novelden Chapter 878 Growing up
Chapter 878 Growing up
"Miss! You are finally awake!" The figure in the emerald green skirt rushed to the bedside, and the crying voice made Lin Xia's eardrum hurt. The maid Xiao Cui's eyes were swollen like peaches, and the silver bells in her hair swayed gently with her sobs. The neon lights outside the glass curtain wall twisted into colorful light bands in the rainstorm. My knuckles were white as I clenched the termination agreement. In the conference room on the 22nd floor of Tianshu Law Firm, the central air conditioner made a low hum. Seven partners sat around the ebony long table, their eyes cutting into my face like scalpels. "Lin Yan, are you sure you want to withdraw from the merger and acquisition team?" Senior partner Zhou Zhengguo turned the platinum pen, and the tip of the pen made a harsh sound on the contract. Three months ago, in the cross-border merger and acquisition case, I was the lead lawyer in New York and fought all night for 72 hours, but at the celebration banquet, I heard the recording of his conversation with the client - it turned out that the deal we fought so hard for was just a pawn in the capital game. "Lawyer Zhou should know better than me that the agreement is a scam." I slammed the USB drive on the table, and Zhou Zhengguo's flattering laughter in the recording echoed in the confined space. Partner Su Man suddenly chuckled, and her scarlet nails scratched across her collarbone: "Young people are naive. Isn't a law firm a place to clean up the ass of rich people?" The moment the rainstorm hit the French window, the whole building suddenly fell into darkness. When the emergency lights came on, I saw Su Man's lips painted with Dior999 grinning in the green light, and the Patek Philippe on her wrist glowed coldly in the dark. This woman climbed all the way from a low-level lawyer to a partner, and her methods were more ruthless than I thought. The next day, I ran into the new intern Shen Xing in the tea room. She was holding a stack of documents, and the second button of her white shirt was crooked, like a panicked deer. "Lawyer Lin, this is what Lawyer Zhou asked me to organize..." Before she finished speaking, the documents suddenly scattered all over the floor. When I bent down to help her pick it up, I caught a glimpse of the yellowed newspaper at the bottom - the founding report of Tianshu Law Firm in 1998. The founders in the photo were full of vigor and vitality, but now only Zhou Zhengguo is left to hold the power. "Xiao Lin, come to my office." Zhou Zhengguo's voice came from behind him. The smell of Cuban cigars mixed with cologne on him was nauseating. The mahogany bookshelf was filled with gold-plated trophies, but the most conspicuous position was a group photo - Zhou Zhengguo in his youth hugged a thin man, with a dilapidated tube building in the background. "Do you know why Su Man targeted you?" He suddenly spoke and pushed the whiskey in front of me. "Her husband ran away with the money, and I helped her win the divorce lawsuit. From then on, she was mine." The glass reflected strange spots of light under the desk lamp. I remembered how Su Man calmly took out a lighter from her handbag when the power went out last night. In the following days, I became the "thorn" of the law firm. When Su Man took over the unfinished building project of the real estate developer, I secretly contacted the deceived owners; when Zhou Zhengguo was about to help the pharmaceutical company cover up the clinical trial scandal, I leaked the data to the media. But every counterattack was exchanged for a more violent retaliation - my case was rejected without reason, my assistant was transferred to sort out old files, and even my father's small law firm received anonymous complaints. "Lawyer Lin, someone is looking for you." The voice of the front desk was uneasy. At the door of the law firm, there was an old woman with gray hair sitting, with a faded cloth bag on her knees, which contained a stack of yellowed letters. "I'm here to see Zhou Zhengguo." Tears welled up in her turbid eyes, "Thirty years ago, he and my son agreed to open the most fair law firm..." It turned out that Zhou Zhengguo's childhood friend, the thin man in the photo, was framed for exposing the client's dark secrets in the early days of his business, and committed suicide after being wrongfully imprisoned. The old woman trembled as she unfolded the last letter: "A Zheng, remember our original intention, the law should not be a toy for the rich." There were still traces of dried tears on the edge of the letter paper. When I rushed into Zhou Zhengguo's office clutching the letter, he was conspiring with Su Man. "Do you think you can feel at ease if you keep a secret?" I threw the letter in front of him. "Look at what you are like now. What's the difference between you and those people you once hated?" Su Man suddenly laughed shrilly: "Naive! Without interests, who would support this law firm with 22 people?" That night, I worked overtime in the law firm until late at night. Shen Xing timidly handed me a cup of coffee, "Lawyer Lin, I found out that Su Man has dealings with overseas money laundering groups." She turned on the computer, and the dense flow of funds on the screen was shocking. At this moment, there was a sound of glass breaking outside the window - someone threw a laptop from the nd floor, which was the one where I stored all the evidence. The next day, I was accused of leaking client secrets. The investigation letter from the Bar Association was on the table, and Zhou Zhengguo patted my shoulder hypocritically: "Xiao Lin, resign voluntarily, I can still guarantee that your license will not be revoked." I stared at the jade ring on his ring finger, which was the stolen goods he "legally" took over from the fallen officials. Just as I was about to leave, Shen Xing suddenly stopped me. Her white shirt was stained with ink, but her eyes were unusually firm: "I have contacted other partners, and they are willing to support you." In the conference room, the six partners stood in a rare united front, and the floor-to-ceiling windows behind them reflected the lights of the entire city. The final showdown took place at the shareholders' meeting. When I made the evidence of Su Man's money laundering public, her carefully maintained elegance finally collapsed. Zhou Zhengguo looked at the angry shareholders below the stage, and his hands trembled slightly as he took off his glasses to wipe the lenses. "You won." When he said this, he seemed to have aged ten years in an instant, "But the law firm is not a utopia. Without interests, what is justice?" I stood on the top floor of the law firm and looked at the "Tianshu" plaque that was hung again. Shen Xing came over with the newly signed public interest litigation case file, and the buttons of her white shirt were finally buttoned. In the distance, warm lights lit up in my father's small law firm. Perhaps, as the old woman said, the scales of law may tilt, but there will always be someone willing to be the one to calibrate the scale. Three months later, Tianshu Law Firm launched a restructuring plan. We dismissed all the lawyers who only pursued profits and established a public interest law department. Su Man was prosecuted for money laundering, and Zhou Zhengguo sold all his property and donated it to the legal aid fund. On the day he left, I returned the yellowed photo to him. The smiles of the two teenagers in the photo were exactly the same as they were years ago. Late one night when I was working overtime, Shen Xing suddenly asked me: "Lawyer Lin, do you think the law firm can always keep its original intention?" I looked at the bright city night view outside the window and remembered what my father often said: "The law is a cold clause, but the human heart can be warm." The sound of an ambulance siren came from the distance. A new case may be happening, but I know that this time, we will not let justice be absent again.