Chapter 320: Why on earth is this happening all of a sudden?

Zhou Yi seemed to be talking to himself, but his self-talk was like shouting right in your ear; it would be hard not to hear it.

So everyone turned their heads in unison to look at the elevator, but they just looked at each other, all knowing that the elevator would certainly be very expensive, but as for the specific price, not being experts, they really didn't know.

Zhou Yi also felt a bit uncomfortable; what kind of coordination was this? Lawyer Fang was much more thoughtful. When he was with him, facing this kind of situation, there was no need for any signals; that kind of tacit understanding was simply innate.

And just at this moment, the fire corridor door to the side was pushed open, and Manager He from the Property Management walked in, saying as he did so: "Oh, an elevator, huh? This isn't some high-end Small Residential District of ours, it's not expensive, just a few hundred thousand, a small matter."

After a pause, Manager He also looked at the elevator, a look of worry appearing on his face as he said: "This must be broken, no idea if it can be fixed, sigh..."

Watching the middle-aged man's complexion in front of him suddenly turn the color of a pig's liver, Zhou Yi also smiled; he hadn't expected that one day the Property Management Manager of Yuefu Residential Quarter would transform into a qualified straight man for a comedy duo.

Although Zhou Yi didn't understand elevators, he also knew that a properly functioning elevator couldn't just break down because of such a small issue; of course, one couldn't rule out the possibility.

But he could be certain that Manager He must know, only the other party's acting was extremely realistic right now, so real that those female celebrities who only knew how to stare and edit photos would find it impossible.

Once Manager He finished lamenting, he immediately came before the middle-aged man and said: "Mr. Lou, you tell me what we should do now. This elevator is broken, we have to find someone to fix it, who is going to pay this money?"

She had no burden in her heart; anyway, I am just an ordinary Property Management Manager right now, I am not an elevator repairman, how could I possibly know that the elevator's own safety is actually very high and has its own safety mechanism.

Right, I don't know anything at all.

Anyway, if we really call people from the Elevator Company in the end, it will cost money, and this certainly cannot be paid by the Property Management, and by the way, we should educate this family properly.

The middle-aged man in front, who was Mr. Lou, had a complexion that had become incomparably pale; the figure of several hundred thousand, and the question of who would pay the money, struck his heart like a heavy iron hammer.

"Wait a minute, Manager He, are you saying that I have to pay for this?"

"What else?" Manager He said with a look of confusion: "Do you expect the Property Management to pay for the repairs?"

Mr. Lou gritted his teeth and said: "The Small Residential District has a maintenance fund, don't think I don't know!"

Upon hearing this, a look of hesitation appeared on Manager He's face as he said: "Maintenance fund? That wouldn't be very good, this is shared by all the owners in our Small Residential District. Why don't you ask everyone if they are willing to pay to help you fix this elevator?"

"After all, there is Monitoring here, and everyone has seen that it was the small stool your child used that caused the elevator to have problems. If everyone else in the Small Residential District is willing, then the Property Management naturally has no reason to refuse."

"However, I must also say that the maintenance fund of our Small Residential District is limited, as everyone can see in the Property Management's public notices, and the expenditure for repairing the elevator this time might be very large!"

Hearing this, the crowd who were originally just watching the spectacle suddenly became unhappy.

An elderly neighbor spoke up directly: "No, absolutely not. He was the one who broke the elevator, why should the maintenance fund be used to fix it? His family must fix it themselves!"

"Exactly, why should we? Anyway, I don't agree. Let's see who would agree; we don't owe his family anything!"

"This isn't the first or second time, it's happened many times, right? These past few days the elevator has often been stuck on the twentieth floor, and your kid often presses the elevator buttons randomly; we already told you about it before but you didn't care!"

Good heavens, this was a case of public indignation; even Mr. Lou couldn't quite handle it.

Zhou Yi wanted to applaud; this Manager He truly had great skills. It was clear that he used to work in human resources; this ability to stir up emotions wasn't something one could practice just like that.

In just a few words, he had linked the Property Management and these owners together. Looking at everyone's expressions, it was as if touching this maintenance fund was like touching their own lifeblood.

Although many of them never paid any attention to the Property Management's public notices on a daily basis...

Anyway, don't even think about it now; deal with the trouble your own child caused yourself, don't think about using our money!

Manager He looked at Mr. Lou and smiled bitterly: "You see, everyone is unwilling. I, as this Property Management Manager, am actually just a steward for us all; if people are unwilling, there is nothing I can do."

Zhou Yi felt he had underestimated Manager He...

"So that means this elevator still has to be fixed by us?" the middle-aged woman standing behind Mr. Lou stepped out to ask.

As for that little brat, he was hiding on the side, stealing glances the whole time.

"Yes, because this is a matter of natural justice. You broke it, you don't fix it, and you expect others to fix it?" Zhou Yi said from the side.

The middle-aged woman heard this and directly retorted: "How can you be sure it was us who broke it? Who knows how long it's been since you last fixed this elevator? You..."

Slap! Manager He directly took out a stack of elevator maintenance records and said: "Ma'am, let's talk, but please don't talk nonsense. Our elevator is maintained by the people from the Elevator Company according to regulations."

"With a single sentence like that, you could directly cause someone to lose their job, you know."

The middle-aged woman looked at the elevator maintenance records and still wanted to argue, but Zhou Yi said directly: "Enough, there are so many people here, and there is Monitoring, as long as we call the people from the Elevator Company to come and see how it broke, we will know."

"It's only a few hundred thousand, I think your family can definitely afford it, after all, you don't want to discipline your child anyway."

This was also Zhou Yi's consistent view. He felt that these people who spoiled their children and didn't care about anything were truly bold. Small matters were one thing, but why did they think their own child wouldn't cause a huge disaster for them under such "encouragement"?

"But, but Pengpeng didn't do it on purpose, children are naughty and like to play, who knew your elevator was so easy to break!" The middle-aged woman was still trying to argue.

"Whether he did it on purpose or not, if you break something you have to pay for it, don't you understand this principle? And who is being petty with a child? We are clearly being petty with you adults, okay?"

"Do you know there is a term called a legal guardian?"

"That's right, I remember we looked for you yesterday, didn't we? You said you would discipline the child, but today it's the same again. With you acting like this, are you even fit to raise a child?"

That was a strong statement. Zhou Yi looked back and saw it was the older brother who had been late yesterday.

Under such public indignation, even the middle-aged woman didn't know what to say. In a fit of rage, Mr. Lou directly grabbed the little brat behind him and started beating him wildly.

While beating him, he provided his own commentary:

"I'll let you cause trouble, I'll let you cause trouble, hundreds of thousands, how can our family afford to pay that!"

The middle-aged woman felt sorry for her grandson and stepped forward to stop him, but Mr. Lou was already terrified by the compensation of hundreds of thousands, or perhaps he was just acting for the crowd to see.

"Stop hitting, stop hitting Pengpeng, if you want to hit someone, hit me, Pengpeng is only a few years old..." the middle-aged woman cried out continuously.

The little brat was already wailing loudly; he never expected his own father to beat him like this.

Because he had done things like this before, but his family members would only say a few symbolic words, and it would pass.

Why was the beating so heavy this time? His face was covered in tears and snot.

And so, another farce began at the entrance.

The crowd guarding the entrance didn't know what to do now; just as mentioned before, when someone is beating their child right in front of you, what can you say?

Anyway, Zhou Yi felt that beating a child in public was not education; it was for others to see!

If you really want to educate, you have to take the child home, explain the principles clearly, and then use spanking as an auxiliary method, and if you are going to hit, you must make him remember it forever.

Stealing a glance at Manager He, he had already led a few Property Management staff members forward to feign persuasion.

But if you looked closely, you could see that they had kept a certain distance from the very beginning.

Other kind-hearted neighbors also persuaded: "Stop hitting, it's useless to hit the child now, why didn't you do it earlier? Sigh..."

Finally, it seemed that the little brat called Pengpeng couldn't take the beating anymore, and he started shouting incessantly: "Wasn't it because you wanted to go to work early that you told me to block the elevator? Wuwuwu..."

Hearing this, Mr. Lou's movement of beating the child stopped, and the voices of the people around trying to persuade him also stopped.

Zhou Mouren was even more stunned; good heavens, I really mean good heavens!

Taking this opportunity, the older woman hurriedly hugged Pengpeng in her arms and kept comforting him: "It's okay, it's okay, your dad was just anxious, it's okay now. My good Pengpeng, don't cry, Grandma is here."

"Fine, so it turns out you were the one who let the child do it, right? Just because you have to go to work early, does that mean we don't have to go to work? Can't you leave the house earlier?"

Someone shouted with great indignation.

Mr. Lou stood there, not knowing how to argue for a moment. Seeing that they were about to start arguing again, Zhou Yi walked to the very front, and suddenly no one spoke.

But he did not look at Mr. Lou; instead, he looked at Pengpeng, who was sobbing while hiding in the older woman's arms.

"Come here, little friend, tell Uncle, the matter of you putting the small stool at the elevator entrance outside, did your dad tell you to do that?"

No one spoke. Mr. Lou was thinking of defending himself, but was directly cut off by Zhou Yi.

"Right now, I am asking your son, and it has nothing to do with you."

Pengpeng blinked his eyes. He didn't know what was happening, but since he had already said it just now, he secretly looked at his dad and his grandma, and still nodded.

"Good, so actually, you putting the small stool at the elevator entrance was your dad's idea. So, Mr. Lou, how do you intend to explain this?"

"Oh right, you don't need to explain. What a coincidence, you just said I could call the police if I wanted to, and also said that even if the police came, could they really take a child away?"

"Then let me tell you now, the police can't take your child away when they come, but they can take you away!"

What? The neighbors behind Zhou Yi, including the Manager, were all a bit confused.

But they saw Zhou Mouren say with a confident face: "Don't understand, right? It doesn't matter. Our police comrades haven't arrived yet, so let me tell you first: Intentional Damage to Property, if it exceeds five thousand yuan, can be considered a large amount, which has already violated the Criminal Law and is the crime of Intentional Damage to Property!"

"As for this elevator of ours, it costs hundreds of thousands, so that's a huge amount. It seems it's enough to get you sentenced to more than three years and less than seven years!"

"Of course, the one who did this is a child, so the child will definitely be fine, but you, the parent who instigated it, that's where the problem lies!"

"I remember that instigators are treated according to the specific crime, and instigating a minor is an aggravating circumstance. So, Mr. Lou, do you think my calling the police is useful or not?"

The other neighbors looked at each other; this analysis seemed quite reasonable.

So, this neighbor who just moved into the twentieth floor is really going to go in because of this?

They wanted to refute it, but what the other party said seemed to have reason and evidence, and there were terms like "instigator" that sounded very professional.

Only the Manager wanted to laugh; this Mr. Zhou was scaring people again.

Because there was basically nothing wrong with the elevator, it wouldn't cost much money at all, and she also felt that something was wrong somewhere.

Zhou Yi was definitely not a professional; he wasn't even a dabbler.

He just heard some things from Lawyer Fang on weekdays, and now he was just parroting what he had learned.

Not to mention anything else, regarding instigators, if the person being instigated is a person without capacity for criminal responsibility, then it does not constitute a joint crime, and the instigator should bear full responsibility.

Anyway, Zhou Yi was just spouting nonsense, and everyone was just listening casually, but Mr. Lou was truly scared!

Compared to going in and sitting in jail for seven years, paying a few hundred thousand was a small matter.

But, but how did this happen? He was perfectly fine, how did he suddenly end up going to jail!

Mr. Lou was still in shock. He had gotten up perfectly fine, ready to go to work, and just because of a sentence he had casually said to his son earlier, he was now going to go in!

The older woman next to him was truly anxious this time. Hearing that her son was going to go in, she slapped her grandson.

"Pengpeng, what are you saying? When did your dad say that to you, huh?"

The little brat had already stopped crying, but he didn't expect that his grandma, whom he viewed as his protective umbrella, would actually start beating him too. What, what is going on today, why does everyone want to beat him?

"Wuwuwu..."

After being hit, he didn't speak, and just kept crying there.

The older woman turned around to look at Zhou Yi and said: "It's not like that, can a child's words be taken seriously? He doesn't understand anything; he's just talking nonsense."

"You guys still believe a child's words?"

"Eh, absolutely not!" Zhou Mouren directly took off the Sports Camera from his chest and said: "Ma'am, don't say that about the child. You were the one who said earlier that children never lie!"

"If you want evidence, I have it here, guaranteed to be high-definition!"

The older woman was speechless. Even if she wanted to be unreasonable, she really didn't know what to say at this moment.

Zhou Yi was indeed scaring them. As long as it involves the Criminal Law, the evidence system is much stricter.

Normally, it is always Presumption of Innocence.

With just this little bit of evidence, it would be impossible to make anything happen, but Zhou Yi felt that after this one time, they would definitely not dare to let the child run wild again.

This time they were lucky and didn't cause a disaster, but what about next time?

As for offending people, it didn't matter; he, Zhou Yi, had offended plenty of people.

Just as he was thinking about what to do, the door to the fire corridor next to them pushed open, and a familiar figure walked in.

"Zhou Yi? Why is it you again?"

The police officer who walked in was none other than Lao Li.

Zhou Mouren smiled sheepishly and nodded, not saying a word.

Lao Li was completely confused and was just about to understand the situation when he saw an older woman in front of him plop down on her knees.

"Police comrade, my son really didn't, didn't instigate anything, really didn't!"

Lao Li: "(￣△￣；)" Instigate? Such a professional term, can someone tell me what the situation is right now?

Let me clarify again, the group exploded, was permanently banned, and cannot be recovered. For friends who want to join a group, join the other two.

Thanks to Dang de Xuezhe, another Newbie, wfei, Wenchidage, Manbo, YA4Y7J7, Feimaowuyu, Shuyou 2020, Xiao Shufu, Haoxiang Biancheng Mao, thanks to the brothers for the tips, thank you.

(End of chapter)