Chapter 73: Chapter 36 (part 1)

Fu Zheng's fury was interrupted by a knock at the door.

He froze. He hadn't thought that Ning Wan would have finished taking out the garbage so quickly. Face like a thundercloud, ready to hold her accountable, he opened the door only to find that it wasn't Ning Wan standing there, but a boy of about six or seven years old.

The child was a little dirty. His hair was messy, and it seemed like he hadn't taken a shower for few days. At close range, a strange smell wafted off his clothes. When he saw Fu Zheng, he also froze, then looked past Fu Zheng into the house and seemed even more startled.

Fu Zheng frowned. "Little boy, who are..."

But he didn't get a chance to finish, because the little boy unexpectedly pushed past him and rushed inside. He looked around at the great changes that had occurred to the inside of the apartment, then burst into tears--

"Give it back! Give me back my home!"

Wailing and sobbing, he tugged at Fu Zheng with his dirty little hands, pushing him out the door. "Leave! Leave! This is my home! Mine! Get out! If you don't leave, I'll find Mr. Policeman!"

"You took my home, you're so shameless! And you threw away all my things! Shameless! This place is my home! My daddy bought the house! It's my home!"

Snot and tears covered the child's face. Fu Zheng was no good at communicating with children when they were like this. He didn't dare exert force, and could only allow himself to be pushed to the door by the boy. Thankfully, at that moment Ning Wan came back from taking out the garbage.

"Daddy! Daddy! Boohoohoo! Daddy!" the boy cried vaguely, completely immersed in his own world.

Surprised, Ning Wan looked at Fu Zheng and immediately activated her 'meticulous observation' skills. "A little tadpole looking for daddy? Where did he come from? He's quite old, isn't he? You don't say... the two of you don't look very alike... it's not... you didn't... did you...?"

"..." Fu Zheng lost his temper. "He's not my son! I don't know this kid at all! He suddenly came knocking at the door and said that his father bought the house, that this is where he lives and that I should hurry up and leave!"

Ning Wan crouched down. "Little friend, are you in the wrong place? This apartment really was bought by this uncle here. Perhaps you went to the wrong building? What's your daddy's name? Do you remember his phone number? We'll take you home."

But the child insisted, "I didn't make a mistake! It's here! This apartment! This is my home! If you don't believe me, look in the corner, I drew a turtle there!"

When Ning Wan and Fu Zheng went skeptically to the corner, there really was a little turtle there.

Perhaps he was the son of the former owner? But he had never mentioned such a small child.

Next, even further confusing Ning Wan and Fu Zheng, it quickly became apparent that the child obviously had lived in this house, because he was quite familiar with the layout. He shuffled around before making his way into the balcony and finding a loose floor tile, then he gently lifted the brick and took out a transparent plastic bag from the crack underneath.

"This house is my family's," the child cried. "Daddy said that this bag is the proof we bought it." He glared at Fu Zheng. "You can't steal it!"

Ning Wan and Fu Zheng opened the plastic bag suspiciously. Inside, unexpectedly and shockingly, was a genuine real estate license. Clearly written on the address line was the location of the property that Fu Zheng had bought. But under 'Property owner' was a strange name - Yao Kang.

Fu Zheng wrinkled his brow and continued turning the pages. Behind the property title, he found a full purchase contract and invoice. Everything seemed complete. Under the name of the seller, however, was again not the name of the former landlord, but another completely unfamiliar name - Wang Dongliang.

Who was Yao Kang? Who was Wang Dongliang?

Wasn't the previous owner clearly surnamed Bai? Furthermore, Fu Zheng had completed the transfer of property at the Real Estate Exchange Center. It was most certainly authentic.

Ning Wan spoke to the child at length, but he refused to deviate from his story. He said his name was Yao Fei, but couldn't tell them anything else. When they asked where his father Yao Kang was, the child didn't know. All he knew was that his father had left to work for a week, and never come back. He couldn't remember his father's phone number. When they asked about his mother, he cried, saying that she had left him and his father. He didn't know her contact information, either. Finally, exhausted and fatigued, he sat down inside the house and began to cry again, making Fu Zheng's head hurt.

Before it could get too late, Fu Zheng, lips pursed, called the former owner.

However, the former owner only said determinedly, "Xiao Fu, this house, I've transferred to you, the owner, it is you, our procedures they have all gone through the Real Estate Exchange Center. You lawyer, you know for sure no problem. Now that this sort of thing has happened, the relationship with me, is there any? It's night time, it's not like I can come to your door to help you solve the issue, can I? Well then, bye!”Again, the former owner is speaking in Chinglish. It's a bit difficult to translate a two-language monstrosity into one language, so I've just written it in an accented way and italicized the English words. I'm not sure how accurate the Chinglish is. My native Malaysian-style Manglish is a combination of three (four? five?) languages so it's even worse, lol.

“……”

Fu Zheng hadn't expected that he would encounter such an issue after buying a second-hand house. He thought for a bit, then pulled out his phone back out.

You are reading story I Advise You To Like Me As Soon As Possible at novel35.com

Ning Wan leaned her head in. "What are you going to do?"

Fu Zheng licked his lips. "Call the police."

Over the phone, he reported the story briefly. "To sum it up, the previous owner isn't being very cooperative. We'll have to bother you to mediate for us."

Since he wasn't getting anywhere with the previous owner himself, it seemed he would have to leverage police authority.

 

While Fu Zheng was making a police report and waiting for them at the door, Ning Wan, unable to stay idle, picked up the real estate sale contract and studied it. Although the former owner's name wasn't under the name of seller, behind the unknown name of Wang Dongliang was a contact number and address. Ning Wan thought about it. There was a high probability that this contract was forged, but she decided to try calling anyway. Unexpectedly, the number was not fake, and from the other end, she heard--

"Hello, this is Baoyu Real Estate Agency, at Baoyu Real Estate, we serve you wholeheartedly..."

A long string of advertising to the accompaniment of melodious music.

This was a real estate agent's phone number?

The call was soon picked up, and the male voice from the other end confirmed Ning Wan's guess--

"Hello, this is Wang Dongliang from Baoyu Real Estate Agency. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with today? Do you have any housing needs?"

Ning Wan cleared her throat and summarized the story. At first, Wang Dongliang remained aloof, but when she mentioned Yao Kang's name, she could hear Wang Dongliang's voice getting a little nervous, even over the phone. "Isn't..... isn't this matter... being handled by Mr. Bai?"

It seemed like she had asked the right person! This Wang Dongliang clearly knew about the child.

The other party was quite cooperative. "Just wait a minute for me, I'm currently showing a client a place in Yuelan Community. Just ten minutes! I'll explain it to you face to face as soon as possible!"

Ning Wan hung up, poured a glass of juice for the child claiming to be Yao Fei, and settled the boy in the living room with her phone and an animated movie.

The child seemed to have calmed down. He watched the show quietly on the phone.

Wang Dongliang was quite punctual. Sure enough, ten minutes later, footsteps sounded in the corridor. Shortly thereafter he arrived before Ning Wan and Fu Zheng. He looked younger than Ning Wan, and was wearing the uniform of a real estate agency. Like all real estate agents, he was a smooth talker. The moment he saw Ning Wan and Fu Zheng, he called out 'sister' and 'brother'.

"Elder sister, elder brother, this is my business card. You can just call me Dongliang. If you need to buy or sell a house, just call me any time."

Unfortunately, Fu Zheng wasn't having any of his enthusiastic business promotion. He took out the sale contract and real estate title, and pointing to the boy in the living room, demanded, "What's going on here?"

"This matter....." Wang Dongliang seemed embarrassed. "Well, this child was the previous tenant's son. I... I know his father, Yao Kang. He used to rent this house, but his tenancy expired last month, and he agreed to move out. I don't know what happened after that. I certainly didn't sell this house to him. Mr. Bai found you on his own, not through me. I don't know anything else, and definitely nothing about this real estate sale contract, it must be fake, the house belongs to Mr. Bai without question. I was just the agent helping Yao Kang rent this place out for a little bit..."

But then where was this Yao Kang? Why did he abandon his son and go missing? If he was renting, then why forge a real estate title and sale contract?

Just as Ning Wan pondered over these things, bewildered, a familiar voice broke into her thoughts--

"You little fucktard! What do you mean, you were an agent renting out this apartment? Is that what you call renting? What's the point of you being here spouting horseshit? I've just been called up by the police in the middle of the night to come here and wipe your shitty ass! Aren't you fucking ashamed of yourself? I wish I hadn't met you, you corrupt real estate agent! You motherfucking cocksucking son of a whore!"

Wasn't this furious voice the former owner, Bai Sheng?