Darnell didn’t want to meddle in other people’s business, especially when it came to the incident at Genesis House. It was easy to get into trouble by going against the police.
But seeing James so arrogant, Darnell wanted to teach him a lesson, hoping that he would tone it down and give Garrett a chance to survive.
He didn’t want to see Garrett go down the wrong path, especially with Cesar being surrounded by the Axe. It made Darnell more aware of the dangers of the underworld.
Back at the rental house, Darnell watched the news for a while before exchanging a few emails with Wendy. He instructed her to find someone to take care of Cesar.
After about three hours of busyness, Darnell finally finished everything and went to the kitchen to make instant noodles.
“Who do you think you are?”
As he held the cup of noodles, he heard the landlady shouting outside his window, “Everyone knows that in my house, each room can only accommodate two people.”
“But you actually squeezed seven people in?”
To maximize profits, many buildings in the city were overcrowded, including Darnell’s rental house. The distance between his floor and the opposite floor was only about a meter, close enough to reach out and touch. So when Darnell turned his head, he could see the landlady yelling and causing a scene.
“A two-bedroom apartment, I charge you 2, 500 dollars. I’m already losing money.”
“And yet you let seven people live here? Do you think this is some basement?”
“Let me tell you, either pay an extra 2, 000 dollars or get out immediately. Otherwise, you won’t get your deposit back.”
“Seven grown men can’t afford an apartment? Today is truly an eye-opener.”
Darnell took a deep breath and shook his head. He wondered who would be unlucky today.
“Sorry, ma’am.”
As Darnell was about to close the window to avoid further disturbance, he heard a familiar voice from across.
“We really didn’t know about the rules here. This two-bedroom apartment is over seventy square meters. Although it’s a bit crowded with seven people, it doesn’t violate any regulations. I read the official contract which states that each person should have at least five square meters.”
“We have over seventy square meters for seven people. It should be fine. I’ve seen other places where they squeeze even more people into a two-bedroom apartment.”
“Yeah, in Building 8 across the street, they have eleven people living in a two-bedroom apartment.”
“Ma’am, we can pay an extra five hundred dollars and double the water and electricity bills.”
Darnell suddenly remembered that Garrett lived next door to him. He walked over to the window and pulled back the curtains, interested in seeing what was happening across.
Sure enough, it was Garrett. In his line of sight, seven grown men were nodding and bowing with smiles on their faces, trying to please a woman in her fifties wearing pajamas.
The door of their apartment was wide open, and many curious tenants stuck their heads out to watch the commotion. It seemed that causing a scene was just part of Westergold’s nature.
“A contract? You scum understand contracts? You can’t even afford a hot meal and yet you talk about contracts?”
Hearing Garrett’s rebuttal, the landlady became even angrier. “Have you read books? Can you read? Do you understand what society is?”
“The contract is for you to see and for me to enforce. This is my house. I am the landlord and also the village chief of Woodsea. What I say goes.”
“I don’t care how many square meters per person. In my place, one room is for two people.”
“Why are you all making such a fuss? Are you looking for trouble? I can call hundreds of people to come here and beat you up.”
The seven grown men were insulted and frustrated but couldn’t match wits with the landlady. They couldn’t resort to violence either.
Judging by the landlady’s character, she could easily fake an injury at any moment.
So all they could do was try to reason with her. “Ma’am, charging an extra two thousand dollars is too much. Besides, we’re looking for jobs and don’t have much money.”
“Let’s meet halfway. Let us continue living here with an additional five hundred dollars and double water and electricity bills. How about that?”
“Otherwise, if things escalate, you won’t benefit either since we have a contract.”
With no other options at hand, Garrett and his men had no choice but to lower their heads. “Don’t worry. We won’t damage anything in the room.”
Even heroes had to bow to the pressures of life.
The landlady became even more furious when she heard their response and threatened them, “You dare go against me after violating my rules by having seven people live here? Do you think you can challenge me? Are you tired of living?”
“Two thousand dollars. Not a penny less. If you don’t pay today, I’ll cut off your water and electricity and call the police to kick you out.”
“Seriously? Seven grown men can’t even come up with two thousand dollars? Why are you still alive?”
“You look like an idiot from one side, like a fool from another side, like a pig from above, and like a donkey from below.”
“You’re wasting air by being alive and wasting land by being dead.”
Garrett and his crew were so infuriated that they almost rolled up their sleeves. This woman was crossing all boundaries with her insults.
When they were at a loss for how to deal with this fierce woman, a voice came through from outside.
“Ms. Sotheby, don’t go too far with your bullying.”
“If you don’t want them to live here anymore, just don’t chase them away. Find an excuse to tear up their contract and give them some time to find another place. Then return their deposit.”
“But what’s the point of being unreasonable, insulting them like this late at night, and even threatening them with taking away two months’ deposit and one month’s rent?”
“Aren’t you being too domineering?”
“Now either let them continue living here according to the contract or return their deposit and rent. Otherwise, I’ll post online videos of your insults earlier.”
“I’ll make it even more sensational with titles like ‘A Landlady and Seven Strong Men in a Rental Apartment'”
“You don’t want thousands of people to come here just to insult you, right?”
“No matter how sharp-tongued you are, there’s no way for you to withstand thousands of people criticizing you.”
Darnell smiled mischievously from behind his window. “Do you think you’ll be able to leave your house after that?”
Although Darnell didn’t want to confront the landlady directly, he couldn’t stand by while she bullied Garrett. He spoke up for justice.
Hearing someone speak up for them, Garrett turned their heads in surprise and joy when they saw it was Darnell. They were grateful beyond words.
“Darnell!”
“You little brat! Who do you think you are? How dare you meddle in my affairs?”
Seeing someone stand up for them against her threats even after she insulted them earlier made the landlady even angrier. “Do you want me to kick both of you out?”
“Get lost!”
While shouting angrily at them, she grabbed a thermos cup and threw it towards Darnell through his window.
Darnell flicked his fork lightly and tapped on the thermos cup as it flew towards him. With a sound like a snapback cap closing, he sent it back flying towards the landlady’s toes.
“Ouch!”
Ms. Sotheby screamed in pain as she jumped up and spun around like a frog. “You bastard! How dare you hit me? We’re not finished!”
Then she gritted her teeth against the pain and picked up various objects from her table before fiercely throwing them at Darnell at an astonishing speed.
Garrett wanted to intervene but didn’t know where to start. Whenever they got closer, they almost got slapped by her.
Dang! Dang! Dang!
Unfazed by everything happening around him, Darnell effortlessly flicked his fork as he deflected all objects back towards her until they landed on her body one after another with muffled thuds.
“Bastard!”
Seeing Darnell effortlessly deflecting everything thrown at him made her even angrier. She rushed towards his window again, holding a wooden club as she charged towards Darnell. “I’ll kill you!”
Darnell easily dodged her attack.
The club missed its target.
“Click!”
The landlady stepped on something small on the ground and let out another cry as she fell down with a twisted waist, unable to move. “Murder! It’s murder!”
The scene descended into chaos.
“Noemi! What happened?”
As Garrett saw Ms. Sotheby lying on the ground groaning in pain while looking bewildered, Lillian rushed into the apartment from outside, instinctively trying to help support her godmother.
Lillian?
Darnell was surprised. He didn’t expect that Lillian was actually Ms. Sotheby’s goddaughter. The world really was small.
And why would someone as beautiful as Lillian have such an aggressive godmother?
“Don’t move.”
Seeing Lillian trying to help Ms. Sotheby up, Darnell called out, “It’s an acute back strain. If handled improperly, it could cause permanent damage.”