Chapter 21: This Is Immoral! |
Lin Guodong felt like the sky was falling.
He knew his daughter was a serious, responsible, and independent young woman. She liked to solve problems on her own and refused to rest until she found an answer.
That tenacity was a good trait.
But she shouldn''t fixate on a dead end until it gave her a high fever!
What did she mean by asking if stealing a child was illegal? Were those really the words of the academically excellent Lin Yue?
"No, Dad, I''m serious."
Lin Yue took a deep breath, a flicker of confusion crossing her eyes.
A few days ago, the words Xu De had spoken to her at the law firm had been nothing short of shocking.
She had tried to use the Criminal Code to find loopholes in his argument, but after days of searching, she realized... it seemed to actually be legal!
Lin Guodong was worried. He reached out to feel her forehead, only to find her temperature perfectly normal.
Lin Yue shook her head, brushed his hand away, and after a brief moment of thought, said:
"Dad."
"Tell me, if a lawyer were to steal a child to complete a commission... does that constitute a violation of the law?"
Though Lin Guodong still had no idea what she was up to, he played along and answered:
"Naturally, it is illegal."
"Carrying out an abduction with profit as the core motive absolutely constitutes the Crime of Child Abduction and Trafficking."
This was the most basic of the basics. He only needed to recall the statutes for a split second to find the answer.
Unexpectedly, the moment he finished speaking, Lin Yue pressed on:
"Then suppose the client is the child''s biological mother?"
The person asking to steal the child was the mother herself? Lin Guodong paused. He stroked his chin, a little hesitant, but still responded.
"That... is also illegal. Civilly, it infringes on the other party''s custody rights."
"Criminally, it constitutes the Crime of Illegal Detention, snatching, and gathering a crowd to engage in a brawl."
It was as if she had been waiting for him to say exactly that.
Lin Yue spoke up again, her tone urgent:
"Then what if the child''s father is dead, leaving only the mother, and the child is merely staying in the home of nominal close relatives!?"
"Under those circumstances, would stealing the child... be illegal?"
Lin Guodong: "?"
"Wait... hold on a second."
Lin Guodong was stunned. Her rapid-fire barrage of questions had caught him off guard, setting his mind reeling.
The father was dead? That meant... custody rested solely with the mother?
Wait, if she had custody, why would she have nothing better to do than to steal her own child!?
Wait...
Suddenly, Lin Guodong''s eyes went wide as realization struck. He snapped his head up, staring at Lin Yue in shock.
"Yue, are you talking about Wang Mei''s case!?"
His exclamation echoed in the small bedroom, his expression one of utter astonishment.
The father dead, the child staying with close relatives, and only the mother left alive... Wasn''t this the exact situation of Wang Mei''s custody case, which was deeply tied to the Lijia Village case!?
And his own daughter was the lawyer handling the case!
"It is that case."
Lin Yue nodded, not denying it.
The moment she confirmed it, Lin Guodong stared at her with wide eyes.
His own daughter... wasn''t she an idealist just like him? Since when did she harbor such a wicked idea as stealing a child!?
At that thought, Lin Guodong could no longer sit still. He immediately stood up and said urgently:
"Little Yue, the case is difficult, and bringing the child back is hard. I know."
"But... but we can''t just go steal a child because mandatory enforcement is difficult! That is absolutely out of the question!"
Lin Yue shook her head. She sighed and pressed the question again:
"Dad, answer my question first. Under these circumstances, is stealing the child illegal?"
Lin Guodong was about to deny it, but as the words reached his lips, they felt like a bone stuck in his throat, impossible to spit out.
He knew the details of Wang Mei''s case. With the biological father dead, custody naturally belonged solely to Wang Mei. Therefore, the so-called grandparents...
"But... custody still requires a court ruling to..."
Lin Guodong hesitated as he tried to deny it, but before he could finish, Lin Yue interrupted him.
"The custody ruling has already been made. Wang Mei won the case."
Lin Yue helpfully added, "Moreover, the child''s biological mother will be brought along to steal the child; the lawyer won''t be acting alone."
"Dad."
"Is it illegal?"
Lin Guodong opened his mouth to speak, closed it, and then opened it again.
His face flushed red as his thoughts tangled into a messy knot.
Was it illegal?
With custody and guardianship secured, legally speaking, the child belonged to Wang Mei. Therefore, rather than calling it stealing... it was more like a little game between mother and child!
And what about the family whose rights were being infringed upon? No, the other party had no legal rights.
Based on the conditions Lin Yue had laid out... as long as Wang Mei and the lawyer weren''t setting out to assault anyone, simply stealing the child away posed absolutely no legal risk!
Neither civil nor criminal!
"This... this, this..."
Lin Guodong''s face grew redder and redder, but he couldn''t utter a single word.
This was wrong. This was entirely wrong. The judicial system didn''t work like this!
If you wanted a child, you were supposed to fight a lawsuit for a year. After winning, you''d squabble with the other party for a few months, wait another few months for the compliance period, and then, after they failed to comply for two years past the deadline, you''d approach the police and the court to apply for mandatory enforcement. Then, after waiting several more months for the enforcement application to be approved, only then could you take the child back!
How could you completely ignore the compliance period right after the court ruling...
And just resort to stealing!!!
And ironically, it seemed she had genuinely exploited a myriad of legal loopholes!
Bastard! Judicial procedures and statutes aren''t meant to be used like this!!!
"No..."
Lin Guodong''s face was flushed. He looked at his own daughter as if she were a stranger, his chest heaving violently.
"Who gave you this idea!?"
Lin Yue didn''t answer. She merely handed him the portion of the documents concerning ''legality'' that Xu De had compiled.
She had asked Xu De about it as well, and to ease her mind, he stated that she could have someone verify his claims without leaking any confidential case details.
So, her father was completely allowed to read it.
Rustle.
Lin Guodong snatched the papers away, the sheets crinkling crisply.
His eyes immediately locked onto the document, but when he clearly saw the text written there...
The next second, his eyes bulged, looking as if he wanted to glue his face to the black ink and white paper.
The content of the document was broadly similar to what Lin Yue had just described.
But it was far more detailed!
Not only did it cite legal precedents and reference works, analyzing the original text of the statutes strictly and meticulously to prove that stealing the child did not violate the law, it even dedicated more than half a page to listing evidence proving that Li Youcai and Liu Cui were the ones actually committing illegal acts!
When he finished reading...
Lin Guodong: "?"
Lin Guodong stared blankly. As a leading figure in the legal field, this was the very first time a document had provoked such a reaction in him.
Shock.
Unprecedented shock!
His values, built over decades, were facing an unprecedented challenge at this very moment. A massive earthquake was rocking his worldview!
He stood rooted to the spot, reading the document up and down, left and right, over and over again, attempting to find a single flaw.
A long time passed.
Lin Yue could no longer bear the silence. Sitting in her chair, she looked up at him and asked cautiously,
"Dad."
Lin Guodong snapped back to reality, seeming as if he were waking from a dream yet not entirely awake. He looked at his daughter with bewildered eyes.
"Hmm?"
Lin Yue asked, "Is it illegal?"
Lin Guodong: "..."
Lin Guodong choked up again. He looked into her sincere eyes, holding his breath for a long while before finally replying,
"This is immoral!"
Lin Yue raised an eyebrow, asking suspiciously, "So, is it illegal?"
"This lacks professional ethics!"
Lin Guodong repeated loudly, his face flushing even redder.
Don''t ask if it''s illegal; if you ask, it''s just immoral!
But correspondingly, that meant...
"You can''t find anywhere it breaks the law, can you?" Lin Yue suddenly said.
Lin Guodong remained silent, unable to speak.
"It really isn''t illegal!?"
Lin Yue was very surprised, even though she had expected this deep down.
But seeing Lin Guodong rendered speechless still shocked her.
Amidst her shock, Lin Yue also recalled Xu De''s other ultimate weapon: the matter of Wang Qiang acting bravely for a just cause barehanded to protect an armed police officer. She couldn''t help but twitch her lips.
The case was going to trial in two days.
With a lawyer like this in Greenwood City, the local prosecutors were truly in for a treat.
Thinking of this, Lin Yue felt a strong urge to laugh. She could already foresee the scenes that would unfold in the courtroom.
Having resolved the matter weighing on her mind regarding its legality, Lin Yue appeared much more vibrant. She stood up and said cheerfully,
"Alright, you should go eat. I''m going to change clothes."
With that, she pushed Lin Guodong out the door.
With a click, the door shut.
Standing outside, however, Lin Guodong couldn''t recover his wits for a long time.
His expression was moved, his eyes bewildered. Within that bewilderment was a touch of shock, and within that shock, a hint of horror.
His entire person seemed to have lost its soul, leaving behind a walking corpse.
Lin Guodong didn''t even realize when he returned to the dining room or when he sat down at the table!
"Old Lin, what are you thinking about? Why do you look so absent-minded?"
Beside the table, his wife, Su Xin, looked at her husband. Seeing him return from their daughter''s room looking like he had lost his soul, a hint of confusion appeared on her face.
Lin Guodong sobered up slightly.
He looked at his wife, his lips parting.
In the next second, this leading figure of the domestic legal circles, a law professor at a top university, an authoritative titan in the academic world, a grandmaster of his field... asked a question straight from the depths of his soul.
"Tell me..."
"Is stealing a child illegal?"
Su Xin: "?"
"Did your fever fry your brain!?"
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