Chapter 36

“Attorney Li, we’ve gone through all the emails and checked the cloud drive. There’s definitely no information about this company in the basic information email that Le Guang sent us.”

"Where did that information come from?"

"Jin Haifeng sent it to us. All the information related to this company was sent to us by Jin Haifeng."

Li Ye paused for a few seconds after eating half of his meal, then continued eating.

"Therefore, it is almost certain that Jin Haifeng is the mole."

"What about the data on the intranet? Did he also upload that?"

“Yes, An Yue and I have checked it several times. The only people with the authority to upload data for this project are me, Jin Haifeng, and Liu Shuang. Liu Shuang is not in charge of this company, so almost everything was uploaded by me and him. The last data upload record for this property certificate was by Jin Haifeng.”

"Have IT check the backend." Although Xu Wanyi said she would proceed according to her own ideas no matter what, it didn't stop Li Ye from figuring things out himself.

"The procedure has been submitted, but IT says they don't have the authority and the director's approval is required."

Li Ye's eyes darted around; this matter seemed more complicated than it appeared. She immediately called Zheng Shengmao: "Hello, Director. Ah, yes, this is Li Ye. I'd like to check the backend data for the Leguang project."

Zheng Shengmao had been waiting for Li Ye's call, and immediately replied, "Attorney Li, I already know about this project. Since Chairman Xu is not satisfied and has even sent people to the firm for inspection, I don't think it's necessary to make things so complicated."

"Attorney Zheng, Le Guang is my project. Now I can't even check the back-end data?" Li Ye's tone became somewhat stern.

“Attorney Li, that’s not how it works. All the projects belong to the firm. No lawyer would dare to claim a project as their own. Without the law firm as a platform, where would a lawyer get projects? Don’t you agree?”

"Understood, then I won't bother you any longer." Li Ye hung up the phone, not expecting that Zheng Shengmao had also been dragged into it by them.

Zheng Shengmao hasn't done any business in recent years, spending all his time being fawned over. He'd already become detached from the masses due to his management style, and now it seems drinking has ruined his brain. Li Ye thought to himself, for employees of state-owned enterprises, the platform might be truly important. But for the legal profession, it's really hard to say whether the platform or the lawyer is more important.

"He won't let me investigate?" Jiang Yu asked softly, having already heard the gist of what he said.

"Okay, you guys go do your things first, I'll go find him."

Zheng Shengmao's office is not far from Li Ye's office. Their office has a better view of the building and is larger than the one opposite. A better view and a larger area also mean higher fees. It is an office that only top lawyers can afford.

Two minutes later, Li Ye arrived at Zheng Shengmao's office. The office door was wide open, and Zheng Shengmao was giving an IV drip to a half-dead tree in his office.

"Attorney Zheng, does that mean I can't access the backend data for the Leguang project now?" Li Ye leaned against the door and said casually.

"Oh, Attorney Li, come, come, sit down, have a cup of tea. Young people are so impatient; look, we just talked on the phone, and you're already here."

"Hmm, Attorney Zheng's tea is always top-notch, I must have a cup." Li Ye didn't stand on ceremony and sat down on the sofa, facing the river, admiring the tea to himself.

“Attorney Li, it’s like this, I’ve already learned about the situation of your project. I heard that Chairman Xu is very angry. What I’m worried about is losing this project. As you know, I’ve participated in many events and appeared on many TV programs in the past two months, and I’ve introduced this project in a very important way. If something goes wrong and we lose it so quickly, it will be a huge blow to our firm.”

"Well, then you think about what I should do?" Li Ye had already sensed something was amiss; Zheng Shengmao might have already met with Zhang Gang's people.

"Here's the deal, you lay low for a while and let Chunlin handle things for a bit. Your team will remain the same. As for the project costs, you and Chunlin will split them 50/50. Once things calm down, we'll add you back in."

"They're dreaming!" Li Ye sneered inwardly. It seemed that these people had not only met, but had even discussed their countermeasures.

“Okay, but I have one condition.” Li Ye didn’t want to waste any more time.

"What are the conditions?"

"Transfer my legal fees, which are still in the firm's account, to me in one lump sum. Today, immediately. If you do that, then we'll do as you say; if not…"

"Attorney Li, what do you mean by this? This is not in accordance with the firm's rules. Such a large sum of money is not something I can decide on my own; the executive committee will review it." Zheng Shengmao was thinking to himself, "Does he want to leave our firm?"

"I'm just short of money, Attorney Zheng. I've recently set my sights on a few big-ticket items and I'd like to withdraw some cash to spend. Don't overthink it. After all, Le Guang's money hasn't come in yet. Such a large sum of legal fees, even if it's split 50/50, do you think I'd give it up?"

Li Ye thought to himself, "What are you pretending for in front of me? We are a law firm. All the cases corresponding to this money have been settled. I'm withdrawing my own money. Do I need any approval from the executive committee? Screw you."

“Okay, then let’s do as Attorney Li says!” Zheng Shengmao immediately called the finance department and cashier. Soon after, the finance department came over and told him that large bank transfers had been suspended and the money might not arrive today.

"No problem, the transfer is complete." After receiving the transfer record, Li Ye said goodbye to Zheng Shengmao.

Walking down the corridor back to his office, Li Ye was in a great mood. "Little devils!" he thought. "This money has been dragging on since the end of last year. If it weren't for this incident, I don't know when I'd ever get it. Since I'm going to be cannon fodder anyway, I might as well earn back whatever I can."

"Attorney Li, how did it go? Did the pregnant man agree?" Li Ye knew that these young lawyers all privately called Zheng Shengmao "the pregnant man," which accurately captured his characteristic, but this was the first time she had heard someone call him that directly in front of her. Jiang Yu couldn't care less about that now; it was too late.

"No, it's probably impossible to investigate now. Just to give you a heads-up, something big might happen next Monday. Go home this weekend and prepare yourselves mentally, don't panic."

"Attorney Li, is it really that serious?" An Yue asked softly. Attorney Li didn't seem "deeply shaken" at all, but his words made it sound so serious.

"Yes, it's serious. Don't think about it anymore. You'll find out when the time comes." Li Ye looked at An Yue. This girl was also from a wealthy family, and she was well-versed in social etiquette due to her upbringing, but she hadn't experienced much of the harsh realities of society. She was still young!

"Let's go, it's time to get off work. Let's leave early today."

The weekend passed peacefully, and on Monday morning, Jiang Yu arrived at the office very early, only to find that An Yue had arrived even earlier than her.

"An Yue, what are you doing here so early?" There was no one in the public office area at this time, and Li Ye's office door was closed. The only places where people were walking around were the front desk and the administrative office, as well as the occasional cleaning lady.

"Uh, I thought..." An Yue hesitated for a moment, but her eyes unconsciously glanced towards Li Ye's office. She was thinking about what Li Ye had said about something big happening on Monday, so would she arrive early?

"You think Attorney Li would be here so early?" Jiang Yu finally understood. "She won't come that early. Even if the sky falls, don't expect her to show up in the office this early."

"Oh..." An Yue's tone was very dejected. She really did think that way, and even bought breakfast for Li Ye. But when she arrived, she found that the only people in the entire office besides her were the cleaning lady, and even the receptionist wasn't there.

"Hey, I'm telling you, you don't actually like Attorney Li, do you?" Jiang Yu's gaze at the young girl was becoming more and more genuine. This wouldn't do, this was absolutely unacceptable.

“We can joke around normally, but don’t take it seriously. Putting aside the fact that you two are boss and intern, just look at the age difference between you two…” Jiang Yu thought for a moment, then decided to forget about age. Gender isn’t an issue, so how could age be a problem?

"Sister Jiang Yu, I don't think these are problems."

My goodness! This girl is really daring! Jiang Yu had always thought that An Yue's passion was just a passing fancy. She had seen many girls like this before, and they would get over it after a while. After all, even if the other person was a celestial being, she would still be a human being after looking at her for a long time.

“An Yue, do you know that I’ve been following Attorney Li for so many years, and she’s never been in a relationship with anyone, whether male or female. I’ve also seen all the men who pursued her, but none of them ever worked out! You’re in the prime of your youth, don’t waste your time on this unromantic old woman, absolutely not! This is the experience I’ve gained over the years, trust me.”

“But? Oh…” An Yue originally wanted to argue a bit, but then she thought that this was her own business and had nothing to do with other people. Let them say what they want; there was no point in saying more.

Seeing that An Yue was silent, Jiang Yu assumed she had persuaded her and turned her attention back to the important matter at hand.

"Director Zheng messaged me on WeChat over the weekend, saying there's a meeting at nine in the main conference room. You've been working on this project for a while now, so why don't you come along too?" Jiang Yu thought it would be better if someone from the team left behind knew about this, so besides An Yue, she also invited Wang Xuan to attend.

Hearing this, An Yue's earlier dejection vanished. She knew that the topic of this meeting was dealing with the "business incident" at Leguang Group. This matter was very important to Li Ye, and what was important to Li Ye was also important to her.

"OK!"

At one minute to nine, Li Ye strolled leisurely into the conference room. Everyone who was supposed to be there had arrived, and two groups sat clearly on opposite sides of the conference table. On one side were all the lawyers from her project team, plus Wang Xuan and An Yue, who must have been invited by Jiang Yu, forming a long line. On the other side sat two people: Chen Chunlin and Chen Chunlin's assistant, Gong Xiaoxiao.

It seems that both Zheng Shengmao and Chen Chunlin have something to hide and neither wants to make this a big deal.

Li Ye didn't care. Big players have their ways of playing, and small players have theirs. She checked the accounts on Saturday, and the money transferred from the law firm had arrived. She was a person of her word. Since Zheng Shengmao had given her the money as promised, she would dutifully play this game with them until they couldn't play anymore.

Li Ye glanced at Jin Haifeng unintentionally, and Jin Haifeng swallowed hard and shrank into his chair.

It was impossible for him not to be scared since it was his first time doing something like this. But they not only shared Le Guang's legal fees with him, Chen Fang also promised to hand over Yuanda New Energy's legal business to him, and Chen Chunlin also said he would help him become a second-level partner. He also promised to give him all the criminal and civil cases he had on hand.

Jin Haifeng calculated that although Attorney Li treated him well and was a rare good boss, helping them get rid of Li Ye would not only get him money, but also allow him to become an independent lawyer and no longer be controlled by others!

After considering all this, he gritted his teeth and, relying on Li Ye's trust and taking advantage of his work, replaced all the documents! He had already planned it out. After all, he wasn't the one who created the fake materials. If he was really discovered, he would deny it to the death and say that the documents Le Guang gave him were like this.

“Attorney Li is here, so let’s begin the meeting. This is a small meeting, just a few of us. Please feel free to ask any questions.” Zheng Shengmao started the meeting immediately after Li Ye sat down.