CH 36.2

Sure enough, a short while later Bai Sheng appeared on the stairs, panting, and followed by a policeman. In regular everyday life, emigrant Mr. Bai would surely be sprinkling some elegant English into his Chinese, but at the moment everyone was becoming well aware that he was still quite fluent in his mother tongue. In a moment of inattention, Ning Wan nearly had her ears blistered off by the torrent of curses pouring from his mouth.

Wang Dongliang obviously hadn't expected Bai Sheng to be there. When he saw the man he withered immediately like a plant hit by frost and shrank back, shaking. Anyone could tell that he hadn't been telling the whole truth prior, that he had clearly been hiding something.

Fu Zheng pursed his lips. "So what's going on? Where did this child come from? Someone explain."

Since Bai Sheng was here, he no longer attempted to hide anything, but began making excuses for himself. "It's none of my business. This is all Wang Dongliang's fault!"

"I've mostly been living overseas after I emigrated, so this place has been vacant ever since. Right at the beginning, I went to Baoyu Real Estate Agency, wanting them to help me find a reliable tenant to rent the apartment out to. Since I wasn't going to be in China very often, I gave Wang Dongliang the key."

"Houses in Yuelan Community are actually quite easy to rent out, but I'll be upfront with you all - I'm not lacking for a few thousand yuan a month. I would rather not rent it out at all than rent it to a dirty tenant who won't take care of the place."

Saying so, Bai Sheng looked to Fu Zheng. "You're well-aware that although my house was second-hand, it's well-maintained and in very good condition. I put a lot of time and effort into the decor thinking that I would live here, and I wasn't particularly pressed to rent it out. But people kept telling me that I didn't need to be living here alone, so I ended up putting it up for rent. Around that time I wasn't in China very much, so I entrusted the agent with full authority over it."

"In that case," Ning Wan suddenly realized, "Was it the agent who rented out the house to Yao Kang and his son?"

Bai Sheng exploded. "Even that would be better than what actually happened! 'Rented out the house'? This little bastard let them move in without my consent! And the motherfucker even has the gall to say that Yao Kang was my tenant!"

Wang Dongliang stood there without a word as Bai Sheng became more and more worked up. "Since the police are here today, that works out well. Tell me, is this my problem? Ask this fellow Wang Dongliang how he carries out his work as a real estate agent!"

"I... I did find you a lot of tenants at the start! I worked hard for you. This apartment is in a good location, and there were quite a few people who wanted to rent it. I brought a lot of people by to tour the house, all satisfactory, but even after I gave you a dozen choices of tenants, sir, you refused to rent to any of them..."

When he saw that Wang Dongliang had actually opened his mouth to defend himself, Bai Sheng became even more furious. "You've got a lot of nerve! I told you right from the start that I would be demanding and picky about my tenants. I gave you a list of criteria I would accept and a list of disqualifications. And what clients did you bring me? One ws a couple with two boys! Do you think kids of four or five years old wouldn't mess up my home?"

"And then there was that old lady living alone in her seventies or eighties. Her seventies or eighties! Living alone! She had high blood pressure, too! Let me say something ugly here - if she passed away while living in my house, what would I do then? Whether I lived in it or sold it, no one would want it because it would be unlucky!"

As far as Ning Wan was concerned, Bai Sheng did seem overly picky. But since he wasn't short of money or in a hurry to rent out the house, it made sense for him to have high demands of his tenants. But since he hated tenants with young children, why did he finally rent it out to Yao Kang, who had Yao Fei with him?

Sure enough, almost at the same time as she was thinking this Fu Zheng asked, "Then how did you come to rent the house to Yao Kang?"

"I didn't!" Bai Sheng roared, his veins standing out. He pointed at Yao Fei. "Look at this dirty little kid, do you think I would rent to them? And on top of that, his dad is a single father, not a girlfriend or a wife in sight! He said he was divorced, his wife left him! Do you think that he would keep the house clean if I rented it to him? Impossible!"

"That's to say I had no idea about Yao Kang, I didn't rent the place out at all, and I didn't get any rent. After pushing me on the matter for a time, the agent stopped looking for me. I didn't care. I thought that maybe I was just too picky. Since I couldn't find a tenant, it was fine to just let the house sit empty. Guess what? I came back to China last month, opened the door, and found people living in my house!"

Fu Zheng hadn't yet responded, but Ning Wan had an epiphany. "Are you saying that the real estate agent rented out the house without telling you?"

That finally explained what Wang Dongliang had been hiding.

"What you mean is that Wang Dongliang secretly let Yao Kang and his son live in the house without your consent. He had your key anyway, so he just gave it to someone?"

"Yes! That's precisely why this is none of my business. The property belonged rightfully to me, and I never agreed to rent it to anyone else." It seemed like Bai Sheng had calmed down by this point, because he once again began to speak in a mix of Chinese and English. "This responsibility, it's really not mine, it's the agent's fault. As soon as I got back and found out about it, I gave them an ultimatum, asking them to move out! If there's any problem, like with this child, go talk to the agent!"

Wang Dongliang was in the wrong, so he hadn't dared to speak up earlier, but now that the whole thing had been dumped on him he seemed unwilling to let it go. "At first I really was going to find you a tenant, but you were so nitpicky that I gave up! I wasn't going to at first, but then I met Yao Kang and he persuaded me, saying that I had plenty of houses on hand whose owners were abroad and don't intend on renting their places out really, so why not let him sneak in? After all, I had the keys. The 'rent' would be cheaper, naturally; the place would normally be rented out for 4,000 a month, but I don't get much as a real estate agent. If I secretly let him move in, he would give me 1,500 yuan a month..."

"At that time, I desperately wanted to buy a house so I could get married, and I was a little short of money. In some stupid fever I listened to him, but I had him give me a guarantee that the house must be clean and there should not be too much damage caused... And if the original owner came on, he had to move out immediately!"

Bai Sheng got quite worked up again upon hearing this. "You sure sound like you've been quite inconvenienced over this! You were such a caring and attentive real estate agent, always asking when I would come back to China. I thought it was just you being professional and courteous, but lo and behold, you were just afraid I would come back and expose you! I come back on a whim, it's a good thing, or I'd have been kept in the dark forever!"

Wang Dongliang was obviously quite 'talented' in his own right to have gotten himself into this situation, but he seemed to feel quite sincerely wronged by this accusation. "Yes, it was me in the wrong at first, but after you found out didn't we settle the issue through negotiation. Yao Kang lived here for a year, and I gave you everything I got from him, with an additional 5,000 yuan in recompense. When you took the money, wasn't that you accepting that the matter was in the past? Why are you digging up old scores again? We made it clear that it would be as if I had found Yao Kang and rented it out on your behalf. It was all settled, and I even sent you a gift card and took you out to dinner. We all agreed not to further speak of this matter, so why aren't you keeping your word now?"

The more he spoke, the more upset he became. He seemed to also regard himself as a victim in the situation. "I grew up poor and worked hard to get to where I am. I've done something wrong, but does that mean I have to be on the hook for it forever?"

"Anyway," he looked from Ning Wan to Fu Zheng to Yao Fei, who was still playing with the phone, "What I was responsible for I've already made amends for! The kid over there is none of my business. As soon as we were discovered I contacted Yao Kang and told him to move out immediately, and he agreed!"

"How does this have nothing to do with you? If you hadn't let Yao Kang move in, would this little brat still be here? And now his father has run away! All debts have their creditors. Xiao Fu, have Wang Dongliang figure out this matter for you. I'm also the victim here!"

"How are you the victim? Yao Kang suddenly disappeared and left his son behind. It didn't make sense. Yes, I was in the wrong to have them both move in so that the child regarded the place as his home, but was it me who tricked the boy out of the house without letting the potential buyers know, and then changed the locks? Was it me who sold the house immediately after cleaning the house to hide the truth?"

The more he spoke, the more worked up Wang Dongliang got. He looked at Ning Wan and Fu Zheng, "Sir, madam, when he sold you the house, did he mention that there was a child here who wouldn't leave? To tell you the truth, he originally didn't want to sell it. He wanted to rent instead. But even after the locks were changed and the apartment was shown to several tenants, the child stubbornly squatted at the door every day and knocked at the door every night. He lost all the tenants this way. That's why Mr. Bai over here wanted to just wash his hands of it and sell the place. He lied to you, and now he's making you clean up after him!"

As Wang Dongliang and Bai Sheng quarreled with each other, Ning Wan remembered how during the first time they had visited, she had once glimpsed Bai Sheng being stopped by a dirty child from the balcony. She had thought it was just a beggar then, but when she thought back knowing what she did today, she finally pieced together the truth. "So it was a lie that you were in a hurry to sell the house. You lowered the price because you could no longer handle the affairs surrounding this kid, so you wanted to sell the place quickly."

Fu Zheng had realized this too. His face was quite ugly as he muttered, "Sure enough, cheap stuff is no good."