Chapter 9
The culprit is standing in front of the office's floor-to-ceiling window, admiring the river view with great interest. I won't let you get away with this so easily; let's see how you react this time.
Rewind to yesterday. Before sending out the final shortlist notifications, Xu Wanyi reviewed the bidding documents of the three law firms one last time. The other two were fine, but she later discovered that the Mingcheng project was actually handled by Yuande. Although the lead lawyer wasn't mentioned, comparing the documents, it was obvious who had done it.
She was very interested in the Mingcheng project.
Mingcheng Group is another industry giant, and like their family, it's also a family business. A few years ago, their patriarch passed away, and rumors circulated that the family was about to fall apart. But unexpectedly, their succession and development have been very successful.
Xu Wanyi still remembers that when she saw the news, she thought their lawyer was very capable, managing to sort out assets involving so many children and spread all over the world so well, and distributing the property so that none of the parties had any complaints. She didn't expect it was Li Ye who did it. Impressive.
Let's give her a tough challenge and just tell her directly that she should talk about this.
She knew that Mingcheng would have signed a very strict confidentiality agreement regarding such family secrets, so Li Ye couldn't talk about it openly. But she could talk about it discreetly, in a small circle, and it would depend on how she handled it. If she refused and found a more suitable lawyer, she could then rightfully refuse them and wouldn't want to see her for a long time to come.
"Ring ring," Xu Wanyi answered the phone.
"Chairman, General Manager Zhang from the Legal Department says he needs to speak with you." It was Feng Jing's voice.
"Let him in."
After Xu Wanyi sat back down at her desk, Zhang Gang came in and said respectfully, "Chairman Xu, just as you predicted, Huang Peng from the Strategic Management Department came to ask about this matter. Yuan Desuo is on his line."
"Huang Peng?" Xu Wanyi looked puzzled. She remembered this person. She had an impression of everyone in Leguang Group, but this person didn't seem to have any background.
Zhang Gang saw through Xu Wanyi's thoughts.
“Chairman Xu, Huang Peng was recruited through market-based recruitment. I think the main reason he was able to make this connection is because he is quite familiar with Chen Fang, the legal counsel who was in charge of this matter before. I have investigated secretly, and there is no financial transaction between them. It was just a connection.”
"Moreover, Yuande is indeed very strong in the capital market, even the strongest, especially lawyer Li Ye, who is well-known in the industry. Even if Huang Peng doesn't recommend it, I will still send out invitations to bid."
"So you think there's nothing wrong with their line of work."
Now, with the atmosphere tense and volatile, Xu Wanyi knew that although the plan seemed to have a small surface, it was actually fraught with undercurrents. She had to be extremely careful with every step, including hiring a lawyer.
"Yes."
"Is that lawyer Li Ye really that amazing?"
"Yes, Mr. Xu, I used to work in this field at the same law firm. No one else can compete with her in this area. Most importantly, Attorney Li has solid professional knowledge, rich experience, a quick mind, and is incredibly energetic. And..."
His words abruptly stopped as Zhang Gang suddenly remembered that he was speaking to the chairman and couldn't say everything. He had originally thought that Li Ye was young and a woman, making her easy to control.
Xu Wanyi wasn't about to let this abruptly ended conversation go unchallenged. "And what?"
"Uh, it's nothing, just gossip, some rumors that are hard to hear. Chairman, you wouldn't be interested in that," Zhang Gang quickly changed the subject.
"Now that you mention it, I'm really curious, and what?"
“Okay.” Zhang Gang scratched his head and said hesitantly, “You’ve seen Lawyer Li’s photos. Her style isn’t popular in the legal profession, but even so, some middle-aged lawyers privately think she’s a great beauty. They even gossip about her, saying that if she had long hair and wore high heels, she would definitely be more beautiful than all the female lawyers in the entire Haixi area.”
Upon hearing this, Xu Wanyi completely forgot the red line she had set for herself to draw a clear line with Li Ye, and was immediately furious. These greasy, middle-aged men actually dared to make a move on Li Ye.
"Chairman, Chairman, are you alright?"
Seeing Xu Wanyi's expression change several times, Zhang Gang felt uneasy, thinking he had said something wrong.
"It's alright, you go back to work first. I know what I'm doing." Xu Wanyi said calmly, trying to get Zhang Gang out of the way first, so they wouldn't see through her true thoughts.
Li Yecai didn't care about these rumors. She was very busy. After the Xining project was completed, another project was nearing its end. Although Jiang Yu had done a good job, she had a work compulsion and insisted on reviewing all the important information and key points of the opinion letter.
By the time she finished everything and turned around, Labor Day had already arrived.
"Li Lu, we're leaving. Are you really not coming?" Jiang Yu, Liu Shuang, and An Yue stood at the door of her office, looking at her expectantly.
Just as the team's several major projects had finished, they were all persuaded by Gao Gu to participate in the rafting activity in Yuzhou. They originally thought that Lawyer Li would also go, but Li Ye refused outright.
Now that a few people are leaving, let's make one last effort.
"I'm not going. I'm too old to handle the hassle. My biggest form of entertainment is going home and sleeping. You guys go ahead, I'll try not to bother you."
An Yue was greatly disappointed. After having dinner together last time, An Yue thought she would have another chance to travel with Lawyer Li, so she excitedly signed up. Unfortunately, she didn't know Li Ye well enough. In private, she was a very homebody and would never participate in group activities if she could avoid it.
After the group of young people left, Li Ye closed the office door, took out red wine and glasses from the cabinet. It was the last working day before the holiday, and he had just finished another big project, so he deserved to reward himself with a drink.
This was something Xu Wanyi taught her years ago: whenever there's something to celebrate, you must find a quiet night and have a drink with someone you like. Now that she can't find such a person, she'll just raise a glass to herself.
"Bang!" She picked up her glass and gently tapped it against the windowpane. "Cheers." A sudden thought flashed through her eyes as she recalled some past events.
She had already prepared the report for Leguang Group. As a lawyer, professional ethics were paramount; if she couldn't even maintain confidentiality for her clients, she wouldn't be fit to work in this industry anymore.
So she planned to talk about some other projects, similar to or close to the Mingcheng project, but the client agreed to let her use them for promotion. They weren't as complex as Mingcheng, but they all shared the same core principles.
As for the details of the Mingcheng project that the old man of Leguang Group wanted to know, if they chose her as their lawyer, then the experience of the Mingcheng project would be in her possession, and they would need her to learn from it.
As for the secrets of other people's families, she would never reveal them in public. She would not even publicly admit that she was the lawyer for Mingcheng Group.
Li Ye originally planned to go home and watch a competition after finishing this glass of wine, but after finishing the glass, she felt more energetic. She simply turned the headlights back on, took out her computer, opened the PowerPoint presentation, and began to organize her thoughts and clarify the key points.
As she thought, the jumbled lines gradually became clear and smooth, and the originally unrelated cases suddenly became connected.
Long, slender fingers tapped rapidly on the keyboard. The law firm staff gradually left, and the LED lights went out one area at a time, until finally only the faint glow of the guide lights and safety lights remained in the entire office.
She spent five hours in this state of intense focus while working. Only after typing the last exclamation mark and shutting down her computer did Li Ye realize it was nearly midnight. For so many years, she had spent countless days and nights like this.
She didn't even know what she was pursuing.
Money? She was once quite short of money. Compared to her wealthy clients, she wasn't exactly rich now, but she knew she wasn't working hard for money.
Passion? Not really. My early passion stemmed from curiosity about the unknown, but now I've figured it all out and it's become a kind of assembly line job.
Perhaps she didn't want to be idle. She rested her chin on one hand and tapped the table with the other, silently thinking to herself. She had thought about this question many times without an answer, and each time she ended up telling herself this, at least it was a plausible answer.
I don't want to think about it anymore, time to go home! If I don't leave soon, I'll be living in the office.
She packed her things, hailed a car, and leisurely drove off. The night was deep and still, all was quiet, yet the financial district remained dazzling, and the mighty Yangtze River flowed eastward, never ceasing.
The May Day holiday passed in the blink of an eye. Li Ye didn't go anywhere and stayed home for several days, catching up on more sleep than ever before. Unfortunately, her sleep wasn't very good; it was always intermittent.
For some reason, she had a feeling that she could secure the Leguang Group project. If she did, she would be constantly on the go for the next year or even two. This May Day holiday might be her last day of leisure.
On the first morning after the holiday, Li Ye got up very early, which was unusual for him, and started getting ready.
Today was the day to give a report at Leguang Group. She asked Jiang Yu to go directly to Leguang's headquarters in the wetland park and wait for her. Chen Chunlin refused to go with her, saying that he was afraid he would ruin the project.
Li Ye knew he was worried that she would find out he was no longer useful, but she didn't expose him and let him go.
Once May Day was over, the weather warmed up completely. Li Ye put away his heavy coat in the closet, took out his trench coat, and changed his thick sweater into a round-neck pullover sweater. He also changed his pants into thin straight-leg trousers.
She doesn't wear much makeup; she carefully applied some moisturizing essence, slipped on her ankle boots, and went out.
The headquarters of Leguang wasn't far from her home. Because it was in the south, the traffic wasn't too congested, and she drove there herself today. The area was very large, and many companies hadn't moved in yet, so it felt somewhat empty.
The trip went very smoothly. After parking her car in the underground garage, she came up in the elevator and saw Jiang Yu carrying a pile of documents as she pushed open the door.
"Attorney Li!" Jiang Yu called out her name enthusiastically, stumbling towards her.
She was about to step forward to help Jiang Yu carry something when a girl in an elegant suit suddenly walked over from the side.
"Are you Attorney Li Yeli?"
Li Ye tilted his head and looked at the girl. "Yes, and you are?"
This was Feng Jing's first time meeting Li Ye in person. She had heard gossip about him from the legal department, who said he was both capable and handsome. She thought to herself, "How could he be as handsome as the chairman?" In her mind, no one in the world was more beautiful than Xu Wanyi.
When she actually saw Li Ye, she had to admit that he was indeed very handsome, and had a great figure. Standing there, anyone who didn't know him would think he was a movie actor.
However, no matter what, the young lady is still the most beautiful. On second thought, she realized that she didn't need to do this at all. The two have completely different styles. Li Ye has a cool style, while the young lady has a mature and elegant style. What's the point of comparing them?
"I am Feng Jing, the assistant to the chairman of Leguang Group, or you could call me secretary. You can just call me Xiao Feng. The chairman asked me to meet you here."
Li Ye raised an eyebrow. Xu Shenzhao was being so polite now? She had originally planned to follow the usual procedure for entering a high-end office building: register at the front desk, wait for a phone call to verify her identity, and then get her card. She hadn't expected the Leguang Group to be so arrogant. She'd heard Xu Wanyi talk about his father before; her impression of Xu Shenzhao was that he was incredibly pretentious, like a local tyrant. But she didn't think much of it. Who cared? Having someone pick her up was better; it saved time.
"Oh, Mr. Feng, hello! Thank you for waiting here so early."
At this moment, Jiang Yu also walked up to them.
"Jiang Yu, this is Mr. Feng Jing, assistant to the chairman of Leguang. Mr. Feng, this is Jiang Yu, a senior lawyer in our team," Li Ye introduced briefly.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Feng Jing led them toward the elevator.
"Li Lu, aren't we taking the elevator?" Jiang Yu was a little surprised to see Feng Jing walk straight through the elevator lobby, so she quickly ran to Li Ye's side.
Li Ye was also somewhat puzzled. Feng Jing turned around and said, "Attorney Li, Attorney Jiang, this report is something the chairman specifically requested, so the meeting room for the report is located on the same floor as the chairman's office." She pointed upstairs: "There's a dedicated elevator."
Li Ye nodded. Nowadays, many companies separate the office areas for senior executives and ordinary employees, with a dedicated elevator for the senior executives' floor. It's understandable that a large company like Leguang would do this.
They followed Feng Jing around to the back of the lobby, where an elevator door stood quietly to the side. The design was ingenious; the elevator wasn't deliberately hidden, but unless someone knew this route, they wouldn't notice it existed.
Feng Jing swiped his card, pressed a button, and the elevator doors opened. The three of them stepped inside, and the elevator slowly ascended.
"We've arrived, Attorney Li, Attorney Jiang, please." The elevator doors opened, revealing a massive floor-to-ceiling window. Sunlight streamed through the window, reflecting the shimmering water like a white ribbon. This was indeed a large corporation; its presence set it apart from other companies.
It was very quiet here. Not a soul in sight. They followed Feng Jing to a meeting room in the corner. Feng Jing opened the door; the room was empty, but all the equipment was running, and everything was ready.
"Attorney Li, please get ready. I'll go and tell the chairman."
"Okay, you go ahead with your work."
After Feng Jing left, Li Ye observed the room. The conference room was luxuriously decorated, with modern tables and chairs, and the equipment was the latest model.
Li Ye had Jiang Yu connect the computer, tested the equipment to make sure it was working properly, and then opened the PowerPoint presentation and brought it to the homepage. The two sat close to the screen for easy operation.
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