Ch 13: TGCIR

After finishing her operation, Shen Cheng checked the time and realized it was already past 12 o’clock. She logged off and prepared to go to sleep.

Before closing the game, she took a grateful look at her cub and silently made a wish: if she could successfully deal with the landlord this time, all the money saved and losses recovered would be spent on her cub, without her spending a penny. She had been too poor before, and if she could smoothly get her deposit back from the landlord, as a girl from the slums who didn’t usually bother with makeup and dress-up, she could spend all the remaining money on her cub after paying for food and rent.

Li Weilan’s series of manipulations and inducements had indeed opened Shen Cheng’s eyes. If those two researchers knew that he was a space-type ability user and that his weapon sealed a high-level thunder ability, would they still ask the tree to attack him? And if Li Weilan didn’t pretend to be faint during their last encounter and just directly went for a fatal attack, would hhe have won easily without any fierce fighting?

It was because he left a weak impression on the two researchers that they lowered their vigilance, and that led to his counterattack. Moreover, this kind of counterattack would not violate her moral bottom line as a player. Otherwise, if the two researchers kneeled in front of her cub and begged him not to destroy the plant that was their hope of survival, Shen Cheng, as a player, would have to struggle with her morality.

His indulgence and disguise gave them the courage to do evil, but it was also the beginning of their downfall.

Shen Cheng knew she was not as powerful as Li Weilan, but she couldn’t help thinking about the landlord’s behavior, which was similar to the two researchers’, pushing her step by step and becoming increasingly unreasonable. The first time he asked for a rent increase, she hesitated and wavered, which made her appear weak and vulnerable. The second time he peeped, she failed to catch him red-handed.

Shen Cheng guessed that she had left a similar impression on the landlord as a weak and vulnerable person who was rootless and drifting because of working in another city.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

As her lease termination date drew closer, the landlord, having already been caught spying, was unlikely to give up.

“Learn from your own cub, be smarter!”

After careful consideration, in the dark of night, her eyes shone brightly: “Thanks, little cub. I know what to do now!”

The next morning, Shen Cheng went out to buy a mini camera and ordered a strong self-defense tool on a certain e-commerce platform. When she returned home and finished setting up the camera, the landlord called, “Miss Shen, are you home? I’m bringing someone over to see the apartment.”

“I’m sorry, landlord,” Shen Cheng said timidly and softly, “Our company said we had to work overtime this morning, so I left early. Would you mind coming back at a different time? I’m really sorry.”

With a soft tone, Shen Cheng hid in the restroom of her company, using a borrowed phone with the recording button on, and recorded every word of the conversation.

“But I told you yesterday to come and see the apartment!” The landlord was immediately unhappy and his tone turned fierce and angry.

Shen Cheng apologized in a gentle manner, “I’m sorry, big brother landlord. I really had work to do this morning. If I don’t come, I’ll be fired. Then, I won’t have the money to pay you next month’s rent. Our lease doesn’t expire until next month, and I’m still counting on my company’s salary to live.”

From her words, the landlord could sense her poverty and understand her helplessness in not being able to afford to move out. His tone softened slightly, “Well, if you keep being so polite, I can give you some extra time to pay rent.”

Sighing softly, Shen Cheng said, “Tomorrow morning, I will definitely be at home waiting for you to bring people to see the apartment.”

The landlord hesitated for a moment, said “okay,” and hung up.

Shen Cheng smiled, transferred the recording from the borrowed phone to her own, deleted the original and returned the phone to her colleague.

She returned to her seat and opened the monitoring page on her phone while working. As expected, the camera popped up a notification shortly after, indicating “unusual activity” in her home.

Shen Cheng mocked with a sneer.

She had checked the contract before going to bed last night. One clause allowed her to do this: the landlord initially did not want to sign a contract, but Shen Cheng, a girl renting alone in a foreign place, needed a contract to avoid disputes no matter what. So, in the landlord’s unwillingness to sign, she paid for a real estate agent to act as a witness and gave the landlord a standard contract to sign.

Because she unilaterally paid the witness fees to the agent, the agent naturally leaned towards her, with several optional clauses, all of which favored the tenant. For example, the landlord had to consult with the tenant before bringing people to view the room, and the tenant had the right to refuse, and so on.

She was not at home, but the landlord had entered her home without her permission. With this video, as long as she reported it to the police, the landlord would be in trouble.

To be honest, even at this moment, Shen Cheng only thought of using the video to negotiate with the landlord and terminate the contract early to get her rent and deposit back this month, so she could use the money to find a new place to live.

But soon, the landlord’s actions in the camera made her burn with anger: the landlord sneaked into her room and went straight to the balcony, where he touched and picked through her underwear that was hanging there to dry, and finally picked one up, sniffed it, and put it in his pocket before leaving happily!

Damn it! Shen Cheng saw this scene, and her previously calm expression turned into anger in an instant: she had moved out of the dormitory since graduating from college, and this was the first house she rented. However, since she moved in here, her underwear would disappear every one or two months because the clothesline was exposed to wind and it was possible for the clothes to blow away, so she didn’t think much of it. Until she installed the camera today, she found out that her underwear…

Shen Cheng feel a surge of nausea in her stomach. She couldn’t help but wonder how many things the landlord had done without her knowledge. She felt foolish for trying to downplay the situation earlier.

As cub had said, being lenient towards bad people is being irresponsible to oneself and to the good people.

Shen Cheng thought about how best to use the video footage. Reporting it to the police was feasible, but since the landlord had not yet committed any “real wrongdoing,” even if she did report it, the most he would receive is a detention of less than ten days and a fine of 200-500 yuan. For a landlord who owned more than a dozen properties and collected rent, it would be a mere slap on the wrist. The police would usually choose to mediate first, which would only anger the landlord. After all, he was a local, and with some connections, he might not even receive detention. He could then continue to find another tenant for his dozen or so properties.

Thinking about what her son had done, Shen Cheng had an idea in mind.

When she got home, she called the landlord to apologize, “Brother Landlord, I’m sorry about what happened this morning…”

She spoke with a restrained anger, but the landlord was happy to hear her voice.

After apologizing, Shen Cheng changed the subject: “However, the rent of 2,000 yuan is too expensive. I really can’t afford it. I thought about it carefully today. I’d better move.”

If you only consider money, the rent she gave is naturally not high. But the landlord stole her underwear every once in a while, and secretly took photos of her. Shen Cheng guessed that these must be profitable.

So to the landlord, she’s afraid that her meaning is far greater than the two thousand yuan. Since the landlord does not want her to leave, hearing what she said will only change the tone.

The landlord really said: “Miss Shen, the rent is not negotiable. You are still so young, if you really want to make money, there are ways, it just depends on whether you want to or not.”

Shen Cheng’s heart sank.

Her voice trembled slightly, “What do you mean by that?”

“I don’t mean anything, I just thought if you wanted to earn a little extra money, I could help you think of ways to make some side income. It’s for your own good…” the landlord babbled on and on.

A wave of acid refluxed in Shen Cheng’s stomach. If it weren’t for the fact that she had guessed that he had taken her photo without permission but didn’t know where he had posted it, and thus needed concrete evidence to sue him, she would not have bothered to argue with him.

“Well…” Shen Cheng intentionally hesitated.

The landlord stopped persuading her and confidently waited for her to speak.

He picked his teeth and thought to himself, “These young girls are so materialistic nowadays. She’s already so poor that she can’t even come up with an extra two hundred yuan. The company wants her to work overtime until whatever time they say for such a meager salary. I have such a good money-making opportunity that doesn’t require showing her face or selling her body. How could she possibly refuse?”

If it weren’t for the fact that he himself didn’t have a large chest or a good figure, he would have done it himself.

Sure enough, he heard a timid and hesitant voice on the other end of the phone say, “But I do have a formal job… I still have my dignity…”

“You don’t have to show your face,” the landlord laughed.

“But…” she still seemed hesitant.

“Hey, what are you still worried about? In this world, we laugh at the poor but not the prostitutes. Besides, I showed them your photos and they were quite satisfied,” the landlord gritted his teeth. With his experience, even if someone initially did not want to do it, after hearing this kind of persuasion and thinking about how their photos were already floating around everywhere, they would end up half-pushing and half-pulling themselves into it.

“Well…can you tell me more about it?” The girl on the other end hesitated and gave the reaction he expected.

Several hours later, the police broke down the door and took the landlord away from his home.

They found a large number of secretly-taken photos and concrete evidence of extortion on his computer.

Shen Cheng was able to successfully retrieve her rent and deposit.