My wife and I are both time travelers.

Chapter 48 Goodbye! Pigeon Cage
"Officer, they haven't arrested anyone yet? Why are they leaving?" At this moment, Xiao Jiang, who was standing behind, was still unaware of what was going on. Seeing the two policemen about to leave, he hurriedly shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Arrest? What are you arresting? They have a marriage certificate, they're a legally married couple, and they're local residents. What problems could there be with them renting a place in the city? On the contrary, you're the ones who made false reports and filed baseless accusations. Don't you know that this will lead to legal consequences?" The middle-aged policeman shouted angrily at him.

"what!"

The Wang family members were instantly dumbfounded. They had local household registration? How could that be!
Didn't they not even have a household registration certificate before? They only brought a letter of introduction to rent this house, and even deliberately increased the rent by one yuan to hide it. Later, Aunt Wang thought she could use this to control Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying, so she deliberately doubled the rent, and they swallowed their anger and agreed.

How long has it been? How did they suddenly get local residency? That's impossible! If that were the case, they could have just said so directly, instead of blinding themselves and continuing to raise the rent.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! It's fake! The household registration must be fake!" Aunt Wang screamed, her defenses broken.

"Don't we police officers know what's real and what's fake?" The young policeman's words shattered her last hope.

"Oh, right! They're still setting up stalls and doing small business outside. Doesn't your police station handle things like speculation and profiteering?" Aunt Wang suddenly remembered her last lifeline and said hurriedly.

"These kinds of things happen all the time now. The policies from above have been relaxed. Besides, it's perfectly acceptable for locals to sell agricultural products in the city. It's not considered speculation. Also, this isn't under the jurisdiction of the police. If you think there's a problem, you can report it directly to the Industry and Commerce Bureau. Got it?"

After saying that, the two ignored the Wang family members and went straight downstairs.

After they left, Zhou Jiye sneered at the Wang family members who were still standing in the hallway and at the door, and strode over to them.

"Aunt Wang, what a clever scheme!" Zhou Jiye's icy gaze swept over them one by one like a knife: "Going to the police station to report us in the middle of the night? Bringing the police to arrest us? You're really something! You're really capable! What a pity, what a pity, the police don't handle this anymore, so what do you say we do?"

As he spoke, Zhou Jiye took another step forward. His tall stature made him appear extremely imposing in the narrow stairwell. Aunt Wang was so frightened by his imposing presence that she quickly stepped back, nearly falling down the stairwell. Fortunately, her husband caught her from behind.

"What...what do you want to do? Hitting someone can get you into legal trouble! Xiao Zhou, you can't use your fists! Auntie was wrong, it was all my fault, please be magnanimous and forgive me..."

Aunt Wang was already ashen-faced with fright, and her son, Xiao Jiang, was even more terrified. Having experienced Zhou Jiye's formidable strength firsthand, he was terrified of being beaten. Taking advantage of his small stature, he quickly hid behind his wife, peeking out cautiously, not daring to utter a sound.

To be honest, Zhou Jiye really wanted to beat them up to vent his anger. He was peacefully sleeping in his room when suddenly someone banged on the door, and when he opened it, two policemen appeared and interrogated them like criminals, then tried to take them away.

Luckily, they had managed to get their household registration sorted out beforehand. Otherwise, he and Lin Ying would have been completely finished today. The consequences of being taken away were unimaginable. According to the current management system, staying in Shanghai for an extended period without household registration, not only renting a place but also starting a small business, would be enough to cause them serious trouble.

They're definitely going to be sent back, and they might even be sent to a rural labor camp for a few months of hard labor. Plus, there's the letter of introduction from their father, Zhou Furong. If this matter is investigated, Zhou Furong will also be in trouble. He'll definitely lose his position as village secretary; being dismissed would be the best-case scenario, and he might even have to eat radish rice. His two older brothers will face the same fate; the whole family involved will be unable to hold their heads high in the commune and village.

The thought of such serious consequences filled Zhou Jiye with rage. For a mere few yuan, the Wang family was willing to kill them; how could Zhou Jiye not be furious?

"Calm down! It's not worth it!"

Just as Zhou Jiye clenched his fists, his anger surging, Lin Ying's voice rang out from behind him.

Lin Ying gently put her arm around Zhou Jiye's and shook her head slightly to signal him. Zhou Jiye took deep breaths, which gradually calmed him down.

“Aunt Wang,” Lin Ying began, “My husband and I have never offended you since we moved in, have we? Not only have we not offended you, but we have always been kind to you. Not to mention, we bring you tea eggs every few days. In the past few months, your family has probably eaten no less than a hundred tea eggs, right? Last time you said you wanted to raise the rent, I originally disagreed, but after thinking about how difficult things are for your family, I agreed…”

At this point, Lin Ying's gaze turned icy, and she said in a tone devoid of any emotion, "A good horse is ridden, and a kind person is bullied! The old saying is absolutely true. I never expected that my good deeds would be rewarded like this, and I never imagined that you would be so greedy."

"You raised the rent once, and now you want to raise it a second time? If I agree to this again, are you planning to raise it a third time in two months? Or a fourth time?"

"Aunt Wang, this isn't how you behave. Don't you know why we said those things tonight? I was still giving you some face, thinking that since we'd known each other, it was fate, and we could part amicably. But I never expected you to pull something like this! You're trying to kill us!" "I...I...I'm sorry...I...I was wrong...I was blinded by greed, it was my fault..." Aunt Wang's face was ashen, she murmured, her eyes filled with fear.

"Ahem... Xiao Lin, my wife was wrong about this. Please forgive her, since this didn't cause any serious consequences. How about we just let it go?" Old Jiang tried to smooth things over.

"Are you kidding me!"

Before Lin Ying could speak, Zhou Jiye couldn't help but say, "No consequences? That's because we're upright and have nothing to do with you."

"I'm asking you, if we can't produce a marriage certificate and don't have local residency, don't you know what the consequences will be if you do this? Answer me! Look in my eyes!"

Old Jiang didn't dare to answer. He didn't even have the courage to meet Zhou Jiye's gaze.

He was an outsider at home; his wife made all the decisions, and they had a spoiled son, Xiao Jiang, who rarely consulted him. He was completely unaware that his wife and son had gone to report him in the middle of the night to get revenge on Zhou Jiye and his gang, and he was only dragged out of the house to make up the numbers when the police arrived.

"We'll compensate you, we'll compensate you! We'll compensate you, okay?" Old Jiang muttered, which immediately reminded Aunt Wang. She quickly nodded in agreement, "Yes, yes, we can compensate you. Xiao Lin, you name a number, and I'll pay you, okay?"

Lin Ying sneered and shook her head, saying, "Pay money? I wouldn't dare. What if you pay us and then report us for extortion? Aunt Wang, we're timid and can't handle one 'surprise' after another."

"No, no, we promise we won't report them!" Aunt Wang swore, sweating profusely with anxiety. She was terrified. If Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying had been arrested by the police, that would have been one thing, but the problem was that the police weren't involved, and they even said they had local residency. Aunt Wang was completely dumbfounded.

Now that we've offended someone so badly, what are we going to do in the future?
Although Lin Ying is usually easy to talk to, today was the first time Aunt Wang felt Lin Ying's strong personality and aggressive demeanor. As for Zhou Jiye, needless to say, he's big and burly, with arms thicker than Aunt Wang's thighs; even if Aunt Wang's whole family attacked him, they probably wouldn't be enough to fill a gap in his teeth.

Aunt Wang, with her old bones, along with her husband, son, and second daughter-in-law, was no different from a child who could be easily defeated by Zhou Jiye. If he were to cause trouble for her afterwards, her family would never have a peaceful life.

The more Aunt Wang thought about it, the more frightened she became. Now, all she wanted was to settle things peacefully and pay some money to get rid of these two "plagues." She had no other intention to file a report or anything like that. As for her son, Xiao Jiang, he had long since disappeared and didn't dare to utter a sound.

"Forget about compensation. My husband and I don't want any trouble. But you have to return the extra rent you extorted from us, as well as the original deposit and the money refunded after half a month. Not a penny less of these. This is what we should get. The original rental agreement is still there, and that's what you should refund. As for anything else, we don't want a single extra cent!"

"Okay, okay! No problem, no problem!"

Before Aunt Wang could speak, Old Jiang immediately agreed, and Aunt Wang nodded in agreement as well.

Since that's the case, Lin Ying had no interest in continuing to waste words with them. She pulled Zhou Jiye back into the house and slammed the door shut.

With a bang, the door slammed shut, and the Wang family members breathed a sigh of relief. They looked at each other, all with expressions of relief, but the thought of having to return so much money made them feel a pang of heartache.

The next morning, Zhou Jiye and his family got up early and went to Aunt Wang's place to get back the overpaid rent and deposit that they had been extorted from. They counted the money in front of her, and Lin Ying, being careful, even wrote a supplementary rental agreement explaining the reason for the refunded money. Then, they had Aunt Wang's family sign and stamp the agreement.

After finishing all that, Lin Ying put the agreement away and then told Zhou Jiye to pack his things and prepare to move.

They didn't have much to begin with. Besides some secondhand daily necessities they bought from the store when they first arrived, they had two coal stoves, some pots and pans, and a basket of eggs.

These things were easy to move, and since Zhou Jiye had a bicycle, he could ride it first to transport the hard-to-carry items directly to the foreign alley. Two or three trips back and forth would be enough. On the last trip, Lin Ying and Zhou Jiye left with the remaining items. As they walked out the door, they subconsciously looked back, feeling a mix of indescribable emotions.

Regardless, this was their first home in Shanghai! Even though it ended badly because of the Wang family, the small attic still held their memories of that time, making it unforgettable.

(End of this chapter)