Feng Jun stared at his phone, torn over what to choose, when he heard the old man's voice from outside.
"Oh, right, college student, one of your colleagues came looking for you. Tall, pretty handsome young man."
Mm, Wang Haifeng. Feng Jun checked his call log and found a whole lot of missed calls, including some from home.
These past two days, he had been busy selling jade and looking up information. Since he had also been fired and was in a bad mood, not knowing how to explain things to his family, he had put his phone on silent and blocked call notifications.
Now that he was in the mood to talk, he naturally had to call home back.
His mother answered. She said it was nothing much, only that the Mid-Autumn Festival was coming soon, and asked whether he would be going home.
Feng Jun glanced at the generator in the room and answered with a smile, "Ah, I've been pretty busy with work lately. I probably can't make it back. Maybe for New Year's. I'll do my best to come home then."
His mother did not complain. She simply reminded him of a few things, saying that the weather was getting colder and he needed to wear more clothes and not catch a cold.
Feng Jun gave a few vague responses, hung up, and began staring blankly at the generator.
What he had told Wang Haifeng about needing a generator for his family's shop had not been made up.
His hometown was a small county town to begin with. The area where his mother's shop was located was an old district, with aging wiring and plenty of illegal connections. The power supply was genuinely unreliable; losing power four or five times a day was common.
Feng Jun wondered whether, if he found a suitable place, he should transport this generator back to his hometown.
Better not. He made up his mind. Even if he rented a new place, he could keep renting this one. Although the fifty-kilowatt generator was a little inefficient for charging, it was still better than nothing.
They said a cunning rabbit had three burrows. He had a fortuitous encounter backing him up and was not exactly short of money, so having one more escape route was always better than none.
Besides, a fifty-kilowatt generator was a little too big. His family did not need one that large.
More importantly, it took up quite a bit of space. Transporting it from Yang City back to his hometown would cost money, and repairs afterward would be inconvenient too.
Of course, buying a generator for his family was something he wanted to do, and he would do it sooner or later. It just was not urgent right now.
After setting that matter aside, he called Wang Haifeng.
Coach Wang's number with three sixes was switched off, while the one with four sixes went unanswered.
Feng Jun immediately understood and sighed. "You two fought again? Can't you ever settle down?"
Whenever Coach Wang had conflicts at home, there could be no other reason. It had to be Madam Wang getting jealous over something again.
He had just hung up and was about to shake his phone when another call came in from an unfamiliar number.
After answering, Feng Jun found that someone had seen his rental request on a real estate website and was calling to contact him.
Feng Jun could not help being startled. "That fast?"
He knew that his offer of ten thousand yuan a month would definitely attract quite a few people, but he had not expected someone to call just ten minutes or so after he posted the request.
The caller was a woman. She asked politely, "Are you looking to rent a place?"
"That's right," Feng Jun replied directly. "I wrote all the requirements there."
"I have a three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment on Friendship Road," the woman said proudly. "It's one hundred and eighty square meters. I'll let you have it for eight thousand a month."
Friendship Road was in central Yang City, with a strong cultural atmosphere and a good surrounding environment. Though it was not a commercial district, it was not far from one either. Property prices there were extremely high, and rent was equally expensive.
With such a fine apartment in her hands, she naturally had reason to be proud.
But no matter how high rent was, an apartment of one hundred and eighty square meters could not reasonably rent for eight thousand a month.
Similar apartments were available for rent, fully renovated and furnished with appliances, ready to move into with just a suitcase, for only six thousand a month. In fact, that price was already considered astronomical in this city.
The woman's asking price was clearly inflated, but Feng Jun did not care. He gave a soft snort. "Mm, what else?"
The woman hesitated before continuing, "There's a garage you can use for free. You pay the utilities, cable, and property management fees. The rent is three months upfront with a three-month deposit... and my place is fully renovated."
Feng Jun answered decisively again, "No problem."
"Then it's settled," the woman said, her voice brightening. "When are you free to come see the apartment?"
Feng Jun took the phone away from his ear, held it in front of him, and silently pressed the hang-up button.
Half a minute later, the woman called again. "The call dropped. Is your signal bad, or is mine?"
Feng Jun felt a little helpless. Did her family use Rejoice shampoo? Why was she so confident?
He cleared his throat. "Ahem, it wasn't a signal problem. I hung up."
"Hm?" The woman was clearly surprised, then asked unhappily, "We were talking just fine. Why did you hang up?"
Feng Jun felt even more helpless. "I left a note. There are prerequisites for renting the place. Didn't you see them?"
"Oh, charging?" The woman caught on. "When you need to charge, I'll find you somewhere to do it."
"I'm not asking you to find a place. The apartment itself needs to have charging capacity. That's the prerequisite." Since she was a woman, Feng Jun still explained, "Otherwise, why would I rent a place at such a high price?"
"What's with you?" The woman was unhappy too. "My apartment is nice, so naturally it rents for more. As for charging, isn't charging the same wherever you do it?"
I doubt you even know what five hundred amps means! Feng Jun could not be bothered to explain any further. He hung up again and directly blacklisted the number.
He did not think he was being rude. I'm paying a huge amount to rent a place, so there must be a reason for the high price. At the very least, shouldn't you understand the prerequisites for me renting it?
Disrespectful? He wanted to respect her too, but respect was mutual. If she did not respect him, how was he supposed to respect her?
Please get this straight: he had prerequisites. He was not some fool with too much money.
Blacklisting that number did not bring him any peace. Less than ten seconds later, another unfamiliar call came in.
This time, it was a man offering a rental property. He insisted on a monthly rent of ten thousand. The house was in the suburbs, so it was certainly quiet, and it had a small yard where vegetables and fruit could be grown.
Feng Jun could not be bothered to waste words with him. "Let's not talk about anything else first. Can it support charging or not?"
"Your requirement of five hundred amps is a bit high," the man said. He had clearly prepared himself and understood the difficulty involved. "The main breaker for my house is only two hundred amps."
For an ordinary household, even a villa, two hundred amps was enough. It could run forty one-and-a-half-horsepower air conditioners at the same time.
Feng Jun remained polite to someone who had prepared, but he could not agree. "Then I'm very sorry."
"Don't be like that. I can get a dedicated line installed for you." The man clearly wanted to close the deal; ten thousand in rent was extremely tempting to him. "But aside from the electricity bill, you'll have to cover the installation costs, and... you'll have to tell me what you plan to do."
Feng Jun stated his position bluntly. "The costs are no problem. As for the rest... sorry, it's not appropriate for me to tell you."
"Then this is difficult," the man said, expressing great reluctance. "You use too much electricity. If I ask the village for a dedicated line, how am I supposed to explain it to them?"
"How you explain it... is your business," Feng Jun replied without any politeness. "What I care about is whether you can provide such a connection."
The man hesitated, then still said awkwardly, "It really isn't easy. What if people suspect you're doing something illegal?"
Feng Jun smiled. "You can keep an eye on me. Let me just ask you this: if I didn't have special requirements, why would I rent a place at such a high price?"
The man hesitated again before continuing, "Since you aren't afraid of being watched, why can't you say what it's for?"
"Please get this straight, I'm the one renting the house," Feng Jun replied, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "You can't meet my requirements, and you're questioning me instead?"
The man was a little unhappy too. "If you don't answer my question, I can't meet your requirements, and I can't rent you the house."
"Then forget it," Feng Jun said, hanging up directly.
After hanging up, he was still somewhat indignant. Did they really think he was offering such high rent for nothing?
Theoretically, the other party's demand was not unreasonable. If he did not know the reason, why should he get a dedicated line installed for him?
But please get this straight: Feng Jun was offering an exceptionally high price, so he should receive the treatment that came with it.
Put another way, if it were convenient for him to explain the reason, why would he pay such high rent?
Risks and rewards had always been proportional, right?
He felt his logic was sound, but reality proved that many people could not accept it—or rather, were unwilling to accept it.
For the next while, he kept answering calls. Many landlords tried to convince him: his logic did not make sense.
Feng Jun stated plainly that he wanted to rent a house according to his needs, not rent their houses according to theirs.
To put it bluntly, they did not meet his prerequisites, yet still wanted to rent him overpriced houses. That was no way to be reasonable.
If they truly met the prerequisites, they would surely rent him the house without another word.
In fact, apart from landlords, quite a few real estate agents called as well. As professionals, they actually all advised him to be more flexible.
Feng Jun grew even angrier. It was one thing for amateurs not to understand, but even they could say that?
So he replied furiously, "I'm looking for a landlord to rent from. I didn't beg your real estate agency to get involved, did I?"
His attitude was poor and his words were harsh, making it seem as though he had a prejudice against real estate agencies.
Yet interestingly enough, the person he ended up having the best discussion with was still an employee of a real estate agency.
Before you continue