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Chapter 475: Chapter 475: Workers Riot
Tong Yao frowned, "Uncle Zhong, we signed a contract before, isn’t your way of acting a bit inappropriate?"
"What’s inappropriate about it? It’s only natural to pay one’s debts. Niece, if you don’t wire the final payment to my account before noon tomorrow, I won’t be able to stop the workers from causing trouble at your house," Zhong Tieshan determined before making the call that he must get his money back.
In his view, Tong Yaohui not answering the phone was clearly aimed at evading the payment.
He was obviously threatening her. Tong Yao turned cold, "Uncle Zhong, you are somewhat unscrupulous. We have agreed and signed a contract about the house payment beforehand. If I had the money now, I would have paid you the final amount. As I said, I will clear the remaining payment by the end of this month at the latest."
"I don’t want to talk too much with a little girl like you. Pass my message to your dad!" After finishing speaking, Zhong Tieshan hung up the phone.
Hearing the dial tone from the phone, Tong Yao furrowed her brows. She wasn’t sure whether Zhong Tieshan really didn’t have the money to pay the wages, but she indeed didn’t have enough money at her disposal.
She had collected some debts today. The money from four milk tea shops plus what she had on hand was just over three thousand yuan, which wasn’t enough to settle the final payment.
The second batch of loan has been submitted. If everything goes as planned, it should be disbursed by the end of the month, then she would be able to give Zhong Tieshan all the money.
Not wanting Tong Yaohui to worry, Tong Yao didn’t tell him about this. After all, even if she did, their family wouldn’t suddenly be able to scrape together that amount of money.
After this incident, Tong Yao, both tired and weary, had no appetite for food. She took some fruit from the fridge to fill her stomach and stayed alone at home, which seemed to be rather sad. She watched the news for a while and did not wait for Si Chen to call again. Tong Yao guessed that he probably wouldn’t call again today, so she washed up and went to bed.
When Tong Yao woke up, it was already late in the morning. She went to the living room and saw no calls from Si Chen or Zhong Tieshan. But she didn’t dare to let her guard down. She went to the suburbs to check and saw that the decorating workers were busy and no one was there to make trouble. She then returned home with a sigh of relief.
At noon, Tong Yao cooked some noodles to eat. Just after she began eating, her phone rang. It was the decorator’s foreman, sounding somewhat panicked.
"Miss Tong, you need to come and see this! Some people are causing trouble here, claiming that you owe them money for the house and haven’t settled it, and they won’t let us work."
Tong Yao’s face changed, she frowned and asked, "Are there many people?"
"There are more than ten," replied the foreman.
"Got it. You guys be careful and don’t argue with them. I’m on my way."
After hanging up the phone, Tong Yao immediately called the police before rushing out the door with her bicycle.
Right now it’s the rainy season, so the weather changes quickly. It was bright and sunny in the morning, but now it’s pouring outside. Tong Yao returned to the house to put on a raincoat, then braved the rain and hurried to the suburbs on her bicycle. The thunder overhead was a bit scary, but she had no time to take shelter from the rain.
With both Tong Yaohui and Si Chen absent, and with trouble at the suburban house, she, being the homeowner, had to rush over urgently.
Tong Yao kept pedaling her bicycle. Despite wearing a raincoat, by the time she reached the suburb, her clothes and shoes were inevitably wet. Tong Yao pushed her bicycle into the first floor, which was crowded with people. Decorators and trouble-makers were standing in two separate groups.
Seeing Tong Yao came alone, the decorating foreman immediately approached her and said anxiously, "Miss Tong, why did you come alone? They claimed that you haven’t finished paying for the house construction and wouldn’t allow us to work. They’re in large numbers, you decide what to do."
Frankly, the decorating foreman was rather worried. If Tong Yao hadn’t even paid for the house construction, could she afford the renovation? They were all trying to make a hard living, and he didn’t want to work diligently only to find the money couldn’t be collected.
Tong Yao sensed the foreman’s worry. She parked her bicycle, pulled down the brim of her raincoat and said, "The contract clearly stipulates that I will pay off the house construction fee by the mid of next month. Zhong promised and signed the contract. I told him clearly over the phone yesterday that if he really needs the money, I would pay the balance by the end of this month. Now he is instigating the workers to cause trouble, which constitutes a breach of contract and he should be held legally responsible."
Hearing this, the decorating foreman immediately felt relieved. He had been in the decorating business for quite some time and knew that it was really immoral for Zhong Tieshan to breach the contract before the due date and demand the money ahead of time.
He expressed his concern, "Miss Tong, these people are hard to deal with. You might not be able to handle them all on your own."
"Don’t worry, I’ve already called the police," Tong Yao replied.
Tong Yao glanced around the crowd and did not see Zhong Tieshan. She sneered internally; Zhong Tieshan was indeed a cunning man, instigating his workers to make trouble while he himself stays out of it.
"Why are you the only one here? Where is your father?" A man in the crowd, with a menacing look on his face, questioned Tong Yao.
"I am the homeowner. If you have any issues, you can find me, it has nothing to do with my father," Tong Yao replied crisply.
On hearing her words, the man’s voice became even colder. He asked fiercely, "So when do you plan to clear the remaining amount?"
Tong Yao was not a timid girl, and she was not going to be easily scared by these people. Without fear, she said, "I will pay according to the timeline of the contract. Before the contract expires, no one has the right to demand payment. Also, this is a matter between Zhong Tieshan and me. You guys are his workers, if you want your wages, you should look for him, this is his responsibility, not mine."
"If you don’t make the payment, how is he supposed to pay us?" the man retorted angrily. "It’s all because of people like you who don’t pay promptly for the projects, leading to us not getting our wages. I’m telling you, if you don’t settle the payment, no work is to be done here."
The rest began to chime in. They didn’t understand the law, or anything about the contract. The only thing they believed in was that once the house was built, Tong Yao should pay them in full.
Tong Yao frowned, "I don’t know what Zhong Tieshan has told you, but let me be clear, I have not delayed the house construction payment. When the time comes, I will pay him every single penny without fail. I advise you to leave once the rain stops! It’s no use causing a scene here. I’ve already called the cops. If you insist on continuing, we’ll wait for the police to handle this."
Who knew that these people would become even more agitated on hearing that Tong Yao had called the police.
"You think you can scare us with the police? Paying back what you owe is fundamental and just. We only want our wages, we haven’t committed any crime. Even if the police come, they can’t do anything to us."
Tong Yao responded coldly, "Your actions now are already against the law. You are not my employees, I don’t owe you wages. The house payment is a matter between Zhong Tieshan and me, it doesn’t concern you. Whoever you work for, you should ask them for your wages." 𝔫𝖔𝔳𝖕𝖚𝔟.𝔠𝔬𝖒
