The gym membership Jiang Yichi purchased came with a secondary card, which he promptly gave to Xu Qiushi, demanding that Xu Qiushi accompany him whenever he went.
Xu Qiushi hadn’t expected that the pampered young master would actually be so persistent. Jiang Yichi was determined to turn every bit of soft flesh on his body into muscle.
Now officially hired, Xu Qiushi received a base salary of 8,000 yuan per month, with a separate grocery allowance. He had one day off per week and observed all statutory holidays. If the young master needed him to stay and work during holidays, he would earn triple pay. His probation pay was also backdated to the full rate and deposited directly into his bank account.
His largest monthly expense now was his rent. Although he only stayed there four days a month, it was his own territory. Most importantly, it was a place to reunite with Xu Qiuze and cook him something nutritious. Thus, Xu Qiushi had no intention of giving up the lease.
But heaven had other plans. Before Xu Qiushi could think about leaving, the landlord sent a notice: their community was slated for demolition, and all tenants were ordered to vacate.
This news was a bolt from the blue for all the tenants. The entire building was shrouded in a cloud of gloom.
Several employees at the bar were also busy looking for housing. Xu Qiushi’s situation was different from theirs, which left him feeling conflicted.
“Logically, with your high salary, you could easily rent a better place. But since you only stay there four days a month, it feels like a waste,” Xun Wenyao pointed out accurately while pouring Xu Qiushi a glass of water at the bar.
“True.” Xu Qiushi took a sip. To rent a whole new apartment just for four days a month didn’t seem worth it.
“Why don’t you stay at my place?” Xun Wenyao suddenly suggested.
“What?” Xu Qiushi looked up, thinking he had misheard.
“I said, why don’t you just stay at my house? You only stay there four days a month anyway. You can cook for me and tidy up a bit, and I won’t charge you rent.” Xun Wenyao rested his chin on his hands, getting more excited as he spoke. “Though, I guess that means you won’t really have a ‘day off’ then.”
“That won’t do.” Xu Qiushi didn’t care about the rest days, but he instinctively objected to the idea of not paying rent.
“Why not? Actually, I lived with roommates for a long time and only started living alone two years ago. To be honest, I miss having a roommate.”
“Xiao Zhao and Ah Heng…” Xu Qiushi wanted to say that if he wanted a roommate, long-time bar employees like Xiao Zhao or Ah Heng were more suitable.
“I’m not looking for a full-time roommate. I think a roommate like you, who only stays one day a week, is just right. The main point is you can cook! Occasionally you can make me a feast don’t just pamper Aze all by yourself,” Xun Wenyao said with a smile.
“I’d be troubling you too much.” Xu Qiushi shook his head. Since arriving in Luohai, Xun Wenyao had been helping him constantly; the mountain of favors was growing too high.
“Why are you saying that again? We’re family. Don’t keep talking about ‘trouble.’ Or do you not see me as one of your own? Being so polite is truly heartbreaking.” Xun Wenyao sighed, feigning sorrow. “You call me Brother Wenyao every day; I truly see you and Aze as my little brothers.”
“I didn’t mean it like that…” Xu Qiushi waved his hands frantically.
“Then just think of it as coming to keep me company once a week. If you find a more suitable place later, you can move out anytime.”
Xu Qiushi: “But…”
“It’s settled then! I’ll clear out the room over the next couple of days.” Xun Wenyao clapped his hands. “We’ll call Aze over, and we can cook a big meal once a week. It’ll be like a family dinner—how fun is that?”
“Brother Wenyao, we have to calculate the rent.” This was Xu Qiushi’s final stand.
“In that case, do I have to pay you a nanny’s fee?”
“No.”
“If you want to pay rent, then I have to pay you for your labor. Your daily rate is currently 300 yuan. My monthly rent is only 2,500, which averages less than 100 a day. By that logic, I’d owe you 200 yuan a day.” Xun Wenyao counted on his fingers.
“No, you can’t calculate it like that,” Xu Qiushi objected firmly.
“See? This argument will never end. Let’s both take a step back and forget about the money.”
Xu Qiushi: “…”
Two days later, Xu Qiushi received a call from Xun Wenyao telling him the room was ready.
His phone leaked sound so badly it was like being on speakerphone. Jiang Yichi heard everything clearly. After Xu Qiushi hung up, Jiang Yichi turned and asked, “You’re moving?”
“Yes. The rental house is being demolished. Brother Wenyao is letting me stay at his place temporarily.”
“You could just stay here,” Jiang Yichi said nonchalantly. He figured Xu Qiushi was his nanny, so he should naturally live in his house.
“I’ve already agreed with Brother Wenyao.” Xu Qiushi didn’t take Jiang Yichi’s words seriously. If he weren’t working as a nanny, he would never have lived in a house like this in his life. To stay here during his time off would be shameless.
Seeing that Xu Qiushi had no reaction to his suggestion, Jiang Yichi felt a blockage in his chest. He wanted to ignore him, but couldn’t resist talking: “So when are you moving?”
“Sunday.” It was his day off.
“Oh,” Jiang Yichi replied, lost in thought.
…
On Sunday, Jiang Yichi uncharacteristically didn’t sleep in. He got up and had breakfast with Xu Qiushi.
As Xu Qiushi finished tidying the kitchen and prepared to head out, he found Jiang Yichi standing behind him, waiting to change his shoes.
Xu Qiushi asked: “Are you going out?”
Jiang Yichi nodded: “I’m going with you.”
Xu Qiushi clearly hadn’t expected the young master to have this in mind. “It’s a small place over there; you won’t be used to it.”
“I’m bored anyway. I’ll just treat it as going to see the sights. I’ve never seen what your rental house looks like.”
“…” Xu Qiushi didn’t understand the young master’s unnecessary curiosity, but he respected it.
Jiang Yichi had pre-arranged for Driver Xiao Zhang. This was the first time Xu Qiushi sat in his exclusive luxury car; one look at the interior was enough to tell him it was worth a fortune.
The closer they got to the destination, the narrower the roads became, severely testing the driver’s skills. Xiao Zhang, palms sweating, managed to park the car on a chaotic roadside. He watched the young master and his nanny walk into an alley that looked covered in dust.
Jiang Yichi wore a short-sleeved hoodie with denim jeans, a pair of Gucci sunglasses hanging from his collar, and red-and-white AJ sneakers on his feet. The simple outfit couldn’t hide his superior aura, which looked completely out of place in the dilapidated, soon-to-be-demolished community.
Although he had prepared himself mentally, when he actually saw the building, his brow furrowed so tightly it could have crushed a mosquito.
The young master’s most frequent exclamation along the way was: “How can people live in such a dump?”
He effectively revoked Xu Qiushi’s human status on the spot.
When he saw Xu Qiushi’s rental room which was comparable to a “coffin cubicle”—he finally couldn’t help but ask: “How on earth do you live in this environment? It’s smaller than the house my dog lives in.”
“You have a dog?” Xu Qiushi caught the key point.
“Yeah, back at the main house. I wanted to bring him here, but my grandfather wouldn’t let me,” Jiang Yichi said regretfully. His brother didn’t like dogs, and since Jiang Yichi insisted on living alone, the family didn’t trust him to take care of one.
“Wait for me here; I’ll finish packing soon.”
“Mhm.” Jiang Yichi had no intention of stepping inside anyway. The heavily worn floor looked filthy, with nowhere to even place a foot.
Xu Qiushi didn’t have many possessions. He packed his clothes, quilts, and kitchenware first, then organized the other sundries. Most of the cooking appliances belonged to Xun Wenyao, so he was taking them back to him.
Standing at the door, Jiang Yichi saw the washbasins and buckets stacked on the floor. He found the patterns on the basins familiar but couldn’t remember where he’d seen them.
Seeing his curiosity, Xu Qiushi explained: “Aze brought these back after military training. He said his classmates didn’t want them and it was a waste to throw them away.”
Jiang Yichi remembered. Weren’t those the ones he had bought to wash clothes during military training? He had intended to throw them away on the last day, but Xu Qiuze had come running up to ask if he could take them. He hadn’t realized they were for Xu Qiushi.
Wasn’t this a kind of fate? Jiang Yichi’s mood inexplicably improved. He didn’t even mind when Xu Qiushi pulled out a snakeskin bag to pack things.
It must be said, large snakeskin bags are incredibly spacious. Jiang Yichi watched as Xu Qiushi stuffed various items inside even an electric fan!
Finally, Xu Qiushi threw on a backpack, held the snakeskin bag in his left hand, and carried the folding table Gu Chengfei had bought in his right, ready to head downstairs.
When they reached the fifth floor, a loud commotion broke out. They looked over to see the hallway crowded with tenants. In the middle were two people Xu Qiushi knew: the landlord and a bartender named Abu from another bar. They were arguing over a security deposit, and it looked like they were about to get physical.
Xu Qiushi frowned, set down his things, pushed through the crowd, and headed toward the source of the conflict.
He pulled the two apart with his powerful hands. Standing between them, he said in a deep voice, “Let’s talk this out. Don’t fight.”
Seeing him, Abu looked like he’d found a lifeline. He grabbed Xu Qiushi’s arm: “Brother Xu, you judge this! We agreed on a six-month lease extension. Now, not only is he making me move early, but he wants to withhold my deposit! How is that fair?”
“Our contract expired long ago! You didn’t sign a new one, so what extension?” The landlord yelled, hands on his hips. “The demolition is a government order. Even if you had a contract, you’d have to move. I’m keeping the deposit because the apartment is badly damaged. You’re lucky I’m not making you pay for repairs!”
Abu pointed at the landlord’s nose: “Have you no shame? That place was already a wreck. I even replaced the lightbulbs at my own expense. Why didn’t you reimburse me for that?”
“You broke them, so you replace them!”
“Bullshit! You just used cheap, low-quality products!”
As the argument reached a fever pitch, Jiang Yichi, who had followed unnoticed, stood by Xu Qiushi’s side and asked him, “Did you sign a contract?”
“I signed for six months,” Xu Qiushi replied. The landlord hadn’t made things difficult for him; he had refunded the remaining months and the deposit, only requiring him to move out on time.
“He didn’t give you a breach-of-contract penalty?” Jiang Yichi asked.
“Who the hell are you? What’s it to you?” Hearing the words “breach-of-contract penalty,” the landlord turned on Jiang Yichi in a fit of rage.
Hearing Jiang Yichi being cursed at, Xu Qiushi’s gaze instantly became sharp. But Jiang Yichi unconcernedly patted his shoulder and spoke calmly: “Let’s set aside the penalty for a moment. Mister, you’re renting out partitioned rooms, aren’t you?”
The landlord’s face changed instantly. He stubbornly said, “What partitioned rooms? This is a normal renovation.”
“Does a normal renovation use gypsum board to carve out so many tiny rooms? You have unique taste in decor.” Jiang Yichi held up his phone. “According to regulations, rental units should use the original room design as the minimum rental unit. Dividing them into sub-units for rent is illegal.”
The landlord had been renting to uneducated workers for years who didn’t know the law. Now, Jiang Yichi was simply reading a snippet of info he’d searched online, and it made the landlord break out in a cold sweat.
“Furthermore, according to the Contract Law, if a party fails to perform contract obligations, they are liable for breach of contract, including compensation for losses.” Jiang Yichi shifted his gaze from his screen to the landlord’s guilt-ridden face. “Terminating the lease early due to demolition is a breach of contract; you must pay a penalty.”
“You say I pay, so I pay? Who do you think you are!” The landlord was still blustering.
“If I’m a green onion, you aren’t even fit to be the dirt on my roots.” Jiang Yichi glanced at the landlord, and as if offended by his looks, put on his sunglasses. “You said they damaged your house. Whether it’s normal wear and tear or malicious damage, I can find professionals to come and assess it.”
The landlord’s tone softened: “Who are you exactly? I don’t have a grudge against you, do I?”
“This Young Master has money and time to spare for a daily good deed. Does it matter who I am? You should weigh whether you have the capital to fight me to the end.”
“Fine, you’re tough. I’ll give you the penalty and deposit in a couple of days,” the landlord muttered as he stormed off.
The onlookers were stunned by Jiang Yichi’s eloquence. Seeing the landlord actually agree to pay, they cheered and thanked Xu Qiushi and Jiang Yichi.
Abu even gave Xu Qiushi a bear hug: “Brother Xu, thank goodness you were here! That old miser was trying to swindle us even though he’s getting the whole building demolished. He deserves to die! Damned rich people!”
Jiang Yichi took off his sunglasses, curling his lips as he waited to be praised. But when he turned and saw Xu Qiushi and that young man named Abu hugging, his face instantly darkened.