Chapter 149: Why am I going to jail when we were talking so nicely! (Seeking monthly votes)

In fact, when that short-video platform reached out to him last time, Zhou Yi had already made plans for himself.

He wasn't one of those little warriors; he saw the major platforms very clearly.

Bilibili might have been good in the past, but so what? Once they prepare for commercialization, you can find all the problems of any commercialized platform.

The Uncle has always been a businessman, after all.

So, regarding short videos, Zhou Yi was also thinking about how to make a show.

It's just that it didn't work out later, but that didn't matter.

Finding a platform that can post short videos is still very simple.

And similar to the current situation, Zhou Yi suddenly felt that it seemed possible to make a short video to test the waters.

Should the name be the "Give the Boss a Lesson" series?

Suddenly it felt so tacky, as if something bad had happened before; better change the name.

But he would think about that when he got back; first, he had to film the video.

The three of them headed straight for the entrance of the gym, pushed open the door, and someone immediately came up to greet them.

"Hey, welcome! Are the three of you planning to..."

"Uh, no, no, no, just me. I'm planning to work out," Zhou Yi said, stepping forward upon hearing this.

"Oh, you? Alright, would you like to take a look around first?"

The young man wasn't surprised; bringing friends to the gym was a small matter.

"Hmm, I'll take a quick look."

Although it was said to be about taking a class or not, the main thing was that Zhou Yi wanted to find a reliable gym.

Fang Dazhuang and Zhou Xinran just followed behind, looking around casually.

Perhaps because Miss Zhou was quite attractive, many fake fitness enthusiasts in the gym cast their gazes over.

What? Why don't the real fitness buffs look?

Who looks at girls when they're really working out? They're all looking at those big muscle-heads, alright? They're comparing arm circumference, comparing abs, and measuring chest muscles.

And the attention from these gazes also made Miss Zhou suddenly feel, oh right, I'm still a girl.

After looking around, Zhou Yi felt that the environment here seemed slightly worse than the previous place.

The air conditioning was on, so the windows were all closed, and the smell was a bit overwhelming.

"How is it, sir? Come, come, sit over here."

"Have you worked out before? Are you planning to build muscle or lose fat this time? How long do you plan to train? We have many Traffic Packages here, all very rich..."

"Our coaches here are also very professional..."

The young man had already started introducing them without pause.

Zhou Yi waved his hand and said, "Wait a moment. I have a main question right now: if I sign up for a card and then decide I don't want to train anymore and want a refund, how do you handle that?"

Huh? The young man, who had been talking incessantly, was like someone whose spell had been interrupted; he was stunned for a moment.

But he quickly reacted and said, "We definitely give refunds. You can rest assured about that; we have regulations here..."

Yet, he was a bit surprised inside: what's wrong with this person? He just walked in and started considering the refund issue.

That's right, no one would say they are illegitimate.

Except for some special places, because people don't go to the legitimate ones.

"But how do you refund it? I was at another gym before, and getting a refund meant paying a service fee, going through an approval process, and usually, the approval would never pass. So I have to see how it is here."

Zhou Yi said this very naturally.

This was also normal; I was scammed elsewhere, so it's normal for me to ask about relevant matters as soon as I get here.

"This... sir, I'm not very clear about the specific details regarding these situations, but if you decide to sign up, I can call our Manager over to explain it to you."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yi shook his head and said, "Young man, look, I don't know anything yet, so how could I decide to sign up? I have to understand everything before I can decide whether to sign up or not."

Many salespeople nowadays have this bad habit; they always say, "If you decide to sign up or buy, we will do this or that."

This is reversing the logic. It's not that I can only understand things once I decide to sign up; it's that I must understand things clearly before I can decide.

"And I think let's be straightforward. You have some kind of contract or membership agreement, right? I'll just take a look at that."

Look at the contract?

The young man felt again that after many years of doing street promotion, he was quite knowledgeable and had a very accurate grasp of many customers' psychology.

But he really didn't expect there to be such a magical customer!

Arriving at a gym and not looking at anything else, but only wanting to see the contract!

Isn't this something everyone should just sign casually?

"Please wait a moment, I'll go find a blank agreement for you to look at."

The young man didn't take long to return with an agreement, and of course, quite naturally, there was a man beside him.

"Sir, this is our Manager."

"Sir, you want to look at our agreement, right? No problem, feel free to look. These are Standard Contracts; all our stores use the same ones. Actually, there's nothing much to see."

The Manager sat down, using the same words as the previous shop.

Hardened, hardened; Zhou Yi felt a spark the moment he heard the other party was the Manager.

The Manager handed over the contract and smiled, saying, "This was drafted by our professional Lawyer. Usually, not many people read it when they sign, and most people don't understand these clauses anyway."

Hearing this, Zhou Yi nodded directly and said, "What you say is indeed very true. As for contracts, we ordinary people really don't understand them."

Hearing this, the smile on the Manager's face grew even wider, and he was just about to say something.

He saw the young man hand the contract in his hand directly to the slightly balding middle-aged man beside him.

"It's fine, Manager. I brought a Lawyer with me; I'll just let my Lawyer help me look at it."

Manager: Shocked. jpg!

At this moment, he even felt a bit suspicious that he was at some kind of high-end, impressive signing scene.

To be reasonable, in all his years, having signed so many contracts, he had never actually seen anyone bring a Lawyer when signing a contract!

Who wears a helmet while fishing!

Do you think this is the United States?

Seeing the Manager and the young man in front of him both seemingly petrified, it appeared as if they couldn't believe it.

Zhou Yi said again, "It's legitimate; this person is one too, both are legitimate Lawyers, they both have licenses."

Fang Dazhuang, who had been reading the contract, had already taken out his credentials and placed them on the table, while Zhou Xinran hurriedly took her credentials out of her bag as well.

Fortunately, they had brought their credentials when they went out this time; fortunately, they were prepared.

This time, the two of them were truly petrified.

A look of extreme complexity appeared on the Manager's face, as if he were feeling what one feels after seeing someone do something extremely insane.

He actually brought two Lawyers!

I'm just having someone sign a gym agreement, just a simple agreement, and you actually brought two Lawyers...

This is bullying; you are purely bullying people!

"So, you two, don't worry, my two Lawyers here are very professional. Once they finish reading, we can talk."

The Manager and the other man finally recovered from that shock; at this moment, the way they looked at Zhou Yi was like looking at a fool.

Although they didn't know how much it cost to hire a Lawyer, they also knew that their gym, even with annual membership fees, didn't cost much...

You went and hired two Lawyers to look at such a contract; it felt like killing a thousand enemies while suffering ten thousand losses yourself.

Bizarre!

This was the only thought in both their minds right now.

Fang Dazhuang looked at the contract very casually; to be honest, in his eyes, this contract was truly trash.

Because anyone who paid even the slightest bit of attention could see that there were major problems within this contract.

Most simply, regarding the refunds, there was a huge problem!

If he were to draft this type of contract, he could create one that was completely incomprehensible to people.

It wouldn't necessarily be thick or long, but it would make you feel like you recognized every single character, yet when put together, you wouldn't know what it meant.

No skill, absolutely no skill; they didn't even know how to scam people properly.

"Regarding this contract, I think there are problems in the following five areas. The first area is that you guys..."

Fang Dazhuang finally spoke, and the very first sentence he said gave the Manager a bit of a heart attack.

Such a contract, you haven't even looked at it for more than three minutes, and you can actually find five problems?

This made him suspect: were all the people who signed contracts before this idiots?

But after hearing that first point, the Manager didn't dare to speak much, because now even he felt that this contract really did have that kind of problem...

It wasn't even on the same level; a basic attack was directly a critical hit plus crushing damage, completely impossible to withstand.

"Wait a moment, please; I'll go call our Store Manager over."

The Store Manager arrived, full of confidence.

Then the Store Manager collapsed.

Fang Dazhuang over there had already started chattering incessantly.

"What is wrong with you people? Look here, look for yourself; do you think such a clause is reasonable? This is completely illegal!"

"The money in a prepaid card is money deposited in advance by the consumer into the other party's account to fulfill a multi-contractual obligation. So what, you don't want to train anymore, and it's completely non-refundable? Do you know what this nature of yours is called?"

By the end, even Zhou Yi was a bit confused listening to it; anyway, according to Fang Dazhuang's explanation, this contract was simply worthless.

"And here, buy two years get one free, buy three years get two free? How long has your gym been open, and you dare to sell five-year cards? Will you definitely still be open by then? If you close, who is responsible?"

"Can a contract just be made like this? I'm telling you, if the consequences are serious, you might be suspected of Contract Fraud, you know!"

"You'll end up going to jail!"

The Manager and the young man, who had also been a bit confused, were jolted awake by this and instantly sobered up.

They might not understand those professional, convoluted Legal Language terms, but they understood the word "jail" very well.

No, why, for no reason, did it suddenly turn to talking about jail?

"Sir, and this person, this Lawyer, this contract of ours was provided by our Company. Look, if you don't intend to sign, that's fine, why are we talking about going to jail now..."

The Store Manager felt it was very intense now; on one hand, he felt it was inexplicable, and on the other, he felt that what the other party said seemed to have a little bit of logic.

Zhou Xinran was secretly laughing on the side; Fang Dazhuang's words right now were definitely alarmist and couldn't be scrutinized. If you scrutinized them, you would find that he was just trying to scare you.

But it had to be said, for a gym that hadn't been open long to dare to issue three-year or five-year cards, that was indeed not very good.

Although calculating the annual fee that way was indeed cheap, if everyone did that, what would it mean?

Three years, five years; that was not a short time. If there were no new customers, what would this gym do?

Fang Dazhuang continued; he felt very refreshed now. Indeed, his words were not as rigorous as before, but this wasn't a courtroom, nor was he meeting a client.

The main thing was that this contract did indeed have many problems, and if one wasn't careful, one would fall into a trap.

Finally, the Store Manager, who had climbed back up, couldn't take it anymore.

"Alright, sir, I beg you, please don't sign up for a card here anymore, really, it's just a contract..."

Hearing this, Fang Dazhuang's expression turned serious: "You are the Store Manager, right? This thing is not just a contract; this is a guarantee, this is a guarantee for your customers!"

The Store Manager didn't want to speak anymore; who was this in front of him? This was clearly a plague god.

"You few should hurry up and leave; we can't host you here, I beg you..."

Fine, they couldn't stay at this place, so the three of them got up and soon went downstairs to the gym across the street.

This was also the reason Zhou Yi felt these gyms couldn't stay open; they were too dense. Did they not do market research before opening?

Or... do you have other plans?

They quickly arrived at this gym, and half an hour later...

"The three of you, I really don't know about the issues with this contract, please don't ask me anymore. I'm just an employee. How about, how about you three go try that place across the street?" the store manager said there with a pleading look.

"Oh, we just came from that place across the street."

Store manager: "..." What on earth are these three people doing!

After roasting the contracts of two places in a row, Fang Dazhuang felt refreshed; it was just so comfortable.

However, he also had to take a break. Roasting people with that machine-gun-like speed of speech while maintaining a high frequency of thought was very energy-consuming.

Soon, the three of them arrived at Lao Difang Cafe, and Fang Dazhuang began adding his usual toppings.

Zhou Xinran then began to discuss the issue of the other party's video with Zhou Yi.

"Are you planning to make short videos?"

Zhou Yi looked at the other party with some surprise, but still nodded and said: "Yes, but I don't plan to release them directly for the time being."

"Oh, the Stick Figure Animation type of format, right?" the rookie Zhou said familiarly.

Now it was Zhou Yi's turn to be suspicious: "How did you know my video had that kind of format? I don't remember telling you."

"Ah, before... I accidentally saw it before, so I remembered it."

How can there be an "accidentally" for this kind of thing!

In the cafe, the three of them chatted casually, but Zhou Yi felt that his idea was good and he could start another series.

Short videos, presented in the form of Stick Figure Animation, targeting industries like gyms to pick apart contracts, could also be considered a type of legal education video.

Nowadays, much of the content in short videos, those shops and such, store visits—actually, many are just acted out.

After all, how should I put it? If you film a store visit without the other party's consent and post it, that is actually wrong.

No matter how fair and impartial you are, doing this is wrong.

However, if you let others know you are filming, many bosses are unwilling. It's fine if you say good things, but what if you say bad things about me?

It's just a pity that in the face of such situations, bosses can only choose to keep the peace to make money. The internet is like a magnifying glass, revealing many magical things.

Zhou Yi is different. Since he is a person who takes things seriously, he cannot do such things. Stick Figure Animation is quite good; creating based on real situations and also being able to provide legal education—how great.

In the future, it can be made into a series, the Gym Series!

In the long videos, he would cover the bizarre things he encountered and the subsequent Legal Aid.

For short videos, he could do this type. Perfect!

Once this line of thinking diverged, he felt that there were many pitfalls in this world; every trade and profession had countless pitfalls.

Unlike those industry insiders who dryly tell you there are a few pitfalls here and there, he believed this type of short video would be more easily accepted by people.

The content materials for the two gyms had already been packed and sent to the Company, and the next step was to wait for the Company's creation, and then he would do the voice-over.

Immediately, Zhou Yi told Fang Dazhuang about his thoughts, and of course, this required Fang Dazhuang's cooperation.

Hearing this, Fang Dazhuang hesitated a bit and said: "Actually, I personally quite like this kind of thing, but... I can't push aside my main job."

After a pause, Fang Dazhuang added: "You need to file lawsuits from time to time; if I get too busy to attend to it, there will be no way."

"However, I suggest you can look for Xinran. Her theoretical knowledge is quite solid; it's just that she doesn't have enough experience right now."

Huh? Me?

Zhou Xinran looked surprised. I am a woman who wants to become a great Lawyer; filming videos, this doesn't seem right...

…………

Zhou Yi had already begun his new plan, and at this moment, far away in Lincheng, Zhou's father and mother looked at the person in front of them but could not show a smile.

"What? Wang Daye, they are planning to start construction directly? But, but the issues I mentioned last time, haven't they all not been resolved yet?"

Zhou's mother was very strange now. She had listened to Zhou Yi, so at the last meeting between the Property Management and the Community Office regarding the installation of the Elevator, she had brought up these issues.

At that time, the neighbors upstairs didn't say anything, just saying they would study it. As a result, they are going to fix it now?

"I don't know about this either. I heard it from someone when I came back. They said the child of that old lady on the sixth floor insisted on it, and now everything is ready."

"As for the money, it's not certain, but I heard from Secretary Feng of the Community Office that we on the first and second floors shouldn't need to pay."

"I saw that your little Zhou had a lot of ideas last time. Why don't you ask him?"

Another day where I only completed the minimum requirement and didn't make up for the missed updates... I can't read the comments anymore. Once I read everyone's comments and ponder them, I feel like I won't know how to write. Thanks to the big brothers Feimaowuyu, Qianshan, Hali Baobei, and Changgong Sanshi for the tips, thank you.

(End of chapter)