61: A performance-style resumption of work, who doesn’t know it?

After hanging up the phone, Mi Jingming's face was very unpleasant, and he cursed under his breath, "How the hell am I supposed to solve this kind of problem? Solve my ass!"

"It's not like I wanted that building to be an unfinished project, and you can't blame me if the company was poorly managed. Solve my ass!"

What could he do? The company's accounts were empty, and he was deep in debt, still owing a pile of engineering fees. His assets had been frozen countless times.

A man beside Mi Jingming spoke, "President Mi, then why did you still let President Meng go investigate? Didn't you say it couldn't be solved?"

Mi Jingming shook his head and said, "Even if it can't be solved, we still need to show an attitude..."

"I estimate those people probably still want money. If it really doesn't work out, then let Lao Wu step forward and talk to them. As long as they withdraw the lawsuit first, that's fine."

Another two days passed. In the unfinished building, Grandpa Li was chatting with someone.

Perhaps Lawyer Zhou's words had an effect, or perhaps Zhou Yun himself had an effect. In any case, no one had come to drive them away since that day.

He had lived here longer than Wen Yuhe. The Public Security Bureau was one thing, but people from the street and other departments had also come, only to be cursed away by him.

Beside Grandpa Li, a woman said with a bitter face, "Sigh, I don't know if the lawyer we entrusted before is useful. It's been so many days, and there's no news at all."

The woman's name was Feng Mizhen, also a resident of the unfinished building.

Grandpa Li smiled and said, "There's no use in us being anxious about this kind of thing. I think Lawyer Zhou is a good person. We just need to wait patiently."

Feng Mizhen sighed again, "But how long do we have to wait? They don't tell us anything..."

While they were chatting, Grandpa Li's phone rang.

"Hello, who is it? The developer? What? You want to meet with us? This... alright, I'll tell the others."

Feng Mizhen, who was nearby, quickly asked after hearing the word 'developer', "What's wrong, Grandpa Li? The developer called? What did they say?"

"They said to have a few of us go to a place tomorrow morning to meet and talk!"

Feng Mizhen was stunned, "The developer actually took the initiative to meet us? Didn't they all run away? What's going on? We couldn't even see them when we sued before."

Grandpa Li thought for a moment and said, "I think it must be that Lawyer Zhou's efforts have paid off. Let's wait a bit. I'll ask Lawyer Zhou."

Soon, the call connected, and Grandpa Li explained the situation.

Zhou Yun, on the other end of the phone, immediately smiled when he heard this, "The developer is looking for you so quickly, huh? Okay, talk to them tomorrow. Give me the address, and I'll go over."

"It's fine if you want to participate, but we've agreed that all decisions will be made by me, no problem, right?"

Grandpa Li quickly nodded and said, "No problem, Lawyer Zhou, we'll all listen to you. You really have a way. We couldn't even meet this developer before!"

It could be said that it had been over two years, and this was the first time they had received a call from the developer.

Before, they had sued and done all sorts of things, bothering for a long time and spending a lot of money, but they couldn't even see the developer.

This time, regardless of anything else, at least they could see someone!

Time came to the next morning. Downstairs of an office building, Zhou Yun and a group of people had already arrived at the entrance.

"It's here, right? I don't see any sign."

"This broken company definitely doesn't dare to put up a sign. Why don't these people just go die."

"Stop talking, just let Lawyer Zhou speak later..."

Seven households, a total of more than a dozen people, were talking at once, making it a bit noisy.

Zhou Yun smiled and said, "Alright, everyone, please be quiet. The notice said it's on the fifth floor, room 505, right? Let's go up now and hear what they have to say."

Everyone nodded in unison. If some people didn't believe Zhou Yun at first, now they were basically convinced.

After all, he could now get the developer to actively contact them for a meeting!

What was the biggest problem with their rights protection before? It was that they didn't know where to cause trouble, they couldn't even see a shadow of the developer's people.

At least now they could see them!

Everyone went upstairs and found 505. Soon, a young girl came forward and smiled, "Are you the owners? Please go into the conference room first. Our President Meng will be here shortly."

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately became annoyed.

Wen Yuhe glared and said, "Didn't you notify us to come? Now that we're all here, it's 'shortly', still dragging it out."

The young girl quickly said, "I'm not too sure about this either. President Meng just said so. You should still go into the conference room and wait..."

Zhou Yun spoke, "Since we're already here, everyone, let's wait. Today is just to see what this developer really wants to say."

Since Zhou Yun had spoken, everyone naturally listened and followed him into the conference room.

After waiting for about twenty minutes, someone finally came in.

"Lawyer Zhou, that, that person's last name is Meng. I saw him when I bought the house before; he was the company's vice president back then," Wen Yuhe whispered to Zhou Yun.

"I don't recognize the other two; I haven't seen them before."

Zhou Yun nodded, watching quietly.

The person leading the way was Meng Guoliang, who was Lao Wu in Mi Jingming's words.

At this moment, he looked at everyone and smiled, "Sorry I'm late. Since everyone is here, let's talk."

"My name is Meng Guoliang, and I am now the chairman of the company. I know everyone is very dissatisfied with the company, but the company also didn't want the project to be unfinished, you know."

"If we could have handed over the properties, we definitely would have wanted to. Why did construction stop before? It was because we ran out of money; the company's capital chain broke."

"You've also sued before, you all know. The company really has no money now, and enforcement is impossible. Besides your liquidated damages, the company still owes a pile of money."

"No way, there really is no way..."

Originally, everyone came today not intending to argue, but after hearing Meng Guoliang's words, they really couldn't hold back.

"So only you are in difficulty, right? We've been forced to live in an unfinished building, aren't we in difficulty?" an owner couldn't help but shout.

"Look, let's not get emotional, right? We're here to solve problems!" Meng Guoliang spread his hands and said, "The company is also trying to save itself, trying every possible way to secure financing."

"Now there's already a bit of a breakthrough. I don't know if everyone has noticed, but construction has slowly started again. If all goes well, we can hand over the properties by June next year."

"What I'm saying now is to tell everyone to withdraw the previous lawsuits, because we definitely can't offend the Bank and the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau when we're getting financing, you know. If you sue, all our efforts for so long will be in vain."

This was the method Meng Guoliang came up with after research: to divide the crowd.

Sure enough, after hearing Meng Guoliang's words, some of the owners began to waver.

An owner took out his phone and made a video call to his family at the unfinished building to ask about the situation. His family quickly said, "It's true, I saw workers starting to work today."

"See? I didn't lie to everyone. It's useless for you to sue the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau and the Bank. Can they compensate you? I tell you, there's no such precedent nationwide."

"You hire lawyers, I tell you, there's a high probability you're being scammed out of your lawyer fees..."

Someone had already started to be swayed, but when that last sentence came out, the taste immediately changed.

"Scamming lawyer fees? I'll tell you, Lawyer Zhou didn't charge us any money at all. It's... it's a contingency fee. He only collects money if he wins the lawsuit!"

What? Meng Guoliang, who had just been speaking eloquently, was immediately stunned. He subconsciously blurted out, "Is he sick?"

The hell, that lawyer didn't charge money?

No, this is an unfinished building! He only charges money if he wins the lawsuit? What was this person thinking!

Just then, Zhou Yun finally spoke, "President Meng, right? You said construction has resumed, right? It's not a performance-based resumption of work, is it?"

Hearing this, Meng Guoliang's expression changed slightly.

Zhou Yun continued, "Everyone might not know, but this is a common tactic many developers use when facing rights protection: performance-based resumption of work."

"Hire a couple of workers to casually mess around, and that's 'resumption of work'. Once the lawsuit is withdrawn, everything goes back to how it was."

"Isn't that right, President Meng?"

Meng Guoliang gritted his teeth and said, "Who are you?"

Zhou Yun chuckled, "I am that crazy lawyer you were just talking about."

"Let's not talk about that. President Meng, you just said you are the chairman of the company, so you are also the legal representative, right? What about the previous boss? Did he give you all the shares?"