Are You Crazy? He’s only an Intern Lawyer?
Chapter 425 - 421: Old Tan’s Family, Restaurant Fire?

Chapter 425: Chapter 421: Old Tan’s Family, Restaurant Fire?

Wednesday, a workday.

Early in the morning, even before going to work, Zhang Wei received a phone call.

"Lawyer Zhang, I apologize for my attitude towards you yesterday. I would like to say sorry first."

"Please, you must help our family. Old Tan is an honest man, he definitely couldn’t have committed a crime. Please, you have to believe us."

"Don’t worry about the lawyer’s fee. When I divorced years ago, Zhao Qingyan gave me some shares in Blacksmith Technology. Although it’s not a large stake, I still receive millions in dividends each year."

"As long as Lawyer Zhang is willing to help us, we..."

On the phone, Chen Xiaoyu’s attitude had shifted significantly from her aloofness from the day before, becoming much humbler now.

It seemed that she must have consulted quite a few lawyers yesterday and probably looked up information about Zhang Wei too.

When she realized that Zhang Wei was not only the ace lawyer of Jincheng Law Firm but also a famous barrister, it was natural for her to change her demeanor.

At that moment, Zhang Wei had just left Lin Mansion, getting ready to head to the law firm for work.

He glanced at the closed gates of Zhao Mansion Entrance, nodding, "Alright, I’ll take your case."

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Wei directly got into the car.

"Let’s go, to the detention center..."

"Wait for me, Missy here!"

Just as Zhang Wei ordered Zhang Xinyan to prepare to start the car, a delicate shout came from behind.

With a bounce and a hop, Zhao Xiaoxiao also got in the car.

"I want to come along!"

"Alright then..."

Seeing Zhao Xiaoxiao get in the car, Zhang Wei felt a bit helpless but still urged Zhang Xinyan to drive.

In the car, Zhao Xiaoxiao had her earphones in, listening to music, even humming along softly.

But Zhang Wei knew that this girl seemed a bit nervous on the inside.

"Xiao Xiao, you’re nervous, aren’t you?"

"Not at all!"

"If you’re not nervous, then can you relax your foot a bit? You’ve been stepping on me since you got in the car..."

"Ah, this..."

Lowering her head, Zhao Xiaoxiao realized she had indeed been stepping on Zhang Wei’s foot.

The second daughter’s face turned a bit red as she quickly retracted her foot.

She had been wondering why it felt like she was stepping on something since she got in the car; it turned out to be Zhang Wei.

"Second daughter, you still haven’t told me about your family’s situation, have you?"

"What’s there to say, it’s just that, you know."

"Then do you mind if I ask you a few questions about your mom?"

"Go ahead and ask."

Seeing Zhao Xiaoxiao indifferent, Zhang Wei felt it wouldn’t affect her much and decided to proceed with the questions.

"Is Chen Xiaoyu your biological mother?"

"Hmph, yes, she is."

Noting the disdain in Zhao Xiaoxiao’s response, Zhang Wei mentally took note.

It looked like the mother-daughter relationship was indeed strained.

But then, why did Zhao Xiaoxiao insist on coming along with him?

"When did she and Uncle Zhao get divorced?"

"I don’t remember, maybe when I was around five or six."

"Five or six, you say..."

Zhang Wei looked at the second daughter, realizing that must have been a very long time ago, about fifteen or sixteen years.

The thought of the second daughter losing her mother at such a young age filled Zhang Wei with a sense of poignancy.

Hold on!

Zhang Wei realized that he might even be worse off than Zhao Xiaoxiao. Wasn’t he an orphan from a young age?

Well, he found himself overthinking things.

"Ahem, back to the point, did Chen Xiaoyu remarry to the current husband, the boss of the Sour Vegetable Fish Restaurant, after divorcing Uncle Zhao?"

"Yeah, I suppose so. I don’t really pay much attention to them."

Zhao Xiaoxiao lifted her eyelids, showing a lack of interest.

"Not paying attention?"

Zhang Wei muttered to himself and asked, "Do they have kids?"

"They have a boy, called Tan Xiaozhi, who is 5 years old this year."

"And Chen Xiaoyu’s husband’s name?"

"Tan Zhiqi."

Zhang Wei scoffed internally; what an interesting name, but the son’s name, couldn’t it be a bit more imaginative?

The father is named ’Zhiqi’, and the son is named ’Xiao Zhi’??

However, what Zhang Wei really wanted to ridicule was the hypocritical second daughter.

"Well, well, you seem to know quite a lot, yet you say you don’t pay attention?"

"Hehe," the second daughter couldn’t be bothered to explain and simply rolled her eyes at Zhang Wei.

Time flew by as the two bickered.

Soon, they arrived at the detention center.

"Annoying little brother, wait at the entrance. We’re going to meet the client!"

After Zhang Xinyan parked the car at the entrance parking lot, Zhang Wei and Zhao Xiaoxiao naturally headed to the meeting room.

Inside the meeting room at this moment.

Old Tan from Sour Vegetable Fish Restaurant, Tan Zhiqi, was meeting with his wife and child.

Compared to yesterday, Chen Xiaoyu looked much worse.

She had even brought her child over today.

"Daddy, why are you inside here?"

"Daddy doesn’t know either."

"When are you coming out? It was just Mommy and me at home yesterday."

"Soon, soon."

"Okay, daddy..."

Tan Xiaozhi, only five years old, didn’t even understand why his father was locked up, his eyes full of innocence and curiosity.

After appeasing his son’s questions, Old Tan then turned to Chen Xiaoyu.

"Wife, have you contacted the lawyer?"

"I have, they said they’re on their way!"

"Which lawyer did you contact, are they any good?"

"Don’t worry, this time I got in touch with a top lawyer from Jincheng Law Firm!"

"A lawyer from Jincheng? But won’t that cost a lot of money?"

"Don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of the money!"

Hearing Chen Xiaoyu say this, Old Tan’s face showed a trace of displeasure.

"No, it’s not right to use your money. I can handle my own problems, it’s not proper to use a woman’s money!"

It was clear that Old Tan still held strong patriarchal views.

"What are you talking about? Why worry about that now? The most important thing is to get you out!"

Hearing Old Tan talk like this, Chen Xiaoyu’s expression changed and she too became upset.

This big man, can’t he see what’s most important right now, still fussing over trivial things?

Yet Old Tan seemed upset, as if he cared a great deal about certain issues.

"Anyway, it can’t be your money. Your money comes from that man, it’s not mine, and I can’t use it!"

"You, honestly, are still concerned about this? How many times have I told you, that money isn’t his, it’s the shares he paid me when we divorced, my money, our money."

"I don’t care, I don’t want his money!"

"You..."

Chen Xiaoyu was almost driven mad. Why was Old Tan still bothered about this at such a time?

He was being utterly pig-headed!

"Cough cough..."

Just then, a cough sounded from outside the meeting room.

"Lawyer Zhang, you’ve finally come, please come in, please..."

Chen Xiaoyu got excited upon seeing Zhang Wei, but her expression suddenly froze when she caught sight of the girl behind him.

"Yo!"

Zhao Xiaoxiao, too, was quite something, waving at Chen Xiaoyu as a greeting.

Zhang Wei, witnessing this mother-daughter meeting scene, was instantly uncomfortable.

Second daughter, this is your biological mother, what’s with this way of greeting?

It’s like you’re not seeing your mother, but a classmate from school you’re not close with, unsure of their name so you just casually wave your hand?

This is too...

And you, Ms. Chen!

This is your daughter, why do you look as if you’ve seen a ghost?

Could you move a little, anyone who doesn’t know might think you’ve been hit by the Dim Mak!

"Cough cough!" With no other choice, Zhang Wei coughed again to recapture Chen Xiaoyu’s attention.

"Ms. Chen, let’s get back to discussing the case itself!"

"Sorry, Lawyer Zhang, I got a little carried away..."

Chen Xiaoyu hastily apologized, then introduced everyone.

"Lawyer Zhang, this is my husband, Tan Zhiqi, and this is our son, Tan Xiaozhi."

"Oh, Old Tan, Xiao Zhi, hello."

Zhang Wei handed his business card to Old Tan and his son.

Old Tan glanced at it, while Xiao Zhi bit on the card, unfortunately not tasting anything.

"Old Tan, this is Lawyer Zhang I told you about from Jincheng Law Firm, a top-notch lawyer, and this person behind him..."

Chen Xiaoyu had a hard time saying it.

"Old Tan, right? My name is Zhao Xiaoxiao. You must know who I am, right?"

Comparatively, the second daughter was much more direct and readily gave her name.

"You are, the one who’s the daughter of that woman with my wife?"

Old Tan glanced at Zhao Xiaoxiao and Chen Xiaoyu, seemingly realizing something.

It must be said, Old Tan’s perceptiveness was indeed remarkable.

"That’s not the point, the point is your case."

But Zhang Wei waved his hand and immediately sat down.

"Old Tan, can you tell me about the situation you’re currently facing? Try not to leave anything out. Criminal cases like these generally hinge on the details!"

Left with no choice, Old Tan put aside the matter of his wife and Zhao Xiaoxiao’s relationship and slowly disclosed the reality of the situation to Zhang Wei.

"Honestly, I don’t really understand what happened. Early in the morning, the investigators showed up out of the blue, telling me there was a fire in my restaurant, and then there was an accident involving one of my employees."

"Then I was taken aside for questioning. I didn’t even have a chance to look at my restaurant. The investigators showed me photos of the scene."

Old Tan spoke with a sense of helplessness, "In fact, I’m clueless about what happened. There shouldn’t have been any issues with my restaurant. How could it have caught fire?"

"Did the investigators show you a fire report?"

"No, after they locked me up, they just left me here."

"Who was responsible for questioning you, and did they introduce themselves when they apprehended you?"

"It was a woman, looked about thirty, very decisive and seemed to be a team leader."

"Hmm!"

Upon hearing Old Tan’s description, Zhang Wei internally exclaimed at the coincidence.

Lin Ruonan!

It was her again!

"Oh, I see. Then I’ll go directly to her to get a fire report!"

Since it was someone he knew, that made things easier. Zhang Wei could go straight to her later.

This was the advantage of having connections; it could save a lot of trouble.

"Old Tan, I have to ask you, is the management inside your restaurant strict?"

Zhang Wei inquired while speaking softly, "Because I remember that the catering industry is supposed to strictly adhere to health and safety control standards set by the food service industry regulations. For instance, ventilation and grease extraction systems need to be cleaned of grease every three months, specific cleaning tools must be placed as prescribed, and one can only purchase cleaning products from the same brand, among other things. I remember all these are governed by explicit regulations and procedures."

"This..." Old Tan hung his head, looking somewhat embarrassed.

"It seems you didn’t follow the rules?"

"These days, no one in the catering business complies without a single omission. Actually, sometimes we do let the standards slide just a little bit..."

"You’re sure it’s just a little bit?"

Zhang Wei looked at him, and the other man looked back.

In the end, it was Old Tan who unconsciously lowered his head again.

"Old Tan, this won’t do. Right now, I’m the one asking. If it were the prosecutor’s office asking instead, lowering your head like this would seem like an admission of guilt, and what would that make the jury think of you?"

"I..." Old Tan was at a loss for words.

Seeing the party’s reaction, Zhang Wei still had a good measure of the situation.

Old Tan might truly not be aware of the specifics, but to say he had no responsibility was somewhat unrealistic as well.

The exact details would depend on the fire incident report, and he would also need to visit the scene. Perhaps he might uncover some clues.

"Let’s conclude today’s meeting here. I will go consult with the investigative team and then ask the prosecution whether a deal can be reached."

Zhang Wei said and then beckoned to Chen Xiaoyu, calling the couple over.

"Firstly, I can confirm one thing, one of your employees has died, and someone must be held accountable. If the family can’t forgive you, they might even sue you in civil court. How much money do you have to compensate them?"

Old Tan and Chen Xiaoyu looked at each other bewilderedly.

"All these years, I’ve been running this restaurant, but I haven’t saved up much. Is 100,000 enough?"

Zhang Wei smiled and shook his head, "100,000 is definitely not enough. Do you think you can compensate a life with that sum?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Xiaoyu clenched her teeth and said, "How about 1 million, if not, then 2, 3 million? The most I can offer is 5 million!"

"No, we can’t use his money!"

On the other side, Old Tan immediately rejected the offer upon hearing his wife propose such a large sum.

"It’s my money, and I’ll use it as I see fit!"

"No, I don’t agree. Even if it means death, I won’t use that person’s money!"

"You fool, even now you care about this!"

"That’s right I care, what are you going to do about it?"

"You’re simply being unreasonable!"

"That’s just the way I am; otherwise, I might as well be dead!"

"Cough, cough!"

Seeing that the couple was about to argue again, Zhang Wei quickly coughed to interrupt them.

"Could you two please calm down for a moment?"

Zhang Wei interjected, "What I mentioned was merely the worst-case scenario, but you can also look at it from a positive angle. Maybe the responsibility doesn’t lie with you?"

Upon hearing this, Old Tan and Chen Xiaoyu’s expressions softened a bit.

"Old Tan, were you in the restaurant that evening?"

"No, I had to pick them up, so I left early that day."

"Who was in charge that night?"

"It must be Chef Wang, he always leaves very late anyway."

"Chef Wang, got it."

"So that night, at your restaurant..."

Zhang Wei asked a lot of questions and diligently noted down every answer in his notebook.

Half an hour later, he exchanged a glance with Zhao Xiaoxiao and the two of them prepared to make their exit.

"Lawyer Zhang, about my husband’s case, are you..."

"Don’t worry, Mrs. Chen, I shall take full responsibility for this case!"

Chen Xiaoyu was somewhat reassured by Zhang Wei’s promise.

She then looked at Zhao Xiaoxiao, but unfortunately, there was no mother-daughter bond between them.

"Alright, goodbye!"

Zhao Xiaoxiao simply waved her hand, which counted as bidding farewell to their family of three.

Old Tan and Chen Xiaoyu watched as Zhang Wei and Zhao Xiaoxiao left.

"Say, is that your daughter? She really looks like you when you were young."

"Not at all, Xiao Xiao is much prettier than I was at her age, it’s just that..."

Chen Xiaoyu opened her mouth and revealed a bitter smile.

When she and her daughter had separated, the girl was just five or six years old, about the same as her son.

"Come to think of it, what’s the relationship between your daughter and Lawyer Zhang? They seem quite close."

"Ah, I didn’t ask..."

Chen Xiaoyu and Old Tan looked at each other, both at a loss.

...

Elsewhere.

After leaving the detention center, Zhang Wei and Zhao Xiaoxiao got directly into the car.

"Let’s go, to the Major Case Squad!"

He instructed Zhang Xinyan to drive again, and they headed off without delay.

Soon, they arrived at the Martial Association.

Zhang Wei was more than familiar with the Investigative Division and Major Case Squad.

Each visit here felt like coming home to Zhang Wei.

"Um, I need to punch in and check in with Guider Zhou, so wait for me a second."

While they were going upstairs, Zhao Xiaoxiao took out her phone and got busy.

Zhang Wei remembered that this girl had tasks to handle now, needing to report to Guider Zhou daily and punch the clock on time.

Seeing his second daughter finally busy with work, Zhang Wei felt gratified.

After Xiao Xiao had finished reporting to Guider Zhou, the two continued upstairs.

"Eh, isn’t that Old Tie over there?"

At the staircase entrance, they saw a familiar figure hesitating to move forward.

"Old Tie, what are you up to?"

Tie Ruyun had been unsure whether to enter when he suddenly heard someone calling his name from behind.

He turned around and saw that it was that youngster.

"Ah, Zhang Wei, what brings you here?"

"Come on, Old Tie, you’re joking, right? As criminal defense lawyers, isn’t coming to the Investigative Division just like coming home?"

Zhang Wei approached Tie Ruyun and then noticed the invitation in his hand.

"Oh wow, are you planning to invite Team Leader Lin to the charity auction with you?"

"Whoa, you’re going after Team Leader Lin?" Zhao Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but look gossipy as well.

Tie Ruyun immediately panicked and quickly hushed them, "Shh, shh, shh, keep it down, will you? I’m still hesitating."

"Hesitating why? Let me take you in!"

Zhang Wei couldn’t stand indecision and grabbed Tie Ruyun, leading him straight into the Major Case Squad office.

Inside the office, many people looked up but went back to their work when they saw it was Tie Ruyun and Zhang Wei.

Criminal defense lawyers, after all.

It was common for them to visit the Major Case Squad, and everyone was well acquainted with these two.

Anyway, they were all there to see someone, and their reasons for visiting were rarely good, which the staff did not like.

"Is Team Leader Lin around?"

Not seeing Lin Ruonan in the office, Zhang Wei called out.

One of the team members reminded him, "They are having a small meeting with the Thunder Squad right now!"

"Oh, is the old tiger back?"

Zhang Wei was quite surprised, not expecting Lei Hu to have returned from his injury already.

Speaking of which, Lei Hu’s injury was Xia Qianyue’s fault.

"Old Tie, in that case, let’s wait!"

Looking at a nearby conference room bustling with people, Zhang Wei led Tie Ruyun and Zhao Xiaoxiao to take a seat casually.

Just like he said, visiting the Major Case Squad was as comfortable as coming home for him.