Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 102 - 99 The Duties of a Lawyer

"What is this? You can mess up your meals, but you can’t mess up your words. It was clearly him who led me away." Yan Yan decided to lay out the facts with Jin Jin.

"Even if that’s the case, it doesn’t lessen your crime. Don’t you know about leniency for confessing? You didn’t even tell me yourself, and I actually had to hear about your schemes from Qi Yi." Jin Jin was extremely dissatisfied that Yan Yan hadn’t voluntarily confessed.

Whether she was getting a boyfriend or breaking up, Jin Jin would tell Yan Yan right away. She was outraged by Yan Yan’s ungrateful and unreciprocating behavior.

"When I added Qi Yi to the group, we had just met.

For so many years before that, there really was no contact.

Even if you are a lawyer, you can’t distort the truth, right?

Don’t you understand what justice and truth are?" Yan Yan felt she couldn’t easily fall into the trap Jin Jin had dug.

"Who told you lawyers have to stand up for justice?" Jin Jin asked Yan Yan.

"Otherwise, what are lawyers supposed to do?" Yan Yan countered.

"A lawyer’s duty, of course, is to win cases," Jin Jin gave a very firm answer.

"So you don’t have any sense of justice?" Yan Yan was puzzled.

"Lawyers are not judges. Why would they need a sense of justice? Lawyers don’t represent justice or evil; they only represent their clients." Jin Jin earnestly cleared up Yan Yan’s confusion.

"You talk so authoritatively; you sound as though you’ve been to court and won cases." Yan Yan’s tone was clearly mocking.

"Going to court is just a matter of time; I’m not some uncertified rogue lawyer." Jin Jin had just joined a law firm and was still an intern.

"Oh, really? Who in their right mind would hire you as their representative?" Yan Yan gave Jin Jin a look that suggested her prospects were bleak.

"Our firm handles international cases; they wouldn’t let a fresh graduate handle major responsibilities right away. Right now, I can only do some work as a director’s assistant." Jin Jin had just arrived at the law firm a few days ago. (note 1)

"So just now you were acting all high and mighty like a big-shot lawyer." Whenever Yan Yan was with Jin Jin, they were either debating or on their way to a debate.

"Whether I’m a big-shot lawyer or not, I can have my own philosophy. A lawyer is simply someone who ’takes on another’s trust, and remains faithful to their affairs.’" Jin Jin continued to express her views.

"I don’t know; I’ve never met a real-life lawyer before, so I’m not sure. The good lawyers on TV always seem to have a strong sense of justice. If someone like you were on TV, you’d definitely be the villain." Yan Yan concluded.

"Lawyers have the right to choose, to take or not take a case. But once they take it, they shouldn’t morally judge their clients. Law is law, and morality is morality; they’re not the same thing." Jin Jin didn’t like Yan Yan’s narrow definition of a "villain."

"Alright, since I’m here to settle the score, I’ll just let you off this time and not argue with a morally lost intern lawyer." Yan Yan’s quibbling continued.

"Are you sure that’s the attitude of someone who’s come to settle accounts?" Jin Jin was on the verge of losing her temper.

"How could it be? I flew for more than ten hours, especially from New York to take you out to dinner." Yan Yan decided it was best to "leave well enough alone."

"You talk as if you could fly directly from New York to Wenzhou. You just happened to stop over in Shanghai; where did you get this idea of ’especially for you’?" Jin Jin scorned Yan Yan’s claim.

"I’m not sure about ’especially for you,’ but there were definitely gates at each airport." Yan Yan responded with a laugh.

"Since you’re so determined to invite me to dinner, let’s stick to the old rules then." Jin Jin made up her mind.

Jin Jin and Yan Yan had many "old rules."

For instance, when someone treated you to dinner, it didn’t matter how the food tasted; the key was that it had to be expensive.

Of course, such old rules rarely made it to the execution stage.

"Bund No. 18?" Yan Yan was well aware of the old rules of treating someone to a meal.

But whenever Yan Yan had wanted to treat Jin Jin to something expensive in the past, Jin Jin had never agreed.

Jin Jin would claim that taste didn’t matter, but in reality, taste was everything to her.

Having known each other for so many years, Yan Yan had never treated Jin Jin to anything genuinely expensive.

"Those places there are nothing but expensive and unsatisfying," Jin Jin rejected Yan Yan’s suggestion.

"Isn’t it the whole point to treat you to something both pricey and unsatisfying? If one place doesn’t fill you up, we can go to several over the course of an evening and multiply the extravagance," Yan Yan wasn’t worried about Jin Jin’s "extortion."

The saying goes, ’beggars can’t be choosers’, and if Jin Jin really let Yan Yan treat her a few times to expensive meals, Yan Yan would be happy not to be tallied up afterward.

Otherwise, every time they talked, Yan Yan would get a lecture about being unreliable, of poor character, an untrustworthy friend, and why it was necessary to confess everything proactively at the first opportunity.

Being criticized every time they met was truly frustrating.

Yan Yan would rather let Jin Jin extort a few meals from her now than be slandered for a lifetime over trumped-up charges.

However, against her wishes, Jin Jin directly refused Yan Yan’s suggestion to go to Bund No. 18. freēnovelkiss.com

"Bund No. 3?" Yan Yan suggested a more expensive place.

"You planning to propose to me or what? Going to Bund No. 3! Locals from Shanghai aren’t keen on those restaurants at the Bund. You know all the expensive places in Shanghai, why not just suggest Ultraviolet by Paul Pairet?" Jin Jin expressed her dissatisfaction.

"You want to go there? Doesn’t that place require booking several months in advance? Plus, they don’t even disclose the location; we wouldn’t be able to go there today," Yan Yan had considered Ultraviolet but felt that the restaurant valued form over substance and was pretentiously mysterious.

"Sounds like you’d be able to manage a table at No. 3 right now," Jin Jin was skeptical.

"Uh, I was just listing the expensive restaurants in Shanghai I’ve heard of. Whatever you want to eat, of course I’ll listen to you; you pick the place and I’ll pay," Yan Yan always maintained a good posture when inviting someone out to eat.

After Yan Yan decided to let Jin Jin choose the restaurant, she suddenly noticed something odd.

"Wait a minute, Jiji, aren’t you always the one who hates those flashy but insubstantial French restaurants? How do you know Bund No. 3 is good for a proposal? Mentioning Bund No. 3 and talking about proposals, something’s up!" Yan Yan suddenly felt like a serf who was about to turn over a new leaf.

note 1:

The term "head of a law firm" doesn’t imply the firm is an institution or anything of the sort.

It simply means the boss of the law firm.

Bigger than a partner, bigger than anyone, can be considered as the legal representative of the firm.

note 2:

Bund No. 18 is a comprehensive commercial center, not just a restaurant.

Bund No. 3, Wangjiang Pavilion, The Cupola, one of the most romantic restaurants in the world, is extremely small, accommodating at most ten people on its two floors.

There are many expensive restaurants in Shanghai, not just these well-known ones. Many Chinese restaurants are just as costly depending on what you order.

Shanghai also has a branch of Li Family Cuisine mentioned in "Chance Meeting with a Perfumer," but the best branch of this imperial cuisine is not in China, but in Melbourne.

Famous restaurants in Shanghai are easy to find; Xiao Mo won’t introduce them in the book.