Xu De

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Xu De was orphaned young and reached Yanda University despite an interrupted early education. He graduated in 1999 and joined Greenwood City’s Jinmao Law Firm after his internship. In his previous life, he had been a company’s chief legal officer; after being killed by a drunk driver, he awoke in the body of his younger, parallel-world self in 2002 1 31 35.

At Jinmao, team leader Sun Hao had restricted his opportunities. Xu De’s successful consultation with Zhang Hu—and then his performance in the criminal case Sun assigned hoping he would fail—changed how the firm viewed him. Xu De intended to leave and open a partnership firm; by the time of Wang Qiang’s retrial, Lin Yue and Wang Chao had agreed to join him 1 3 35 40.

Appearance

Xu De appears young and wears glasses and a fitted black suit while working 1 10 11.

• Dress: Business suit and polished leather shoes 5 11.
• Bearing: Described as straight-backed and composed when meeting Wang Mei 11.

Personality

Xu De favors aggressive, unconventional tactics but repeatedly insists on keeping them legally defensible. He prepares statutory arguments to support plans that alarm even Lin Yue, and he refuses Chen Wei’s proposal to trade Wang Mei’s custody claim for help in her father’s criminal case 12 16 18.

He is also attentive to people’s motives. He recognizes that a wary scavenger child distrusts straightforward charity and makes accepting food seem like payment for a small task. With clients, he is reassuring; with opponents, he can be blunt or deliberately provocative 4 12 15 30.

Abilities & Skills

Legal Strategy and Advocacy

• Reframes disputes around what each party wants: he advises Zhang Hu to resist an immediate divorce, then identifies custody as Li Youcai and Liu Cui’s chief concern in Wang Qiang’s case 2 13.
• Uses an initial “act of bravery” argument to draw attention to the continuing trafficking and confinement of Wang Mei, disrupting the prosecution’s treatment of Li Erniu’s death as an isolated killing 26 35.
• Argues that Wang Qiang’s struggle was continuous lawful defense, invoking Article 20 and special defense after Li Erniu took up a sickle 42 43 44.

Case-Reward System

• Can see case offers and receive rewards tied to client satisfaction. The system grants gratitude coins and may grant skills; its stated criminal-case reward includes a skill drawn from the client 1 8.
• Uses gratitude coins to upgrade skills, as demonstrated by his Cooking Lv. 2 upgrade 3.

Cooking

• At Cooking Lv. 2, prepares food he judges comparable to that of a successful restaurant 3.

Relationships

• Zhang Hu — First consultation client after Xu De’s arrival in the parallel world. Zhang follows his divorce advice and credits him for helping build an extortion case against his wife’s lover 1 2 9.
• Wang Qiang — Legal-aid client whose killing of Li Erniu becomes Xu De’s first criminal homicide defense. Xu De secures his acquittal 5 8 35 50.
• Wang Mei — Wang Qiang’s daughter. Xu De supports her effort to keep custody of Li Yang without sacrificing her father’s defense 12 15 32.
• Lin Yue — Lawyer and collaborator on the custody case; challenges Xu De’s methods before agreeing to join his planned firm 11 18 40.
• Wang Chao — Helps recover Li Yang from Li Family Village and accepts Xu De’s offer of a 20% stake in the planned firm 32 34 40.
• Sun Hao — Jinmao team leader who obstructs Xu De and assigns him the difficult legal-aid case expecting failure 1 5 16 35.
• Chen Wei — Opposing lawyer in Wang Qiang’s case, whose proposed custody-for-forgiveness bargain Xu De rejects 12 17.
• Li Xiang — Detective who accompanies Xu De to Li Family Village and later helps connect him with Wang Qiang’s defense 5 8.

Story Role / Major Arcs

• Zhang Hu consultation: Xu De turns an apparently unproductive divorce consultation into a strategy suited to Zhang’s wish for lawful revenge. Zhang later reports his wife’s lover for extortion 1 2 9.
• Wang Mei’s rescue: Assigned to a trafficking legal-aid case, Xu De accompanies police and Wang Mei’s parents to Li Family Village. After Li Erniu attacks Wang Qiang and dies, Xu De takes up Wang’s defense 5 7 8.
• Custody and evidence: Xu De helps bring Li Yang to Wang Mei, obtains an old IOU linking Li Youcai and Liu Cui to her purchase, and secures a forgiveness letter and settlement agreement from them 32 33 39 40.
• Wang Qiang trial: His first hearing forces a reassessment of the prosecution’s case and draws citywide attention. At the later hearing, he contests the revised charges through self-defense arguments; Wang Qiang is acquitted 26 30 34 42 44 50.

Notable Quotes

“Custody and a win in the criminal case... I want both!” 12

“I never do anything illegal.” 18