Chapter 15: Being broke has its own solutions

The idea was good, but it turned out to be quite challenging to execute, mainly because there was too much information on housing listings.

After a quick search, from names like Ank, Baowu, and Dandan, one will realize that currently, Jingzhou City's housing listings were generally between thirty to forty thousand.

It might seem not too many when compared with the first-tier cities, which easily exceed one hundred thousand listings, but after all, it was just Jingzhou.

Fortunately, there was one thing, many of the listings posted by agents were actually duplicates since there weren't that many landlords signing exclusive agreements these days.

But even if you removed the duplicates, it wasn't something Tang Fangjing could do alone, because this wasn't a job meant for one person.

So, what to do? Hiring help would cost money, but he was broke, so he had no choice but to scrounge "freebies."

Luckily, this so-called evidence collection was actually quite easy and didn't require any specialized knowledge.

Right away, Tang Fangjing thought of a group that was large in number and had not yet been jaded by society into street-smart slickers, a group that would stand up and speak out against things they found unacceptable.

That's right, the group was none other than college students.

But then, college students weren't just sitting around with nothing to do, so why should they help him gather information?

True, but college students would need to look for jobs and rent apartments after graduation!

And at this time, they were the ones being cheated the most…

Cheated when job hunting, cheated when renting apartments, it seems like they were cheated in everything they did.

There was no helping it; having just stepped out of school, they tended to see the best in people, thinking everyone was kind-hearted.

They would easily trust others, didn't know how to say no, and wouldn't think of being wary, getting cheated left and right.

There were certainly no shortage of universities in Jingzhou City; including the third-tier universities and colleges, the number of graduates each year had already reached over three hundred thousand…

Even if those with local housing or those returning home were excluded, a significant number remained in Jingzhou.

And what he needed to do was to have them collect evidence while apartment hunting and then send it to him for compilation.

But how could he make these college students trust him? Tang Fangjing thought of his social media account; although his following wasn't that large, he was considered a minor internet celebrity in Jingzhou.

But that alone wasn't enough… After some contemplation, Tang Fangjing decided to first become a volunteer at the Consumer Association.

No matter how much you criticize the Consumer Association as useless a hundred times over, you must admit that with such a title, people would be more likely to trust you!

With the volunteer status, he could then attract college students through online and on-site promotions.

Sigh, it was only because he had no other choice; had it been his previous life, he would have directly partnered with a law school under the guise of a social practice project, and it would have been a piece of cake.

As for the possibility that the real estate agents would find out and make pre-emptive changes...

Let alone that it wouldn't cause a big stir, in this day and age, becoming an overnight sensation was not something you could achieve just because you wanted to; a variety of factors were indispensable!

Moreover, what would it matter if Jingzhou's agents found out about it? This was a problem endemic to the entire industry, not something that could be easily solved.

Things had to be done step by step, so the very next morning, Tang Fangjing went straight to the Handong Province Consumer Association. In principle, becoming a volunteer wasn't something you could just decide to do, but he had gained some notoriety online.

There was no getting around it; his story was so legendary that many treated his past deeds as a thrilling novel...

The Consumer Association naturally had no problem with him joining; they would welcome such a participant with open arms, and everything was set!

Who knows, they might even have to look into initiating a public interest lawsuit with the Consumer Association later on.

By that time, he would presumably have started his internship, and he would get the lawyer supervising him to act as the attorney.

Then leverage that to get a larger share for himself, and if they disagreed, find another lawyer to supervise...

Although the money was far less than what he had invested, it didn't matter; the lawyer's fees were nothing, the main thing was for his life…

It was already June, and graduation season had arrived. College students were busily renting places, interning, and having a blast.

In light of this, Tang Fangjing posted a message on his short video account.

"Hello to all the college graduates in Jingzhou City, you must all be busy with job hunting and renting apartments now, right? Maybe some of you have already experienced being deceived by fake listings and prices, but felt powerless to do anything about it."

"If that's the case, and you come across similar situations in the future, please send me the relevant evidence... and please, trust me!"

What evidence was needed and how to collect it was all very clearly and simply explained by Tang Fangjing.

Just after Tang Fangjing had posted the message through his account, inside a shop in the Bright District, Lu Jiayu faced the agent across from her with great indignation, "You clearly said it was eight hundred a month before coming, but now both the room and the price have changed, isn't this a scam?"

She was about to graduate and had barely secured a job; finding an apartment had been a constant source of stress.

And what happened in the end? This was the third time that apartments she saw online, which looked nice and were very affordable, turned out to be either already rented out or the landlords suddenly decided not to rent them.

She was then taken to see another place.

Since she was there, she figured she might as well take a look, but the apartment wasn't great and the rent was not cheap; it was unacceptable.

The agent directly said, "Let me tell you straight, those listings you see online are just to attract traffic. It's the same everywhere. Did you really think you could still find a place in Jingzhou for eight hundred a month rent?"

"So what about the time you wasted for me, what about my taxi fare?"

"What does that have to do with us? Always thinking of taking advantage, as if there are so many good deals to grab..."

Lu Jiayu's face turned red with anger, but she didn't know what to say; it seemed she really came because of the low price, but... if you don't have that price, why hang that tag at all!

But she truly had no recourse, unable to out-argue them, and fighting for her rights... seemed unworthy.

Fuming, she was about to head back to school when her phone rang.

"Hello, Qianqian, ah don't mention it, it's another scam, they're asking for one thousand five, and the location is terrible... What? Old Tang updated? Is he talking about renting issues? Okay, I will check it out right away!"

As the plaintiff in the country's first case of exorbitant overtime compensation, Tang Fangjing's account was known as Old Tang.

Lu Jiayu found the account, clicked in, and saw that it was talking precisely about what had happened to her!

Looking at the evidence required there, it so happened that she had the habit of recording a video when she went to see an apartment. It seemed like she had enough evidence...

After all, it was not likely that the other party could deceive her in any way, so she might as well send it.

The same situation was happening in the dormitories of various universities in Jingzhou City; it can only be said that some platforms are really too tricky these days.

It wasn't like watered-down wine anymore; it was purely water!

With the evidence collected, Tang Fangjing just organized it; he left two months to collect evidence for this case!

It was impossible to go through all the information, but having evidence of ten to twenty thousand out of over forty thousand listings would be enough.

Even so, it was still a tremendous amount of work; what else could he do but work his hardest?

Amid this atmosphere, Tang Fangjing sorted through the evidence while starting to do promotions at various universities.

Like a pitiful salesperson running everywhere, enduring the June sun, but there's no choice when there's no money; you just have to work yourself to exhaustion.

Fortunately, the students were quite engaged, some of them not even needing to rent but still making the effort to gather evidence, saying it was too much fun not to participate.

As Tang Fangjing busily worked on his end, over at Bluebird Company, Niu Ma from the operations department looked at the arbitrator from the Labor Dispute Arbitration Committee who had come to submit an application, a bewildered expression on their face.

"Damn, I was still debating whether to do it or not, and Manager Liu's already done it? Didn't he always say the company was his home?"