Recaps

After crossing into his parallel-world self, lawyer Xu De accepted a difficult marital case and learned that client Zhang Hu wanted revenge on his unfaithful wife. Xu De offered to help him take revenge entirely within the law.

• Xu De regained his memories in the restroom and realized he had crossed into his 2002 self, a lawyer at Jinmao Law Firm.
• Sun Hao assigned Xu De a troublesome consultation in Reception Room 103, and Xu De accepted after a mysterious case system appeared.
• Xu De met Zhang Hu, who explained that his wife had cheated and that he feared losing half his assets in a divorce.
• Xu De told Zhang Hu that the law generally entitled his wife to a share of marital assets despite her infidelity.
• Xu De recognized that Zhang Hu wanted revenge and offered to help him pursue it within the law.

Xu De advised Zhang Hu to delay divorce and reduce his apparent income and marital expenses, leaving Zhang Hu eager to follow the plan. After Zhang Hu paid for the consultation, Xu De warned him that the man threatening to release videos could face severe punishment for extortion, and Xu De received a new skill reward.

• Xu De persuaded Zhang Hu to stay married and described ways to limit the money he gave his wife, including charging rent, lowering his salary, and handling his company shares.
• Zhang Hu accepted Xu De's advice, paid 999 yuan for the consultation, and left planning to tell his wife he would not divorce her.
• Xu De asked about the third party's threats and explained that demanding money to suppress the videos could constitute extortion; Zhang Hu became even more impressed with him.
• Xu De received ten gratitude coins and the Cooking Lv. 1 talent skill after Zhang Hu praised his service.
• A female lawyer asked Xu De whether he had resolved the consultation in Reception Room 103.

Xu De settled the difficult consultation, earned praise, and planned to leave his law firm after taking a criminal case. Meanwhile, Zhang Hu followed Xu De’s advice by refusing to divorce Bai Jie or give her money, leaving her confused and angry.

• Xu De’s colleagues learned that he had settled the Room 103 consultation and that the satisfied client had paid him nearly 1,700 yuan, humiliating Sun Hao.
• Sun Hao decided to assign Xu De a demanding criminal legal-aid case to test his ability.
• Xu De spent his gratitude coins to raise his cooking skill, made an impressive meal, and planned to feed two scrap-collecting brothers on his way to work.
• Xu De resolved to seek a criminal case and eventually leave Jinmao Law Firm, then wondered how Zhang Hu was handling his wife.
• Bai Jie brought Zhang Hu a property-division agreement, but Zhang Hu tore it up and repeatedly told her he loved her while refusing both divorce and money.

Xu De encountered Lin Yue while bringing food to a wary boy, then returned to Jinmao Law Firm, where Sun Hao assigned him a criminal case. The chapter left Xu De facing a new case from his suspicious team leader.

• Xu De brought leftovers to a hungry boy in an alley and got him to accept the food by making him follow instructions.
• Lin Yue asked Xu De why the boy trusted him, and Xu De explained that acting suspiciously could make his motives seem clear.
• Xu De and Lin Yue exchanged evasive introductions, and Lin Yue gave herself an extravagant Taoist title.
• Xu De arrived at Jinmao Law Firm and reflected on Lin Yue's unusually long name.
• Sun Hao praised Xu De's recent work and assigned him the criminal case his team had received.

Xu De accepted a criminal legal aid case and traveled with Detective Li Xiang and Wang Qiang and Sun Hong to rescue Wang Mei, their daughter who had been abducted and sold ten years earlier. The group arrived at the remote Li Family Village, where Wang Mei was being held.

• Sun Hao gave Xu De a legal aid contract, and Xu De signed it before leaving with Detective Li Xiang.
• On the minibus, Xu De met his clients, Wang Qiang and Sun Hong, and learned that their daughter Wang Mei had been abducted and sold in 1992.
• Li Xiang explained that police had found Wang Mei, now twenty-four with a six-year-old child, but had been unable to bring her home; Xu De was to pursue charges and protect the family's legal interests.
• Xu De and the police traveled along increasingly rough roads toward the mountains outside Greenwood City.
• Old Zhang announced that they had reached Li Family Village, where Wang Mei was being held.

Li Xiang and the officers rescued Wang Mei from a locked woodshed in Li Family Village and reunited her with her father, Wang Qiang. As they tried to flee with her, an armed crowd of villagers surrounded their minibus and blocked the way out.

• Li Xiang led six officers into the village and broke into the woodshed where Wang Mei had been imprisoned.
• Wang Qiang recognized his daughter after ten years apart, embraced her, and Wang Mei asked, "What took y'all so long...?"
• Li Xiang freed Wang Mei from the chain around her ankle and ordered the group to leave before the gathering villagers could overwhelm them.
• Wang Mei remembered her child, but Xu De urged the officers to get her out first, saying the child would not be harmed.
• The villagers surrounded the minibus with hoes and sickles, and Old Zhang asked Li Xiang what they should do.

Xu De tried to persuade Li Family Village to let Wang Mei leave by inventing a household-registration and benefits pretext, but Li Erniu arrived and dragged her off the bus. A brawl erupted, and Li Erniu was fatally stabbed with a sickle as the villagers fell silent and Zhang Cui screamed that there had been a murder.

• Li Xiang faced the angry villagers while Xu De claimed the police were taking Wang Mei to arrange her household registration and secure benefits for her son.
• Li Erniu arrived, rejected Xu De's explanation, and climbed aboard the bus, then seized Wang Mei and tried to drag her outside.
• Wang Qiang bit Li Erniu's hand and shoved him off the bus, triggering a fight as the villagers surrounded the vehicle.
• Li Xiang fired a warning shot, forcing the villagers to back away and drop their weapons.
• Wang Qiang stood beside Li Xiang while Li Erniu rose with a sickle wound in his abdomen, then collapsed and died.
• Zhang Cui screamed that there had been a murder.

Xu De accepted the abduction case and offered Wang Qiang unusual help after Wang Qiang killed Li Erniu while rescuing Wang Mei. The next morning, Wang Qiang asked for Xu De as his lawyer, while Li Xiang was reassigned to investigate an extortion claim involving three million.

• Xu De accepted the abduction case and offered Wang Qiang help as the police bus carried him away from the scene.
• Li Youcai and Zhang Cui caused a disturbance at the police station, demanding money and Wang Mei, then left to find a lawyer.
• Li Xiang told Wang Qiang that Wang Mei and her mother were safe and that a custody case had been filed for Wang Mei's son.
• Wang Qiang explained how Wang Mei had been abducted ten years earlier and asked Li Xiang to have Xu De take his case.
• Wu Kang told Li Xiang to investigate Zhang Hu's claim that his wife's lover had extorted three million from him.

Li Xiang investigated Zhang Hu’s report that his wife’s lover had extorted three million from him, then arrested the suspect. Zhang Hu credited Xu De for helping him prepare the evidence, while Li Xiang hoped the lawyer could also help Wang Qiang, who remained in custody.

• Wu Kang assigned Li Xiang to investigate Zhang Hu’s three-million extortion complaint and arrest the suspect.
• Zhang Hu gave Li Xiang the calls, texts, and transfer evidence, explaining that Xu De had advised him how to handle the extortion.
• Li Xiang learned that Zhang Hu trusted Xu De and revealed that the Lawyers Association planned to visit Xu De’s Jinmao Law Firm about a case.
• Li Xiang led officers to arrest Zhang Hu’s wife’s lover, who had not expected Zhang Hu to report him.
• After the arrest, Li Xiang looked toward Wang Qiang’s holding room and worried that even good people could face a harsh fate.

Wang Mei won custody of her child, but Li Youcai and Liu Cui threatened her and her family, leaving her devastated over Wang Qiang’s pending criminal case. Xu De appeared and offered the women unusual help.

• After the court appointed Xu De to Wang Qiang’s criminal case, he welcomed the chance to take it on.
• The judge awarded custody to Wang Mei, and Li Youcai and Liu Cui shouted abuse and threatened her and Wang Qiang outside the courthouse.
• Wang Mei collapsed in despair, torn between keeping her child and fear that her father would be convicted.
• The lawyer explained that Wang Qiang might need the victim’s family’s forgiveness to avoid a severe sentence, while Sun Hong comforted her daughter.
• Xu De arrived and told Wang Mei and Sun Hong that they seemed to need an unusual kind of help.

Xu De met Lin Yue, who agreed to help with Wang Qiang’s murder case, while Chen Wei took the opposing side to represent Li Youcai and Liu Cui. The chapter ended with Lin Yue asking Xu De whether he thought the defense could win.

• Xu De introduced himself to Wang Mei as her defense lawyer and recognized Lin Yue, teasing her about her grand Taoist title.
• Li Youcai and Liu Cui hired Chen Wei to represent their interests, including seeking custody of their grandson.
• Chen Wei planned to confront the defense lawyer at the police station and exploit the case’s poor odds for the defense.
• Wang Mei and Xu Hong went to the police station to deliver the court ruling while Xu De and Lin Yue waited in the lobby.
• Lin Yue explained that she was not a Taoist priest and had invented her title as a joke, then asked Xu De whether he could win Wang Qiang’s case.

Xu De rejected Chen Wei’s demand to trade custody of Wang Mei’s child for leniency in Wang Qiang’s homicide case, insisting he could win both custody and the criminal case. He then proposed that he and Lin Yue “steal” the child, claiming the plan would be legal, and left her stunned.

• Lin Yue assessed that Wang Qiang could face a death sentence with a reprieve or be acquitted on self-defense grounds, and suggested trading custody for a retracted statement and a Letter of Understanding.
• Chen Wei offered Xu De a chance at reduced criminal liability in exchange for Wang Mei giving up custody, but Xu De refused and insulted him.
• Chen Wei left vowing to pressure the case against Wang Qiang, while prosecutors Hu Guang, Wang Wei, and Zhang Qing discussed the unfavorable evidence and the coming trial.
• Xu De told Lin Yue that his plan to win both custody and the criminal case was to steal the child, and he insisted the plan would be legal.

Xu De explained to Lin Yue why Li Youcai and Liu Cui would trade Wang Qiang’s fate for custody of their grandson, and how the different timelines gave them leverage. He said he wanted to steal the child to create urgency, but the chapter ended before he explained how.

• Lin Yue objected when Xu De proposed stealing the child, and he insisted their plan was legal.
• Xu De explained that Li Youcai and Liu Cui valued their grandson as the continuation of their family line, making custody more important to them than Li Erniu’s death.
• Xu De pointed out that Wang Mei and Li Youcai wanted different outcomes in Wang Qiang’s criminal case and the custody case.
• Xu De showed Lin Yue that Wang Qiang’s trial was only fifteen days away, while custody enforcement could take a year or more, leaving Wang Mei’s side more desperate.
• Xu De said he wanted to steal the child to create urgency.

Xu De explained that Li Youcai and Liu Cui could not risk Wang Qiang’s death while they still wanted to get the child, so he planned to take the child and threaten them instead. Lin Yue questioned how that could possibly be legal, and Xu De insisted that he followed the law.

• Xu De told Lin Yue that Wang Qiang was Li Youcai’s only leverage, but Li Youcai could not let him die without losing any chance of getting the child.
• Lin Yue realized that Xu De had found a way to put Wang Mei on equal footing with Li Youcai and Liu Cui.
• Xu De rejected Lin Yue’s suggestion to negotiate and said he would threaten them after taking the child.
• Lin Yue warned that taking the child and making threats would be illegal, but Xu De claimed his plan was legal and aboveboard.
• Lin Yue challenged Xu De to explain how any part of his plan was legal.

Xu De told Wang Mei and Xu Hong that he had a lawful way to save both Wang Mei’s child and her father, Wang Qiang, and promised to prepare a detailed plan. After returning to Jinmao Law Firm, he brushed off Sun Hao’s request for help with clients.

• Xu De insisted to Lin Yue that his proposed actions would be lawful and said he needed her cooperation and another capable helper.
• Wang Mei told Xu De that she wanted time with her child before Wang Qiang went to trial, but the police could not make Li Youcai and Liu Cui hand the child over immediately.
• Xu De said Wang Mei would not have to choose between her child and Wang Qiang, and promised to prepare a detailed plan for Lin Yue.
• Xu De gave Wang Mei and Xu Hong his phone number, reassured them about the Wang Qiang Case, and left the police station.
• Lin Yue reassured Wang Mei that Xu De probably was not lying, while wondering whether his unusual claims could be legal.
• Xu De returned to Jinmao Law Firm and told Sun Hao he was too busy to help with the clients coming in the next day.

Xu De resisted Sun Hao’s attempt to make him abandon Wang Qiang’s murder case and prepared legal arguments for the trial. Sun Hao secretly gave rival attorney Chen Wei information about Xu De, while Lin Yue remained troubled by Xu De’s legal theory until he invited her to see his completed work at Jinmao Law Firm.

• Xu De refused Sun Hao’s demand to follow the team’s arrangements and began drafting legal support for his strategy in Wang Qiang’s case.
• Sun Hao secretly told Chen Wei that Xu De was inexperienced, hoping Xu De would lose the case and disappoint the director.
• Chen Wei assured Li Youcai and Liu Cui that he would seek the death penalty for Wang Qiang, but agreed to ask for a letter of forgiveness in exchange for the child and support in their old age.
• Lin Yue spent days puzzling over whether Xu De’s proposed strategy was legal and grew frustrated that he had not explained it.
• Xu De texted Lin Yue that he had finished putting everything together and invited her to Jinmao Law Firm the next day; she eagerly agreed to come see it.

Xu De rejected Chen Wei’s attempt to get his client to sign a Letter of Understanding before Wang Qiang’s trial. Lin Yue recognized that events matched Xu De’s prediction and asked if his next move would be illegal; he said she had guessed right, but insisted he would not break the law.

• Xu De gave leftovers to a child scavenger before heading to Jinmao Law Firm.
• Chen Wei told Xu De that Wang Qiang’s trial was five days away and pressed him to accept a Letter of Understanding from the victim’s family.
• Xu De refused to sign, and Chen Wei left angrily, warning that they would meet in court.
• Lin Yue overheard their conversation and Xu De teased her for listening at the reception room door.
• Lin Yue realized that the victim’s family was using the Letter of Understanding as leverage, as Xu De had predicted twelve days earlier.
• Lin Yue asked whether Xu De planned to do something illegal, and he said she had guessed right but that he would not break the law.

Xu De convinced Lin Yue that taking the child from Li Youcai and Liu Cui could be framed as lawful because Wang Mei held custody and guardianship. He then revealed a defense document claiming Wang Qiang had voluntarily surrendered after heroically protecting a police officer, leaving Lin Yue stunned and questioning his plan.

• Xu De argued that child abduction did not apply because Li Youcai and Liu Cui lacked guardianship, while Wang Mei was the child's legal guardian and had won the custody case.
• Lin Yue accepted that Xu De's proposed child-taking might be legally defensible, then worried that he would act too late to help before the hearing.
• Xu De said the child was leverage against the plaintiffs, not a tactic for the hearing, and presented his planned defense document.
• Lin Yue read claims that Wang Qiang had stopped a human trafficker while protecting a police officer and that Li Erniu's death resulted from his own attempted murder.
• Lin Yue demanded to know why Xu De was claiming Wang Qiang had voluntarily turned himself in and heroically protected an armed police officer.

Xu De proposed an unconventional but lawful defense for Wang Qiang and asked Lin Yue to find him a male lawyer, while Chen Wei assured Li Youcai and Liu Cui that they would win the upcoming hearing. Chen Wei then turned to newspaper coverage of the Li Family Village case as a way to gauge public opinion.

• Xu De told Lin Yue he would argue that Wang Qiang had caused Li Erniu's death while protecting a police officer, and asked her to find him a male lawyer.
• Lin Yue agreed to contact a capable law graduate she knew, despite her misgivings about Xu De's tactics.
• Chen Wei returned to Yang Teng Law Firm and learned that Li Youcai and Liu Cui were waiting to hear whether Wang Mei had signed a Letter of Understanding.
• Chen Wei told Li Youcai and Liu Cui that Wang Mei had refused to sign, then reassured them that they would prevail at the hearing in five days.
• Chen Wei sought out a newspaper to assess public opinion about the Li Family Village case and found a report about it.

Lin Guodong discussed the difficult Li Family Village trafficking case and agreed to advise his daughter Lin Yue, who had been struggling with a legal question. The chapter ended with Lin Yue asking whether stealing a child was illegal, leaving Lin Guodong stunned.

• At a breakfast stall, Lin Guodong explained that Wang Qiang's defense seemed nearly impossible because the available evidence came from Li Family Village and favored the deceased trafficker, Li Erniu.
• Lin Guodong told his wife, Su Xin, that he felt troubled by the case and the dilemmas of law, but she suggested he help Lin Yue with her work on a related child-custody case.
• Lin Guodong went to Lin Yue's room and found her studying the Criminal Code after spending several days wrestling with a problem.
• Lin Guodong offered his expertise, and Lin Yue asked him whether stealing a child was really illegal.
• Lin Guodong froze in disbelief and asked whether Lin Yue had a fever.

Lin Yue asked her father, Lin Guodong, whether taking a child from relatives would be illegal in Wang Mei’s custody case, and showed him Xu De’s legal analysis. Lin Guodong could find no law against the plan and called it immoral instead, leaving him shaken and questioning his wife about child theft.

• Lin Yue asked Lin Guodong whether a lawyer could legally take a child when the child’s mother held custody and had already won a court ruling.
• Lin Guodong realized she meant Wang Mei’s case and warned her that taking the child would be wrong, but he struggled to identify a law it would violate.
• Lin Yue showed him Xu De’s detailed documents arguing that Wang Mei and her lawyer could retrieve the child without breaking the law.
• Lin Guodong read the analysis repeatedly, then declared the plan immoral and a violation of professional ethics rather than illegal.
• Lin Yue left to change for dinner, while Lin Guodong remained stunned and later asked Su Xin whether stealing a child was illegal.

As the Li Family Village Case drew public attention, prosecutors, judges, and lawyers prepared for the first trial while Xu De’s defense submitted no evidence. The trial began on November 10, leaving the courtroom battle about to unfold.

• Lin Guodong told Su Xin to wait for the trial in two days, hinting that Greenwood City’s prosecutors and judges would be in for a surprise.
• Prosecutor Hu Guang learned that Chen Wei had gathered witness statements in Li Family Village, while defendant’s lawyer Xu De had submitted no evidence.
• Judge Liu Jianguo worried that the defense might be overwhelmed at the public trial, but Presiding Judge Zhang Bingxin ordered preparations to proceed as usual.
• Chen Wei reviewed his documents, Hu Guang and Wang Wei checked the prosecution’s materials, and Xu De finished writing a document as public discussion of the case intensified.
• On November 10, the first trial of the Li Family Village Case began.

Reporters Zhang Xia and Zhang Wang arrived at the packed Greenwood City Intermediate People's Court just before the Li Family Village Case began. The judges, prosecution, plaintiffs, defendant Wang Qiang, and his rookie defense lawyer took their places, and Presiding Judge Zhang Bingxin opened the hearing by identifying the murder case.

• Zhang Xia and Zhang Wang reached the courthouse as the prisoner transport van carrying Wang Qiang arrived.
• Zhang Xia joined reporter Liu in the crowded courtroom and learned that the case would be heard by the First Criminal Division, Team One, including chief judge Zhang Bingxin.
• Prosecutor Hu Guang and his team took their seats alongside the victim's parents, Li Youcai and Liu Cui, and their lawyer, Chen Wei.
• Wang Qiang entered between court bailiffs, followed by his young defense lawyer, Xu De, whose lack of criminal case experience surprised the gallery.
• Zhang Bingxin and the other judges took the bench, and Zhang Bingxin struck the gavel and announced that the case concerned Li Erniu's murder.

At Wang Qiang’s murder trial, the prosecution argued that he intentionally killed Li Erniu, while the victim’s counsel demanded 218,343 yuan in compensation. Xu De rejected their account and claimed Wang had acted to protect seven police officers, leaving the courtroom stunned.

• Presiding Judge Zhang Bingxin opened the trial, and Prosecutor Hu Guang read the indictment charging Wang Qiang with intentional homicide.
• Chen Wei argued that Wang was solely responsible for Li Erniu’s death and sought 218,343 yuan in compensation for Li Youcai and Liu Cui.
• Li Youcai and Liu Cui confirmed Chen Wei’s account and described their loss, while the gallery reacted with disbelief at the compensation demand.
• Zhang Bingxin asked the defense whether it objected to the prosecution’s and plaintiffs’ claims.
• Xu De rejected their accounts as unsupported speculation and declared that Wang had acted to protect seven police officers at the scene.

Defense lawyer Xu De argued that Wang Qiang did not commit intentional homicide but acted courageously to protect seven police officers during a standoff in Li Family Village. The courtroom was left stunned as Xu framed the killing of Li Erniu as an act of courage under Greenwood City regulations.

• Presiding Judge Zhang Bingxin interrupted Xu De to clarify whether the defense claimed Wang Qiang had protected the police, and Xu confirmed it.
• Xu De asked who had been present at the scene, and prosecutor Hu Guang listed six groups, including the police, trafficking victims, villagers, and the people involved in the confrontation.
• Hu Guang argued that Wang Qiang had committed intentional homicide with indirect intent because he knew his actions could cause death and did not stop.
• Xu De challenged the prosecution’s account, claiming Li Erniu struck first and that more than forty armed people had surrounded the police and trafficking victims.
• Xu De declared that Wang Qiang had stepped forward against the lawbreakers to protect the police and qualified as someone who acted courageously under city regulations, leaving the courtroom stunned.