Chapter 42: Trouble

“The rent is set this low? This is too much! It’s the same price as our larger houses; how can we do business like this?”

“Exactly! 100, 110? Why doesn’t she just say it’s free?”

“This won’t do; we need to go talk to the village chief. Why is the price so low?”

Chen Jin naturally noticed those people whispering and pointing at her. She stood with her arms crossed, watching their discussions. Only a few families looked displeased, and they were the ones renting out “good houses for a hundred yuan.”

Chen Jin believed her pricing was completely reasonable. Firstly, their houses were only clean and tidy, but in reality, each room wasn’t very large, not comparable to the spacious “good houses” in the village. Only her building was slightly larger, which justified a slightly higher price.

Moreover, the rent around the Splendid Community, where the South District and the West District intersect, was around 120 yuan. Qiaoxi Village is close to the suburban factories, and since there are many workers in this area, it’s why the average rent can be set at 80 yuan per month. If their rent is too high, they won’t attract tenants.

As for future rents once the industrial and tech parks are developed, that will undoubtedly be a different pricing structure, but it will take time to get there. It’s not like as soon as the buildings are completed, a large number of factories and companies will immediately move in; it all takes time.

So, those people can complain to whoever they want; my family’s houses are also priced at this rent!

What the villagers think is their business, but some prospective tenants have started coming over to ask if they can view the houses. At that moment, someone couldn’t hold back any longer. A fierce-looking aunt stepped forward to confront Chen Jin. “The village kindly allocated land to you, and you come here to poach our tenants, right? You… why are you glaring at me? Let me tell you, this won’t work. If you keep poaching tenants from other houses…”

“Which eye of yours saw me poaching tenants?” Chen Jin placed her hands on her hips. “There’s nothing wrong with my pricing; can’t you read black and white? What’s wrong with setting this price for a room of over ten square meters? I think your brain has been poached by someone; you jump at the price without looking at anything. Are you going to oversee the heavens, the earth, and my pricing? What’s up? Does your family run a market supervision bureau in the village?”

At this moment, some people began to realize, “Oh right, their houses are indeed a bit smaller.”

“Really? I just went to see them a few days ago, and they seemed about the same size as my houses.”

“Their houses are square, and they look shiny inside, making them appear larger. But the area is still limited, and no matter how spacious they look, they can’t be too much bigger. This price seems reasonable.”

“Are you stupid? Bigger or smaller is pretty much the same. Look at those tenants; do they seem to care if the house is a bit larger or smaller? They all came over asking for prices and wanting to see the houses. Oh no, if my tenants leave, I’ll have to start renting again. If they cancel their lease suddenly, I won’t be returning their deposit.”

“What I’m afraid of is that they’ll only stay for a month or two before moving out. After all, they never set a minimum rental period here. Many of the workers coming from other places are very mobile; they treat this place as just a temporary stop. Once they find a more suitable house or save up a bit of money, they won’t choose to stay in the village any longer.

Especially in the past, the sanitary conditions in the village were poor, and people were put off by that.

Liu Mantang didn’t want to come over to join the commotion, especially since he had transferred a piece of land in the newly built apartments. He was afraid he’d feel upset after seeing it. However, people from the village kept coming to him, insisting he go over and “uphold justice.”

Just thinking about it gave him a headache. What was there to mediate? They hadn’t done anything wrong! Especially since he just arrived and heard Chen Jin’s words; he had no face to step forward. What she said was reasonable, and the rent was indeed fair.

He was still hoping to build a good relationship with Chen Wenqiang and frequently interact with him. Why would he make himself unpopular at a time like this?

“You all should mind your own business. Focus on your own issues; renovate if you need to, rebuild if necessary. In the future, your houses can be rented out for higher prices than theirs. Now, disperse! Go back to what you were doing and stop loitering around here.”

Some people still refused to leave, lingering to watch.

Chen Yongfei walked around the courtyard but didn’t see anyone. When he stepped outside, there was Chen Jin standing at the door like a guardian, chin raised, looking like a rooster ready to fight.

He gave her a light pat on the head. “Be careful; you’re in someone else’s village. Hey, I see they’re being quite polite to you. By the way, why are they calling you ‘Trouble maker Jin’?”

He had thought it was because Chen Jin was rowdy at her grandfather’s house, but after chatting with Meng Chong for a bit, he realized there might be other reasons.

Chen Jin scratched her head. Back when she was famous in Qiaoxi Village, her third cousin was in high school. At that time, the transportation was even less convenient than it is now, and their family wasn’t in great condition. To save money, he would only return once a month, sometimes even every two months. When he came back, he would help out with chores, leaving him no time to pay attention to her.

“What’s there for me to feel embarrassed about?”

Chen Jin replied, “It’s just that after recovering from an illness, my health was poor. A fortune teller said I should stay here for a few days for my health. But then I was bullied, right? I may have been weak, but I’m not dumb. I bought firecrackers and blew up their pig pens and cesspools, um…”

Now that she thought about it, she couldn’t believe that was something she did.

She had been sick in the sixth grade, had surgery, and spent a lot of time in the hospital. Later, when she went to middle school, the conditions were poor, and she didn’t eat well, making her health even worse. Going to the doctor didn’t help much, and then she consulted a fortune teller who suggested she stay at her biological father’s house for a few days. Of course, it was impossible to go to Liu Shisheng’s home in the city; Liu Shisheng didn’t agree either, so she settled for Qiaoxi Village.

The adults in the village were nasty, and the children followed suit. When they saw her, they laughed at her and told her to get out of Qiaoxi Village.

Chen Jin refused to leave. She took the pocket money given to her by her family and happily bought several strings of firecrackers. At least five pig pens were blown up by her. Back then, the village still used public toilets, the kind that were just outhouses. When she caught people cursing at her, she threw firecrackers into the cesspools while they were using the toilets…

At that time, the whole village of Qiaoxi was in chaos with pigs running everywhere and several children covered in filth crying as they ran back home… That lively scene is something anyone from Qiaoxi Village who is of age would never forget.

After she finished blowing up the place, she ran home. When she heard her being bullied, she caught up with her uncle and the others who were working, and more than a dozen people took sticks to Qiaoxi Village. They stood at both ends of the village entrance, cursing at each other, and her uncle could curse for half the time by himself.

At that time, the country was cracking down hard on violence, so no one dared to actually fight; they just shouted at each other. The police from the local station came and stood by, watching them argue.

After that, Chen Jin swore never to go to Qiaoxi Village again. It was truly strange; she was bouncing around later, completely healthy.

Later, a few times when she went to her grandfather’s house, it was either beating this person or scolding that one, making her three aunts furious at home, as they gestured at the trees and fought. She looked quite pleased with herself, which was quite irritating. Someone scolded her mom for not teaching her kids properly, and Chen Jin specifically targeted that person’s child to beat up… So, in Qiaoxi Village, she was left with the nickname “Troublemaker Jin.”

Chen Yongfei was shocked. “Why has no one ever told me about this before?”

He genuinely had no idea!

Chen Jin sighed. “It’s not exactly something to be proud of.” Who would go around talking about it? Especially since the elders at home were afraid of others gossiping about her, and when they went back, they wouldn’t let anyone speak carelessly.

At that time, her uncle was taking people from the village to work, so everyone was looking out for him. Plus, since she wasn’t well back then, the village didn’t dare to speak about her, fearing her mom would come with a knife looking for them.

“Tsk tsk.” Chen Yongfei was both shocked and somewhat proud. “No wonder my dad and uncle always say you have a good head; I never thought about blowing up a pig pen.”

Chen Jin replied, “I never thought about blowing up a dung pit either; I learned it from you.”

“…” Chen Yongfei found it hard to respond: it was just learning the bad things from me.

“They don’t have to worry about what I would do now. All the toilets in every household are well repaired; they aren’t easy to blow up.” As Chen Jin said this, she glanced at the fierce aunt who had just been scaring people and sighed with a tinge of regret.

Some past events are hard to look back on.

“Third sister, come in for a moment.”

“Okay, coming.”

Chen Jin remembered that she needed to “appear” in the graduation photo in June, and Lin Xinran had called her to change her hairstyle. So, she brought her to Sister Jiang’s barbershop.

Upon seeing Chen Jin, Lin Xinran joked, “Not happy enough spending money today?”

Chen Jin laughed, “Not at all; I haven’t spent much today.”

“I noticed your face didn’t look too good just now.”

“Oh, I almost got scammed at the intersection earlier. I parked to take a call, and a guy ran straight towards my car trying to bump into it. Luckily, I reacted quickly; he wanted me to pay him compensation, but as soon as I started my car, I just left. I couldn’t be bothered with him; if he has the guts, he can come after me.”

Lin Xinran breathed a sigh of relief, still shaken. “You should be thankful that guy didn’t lie on your car and refuse to move, or else you wouldn’t be able to shake him off. My dad got tricked before and lost several thousand. Now, whenever my dad encounters something like that, he just calls the police and an ambulance. If it’s an actual collision, then just pay what needs to be paid. Some people purposely crash just to extort money; they settle for medical expenses.”

“Some are indeed hard to define as to whether it’s intentional or not. But today’s case, I saw it clearly. My car was parked, and he ran over himself, saying ‘ouch’ and ‘ah.’”

When faced with such situations, she didn’t bother to argue about right or wrong; just driving away was the most practical approach. If he could outrun a car with four wheels, then let him chase after her.

“You don’t know; when I drove away, he was stunned, probably didn’t expect me to leave so fast. That must have made him so mad!”

Lin Xinran laughed; she was indeed the Chen Jin she knew.

“Let’s cut your hair a bit shorter; it’s getting long.”

The barber behind her asked if she wanted to dye her hair, saying, “Brown would suit you well.”

“Oh no, no, no, no dyeing.” Chen Jin was a bit tempted to try it, but with graduation photos coming up, it was better to wait. Plus, she was starting work in July and needed to leave a good impression on her colleagues and superiors; many people still couldn’t accept dyed hair.

The two sat next to each other, chatting to pass the time. Lin Xinran wanted to perm her hair, which took longer.

“I asked my dad to buy me a camera; I’ll take it along to take pictures of you.”

“I have one too; we can take pictures for each other!”

They also discussed what to wear on the day; it had to look good.

“Oh, I almost forgot to tell you some big gossip.” Lin Xinran got a bit excited and accidentally pulled her hair, causing the barber to tell her to sit still.

Chen Jin saw her touching her scalp and grimacing and got anxious. “What big gossip?”

Lin Xinran had never used the term “big gossip” before; it must be truly significant.

“Yang Qian and Zhuo Ran, our class’s golden couple, have actually broken up! You definitely didn’t see this coming, right?!”

“Just this?”

“Yeah! Isn’t this gossip big enough? Everyone thought they would get married after graduation. Although Zhuo Ran is going abroad, their families are connected, right? Zhuo Ran will come back in the future.”

Chen Jin: With such big gossip, I already knew from the parties involved and even knew more. Speaking of which, she was really curious whether Yang Qian would end up choosing Zhuo Ran’s cousin or Zhuo Ran’s uncle. She really wanted to contact Yang Qian, but felt a bit shy since she had declined Yang Qian’s “shopping invitations” several times.

Chen Jin echoed, “It is indeed big gossip.”

“He broke up, and Qin Xuemei is the happiest.”

“Can’t understand her.”

The day after getting her new hairstyle, Chen Jin woke up early to wash up and change clothes. She just put on a very light layer of lipstick, and she looked much better.

After checking the materials she needed to bring, she picked up her car keys and went out.

Professor Song saw her heading out while watering the flowers in the front yard and said to her, “Xiao Jin, are you going out?”

“Yeah, today is the graduation thesis defense for our Chinese department.”