Selective Emphasis and Neglect

Feng Jun stared at his phone, struggling with a decision, when he heard the old man's voice ring out from outside.

"Oh, right, college student, one of your colleagues came looking for you. A tall, handsome young man."

Hm, that would be Wang Haifeng. Feng Jun glanced at his call log and discovered a slew of missed calls, including some from home.

For the past two days, he had been busy selling jade and researching information. Between that and being fired, he had been in a foul mood and didn't know how to explain things to anyone, so he had set his phone to silent and blocked incoming call notifications.

Now that he was in the mood to chat, he had no choice but to call home.

His mother answered, saying there wasn't anything special going on, just that the Mid-Autumn Festival was coming up soon and she wanted to know if he was coming home.

Feng Jun glanced at the generator in the room and replied with a smile, "Oh, business has been quite busy lately, so I probably can't make it back. I'll aim for the Lunar New Year; I'll try my best to get back then."

His mother didn't complain, simply giving him a few reminders and telling him that the weather was starting to turn cold, so he should remember to add more layers and not catch a cold.

Feng Jun hummed and hawed, hung up the phone, and began to stare blankly at the generator.

When he told Wang Haifeng that his shop needed a generator, he hadn't just been spouting nonsense.

His hometown was a small county, and his mother's shop was located in the old district where the wiring was aging and unauthorized construction was rampant. Power supply was never guaranteed, and it was common to have the power cut out four or five times a day.

Feng Jun was currently weighing whether he should ship this generator back to his hometown if he managed to find a suitable place.

Better not! He made his decision. Even if he rented a new place, he could keep this one on lease. A 50-kilowatt generator might have a slightly inferior charging effect, but it was better than nothing.

They say a cunning rabbit has three burrows. Now that he had his fortuitous encounter and wasn't exactly short on cash, having an extra backup plan was better than having none at all.

Besides, a 50-kilowatt generator was a bit too large; his family didn't need anything that big.

The key was that this thing took up quite a bit of space, and shipping it from Yang City back to his hometown would cost a fair amount, not to mention the inconvenience of future maintenance.

Of course, buying a generator for his family was a wish of his that he would fulfill sooner or later, but for now, it wasn't an urgent priority.

After putting that matter aside, he dialed Wang Haifeng's number.

Coach Wang's "triple-six" phone was powered off, and his "quad-six" phone went unanswered.

Feng Jun understood immediately and sighed, "Fighting again, are you? Can't you two just give it a rest?"

There couldn't be any other reason for trouble in Coach Wang's household; it was definitely Wang Furen being jealous over something again.

He had just hung up and was about to start shaking his phone to search for new contacts when a call came in from an unknown number.

Feng Jun answered, only to find it was someone who had seen his rental request on the agency website and was calling to follow up.

Feng Jun couldn't help but be stunned. "That fast?"

He knew that his offer of ten thousand a month would surely entice many people, but he truly hadn't expected someone to call only ten minutes after he posted the request.

The caller was a woman who asked very politely, "May I ask if you are looking to rent a place?"

"That's right," Feng Jun said directly. "I've already listed my requirements."

"I have a three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment on Youyi Road," the woman said with pride. "It's 180 square meters. I'll charge you eight thousand a month."

Youyi Road was in the central district of Yang City, rich in culture with a pleasant surrounding environment. Although it wasn't a commercial district, it wasn't far from one, and residential prices there were extremely high, as were the rents.

With such a prime property in her hands, she certainly had reason to be proud.

However, no matter how high the rent was, it shouldn't reach eight thousand a month for a 180-square-meter apartment.

Similar apartments, fully renovated and furnished with appliances, ready for move-in, only went for 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 didn't care. He gave a light hum and asked, "And?"

The woman hesitated before continuing, "There's a garage you can use for free. You cover the water, electricity, cable, and property management fees. The terms are three months' rent as a deposit and three months' rent paid in advance... My place is fully renovated."

Feng Jun replied just as bluntly, "No problem."

"Then that's settled," the woman said, her voice brightening. "When are you free to come see the place?"

Feng Jun took the phone away from his ear, looked at it, and silently tapped the hang-up button.

Half a minute later, the woman called back. "We got cut off. Is your signal bad, or is mine?"

Feng Jun felt a bit helpless. Do you wash your hair with Rejoice? Why are you so confident?

He gave a light cough. "Ahem, it's not a signal issue. I hung up."

"Hm?" The woman was clearly surprised, then asked unhappily, "Everything was going fine, why did you hang up?"

Feng Jun felt even more helpless. "I included notes. There were prerequisites for the rental. Didn't you see them?"

"Oh, you mean the charging?" The woman realized. "When you need to charge, I'll find a place for you to do it."

"I'm not asking you to find one; the property itself must have the conditions for charging. That is a prerequisite," Feng Jun explained, out of consideration for the fact that she was a woman. "Otherwise, why would I pay such a high rent?"

"Why are you like this?" The woman was annoyed. "My house is nice, so of course the rent is high. As for the charging, what difference does it make where you charge?"

I suspect you have no idea what 500 amperes even means! Feng Jun couldn't be bothered to explain further. He hung up again and immediately added the number to his blacklist.

He didn't think he was being rude—I'm paying a high price to rent a place, so there must be a reason for the premium. At the very least, you should have read what my prerequisites were.

Disrespectful? I'd like to respect you too, but respect is mutual. If you don't respect me, how can you expect me to respect you?

Please get this straight: I have conditions, I'm not just some fool with too much money.

Blocking the number didn't bring him any peace; less than ten seconds later, another unknown number called in.

The person calling this time was a man, once again looking to rent out a house, and he was insistent on a monthly rent of ten thousand—it was a house in the suburbs, certainly quiet, and it even had a small courtyard where one could grow fruits and vegetables.

Feng Jun couldn't be bothered to waste any more breath on him. "Let's put everything else aside for a moment; I'll just ask you this: can I charge my equipment there?"

"Your requirement of five hundred amps is a bit high," the man said, clearly having prepared for this and understanding the difficulty involved. "The main breaker for my house is only two hundred amps."

For an average household, even a villa, two hundred amps is more than enough; you could run forty 1.5-horsepower air conditioners at the same time.

Feng Jun was still quite polite toward those who had come prepared, but he couldn't agree to this. "Then I am very sorry."

"Wait, don't be like that. I can help you run a dedicated line," the man said, clearly wanting to close the deal; the ten-thousand-yuan rent was a huge temptation for him. "But aside from the electricity bills, you'll have to cover the installation costs, and... you have to tell me what you plan on doing."

Feng Jun stated his position very bluntly. "The costs are no problem, but as for the rest... sorry, it's not appropriate for me to tell you."

"Then this is going to be difficult," the man said, expressing that he was in a very tight spot. "You're using so 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 a hint of politeness. "What I care about is whether or not you can provide such a connection."

The man hesitated for a moment, still looking very troubled. "It's really hard to do. What if other people suspect you're doing something illegal?"

Feng Jun laughed. "You can observe me, can't you? Let me ask you this: if I didn't have special requirements, why would I pay such a high rent for a house?"

The man hesitated for another while before continuing. "Since you aren't afraid of being observed, why can't you just tell me what you're using it for?"

"Please get this straight, I'm the one renting the house," Feng Jun replied, feeling both amused and frustrated. "You can't meet my conditions, yet you're questioning me?"

The man was also a bit unhappy. "If you don't answer my questions, I can't meet your conditions, and the house can't be rented."

"If it can't be rented, then forget it," Feng Jun hung up the phone directly.

After hanging up, he still felt a bit indignant. Do they really think I'm paying such a high rent for nothing?

Theoretically speaking, the other party's request wasn't excessive; without knowing the reason, why should they run a line for you?

However, please get this straight: I am paying an exorbitant price, so I should be entitled to the corresponding treatment.

In other words, if it were convenient for me to explain the reason to you, why would you be charging such a high rent?

Risk and reward are always directly proportional, right?

He felt his logic was sound, yet reality proved that many people couldn't accept it—or rather, were unwilling to accept this point of view.

For the rest of the time, he kept receiving calls, with many landlords trying to convince him: your logic doesn't hold up.

Feng Jun stated quite bluntly that he wanted to rent a house according to his needs, not rent their houses according to their needs.

To put it plainly, if others didn't possess the prerequisite conditions, they shouldn't expect to rent a house to him at a high price; it wasn't reasonable to act like that.

If someone actually possessed those prerequisite conditions, they would certainly have rented the house to him without a second word.

In fact, besides landlords, quite a few real estate agents called as well. As professionals, they actually suggested the same thing: you need to be more flexible.

Feng Jun was even angrier. It was one thing for laymen not to understand, but how could they say something like that too?

Therefore, he stated quite furiously that he was looking for a landlord to rent from, and he hadn't gone out of his way to ask for real estate agents to get involved, had he?

His attitude was very poor and his words were quite sharp, giving the impression that he had a deep-seated prejudice against real estate agencies.

However, interestingly enough, the person he ended up negotiating with the best was actually an employee from a real estate agency.