Chapter 19: Arrogant! |
Xu De offered a slight smile. "I mean exactly what I said."
"So, you''re saying..."
Looking at Xu De, Lin Yue''s stunned expression wavered slightly as she parted her lips.
"The defendant, Wang Qiang... caused the death of the deceased, Li Erniu, while acting bravely for a just cause to protect the police!?"
"Correct," Xu De nodded.
Lin Yue pressed further, "And Li Erniu died by suicide... or rather, self-inflicted harm? Plus, he committed attempted murder!?"
Seeing that she fully understood his meaning, Xu De looked quite satisfied.
"Exactly!"
Lin Yue hesitated, words forming and dissolving on her tongue. After a long pause, she fell silent, swallowing all her doubts.
No...
"Can you really use this kind of argument in court?" Lin Yue took a deep breath, her words laced with deep concern.
"Why not?"
Xu De found her reaction rather baffling. Spreading his hands, he leaned back in his chair and looked at her in confusion.
"I don''t know what you have prepared for the trial, but just based on what you are telling me, don''t you think this is a bit..."
Lin Yue crossed her arms, weighing her words carefully for a long moment before finally putting it tactfully.
"Arrogant!"
Forget about the court debate, with just these claims... the moment they were submitted, the prosecutor would probably whip off his belt and thrash Xu De like a spinning top!
"What''s arrogant about it? Everything I''ve proposed is completely reasonable and compliant with regulations."
"If it''s illegal, let Chen Wei sue me!"
Xu De didn''t care in the slightest. He waved his hand and said casually,
"Anyway... if the True Lord really wants to help..."
"Just find a male lawyer you''re on good terms with to help me out over the next two days... Of course, don''t force it if you can''t find one."
Lin Yue fell silent.
A long while passed.
She let out a heavy sigh, a helpless expression washing over her face.
"Fine."
She compromised. There was no other way, even though she had no idea how the prosecutor would react to Xu De saying these things.
However, the arguments Xu De pulled out were three-hundred-and-sixty-degrees completely legal, without a single trace of illegality. Even if the prosecutor was driven mad with rage, there would be absolutely nothing he could do to him!
As for finding someone...
"I do have a candidate in mind, it''s just..."
Lin Yue gathered her thoughts. A face surfaced in her mind, and her expression instantly turned a bit strange.
Seeing her expression, Xu De grew interested. He sat up in his chair and raised an eyebrow.
"It''s just what?"
"It''s just..."
Lin Yue thought for a long time before finally forcing out a sentence.
"He''s a bit free!"
"Free?"
Xu De was taken aback. What kind of adjective was that?
"You mean undisciplined? Doesn''t follow orders?" he guessed. "Let me be clear first, I only want someone in the legal field, and they must be obedient."
Lin Yue shook her head and said gently,
"He is in the legal field, graduated from a top domestic university, and when push comes to shove, he follows orders and doesn''t make mistakes."
Doesn''t make mistakes, and is capable...
Then what was so "free" about him?
Xu De didn''t quite understand, but he wasn''t one to overthink minor details.
"Alright, if he''s willing to come..."
"I''ll pay him a fee of one thousand yuan out of my own pocket. I''ll have to trouble the True Lord to go communicate with him."
Lin Yue nodded.
She looked up at Xu De, her gaze somewhat complicated.
To be honest.
As a lawyer, she naturally knew about the so-called "shysters" the public often talked about. She had even crossed swords with many of them.
But clearly, those past "shysters" were practically saints compared to the man sitting in front of her!
At the very least, those guys could read their law books until the pages fell out, and they still wouldn''t come up with the strategy of stealing a child!
Yet, this man somehow perfectly bypassed every single legal violation... Even though she utterly despised shysters herself, she was actually willing to help him!
Lin Yue''s emotions were in a tangle.
This turmoil even made her forget to bicker over the title "True Lord." She simply sighed and said,
"Alright."
"I''ll be going now."
Xu De offered a friendly smile and stood up. "Take care. I won''t see you out."
Lin Yue wasn''t the overly sentimental type. She turned around and walked out.
Reaching the front door, she pulled her trench coat tighter and wrapped her scarf around her cheeks, as if trying to bundle up her heavy thoughts along with the cold.
Creak.
The door opened, and she stepped out into the biting wind.
Xu De withdrew his gaze.
He didn''t feel much emotion. He simply packed the documents on his desk and stuffed them into his briefcase.
Everything that needed to be done was done.
The rest... would just have to wait for the trial in five days!
...
Meanwhile.
"Heh, what a fledgling idiot!"
On the other side of town.
Chen Wei left Jinmao Law Firm and returned to his own Yangteng Law Firm, his stomach churning with anger.
Bang!
He pushed the front door open violently. His face was extremely gloomy as he marched in and slammed his briefcase onto a desk.
Bang!
Inside the firm''s main hall.
A few lawyers who were familiar with Chen Wei were drawn by the commotion. They looked up, saw his displeased expression, and immediately raised their eyebrows, asking,
"What''s the matter, Lawyer Chen? Ran into a tricky client?"
Hearing their voices, Chen Wei''s anger, instead of subsiding, flared even brighter. He took a deep breath and said,
"Ran into a lawyer whose hair hasn''t even fully grown in!"
His words were concise, and his surrounding colleagues instantly understood.
Law was a rather extreme profession. Newcomers to the industry were either black-hearted schemers or hot-blooded idealists trying to fight for justice in the world.
For old foxes like them, running into the latter during certain cases...
That was a genuine headache. After all, those types were stubborn mules. No matter what you said, they wouldn''t change their attitude and would fight you to the bitter end.
"Never mind that. Have my two clients arrived?"
Chen Wei took a deep breath, reigning in his emotions, and looked at the crowd to ask.
A colleague replied, "The clients for the Wang Qiang case?"
Chen Wei nodded. "Yes."
It was because of their demands that he had gone to discuss things with Xu De. He had thought that after their first discussion at the police station, the other party would have figured things out by now and agreed to cooperate. To his absolute dismay... he never expected to get cursed out a second time!
"Tsk tsk, Lawyer Chen, the noise outside over this case is deafening."
The colleague remarked,
"Besides, the case goes to trial in a couple of days. How could the clients not show up? They''re waiting in the reception room."
How did one judge the severity of a case?
By looking at public opinion!
And this case, which took place in Lijia Village, had already turned Greenwood City upside down!
A kidnapped child, a ten-year search, buyers treating a human like a dog, refusing to return the victim, the victim''s father murdering the buyer, and now being charged with intentional homicide...
Just piling these factors together, it would be impossible for the public outcry not to be severe!
"Alright, I got it."
Chen Wei nodded again.
He didn''t bother picking up his briefcase and headed straight toward the reception room.
A moment later, he stood at the door, placed his hand on the handle, and gave it a gentle twist...
Creak.
The door opened.
Li Youcai and Liu Cui appeared through the gap. The two had been dozing off, but upon hearing the sound, they turned their heads.
Seeing that the arrival was Chen Wei, their eyes lit up, and they hurried over.
"How is it? Did that ungrateful wretch agree!?"
Liu Cui asked excitedly.
As she spoke, it was as if she could already see the image of Wang Mei serving her for the rest of her life, her tone brimming with anticipation.
"Hehe, that''s the crime of murder! He committed murder, so he has to be punished!"
Li Youcai, on the other hand, smugly began puffing on his dry tobacco pipe. His voice drifted out from the swirling smoke.
"If he doesn''t want to be punished, he has to sign."
He spoke with the absolute certainty of victory.
It was as if he already had Wang Mei entirely in his grasp, exactly like how they had controlled her for the past ten years!
So what if they trafficked her? There was still nothing the other party could do to them!
Unfortunately, reality dictated otherwise.
Hearing this, Chen Wei''s face turned a bit ugly. He hesitated for a moment, then finally closed the door and replied,
"They... didn''t sign."
As his words fell.
The two people in front of him froze slightly. The next second, a shrill voice, thick with a rural dialect, rang out.
Li Youcai was stunned. He pulled the pipe from his mouth and said, "Didn''t sign?"
"Did they eat a bear''s heart and a leopard''s gall? They actually dare not to sign!?"
Liu Cui''s face looked even worse. Her sharp, monkey-like features instantly twisted in anger.
"Her pa killed my son, and we just want a grandson, but she won''t even give him to us!?"
Saying this, Liu Cui simply began slapping her thigh and wailing at the top of her lungs.
"Oh heavens, is there no justice left? Are you not going to let people live? Isn''t this just forcing our family line to end!?"
Listening to the howling, Chen Wei quickly spoke up to pacify them. "Don''t panic. The court''s summons has already been issued, and the trial will begin in five days!"
"Wait until five days from now when we gain the upper hand in the court debate. By then..."
"They''ll be the ones begging us to sign the letter of forgiveness!"
In his eyes, the other side was purely refusing to turn back until they hit a brick wall. And the arguments during the first trial in five days would completely shred their unrealistic delusions!
At these words, Liu Cui and Li Youcai''s eyes immediately lit up, and they stopped wailing.
"Really!?"
Chen Wei revealed a confident, triumphant smile. He took a sip of tea from the table.
"The opposing lawyer is just a wet-behind-the-ears kid. I asked around his firm. He has absolutely no record of criminal trial experience. Defeat is inevitable for him!"
"Haha, then we''ll leave it in your capable hands, Lawyer Chen!"
Li Youcai and Liu Cui were instantly overjoyed.
Having received a definitive answer from him, the two then hurried off, ready to head home and play with their grandson.
After seeing the two off, Chen Wei let out a long breath. He watched their retreating figures and then fell into deep thought.
The factor that determined the direction of a case, aside from evidence, was often something else entirely.
The judge''s discretionary power!
That is, the judge''s personal will. This point was crucial. Besides the evidence, the only thing that could affect the outcome of a case was who the judge personally favored.
And the thing most likely to influence a judge was...
Public opinion!
In this time period of 2002, the medium that could best reflect the landscape of public opinion regarding the Lijia Village case was the newspaper.
Thinking of this, Chen Wei walked directly to a nearby public newspaper rack and pulled out a copy of the Greenwood City daily that had been delivered that morning, still carrying a hint of warmth.
Rustle.
The newspaper unfolded, the paper emitting a crisp sound.
The next second, the social news regarding the case instantly caught Chen Wei''s eye!
[The Degeneration of Morality! A Shocking Incident in Greenwood City...]
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