HLM – Chapter 62 Suing New Zealand

The thugs dropped the charges against Wang Bo, and with that, the matter came to a close. Wang Bo didn’t know what methods Lawyer Muller had used, but he was genuinely grateful for his help.

As they stepped out of the police station, Wang Bo asked, “How much is the lawyer fee this time?”

Lawyer Muller smiled calmly and replied, “This one’s on me.”

“Huh?”

“Why so surprised? Can’t a lawyer have a few friends?” Muller chuckled.

Wang Bo was the kind of person who responded to kindness, not force. With Muller helping him like this, he felt a bit embarrassed and said, “Thank you so much. I don’t have anything fancy to offer, but how about coming to my castle for a meal as a token of appreciation?”

Muller replied, “From what I recall, this all happened when you were just heading home after dinner. Can you really handle another meal?”

He paused, patted Wang Bo’s arm, and said, “No need to be so polite, buddy. This was a small matter. You don’t need to thank me.”

Though he said that, Wang Bo couldn’t bear to owe Muller such a big favor. The next afternoon, he specifically had Charlie fly a helicopter to pick up Muller from the nearby town and bring him to the castle for a visit.

Unable to decline such hospitality, Lawyer Muller accepted.

On the way back, the helicopter soared through the skies. With nothing else to do, Wang Bo pressed himself against the transparent door to look below.

The road construction team had been working quickly. In just over a week, Highway 8 had extended several kilometers out from the town section. It was still at the foundation stage, with only the first four to five kilometers paved with asphalt.

It was not as simple as Wang Bo had imagined. A national highway wasn’t just a matter of clearing weeds and dumping gravel and asphalt before flattening it out—there were highly complex construction procedures involved.

From the helicopter, he couldn’t see all the details clearly, but the number of machines on his territory was staggering. Over the span of ten kilometers, there were massive machines operating every hundred meters or so.

Piles of pre-stressed concrete pipe piles lay beside the road. Several pile drivers rumbled as they drove the piles deep into the ground to form the foundation, followed by pouring cement platforms over them, upon which the road would be built.

Seeing the countless pipe piles below, Wang Bo was stunned and asked, “Good heavens, how much does it cost to build this road? They’re using an insane amount of materials!”

Charlie casually responded, “Not sure about the exact amount, but I do know that just the pipe piles alone number over ten thousand pieces—over 100,000 meters in total! Without even counting transportation and labor costs, just the cost of purchasing the piles is around 50 million New Zealand dollars!”

Wang Bo scratched his head, suddenly realizing a critical issue. “Hey, Charlie, do you know how many kilometers of road Parliament is planning to build in my town?”

“Just Highway 8.”

“What kind of joke is that? Just Highway 8?! The entire town can’t rely on a single road! What about the main streets in the town center? What about the branch roads connecting to other towns?”

“That’s up to you to handle,” Charlie replied. “Because all this land belongs to you. The roads built on it are also yours. The government won’t invest in roads on your private property unless you’re willing to sell that land to the government—then maybe they’ll build more roads.”

“What do you mean?” Wang Bo asked, confused.

Muller interrupted their conversation. He turned around and stared at Wang Bo seriously, “Wang, who reviewed the construction contract for Highway 8 for you?”

Wang Bo was bewildered. “No one. I just signed it… Is there a problem?”

The two of them looked at him as if they’d seen a ghost. Charlie even stopped watching their flight path and turned around in shock. “You just signed it?! What was the land use compensation for Highway 8?”

“There was such a thing? The government has to pay for using the land?” Wang Bo asked weakly.

Charlie fell silent. So did Muller, who turned his head to stare out the window, suddenly interested in the scenery.

“Why would the government have to pay for land use? Aren’t they building the road to help develop my town?” Wang Bo continued.

Muller gave him a pitying look and said, “To hell with development. Maybe your town will benefit from the highway, but that would be a win-win. Still, if the government wants to build a road on your land, they have to pay. It’s your land. Why should they use it for free?”

Wang Bo blinked. “Yeah, why didn’t I think of that?”

He had originally assumed that the New Zealand government building a road through his town was for its development. In reality, it had nothing to do with his town—Highway 8 would go through there whether his town existed or not.

Panic began to set in. “So, typically, how much is the land usage fee?”

Charlie forced a smile. “You probably don’t want to know.”

“Come on, tell me. I just want to hear it. Honestly, I treat money like dirt…” Wang Bo laughed nervously.

Charlie shrugged. “Alright. From what I know, Highway 8 runs about 40 kilometers through your land. With a six-lane highway, the usage fee per kilometer per ten years is around 40,000 to 50,000 NZD.”

“In RMB?”

“Of course in New Zealand dollars.”

“Two million NZD! That’s nearly nine million RMB—for just ten years!” Wang Bo almost lost it.

He had grown up poor. When he sent his parents 200,000 RMB, they were already so nervous and anxious. Now this was tens of millions! And just for ten years of usage rights!

“Can this be salvaged?”

Charlie shook his head. “Black and white contract. It’s signed. How can you fix it?”

Lawyer Muller thought for a moment and said, “So what if it’s signed? Sue the government. Clearly, Party B didn’t have legal counsel when signing the contract. We can sue them for commercial fraud under conditions of unequal information…”

He went on to explain the grounds for the lawsuit, and by the time he finished, the helicopter had landed in the castle’s grand courtyard.

And so, Wang Bo hired Lawyer Muller, paying 800 NZD per hour, to prepare a lawsuit against the New Zealand government.

As he led Muller into the grand and spacious hall, the well-traveled lawyer was stunned.

Looking up at the towering, magnificent walls, he sighed in awe, “My God… I’ve heard people say that the Dominion of the Sun Castle was abandoned and decrepit. Turns out that was all rumor—this is magnificent!”

To New Zealanders, a structure like Robards Castle was quite exotic, for two main reasons: first, the island’s modern civilization was relatively young, so buildings like castles were rare; second, due to frequent earthquakes, most structures were made of wood or synthetic materials. Stone and brick buildings like this were uncommon.

New Zealand sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, experiencing frequent seismic activity—roughly 400 earthquakes per year, though most are too weak to be felt.

Because of that, New Zealanders tend to avoid living in brick or stone houses, as they don’t perform well in earthquakes. Wooden houses can have shock-absorbing systems installed—brick ones cannot.