In the Yanjing Li Family, Li Chengyang was proudly telling his father about a great success he had just orchestrated, leaving Yang Yu utterly confused.
Li Ruihong listened to his son gushing about the accomplishnt without uttering a word until the son had finished speaking. Then, he casually asked, "And then what?"
"What do you an ’and then what’?" Li Chengyang said. "Isn’t making Yang Yu swallow such a bitter pill a huge victory?"
"Don’t you think you’re acting like a clown?" Li Ruihong said coldly. "First of all, Yang Yu’s traditional dicine planting project is far from stalling; at worst, it’s just an increase in costs. What’s so significant about that? There will always be opportunities to earn it back."
"Secondly, by engaging in this charade with Gu Kanghua, if the other party decides to make a big fuss about it, it will be our Li Family’s business reputation and good na that get destroyed."
"For such a trivial matter, you’ve nearly ruined the Li Family’s reputation, and yet you still think it’s a trendous victory?"
"That’s... surely not the case, right?" Li Chengyang felt a bit uneasy. "What could those simple farrs possibly accomplish? Would they dare sue us?"
"Underestimating farrs could lead to an ugly downfall," Li Ruihong said coldly. "Since ancient tis, those who accomplish great deeds have relied on farrs. Just wait and see. The farrs from those dozen or so villages will surely join forces to sue Gu Kanghua, and there will even be people offering to represent them in court for free."
"If you were smart, you should distance yourself from this matter as soon as possible, or else our Li Family will sooner or later be tainted."
Faced with his father’s stance, Li Chengyang could only comply, "Alright, Dad, I’ll imdiately make a clear-cut distinction from Gu Kanghua. This matter... It was all him using my reputation to act unilaterally..."
"However, Dad, don’t you think my strategy of draining the pond to catch the fish was quite clever?"
"A truly capable person usually keeps their cards close to their chest. Since you know about this, he must have a backup plan ready." Li Ruihong looked at his second son with disdain. "You’re not even close to your elder brother’s level, and if he can’t handle Yang Yu, you certainly stand no chance."
"If my elder brother is so capable, then why is he hiding in his room, refusing to et anyone?" Li Chengyang was unconvinced. "He must have been outplayed by Yang Yu again, haha... Huh? Gu Kanghua is calling right now."
Li Chengyang casually answered Gu Kanghua’s call. Before he could even speak, Gu Kanghua spilled a torrent of words, "Second Young Master, there’s trouble. That guy Yang Yu still had a card up his sleeve!"
Gu Kanghua recounted the situation with Tianhai City’s industrial park developnt zone, causing Li Chengyang’s face to twitch uncontrollably, "You trash, how could you not have investigated such an important matter beforehand!"
"How could I have known!" Gu Kanghua felt wronged. "This ti, the governnt dealt directly with Yang Yu to negotiate cooperation, skipping the entire bidding process. What could I have done?"
"Heh, since you’re out of ideas, and it was your plan to begin with, then you’re responsible for tying up loose ends," Li Chengyang sneered. "Those simple farrs might sue you, so whether you choose to pay them liquidated damages or rent to use the land, it’s up to you."
"Second Young Master, how can you do this to ?" Gu Kanghua panicked. "That’s tens of millions in liquidated damages! Kanghua Pharmaceutical is already out of money, I was working for you, shouldn’t you be the one to pay this amount?"
"If I paid the liquidated damages, wouldn’t that be admitting that I was the one behind this counterproductive move?" Li Chengyang scoffed. "Gu Kanghua, find a way to pay for your own stupidity!"
Having said this, Li Chengyang hung up the phone and imdiately blocked Gu Kanghua.
Looking again at his father’s mocking gaze made Li Chengyang extrely uncomfortable: "Dad, I know I was wrong."
"You think you are invincible just because you take advantage of the Li Family’s power to facilitate your actions. The mont you face an opponent that the Li Family’s influence cannot suppress, you’re at a loss," Li Ruihong said. "From today on, you and your brother don’t need to worry about Yang Yu anymore. Your grandfather and I will handle him as our opponent."
Just as Li Ruihong had predicted, that group of deceived farrs imdiately ca together and hired Tianhai’s number one lawyer, Ouyang Xue, to represent them.
Ouyang Xue agreed to take their case without an upfront fee, stipulating that she’d take a tenth of any compensation awarded.
Of course, if she lost the case, she would not take a penny.
For this reason alone, the farrs had every reason to enlist this prominent lawyer’s services.
After collecting sufficient evidence, this high-profile farmland leasing case began at Tianhai Municipal Court.
This was Yang Yu’s first ti watching Ouyang Xue in court, so he made a point of taking ti to go and observe.
Ouyang Xue stood in the courtroom, completely transford, with a confident deanor and sharp eyes.
The judge banged the gavel, and the trial officially began.
"Counsel for the plaintiff, you may begin," the judge said, prompting Ouyang Xue to lay out her client’s demands: "Honorable judge, Mr. Gu Kanghua, the Chairman of Kanghua Pharmaceutical, for whatever reason, used fraudulent ans to induce my clients into signing an extrely unfair and unreasonable tyrannical contract."
"We request that the court declares the contract null and void and orders Gu Kanghua to compensate the liquidated damages, lost wages, and ntal anguish—a total of one hundred million Xia Dollars."
After Ouyang Xue finished, the defense attorney began their statent: "Honorable judge, we live in a society governed by laws, an era of contracts. If a contract was willingly signed, one should not renounce it later. Everything should proceed according to the contract. If people go to court over every contract they regret signing, wouldn’t that be chaotic?"
The judge looked stern: "Now, please proceed to the next stage of the trial, lawyers of both parties."
"Yes, Your Honor," Ouyang Xue said as she displayed the contract clause about the lease term on the courtroom’s large screen. "Your Honor, the dispute is actually over just one point. The rest of the clauses are standard; the most abnormal is this one."
"Not to ntion well-educated people who would instantly reject such a clause, even those with less education should be able to understand what’s going on here, right?"
"This clause is clearly tyrannical. If one or two villagers were to be duped, perhaps that’s understandable, but thousands? Do you think that’s possible?"
"If the defendant hadn’t used irregular thods to deceive the villagers into signing, just how foolish would these thousands of villagers have to be to agree to such tyrannical terms?"
"Your Honor, I object!" the defense attorney imdiately protested. "The opposing counsel is relying on speculation and the narratives of the plaintiffs, which is insufficient for legal evidence."
"Unless you have solid evidence showing my client used fraudulent ans, we reject all unfounded accusations!"
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