Tag: Retiring From the Circle to Collect Rent Everyday

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

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You’ll understand how fierce a person is when they’re unable to win an argument—his old man perfectly embodied that sentence!

Xie Zhengtian said smugly, “If they don’t give any, then that’s that; it’s not like I’ll laugh at you or anything, hahaha.”

Xie Zhengtian felt an extreme sense of satisfaction; his dad was always proud of his real estate investments, yet the result was that he never received any dividends either, hahaha.

The community dividends could only come from the property management side. Father Xie had heard of the Tiansheng Property Management that was responsible for the apartment that his son had bought. He also knew that the boss, Yang Guofa, was a notoriously stingy guy; so how could it be possible for that person to spit out the fatty meat he had already gotten into his mouth?

“Dad, I won’t talk to you anymore; I’m busy expanding my social network,” Xie Zhengtian had won an argument against his father today and felt quite pleased, “I’ll hang up first then.”

Xie Zhengtian saw Xu Yao who was busy with something nearby. She had just received her share of the community dividends for the past five years, which seemed to total around four to five hundred thousand.

Xie Zhengtian, no longer calling her Little Sister Yao, suggested, “Yao Yao, just consider it as having picked up tens of thousands for free; let’s go shopping at the mall!”

Xu Yao owned three entire buildings in the Tai’an community, making her the largest property owner in the entire community. Thus, in Xie Zhengtian’s view, the property dividends naturally belonged to her too.

Although four to five hundred thousand in their circle was indeed only small change to them, it could still buy the kind of luxury handbag that appealed to young girls. Xie Zhengtian’s invitation was made purely with the intention of getting to know Xu Yao.

Xu Yao raised her head and said seriously, “I won’t embezzle.”

Xie Zhengtian was stunned: “?” Embezzle? How could this be called embezzlement? Wasn’t this from her own properties?!

Some owners in the Tai’an Community had already gone to the property management office with their property deeds and ID cards, wanting to see just what sort of tricks this trash property management wanted to pull.

The owners of the entire community all held deeply resentment toward Tiansheng Property Management; they charged such high management fees, yet were so stingy. In other communities, you might even receive a can of oil or a sack of rice if you paid the property management fee for the whole year in full; but if you were with Tiansheng Property Management? You could forget about even receiving anything in return.

This property management company seemed to be intent on slacking off with an nonchalant attitude, as if they were simply unafraid of getting bitten despite there being so many lice¹. The management fee had to be paid, but don’t expect them to send anything, ha.

“I live in Unit 1303 of Building 7,” an uncle walked into the property management office, reported his address, and stated his name, looking puzzled as he asked, “What dividends are you talking about? How come I’ve never heard of it before?”

The property management staff asked the owner to take out his property deed and ID card to confirm his identity, then checked and said, “Our community’s dividends are calculated based on the area of your property. Mr. Wang, your family is eligible to receive 3,345 yuan spanning over the past five years. Please confirm and sign here and we’ll transfer that amount to you.”

As the staff spoke, they pushed the bill in front of the owner for him to confirm.

The uncle looked at them as if he had seen a ghost: “Is this your property management company going bankrupt or avoiding arrest?”

The property management staff who fell silent instantly: “…”

Forget it; who in the property management sector hasn’t been subjected to a homeowners’ sarcastic remarks?

After the uncle signed the confirmation, the staff transferred the money to him on the spot.

The uncle looked at the WeChat transfer information he had just received, still a bit dazed: “Is the property management actually doing something human? How strange.”

As more and more property owners went to the property management office for confirmation, even the owners of the smallest units received at least a four-digit dividend since it had accumulated over five years.

Elderly men and women gathered in the community’s exercise area, discussing this matter with great interest; it was undoubtedly the biggest news in the Tai’an Community today.

The trash property management had actually turned over a new leaf! It was simply unbelievable!

“Are they giving dividends because our community is filming some sort of home life variety show? I just saw some stars from the entertainment industry enter Building 3,” an old lady said, turning the exercise wheel in front of her and speaking to the old friend beside her.

These old ladies didn’t understand what directors or photographers were, so they just referred to them collectively as ‘stars from the entertainment industry.’

“This property management has always been shameless, yet they’re actually afraid of being exposed by a variety show?”

It was indeed quite strange; there wasn’t any publicity surrounding the community at all, yet without rhyme or reason, they suddenly announced that they’d be distributing dividends to everyone today.

This kind of thing was what the media loved the most. Journalists who caught wind of it rushed over for interviews and filming, and sure enough, it didn’t take long for the news to spread.

# Haicheng Community Property Management Dividends in the Millions #

[Haicheng Watch: According to reports, a property management company in Haicheng has recently distributed millions in dividends to over a thousand of its community’s property owners… Conducting a small survey: does your property management give you dividends?]

The media even attached several photos of the property management office’s dividend distribution.

Netizens were so envious their eyes were almost red!

[The community giving out dividends? There are property owners who even receive thousands in dividends? I really want to @ my property management to come out and get beaten up; if I say anymore I’ll burst into tears.]

[Why is the community giving out dividends? I’ve lived in a community for over ten years, and the most I get is a sack of rice when I pay the management fee. Are they doing this just for show?]

[+1, I also never knew that a community would distribute dividends.]

Of course, some netizens working in property management came out to explain: [Actually, 90% of communities have advertisements, both inside and outside the elevator waiting area, at the main entrance, not to mention the revenue they also receive from parking spaces. The common area within the community does indeed belong to the property owners, so this part of the revenue, after deducting costs, truly does belong to the owners.]

However, in a hundred communities, it’s hard to find even one that would give out dividends.

Netizens reading this couldn’t help but feel envious; what kind of divine property management is this?

Many prospective homebuyers couldn’t help but leave comments asking what kind of property management this community had, as they might consider it in the future.

After all, when buying a house now, the service attitude of the property management is also very important.

[It’s Tiansheng Property Management. However, I’m a property owner in the Tai’an community and I’m telling you; don’t ever buy a property with Tiansheng Property Management—you’ll regret it to death if you do.]

There were also angry netizens online cursing, trying their best to stop potential homebuyers from jumping into the fire pit:

[Don’t buy properties associated with Tiansheng Property Management +1; this trash property management is just as bad as they say, doing nothing all day, and when something breaks, it takes them nearly two months to fix it. I want to curse this trash property management to death!]

[I’m also a home owner in the Tai’an community. To be honest, Tiansheng Property Management is really terrible. Giving out dividends—I don’t know if they’ve gone insane for them to do such a thing.]

……

Netizens were a bit dumbfounded as a bunch of owners from the Tai’an community came forward to share their experiences. Ah this…

Such a trash property management, and they still give dividends? Ermmmm, do you think this is normal?

[Let’s not mention anything else—although the dividends are a fact, you still need to buy a house to get them. Only by buying a house can you possibly get these dividends; renting a house means paying rent and management fees without any return. In any case, it won’t benefit the renters.]

[Yeah, those who bought houses can still fantasise about when their community will distribute dividends while we renters don’t even dare to think about it.]

Many variety show fans quickly caught on to the community’s name; isn’t this the community where the only renting participant in “My Home Life” lives?

Could it be because of the variety show?

When the director saw this news, he was quite puzzled; they indeed made headlines because Sheng Zhou owed rent, but could a variety show like theirs really affect a property management company? Wasn’t this simply too ridiculous?

How could a small director like him influence a company’s CEO? No matter how he thought about it, he simply couldn’t make sense of it!

The director could only say that the timing was too coincidental.

Zhou Qi’s rented apartment wasn’t large by any means, so with the production team’s filming equipment, the suite ended up too cramped. To ensure the place still had ventilation, they simply left the main door open.

Zhou Qi mentioned that the apartment across from his was vacant, so they didn’t need to worry about disturbing the neighbours.

Dissatisfied with the small space and poor ventilation, the director simply found a small stool in the corridor to sit on to get some fresh air.

As the director gazed out at the scenery outside the corridor, he became somewhat distracted, his mind filled with the tragic events of the show being sabotaged. Suddenly, he heard the sound of the elevator arriving on their floor and the doors opening from the direction of the elevator hall.

While he was still lamenting his miserable life, a trembling hand rested on the director’s shoulder, shaking him repeatedly with the voice becoming increasingly urgent, “Director, stop looking at the scenery, she’s here, Xu… Xu Yao is here!”

The director, who was already feeling somewhat melancholic, immediately felt irritated, but upon hearing the two words, ‘Xu Yao,’ was instantly startled awake and hurriedly looked over.

Appearing at the elevator hall entrance, Xu Yao led a group of people toward them, even having the mood to smile brightly at them.

Damn, wasn’t this the group that Xu Yao brought last time when she collected rent from Sheng Zhou? The director’s face turned pale in an instant; the production team had a vivid memory of that tall, handsome bodyguard who was nearly two meters tall.

As Xu Yao approached, the director felt like crying, “Miss, Miss Xu, hello, hello.”

Why did she end up coming here again?

Xu Yao couldn’t help but touch her fair and smooth cheek beneath her sunglasses, feeling somewhat depressed, “Am I really that scary?”

Just look at how terrified a director of a variety show had become.

Xu Yao quickly cheered herself up again— just look at this, retiring from the industry was definitely the right move. After all, which director would react like this if she were still an artist in the industry?

[??? Xu Yao? Why is she here again? I have a bad feeling about this…]

[Damn, I just started to like this little brother, Zhou Qi. This guy can’t be behind on rent too, can he? Am I at the site of another instant crash?]

[The production team should have investigated after the incident with Sheng Zhou, right? There won’t be another mishap, right?]

[Ahhh no, the point I’m focusing on is: why did Xu Yao come all the way here to collect rent? Is this also one of her properties?? Just how many properties does she have?]

Without Sheng Zhou, the fans of the variety show had dispersed themselves among the various remaining guests. With Zhou Qi also gaining some fans through the show, his career seemed to slowly get back on track.

The director couldn’t help but walk over and quietly ask, “You haven’t fallen behind on rent, have you?”

Zhou Qi shook his head vigorously. He paid his rent on time every month and had never missed a payment. It was just that this month’s property management fee…

Zhou Qi’s expression was somewhat unnatural, but he was the one that really wanted to cry! It wasn’t that he didn’t want to pay the property fee; as soon as Sheng Zhou’s incident happened, he had immediately transferred the property management fee, but it was the landlord that refused to accept it!

Seeing Zhou Qi’s expression, the director’s heart sank. No way, it couldn’t be, right?

Their production team couldn’t possibly be this unlucky, first being sabotaged by a former top star, then by a regular person, right?

“Miss Yao Yao, this is the room where you can take a break.” Lu Ye held a tablet specifically for rent collection, confirming that the apartment across from Zhou Qi was still vacant.

An employee next to him lifted a belt full of keys, rummaging through it for nearly a minute before finally finding the key. “Miss Yao Yao, I’ve found the key to this apartment.”

[…Seeing that belt full of keys, I fell silent.]

[So Xu Yao is going to the unit across from Zhou Qi, not looking for Zhou Qi, right? I was scared to death, I thought a regular person was crashing as well.]

[Oh my god, does that mean this whole bunch of keys belongs to Xu Yao? That adds up to at least dozens of properties, right?!! And that doesn’t even include luxury homes like those with fingerprint locks in Haicheng!]

[This girl holds dozens of properties; no wonder she’s so arrogant, saying she would retire from the industry…]

As soon as Xu Yao appeared in the corridor, the attention of the fans in the live broadcast shifted entirely to her.

Xu Yao instructed Lu Ye to open the door. This apartment had not yet been rented out, but the inside was fully furnished.

Xie Zhengtian was just about to step inside when Xu Yao, who was following behind, suddenly stopped, turned her head, and looked at the nervous Zhou Qi inside. “Since you’re here, I’ll give you the community dividend now.”

Dividend? What dividend?

The director had seen the news about the Tai’an community dividend and remembered that Zhou Qi was the only guest on the show renting a place. He was immediately stunned and blurted out, “Isn’t he renting?” What dividend could you possibly get as a renter? That’s something only legitimate home owners are entitled to receive.

[??? What’s going on? Could it be that this apartment isn’t rented by Zhou Qi, but is under his personal name? Damn, I initially had an urge to pamper him when I first saw him in the trailer and thought him confessing that he was renting while participating in the show was quite magnanimous of him.]

[I’m convinced; I said when Zhou Qi saw Xu Yao earlier, he looked so nervous it looked like he was constipated.]

[Did the director not check the almanac before filming this variety show? How did he encounter so many mishaps? Xu Yao is like a plague; wherever she goes, someone gets unlucky.]

[Speechless, so Zhou Qi was pretending to rent to gain attention for the show, and now the prelude to a crash seems to be looming ahead again?]

Zhou Qi was nearly scared to death, insisting, “I am renting! I really am renting the apartment!”

Of course Xu Yao knew he was renting. She took the tablet from Lu Ye’s hand and looked at his information: “Zhou Qi, started renting six months ago and paid this quarter’s rent a week ago. Then just transfer the dividend for this half of the year.”

Xu Yao took out her phone and said to Zhou Qi, “I’ll transfer you four hundred yuan for the community dividend via WeChat; remember to accept it.”

After saying that, Xu Yao led her rent-collecting team into the apartment across the hall to take a break, the door closing gently with a soft click.

Everyone on site was momentarily stunned, unable to react until they heard the notification alert from Zhou Qi’s WeChat.

Zhou Qi couldn’t help but take out his phone to check. The landlord had refunded the property management fee he had previously paid and had been returned to his account a few days ago. Not to mention just a minute ago, she had also transferred him four hundred yuan!

Zhou Qi looked at the landlord’s WeChat profile picture, which was a selfie of Xu Yao. He had previously thought the landlord was a fan of Xu Yao, but now it seemed… his landlord was actually Xu Yao herself!

After all this time, it turned out that he, like Sheng Zhou, had ended up renting Xu Yao’s property?

Zhou Qi stared at the freshly transferred four hundred yuan, somewhat confused as he repeated, “I really am… just a tenant.”

Renting a house and still getting dividends? What kind of bodhisattva is this?

[Fuckkkkk, there are hardly any communities in the country that give out dividends, yet Xu Yao still shares it with the tenants? Does she have so much money she doesn’t know what to do with it? Or is her sense of morality just too strong?]

[Although four hundred yuan isn’t much, just looking at that long string of keys Xu Yao had just now means that she must have quite a few properties in the Tai’an community. If it’s accumulated dividends over five years, it should be in the six figures, right? That’s not a small amount, yet she’s willing to share it with the tenants…]

[Wasn’t there even a bunch of people that said they were afraid of renting from Xu Yao because they might damage the furniture and get into trouble with her earlier?]

[Wuwuwuwuwu², this is exactly the sort of treatment I thought proper landlords were meant to observe! Xu Yao, I’m really crying to death—if anyone speaks badly of Xu Yao again, I will be the first to disagree!]

…

Meanwhile, inside, Xie Zhengtian clicked his tongue in amazement, genuinely impressed, “You really did end up sharing it with those tenants, huh, Yao Yao?”

Lu Ye and several other employees were sitting at the desk, confirming all the tenants who had rented from the Tai’an community over the past five years.

The community’s advertisements were actually calculated monthly, just like the rent, so as long as they figured out which tenants rented during which time periods and matched the monthly dividend earnings, they’d be all set.

Xu Yao sat down on the fabric sofa in plain grey, feeling a bit uncomfortable as she adjusted her posture, thinking it wasn’t as comfortable as her own sofa.

Xu Yao looked around the clean and tidy suite and sighed, “Just because they’re renting a house, doesn’t mean they’re inferior to others.”

After quick transmigrating 999 times, many of her transmigrations were started in poverty or difficult situations. She had rented countless homes and had encountered extremely terrible landlords. At least now, since she was a landlord herself, she definitely wouldn’t be that kind of landlord.

“Besides, it’s not like it’s me who sees those advertisements every day when coming to and from home; it’s those tenants.”

Xie Zhengtian turned to look at Xu Yao, who was nestled on the not-so-comfortable fabric sofa and changing her position repeatedly. He couldn’t help but give her a thumbs up, “That’s quite self sacrificing of you.”

Xie Zhengtian had originally planned to get to know Xu Yao to expand his social network, but now he genuinely wanted to be friends with her! Her work ethic and vision were both higher than his.

Seeing that he couldn’t help with anything, Xie Zhengtian simply sat down next to Xu Yao, “Wanna play a game? Shall we play a round together?”

Xu Yao glanced at Lu Ye and the others who were calculating the dividends and realised they might not have enough hands on deck. It seemed like she could hire more people to help her collect rent.

“Sure.”

Xu Yao took out her phone and sat on the other side of the sofa with Xie Zhengtian. Then she added Xie Zhengtian as a friend and started playing the game.

Xie Zhengtian talked a lot while playing games, and after a few rounds, he had already spilled everything about his family, even mentioning how his father was stressed out over the new short video platform he had just started.

Xu Yao recalled the plot of the original novel; Xie Zhengtian appearance in the plot was due to his family’s own financial issues, causing him to seek help from Xu Jing. Could it be because of his dad’s involvement in the short video platform sector?

Xu Yao’s slender fingers controlled the hero’s avatar as she chimed in casually, “Oh, so that’s the situation? A while ago, I also happened to invest in a short drama that’s quite suitable for airing on short video platforms. What do you think about your Shark Short Videos opening a special column for us? Just treat it as a small collaboration? Hurry up and use your ultimate move, bro!!”

Xie Zhengtian didn’t know what a short drama was, but as he was trying to make friends, he was also willing to show this bit of sincerity, “Sure… but let me say this first—my dad’s short video platform is lacking in many areas, and there aren’t many users… What the, quickly heal up!”

After playing for a while, Xu Yao even bought herself a few skins³, and only then did she log off at Lu Ye’s inquiry.

“Miss Yao Yao, everything has been settled. Would you like to verify it? We’re ready to transfer the funds now.”

Xu Yao didn’t bother to check; she trusted their work capabilities.

They had retained all the information of the tenants who had rented her properties in Tai’an community over the past five years along with the tenants’ phone numbers.

In this day and age, phone numbers were all registered under real names, so it was rare for people to have changed them.

Lu Ye and the others then shortly transferred the community dividends to each tenant via the online payment method that was linked to their phone numbers.

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pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

Yuan Yiqing, an ordinary office worker, was striving hard to live in the bustling and population dense Haicheng. As usual, she dragged her weary body out of the subway and walked back towards her home.

When she arrived at the entrance, she unexpectedly saw her landlord, exclaiming in surprise, “Landlady Auntie, what brought you here? Are you here to check the unit? You can rest assured; I’ve maintained the furniture very well and haven’t damaged anything. Let me open the door for you right now.”

The landlady was a middle-aged woman who gave a somewhat awkward smile, “Little Yuan, it’s like this; our daughter-in-law gave birth two days ago, and we plan to take back the house for her to do her postpartum confinement⁴ care here. You need to hurry up and tidy up here so you can vacate the place.”

Yuan Yiqing was taken aback, finding it a bit unbelievable, saying, “Auntie, I’ve only just rented this place! On what grounds do you want me to move out?”

Hearing this, the landlady’s expression immediately soured, “It’s my house; can’t I make the decisions regarding it anymore? Is my daughter-in-law and grandson not more important than you? Aren’t you just looking to get your deposit back? I’ll refund you, but you need to move out quickly. My daughter-in-law will be discharged from the hospital in a couple of days to do her confinement here.”

After saying this, the landlady left. Yuan Yiqing wearily returned to her rented unit, curling up on the small single sofa, frantically searching Baidu⁵ about how to claim compensation if a landlord breached the contract. After days of working non-stop at the company, she was utterly exhausted. The more she searched, the more aggrieved she felt, with tears as big as beans soon rolling down her cheeks.

Landlords are all terrible people!

She missed her mom.

Ding~

Yuan Yiqing casually wiped the tears from her face, her reddened nose sniffling as she checked her messages. Initially thinking it was a push notification, she paused.

Online payment transfer?

She received a transfer of 1,021 yuan!

Yuan Yiqing’s first reaction was that she had encountered a scam, but then who would’ve thought that the other party would even include a message—

“Yuan Yiqing, 202X Tai’an community dividends.”

With tears still hanging halfheartedly on her eyelashes, Yuan Yiqing stared blankly at the message.

Gradually, she began to have some sort of impression of it; she had indeed rented in the Tai’an community for a year in Building 3 before, but later had to change residences as her new job was too far away.

At that time, she had never met the landlord, only having heard that the landlord was very wealthy and owned many properties, never concerning themselves about them as the tenants.

What’s going on??

What is a community dividend?

Yuan Yiqing couldn’t help but search for the term ‘Taian community dividend’ on Weibo, wanting to see what was happening, and was soon stunned by the news that was updating in real-time.

[Is there anyone who has rented a house in Tai’an community before? This afternoon, I suddenly received a payment on my Alipay, saying it was my community dividend!]

There were many replies under this Weibo post from users who were in the same situation: [Sister, you received it too? Two years ago, I also rented a unit in Tai’an community for half a year, and I received over four hundred as well.]

[So it turns out it wasn’t just me; I got it too! I saw the trending topic on Weibo this morning but didn’t pay much attention to it. After all, I’m just a tenant, such good fortune like dividends couldn’t possibly fall on us.]

[Wuwuwuwu, what’s going on? I also rented a unit in Tai’an community, why didn’t I receive a community dividend? Sisters, which building was the unit you rented in before?]

The bunch of replies from netizens all said they had rented a place in Building 3.

[By the way, did you guys notice? The transfer sender is [*Yao]. Could it be… Xu Yao?]

Having Yao as the last character in a name is quite rare, with the key point being that someone had seen Xu Yao appear in Tai’an community today on the variety show “My Home Life”!

A group of fans couldn’t help but rush to Xu Yao’s Weibo comment section to leave messages: [Xu Yao, did you transfer the community dividend to former tenants of Tai’an community today?]

This comment was posted by Yuan Yiqing, and whether or not it was because her luck was good, her question ended up being liked by many netizens, with the likes continuously increasing, subsequently pushing it to the top of the comment section.

The hashtag #XuYaoTransfersCommunityDividendToTenants# also climbed to the trending topics on Weibo.

[…Holy shit, I just saw her transfer the community dividend to Zhou Qi this morning and thought she was just showing off, but turns out she really did it?]

[Ahhh, oh my god, I received it too! Yes, yes, yes, I rented for three months in Tai’an community four years ago, and I got over a hundred bucks.]

[I received it in my Alipay as well. Wuwuwuwu, I had a terrible day today, but this made me cheer up in an instant, I can’t help but want to become a fan of Xu Yao!]

[What kind of divine landlord is Xu Yao? Ahhh save me, if it weren’t for the fact that Tai’an community is too far from my current workplace, I would definitely rent her place.]

More and more netizens who had previously rented in Building 3 of Tai’an community came out to share this sudden joy.

This morning, when they first saw something about the community dividend, they didn’t even dare to imagine it; but who knew happiness would come so quickly? Xu Yao really transferred the dividends!

Regardless of if the tenant had rented three months or five years ago, they all received it. Doesn’t it just… feel so miraculous?

Not to mention… just how many properties does Xu Yao actually have? Just the tenants appearing in the Weibo inquiries add up to nearly a hundred! The key point is they are all from Building 3 of the Tai’an community; surely the whole building couldn’t be hers, right?

As the person involved, Xu Yao remained oblivious to the overwhelming inquiries online. She took her rental team to a very luxurious hot pot restaurant in Haicheng for dinner. Xu Yao was very satisfied with the beef there; it only needed a quick dip in the hot pot to cook and was particularly tender.

It wasn’t until late at night when she was escorted back to Haicheng Bay No. 1 by Lu Ye that Xu Yao lay back in the round bubble-filled bathtub, and came across Yuan Yiqing’s question while leisurely scrolling through her phone. Her question, which had been liked by many netizens, had already climbed to the top of the comment section and had also made it to two trending topics. Xu Yao’s eyes lit up instantly.

Wasn’t this just the perfect moment for her to promote her business?!

After all, it’s necessary to note that although she was a landlord with hundreds of buildings to her name, two thirds of those properties hadn’t even been rented out!

Yuan Yiqing was still searching for what to do if the landlord breaches the contract when suddenly a notification popped up on her phone—Xu Yao seemed to have responded!

Yuan Yiqing’s heart couldn’t help but race as she quickly clicked in to check.

[Xu Yao v: I own multiple properties in various locations, a professional rental company with sincere treatment to old and young alike. Please contact the team’s phone number if you have the intention to rent.]

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fun fact abt confinement — my mum did it twice when she gave birth to me, then when she gave birth to my brother, and she said she nearly went insane bc my grandma—her mum— is insane about the restrictions. she wasn’t allowed to wash her hair for a month and had to sneak around with my dad so he could cover for her while she washed her hair GHSDIFKS while i do think there’s some truth in doing confinement since your body does lose lots of nutrients and blood during childbirth and most of confinement is about consuming food that replenishes blood and nutrients, i could never go a month without washing my hair GSDFLIJSJ

1. 虱子多了不怕咬 (proverb) (lit.) too many lice won’t bite. (fig.) it means that things have reached a point where they cannot be changed and one has no choice but to let things take their course ↩︎
2. sobbing onomatopoeia ↩︎
3. in game cosmetics that you can buy for your character to change their appearance. ↩︎
4. confinement is commonly observed in china where the pregnant mother will recover for a month after childbirth, following a special diet, and observing various taboos to protect the body from exposure to the “wind” ↩︎
5. baidu is a search engine; pretty much chinese equivalent to google ↩︎

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

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These past few days have been the hardest for Sheng Zhou. The variety shows and brand endorsements he cared about the most all announced their termination of contracts with him, and his career came to a standstill almost instantly.

Sheng Zhou hurriedly moved out of his luxury home, only to be urged by Xu Yao’s side about the compensation at market value. Many unique items had to be valued based on estimated future appreciation since they could not be purchased, and it seemed only a matter of time before he ended up broke.

Sheng Zhou’s mental state was stretched to the limit, and he didn’t know who ended up posting and leaking a blurry video of him drunk online. In the video, Sheng Zhou choked back tears as he self-reproached, “I definitely shouldn’t have rented a luxury home, and I definitely shouldn’t have rented Xu Yao’s house…”

This video made many people sigh; the former top star had fallen to such a state in just a few days.

[Let’s not mention Sheng Zhou’s disgraceful act of owing rent; renting from a meticulous landlord like Xu Yao is indeed terrifying. If you accidentally bump into something, the tenant would probably end up compensating it to death, right?]

[Who told Sheng Zhou to damage someone else’s luxury home? I say he deserves it.]

[This situation brings back bad memories. When I graduated, I rented for the first time and encountered a penny-pinching landlord. The faucet was old and ended up breaking, so I paid to fix it myself, but the landlord deducted a hundred bucks from my deposit for the ‘poor quality’ faucet I replaced it with. QAQ]

[Tenants in Xu Yao’s urban village, be careful! If you damage her second-hand furniture, you might end up paying a fortune!]

Qu Xi was very angry looking at these comments. Many short dramas were filmed at night, so Qu Xi slept in the morning and missed Xu Yao’s live stream collecting rent at Haicheng Shangpin.

Qu Xi’s cheeks puffed up in anger: “Yao Yao is not a penny-pinching landlord!”

Qu Xi lived in the Bay City No. 1 that Xu Yao lent her. A few days ago, while mopping the floor, she accidentally bumped into a small extravagant floor lamp, shattering the frosted glass lampshade as well as the bulb inside. Qu Xi was immediately scared stupid and froze.

When she hurriedly checked online, she felt like dying. That small little luxury floor lamp was worth eighty thousand!

Qu Xi almost cried as she called Xu Yao, already prepared to use her salary for the next two years to pay Xu Yao back. However, Xu Yao was very concerned and asked, “Did you get hurt?”

“As long as you’re not hurt, it’s fine. You didn’t break it on purpose,” Xu Yao thought for a moment and added, “Don’t mop the floor anymore. I’ll have my housekeeper come over every day after finishing her work to help you out.”

After moving into the mansion, Qu Xi seriously considered one thing—

Cleaning such a large luxury home was really hard work.

Qu Xi was so touched she burst into tears, sobbing, “Wuwuwu, Yao Yao is so nice, how can I ever repay you?”

Xu Yao remained calm: “You’ll have the opportunity to when you become famous.”

Qu Xi sniffled, feeling confused. When she becomes famous? She didn’t even know if she would ever be famous in her lifetime!

So Qu Xi was very angry about these online comments. Xu Yao was definitely not a penny-pinching landlord; Sheng Zhou was simply self-destructive, not only owing rent but also deliberately damaging the furniture in the mansion!

Qu Xi was quite worried about this. “Yao Yao, what if others are afraid to rent your place because of this?”

Qu Xi still remembered Xu Yao’s platinum business card, which had the words “Professional Rental” on it!

Xu Yao smiled confidently at her words: “That’s impossible.”

Since she retired to this world to enjoy her life as a landlord, she would be the very best landlord that she could be!

Qu Xi didn’t think much of it, just assuming that time would reveal people’s true nature. She then worriedly said, “The short drama ‘Yin Fate‘ is about to finish filming. I wonder if anyone will even watch it?”

After all, it was just a short drama, barely over an hour long when combined. The energised Zuo Ning could finish filming it all in just ten days.

Xu Yao was very confident about this short drama. After the script was revised, the quality of the plot was solid, and with Zuo Ning having her investment, the outcome would only be better.

*

Counting the days, Xu Yao clearly remembered that today was the day wherfe her pension would be distributed to her.

Little 6 popped up right on time: [Detected that the host is having a hard time enjoying retirement in this world. The Quick Transmigration Bureau feels guilty and has specially issued a pension of ten million this month.]

Xu Yao’s eyes lit up instantly. Ten million in pension?

For the sister of a tycoon, ten million wasn’t much, but pensions would increase! As long as she lived long enough, it would keep growing.

Previously, Little 6 said it would apply for more pension for her. Xu Yao had thought it would be at most six million, but she had never expected it to be ten million.

Seeing the freshly deposited ten million in her bank account, Xu Yao suddenly had an idea—

Could it be that by being a ‘hardworking’ landlord, she could eventually reap the benefits from the Quick Transmigration Bureau and become the world’s richest person?

Little 6 was instantly dumbfounded: [???]

No, host, what are you thinking?!

It detected that the host was having a hard time collecting rent every day, so it submitted an application to the Quick Transmigration Bureau for a pension increase!

As a little spirit assisting with retirement, Little 6 was new to the job and was a bit flustered: [Host, you can go enjoy shopping now and go buy buy buy.]

Little 6 had heard from its peers that the standard for determining whether the Quick Transmigration Bureau retirees were enjoying their retirement was based on how much they shopped. The host should be buying luxury bags, beautiful clothes, and shiny jewellery, not running around every day for tenants!

Having made up her mind to crazily exploit the Quick Transmigration Bureau’s resources in the future, Xu Yao remained calm: “No, I need to help my tenants deal with the trash property management issue now.”

As a qualified landlord, isn’t it normal for her to help resolve the difficulties and property issues of her tenants?

An employee knocked and walked in, reporting, “Miss Yao Yao, Mr. Xie Zhengtian, one of the owners from Tai’an Community, has arrived.”

A young man wearing a loose white sweatshirt and expensive sneakers walked in. When he saw Xu Yao, his eyes lit up, “Hello, neighbour.”

Xie Zhengtian had also appeared in the the original text and had entered the scene by seeking help from the richest man, Xu Jing, due to his family’s financial issues. Though of course, in the original, even Xu Jing had been ultimately defeated by the female protagonist, let alone a minor character like Xie Zhengtian.

Xu Yao had Lu Ye and the others pour tea for Xie Zhengtian and got straight to the point: “Mr. Xie, as a homeowner in Tai’an Community, you should be aware of the situation with Tiansheng Property, right?”

Before coming, Xie Zhengtian had done a quick search on Xu Yao’s basic information and knew her age, so he smiled and said, “We’re all young people, no need to be so formal! I’m just a year older than you, so you can just call me Brother Tian like everyone else!”

Xu Yao didn’t mind and called him Brother Tian.

Xie Zhengtian took the tea that Lu Ye had poured and recalled, “To be honest, I don’t actually live in Tai’an Community. But I’ve heard a bit about Tiansheng Property; they take the money but don’t do their job, and their style of working is quite perfunctory.”

The property fees for Tiansheng Property were actually quite high—five yuan per square meter—yet even the most basic maintenance of the community left homeowners collectively dissatisfied. This value for money simply wasn’t worth it.

Xu Yao nodded and said, “So I plan to establish a homeowners’ committee through a homeowners’ meeting to then replace Tiansheng Property through the committee. I’ve already submitted all the applications to the relevant departments.”

Xie Zhengtian felt overwhelmed just hearing this and frowned, saying, “Little Sister Yao, this sounds quite troublesome. Anyway, you don’t live there; it’s just rented out to someone else, so why not just make do?”

In Xie Zhengtian’s view, as long as he was comfortable, why bother with others?

Xu Yao curved her lips and smiled, asking, “Brother Tian, are you perhaps looking to sell your apartment in Tai’an Community? But it hasn’t sold yet?”

The current housing market had gradually become a buyer’s market, with buyers having a wide range of choices which gave them the luxury to be particularly cautious about second-hand homes.

After all, a poor property management would only accelerate a house’s decline into an old and shabby state, which would then affect the subsequent price of the home when put on the second hand market.

Xie Zhengtian had always wanted to sell the property he bought when he was young and naive. Xu Yao had indeed hit the heart of the issue. He fiddled with the teacup in his hand while pondering and said:

“But Little Sister Yao, although ideals are often beautiful, reality is harsh. Tai’an Community mostly consists of middle-class residents; some homeowners are abroad and find it inconvenient, while others might think changing property management is too troublesome. It might not be easy to handle.”

Despite neighbors complaining daily about how terrible and disgusting the property management was, if they were actually gathered together to hold a meeting to change it, they might hesitate.

They would worry whether the new property management would be worse, whether the process would be too troublesome, and whether they would have to fight legal battles with the old management, not to mention those who simply didn’t want to stir up trouble.

Little 6 detected this and instantly felt heartbroken: [Host, this is really tough.]

So, this landlord of it was having this hard of a time, huh? Better add a bit more to the pension next month.

Xu Yao smiled: “I understand what you’re worried about, but I have a way to make Tiansheng Property cough up some money first.”

Xie Zhengtian was confused: “??”

Make Tiansheng Property cough up some money??

He was a capitalist; how could he not know that a capitalist’s heart is dark? What kind of capitalist could spit out what they had already swallowed?

*

pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

Although Sheng Zhou was already out of the picture, the variety show “My Home Life” still had to continue filming, with the other four guests still having to participate.

The director could only try and find the silver lining in the situation; after all, at least the scandal involving Sheng Zhou had made their show known nationwide, right?

The director urgently confirmed with the other guests, even carefully checking the property deeds. Except for the ordinary person Zhou Qi, the rest owned their homes, ensuring there would be no more issues with rent arrears or damaging the landlord’s furniture.

Worried that there might be problems with Zhou Qi, the director took the crew to Tai’an Community for filming.

The fans in the live broadcast room were still very upset, constantly shouting that the show was no longer interesting without Sheng Zhou.

[Wuwuwuwu, I wanted to see the luxury houses. Now they’re just going to film an ordinary person’s home; there’s really nothing interesting about it.]

[Although this sounds a bit bad, it was still interesting when Xu Yao collected rent from Sheng Zhou…]

[?? I think I saw Xu Yao!]

[+1, I think I saw her too. What’s up with the cameraman? Why are they avoiding her? Take a closer look to see if it’s Xu Yao.]

The production team was a bit flustered now. The assistant director rushed up from behind and urgently whispered to the director, “Xu Yao is here; it seems like Xu Yao is coming again.”

The director jolted, still haunted by the psychological shadow from the incident with Xu Yao collecting rent from Sheng Zhou a few days ago. He quickly instructed the cameraman to change the shot and cautiously looked in the direction the assistant director had pointed in.

Xu Yao was wearing casual short sleeves and shorts, with sunglasses perched on her nose, even donning a pair of slippers specifically for collecting rent! A young man in a hoodie stood beside her, but judging by his sneakers, he was also a rich second generation.

Damn, don’t scare him; he actually is quite timid at heart!

Whilst the director felt anxious, he noticed Xu Yao and Xie Zhengtian heading towards the property management office. He breathed a sigh of relief and quickly said, “Go go go, let’s first go to Zhou Qi’s house.”

Fortunately, Xu Yao wasn’t coming to find them this time.

The moment the director saw Xu Yao coming, he immediately resolved to ask Zhou Qi if there were any issues with overdue rent or utility bills!

“Little Sister Yao, the small apartment I bought in high school is in Building 2 on the top floor. Which unit did you buy?” As they walked towards the property management office, Xie Zhengtian looked up at the surrounding high-rise buildings and asked.

Xu Yao pointed: “Building 3.”

Xie Zhengtian nodded and continued to ask, “Building 3 is nice; it’s the best building in Tai’an. Which unit did you buy? Or how many units?”

Since Xu Yao was busy solving property management issues, Xie Zhengtian felt that she must own more than one unit in Tai’an Community; otherwise, she wouldn’t be so invested. It was probably several units.

Xu Yao added another few words, “Building 3, the whole building.”

Xie Zhengtian suddenly stopped in his tracks, looking up at the tall building in front of him, falling into silence.

Xu Yao asked, “Brother Tian, what’s wrong?”

Xie Zhengtian’s face tightened as he stammered, “…How about you just call me Little Xie instead?”

Damn, the whole building? Oh no, even if one unit is nearly ten million, the entire building would still definitely be worth more than two luxury apartments in Haicheng Shangpin.

Moreover, it should be noted that the Tai’an Community is definitely better for renting than the Haicheng Shangpin luxury apartments, which could very well be the true source of Xu Yao’s rental income.

Thus, Xu Yao led the dazed Xie Zhengtian into the property management office. The staff there nearly cried upon seeing Xu Yao walk in; she really ended up coming.

Xu Yao directly addressed the property staff in the office, “I spoke with CEO Yang a few days ago. Is the share from the advertising revenue for the past five years ready? I’m here to collect my share for that building.”

Yang Guofa actually didn’t want to deal with Xu Yao, but who told Xu Jing, the richest individual to personally call him asking to contact Xu Yao? The Xu family was not someone he could afford to offend so he had no choice but to comply!

Although property management revenue has always been a muddled account, it would be a guaranteed lawsuit once it escalated to the housing authority. From the incident with Sheng Zhou, it was clear that this young lady Xu Yao was quite tough. As the largest owner in the Tai’an community, Xu Yao might really dare to sue the property management!

After much consideration, Yang Guofa could only grit his teeth and have them calculate the various public revenues of the Tai’an community over the past five years.

The Tai’an community resident group was a large group chat, where residents often argued, and business owners occasionally advertised. The property staff usually stayed out of it unless something urgent came up.

[Tiansheng Property Xiao Zhang: @All members, please come to collect the community dividends this month with your property deed and ID. This is a formal announcement.]

As soon as this message was sent out, the entire WeChat group was filled with question marks.

[?? Dividends? What dividends? Did you send this by mistake?]

[The trash property management can barely handle their own duties; I’d be grateful if they just did that, let alone giving out dividends!]

[Property management, the elevator on the left side of Building 8 is broken again! I want to go home! Hurry up and report it for repairs!]

[Does dividends mean receiving money? I’ve never seen property management give out money, or are you saying you’re starting a pyramid scheme from today?]

The WeChat group was in an uproar, with many owners sarcastically criticising the property management, hardly paying any attention to the issue of dividends.

In this day and age, people have only seen property fees being collected, never money being given out.

The staff at Tiansheng Property had long been accustomed to the owners’ mockery, copying and pasting that message several times in the WeChat group.

The owners were somewhat puzzled; what did this mean? Were there really dividends to receive?

And Xie Zhengtian ended up being the first owner, besides Xu Yao, to receive the community dividends for the past five years. The apartment he bought was the largest in the entirety of the Tai’an community, so he received over four thousand in community dividends.

Xie Zhengtian looked at the WeChat notification of the deposit, and his mood was quite complicated.

Initially, he had secretly used his pocket money for several years to buy this apartment to play games in, and when his father found out, he almost got beaten up. That apartment had been left vacant all these years, yet he still had to pay property and sanitation fees every year. Today was the first time he received money from it.

He didn’t know who his dad must have received insider information from to call him.

As soon as the call connected, the other side immediately asked, “I heard you went back to that lousy apartment of yours again?”

Xie Zhengtian pouted; his dad had been in a bad mood lately and liked to take it out on him.

Last year, the old man discovered that short videos were trending and insisted on entering the short video market, even starting Shark short video platform. However, he couldn’t compete in that market and the platform had pitifully few users. Now, it only was barely hanging on by. thread, and Xie Zhengtian wanted to avoid him whenever he saw his father’s long face.

He probably wasn’t feeling well again.

Seeing his son silent, Xie Father got even angrier. This kid was in his senior year and not studying properly, yet he dared to secretly buy a million-dollar apartment to play games.

Investing in real estate is fine, but this kid didn’t even consider anything else before buying. Is this how one thinks when investing in real estate?

Xie Zhengtian glanced at the community dividends that had just arrived in his WeChat, wondering how much he had been scolded by his family for buying that apartment. He couldn’t sell it at a high price and was reluctant to let it go at a low price, leaving it idle.

As a result, what ended up happening today? He had some pocket money now!

Xie Zhengtian felt a bit smug and said, “Dad, the dividends from my apartment’s community came in today!”

Father Xie: “…” Dividends? What dividends?

Father Xie didn’t care much about these so-called dividends: “Your apartment gives out dividends? How much can it possibly be?”

Xie Zhengtian was a bit displeased; although it wasn’t even enough for a full meal, it was still money! Even mosquito meat is still meat¹!

Xie Zhengtian retorted, “Dad, just tell me; does the property you invested in give you dividends too?”

Father Xie was momentarily speechless: “…”

Well, it definitely didn’t.

Father Xie desperately tried to save his face: “The properties I, your father, invest in appreciate every year; selling your apartment wouldn’t even compare!”

Xie Zhengtian didn’t care about that and simply asked, “Dad, does your investment property give you dividends?”

Father Xie , ruthlessly stabbed with another poke of a knife: “…”

Father Xie gritted his teeth: “Unfilial son, shut up!”

---

not sure bc i don’t rent but do apartments actually give out dividends, or is this just fiction? maybe it happens in china but this is the first time i’m hearing of it

also i can’t count. should’ve been 2 chapters for the past 2 weeks i’ve missed. next week should be normal but the week after should be one chapter each bc they’re all over 9k words TAT

1. 蚊子再小也是肉 lit. even a mosquito, though tiny would still provide nourishment — it’s better than nothing ↩︎

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

---

He still had to pay the breach of penalty? That’s a full 630,000 yuan!

Everyone stared dumbfounded at Xu Yao. This… isn’t this a little… unseemly? For a wealthy woman who owns two luxury homes in Haicheng Shangpin, insisting on the breach of penalty makes her seem a little petty.

[Xu Yao should have a lot of money. Sheng Zhou just paid the overdue rent. Yet she’s still pursuing the penalty, making the scene so awkward. It’s a bit… hard to comment on. Maybe the richer you are, the stingier you are.]

[Isn’t it perfectly legal and compliant with the law to ask for it? If it were me, I’d also ask Sheng Zhou to pay the penalty!]

[Are fans still trying to whitewash? How much money would that over two million yuan earn if put in the bank for financial management? Interest is money too! Should a wealthy woman suffer this loss? She should properly punish this deadbeat!]

Xu Yao, a retired celebrity, didn’t care what the fans of certain celebrities said online. Only the money in her hand was real.

Wouldn’t this money be better used to support the short drama Yin Fate? She had to have it!

Xu Yao’s expression was completely businesslike as she continued to address Sheng Zhou, “Then while you’re free, let’s inspect the household items with the presence of a third party. If there’s any damage, you’ll need to compensate accordingly. These are all stipulated in the rental agreement.”

Xu Yao now strongly doubted Sheng Zhou’s character. A top-tier celebrity deliberately taking advantage of the situation and owing half a year’s rent—would he really treat her furniture well?

The Xu family’s mansion in Haicheng Shangpin, even the one rented out, was luxuriously decorated, showing no signs of being a rental property.

There’s a saying in the interior design industry: the amount you spend on a house should equal the same amount you spend on interior designing. For interior designing on the luxurious side, the decoration cost can even be higher than the purchase price.

Sheng Zhou stumbled back two steps, his face tight as he stared at Xu Yao, his expression slightly panicked, “You… you…”

Sheng Zhou never imagined that Xu Yao would be so shameless and petty.

Lu Ye held the rent collection tablet in one hand, pulling out the photos and videos saved when he first rented to Sheng Zhou, making it easier to compare them one by one later.

Lu Ye asked, “Miss Yao Yao, Mr. Sheng, shall we start the inspection from the living room?”

Xu Yao nodded, and Lu Ye led several employees to change into special shoe covers before entering the living room. He knelt on one knee to inspect the soft, high-end sofa, not even missing the gaps beneath it.

Sheng Zhou had never been this scared in his life! He had never been this nervous, even during exams in school.

[Actually, it shouldn’t be a big problem. Although the live broadcast only showed the living room and kitchen, Sheng Zhou should be someone who cherishes furniture. It really is decorated luxuriously, so there shouldn’t be any issues.]

[I also feel like there shouldn’t be a big problem. Not wanting to pay rent is one thing, but the facilities inside the house shouldn’t be damaged by the tenant themselves.]

Lu Ye held the tablet with one hand, staring at the most prominent television in the living room, his magnetic voice calmly asking, “Mr. Sheng, may I ask where the 110-inch Stuths Starry Sky Edition LCD TV we provided you with went?”

Sheng Zhou: “…”

Sheng Zhou froze in place, feeling as if he were in an ice cellar, the words stuck in his throat and unable to come out.

Today’s televisions can connect to major video platforms. He had seen a netizen deliberately editing a parody video of him on a certain site, and at that moment, feeling upset, he had angrily grabbed the red wine bottle on the table and smashed it against the TV.

The TV made a cracking sound, and only then did Sheng Zhou realize what he had done, staring blankly at the broken screen, regret doing him no good.

Because he needed to record “My Home Life” soon, Sheng Zhou hurriedly bought a new LCD TV to hang up. This new LCD TV wasn’t cheap either, worth over a hundred thousand!

After all, televisions are quite similar, so neither the production team nor the audience noticed any issues. Who knew Lu Ye would catch him red-handed?

Xu Yao looked at Sheng Zhou’s precarious state and asked suspiciously, “Where did you take my TV?”

Sheng Zhou jolted and immediately replied, “The TV broke, so I sent it for repair and bought a new one.”

Xu Yao pressed on, “Why didn’t you inform the landlord about the repair?”

Sheng Zhou fell silent again.

[…What other reason could there be? He definitely broke it! Would he dare to tell the landlord he broke it?]

[The landlord has the obligation to repair the equipment in the house. If I rent and the fridge or TV breaks, I would notify the landlord. As long as I didn’t break it, the landlord would handle it. Sheng Zhou’s actions are clearly guilty.]

[!!! We’ve found it everyone! The Stuths Starry Sky Edition LCD TV is worth a million, a favorite among the wealthy. This is definitely a luxury item.]

[What? It’s that expensive? That’s not a TV; it’s clearly an ancestral relic in the house.]

“My Home Life” has completely exploded in popularity, with over fifty million viewers online on just a weekday morning.

Xu Yao looked at Sheng Zhou, who seemed to be on the verge of death, and was too lazy to continue questioning him, signalling Lu Ye and the others to keep inspecting the items in the house.

Soon, Xu Yao realised that Sheng Zhou had only served her an appetiser.

“Mr. Sheng, may I ask why you unilaterally changed the decorative wall we provided?”

“Mr. Sheng, there are issues with the handles on the wardrobes and cabinets; there are traces of it having being yanked too hard.”

“Mr. Sheng, all the ornamental koi in the terrace pond have disappeared.”

“Mr. Sheng…”

In the end, Lu Ye couldn’t help but lose control: “Sheng Zhou, why did you graffiti on someone else’s wall? Are you a master painter?”

Lu Ye felt that perhaps he didn’t understand artists; he simply couldn’t comprehend why a wall designed by a world-renowned designer would be less artistic than Sheng Zhou’s colourful doodles.

Sheng Zhou: “…”

Sheng Zhou completely gave up struggling, his face filled with despair.

Handle it privately!

His mind was filled with thoughts of why he didn’t handle it privately.

It was because he had blocked Xu Yao—because he regarded Xu Yao as a ferocious beast of a pursuer!

[I’m stunned; how much has Sheng Zhou damaged? I heard this luxury apartment’s interior decoration costs over a hundred million… ]

[I’m collapsing. What kind of bizarre person have I been a fan of all these years? I rent and have a cat and I’m terrified of damaging the landlord’s furniture. I even specially bought a cover for the sofa to prevent the cat from scratching it.]

[+1, I’m also a renter, and I’m very careful with the furniture provided by the landlord, afraid of breaking anything.]

[Does Sheng Zhou think he’s an artist? Randomly painting on the walls? Only foolish fans would fall for that!]

[As a landlord, watching this live broadcast makes my heart bleed. Those are all furniture purchased by the landlord with real gold and silver! It’s clear that it isn’t cherished when it’s not paid out of their own pocket. The more I watch, the angrier I get. With my bad temper, I would have already gone up to beat Sheng Zhou, that trash!]

…

Previously, even the netizens who complained about Xu Yao being too calculating fell silent at this scene. Both renters and landlords were stunned.

Such a person who doesn’t cherish someone else’s property is rarely seen in the news.

When netizens originally saw Sheng Zhou’s luxury apartment live broadcast, they had thought it was grand and extravagant. That was until they saw the original state of the luxury apartment in the tablet held by Lu Ye. Their hearts bled; how could this luxury apartment worth over two hundred million be turned into this by Sheng Zhou?

Pay up, hurry up and get to paying it you dog!

The director, who had finally come to his senses, shouted after seeing this scene: “Quick, move the filming equipment away from the walls and furniture!”

“Oh, right… quickly lay a layer of padding on the tiles before placing the filming equipment!”

“Whoever bumps into something will pay for it; don’t even think about looking for me! Put on shoe covers and gloves!”

“Ah, ah, ah, you little brat, don’t lean against the wall, stand up straight!”

The production team was in a flurry, quickly moving the equipment away from the walls, hurriedly putting on shoe covers, fearing that this ancestral-level luxury apartment would get scratched or bumped, and Xu Yao would turn around and demand they pay for the damages.

Little 6 popped out: “Host, you’re too pitiful.”

Xu Yao almost couldn’t control her expression; she wanted to beat Sheng Zhou up!

It really was a disaster!

This house is hers now, and it has been ruined by Sheng Zhou. Ordinary people can’t afford to rent it, and wealthy people with taste wouldn’t want to rent it either, unless it was demolished and renovated anew. This luxurious apartment has fallen into her hands like this.

Xu Yao deeply felt that if she were to rent out a place in the future, she must ensure the character of the tenant; otherwise, it would be better not to rent at all.

Xu Yao’s face was full of disbelief: “Compensation!”

“After deducting the 30% late fee for your six months of unpaid rent, all damaged items in the house must be compensated at their market value!”
Sheng Zhou’s face turned ashen; he earned a lot as a top star, but this money wasn’t all his. There were companies and teams that needed dividends. The compensation for the furniture in the luxurious apartment was not a small sum, and the most critical point was—

Some of them were unique pieces!!

It’s over, it’s really over this time.

And what about his reputation?

Xu Yao didn’t want to stay in this luxurious apartment any longer; even looking at Sheng Zhou made her feel unlucky: “I’m leaving.”

Before Lu Ye left, he pointed to the rental contract in the transparent file bag to remind Sheng Zhou, then turned and left the apartment with the others.

The private property manager immediately followed up: “Miss Xu Yao, we will urge Mr. Sheng to vacate and repair your house and handle all related matters.”

Xu Yao nodded to indicate she understood, and Yang Guofa, the president of Tiansheng Property who had been waiting in the elevator hall for a long time, saw Xu Yao come out and greeted her with a big smile: “Miss Xu Yao, hello, hello.”

Yang Guofa had been waiting so long he wanted to smoke, but suppressed the urge upon seeing the famous species planted at the elevator hall entrance.

Xu Yao smiled: “Sorry, President Yang, I was dealing with some personal matters and kept you waiting.”

“Not at all! I had nothing to do either,” Yang Guofa stepped ahead to press the elevator button, letting Xu Yao and the others enter first, then followed in.

“Miss Xu Yao, do you have time? Let’s have lunch.”

Since she didn’t plan to continue cooperating, Xu Yao didn’t intend to have this meal with Yang Guofa.

After they exited the elevator hall, Xu Yao spoke up: “President Yang, I won’t beat around the bush; I’ll get straight to the point.”

Yang Guofa straightened up, showing a listening expression.

“I have a building in the Tai’an community. I know your company is the property management for the Tai’an community. I have only one request now—terminate the cooperation.”

Yang Guofa was stunned in place.

“A building? In the Tai’an community?

The Tai’an community could only be considered a mid-range community in Haicheng, neither too high nor too low, but… that was still a whole building!

The total value of that building was probably higher than Xu Yao’s two top luxury apartments in Haicheng, no wonder she was so concerned.

Yang Guofa gradually came to his senses; he looked at the young girl in front of him and couldn’t help but say: “Miss Xu Yao, terminating the cooperation between the community and the property management is not as simple as you just kicked Sheng Zhou out.”

“You do have a building in the Tai’an community, but the entire Tai’an community has other owners as well. You need the consent of two-thirds of the owners. Also, if you want to bring in a new property management company, has your community established a homeowners’ committee?”

Yang Guofa wasn’t angry; he knew the character of his property management and said after a moments hesitation: “Miss Xu Yao, I must say there must be something our property management has done poorly. How about I get them to rectify it?”

After going through so many worlds, Xu Yao knew that these so-called rectifications were always just superficial fixes.

Xu Yao’s attitude was quite firm: “No need, I will seek the consent of all the owners. Additionally, please have your company settle the earnings from the Tai’an community over the years for our community owners. Thank you.”

Yang Guofa’s face stiffened; he hadn’t expected that a young girl like Xu Yao would understand so much.

It should be known that aside from collecting property fees from each owner, the property management company also had other sources of income—

Parking fees, venue fees, and advertising fees.

Yes, aside from top luxury apartments like Haicheng Shangpin and Haicheng Bay No. 1, 90% of the communities in Haicheng had advertisement billboards of some sort.

The hanging advertisement boards in the elevator hall, the ads on the entrance gates of the community, and the internal advertisement walls were all sources of income.

According to national laws, the remaining money after deducting all maintenance fees belongs to the collective owners of the community.

But in this day and age, people only knew to pay property fees; the idea of getting money back? Don’t even think about it.

Seeing Yang Guofa silent, Xu Yao smiled slightly: “Since there’s nothing else, President Yang, I’ll take my leave.”

Yang Guofa forced a smile and nodded, watching Xu Yao leave Haicheng Shangpin with her people, increasingly puzzled—

What exactly is Miss Xu Yao’s background?

Xu Jing, the richest man, personally called him to contact this Miss Xu Yao.

Yang Guofa had only heard of the Xu family having Xu Jing as the only grandson; he had never heard of a granddaughter. Could it be that Xu Yao is a relative of Xu Jing?

However, Yang Guofa had long heard that Xu Jing was someone who helped relatives but not principles, so this matter might really be handled as Xu Yao said.

But having to give up those earnings still made Yang Guofa feel quite uncomfortable.

*

pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

You can always trust the influence of a top star; in just one hour, the internet exploded. Not only was he at the top of the trending list of Weibo, Sheng Zhou was also at the top of all other major news platforms.

Now, everyone in the country knew that Sheng Zhou had owed Xu Yao half a year’s rent.

Not only that, but Sheng Zhou also damaged various pieces of furniture in the luxurious apartment, with estimated losses exceeding tens of millions.

#ShengZhou# was immediately followed by #Unfollow#, and aside from a few younger fans still holding on, countless fans unfollowed him.

[Was there any fan who watched that live stream and didn’t unfollow? I feel heartbroken for Xu Yao.]

[According to rumors, the Stuths Starry Sky version LCD TV that Sheng Zhou sent for repair was denied coverage because it was broken with a wine bottle.]

[Xu Yao is really unfortunate; she was dragged by Sheng Zhou and Liu Yingxia to take the blame and ended up being hated by the entire internet. Now her perfectly good house has been ruined by Sheng Zhou; the beautiful rich woman is so unfortunate.]

This immediately sparked outrage among Liu Yingxia’s fans, who immediately retorted on the Weibo post: [You guys can bash Sheng Zhou all you want, but don’t drag our Yingxia into this. Xiaxia and Sheng Zhou aren’t close, thank you very much.]

[Taking our Yingxia away, we’re not involved in this rent arrears business.]

[Let’s all look forward to Liu Yingxia’s upcoming drama “Seeking Immortals.” This gossip has nothing to do with Xiaxia.]

Liu Yingxia herself was also among the first to hear about this explosive piece of gossip. She had no idea about Sheng Zhou’s six-month rent arrears; he had never mentioned it.

Liu Yingxia had always thought that the Haicheng Shangpin mansion Sheng Zhou constantly boasted about was his own, but it turned out to be rented? And he was six months behind on rent!

Liu Yingxia wasn’t close to Xu Yao; they only had a brief acquaintance when they almost collaborated on “Seeking Immortals.” Later, when the scandal broke out and Xu Yao went crazy making wild accusations, Liu Yingxia developed a dislike for her.

Her assistant, munching on the gossip, whispered to Liu Yingxia, “Sister Xiaxia, you made the right decision breaking up with him. Sheng Zhou’s character isn’t worthy of you.”

Liu Yingxia wholeheartedly agreed with her assistant. During their breakup, Sheng Zhou had contacted her many times, hoping to reconcile.

Liu Yingxia still had feelings for Sheng Zhou, but rationally considered her rising career, so their on-again, off-again relationship remained unresolved.
Now, it seemed like it was time for a clean break.

“Alright, don’t say anything inappropriate during the interview later,” Liu Yingxia sternly reminded her, referring to an upcoming interview.

The nanny car pulled up outside the venue. The assistant got out first to open the door for Liu Yingxia. Countless reporters swarmed around, snapping photos. Liu Yingxia smiled and waved amidst the flashing lights.

A reporter pressed for a question to be answered at a sensitive time, “Yingxia, what are your thoughts on the news this morning about Sheng Zhou’s six-month rent arrears to Xu Yao?”

Liu Yingxia inwardly cursed the reporter’s malicious intent. The actress’s skills reached their peak at that moment. A look of confusion flashed across her pretty face as she said, “What do I think? I’m not close to Mr. Sheng or Miss Xu. I hope they can resolve this through legal channels.”

Most reporters knew better than to pursue the matter further. Liu Yingxia quickly noticed the reporters’ strange expressions.

A paparazzi, brimming with excitement, tiptoed and shouted, “Liu Yingxia, you’re not close to Sheng Zhou? Not close to the extent that you can even make out in an underground parking garage?”

Liu Yingxia: “……?”

Just five minutes ago, a marketing account with over a million followers had posted a message, adding fuel to the already fiery situation.

[Top Entertainment Gossip: Exclusive! A top-tier celebrity with 40 million followers and a popular actress’s romance exposed! Passionate kiss in the underground parking garage last night! Pictures as proof! [Picture][Picture][Picture]]

What a feast for gossip lovers today! Another scoop!

The paparazzi’s photos clearly showed Sheng Zhou and Liu Yingxia’s faces; Sheng Zhou was kissing Liu Yingxia against a car window!

The news instantly overshadowed the Sheng Zhou rent arrears story, shooting to the top of the trending searches.

At this moment, the remaining loyal Sheng Zhou fans crumbled.

[Sheng Zhou is really dating Liu Yingxia? Yesterday, he sarcastically responded to Xu Yao, saying he only cared about work and not women…]

[No wonder Xu Yao’s Weibo post when she quit the industry. Sheng Zhou and Liu Yingxia didn’t dare sue Xu Yao for defamation, wuwu, my idol has collapsed.]

[Judging by the time, Xu Yao went to the studio to demand payment, and Sheng Zhou went to see Liu Yingxia?]

[So it’s true? Xu Yao said Sheng Zhou and Liu Yingxia were dating, but no one believed her. Now, Yao Yao’s innocence is proven.]

[I’m going to throw up. So Sheng Zhou and Liu Yingxia were really dating and used the innocent Xu Yao as a shield? Forcing her to leave the industry? Heavens, what a huge victim Xu Yao is!]

[I’m sorry, Xu Yao, I’m going to follow you!]

…

It was all fake. Sheng Zhou’s mansion was fake, Sheng Zhou and Liu Yingxia’s single status was fake; only Xu Yao’s claim of quitting the industry to collect rent was true!

As a retired celebrity, Xu Yao’s fan base was still growing, the total nearing two million followers.

Li Xiaoli, who had been a Sheng Zhou fan ten days ago had just woken up today.

Yes, because she didn’t have a nine-to-five job, Li Xiaoli had been supervising the elevator installation yesterday, so she woke up late today, almost noon, and only then discovered the chaos on Weibo.

After reading for a long time, Li Xiaoli sighed in relief, “Luckily, I’m now a fan of Xu Yao.”

What’s the use of being a Sheng Zhou fan? Being a Xu Yao fan gives her a great job, some money, and most importantly, being a fan of a retired celebrity landlord won’t lead to disappointment!

Sheng Zhou didn’t expect one problem to be followed by another.

His PR team was still scrambling to respond to the six-month rent arrears issue when the paparazzi silently exposed his relationship with Liu Yingxia, seemingly determined to bury him.

His Weibo following of over 40 million was plummeting at a visible rate, already down to 39 million.

Sheng Zhou’s side had already posted an apology on Weibo, admitting to his negligence in delaying Xu Yao’s rent. They had already paid the arrears and would compensate Xu Yao with 630,000 yuan in compensation, plus various other losses.

[Get lost, you idiot Sheng Zhou, I’m blind for being your fan.]

[Goodbye, Sheng Zhou, forever goodbye.]

[I’m so disappointed in you. I can tolerate you owing Xu Yao rent, I can even tolerate you drawing graffiti on your mansion walls, since I think that’s you showing your authentic self, but I can never tolerate you actually dating Liu Yingxia! Goodbye.]

[Hahahaha, trash Sheng Zhou finally crashed and burned. I’m going to follow Xu Yao, the rich lady with two buildings in Haicheng’s urban villages and two top-tier mansions in Haicheng Shangpin deserves it!]

Sheng Zhou and Liu Yingxia were heartbroken. The fans they lost had all flocked to follow Xu Yao!

What’s the use of following a retired celebrity?!

Today was destined to be incredibly lively. After Sheng Zhou’s official apology statement was released, various programs and endorsements quickly responded.

[Official account of ‘My Home Variety Show‘: Due to personal reasons, Sheng Zhou will withdraw from the program effective immediately. We thank the audience for their strong support of this show.]

[Sincere Luxury Perfume official v: We have currently terminated all cooperation with Mr. Sheng Zhou.]

[Beloved Jadeite Earl Watches v: Our brand has hereby ended our contract with Mr. Sheng Zhou.]

…

As a top celebrity, Sheng Zhou had numerous brands endorsing him, all of which announced the cessation of their endorsements.

There are many people who have indeed defaulted on rent, but this clearly indicates a problem with one’s character, and as a public figure, character is extremely crucial. There are countless stars in the entertainment industry with plenty of new endorsers to choose from.

Xu Yao felt quite pleased. Watching her fan count soar, she decided it was time to strike back and posted a Weibo update:

[Xu Yao v: Feeling a bit happy today, let’s do a giveaway for a fan to have half a year’s rent waived.]

The comments section was instantly flooded with Xu Yao’s fans:

[Hahaha, Yao Yao knows how to be sarcastic, today’s revenge is sweet!]

[Wow, a giveaway? Pick me, pick me! Waive my rent for half a year, I’m about to be crushed by the rent in Haicheng, it’s really expensive QAQ.]

[I’m dying of laughter, Xu Yao! Sheng Zhou defaulted on half a year’s rent, and she immediately offers a fan half a year’s rent waiver. This girl is so real.]

[I wonder which weirdo in the entertainment industry will dare to default on rent in the future!]

Zhou Qi was in a panic. As an ordinary person participating and planning to debut through the variety show ‘My Home Life‘, he was now extremely anxious.

Zhou Qi certainly couldn’t afford to live in a top luxury apartment like Haicheng Shangpin; he couldn’t even afford the rent.

He directly explained to all the program’s fans that he was renting a 100-square-meter apartment in the Tai’an community in Haicheng, but recently the entire community was boycotting the property management. He had been trapped in the elevator for half an hour and was severely frightened, and the property management’s indifferent attitude made him furious, so he hadn’t paid the property fee either.

Now he was a bit scared. With Sheng Zhou defaulting on half a year’s rent, his career was essentially over. What if it was also revealed that he was defaulting on the property fee? He hadn’t even debuted yet but would already be packing his bags to go home.

Zhou Qi hurriedly transferred four hundred yuan to the landlord, noting it was for the property fee.

[Xu Yao: ?]

[Xu Yao: You don’t need to pay the property fee for now, I’m currently uniting with other owners to replace the property management.]

Zhou Qi: “??”

Zhou Qi rented the apartment from an agency and had never met the landlord, but he knew that the landlord didn’t even live in the community. Where did she get the leisure to help replace the property management??

Xu Yao was indeed planning to replace the Tiansheng property management, and her fiancé Ji Zhengqing had recommended a few decent property management companies.

“Lu Ye, have you sent the message to the owners?”

Lu Ye nodded: “I’m already working on the vote to change the property management, and I’ve sent invitations to the few owners you selected.”

Changing the property management in the community was indeed quite troublesome; first, a homeowners’ committee had to be established.

The members of the homeowners’ committee should ideally be owners who have legal awareness and time. Xu Yao selected a few and sent invitations to several owners, but it was still uncertain whether they would agree.

Xie Zhengtian was one of those who received an invitation. At that moment, he was playing billiards with a few friends, with several strikingly beautiful women standing nearby.

“Little Xie, why have you been hanging out with us lately? Aren’t you always with Young Master Ji?” a friend asked, holding a cue stick and watching the young man bend over to aim.

Xie Zhengtian squinted, sinking the ball with one stroke. He straightened up and changed positions, smiling: “Zhengqing has been on a business trip for a month, he’s just about to come back.”

Someone walked into the billiard room, looked at the group of young masters, and respectfully said to Xie Zhengtian: “Brother Tian, didn’t you buy a house in Tai’an community? There’s a neighbour who is planning to establish a homeowners’ committee and wants to know if you’re willing to be a member.”

Mentioning the house in Tai’an community made Xie Zhengtian flinch.

When he was in high school, he was foolish and spent all his time gaming, so he specifically bought a small house to play games. Now that he had graduated from university, he was no longer that high school student, and the house had been left vacant, with only the property and sanitation fees being paid.

In recent years, Xie Zhengtian had been considering selling that small house, but potential buyers were deterred upon hearing it was managed by Tiansheng property management, so it had never been sold. He wasn’t in a hurry and had just left it idle.

Recently, with his finances a bit tight, Xie Zhengtian had been planning to lower the price again.

His friends immediately burst into laughter: “Little Xie, what sort of neighbour is this? They’ve even come looking for you?”

Tai’an community isn’t considered too bad in the whole of Haicheng; it’s mostly bought by the middle class, but in the eyes of these young masters, it wasn’t impressive at all.

Xie Zhengtian didn’t even live in Tai’an community, so how could they be considered neighbours? To put it bluntly, they only socialised with people from the same social circle.

Xie Zhengtian leaned over the billiard table, his eyes fixed on the scattered balls while saying, “Forget it, where would I have the time for that? Who’s neighbours with her?”

The newcomer nodded knowingly and said, “Then I’ll immediately reply to Miss Xu Yao saying that you won’t participate in the candidacy.”

Xie Zhengtian was about to make a move to hit the ball when he paused, straightening up: “Xu Yao? Which Xu Yao?”

“Which other Xu Yao could it be? The landlord Xu Yao who’s been all over the internet today.”

Xie Zhengtian had also been online today, enjoying the gossip from the entertainment industry, having a good laugh at Sheng Zhou.

Xie Zhengtian squinted his eyes and continued to ask, “The Xu Yao who owns two luxury apartments in Haicheng? One of which is the luxury penthouse worth over four hundred million?”

The luxury penthouse in Haicheng Shangpin isn’t something that just anyone can buy if they have money. It was said to have been purchased by a big shot long ago, and according to what his family’s old man said, it was a big shot they couldn’t afford to mess with. Now the house is in Xu Yao’s hands…

“It’s exactly that Miss Xu Yao.”

Xie Zhengtian handed the cue stick to a nearby waiter, took off his gloves, and seriously adjusted his clothes, saying, “Reply to Xu Yao saying that I accept.”

The surrounding people: “???”

Xie Zhengtian adjusted his collar and said very seriously, “Distant relatives can’t be compared to close neighbours; and after all, I am a good neighbour who is dedicated to the neighbourhood’s overall harmony.”

---

i think the parasocial relationship between fans and idols are always worse in the specific country that idol is from — e.g. chinese celebrities and chinese netizens, etc, and i’ve never understood the problem with celebrities dating. however, i think the issue i have here is both sheng zhou and liu yingxia lying about it and also involving an innocent third party.

also, sorry for the lack of updates QAQ i’ve gone on holiday to singapore to visit my grandparents for a month and these past two weeks have just been me spending time with them! if you have any recs so far for where to go in sg, pls lmk! i’ve mainly just been having hawker food that’s near their hdb as well as going to coffee bean to do my online uni classes owo

next update will also be next week because this chapter was actually insanely long for no reason,,, but it’ll be back to 2 chapters next week^^

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

---

Half a year!

Damn, that’s half a year, not half a month!!

Since Sheng Zhou was not the male lead in the original text, but merely the female lead, Liu Yingxia’s ex-boyfriend, his daily life had not been detailed by the author. Therefore, Xu Yao had no idea that this guy had been in arrears for half a year.

Xu Yao said decisively, “Quick, check to see if there’s been a mistake.”

Although she found Sheng Zhou disgusting, Xu Yao didn’t intend to slander him or create a misunderstanding. It was also possible that he had paid but it just hadn’t been recorded in the rent collection’s electronic form.

Lu Ye’s face darkened as he immediately arranged for the rent collection team to investigate the records, checking WeChat, Alipay, and bank transfer records.

About twenty minutes later, Lu Ye’s face had turned as dark as the bottom of a pot. He hesitantly reported, “Miss Yao Yao, Sheng Zhou rented your luxury apartment 3-1102 at Haicheng Shangpin a year and two months ago, but he indeed hasn’t paid rent for six months.”

They had scoured all the accounts, and there had been no income related to Sheng Zhou during these six months.

Xu Yao fell silent: “…”

After all, he was a top celebrity, yet he could actually do something like this¹. Xu Yao felt as if her worldview had been shattered at that very moment.

Xu Yao looked Lu Ye up and down, curiously asking, “Did you not have any reaction when you didn’t receive the rent? The key point is that it’s been six months!”

Six months worth of luxury apartment rent! Just thinking about it made Xu Yao’s heart ache! This was all their Xu family’s money; it was her hard-earned money from quick transmigrating 999 times!

Lu Ye, with a guilty expression, said, “It’s because the luxury apartments we rented out at Haicheng Shangpin have their rent paid mostly quarterly or bi-annually, but our initial agreement with Mr. Sheng Zhou had the rent paid monthly.”

Ir was likely because Sheng Zhou’s payment schedule was different from other tenants at Haicheng Shangpin that they later mixed it up, thinking he was also paying bi-annually, leading to such a significant error.

Xu Yao raised her hand to gently rub her forehead, feeling somewhat speechless. Indeed, being a landlord wasn’t that easy; collecting rent was genuinely hard work, encountering all sorts of oddities every day!

Xu Yao carefully reviewed the rental contract. It should be due to the monthly payment; the luxury apartment at Haicheng Shangpin originally had a monthly rent of 320,000 yuan, but the contract stipulated 350,000 yuan yuan per month.

Xu Yao recalled Sheng Zhou’s variety show trailer and truly admired his courage and audacity.

Xu Yao considered herself to have a good temper. She allowed tenants to have difficulties and could forgive them for temporarily forgetting to pay rent, but to forget for half a year? That was clearly intentional. Impressive!

After returning home, Xu Yao flung her rent collection slippers at the entrance, sat down on the sofa, and entered Sheng Zhou’s personal phone number on her phone, dialling it.

Sheng Zhou was still shooting a magazine these days and was set to participate in a variety show shoot tomorrow. Such high work efficiency was truly commendable.

Sheng Zhou was wearing the season’s latest high-end gray suit, skilfully posing for the camera as the photographer frantically searched for angles, the camera clicking away.

Suddenly, the ringtone of his phone, tucked in the pocket of his suit, rang out. Sheng Zhou immediately walked out of the studio as if jolted by electricity.

The photographer: “?”

Did he say to stop? They were in the middle of a shoot!

Recently, Sheng Zhou was in great distress. Was this how it was going to end with Xia Xia? He was truly unwilling to accept it. He could accept if it were because of their own issues, but he couldn’t accept breaking up because of an outsider like Xu Yao.

He was afraid that Liu Yingxia would suddenly remember to call him, so he kept his personal phone close at hand, ensuring he could receive her call at the first moment.

When he saw it was an unknown number, disappointment flickered across Sheng Zhou’s face. When he answered, his disappointment deepened as a pleasant voice came through: “Hello, Sheng Zhou, this is Xu Yao, you owe…”

Sheng Zhou furrowed his brows tightly. He didn’t know whether or not Xu Yao had decided to let loose after being criticized online. She had previously sent him cheesy love messages and now was even directly calling his phone number.

Sheng Zhou also didn’t know how Xu Yao found out that his luxurious mansion in Haicheng was rented. Fortunately, there weren’t many fans of hers, but he feared she might call to threaten him.

Sheng Zhou didn’t even give Xu Yao a chance to say any more. His handsome face was filled with impatience, and after decisively hanging up, he added Xu Yao to his phone’s blacklist, ensuring she had no way to contact him.

Xu Yao: “…”

Xu Yao looked at Lu Ye and the others: “Call again.”

Lu Ye immediately dialed Sheng Zhou’s number again, but to their surprise, the other party had turned off his phone, clearly treating Xu Yao as a calamity.

Xu Yao was extremely impressed. After considering for a moment, she said, “Find out where Sheng Zhou is right now, and go find him directly.”

Xu Yao knew that Sheng Zhou would be participating in the variety show ‘My Home Life’ tomorrow, but as far as she knew, this show was live-streamed, and she had already retired from the industry. Such rental disputes could be resolved privately.

Unless it was absolutely necessary.

Sheng Zhou’s schedule was public and Lu Ye and the others quickly found out that he was currently shooting the cover for a well-known magazine. Xu Yao decisively instructed Lu Ye and the others to arrange a car to go to the shooting location.

As Xu Yao got into the luxury car she had purchased a few days ago, she hadn’t even fastened her seatbelt when she received a call from her brother, Xu Jing.

This wealthy brother of hers was always busy, and they didn’t have many opportunities to talk or meet.

The two siblings chatted for a bit, and Xu Jing reminded her, “Zhengqing will be back from his business trip in a few days.”

Xu Yao nodded, understanding her brother’s implication. She didn’t care much about this fiancé who was merely a tool for inheriting the family fortune; she would just follow the rules.

Seeing Xu Yao accept it so easily, Xu Jing felt a bit more at ease and asked with a smile, “What are you up to now, Yao Yao?”

Xu Yao couldn’t help but vent her frustrations: “Brother, someone owes us money—half a year’s rent! I’m currently on my way to collect it.”

Upon hearing this, Xu Jing’s brows furrowed. At his level, even a luxurious mansion in Haicheng didn’t concern him, but just because he could let it go didn’t mean others could.

Xu Jing took the documents handed to him by his secretary and gently reassured her, “Yao Yao, you’ve worked hard. If you need help, just let me know.”

Xu Yao didn’t decline and asked, “Brother, do you know the property management company for Tai’an Community—Tiansheng Property? I need to contact them.”

Xu Jing didn’t know about Tai’an Community, but he was familiar with Tiansheng Property. It was a mid-tier property management company in the country—not high-end, but not too shabby either.

As for having his sister contact them?

Xu Jing chuckled lightly, “Yao Yao, handle your own matters first. I’ll have the president of Tiansheng Property contact you shortly.”

Xu Yao saw that they were about to arrive at the shooting location through the car window, thanked Xu Jing, and hung up.

The weather was exceptionally nice today, with a clear blue sky and gentle clouds, a refreshing breeze blowing without any heat.

Xu Yao got out of the car wearing a long floral dress, calmly walking towards the shooting studio. She had already grown accustomed to the astonished gazes of passersby at her luxury car.

Not far away, a passerby excitedly took photos with her phone and immediately turned to send a message to her best friend: “I just saw Xu Yao getting out of a million-dollar luxury car! She’s really so thin and fair in person!”

Her friend, however, was quite alert: “Babe, isn’t the building you’re at the one where Zhou Zhou is shooting his magazine cover? What’s Xu Yao doing there?”

The girl paused, feeling that Xu Yao’s intentions might not be pure. She looked up at the building in front of her, realizing that Xu Yao couldn’t possibly be collecting rent in such an office building.

Could it be…

The two of them simultaneously speculated through their screens: “Is Xu Yao going to find Zhou Zhou?!”

Meanwhile, in the photography studio, Sheng Zhou had finished his shoot. The photographer, looking at the gallery, wanted Sheng Zhou to take a few more shots, but Sheng Zhou was feeling a bit displeased, casually scrolling through Weibo.

He was browsing through his super topic when he saw a new post with a picture that shocked him to his core.

Xu Yao came?

She came to the studio to find him?

For a moment, Sheng Zhou somewhat understood why Xu Yao had chosen to retire from the industry; only by retiring could she pursue him without restraint. If she were still in the industry, would she dare?

He had to leave! He had to leave quickly!

To avoid this pursuer, Sheng Zhou disregarded the photographer’s pleas and immediately took the elevator down to the underground parking lot with his assistant.

But once in the car, Sheng Zhou changed his mind and insisted, “Go to the film crew nearby for Xia Xia’s shoot this afternoon.”

Sheng Zhou could no longer endure the days without seeing Liu Yingxia. He could almost picture her smiling at him when he closed his eyes, especially after receiving that harassing call from Xu Yao; his heart felt like it was being tormented.

He had to see her!

He had to see her today!

The assistant was frightened and advised repeatedly, “Brother Zhou, isn’t it inappropriate to see Sister Xia at this stage? If you get photographed, it would be really hard to explain.”

Sheng Zhou’s expression instantly darkened, and he replied coldly, “If I said we’re going, we’re going.”

The variety show would start tomorrow, and the chances of seeing Liu Yingxia would decrease even more. He had to see her.

The little assistant couldn’t argue with Sheng Zhou and could only sit quietly with slumped shoulders, praying not to be photographed.

The nanny car drove out of the underground parking lot and sped away.

Xu Yao went to the studio but found it empty; where was Sheng Zhou?

The magazine staff looked at Xu Yao with a gossipy expression.

Xu Yao rubbed her temples in frustration; Sheng Zhou was quite good at hiding.

Little 6 popped out, expressing concern: “Host, you’re working too hard.”

Xu Yao feigned weakness: “If you think I’m struggling, then increase my pension a bit.”

Little 6 nodded obediently: “Hmm, detecting that the host’s retirement life is quite tough, Little 6 will apply to the Quick Transmigration Bureau for a higher pension this month. Please hang in there, host!”

Hearing this, Xu Yao felt a bit better, but it unfortunately didn’t last long; she was completely speechless at Sheng Zhou’s odd behaviour.

# Xu Yao suspected of pursuing Sheng Zhou to the studio #

[Entertainment Early News: Latest gossip, a certain internet celebrity pursues a male artist in the industry to the studio, with the male artist escaping frantically. [Image][Image][Image]]

The images showed Xu Yao entering the building from behind and the nanny car of Sheng Zhou driving away.

Sheng Zhou quickly responded to this—

[Sheng Zhou v: Thank you for your affection, but my heart is only for work.]

Xu Yao: “???”

Are you seriously that delusional?

[Did Xu Yao really chase Zhou Zhou to the studio? This is too crazy! Xu Yao is definitely turning love into hate!]

[Is Xu Yao getting slapped in the face? Previously spreading rumors about Sheng Zhou and Liu Yingxia being in love, but it turns out she has feelings for Sheng Zhou herself. What else could she be doing at the filming location besides pursuing Sheng Zhou?]

[So happy! Spinning in place with joy, I knew Zhou Zhou only has work in his heart, not women~]

[Although Sheng Zhou did respond, his response is too polite, right? XY is currently an internet celebrity, so he’s basically mentioning an internet celebrity at the top of his Weibo account! Too damaging to his image.]

[Speechless at Sheng Zhou +1]

[You guys upstairs², shut up! If you were constantly harassed by someone like Xu Yao, you would retaliate too! Hope it doesn’t affect Zhou Zhou’s variety show tomorrow.]

……

Xu Yao almost laughed at these comments; she was quite shocked at how narcissistic Sheng Zhou was.

Lu Ye frowned as he read, asking, “Miss Yao Yao, should we start arrangements to send a lawyer’s letter to Sheng Zhou?”

Once the lawyer’s letter arrives, Sheng Zhou will definitely obediently pay the rent for the past six months. The Xu family’s ‘Pizza Hut’ legal team is very intimidating, so they aren’t afraid of Sheng Zhou being uncooperative.

Xu Yao lowered her gaze to admire her crystal manicure and smiled calmly, “No rush, I haven’t collected the rent yet.”

Lu Ye looked at Xu Yao’s calm profile and suddenly realized that Xu Yao and Xu Jing really had a lot in common; the angrier they got, the calmer they became.

Xu Yao said lightly, “If he doesn’t want to resolve it privately, then he can’t blame me.”

Xu Yao smiled and reminded them, “Get up early tomorrow to collect rent from Haicheng Shangpin.”

–

Xu Yao returned home leisurely. Qu Xi came over after finishing her scenes for the day, and Xu Yao only told her not to worry and to seize this opportunity.

Qu Xi was still a bit dazed, not quite understanding what opportunity Xu Yao was referring to. Did Yao Yao think the short drama could become a hit?

After coaxing Qu Xi back home, Xu Yao received a WeChat message from her fiancé, who was merely a tool for her inheritance.

[Ji Zhengqing: Miss Xu, is there anything I can help you with?]

Clearly, Xu Yao’s situation with Sheng Zhou had reached this fiancé, who was about to go on a business trip back to the country.

Xu Yao was about to say no, but then realized that this fiancé was deliberately trying to contact her, as it would be awkward if they were not familiar with each other when they got engaged.

[Xu Yao: Do you know any property companies that are reliable and not too expensive?]

[Ji Zhengqing: Yes.]

After chatting for a bit, Xu Yao ended the conversation, citing the need to rest early, and played a few games before going to sleep.

The next day, Xu Yao woke up early, simplified her makeup, and had Lu Ye prepare the rental contract and the transfer records for Sheng Zhou’s rent.

Just as Xu Yao was about to head out, someone rang the doorbell. It was several staff members who were panting while dragging dozens of suitcases.

Seeing Xu Yao’s puzzled expression, the staff explained, “Miss Yao Yao, these are the property certificates of your various properties. They have all been processed.”

Previously, when Qu Xi visited her home, she was quite curious about one of the huge empty rooms and what it was for. Xu Yao actually planned to use it to store her mountain of property certificates.

The staff dragged the suitcases into the designated large room, opening each one to reveal stacks of bright red property certificates that were dazzling to the eyes.

These are all her little empires!

After considering for a moment, Xu Yao decided to take the property certificate for the luxury apartment in Haicheng Shangpin that Sheng Zhou was renting.

The appearance of these property certificates didn’t have too much difference; the only difference being the building numbers inside, making them easy to confuse.

“Are you ready, Miss Yao Yao?” Lu Ye’s steady voice came from the door. Hearing this, Xu Yao quickly grabbed a property certificate for Haicheng Shangpin and then had Lu Ye put all the documents into a transparent folder.

Xu Yao took out her phone and entered the live broadcast room of ‘My Home Life’ variety show, smiling slightly, “Let’s go!”

*

pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

The highly anticipated ‘My Home Life’ variety show finally began, with countless fans flooding into Sheng Zhou’s live broadcast room at the first second. The online viewership far surpassed the other four guests, leaving netizens in awe of the top star’s ability to attract fans!

The director watched the soaring online numbers, grinning from ear to ear, feeling it was worth the huge investment to invite the top star Sheng Zhou!

Most fans came for Sheng Zhou while some netizens were purely curious about what the interior of the luxury apartment in Haicheng Shangpin looked like, as such opportunities to see it were quite rare.

As soon as Sheng Zhou appeared, he was quite eye-catching. He wore a pink long-sleeve T-shirt, a floral apron wrapped around his waist, and slides on his feet, waving his hand and saying, “Hello everyone, good morning.”

“Have you all had breakfast? I’m just about to make some.”

[Ahhh, Zhou Zhou is so handsome! He looks so fresh in his home attire! Is he planning to make dumplings? How down-to-earth!]

As the camera moved to the kitchen, the viewers gasped even more.

[Oh my gosh, is this a mansion? The kitchen is so big! Ten chefs could cook at the same time without feeling crowded, right? And there’s even a western kitchen island for juicing, I’m so envious.]

[Just the kitchen is bigger than my master bedroom… Not everyone in the entertainment industry can afford a luxury mansion in Haicheng, Sheng Zhou is indeed impressive.]

[The kitchenware is all top-notch global cooking tools, sob sob sob, did you see that ‘ordinary’ white refrigerator? It’s worth over three hundred thousand yuan…]

[!! A refrigerator worth over three hundred thousand?? Oh my gosh, is this the world of the rich?]

In addition to the live stream camera following Sheng Zhou in real-time, the production team also filmed other scenes for later editing, slowly panning the camera from the kitchen to the living room.

There were quite a few staff members on site, but in this mansion, it didn’t feel crowded at all.

In the incredibly spacious living room, there were elegantly curved high-end soft sofas, and the sunlight streamed in through the 270° large floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the generously wide balcony where unknown exotic plants were planted.

The knowledgeable staff secretly admired the decor; previously, some had criticized Sheng Zhou’s taste as being very ordinary, but now it seemed his mansion’s decor was quite sophisticated, filled with understated luxury.

After this variety show, it’s likely that no one would dare to criticize Sheng Zhou on this point anymore.

Sheng Zhou fished the dumplings out of the pot and said to them, “The dumplings are ready, director and everyone, let’s eat together.”

After all, in front of the camera, Sheng Zhou knew how to put on a show.

[Sob sob sob, Zhou Zhou is amazing! He’s so busy with work yet can cook so well, I can smell the aroma through the screen.]

[? No way? He just bought a few bags of frozen dumplings, boiled them in water, and then they’re ready to eat. Even my six-year-old can do that; fans don’t need to praise SZ for being a great cook, right?]

[Wow, look at the tableware! This brand’s tableware is exclusively supplied to the royal family of X country; it looks plain but is actually super expensive!]

The comments in the live stream varied, but the vast majority were quite positive.

When Sheng Zhou invited them, the director and the others naturally had to show some respect.

“Ding ding ding—”

Just as they sat down and quietly observed the tableware, a series of doorbell rings echoed from outside, causing them to exchange surprised glances.

Sheng Zhou looked at the production team, secretly thinking it was an arrangement by them. As the owner of the mansion, he immediately got up and walked towards the door to open it, with the camera following closely behind.

Of course, a mansion wouldn’t have a regular door lock but a professional smart lock with a display screen on the wall that clearly showed the outside view.

When Sheng Zhou saw the figure on the display screen, his expression suddenly changed.

Xu Yao?!

Today, Xu Yao was dressed in a gentle flesh-pink knitted camisole paired with a shawl cardigan, followed by a few people, among whom the tall bodyguard was the most eye-catching, making Xu Yao appear even smaller.

Xu Yao looked exceptionally beautiful today, truly stunning. Sheng Zhou’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he stared at Xu Yao on the display screen, his mind racing—

Had Xu Yao already liked him to this extent??

He avoided her yesterday at the filming studio, so today she simply came to his door?

Seeing that no one opened the door, Xu Yao calmly continued to press the doorbell, the ringing echoing one after another.

The viewers in the live stream also saw this scene immediately, and the moment Xu Yao appeared, the atmosphere became lively, with the online viewership skyrocketing!

[??? Xu Yao? Oh my gosh, Xu Yao is a stalker, right? She chased him all the way to Zhou Zhou’s doorstep!]

[If I had Xu Yao’s shamelessness, how could I not pursue my crush??]

Some viewers were just enjoying the spectacle: [A woman pursuing a man is like a thin layer of gauze³; Xu Yao is really beautiful, and she matches well with Sheng Zhou. Why doesn’t Sheng Zhou just give in? The girl is being so proactive.]

[I’m done, I’m really done. Just yesterday, Sheng Zhou rejected her on Weibo, and she actually came again. I’ve never seen someone like Xu Yao before; if she’s already retired from the industry, she should stop clinging onto him already, right?]

The production team was even more excited; Xu Yao was truly their good partner, creating buzz for them, and it was a huge surprise for them!

Sheng Zhou quickly thought of Liu Yingxia, fearing that she might misunderstand after seeing the live stream. He began to curse Xu Yao for being too high-profile in pursuing him, but he couldn’t show it on camera, so he smiled and said, “I should open the door and explain things clearly to Miss Xu.”

Amidst the barrage of comments praising “Sheng Zhou is such a man,” he opened the luxurious double doors.

Xu Yao shook her sore fingers lightly; this guy finally opened the door.

Sheng Zhou said gently, “Xu…”

Xu Yao didn’t glance sideways, directly walking past Sheng Zhou into the house, with Lu Ye following closely behind.

Sheng Zhou’s smile froze on his face: “??” She just walked in like that?

[Although Sheng Zhou would politely invite her in and then reject her, Xu Yao walking in directly is really rude. No wonder Sheng Zhou doesn’t like her; such a waste of a pretty face.]

[Trespassing into someone’s home, Sheng Zhou should just call the police. Women like this shouldn’t be given a good face; otherwise, they’ll take advantage of it.]

[This situation seems complicated; Haicheng Shangpin is a high-end luxury community in Haicheng, comparable to Haicheng Bay No. 1. The security guard wouldn’t just let an outsider like Xu Yao in. I sense there’s going to be a big show today; I’ll call my best friend to come and watch.]

Sheng Zhou hurriedly followed, “Miss Xu, thank you for your affection…”

Xu Yao sat down on the sofa, and Lu Ye stood behind her with his hands behind his back like a gatekeeper. She rested her chin on one hand and calmly interrupted him, “Mr. Sheng, are you misunderstanding something? I’m here to collect rent.”

The entire mansion fell silent in an instant, as everyone pondered over Xu Yao’s words—“collect rent.”

Yesterday, Xu Yao had replied to a netizen saying that Sheng Zhou’s mansion was rented, but at that time, not many people believed it. However, today, Xu Yao showing up in person carried a different meaning to the audience. Was she here to provide solid evidence??

With a single sentence from Xu Yao, the live stream room was thrown into chaos, the barrage of comments flooding the screen to the point where it was almost impossible to see!

[What the hell? The mansion is really rented? Just yesterday, I was complaining about how Xu Yao knew that Sheng Zhou’s mansion was rented—was it because it was hers? Is she the landlord?]

[Not necessarily, she might just be collecting rent for someone else, but… is it really rented??]

[My God, is Sheng Zhou so thick-skinned? Pretending that a rented mansion is his own? I woke up this early just to see his mansion, and he pulls this?]

The entire barrage was questioning whether Sheng Zhou was really renting. This was truly the biggest twist of the day!

Previously, the whole internet was crazily marketing Sheng Zhou’s luxurious mansion in Haicheng, yet it turned out to be rented? Rented!

There was nothing shameful about renting; who hasn’t rented a place these days? But Sheng Zhou’s team had always promoted this mansion as one he purchased!

Isn’t that lying?

Some fans with a strong sense of morality found this fact hard to accept.

The production team was somewhat dumbfounded. When they saw Xu Yao appear, they thought there would be a big explosive moment today. It seemed there indeed was—but this explosive moment made the director feel it might affect their show—WTF!!

The director’s mind was racing; he even wanted to grab Sheng Zhou and shout at him, why did he deceive the production team??

[Is Xu Yao out of her mind? Even if it’s really rented, does she need to come collect rent now? I remember rent is usually paid half a month in advance, right? Is it necessary to chase after someone because of rent? It’s really disgusting.]

[Exactly, I also rent, and when it’s time to pay, I’m usually busy. The landlord wouldn’t come knocking on my door; I just go over when I have time.]

Xu Yao didn’t seem to intend to let Sheng Zhou off the hook. She changed her posture to scrutinize him and continued, “I added you on WeChat with the note ‘landlord,’ and you blocked me. I called you, and you blocked me. I tried to find you privately to pay the rent, and you ran away,” Xu Yao spread her hands helplessly, “So I really had no choice but to come directly to your front door.”

Sheng Zhou: “…”

Sheng Zhou’s facial expression was about to collapse. His ominous premonition was too strong. He even wanted to rush up and cover Xu Yao’s mouth to stop her from speaking, but the bodyguard standing behind her, like a mountain, made him hesitate.

In the next moment, Xu Yao stared into Sheng Zhou’s eyes, which were gradually shrouded in despair, and firmly said the one thing Sheng Zhou least wanted to be exposed: “Mr. Sheng, please pay me the half a year’s rent you owe.”

Owe!

Half a year!

Rent!

Listen to these words!

Xu Yao gave a signal and immediately, an employee came forward with Xu Yao’s payment code, smiling sweetly, but the words that came out made Sheng Zhou feel like he was facing a venomous woman, just like Xu Yao: “Hello, Mr. Sheng. You owe Miss Xu Yao a total of 2.1 million for half a year’s rent, 60,000 for property management fees, and 120,000 for utilities, totaling 2.28 million.”

The entire venue: “……”

2… 2,28 million yuan??? Such a crazy amount?

Silence fell, and no one dared to speak at that moment; it was so quiet that even the sound of the wind rustling the curtains could be heard.

The news was too explosive, and it was hard to react in time.

The mansion is rented…

The mansion is suspected to belong to Xu Yao…

These could be overlooked, and even the manager present began to think about how to spin this in the future—renting is down-to-earth, even top-tier stars rent, just like ordinary fans!

But the key point, the key point is that Sheng Zhou owes rent! Owes, rent!!

And it’s been half a year, over one hundred eighty days!

Fans went crazy!

The online viewership of the variety show skyrocketed from several million to tens of millions. It was peak commuting time on a workday, and many office workers were crammed into the subway.

Almost every time one turned their head, they could see young people nearby wearing headphones, all watching Sheng Zhou’s live stream, the subway filled with exclamations of “What the hell.”

[My best friend is going crazy. So, Sheng Zhou’s mansion is rented, and he owes rent? A top star in the entertainment industry owes rent?? My worldview is shattered.]

[I took Sheng Zhou as a role model, and it turns out he owes rent? Has he capsized?]

[Am I the only one wondering about Sheng Zhou’s utility bills? 120,000 for half a year, averaging 20,000 a month—how outrageous. Is he using that much water and electricity in a mansion?]

[Tsk, as expected of one of Haicheng’s top mansions, with a property fee of 10,000 a month—666⁴, I can’t even earn that much in a month, haha.]

[Hahaha, where are those who mocked Xu Yao as a little rich woman? This house in Haicheng is hers! I’m thrilled!]

Of course, there were also fans who wouldn’t believe it: [I don’t believe it; right now, it’s just Xu Yao’s word! Whatever she says is true? I will always believe in Sheng Zhou.]

At this moment, Sheng Zhou’s mind was in a daze. His head was buzzing, and he was completely frozen in front of the camera.

Under the lens, every expression of Sheng Zhou could be captured, and all the onlookers could clearly see his flushed face gradually turning pale.

A few days ago, Xu Yao had added him on WeChat, even noting herself as the landlord. At that time, the internet was trending with the cheesy pickup line, “I am your landlord, the owner of your heart,”…

Yesterday, she called him but he blocked her.

Xu Yao had even come to find him yesterday, and he had run away, even hanging her on his Weibo page…

Sheng Zhou suddenly realized that Xu Yao had actually given him many chances, many opportunities to resolve this privately without being exposed! It was he who didn’t take them.

Thinking of this, Sheng Zhou could hardly control his expression; it was clear he regretted it.

[I’m so embarrassed for Sheng Zhou. Xu Yao isn’t chasing him for love; it’s to collect a debt!!]

[I’m still looking at Sheng Zhou’s Weibo from yesterday; I’m digging out a set of Haicheng’s top mansion with my toes⁵!]

[Other than 666, I don’t know what else to say.]

[I put myself in the situation and thought, if someone owed me 2.28 million in rent for half a year and didn’t pay, I’d be tempted to kill them. I’m cursing like crazy; thank goodness Xu Yao can hold it in.]

“Are you going to pay the overdue rent or not?” Xu Yao was feeling a bit anxious; it had been almost ten minutes since she had waited for his response, and she still had to meet with the property management company’s CEO today, so she didn’t have time to waste with Sheng Zhou.

“Lu Ye,” seeing that Sheng Zhou still wasn’t speaking, Xu Yao called out, clearly stating, “Call the police.”

“Understood, Miss.” Lu Ye immediately took out his phone.

Sheng Zhou felt like his head was about to explode; he instinctively lunged forward, “Don’t call the police!”

Lu Ye swiftly raised a foot and kicked Sheng Zhou aside, preventing him from getting close to Xu Yao.

Sheng Zhou stumbled and nearly fell to the ground. He was in a sorry state, beads of sweat forming on his handsome forehead due to his nervousness and fear. The thought of being taken to the police station made him feel like it was all over. He looked at the stunned crowd and the dark camera lens, and the words that were about to spill from his lips were stuck, no matter how hard he tried.

Sheng Zhou was like an ant in a hot pan, completely flustered.

His actions made many fans feel disheartened. Not allowing the police to be called was just confirming that Sheng Zhou indeed owed rent, right? Otherwise, why would he be afraid of the police? It would be better to go to the police station and settle it there.

Xu Yao rested her chin on her hand, watching the spectacle with interest, “Why don’t you want to call the police?”

Sheng Zhou stuttered, repeatedly mumbling, “I… I…”

Xu Yao, that malicious woman, was forcing him to personally admit it!

At that moment, Sheng Zhou truly regretted it. Two million was really not much; for a top star like him, it was merely pocket change. He had just suddenly thought of taking advantage of the situation, thinking he could avoid paying.

Xu Yao raised her eyebrows, urging, “Call the police.”

Sheng Zhou felt both ashamed and irritated, tears almost forced out by Xu Yao. He barely managed to squeeze out a few words through clenched teeth, his voice so soft it was almost inaudible, “…I’ll pay, I’ll pay.”

What nice landlord? It was all a lie; they just wanted to fatten the sheep before slaughtering it!

The fans were stunned: “……”

This sentence was a roundabout admission that Sheng Zhou, the top star, was indeed in arrears with his rent.

All his previous insistence was just a joke!

Sheng Zhou fumbled for his phone, and his manager rushed over, immediately grabbing his hand and whispering in his ear, “Wait a moment, don’t act rashly.”

If Xu Yao was indeed commissioned to collect the rent, such a large sum of money without any written agreement—who would dare to hand it over so directly?

And if Xu Yao was truly commissioned to collect the rent, her aggressive attitude just now would definitely attract haters; she was just a sycophant riding on someone else’s power!

Sheng Zhou suddenly came to his senses. Right, at this point, he could only try and minimize his losses; at the very least, he couldn’t let Xu Yao step on him to gain more popularity.

“I want to see the property certificate!”

Not only did Sheng Zhou want to see the property certificate, but even the netizens were very curious.

Wasn’t Xu Yao just a little rich woman collecting four hundred thousand yuan in rent every month? Could she really own a top luxury property in Haicheng? Whether she was just a sycophant or not could be determined with just a glance at the property certificate.

Xu Yao chuckled; she had long known about Sheng Zhou’s tricks and had prepared the property certificate in advance!

Xu Yao raised her hand and clapped in the air: “Bring it here.”

Lu Ye took out a red booklet from a transparent bag and placed it in Xu Yao’s outstretched palm.

[Wow, Xu Yao looks so cool in this pose!]

[I can’t even express my feelings right now; I want to jump into the screen and beat Sheng Zhou to death. Five years of my feelings…]

[Suddenly understand why Xu Yao withdrew from the industry; who would want to struggle in the entertainment circle when they can afford a luxury apartment in Haicheng?]

[Emmmmm, the only thing I have in common with Xu Yao might just be the red cover of the booklet, crying.]

Xu Yao covered the property number and unit number, facing Sheng Zhou directly, and said just two words: “Pay up!”

Sheng Zhou: “…”

Xu Yao gradually noticed that their expressions were a bit off. Sheng Zhou looked like his eyes were about to pop out of their sockets. Xu Yao curiously asked, “Is there a problem?” How could a government-issued document have a problem? Impossible!

Lu Ye gently reminded, “Miss Yao Yao, it seems you’ve taken the wrong property certificate.”

Huh?

Xu Yao quickly turned the red booklet around to check for herself. The property unit number indeed stated it was a top luxury property in Haicheng, but there was an issue with the building number.

After all, there were too many red booklets, and each line was quite similar; only the minute numbers had slight differences.

At that moment, the entire live stream exploded!

[??? Impressive! Too impressive! This property certificate belongs to the most luxurious apartment in Haicheng! Do you know the penthouse king? This one is the best unit in that building, with a perfect layout and excellent lighting.]

[Over a thousand square meters? I almost dropped my snack.]

[Wow, this unit actually belongs to Xu Yao? This one can reach four hundred million! She is indeed a rich woman; she actually has two luxury apartments in Haicheng!]

[Oh my god, even if Xu Yao took the wrong one, I still wouldn’t dare to doubt that this unit isn’t hers!]

Xu Yao took the wrong property certificate; the one she had was the most expensive luxury apartment in Haicheng…

Clearly, they were all property certificates, yet the wealth was palpable.

Lu Ye immediately said, “Miss Yao Yao, I’ll arrange for someone to bring the correct property certificate right away.”

Just a few minutes after Lu Ye made the call, the property manager entered the room with an employee after knocking on the door.

The employee hurriedly handed the bright red property certificate to Xu Yao: “Miss, I just realized you took the wrong one while organizing your property certificates, so I rushed to bring it to you.”

So that’s why it arrived so quickly.

Xu Yao was very satisfied and planned to give her a bonus later.

This time, there was no mistake; everyone clearly saw that this luxury apartment in Haicheng belonged to Xu Yao in black and white—a government-issued property certificate. Even the most stubborn fans had nothing to say, sitting dumbfounded in front of the screen, as if all their strength had been drained.

Xu Yao sincerely apologized, “Sorry, I have too many houses and took the wrong certificate.”

Everyone: “……”

[……Xu Yao really knows how to show off.]

[I suddenly understand why Xu Yao could let Sheng Zhou owe rent for half a year; she probably forgot because she has too many houses!]

[So… Sheng Zhou really owes rent, and it’s been half a year? Confirmed!]

[This is a hammer blow! Sheng Zhou’s character is really too bad.]

[Unfollowing, I’m completely unfollowing him. I’m so poor I can barely afford to eat, yet I still pay my rent on time, but Sheng Zhou, a top-tier celebrity, earns so much money and still owes rent? I’d have to be an idiot to still be his fan!]

#MyHomeLife#

#ShengZhouOwestoXuYaoSixMonthsRent#

#ShengZhouXuYao#

#ShengZhou’sAverageMonthlyUtilitiesAre20000#

#Unfollowing#

#ShengZhouEntitledMan#

Top celebrities truly live up to their name. In just half an hour, nearly half of Weibo’s trending searches were occupied by him, each followed by the tag ‘breaking.’

This was Sheng Zhou’s realm!

Sheng Zhou’s Weibo follower count was plummeting, while Xu Yao’s was skyrocketing.

The rumors about Sheng Zhou’s luxurious mansion being fake and Xu Yao pursuing Sheng Zhou being fake were all debunked. Only the fact that Xu Yao is a wealthy woman was true!

A middle-aged man in a formal suit who couldn’t hide his protruding beer belly. His hair was slicked back with what looked like hair oil, gleaming under the light. Seeing the overwhelming amount of gossip online, he exclaimed in surprise, “Miss Xu Yao is actually in my community?”

He was Mr. Yang, the CEO of Tiansheng Property Management. However, he wasn’t interested in the downfall of any top celebrity; he only knew that Xu Yao was currently in their Haicheng Shangpin residential complex.

Tiansheng Property Management held an awkward middle-ground position in the property management industry and Mr. Yang didn’t know why the richest man, Xu Jing, would have him contact Xu Yao.

However, Mr. Yang dared not offend Xu Jing. He originally intended to call Xu Yao to schedule a meeting, but upon discovering she was already in Haicheng Shangpin and seeing that her rent had been collected, he figured the matter was resolved. He immediately instructed his personal butler to take him to find Xu Yao.

After receiving permission, Mr. Yang followed the personal butler to the entrance of the luxurious mansion Sheng Zhou rented, ignoring everyone else, his face creased with a smile, incredibly enthusiastic, “Miss Xu Yao, hello, hello, I’m Yang Guofa, CEO of Tiansheng Property Management…”

Xu Yao apologetically interrupted, “Mr. Yang, I’m a little busy right now, please wait a moment.”

Yang Guofa’s smile didn’t falter; he clasped his hands together, “Okay, okay, Miss Xu, please go ahead, I’m sorry for interrupting.”

Yang Guofa smiled and retreated, moving to the elevator lobby beside the entrance to admire the greenery.

The screen was immediately filled with question marks!

[?????]

[WTF, is Xu Yao so amazing? Making the company CEO wait? Has she not finished up with her business here yet?]

[Tiansheng Property Management, that’s not small potatoes either. That CEO is worth at least several billion, right? He waits when she says wait. The CEO is so obedient.]

Sheng Zhou didn’t care about any property management CEOs. He was about to go crazy. He could almost imagine how terrible the online comments about him would be, yet even in this situation, Xu Yao didn’t seem to intend to let him off the hook?

Sheng Zhou fought back tears, his expression furious as he glared at Xu Yao, and growled, “I’ve paid the rent. I’m feeling unwell and want to suspend the show. Please, everyone get out!”

The director’s heart was ablaze with anger. Upon hearing Sheng Zhou’s words about suspending the show, the director could no longer hold it in, his vision blackening as he fainted.

Good job, Sheng Zhou, you really did it! You’re such a jerk!

The rest of the crew rushed forward, applying pressure to his acupoints and slapping his cheeks, repeatedly shouting, “Director, are you alright? Hold on!”

The scene immediately descended into chaos.

Xu Yao sighed, thinking the director’s acceptance capacity was too low. She looked up and stared at Sheng Zhou as if he were an idiot, “Me, get out? I’m the landlord! The rent you paid is the rent you owed me, okay?”

Sheng Zhou was speechless, and no one else on the scene dared to even speak up or offer a word in support. Everyone just wished they could find a hole to crawl into.

Sheng Zhou didn’t understand what Xu Yao was trying to do, especially since he still had a month’s security deposit.

Xu Yao stared at Sheng Zhou’s pale face, her words clear and distinct, “According to the rental contract, you breached the contract for six months. Please pay me 30% of the penalty for liquidated damages, totalling 630,000 yuan. Also, please move out of my house within three days and restore it to its original condition, otherwise, I will see you in court!”

---

i feel like the public scrutiny and standard for chinese celebrities and the ones in my country (australia) and the western world are so different. the way this would be a total non issue in my own country xD

and as said before, next release will be in two weeks (this 10k chapter was a bit insane. the chapter was named ‘three in one’ and i was wondering what sort of relevance that title had with the chapter, but then realised the author probably stuffed three chapters into one, hence the title QAQ orz)

1. this statement has more of a cultural context. celebrities in china are expected to be role models and need to ensure that they’re following the law and abide by strict moral conduct and that they lead by example. hence why xu yao would be so surprised about a top star like sz owing half a year’s worth of rent. just look at examples of fan bingbing’s tax evasion, etc. celebrities are incentivised to do the morally right thing as there is often huge public backlash as well as government crackdown and outright bans if they don’t. ↩︎
2. you’ll often see ‘upstairs’ or ‘level xx’ in comment threads since they refer to the previous comment in the thread as ‘upstairs’ or level xx corresponding to their place in the thread ↩︎
3. “when a woman pursues a man, it’s as easy as a layer of gauze between them; when a man pursues a woman, it’s as difficult as a mountain between them” is a popular but vivid saying. This saying means that in the emotional life and marriage of men and women, it is very easy for a woman to pursue a man, since if she is determined to win him, it is easy to win, because a layer of gauze can not only make it vague, but also can be easily broken through; on the contrary, it is as difficult for a man to pursue a woman as going through earth’s different layers ↩︎
4. internet slang for awesome/respect ↩︎
5. from the phrase ‘digging out a three bedroom apartment with my toes’ — an exaggeration used to describe embarrassment, awkwardness or shame. simply put, when people are embarrassed, they can’t help but curl their toes ↩︎

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

---

At the same time, the official Weibo account of the variety show ‘My Home Life‘ finally released their long-awaited trailer.

There were a total of five groups of guests, from entertainment industry artists, social elites, to ordinary individuals; but the most anticipated was undoubtedly the top star Sheng Zhou.

The show’s photographer was clearly very skilled, taking especially good care of Sheng Zhou.

In that brief trailer, the camera opened with a long shot of the door, moving into the top luxury mansion in Haicheng, with the final shot landing on Sheng Zhou’s handsome profile standing in front of the oversized floor-to-ceiling window!

In the video, Sheng Zhou opened his arms to the camera, smiling gently, “Welcome to my home; from now on, there’s wine, and there’s also me.”

A small trailer sent countless fans of Sheng Zhou into excited screams.

[My God, Sheng Zhou is really amazing; having him in the entertainment industry is our blessing!]

[I checked, the mansions in Haicheng start at one hundred million yuan; looking at the luxurious decoration in the trailer, this one must cost at least two hundred million yuan¹. Sheng Zhou is really impressive to be able to afford a place like this.]

[So happy, finally got a chance to see Zhou Zhou’s mansion, but I probably couldn’t even afford a toilet in Zhou Zhou’s house, right?]

[Don’t be disheartened, dear; we ordinary people can have our own lives too. I wouldn’t even dare to fantasize about such top luxury mansions; the most painful are those with a bit of money and are neither rich nor poor, who can think and buy but have to empty their pockets.]

[Haha, I know who you’re talking about; sister, you’re really harsh, but I like it. Shh—don’t mention that certain woman who has withdrawn from the circle; it’s an insult to the comment section.]

[Sisters are meant to encourage each other; think about it this way: it would take me twenty years to buy a regular three-bedroom apartment, while that certain woman would also need to not eat or drink for twenty years to buy a mansion like Zhou Zhou’s. We’re all the same, instant psychological balance [dog head.jpg].]

The fighting spirit of Sheng Zhou’s fans is well-known across the internet; they have battled against many artists but suffered losses against Xu Yao, making her a top villain in the eyes of all Sheng Zhou’s fans. Everything had to be dragged out and stepped on.

The production team directly turned a blind eye to this, and instead, were quite pleased. The popularity of Xu Yao, who was hated all over the internet, hadn’t diminished at all these days, despite her withdrawal from the circle. And since it wasn’t their show that was causing the trouble, the situation was just right to help boost their show’s traffic and hype.

Xu Yao, who was seated in the rental collection van and planning to collect rent in the new community today, squinted her eyes: “?”

Sheng Zhou’s luxury mansion at Haicheng Shangpin²?

He bought it?

Is this how Sheng Zhou is promoting it?

Indeed, Sheng Zhou is promoting it this way, because he has discovered that his landlord is likely a very easy-going person. He doesn’t proactively pay the rent, yet the landlord doesn’t care, even letting the situation drag on as is for more than half a year, as if he hadn’t noticed anything. It seems like his landlord is the kind of top-tier big shot who doesn’t care about that little money, right? After all, to a wealthy landlord, that rental amount is just a drop in the bucket.

Sheng Zhou is quite conscious about his status; seeing that his landlord has never said anything, his team has subtly promoted the over a hundred million yuan mansion at Haicheng Shangpin as his own property.

As it turned out, the generous landlord indeed had no reaction.

Before the premiere of the variety show ‘My Home Life,’ there was such a frenzy of hype, yet the wealthy landlord hadn’t made a peep. To Sheng Zhou, this was indeed the best landlord!

Unlike Xu Yao, who only has two buildings in the urban village, yet trying to win people over with some no-threshold coupons and second-hand furniture.

Xu Yao only thought about collecting rent on time, so as long as Sheng Zhou’s fans didn’t dance in front of her, she couldn’t be bothered.

As a result, her Weibo comment section was filled with: [Rich girl, have you checked out @My Home Life? Want to see a real big house? Considering buying one?]

Xu Yao watched in admiration; indeed, the main character with issues has a group of fans with issues too.

Xu Yao snorted coldly while sitting in the professional rental collection van, her crystal-manicured fingers quickly tapping on the virtual keyboard of her phone, while Lu Ye and the others silently watched from the side.

What did these little fans provoke her for?

[Xu Yao v replied to @Zhou Zhou’s little wife: He rents it.]

Fans: ???

Almost instantly, a new trending search term popped up—#Xu Yao hints that Sheng Zhou’s Hai Cheng Shang Pin mansion is rented#

[Rented? Xu Yao, you’re still spreading rumors! Who doesn’t know that Zhou Zhou looked at the Haicheng Shangpin mansion last year? There are even paparazzi photos of it!]

[At this point, is this even a hint? This is a direct statement, right? Xu Yao, can you just shut up and stop riding other people’s coattails?]

[Our Yao Yao didn’t say this ‘he’ is Sheng Zhou, right? Among the five groups of guests, there are indeed guests who directly said their houses are rented.]

[Xu Yao’s fans, can you stop trying to whitewash her? Xu Yao, just wait to be sued; plus, last time you spread rumours about Sheng Zhou and Liu Yingxia dating, I’ll sue you until you kneel and beg for mercy!]

Xu Yao watched as Sheng Zhou’s fans hopped furiously in her comment section, clicking her tongue twice and as she said, “Aren’t I doing well? I’m even helping Sheng Zhou create hype for the trending topic; and it’s even free of charge.”

Lu Ye and the others: “…”

Well, Miss Yao Yao is quite the good person.

pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

Xu Yao didn’t care about Sheng Zhou or the angry netizens; she closed Weibo and switched to the rental collection WeChat. She had noted each tenant as “(XX Community) Building X XX – Tenant Name,” and Xu Yao clicked into each chat box to take a look.

Several properties under her name had reached the rent collection period in the past few days, including Tai’an Community, while tomorrow, she had Haicheng Shangpin. She had been a quite busy these days.

Many tenants in Tai’an Community had already paid their rent on time, but Xu Yao noticed something strange—

“What do these tenants mean? They all refuse to pay the property management fee?”

Naturally, the urban village buildings had no property management, but proper communities and apartments did have property management. The property management is equivalent to a housekeeper, and owners are required to pay property management fees, which vary in price depending on the community’s amenities; the more upscale the community, the more expensive the property management fee.

Once a house is rented out, tenants are required to pay the property management fee just like they do for utilities.

When purchasing property, aside from considering location, school districts, house prices, and layouts, many buyers also consider property management, as excellent property management is undoubtedly a plus.

Xu Yao was quite puzzled as to why this group of tenants hadn’t paid the property management fee, so she planned to take people to Tai’an Community for an on-site inspection.

As the car drove into the underground parking lot of Tai’an Community, Xu Yao had just gotten out when she saw a puddle of water in the parking lot, clearly from a leakage. Only a few people were standing around watching the leak.

Xu Yao frowned slightly; Tai’an Community is considered a decent residence in Haicheng, and with such a leak, the property management still hadn’t sent anyone to handle it? How bad did it have to get?

Xu Yao instructed, “Lu Ye, contact the property management immediately to handle this.”

The people watching the leak turned around upon hearing this, and upon seeing a pretty young girl, they immediately smiled: “Little girl, are you here to visit a friend? What’s the use of looking for property management? They’ll just treat the symptoms, not the root cause; it will just leak again and again.”

“The property management staff are probably still busy dealing with the elevator in Building 3 and can’t keep up.”

An elderly lady with a bamboo broom was sweeping the water nearby and started chatting with the man that was next to her: “The elevator in Building 3 is broken again? It’s been under repair every day and still can’t be fixed?”

“Isn’t that right? Apparently someone was lociked in the elevator for over ten minutes again. That group of property management takes money but doesn’t do the work. I told my son that after this, we won’t pay the property management fee anymore!” The old man was cursing, clearly harbouring grievances that had been building for quite some time.

Xu Yao had a rough idea of the situation and led Lu Ye and the others to walk into the community.

The pool for the fountain in the community was completely empty, let alone the fountain itself. In the distance, there were a few stone pavilions, and outside the pavilion was a swimming pool, but it was also empty, revealing the blue tiles inside the pool, which were coated with light yellow water stains, clearly showing signs of being unused for a long time.

Seeing several mothers playing with their children in the stone pavilion, Xu Yao asked, “Isn’t the swimming pool in the community open?”

“It hasn’t been open for a long time. The property management said they were afraid of children drowning, so they locked it all up,” one mother with a boy complained, “I bought a house here just for that swimming pool; what kind of garbage property management locks it up and doesn’t let us use it?”

Xu Yao nodded and continued walking forward with Lu Ye and the others. She curiously asked, “Lu Ye, didn’t you know about the internal situation of the community before?”

Lu Ye was silent for a moment. The Xu family had too many properties; aside from those that were vacant and not rented out, for the many rented properties, they only cared about collecting the money and didn’t bother managing the internal environment of the community, nor could they manage it.

Because the Xu family owned too many properties, they often forgot to remind tenants to pay rent, with tenants reminding them instead.

Lu Ye followed Xu Yao closely behind, bowing deeply as he said, “My apologies, Miss Yao Yao. This is indeed my oversight, we will definitely improve this in the future.” This was the first time Lu Ye faced a work-related crisis.

Xu Yao nodded, speaking earnestly, “Since I enjoy the benefits, I must also fulfil my obligations. The tenants have spent real money to rent my house, and I hope they won’t regret it.”

Xu Yao had experienced 999 quick transmigrations, many of which she had started off in poverty. She had also rented houses before, so she could empathise with the struggles involved.

Lu Ye stared at Xu Yao for a while, letting out a heavy ‘hm‘ from his nostrils.

After inspecting the area, Xu Yao felt she had a general understanding and led Lu Ye and the others back.

Xu Yao responded to one of the tenants in the Tai’an community: [I went to the community today to check things out. I will handle the property management issues.]

Little 6 felt pained: [You’ve worked hard, host, running around every day to collect rent.]

The tenant was actually feeling uneasy. After all, the landlord has handed the responsibility of paying the property management fees over to them. They said they wouldn’t pay, yet the landlord wasn’t angry but instead said they would help solve the problem?

How would they solve it? The property management was already like this; they wouldn’t just change the property management company, would they?

The tenant had a belly full of questions but didn’t dare to ask Xu Yao directly, only saying a simple thank you on WeChat.

“Tomorrow is the rent collection period for Haicheng Shangpin, right?” Xu Yao casually asked as she picked up the rent collection tablet. “Pull up the tenant information for Haicheng Shangpin first; I want to see the situation.”

Haicheng Shangpin was one of the top luxury residential communities in Haicheng, with property management fees reaching twenty yuan per square meter per month. The service level was excellent and ranked among the best in the country.

Xu Yao glanced at the electronic records and was pleased to see that the tenants had not complained about the property management at Haicheng Shangpin—after all, it was a wealthy area.

Xu Yao remembered Sheng Zhou, who had blocked her on WeChat. The rent collection period was tomorrow, and he still hadn’t unblocked her or added her back. She could only say, “Pull up Sheng Zhou’s information and find his phone number.”

After all, it isn’t embarrassing for a landlord to call asking for rent.

Previously, she had added Sheng Zhou on WeChat in a period that hadn’t been during the rent collection period, so it had felt inappropriate to call him—as if she were a clingy person demanding rent. But now it was different; it was already the agreed-upon rent collection period, so it was reasonable for her to call him.

Lu Ye typed ‘Sheng Zhou’ into the rent collection tablet and pulled up his rental information.

Xu Yao glanced at it, noting Sheng Zhou’s name, age, and a copy of his ID.

Xu Yao remarked with a sense of amusement, “Sheng Zhou’s ID photo is truly a nightmare; his makeup artist must be well-paid. His fans would probably cry if they saw this photo, haha.”

As Xu Yao continued to scroll down, her gaze suddenly froze for a moment, and she quickly stopped laughing.

Wait… wait a minute.

Sheng Zhou had rented a luxury apartment worth over a hundred million at Haicheng Shangpin for more than a year, but the key point was—

Xu Yao’s pupils dilated in shock as she exclaimed, “Sheng Zhou hasn’t paid rent for half a year??”

Lu Ye, who usually maintained a calm demeanour, finally had a change in facial expression: “……”

It’s over; is he going to be laid off early?

---

the next chapter is over 10k words — i almost thought i was translating two chapters, so the next update after these two chapters are released will be in two weeks!

this whole story glorifies landlords to a certain degree, but best believe xu yao is one of the more conscientious landlords (she does address everyone eventually owning their own house later on as well)

1. approx 28 million usd ↩︎
2. previously translated as ‘Top Quality Haicheng’ but sounds awkward. essentially just ‘top tier’ apartment complex/condo in Haicheng ↩︎

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

---

Qu Xi could tell the platinum content in this business card was quite high. She often received business cards from various executives in the entertainment industry, but she had never seen such a lavish business card. Regardless of the reason, it would be a great collectible item.

Xu Yao was definitely the most discerning. Even with this luxurious and high-end business card sample, she still found several flaws.

Xu Yao said disdainfully, “It really is quite ordinary, nothing stands out at all, it needs to be redone.”

Seeing Lu Ye lean in slightly, appearing to listen to her demands, Xu Yao took the silver-white, high-quality platinum business card and said, “I’m quite satisfied with the material, but what’s written on this card? Just my name and phone number?”

“Have the designer add my business scope on it, like ‘real estate cooperation in multiple locations such as Jing City, Hai City, Gang City, Yunzhou, etc.’, ‘specialised rental without loss’, and so on.”

Lu Ye: “…”

Lu Ye let out a long breath and said, “Sorry, it was my oversight. I will arrange for the modifications and re-customisation immediately.”

Xu Yao was satisfied and arranged for everything to be done. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of Qu Xi’s eager little eyes and couldn’t help but smile, “Once the business cards are revised, I’ll give you one.” Look, high-end business cards are in demand.

Qu Xi was delighted to hear this and promised that she would treasure Xu Yao’s business card once she received it. Then, Qu Xi curiously asked Xu Yao why she had invited her today.

“Have you had any successful auditions recently?”

Qu Xi pouted, looking like she was about to cry. It was upsetting to bring this up; if she had been successful, she would already be on set. But then she thought of something and couldn’t help but speculate, “Yao Yao, you’re not planning to take me to collect rent, are you?”

Her friend saw that she had been struggling to find acting jobs, so she was planning to take her on an adventure? Qu Xi thought it would be quite nice for Xu Yao to be a landlord and relax, but her dream was to become a famous actress…

Xu Yao shook her head, “Collecting rent is boring and painful; I wouldn’t drag my friend into suffering. I’m recommending a role for you, the female lead in the short drama ‘Yin Fate’.”

Qu Xi currently had no acting jobs, so she was a daily internet surfer, a 5G player¹, and knew about the trending #Official Account of ‘Yin Yuan’ and its contrasting videos. She roughly understood that the female lead in this short drama was a deceased young lady from the Republic of China.

Although it was just a short drama, it was still a female lead role, something Qu Xi had never experienced. She instinctively touched her chubby round face, feeling quite uncertain, “Me? The director said I’m not suitable for the female lead, at most I could play the sister of the female lead or male lead.”

“And isn’t this Republic of China young lady quite cunning? Can I do it? They all say I don’t have an aggressive look.” Qu Xi was very insecure about this.

Qu Xi didn’t have Xu Yao’s stunning looks; if she walked the red carpet, she wouldn’t stand out. Her appearance was more like the that of the girl next door.

Xu Yao stared at her obedient bangs and generously said, “I think you’re very suitable.”

She particularly wanted to see the female lead with bangs, looking harmless, yet silently taking out everyone!

However, even though she was the investor, recommending the female lead still required the director Zuo Ning’s approval. She decided to take Qu Xi over when the platinum suite at Cloud Peak Hotel was due in seven days.

Qu Xi was still a bit hesitant, “But what about the company…”

Xu Yao was very calm, “I will handle that trash company.”

To be honest, Qu Xi had been tricked into signing with the agency along with Xu Yao, and later found out how terrible it was but felt trapped. She envied Xu Yao for being able to terminate her contract smoothly, not expecting Xu Yao to readily agree to help her deal with it.

Qu Xi was both surprised and delighted. Since she had no acting jobs, she was just idling at home anyway, so she agreed.

The short drama was very short; with sufficient funding, it could be completely filmed in just over ten days. Qu Xi thought about how to thank her landlord friend for providing her with a luxury apartment and helping her deal with the company issues, so she didn’t plan to ask for a fee, treating it as a friendly appearance.

The extremely pleasant seven-day experience in the platinum suite at Cloud Peak Hotel for Zuo Ning and the others was finally coming to an end. The script had been thoroughly revised, and with money and a good script, Zuo Ning felt rejuvenated, believing the future was bright.

Now, all they needed to do was go back to the film academy to select a female student to re-shoot the female lead’s scenes.

And good luck kept coming; on the day of check-out, Zuo Ning saw Xu Yao bringing in a beautiful girl, and his eyes instantly lit up.

Of course, he had no strange thoughts; he just thought this girl resembled Xiu Xiu.

His ex-girlfriend was also very beautiful, someone who looked cool and had a spicy flavour, but he always felt she didn’t quite fit Xiu Xiu’s character. Xiu Xiu innocent and pure young lady from the Republic of China, died at the beautiful age of sixteen, and should be someone like Qu Xi!

When Zuo Ning heard Xu Yao say she was recommending Qu Xi to try for the female lead, he felt it was just right.

“Thank you all for your hard work these days.” Xu Yao reread the revised script and expressed her satisfaction.

Zuo Ning and the others didn’t feel it was hard work at all; they felt like they were in a joyful paradise. This experience was something they could remember for a lifetime.

Ran Lingfeng said with righteous indignation, “If this is called hard work, I hope it lasts a lifetime.”

Xu Yao chuckled, took out her phone, and transferred money to the two, “First, let’s settle the wages for screenwriter Zhang and Little Yan.”

Screenwriter Zhang was quite surprised to see Xu Yao transfer fifty thousand over. Fifty thousand wasn’t much for him, but they had been well-fed and well-treated in the platinum suite, working at most two hours a day, and still getting fifty thousand after tax for a week. This was truly a dream job.

Screenwriter Xiao Zhang thought for a moment and said seriously, “Miss Xu, if you need anything in this area next time, just let me know.”

More opportunities for side income would be great.

Yan Xiang was even more excited, howling with joy. The seven-day internship earned him fifty thousand, enough for him to boast in front of his relatives, until Xu Yao handed him an internship certificate, which made him truly go wild!

“Wow, wow, wow, Xu Group’s internship certificate! Oh my god!” Yan Xiang had completely forgotten his reserved demeanour as a Chinese literature major, screaming at the sight of the bright red stamp.

Zuo Ning and the others were taken aback and couldn’t help but lean in to see the excitement, “Which Xu Group?”

“The Xu family of the richest man!”

Everyone was stunned to hear this. The family that was incredibly wealthy, involved in multiple fields, and whose assets were something they could never earn even a fraction of from the time they started working?

Now the heir of the richest family was Xu Jing. Thinking of Xu Yao sharing the same surname, could they be related?

Even a slight connection to the richest Xu family, even if just a distant relative, would mean Xu Yao was definitely either rich or noble.

Yan Xiang kept reading the words written on the internship certificate: “This student worked diligently during the internship, was proactive and responsible, was good at thinking, and could draw inferences from one instance… This is the certification.”

Yan Xiang clutched the internship certificate tightly, fearing even the slightest damage. He hurriedly asked the hotel’s personal butler, “Do you have a document sleeve? Please give me one to protect it.”

If even just one corner of this internship report had a crease, Yan Xiang would feel heartbroken.

After all, this was the Xu Group! How many workers with top 985² degrees aspired to join this prestigious company, while many outstanding graduates from Tsinghua and Beijing University were turned away? Yet he had managed to obtain an internship report from that Xu Group!

The value of this internship report was evident; it was a golden key to open doors.

With just this internship report, Yan Xiang could not only resolve the long-standing issue of his internship report but also outshine all the fourth-year students in the Chinese department!

Moreover… it would provide him with unprecedented help in his job search.

The personal butler quickly brought a transparent document sleeve, and Yan Xiang only felt at ease after personally placing the certificate inside, his eyes shimmering with tears as he looked at Xu Yao.

At this moment, Xu Yao was no longer just an ordinary senior with money to Yan Xiang; she was his idol!

Yan Xiang said earnestly, “Senior Sister, I will definitely write topic you gave me well, and I promise to write you a joyful novel without any online ghostwriting!”

Wasn’t it just about doing detective literature while simultaneously interacting with various handsome boys? He could do it!

Xu Yao smiled. See? A single piece of paper can hold Yan Xiang in its grasp. Xu Jing has always wanted her to work at the company, but she refused. Since she has shares in the Xu Group, Yan Xiang’s internship can indeed be considered as interning at the Xu Group.

Zuo Ning and the others, who had already graduated, were no longer so impulsive about internship certificates, but the future looked bright with Xu Yao’s presence.

Xu Yao looked at them with clear eyes, filled with infinite enthusiasm for the future. After working in the quick-transmigration industry for so many years, she had long lost such passion. Xu Yao sighed, “Sometimes I really envy you.”

“You can strive to pursue your dreams, while I can only retire early and collect rent.”

Everyone in the suite fell silent: “?”

“Keep up the good work, Zuo Ning, remember you still owe me a month’s rent.” Xu Yao reminded Zuo Ning before leaving.

Zuo Ning’s eyes glistened with tears; he understood.

pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

The official account of the short drama “Yin Fate” gained hundreds of thousands of followers due to the massive traffic push from the short video platform.

After the official account’s attention on Xu Yao sparked discussions, it then followed Qu Xi and officially announced her as the new female lead.

Qu Xi sat in front of a carved mahogany bed, wearing a bright red wedding dress. Under the red veil was her youthful and beautiful face; the pale complexion combined with the bright red lips immediately evoked a sense of Chinese horror.

[Wow, the new actress is so young, the impact of wearing a bright red wedding dress is so strong, you really know how to scare people.]

[Is this Qu Xi? Last time she exposed Xu Yao, she had two roommates, one of whom is Qu Xi! Qu Xi seems to have a pretty good relationship with her.]

[I get it now, so the official account followed Xu Yao because Xu Yao paid to get her friend in? I was scared to death; I was wondering how Xu Yao could afford to book a platinum suite at the Cloud Peak Hotel for her employees!]

[+1, I feel relieved all of a sudden. Xu Yao, a woman with such poor moral character who spreads rumors, having so much money is really unbearable.]

There were also fans of Sheng Zhou using the opportunity to promote: [Don’t mention that unlucky woman Xu Yao, Zhou Zhou is going to participate in a new variety show ‘My Home Life‘, let’s watch Zhou Zhou in a mansion worth a billion in Haicheng!]

Xu Yao collected 400,000 in rent from the urban village in the city each month; to buy a suite like his would take at least twenty years, and that’s without eating or drinking.

---

i want the kind of hard work xu yao has

1. refers to someone who’s chronically online and is extremely fast at picking up on internet trends, slang, etc. ↩︎
2. 985 universities are the top ranking universities in china ↩︎

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

---

What do readers worry about the most? Clearly, they endure sleepless nights waiting for the author to update, only to find themselves faced with a plot that makes them uncomfortable!

And now, Yan Xiang wanted to tell Xu Yao that the joy uniquely belonging to Xu Yao was determined by her, the only reader!

In the novel world he created, she could be the wealthiest global tycoon, or she could instantly ascend to the realm of immortals, becoming a goddess surrounded by countless celestial beings.

He, Yan Xiang, would resign himself to be a heartless typing machine for his senior!

But Xu Yao was not buying it and wanted to give this talented junior a good lesson.

[Xu Yao: There’s too many of these online meal replacements¹ of yours, I’m already tired of them.]

The financial backer is always picky, but Yan Xiang didn’t take it to heart. He suddenly felt that Xu Yao’s words made quite a bit of sense, so he wanted to get more feedback from her.

[Xu Yao: Can you write detective stories? Include those movie emperors, domineering CEOs, campus heartthrobs, and doctors you mentioned earlier.]

Yan Xiang was momentarily stunned in front of his computer screen.

Detective…? Such a serious genre needs to incorporate so many handsome guys? This is quite a novel challenge!

Yan Xiang only replied to Xu Yao with an ‘ok’ emoji, but at that moment, he had already started brainstorming. He was always eager to satisfy his wealthy client.

pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

Meanwhile, Zuo Ning, who had just finished his work, couldn’t contain his desire to share. He was originally a graduate of the directing department and had a minor in photography. Back when he was in the urban village, he would humorously think that if directing didn’t work out, he could switch careers to become a photographer.

However, whether in directing or photography, both are money-burning industries.

Zuo Ning took out his camera and recorded a short two-minute video, which he uploaded to a short video platform.

Little Ou, an ordinary netizen who loves folklore and enjoys watching supernatural stories for thrills, had previously stumbled upon Director Zuo’s updates on the filming progress of “Yin Fate” and had been drawn in.

Nowadays, foreign zombie films only know how to use bloody violence to stimulate the audience’s eyes, and Little Ou had only felt numb after watching too many.

However, the films from the island nation often randomly harm good people without reason, which made it hard for Little Ou, who had been indoctrinated with the idea of “revenge for grievances,” to adapt.

Yet, this obscure Yin Fate that he accidentally came across, with its two large red lanterns against a dark background and the eerie red cloth shoes appearing at the street corner, had just the right flavour! From then on, Little Ou frequently checked Director Zuo’s filming progress updates.

However, Director Zuo had not updated for almost a week, which made Little Ou feel quite anxious.

There are many young people with dreams in China, but the vast majority are defeated by capital.

Although “Yin Fate” only had a little over a thousand fans, it was fortunate that most of them were active fans, with the comment section filled with worried messages.

[Wuwuwu, Director Zuo, are you still there? “Yin Fate” won’t be canceled, right? I’ve been looking forward to it for so long.]

[Director, say something! If you don’t update the filming progress, I feel like it’s going to be over.]

[I heard the female lead is Zuo Ning’s girlfriend. If they broke up, she won’t act anymore, and the situation will be even tougher.]

[It’s not easy for young directors to pursue their dreams, but it should be hard to attract investment for this short drama. How about crowdfunding? I can contribute a little.]

Little Ou immediately liked this comment. As an ordinary office worker, he couldn’t spare a lot of money, but a couple of hundred yuan was no problem.

Mainly, the long break in video updates was really worrying.

Just then, Zuo Ning updated a short video. Before Little Ou could feel happy, he noticed that the video cover and the filming location in the urban village looked very different, and his heart sank.

An ominous premonition seemed to loom over the horizon.

Could it be that they were really going to announce the cancellation of the short drama?

With a nervous heart, Little Ou clicked on the video, and what appeared was Zuo Ning’s cheerful face: “Hello, family! Long time no see. Today, let’s talk about something happy. We’ve secured investment for ‘Yin Fate’!”

The camera shifted, revealing a nearly hundred-square-meter super spacious living room, under bright and dazzling lights was a low-key yet luxurious long conference table.

“The value of the suites the investor arranged for us is this amount,” the male lead Ran Lingfeng exaggeratedly made an ‘eight’ gesture with his hand, “and also hired professional screenwriters and well-known novelists to help polish the script.”

Eight?

Little Ou instinctively thought it was eight thousand, as eight thousand was already quite extravagant for him. But he quickly realised that eight thousand was definitely not enough; just the living room was nearly a hundred square meters, capable of accommodating a small meeting for over ten people!

So, there was only one possibility—

“Eight, eighty thousand?

“That’s right, even in the off-season, it’s eighty-eight thousand eight hundred for one night.”

Little Ou would have to earn that amount in a year! And that was just for the place they would use to revise the script! He was instantly overjoyed; with such an investor, how could “Yin Fate” short drama be canceled?

Totally secured!

[Wuwuwu, which kind-hearted bodhisattva came to the rescue?]

[So great, really great! My anxious heart can finally relax.]

[So starting tomorrow, we can expect updates on the filming progress again, right? Awesome!]

At this moment, the comments section was still quite normal, with a few fans expressing their anticipation for the short drama to be filmed on schedule.

But they didn’t expect that starting today, the official account of the “Yin Yuan” short drama would seem to have changed skins, with Zuo Ning no longer sharing filming progress every day, but instead—

“Hahaha, we just finished coordinating the script today, and we need to reward ourselves! Let’s order some king crab, pan-seared foie gras, and tuna belly with black truffle…”

“I feel a bit tired after discussing some of the plot holes with screenwriter Zhang and screenwriter Yan for half an hour. Let’s have a professional masseuse come up to help us relax our brains, after all, we can’t overthink.”

There were even videos of him just lounging around: “Hahaha, I can still see the neon lights of Haicheng at night while lying in the bathtub. My heart feels incredibly peaceful.”

“…”

Fans: ?

Do you even know what this account is for? This is the official account of the “Yin Fate” short drama, not a leisure blogger!!

Zuo Ning was now wealthy, but he was still the thrifty young director he had always been, so he wouldn’t spend money on marketing.

However, the official account of the short drama “Yin Fate” became inexplicably popular due to this stark contrast.

The short video platform was buzzing with searches for #Official Account of “Yin Fate” Short Drama#!

[Hahahaha, I’m dying of laughter. Go search for “Yin Yuan” and you can feel what a drastic change in style looks like.]

[A few days ago, Director Zuo: meticulously filming every frame, diligently working without daring to spend an extra cent; Now Director Zuo: Platinum Suite, fine dining, luxurious enjoyment.]

[This official account is so funny. For the past few months, they’ve been diligently filming short dramas, but these past few days, it’s all about sharing the Platinum Suite at the Cloud Peak Hotel.]

[Main task: Platinum Suite experience; Side task: filming short dramas [dog head holding a rose.jpg]]”

Countless netizens, drawn in by short video recommendations, found this hilarious. Previously, the official account’s videos only garnered a few thousand views; yet the latest video had reached a staggering hundreds of thousands of likes!

This world’s short video platform is truly terrifying.

[The investor daddy specially booked the Platinum Suite; wouldn’t it be a waste of the gold master daddy’s money if we didn’t experience it properly? The experience is right.]

[My god, I wouldn’t dare dream this big! Things will work out, Director Zuo has met a benefactor in life! Thank you, I have new dream material for tonight.]

[My friend is a little second-generation rich heir, he can afford the Platinum Suite at the Cloudtop Hotel, but he wouldn’t be willing to pay for his employees. I want a dozen bosses like this.]

[The last boss this good was Xu Yao a few days ago, right? She hired a girl to collect rent for her who doesn’t have to work 9-to-5, so happy!]

As a top-tier star, Sheng Zhou’s fans were everywhere. Seeing these highly-liked comments, he immediately became unhappy.

[Xu Yao dares to compare herself to this big shot with a salary of 15,000? She’s gotten too big for her britches!]

[Xu Yao has retired, so stop trying to to ride on someone else’s popularity… She does make a lot from renting out her two buildings in the urban village, around 400,000 a month, but a night at the Cloudtop Hotel’s Platinum Suite costs nearly 90,000, it’s not something she, with her little money, can afford.]

[Besides Beijing, it’s probably just Haicheng, right? Haicheng has countless wealthy people. A net monthly income of 400,000, honestly, doesn’t even rank in Haicheng, and an annual income of four to five million isn’t much nationwide.]

So, stop trying to ride on the short drama’s investor daddy’s popularity.

Seeing the overwhelming comments and a bunch of nosy netizens leaving messages like “Director, do you still remember your filming task?”, Zuo Ning’s face flushed. He just wanted to share the progress of the script revisions, he didn’t know how it turned into showing off the Platinum Suite.

Finally, the short drama’s official account got back to work.

Just a minute ago, the official account for the short drama “Yin Fate” followed Xu Yao’s personal account.

This small action instantly caused a huge stir!

[?? What’s going on here!]

[Followed Xu Yao? Why would they follow Xu Yao? Director Zuo, don’t scare me.]

The official account doesn’t follow people casually. The “Yin Fate” short drama only followed Zuo Ning’s personal account, the male lead Ran Lingfeng, and two staff members.

After the actress who played the female lead left, the official account also unfollowed her.

Therefore, following Xu Yao definitely wasn’t a casual action…

[Xu Yao has retired and won’t be acting anymore, so there’s only one possibility—she’s the one who booked the Platinum Suite at the Cloud Peak Hotel for Zuo Ning and the others!]

[Yes, yes! I remember, the last scene of Xu Yao’s urban village rent collection livestream was Zuo Ning!]

[My god, if it’s really Xu Yao, she dares to pay for them to stay in a Platinum Suite, which means… she doesn’t just collect rent from urban village buildings?]

The internet went crazy. Even seeing Xu Yao collecting rent from urban villages didn’t impress some well-off netizens.

An annual income of five million isn’t considered very wealthy.

With such huge black-and-red traffic, as long as she’s thick-skinned enough to stay in the entertainment industry, it’s easy to earn it back!

But… she’s paying for her employees to stay in a Platinum Suite, which means her net worth is far more than just a little.

No matter how crazy the internet got, Xu Yao didn’t care; collecting rent was her priority.

She had been busy recently as several buildings were due for rent collection recently. The next few buildings she’d be collecting rent from were residential buildings in the community.

Qu Xi was called to Xu Yao’s house today. The little girl excitedly wandered around the top floor of Haicheng Bay No. 1, constantly exclaiming in surprise.

This house was clearly more extravagant and luxurious than the one she lived in. She even discovered that the floor under her feet was made of moonstone!

Moonstone is usually used to make bracelets and pendants! Her landlady friend used it as flooring!

Seeing Qu Xi touring her home, Xu Yao let her be. Remembering the task she’d given Lu Ye a few days ago, she called him over.

Lu Ye was always meticulous. As if he’d anticipated this, he took out a custom-made business card and presented it with both hands.

“Miss Yao, please check; is there anything you’d like to change about the business card?”

This was just a sample; modifications were still possible.

Lu Ye hired a professional business card designer. It featured Xu Yao’s name and contact information.

Qu Xi returned, catching sight of the silver-white business card in Xu Yao’s hand. Seeing this, Xu Yao smiled and asked for her opinion.

Qu Xi curiously took it. She’d received many business cards and found them all similar, except this one had a different feel: “The design doesn’t seem like anything special, not particularly eye-catching, but what material is this card made out of? It feels more substantial than ordinary business cards.”

Lu Ye’s expression was calm: “Miss Yao wanted a high-end business card, so I arranged for someone to design this one with platinum, for a more luxurious feel.”

Qu Xi: “…”

Qu Xi was stunned for a while, finally managing to squeeze out a few words: “I’m sorry, I take back the ‘nothing special’ I just said.”

And now she just wanted to be the first person to own a Xu Yao business card!

---

should’ve never left this week’s updates to the last minute, now i’m rushing the second update desperately before midnight QAQ

1. meal replacement in fan culture relates to it refers to a variety of things (including but not limited to) fan fiction, fan art, photos, and texts that are not directly related to the original content you want to see, but can generate alternative associations and give people a sense of satisfaction ↩︎

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

---

Want to accurately grasp a soon-to-graduate college student in the palm of your hand? Just give them an internship certificate.

Xu Yao had the professional massage therapists for the spa leave and called Lu Ye in, asking for his opinion, “Do you think I lack a bit of prestige?”

Seeing that Lu Ye didn’t understand her meaning, Xu Yao added, “Don’t you think I lacked the aura of a rich heiress when I left my number for Li Xiaoli and Zuo Ning today?”

Lu Ye immediately got what Xu Yao meant and bowed, “Yes, Miss Yao Yao, I will arrange for someone to customise some exclusive business cards for you right away.”

Xu Yao nodded in satisfaction; this was something she had thought of on a whim. As a top landlord, not having business cards was indeed inappropriate.

Xu Yao had come to this world to retire and enjoy life, so she went to bed early every night for her health. Before sleeping, she sent the address to Zuo Ning, Yan Xiang, and a professional screenwriter she had a nodding based acquaintance with.

The location coordinates—Haicheng, Cloud Peak Hotel.

Yan Xiang was still happily thinking about finally getting an internship certificate and didn’t think much of it, while Zuo Ning felt a jolt in his heart upon seeing the address. A hotel? Who discusses investment projects at a hotel?

Cloud Peak Hotel was a top tier five-star hotel owned by the wealthy Xu family, combining accommodation, dining, and entertainment, with branches in multiple cities both domestically and internationally. It was rumoured that the most expensive room could cost up to a hundred thousand a night, offering a view of the entire Haicheng.

Zuo Ning had a girlfriend he dated during college, who was also the female lead in “Yin Fate.” They had completely broken up a few days ago, and he was now single, but…

Zuo Ning was torn between going and not going, tossing and turning until he finally fell asleep in a daze. The next day, his body was more honest than his spirit, waking up promptly at six to rush to the bathroom for a shower, then standing in front of the mirror carefully shaving off the stubble that had appeared.

His friend Ran Lingfeng watched Zuo Ning’s actions and suddenly realised, “Right, right, right, you have to clean yourself up to meet big project investors. Take me with you.”

Ran Lingfeng was not only Zuo Ning’s friend but also the male lead in the short drama “Yin Fate.” He had previously discussed the plot arrangement with Zuo Ning and was the only support Zuo Ning had before his death.

The two of them took two subway trips and finally arrived at Cloud Peak Hotel. Looking at the towering luxury hotel, both swallowed nervously and walked inside.

Zuo Ning didn’t have Xu Yao’s business card, only her verbal invitation, and he approached the beautiful receptionist with some unease, “Excuse me, Miss Xu Yao invited us here to discuss a project.”

The receptionist looked surprised at the two young men, immediately putting on a sweet smile and having them escorted to the VIP exclusive elevator. “Miss Xu Yao is waiting for you in the platinum suite on the seventieth floor.”

“Zuo Ning’s heart grew increasingly anxious, his palms sweating. They arrived at the only room on the seventieth floor, flanked by hotel bodyguards. Looking at the luxurious golden double doors, they lacked the courage to ring the doorbell, even thinking about turning around and running away.

Ran Lingfeng grabbed Zuo Ning and pressed the doorbell first, “Let’s go in and talk.”

The doorbell rang, and the door opened from the inside.

Before they could take in the luxurious suite, their eyes were drawn to two other young men inside. One was standing, leaning in to listen, while the other was half-kneeling around Xu Yao, like she was a queen.

Ran Lingfeng was shocked, “So many people?”

Xu Yao set down her wine glass and said, “The more, the merrier. Come in quickly.”

The more, the merrier? The two walked in awkwardly, standing stiffly at the farthest corner.

Xu Yao immediately introduced them, “This is professional screenwriter Little Zhang, and this is screenwriter Yan Xiang. I invited them to help polish and refine the script for your short drama.”

Zuo Ning and Ran Lingfeng instantly turned red, feeling like despicable little people who truly deserved to die.

They had thought Xu Yao was just having a moment of whimsy when she said she wanted to invest two months’ rent, but who knew she had even found a professional screenwriter to help.

They shook hands to get acquainted, and Zuo Ning took out the prepared project materials, smoothly signing the investment contract with Xu Yao, who became the largest investor in this short drama.

Xu Yao estimated that she should be the only investor; at this time, short dramas had not yet become popular in the world, and no investors would risk their funds on such a high-risk project with no prospects.

With the most say, Xu Yao succinctly stated, “I have only one requirement for this short drama—showcase Chinese horror to the extreme!”

In the original text, Zuo Ning was not a professional screenwriter; to please the audience, Western horror elements had even appeared in the plot, which felt quite awkward. Chinese horror, infused with folk elements, could scare the audience to screams with just a single set.”

Xu Yao looked around and said, “You all stay here and revise the script; I’m leaving now. If you get hungry, thirsty, or have other needs, just call the hotel butler.”

The four of them stood there in a daze, staring blankly at their surroundings, instinctively swallowing their saliva.

Let… let them stay here?

Yan Xiang had asked before coming; the platinum suite at Cloud Peak Hotel, while not as luxurious as the presidential suite, still cost 88,888 a night during the off-season…

Seeing Xu Yao planning to leave with Lu Ye, Zuo Ning hurriedly asked, “Miss Xu, aren’t you going to stay with us? No… I mean, aren’t you going to supervise us as we revise the script?”

Zuo Ning realized his words might have been ambiguous and quickly blushed, rephrasing his question. In Zuo Ning’s mind, since Xu Yao had booked such an expensive suite, she must be enjoying it herself and just casually bringing them along, but now she wanted to leave?

Xu Yao sighed, “I’m busy every day, and I have to go collect rent; I don’t have that much free time.”

She was either collecting rent or on her way to collect rent; it was really tiring.

Zuo Ning felt a bit confused. He had heard from Li Xiaoli last night that the rent for two buildings in the urban village had already been collected this month. Could it be…

Zuo Ning suddenly realised something, looking at Xu Yao in shock. Could this largest investor possibly… have several buildings in the urban village?!

Xu Yao left with Lu Ye and a few bodyguards but first had a brief meeting with the manager of Cloud Peak Hotel.

This Cloud Peak Hotel, located in Haicheng, was also secured by Xu Jing for her on the day she inherited the estate. However, Xu Yao didn’t want to manage the hotel, finding it too troublesome and preferring the simple joy of collecting rent. So, after deducting income from dining, other services, and various expenses, Xu Yao only needed to collect pure rent each month.

Thus, Xu Yao kept the presidential suite on the top floor for herself to stay in from time to time, leaving the platinum suite for them. After all, renting it out for a few fewer days just meant a little less rent, and these top suites weren’t always occupied by wealthy guests anyway; leaving them empty was just leaving them empty.

After Xu Yao left, the four of them stood in the platinum suite, looking at each other in disbelief for nearly five minutes before slowly coming to their senses.

“Wow, I can actually stay a night, oh no, a few days in the platinum suite of Cloud Peak Hotel in my lifetime! I’m going to call my grandma right now and ask if our ancestral grave is smoking green!”

Ran Lingfeng ran around the suite, pulling out his phone to take pictures and videos, unable to control his excitement.

The platinum suite had four rooms, each nearly a hundred square meters, with two living rooms of varying sizes, a private bar, a massage room, and more.

Yan Xiang followed, wandering around the platinum suite, shouting, “Wow, these windows are actually bulletproof!”

“Wow, I want this room; I love this bathtub!”

The four young men were like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden¹, making all sorts of excited noises.

Zuo Ning secretly clicked his tongue; Xu Yao had arranged for them to stay for seven days, which accounted for nearly two-thirds of the investment funds. He felt like he had encountered a benefactor in his life, choking back tears as he clenched his fist and said, “I need to hurry and revise the script!”

It was the professional screenwriter, Little Zhang, who spoke up, “How about we order some breakfast first? Have you all eaten breakfast yet?”

Seeing the others shake their heads, Xiao Zhang awkwardly called the hotel restaurant. In less than ten minutes, a waiter pushed in a cart, placing a stack of exquisite breakfasts on the dining table, instantly boosting everyone’s appetite.

While eating, Yan Xiang asked, “Senior Sister said she would give me an internship certificate, so that’s why I came. How about you?” Now that he thought about it, Yan Xiang felt he should be ashamed.

The screenwriter Xiao Zhang replied shyly, “Miss Xu called me and said she would provide meals, accommodation, and a salary, so I came.”

Indeed, it was all-inclusive; they just hadn’t expected the conditions to be this good!

This might be the only chance in their lives to stay in such a nice hotel, right?

Ran Lingfeng asked the smiling 24-hour butler standing nearby, “Is this the best room in Cloud Peak Hotel?”

“No, the presidential suite on the 72nd floor is the best, but it’s reserved for Miss Xu and is not available for rent.”

The group instantly felt disoriented. It was always reserved for Xu Yao?

Then… didn’t that mean it was still charging rent even when it was unoccupied?

They calculated in their heads how much Xu Yao would be wasting if she didn’t stay there for a month, and they felt a wave of heartache for her.

While eating breakfast, they discussed the script for “Yin Fate.” Since it was a short drama script, it was only a few tens of thousands of words long, and wouldn’t even take an hour to finish reading

Even revising it wouldn’t actually take seven days; Yan Xiang even felt that in such an environment, his creative inspiration was bursting!

As soon as they finished breakfast, the four young men each grabbed a laptop and began revising the script in the living room, their efficiency surprisingly high.

On the basement level of Cloud Peak Hotel, there was an entire floor of an eight-meter-high library. They could arrange for the private butler to borrow any materials they needed.

Zuo Ning planned to finish revising the script in three days, and even so, there were various hours where they were free in the day’s 24 hours.

The very familiar Ran Lingfeng and screenwriter Little Zhang, after finishing their parts, went to play billiards in the billiard room, while a waiter stood by with a towel to wipe sweat.

Zuo Ning remembered that he had a short video account, where he had previously been using to document his filming progress in real-time with over a thousand fans. Out of boredom, he had the idea—why not film the platinum suite? His desire to share was stirring.

Only Yan Xiang sat upright in front of the computer, his fingers flying over the colourful mechanical keyboard, the sound of keys clicking rapidly, his typing speed astonishingly fast. The eyes behind his black-framed glasses sparkled with a strange light, and a smile lingered at the corners of his lips.

Seeing Yan Xiang so diligently typing, Zuo Ning felt an overwhelming sense of shame.

Clearly, he was the director and screenwriter of the short drama, yet he was already slacking off, while this youngest and still in his senior year talented junior was working hard. He really should be ashamed!

Zuo Ning quickly took his seat and began to revise the script, incorporating the folk elements that Xu Yao had mentioned.

*

pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

Meanwhile, Xu Yao was sitting on a soft sofa, one hand holding the list that Lu Ye had sent over, and the other hand gripping her phone, the screen displaying the WeChat contacts—new friends interface.

Since inheriting the estate, Lu Ye had communicated the news of the change of landlord to all the tenants, and most of them were quite nice. Upon receiving the news, they added Xu Yao on WeChat as per the rules.

Xu Yao was going through the WeChat requests one by one when she noticed that there were still a few people who hadn’t added her.

Top Quality Haicheng was the top luxury residential community in Haicheng, comparable to Haicheng Bay No. 1, housing many industry bigwigs and entertainment stars. Xu Yao was intrigued to see a name on the list: “Sheng Zhou.”

Confirming that this top star hadn’t added her yet, she took the initiative to send a WeChat request.

The landlord is collecting rent; adding people is nothing to be ashamed of, hehe.

According to the plot in the book, she had indeed had a crush on the top star Sheng Zhou before. She didn’t know how she had obtained Sheng Zhou’s WeChat ID, but after the scandal broke, he unilaterally deleted her.

At that moment, Sheng Zhou had just finished a magazine shoot and was planning to head home with his assistant to film a pilot episode for the upcoming variety show “My Home Life.” Sitting in the van back to Top Quality Haicheng, he noticed Xu Yao had added him, with the note “Landlord.”

Sheng Zhou found the peculiar reason somewhat amusing. Did “landlord” refer to him as the owner of her heart in a cheesy way? He also saw Xu Yao’s selfie avatar and felt a surge of irritation. Instead of accepting, he left a message: “Please don’t bother me anymore; I could never like you.”

After sending that message, Sheng Zhou decisively blocked Xu Yao on WeChat.

Xu Yao was very beautiful, even more stunning than Liu Yingxia. When Sheng Zhou learned that Xu Yao, an eighteen-line actress, had a crush on him, he secretly felt quite pleased. However, ever since the scandal affected his career, he was forced to break up with Liu Yingxia and had developed a strong dislike for this woman.

Since breaking up with Yingxia, Sheng Zhou had been in pain every day, even zoning out during filming and accidentally calling the female lead “Xiaxia,” earning a glare from the actress.

Xu Yao: “?” Is he insane?

Xu Yao looked up in shock and asked Lu Ye beside her, “Didn’t I note that I’m the landlord?”

Lu Ye: “…”

After a moment of silence, Lu Ye asked, “Should we contact him by phone?”

Xu Yao thought for a moment and shook her head, “No rush; I’ll be collecting rent in a few days at Top Quality Haicheng. I’ll see what happens then.” She had so many tenants!

Xu Yao twisted her slightly sore neck, reflecting on how hard it was to collect rent, wishing for a moment of joy.

Just as Lu Ye was about to ask Xu Yao if she wanted to arrange for a masseuse, Xu Yao’s phone vibrated. She opened WeChat to see it was Yan Xiang, the talented junior from the Chinese department.

He had sent a document about ten thousand words long, and Xu Yao was somewhat surprised.

It had only been a day, and their efficiency in revising the script had already produced ten thousand words?

Xu Yao immediately felt that leaving the platinum suite at Cloud Peak Hotel for them was indeed the right choice; providing the best conditions led to the highest efficiency. She quickly set aside the rent collection list and opened the document.

The female lead in “Yin Fate” was named Xiu Xiu. However, when she clicked in, she found that the female lead was not “Xiu Xiu,” but “Xu Yao”!

Xu Yao silently stared at the joyful opening of the novel. In just ten thousand words, the wealthy landlord “Xu Yao” had met the entertainment industry’s film emperor, a domineering elite CEO, a pure university campus heartthrob, and a sharp-tongued yet exceptionally handsome top doctor.

Xu Yao: “…”

It must be said that the writing of the talented junior from the Chinese department was indeed excellent. The word choices and descriptions resonated deeply with Xu Yao, making her unable to help but smile. The plot was indeed very enjoyable, but the content was all above the neck.

[Yan Xiang: Senior sister, what do you think?]

Yan Xiang always felt a pang of guilt. He was living well, eating well, getting paid, and even needed to provide an internship certificate, yet all he did was revise the script? The script didn’t have many major issues, and minor changes were very easy to fix.

After thinking it over, Yan Xiang decided to use his strengths to thank his senior by personally crafting a joyful novel tailored for Xu Yao! Otherwise, he wouldn’t feel at ease taking this money.

[Yan Xiang: Senior sister, custom-made for you. Whatever plot you want, I can write it. Modern CEO, female supremacy, or even an alternate world where one becomes an emperor?]

Xu Yao: “…” He really knows how to write.

[Xu Yao: Luckily, you’re from Lijiang, not Potang².]

[Yan Xiang: I can have a try.]

---

hehehe gonna try update this twice a week !! probably somewhere near the middle of the week wed/thurs so it doesn’t clash with my other series

1. dream of the red chamber reference. refers to those that have never seen the world, country bumpkin, etc. ↩︎
2. because lijiang is supposed to be a parallel to jinjiang which is where the author is hosting the novel, i’m assuming potang is a jab at another site for overworking/pushing for quick updates (?) not too sure with this one ↩︎

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

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[Please, Xu Yao, be human! Sheng Zhou’s life matters too!]

[Sheng Zhou: Are you people polite?! Hahahahaha.]

[I’m now certain that Xu Yao is truly a scapegoat and has never dated Sheng Zhou. She’s just the head of Sheng Zhou’s antifan club!]

[Maybe Xu Yao’s hatred stems from love. If you can’t get him, you destroy him. [Dog head.jpg]]

Li Xiaoli saw the newcomer and immediately said to Xu Yao, “Boss, this is Zuo Ning from B404.”

Li Xiaoli thought he was coming to pay the rent and had already prepared the universal voucher to be given out after paying this month’s rent. Zuo Ning’s tired face instantly flushed red, all the way to his ears.

Xu Yao smiled and had Lu Ye close the livestream before Zuo Ning could speak.
Zuo Ning’s sun-tanned face was as red as a cloud, and he spoke with some difficulty, “Landlady, I… can I delay my rent for a month, no, half a month?”

Xu Yao: “Sure.”

Zuo Ning was instantly stunned, “S-Sure???”

Zuo Ning had been prepared to use all his might to persuade Xu Yao to let him delay the rent, but Xu Yao agreed without a word! This was unexpected.

Xu Yao’s freshly manicured fingers tapped lightly on the table, and she asked with a smile, “I heard you’re a director? You make TV dramas?”

Zuo Ning, still somewhat green, said, “Not TV dramas, short dramas.”

How could Xu Yao not know? In the original plot, Zuo Ning, like her, was a cannon fodder character. To film this short drama, he sold his small apartment, his only home, and became homeless, not even being able to afford rent. His girlfriend betrayed him, and under the weight of various pressures, he left a suicide note and jumped off a bridge.

When he died, everyone started to love him. Countless netizens mourned his soul, grieved his passing, and marvelled at his talent.

Everyone watched Zuo Ning’s painstakingly created supernatural short drama, “Yin¹ Fate“. The female lead, Liu Yingxia, directly bought the copyright to this short drama under the pretext of supporting his legacy.

It was this “Yin Fate” that launched the short drama boom in this novel world, hailed as the ancestor of short dramas, bringing Liu Yingxia fame and fortune.

Short dramas, as the name suggests, are extremely short, only a few minutes long, but every frame and every line of dialogue is quintessential!

Xu Yao asked, “Are you short on investment? I can cover two months’ rent for you in the urban village.”

Zuo Ning’s tired eyes brightened at the mention of ‘investment,’ but they dimmed again upon hearing the second half of her sentence.

Two months’ rent in the urban village? Zuo Ning’s rent was also fifteen hundred a month, so he instinctively thought two months’ rent would be three thousand. Three thousand was nowhere near enough; although he was filming a short drama and was trying hard to cut costs, once filming started, it would be a money pit.

Zuo Ning first thanked Xu Yao for allowing him to defer one month’s rent before leaving.

*

pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

On Weibo, there was a trending topic called [Rental Issues], with nearly a million followers. It featured posts from netizens seeking help regarding renting, and occasionally, legal professionals would offer assistance.

Common posts included questions like “What to do if a bizarre landlord refuses to return the deposit?”, “Should I call the police if the landlord opens my door in the middle of the night?”, “Looking for a sublet, DM me,” and “Is it wrong that I won’t return the deposit because the tenant filled my new house with garbage?” This was a gathering place for ordinary workers to vent about their rental experiences.

Zhang Jiawang, an ordinary worker, had been on a business trip with his boss and hadn’t returned to Haicheng for a few days. He had recently posted a sublet notice in the rental topic, so he would check it from time to time.

Just as Zhang Jiawang clicked into Weibo, he was surprised to find numerous message notifications, all from his sublet post.

——[Bro, is your place still available? Can you sublet it to me? I urgently need a place to stay.]

——[OP, can I sublet your house? I can pay the deposit right now, and then we can sign a new lease with the landlord together.]

——[Netizen, we’re from the same hometown, please sublet to me and not to others.]

Zhang Jiawang: “??”

Subletting wasn’t that easy, especially when dealing with a second landlord.

His sublet notice had gone unanswered for several days, and now, just a short time later, he had hundreds of replies, all hoping to sublet.

Several even offered an extra fifty yuan!

Zhang Jiawang was deeply puzzled. What was so appealing about the urban village in Haicheng that a group of netizens was scrambling to rent?

Could this be some new type of scam??

Feeling strange, Zhang Jiawang cautiously refrained from replying to those netizens immediately. Instead, he clicked into the rental topic to look for clues.

A pinned video post in the rental forum caught his attention.

Zhang Jiawang watched the five-minute video and chuckled, guessing that the guy who posted it had encountered another bizarre landlord. He was curious to see what kind of strange landlord needed to be dealt with today.

In the video, a man in his thirties spoke excitedly: “I consider myself someone who has rented dozens of times over the years, and I’ve seen all kinds of strange landlords, but I’ve never encountered one as bizarre as this!”

Zhang Jiawang thought the guy looked somewhat familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before.

“Previously, we suffered under the tyranny of a second landlord. The landlord said she would collect the rent herself, but I didn’t take it to heart, since all landlords are pretty much the same. But this landlord lady specifically gave each tenant supermarket vouchers, and my wife just bought a bunch of fruit with them!”

The video shifted, and the guy was filming the hallway: “Hey, the story doesn’t end here! This morning, as we were leaving for work, we ran into a group of cleaners doing a thorough cleaning, trying to dig out the dirt from the tile seams. I heard they even had a rat removal service. I almost died of fright when I went downstairs early in the morning; they had probably collected forty or fifty pounds of dead rats, and the smell was overwhelming.”

He attached a few photos of the pile of dead rats, which startled Zhang Jiawang, and then he realised the video environment looked very familiar, almost like his own home!

“You think it ends here? Not at all! When I got home from work, I found my place had changed… Don’t get me wrong, my home wasn’t ransacked by the landlord; the landlord lady furnished every room! We live in the worst urban village, and having a broken bed is already a blessing. I don’t even remember the last time I slept on a mattress. In the neighboyring furnished urban village, rent starts at two thousand! I casually asked, and the landlord lady said she hopes her tenants can live comfortably in her place.”

Zhang Jiawang scoffed; who didn’t know this trick? It was just a prelude to raising the rent, right?

The guy in the video seemed to be deliberately dragging out the suspense, elongating his tone: “The most crucial part is— the rent hasn’t increased!”

Zhang Jiawang was taken aback. Rent hasn’t increased? Then he heard the guy in the video say: “After working for so many years, this is the first time I’ve encountered such a conscientious landlord. She gives gifts, arranges for cleaning, and even provides furniture. Without a second thought, I extended my lease with the landlord lady for another six months!”

Netizens were left confused. Wait… today isn’t about complaining about landlords or tenants? Are we praising the landlord instead?

[What kind of divine landlord is this? I want to rent from her too! Where does this netizen live in Haicheng?]

[It’s definitely Xu Yao, 100% Xu Yao. I watched her live stream all day today! She’s truly a landlord goddess.]

#DivineLandlordXuYao# quickly trended!

[If my landlord were half as good as Xu Yao, I would wake up laughing in the middle of the night. She’s a true goddess.]

[No rent increase, thorough cleaning, and furniture provided, just to make her tenants comfortable?]

[Haha, I live there! I heard Xu Yao tell Team Leader Li that she plans to install an elevator in a few days! No rent increase and she’s adding an elevator. I regret having criticised Xu Yao before; I admit my mistake QAQ.]

[Adding an elevator to an old building? My God, why can’t there be more landlords like Xu Yao in this world?]

[Haha, I live nearby and I’m calling to rent a room right now. I’m planning to move in tomorrow. The infrastructure and environment are better than other urban villages, and the furniture conditions are comparable to a community but half the price. It’s truly the best value for money!]

Immediately, there were netizens living near Haicheng frantically inquiring below this Weibo post: [Sister, are there still available rooms over there? I’m planning to rent too!]

Xu Yao’s two buildings in the urban village originally had a few rooms left, but as soon as the trending topic hit, Li Xiaoli received hundreds of calls in an instant, all for viewing appointments!

Li Xiaoli was exhausted from running up and down, and suddenly understood Xu Yao’s suggestion before she left about installing an elevator in each of the two buildings in a few days.

At that time, Li Xiaoli looked at Xu Yao with a ‘my boss is a big spender’ expression, but now, sitting on the stairs panting, she just wanted to say—

Her boss truly has foresight!

Although she was tired after a whole day, fortunately, Li Xiaoli managed to rent everything out smoothly.

Li Xiaoli remembered that a few tenants seemed to be planning to sublet, so she called, “Are you Mr. Zhang Jiawang? Are you still planning to sublet…”

Before Li Xiaoli could finish her sentence, Zhang Jiawang on the other end immediately raised his voice to interrupt, “I’m not subletting! Who said I wanted to sublet?! I’m coming back from a business trip tonight!”

He recognised the brother in that video; it turned out they were neighbours in the same building!

What a joke, there’s no other place in Haicheng’s urban village with such high cost-performance! Why would he sublet to someone else, then go rent another place at a high price, possibly encountering a nasty landlord? Is he out of his mind?

After understanding the situation, Zhang Jiawang ruthlessly deleted those posts and subletting Weibo posts; anyone who mentioned subletting would provoke his anger.

Subletting? Impossible, never!

Xu Yao’s trending topic was indeed too hot; many netizens saw it, including Zuo Ning, who was currently eating instant noodles with friends in a rental apartment.

Zuo Ning held a fork in one hand and a sausage in the other, staring at Weibo when suddenly a comment refreshed: [Xu Yao’s two buildings in Haicheng’s urban village, one estimated at two hundred thousand, two buildings could collect about four hundred thousand in rent a month.]

Zuo Ning’s eyes were glued to the words ‘four hundred thousand,’ his heart beginning to race violently as the sausage in his hand uncontrollably fell to the ground with a thud.

His friend, who was slurping noodles, immediately picked it up and said, “Wash it, it’s still edible. Just consider it a celebration that the landlord is willing to let us owe a month’s rent… What are you daydreaming about?”

Zuo Ning’s breathing quickened, his voice trembling, “I pulled in an investment today, and someone might… might invest eight hundred thousand.”

The rental apartment fell silent for a few seconds, and with a thud, the half-eaten sausage fell from his friend’s hand again.

“Eight, eight hundred thousand?” His friend stared at Zuo Ning in disbelief, still holding onto the instant noodle soup bucket.

“Bro, you’re way too calm! Eight hundred thousand, that’s eight hundred thousand, not eight bucks! And you’re just telling me this now???”.

Zuo Ning’s face was completely blank, as if he were in a dream, and he began to regret, “She asked me if I needed investment? She wants to invest two months’ rent for the urban village, and netizens said her two months’ rent is about eight hundred thousand…”

His friend fell silent for a moment; was this the unit of measurement for rich people? They thought it was the rent for one room, but Xu Yao was talking about two buildings!

With that eight hundred thousand, their short drama would be saved!

Nowadays, web dramas can’t be made without tens of millions in investment, but short dramas are different; a single episode is only a few minutes long, using the smallest investment to earn the most money.

His friend, while happy, looked at Zuo Ning suspiciously, “Why did the landlord suddenly say she wants to invest? She probably hasn’t even seen the project, right?”

Although Zuo Ning wasn’t exactly a campus heartthrob, he was still quite handsome, and even though he had tanned a lot recently, his looks were definitely acceptable.

Zuo Ning couldn’t figure it out either; if they were talking about looks, that tall bodyguard who accompanied Xu Yao to collect rent today wasn’t any less attractive than him.

Zuo Ning thought for a moment, and as if he suddenly understood, could only think of one reason: “Uh… it seems to be because I’m Sheng Zhou’s antifan?”

His friend’s eyes widened, and he slapped his thigh: “Is that it? Then I’ll immediately become an antifan of Sheng Zhou as well—I’ll roast him to the core.”

Zuo Ning: “…”

Zuo Ning could no longer sit still eating instant noodles; he immediately dashed out towards Li Xiaoli’s room, and as soon as he reached downstairs, he bumped right into Li Xiaoli.

Zuo Ning immediately asked Li Xiaoli for Xu Yao’s contact information, took a few deep breaths, and then seriously dialled that phone number on his phone.

At this moment, Zuo Ning felt anxious; he was afraid he was overthinking, but if it was true, not asking would mean missing out on a huge opportunity, a chance to bring “Yin Fate” to the screen!

After a few dozen seconds, the call connected, and he heard Xu Yao’s somewhat lazy voice; she had just finished a bath, and a professional spa masseuse was kneeling in front of her, pouring essential oil into her palm to massage her acupoints. Xu Yao let out a comfortable sigh.

Zuo Ning nervously spoke up, “Excuse me, is this Miss Xu Yao? I’m Zuo Ning.”

“You… you said you were planning to invest two months’ rent for the urban village. Did you mean eight hundred thousand?”

Xu Yao: “Yes, otherwise what do you think?”

Rather than waiting for Zuo Ning to jump off a bridge and let Liu Yingxia pick up the cheap copyright to make a fortune, it was better for her to take it directly.

After all, it was just two months’ rent, not a lot.

Zuo Ning’s pupils shook: “…!”

What he initially thought was two months’ rent—three thousand yuan.

What Xu Yao meant by two months’ rent for the urban village—eight hundred thousand!

It turned out… money really does fall from the sky. Zuo Ning felt a bit dizzy from this huge surprise, joy dancing wildly on his face.

Zuo Ning really couldn’t understand, “Why would Miss Xu invest in me?”

Xu Yao: “Aren’t you one month behind on rent?”

Zuo Ning was a bit confused: “?”

Was it just for this? Just to help him pay the overdue rent?

Zuo Ning was so excited he was almost incoherent: “Then Miss Xu, let’s discuss this in detail now, you now…” Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed it was getting late, so he could only regretfully change his words, “How about we talk tomorrow? Nine in the morning, oh no, eight o’clock, is that okay?”

If conditions allowed, Zuo Ning wanted to finalise it right now, fearing that once Xu Yao woke up and cleared her mind, she would regret it.

Xu Yao nodded in agreement. The rent for the urban village had mostly been collected this month, so she could take a break for a couple of days before collecting from the next tenant, which she had time for tomorrow.

After hanging up the phone, Xu Yao seriously recalled the novel. The original text had mixed reviews for Zuo Ning’s short drama; while there were indeed many excellent aspects, it was also criticised for being poorly made and having numerous plot holes.

Zuo Ning was not only the director of the short drama “Yin Fate,” he was also the crucial screenwriter. It was said that his inspiration came from an episode of sleep paralysis he experienced. However, while Zuo Ning had exceptional talent in filming, he was clearly not as skilled in plot development compared to professional screenwriters or even novelists.

Hiring two professional screenwriters could perfectly resolve the issues.

Xu Yao scrolled through her phone contacts and called a number saved as “Yan Xiang.”

This young man was a talented junior from the same university as Xu Yao, majoring in Chinese. They had previously been in the same club, which was how she had his contact information.

Yan Xiang was a male author from Lujing Literature City². Although he was a boy, his writing style was delicate, respectful of women, and devoid of the male gaze, making it very comfortable for Xu Yao, as a female reader, to read.

Yan Xiang had grand ambitions, dreaming of one day adapting his works for film and television, so he had also self-studied screenwriting.

However, recently, this junior was likely overwhelmed with his senior year internship, as he had to submit an internship report.

“Senior sister Xu Yao? What do you need me for?” Yan Xiang was nestled in his school dormitory, one hand on the phone while his eyes were glued to a job search website on his computer.

Their university was not particularly prestigious, and it was even harder for Chinese majors to find good jobs unless he decided to take the graduate entrance exam or civil service exam at the last minute, but Yan Xiang always felt that his aspirations lay elsewhere.

During his senior year internship, he hadn’t actually gone for an internship, instead staying in the dormitory to learn how to write scripts. As a result, his advisor had started urging him for his internship report a few days ago, which made Yan Xiang anxious.

Xu Yao asked, “Do you want to come help me out? I’ll pay you.”

Yan Xiang had seen Xu Yao’s livestream that morning and knew she had hired Li Xiaoli to collect rent for her. Surely she wouldn’t ask him to collect rent too?

Collecting rent was fine, but the rent wouldn’t go to him! The thought of experiencing rent collection made him feel even worse.

Yan Xiang felt a bit resistant, “Senior, you know I’ve been busy looking for a job and writing my thesis, and I…”

Xu Yao interrupted softly, “I’ll give you an internship certificate.”

Yan Xiang straightened his back instantly, “Boss, where and what time do I start work tomorrow?”

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feel like my mandarin is getting worse despite working at a mandarin majority speaking workplace QAQ

1. referring to the ‘yin’ in ‘yin and yang’. multiple meanings but in this context, yin would refer to the supernatural like ghosts, demons, metaphysics, etc. ↩︎
2. online novel publication site — a play on jjwxc in chinese, jinjiang literature city ↩︎

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

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Killing their heart is nothing more than this!

Today was Xu Yao’s first live stream, and the vast majority of the attendees were fans of Sheng Zhou and Liu Yingxia. When the camera panned to Li Xiaoli’s room, the fans of Sheng Zhou in the live chat nearly went wild.

Clearly, this Li Xiaoli was a fan of Sheng Zhou!

The fans of Sheng Zhou were ecstatic at that moment, even eager to see Xu Yao’s expression. Would she be furious? Her tenant, whom she cared for so much, was a fan of Sheng Zhou.

But there was nothing to be done; Sheng Zhou was just that popular.

And the result??

The live chat exploded even more, the speed so fast that Lu Ye could barely keep up. In short, Li Xiaoli was unilaterally outed as a fan of Sheng Zhou!

[This Li Xiaoli is too disgusting; her mindset is too weak and she doesn’t deserve to be a fan of our Zhou Zhou, get lost.]

[Does this woman not know how much trouble Xu Yao has caused for Zhou Zhou? Several endorsements have fallen through because of Xu Yao’s rumors, and she switched sides at the last minute? It’s just some broken furniture, just a broken job! She doesn’t deserve to like Zhou Zhou!]

Li Xiaoli couldn’t see the barrage in the live stream; she was unaware that she had just stabbed Sheng Zhou’s fans in the back. Calmly, she looked at the poster on the wall and said, “It must have been left by the previous tenant.”

As she spoke, Li Xiaoli reached out and tore down the poster closest to her. The poster split right through Sheng Zhou’s face, as if he had suffered a severe punishment.

This scene was a form of extreme abuse towards Sheng Zhou’s fans, and the insults in the live stream grew even louder.

Onlookers, however, were more rational: [A broken idol that you can’t even touch through the screen is no match for a warm bowl of rice. Life is tough for adults.]

[Yeah, some of Sheng Zhou’s fans probably haven’t been beaten down by society yet. If someone offered me a job with a monthly salary of 15,000, I could curse Sheng Zhou into a brain haemorrhage! After all, there’s a pile of dirt on him that deserves to be criticised!]

[In the end, it’s all Xu Yao’s fault. If she hadn’t grasped the lifeline of this young lady who was eager to find a job, Li Xiaoli wouldn’t have “betrayed” her.]

[Isn’t Xu Yao a landlord? Collecting rent isn’t that simple, right? What job is she really offering Li Xiaoli? Don’t let the young lady get her hopes up for nothing.]

Li Xiaoli felt a bit anxious, unsure if Xu Yao would change her mind upon learning that she had been a fan of Sheng Zhou. She took the initiative to ask, “Boss, what exactly do you want me to do?”

Xu Yao and Li Xiaoli went outside, where workers were moving in the purchased furniture, including a bed frame, mattress, and single sofa. Xu Yao smiled and said, “Your job is to help me connect with the tenants in the urban village.”

Collecting rent in an urban village is different from high-end residential areas; every month, the water, electricity, and gas meters need to be read. This time, she had managed to relax a bit by giving everyone supermarket vouchers without any conditions, but she couldn’t keep giving out supermarket vouchers every month, could she?

Giving them once is a small gift that makes people grateful; if she did it every time, it would become expected, and if she ever missed a month, it would be her fault. That’s just human nature.

Li Xiaoli was a bit stunned. Is that it? Is that the job content?

Seeing her shock, Xu Yao emphasized, “This job isn’t easy. You need to keep track of the rental and lease progress; every month, you have to read the meters and verify the data; you also need to pay attention to the sanitation conditions in the urban village every day, coordinating and arranging for the cleaning team to do the cleaning; as well as handling any damage or repair issues with the tenants’ furniture and appliances; and you must communicate with me promptly about any urgent matters that arise with the tenants.”

The more Xu Yao spoke, the more she felt that being a landlord was truly hard work! Collecting rent might be enjoyable for a moment, but there are a ton of miscellaneous tasks. She was still arranging for others to do the work while she lay back and collected money.

Little 6: [The host is really smart, shifting the hard work onto others. This job content is indeed quite laborious.]

Xu Yao agreed, “I can only give her more bonuses in the future to compensate her, and provide two domestic trips and one international trip a year for a good rest.”

Little 6: [Mm-hmm, the host is a good person.]

However, Li Xiaoli’s mind was filled with—”No need for a nine-to-five?”

Xu Yao suddenly recalled her unfortunate days working in the fast-travel bureau and said seriously, “A nine-to-five is inhumane.”

Goddess! Bodhisattva! Deity!

Li Xiaoli was almost overwhelmed with joy; she finally believed in the phrase “after hardship comes happiness”!

No need for a nine-to-five! She could sleep until she naturally woke up, check the cleaning situation in the urban village building every day, and only be busy reading the meters for two or three days each month, occasionally coordinating with the tenants. What kind of divine job is this?

Li Xiaoli was young but had worked many jobs. Those bosses who offered three to four thousand in salary treated people like cattle, and buying social insurance? Ha, that was a joke.

Li Xiaoli even came to the realisation… if this was her job, she would have plenty of free time.

Li Xiaoli felt a bit panicked; she suddenly didn’t know what to do with so much salary and so much free time!

The live stream was going crazy. Aside from a few die-hard fans of Sheng Zhou who were still struggling, the office workers were turning red with envy.

[Give me a job like this, sob sob sob, what kind of divine job is this? No need to wake up early, no need to squeeze onto the subway, and I could even get breakfast done in the time it takes to go downstairs.]

[Does Xu Yao have any more buildings? Let me have one; I don’t need 15,000, just give me 10,000, sob sob sob—I’m a college graduate on the verge of being driven mad by job hunting!]

[I don’t need 10,000; just give me 8,000, I really want to work for Xu Yao.]

[Angry, ban industry involution!]

[Actually, to be honest… there’s really no need to be a fan of Sheng Zhou; just be a fan of Xu Yao… Sorry, Zhou Zhou QAQ.]

[This job isn’t good for young people; it will make them lose ambition. I suggest I take it; I’m not afraid.]

Xu Yao asked, “Can you accept the job content?”

If there weren’t so many people around, Li Xiaoli would have jumped for joy, “Yes, yes, yes, I can definitely do it!”

Was there even a need to consider this job content? Wasn’t this just a preview of the daily life of a landlord?

Li Xiaoli’s job content was actually quite similar to that of the second landlord, Li Qiang, but Li Qiang constantly infringed on the tenants’ interests, crazily squeezing profits, as if he wanted to drain them dry. In contrast, Li Xiaoli was simply working for the landlord Xu Yao, receiving her salary without ulterior motives.

Xu Yao had gone through 999 fast-travel tasks and believed her ability to judge people was quite good.

In this novel, there were only a little over a hundred characters described, and even the famous characters in the renowned classic “Dream of the Red Chamber” numbered only around seven or eight hundred. Yet, the world is so vast that outstanding people cannot be limited to just those described.

Xu Yao suddenly said to Little 6, “Are you here to assist me in achieving a perfect retirement?”

Little 6 happily replied: [Yes, host, Little 6 will help retirees avoid danger and live happily for the rest of their lives.]

Xu Yao calmly said, “I have reasonable suspicion that Li Xiaoli is going to attack me.”

Little 6: [???]

Little 6 quickly checked Li Xiaoli’s original life history and reassured Xu Yao: [Host, don’t worry. Li Xiaoli is currently in a difficult situation, but she has strong work abilities and will work in one company until retirement, making significant contributions to her boss.]

Xu Yao felt proud. See, she knew her judgment wouldn’t be wrong.

Xiao 6:[……]

*

pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

The urban village had undergone a transformation. Each room was furnished appropriately, and tenants noticed that not only had the rent not increased, but the rental agreement clearly stated the unit price for civilian water, electricity, and gas.

Unless the rental market was universally like this, no one would want to rent from a second landlord and be exploited.

Meeting a landlord like Xu Yao was indeed good luck.

Li Xiaoli, who had started work early, said to Xu Yao, “Boss, many tenants in Buildings A and B hope to sign long-term rental contracts.”

Xu Yao smiled, “Okay.”

Renting her property was like sending her money!

Xu Yao, of course, knew that they were signing long-term contracts for fear that she would raise the rent temporarily. As long as the rent was fixed within the contract period, she wouldn’t be able to change it, but Xu Yao didn’t care about that little money.

Lu Ye, who used to be in charge of managing all of Xu’s family’s properties, looked at the submitted forms and said, “Miss Yao, this month’s rent from the two buildings in the urban village totaled 400,000 yuan, which is about 65,000 yuan more than usual.”

In the past, that 65,000 yuan was the kickback profit eaten up by the sub-landlord, Li Qiang.

Lu Ye continued, “However, you arranged for the cleaning team today and purchased furniture, costing about 500,000 yuan. Profit is expected to begin next month.”

The furniture was actually quite cheap and sturdy, but there was a large quantity, so the cost was considerable.

However, Xu Yao was very satisfied. She wasn’t in a hurry to use the rent from the urban village; next month would be here in a flash. Was she afraid she wouldn’t receive the rent?

Li Xiaoli was quick to learn. She had been renting in the urban village for a month and was more familiar with it than Lu Ye.

Looking at the form, she said, “Boss, 98% of this month’s rent has been received, but a few haven’t paid yet. I’ve contacted them by phone and asked them to transfer the money directly to you if it’s inconvenient for them to come.”

Xu Yao asked who they were. If they were truly facing temporary difficulties, she wouldn’t make things difficult for them, but if they were deadbeats, she would evict them immediately.

“Wang Dazhi (Uncle Wang) in A606, Liu Guihua (Aunt Liu) in A321… and Zuo Ning in B404, but Zuo Ning said he’ll come to see you soon.”

Li Xiaoli was a little surprised. She remembered that the young man in B404 didn’t seem like the kind of deadbeat who would owe rent, or perhaps young people generally had better qualities.

Xu Yao smiled upon hearing the name and said nothing.

Watching Li Xiaoli busy herself at the rent collection stall, she seemed to think of something and said, “Xiaoli, I’ll advance you half a month’s salary.”

After going to Li Xiaoli’s home earlier, Xu Yao noticed several packs of instant noodles, not even the bucket-sized ones, on her table, along with a few shriveled white steamed buns. It seemed she was indeed struggling.

Li Xiaoli’s eyes instantly reddened, and she choked back a sob, nodding, “Yes, thank you, Boss.”

Even just half a month’s salary, 7,500 yuan, was higher than her previous monthly salary. It was enough for her to buy many necessities. She hadn’t eaten meat in a long time and wanted to buy some pork; she was sick of eating instant noodles. Oh, and she had a 100-yuan universal voucher, so she could buy a few more packs of sanitary napkins, the kind with brands that were more hygienic.

She could even buy a few clothes and pants she’d had in her shopping cart for a while, so as not to affect the boss’s image.

Life suddenly seemed brighter. Li Xiaoli found hope for the future. Right now, she wanted to immediately go back and throw all of Sheng Zhou’s things in the trash!

Feeling elated, Li Xiaoli remembered that Sheng Zhou actually had a lot of scandals, but she had been blinded by her fan filter.

Now, Li Xiaoli looked at Xu Yao firmly and said, “Boss, I’m actually a Sheng Zhou antifan.”

Sorry, Sheng Zhou, you’ve just lost a fan, but the world has gained a happy worker!

The tall, thin boy who had been dawdling along heard those words, was stunned for a moment, and then his mind wandered, “Um, can being an antifan of Sheng Zhou offset the rent?”

Xu Yao, who abided by the law: “…”

Actually, there was no need for that.

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feels like the job market is universally bad for recent graduates QAQ

another day of nobody getting hurt except sheng zhou ◡̈