At 9 a.m., the city courthouse.
The media had flocked there early in the morning, besieging the courthouse entrance.
Almost all the major and minor media outlets in the city had mobilized to get the news first, even causing nearby streets to nearly come to a standstill.
What was it that had them so excited, like hungry wolves?
Naturally, it was a trial happening in the city courthouse today.
"Good morning, viewers. We are here outside the city courthouse, waiting for the announcement of today's trial verdict."
"About this case, you may have all heard of it, it's the recent headline-grabbing news about the murder of a wealthy businessman's wife."
"The defendant, Li Silong, started from scratch and, after thirty years of hard work, amassed a fortune, ranking third on the billionaire list. However, at the peak of his life, he divorced his humble wife and married a model 30 years his junior, for which he faced considerable scorn. A month ago, his wife's body was discovered in a suburban forest, with multiple fatal stab wounds, suspected to be a crime of passion. Consequently, the Procuratorate's Office immediately listed Li Fuwen as a suspect, even deploying all their internal investigators to look into this murder case that had the whole city watching."
"However, the Procuratorate's Office also ran into difficulties this time, first because Li Fuwen had an alibi, and second because the lawyer defending the accused is the famous Lawyer Zhang Qiansheng!"
"Perhaps the viewers do not know, Lawyer Zhang has been practicing for 30 years and has won over 2000 cases, rightfully earning him the title of 'Undefeated General' in the judicial circles of our city and the whole country, with even the Procuratorate's ace prosecutors having been defeated by him. ... "
Reporters began to introduce information about the case to the camera and the live broadcast.
It was at this time that the courthouse doors opened, and two middle-aged men in suits stepped out.
"Look, they're coming out!"
"Li Silong and Lawyer Zhang Qiansheng are coming out; judging by their beaming faces, the outcome of this lawsuit is almost predictably clear!"
"It's unbelievable that Lawyer Zhang Qiansheng has defeated the Procuratorate again, clearing Li Fuwen of murder charges. With this victory, could Lawyer Zhang have reached 3000 career wins?"
Facing the swarming media, Lawyer Zhang Qiansheng stood next to Li Fuwen and spoke to the reporters:
"I know you may not like the result, but the fact is my client did not kill his wife, and he cooperated actively with the Procuratorate investigation throughout this case, providing alibis repeatedly. Yet the Procuratorate ignored these pieces of evidence, still charged my client, and listed him as the primary suspect."
"This murder accusation has led to a decrease in my client's reputation, a drop in the company's stock price, and an estimated market value loss of over 3 billion. I will now represent Mr. Li in seeking economic loss liability from the Procuratorate and the investigative department according to the law. It was their negligence and dereliction of duty that led to these financial losses, while my client has suffered from a wrongful accusation!"
"As the real perpetrator is still at large, I urge the media friends to help me by asking the Procuratorate whether they are actually investigating seriously or just looking for a scapegoat to cover up their ineptitude in the investigation!"
Upon hearing this, the media was in an uproar.
This was tantamount to declaring war on the Procuratorate.
Furthermore, he wanted to sue the Procuratorate and the investigative department, a rare case in the whole city, let alone the entire country.
But considering his track record and Lawyer Zhang's confident demeanor, the media believed he must be sure of victory.
After the interview, Lawyer Zhang Qiansheng and Li Fuwen left together in a luxurious sedan.
At the entrance of Li Fuwen's Corporation.
"Lawyer Zhang, thank you so much. You've helped me again. I will transfer the remaining 5 million fee to your account later!"
"Don't mention it, isn't it only right to help an old friend?"
"Hahaha, Lawyer Zhang is truly remarkable..."
The two embraced tightly and then Li Silong waved goodbye.
Inside the luxurious sedan, watching Li Silong being surrounded by a crowd of subordinates and entering the company, Zhang Qiansheng's eyes held not a trace of joy, only indifference and detachment.
"You indeed didn't do it yourself, but you have a subordinate named Ah Biao, who in his early years worked as a 'Cleaner' abroad, having taken probably more than a hundred lives by now, and this time was just adding another, right?"
"But I must say, that guy is truly professional, managing not to let the prosecution find any decisive evidence. The Procuratorate's Office, having seen the news, probably knows I am about to sue them and must be in panic by now!"
"Of course, these are all just my conjectures, with no factual basis, and I don't care whether or not he killed that woman. What does it have to do with me?"
Zhang Qiansheng drove to a luxurious apartment in the city center, where he picked up a woman with heavy makeup.
"Honey, I love you~" The woman cooed as soon as she got in the car.
"Didn't I tell you to wear less makeup? I don't like so much cosmetics," he said.
"Honey~ But it's all for you~" she cooed, ignoring the displeasure in his words. "If I don't use the makeup I bought, wouldn't it be a complete waste?"
"So you're aware of how much makeup you've bought, huh? And you do know that you're spending my money on it, don't you?"
"Doesn't this show, honey, that you really care about me~ Being with you, I truly feel so blessed~"
Zhang Qiansheng looked at the woman in the passenger seat, a campus beauty who graduated from a renowned art school, 20 years his junior, but the joy that once lit her face was now absent.
He pulled the car over to the side of the road and then took three envelope packets out of the briefcase beside him, handing them over.
"Honey, why have we stopped? Didn't we agree that if you won the lawsuit, you'd take me to buy that bag? I've had my eye on that bag for so long, and today, that luxury store marked it down to just 300,000~"
"Open them and see, they're all for you!"
"For me, thank you, honey~"
On hearing they were for her, the woman's eyebrows lifted with delight.
Because in her opinion, those three envelopes likely contained either checks or gold and silver jewelry—in any case, gifts from her man.
But this time, she had miscalculated.
The first packet contained a thick stack of documents, or rather, a contract.
"Honey, what is this? It's a... divorce contract!"
The woman's voice suddenly sharpened; her eyes widened as she expressed disbelief.
Because the first page of the contract bore four glaring characters.
Divorce Contract!
"Zhang Qiansheng, what is this supposed to mean? You actually want a divorce from me!"
Finally, the woman stopped cooing; her expression switched to one of furious incredulity.
"Open up the second packet, and you'll understand why..."
Though still angry, the woman subconsciously opened the second packet.
The second packet contained a dozen photos of the woman in intimate poses with different men.
Seeing the content of the photos made the woman's face change; her eyes darted away, and her expression turned frantic.
Zhang Qiansheng watched her, his expression unchanging, and said indifferently, "The first man is your fitness coach, whom you hooked up with during a fitness class. You sure do go to hotel rooms with him often;"
"The second man is a kept pet you've been raising on the side. But you have poor judgment; he deceived you into thinking he was a graduate student from a prestigious university, but my investigation revealed his admission certificate was forged. In fact, he's a jobless drifter who specializes in scamming women. Besides you, he's also fishing for two wealthy women, a female executive of a technology company, and he's also involved with Councilor Chen's wife. Lately, he has been planning to seduce Councilor Zhang's daughter;"
"As for the third man, your ex-boyfriend from college, didn't you lie to me saying you'd never contact him again? But in the past month, you have called him 17 times. That's not what you promised me..."
As these revelations came to light, the woman's face contorted with ugliness.
"And there's the third packet; open that too!" Zhang Qiansheng said, uncaring about the woman's reaction, as he urged her to check.
In an automatic motion, the woman opened the third packet and took out another thick pile of documents.
"What are these... again..."
"Why don't you have a look?"
She saw the first page of the documents, crammed with a list of purchases, all makeup and luxury goods.
"This was calculated by an actuary. In the five years we've been married, I've spent over 30 million on you. Now that you've committed infidelity within our marriage and violated the prenuptial agreement, I'm going to settle every single account with you!"
As the woman viewed the extensive list of expenses, she finally couldn't hold back, "Zhang Qiansheng, what the hell do you mean by this? I've been with you for a full five years... That's five years, a woman's prime years!"
"Is that your excuse for having an affair?"
But a single breezy remark from Zhang Qiansheng deflated the woman completely.
"Listen carefully, I'm benevolently going to forget the change from that 30 million, but the remaining 30 million, you're going to pay back every cent. How you compensate me and where you get the money from, that's your problem now."
"You can ask your sugar puppy to return the money, or go to your fitness coach, your ex-boyfriend to plead for help; I won't meddle in how you do it. You can even find a lawyer to fight me in a divorce lawsuit, but you'll have to look outside the area. I guarantee not a single local lawyer would dare arm wrestle with me. And you know why, don't you? How did the name 'Zhang Qiansheng" come about?"
Zhang Qiansheng issued his final ultimatum, and the passenger door slowly swung open.
"Now disappear from my sight. In 24 hours, I need a signed contract. If I don't get it, I'll make sure you and those men are all bankrupted, never to recover again in your lifetimes!"
Bang!
"Zhang Qiansheng, you goddamn bastard, scum, jerk, I was blind indeed..."
The car door slammed shut as the woman began to yell hysterically by the roadside.
"Blind? I think it was I who had bad eyesight..."
Zhang Qiansheng shook his head as he watched her from a distance.
He didn't take the usual route home but drove towards the suburbs, parking his car near an old street.
His gaze passed through the crowd, settling on a small roadside stall.
The stall was manned only by the proprietress, and sometimes her daughter, who had just started high school, would come home to help, leading a life of great poverty.
Zhang Qiansheng looked at the proprietress, suppressing the urge to get out of his car, and only heaved a long sigh.
This was his first wife. They had divorced over a decade ago, and she had left with nothing.
Although she was the one who had wronged him initially, over the years, Zhang Qiansheng's anger towards her had faded, replaced by a growing sense of guilt.
Back then, he had chosen his career over his wife...
He had come to a realization over the years.
If he hadn't chosen to be a lawyer, but rather a legal worker, earning less money, perhaps his family would have been happy and content, arriving home to his wife's delicious cooking every day, and his daughter would happily call him daddy, enjoying the joys of family life.
Zhang Qiansheng watched for a long while but didn't have the courage to approach her, and eventually, he left.
He drove back to the city center; his residence was a luxurious villa there, worth nearly a hundred million, covering thousands of square meters, with just the front garden alone stretching over 400 square meters—it simply reeked of opulence.
Zhang Qiansheng walked into the sumptuously decorated villa and looked at the crystal chandelier hanging from the living room ceiling, valued at hundreds of thousands, but felt a hollow emptiness inside.
He lived in that house alone.
Zhang Qiansheng headed to the kitchen to grab a bottle of wine for a small drink.
It was his routine, as a drink helped him sleep better.
But suddenly, he felt a draft on his back, and before he could turn around, the cold muzzle of a gun was pressed against his head.
Zhang Qiansheng wasn't panicked; his many years as a lawyer had seen him making countless enemies.
This wasn't the first time someone had held a gun to his head, so he raised his hands and said calmly,
"Friend, if you are only after money, behind the painting in the middle of the living room there is a safe, the code is 4396. Inside, there's two million in cash and some jewelry. You can take it all; I won't hold you accountable."
"Take me to the basement, where you hide your treasures!"
The intruder ignored him and spoke coldly without a hint of emotion.
"Treasures?"
Zhang Qiansheng was surprised.
The treasures he had collected were just some crafts which, from an artistic perspective, might be valued at a few tens of thousands at most, but certainly not as much as two million.
Moreover, crafts were not convenient to carry. If the person really wanted money, he would have been better off taking the two million in cash and fleeing.
"Not after money, not after my life, but after my collectibles—why is that?"
Zhang Qiansheng couldn't figure it out, but since the intruder had made the request, he didn't argue, leading the way to the basement.
The vault in the basement was specially designed and was supposedly even more secure than that of a big bank; without the code, not even a missile could blow it open.
But it wasn't Zhang Qiansheng who had installed it; the previous owner of the villa had designed it to store his valuables.
Zhang Qiansheng was the villa's second owner. After buying the villa and seeing the well-designed safe, he used it as a room to store his collectibles.
However, everything in the safe had been cleared out when the first owner left; he had checked, and there was nothing left inside.
He entered the code and opened the safe, then saw the crafts piled up on the floor, looking not very valuable.
The intruder pushed Zhang Qiansheng aside and went straight towards a corner wall of the safe.
He pressed something on the wall, and that section sunk in entirely.
"A mechanism!"
Seeing this scene, Zhang Qiansheng was dumbfounded.
As the current owner of the villa, he had no idea that there was such a mechanism inside the safe.
It seemed that the visitor's purpose had nothing to do with him and was instead related to the original owner.
As the mechanism activated, a hidden door opened.
Within the hidden door was a display stand, on which was placed a golden eyeball.
The visitor had a portable earpiece in his ear, and at this moment, a voice came through the earpiece.
"Yes, boss, I have acquired the item, hmm, yes, the owner of the villa is right beside me, a nobody. Understood, I will take care of it cleanly..."
After ending the call, a hint of ruthlessness flashed in the visitor's eyes.
But as he turned around, he saw Zhang Qiansheng lift a flowerpot and smash it towards his face.
Bang!
The flowerpot met his head in intimate contact, and he fainted on the spot.
"Fuck, what on earth is this thing for which these people would bring out the big guns, and who on earth is behind them?"
Zhang Qiansheng stared at the fallen mystery man and then at the golden eyeball in his hands, completely clueless.
His knowledge about the original owner of the villa was limited; he only knew that the person appeared to be an archaeologist with no fame, who lived most of his life without unearthing any treasures and eventually sold the villa and disappeared without a trace.
If he had known that buying a house could bring such trouble, he would never have bought the villa just for the sake of reputation.
Zhang Qiansheng, holding the golden eyeball, rushed out of the safe and was about to trigger the villa's alarm when he saw several dark gun barrels already pointed at him.
He hadn't expected there to be more than one person.
"Gentlemen, we can talk this out, I can hand this thing over to you, and we can all pretend nothing happened today..."
Pop, pop, pop!
Zhang Qiansheng wanted to say something, but the silenced pistols had already fired.
After a dozen shots, Zhang Qiansheng slowly fell to the ground, his eyelids growing heavier and heavier.
Images flashed through his mind.
They were the moments of his life, the life he lived as Zhang Qiansheng.
Although he was glorious in front of others, he was extremely lonely behind closed doors, forever alone.
"I've already made a will, stating that should I disappear or die, my billions in assets will go to my daughter through a trust fund management, as compensation for the sins I've committed in the first half of my life."
"There's a copy of the divorce agreement at my lawyer's office. Even if I don't make it back, the office staff will sue that woman for me; she can't take a penny from me. The 30 million she spent will be meticulously claimed back by the actuary and accountant, so I'm not worried about her at all."
"The only thing I care about right now is this thing I'm holding. What the hell is it? It's really hot to handle. These goddamn bastards actually brought weapons to my home, have they got nothing better to do?"
Zhang Qiansheng's strength slowly drained away, his vision getting blurrier.
The only thing he could see was the golden eyeball in his hand, now dyed red with blood.
"Not good, the thing is glowing!"
"What's going on, why is it flying!"
"Damn it, the man is flying too, open fire, keep firing!"
"Quick, grab him, don't let him fly into it!"
A series of exclamations rang out around him.
What the hell are these bastards talking about, and why can't I understand a word?
Zhang Qiansheng's body gradually lost its weight, he knew it was the feeling of death, but why did it feel somewhat weightless?