Golden Years in the World of Film and Television

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Chapter 442 New Developments in the Lian Chuang Case

After returning to the law firm, Han Tao went directly to the reception room of Group 2 and met the person who was waiting for him.

The other person was wearing a suit, but his tie was a little crooked and his leather shoes were dull. His eyes were bloodshot and he looked listless. He was obviously frustrated and under great mental stress.

The other party also looked up at Han Tao at this time. Originally, Chen Wenguang of Mingtang Law Firm was involved in this matter. He did not trust Mingtang Law Firm very much and even hated it. However, Li Gongming had contacted him several times, but he really did not do anything, so now he could only try his best.

Seeing the down-and-out man looking at him, Han Tao took the initiative to say, "Hello, Mr. Sun, right? Sorry to have kept you waiting!"

Hearing this, the down-and-out man quickly extended his hand and introduced himself, "Hello, Lawyer Han, my name is Sun Yang, nice to meet you."

"Mr. Sun, please take a seat. Director Li has already told me the reason for your visit. Thank you for your trust. Now, could you please tell me in detail what the situation is?"

After saying that, Han Tao sat down opposite him. Wendy poured a glass of water for him and Sun Yang respectively, and then sat aside with an intern.

Sun Yang drank the water in one gulp, then took out a file bag from his bag and said to Han Tao:

"Lawyer Han, I used to be a sales manager for a company. I've saved some money over the years, and my parents' savings have all been invested in Lianchuang Group's financial products. But now I can't get the money back. My father got sick out of worry, and I'm almost at my wit's end.

But I heard that you've been taking on a lot of cases against the Lianchuang Group recently. It seems you really want to help us, so I came here. Please help me."

Han Tao nodded. Because he had agreed to help Chen Ran and Xu Jie, he paid more attention to the case involving Chen Wenguang. After listening to Sun Yang's explanation, he understood the general situation.

"Here's the contract and the introduction to the financial product. Would you like to take a look?"

After saying that, Sun Yang handed the file bag in his hand to Han Tao and looked at him.

Han Tao didn't say anything. He took out the contract and looked at it carefully. It was no different from others. They all had extremely high interest rates and terms, and the conditions in the contract were very harsh.

However, there was no problem with the signing. It was obviously a carefully polished contract, and Lianchuang Group avoided all risks.

After Han Tao put down the contract, Sun Yang continued, "Actually, I thought the term and rate of return were too high before I invested, but the other party's legal staff explained it to me, and we knew the third-party sales person before, so I invested.

However, they did not say at the time that the money could not be retrieved. Later, I saw the news and went to find them. A person in charge of Lianchuang Group met me and told me that my money had been lost.

I couldn't reason with them, so I called the police. But the police and lawyers told me that the contract I signed was legal and reasonable, and that it was a failed investment and had nothing to do with Lian Chuang.

Han Tao nodded again. When he was investigating Lianchuang Group before, he got a lot of information. Lianchuang had many projects that were losing money, but they had never cut them off. They just used them for waste recycling and illegal investment.

They put these projects on the market under the name of financial investment, and then attract people with high returns. After the investors' money is invested, they use these bad projects to launder the money.

In this way, the investors' money was transferred from the customers to Lian Chuang's hands. It was reasonable and legal, just like transferring money from one hand to the right.

But those investors are in a miserable situation. They invested a large amount of money, but can only watch the losses. Even if they plan to sell their money at a loss, they cannot withdraw it due to the time limit, otherwise they will face a large amount of liquidated damages.

So in the end, they not only didn't make a penny, but also lost everything. If it weren't for the lawsuit involving a fatality and the outside world's high attention, no one would have developed this issue.

If Han Tao had not been exposed to this, he would not have been able to see the interests involved so easily, because in terms of capital operation, this is a misplaced wealth conversion.

Thinking of this, Han Tao continued, "Mr. Sun, I can take your case, and I'm confident I can get you justice. But I also hope you can help us connect with more people like you."

Hearing this, Sun Yang nodded and said, "I can actually contact quite a few people. I've been at Lianchuang Group recently and have indeed met a lot of people who are looking for a place to work but have nowhere to go.

But some people have given up, and some can’t wait and have returned to their hometowns, so it will take some time to contact them.”

"Okay, then it's settled. It doesn't matter how long it takes. Just contact the person and I'll be your attorney to help you get your money back.

I'll have my secretary give you some business cards later, and you can give them to the victims. The more people you contact, the better."

Seeing that Han Tao agreed to represent his case, Sun Yang was very happy. However, thinking that he had no money left and it might be difficult to contact those people, he hesitated for a long time and said:

"Thank you, Lawyer Han. I'll try my best to contact them. But I've been so focused on getting my money back that I haven't been working. I'm broke. Could you lend me some money?"

Without waiting for Han Tao's response, he added, "Don't worry, I will definitely pay you back, even if I have to sell everything I have."

"Mr. Sun, don't get excited. Okay, let me tell you this. You'll go sign a contract with my secretary. She'll lend you 5,000 yuan in her personal name. Once we win the lawsuit for you, you can pay her back."

"Okay, thank you... Lawyer Han, thank you and Secretary Wen!"

After Sun Yang's numerous thanks, Han Tao walked out of the reception room. Wendy and the assistant would handle the follow-up work.

Han Tao did not lend him too much money. In his opinion, this was against the rules. After all, this was legal aid, so all he could do was to try his best to recover the hard-earned money of these people.

The reason why he was asked to find more people was because more evidence was needed. There were so many victims, and the financial projects they invested in were definitely not all the same, so Han Tao needed a lot of supporting evidence.

However, the reason why Han Tao said he could help them get justice was that Xu Jie had already had new ideas. The funds raised for these projects needed to be laundered through upstream companies, so if they wanted to receive the funds, they had to register a company.

When registering a company, the information must be made public. Even if Lianchuang Group keeps it secret, the Industrial and Commercial Bureau will have the information, so some clues have been found.

In fact, the best way to deal with this matter is to obtain Lianchuang’s financial statements. If we obtain them, we can immediately reverse engineer and find the loopholes. However, this is confidential information and is difficult to obtain.

As for bribing relevant personnel, that's even worse. Others may do this, but if lawyers and law firms do this, the consequences are likely to be revoked, at the very least, and the relevant personnel could face several years in prison.

Therefore, during this period, Chen Ran and Xu Jie have been cooperating and focusing on investigating whether the projects under Lian Chuang's name really exist. If they are empty shells, they can prove that the other party is illegally raising funds and laundering money.

In fact, people who invest and manage their finances also have problems. After all, investment involves risks, which cannot be denied.

However, this does not mean that investment risks are uncontrollable. Although the financial market is volatile and difficult to predict, it is normal for financial investments to suffer losses. However, it is not advisable to blindly invest for the sake of inflated returns and lose all your money.

Of course, blindly following the trend is very common in financial management. When you see others making money by investing in a certain project, you follow suit without considering whether their financial management model is suitable for you.

Moreover, each investor's wealth situation, risk-bearing capacity, and the accuracy of their information channels vary greatly.

Therefore, many people are easily deceived and led by the other party, and finally fall into financial dead ends and traps. By the time they react, it is too late.

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Chapter 443: Twenty Unconfused Intruder

The afternoon sun shines through the leaves, illuminating the paths on the university campus.

Gu Jia, Wang Manni, and Zhong Xiaoqin, all dressed in simple jeans and T-shirts, sneaked into a classroom and just happened to catch the teacher calling the roll at the podium.

After the three of them sat in the last row, they saw that the four students in the front row were very interesting. One was putting on makeup with a small mirror, one was playing games on her mobile phone, another was watching TV series on a computer, and the last one was eating snacks.

At this moment, the teacher on the podium was still calling out names when he suddenly called out, "Wang Yanni!"

"Here!" Wang Manni thought someone was calling her, and subconsciously responded to the other student together.

This surprised the teacher at the podium, so she asked seriously, "Why are there two Wang Yannis in our class? What's going on? Stand up so I can see!"

"Hello, teacher!" Wang Yanni didn't know why there was someone with the same name as her, so she stood up puzzled and greeted the teacher.

Wang Manni, who had made a mistake, lay on the table awkwardly, muttering quietly, "Wang Yanni? Why does this name sound so similar to mine?"

Gu Jia, who was standing by, couldn't help but roll her eyes. She was speechless at Wang Manni's train of thought. She didn't even know how long she had been graduated, so why would the teacher call her name?

Seeing that only one person stood up, the teacher at the podium did not pursue the matter further. He continued to call the roll and then talked about the topic of this course.

Unexpectedly, Wang Manni acted weird again. She took out her camera and started taking pictures, which caused misunderstanding among the girls in the front row.

One of the girls with ponytails turned around and looked at Gu Jia and the other three, and recognized at a glance that they were not students of the school. After all, a woman of thirty, although carefully dressed up, was still different from a girl in her twenties.

The girl with shoulder-length hair next to her couldn't help but glance back, then whispered to the girl with the ponytail next to her, "Liang Shuang, did they come here specifically to watch your graduation defense? Could they be fans? It seems you've really become famous!"

"No way, there really are fans coming to see me at school?"

The ponytailed girl named Liang Shuang said this in confusion, then picked up a mirror to check if there was anything inappropriate about herself.

Wang Manni saw the performance of the people in the front row and looked at them enviously. She said to Zhong Xiaoqin and Gu Jia beside her:

"Look at the girl in front. When she turned around just now, I saw her face was like a porcelain doll, full of collagen and white. This is what youth is like!"

"If we weren't at school, I would have thought she was some anchor. She's about to have her graduation defense, and she's not nervous at all. She's even putting on makeup."

Zhong Xiaoqin also nodded and said in agreement.

The student in the front row next to the girl with shoulder-length hair couldn't help but retort because she was always arguing with Liang Shuang, who had a ponytail:

"You know what? This person is different now that he's famous. He's about to defend his thesis, and his thesis is still hanging in the balance, but Liang Shuang isn't nervous at all and even has the energy to put on makeup!"

"Luo Yan, stop talking!"

The girl with shoulder-length hair tried to stop the other person, but fearing they would start arguing again, she tried to smooth things over by saying, "Liang Shuang, are you really not nervous at all?"

“I’m nervous, but compared to that, I’m more nervous about the birthday party shoot!”

Liang Shuang responded indifferently and continued looking in her mirror.

Hearing her answer, the girl with shoulder-length hair said worriedly, "Stop talking. I'm so worried about getting another year older!"

Luo Yan curled her lips: "Duan Jiabao, you are only 22 years old, what are you worried about! Look at the people behind them, there are still those in their twenties and thirties, are they still alive?"

"Haven't you heard? Once a woman reaches 25, her skin starts to deteriorate dramatically. I'm spending a ton of money on skincare now, so what are 30-year-old ladies supposed to do?"

After Liang Shuang finished speaking, Zhong Xiaoqin looked at Wang Manni and Gu Jia in surprise and couldn't help but say, "Manni, Gu Gu, did you hear that? You're already an old aunt at the age of 30?"

Gu Jia smiled and shook her head: "Xiaoqin, why are you so surprised? Someone like me who is 30 years old, married and has children is just an old aunt in their eyes."

Wang Manni also said: "When I was 22, I also wanted to buy a full set of skin care products, the more expensive the better, but when I turned 30, I realized that the best skin care product is love."

After listening to her bestie's chat and looking at the energetic students, Zhong Xiaoqin felt that this impromptu trip was quite interesting. It had been a long time since she last attended university, and she had almost forgotten what university life was like.

Therefore, Zhong Xiaoqin couldn't help but envy these young and energetic students in front of her. She wanted to go back to her youth and make a choice again. She would definitely not choose Chen Yu.

"Xiaoqin, what's wrong with you?"

Seeing her in a daze, Wang Manni whispered to Zhong Xiaoqin what she was thinking about and why she was so engrossed?

Zhong Xiaoqin, who had come to her senses, couldn't help but complain, "I was thinking about Chen Yu. He's just like the little girl in the front row who was playing games the whole time. He wished he could sleep in a fish tank every day."

"Ha~ha~ha!" Zhong Xiaoqin's words made Gu Jia and Wang Manni laugh.

However, laughter suddenly broke out in the quiet classroom, which made all the students and teachers look at the three people.

Seeing this, Gu Jia knew that she was in trouble, so she quickly pulled them together, bowed and apologized, then walked out with her head down.

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The three people who ran to the playground didn’t play enough, so they went to the stadium, the library, and the supermarket in front of the cafeteria.

During this time, as they were walking on the road, Gu Jia couldn't help but sigh: "Xiaoqin, Manni, do you know what my biggest wish was when I was 20 years old?"

After she finished speaking, she saw her two best friends looking at her, and Gu Jia continued, "You won't believe me if I tell you this, but my wish back then was to sleep and wake up to find myself already thirty!"

Wang Manni was a little surprised, so while handing them the popsicles, she asked, "Really? Aren't you afraid of getting old?"

"Yeah, Gu Gu, why are you looking forward to turning thirty?"

Seeing Zhong Xiaoqin also looking at her curiously, Gu Jia took a bite of the popsicle and continued, "How can I be afraid of getting old at the age of 20? Besides, don't novels say that women in their 30s are financially independent, have independent personalities, know how to dress, and have interesting personalities? Just thinking about it is so beautiful!"

Hearing this, Wang Manni couldn't help but jokingly said, "That's why novels always have a sentence at the beginning: Any similarities are purely fictional!"

Gu Jia shook her head and said, "But the reality is not like that. Life is not as simple as we think. For example, after having Zi Yan, I have to work all day and night. Even going to the bathroom has to be scheduled into my schedule."

"Yeah, life isn't as good as we imagined. I've worked so hard in Shanghai for so many years, but I can't even afford to buy my own house, even with a loan."

Wang Manni thought about her previous situation and couldn't help shaking her head: "If I hadn't met Han Tao later, I guess I would have been kicked out by the landlord and I don't know where I would be living in a suburban community now.

Plus, I have to squeeze into the subway for hours every day and get up an hour earlier. It's all because I'm broke, so I've taken things easy. There's no such thing as easy in the adult world."

"Maybe I was spoiled by my parents since I was little, got married right after graduating from college, and didn't think money was that important. That's why Chen Yu and I don't have much money, but isn't that how we've gotten through all these years?"

Hearing Zhong Xiaoqin's words, Wang Manni smiled and said, "That's different. You and Teacher Chen started when you were students, so everyone's experiences are different and their pursuits are also different."

Gu Jia also had some opinions about Chen Yu, especially his attitude towards Zhong Xiaoqin, so she reminded her:

"Speaking of this, Xiaoqin, I think your position in the family is a bit awkward, and do you really think it doesn't matter if you don't have money?

Chen Yu has always been in charge of your salary. You have to ask him for money for everything you do and buy. How can this be possible?

If you are not financially independent, you have no say; if you are not financially free, you have no initiative. Look at other families, isn’t it the wife who manages the money?

Hearing these words, Zhong Xiaoqin nodded and agreed. It was just like when she was delivering the express before, Chen Yu was on a business trip and didn't answer the phone, and she didn't even have 20 yuan. If Han Tao hadn't come to her rescue, she would have been laughed to death by her colleagues.

Thinking of this, Zhong Xiaoqin had secretly made up her mind to change her living conditions, and she also felt her best friend's worry, so she nodded and said:

"Actually, when I think about it, there's no need to worry so much. I'm going to live for myself from now on. Honestly, weren't you all complaining about us when we were twenty years old?

Maybe when we are forty, we will look back at the present and realize that we are only thirty!"

"Yeah, it's just thirty, it's no big deal. It's never too late to change, just look forward!"

Seeing that Zhong Xiaoqin finally let go of her burden and started laughing, Wang Manni and Gu Jia were both happy, thinking that their trip was not in vain.

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Chapter 444 A Little Goodbye Is Better than a New Marriage

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, a day had passed. When the lights came on, Guan Juer's parents had a banquet in the evening, so Han Tao, who got the news, sent her back to Ode to Joy after get off work and went straight to Grand Hyatt Residence.