Are You Crazy? He’s only an Intern Lawyer?
Chapter 410 - 406: The Name of the Blacksmith, Summoning Wu Yong, Dirty Tactics

Chapter 410: Chapter 406: The Name of the Blacksmith, Summoning Wu Yong, Dirty Tactics

At the same time, in Lin Mansion.

Zhao Xiaoxiao was rapidly tapping away on the keyboard.

The two screens that had turned into a snowy display were connected again, revealing the panicked faces of Zhu Erdan and Liu Dashun.

"It’s over, it’s all over, my firewall has been breached!"

"We’re doomed, we’re absolutely doomed. My social security info, my ID card... who knows how much will be exposed. I might as well spend the rest of my life hiding in some scenic secluded area. At least I won’t have to worry about someone suddenly jumping out and stabbing me."

As soon as they reconnected, both of them were frantic, their faces full of worry—as if the words "I’m doomed" were written all over their faces.

"It’s okay now!"

But facing their panic, Zhao Xiaoxiao was unexpectedly calm. "At the last moment, some guy made a move!"

"Who?"

Zhu Erdan and Liu Dashun asked in unison.

"Hehe!" Zhao Xiaoxiao simply rolled her eyes, obviously not planning to tell.

"Do you guys know the codename Blacksmith?"

"Blacksmith? That’s the legendary Smith!"

Zhu Erdan and Liu Dashun exclaimed even louder.

"Lawyer Zhang, where did you hear about this ID from?"

"Just now, there was a line of code that flashed across the computer screen, and I had sharp eyes and spotted it~"

Zhang Wei pointed to a computer screen, which had indeed flashed a network signature that he happened to catch.

It was just too coincidental; if it had happened a second earlier or later, he might have missed it.

"Blacksmith, that guy is a legend!"

"Yes, even though he’s known as ’Smith’, overseas he’s more commonly called the Hand of God because he always creates miracles in the cyber world. He’s the legendary top-tier hacker!"

"It’s said that he once controlled the power plants of the entire Blue Star with his single-handed remote control, causing the whole world to go without electricity for an entire day, all because that day was Environment Day!"

"It’s said that within one day, he hacked into the security systems of all the countries on Blue Star and left a swear word with the highest admin privileges on the systems. As a result, every time a head of state of the breached systems logged in, the first thing they saw was that swear word."

"It’s said that he..."

Upon hearing that the person who helped them was the legendary hacker, the two instantly turned into fervent fans, frantically bragging about his heroic deeds.

Although Zhang Wei held doubts about these stories, based on what had transpired that night, the hacker codenamed Smith wielded a power far superior to anyone else participating in the events.

This guy was clearly a true bigshot!

No, this one was a giant among men!

Considering how Zhao Xiaoxiao, Liu Dashun, and Zhu Erdan had struggled to defend against wave after wave of attacks only to nearly falter at the last moment.

The foreign hackers they were up against were no simple foes either.

Yet when the giant stepped in, with just a flick of his fingers, he wiped out that bunch of rascals.

One had to admit, there was an absolute dimensional gap between the powers of the two sides.

With that, this smokeless war came to a dramatic end just like that.

Just as Zhao Xiaoxiao and the others were on the brink of being overrun, the war ended because the giant from outside intervened directly.

But even though they had been defended successfully, Zhao Xiaoxiao’s expression was far from happy.

"Today was just too thrilling!"

"I really want to meet this Blacksmith god, I’m a huge fan of his."

"Isn’t everybody? I decided to embark on the hacker path only after hearing about his deeds!"

"And then you specialize in hacking other people’s information and selling it?"

"What about you? You fiddle with those surveillance devices and listening equipment all day long. How are you any better than me?"

What started as an atmosphere of admiration and flattery suddenly shifted as the two began exposing each other’s shortcomings.

"Speaking of which, don’t you two share a room? Why do you have to come here to argue?"

Zhang Wei watched as the two were about to become uncontrollable and hurriedly interjected a reminder.

"Yeah!"

The two cut off the screen, presumably to duke it out in person.

"Today was a bit too exciting, Xiaoxiao. I’ll leave you alone for now. Remember to go to bed early, okay~"

After urging her, Zhang Wei also left the second-floor room.

Zhao Xiaoxiao watched the door close and the darkness envelop the room. She could only curl up with her legs pulled in, sitting silently in her chair.

"That bastard, who asked him to come and save me..."

In the darkness, the girl felt somewhat reluctant.

In the end, she was too weak, still needing to rely on others, and furthermore, it was the help of that person...

...

Zhang Wei went downstairs and returned to his own room.

He was organizing the information he currently had.

From his full participation and observation of the entire attack incident just now,

it seemed that, besides the foreign hackers, there was also a third-party force involved in this attack against Zhao Xiaoxiao and her team.

And this force was very likely the culprit responsible for revealing Zhao Xiaoxiao’s location.

He was well aware of the principle where a third party benefits from the struggle between two others.

These people, believing themselves unable to breach or needing to pay a huge cost to breach Zhao Xiaoxiao and others’ cybersecurity defense, resorted to the plot of setting a tiger to fight a wolf, a scheme to kill with a borrowed knife.

They made Ghost’s information public to attract enemies to attack, then waited to reap the benefits like a fisherman.

One had to admit, it was a clever calculation.

If it weren’t for the legendary blacksmith’s intervention today, wouldn’t Zhao Xiaoxiao and the other two have been utterly doomed?

Even if they eventually turned off all electronic devices, could they live in fear for the rest of their lives?

"Who is this mastermind behind the scenes?"

In fact, using the process of elimination, Zhang Wei knew that this mastermind was very likely Zhang Lang’s side.

Because the only one who would want Zhao Xiaoxiao to suffer and who had her identity and address was him.

"Mr. Zhang, you sure played a good game!"

"But to pull such a stunt during the trial, do you think we have no way of dealing with you?"

Zhang Wei’s gaze shifted into the distance, his expression somewhat somber.

Based on the intelligence he had, he could only say there wasn’t enough surprise to turn the tables; he still couldn’t deliver a fatal blow to Zhang Lang!

So for tomorrow, all he could do was to solidify the defense!

"Hopefully tomorrow I can cope with whatever moves they throw at us!"

With these thoughts, Zhang Wei took another careful look at the case files, then finally decided to rest.

...

After an eventful night, Friday arrived.

It was another court day, and the clerk had already notified them in advance.

After resting and gathering energy, when it came time before the court session, Zhang Wei and his party naturally arrived at the municipal court to prepare.

"Today the prosecution will continue to speak, and if I am not mistaken, they will probably summon more witnesses."

"At the very least, they’ll have the serious crime unit show up, and once they do, it will make the jury think that you guys are a real handful."

"Of course, that’s not the main point!"

Zhang Wei’s words made Zhu Erdan and Liu Dashun pause.

"If that’s not the main point, then Lawyer Zhang, what is?" the two asked in unison.

"The main point is that Zhang Lang!"

Zhang Wei said, gesturing towards the room next door.

"The key evidence against you is still in the hands of the CSB Department. If they bring out more confidentiality agreements, provide some evidence I can’t see due to clearance issues, then I’m at a loss!"

"Isn’t that unfair to us?" The two looked at each other, visibly upset.

"Yes, it’s unfair!" Zhang Wei agreed deeply.

"But in fact, I can see these pieces of evidence, but seeing them is useless, the jury needs to see them to make it count."

Zhang Wei did have a way to deal with evidence not available due to lack of clearance.

A lawyer could sign a confidentiality agreement to enter some important places and view evidence.

But it wasn’t Zhang Wei who made the verdict; it was the 12 jurors in the courtroom.

However, with a mix of jurors from all walks of life, if they all saw confidential evidence, there might be a risk of leaks; typically, sensitive locations wouldn’t agree to let the jury in.

That’s where the problem lay.

Many pieces of evidence couldn’t be seen by the jury.

To counter this move, Zhang Wei still needed to consider how he could break the game.

"Let’s go over, the court session is about to start!"

Seeing that it was almost time, Zhang Wei urged, leading Zhao Xiaoxiao and the other two towards the courtroom.

As they walked down the corridor, the reporters, knowing Zhang Wei’s reputation, didn’t dare to stop them.

They smoothly entered the criminal court.

In the hearing gallery, numerous gazes were cast their way.

Scrutiny, suspicion, along with a few covertly worried glances.

Xia Qianyue, Xiao Baihe, Guo Wufeng, Zhao Chunming, familiar faces flashed before Zhang Wei.

"Silly, Old Xiao, don’t worry, I won’t lose!"

"Old Zhao, Old Guo, don’t worry, I’ll get us some revenge for Dongfang Capital!"

Having said this, he led Zhao Xiaoxiao and the others to their designated seats at the defense bench.

While Zhao Chunming and Guo Wufeng in the front row of the gallery watched Zhang Wei in stunned silence, then exchanged another baffled look.

"What was up with this kid just now, talking as if we were cheering him on?"

"Did this kid’s brain short-circuit or something?"

Zhao Chunming and Guo Wufeng clearly hadn’t expected Zhang Wei to have such a thick skin, greeting them to their faces like that.

You’re looking for death, aren’t you, talking as if we from the Procuratorate Headquarters are your own people.

And you really have some nerve, huh? Thick enough to be a steel plate, is that it?

However, for some reason, Zhao Chunming and Guo Wufeng’s hostility towards Zhang Wei was not as intense as usual today.

Even they were reluctant to admit that the thought had indeed crossed their minds: could this kid actually win?

Although they didn’t like Zhang Wei, they too wished that the matters of Dongfang Capital could be handled by their own people from Dongfang Capital.

If the Senior Procuratorate from Longdu came to Dongfang Capital and started throwing their weight around, it wouldn’t look good for their Dongfang Capital Procuratorate Headquarters.

So, deep down, Zhao Chunming and Guo Wufeng actually wanted to shout out to someone...

Zhang Wei, don’t you dare lose face for Dongfang Capital’s judicial circle!

The courtroom doors opened again.

A large group of people walked in majestically.

Leading them was none other than Zhang Lang, who seemed accustomed to the entourage of subordinates surrounding him. Upon entering the courtroom, he didn’t seem to know how to hold back, striding forward as if he didn’t care about anyone, moving towards the prosecution’s bench.

"Senior Procuratorate Qin!"

"Mr. Zhang!"

Zhang Lang took his seat.

Qin Yang had already arrived early and was currently reviewing the documents in his hand.

Zhang Lang glanced at Qin Yang, who was diligently working, but quickly looked away and turned his head toward the defense’s bench.

His gaze lingered on Zhao Xiaoxiao and others for a moment before a shadow crossed his eyes.

"If it weren’t for that blacksmith, we would have succeeded yesterday!"

The thought of yesterday’s plan made him feel like punching the desk in front of him.

They had prepared for so long, believing it to be a flawless, perfect plan. A clever strategy, using one to defeat another, even benefiting from others’ conflict—truly a stroke of genius.

But, to his dismay, it had failed in the end!

For that, they suffered such a loss of equipment, as well as the manpower and resources spent on surveillance.

"Zhang Wei, Ghost, I, Zhang Lang, swear that I will make you pay a price!"

Looking at the defense’s bench, a cold and cruel light flickered in Zhang Lang’s eyes.

On the other side.

"Wow, that look could kill!"

"Is he embarrassed and angry, or is the dog driven to jump over a wall in desperation?"

Zhang Wei had long since noticed Zhang Lang’s gaze. In fact, as soon as he sensed the implications in the other’s eyes, he knew the mastermind behind yesterday’s incident had to be on the opposite side.

So, here comes the question.

Was Qin Yang aware of what Zhang Lang was doing?

Zhang Wei looked at his main opponent, who was meticulously going through documents.

Feeling Zhang Wei’s gaze, Qin Yang looked up, but soon lowered his head to continue scrutinizing the files.

"He must not know then..." Seeing this, Zhang Wei understood.

Zhang Lang’s actions were obviously not going to be shared with Qin Yang; while they were currently cooperating, they were not good teammates.

"Not good teammates, huh..."

Seeing this, an interesting idea suddenly sprang to Zhang Wei’s mind.

"All rise!"

But just at that moment, the court guard’s voice interrupted his train of thought.

Old Li was here!

Judge Li, wearing a somewhat wrinkled robe, with his hair also a bit disheveled, looked much wearier.

It couldn’t be helped; he had sacrificed too much for this case.

Now, Old Li just wanted to ask Heaven if he could go home and get a proper sleep this weekend.

He really didn’t want to sleep on the office sofa anymore!

"Cough cough, everyone please be seated!"

Old Li rubbed his eyes and signaled for everyone to sit down.

"The court declares, the second official hearing on the spy charges against Zhao Xiaoxiao, Liu Dashun, and Zhu Erdan now begins!"

After Old Li made the announcement and banged the gavel, he looked toward the prosecution’s bench.

Qin Yang rose calmly: "The prosecution calls Major Crimes Unit Captain Wu Yong to testify!"

Hearing the name of the witness, Zhang Wei instantly understood and glanced back at Liu Dashun and Zhu Erdan.

I wasn’t wrong, right? The Major Crimes Unit had to be involved.

Both of them raised their thumbs in cooperation.

As expected of Lawyer Zhang, you’ve guessed it all!

On the witness stand, Wu Yong took his seat.

"Witness, please state your identity to the court!"

"I am Wu Yong, the team leader of the Major Crimes Unit 7, Criminal Investigation Division!"

"Captain Wu Yong, as far as I know, you directly participated in the arrest operation last weekend evening, with your own team members, is that correct?"

"Yes, it is!"

"And the people involved in the arrest operation that you’re speaking of, are they here in the courtroom?"

"Yes, they are—the ones on the defendant’s bench!"

"Could you please identify them for us?"

Wu Yong thought for a moment, and without any ambiguity stated, "It’s the three individuals on the defense bench—the chubby one, the one with glasses, and the girl next to the defense lawyer!"

"Oh, those three, huh!"

Qin Yang nodded then suddenly muttered, "Being listed as an arrest target by the Major Crimes Unit clearly indicates major problems!"

No sooner had he spoken than many among the jury flashed looks of doubt.

"Objection, leading statement!" Zhang Wei stood up for the first time, interrupting Qin Yang.

He had anticipated this move and was, of course, prepared for it.

Using the reputation of the Major Crimes Unit to target the defendants could lead the jury to ponder one question.

What kind of person would be arrested by the Major Crimes Unit? Certainly, it would be someone extremely dangerous!

If the jury were to harbor such a prejudice, the subsequent proceedings would surely be unfavorable for Zhao Xiaoxiao and her two companions.

"Objection sustained!"

Old Li also warned with his gaze, "Senior Procuratorate Qin, don’t think just because you’re from Longdu that you can pull these tricks right in front of me!"

"I apologize, Judge Li!"

Qin Yang apologized formally, looking very serious.

However, he was somewhat speechless inside—Zhang Wei, as a young man, sure was quick to react.

"Captain Wu Yong, may I ask if during that arrest operation, apart from the three defendants, did you encounter anyone else?"

"This..."

Wu Yong glanced at Zhang Wei, seemingly at a loss for words.

"Captain Wu Yong, did you encounter anything that day that’s difficult to describe?"

"No, not really, it’s just that..."

"Just what? I just want you to recount who, besides the defendants, you saw that day. It shouldn’t be a difficult question to answer, right?"

"I..." Wu Yong hesitated for a moment but then decided to be frank: "At the arrest scene, I also saw the defense lawyer!"

"Oh, so the defense lawyer was already at the scene!" Qin Yang feigned surprise, unable to help but murmur.

And with that statement, the gaze of the jury and those in the public gallery shifted onto Zhang Wei.

Why would the defense lawyer be at the scene of the arrest in advance?

"I know everyone must be wondering why the defense lawyer was together with three defendants accused of espionage!"

"You’re wrong!"

Just as Qin Yang was about to continue pressing, Zhang Wei stood up and pointed at the prosecution bench.

"In fact, there were four people accused of espionage that day. You seem to have forgotten your side’s tainted witness, Senior Procuratorate Qin!"

"Oh, sorry, Lawyer Zhang, Liu Xiaotao has already confessed, so he indeed slipped my mind!"

Senior Procuratorate Qin apologized ’regretfully’, but his serious expression did not change, and the extent of his remorse was known to none.

"So here comes the question, Lawyer Zhang, could you please tell me why you were with the defendants?"

"Are you asking me a question?"

"Yes, if Lawyer Zhang finds it difficult to answer, you can refuse. Of course, I think it’s better for you to answer to clear any suspicions that may arise against you."

As Qin Yang spoke, his tone carried a hint of a threat, "Lawyer Zhang, you wouldn’t want the jury to think that you have any illegal dealings, other than the case itself, with the defendants, would you?"

"What a scheme!"

Zhang Wei couldn’t help but mutter inwardly, Qin Yang actually intended to smear him directly.

These tactics of insinuation and intimidation would make many people lose their patience.

I’m the defense lawyer; why should I answer your question? And what if I don’t?

If you truly do not respond, then, I’m sorry, but the jury will assume you have something to hide!

If the defense lawyer were to lose the trust of the jury, then the effectiveness of his subsequent speeches would be greatly diminished.

Zhang Wei had not anticipated that Qin Yang would abandon his previous strategy and opt for a battle of wits!

As expected of someone from Longdu, your move is quite underhanded!