Chapter 176 - 111: Persecuting the Police? You Won’t Even Spare the Police

Xu De subconsciously dangled a massive pie in front of Wang Chao.

Wang Chao thought about it, then happily gobbled down the pie in three bites.

"Lawyer Xu, you’re not the problem. I was wrong about you!"

With that, the three of them reached an agreement.

Then they went out to have lunch.

...

After lunch, Xu De gave the keys to Wang Chao, letting him transform into a nuclear-powered donkey and burn through his energy at the law firm.

Meanwhile, he and Lin Yue set off on their quest to recruit a senior lawyer.

「Two-thirty in the afternoon.」

"A... a Daoist Temple?"

Xu De and Lin Yue stood before a Daoist temple. Xu De looked up at the three words on the sign—"White Cloud Temple"—and fell into deep thought.

That’s right. Lin Yue had brought him here, to a Daoist temple!

"Are you serious? Or did you bring me to this Daoist Temple to kowtow to your masters, the Three Pristine Ones, and ask them to send down some Yellow Turban Warriors to help me?"

Xu De stared at Lin Yue in astonishment, a strange expression on his face.

"You and that mouth of yours! Be quiet!"

Lin Yue shot him an irritated glare.

Then, she said:

"My parents and I live in the Daoist temple. Have you ever wondered why my father would choose to live here?"

"The host of this temple is also a man of law. He used to be a lawyer, and he’s a generation older than my father."

"Later... well, the law also left him feeling disheartened, so he became a recluse here. Right now... he’s probably about sixty-four."

"Oh, right, Wang Chao knows him."

"When Chaozi has nothing better to do, he comes to the temple to wander around and annoy the old man."

Hearing this, a thoughtful expression appeared on Xu De’s face.

’Another one who studied law until he went off the deep end...’

’The legal profession really is a path where you’re bound to get hammered in the end, no matter which way you go.’

’If you walk the righteous path and practice justice, you’ll find it’s completely impossible. It’s despairing... The kind of despair from the rift between reality and ideals is enough to make anyone depressed!’

’And if you go down the crooked path, you’ll just get cursed out. In the worst cases, someone running you over with a car would be considered a quick end!’

’Thank goodness I have one foot on each side.’

Xu De breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Lin Yue again.

"So he’s the senior lawyer you’re recommending?"

’A sixty-something-year-old man is definitely senior... but maybe a bit too senior.’

’Although it’s true that the older you get, the more formidable your understanding of legal principles becomes.’

’However... if Xu De ever faced an opposing lawyer in his sixties during a trial, he would, without hesitation, activate his ’wear-out-the-old-man’ tactic.’

’A high-intensity trial lasting five hours... Xu De refused to believe his opponent wouldn’t be worn down and forced to tap out.’

’And once he’s out... the defendant’s table would be empty, right?’

’As for whether trials were draining, both mentally and physically... don’t forget the cautionary tale of Zhang Wei. He fainted after being worn down for just three hours!’

"What are you thinking about!"

Lin Yue’s teeth itched with irritation. She felt that this person beside her was a real motormouth, and he always had a cheeky tone when speaking to her.

"Host Li has a few students, you know."

"They may not be professors or academic giants, not even Gold Medal Lawyers... but they definitely qualify as senior lawyers!"

Gold Medal Lawyers are certainly strong, but some of them are just fakes, hyped up and built into headliners by their firms.

Their professionalism... really can’t compare to some actual senior lawyers!

"I see."

"Then I’ll go meet Host Li."

Xu De understood. He was about to step inside when he suddenly paused and looked back at Lin Yue behind him.

"Why did you stop?"

Lin Yue looked a little awkward. The tips of her ears were flushed a translucent red, and her fingers fidgeted with the hem of her clothes.

After fidgeting for a moment, she finally stammered out:

"Later, if my parents and Host Li see me, c-can you not call me... not call me that... that True Monarch thing..."

Xu De’s spirits lifted, and he corrected her:

"You mean the ’Nine Heavens Flying Dragon Jade-faced Thunder Origin Universal Transformation of Living Beings Demon-subduing Longevity True Monarch’!?"

Lin Yue: "..."

"...Y-Yes."

A corner of Xu De’s mouth lifted into a smirk.

"Beg me."

"I’m begging you..."

Lin Yue pressed her palms together in a plea, lowering her head without a shred of pride. Her fair neck was flushed red.

Clearly, she now deeply regretted the "cool" things she had said to Xu De before.

Likewise, she didn’t want to suffer a social death!

Suffering a social death in front of one person was better than suffering one in front of many.

"Don’t worry, I won’t reveal it," Xu De agreed with a smile.

Lin Yue breathed a sigh of relief, and the two of them walked into the temple.

...

...

「Seven in the evening. Lusen City, Nanshan District.」

"Sigh, why did it turn out like this..."

The programmer Wang Yu got off work. His face was weary as he drove home.

On the way, he watched the stream of traffic outside his car window, and his thoughts couldn’t help but wander.

Wang Yu was an honest man, or perhaps it’s better to say he was a normal man.

He didn’t like going to especially dim bars, he didn’t sleep around, and he didn’t solicit prostitutes. Before getting married, he’d only ever had one girlfriend.

After marriage, he maintained a proper distance from other women.

To give his wife and child a good life, he worked tirelessly at his job.

In the year 2003, at just 29 years old, his monthly salary was already two thousand seven hundred!

You have to understand, a certain incredibly formidable lawyer who could crush Gold Medal Lawyers had only earned a total of three thousand seven hundred over three months, and that wasn’t even counting his out-of-pocket expenses...

But even so...

...he had still ended up in his current predicament.

Wang Yu didn’t understand what had gone wrong. He clearly hadn’t done anything wrong!

Yet things had still escalated to this point—a shattered mess, where both sides were ready for a fight to the death in court...

"SCREECH~"

In a daze, the car braked. Wang Yu snapped back to his senses. Without realizing it, he had driven back to his residential community and was now parked in his spot.

"Hooo~"

A weary smile appeared on Wang Yu’s face.

He had a relatively free day today. He’d taken some time at noon to meet with a lawyer, he didn’t have to work overtime, and now he could go home and see his child...

At this thought, he stopped dwelling on his troubles and opened the car door.