A life of success begins with being a landlord.

I countered, "When you bullied people in the county town before, did you ever consider their feelings?"

"I..." Liang Laosi blushed, "Thank you for reminding me, Brother Zu. I understand. I will change in the future."

I nodded, then picked up the phone and told Zhang Bazi, "Brother, that's enough. Come back now. I'll treat you to drinks. Fly back; I'll reimburse your airfare."

Liang Laosi seemed to understand something, but hesitated to speak.

"My haystack burned down, and your second brother broke his leg. We're all a bit unlucky, huh?" I chuckled.

"Yes, it was a bit unlucky. But it won't happen again." Old Liang chuckled awkwardly.

Around 4 o'clock, I took Liang Laosi to Sanlichuan Police Station.

The office was extremely busy, almost overflowing with people.

People without temporary residence permits who are arrested must first report here before being sent to Zhangshutou.

There must have been a raid these past two days, which is why so many migrant workers without residence permits have been brought in, truckload after truckload.

Since there weren't enough rooms, they were temporarily housed in the courtyard.

I glanced over and was surprised to see two familiar faces.

They seemed to be the tenants of building 26, two young women, or maybe they were sisters-in-law. They rented the apartment from me about two months ago. As for their names, I forgot.

At that time, I had just taken over the 26 rental houses owned by Zhan Lao Er.

The two of them saw me too, opened their mouths as if to say hello, but didn't dare.

I walked over and said, "Hey, what happened to you guys? Didn't you have residence permits?"

"Landlord, it really is you!" the two women exclaimed excitedly in a low voice.

"We had already moved away and were working in a small factory. But the factory closed down, so we came out to look for work and ran into the security team, which brought us here."

I smiled and said, "That would be a big problem; we'd have to send it to Camphor Tree Head."

"Yes, landlord, please help us!" The sister-in-law was almost in tears. "Please vouch for us, and we'll get residence permits as soon as we get out."

"Don't cry, it's a small problem, I'll help you."

I turned my head to look around, searching for familiar police officers.

As luck would have it, a young man who often followed Director Nie was here. He recognized me and came over, laughing, "Brother Zu, you've been arrested too? Who had the audacity to arrest you?"

"I wasn't arrested; I walked right into their trap."

I chuckled and pointed at the two women: "These two rent a place from me. They both have residence permits, but they're at home and don't carry them with them."

The young man in the hat nodded: "Let's go. Take this with you next time; they'll check it anytime."

Thank you!

I thanked them and led the two women out of the crowd.

The two women, sister-in-law and aunt, were so grateful they almost cried.

I asked them, "Where do you live now? When did you move out?"

"It's been more than half a month, almost twenty days, since we moved out."

The woman sighed, "We don't earn much money, and we couldn't afford the rent... so we moved to live in the factory. Who knew that the financial crisis would hit, the factory had no business, and they laid us off."

Financial tsunami?

The last time I had drinks with the great writer Mr. Qian, he mentioned that the current financial crisis is very serious, and many factories have closed down or stopped operating.

Because Dongguan has an export-oriented economy, it processes goods for Hong Kong and Taiwan and sells them all over the world.

With the global financial crisis, export-oriented cities will suffer a fatal blow if there are no customers ordering goods.

I shook my head: "So, you're unemployed right now?"

The two women nodded.

I asked again, "You still don't have anywhere to stay, right?"

The two women nodded again.

"You're out of money, aren't you?"

"Yes," the two sisters-in-law nodded.

Alas, things are more valuable away from home, but people are less valuable away from home. It's always good to be at home, but difficult to leave.

I felt a pang of pity and pointed to my car: "Wait for me in my car, I have some errands to run. Then I'll take you back and find you some jobs."

"Landlord, you're such a kind person," my sister-in-law said, bowing repeatedly to me.

I smiled and led Liang Laosi to Nie's office.

Nie Suo wasn't there; a pretty policewoman was on duty there, playing Minesweeper on the computer.

I called him and placed a few bottles of medicinal wine on his desk.

Nie instructed the policewoman to take me to the detention room and bring out Sister Liang.

Sister Liang was locked up here for several days. Her face was sallow and her eyes were lifeless, like a dead fish.

"Fourth Brother, I knew you would come..." Upon seeing Liang Lao Si, Liang San Jie's eyes welled up with tears.

I smoked a cigarette, smiling without saying a word.

"Third sister, we owe a lot to Brother Zu for his help this time."

Through the fence, Liang Laosi held Liang Sanjie's hand: "Brother Zu said he'll get you out soon. From now on, we'll follow Brother Zu and rebuild our business. Don't worry, everything will be alright."

Sister Liang is still unaware of what happened and thinks I really helped her. She burst into tears and thanked me, saying, "Brother Zu, thank you so much. After all, we're from the same hometown, and you've taken such good care of me."

"You're welcome, it's my pleasure." I smiled happily.

I'm not leaving either; I'll stay here with Liang Laosi and Liang Sanjie.

Liang Laosi didn't dare to say anything reckless, but comforted Liang Sanjie, telling her to wait patiently for another day or two, and she would be able to leave.

Ten minutes later, I urged Liang Laosi, "It's time to go, Liang Laosi. Wait for your third sister to come out, then you can chat slowly. I still have things to do back home and can't stay too long."

Liang Laosi nodded and left the meeting room with me.

The two women, the aunt and niece, were still waiting by my car.

I opened the car door, let them get in, and drove back to Sanlichuan, asking as I did so, "How much are you looking for work each month?"

"Five or six hundred is fine. If room and board are included, three hundred and fifty is also acceptable." The sister-in-law sighed, "With the financial crisis, jobs are hard to find."

"Then I'll give you six hundred yuan, including food and lodging."

I continued driving: "I'm about to set up a large-scale scrap metal collection station. How about you two do some odd jobs here? It might be a bit dirty, but it shouldn't be tiring."

Before the recycling company is even up and running, I've already started recruiting.

As we chatted, I learned that my sister-in-law's surname was Jiang, and my sister-in-law's surname was Wan. I don't know their given names, so let's just call them Little Jiang and Little Wan for now.

Xiao Wan's brother, who is also Xiao Jiang's husband, fell while fixing a leak on their roof during a rainy day. He landed hard on his back and suffered lumbar necrosis, leaving him confined to a wheelchair for life.

To support her family, Xiao Jiang brought her sister-in-law to work here.

Because Sister Jiang and her husband used to work here, they are somewhat familiar with the area.

When we arrived at Sanlichuan, I handed Xiao Jiang and Xiao Wan over to the old squad leader:

"Old squad leader, arrange a room for them to stay in. They'll be responsible for cleaning the hallways for the next couple of days. When it's time to eat, they can go to Fatty's place across the hall."

The old squad leader nodded: "They just moved out twenty days ago, why are they back?"

"I missed you, I couldn't bear to leave you, so I came back."

"I..." The old squad leader blushed, embarrassed.

I chuckled and gave Xiao Jiang and her sister-in-law another 500 yuan: "Since you've lost all your luggage, take this to buy some daily necessities. Consider it an advance on my wages; I'll deduct it from your pay later."

"No, no, no, we still have some pocket money."

Xiao Jiang quickly declined, saying, "Our luggage is still in the factory dormitory; we'll go get it later."

I shrugged, turned around, and headed out to work at Jin Sang Zi.

But as soon as I stepped out, I heard howling and clattering from Building 27 across the street, like a massive army in a chaotic battle.

The old squad leader rushed out, looked up, and said, "Brother Zu, it looks like your 302. Is someone causing trouble?"