‘Such a good home, such a hardworking man… too bad he got stuck with a wife like that.’
The two of them walked outside.
“You’d better be careful when you pick a wife in the future.”
Lin Yue remarked, clicking her tongue.
“Otherwise, your wife is going to have a rough time.”
‘She felt that if his future wife wasn’t well-behaved, he might not be the one to suffer… but the wife definitely would be out of luck!’
“In that case, why don’t you read my fortune for me, True Monarch?” Xu De teased.
Hearing this, Lin Yue’s brows shot up, and she chirped excitedly,
“I actually know how to do that!”
“You really do?” Xu De asked, surprised.
“I really do.”
Lin Yue nodded, a rare expression of confidence on her face. “Hold out your hand. Let me take a look.”
Xu De obliged, holding out his open left hand.
Lin Yue stared at his palm for a moment, then suddenly froze. She blinked, seemed to recalculate in her head, and finally, a look of doubt crept onto her face.
A moment later.
Lin Yue said, “Er… I guess I’m not much of an expert in this area after all…”
Xu De pulled back his hand and looked at her with a grin.
“Ha! A phony True Monarch!”
Lin Yue fell silent. ‘Maybe I really am a phony,’ she thought.
The two returned to the law firm.
They ran into Lu Jinshan just as they arrived and immediately began making arrangements.
…
「January 10.」
Xu De finished getting Lu Jinshan settled in.
All the paperwork for Lu Jinshan joining the firm was submitted to the Bureau of Justice, which demonstrated a level of speed and efficiency Lu Jinshan had never seen in his entire life.
It was just for a simple new hire registration.
Yet it was enough to have Deputy Director Yang Guotao handle it personally!
What’s more, after finishing the paperwork and learning that seven lawyers were joining…
before Xu De had even said a word,
Yang Guotao immediately shoved 15 internship slots at Xu De. Refusal was not an option; from the look of it, if Xu De dared to utter a single word of protest, Yang Guotao would shove another 15 at him!
It was a real eye-opener for Lu Jinshan. He couldn’t believe a startup law firm could be held in such high regard.
…
「January 11.」
Lu Jinshan’s team officially started work.
Houde Law Firm’s staff now expanded to 10 people.
Lu Jinshan had assumed that a startup firm wouldn’t have much work, so he was prepared to use his own network to bring in some cases.
But who would have thought…
When Xu De dumped a half-month’s backlog of cases out all at once, he nearly knocked Lu Jinshan dizzy.
‘What do you mean, the firm doesn’t force case assignments?’
‘What do you mean, lawyers will never be short on cases, much less have to sit around waiting for them? The firm actually *wants* me to take on twenty cases a day?’
‘And what do you mean, lawyers can pick and choose whatever they want from a sea of cases!?’
On his very first day at the firm,
Xu De presented Lu Jinshan’s team with an unprecedented, worldview-shattering reality.
Most people probably don’t know this,
but aside from the cases and clients a lawyer brings in themselves, they have no right to choose which of the firm’s cases they take on.
Cases like legal aid, for example, are forcibly assigned by the firm. An individual lawyer cannot argue or refuse to accept them.
Sometimes, you could even do all the work on a case only to have the credit snatched away.
That’s exactly what happened to Lu Jinshan; he was on the verge of winning a major case when someone else swooped in and reaped the rewards.
But here, it was completely different.
The sheer volume of resources left Lu Jinshan’s team utterly dumbfounded.
The word ‘loyalty’ began to form in the minds of all seven of them.
…
「January 12.」
Three days before the civil divorce hearing.
The hospital issued the child’s medical report. If the people who brought her in hadn’t been police officers, the hospital staff would have called the police on the spot.
The report clearly stated that Wang Xiaoyu had multiple minor injuries. While not severe, their nature was appalling.
Furthermore,
she had suffered psychological trauma that would very likely impact her future mental and physical development, potentially with irreversible consequences.
The police added this information to the file for the “human trafficking case.”
That same day,
Xu De applied to the court for an attorney investigation order. This document would allow him to request evidence from the police.
…
「January 14.」
The day before the hearing.
At nine-thirty in the morning,
Xu De took the investigation order to the police station. Right in front of Li Xiang, he requested the file for the “human trafficking case,” explaining that it was for use in the “divorce and infidelity case.”
Under Li Xiang’s utterly speechless gaze,
Xu De took the information and headed to the Nanshan District People’s Court.
At ten-thirty in the morning,
just moments before the judge left for lunch, the evidence was successfully submitted. When the presiding judge was notified, a stunned expression appeared on his face.
At eleven o’clock,
Xu De returned to the law firm.
But he wasn’t the only one…
An unexpected person had also arrived at the firm.
…
「Four-thirty in the afternoon.」
“Lawyer Xu, I presume? Our client would like to discuss a matter with you regarding this case.”
“You’re a lawyer, so you know how biased divorce proceedings are in favor of us women.”
“Of course, my client is not an unreasonable person. If you’re willing… we can discuss this privately.”
Inside Houde Law Firm,
the defendant’s lawyer, Sun Li, had shown up with a marital property settlement agreement, looking for Xu De.
Sun Li glanced around the office. Seeing that there were only ten people, she couldn’t help but draw herself up a little taller.
‘A ten-person firm… this is just a small-time operation!’
“If you agree, we’re willing to a seventy-thirty split.”
Sun Li said, “This is the most we can accept. As you know, raising a child is very expensive.”
‘A seventy-thirty split?’
Xu De, who had just hurried from his office to the reception area, heard this, and his eye twitched.
“Seventy percent? Why do we only get seventy!?”
“Wang Yu’s salary accounts for ninety percent of their shared assets, doesn’t it? How is it that after the divorce, we only get to split off seventy percent!?”
Sun Li: ?
Sun Li froze.
She looked up at Xu De, her expression turning sour and her tone laced with anger.
“The seventy percent is for *my* client!”
“You get thirty percent!”
“Of course, as for future child support… my client is being very generous. She only requires twenty-five percent of his pre-tax monthly salary.”
“Based on his salary of 2,700, the monthly child support payment would only be 945 yuan.”
“As for nutrition, school fees, and so on… hmm, my client is magnanimous; she won’t require your client to cover those.”
As she spoke, Sun Li seemed to recall something.
She pointed to the contract and added,
“Of course,”
“if the husband is promoted in the future, the child support amount must also be increased proportionally.”
“And if the husband remarries, he will also need to pay a proportional amount. He can’t just forget his child because he’s found a new flame.”
‘Thirty percent?’
‘And I have to pay more if I get promoted!?’
‘Holy cow. Give up over sixty percent of my assets, then provide a thousand yuan a month for the next fourteen years… and that’s not even counting promotions. That’s equivalent to paying five thousand a month in the future!’
‘Five thousand a month, sixty thousand a year… for fourteen years, that’s 840,000!?’
Xu De was floored. He stared in disbelief at Sun Li, the female lawyer in her square-rimmed glasses.
‘Is this even a divorce?’
‘This is more like total annihilation!’
‘Even Empress Dowager Cixi herself wouldn’t dare sign a treaty this unequal!’
“Forgive my bluntness, but this is a straight-up shakedown.”
Xu De had no intention of negotiating. His blunt, almost vulgar, refusal came without a second thought.
“The hearing is tomorrow, and you show up now with these kinds of terms…”
“Lawyer Sun, let me give you a piece of advice. If you don’t have the competence for a case like this, you shouldn’t take it on, let alone propose terms like these!”
Hearing this,
Sun Li’s face instantly flushed with anger.
‘What does he mean, I’m not competent?’
“Are you looking down on me because I’m a woman?” Sun Li blurted out.
Xu De: ?
“I’m just looking down on you.”
Xu De’s expression remained calm, unaffected by her accusation, as he replied nonchalantly.
“It seems some people are greedy enough to try and swallow an elephant.”
At his words,
Sun Li’s face turned grim.
This contract was also beneficial to her; her own fee was proportional to the settlement, so naturally, she wanted to get as much as possible.
But now that Xu De had called her out…
she was immediately incensed.
“You’ll regret this!”
“A seventy-thirty split is normal for a private settlement. It’s common to see eighty-twenty in court!” Sun Li declared.
“Then please thank the defendant for her kind offer, but we must decline,” Xu De replied.
“You!”
Sun Li was rendered speechless and could only shoot him a venomous glare.
“We’ll see you in court!”
With that,
Sun Li clutched the agreement and stormed out. Judging by her retreating figure, she was absolutely furious.
As for Xu De…
He paused, then turned to look at the time on the wall clock.
With a crisp CLICK of the second hand,
the time was…
5:00 PM.
The courthouse… was closed for the day.
The opposing party’s last chance to retrieve evidence from the court had run out.
A smile spread across Xu De’s face as he looked at the clock, the evidence he’d secured flashing through his mind.
‘Information asymmetry… a severely damaged reputation… psychological trauma… a cruelly abused child… a child held captive… the other party’s infidelity… transfer of marital assets… cohabitation…’
‘And all of our evidence was provided by the police!’
“See you in court tomorrow?”
A sardonic smile played on Xu De’s lips as he thought of Sun Li and Yang Chunping and their fantasies of splitting the money.
“Yes, let’s see each other in court tomorrow.”