Chapter 62
Upon receiving Gao Yinxi's call, Li Chi'an arrived at the manor and saw a yellow excavator rumbling around, digging up the newly built log platform under the trees. The three treehouses had already fallen apart, and many branches were damaged.
The old lady, dressed in slightly worn casual clothes and slippers, with her gray hair piled up on her head in a mess, was the landlady.
"Stop! Stop! Who told you to dig? Stop right now!" Li Chi'an shouted as he approached.
The old lady stood arrogantly to the side, yelling, "Don't stop!"
She berated the excavators, then turned to Li Chi'an, "Who gave you permission to hammer nails into my tree? Take them all down!"
Her voice was shrill.
Li Chi'an hurriedly stepped forward, "President Zhao, didn't you tell us when we signed the contract that we could renovate the manor as we pleased, as long as we didn't demolish the houses, we could do whatever we wanted?"
On the day of signing the contract, the landlady, Mrs. Zhao, was surprisingly easy to talk to.
To everyone's surprise, the old lady turned into a completely different person.
She immediately retorted, "When did I say such a thing? I only allow you to renovate the house."
“These trees were planted by me decades ago, and they are all precious species! You’ve been hammering nails and stringing wires, and you’re going to kill them! And that viewing platform over there has ruined my feng shui! How can this be allowed?!”
The old lady squinted at Li Chi'an and said, "Don't take advantage of my age and bad memory. I definitely remember what I didn't promise."
As she spoke, she directed the excavator, "Tear it down! Tear it all down!"
Li Chi'an wanted to step forward to stop her, but was pulled aside by worker Lao Zhang. "Miss Li, this old lady is shameless. Don't go forward, it's dangerous!"
Watching helplessly as the excavator's robotic arm swung towards the newly built treehouse and viewing platform, Li Chi'an was trembling with anger and immediately called Xu Zhuwen.
She didn't dare call Gao Yinxi, fearing that the other party might get angry and do something terrible.
She knew how important this treehouse was to the three of them; it completely embodied their fairytale dreams. It was almost finished when it was suddenly dug up by an excavator.
Less than half an hour later, Xu Zhuwen also rushed to the scene, only to find it in complete disarray.
The newly built treehouse was torn to pieces, the viewing platform was reduced to a pile of wood fragments, and the grass was left with deep marks by the excavator tracks.
Li Chi'an sat on the stone bench at the entrance of the villa, his expression calm but containing anger. "She said the tree is a precious tree, and building a treehouse would kill it, saying we're ruining the feng shui... But it was clearly agreed in the contract that modifications were allowed. Did you bring the contract with you?"
“I brought it.” Xu Zhuwen took the contract out of her bag. “I’m going to confront her now. How can someone be so rude?”
She was furious too.
But she still squatted down to comfort Li Chian, "Don't worry, we have a contract. Take a rest and calm down."
Li Chian picked up his phone and showed Xu Zhuwen the photos he had taken at the scene earlier. "The loss is at least 300,000 yuan."
“I’m going to find her.” Xu Zhuwen glanced through the videos and photos Li Chi’an had taken.
"I'll go with you."
Li Chi'an got up, patted his bottom, and followed Xu Zhuwen toward the small villa where the old lady lived.
Five minutes after I knocked, the old lady opened the door. She was still dressed the same way, and her hair was still a mess.
“Aunt Zhao, we are…” Xu Zhuwen was interrupted before she could finish speaking.
"I know who you are! It's no use, I've already demolished it, and if I say you can't install it, then you can't install it." The old woman stood with her hands on her hips. "I'm telling you, get out of here right now! Otherwise, I'll demolish all the illegal buildings on the estate!"
Xu Zhuwen remained polite, saying, "We have a lease agreement that clearly states in black and white that we can renovate the park. Your actions of damaging our property are illegal."
"Illegal?" The old woman scoffed. "I was a judge before I retired! I know more about the law than you do! You're damaging valuable trees and disrupting the feng shui, but I'm just protecting my own property!"
Li Chi'an frowned. "You said these trees are precious species, do you have any proof? Otherwise, I can call a horticultural expert now to identify the trees and see if they are indeed precious trees."
The old woman's eyes gleamed. "I said it's a rare tree, so it's a rare tree! I didn't know I planted it? If you don't leave, I'll call excavators every day and make sure you can't even finish your renovations, believe it or not."
The conversation reached a stalemate.
The old lady was even more unreasonable than the two had imagined. She repeatedly insisted that the trees were too precious to build treehouses, and that they were building platforms everywhere, which ruined the feng shui of the garden.
Back at the main villa, Xu Zhuwen called Gao Yinxi to report the situation, while Li Chi'an contacted his friends at the College of Agriculture.
"Yinxi, don't panic. We'll have a professional assess the value of the trees and consult a lawyer as well," Xu Zhuwen said into the phone.
Li Chi'an hung up the phone. "My friend will bring a team to inspect the trees tomorrow. The key now is to find the landlord, Mr. Liang, the old lady's husband. He has to take responsibility for his wife's behavior."
However, Mr. Liang's phone remained unreachable.
Not long after, the roar of the excavator rang out again.
The old lady somehow hired an even bigger excavator to destroy the foundation structure of the small wooden house on the other side.
Xu Zhuwen stepped forward and blocked the excavator. "Sir, if you start working, it will be considered intentional damage to property. We have already called the police!"
The excavator driver hesitated and stopped.
The old woman jumped up, "Call the police? You think I'm afraid of you calling the police? I've been working in the court system for thirty years!"
Li Chi'an walked over, his phone on speakerphone. "Grandma Zhao, this is Professor Lin from the College of Agriculture at Xianghai University. He wants to talk to you about the value of trees."
A gentle male voice came from the other end of the phone, "Hello, Teacher Zhao. I heard that you have some rare and precious trees in your garden. I study rare tree species. May I come and take a look?"
The old lady was stunned for a moment, clearly not expecting this move. "What professor or not, I don't need an assessment! I grew it myself, don't I know?"
Taking the opportunity, Li Chi'an said, "We have already hired a lawyer. According to Article 7, Clause 3 of the contract, Party A guarantees Party B's right to modify the leased property. Your current actions constitute a breach of contract."
The old woman raised her voice eight octaves, "Lawyers? You weren't even born when I was handling my cases! Talking to me about law?"
Although she spoke toughly, the old lady's eyes clearly showed some panic.
At that moment, a police car drove into the manor.
After understanding the situation, the police officers first dissuaded the excavator driver, and then turned to the elderly woman, saying, "Ms. Zhao, what you did was really inappropriate. If there is a dispute, you should go through legal procedures. You cannot damage things privately."
"They damaged my tree first!" the old woman argued irrationally.
“The value of the trees needs to be professionally assessed.” The police officer turned to Xu Zhuwen, “You would be best able to provide proof of the value of the trees, and at the same time contact the landlord to resolve the dispute.”
Xu Zhuwen nodded, "We have invited experts from the College of Agriculture to come and assess it today."
Hearing that the experts were really coming, the old lady's tone softened a bit, "Come on then! My tree is a famous tree!"
After the expert team arrived, they carefully inspected the trees in the park.
“They are all common tree species, between 25 and 35 years old, and in good health,” Professor Lin concluded. “The method of building treehouses is scientific and reasonable and will not harm the health of the trees.”
The old lady's face turned from red to white, then back to red. "How do I know you weren't in cahoots! Experts can't be found so quickly. It can't be yours, I don't believe it. You must have hired someone to put on an act."
“Mr. Zhao, if you don’t believe me, you can call the police now.” Li Chi’an said, while showing a copy of the lease contract. “According to the contract, we have the right to renovate the park. The treehouse and viewing platform you damaged are worth about 350,000 yuan, and we will pursue compensation according to law.”
Just then, Mr. Liang, who had been missing for a long time, finally appeared, running over and covered in sweat.
"What are you doing?" Mr. Liang looked much older than Grandma Zhao, but he was in good health. After he came over, he first scolded Grandma Zhao, "It's not a big business, why make so much trouble? Once the contract is signed, just do what needs to be done."
Li Chian and Xu Zhuwen discovered that ever since Mr. Liang appeared...
Old Mrs. Zhao's arrogance immediately subsided.
The two women also realized that Old Mrs. Zhao was indeed afraid of Mr. Liang because she was so arrogant in front of them and the workers, and didn't even give face to the police and the agricultural college professor.
However, judging from the direction Mr. Liang came from, it was clear that he had been in the villa from the beginning.
The two exchanged a glance, a look of inquiry flashing in each other's eyes.
Mr. Liang seemed much more cultured than Mrs. Zhao.
He was wearing reading glasses, had a head of white hair, and a wrinkled face, but he spoke very politely, "She's old, and sometimes she has some stubborn ideas. You young people should be more understanding."
It turns out the old lady wasn't a judge, but a retired court archivist who had been experiencing some cognitive impairment in recent years, sometimes lucid and sometimes confused, and was particularly superstitious about feng shui.
The old woman was still muttering to herself, "If they hammer nails, the tree will die, the feng shui will be ruined, and the family will suffer bad luck."
“If you were afraid of ruining the feng shui, you shouldn’t have made this money in the first place.” Teacher Liang continued to scold the old lady, “I told you not to rent this garden long ago, but you insisted on renting it. Now that it’s been rented to someone else, whether it’s good or bad is their business. Why do you have to worry about it so much?”
The old gentleman may have once held a high position; even though he spoke softly, he still had an arrogant expression.
This was clearly his wife being unreasonable, but he didn't stop her. Now that the police and others have arrived, he's afraid things will escalate, so he's playing the good cop, while also implying that he looks down on what Li Chian and Xu Zhuwen did.
Li Chian and Xu Zhuwen couldn't help but roll their eyes.
Ultimately, with the police's mediation, both parties agreed that the losses would be deducted from the rent, and the elderly woman would no longer be allowed to interfere with the construction.
Mr. Liang promised to provide better care for Mrs. Zhao.
The turmoil subsided, and the project resumed.
The amount of cash needed to be invested increased, which was unexpected for them. Fortunately, treehouses were built one after another, hidden in the dense canopy of trees, like cottages in a fairy tale.
The three of them designed the theme for each treehouse together—a starry sky house, a study house, and a family house.
Because Gao Yinxi was pregnant, she provided resources and connections as needed. Apart from not being present in person, she did her best to contribute.
Xu Zhuwen and Li Chian were exhausted.
During the dispute resolution process, Xu Zhuwen stayed up late studying legal provisions, while Li Chian contacted various professionals. Both of them lost weight.
"It's good that Yinxi came. This place is so messy, dusty, and noisy. It's not good for the baby," Xu Zhuwen said with relief as she looked at the three treehouses that had already taken shape.
"Fortunately, the police here know her well, otherwise, we would have had a much harder time." Li Chian nodded.
"Yes." Xu Zhuwen felt that what she had recently experienced was a completely different kind of life, a chaotic and messy experience, unlike her interactions with people at work.
It was only after the treehouse was excavated and they confronted the landlord that they understood why Old Mrs. Zhao was so domineering.
It turns out that she was Mr. Liang's second wife, and that she was his mistress who became his legal wife. Mr. Liang had indeed been a high-ranking leader in the past, which is why he accumulated so many properties and houses in this area of the southern suburbs.
But while Mrs. Zhao had gained a lot of houses and money from Mr. Liang, she received almost no respect from him.
Furthermore, perhaps due to her personality, she doesn't get along well with her son and daughter-in-law, which makes her increasingly eccentric and difficult to get along with. That's why she's so bizarre; just because of one of her ideas, she directly called an excavator to dig up the treehouse platform and other structures that had been built in the garden.
They don't know how to respect people, nor do they know how to cherish the fruits of other people's labor; they are also ignorant of the law.
"Yinxi had her prenatal checkup today and said the results were very good. We need to speed things up and give her a surprise."
The final step was to install a glass dome on the largest banyan tree.
As night fell on a weekend, Xu Zhuwen and Li Chian sat in the nearly completed treehouse, with the warm lights of the villa in the distance.
"Do you still remember the dreams we talked about?" Xu Zhuwen suddenly asked. "I said I wanted to create a place where people could forget their troubles, Yinxi said she wanted to be successful in her career and get rich as soon as possible, and you said you wanted financial freedom and personal independence."
She pushed up her glasses and said, "Now I think that being able to realize my dreams and live my life according to my own wishes is success."
Li Chi'an smiled as he opened his mobile banking app. "Although the investment exceeded the budget, booking data shows that the treehouse project can increase the profit margin of the homestay by 40%, and we can break even in a year and a half."
Xu Zhuwen gazed at the starry sky. "It's not just about money. Look, the stars in our garden seem especially bright."
The Treehouse Dream is an interlude, but it also marks the beginning of the complex and extensive renovations and problems at the entire Rose Manor.
After that, Li Chian and Xu Zhuwen visited the garden more and more frequently. In addition to the garden, the local building materials market also became a place they visited even more often than shopping malls.
One night, Li Chian was supervising the work in the garden until late when he unexpectedly discovered the old lady standing alone under a banyan tree, looking up at the treehouse.
"Grandma Zhao?" she called softly.
The old lady was dressed quite well today, but she still had a somber expression on her face.
Upon hearing the voice, she turned to look at Li Chi'an, her face expressionless.
He remained silent for a long time, then turned and left.
Watching the old lady's departing figure, Li Chi'an suddenly sensed the loneliness behind the old woman's numbness and unreasonable behavior.
Those obsessions and obstacles may stem from the fact that she often did not receive love and nourishment in her relationships.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
