother, what should we do?"

Yang Fei asked, feeling at a loss.

Yang Long fell silent for a moment, then sneered, "Getting used to loud noises is fine—we can even sleep on a construction site?"

The two returned home.

After more than an hour, the noise finally stopped.

But soon, mournful music began to play from the apartments above, below, and to the sides.

After the mournful music played for more than an hour, it was……

"Woo woo! Woo woo……

"Ga ga ga ga……

Pure noise, the family wasn't afraid of it.

But this scary music was truly terrifying.

The four kids were so scared they cried; the family could only sit on the living‑room sofa.

The candlelight was faint, adding to the eerie atmosphere.

After pulling an all‑night vigil, at daybreak the whole family had panda eyes, their eyeballs streaked with blood vessels.