A life of success begins with being a landlord.

Kuai Dafa retorted, "Brother, don't make false accusations. Your house has always been like this. If you don't believe me, call Little Fox and ask. I haven't even come looking for you guys with this lousy house yet."

I pointed the key at Kuai Dafa: "Hu Xiaoli is my older sister. Next time, you're not allowed to call her 'Little Fox' or use her nickname!"

Actually, the nickname "Little Fox" isn't a big deal. Many people call her Sister Li by that name, including Fatty Sister-in-law.

I'm just annoyed by Kuai Dafa, so I'm picking a fight with him.

Kuai Dafa shrugged: "Fine, I won't say. What's the big deal?"

I turned around and pointed at the toilet: "Kuai Dafa, do you urinate sulfuric acid every day? That's why this toilet is like this!"

"What a joke, you're the one who pees sulfuric acid. This damn toilet is supposed to be like this." Kuai Dafa rolled his eyes.

I knew I couldn't get anywhere with that fatso, so I took out my phone and called Sister Li.

These things can only be clarified by asking Sister Li.

The call connected quickly, and I reported immediately:

"Sister Li, in apartment 404, the bathroom floor tiles are all cracked, and several pieces have fallen off, no wonder it's leaking. The toilet bowl is also full of cracks. Kuai Dafa said that the bathroom and toilet were always like this..."

"He's talking nonsense!"

Sister Li was furious: "When he moved in two years ago, the bathroom and toilet were perfectly fine. What is this bastard doing? Is he trying to tear my house down?"

I put the phone on speakerphone, held it up, and watched how that bastard Kuai Dafa would try to argue his way out of this.

Kuai Dafa opened his mouth, then sighed while looking at his phone:

"All houses are like this, how can they not break down? If all houses didn't break down, how could anyone live in a house for ten thousand years? Besides, it's obvious that your renovation was substandard, but you're blaming me."

That fatso's mouth is so hard it can't be cooked or boiled!

Sister Li cursed, "Bullshit! Let your father smell it! Everyone else's houses are fine, but yours is the only one that's broken? It's your chemicals that ruined the floor tiles! You better fix it right now!"

The fat man's face flushed red and then turned pale; he wanted to turn hostile but didn't dare.

Not wanting Sister Li to be so rude, I interjected, "Sister Li, I haven't finished checking yet. I'll call you back after I'm done."

After hanging up the phone, I pointed to the floor and the toilet: "Kuai Dafa, your chemicals have ruined the floor and even the concrete slab. The downstairs neighbor is leaking a lot. This is a significant loss."

Kuai Dafa rolled his eyes: "What medicine? I'm using fixer from hospitals and printing plants, the water used for developing films, it's not corrosive."

Fixing solution?

I've only seen this word in books, and I don't know what it actually means.

But I'll use twisted logic: "If the film can be developed, you still say it's not corrosive? If it's not corrosive, then drink a bowl of the black liquid you brought back and show me."

Kuai Dafu stamped his foot in frustration: "Isn't this nonsense? Who said it's drinkable just because it doesn't contain anything corrosive?"

Without further ado, I squatted down, picked up a loose tile, and scraped it across the cement floor.

Good heavens, the cement has turned to dust!

How can the building downstairs not leak?

"Kuai Dafu, come and see for yourself! You've already broken through the floorboards and caused them to collapse!"

I was shocked and heartbroken, even though it wasn't my house.

Kuai Dafa didn't care: "I know, I'll be more careful in the future."

I was furious: "Just be careful? You've ruined the bathroom floor! It needs to be re-poured with concrete! Kuai Dafu, even ten thousand yuan isn't enough to pay for it!"

The chemical seeped into the concrete, essentially ruining the entire bathroom floor.

"I'll discuss it with your older sister when she gets back."

Kuai Dafa took out his phone, looked at it, and bowed to me: "Brother, I need to go out on errands right now, please let me go, okay?"

"No!"

I flatly refused: "Apartment 304 downstairs is no longer habitable. You need to come up with a solution to this today!"

Kuai Dafa started acting like a spoiled child again: "So what do you want to do? Do you want to kill someone?"

"You fatso, are you cheating?"

I got angry too, and I pointed at Kuai Dafa: "If you don't handle this properly today, don't even think about leaving this place. Go ahead and try. Don't let my past injury fool you; I can take care of you now!"

As they were talking, someone knocked on the door.

I turned around and opened the door; it was the two tenants from room 304 downstairs.

Kuai Dafa was very wary and tried to block the door: "What are you doing? Strangers aren't allowed in my house!"

"You fatso, get out of here! Your bathroom is leaking, and you won't let anyone see it?"

I glared at them and let the two downstairs in: "You've come at the right time, come and see Kuai Dafa's bathroom."

The two people downstairs nodded and went into room 404.

One of them glanced at the bathroom, then yelled, "No wonder it's leaking! All the floor tiles are ruined!"

Another person hesitated and said, "The bathroom floor tiles and the toilet look like... caused by alkali."

Caustic soda?

I suddenly realized what was going on, turned around, picked up the two plastic buckets from the bathroom, and went to the living room.

Kuai Dafa came up and shoved me: "That's my medicine, it's very expensive, don't touch it!"

I stood up: "You fatso, my knife wounds haven't healed yet. If you touch them and reopen them, don't blame me for being ruthless!"

Kuai Dafa, as expected, didn't dare touch me again, and said with a mournful face, "The bathroom is broken, I'll fix it, why did you touch my things?"

I carefully examined a plastic bucket, and sure enough, inside the plastic bags were pieces of white caustic soda.

I recognize this thing because the butcher next door to my hometown used it when he slaughtered pigs.

Butchers in the countryside often buy cheap old sows, slaughter them as live pigs, and sell the meat to make a dirty profit.

However, if customers buy the pigs and find that the skin doesn't soften when cooked, they will suspect that it's from an old sow and come to the butcher to cause trouble.

The butcher later got clever. After slaughtering the sow, he would mix caustic soda with water and rub it on the pigskin. This way, the pigskin would fall apart easily when boiled!

I often helped Lao Ma slaughter pigs, so I learned about the secrets of this industry and also became familiar with caustic soda.

This stuff is incredibly powerful. If you dilute it with water and put it in a porcelain bowl, the bowl will crack. If you dilute it with water and pour it on a cement floor, the floor will crumble into powder within a few days.

That's probably where the cracks in Kuai Dafa's toilet came from!

I kicked the plastic bucket: "Kuai Dafu, tell me, is this caustic soda corrosive? You're putting this stuff in the bathroom, are you trying to demolish this building?"

Kuai Dafa was still trying to argue, saying that it was a spare and had never been used.

"Stop talking nonsense."

I didn't have the patience to argue with Kuai Dafa: "Go find some workers right now and fix the bathroom for me."

Kuai Dafa started pretending to be dead, sitting in the living room wiping away tears, saying that I had bullied him, that he always paid the rent on time, and for three months at a time...

"Kuai Dafa, crying won't help."

I was unwavering: "If you're in a hurry, that's fine too. Just give me a five thousand dollar deposit, and I'll find some workers to repair the bathroom."

"Five thousand dollars? Are you robbing me?"

Kuai Dafa jumped up, leaping high into the air: "I'll come fix it this afternoon, okay?"

I lit a cigarette: "It's afternoon now, you can fix it."

Kuai Dafa opened his mouth, then suddenly knelt down in front of me with a thud:

"Brother, please let me off the hook, okay? I'll get someone to fix it tomorrow. If they don't, you're as good as a fool, alright? If you keep pushing me like this, you're really going to kill me!"