My wife and I are both time travelers.

Chapter 46 Tear
"How could you hit someone?"

Xiao Jiang's wife really is a case of birds of a feather flocking together; she actually filed a false accusation first.

Are you blind?!

Lin Ying was completely blunt: "Can't you see who started it? Your mother-in-law has hearing problems, and you have poor eyesight? Your whole family needs to go to the ENT hospital for a checkup. Your husband started it and you're trying to turn the tables?"

"What? You want to stand up for your good-for-nothing husband?"

At this moment, Zhou Jiye glared fiercely, which frightened Xiao Jiang's wife so much that she retreated repeatedly, her face turning pale and her legs going weak.

Zhou Jiye was already tall and strong, and now that he was completely uninhibited, he had been holding back his anger for some time because of this matter. He was full of murderous intent, and if it weren't illegal to beat people, Zhou Jiye would have beaten the whole family to a pulp.

Looking around, he saw that Xiao Jiang, who had been so aggressive earlier, had backed down after being taken advantage of and didn't even dare to look him in the eye. His wife was even more timid, trembling like a quail and hiding to the side. As for Aunt Wang, she had also lost her previous arrogance and looked at Zhou Jiye and the others with an incredulous expression, seemingly astonished at how the two of them had suddenly become so tough.

"Aunt Wang, wouldn't it be better to part amicably? Why did it have to turn out like this?" Lin Ying said casually. Before Aunt Wang could react, she laughed and said, "Let's leave it at that. We definitely won't rent the house anymore. We'll move out tomorrow. But you'll have to return the deposit and the remaining half month's rent when we move out. That'll be the end of it."

After saying that, Lin Ying didn't wait for Aunt Wang's reply and called to Zhou Jiye, "Let's go, honey, go upstairs to sleep. You've had a long day, and we're moving tomorrow, so you need to get some rest today."

"Alright!" Zhou Jiye replied loudly, then led the way, taking Lin Ying towards the stairs.

Upon seeing them approach, Xiao Jiang and his wife were so frightened that they quickly moved aside to make way for them. Zhou Jiye didn't even glance at them, and the two of them went upstairs one after the other.

"Outrageous! Utterly lawless!"

After Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying disappeared down the stairs, the last sound of their footsteps reached the attic above. After the door opened, it closed. Aunt Wang, who hadn't dared to breathe loudly, trembled all over and cursed through gritted teeth.

"Mom, what do we do now?" Xiao Jiang asked his mother, who had come closer, with a bitter face. He couldn't understand how something that seemed so sure of itself just a few days ago had turned out like this.

Aunt Wang was at a loss for what to do. Just then, Xiao Jiang's wife advised, "Mom, how about we just let this go?"

"Forget it? Easier said than done!" Aunt Wang was furious. "Didn't you hear what those two country bumpkins were saying? They're moving out tomorrow. If they really move out, how much do you think we can rent out our attic for a month? Besides, they just said they want their deposit back and half a month's rent, which is a whole fifteen yuan! Who's going to pay that? You?"

"Where would I get money? My husband manages all the money." Xiao Jiang's wife shrank back, looking pitiful.

"Why don't you take it?" Aunt Wang turned to ask her son.

"Me?" Xiao Jiang pointed at himself in surprise, looking aggrieved. "Mom, do you think I have that kind of money? It's almost the end of the month, and I haven't even received my salary for next month yet. Where would I get the money?"

"You're a complete failure!" Aunt Wang cursed through gritted teeth in anger. Her son was so useless; he had caused her so much worry over the years!

The two were just temporary workers, but surely they should have some income from their jobs? Besides, I've been subsidizing them for the past few months. Most of the rent I collected from Zhou Jiye and the others went to Xiao Jiang, and now they can't even come up with fifteen yuan?

"You smoke good cigarettes and drink alcohol even though you have no money? Where's your money? Where's the money I gave you? And where are your and your wife's salaries?"

"It's all gone..."

Xiao Jiang spread his hands, looking completely innocent. How could this be his fault? Besides, spending money is a normal thing, isn't it? He had originally planned everything perfectly: his mother would raise the rent again, and if everything went smoothly, he would receive next month's rent today. Once he got the money, his mother would definitely give him most of it, and then the money he had spent would be back, right?
Who would have thought it would turn out like this? I don't even know how my mother and Zhou Jiye talked before, how could the talks have fallen apart? Now it's all over, not only is there no more rent increase, but even the original 18 yuan rent is gone.

"How could I have given birth to such a useless thing as you?" Aunt Wang was furious, wishing she could put Xiao Jiang back into her belly. This troublesome brat! If it weren't for him, she wouldn't have lost face like this today.
"By the way, where's your dad?" Aunt Wang suddenly remembered that her husband hadn't come out yet.

"How would I know if she's sleeping inside?" Xiao Jiang asked, scratching his head.

"The young ones are a handful, and the old ones are useless too. I've had the worst luck in eight lifetimes since I married into the Jiang family!" Overwhelmed with grief, Aunt Wang suddenly burst into tears.

With his mother crying like that, Xiao Jiang was at a loss. He didn't know what to do now that things had escalated like this. Aunt Wang sobbed a few times, wiping away her tears, "What can we do? These two country bumpkins are so wicked, we can't beat them even if we want to! We have to give them money tomorrow morning, this money... this money..." It wasn't that Aunt Wang didn't have the money, it was that she couldn't bear to part with it. Taking money out of her own pocket was more painful than cutting off her own flesh.

"Or we can just not give it to them!" Xiao Jiang suggested, his eyes darting around.

"You won't give it to me? If I don't give it to you, do you think I can beat that Zhou guy?" Xiao Jiang's wife retorted from the side. She knew her husband well enough. He was always bossing people around, but when it came to a real fight, he was a coward.

"Fight? Why should we be able to beat them? If I can't handle them, does that mean no one else can?" Xiao Jiang felt his face burning as he recalled the humiliating scene from earlier. He suggested to his mother, "Mom, didn't you say they're all from out of town? Since things have come to this, why be polite? Just go to the police station and report them. Let the old police arrest them all!"

"That's right!" Xiao Jiang's words were like a wake-up call, and Aunt Wang's eyes lit up immediately.

The reason she used to control Zhou Jiye and the others was because they weren't from Shanghai, right? According to the policy, people like them from other places aren't allowed to rent apartments in Shanghai. Aunt Wang turned a blind eye and let them stay because she wanted to save money on rent.

Now that things have already turned sour and the high rent has gone down the drain, what's the point of covering for them now?

"If you're unkind, I'll be unkind too. You can't blame me for this." Aunt Wang gritted her teeth and decided to report them directly and have the police arrest them.

Besides, once Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying are arrested, they'll just be repatriated, and might even be sent to a labor camp for a few months. What's the point of getting back their deposit or rent then? They won't need it at all!

In addition, Aunt Wang also thought of the things Zhou Jiye and the others had in the attic. Not to mention the others, Lin Ying sells tea eggs every day, and she keeps quite a few eggs at home.

Once, Aunt Wang accidentally saw Zhou Jiye carrying a huge wicker basket of eggs back home, weighing at least forty or fifty pounds. Those eggs alone were worth a considerable amount of money. If both Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying were arrested by the police, wouldn't all those eggs become hers?
Regardless of what the mother and son downstairs discussed, Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying went back upstairs, entered the house, and couldn't help but burst into laughter after closing the door.

Today was truly a good show. All the pent-up anger from the past few days has finally been released. Thinking back to the disheveled state of Aunt Wang's family just now, they felt very relieved. And thinking that they would be moving tomorrow and living in a villa that was so much better than this place, the two of them were even happier.

Because they're moving tomorrow, they decided to take a day off work, so naturally they didn't need to prepare tea eggs for the next day as usual. Lin Ying was also specifically wary of Aunt Wang, worried that if they made tea eggs today, the woman might get angry and sabotage them, putting something unclean in the pot and ruining their whole batch of eggs.
It was getting late, and since they had just had a falling out, they didn't go downstairs to get hot water. They simply washed up with the remaining hot water from the thermos and then went to bed early.

Just as Zhou Jiye was sound asleep, there was a sudden banging on the door. The knocking was loud, and he could faintly hear Aunt Wang shouting outside. Zhou Jiye was startled when he woke up, and then a surge of anger welled up inside him. What was wrong with this woman? Was she upset? Coming to cause trouble again in the middle of the night? Who bangs on doors like that?
"What's wrong? What happened?" Lin Ying woke up at this moment, and asked, still a little groggy.

"It must be that woman surnamed Wang causing trouble. I'll go check it out," Zhou Jiye said, turning over and getting out of bed.

"Don't do anything! Just ignore her, we're moving tomorrow anyway." Lin Ying hurriedly instructed, grabbed her coat from the bedside, put it on, and quickly got out of bed.

Zhou Jiye was furious. Anyone would be angry if they were woken up like this while they were sleeping soundly. He walked to the door in a few steps, turned the lock, and pulled it in.

"Demolishing a house in the middle of the night? Booming at your door and asking for trouble? What do you mean by this?"

As soon as he opened the door, Zhou Jiye angrily shouted at the outside, but he was suddenly stunned when he saw two policemen standing at the door. Their white uniforms and peaked caps were particularly conspicuous in the dimly lit corridor. Behind them, Aunt Wang's whole family, except for the baby who was still breastfeeding, were all there.

"You live here?"

"Correct!"

"Name?"

"Zhou Jiye, what's going on here...?" Zhou Jiye answered subconsciously. The middle-aged policeman in charge didn't answer his question, but looked Zhou Jiye up and down and asked again, "Besides you, who else lives here?"

"My wife, Lin Ying, what's wrong?" Zhou Jiye asked back.

"Is it them?" the middle-aged policeman asked, turning around. Aunt Wang, who was standing in the stairwell, nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes! It's them, one surnamed Zhou and the other surnamed Lin, both from the countryside."

(End of this chapter)