Chapter 6

Before taking over this team, Lin Shu had seen quite a few tags about them on LAWXOXO— 

“Top-tier trash” 

“A haven for outcasts, a shelter for the old, weak, sick, and disabled, and a party for the well-connected.”

“The lawless zone of Tianhao Law Firm.”

…

But now, things didn’t seem that way at all. “Mistress Three” had left the firm to preserve her pregnancy, which was a major positive development. Although Xu Shijia was pampered, he wasn’t lacking in ability—it was just a matter of finding a way to motivate him. Wang Tie Niu was hardworking, proactive, and showed no signs of acting like a spoiled princeling. As for Liu Xuhui, he had graduated with honors from a prestigious law school and had plenty of experience—he definitely wasn’t weak either.

This team wasn’t as bad as Lin Shu had imagined.

Lin Shu was filled with optimism. She was confident that, under her leadership, this team could generate over ten million in revenue this year!

It seemed like the law of attraction was really working because, as Lin Shu was thinking about revenue, new cases started coming in.

Max, the legal director of Chengyang Technology, reached out to Lin Shu.

The company’s original legal advisor was a retired partner from Tianhao. Because Chengyang had been an early client, and out of gratitude for their initial trust, the firm’s legal fees for them had never been raised. As a result, Chengyang had avoided being taken over by other partners at Tianhao and had remained with the team.

“Lawyer Lin, we have followed your team’s guidance to secure the necessary preliminary evidence, and now we are ready to sue the executive who stole trade secrets and violated the non-compete agreement. We hope to entrust your team with this case.”

Legal advisors typically handle everyday legal questions, review contracts, and provide legal analyses for major decisions. If a company needs to go to court, however, that’s billed separately.

Wasn’t this a perfect opportunity for additional revenue?

Lin Shu hung up the phone and called Wang Tie Niu into her office—

“Tie Niu, you guided the client in securing the preliminary evidence for this case, which made it possible for them to proceed with the lawsuit. So, I’m assigning you to handle it.”

Considering Xu Shijia’s status, Lin Shu realized that, before she joined, Wang Tie Niu had only been doing phone consultations, answering emails, reviewing contracts, and giving legal advice. He had never appeared in court, met with a client face-to-face, or followed through on a full case.

It wasn’t that his previous work was bad, but it was scattered and superficial. A lawyer who only does that type of work will never be able to handle a case independently.

People had taken special care of him due to his background, but in the long run, that had hindered his professional growth.

Lin Shu decided to give him an opportunity.

As expected, when he heard this, Wang Tie Niu was so excited that his voice shook—

“Me?”

Lin Shu nodded, and just as she was about to reassure him that he didn’t need to be so surprised, Wang Tie Niu blurted out in panic—

“I can’t do it, Lin Par! The previous partner never let me meet with clients…”

But wasn’t that because of your special status?

Lin Shu said gently, “Max, the legal director of Chengyang Technology, will be here in about ten minutes. Get ready to meet with him, be friendly, and build a connection. You already helped him secure the evidence, so he definitely recognizes your abilities and will naturally trust you.”

She glanced at the time. “It’s almost noon. Why don’t you reserve a restaurant? You can talk over lunch, and I’ll join you later. Don’t worry.”

“I believe in your abilities. You need to believe in yourself too—there’s nothing you can’t handle.”

…

But soon, Lin Shu realized that saying “there’s nothing you can’t handle” was just empty motivation. The truth was more like “there’s nothing that can’t go wrong.”

Fifteen minutes later, Max awkwardly rushed into Lin Shu’s office, saying there was no way he could work with Wang Tie Niu—

“I’m very open-minded, I don’t discriminate, but Lawyer Lin, I’m in my forties, married with kids, and if the male lawyer I’m working with keeps acting cute with me, I really can’t handle it!”

Acting cute? Lin Shu couldn’t believe it. Wang Tie Niu was always professional.

“Are you sure there’s no misunderstanding?”

Just as she finished speaking, Wang Tie Niu entered the office. Seeing Max, he breathed a sigh of relief—

“Brother, I was looking for you! We were supposed to have lunch together. Why did you leave the meeting room-room?”

“…”

His deep, booming voice combined with his bulky frame and rugged facial features—uttering the cutesy repetition of words like “lunch-lunch”—was jarringly paired with his muscular build and tense, bashful tone.

At that moment, Lin Shu had only three words in her mind—Run for it!

Who would’ve thought? She’d expected Wang Tie Niu to be tough like steel, but he turned out to be a “Barbie with brawn.”

Max, maintaining the last shred of dignity, said, “I just remembered I have something else to do.”

And with that, he practically ran out of the office.

Lin Shu didn’t blame him. She’d have run too!

…

The evidence was undeniable. Lin Shu was dumbfounded. She looked at Wang Tie Niu and pointed in the direction Max had left: “So, you like that type?”

Was it some kind of psychological reaction to his overly masculine name?

Maybe, deep down, when he felt vulnerable, he just wanted someone to lean on and act cute with?

But Wang Tie Niu looked aggrieved—

“Lawyer Lin, I don’t like men! I like women!”

Lin Shu rubbed her forehead. “Then why were you acting so cute just now… and with that jittery tone?”

She wasn’t judgmental and was accepting of different preferences, but if Wang Tie Niu was letting his personal life affect his professional interactions and crossing boundaries with clients, that wouldn’t be appropriate.

“I wasn’t acting cute,” Wang Tie Niu said, looking like he was about to cry. “I was just stuttering! I only wanted to say, ‘Brother, let’s have lunch together!'”

“And I wasn’t jittery—I was really nervous!”

“You told me to be friendly and build rapport, right? Since he’s in his forties, of course, I called him ‘Brother.’ And you told me to invite him to lunch, so I did…” Wang Tie Niu seemed utterly defeated. “I knew I wasn’t cut out for this. I’m just not good enough…”

It wasn’t until Lin Shu asked more questions that she realized Wang Tie Niu really had a problem—

“Lin Par, as long as I don’t meet with clients, I can handle any legal issue or consultation. But the moment I meet with a client, I freeze up… When I get nervous, I have all kinds of symptoms. This time I stuttered, last time I broke out in a rash, before that I had bronchial spasms, and once I had stress-induced bowel syndrome, running to the bathroom every ten minutes.”

“I’ve been to the hospital, done psychological counseling, taken medication, but nothing works.”

Wang Tie Niu looked utterly defeated, his voice full of embarrassment: “That’s why the previous partner never let me meet with clients.”

“……”

Lin Shu felt like a worn-out court eunuch who had just discovered a shocking secret in the palace—The Crown Prince didn’t avoid sleeping with the concubines to protect himself from making a mistake, but simply because he was… incapable.

For a lawyer, this was truly a problem. How could you be a lawyer and not meet clients?

But if the guy was genuinely ill, what could Lin Shu say?

Suppressing her headache, she offered a few words of comfort before waving him off.

No worries, if Wang Tie Niu couldn’t handle it, there were still others, right?

Liu Xuhui was experienced and capable. This kind of case wouldn’t be an issue for him to follow up on.

After all, whether the case moved from one pocket of her team to the other, it was still revenue for Lin Shu’s team.

However, when Lin Shu left her office to find Liu Xuhui in the open workspace, she realized he wasn’t even there.

Unlike Wang Tie Niu and Xu Shijia, Liu Xuhui was already an independent practicing lawyer. A few years ago, he had transitioned to being a commission-based lawyer, meaning he didn’t have to clock in for a 9-to-5 schedule and had more freedom to go out and develop new business or maintain client relationships.

But being an independent lawyer came with greater pressure. If a partner handed over case referrals, it would save him the effort of hustling around with no guarantees of success, which most lawyers would welcome.

Lin Shu had noticed that Liu Xuhui’s income was disproportionately low compared to his abilities, indicating he’d likely been struggling for case sources for a while.

To her surprise, when she called him, his phone was off.

Just as Lin Shu began worrying that something might have happened to him, Wang Tie Niu hesitantly chimed in from nearby—

“Lin Par, if you’re looking for Brother Hui, you won’t find him on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. He turns off his work phone on those days.” He kindly explained, “On those days, Brother Hui spends time with his daughter and doesn’t handle work at all.”

“…”

Lin Shu was stunned. “So he works off-peak hours? Does he make up for it by working weekends?”

“Saturday and Sunday are legally mandated rest days. Of course, he takes those off too.”

So he only worked two days a week?!

Wang Tie Niu, oblivious to Lin Shu’s shock, added, “Aside from maintaining a few old clients, Brother Hui doesn’t take on any new cases, so two days a week is enough to get everything done. The day you came in happened to be a Wednesday, and Brother Hui actually rearranged his schedule to be there for you, moving his off days to Thursday and Friday that week.”

“… Should I be thanking him for that?”

Lin Shu finally understood why Liu Xuhui’s revenue was so low. Working only two days a week, refusing new cases—how could his income possibly be high?

Feeling her headache intensify, she asked, “He doesn’t need money?”

“It’s not that, but Brother Hui believes in ‘contentment is happiness’ and ‘desirelessness is strength.'”

“……”

Alright then. Fortunately, there was still Xu Shijia. This team wasn’t a total disaster yet.

Even though he lacked experience and couldn’t handle cases independently, as long as Lin Shu guided him, he could at least be useful.

Coincidentally, just as Lin Shu was thinking about Xu Shijia, his call came through.

Lin Shu composed herself and answered, ready to speak kindly, but before she could say anything, Xu Shijia declared—

“I’m taking the day off. I won’t be coming to work.”

Was he sick from overwork?

Lin Shu felt a bit guilty. They had been working hard recently, and Xu Shijia had probably never experienced this level of intensity before. It wouldn’t be surprising if he had fallen ill.

But when Lin Shu expressed her concern, Xu Shijia firmly denied it: “I’m not sick.”

“Then why are you taking the day off?”

“I just don’t feel like coming in today.”

?

Lin Shu thought she had misheard: “You don’t feel like working, so you’re not coming in?”

“Yeah.” Xu Shijia’s voice was lazy. “Didn’t HR tell you? It’s written in black and white in my employment contract—I get 100 days of paid vacation per year. I’ve only used 30 days so far, so I still have 70 left.”

“… 100 days of paid vacation? Is today April Fools’ Day?”

Wang Tie Niu, who had apparently overheard Xu Shijia’s words through the phone, nodded to Lin Shu and silently mouthed, “It’s true.”

Lin Shu didn’t even have time to curse whoever had approved such a ridiculous contract. She was too shocked—

“A year only has 365 days. If you subtract around 115 days for weekends and national holidays, and then deduct your 100 days of paid vacation, that leaves you with barely 150 days to work. What’s the point of even having a job?”

“I think so too.” Xu Shijia’s tone was completely sincere, as if they were on the same wavelength. “Unfortunately, my family insists I work. Next time, I’m going to find a job with 200 days of paid vacation.”

“…”

Lin Shu tried to appeal to his conscience: “Don’t you need to make money to support your parents? You can’t rely on them forever, can you? They’ll grow old and retire someday.”

“I’ve thought about it, and I’m better suited to being a full-time son. My parents’ pension is my pension.”

Lin Shu was stunned as Xu Shijia shamelessly added, “Besides, work is work, whether it’s serving clients or taking care of my parents. If I work as a lawyer to earn more money, I have to serve dozens of clients. Everyone’s like my mom and dad. But if I just take care of my own parents, I only have two. Ignoring my real parents to serve others would be unfilial.”

Lin Shu was utterly dumbfounded. “Xu Shijia, can’t you have some ambition?”

“How is this not ambition? Every profession has its top performers—don’t be discriminatory. People are starting to recognize the value of full-time housewives, so why shouldn’t full-time sons have value too?”

“And your parents still want to be full-time parents, right? Why don’t you give them a chance to stop supporting you and let you be this full-time son?”

Xu Shijia’s voice was full of confidence: “They can be full-time children to my grandparents.”

“……”

Lin Shu wasn’t giving up—

“But when we traveled for work those three days, you performed so well! You showed so much potential. Don’t you remember you’re the core of this team?”

However, perhaps because they were physically apart, her usual professional pep talk had no effect this time.

Xu Shijia’s voice was laid-back and carefree, as if he had achieved some kind of enlightenment. “Just because I have the ability doesn’t mean I have to use it all the time. No matter how capable I am, I still need my 100 days of paid vacation.”

He added wistfully, “I didn’t have an opinion before because I hadn’t experienced it. But after three days of traveling and overtime, I’ve fully realized—I prefer an easy life.” He added cheekily, “That’s a painful truth I’ve come to accept.”

“……”

“As for being the core of the team, I still am, just in a different way. I’ll be the visual core of the team.”

He continued, “In the legal profession, when you get stronger, you usually go bald. The skilled ones are generally ugly, so I’ll stick to the idol route.”

“……”

He sounded as if he were the boss. “I’m going back to sleep now. If there’s nothing else, I’ll hang up.”

……

Lin Shu hung up, feeling like a hopeless madam in a brothel. Customers were knocking on the door, but none of her “staff” were up to the task…

Wang Tieniu was eager to work but was “inadequate” due to his condition. Liu Xuhui was experienced but had already checked out, mentally retired into early old age. Xu Shijia had the skills but was fussy and spoiled, a lazy slacker who preferred to “reform” the workplace by doing the bare minimum.

Forget a million in revenue—Lin Shu felt like even bringing in a thousand yuan might be a problem!

She wasn’t leading a team; she was managing a trash heap!

What a mess of useless “fish and shrimp.” Not one of them could pull their weight!

Lin Shu decided to take back her earlier thought that the team wasn’t as bad as she initially believed.

It was worse.