Legal and Aboveboard

An... artificially created sense of urgency?

"That... that doesn't seem right."

Lin Yue's voice was faint, tinged with worry.

She understood what he meant.

They would steal the child away, making the other side experience what it felt like to lose their family line a year early—or even before Wang Qiang went to trial.

Then Li Youcai would be more desperate than Wang Mei, and he naturally wouldn't be so hard-line.

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

"What's wrong with it?" Xu De asked.

"If this enrages Li Youcai, Wang Qiang might..." Lin Yue began hesitantly.

She shouldn't have said that.

The moment she did, Xu De exploded, looking utterly exasperated.

"You really shouldn't have brought that up."

"Because now... I want to laugh."

Before Lin Yue could argue, he laid out the crucial point.

"You need to understand: Wang Qiang is the only bargaining chip Li Youcai has to threaten us with!"

"But that chip is counterfeit!"

"Once Wang Qiang gets a heavy sentence, Li Youcai will lose his only bargaining chip in an instant. After that, he can forget about getting the child. In other words..."

"Li Youcai and Liu Cui don't dare let Wang Qiang die!"

"The only path open to them is a trade. All that talk of letting Wang Qiang die and taking everyone down with him... was never a real possibility!"

The moment those words landed...

Bzzzt!

All at once.

It was as though an invisible current shot from Lin Yue's tailbone to the top of her head, making her scalp tingle.

Lin Yue's eyes widened slightly, shock spreading across her face. It was as if a bolt of enlightenment had cleared the clouds from her mind.

That's right...

Exactly!

They were using the threat to Wang Qiang as leverage to get the child.

But if Wang Qiang died, their leverage would vanish, and they would lose any chance of getting the child!

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

"And they're using something they don't dare do themselves as a threat?"

Xu De laughed in exasperation.

"I hadn't even threatened them yet, and they came threatening me first!?"

"Ridiculous... absolutely ridiculous!"

Honestly, if not for his self-control,

he would have cursed Chen Wei to his face just now!

If anyone was going to make threats, it should have been him!

"This..."

Lin Yue stared at him, dumbstruck.

He was right...

He was absolutely right!

Li Youcai didn't dare follow through on his own threat, yet he was using it against them. It was absurd.

Besides, a court's judgment depended on many factors, not just Li Youcai's word. As long as Xu De handled it well, there was still room to turn things around no matter what Li Youcai said!

But if they refused to hand over the child... then they really wouldn't hand the child over!

In just a few sentences,

he had broken down a case that had seemed utterly hopeless with startling clarity!

And once he had...

she even began to see that, if they followed his approach... they might have the advantage!!!

Lin Yue could hardly believe it. It felt almost dreamlike, unreal.

They had found a way forward... just like that?

She had spent nearly half a month studying the case without finding an answer, while he had taken it on less than a day ago...

"Attorney Xu... how does your brain even work!?" Lin Yue murmured. The instant she realized she had said it aloud, she snapped back to herself.

Her cheeks reddened. She waved her hands, flustered, and hurried to explain:

"I... I didn't mean it like that. I meant you're... amazing!"

She had meant it as praise, not an insult.

Lin Yue had never seen anyone else break down a case like that!

She had studied law since childhood and graduated from Waterwood University, one of the Eastern Kingdom's top institutions. How many outstanding people had she met?

And those people were among the very best in the Eastern Kingdom, a country of over a billion!

Yet even so...

Lin Yue had never met anyone like Xu De. His approach to solving a case seemed to go beyond the study of law itself!

"You flatter me."

Xu De waved a hand and offered the modest reply with a straight face, easing the awkwardness.

Then he gave a cold snort.

"As long as we steal the child away,"

"we won't be the ones panicking anymore."

Only by taking the child could they make Li Youcai realize that his side had reason to be anxious too!

Wang Mei shouldn't have to endure his threats. At the very least, the two sides should face each other as equals across the table.

In fact, on closer inspection, Wang Mei even had the upper hand!

After all, Li Youcai's only bargaining chip was Wang Qiang, but he didn't dare let any harm come to him.

Then Li Youcai and Liu Cui would be left with nowhere to turn.

And Xu De?

"Then we use that to negotiate with them!?" Lin Yue's heartbeat quickened, her eyes growing bright as she ventured a guess.

"Negotiate?"

Xu De frowned and looked at her with clear displeasure.

"We'll have the child, and they won't dare go down fighting... and you still want to negotiate?"

"Then what did I steal the child for!?"

Xu De was deeply dissatisfied and flatly rejected her suggestion.

"Threats."

"We have to threaten them outright!"

"Heh. As for how to make the threat effective enough to affect the criminal case... don't worry about that. I have a plan!"

It came back to the same thing.

Xu De hadn't even threatened them yet.

But Chen Wei and Li Youcai had beaten him to it and threatened him first!?

While they didn't have the child, fine, they could swallow it. The other side hadn't realized how serious the situation was yet.

But...

if Xu De stole the child and they still put up with it... then what was the point of stealing the child!?

And if Li Youcai signed a letter of forgiveness but it still wasn't enough to turn the criminal case around...

then you simply didn't understand what you needed to threaten him into doing!

"You..."

Lin Yue looked at him in astonishment again, feeling as though her entire worldview had been shaken.

She had lost count of how many times she had looked at him like that.

He kept saying things that sent shivers through her!

Never mind stealing a child.

No ordinary lawyer would even say that!

And he was openly talking about making threats.

What decent lawyer kept those two words on the tip of his tongue!?

Was he really a lawyer? With that tone, Lin Yue would believe he was a bank robber if someone changed the setting!

She remembered that the bar exam tested ethics too... How had he passed!?

"Wait."

Lin Yue suddenly caught herself. She shook those thoughts from her head and frowned.

What he had said did make sense.

If they pulled it off... Li Youcai would be at Xu De's mercy!

It was just...

"But this... this is illegal, isn't it?" Lin Yue hesitantly voiced her greatest concern.

"Stealing a child is essentially the same as human trafficking. Honestly... that has to be illegal!"

Stealing the child might work, but that didn't change the fact that it was against the law.

They were lawyers. They couldn't break the law. Professional ethics aside, if the other side reported them... the police would show them exactly what the full force of the state felt like!

Her concern was reasonable.

Except...

"Illegal? What's illegal?"

Xu De frowned and looked at her in confusion, tilting his head.

"What we're doing is completely legal and aboveboard!"

Lin Yue: ?

Le... legal and aboveboard?

She ran through everything he had said, right down to the commas.

Lin Yue couldn't find a shred of legality in it, let alone anything aboveboard.

The Criminal Code would have made a better guide to his plan!

She couldn't hold back another cry:

"You're planning to steal a child and even threaten them! How can that be legal!?"

"Of course it is."

Xu De raised an eyebrow, looking puzzled, and said as though it were obvious:

"Is that so strange?"

"I've gotten by in this world by following the law and the rules."

Lin Yue: ?

Lin Yue's eyes widened, and she couldn't help exclaiming:

"Wait... was a single word of that legal!?"