The firm doing Auntie Wang's building work is four months late. She wants to go to court; she is told what mediation is.
Auntie Wang
装修公司拖了四个月，活儿还没干完。我想去法院告他们。
Zhuāngxiū gōngsī tuō le sì gè yuè, huór hái méi gān wán. Wǒ xiǎng qù fǎyuàn gào tāmen.
The building firm is four months behind and the work is still not finished. I want to take them to court.
Zhang laoshi
合同上写了工期吗？
Hétong shàng xiě le gōngqī ma ?
Does the contract state a completion time?
Auntie Wang
写了，九十天。当时还说超一天罚一天的钱。
Xiě le, jiǔshí tiān. Dāngshí hái shuō chāo yī tiān fá yī tiān de qián.
It does, ninety days. At the time they even said a day over would cost them a day's pay.
Zhang laoshi
那您有理。不过打官司之前，先试试调解。
Nà nín yǒu lǐ. Bùguò dǎ guānsi zhīqián, xiān shì shì tiáojiě.
Then you are in the right. Even so, before going to court, try mediation.
Auntie Wang
调解？都拖成这样了，跟他们还有什么好谈的？
Tiáojiě ? Dōu tuō chéng zhèyàng le, gēn tāmen hái yǒu shénme hǎo tán de ?
Mediation? After a delay like this, what have I left to discuss with them?
Xiaoyu
调解快。法院的案子排下来，半年都是常事。
Tiáojiě kuài. Fǎyuàn de ànzi pái xiàlai, bàn nián dōu shì chángshì.
Mediation is quick. At court, waiting six months for a hearing is nothing unusual.
Zhang laoshi
而且调解成了，协议一样有法律效力。
Érqiě tiáojiě chéng le, xiéyì yīyàng yǒu fǎlǜ xiàolì.
And if mediation succeeds, the agreement has the same legal force.
Auntie Wang
万一他们不来呢？
Wànyī tāmen bù lái ne ?
And if they do not turn up?
Zhang laoshi
那再起诉。您还多了一份材料，证明您先讲了道理。
Nà zài qǐsù. Nín hái duō le yī fèn cáiliào, zhèngmíng nín xiān jiǎng le dàoli.
Then you sue. And you will have one more document, showing that you tried to be reasonable first.
Xiaoyu
阿姨，您的付款记录、聊天记录，都整理好了吗？
Āyí, nín de fùkuǎn jìlù, liáotiān jìlù, dōu zhěnglǐ hǎo le ma ?
Auntie, your payment records and your messages, have you put them in order?
Auntie Wang
都在，就是乱。转账的、发消息的，前后四个月。
Dōu zài, jiùshì luàn. Zhuǎnzhàng de, fā xiāoxi de, qiánhòu sì gè yuè.
They are all there, but in a muddle. Transfers, messages, four months of it.
Xiaoyu
我帮您按时间排一遍。材料清楚，别人才愿意看。
Wǒ bāng nín àn shíjiān pái yī biàn. Cáiliào qīngchu, biéren cái yuànyì kàn.
I will put them in date order for you. A clear file is a file people are willing to read.
Auntie Wang
说实话，我就想出这口气。
Shuōshíhuà, wǒ jiù xiǎng chū zhè kǒu qì.
To be honest, what I really want is to get it off my chest.
Zhang laoshi
出气和拿回钱，恐怕不是一回事。您先想清楚要哪个。
Chū qì hé ná huí qián, kǒngpà bùshì yī huí shì. Nín xiān xiǎng qīngchu yào nǎ gè.
Getting it off your chest and getting your money back are probably two different things. Decide first which you want.
您有理 does not mean "you are right" in the sense of a correct opinion, but that the law and common sense are on your side in a dispute. It is the word used in a neighbours' quarrel as before a court, and its opposite 没理 accuses. 讲道理, later in the dialogue, belongs to the same family.
To let out the breath you have been holding: to get relief, to work off your anger. 出这口气 names very precisely the need for moral redress, distinct from compensation. Zhang sets the two against each other in the last line, and the opposition exists only in Chinese: English has to rebuild it with two unrelated verbs.
不是一回事 means "those are not two instances of the same thing". The word 回 counts occurrences of an event, and the expression serves to separate two notions that were being run together. You also hear it affirmatively, 是一回事, to say the distinction offered is no distinction at all.
