Brighton is one of the oldest cities in the United States, so naturally there are many old streets in this old city, Hank Street is such a street, although narrow but full of traffic, because the judicial building of the city of Brighton is here.

Brighton's Municipal Justice Building is a very old building, built in the last century, a very Romanesque building, where the Brighton Public Prosecutor's Office is located, and at this moment, the Attorney General of the Public Prosecutor's Office, Richwait, is meeting with three guests: a white American with thin hair and two young Chinese, who are none other than Zhou Ming and his bodyguard**, and lawyer Allen.

"I have no opinion in principle that you should file a lawsuit together, and as long as you do not interfere with the normal procedures of the judicial authorities, otherwise I have the right to withdraw the joint action at any time. Attorney General Sweet said.

Alan smiled and nodded: "Thank you very much to Prosecutor Sweet, we filed the lawsuit just to fight for our own interests, because of Brooke, my client's dormitory convenience store has suffered huge losses, so this lawsuit is very necessary, and for this reason, our lawsuit will only help the judicial authorities' lawsuits, and will not cause any trouble to the judicial authorities, please rest assured that Prosecutor Sweet." ”

"Since that's the case, then I'm afraid I don't have anything to say, our prosecutor's office will notify you before filing a public prosecution after completing the collection and sorting of evidence. ”

Prosecutor Sweet paused at the end, he looked at Zhou Ming and Allen and said, "Do you want to taste lunch in the Justice Building?"

Zhou Ming and Allen immediately got up to say goodbye to Prosecutor Sweet and walked out of the judicial building, Allen said to Zhou Ming: "As long as I have the authorization of Prosecutor Sweet, I can intervene in the investigation of the case as a co-litigation lawyer and attend the court debate, no matter whether Mr. Zhou Ming wants to claim compensation or increase the sentence, I think we have the initiative." ”

"Thank you very much, Mr. Allen, for bothering you with this case. Zhou Ming said.

Alan shrugged his shoulders senselessly: "No problem, but I usually appear in court as a defense lawyer in this kind of case, and this time from the plaintiff's point of view, I think there will be a good view." ”

Zhou Ming and Allen walked to the parking lot, and suddenly took two steps forward and grabbed them, and then an elongated Cadillac courtesy car drove over and stopped in front of them, the window rolled down, and a face about sixty years old appeared in front of them, and said to them: "Zhou Ming, a first-year freshman in the economics department of Harvard Business School, is it right to come from China? Don't ask me who I am, I just ask if you have the courage to get in the car and talk?"

The old man's tone was very arrogant, and his expression was also very arrogant, waiting for Zhou Ming's answer.

Zhou Ming smiled meaninglessly: "I'm not interested in knowing who you are, so since you said that I don't have the guts, then let you be happy, I'll go and say goodbye to you." ”

After saying that, Zhou Ming bypassed the courtesy car and left, which made the old man stunned at that time, although the last sentence Zhou Ming was said in Chinese and he didn't understand, but the middle sentence of goodbye he could still understand, it was this sentence plus Zhou Ming's direct departure that made the old man unable to figure it out.

He didn't understand what Zhou Ming's situation was? This was completely inconsistent with the script he had envisioned in advance, wasn't it that young people like Zhou Ming had a big temper, and they all took the bait when they were provoked casually? Why didn't this Zhou Ming play his cards according to the routine today, he didn't react to his own provocation like that, but he still wanted to leave directly, didn't he think it was a very unethical behavior to do so?

The old man really wanted to leave directly in anger, but he thought that he still had a task, so he had to suppress his temperament and let his courtesy car stop in front of Zhou Ming again.

"I said this old man, I said I wasn't interested in knowing who you were, and I didn't want to get in the car and talk to you. Zhou Ming got out of the car and said.

Do you think I want to talk to you? Something, I really think of myself as a person.

The old man scolded in his heart, but on the surface, he could only endure and say to Zhou Ming: "I guess you must not have heard a story, there is a box of chocolates, there is no packaging outside, but you want to eat it very much, you want to know what chocolate tastes like, there is only one way to open the box." ”

"But the problem is that not everyone wants to eat chocolate, for example, I don't want to eat it, so can you get out of the way?" Zhou Ming asked.

"Don't you want to know who I am, and why I'm here today?" asked the old man.

"I don't want to. Zhou Ming shook his head and said.

The old man was almost crazy in the face of Zhou Ming's answer, he had already built such a good ladder for him, but he just didn't come up, and even if he reached out and he had to open it, how could there be such an ignorant and faceless person in this world? If he could, the old man really wanted to kill Zhou Ming directly with the knife at this time, but he couldn't do it.

Finally, the old man took a few deep breaths and said, "Okay Zhou Ming, now I invited you to get in the car, and someone asked me to bring you a few words." ”

"Generally speaking, an invitation doesn't mean you have to accept it, especially for someone like me. Zhou Ming said with a smile, "But we Chinese have always had a tradition of respecting the elderly, I see that you are so old, you can give you a face, but I don't know what you think?"

The old man's face was blue and white for a while, he didn't expect that he would be teased like this, at this moment, he didn't want to hack Zhou Ming to death, but wanted to beat Zhou Ming into a sieve with a gun.

But no matter how angry the old man was, he still had to hold back his anger and nod and say okay, Zhou Ming got into the car with Allen**.

"You know, if it had been twenty years ago, I would have hanged you from the mast of the docks. ”

This was the first thing the old man said to them after Zhou Ming got into the car, Zhou Ming laughed at this and said: "I can bet with you, no matter how many years ago, you will definitely not be able to do it, but I can." ”

The old man's eyes narrowed into a slit: "Chinese, don't try to provoke me, the price is something you can't afford." ”

Zhou Ming shrugged his shoulders meaninglessly and said, "If this is what you want to say to me, then I think I've listened to it." ”

The old man took a few deep breaths again to calm his excitement, and he continued, "I am Councillor Brooke's butler, a name I I think you must have heard, and he is the father of your classmate Little Brooke. ”

Zhou Ming nodded and said that this was indeed the case, and the old man turned his head to look at the judicial building and asked, "I am very interested, what are you going to do in the judicial building at this time? Don't tell me that you plan to file a joint lawsuit with the prosecutor's office." ”

"That's what I'm going to do. Zhou Ming replied.

"Okay, I know that what Little Brooke did this time caused a lot of damage to your dormitory convenience store, so my boss is willing to compensate you tenfold, you give up this lawsuit and testify in court that it was a misunderstanding, is it okay?" asked the old man.

This time Zhou Ming didn't speak, and lawyer Allen spoke first: "Wait a minute, can I understand that you are bribing my contemporaries to appear in court to commit perjury through money?"

The old man turned to Allen, "Really, but I think I'm trying to settle out of court." ”

After speaking, the old man turned his head back to Zhou Ming: "Chinese, you think about it, I know that you have a deep relationship with your country's consul general Cheng Jun in New York, and you also have a way to get the presidential pardon, but just like the old saying of you Chinese, more things are better than less, and out-of-court settlement, you can get very generous compensation, I think it is a very worthy suggestion to consider." ”

"What if my answer is no?" Zhou Ming asked rhetorically.

"I think you'd better think about it before you answer, because there are a lot of things here that aren't what you think, and if you can afford to hire lawyer Allen, I can also get a lawyer, maybe from New York, or maybe more powerful lawyers in other states, and it's hard to say who wins or loses. The old man thought for a moment and asked, "I think you've been in Brighton for so long, you must have heard of the James case, right?"

"Are you threatening me?" Zhou Ming asked with a frown.

Of course, Zhou Ming has heard of this James case, which is a case that caused a sensation in Brighton last month, James is the chairman of the James Foundation in Brighton, a billionaire with assets, accused of murdering his friend the year before last, the evidence was conclusive at the trial, but after two rounds of court trials, James was finally acquitted.

Like the Simpson case, which later caused a sensation in the United States, the James case is also known as a victory for the rich people, who through their defense team constantly negotiated with the prosecutor's office on every detail of the evidence, and finally found a breakthrough point to win the defense.

However, James's case is different, because James did not die down after winning the defense, but sued the prosecutor's office in court for compensation, so Zhou Ming asked this question.

The old man smiled at Zhou Ming's questioning and said: "I don't dare to threaten you, this is an obstacle to judicial justice, I just want to tell you that this is the bridge to cross the river, you know that all useful suggestions are bitter, or I don't ask you to testify, as long as you don't pursue it, this requirement is already very low." ”

"You have a point, but I still refuse to accept it. Zhou Ming said.

"What if I raise the compensation to a million dollars?" said the old man again.

"Not every Chinese is short of money, and if I give you 10 million to send Brooke to the gallows, I think I will not hesitate to take it out." Zhou Ming said.

"That's a shame, Chinese, you just closed the door through heaven with your own hands. The old man said.

"Maybe the path of hell is more suitable for me, goodbye. ”

After Zhou Ming finished speaking, he and Alan got out of the car together, looking at the back of the limousine leaving, Zhou Ming said faintly: "Maybe I should really accept his proposal." ”

Alan immediately vetoed: "No, Mr. Zhou Ming, that is a cowardly behavior, I don't approve of it!"

"So I didn't do that. Zhou Ming shrugged his shoulders meaninglessly, "But I'm afraid the next court session will not be as easy as we expected." ”