Qin Mu looked up. Seeing the two gift boxes in the elderly man's hands, he grew even more confused.

"You said... he was wearing a suit?"

After a moment's thought, he couldn't help but ask.

The elderly man nodded. "He was dressed very formally; he looked like a real estate agent."

"Oh, right, here's his business card."

Saying that, the elderly man pulled a business card from his pocket.

Qin Mu's eyes lit up. He took the business card and examined it closely.

But he discovered... the business card belonged to a lawyer from some law firm in Jin City, not a real estate agent.

Why would a lawyer send me gifts? Qin Mu furrowed his brow, still puzzled. Although he was also a lawyer, he'd never had any dealings with the lawyers in Jin City's legal circles and wasn't familiar with them.

Just as he was mulling this over, utterly baffled, many more gift boxes were delivered to him. Because the doorman prevented them from entering to visit, the elderly residents who came and went delivered the gifts instead. The senders... were all lawyers. Most of them had included their business cards, apparently hoping to make themselves known.

As for the reason behind the gifts, everyone seemed to have a tacit understanding but didn't say anything explicitly. This left Qin Mu completely bewildered, with no idea what had suddenly gotten into these lawyers.

「Meanwhile.」

In a Jin City lawyers' group chat:

"Man, there are so many cases these past few days! The defendants at the courthouse entrance are like leeks, wave after wave of them."

"I can't take it anymore! I have to get there early tomorrow to grab a spot and try to rope in more defendants."

"What era are we living in? Still waiting at the courthouse entrance? I heard other law firms have already started scouting the hotels near the court."

"This is incredible, truly unprecedented! My firm hasn't had any income for months."

"By the way, have you all sent gifts yet?"

"..."

In the group chat, the mood was electric. Someone had noticed the quiet surge in defendants in Jin City, and from there, things had spiraled out of control. Now, in Jin City, almost every lawyer knew that a massive wave of defendants was about to descend upon the "battleground." And all this was thanks to Qin Mu.

Some had used their connections to learn the details of the case. Only then did they discover that Qin Mu, this time in two batches, had sued fifteen thousand people! The sheer number was five times that of his previous lawsuit against the entire internet.

This breathed new life into Jin City's languishing legal industry. Many lawyers were so excited they couldn't sleep, staking out the courthouse entrance early every morning, hoping to attract more clients.

In their eyes, these individuals were no longer mere clients; they were walking attorney fees! Now, these "attorney fees" were continuously streaming towards Jin City, and how many each lawyer could snatch up depended entirely on their own abilities.

Quietly, a fierce competition erupted within Jin City's legal circles. Some lawyers, friends one moment, would be red-faced and arguing over "defendants" the next. Such incidents were common.

Of course, many lawyers, seeking to avoid the intense competition, chose alternative methods, such as looking for clients near the Jin City Court. After all, these defendants, arriving from all over the country, needed a place to stay. For convenience when attending court, they usually opted to stay near the courthouse.

It could be said that with the courthouse as the epicenter, within a one-kilometer radius, people speaking with out-of-town accents were, nine times out of ten, defendants!

"This afternoon, I took a trip to the nursing home and dropped off some gifts."

"What a coincidence, I did too! I've already taken on over thirty cases. It just felt wrong not to send something."

"Absolutely. I hope Qin Mu keeps this up. Jin City is counting on him to keep us fed!"

"I was actually thinking about changing professions. But now, forget it. As long as Qin Mu is in Jin City, there's hope for us lawyers to strike it rich."

"I went to the nursing home too, but the guard flat-out refused to let me in, said I had to fill out some forms. I just left the stuff and bailed. Every second wasted is a potential defendant lost!"

"..."

In various group chats, besides discussing the fifteen thousand defendants, the most frequent topic was Qin Mu. If they had previously regarded Qin Mu as their meal ticket, now, they saw him as the God of Wealth himself.

Qin Mu was, quite literally, a single man sustaining an entire industry. Many lawyers had secured numerous retainers, effortlessly making hundreds of thousands. It felt wrong not to show some appreciation. Consequently, someone—it's unclear who first proposed it—suggested sending gifts to Qin Mu.

This sparked a wave of "pilgrimages." Many of them had previously attended Zhang Qingyuan's wedding at the nursing home, so they were familiar with the address. However, because delivering gifts was too time-consuming, none of them actually stayed to meet Qin Mu. After leaving their items, they hurried back to the courthouse vicinity to continue their hunt for "defendants."

「Jin City. Near the courthouse. In the lobby of a hotel.」

"Sir, you can absolutely trust our law firm. Our expertise is second to none in Jin City!"

Han Tianming looked at the middle-aged lawyer sitting opposite him and swallowed nervously. He had arrived in Jin City today after receiving the subpoena. To make it easier to appear in court, he had booked a hotel just a few hundred meters from the Jin City Court.

However, he had barely stepped into the hotel lobby with his luggage, before even managing to check in, when this suited, professionally smiling middle-aged lawyer had accosted him.