Too Bad I Take Things Seriously

The opponents are spread across every field; they’re just too strong.

And what Zhang Wei is good at is only the criminal field. If we want to defeat those gold-medal lawyers from other regions...

We can only rely on him.

As for Wang Dachui...

He didn’t receive an invitation at all, so he can’t take part in this mock trial.

"Do we have... the past mock trial cases?"

After reading through all the opponents’ profiles, Qin Mu couldn’t help turning his head to look at Zhang Wei beside him.

Zhang Wei nodded.

He picked up the laptop and flipped through it. He quickly found the series of cases from the previous year: "Actually, the cases are different every year. Some come from real life, and some are compiled by people from the Bar Association."

"But they have one thing in common: every case is outrageous and very complicated."

Listening to Zhang Wei, Qin Mu fell into thought.

Wang Dachui, on the other hand, didn’t take it seriously. He curled his lip and said, "How complicated can it be?"

Teaming up with Qin Mu and Zhang Wei, he felt the three of them together were invincible under heaven.

There was no way they’d meet a real opponent.

Those cases...

Were even less likely to stump them.

Zhang Wei smiled slightly and didn’t rush to refute Wang Dachui.

Instead, he randomly clicked open one of the cases and showed it to the two of them.

"This is one of last year’s cases, the ’crazy woman’ case in a certain city."

Qin Mu’s expression shifted slightly, and he began to read carefully.

In the case.

This crazy woman...

Was only twelve years old, yet she went online looking for multiple men to go on dates with.

In the end, within just forty days, she had certain things happen in succession with eight men.

When some enthusiastic citizens discovered this...

They decisively chose to call the police.

But after the police arrived...

This twelve-year-old girl lashed out at them for meddling and said she was willing.

And...

During the dates, she lied about her age and told the men she was already nineteen.

In fact.

This case really did happen in reality. This so-called "crazy woman" came from a divorced family, lacked affection since childhood...

And that was how she went down the wrong path.

After receiving the report, the police immediately took the eight criminal suspects into custody.

The procuratorate brought charges according to law.

The case was submitted to the district court for trial.

But the result was...

The district court got the case, held meetings for three days in a row, and said it couldn’t try it.

They dumped the hot potato on the intermediate court.

The intermediate court originally thought it would be a piece of cake, but when they were about to open the hearing, they realized something was off.

The more they thought about it...

The more they felt they had to report the case to the Provincial High Court.

But to their surprise...

This case also stumped the High Court. They didn’t dare hand down a random sentence, so they simply kept reporting it upwards.

They passed this scorching hot potato...

To the Supreme People’s Court.

After the Supreme Court received the case, they too found there was something wrong with it.

Under the current law, no matter how they tried it, it didn’t sit right.

So...

For the sake of this case, they directly amended the Criminal Law, providing that such cases only constitute a crime if the defendant "knowingly" knew the other party was underage.

They held that the circumstances of the eight suspects were minor and did not constitute a crime.

Only then was the case successfully resolved.

But...

The problem didn’t stop there.

After this statutory provision and judicial interpretation were promulgated, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate raised objections.

Because "knowingly" is way too hard to define.

It caused extremely serious trouble for their work.

Because in all such cases, when suspects commit the crime...

They’ll all argue and claim they didn’t know the victim’s real age, that they mistakenly thought the other party was of age.

With things like that...

A lot of suspects would slip through the net.

And when the Supreme Procuratorate arrests people, it’s hard for them to judge this kind of subjective element.

So...

After the provision had only been in effect for a few days, the Supreme Court issued an urgent notice announcing the suspension of this statutory provision and judicial interpretation.

"This is... indeed a bit outrageous."

After reading through the case, Wang Dachui suddenly muttered a complaint.

His expression was quite complicated.

Qin Mu also nodded.

The level of absurdity in this case is definitely a classic.

A case that could make the Supreme Court amend a statutory provision and judicial interpretation for it, then scrap them after handing down the judgment—there’s probably only this one.

"Last year’s mock trial used this case. The lawyers on both sides argued until they were at each other’s throats, and the hearing went on for a full eight hours..."

Zhang Wei gave a wry smile and sighed: "Only then was the winner decided."

After all, a mock court isn’t the Supreme Court.

So the defense had to proceed strictly according to the current statutory provisions and legal principles; you can imagine how complex the arguments were.

Calling it a peak showdown wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

"And there are some cases that are extremely complicated cross-field cases, involving criminal law, civil law, contract law, agricultural law, animal protection law, and so on..."

Zhang Wei glanced at Qin Mu, then went on: "But you don’t need to worry too much. Only when you reach the top eight or the semifinals will you run into this kind of highly complex trial case."

His goal this time wasn’t that big.

He just needed to make it into the national top fifty.

Those who could compete for the top eight or top four...

Just the team members alone would be four or five people, and they were usually skilled in different fields.

But the fields he and Qin Mu were good at were way too single.

Basically, they’d be eliminated before they made it very far.

"Got it."

Qin Mu nodded and didn’t explain further.

The reason he came this time...

Was definitely not for some so-called learning exchange.

He was here to take first place and get the system’s three thousand points of Wish Value!

...

Two hours later.

The plane landed.

The three of them, Qin Mu and the others, arrived in Shanghai smoothly, and under the guidance of the bar association staff, they checked into the hotel.

As invitees.

The expenses of Qin Mu and Zhang Wei were all reimbursed by the bar association.

As for Wang Dachui...

He had to pay out of pocket.

"Have a good rest today, tomorrow’s the meet-and-greet."

Zhang Wei reminded the two of them, then went back to his own room.

Qin Mu carried his luggage and likewise went into his own room.

With nothing to do.

He started scrolling on his phone again, wandering around the Study Law Alliance Forum.

Ever since he updated six videos in a row last time.

The netizens seemed to have been fed full; there wasn’t really anyone actively posting to urge for updates.

Aside from the usual idle chatter, the most frequent posts were about this lawyer industry exchange conference.

"Seems like the national lawyer industry exchange conference is tomorrow, any on-site freaks on the forum?"

"Thanks for the invite, I’m in Africa, just got off the plane. I actually wanted to go attend this industry exchange conference, but they didn’t invite me."

"I really don’t get it, isn’t it just some crappy exchange conference? Our up isn’t even going, what’s there to see?"

"I’m not paying any attention anyway; with that time I’d rather look forward to up updating the next video sooner."

"..."

Looking at these posts.

Qin Mu shook his head with a smile.

Most of these netizens were latecomer law enthusiasts; a lot of them still didn’t understand how much gold this exchange conference contained.

In other words.

If you put together all the lawyers invited this time into one team, there wouldn’t be a single case they couldn’t win!

They could talk the dead into being alive, and white into black!

...

At the same time.

Shanghai.

Bar Association, president’s office.

"Old Rao, everything’s ready on all fronts, right?"

Huang Qinglin looked at Rao Zhengde and confirmed again.

Tomorrow.

Was the first day of the exchange conference.

The prep work had to be absolutely foolproof.

There could be no mistakes.

Rao Zhengde nodded and said with a smile, "I’ve checked everything, no problem. Everyone’s here and we’ve arranged them at the hotel."

Only then did Huang Qinglin let out a sigh of relief.

He nodded and said, "With you handling it, I’m definitely at ease."

He paused.

Something suddenly came to mind, and he suddenly asked, "Right, those two lawyers from Jin City... have they arrived?"

This time he had only invited two lawyers from Jin City.

But both had left a deep impression.

One was Zhang Wei, who started from scratch in just two years and built up a huge practice, specializing in sentence reduction.

The other was Qin Mu.

You couldn’t even call him a legend anymore, it was downright unbelievable.

"They’re both here."

Rao Zhengde nodded.

Ever since last time when Huang Qinglin told him about Qin Mu’s past, he’d been full of curiosity about Qin Mu.

He was really looking forward to how Qin Mu would perform later in the mock trials.

Unfortunately...

The mock trials would be conducted as regional confrontation matches, and Jin City only had two lawyers good enough to participate, with a very narrow specialty.

As for lawyers from other regions...

Their areas of expertise were more varied and more comprehensive.

Qin Mu and the others probably wouldn’t make it very far.

"That’s not necessarily true."

Huang Qinglin suddenly showed a mysterious smile and said noncommittally, "Based on what I know about Qin Mu, he’s also very good at civil law."

Although all the cases Qin Mu had handled were criminal cases.

Many of the defendants...

Had converted from civil to criminal.

Which showed that Qin Mu had done a certain amount of research on the Civil Code—at least at a proficient level.

"Even so, he probably can’t compare with those other lawyers who specialize in civil law, right? Like Wang Cheng, Zeng Zhao..."

Rao Zhengde frowned and couldn’t help saying.

Although Qin Mu’s research in criminal law had already reached a transcendent level.

In civil law or other fields, at best he was a latecomer, and compared to those people there was still a certain gap.