Blank Charge

“Why is it smashed so hard?” Inside the auto repair shop, Xiao Wu looked around at the wrecked car. “How much will it cost to fix?”

Jin Zhou stood up from behind the car, holding a wrench. “It’s free.”

Xiao Wu looked puzzled, clearly unaware of what his boss was up to. “Free?”

Jin Zhou wiped the sweat off his face with his forearm. “Your sister-in-law’s car.”

After reporting the incident to the police , they quickly found the four people who had vandalized the car based on the license plate and surveillance footage. One of them had previously been sentenced by Judge Yang Shiyu for participating in a fight.

Jin Zhou immediately asked the police to use a breathalyzer on those individuals, and as expected, they had all been drinking.

The leader of that group, seeing the situation escalate, took the initiative to apologize to Yang Shiyu. Jin Zhou directly intercepted him, saying, “I am his legal representative. If you have any issues, talk to me directly.”

Yang Shiyu remained silent and simply looked at Jin Zhou, tacitly accepting his statement.

“I really acted impulsively, Judge Yang. I have been very disciplined inside and have never caused any trouble. I’ve even received several awards for good conduct. That day, I was really just intoxicated. Your Honor, please have mercy on me.”

“Have mercy? Let you off the hook?” Jin Zhou leaned forward as if he hadn’t heard clearly, then pulled back and said to himself, “I won’t let you off the hook that easy.”

Yang Shiyu frowned upon hearing this, and Jin Zhou had to straighten his posture, cleared his throat, and said, “Ahem, provocation and troublemaking. Less than five years for serious cases, five to ten years for severe cases. With a prior criminal record and drunk driving, chasing and attacking a judge, I don’t need to say how serious that is, right?”

As Jin Zhou rattled on, the person nearly fell to his knees, pleading to Yang Shiyu, “Judge Yang, please have mercy!”

“Why didn’t you show mercy when you were smashing the car?” Jin Zhou pushed the person away, not letting him get close to Yang Shiyu. “Here’s the deal, stop talking nonsense. I’ll give you a clear path right now.”

The person’s eyes immediately lit up.

“First, you’ll definitely have to compensate for the damaged car,” Jin Zhou said reasonably. “Secondly, we can provide you with a criminal settlement agreement, which may somewhat reduce your standard sentence.”

The person looked at Jin Zhou bewilderedly and asked, “What do we need to do for you to provide it?”

Jin Zhou rubbed his thumb against his index and middle fingers, hinting quite clearly, “It depends on how much sincerity you have.”

For matters like that, sincerity was undoubtedly reflected through money.

But settling the money issue couldn’t be done in a short time. Jin Zhou and Yang Shiyu left the police station and stood at the entrance, waiting for Jin Zhou’s brother to pick them up.

“Is this how you always act as a lawyer?” Yang Shiyu looked at the busy street in front of them and spoke in a calm tone. “You’re like a small-time gangster.”

“You don’t understand, Judge Yang,” Jin Zhou put his hands in his pockets carelessly. “Whether or not one is a gangster, when it comes to fighting for one’s rights, one must proactively fight for them. That’s the professional conduct of a lawyer.”

Yang Shiyu shifted his gaze, glancing at the corners of Jin Zhou’s mouth, apparently recalling Jin Zhou’s gangster-like proposal of “a kiss in exchange for one day.”

However, Jin Zhou still wanted to hear Yang Shiyu’s opinion and asked, “How did I do just now?”

“Decent,” Yang Shiyu said, “You didn’t misspeak about the sentence.”

“Well, who could misspeak about that?” Jin Zhou paused and then asked, facing the street, “In a while, the case I’m handling will go to trial. Will you come to watch?”

“Do you think I have nothing better to do?” Yang Shiyu asked lightly in return.

Indeed, it was strange for Yang Shiyu, as a criminal court judge, to attend a civil court trial.

Jin Zhou felt a slight disappointment, but he had long been accustomed to Yang Shiyu’s nature and didn’t take it to heart.

The case of car downgrading was straightforward, and not long after, Jin Zhou received the court’s notice for the trial.

On the day of the trial, he didn’t wear his flashy gold-rimmed glasses or any extravagant attire. Instead, he wore a plain dark gray suit and a simple tie.

Xiao Wu had seen Jin Zhou tying a tie before and joked that it was his seal, as putting on a tie sealed away his gangster identity.

Jin Zhou immediately untied his tie on the spot and scolded Xiao wu.

“Lawyer Jin,” Luo Xueqing met Jin Zhou at the entrance of the courthouse and looked him up and down. “You look different today compared to the last time we talked about a settlement.”

“Today is a court appearance,” Jin Zhou stretched his neck, though dressed in a suit, his tone was still the same, “Let me show you what it means to be a ‘good shop manager is someone who knows how to fight lawsuits.'”

Luo Xueqing smiled and followed Jin Zhou into the courthouse.

“Now, we will begin the trial of the case involving false advertising of the ×× brand and the ×× car model,” the judge sitting on the bench struck the gavel.

The case was relatively small, with only one judge presiding, and Jin Zhou had done his homework in advance. The judge had a typical mediator style.

“We will now proceed to the court investigation stage, starting with the plaintiff’s statement of the lawsuit request.”

Jin Zhou picked up the prepared materials and, partially deviating from the script, stated the facts and presented the lawsuit request, along with the supporting evidence and reasoning.

He maintained a steady pace of speech, using professional legal terms throughout, without any trace of his usual carefree demeanor.

After Jin Zhou finished speaking, the defendant had a brief opportunity to respond to the plaintiff’s statement.

On the opposite side, there sat Lawyer Li and his assistant He Yunsheng, along with company representatives. Lawyer Li naturally requested the judge to dismiss all the plaintiff’s claims.

“This case isn’t complicated. Are you really not considering a settlement?” After the court investigation concluded, the judge flipped through the evidence list and asked while doing so.

“We’ve always been inclined to settle,” Lawyer Li calmly said, “It’s mainly the plaintiff who doesn’t agree.”

With that statement, he seemed to be shifting the blame to Jin Zhou.

Judges never liked troublemakers because no judge wanted the case to drag on.

“Plaintiff, are you really not willing to settle?” The judge frowned, expressing dissatisfaction in their words.

“My client is a journalist,” Jin Zhou calmly stated, “a reporter from the city’s Social News Department.”

After emphasizing Luo Xueqing’s identity, he added, “She doesn’t care about the compensation; she just wants an explanation.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Lawyer Li’s face changed slightly. He whispered a few words to the defendant’s representative beside him, and the well-dressed representative also furrowed his brows.

“Fine then,” the judge reluctantly nodded, “let’s proceed to the courtroom debate.”

Courtroom debates were Jin Zhou’s strong suit and the key to this lawsuit.

He immediately pointed out differences between the promotional brochure and the actual vehicle, each point indisputable.

However, Lawyer Li was an experienced attorney. He argued that the brochure was only an invitation, not a contract, and found a tricky angle that wasn’t mentioned in Jin Zhou’s defense before the trial.

“The plaintiff claims that the brochure states that this car has three terrain modes: city/mountain/desert, but her car only has city and mountain modes. I must point out that it is evident from the plaintiff’s vehicle dashboard that there are only markings for city and mountain modes. The plaintiff should have noticed this when buying the car, or at least when picking it up. The fact that she didn’t notice is simply her own negligence.”

Wow, Jin Zhou was caught off guard.

That was clearly Lawyer Li’s strategy, deliberately hiding the dashboard image among a pile of messy evidence to confuse Jin Zhou about their line of thinking.

“How could I have noticed when I bought my first car?” Luo Xueqing couldn’t help interjecting.

Such an excuse naturally wouldn’t convince the judge, but the defence was indeed following that line of thinking.

Jin Zhou immediately took out his phone, searched for an image online, concealed key information, and handed the phone to the three people at the defendant’s bench. “Let me ask the defendants, what does this symbol mean?”

The image showed a seat pattern with three upward arrows above it.

The three people across furrowed their brows, not immediately answering. Jin Zhou then handed the phone to the judge and the judge’s assistant.

“Is this symbol on this car?” the judge asked.

“No, but it’s related to this case,” Jin Zhou replied.

“Do you three recognize it?” the judge asked, looking at the three people at the defendant’s bench.

“This should be the adjustment for seat height,” the defendant’s representative said. It seemed that Lawyer Li thought it couldn’t be that simple and added, “Or maybe it’s for seat heating.”

“Neither,” Jin Zhou put away his phone and started talking confidently, “this symbol represents seat inflation, adjusting the seat and backrest’s softness. Our defendant’s lawyer is supposed to be someone who drives frequently, not to mention this defendant’s representative, who works for an automobile company. Both should be familiar with this symbol, so how can my client, Ms. Luo, who just got her driver’s license less than a year ago and managed to bump into a pillar in the parking lot, be able to recognize dashboard symbols?”

As the owner of a car repair shop, Jin Zhou was well-versed in the functions of various car brands, allowing him to quickly think of an extremely rare car feature.

Lawyer Li tightened his lips and looked at the materials in his hand, unsure how to respond.

His companion, He Yunsheng, cleared his throat and took the initiative to continue, “Buying a car is a significant expense for most families. One should be careful and cautious, not use ‘carelessness’ or ‘not knowing’ as an excuse to absolve all responsibility. Since the plaintiff spent 120,000 yuan on this car, she should have proactively inquired about any unclear points. After all, the salesperson had no obligation to explain.”

“Proactively inquired?” Jin Zhou couldn’t help but find it amusing. “What’s the basis for your so-called ‘proactively’? Show me the legal provision.”

He Yunsheng looked embarrassed and didn’t respond.

At that stage, the outcome was already clear.

Lawyer Li and the defendant’s representative whispered to each other, then signaled the judge, indicating their desire for court-mediated settlement.

Seeing that Luo Xueqing had a good chance of winning, she didn’t wait for Jin Zhou to speak and immediately said, “We disagree with mediation.”

“Wait a moment,” Jin Zhou stopped Luo Xueqing, “let’s hear their terms first.”

Luo Xueqing looked puzzled. “Why?”

The judge and the defendant discussed the terms of settlement in court, while Jin Zhou took Luo Xueqing outside to wait.

“They won’t offer just two thousand yuan for a settlement now,” Jin Zhou explained to Luo Xueqing.

“But,” Luo Xueqing still didn’t quite understand, “I don’t care about a few thousand yuan.”

“Let’s wait and see,” Jin Zhou said.

After a short while, the judge came out of the courtroom and said to Jin Zhou and Luo Xueqing, “They seem sincere. They plan to refund the full purchase price of 120,000 yuan. What’s your stance?”

“Twelve… 120,000 yuan?!” Luo Xueqing exclaimed in shock.

Jin Zhou remained calm. After all, the other party was in a losing position now, and he deliberately revealed that Luo Xueqing was a journalist not long after the trial began, hinting that if they won the lawsuit, Luo Xueqing would report on the matter.

Even if they could employ some public relations tactics, Luo Xueqing herself was a renowned journalist, making the situation extremely troublesome for them.

“No,” Jin Zhou glanced at Luo Xueqing’s reaction. It was evident that she was already wavering. He leisurely said, “Our proposal is 500,000 yuan.”

“Five…” This time, Luo Xueqing stared wide-eyed and fell silent.

“Five hundred thousand is too much.” The judge started playing the mediator role. “Even if you win this case, the compensation won’t be much. They are already offering 1.2 million, which is quite generous.”

“But if their loss due to false advertising , the damages could be more than five hundred thousand,” Jin Zhou argued.

“Alright,” the judge reluctantly said, “let me go and ask again.”

As soon as the judge left, Luo Xueqing looked at Jin Zhou incredulously and asked, “Will they really give five hundred thousand?”

“It might need further negotiation,” Jin Zhou replied, “but it won’t be too far off. They will definitely make you sign a confidentiality agreement.”

“But,” Luo Xueqing seemed caught in a moral dilemma, “I intended to warn other consumers…”

“It’s up to you to decide. We don’t have to settle,” Jin Zhou said, “I’m just providing you with an alternative choice.”

“Attorney Jin,” Luo Xueqing furrowed her brows, “your choice is really putting me in a difficult position.”

Jin Zhou waited for Luo Xueqing to ponder, and when he saw the judge coming out of the courtroom again, he asked her, “What is your decision?”

After hesitating for a while, Luo Xueqing made up her mind and said, “I’ll still…”