Are You Crazy? He’s only an Intern Lawyer?
Chapter 493 - 489: Promoting Resources, Isn’t This a Scam?

Chapter 493: Chapter 489: Promoting Resources, Isn’t This a Scam?

Sister Li left.

She was escorted away by the court guard.

In Judge Jiang’s opinion, this "mastermind" had to be sent to the investigation department to undergo the investigation by the serious crime unit.

She had already pleaded guilty in court, so it looked like she wouldn’t be able to avoid jail time.

However, Zhang Wei knew that Sister Li was just taking the fall for the Fly-With-You Network.

And such talent agencies were never short of agents.

Even if Sister Li fell, there would be Sister Lie, Sister Li who would take her place.

The real power behind Fly-With-You Network was Director Zhu Pitte.

He was the target Zhang Wei needed to take down!

"Plaintiff, do you wish to call any more witnesses?"

"Judge Jiang, before calling witnesses, our side wants to clarify a key point in this case!"

"What key point?"

After Sun Kongwen lowered his head to communicate with Zhu Pitte for a few moments, he walked straight into the court.

"Ahem, everyone, I know you all witnessed Sister Li’s actions just now. My client also thanks the defendant’s side for finding the black sheep in my company and eliminating it!"

"But we need to make it clear that this case is about the defendant, Miss Lin’s breach of contract!"

As Sun Kongwen spoke, he raised his hand to point at the defendant’s seat where Bobo was, emphasizing word by word, "It’s her breach of contract that has led to this lawsuit!"

"My company simply hopes that the defendant Bobo will apologize to my company and compensate according to the contract for her breach. As for the internal affairs of my client’s company, I do not consider it the focus of this case!"

"But the defendant’s lawyer keeps slandering, emphasizing problems within my company; these are clearly tactics to divert attention, a strategy to shift the blame. I urge the wise jurors not to be deceived!"

His words reminded many people in the courtroom of the focal point of the case.

Whether the female streamer on the defendant’s side really needed to pay the breach-of-contract fee.

So, the focus of the case should be more on that woman, not on the internal affairs of Plaintiff Director Zhu’s company.

Certainly.

Even Judge Jiang on the bench couldn’t help but nod his head.

Although he had thought of this point, Zhang Wei on the defendant’s side was not an easy opponent; he did not dare to do anything unnecessary, and so did not alert the jury.

And now, Sun Kongwen brought it up himself.

"Lawyer Sun, as the plaintiff’s lawyer, you’ve emphasized your point already, do you wish to continue with the opening statement?"

"Yes, we would like to continue calling witnesses!"

After Sun Kongwen finished speaking to Judge Jiang, he continued to declare: "We want to call an employee from our company’s operations department to testify in court!"

From the plaintiff’s witness seat, a man with a somewhat sleazy appearance stepped up to the bench.

He wore black thick-rimmed glasses, a blue short-sleeved shirt, and jeans, clearly someone technical.

"Hello, witness, could you please introduce yourself?"

"I am a member of the Fly-With-You Network’s operations department, responsible for providing network resource support to the streamers!"

"Network resources, can you elaborate on what those resources are?"

"This includes the rankings of room popularity within the platform, search engine bid rankings outside of the platform, and some public relations promotion to give our company’s top streamers an edge in resources."

"Is the defendant one of Fly-With-You Network’s top streamers?"

"Yes, Bobo is one of the most promising newcomers in our company. Director Zhu thinks highly of her and has even provided her with a substantial amount of resources."

"Then tell me, if there were a way to quantify these resources, what would be your conservative estimate of their value?"

"Since Bobo began to gain popularity, our company has continuously poured resources into her, including bidding for ranks within the platform, search engine rankings, and even other promotional campaigns. The conservative estimate of the value of these network resources is about 5-10 million yuan!"

"5-10 million?"

Sun Kongwen acted surprised, then pointed towards the defendant’s bench and asked, "Are you saying that you have spent up to 10 million yuan on promoting Bobo?"

The witness looked around and then said solemnly, "Yes, that figure is actually a conservative estimate from me."

million, or even 10 million!

These numbers truly shocked a lot of people.

If it was said that Fly-With-You Network invested 10 million yuan in Bobo, then it seemed like it wouldn’t be a problem to seek 5 million yuan in damages for breach of contract.

Moreover, it might even be that Fly-With-You Network couldn’t recoup their investment, couldn’t it?

Compared to that, the jury’s look towards the plaintiff’s side seemed much less hostile.

Since Sister Li had already taken the fall, now this witness had confirmed Fly-With-You’s expenditures, demanding 5 million yuan in compensation from the defendant had become a reasonable claim.

"We have no questions for this witness!"

Seeing his objective achieved, Sun Kongwen walked off the bench with a cold smile.

"Zhang Wei, it’s all up to you now!"

From the defendant’s bench, Luo Xiaobu wore a look of trust, while Bobo beside him couldn’t help but nod and cheer on.

"Don’t worry, I’ve prepared a countermeasure for this set too!" Zhang Wei waved his hand dismissively and rose to his feet calmly.

"Hello, witness!"

"Hello, defense attorney."

Smiling, Zhang Wei approached the witness stand and asked, "May I have your name, please?"

"You may, it’s Feng!"

"What position do you hold in the operations department?"

"I am one of the managers in the operations department."

"Alright, Manager Feng. I’d like to ask you, you just mentioned operational resources: are these quantifiable?"

"They should be quantifiable!"

The witness nodded and then explained with a smile, "Like in Qian Duo’s keyword bidding, the higher the position you occupy, the more you spend. Similarly, the lower the position, although the effect is not as high as the first page, the cost would be relatively lower."

"When you do the bidding, what kind of keywords do you use? Can you tell us?"

"That..."

Zhang Wei’s question made the witness momentarily speechless.

"What, you dare not say it?"

Zhang Wei sneered, then pulled out his phone and placed it directly on the projector.

"Since the witness won’t speak, then let’s do a little experiment ourselves, about the keyword bidding done by Bring You to Fly Network!"

"First, let’s open Qian Duo, and then search for the words ’female anchor’ on the search page. What will come up?"

On the mobile webpage, several links appeared, with the most prominent ones featuring seemingly unseemly images.

Women with fair skin and beautiful looks, dressed in sexy and provocative costumes, were posing in suggestive manners.

"Let’s open one of these pages and have a look!"

As he spoke, Zhang Wei tapped on an image with a uniformed figure, which then automatically redirected to a live broadcast room on a streaming platform.

"Thanks to Old Tie for the 666 airplanes, thanks to Old Tie for the big rocket, family, today I’ll sing a song for you guys first, barrage for song requests..."

In the broadcast room, the female anchor smiled as she chatted with the audience, all the while eyeing the gift leaderboard and subconsciously calling out the usernames of gift-givers.

She had no idea that today, she’d been "checked out" by a group from Dongfang Capital City Court’s civil chamber.

"Manager Feng, this is the so-called keyword bidding, right?"

"Yes."

"So, that means if Bring You to Fly Network were to do this keyword bidding, when searching for terms like ’female anchor,’ it would lead to rooms of your company’s female anchors, like my client Miss Lin, as well as other female anchors from your company?"

"Yes."

"Then let’s not waste any more time, I’ll ask you again, what are the keywords your company uses for bidding?"

"This..."

Seeing Zhang Wei ask a second time, Manager Feng finally began to panic.

"Manager Feng, if you don’t speak up, I can try each one out myself, you know~" Zhang Wei raised his eyebrows, giving the witness stand a smile full of intent.

Manager Feng had no choice but to be candid. After all, you said so much, and I could only tell the truth.

And this matter, you can’t deny it; after all, Qian Duo is accessible as long as there’s internet, so someone will eventually search for it.

"Hot dance, sexy goddess, sexy female anchor, goddess for otakus, and..."

"And what?" Zhang Wei hurriedly asked, with a mischievous grin on his face.

"...and ** anchor, ** hot dance as well as ** girlfriend."

After Manager Feng finished speaking, he couldn’t help but lower his head.

"Oh, I see, so it’s the typical gray area and skirting the rules, huh?"

Zhang Wei couldn’t help but remark.

His words also made many people in the jury and the audience seats realize.

Goodness, so the keyword bidding you’re doing online is to top-off these unhealthy things!

That is really...

"By the way, one more question, when you run this keyword bidding, it’s to increase the popularity of female anchors like my client, right? Do they know about this?"

"They know."

"How did you notify them that they were ranked on the keyword bidding or similar promotions?"

"I told them there was a resource recommendation and advised them not to stop broadcasting during this period or to leave early."

"Is that all?"

"Hmm, just like that..."

"A resource recommendation, that’s it?"

Zhang Wei couldn’t help but spread his hands, "You neither showed them the actual effects of the finished product nor explicitly informed them of the resources that the bidding rank consumed, equivalent to how much money, and just ended it with a simple statement?"

What kind of explanation is this, it’s like saying nothing at all.

"You casually mention it, and they don’t know that these resources could cost tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions?"

"This..."

"Manager Feng, looking at your expression, it’s clear they don’t know."

Zhang Wei sneered and pointed at Manager Feng, "You vaguely tell them there are resource advantages but do not inform them of the costs of these resources. Aren’t you clearly setting them up?"

"So with your vague words, they have to pay tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Didn’t you even bother to ask them if they needed this recommendation? Isn’t this forced buying and selling?"

Hearing Zhang Wei’s words, many people in the courtroom nodded again.

Indeed, so vague, who would know there’d be such high costs.

Trickery!

This so-called recommendation in operation is really trickery.

And not just trickery, what are you even promoting, if not borderline dodgy practices.

Contempt!

Disdain!

And even anger!

In summary, with just a few simple words from Zhang Wei, the jurors and court atmosphere became very unfriendly towards Take You Flying Internet.

"Fuck, good for nothing, causing more harm than help!"

On the plaintiff’s bench, Zhu Pitte was immediately displeased with the witness’s performance.

"Director Zhu, don’t worry, we have many witnesses."

Sun Kongwen glanced at the witness bench behind him. There were still many managers from Take You Flying Internet who could certainly make a difference.

"Manager Feng, although I don’t really want to say this, I think many of these ranking biddings and resource promotions you’ve done were without my client’s consent. This could be considered fraud, huh!"

"I, I did not commit fraud, I..."

"Judge Jiang, regarding this witness, our side has no further questions!"

Just as the witness tried to explain, Zhang Wei had already preemptively interrupted him.

The witness, helpless, could only stand up and return to the witness bench.

"We call the Training Department Head to testify!"

The witness who came to the stand this time was a woman with an ordinary appearance, but a tall and graceful figure, looking about 30 years old.

"She is the teacher who teaches us dancing and shaping," Bobo quickly pointed at the woman and said.

"I can tell."

Zhang Wei nodded. This woman was clearly trained in dancing.

"Hello, Teacher Gu, please introduce yourself."

"I am Teacher Gu from Take You Flying Internet, responsible for teaching students dance, physical maintenance, and aesthetic body shaping."

"So, Teacher Gu, do you know the defendant?"

"Of course, Bobo is my student."

As Teacher Gu spoke, she also gave Bobo a very friendly smile.

"Teacher Gu, your job is to train new students in dance skills inside Take You Flying Internet, right?"

"Yes."

"Teacher Gu, I remember you are an excellent dancer, so when you teach the students, you must have put in a lot of effort, right?"

"To train them into excellent dancers, I indeed put in a lot of energy."

"So after the defendant had completed her training, what did she give back to you, to Take You Flying Internet?"

Hearing this question, Teacher Gu glanced at the defendant’s bench, made a disgruntled look, and said, "She chose to leave us to develop her career at another company during her rising period!"

As soon as these words were spoken, many in the jury and spectator seats lifted their eyelids, glancing at the defendant’s bench.

After completing her training, she chose to job-hop for better development opportunities.

It’s a common move for career professionals, you can’t say it’s wrong, but morally, it’s somewhat questionable.

Although everyone has the right to seek better opportunities, abandoning your humble beginnings once you succeed, doesn’t that make you a Chen Shimei?

And his reputation is not good at all!

"Teacher Gu, as far as I know, live streaming companies generally sign multi-year contracts with newcomers, why is that?"

"Because such contracts are designed to prevent situations like Bobo’s. When her training is complete and she decides to abandon the company to join a competitor, wouldn’t all the resources and effort that our company invested in her be wasted?"

"So, the defense claims that the company’s contract is problematic, overly exploitative, and excessively autocratic, but in reality, the company was also left with no choice, right?"

"Yes!"

Upon hearing Teacher Gu’s response, many among the jury and the observers nodded in agreement.

It’s not that the company wants to play the villain; it’s that some really act in an inhuman way.

Isn’t it normal for the company to sign you on for a few more years to prevent job-hopping?

Listening to Teacher Gu’s explanation, everyone put themselves in their shoes and suddenly understood.

"With regard to this witness, we have finished our questioning."

Sun Kongwen returned to the plaintiff’s seat and sat down indifferently.

Zhang Wei stood up again, a smile on his face as he approached the witness stand.

"Teacher Gu, hello."

"Hello, Lawyer Zhang."

Teacher Gu still maintained her kind smile, not provoking the slightest wariness.

"Teacher Gu, may I ask, what kinds of dances do you teach your students?"

"They’re mostly gyrating body movements, along with some light and quick dance steps, of course, and some original choreography, including some anime-inspired dances."

"I can tell, you are a professional dance teacher."

Zhang Wei couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

"Then can you tell me, where do you usually teach your students these dance steps?"

"On the second floor of the apartment building they rent, we have a dance studio."

"Is this studio large?"

"200 square meters."

"Sounds quite spacious."

Zhang Wei nodded again, but his expression suddenly turned cold, "May I ask, Teacher Gu, when the students are learning to dance, is anyone present as an observer?"

At this question, Teacher Gu’s smile suddenly froze.

"This... Learning to dance is a company matter, so naturally there are company people who observe..."

"Yes, indeed, company people are there to observe!"

Zhang Wei moved in closer and pressed on, "But is that all they do, just observe?"

This time, Teacher Gu’s expression became difficult to maintain, her eyes filled with a hint of panic.

"Teacher Gu, can you assure me that the company people are merely there to observe you teaching the dance to the students?"

"This..."

When the witness was unable to respond, Zhang Wei sneered and once again pulled out his phone.

"Here, I’d like to present a few sets of photographs, but do not worry, everyone, I have pixelated certain key areas!"

As he spoke, he transferred the photos from his phone to a computer and then displayed them with the projector.

On the projector screen appeared photos of the dance room, with young female students practicing.

The second photo showed female students again, and among them was Teacher Gu dressed in tight dancewear.

"Teacher Gu, that’s you there, isn’t it? And this is your dance studio, correct?"

"Yes... yes, it is."

Once Teacher Gu provided a positive answer, Zhang Wei quickly switched to another photo.

In this photo, it was still the dance room and the female students, but this time, several men who looked like thugs appeared.

They were grabbing the hands of some female students, wrapping their arms around their waists, and even harassing some of them.

At the sight of this photo, the entire courtroom became unsettled.

The photos continued to change.

There were more men, and the extent to which they touched the female students grew bolder, with many scenes inappropriate for children to witness.

Of course, Zhang Wei thoughtfully pixelated them, yet many in the courtroom murmured to themselves at the sight of these censored images.

Well, well, you rascal, hogging it all for yourself, huh!

"Teacher Gu, I want to ask you, like the female student in this photo, she appears to be resisting men taking advantage of her. You are also in this picture, so why didn’t you intervene to prevent this scene?"

"If the female students can’t even ensure their personal safety in your classroom, then what is the meaning of the ’lessons’ you claim to provide them?"

Zhang Wei approached the witness stand, pointing at the photo on the projector screen, and questioned her sharply.

Facing this question, Teacher Gu’s complexion changed slightly, her mouth opened, but she could not speak for a long time.

The mood in the courtroom also began to shift.