Read Novel Full Chapter 55 : Those Six Words
Chapter 55 : Those Six Words
The papers arrived in two document envelopes.
At nine on the morning of April 29, Wen Jin came upstairs at Zhengping Firm. She was in her early forties, her hair tucked neatly behind her ears. As soon as she came in, she pulled a sheaf of papers from each of the two envelopes, tapped them square against the edge of the desk, and pushed them over.
"The Enforcement Settlement Agreement, two pages. The confirmation letter—one page each, twenty copies." She drew her hands back and rested them on her knees. "Attorney Shen, the papers are here."
He Xiufen moved the teacup off the glass desktop and sat to Shen Zhixia's right, graph paper spread across her lap.
Shen Zhixia looked first at the stack of confirmation letters. Twenty sheets, identical, with only the name and ID number fields left blank; everything else was printed. Three lines in the middle, one font size larger than the text around them.
"Read them."
"I do not have an employment relationship with Hurricane Express Distribution Co., Ltd. I will no longer make any claim against Hurricane Express regarding the determination of the employment relationship or any rights arising from it." After reading, Wen Jin added, "These three lines are the agreement's only condition."
Shen Zhixia squared the twenty sheets and pushed them back.
"How much."
"Thirty-nine thousand eight hundred," Wen Jin said. "The judgment was thirty-six thousand four hundred six. The other three thousand three hundred ninety-four, the delayed interest and the enforcement fee, we'll cover as well. First payment of twenty thousand on May 6, the remaining nineteen thousand eight hundred by May 31. All into the court's account, not your firm's."
"I'm changing four places in the agreement."
Wen Jin smiled, briefly. "The price is already full."
"The full amount is what's written in the judgment; the extra three thousand three hundred ninety-four is also written in the judgment." Shen Zhixia uncapped her pen. "Those three lines on these twenty sheets are not written in the judgment."
First: strike the confirmation letters. Not one gets signed.
Second: strike "will no longer pursue any rights" and change it to: the sums already determined in this case shall be settled in one lump sum, and the two parties shall make no further claims against each other regarding the enforcement dispute in this case. Scope limited to this case.
Third: add a sentence: This agreement only resolves the enforcement dispute in this case. The nature of the working relationship between Hurricane Express and the twenty applicants shall be as determined by the effective judgment. This agreement does not constitute an admission to the contrary and does not affect other cases.
Fourth: strike "after signing the agreement, the applicants apply for case closure" and change it to: within five days after the payment is fully performed, the applicants shall apply to the court for case closure. For each day overdue, the applicants have the right to apply for resumption of enforcement of the original effective judgment.
She set down the pen and turned the two pages around.
Wen Jin read from beginning to end, slowly. When she finished, she pushed the pages back to the middle of the desk, and the smile was gone.
"Points two, three, and four, I'll take back for instructions," she said. "The first I can answer right now: if the confirmation letters aren't signed, the price goes back to eighty percent."
"Then while you're at it, ask about the three thousand three hundred ninety-four too," Shen Zhixia said. "You're paying the full amount, but what you're buying is those six words. I'll take the money. I won't sell the words."
Wen Jin picked up her phone and went out. The window by the stairwell was open; the smell of scallion oil from the back kitchen drifted up in waves. Four minutes later she came back, sat down, and placed her phone face down on the corner of the desk.
"The company can give a little," she said. "No confirmation letters."
Shen Zhixia didn't respond.
"But one sentence has to be written into the agreement," Wen Jin said. "This agreement makes no assessment of the nature of the working relationship."
"That sentence I definitely can't write," Shen Zhixia said. "The judgment already made that assessment. If you write 'no assessment,' you're saving it for the next case. The day someone falls or gets hurt and needs a work-injury claim to establish an employment relationship, you'll pull out this paper—didn't they themselves say, no assessment."
Wen Jin looked at her for two seconds.
"Then what do you want."
"The money, and one sentence that's already written on paper," she said. "What you want is the two words 'case closed.'"
"Hurricane Express pays, you close the case. This case has run from last August until today," Wen Jin said. "Twenty people's numbers, the bills from fifty-some shops on one street, all piled onto a single merchant ID. The whole city is watching that ID. We just want to close this thing here."
[Thud. The person in a hurry to close the case hasn't closed the ledger in their heart.]
He Xiufen set pen to the graph paper, the nib never stopping. Shen Zhixia glimpsed two words she'd written at the edge of the page: case closed.
"Director Wen," He Xiufen said at last, "you can't take this merchant ID back."
Wen Jin did not answer that.
"One more small thing." Shen Zhixia tapped the corner of the paper with her pen. "When these two payments come in, what should the memo field say."
"How do you want it written."
"Write 'enforcement funds,' and specify which case they're for," she said. "It can't say 'humanitarian subsidy,' and it can't say 'one-time assistance.'"
Wen Jin understood. "As written. This is money we owe."
She took a pen from her bag, signed the end of each of the two agreement copies, then put the twenty confirmation letters back into the envelope and tied it shut.
"Point four is changed as you wrote it," she said. "I've signed. When do you sign?"
"Tomorrow morning."
"The papers are already signed, and you still need to ask your clients?"
"Precisely because their names are on that list."
Wen Jin stood and paused at the door. "This time we drafted the papers ourselves. No outside attorneys."
After she left, He Xiufen drained her tea. "The two words 'case closed' are even more expensive than those six words."
"They're paying full price precisely for those two words," she went on. "Once the case closes, that two-page joinder ruling has to be pulled back. The merchant ID unfreezes, that card unfreezes, the case file gets archived. Whoever wants to keep digging has to start the paperwork all over again."
"It still has to close." Shen Zhixia turned her hardcover notebook to the April 28 page. "Hurricane Express's payment closes Hurricane Express's matter. That merchant ID was opened by Hengtong, and the passbook is under Wang Deshan's name. Before the case closes, someone has to catch it."
She pulled up her contacts and dialed a number. In that old Hengtong case—the 113,000 one—the applicant was a man surnamed Zhou; enforcement had been terminated last year. After hearing her out on the other end of the phone, he asked three things: whether the money was still there; whether he could apply for a freeze himself; and when he should go.
"Still there. You can. Within this month, the sooner the better," she said. "The day I file the case closure application, I'll call you the day before."
After she hung up, He Xiufen tapped the graph paper with the end of her pen. "Give the lead to someone else, and you've got a hole in your hand."
"Better a hole than having it archived with the case file."
At three that afternoon, the two pages of the agreement lay spread on the metal table downstairs. Deng Wei stood by the table, helmet still on, reading. When he reached "the two parties shall make no further claims against each other regarding the enforcement dispute in this case," he stopped.
"What's the difference between this sentence and the other one?"
"The second half," she said. "They originally wanted to write 'will no longer pursue any rights.' With that phrase in there, the day you fall or get hurt or need social insurance, they can pull out this paper."
"Then we just don't sign, and that's that." Ma Jianjun came over from the back kitchen door, wiping his hands on his apron.
"If you don't sign, the price goes back to eighty percent, over six thousand less." She laid out the numbers. "Sign, and the money's bigger and the paper holds. You choose."
Deng Wei sent a voice message to the group. Over the next seven minutes, voice messages pushed up one after another.
"Don't sign." Xiao Duan replied first.
"Don't sign."
"That's over six thousand less." That was Lao Chang.
"The account under my wife's name is still frozen." That was Xu Li. "Sign or not, that account still has to wait."
Half a minute later, Lao Chang deleted that message and resent two words: "Don't sign."
Ma Jianjun took the phone and said into it: "That thing you wouldn't sign back then is what got you signed out of Hengzheng."
"That time it was my business alone," she said.
"This time it's the twenty of us."
The red dot on the phone screen spun twice and stopped. A screenshot: Deng Wei had typed "Don't sign" in the group, and twenty names followed beneath it, not one missing.
She put the agreement back into the envelope. "First payment May 6, second before May 31, both into the court's account."
"If it's in the court's account, I'll accept it," Ma Jianjun said. "It isn't done until it lands on my card."
That evening her phone buzzed.
"Wen Jin brought papers to your place today."
"Signed. The confirmation letters went back."
A few minutes later another came: "That line in the agreement saying 'apply for case closure upon full performance' was your change."
"I changed it."
"Then their next line will be: withdraw the application first, and the money will still be paid."
She looked at the line and replied: "If I withdraw the application, the money just sits in the court's account."
The other side replied: "As long as you know."
He Xiufen draped a rag over the back of the chair. Hearing her tapping at her phone, she didn't look up. "He's handing it to you line by line."
"He didn't say anything he shouldn't."
"Do you believe that yourself?"
At eleven that night, Luo Cheng sent a separate message: "Attorney Shen, the money won't reach my card until June?"
"The second payment is all here by May 31. Getting it paid out still has to go through the procedure."
"That installment on the 20th will take 720."
"It should arrive before June 20. This month you still have to go to the cold storage."
"I'll go."
The next morning at nine, Wen Jin came and took away the copy with Shen Zhixia's signature.
On the morning of May 6, at Window No. 3 of the Enforcement Affairs Center, a stack of papers had appeared on Liao Hong's desk, the top one a deposit voucher.
"It's here." He slid the paper out.
Exactly twenty thousand yuan. Payer: Hurricane Express Distribution Co., Ltd. Date: May 6. In the memo field, the words: enforcement funds, with the case number written after.
"When does it get paid out."
"When it's all here."
She reached for the paper, and her hand stopped in midair.
Liao Hong opened the enforcement file to the page where the duplicate copy of the judgment was clipped. "This list at the end of your judgment has twenty rows, one name and one amount per row. The enforcement fee has to be taken out first. The distribution plan gets made once. Twenty receipt forms, signed once. If I pay half today and half next month, twenty people make two trips and sign twice. If somebody comes up a yuan short along the way, what are you going to settle with him later."
"How much is the enforcement fee."
"Four hundred forty-six."
"Then the remaining two thousand nine hundred forty-eight is delay interest." She ran the twenty amounts on the list through her head; down to the smallest row, there was twenty-some yuan left over.
"What if I insist on distributing it all this once."
"If you want it distributed, I'll file it," Liao Hong said. "I won't stop you."
She drew her hand back. At the desk's edge, the corners of the stack of blank notices were pressed perfectly even by a stapler.
"Wait for it all," she said.
"The second payment is due by May 31." Liao Hong wrote a line in the margin of the file. "Starting the day after it's overdue, you can apply to resume enforcement of the original judgment."
[Thud. Money in this building's account is still not money in hand.]
He pressed the cap onto his pen and remembered something else: "That joinder ruling for Wang Deshan and Wang Yuhai—the ten-day objection period runs until May 8."
"Got it," she said.
After leaving the west building, she stood on the steps and messaged Deng Wei: the twenty thousand has arrived, it's in the court's account; once the second payment is all in, it'll be paid out together.
The group went quiet for a few seconds. Ma Jianjun sent back two words: "Very good."
A second later, another: "In the account."
She folded the deposit voucher into thirds and tucked it into her hardcover notebook, right after the April 28 page. The last line on the page before still held those six words: an employment relationship existed.
The ledger held twenty names and twenty figures. Not a single payment reached a card today.