"Brother Xu, that lawyer... seems to be from back home, some guy named Qin Mu."

Nearby, Zhao Wan thought for a moment and couldn’t help but say, "Should I go check him out?"

He’d heard Zhang Qingyuan mention the name Qin Mu unintentionally. The man seemed unremarkable, just an ordinary lawyer. Since they were going to court, Zhao Wan felt they should be thoroughly prepared and investigate the opposing counsel.

However, Xu Liming waved his hand dismissively, a look of arrogance on his face. "No need," he said. "Local court trials largely follow established precedents; he won’t be able to make much of a splash."

On this particular point, he was especially confident. Having worked in this field for so long, he had some understanding of the laws in that region. They were vastly different from those back home, belonging to two different legal systems. The most significant characteristic was that courts followed established precedents when hearing cases; if a precedent existed, the case was judged accordingly. This legal system’s basic principle was "stare decisis," meaning that in judging cases, the court must take the precedents set by previous courts as the legal basis for trial and ruling. For issues already addressed by effective judgments of the court and higher courts, if the same or similar cases were encountered again, no judgments contrary to or inconsistent with past decisions could be made unless new circumstances were present or more compelling reasons were offered. This would hold true until a higher court or the supreme court eventually made a different judgment in another similar case. And the case they filed against Zhang Qingyuan was no different from previous ones; one could say it was a spitting image. If the other party couldn’t present new circumstances or sufficient reasons, they wouldn’t gain the court’s support. With this principle in place, he was completely worry-free.

"Go see George and give him the case materials," Xu Liming instructed, turning to Zhao Wan. "Have him do what he always does: try to get Zhang Qingyuan to make some additional compensation on top of the donation."

George was the lawyer they had always collaborated with. He was quite famous locally, very competent, and had never dropped the ball.

Zhao Wan hurriedly nodded upon hearing this.

「Meanwhile.」

On an international flight, Qin Mu was holding his phone, voraciously studying foreign legal articles, attempting to find a way to crack the case. The materials he had paid for contained records of many international judicial practice cases. After reviewing them, he once again realized the case’s complexity. The case law was different from the domestic legal system, as it followed the principle of precedent. Furthermore, it was laden with heavy religious influences. For instance, suicide was viewed as a desecration of the body, with the soul not permitted into heaven; thus, people attempting suicide had to be stopped, even if it meant killing them. This was actually "for their own good." But he found such religiously influenced laws hard to accept.

Perhaps... I could start with the principle of evidence.

Suddenly, Qin Mu had a spark of inspiration, a new direction forming in his mind. Unlike the domestic legal system, the law in many foreign regions highly regarded the legality of evidence. Any illegally obtained evidence would not be admitted by the court, nor would it be submitted to the jury for deliberation. This applied to all criminal and civil cases. Domestically, however, illegally obtained evidence in criminal cases could still be used as long as it was genuine and not forged. Therefore, he could focus on the donation agreement Old Zhang had signed and strive to have it classified as illegal evidence! If the opposing party’s key piece of evidence was ruled illegal, their accusations against Old Zhang would collapse. The court would no longer support their claim for the donation, and the case could be won.

But... this wasn’t what he truly wanted. This group of illegal tour operators was so audacious because the cost of their crimes was too low. They believed that even if they lost the case, they wouldn’t face any criminal responsibility—at most, they’d lose some "donations." Moreover, counting on being abroad where domestic law couldn’t reach them, they acted with even more impunity. He absolutely had to find a way to get all of them locked up!

The actions of these tour groups, at first glance, constituted fraud. They used a contract to induce the elderly to sign, ultimately deceiving them out of their money. But in reality, in the region where Old Zhang was, the definition of fraud differed somewhat from domestic law. It referred to unlawfully gaining possession of property through deceit. Objectively, this required unlawful acquisition. For instance, their actions had to violate certain laws, meaning they had to be legally impermissible. Subjectively, the condition of fraudulent action needed to be met. On these two points, the opposing party only met the latter; fraudulent actions were indeed present because they had presented a foreign-language donation agreement, deceiving Zhang Qingyuan and the others by claiming it was a sign-up sheet for souvenirs. However, this act itself wasn’t illegal. As long as their donation agreement was compliant and lawful, there was no issue. After all, Zhang Qingyuan and the others possessed independent civil and criminal liability; they weren’t intellectually disabled and were capable of discerning an agreement’s authenticity. Furthermore, there was no surveillance at the scene, making it impossible to prove coercion, pressure, or inducement. Their signatures could be considered voluntary, tantamount to accepting the agreement. According to the spirit of the contract, once signed, an agreement could not be arbitrarily retracted. The so-called desire to not donate was completely untenable.