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Chapter 61: Unlike Me, I Only Feel Sorry for Uncle Wei

Lu Li kept a calm face and spoke with righteous conviction:

“Before we moved in, that place had no working utilities, the bed boards were rotten, the windows would not close properly, most of the furniture was useless, the floor tiles were badly damaged, and the bathroom was even worse because it did not even have a toilet or a shower head.”

“Uncle Wei, you at least admit that much, right?”

Wei Kun ground his teeth; what could he say? Everything Lu Li said was true.

The neighborhood was great, with a high school and a junior high nearby, so the only reason the apartment had remained vacant was because the unit itself was in such terrible shape.

Lu Li went on:

“Afterward, I paid to have the wiring and plumbing redone, I built the bed frame myself, I replaced the windows with new ones, I did not buy much furniture, but I did patch the floor tiles one by one, and I bought the toilet and the shower head as well. The money I earned from part-time jobs these past years, plus the government subsidy, went almost entirely into that home, apart from the tuition for my sister and me.”

“We were so poor back then that I planned every single yuan before spending it, so even now I remember exactly how much I spent.” As Lu Li spoke, he wrote a figure on the paper with each sentence, “The fresh-water pipes cost 42 yuan per meter, but I will write down 40; the drainage pipes cost 56 per meter, I will mark 50; breaking up the bathroom subfloor cost 63 per square meter, I will count 60; the flat is 80 square meters, and the water lines alone run for more than 60 meters…”

“Heavy-current rewiring was 32.2 yuan per meter, drilling a hole in the wall was 20 each, and every electrical box was 10…”

“The bed frame I built cost 150; the windows were 250 each, four windows totaled exactly 1,000; each floor tile was 17.2 and I replaced 32 of them… I will not even count the toilet and the shower head; I will leave those for you, so you will not have to suffer when karma gives you diarrhea.”

After tallying everything, a long column of numbers filled the page, and Lu Li exhaled deeply: “All the bits and pieces add up to 11,451.4 yuan. Taking into account three years of wear and tear and the favor you did by letting us postpone the rent for three months, I rounded everything off and counted it as an even 10,000. Uncle Wei, we will certainly leave all these things behind, and you are too stingy to replace them for the next tenant. So I am asking you for the remaining 5,000 yuan after offsetting the rent arrears; that should not be too hard, right?”

As Lu Yao listened to Lu Li calculate item after item, her almond-shaped eyes widened, sparkling brightly.

What others might see as petty squabbling looked downright heroic to someone like her who had known real poverty.

Without Lu Li’s meticulous budgeting, how could she have lived without worry? Anyone who wrestles with life is a true hero!

Wei Kun’s face turned completely dark, for he knew exactly how much Lu Li had poured into that place.

If Lu Li had not refurbished the unit, no tenant would ever have moved in.

“T-This is all just talk; those numbers could be made up for all I know, so how can I tell whether they are real?” Wei Kun stiffened his neck.

Lu Li laughed when he heard that. “What a coincidence, really! I am the kind of person who asks for a receipt for every yuan and keeps them in order. If you want to see them, let’s go back home and I will show you right now! If you think the receipts are fake, why not ask around and see whether the prices I quoted are actually low; I am sure the market price is only higher.”

Wei Kun made a living in rentals and knew the trade well; if they recalculated at market rates, the total might hit 15,000, so Lu Li had already given him a huge discount.

But the idea of handing 5,000 yuan back to Lu Li felt worse than dying.

Wei Kun took a deep breath, exhaled the foul air, and his face bloomed into a chrysanthemum-like smile: “Ah, Little Lu, I know you put a lot into that unit, otherwise I would never have let you slide on the rent for three whole months, right? But I cannot let you live there for free forever, can I? Every day you skip the rent I lose a day’s income; if you skip a year, I lose a year’s income. Do you really expect me to let you stay there until the end of time?”

Lu Li suddenly changed tack. “If I can pay the rent, will you let us keep living there?”

“Ha-ha, of course! If you can pay the rent, why would I chase you out?” Wei Kun chuckled. “But you can’t, can you?”

“Who says I can’t?”

“Huh? You can pay?” Wei Kun froze.

Lu Li pulled out his phone. “Uncle Wei, let’s exchange contact info.”

Wei Kun glanced at Lu Li’s Huawei phone and his expression stiffened.

If he was not mistaken, that was Huawei’s latest model.

It cost 7 or 8 thousand yuan! He himself had not had the heart to buy one!

How could this kid afford it? Did he secretly sell a kidney?

Dazed, Wei Kun took out his phone, opened the QR code, and Lu Li quickly added him as a friend and transferred 5,000 yuan.

“Uncle Wei, my arrears are cleared. The month is not over yet; the 5,000 for next quarter I will give you next time. Hand me the key.”

Wei Kun looked at the money that had come in and fell into deep thought.

If the boy could afford that phone, then if he could not pay later, Wei Kun could always take the phone as collateral…

After staring blankly for a moment, Wei Kun reached into his pocket, took out the key, and placed it in Lu Li’s hand.

Lu Li let out a light chuckle. “Uncle Wei, now that you’ve given me the key, what about that new tenant you promised?”

Wei Kun waved it off. “We haven’t signed the contract anyway; I’ll find her another place.”

Lu Li laughed softly. “Oh, Uncle Wei, won’t she be angry that you tricked her like that? I’m not like that; we understand each other, and all I feel is sympathy for you.”

Wei Kun gave a dry laugh; by now he understood full well that he had fallen into Lu Li’s trap.

First the boy had used milk to get through his door, then fed him to make him feel obligated, next retreated to advance and coaxed him into talking, then argued the benefits with solid logic, and finally nailed everything down with a 5,000-yuan transfer.

Loop after loop tightened around him, and before he even realized what was happening, the noose had already cinched tight around his neck.

Even now that he knew Lu Li’s playbook, he had no way to fight back.

A moment ago Wei Kun had done some quick math and reached a conclusion: instead of refunding Lu Li 5,000 yuan, it was better to let him stay indefinitely.

Although the new tenant would pay 500 yuan more each quarter, she would have to rent for 10 straight quarters to make up the difference.

What tenant would stay in a shabby place like that for 30 months straight?

It was more stable to keep renting to Lu Li!

Once he figured that out, Wei Kun had no reason not to hand the key back to Lu Li.

Wei Kun gave Lu Li a long, deep look, suddenly realizing that the boy had grown up without anyone noticing and was no longer the gullible kid he could fool at will.

If his ex-wife had not taken their child away, his own kid would be about this age too…

Wei Kun let out a long sigh, suddenly feeling tired; he looked at Lu Li sideways. “Why are you still here? You’ve got the key, so go on home.”

Lu Li rubbed his hands together, raised one finger, and showed a sly grin. “Actually, Uncle Wei, Little Lu here still has one more favor to ask.”

Seeing Lu Li’s expression, Wei Kun suddenly felt a chill run down his back.

This kid is not trying to set me up again, is he…

“What else do you want? I won’t agree to anything that makes me lose out!” Wei Kun grew wary.

Lu Li waved his hands again and again. “You won’t lose; you won’t lose. It’s a very small favor for you, Uncle Wei…”

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