***** Vol.2 Chap.17 Dealing with Mrs. Lu *****

After everyone left, Mrs. Lu stayed and walked over to Grandpa Chen, repeating the entire story about how she met Lon-Lai and how she found him this house and the clinic. With minor interruptions, she recited the story with more fabricated details. As he sat patiently listening to her, she got more and more animated in telling all the stories related to Lon-Lai during the past twelve years. He sat there and listened. He did not want to be impolite to interrupt her. After another hour and a half, she finally told them it was time for her to leave. He was appreciative of that seeing the time was getting late. She stood up to leave.

As she got to the door, she spun around. And to everyone’s surprise, she pulled out a long piece of paper from her purse and gave it to him. It was the signed lease of the house. She reminded him that Lon-Lai had signed the lease agreement, and that there were still six more months left on the lease. The news took Grandpa Chen by surprise. Although they knew there would be a problem with the lease on the house, they did not know how many more months were left on the lease. He took the lease and examined it carefully. The lease was simple, with no dissolution clause for accidental contingencies. Clearly, the lease had been carefully crafted in obvious favor to the owner. So, legally, Lon-Lai’s family was bound to the lease. A quick calculation in his mind showed that the rent for six months should amount to a large sum of money. In his softest tone, he asked Mrs. Lu if there was any way at all to break the lease.

“How much is the rent for the remaining six months?”

“600 rmb.”

“You know we are not rich at all. My son had been a faithful renter, and he had always paid you the rent first before other bills, even when he had no money to buy food for the family.”

“Yes, I know that.”

“You also know that I am retired and I have no means of income other than a small pension from the government. I only have a small emergency fund. But this negligible sum is not nearly enough to pay the full six months’ rent.”

“You still owe me 600 rmb.” She said dispassionately.

“Can you help us, please?”

“I have been more than patient with Lon-Lai and tolerated his delinquency many, many times already.” Mrs. Lu made a most horrified look on her face. “You know, it is hard to rent this place back out these days. First, I have to do a lot of repairs on this place to make it even rentable. Then I have to advertise in the local paper and I do not know when I can find a suitable renter.”

A grand performance, he thought. He listened but kept his peace. He did not interrupt nor debate anything she had said. With every ounce of patience within him, he waited till she was done and then he asked her again.

“Can you help us, please?”

“You know that these are economically hard times. Everyone is moving to the city and not too many people want to stay in the village. It is really hard to rent the place out in this neighborhood. It may be years, years before I can rent this place out again. Oh, I will lose so much money.”

“Can you help us, please?” He persisted without succumbing to her theatrical tactics.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Mrs. Lu again broke into another long discourse about how she had to spend a lot of money fixing the house, making it ready for Lon-Lai. She also explained in great details how she had to cut the rent at the beginning because she thought that Lon-Lai had helped the community and so she had kept the rent low for the past twelve years. As she was continuing her long discourse, she walked around the house and pointed out all the holes in the wall, all the broken ceiling tiles, all the chipped paint, and all the scratches and nicks at the walls. She next totaled the amount of money needed to fix the house to get it ready for the next renter.

The truth of the matter was she had done no maintenance on the house. Grandpa Chen thought to himself. But he kept his mouth shut and waited patiently for her to finish.

“Please help us and let us off the lease?” He kept repeating the same request.

Mrs. Lu paced back and forth in the little house. Suddenly, the air was stifling. May-Ling could hardly breathe and thought she would be choked to death.

But he kept his mouth shut. Mrs. Lu just paced back and forth, and back and forth. She was not speaking; neither would Grandpa Chen. May-Ling thought that was the longest silence that she had ever heard, but she dared not utter a word, either. He kept looking at Mrs. Lu with imploring eyes, but said nothing. Mrs. Lu looked at him, looked at May-Ling, and then looked at the house. Then she shook her head. She paced around some more. She then looked at him, at May-Ling, and at the house again.

Finally, she was the one who broke the silence.

“Well …”

He knew he won, but kept silent.

“With all respect to Lon-Lai, he had done such service to the community. I will let you off the lease if you would pay me two months of rent in advance. You know I need the money to fix the roof and to repaint this whole place so that I can get it ready to rent again. Who knows how long it will take to have this house rented again?”

With sincere gratitude, he smiled and thanked her. He took her hands and shook them enthusiastically and thanked her again. He then explained to her it was too late to go anywhere, and that he would finish cleaning up the house and would be gone by tomorrow.

“That will be fine.”

She promised to be back the following day to pick up the key and to check on the house. He was thrilled that she did not hold them to the rest of the lease. She said on her way out that was the least she can do respecting Lon-Lai and his service to the community. Again, he thanked her and shook her hands. Without further mentioning the lease on the house, she left promptly.

After Mrs. Lu left, May-Ling could sense that her Grandpapa was anxious. She did not know why, but she dared not ask. Time was already late. So, they just crashed and fell asleep almost instantly. For him, it had been an endless day. They had walked all over town and they had worked hard in cleaning the house. For her, she was emotionally drained. She had no more feelings. She lay down and fell asleep.

They slept so soundly that night that no one was awake till morning came. Grandpa Chen was woken up by some loud knocking on the door. He slowly got up and walked to the door. It was Mrs. Lu.

“Good morning.” Grandpa Chen began.

“Good morning. I trust you had a good rest.”

“It was a good rest. I guess we must have been extremely tired.”

“Have you got the money for the two months’ rent? That will be 200 rmb.”

“Let me see.” He rummaged around in his wallet. All he could only come up with was 90 rmb, including all the money they found in the matchbox and around the house.

“I can only come up with 90 rmb right now.”

“Only 90 rmb? That is 110 rmb short.”

“I know, but that is all I have. And as is, I do not know how we could get back home. I promise you I will mail you ten rmb every month till the debt is paid.”

“You gotta be kidding! I have to have workers getting the house ready to rent. The workers want to be paid at the end of the day. Nobody works on credit anymore.”

“Can you give me some time, please?”

“OK, I have a few errands to run this morning. I will see you folks later at the clinic in an hour and you can figure out a way to come up with the rest of the money, then.”

“Thanks. We will see you at the clinic in an hour.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.” But she was already gone and down the street already.

May-Ling was woken up by the conversation. She looked towards the door and recognized Mrs. Lu’s shadow. A team of workers were waiting outside the house and Mrs. Lu was giving a ton of instructions. Immediately, the workers crawled all over the outside of the house.