A dispatch from the trenches

It seems my landlord doesn't want to give me my deposit back.   No big surprise there.  There's some kind of obscure code of dishonour at play, I think: no Beijing landlord in history has ever returned a deposit.   Mine, however, is cutting up particularly rough about it.   I think I'd better accelerate my schedule for moving out....   .... before he comes round to steal my computer.... or sends some boys with knives after me.....     [On the plus side, I find I haven't paid my phone/Internet bill for two months (why haven't they cut me off??), my gas bill for something like a year, and my water bill (they never come to read the meter!) in over two-and-a-half years.  So, I actually owe him maybe one quarter of the deposit amount.  That makes me feel a little better.]