There's a chat group for pets in my neighborhood.

The landlady, having suffered a loss in silence, knew there was nothing she could do if she continued to make a scene. The property management could manage pets, but not stray cats.

"Tomorrow I'm going to buy rat poison and poisoned sausages! I'll kill all of you stray cats and dogs sooner or later!"

As she left the property management office, the landlady muttered to herself, her eyes brimming with hatred.

In a corner she couldn't see, Tanuki moved with cat-like steps, quietly weaving through the grass, coldly watching the landlady on the road, a sneer curling at the corner of his mouth.

"The best is yet to come!"

That night.

The landlady took the clothes covered in claw marks to the laundry, feeling so distressed that she couldn't even eat dinner. She took a shower and went to bed early, intending to use sleep to calm herself down after such a bad day.

At two o'clock in the morning, the entire neighborhood was completely silent.

"Squeak—rustle—"

A series of soft noises came from the kitchen, then from the living room, and finally spread to the bedroom floor.

The landlady, still half asleep, seemed to sense something was wrong. She struggled to get up, rubbed her eyes, and turned on the bedroom lamp.

But the next second, she regretted turning on the light.

Because the instant the light came on, she felt as if she had seen the most terrifying scene in the world!

More than a dozen rats were crawling all over her floor, dressing table, and even the top of her wardrobe. Some were busy causing damage, sniffing and biting here and there, while others were busy defecating in her slippers.

The landlady was staring into the eyes of a huge gray rat.

A piercing scream instantly echoed throughout the entire room.

She struggled to her feet and rushed outside without hesitation, grabbing a broom and vigorously smashing it down on the rats.

But the mouse seemed to be well-trained, disappearing without a trace the moment she picked up the broom.

But as soon as she turned off the light and lay down, the rustling sound would start again.

That night, the landlady endured extreme mental exhaustion, with the bright lights on and her hand gripping a broom tightly.

Around four or five o'clock, the mice, who had been busy all night, scurried out of the landlady's house with their heads held high, led by the big gray rat.

Tanuki was already waiting outside.

"Brother Tanuki, mission accomplished." The big gray rat gave a proper salute and smiled obsequiously.

There's no way around it; in Tiancheng Residential Area, Brother Li is the boss.

If these little mice under his command want to make a living, they can't avoid Brother Tanuki. If they don't follow Brother Tanuki's rules, they'll suffer a terrible fate.

"Not bad. Don't forget what we agreed on beforehand." Tanuki nodded slightly, exuding the aura of a big boss.

The big gray mouse nodded hurriedly, and was about to leave when the raccoon stepped on its tail.

"Does Brother Tanuki have any other instructions?" It turned around, trying to appear calm. It had no choice; Brother Tanuki was its natural enemy, and the most powerful one at that. It was no wonder it was afraid.

"I, Tanuki, always do things according to the rules. This is what I promised you." Tanuki gestured to the side, and the orange cat, who had been waiting for a long time, dragged over a pile of food.

"Work hard. This is all prepaid. On my territory, as long as you don't cause trouble, nothing will happen. But if you break my rules, you know what will happen."

A combination of kindness and severity.

After this whole process, the big gray rat was completely subdued, its eyes shining as it looked at the pile of food.

"Brother Tanuki, I guarantee I'll complete the mission!"

It excitedly called its brothers and sisters to drag the food away, full of energy.

On the other side, the landlady with huge dark circles under her eyes was about to call a pest control company when her phone started ringing incessantly.

All the calls were from her tenants in other buildings of the Tiancheng residential complex.

"Sister Zhang! What's wrong with your house?! Last night, a bunch of stray cats came out of nowhere and howled all night long, scaring my child so much that he cried his eyes out!"

"Landlord, is there something wrong with your drain? This morning the toilet was overflowing, and it was full of huge clumps of cat and dog hair that were completely clogged up!"

"Aunt Zhang, your house is infested with rats! They've chewed through all my electrical wires, I can't live here anymore, I need a refund!"

In just half a morning, all five apartments she rented out in the neighborhood were attacked by stray cats and dogs.

This is something that is absolutely unique in Tiancheng Community.

The landlady was completely stunned, but her inherent meanness made her instinctively start to shirk responsibility. She yelled at the tenants on the phone, "Refund what money! What does this have to do with the house? It's clearly your own unhygienic habits that attracted these rats and stray cats! You damaged my wiring and toilet, you still have to pay me back!"

This unreasonable attitude instantly ignited the anger of all the tenants.

The landlady was already mean-spirited; she never addressed the issue herself when things in the house broke, and she would verbally berate people from time to time, demanding rent payment several days in advance.

Now, settling old and new grudges, the five tenants created a WeChat group, discussed it, and decided to skip work and head straight to the police station.

"Officer, this landlord not only provided an uninhabitable, dilapidated house, but also concealed the rat infestation, and now he's trying to extort money from us! Doesn't this constitute fraud?"

Faced with the angry tenants and a pile of photos of items damaged by rats as evidence, the policeman who mediated between Lu Fang and the landlord yesterday immediately became serious and made a summons call directly to the landlady.

It was nothing more than endless bickering, and clearly, a series of misfortunes had not defeated the landlady.

After all, she could still shout and argue with the scholars.

But over the next three days, the landlady was completely worn down and lost her temper.

Whenever she goes out, the pet dogs in the neighborhood come over and bark at her, scaring her so much that she can barely stand.

The electric scooter parked outside was covered in bird droppings. It was unbelievable that only her scooter had them; the other scooters were spotless.

When I get home at night, there are endless mice to catch and cat and dog hair clogging the drains.

What's worse, the police station and neighborhood committee are constantly trying to mediate her disputes with the tenants, and those tenants have even hired lawyers to sue her for commercial fraud.

In just a few days, she looked several years older.

On the afternoon of the fourth day, Lu Fang was grooming a Bichon Frise at the pet store, while Qin Zhuyan was gossiping about strange and unusual things happening in the neighborhood.

"Xiao Fang, have you heard? That old lady Zhang who withheld your deposit has been acting like she's possessed these past few days." Qin Zhuyan laughed as she tidied the shelves. "I heard that all her things have been chewed up by rats, and she gets chased by dogs every day when she walks down the street. Several tenants teamed up to sue her."