Li Xuezhen

Biodata

Background / History

Li Xuezhen is a top final-year law student and Feng Lijian’s favored final protégée. Her teacher and senior fellow students offered to arrange an internship at a court or a prestigious Red Circle firm. She instead chose a small practice, hoping to develop her skills without relying on their influence or encountering seniors who might bring her back into their professional circle 3.

She joined White Jun Law Firm through an unpaid internship advertised by its previous owner. Her first day immediately involved a criminal appeal—the field she had always wanted to enter. Although her academic background was strong, she initially lacked experience with the practical and interpersonal demands of litigation 3 4.

Her family is wealthy enough that proof of only a small portion of its assets satisfied Ye Fei’s screening for an exclusive fan group. Li Xuezhen concealed this from Su Bai by claiming she had found the documents online. Despite having no shortage of family money, she valued internship wages as evidence of her own independence 21 40.

Appearance

• Young university student: Described as bright-eyed, with a small face and an earnest expression 3 37.
• Dimples: Two dimples appear when she smiles 20.
• Expressive reactions: She bounces on her toes when celebrating the firm’s first courtroom victory 14.

Personality

Li Xuezhen is ambitious, diligent, and eager for courtroom experience. She repeatedly travels between the firm and courthouse without pay, arrives early, and declines an amusement-park outing to continue her internship. Her willingness to work comes from wanting a meaningful role in real cases rather than merely building an impressive résumé 5 20.

She has a strong moral reaction to exploitation. Zhang Tongwei’s treatment by his wife angers her, and she condemns Ye Fei’s advice about obtaining spouses’ premarital property. At the same time, she initially questions whether Su Bai’s informal networking and engineered recusal are improper, requiring reassurance before participating 4 18 20 22.

Her early fear of losing develops into enthusiastic admiration for Su Bai after two successful cases. She accepts his promise of a future partnership seriously, though she is not entirely unquestioning: when he finally pays her, she admits she had wondered whether the wage offer was another empty promise 3 32 36 50.

Abilities & Skills

Legal Research and Case Preparation

• Reviews trial files and summarizes the prosecution’s arguments for Su Bai 3.
• Takes notes during client interviews and organizes case materials 4 18.
• Prepares submission paperwork, prints retainer agreements, and submits filing documents to court 4 19 21.
• Recognizes the difficulty of overturning matching first- and second-instance judgments without decisive new evidence or reasoning 3.
• Remains a trainee: Su Bai directs the litigation strategy and supplies the principal courtroom arguments 4 24 39.

Evidence Collection

• Investigates Ye Fei’s videos and comments while posing as a housewife seeking divorce advice 20.
• Uses family asset documents to gain entry to Ye Fei’s exclusive fan group 21.
• Is instructed to preserve screenshots, download videos, and record any advisory calls 21.
• Her fan-group access becomes central to defending the source and legality of the evidence presented against Ye Fei 26.

Professional Connections and Judicial Research

• Secures an immediate meeting with Qi Feng after detention-center staff initially indicate a two-day wait 38.
• Attributes the assistance to an older schoolmate; Su Bai interprets the contact as part of her mentor’s professional network 39.
• Researches Lin Youping’s background and obtains information about his personality from Feng Lijian 40.
• Her findings help Su Bai assess the importance of public opinion in Lin Youping’s decision-making 50.

Practical Training Under Su Bai

Story Role / Major Arcs

Promoting White Jun Law Firm

• Repeatedly advertises the firm beneath Luo Daxiang’s videos, hoping to attract cases and gain litigation experience 16 34.
• Suggests livestreamed legal education after advice from her roommate; Su Bai declines because he expects unsuitable attention and little paid work 34 35.
• Her advertising account receives Luo Daxiang’s referral for Qi Feng’s case 35.
• Hands out flyers with Su Bai for three days before they abandon the campaign for the Northern Capital opportunity 36.
• Prepares a promotional banner for Qi Feng’s hearing, but Su Bai puts it away after the victory 50.

Relationships

• Su Bai — Supervising lawyer and practical mentor. His courtroom successes earn her admiration, and his promise of eventual partnership becomes an important motivation 4 32 36 50.
• Feng Lijian — Academic mentor who deeply favors his final disciple and offers to intervene if she encounters trouble during her internship. She consults him about Lin Youping while claiming to be helping a friend 40.
• Senior fellow students — Established legal professionals who offer career opportunities and advice. One presided over Wang Li’s second trial; others warn her about the limitations of small-firm internships 3 32.
• Luo Daxiang — Legal commentator whose videos she uses for advertising. He contacts her with the death-penalty case that takes the firm to the Northern Capital 34 35 36.
• Ye Fei — Opposing lawyer whom she investigates. Li Xuezhen asks whether Ye Fei can be imprisoned and celebrates when the verdict does so 20 26 28 31.
• Unnamed roommate — Friend who invites her on outings, suggests legal-education livestreaming, and congratulates her on the Northern Capital business trip 20 34 36.

Notable Quotes

“It's been okay. Not too tiring. It's fulfilling, and I've been learning a lot.” 20

“Lawyer Su, you really sent it? I thought you were just dangling empty promises in front of me...” 50

Trivia

• Her university is repeatedly identified as Nandu University of Law, although the résumé discussion in Chapter 15 calls it CUPL, and her explanation of a detention-center contact mentions Southern Law University 3 15 20 39 40.
• When Su Bai questions her unusually strong résumé, she claims to have invented its contents. His microexpression observation indicates that this denial is itself a lie 15.