October 1, 2002, Greenwood City, Ashford Province, Eastland.
At four in the afternoon, inside the lavishly decorated offices of Blackwood & Reed Law Firm on Beacon Street, Adrian Cole stood in front of a restroom sink and splashed a handful of ice-cold water over his face, finally managing to clear some of the confusion clouding his mind.
When he raised his head, the mirror reflected the drenched face of a twenty-five-year-old man staring blankly back at him.
Water ran from his dark hair and down his cheeks while he remained motionless, allowing the two sets of memories tangled inside his mind to gradually sort themselves out.
After several minutes, Adrian finally understood what had happened.
“I’ve transmigrated…” There was no other reasonable explanation.
He had died in his previous world and somehow awakened in the body of his parallel-world counterpart in the year 2002.
The strangest part was that this counterpart was still Adrian Cole.
He had the same appearance, the same name, and even a similar career, although their lives had taken very different paths.
In his previous life, Adrian had worked in the legal field for years before eventually becoming the Chief Legal Officer of a top-tier corporation, where he had handled countless complicated matters without ever making a serious mistake.
Unfortunately, his final opponent had not been another lawyer or a particularly difficult lawsuit, but an eighteen-wheeler whose driver had decided that drinking and driving at the same time was somehow a reasonable idea.
Adrian had lost that particular case by a narrow margin.
As for the Adrian Cole of this world, he had graduated from Westbridge University in 1999, completed his internship, returned to Greenwood City, and joined Blackwood & Reed Law Firm.
Not long after joining, however, he had attracted the hostility of Marcus Hale, a team leader whose position owed far more to his connections than to his professional ability.
The original Adrian had initially planned to spend a few years familiarizing himself with Greenwood City’s legal environment before moving to a better firm, but before he could put that plan into action, years of overwork had caught up with him.
Earlier that afternoon, he had suffered a sudden heart attack and collapsed on the restroom floor.
That was where the new Adrian had awakened.
“So I’m a lawyer now?” He stared at his reflection for a moment before letting out a slow breath.
“Fortunately, the laws of both worlds are almost identical.” From the memories he had inherited, Eastland’s legal system in 2002 was remarkably similar to the one he had known in his previous life, which meant he would not have to spend an entire week studying the law from scratch just to figure out where all the useful loopholes were.
As for why identifying legal loopholes had been one of his first concerns after transmigrating, Adrian decided there was no need to examine that question too closely.
“Since I’m already here, I might as well make the best of it.
Being a lawyer isn’t bad, and it’s close enough to what I used to do that I shouldn’t have much trouble making something of myself.” He had barely begun thinking about the subtle differences between the two worlds when a loud voice suddenly came from outside the restroom.
“Adrian Cole!
Where’s Adrian?
Where the hell did he go?” The voice grew louder as its owner approached, eventually reaching the main hall outside the restroom.
Adrian recognized it from the memories he had inherited, so he pulled out a paper towel, dried his face, turned off the faucet, and headed for the door.
When he stepped into the hall, several lawyers dressed in professional attire were gathered around a middle-aged man whose irritated expression made it obvious that he had been the one shouting.
“Where is Adrian Cole?
Where did he disappear to in the middle of the workday?” One of the lawyers tried to explain, “Attorney Cole wasn’t feeling well earlier, so he went to—” “Wasn’t feeling well?” the middle-aged man interrupted.
“If everyone abandoned their work whenever they felt a little uncomfortable, we might as well shut down the entire firm.” The lawyers around him clearly disliked what they were hearing, but because of the man’s position, none of them seemed willing to openly challenge him.
One of them nevertheless muttered, “What does he want?
Does Adrian have to die at his desk before he’s satisfied?” The comment was quiet, but not quiet enough.
Marcus Hale’s expression immediately darkened, and he was just about to demand to know who had spoken when Adrian’s voice came from behind the group.
“I’m here.” Everyone turned toward him.
Adrian walked over from the restroom with a calm expression, while Marcus suppressed his anger at the others and immediately replaced his scowl with a much friendlier smile.
“Attorney Cole, are you feeling better?” “I’m fine.” According to the memories Adrian had inherited, Marcus Hale was exactly the sort of manager people learned to hate very quickly.
He was arrogant toward those below him, excessively polite toward those above him, and had spent quite a bit of time making Adrian’s life at the firm unnecessarily difficult.
Marcus nodded approvingly.
“Good.
Didn’t you ask the team to assign you a few cases a couple of days ago?” As he spoke, he held out a contract.
“I checked what we have available.
There aren’t any criminal cases at the moment, but the firm happens to have a special consultation today.
The commission is seven hundred dollars, and the client is already waiting in Reception Room 103, so if you’re willing to take it, sign the contract and don’t keep him waiting.” Seven hundred dollars might not have sounded particularly impressive, but this was 2002, when plenty of people still earned less than a thousand dollars a month.
Adrian, however, suddenly found himself much less interested in the money.
[Ding!
Ordinary Civil Case Detected.
Do you wish to accept?] The mechanical voice appeared directly in his mind, and a translucent blue screen materialized before his eyes.
[Civil Case Reward: Small probability of randomly extracting an ordinary skill from the client and a high probability of obtaining Gratitude Coins.] [Note: Reward quality increases according to the client’s level of satisfaction.] Adrian’s expression barely changed, although his attention immediately shifted toward the screen.
[Current Status] [Name: Adrian Cole] [Age: 25] [Gratitude Coins: 0] [Win Rate: N/A] [Cases Accepted: 0] [Talent Skills: None] So this was his transmigration benefit.
Adrian glanced around and quickly noticed that no one else appeared capable of seeing the translucent screen, which allowed him to study it without attracting attention.
Before he could examine it any further, however, one of the nearby lawyers looked at the contract in Marcus’s hand and frowned.
“The special consultation in Room 103?” Several others reacted almost immediately.
“Team Leader Hale, isn’t that a little inappropriate?
Attorney Cole is still relatively young, and that client is…” Marcus, who had noticed Adrian’s interest in the contract, immediately cut him off.
“It’s precisely because he’s young that he needs opportunities like this.” Another lawyer shook his head.
“But that client has been coming here for a month, and several attorneys have already tried dealing with him.
Don’t you think that case is a little too difficult to hand to Adrian?” “That only proves the previous lawyers weren’t capable enough,” Marcus replied without hesitation.
“Attorney Cole graduated near the top of his class, didn’t he?
Besides, I don’t hear him complaining.” He turned toward Adrian with a faint smile.
“What do you think, Attorney Cole?” Adrian pulled his attention away from the system screen and briefly considered the situation before responding mentally.
Accept.
[Civil Case Accepted!] [Please do your best to satisfy the client!] Adrian studied the notification for another moment, then looked at Marcus and nodded.
“I’ll give it a try.” He took the contract and signed his name while the surrounding lawyers watched in surprise.
Marcus, by contrast, looked delighted.
“Excellent.
That’s exactly the confidence I’d expect from a Westbridge graduate.
I have high hopes for you.” After taking his copy of the contract, Marcus turned and headed toward the finance office.
The moment he disappeared from sight, several lawyers immediately gathered around Adrian.
“Adrian, you really shouldn’t have accepted that commission.
That client is incredibly troublesome.” “Several people have already tried talking to him, and nothing we’ve suggested has satisfied him.” Adrian understood their concern, but after thinking for a moment, he simply shrugged.
“I haven’t received many cases over the past few months, so if I keep turning down commissions, I’m eventually going to have to survive on air.
Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.” There was little else they could say after that.
Adrian folded the contract, headed toward Reception Room 103, and left the others watching his back with helpless expressions.
The corridor was quiet enough that Adrian could hear his own footsteps as he made his way toward the reception rooms, and after a short walk, he stopped in front of a door marked 103.
He turned the handle and stepped inside.
The reception room was simple, containing little more than a table, two sofas, and a water dispenser in the corner.
A man who appeared to be around thirty was sitting on one of the sofas, dressed in a black suit with an expensive-looking silver watch around his wrist.
Adrian walked over and introduced himself.
“Hello, I’m Adrian Cole, the attorney assigned to your consultation.
You can call me Attorney Cole.” The man opened his eyes and seemed momentarily surprised by Adrian’s age, although the tension in his expression relaxed slightly after a few seconds.
Adrian sat across from him.
“How should I address you?” “Daniel Hart.” “All right, Mr.
Hart.
Please explain the situation from the beginning.” Daniel remained silent for a while before taking a deep breath and saying in a heavy voice, “My wife cheated on me.” Adrian’s eyebrows rose slightly as he immediately understood why the firm’s other lawyers had been so reluctant to deal with this client.
This was a marital dispute, and cases involving marriage, betrayal, and emotional grievances were notoriously troublesome because the law could divide assets and determine legal obligations, but it could not easily resolve humiliation or resentment.
Clients in such cases often cared far more about emotional justice than about the actual legal outcome, which meant they could remain dissatisfied even after receiving perfectly reasonable professional advice.
Marcus really had handed him a hot potato.
Adrian kept the thought to himself and gestured for Daniel to continue.
“I met that bitch in college, and we got married after graduation.
After that, I worked constantly, leaving home early and coming back late because I wanted to give us a comfortable life.
I never pressured her to get a job, and I didn’t even expect her to cook most of the time.” Daniel’s expression gradually hardened as he spoke.
“And after everything I did for her, she started sleeping with some guy from her gym because apparently I wasn’t romantic enough and she thought I was old-fashioned and boring.” He clenched his jaw before continuing.
“A while ago, that bastard found out that I own a food company, and once he realized I had money, he convinced my wife to divorce me and take as much as she could.
That would already have been bad enough, but then he contacted me privately and started sending me photos and videos of the two of them together, apparently because humiliating me wasn’t enough unless he could make sure I knew every detail.” Daniel’s hand suddenly struck the table, making the cups sitting on it tremble.
“I tried fighting the divorce, but the court told me that adultery by itself wasn’t enough to strip her of her right to marital property, which means that even after everything she’s done, I’m still expected to give her a share of the money.” His chest rose and fell rapidly as he struggled to control his anger.
“Just think about it.
The two of them have been sleeping together behind my back, laughing at me, planning to take my money and disappear together, and somehow I’m the one expected to pay for it.
If I hire someone to beat that bastard, I’ll be the one who goes to prison; if I threaten them, I’ll be the criminal; and if I refuse to cooperate with the divorce, the court can still deal with the property according to the law.” Daniel looked directly at Adrian.
“So what am I supposed to do?
I’m supposed to hand them my money and pretend none of this happened?
I can’t accept that.” Adrian listened without interrupting, and once Daniel had finished, he considered the matter before answering.
“Your situation is certainly troublesome.
Under the current law, your wife’s infidelity doesn’t automatically eliminate her right to claim marital property, so unless she voluntarily gives up that claim, you’ll still have to deal with the division of assets during the divorce.” Daniel’s expression became even darker.
“Which means I’m screwed.” “Under the conventional approach, you don’t have many attractive options.” That answer clearly wasn’t what Daniel wanted to hear, but it was one he had already heard from several other lawyers.
Every attorney he had consulted had told him roughly the same thing: his wife had cheated on him, her lover had deliberately humiliated him with photographs and videos, and yet none of that necessarily meant she would walk away from the marriage empty-handed.
Daniel didn’t want to give them millions, thousands, or even a single dollar, but reality did not care about what he considered fair.
If the marriage ended, the property would still have to be handled according to the law.
For a moment, his shoulders sank as though he had finally begun resigning himself to that conclusion.
Adrian, however, remained silent while he considered the system notification from earlier.
If Daniel merely wanted a standard divorce settlement, Adrian could give him several ordinary suggestions for protecting as much property as possible, but the system had specifically stated that the quality of his reward depended on client satisfaction.
A slightly more favorable settlement might make Daniel less unhappy, but judging from everything he had just said, it certainly wouldn’t make him satisfied, much less grateful.
The problem, therefore, was not really about dividing property.
“But it isn’t completely impossible.” Daniel looked up so quickly that Adrian almost smiled.
“What?” Adrian rested one arm against the sofa and studied him for a moment before continuing.
“Mr.
Hart, I think you’re approaching this from the wrong direction.
You keep talking about divorce and how much money your wife might receive, but I don’t think either of those things is what actually bothers you the most.” Daniel frowned.
“What do you mean?” “If money were your only concern, you’d be asking me how to minimize her share of the marital assets, but that isn’t what you’ve been asking.
You’re angry because you were betrayed and humiliated, and even if I found a way to reduce her share considerably, you’d still walk out of this office feeling that the two of them got away with what they did.” Daniel stared at him without answering.
Adrian could tell from his expression that he had struck the right point.
“What you really want isn’t simply a better divorce settlement; what you want is revenge.” For several seconds, Daniel said nothing.
Then he slowly leaned forward.
“Can you actually help me with that?” Adrian’s previous career had taught him that the law was not merely a collection of restrictions.
In the hands of someone who understood it well enough, it could also be a remarkably versatile tool, and there were always methods that ordinary people never considered simply because they were accustomed to thinking of legal problems in the most straightforward way possible.
That same understanding had allowed him to remain at the head of a corporate legal department in his previous life without making a serious mistake, and now, with a system reward depending on how satisfied his client became, there was little reason to restrict himself to the most conventional solution.
A faint smile appeared on Adrian’s face.
“Mr.
Hart, if I told you that there was a way for you to take revenge on both of them without crossing the line into criminal behavior, would you be interested?” Daniel stared at him in disbelief.
“You mean…
legally?” “Completely legally and entirely within the rules.” Adrian leaned back against the sofa as Daniel’s expression slowly changed from resignation to cautious hope.
“The law may prevent you from doing certain things, Mr.
Hart, but that doesn’t mean it prevents you from doing anything at all.” And for the first time since entering the room, Daniel Hart smiled.