CHAPTER 121: CHAPTER 115 UP, MY HOUSE HAS CRACKED_3

When the other homeowners in the group saw this photo, they were exceptionally angry, constantly criticizing and complaining about the owner of Apartment 401.

"Do you have any legal knowledge at all? If you want to renovate, why knock down a load-bearing wall?"

"Is the load-bearing wall yours alone? By doing this, you’ve practically destroyed an entire building!"

"This building has two units, with two elevators and six apartments per floor, housing a total of 360 households. What you did is no different from murder!"

"@Owner of Apartment 401, come out and explain yourself to us right now!"

"..."

These homeowners were about to explode with anger.

Their residential complex, Mountain and Water Garden, was an upscale complex in Zizhou. The price per square meter was 50,000 yuan. Many people had used their parents’ life savings just to scrape together a down payment. They hadn’t even lived there for many years before encountering such a problem.

Now, the entire building’s walls showed obvious cracks. Who would dare to live there now? Unable to return home, they didn’t even know where they would spend the night.

At the same time, during this critical moment, the property management seemed to be burying their heads in the sand. So much time had passed, yet no one had come forward to address the issue.

"What exactly is the property management of this complex doing?"

"I just went to the property management office. They said such matters had to be reported to the property manager, and the property manager was on leave."

"They’re just passing the buck! At a time like this, shouldn’t they contact the owner of Apartment 401 first? Why hasn’t he shown up?"

"Our complex’s property management—nowhere to be found when you need them, but they’re pretty proactive about collecting management fees, going door-to-door to urge payment!"

"What do we do now? Where are we supposed to sleep tonight?"

"..."

In the homeowners’ group chat, hundreds of homeowners discussed the matter, their anger palpable.

But hours passed, and the owner of Apartment 401 never showed up to admit fault.

Instead, Manager Zhang from property management popped up in the group and replied, "Regarding this matter, our property management has already understood the specifics and communicated with the owner of Apartment 401, Ms. Ouyang. She has acknowledged her grave mistake and promised to restore the load-bearing wall as soon as possible. She has also expressed her willingness to compensate everyone. Please be patient; our property management is actively coordinating and addressing this issue!"

After speaking, he posted a 5,000-yuan red envelope in the homeowners’ group, one that Ms. Ouyang, the owner of Apartment 401, had forwarded to him.

In the group, the ’King of Luck’ snatched 131.4 yuan, while the unluckiest person only got 7.48 yuan.

This series of actions infuriated all the homeowners all over again.

"Don’t tell me this is the compensation from the owner of Apartment 401?"

"Do I need your paltry red envelope? What good is restoring the load-bearing wall? My apartment has cracked! Do you even know what ’cracked’ means?!"

"Forget the apartment cracking; I feel like I’m about to crack!"

"Come up with a reasonable solution quickly, or we’ll have no choice but to call the police!"

"Is there anyone in the group who knows the law? Can someone step up and take the lead? How do we protect our rights in a situation like this?"

"..."

In the homeowners’ group chat, messages flooded the chat, and the homeowners were seething. With Ms. Ouyang, the owner of Apartment 401, still refusing to show herself, combined with the property management’s actions, it nearly made them explode with rage.

Qing Lan felt the same. Seeing the alarming cracks in the building’s walls, she was also too scared to go home. She could only stand in the complex’s common corridor, waiting for a solution from the owner of Apartment 401 and the property management.

However, a comment from one of the homeowners suddenly gave her an idea. She blinked, and Qin Mu came to mind. So she typed in the group: "I know... a friend. He’s an expert in law, a very capable one. I’ll ask him what we should do."

When ordinary people encountered such a situation, after finding property management unhelpful, their first instinct was usually to call the police. However, few understood the procedures that followed a police report, and they still needed a professional to guide them. And the Up she had been following was skilled in handling such matters.

With that, she picked up her phone, opened Qin Mu’s account page, and sent him a private message.

「Jin City.」

Mountain and Water Garden District.

After work, Qin Mu made a special trip to buy some groceries downstairs in his residential complex, planning to cook dinner himself that evening. Time to see just how amazing my ’Divine Chef Skills’ are, he thought.

Back in his kitchen, he picked up the ingredients. He immediately felt a sense of mastery; the texture, structure, and flavor profile of each ingredient seemed to appear in his mind.

However, just as he was about to start cooking, he suddenly realized he had forgotten to buy any seasonings. Oil, salt, MSG, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce—he hadn’t bought a single one. Not only that, but he hadn’t even prepared a wok for stir-frying.

Staring at the ingredients he had already prepped, Qin Mu fell silent once more. Eventually, he abandoned the idea of cooking. I’ll try again once I have all the tools, he thought, shaking his head with a sigh.

He picked up his phone and logged into a certain video-sharing site, intending to check his view count. After just one day, his video views had reached eight million, and his follower count had grown to 2.5 million.

Then, a private message in his inbox caught his eye. The sender was a streamer named Qing Lan. During the recent Liang Shuqi case, she had acted ’heroically,’ leading her viewers to speak out in his defense.

"Up, I’m a loyal fan of yours."

"It’s like this: my apartment has cracked..."

Qin Mu was momentarily stunned as he read the first part of the message, taking a second to process it. In the rest of the message, Qing Lan explained the whole situation.

"It’s not just my apartment; our entire building has cracked. The exterior walls have a crack over ten meters long... An investigation revealed that a household on the fourth floor knocked down a load-bearing wall during renovations."