HLM – Chapter 217 Eva’s Party

When it came to legal matters, the lawyer arrived.

After Mueller arrived, he first asked about the background and sequence of events. Once he understood the situation, he nodded and said, “You can demand compensation from them. They were the ones who breached the agreement first. According to the New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act, as long as you can prove that their intentional delay caused you financial loss, you can ask for compensation—between 5% to 10% of the car’s value.”

Upon hearing that, Robert gasped, “Sh*t, you lawyers are ruthless.”

Wang Bo turned to Mueller and asked, “I don’t want compensation. They just now used weapons to intimidate me. Can we charge them with assaulting a police officer? Best case scenario, get them thrown in jail!”

Robert’s jaw dropped. “Sh*t, Wang, you’re even more ruthless than the lawyers!”

Wang Bo rolled his eyes. Ruthless? Him? What nonsense—he was a humble and low-key hypocrite, okay? It’s just that those bastards had gone too far. They had bullied him first, so how could he just swallow his anger? Sorry, but he was a rabbit, not a turtle!

After going abroad, Wang Bo had set a personal code of conduct: Return a drop of kindness with a spring of gratitude; return a single meal with lifelong devotion. Do not offend unless offended, but if offended—I’ll dig up your ancestors’ graves!

Jones and his crew had clearly taken things too far, especially targeting them as new immigrants, assuming they had no background or support.

There was no way Wang Bo would let them off easily. If the victims today had been timid or weak, they surely would have been taken advantage of.

Wang Bo bit the bullet and insisted that Jones and his men had attempted to assault a police officer. He said he had shown his badge first, and then they attacked him.

Jones also had a lawyer, a stern-looking middle-aged man. After hearing Wang Bo’s accusations, the lawyer asked, “May I ask what motive my client had to commit such an act? Why would he threaten you? There’s no logic to it!”

Wang Bo spread his hands innocently. “You should ask your client that. How would I know? Maybe he’s mentally ill? Maybe he’s racist? Oh, he definitely must be racist.”

Jones quickly shouted, “No, no, no! I’m not racist toward anyone!”

New Zealand is a nation of immigrants. The mainstream white population are either immigrants themselves or descendants of immigrants. That’s why racism is a serious accusation here—if proven, it can lead to jail time.

Bowen chimed in to support Wang Bo: “They’re absolutely racist. They called me a ‘Yank’ and told me to go back to America!”

Lawyer Mueller glanced at him and held back a comment. While “Yank” wasn’t exactly a compliment, stretching it into a claim of racism might be a bit much.

Besides… shouldn’t Yanks go back to America anyway?

That’s practically a shared belief among Kiwis. Despite being fellow white people, New Zealanders didn’t much care for Americans. Don’t be fooled by American TV shows and Hollywood blockbusters that make them seem heroic—in real life, Americans aren’t all that popular abroad.

New Zealanders like peace and quiet. Americans, on the other hand, love noise, fun, and indulgence. If the two became neighbors, one side would definitely find the other unbearable.

Because Wang Bo insisted that his personal safety was threatened and he had suffered racial discrimination, the case had to be escalated to the courts.

Their dispute fell under a civil matter, so it was handed over to the Civil Arbitration Court, with a hearing scheduled for the very next day.

Lawyer Mueller had already warned that they might not be able to convict Jones and his crew because Wang Bo lacked strong evidence proving that his life had truly been in danger.

Still, Jones and his gang had a rough time in court. Mueller was known as the top litigator on the South Island. He quoted laws left and right, criticizing them harshly and pushing hard for a prison sentence.

In the end, Jones and his crew were ordered to pay compensation—8% of the car’s value, around two thousand dollars, as a breach penalty.

That amount didn’t mean much to Wang Bo, but to Jones and the mechanics, it wasn’t a small sum. The average monthly wage of a mechanic was just slightly above two thousand.

After the trial, Wang Bo said regretfully, “F*ck, those bastards got off easy—only fined two thousand.”

Lawyer Mueller tried to console him: “It’s not bad, man. That two grand will at least cover what you have to pay me. It’s like you got to teach those scumbags a lesson for free…”

“Shh, don’t talk—wait, is that Eva?” Wang Bo said in surprise, looking outside the courthouse.

Standing by the roadside outside the court was a tall, elegant woman holding the hand of a porcelain doll-like little girl. It was Eva and Dale.

Today, Eva wore a tawny long trench coat, perfectly complementing her shining golden hair. Underneath, she had on a dress, and as the wind lifted the coat, the dress’s floral pattern peeked through the opening—graceful and beautiful.

Wang Bo waved and smiled. “Hey, Eva, what a coincidence.”

The little girl in a pink down jacket puffed up her lips unhappily and said, “Yeah, what a coincidence—we were waiting for you. Of course it’s a coincidence.”

Eva patted her little head, then smiled at Wang Bo and said, “I heard you went to court again? Didn’t know what happened, but thought I’d come check it out. Too bad I missed the hearing.”

The little girl tilted her head upward and complained even more, “If you didn’t spend so much time changing clothes, we wouldn’t have missed it.”

Wang Bo and Lawyer Mueller laughed at Dale’s sass, and Eva smiled too. She crouched down and lovingly adjusted the little girl’s collar. “Sweetheart, don’t talk like that. I’ll cook you dinner when we get home, okay?”

The little girl’s rosy face instantly turned pale!

Eva turned back to Wang Bo and said, “Actually, there’s another reason I came today. Our school is about to relocate to your town. Before we leave, since we’ve received so much kindness from parents and neighbors, we wanted to throw a party and invite you to join us. Would you be interested?”

Of course Wang Bo was interested: “I’m honored to be invited. I’d love to come! When is it? I’m already excited.”

Hearing this, Eva’s lovely face bloomed with a radiant smile. “This Friday evening. We checked the forecast—it’ll be a warm day. The party will be held at Victoria Gardens in the evening. But you’ll need to bring a plate.”

Wang Bo laughed heartily. “No problem!”

Forget a plate—he’d bring an entire kitchen set if needed. But… why bring a plate? That part puzzled him.

After dealing with Jones and his crew, Wang Bo felt relieved. But the jeep still hadn’t been repaired, so he had to continue searching for a repair shop.

They went around a few more garages in the small town. After inspecting the condition of the jeep, the shop owners either said it was beyond their ability to fix or quoted ridiculously high prices.

Wang Bo had spent twenty grand on the jeep, but the repair costs quoted were around five thousand—enough to buy another second-hand jeep.

Finally, they found a reliable response at a repair shop in the northern part of town. “Around a thousand,” the boss said. “We need to service the brake discs, fix the transmission, and change the oil—can’t go any cheaper than that.”

Wang Bo nodded. A thousand was reasonable. So he left the car there. But after learning from the Jones debacle, he made sure to emphasize the repair deadline in the contract. According to the shop owner’s promise, the car had to be ready within a week.