43: Countless routines

Since he had decided, Zhou Yun quickly planned to begin.

First, he had to file a lawsuit. No matter what method of rights protection you choose, this step is essential.

Only by filing a lawsuit can the corresponding lawyer's investigation order be issued, allowing him to legally investigate the information of the company behind the gym, such as Bank statements and other evidence.

However, there's no rush for that yet, because Cheng Jingshu said she wanted to ask the others in the group how many people were willing to sue.

Filing a lawsuit was a feint, while opening a gym was a secret maneuver.

His card now had over 600,000, almost 700,000, all earned through his own efforts and system rewards.

Opening a gym was more than enough.

He wouldn't operate for too long, so he needed to project the image of someone who was just “making a quick buck and leaving.”

In his previous life, he was an absolute expert in criminal law, and he was all too familiar with the group of professional business closers.

People who sought them out actually fell into two categories: one truly couldn't continue operating, while the other purely intended to make a quick profit and run.

The former might operate for one to two years, while the latter generally would flee within three months.

Zhou Yun naturally imitated the latter; to pass the scrutiny of the bottom feeders, the details had to be perfect.

But he didn't need to go overboard, after all, a professional business closer wouldn't possibly imagine that a Lawyer would open a gym just to handle a case… that's simply insane.

To open a gym, one must first register a company, and registering a company requires a legal representative. This person certainly couldn't be him, Zhou Lawyer.

After much thought, Zhou Yun finally thought of someone.

At the same time, in Jingnan District, Jinghai City, Wang Shenggang was staring blankly at his computer.

Well, what can you say? When writing web novels, it's best not to have a girlfriend. With no woman in your heart, your sword will naturally be divine.

Now Writer Wang had been sitting in front of his computer for half a day, unable to write a single word.

He wasn't short on money, but it was just boring that his girlfriend had suddenly been sent in by him.

Just then, his phone rang. Wang Shenggang picked it up and saw it was that not-quite-normal Lawyer.

He initially didn't want to answer, but for some inexplicable reason, he wanted to hear what the Lawyer had to say, so he picked up.

Soon a voice said: “Writer Wang, this is Zhou Yun. I need your help with something.”

Wang Shenggang grumbled, “You think I'll help just because you ask? You just sent my ex-girlfriend in, and I haven't even…”

“You haven't even properly thanked me yet, so perfect, don't refuse just yet, listen to me first…”

Then, Zhou Yun briefly explained his plan, mainly stating that there really was no other good option.

“Just say it directly. Whether you agree or not, opening a gym will definitely attract beautiful women.”

To be honest, after Zhou Yun said, “You haven't properly thanked him,” Wang Shenggang really wanted to hang up.

But after listening to the other party, Wang Shenggang no longer wanted to hang up.

Because this matter was too damn interesting!

Of course, it had nothing to do with beautiful women. After the Zeng Xiaolu incident, he felt as if he had lost interest in women.

And he was idle anyway!

At this moment, Zhou Yun continued on the phone: “It’s fine if you don’t agree, I’ll just call someone else. I’m hanging up now.”

Zhou Yun wasn't worried that Wang Shenggang would reveal the matter. As a Lawyer for so many years, he had that much discernment.

Wang Shenggang, as a reclusive web novel writer, had extremely simple social connections, making him perfectly suited for this kind of task.

As soon as he said this, Wang Shenggang on the other end became anxious.

“Lawyer Zhou, Brother Zhou, what… I’ll do it, I’m willing to do it. We start today, right? Are you coming to find me? Okay, I’ll wait for you!”

After hanging up, Wang Shenggang became excited. It was perfect, as he had no material for his novel.

Things imagined in the mind are certainly not as intuitive as firsthand experiences.

Leaving aside Zhou Yun and the other person going to register the company, on the other side, Cheng Jingshu returned home and began speaking in the rights protection group again.

“Manager Ma, you don’t need to tell me about your plans anymore. I just want to ask you, can you refund us today? If not, then I’m going to sue!”

“@Everyone, I just consulted a Lawyer today. If anyone is interested, we can sue together, and it might be cheaper.”

As Cheng Jingshu's words fell, others in the rights protection group also began sending messages.

“Sue? I’ll join too. Although it’s not much money, it just feels uncomfortable.”

“Count me in. By the way, how much is the Lawyer fee? Sigh, I’m just afraid of wasting money…”

Anyone who has experienced such large-scale rights protection basically knows that many times, more people don't necessarily mean better.

When there are too many people, some just hope others will cause trouble, and in the end, either it doesn't get resolved, or if it does, everyone benefits.

The most classic example is the rights protection for unfinished buildings.

There are thousands of owners of unfinished buildings, yet only a handful come out to protest. That's the situation.

At this time, someone must come forward to organize, including lawsuits. Many people don't want to find a Lawyer, they don't want the trouble.

But if someone arranges everything for them, and they only have to pay, then some people are willing.

So, after Cheng Jingshu spoke, many rights defenders responded.

In Jingnan City, inside a legal consulting company, Manager Ma, forty years old this year, looked at Cheng Jingshu's message in the WeChat group with disdain.

He was one of the professional business closers involved in this gym's closure, specifically the one dealing with consumers.

And their legal consulting company was actually a group of business closers!

Manager Ma, full name Ma Qihua, used to be a Lawyer, but later his license was revoked due to some issues.

His license was revoked, but life had to go on, so Ma Qihua began doing this kind of work in the gray area.

Because he was a professional, he was very good at dealing with consumers.

He just used various legal means to drag things out with the other party. Over time, the matter would simply fizzle out.

So, when he saw Cheng Jingshu threatening to sue, Ma Qihua wasn't worried at all.

The money in the company's account was long gone, and the legal representative had long been replaced by a professional debt bearer they found, so they could sue however they wanted.

But they still had to drag it out if they could.

So Ma Qihua replied in the group: “Look, don’t be so anxious. We are also trying to find a solution now. It’s really a broken capital chain, and borrowing money also takes time, right?”

“Even if you sue now, it’s useless.”

At home, Cheng Jingshu looked at these words and felt her liver ache with anger. Here it came again, the same old words.

“Alright, Manager Ma, useful or not, there’s no other way now. We can only sue. That’s how it is.”

Seeing that the other party had made up her mind, Ma Qihua immediately said: “Then you can sue all you want. I’ll say it here, even if you sue, there’s no money.”

After sending the message, Ma Qihua got up and went to the company boss's office.

“Mr. Liu, for the Impuls project, those people are going to sue.”

Hearing this, Mr. Liu, who was behind the desk, looked up. He was the core of this professional business closer team.

Previously, professional business closers all worked independently, but gradually, people like Mr. Liu began to integrate the entire industry's upstream and downstream, handling everything from receiving business to executing it themselves.

Of course, to avoid legal risks, their front-end team was a different company.

“How long has that project been dragging on, three months already?” Mr. Liu asked casually.

Ma Qihua thought for a moment and said, “It’s been about three months.”

“Hmm, that’s enough. Then, during the lawsuit period, you still need to be diligent and maintain a good attitude,” Mr. Liu instructed.

Ma Qihua nodded and smiled, “Mr. Liu, don’t worry, I have no problem.”

In terms of criminal risk, to be honest, they weren't very worried.

This is a legal gray area, what we usually call criminal-civil cross-over cases. It makes sense to call it criminal, and it also makes sense to call it civil.

However, the Ministry of Public Security has repeatedly issued orders prohibiting Public Security Bureau from intervening in economic disputes. Therefore, for such situations, the Public Security Bureau are particularly cautious and will not easily file a case.

Like what's said online about checking rent, seeing if they're about to move out but still holding events and collecting money, and if the rent is about to expire and they're still doing this, it's fraud…

You can try to see if a case will be filed. Let's just say, there's a ninety-nine percent chance it won't be filed.

The remaining one percent chance is if your family has connections.

Contract fraud refers to the crime committed when, with the purpose of illegal possession, one employs deceptive means such as fabricating facts or concealing the truth during the signing or performance of a contract, thereby defrauding the other party of a relatively large amount of property.

Remember, in highly condensed language like criminal law, there is no wasted word.

Therefore, to determine fraud, “with the purpose of illegal possession” and “fabricating facts” or “concealing the truth” are essential.

Although in current theories of crime determination, the four elements of crime are seemingly less discussed, with talk of two-tier or three-tier structures, ultimately, it still boils down to the same thing.

You said the rent wasn't paid, right? The company's capital chain has issues, so we thought we'd pay when it's due. Even if you're the police, you have to follow the law, right? Which law says I must pay rent in advance?

As for me holding events, it's precisely because my capital chain was about to break that I planned to hold events to operate well, but who would have thought it still wouldn't work, so I could only close down.

What do you do about this? The economic investigation departments of grassroots Public Security Bureaus are basically swamped.

So Manager Ma wasn't worried about anything; they do this kind of thing every day.

It's nothing more than actively showing a willingness to mediate once a lawsuit begins.

As a former lawyer, Manager Ma knew very well that once one party wants to mediate, they will definitely try their best to mediate.

Let's try pre-litigation mediation for two months, anyway, they only have one person on their side, with a good attitude, not fighting back or cursing back, not running away, but absolutely not solving the problem.

You can report those who run away, saying they might be committing fraud, but these people are always fully cooperative. How can you say they are committing fraud?

In fact, in the eyes of the Public Security Bureau, those who are always cooperative are considered good.

What is a profession? This is a profession. They earn this kind of money.

Time slowly passed, and Zhou Yun had already quietly opened a gym.

It was another morning when Zhou Yun arrived at Jingnan District Court, ready to file a lawsuit.

This time, he represented a total of 173 people, which was considered a class action.

Of course, our country does not have a class action system; what it has is a representative litigation system.

It's very simple: for group cases, to save judicial resources, one or several representatives will be selected to conduct the litigation proceedings.

The others will participate in the Court registration, and the outcome of the representative's trial will bind all those who participated in the registration.

Because there were many people, the fees for this group were charged at the lowest standard, which was two thousand yuan.

Any more and some people wouldn't be willing to sue, after all, the total loss was only four or five thousand, what would it be if I spent several thousand hiring a lawyer?

Even so, at the Jingnan District Court's case filing hall, the staff members still felt a bit numb when they saw the pile of materials Zhou Yun took out.

Because they had to review every registered person to see if they met the conditions for representative litigation.

“The gym closed down and didn’t refund the money, right? Okay, bring them all over,” the staff member said with a worried face.

These days, all problems are truly handed over to the Court; the most common phrase related departments say when encountering problems is: “It is recommended to resolve it through legal channels.”

The result is that people get tired of waiting in line to file lawsuits at the Court.

A case dragging on for a year is nothing.

Zhou Yun heard the words and casually asked, “Are there many cases of this type now?”

The staff member sighed, “Too many. Just in our Jingnan District, there have been multiple joint lawsuits in the past few months, including gyms running away, dance training institutions running away, and even children's interest classes.”

“Alas, you are also a lawyer, you should know this situation, it's hard to say what will happen after suing.”

Zhou Yun smiled upon hearing this and said, “But no matter what, they have to sue, otherwise these people will have no other options.”

It can be said that they were truly forced into a corner; if there was any other way to resolve it, they would not have come to the Court.

After the relevant materials were submitted and the staff registered them, they said, “We can't file the case yet; you can only wait at the pre-litigation mediation center first.”

Zhou Yun had no objection to this; although regulations stipulate that a case must be filed or a decision not to file must be issued within seven days, regulations are regulations, and reality is reality.

After the registration was almost complete, Zhou Yun said, “Mediation is mediation, but I still have a question. I need to issue an investigation order to check the Bank statements of this Sunshine Sports Company and the changes in its legal representative and major shareholders.”

The necessary evidence must be obtained.

About a day later, Zhou Yun received the investigation order and immediately began checking the Bank statements and the company's current operating status, and he quickly found a problem.

As expected, the operations of these people were no different from his previous life.

The simplest thing is that the current company named Sunshine Sports has zero employees!

The number of employees can, of course, be zero, meaning the entire company is essentially just the boss.

This is not a problem either; outsourcing, labor dispatch, etc., there are many ways.

But at this time, having zero employees is a bit problematic.

At least there's a problem now: what is the identity of the person named Manager Ma in Cheng Jingshu's rights protection group!

Zhou Yun naturally knew that the other party was a watchdog, but in a legal sense, you must have a legitimate reason to be involved in a matter.

Now that the company has no employees, he is very curious about what capacity the other party is representing Sunshine Sports for mediation.

In any case, the other party is certainly not the legal representative, because this legal representative's surname is Zhang.

This can also be considered setting a trap for the other party. There's nothing during mediation now, but once the case is truly filed, it will be interesting.

As for the Bank statements, there's nothing to say. It can be seen that in the last month, the gym did indeed hold a large promotional event, bringing in a lot of money.

However, these funds were quickly spent under various pretexts, involving dozens of accounts.

This is not something Zhou Yun can handle; he is just a lawyer, and this work requires professional auditors.

But it doesn't matter; he is now even more certain of the other party's identity!

Time quickly arrived at the morning of the third day, and Ma Qihua came to the Jingnan District Court; he was here for mediation today.

As expected, he would probably be scolded by those people for half a day today, but it didn't matter; earning money isn't shameful.

At the pre-litigation mediation center, not long after Ma Qihua sat down, someone pushed open the door.

It was Zhou Yun with a few of his clients, and Cheng Jingshu was among them.

Upon seeing Ma Qihua, Cheng Jingshu became a bit agitated, preparing to say something, but was quickly stopped by Zhou Yun.

Not long after, a man in his fifties walked in; he was the mediator for the case.

“Everyone is here, so let's begin!” The mediator said, “Who is Manager Ma? Oh, it's you. Come, tell us, how do you plan to handle this matter?”

Ma Qihua heard this and calmly said, “Mediator, and everyone, good morning. Actually, I suggested before that everyone not rush to sue, and we have always been actively resolving the issue.”

“Currently, we have provided several solutions. The first is to transfer these funds to other institutions.”

“For someone like Ms. Wang, you can transfer it to a beauty salon in our city, and the money you used to buy classes will also be transferred, exchanged for their services.”

“The second is installment payments…”

While the other party was speaking, Zhou Yun just watched quietly. On the surface, these people seemed very sincere.

But in reality, if you truly understood, you would know it was full of traps.

Take beauty, for example. Compared to fitness, the beauty industry is where the waters are deep; those charged services are terrifyingly expensive, one by one.

Moreover, beauty salons themselves need customers!

So, after the other party finished speaking, Zhou Yun immediately said, “That’s Manager Ma, right? I have something I want to ask you. Oh, by the way, I am their representative Lawyer Zhou Yun.”

Ma Qihua heard this and quickly smiled, “Lawyer Zhou, hello. Please ask whatever you want.”

Zhou Yun smiled, “First question, if my client transfers to a beauty salon, do they still need to pay extra fees?”

“By extra fees, I mean, do they need to buy some more services to successfully transfer their previous card?”

This is one of the tricks of the first plan. For example, if you have ten thousand yuan balance on your card, it's fine to transfer it, but you must top up another ten thousand yuan at that store to activate your ten thousand.

Sounds familiar, right? Isn't this the 'top up ten thousand, get ten thousand free' trick?

The closing party doesn't have to spend a single penny here to get rid of these people.

Upon hearing Zhou Yun’s words, Ma Qihua was stunned. No, what’s wrong with this person? How is he so familiar with these operations in their industry?

Seeing that the other party did not speak, Zhou Yun spoke again, “You see, if you can’t answer this, then I certainly have reason to doubt the others.”

“You guys have no sincerity at all, right?”

Ma Qihua's brain was working at high speed; Zhou Yun's words caught him off guard.

However, just at this moment, Zhou Yun spoke again, “Oh, by the way, Manager Ma, you are from this Sunshine Sports Company…”

Ma Qihua casually said, “I am the legal affairs of this company.”

Zhou Yun immediately smiled upon hearing this, “Oh, legal affairs, I understand. What do you want to say? Please continue.”