"Madam Xu, if there was a mirror right now, you would know how insulting your expression is right now."
Zhang Fei looked at Xu Zhiqian, who had her red lips slightly parted and glanced at him sideways, and said in a rather depressed tone.
Xu Zhiqian closed her red lips and asked, "You... you're not talking about yourself, are you?"
Zhang Fei nodded and said, "This is my impression of Erbi Hutong. Any questions?"
Xu Zhiqian couldn't lie with her eyes open and say that Zhang Fei was uglier than those people, nor did she dare to ignore Zhang Fei's achievements. After all, this man dared to turn himself in for the crime of deceiving the emperor. Normal people really couldn't compare to him. She said calmly: "They don't have the money to hire you."
Zhang Fei shrugged and said calmly, "There is no other way. I am born with a strong sense of justice. I never take money for justice and I am even willing to pay for it. You can go back and ask your father about this."
Xu Zhiqian frowned slightly and asked in confusion: "But if you don't make money, how can you move out of my house as soon as possible?"
"Wow... !"
Zhang Fei was very surprised and said, "I just realized that we are both kindred spirits, warm-hearted and generous. I thought Madam Xu would let go of her prejudice against me."
Xu Zhiqian immediately said: "I have no prejudice against you, I just don't like strangers living in my house."
“I see!”
Zhang Fei coughed: "Actually... Actually, while helping them, I am also helping myself to make a living."
Xu Zhiqian asked: "What do you mean?"
“Fame!”
Zhang Fei said: "I think in our industry, reputation is the most important thing."
Xu Zhiqian said: "You are very famous now."
Zhang Fei said depressedly: "Yes. I am very famous now, but who would hire a spy who has offended the Ministry of Justice, the Dali Temple, and the Court of Criminal Justice?"
This kind of people with eloquence have never appeared before.
Unless you are an idiot, you won't do this.
Xu Zhiqian couldn't help but joked, "So are you going to change your name?"
"That's not necessary." Zhang Fei smiled and shook his head: "As long as I can prove that I can still win the lawsuit, then people will naturally put aside their concerns about me.
Moreover, helping the strong to bully the weak is not a big deal. Just having a mouth is enough. If I can help the weak resist the exploitation of the strong, it will show my ability and make me more famous.
Once I become famous, people will naturally come to me to sue me, and I will naturally have a livelihood.”
I knew it wasn't that simple. Xu Zhiqian secretly despised Zhang Fei, but said, "You explained to me so patiently, do you need my help?"
"Mrs. Xu is really smart."
Zhang Fei snapped his fingers and said with a smile: "Although I want to help them, they don't know my existence, and I don't know their situation. Madam Xu, you often go to teach them the law, so you must know a lot of people. I hope Madam Xu can tell them that if they need anything, they can come to me. Everything is free, and I will do my best to help them fight for their own interests."
Xu Zhiqian looked at Zhang Fei suspiciously.
To be honest, she didn't trust Zhang Fei at all. No matter how well Zhang Fei said, she always felt that this guy was full of bad intentions.
It can be seen that the first impression is extremely important.
Zhang Fei knew this clearly, so he continued, "I know Madam Xu doesn't trust me, but Madam Xu, why don't you think about it? First of all, those villagers have nothing worth my concern. Secondly, when those villagers are oppressed by the landlords, their fate is usually miserable, and no one is willing to help them. Even if I am cheating them, they will have nothing, and the result will not change. But if I really want to help them, I may be able to help them through the difficulties."
Xu Zhiqian thought for a while and said, "Aren't you afraid of offending those powerful people?"
Zhang Fei said disdainfully: "Can the powerful be more powerful than the Grand Secretary Sima?"
Seeing his smug look, Xu Zhiqian couldn't help thinking, "Sima Daxueshi is an upright gentleman, but he fell into the trap of a villain like you. If I really used my power to suppress you, you would have been beheaded long ago. What's so great about being so proud?"
Zhang Fei saw that she looked uncertain and didn't say anything, so he asked, "Madam Xu, what do you think?"
Xu Zhiqian was slightly startled, and suddenly seemed to remember something, and said: "Speaking of this lawsuit, I remember something."
Zhang Fei asked anxiously: "What's the matter?"
Xu Zhiqian said: "It's about a contract dispute."
Zhang Fei's eyes flashed when he heard this, and he asked excitedly: "Contract dispute?"
"Um."
Xu Zhiqian nodded and asked, "Why are you so happy?"
“No…No!”
Zhang Fei smiled awkwardly and asked, "Tell me what's going on?"
He was overjoyed. It turned out that in later generations there was a type of lawyer who specialized in helping the poor to fight lawsuits, but their work was not assigned or voluntary, and they also did it for profit.
The target is the rich people opposite the poor, or the government.
Zhang Fei proposed to help the poor with lawsuits for free, and this is the approach he took.
First of all, he was unwilling to be a supplement to the government. The so-called tea and snack people were just officials outside the establishment. They only earned some hard-earned money and had to rely on others and look at the masters' faces.
It would be better to go to Dali Temple.
Secondly, this industry has obviously been monopolized by several large bookstores. This is a business problem. How can he attract customers when he is alone? Those merchants will definitely go to these large bookstores, after all, it is stable, and the only customers that have not been monopolized by these large bookstores are those very ordinary villagers.
Although they cannot afford the lawyer fees, as long as a property dispute occurs, they can obtain compensation through lawsuits, so the lawyers can make money.
Finally, he also took the overall environment into consideration. Wang Anshi's new law was already on the verge of being implemented. There were many provisions in Wang Anshi's new law that were beneficial to the poor and would crack down on landlords. Among them, the Qingmiao Law was aimed at usury. It would be a waste not to borrow this favorable opportunity, and he had already borrowed from it several times.
Xu Zhiqian did not hesitate and immediately informed Zhang Fei of the dispute.
It turned out that this incident happened in a self-cultivating farmer's family in Xiangfu County under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng Prefecture. The farmer had twenty acres of fertile land and married a virtuous wife. The couple lived a good life, but the year before last the farmer fell seriously ill, and his wife was forced to borrow ten strings of money from a local wealthy man for her treatment.
As the farmer had been ill for more than half a year and unable to farm, he could only rely on his wife's needlework to make a living, which resulted in him being unable to repay the loan the following year.
According to the contract, he had to compensate the rich man with the only 20 acres of good farmland in his family. However, those 20 acres of good farmland were their ancestral land. The farmer was reluctant to part with them, so he begged the rich man to extend the period for another half a year.
Unexpectedly, the rich man fell in love with his wife and asked him to use his wife to pay off his debts. His wife also knew that her husband cherished their ancestral land very much. The key is that if the land was lost, the couple would not be able to survive, so she volunteered to use herself to pay off the debt.
Eventually the farmer used his wife to pay off his debts.
But unexpectedly, the rich man came to collect the debt again this year.
It turned out that the compensation contract only stated that his wife was only compensating the principal and did not mention anything about interest. However, the interest was the bulk of the money, and after another year, he owed even more.
As a result, the ancestral land could not be preserved.
After listening to this, Zhang Fei couldn't help but feel a little angry, and immediately said: "This is clearly a fraud."
Xu Zhiqian said, "But in this kind of lawsuit, the government only looks at the contract. Although the farmer was illiterate, there was a witness reading the contract. However, the farmer was thinking about his wife at the time and didn't pay much attention, so he was deceived by the rich man."
Zhang Fei frowned and asked, "Putting all that aside, do you think there is anything wrong with this contract from a legal perspective? For example, is the interest legal?"
Xu Zhiqian said: "Although our dynasty has a regulation that the interest rate cannot exceed 7%, many wealthy merchants do not just borrow copper coins, and ordinary people do not repay with copper coins. If it is a transaction of money and goods, it is difficult to set the price, which often leads to the interest rate in the private sector being as high as twice. For this farmer's contract, if it is really converted, it has reached twice as much, but the government generally does not pay attention to it."
Zhang Fei glanced at Xu Zhiqian and thought, she is more proficient in contemporary laws and has more experience than me. If she can't find the problem, then there is no way to win this lawsuit!
Xu Zhiqian's eyes turned and she said, "Do you have a way to help this farmer get justice? If you can do that, I'm willing to help you."
It seems that she is going to try her best! I know she won't let me off easily. Zhang Fei thought for a moment and said, "I have to meet the farmer in person and understand the specific process before making a judgment."