Chapter 76 – A Million Annual Salary, Lawyer Tang’s Choice

Hearing Shen Rou’s words, Chen Mo fell into deep thought.

If a legal department were to be established, and the goal was to lose lawsuits, then hiring inexperienced lawyers would be ideal—the less experience, the better. Best-case scenario: all interns.

That way, whenever a lawsuit came along, the chances of losing would be very high.

However, just as he had this thought, the system issued a warning.

> If a company establishes a legal department, it must have at least one elite lawyer in place.

Damn it.

This dog system really doesn’t leave any loopholes.

An elite lawyer?

Then how was he supposed to lose lawsuits?

Wait a second—

Lawyer Tang!

Wasn’t she an elite lawyer? And she had just lost a case. Leaving everything else aside, purely in terms of professional capability, Tang Qiu was likely less competent than other elite lawyers.

High price, low capability.

Isn’t that exactly what he needed?

The system required him to hire an elite lawyer. Hiring one with low competence shouldn’t be going too far, right?

And the average annual salary for an elite lawyer was between 500,000 and 700,000 yuan. The system allowed a 30% increase above market rate. At the maximum level, including a thirteenth-month bonus, offering a million-yuan annual salary was totally feasible.

The only question was—could it be paid in advance?

After all, employee salaries up to now were only ever paid one month in advance. Would annual salaries be eligible for a full year’s prepayment?

After some testing, surprisingly, the system didn’t reject the idea.

Holy crap!

Did that mean other employees could be paid annual salaries too?

But the system quickly responded:

> 【Annual salaries don’t align with mainstream societal norms. The host may only offer annual salaries to certain special positions.】

Just when Chen Mo thought he’d discovered a new way to burn money, the system immediately shut the door in his face.

Fair enough.

Lawyers’ salaries usually depend on the number and size of the cases they take. A lawyer might go a whole month without landing a single case but might catch several big ones the next month.

So when lawyers talk about salary, they usually go by annual figures.

That must be why the system made an exception and allowed an annual salary in this instance.

He sighed.

What a pity. If all employees could be paid annual salaries, he’d never run out of ways to spend money.

After thinking it over, he pulled out his phone and found Tang Qiu’s number.

Now that he had a new money-burning route, it was time to act quickly.

As long as he could recruit Tang Qiu into the legal department, he could instantly spend one million in system funds.

—

Tiandi Law Firm

Inside the partner’s office.

“If you wanted to go after her, why didn’t you expose that she deliberately lost the case? That would’ve completely destroyed her reputation. I doubt any law firm would want her after that.”

A woman with finely applied makeup spoke in confusion. As a partner at Tiandi Law Firm, she couldn’t understand Wu Zhenguo’s approach.

Tang Qiu had seriously tarnished the firm’s reputation. The firm had to work hard to appease their client and barely managed to retain the account.

But Wu Zhenguo had only hired some online trolls to discredit Tang Qiu’s abilities. He hadn’t revealed that she had intentionally lost the case.

Wu Zhenguo leisurely sipped his tea, looked at the woman across from him, and spoke slowly.

“Online scandals have an expiration date. Even if I expose the truth now, sure, Tang Qiu might suffer a total breakdown. But give it time, and most people will forget.”

“And with her capabilities, do you think she’ll stay down forever?”

“For someone competent, a bit of bad press won’t be fatal.”

“Besides, if we push her too hard, she might retaliate by exposing the injuries suffered by that family. If that happens, even if she did throw the case, a lot of people might sympathize with her.”

“People tend to side with the underdog instinctively.”

“If it really comes to that, who wins and who loses becomes unclear.”

“Not to mention, our client would be dragged into the spotlight, and we might actually lose this big account.”

Zhou Fang frowned slightly at his words.

“But just letting her off like that… feels way too easy for her.”

“You think I’m letting her off?” Wu Zhenguo smiled faintly at the unrelenting Zhou Fang and picked up a USB stick from the desk, giving it a little shake.

“Sometimes, when you’re not sure you can finish someone off for good, keeping a gun pointed at their head is the best way to control them.”

“With this USB stick, I’ve got her by the throat.”

“I can wait for the perfect moment to deal a fatal blow.”

Wu Zhenguo’s lips curled into a meaningful smile.

—

“President Chen, you want to hire Lawyer Tang for the company’s legal department?”

“But Lawyer Tang, she…”

Shen Rou looked uneasy as she voiced her concerns. After all, Lawyer Tang was currently mired in controversy. Bringing her into the company at this time might reflect badly.

“It’s fine.”

Chen Mo waved dismissively.

“Let Brother Yang get the car ready. I’ve arranged to meet her at a café. We’ll head out shortly.”

“Understood, President Chen.”

Shen Rou nodded. Since the boss had made up his mind, she had no reason to object further.

—

Inside a Café

Tang Qiu looked across the table at Chen Mo and teased lightly:

“President Chen, are you here to acquire another company again?”

The last two times he contacted her, it had been for acquisitions.

“Not this time,” Chen Mo chuckled. “I saw the news about you.”

Tang Qiu’s expression froze for a moment. She instinctively adjusted her glasses and looked at him.

“I don’t think you’d go so far as to ask me out just to laugh at me, would you?”

“Of course not.”

Chen Mo smiled and gestured to Shen Rou.

Shen Rou quickly took out the prepared employment offer and pushed it toward Tang Qiu.

“Lawyer Tang, please have a look. This is our company’s offer.”

Offer?

Tang Qiu raised an eyebrow and curiously opened the folder.

Her expression finally changed upon seeing the contents. She hadn’t expected that he was offering her an annual salary of one million yuan to take on the position of Legal Director in the company’s legal department.

Since becoming an elite lawyer, her annual salary had never exceeded 700,000 yuan. A million was well beyond her expectations.

What shocked her even more was the timing. Her reputation had taken a nosedive.

If the case she’d lost was just a small one, it wouldn’t be such a big deal.

But the client in that lawsuit was a subsidiary of Ruishang Group—one of Jiang City’s leading enterprises.

Losing that case was essentially offending Ruishang Group.

Anyone aware of the situation avoided her like the plague, afraid of getting caught up in the mess.

Since resigning from Tiandi Law Firm, several law firms had already rejected her applications.

And now, during her lowest point, this young man in front of her was extending an olive branch, ignoring all the negativity.

She couldn’t help but feel confused.

“You’re not worried… that my current reputation might affect your company?”