Justice System: I Litigate for the Whole City

Chapter 230: Attending Person, Lu Jibai

"Shen Zhixia."

"Here."

"Lu Jibai."

"Present."

"He Xiufen."

"Here."

The person reading the roll was a young woman in her twenties. The list was one page; when she finished reading, she set the pen down. The hearing room here on the fourth floor was narrower than the one on the third. The tables had been pushed together into a rectangle: three chairs at one end, two at the other. On the inner wall hung a clock, its hands at eight-fifty.

Three people sat in the three chairs. On the left, Huo Jingzhi, short hair, a blank record sheet spread in front of her. On the right, a man in his fifties, a stack of files pressed under one hand. In the middle, a man with graying temples, a thermos cup in front of him, the lid not screwed on.

A row of folding chairs were set against the wall. He Xiufen chose the one nearest the door.

"Two items today." The man in the middle spoke. "A written statement, and the person who issued it. The first item first."

Huo Jingzhi slid a single page to the center of the table.

"One Conduct Statement, one Court Attendance Record, both submitted prior to today's meeting." She said, "Read the document names."

The recorder read: "One Conduct Statement issued by Lu Jibai, licensed lawyer of Jiangzhou Zhengping Law Firm; one Court Attendance Record of the issuing person."

"On July eighth, in the room on the third floor, you said three sentences." Huo Jingzhi looked at her. "Say them again today."

"The face in that video is not mine. I have never taken money from a client under a lawyer's title. This video has nothing to do with my internship assessment this year."

"Still the same three sentences."

"Still the same."

"These three sentences—who speaks for you today?"

"This page." She said, "I can't speak for myself. It was already written on it yesterday afternoon."

"Is there anything else you're submitting?"

"Nothing. What needs to be submitted today is his page."

[Thud. What they look at is the name. The line beneath the name—someone has to stand there.]

Huo Jingzhi pulled out the statement page and read aloud, line by line:

"One: I, with Shen Zhixia, have handled two cases as opposing agents: a labor dispute between twenty delivery riders and a platform company, and a medical damage liability dispute. I attended court for both cases."

"Two: Every document she submitted can be located within the case files. The times, page numbers, and quantities she quoted in court match the documents on record. After the first hearing of the medical damage liability dispute, I withdrew as counsel in that case."

"Three: All of the above are matters I personally witnessed. If any statement above is untrue, I am willing to bear corresponding responsibility."

At the last line, she stopped and raised her eyes toward the chair by the door.

"Lawyer He. You are the lead handler on this matter. Why didn't you sign these lines?"

"I couldn't." He Xiufen said, "What's needed is someone unconnected to this matter. I'm the director of her firm. If I sign, it's family speaking for family."

"So he signed it."

"He signed it."

* * *

"Court Attendance Record." Huo Jingzhi pulled out a second page. "Two cases, two hearings. The name under 'Attending Person' is the same. Read the attending person."

"Attending person, Lu Jibai." The recorder read.

"Lu Jibai, come up to the table."

He rose from the party side and walked over, standing beside the table. Left hand at his side, right hand empty, holding nothing.

"Your name was signed by you."

"It was."

"In both of these cases, you sat opposite her."

"The rider case, I represented the platform. The hospital case, I represented the hospital."

"How do you know whether what she submitted is in the files?"

"Before hearings, we compare evidence lists. She quotes times, page numbers, and quantities; I verify against the documents."

"Did you ever catch an error?"

"Once. The first hearing of the medical case, the page numbers she quoted didn't match the binding by two pages. She corrected it in court."

"While she was correcting it, you were across from her."

"I was."

The man flipping through the files raised his head slightly.

"In the cases she handled that year, did you ever win?"

"Yes. The rider case, first arbitration—my side won half."

"You won half against her, and you still signed this name."

"The half she lost, she lost because she framed the subject too narrowly. It had nothing to do with those papers I held." He said, "What's written on this page is about the papers. Every document she submitted—its source is in the files. That's something I can verify. What I couldn't verify, I didn't write down."

Huo Jingzhi's pen moved across the paper for a stretch, then stopped.

"Before signing this page, did you think about it?" She asked. "If there's ever been anything wrong in her conduct, these lines of yours stay in this file too. Anyone can turn to them."

"I thought about it."

"Thought about it and still signed."

"I wrote down only what I'd verified. Verified words not written down are the same as never verified."

The recorder's pen didn't stop. The man in the middle unscrewed his thermos lid, took a drink, and screwed it back on.

* * *

The door opened just then.

The person who came in wore a light gray shirt, the cuffs buttoned to the top button, a document envelope in one hand, carried perfectly level. He Xiufen glanced toward the door, and her hands on her knees tightened slightly.

"Chairman Han." The man in the middle raised his head. "Take a seat."

"Just passing through; I'll listen in." Han Chongli sat down in the row of chairs against the wall, set the document envelope on his knees, and rested both hands on top of it.

[Thud. This time, what came through the door wasn't a shell.]

He didn't speak right away. After Huo Jingzhi had asked half a question more, he asked for the statement page from the table, flipped through it, then turned to the party side.

"Little Shen." He said, "The words on this page—did you read them beforehand?"

"I did."

"Were any changes made?"

"Two places were crossed out."

"Who crossed them out?"

"I did." He Xiufen said.

"What two places?"

"He'd originally written two extra lines: 'works diligently' and 'responsible toward clients.'" He Xiufen said, "I crossed them out. Praise, anyone can write. Written down, it does no good."

Han Chongli returned the paper to the desk and straightened it.

"I have one question—not about the case itself." He spoke slowly. "You resigned on July twelfth, transferred firms on the seventeenth, and today, the eighteenth, you're sitting here signing this name. Three dates pressed too close together. Did you calculate you'd sign this page first, then resign—or resign first, then find this page to sign?"

"July twelfth, ten in the morning, my resignation was submitted to Hengzheng administration." Lu Jibai said, "The fourteenth, in the afternoon, the change registration form went in. The seventeenth, eight-fifty in the morning, the 'consent to change' was filled in the former-firm column, the form was sent to the first-floor window, and I stood outside the counter waiting while they put it in the bin. This morning at nine, I sat down here. What was done on which day—I can give an account of every one of them."

"That's not answering what I asked."

"What you asked was the order." He said, "I resigned first."

"How long did you think about it."

"The resignation—two years. This page—one night."

"One night."

"What this page requires is someone no longer with Hengzheng. A person still inside Hengzheng can't sign it."

Han Chongli's finger tapped against his knee once, soundlessly.

"The supervising lawyer column—underneath it sits joint and several liability." He said, "In those two cases against her, you sat on the other side. Now you're also her supervising lawyer. Two identities stacked on one person. If someone asks whether there's a conflict of interest, how do you answer?"

"There is one." He said, "In both of those cases, I sat opposite her. But Clause Three requires someone with no conflict of interest as to this matter—in this matter, I'm not a party, I've never taken a cent, and the three-page complaint materials don't carry my name."

Han Chongli's eyes rested on his face for a while.

"You resigned from Senior Partner." He said, "Moved to a two-person firm to supervise one intern. If this column doesn't hold, your road in this profession narrows by half after today."

"That's my own road."

"Easy words."

"The paper isn't easy." He said, "Every line written on this page can be verified in the files."

Han Chongli lifted his hands from his knees, smoothed his cuffs, and asked nothing more.

* * *

The man in the middle closed the folder and pressed a palm on the cover.

"Any more questions?"

No one answered.

"No conclusion will be read today." He said, "The materials stay here."

"What day will it be read?" He Xiufen asked.

"Tomorrow."

The recorder tore off a receipt page, pressed it against the ink pad, stamped the square seal in the lower right corner, and pushed it over.

"Read."

"Documents: one Conduct Statement, one Court Attendance Record of the issuing person. Receipt date, July eighteenth. Handling office, Intern Assessment Committee."

She folded the receipt in half and tucked it into the front pocket of her binder.

When they dispersed, no one crowded. Han Chongli rose from the chairs against the wall and headed for the door. Passing by Lu Jibai, he paused half a step.

"That line you wrote—I've read it." He said, "'After the first hearing of the medical damage liability dispute, I withdrew as counsel in that case.'"

Lu Jibai didn't move.

"That case was originally a firm matter." Han Chongli said, "Keep that sentence. Whoever needs it later—they can use it."

He finished and walked out, his footsteps sounding all the way to the stairwell.

[Thud. The line he picked was the one that could be taken away.]

* * *

Downstairs at nine-forty. He Xiufen stepped off the stairs first and turned to take the receipt slip from her.

"I'm heading back to the firm first." She said, "Tomorrow morning, I'll be at the office. Your phone stays by your ear."

She took two steps, glanced back at the two of them once, said nothing more, and left.

Two people remained at the bottom of the steps. The sun was already high, a small patch of shadow falling on the concrete.

"Half a sentence." She said.

"Yesterday I said I'd speak the half that could be written onto paper."

"Today that half was written down."

"There's still half a sentence." He said, "The seal stamped on the attachment of those three pages—I recognize it."

"You recognize it."

"Yes. It's the same one on the Chengbei Hospital sealing inventory." He said, "To say that sentence, I had to get out of Hengzheng first. Saying it inside that building—people would hear it as me speaking for myself."

"So that's why you resigned first."

"Resigned first."

She turned the sentence over in her mind. Where those three pages came from—she hadn't known until more than ten days after he did. He'd kept it back, because his name was still on Hengzheng's roster then.

"Knowing ten days earlier and saying nothing." She said, "Only now do I understand—you kept quiet because you were afraid your own sentence wouldn't hold."

"Yes."

She couldn't find the next line.

A row of cars sat by the flower bed at the intersection, their windows flashing light. He was going west; she was going east.

"Back to the firm." She said.

"Mm."

He walked a few steps and slipped his hands into his pockets. She saw the corner of paper still pressed in his shirt pocket, the crease deep from folding—what had to be submitted today was already submitted. The one in his pocket was one he'd kept for himself.

[Thud. The paper was accepted. Whether it's read aloud—that's tomorrow's business.]

The certificate still hadn't been put into her hands today. It was gripped in someone else's palm, gripped until tomorrow.