What's wrong with this lawyer?!

Old Tang said matter-of-factly, "Of course, what else? Leave just one company out? That won't work. If everyone is punished for monopolies, they all have to be defendants."

"Otherwise, think about it. Qiangsheng Company would feel uncomfortable too—it's unfair."

So, as a lawyer of justice, Old Tang is committed to eliminating unfairness. If you're going to tackle something, you have to tackle it together. If everyone gets tackled, it's as if no one gets tackled. Makes perfect sense!

Forget about the specifics; just tell me, does the logic hold?

"Judging from the reactions of netizens online, a lot of people still don't fully understand the harm of monopolies. So this isn't just a public interest lawsuit; it's also a large-scale legal education campaign!"

Fang Feixia also thought the whole situation sounded rather thrilling, but she still said, "Lawyer Tang, well… I have to report this to leadership. Whether it gets approved or not, that's for them to decide."

"No problem. I'll be in Jingzhou during this period. If anything comes up, I can come by anytime. As for the evidence, I've got most of it ready. The rest, you'll need to gather yourselves."

With that, the two parties agreed. Old Tang left the relevant materials and turned to leave.

Quickly, the situation was escalated. It was such a significant matter that no one dared to make the call.

One level after another, the issue was reported all the way up to the Prosecutor-General.

In his office, the Prosecutor-General chuckled, "Ah, Tang Fangjing—that comrade really knows how to stir the pot."

Sitting in front of the Prosecutor-General, another leader also laughed, "This Tang Fangjing is always butting heads with our prosecutors at lower levels. Complaints about him are numerous."

That's true. Old Tang, when fired up, wasn't shy about lashing out at prosecutors. It wasn't a rare occurrence.

The leaders chatted for a bit before coming to a decision. But before proceeding, they wanted to meet Old Tang in person.

Old Tang, of course, had no objections. Two days later, in the office, Old Tang met this somewhat kindly-looking senior leader of the Handong Provincial Procuratorate.

What they talked about, no one knew. However, after Old Tang left, the Handong Provincial People's Procuratorate had already made their decision. They instructed the Jingzhou City Procuratorate to file a civil public interest lawsuit against five major automakers in Modu and their distributors in Handong Province!

With support from leadership, naturally, everything went smoothly. In the hierarchy of the Procuratorate, lower-level offices must follow the instructions of higher-level ones.

The Jingzhou City Procuratorate launched its preparations at full speed. For this public interest lawsuit, Old Tang and another prosecutor were selected as the representatives.

Some might wonder—doesn't the Procuratorate know the law? With so many prosecutors, couldn't they just assign one of their own as a representative? Why bother inviting Old Tang?

There's a reason, of course. Because Old Tang has a lot of public attention, and as he mentioned, this lawsuit is meant to be a large-scale legal awareness campaign.

In essence, the dumplings were only made because there was vinegar to dip them in.

As for the Procuratorate hiring a representative… it's no big deal.

Even cases where courts themselves were defendants have existed. Some of those courts even hired lawyers as representatives.

Sounds even more absurd, right? Doesn't the court and its judges know the law best? Then why would they need to hire lawyers?

But that's not even the most absurd part. In one such case, it involved an Intermediate Court building a new office tower. The building was completed, but the project payments—over 8 million—couldn't be settled no matter what.

With no other option, the construction company sued the Intermediate Court. The local High Court assigned another Intermediate Court to handle the case. Unsurprisingly, the plaintiff won.

But winning brought on another problem—it couldn't be enforced...

After all, both were Intermediate Courts. How does one Intermediate Court's Execution Bureau enforce a judgment against another Intermediate Court? What would they do—directly seize or freeze the other court's accounts? Or perhaps auction off their office building and police cars?

That'd be a joke. As one quip put it at the time, if you sealed off their office building, that court wouldn't even be able to carry out judicial activities.

It all sounds like some dark humor...

But really, for a court to be a defendant for defaulting on payments was laughable enough. When enforcement also became impossible, the joke just kept piling on.

Eventually, perhaps finding it too embarrassing, they applied for special funding to finally resolve the issue.

For Old Tang, whether or not he served as the representative didn't matter. But since they wanted him for the job, he wasn't about to turn them down.

April 5th, another good day. Early in the morning, Old Tang was already at the gates of the Jingzhou Intermediate Court with a pushcart. After waiting for a while, the prosecutor from the Municipal Procuratorate arrived.

"Lawyer Tang, you really got here early," Miao Jiali chuckled as she looked at Old Tang, then glanced at the pushcart, laughing even harder.

She was the prosecutor sent by the Municipal Procuratorate to work with Old Tang in the lawsuit.

Old Tang laughed in return, "I'm always early when I come to court."

While they waited, they chatted casually, and naturally, the conversation shifted to a recent acquittal case.

"Back then, the district prosecutor's office appealed, and the Municipal Procuratorate handed it to me," Miao Jiali said with a laugh.

"Oh? What a coincidence," Old Tang said, surprised.

"Now that prosecutors are on a quota system, there are only so many of us handling cases. I didn't support the appeal either. I also believed the verdict should've been not guilty. There was no reason for an arrest in the first place. With doubts, prosecution should've been dropped..."

Rarely encountering a prosecutor he could chat so freely with, Old Tang felt invigorated, and the two had a delightful conversation.