Chapter 36 - 31: Return to Li Family Village

"Animal... You animal, you’re an animal!"

"I’ll kill you, I’ll fucking kill you!!!"

Inside Yangteng Law Firm.

Suddenly, without any reason, Chen Wei erupted, lunging at Sun Hao like a wild beast.

Sun Hao had been about to ask how the case went, and whether Xu De had lost.

But the next second, everything went dark.

"BAM!"

A massive fist slammed into his eye socket, making him see stars. As his vision went black, he stumbled backward.

"Oof—"

Sun Hao let out a choked cry and collapsed to the floor.

But Chen Wei wasn’t done. His eyes were bloodshot and crimson as he straddled Sun Hao and started wailing on him with both fists.

"So you ganged up to set me up, huh!"

"One minute you’re telling me to just use the testimony, and the next you’re making that testimony lose all credibility, is that it!"

"Just a normal, recent college grad, huh!!!"

He ground his teeth, each word punctuated by a falling fist.

He was a lawyer. In theory, he shouldn’t resort to violence.

But then again...

Even if he beat the man to a pulp, Sun Hao would never dare call the police!

Because whether it was for privately leaking information or for setting him up, if even a little of this got out, the Bureau of Justice would make Sun Hao’s life hell. Even Jinmao Law Firm would have to get rid of a parasite like him!!!

Sun Hao wanted to beg for mercy.

He didn’t know why he was being beaten, but he knew that if he didn’t beg for mercy, he’d be looking at a half-month hospital stay at the very least.

But there was a problem.

Chen Wei’s second punch had landed right on his mouth. The pain was so intense he thought his teeth would be knocked out; forgetting begging for mercy, he could barely even open his mouth!

All he could do was cover his head with both hands and whimper defensively.

"Stop hitting him... Stop!"

Unfortunately.

Seeing Sun Hao’s pathetic state didn’t quell Chen Wei’s anger; it only fanned the flames.

"Damn it, you even had the gall to come here and mock me right after the hearing adjourned! Sun Hao, and to think I still considered you a classmate!"

This shout instantly snapped his stunned colleagues out of their daze, and they rushed over to break up the fight.

"Stop, Lawyer Chen, stop hitting him!"

"Isn’t there anything that can’t be settled by talking it over calmly?"

"..."

A few people frantically restrained Chen Wei and quickly pulled the two apart.

"Let me go! I swear I’m going to kill this animal today!"

Chen Wei struggled relentlessly. Even a three-year-old child could have clearly heard the fury in his voice.

After he was dragged away...

Sun Hao staggered to his feet. His face was already starting to bruise, and blood was trickling from the corner of his lip. He reached up to touch it, then grimaced and hissed in a sharp breath of pain.

He looked up at Chen Wei in disbelief.

"Are you insane!?"

Enraged, Chen Wei continued to struggle. "You know damn well what you did!"

’What did I do?’

’I didn’t do anything!’

A look of bewilderment crossed Sun Hao’s face. He was about to press for an answer, but the sight of Chen Wei about to break free from his colleagues’ grasp made him shudder in fear, and he scrambled to escape.

In the blink of an eye, he was out the main door.

Seeing the man disappear, Chen Wei’s fury finally subsided a little. His face was dark and grim.

The surrounding lawyers, still shaken, let him go. They looked at him in confusion and surprise.

"Lawyer Chen, what... what just happened?"

Chen Wei grew angry from embarrassment.

"Questions, questions... ask my ass!"

"Don’t you have eyes? Can’t you just read tomorrow’s morning paper!?"

The thought of it made Chen Wei’s composure crack.

If nothing unexpected happened, by tomorrow morning, the entire Lusen City would be buzzing about Xu De’s performance in this case.

And he, the one who made a fatal mistake, would be relegated to the role of a clown in the background...

A clown known throughout Lusen City!

You have to understand, a lawyer’s reputation is everything. Once that morning paper came out, Chen Wei’s future career was 100% guaranteed to suffer a devastating blow!

After all, what client would want to spend a fortune hiring a lawyer who makes mistakes and loses so humiliatingly?

So, when he said he ’wanted to kill Sun Hao,’ he wasn’t just kidding.

He really did want to kill the man!

"Tomorrow’s morning paper?"

In the main hall.

The lawyers watched Chen Wei’s retreating back as he left after spitting out that last sentence. They exchanged bewildered glances.

’It’s just a morning paper... how could it make him act so out of character?’

They weren’t the only ones; Sun Hao, beaten black and blue, was thinking the exact same thing.

"The morning paper? What morning paper?"

In front of the law firm, not having gone far, Sun Hao frowned, racking his brain to figure out why he had been beaten.

He felt incredibly wronged. He’d taken a beating for no reason at all, and he couldn’t even call the police...

"What the hell is wrong with Chen Wei?"

"The morning paper will just be reporting on Wang Qiang’s case. It’s not like there was some upset in the case, right?"

"Impossible..."

Sun Hao muttered to himself as blood seeped from his mouth, "He’s just a normal college student. How could he possibly have that kind of ability?"

"And the prosecutor was Hu Guang, with Zhang Bingxin as the presiding judge... Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

He kept rambling as if trying to hypnotize himself.

But even though he didn’t believe it in his heart, he made a mental note about tomorrow’s morning paper, planning to read it first thing to see what had happened.

"Right."

In a daze, Sun Hao seemed to remember something, and his expression froze.

"Chen Wei is back, so... where’s Xu De?"

...

...

Where was Xu De?

He was, of course, carrying out his plan: to transport a child from one place to another without anyone noticing.

In layman’s terms: kidnapping a child!

8:30 PM.

Night had fallen. The sky was dark, dotted with a few faint stars.

In the silent wilderness, it was so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. The oppressive atmosphere was suffocating. The bumpy dirt road was flanked by low grave mounds, and when the wind howled, it sounded like the cries of lonely ghosts.

Suddenly...

"VROOOM~!"

A bumpy minivan, its dim yellow headlights piercing the silence, appeared on the narrow, winding path.

Four people were in the van.

Xu De was in the driver’s seat, Lin Yue in the passenger seat, and Wang Mei was in the back. Besides them, there was also a young man.

The young man was about twenty, with a buzz cut. He was five-foot-eleven, with a sturdy build and an ordinary face, and he looked a little dim-witted.

Just then.

The man watched the dark silhouettes of grave mounds flashing past outside. He couldn’t help but look at Xu De in the driver’s seat and ask:

"You’re a lawyer?"

"I am a lawyer," Xu De replied, stepping on the gas.

"You’re *really* a lawyer?" the man asked again.

Xu De glanced at the rearview mirror and nodded. "The genuine article."

The man looked down at the minivan, and at the various clubs at his feet.

Then he looked back at the pitch-black sky outside and couldn’t hold it in any longer.

"I’ve got a feeling that what we’re about to do might be illegal!"

He knew Lin Yue. They weren’t close, but they could be considered friends.

When he heard there was a paying job that even included meals, he had come eagerly.

Only...

After getting in the van, the man realized this job seemed a little... off.

Hearing this, Xu De remained impassive. He glanced at the man in the rearview mirror again as he controlled the steering wheel on the bumpy road, and asked in return:

"You graduated from a top university?"

The man puffed out his chest with a confident expression. "The genuine article! A 985 graduate!"

"What was your score?" Xu De raised an eyebrow.

To be honest, the man’s demeanor and way of speaking... didn’t quite match the academic credentials Lin Yue had described.

"550," Wang Chao said.

Xu De: ?

"550?"

Xu De almost slammed on the brakes. He looked up, his slightly stunned gaze meeting the man’s in the rearview mirror.

’Given when he took the college entrance exam, that score would’ve gotten him into a Tier 1 university at most.’

’How could he be a 985 graduate!’

"Hehe, actually, if I’d performed normally, my score would’ve only been enough for a Tier 2 school."

At this, the man got a little shy. He rubbed his head and said sheepishly:

"But the day before the Gaokao, I had a dream. In the dream, I was taking the exam. When I woke up and went to take the real test, hey, some of the question types on the paper were exactly the same as in my dream!"

"Just like that, my score, which should have been around 500, got boosted to 550. I barely scraped into a top Tier 1 school."

Xu De nodded, then frowned. "But that’s still not enough."

He himself had fought tooth and nail back then, almost dying on his way to school, and had gotten into Yan University with extremely limited resources. Naturally, he was a little sensitive about scores.

"You’re absolutely right."

"But right after I enrolled, guess what happened?"

As he spoke, the man clapped his hands together with a crisp "CLAP!"

"The school got upgraded! It passed the review and was officially promoted from a Tier 1 to a 211 Project university!"

"I figured, since I was already there, a 211 was a 211. It wasn’t a loss, so I just stayed. But who would’ve thought, just a few years after I graduated..."

"Hey, the school got upgraded again!"

"It joined the first batch of key universities in the 985 Project!"

Saying this, the man puffed out his chest.

"So, I became a graduate of a 985 university!"

Xu De: ...

In the passenger seat, Lin Yue also covered her face, not knowing what to say.

A graduate from a first-batch 985 university who normally scores 500...

The man suddenly asked again, "By the way, I’m Wang Chao. What’s your name, bro?"

"Just call me Xu De."

Xu De took a deep breath.

He concealed his emotions and his brow furrowed. He didn’t continue the discussion with Wang Chao, lapsing into silence. Only the roar of the engine proved that time was still passing.

In the passenger seat, Lin Yue’s expression also became serious. Her brow was slightly furrowed, and her unfocused gaze showed she was deep in thought.

’What are we about to do?’

’Steal the child back.’

’But... is a child that easy to steal?’

’Li Family Village is no less than a lion’s den. The people in this godforsaken place aren’t even afraid of the police. The entire village is a lawless land!’

’If we’re exposed while we’re doing it... we’ll be in huge trouble.’

This was also why Xu De, besides needing his own status as a civil litigation lawyer, also needed more male help.

At this thought, Lin Yue grew nervous, and her breathing became rapid.

She was getting anxious.

After all, she was practically gambling her career and her safety to take this risk with a lawyer she barely knew.

But then she thought of Wang Mei and Xu Hong... Lin Yue’s brow furrowed, her resolve hardening.

Just as her mind was racing...

Suddenly...

Lin Yue felt herself lurch as her body was thrown forward involuntarily.

"SCREECH~!"

A piercing screech of brakes shattered the dead silence.

"What is it!?" Lin Yue snapped out of her thoughts and asked hurriedly.

Xu De sat in the driver’s seat. He didn’t answer directly, but simply looked ahead and said:

"We’re here."

’Here... we’re here? Where is here?’

Everyone in the van froze for a moment, then looked up in unison.

And when they did, the dark silhouettes of countless buildings appeared on the mountainside in the distance. There was little electricity there; at this hour, not a single light shone. It was like a dead city. Only the wind blew through the alley entrances, with not a trace of human presence.

This was...

Li Family Village!