A life of success begins with being a landlord.

"Nothing much, just brought my younger brother to meet Xiong-ge. I'll be relying on you for help in the future." Sister Li looked at me.

"Yaozu, have a couple more drinks with Xiong Ge."

I can't hold my liquor, so I can only manage a few drinks.

Sister Li personally joined in, drinking several cups with Dao Zai Xiong.

Dao Zaixiong could drink a lot and didn't hold back. Half an hour later, he was drunk, his eyes were glazed, and he started to slur his words.

"Brother, you still need to practice your drinking. Once you've built up your alcohol tolerance, I'll take you under my wing."

Dao Zixiong patted my shoulder, put his arm around the two women, and stood up to say goodbye: "I'm leaving, Sister Li. If you need anything, just give me a call. We're all family."

"Thank you, Xiong-ge. Take care."

Sister Li took me out to see the guests off.

After Daozai Xiong got into the car, we also took a taxi back.

Sister Li drank more than half a jin (250ml) of liquor and was quite drunk. She grabbed my arm as soon as she got in the car and started complaining about me:

"You brat, why didn't you take the woman Dao Zai Xiong offered you? By avoiding her, you're disrespecting Dao Zai Xiong. Luckily you're my brother, otherwise, Dao Zai Xiong would have stabbed you with a knife..."

"Sister Li, I... am not used to this kind of occasion."

"You'll get used to it eventually. Women here...are worthless, sigh."

Sister Li was half-lying on me, her eyes closed, murmuring, "By the way, Daozai Xiong and I are completely clean, we don't have anything, do you believe me?"

"I believe it."

Why wouldn't I believe it? It has nothing to do with me, and Sister Li isn't my wife.

"But what happened here, you're not allowed to tell anyone when you go back home, not even your parents... You're not allowed to tell them! If you're good, I'll give you money, lots of money..."

"Don't worry, Sister Li, I won't say anything."

I nodded.

Does it make any difference whether I say it or not? My second uncle saw right through Sister Li a long time ago, he saw it to the core.

Fortunately, it wasn't long before we were back on Sanlichuan Street, back downstairs at Building 27.

Before getting off the bus, Sister Li was already drunk. She threw her handbag at me and said, "There's money in my bag. You pay for the fare."

I gave her the money and helped Sister Li out of the car: "Sister Li, can you walk? Do you want me to carry you?"

"Just help me up... that's fine."

Sister Li stretched out her slender arm and hooked it around my neck.

I had no choice but to put my arm around Sister Li's waist and half-support her as we went upstairs.

When she reached the second-floor corner platform, Sister Li stopped to catch her breath:

"Yaozu, I'm treating tonight for two reasons. One is for you, to introduce you to Daozai Xiong, so things will be easier later... The other is for myself. 505... a few bastards have been living there for three months without paying rent. I... I went to ask for their money, and they... they even harassed me..."

"Is that so?"

I frowned: "Sister Li, I'll go collect the rent for you."

He didn't pay the rent and even harassed the landlady. How outrageous! A red-haired savage?

"Yes, go ask for it..."

Sister Li nodded: "If they still don't give it to us, then call... call Dao Zai Xiong... to kill these bastards! I pity them, otherwise... I would have already called Dao Zai Xiong to kill them..."

"Sister Li, let me help you back first."

I helped Sister Li upstairs.

Finally back in Sister Li's 302, I tossed Sister Li onto the sofa and breathed a sigh of relief.

Sister Li drank a glass of warm water, then lay down on the sofa, waving her hand and sighing.

"Yaozu, it's all your fault tonight... If you could drink more, I wouldn't have drunk so much... You'll have to work on your alcohol tolerance in the future..."

"Sister Li, do we need to drink a lot here?"

I really can't hold my liquor; three ounces of baijiu or three bottles of beer and I'm out.

But my second uncle taught me a recipe to increase my alcohol tolerance; if I wanted to, I could greatly increase it.

"Being able to drink...that's great, we're going to do big business in the future...we're going to make, make a lot of money..."

Sister Li finally succumbed to the effects of the alcohol and fell asleep on the sofa.

I fetched a thin blanket and covered Sister Li with it, not knowing what to do next.

Suddenly remembering what Sister Li mentioned about 505, I took out the account book to look at it.

They did owe three months' rent, totaling 1,500.

It was still early, not even nine o'clock, so I decided to go to room 505 to see if I could find those tenants.

So I took the ledger and key, went downstairs, took the third stairwell, and headed to room 505.

505 was in chaos, with constant noise, as if people were drinking and playing drinking games.

Knock knock knock.

I raised my hand and knocked on the door.

"Who the hell is this? What are you banging on?"

The door opened, and a blond-haired man in his early twenties, shirtless, glared at me menacingly.

Standing in front of the door, I could see three young people—two men and one woman—in the living room, all staring at me.

"I'm Hu Xiaoli's cousin, and I'm here to collect the rent."

I remained calm and composed: "You owe three months' rent; it's time to pay."

"I have no money!"

boom!

The door was slammed shut again.

It was definitely not a good thing.

Knock knock knock, knock knock knock!

I continued knocking on the door.

"Brother, are you deliberately trying to make things difficult for us?"

The blond-haired man opened the door again, sneering, "Why don't you come in and calculate how much money we owe you?"

Judging from his accent, he seems to be from Northeast China.

"Of course we need to calculate it."

I nodded and went inside.

There were two men and a woman in the room, all looking at me with hostility.

boom!

The blond-haired man behind him had already closed the door.

I glanced back at the blond-haired guy, walked over to the sofa, sat down, opened the ledger, and took out the rental contract: "For the past three months, you've only paid for utilities; you haven't paid a single penny of rent. Five hundred yuan a month, that's a total of one thousand five hundred."

"Brother, it's not that we don't want to give it to you, it's just that we haven't been able to raise the money lately."

The blond guy tossed me a cigarette: "Wait a little longer. I'll definitely send it to you as long as I have the money. Is your landlady, Little Fox, your cousin? Tell her."

Another young man, with long hair covering his face, walked onto the balcony, pulled out two gleaming machetes, and brandished them in his hands.

The blond-haired man looked at the long hair hanging on the balcony and asked, "Third brother, what are you doing with that knife?"

"Nothing much, my leg is a little itchy, I'm just scratching it."

The long-haired guy, called the third brother, rolled up his trousers, took a machete and shaved his leg hair, but his eyes were fixed on me, staring straight at me.

"You have to pay the rent."

I stood up: "I'll give you one day. I'll come back tomorrow night at this time."

Clang, clang!

The third brother with the long hair clashed his two machetes together, making a loud clanging sound, and glared at them, saying, "Come over tomorrow night, and I'll give you these two knives, okay?"

The blond-haired man's expression changed as well. He pointed at me and said, "Brother, we're just as unfortunate as you are. Don't drive us to our deaths. Driving us to our deaths won't do anyone any good."

"Get the money ready tomorrow night and wait for me."

I didn't say anything more and turned to leave.

Given the current situation, if I want to get the rent back, I'll have to fight.

Even if I could win against three opponents, it would be a lose-lose situation, not worth the effort.

But give me a day to prepare, and I can take care of these guys!

The blond-haired guy got there first, blocking the door and cutting off my way.

I frowned slightly: "What, you're not paying rent and you're planning to detain me?"