Chapter 84

The next day, Li Ye arrived at the office early. She first went downstairs to buy three cups of coffee, and then carefully carried the bag up the elevator. However, Li Dalu hadn't been to work for a long time and forgot that it was rush hour. As soon as she entered, a large group of people came in behind her. In order to prevent the coffee from being scattered, she could only stand in the corner with her back to the crowd.

"Hey, have you heard? The murderer in our building seems to have appealed, claiming he's mentally unstable." A girl from some company started gossiping early in the morning.

“I’m not so concerned about the murderer, but I am very concerned about the female lawyer he stabbed. She’s supposedly the best-looking and richest lawyer in their firm,” another voice chimed in.

Li Ye knew it would be like this. No matter what kind of case it is, people are always most concerned about the victims, especially when the victims are either rich or good-looking. As for the nature of the case and the details of the murderer, society seems to have selective amnesia, without any reflection. Many times, even condemnation is just a routine matter.

"Oh yeah, I ran into her in the lobby once. She was tall and thin, handsome and good-looking. If she were a man, I would have married her." The straight woman, bursting with confidence from who knows where, added.

"I'll marry a woman too."

...

Li Ye rolled his eyes so hard they almost reached the sky. "That depends on whether I'm willing to marry you or not."

"Hey, I'm telling you guys, you don't even know his name or which law firm he works for, and you're just daydreaming. That lawyer is called Li Ye, and the law firm is called Yuande Law Firm." The voice was right next to Li Ye. She glanced at it and saw a girl of medium height wearing a black suit.

Not long after, the girl spoke up again: "There's another rumor I heard from the property management yesterday. They said their firm is planning to expand, and their director said he's discussed it with Attorney Li and they want to rent another floor."

Why would a law firm director need to mention a lawyer's name when renting a place?

"The property management knows everyone in our building well, and they know that Attorney Li is a major source of income for their firm. But don't get your hopes up with Attorney Li. I heard from the property management that Attorney Li has a girlfriend, who is apparently an intern on her team. They even saw him crying downstairs once."

"Holy crap! This is a huge misunderstanding." Li Ye didn't expect the property management staff to be so gossipy. It must be because of that time An Yue hugged her. Now, people in the industry are saying she's being kept by Xiao Chenyue, and people outside the industry are saying she's messing with her own team's intern—truly fitting the stereotypical image of a lawyer.

However, after listening for a while, she finally gleaned some useful information. What did Zheng Shengmao mean? Was he starting to sell booths like those top-tier firms in the universe? Such a shameful thing, and he was even using my name to carry it out. It seems we really need to speed things up.

Li Ye's philosophy regarding law firms is simple: a law firm is a professional institution, and its core value lies not in size, but in professionalism. A motley crew of one or two thousand is no match for a hundred elite soldiers. Her work is mostly non-litigation, requiring teamwork, not individual efforts. She wouldn't choose individual firms specializing in civil cases, but she also doesn't need thousands of useless people sitting there making a ruckus. This isn't the age of cold weapons where numbers equal victory.

It's true, those who walk different paths cannot make plans together.

"Old Gao, are you free? Come to my office if you have time, I need to talk to you about something."

Li Ye originally planned to give coffee to the children in the public area, but after hearing the gossip in the elevator, she immediately changed her mind and quickly went to Gao Gu's office. Unusually, she didn't chat with the women at the front desk. She felt that she had used up her gossip for the day and couldn't produce any more in a short time.

"Hey! Lao Li, you're finally here. I also have something to tell you. Come on, come on, let's go to your place. The scenery there is beautiful."

Gao Gu is always an early bird and a late bird, a role model for lawyers, so he's usually already tucked away in his office chair by this time of day.

"Do you know that Zheng Shengmao is going to expand the size of his law firm?" After closing the door, Attorney Gao said furtively.

"I know, I just found out. Why didn't you tell me sooner? Here, have a cup of coffee."

"You dare to say that? I sent you a WeChat message a while ago, and you replied on Thursday. I thought it was unlikely that you were still recovering from a serious injury and lacking energy. I thought you must be blinded by lust and didn't know the world, so I thought I would wait until you came to talk to me."

Li Ye rubbed her nose. For a while, she was indeed only focused on dating Xu Wanyi, and her eyes were only on Miss Xu. She didn't pay any attention to what was happening here. But how good was Chairman Xu? He gave up the company and stayed with me in the hospital. Well, we're even!

"Hey, what are you thinking about! I'm talking to you about serious matters. Is your brain on your right shoulder? Or did Chairman Xu give you too many sleeping pills and lower your IQ?" Gao Gu looked at Li Ye's absent-minded expression and felt heartbroken.

"What are you saying, lad? Want to get beaten up? Isn't expanding the scale a good idea? Get two-thirds of the lawyers in the country to come to Yuande, and beat all the law firms in the world in terms of numbers." Li Ye slowly tapped his fingers on the coffee cup.

"Good my ass! With Zheng Maosheng's methods, this is the strategy? Look at the low-quality lawyers doing this. If you think you can ever rise above your station by associating with them, I'll change my surname to Li."

"Attorney Gao, do you know what I like about you?" Li Ye looked at Gao Gu with a wicked grin.

"No, no, no, Li Par, you're not the same as before. You can't say things like that. With your husband's style, I don't want to be tortured again." She even pretended to shiver as she spoke.

"I've been eyeing your ambition and intelligence, and that's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. I'm planning to leave Yuande and withdraw from the partnership. What do you think?"

Gao Gu nearly spat out the coffee in his mouth. "No, no, I just told you to stop Zheng Maosheng from implementing this stupid strategy. Why did you just leave? Where are you going?"

“Attorney Gao, I’m not joking with you. I’m planning to start a new firm. Are you interested?” Li Ye asked seriously, his expression turning serious.

Judging from Li Ye's demeanor, Gao Gu knew that this guy was serious. He knew Li Ye's style of doing things very well; if she hadn't been planning for a long time and the matter wasn't almost certain, she wouldn't have said it so openly. But to be honest, he was now a high-ranking employee of Yuande, with no worries about food, clothing, or daily necessities, and had never thought about the possibility of opening his own firm. He was a little stunned for a moment.

“I know this is a bit sudden, but you don’t need to rush… Um, okay…” Li Ye understood Gao Gu’s character; he wasn’t the kind of person who was bold and pioneering. He was more pragmatic and down-to-earth. He probably never thought about starting his own business. The fact that he became a lawyer was probably the result of his mother’s constant encouragement.

"No need, I'll go." Before Li Ye could finish speaking, Gao Gu immediately raised his hand to sign up.

"Have you thought this through? If you're going to follow me, you'll have to leave your comfortable environment and start all over again."

"Of course, I, Gao, mean what I say. So, tell me, what exactly are you planning to do?"

Li Ye didn't reply to him, but instead made a phone call, "Attorney Jiang, are you at the firm? If you are, come to my office quickly and have some coffee."

Jiang Yu thought to herself, "Attorney Li, what are you pretending for? I clearly told you last night that I would be in the office today." Despite her inner grumbling, she still quickly went to Li Ye's office because Li Ye had told her yesterday, "If you have something to say, say it." It was probably about the legal opinion on Le Guang. It was almost at the final draft stage, and the boss would always keep a close eye on it at this time.

"Attorney Li, you were looking for me? Oh, Attorney Gao is here too?"

"Attorney Jiang, you've become even more beautiful. Here, let me offer you this as a gift, and I'll treat you to coffee."

"Attorney Gao, shouldn't I be the one saying this? I'll borrow the boss's flowers to treat you to this drink. You're welcome, no need to thank me."

The moment Jiang Yu saw Gao Gu, she knew it had nothing to do with the legal opinion; it was definitely about the new firm. The renovations at Leguang Group were in full swing, and they'd reserved ten separate offices. Attorney Li said she didn't want the firm to be too large, so she only asked for half the space. Chairman Xu waved his hand and said, "Forget it, I won't haggle over a few cents with you small lawyers. For good luck, a 60% discount will do."

So, before anything was even finalized, the office was taken care of first.

As Jiang Yu directed the renovation workers, she exclaimed, "This is the advantage of marrying a rich man! With such a large family and business, even if you have nothing, you can start from scratch. Not to mention that Attorney Li is a big shot in the legal profession."

"Come, sit down. I've called you here today to discuss serious matters. I've decided to open a new firm. I won't go into details, but as you all know, I don't plan to run a private firm, so I need three partners. One, two, three." Li Ye pointed to Jiang Yu, Gao Gu, and finally himself.

"Do you understand?"

"Boss, are you sure? I'm not seventy or eighty yet. I'm so young and beautiful. Are you sure about me?" Jiang Yu was overjoyed, but also felt it was unrealistic. After all, she wasn't even thirty years old yet, and she was about to become the founding partner of a law firm?

"Are you prettier than Chairman Xu? If she can be the chairman, why can't you be a partner?" Gao Gu answered first.

"Your conclusion is correct, but the evidence you used is inappropriate. Change it next time. Why do you keep confusing the client? Just how much of a shadow has Xu Wanyi cast on you?" Li Ye commented mercilessly.

"Oh, Attorney Gao, so you agree? That's great! That's wonderful! I've been so busy these past few days, your arrival is just in time."

Gao Gu's heart tightened. He hadn't even tasted the candy yet, and now a job was coming up? So he cautiously asked, "What is it?"

"The office, our new office is being renovated, you should go and take a look, I can't be the only one working on it."

Gao Gu's mouth gaped open, thinking, "Li Ye, you're moving too fast, you've even chosen an office already. Isn't Attorney Li a person?"

"Hmph, Attorney Li said she needs to avoid suspicion and can't hang around Leguang all day, otherwise what if Chairman Xu raises our prices?" Jiang Yu scoffed at this statement and snorted directly through her nostrils.

"Damn it, you actually chose that location for the office! Do you know how expensive it is there? It's about the same price as here. We're just starting out, do we really need to be this extravagant?" Gao Gu pounded his chest and wailed. He knew this guy was a big spender, but he never expected him to be so wasteful.

"Attorney Gao, I've already said it, what's the rush for the Le Guang building..."

Gao Gu then realized that he had been too excited to notice the name "Le Guang." He thought to himself, "Who are we to each other?" But after thinking about it more carefully, he felt that Xu Wanyi would never confuse home and work. "How much is the rent?"

"60% of the market price."

"Damn it! Being good-looking is all that matters. She gets taken care of by a rich sugar daddy and avoids having to work so hard for so many years."

“You’re all right, it fits the rumors perfectly. Anyway, I’ve been kept by a sugar daddy hundreds of times, but I guess this is a case of one person achieving success and all their relatives and friends benefiting from it.” Li Ye crossed his legs, for the first time not explicitly refuting the rumors of being “kept.”

"What do you mean? Are we chickens or dogs?"

“Attorney Gao, whether it’s chickens, dogs or whatever, you can bring a zoo later. We have a few things to do now. Besides sorting out the current business, first, ask the lawyers in the team if they want to leave with us, and if they don’t want to leave, they can stay. It’s all up to them. Second, we need to complete the withdrawal and resignation procedures. Third, we need to apply to the Bureau of Justice to open a new firm. Fourth, the office renovation.”

“Attorney Gao, you take care of your own business first. Occasionally, go with Attorney Jiang to check on the renovation of the new office. We'll handle the rest. Later, I'll have Attorney Jiang give you the articles of association. Take a look and see if there are any problems. Then the three of us can sign the articles of association.”

"No problem, I'll head over then. I'll update you on the situation later."

After Gao Gu left, Li Ye said to Jiang Yu, "There's no time to book a meeting room, and there's nothing else to do. Call everyone in, and I'll talk about this."

After Li Ye finished speaking about this matter, he gave them a week to consider it. In the end, almost everyone indicated that they wanted to go, but that's another story.

Zheng Shengmao was caught off guard. He was originally ambitious and really wanted to win by scale, to create the largest law firm in the galaxy, and to use the names of Li Ye and several other well-known lawyers to recruit young lawyers everywhere.

Li Ye's move can be said to have cut off Zheng Shengmao's lifeline. Director Zheng cares most about his reputation, is ambitious and loves to show off. He has said so many nice things, but none of them have been fulfilled. He has lost face so much that the entire legal profession knows about it. It is more painful than putting him in jail or even killing him.

But he was helpless. Li Ye had leverage over him. This ruthless, smiling tiger hadn't made a move for so long, wasn't it just so he could cut ties with Yuan De cleanly and decisively? Zheng Maosheng knew all too well that if he dared to obstruct him even a little, Li Ye would definitely tear him to pieces.

And so, Li Ye, Gao Gu, and Jiang Yu, along with the lawyers who were willing to go with them, happily went through all sorts of formalities and finished up all the remaining work, just waiting to move into the new office.