Chapter 19 - 14: Legal and Compliant

"Manufacture... a sense of urgency?"

"That’s... not right, is it?" said Lin Yue.

She understood what he meant.

It was nothing more than kidnapping the child, letting the other party experience the feeling of having their family line severed a year early, or even before Wang Qiang’s trial.

That way, Li Youcai would be more desperate than Wang Mei, and his attitude naturally wouldn’t be so rigid.

At the very least, both sides would be back on equal footing.

"What’s not right about it?" Xu De retorted.

"If this infuriates Li Youcai, then Wang Qiang..." Lin Yue began, hesitating.

It would have been better if she hadn’t said anything.

The moment she said it, Xu De looked utterly flabbergasted.

"It would’ve been fine if you hadn’t brought that up."

"But now that you have... I just want to laugh."

Then, before Lin Yue could argue, he dropped the most crucial point.

"You have to understand, Wang Qiang is the only piece of leverage Li Youcai has to threaten us."

"But that leverage is counterfeit currency!"

"The moment Wang Qiang gets a heavy sentence, Li Youcai will instantly lose his one and only bargaining chip. After that, he can forget about getting the child. In other words..."

"Li Youcai and Liu Cui... they themselves don’t dare let Wang Qiang die."

"The only path before them is one of mutual exchange. This so-called ’letting Wang Qiang die,’ this mutually assured destruction... it’s not even a real possibility!"

The moment these words fell...

Suddenly, Lin Yue’s eyes widened slightly. It was as if his words had parted the clouds to reveal the moon, bringing a sudden, breathtaking clarity.

’That’s right...’

’They’re using the threat against Wang Qiang as leverage to get the child.’

’But if Wang Qiang dies, their leverage disappears. They’ll completely lose any standing to fight for the child!’

’As long as they don’t have the child, Li Youcai and Liu Cui would never dare let Wang Qiang die.’

"And they’re using something they don’t even dare to do themselves as leverage?"

Xu De seemed to laugh out of sheer exasperation.

"I haven’t even threatened them yet, and they have the gall to take the first step and threaten me?"

’If anyone should be doing the threatening, it should be me!’

"This..."

Lin Yue was stunned. She was speechless for a long moment, feeling that this man’s audacity was immense.

’He was absolutely right.’

’Li Youcai was using leverage he himself couldn’t bear the consequences of. To use that to threaten them was truly absurd to the extreme.’

’Besides, the courtroom isn’t his personal soapbox. If Xu De performed well, there was still a chance to turn things around, no matter what lies Li Youcai told.’

’On the other hand, if they refused to hand over the child... that refusal would be absolute!’

In just a few sentences.

A case with no apparent way out had been dissected with such clarity!

And after this dissection...

...she faintly realized that if they followed his line of thinking, it seemed... the advantage was on their side!

Was that it? Had they found a breakthrough in the case just like that?

This method of deconstructing a case...

Lin Yue had never seen anything like it in her life!

You have to remember, she had studied law since she was a child and had graduated from Dongguo’s top institution, Shuimu University. How many outstanding people had she met? Far more than just a few.

Not to mention that these excellent individuals were themselves the cream of the crop from all of Dongguo, a nation of over a billion people.

But even so...

Lin Yue had never encountered this kind of case-solving approach. It had practically transcended the law itself and entered the realm of psychological warfare with the opponent.

She took a deep breath and said with awe, "Incredible!"

"You flatter me, True Monarch."

Xu De waved his hand, offering a shamelessly modest reply to diffuse the awkwardness.

Then, he added:

"As long as we go and kidnap the child."

"By then... we won’t be the ones in a hurry."

Only by kidnapping the child would Li Youcai realize that they, too, were in a rush now!

Wang Mei shouldn’t be the one getting threatened. At the very least, both parties should be facing off as equals at the same table.

In fact, if you looked closely, Wang Mei even had the upper hand!

After all, Li Youcai’s only leverage was Wang Qiang, but they didn’t dare to actually harm Wang Qiang.

At that point, Li Youcai and Liu Cui would have nowhere left to turn.

And what about Xu De?

"And we can use that momentum to negotiate with them!?"

Lin Yue’s brow twitched, her excitement getting the better of her.

"Negotiate?"

Xu De frowned and shook his head.

"We’ll already have the child, and they won’t dare to act recklessly out of desperation... and we’re going to *negotiate* with them?"

"Then wouldn’t I have kidnapped the child for nothing?!"

"We have to blatantly threaten them!"

"As for how to threaten them most effectively, in a way that will influence the criminal case... you don’t need to worry about that. I have my own arrangements."

It was the same thing again.

’I haven’t even threatened them yet.’

’But Chen Wei and Li Youcai took the initiative to threaten me first!’

If they hadn’t gotten the child, fine, they could tolerate it. After all, the other side hadn’t realized the severity of the problem.

But...

If Xu De went so far as to kidnap the child... and they still held back, wouldn’t the kidnapping have been for nothing?!

As for what to do if, even after getting the child, Li Youcai signs a settlement agreement but it’s not enough to turn the tide...

All one could say is, you still don’t understand what to threaten someone *for*!

"You..."

Lin Yue was once again stunned by his audacity, the corner of her eye twitching.

He was always saying things that made her tremble, body and soul!

Forget about kidnapping the child for a moment.

A normal lawyer would never let those words escape their lips!

To just openly talk about threats.

What kind of decent lawyer has that word on the tip of their tongue?

’Is he really a lawyer? With that tone, if you changed the setting, Lin Yue would believe you if you told her he was robbing a Bank!’

"No."

Suddenly, Lin Yue snapped out of her daze. She shook her head, trying to clear away those thoughts, and then frowned.

What he said was indeed logical.

Once it was done... Li Youcai would be a fish on the chopping block, for Xu De to handle as he pleased!

However...

"This is... illegal, isn’t it?"

Lin Yue hesitated, voicing her greatest concern.

"Kidnapping a child, in terms of the act itself, is of the same nature as human trafficking. This..."

’Kidnapping the child... it might be effective, but you can’t get around the fact that it’s illegal.’

’They were lawyers; they couldn’t do anything illegal. Setting aside professional ethics, if the other party reported them... the police would show them what the iron fist of the government really meant!’

Her worries were not without reason.

However...

Xu De shook his head, leaned back in his chair, and said casually:

"What we’re doing is clearly legal and compliant!"

Lin Yue: ?

"Le... legal and compliant?"

Lin Yue couldn’t hold back and immediately shot back:

"You’re about to kidnap a child and even threaten the other party, and you’re saying that’s legal?"

"Do you have any idea how many laws the act of ’secretly taking’ them would involve? Even with custody rights, it’s still very likely illegal!"

"Of course it is."

Xu De raised an eyebrow, looking a bit puzzled, and said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world:

"Is that strange?"

"I make my way in this world by following the law and the rules."

Lin Yue: ?

"Wait... Is a single word you’ve said even legal?!"