0060 Tea Farmers and Coffee Beans (End of Text)

After the opening banquet, Qu Zhong followed Su Rongqin's advice and began taking on various cases.

Civil and commercial litigation, labor arbitration, administrative litigation, and even non-litigation matters... the number of these cases is more than the total number of criminal defense cases she handled in the previous two years combined, and of course, she is earning more and more.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, her revenue this year will be enough to qualify her for partnership.

Everyone praised her for being young and promising, but she always felt that something was wrong, though she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

One evening, after a long day, she returned home and collapsed into Zhai's arms, unwilling to get up.

After standing together for a while, Zhai patted the top of her head and asked softly, "Are you tired today too?"

Qu Zhong nodded vigorously, wrapping her arms around him even tighter: "Tired, so tired..."

Thinking back to when she was an intern at Huanli, running up and down stairs every day, the SF Express courier in the elevator would always ask her if she was tired. Back then, she would force herself to be energetic and say with her bloodless lips, "Not tired at all."

But in front of Zhai Shi, she didn't need to be like that at all. She didn't have to worry about being ridiculed or about revealing her weaknesses; she could show her most vulnerable side without any reservations.

Zhai stepped back a little, cupped her face in his hands, and comforted her, "Attorney Qu, you've worked hard. Go out and relax this weekend."

"Really? Where are you going?" Qu Zhong's eyes lit up suddenly, then quickly dimmed again. "No, I want to catch up on sleep at home."

Why can't she even muster the energy to go out and have fun? Zhai couldn't help but worry about her: "Have you been working so hard lately?"

Qu Zhong was holding back her anger, and finally found an opportunity to speak: "We already have a lot of cases, and recently our firm has a new intern. My mentor actually asked me to mentor her. I never knew that mentoring an intern was harder than raising a child."

Qu Zhong rubbed her forehead, looking extremely troubled, and rattled off a bunch of things: "Helping her re-file is more troublesome than me doing it myself. I've told her so many times that the lawyer's fee invoice must be facing outwards. She just doesn't understand, she put it upside down and went to get a hole punched in, and when she took it to my master for signature, she was told to 'remove and re-file.' She couldn't handle it herself, so she came to me crying, which made my blood pressure spike."

"It's not over yet," she paused to catch her breath, then continued, "I asked her to revise a very simple contract for me, only six pages. One page is the title, and another is the signature page, so it's actually only four pages. She spent two whole hours revising it, and when she sent it to me, all she changed was the jurisdiction clause."

"Furthermore, when asked about professional matters, she always says she doesn't know. Kids these days really don't understand legal principles at all."

Zhai listened attentively to her the whole time without saying a word.

Qu Zhong looked up and asked, "Are you listening?"

Zhai looked directly at her and said, "Yeah, kids these days don't understand the law."

“It’s not just that she doesn’t understand the law.” This is what angered Qu Zhong the most. “Later, I asked her if she had read Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, and she said she had. I thought to myself, not bad, there’s still hope. So I asked her what impressed her the most in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, and do you know what she said?”

Zhai, playing along, asked, "What did you say?"

Qu Zhong still finds it outrageous: "She said Duan Yu swallowed a toad."

Although he anticipated that it might be a funny answer, Zhai was still amused.

Qu Zhong punched him lightly, as if taking her anger out on him like that intern: "You're still laughing. I was talking about Professor Wang Zejian's Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, she was talking about Professor Jin Yong's Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, we can't talk about it at all."

Zhai grunted in response, his expression stern, and said, "That's very unprofessional; you should be properly criticized."

Hearing him say that, Qu Zhong sighed again: "Sigh, after calming down, I felt that maybe I was being too demanding of her. I've been an intern too, and I've made a lot of mistakes, so if I put myself in her shoes, I should be more understanding and tolerant of her, and more patient with her growth. But I just can't help getting angry, you know?"

Zhai nodded. Although he had never managed an assistant before, he himself had worked his way up from a prosecutor's assistant, so of course he understood.

Qu Zhong looked at him for two seconds and asked softly, "Did I bring too much negative energy home?"

Zhai gently stroked her face twice with his thumb, his gaze unwavering: "It's okay, you'll feel better if you talk about it."

Qu Zhong felt it was unfair that she was the only one talking, so she suggested, "You can also tell me about your work."

Zhai thought for a moment and said, "There's not much to say about my job. I do pretty much the same things every day: interrogation, court hearings, and filing."

"Really—" Qu Zhong's eyes flickered, and she emphasized and lengthened her questioning tone, lightly poking his chest, "Not because it's a secret?"

Zhai smiled and admitted, "That's part of the reason."

"Oh, right," he added casually, "it's been a long time since we worked on the same case."

Qu Zhong paused for a moment: "Ah... really?"

Has she not done a criminal defense in so long?

That night, Qu Zhong had a dream in which she became a junior intern at the procuratorate. While sorting through an old case, she came across a defense opinion in the yellowed case file.

The lawyer's name at the end of the letter was faded beyond recognition, but the text itself was exceptionally clear. The writing flowed smoothly and confidently, conveying the lawyer's unwavering commitment to securing even a second of freedom for his client.

Qu Zhong was thrilled while reading it in her dream, but when she woke up, her face was covered in tears.

She turned over, trying to swallow her sobs. Soon after, Zhai leaned in and hugged her tightly from behind. He didn't speak or make any other move; he probably hadn't been woken up, and was just instinctively wanting to hold her as they slept.

Qu Zhong let her tear ducts run wild and cried for a long time before falling asleep again.

——

The next day, Qu Zhong knocked on Su Rongqin's office door.

Over the past two years, she has knocked on this door countless times.

I've gone to him for his signature after filing documents, been criticized by him for making mistakes, asked him for help with things I didn't understand, and bragged to him about winning lawsuits... so many times, but never like today.

She gave him the partnership agreement that he had given her to sign a few days earlier, intact.

Su Rongqin noticed that the space where she should have signed her name was still blank, and looked up to ask her, "What does this mean?"

Qu Zhong didn't answer him directly, but instead asked a question that had always puzzled her: "Attorney Su, why did you leave the Red Circle Law Firm?"

More than a decade ago, Su Rongqin actually started his internship at a top-tier law firm. These are the kinds of firms that countless people would kill to get into, and Su Rongqin received an offer right after graduation.

Surprisingly, he resigned just a few years after obtaining his license. He left the prestigious top-tier law firm and chose to start from scratch with Xu Tianlin, co-founding Guanzheng Law Firm.

At the time, no one understood why he did it. Qu Zhong didn't understand at first either, but now she does.

So before Su Rongqin could speak, she answered for him: "Because you don't want to be bound by the rules and regulations of the red circle, you want to make your own rules, right?"

Su Rongqin listened to her answering her own question and did not deny it: "What are you trying to say?"

Qu Zhong took a deep breath and said what she truly wanted to say: "Attorney Su, I've thought it through. I still prefer criminal defense to dispute resolution."

At this moment, migratory birds return to their nests, and spring returns to the earth. And she, after many twists and turns, has become Qu Zhong again, the same person who came to Guanzheng for an interview three years ago, with a youthful yet determined face, speaking these words fearlessly.

“I might not earn as much as I do now, and I might not be as famous, but I still only want to do criminal defense.”

She tried dispute resolution, and she was certainly capable of doing it quite well. But something felt off; she always felt like something was missing.

Now she understands. Compared to the all-encompassing, invulnerable Qu Zhong of today, she still prefers the Qu Zhong of the past who wholeheartedly stayed true to himself. The Qu Zhong who sometimes made foolish mistakes, who would get hurt and bruised, but whose eyes always held light and warmth.

The name she couldn't make out in her dream last night jumped into her mind with perfect clarity at this moment.

It was none other than herself, Qu Zhong, the criminal defense lawyer who regarded the law of crime and punishment as her life.

“No one in the entire Guanzheng community specializes in criminal defense, and I don’t want to put you in a difficult position because of me.” As she said this, tears welled up in her eyes, but she sniffed and tried her best to speak clearly.

“Attorney Su, thank you for your care and guidance over the years. I will always remember your kindness and support; what you taught me will benefit me for life. But I'm sorry, I can't go on like this…”

Qu Zhong talked on and on, while Su Rongqin remained silent. He simply watched her quietly, listening and reminiscing. He recalled his own journey, and the stumbles and trials he had witnessed as she grew from an intern lawyer to a practicing lawyer.

Finally, knowing that further discussion was pointless, he closed the partnership agreement in his hand and said to her, "I respect your choice."

Qu Zhong stopped crying and bowed deeply to him: "Thank you for your understanding and willingness to help. I will resign when my employment contract expires next month."

——

That night, as Qu Zhong lay face to face with Zhai Shi in bed, she stared at him and decided to announce this bombshell news: "Zhai Shi, I have something to tell you, but don't be afraid."

"Mm." Zhai gestured for her to speak freely.

Qu Zhong gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and said at double speed, "I'm leaving Guanzheng next month."

She paused after speaking, seemingly giving him some time to process what she had said. But when she slowly opened her eyes, she found that Zhai seemed completely unsurprised.

Qu Zhong felt that he might not have understood her meaning and thought she was just simply changing jobs, so she hurriedly explained: "I mean, I want to become an independent lawyer, the kind who only does criminal defense. In the near future, I also want to start my own law firm with my friend."

Just like Su Rongqin was more than a decade ago, she now doesn't want to be bound by rules and wants to be the one who sets them.

But Zhai remained calm after hearing it. He smiled and leaned closer, patting the back of her head: "Finally figured it out?"

Now it was Qu Zhong's turn to be surprised: "You...you knew I was going to do this all along?"

Zhai tugged at her ear and said slowly, "So there really are people who cry under the covers."

Qu Zhong quickly realized that he knew about her embarrassing moment last night when she turned her back and secretly wiped away her tears, and he even came up to hug her without saying a word.

She clenched her fists, ready to commit domestic violence: "Fine, you're pretending to be asleep, are you secretly watching me make a fool of myself?"

Zhai laughed as she punched him twice, then took her arrogant little hand to his chest and looked at her intently: "No. I just felt that since you didn't want me to know at the time, I should give you some private space. When the time comes, you will definitely make the right decision by following your heart."

He really said everything! Qu Zhong felt like crying and laughing at the same time. In the end, laughter won out, and she leaned lazily into his arms, asking, "What if I can't get any cases and go bankrupt?"

Zhai kissed her forehead: "And me too."

"Anyway, the bank card is in your hand, so you can swipe it however you want."

"..."

Sleepiness quickly crept in, and before long Qu Zhong heard Zhai's extremely light and even breathing.

His brow was relaxed, and his thick eyelashes covered his eyes, so he must have been fast asleep.

Qu Zhong stared at him for a while, then carefully took out her phone from beside her pillow, wanting to secretly take a picture of his sleeping face.

While engrossed in finding the perfect angle, she accidentally turned on the flash. She gasped in surprise and frantically tried to turn it off.

Unexpectedly, at that moment, a mischievous smile appeared on Zhai Shi's lips in the shot:

"Attorney Qu, have you seen enough?"

"You like my face that much?"

He asked her the same question she asked him when they first met in the prosecutor's office reception room.

When caught red-handed by the prosecutor, Qu Zhong, the criminal suspect, quickly put down his phone and covered most of his face with the back of his hand, not wanting to speak.

Zhai opened his eyes with a light laugh, then leaned in and kissed her palm.

"Go to sleep, Attorney Qu. You may not be afraid of being late, but I am."

[End of main text]

I checked the comments, and it seems like everyone doesn't want it to end like this (facepalm). But I've basically filled in all the foreshadowing I planted earlier, and I'm not planning on writing a new case. Besides, they're already together, and I usually start working on ending the story once I get to the point where they're together, haha.

Don't worry, although the main story is over, there are still side stories. The side stories might be several chapters long, because in addition to the main characters' parts, there are also parts about Qi Du and the racing god.

Regarding the racing legend, I planted a small foreshadowing at the beginning of the last case, so there might be another case in the racing legend's side story. Also, two of my real-life friends really like the character Su Rongqin and insist that I write about his old house catching fire. I... okay, I'll give it a try...

That's all for the novel's content. I'd like to chat about something else in the end.

The reason I'm writing this article dates back to last December when I was discussing a certain topic with a friend. Were novels and TV dramas these days somewhat disrespectful of professional expertise? Especially those highly specialized professions like lawyers, prosecutors, doctors, and programmers—they seem to just casually adopt any persona and dare to write or film about them.

My friend told me not to take it so seriously, saying that reading and watching dramas are just for fun, why talk about professionalism? They're not law students, how can you expect them to be professional? If you want professionalism, you'd have to get a law student to write it themselves.

Looking back now, I think there was an element of provocation in her words, since I was successfully provoked. I started writing the next day and have been writing ever since.

This is actually my first time writing original content; before, I wrote derivative works (commonly known as fan fiction). Fan fiction doesn't require creating your own characters; you just need to stick to the existing characters from the original work. It's like copying; as long as you don't go astray, or at least within an acceptable range—that is, don't be out of character (OOC)—it's fine. And because the original work already has a certain level of popularity, it's easy to find readers for fan fiction. However, you're limited by the restrictions on personal interpretations; the characters don't belong to you, which is like dancing in shackles.

But original content is different; you can write however you want. However, the problem that comes with it is that your writing might go unnoticed. I felt very frustrated and lost because of this halfway through writing this piece. When I was preparing to write about the third case, I realized that it seemed like not many people were reading my work. Those stories that simply used a lawyer/prosecutor persona and were riddled with professional inconsistencies were actually very popular.

I fell into deep doubt, wondering if I had misunderstood the cause and effect. It's not that current novels and films are unprofessional, but rather that the audience doesn't need so-called professional content. Or perhaps I posted on the wrong platform; discussing professional matters here is a joke. Thinking about it, I decided to just give up. What's the point of writing about cases or professional topics? In the end, it's just a personal celebration, a self-indulgent act of self-gratification.

I finally kept writing because two of my friends kept encouraging (and nagging) me. And although there weren't many, I still got comments from readers.

Later, I discovered that there really are readers who enjoy reading cases and respect professional expertise. This feeling of being responded to and resonating with others makes me very happy, from the bottom of my heart.

Then, the female lead's character design also changed constantly during the writing process.

Initially, I wanted to write about an idealistic lawyer who was gradually defeated by reality, and that's exactly how the first draft of the script was written. But as I wrote, the character seemed to slip out of my control and develop her own ideas. She didn't want to succumb to reality, and even after experiencing and seeing through many things, she still insisted on her original aspirations of studying law and becoming a lawyer.

As the author, I cannot go against her will; I can only use my pen to fulfill her wishes. So what is presented in the end is this Qu Zhong: a strong, clear-headed, uncompromising Qu Zhong, and one with a strong capacity for empathy.

As a criminal defense lawyer, she is naturally very rational. But as a human being, she is also vulnerable and emotional. So when faced with Duan Ningqi's case, she hesitated, struggled, and suffered, making some irrational choices. In Cheng Quan's case, her thoughts were completely different from Su Rongqin's.

Perhaps because of her short years of practice, she brought too much personal emotion into her work and isn't yet a fully mature lawyer. But I don't see this as a flaw; on the contrary, it's her most valuable quality and the reason the male lead is attracted to her.

While writing about these two cases, I truly felt their pain, and I felt very uncomfortable after finishing them. Because during my short six-month internship as a lawyer after graduation, I also experienced similar conflicting and painful moments, more than once.

Legal classes and legal practice are like ideals and reality—there's a huge difference between them. I've neither been able to escape the former nor integrate into the latter, finding myself in an awkward middle ground, caught between a rock and a hard place, which often leaves me conflicted and in pain.

I often wonder what kind of lawyer I'll become in the near future. Like Qu Zhong? Like Su Rongqin? Or like the other lawyers at Guanzheng Law Firm? I don't know; the road ahead is too long. But since I've written this article, I think that when I'm hesitant and confused, I can look back at the character I created in this article, and perhaps that will give me the strength to keep going.

Let's talk about the romance between the male and female leads.

The last chapter of the main text is called "Tea Farmers and Coffee Beans," which is also the name of the Weibo account I created for this story. Actually, this is a metaphor I'd planted long ago, a metaphor for the relationship and feelings between the male and female protagonists. At that moment, the movie "Coffee or Tea?" suddenly came to mind. In that movie, tea cultivation in Yunnan is a tradition, passed down through generations; how could someone possibly deviate from this tradition and want to switch to growing coffee?

I think Qu Zhong is like a tiny coffee bean, and her environment is a tea plantation. When she accidentally wandered in, the other tea farmers, not understanding why, chased her away and saw her as an outsider. Only Zhai saw her as special and unique. That's why he admired her, loved her, and cherished their relationship.

Because Zhai is the same kind of person as her, although he has been confused at times, just one word or a piece of paper is enough for him to wake up and return to the path he started on, moving forward without hesitation.

They received the same legal education; they understood each other and could read each other's minds. Beyond physical intimacy, their souls were also connected. This is roughly what I understand as a love between equals.

I believe that readers who have reached this point will be more or less moved by the language of the law. People often say that legal provisions are obscure and dry, but I have never thought so.

In my view, law can also be accessible, romantic, and moving. Therefore, I want to use this article to showcase these characteristics of law, allowing more people to understand what true legal expertise and the real legal profession are like.

Of course, some students who haven't yet entered university might see this article. I want to remind everyone that law is a highly systematic field, with complex theories and intricate practices. It's not a discipline that can be summarized in a few words, nor is it a major that can be easily mastered. While imaginative cases can certainly be interesting, studying law is often painful, mentally and physically exhausting. Especially towards the end of the semester, the saying "a leap from the XX building solves all worries" perfectly encapsulates the mindset of law students who have been cramming all night.

Therefore, I would like to issue a disclaimer here: If any student reads this article and rashly goes to study law, please do not come to me during final exams, as I will not be responsible.

Lastly, I'd like to leave a message for all the readers who enjoyed this article and left comments or votes for me. It's a slogan I see every day on the subway. Although it's an advertisement, I think it has an inspiring power:

"Keep loving,Keep living."——

Keep your passion alive and venture to the mountains and seas.