In this way, Qian Wi began giving advice to Mo Tao and Mo Tao began his pursuit action. Their frequent interaction also made Mo Zixin feel very satisfied.
Everything went on in an orderly way, and Qian Wei began to cram for the contest Liu Shiyun had invited her to. Not because she wanted to win a prize but just because if her performance was too poor it would be too humiliating. Because Lu Xun was participating this year the number of people who were coming to watch was particularly high.
“Qian Wei, when you go on stage later, you must show your elegant demeanor as the flower of our law school from our dorm!” On the day of the competition, Liu Shiyun seemed very serious. She patted Qian Wei on the shoulder. “Don’t be in a hurry to just recite the law. This contest I organized this year is different from the ones in previous years where the participants just had to memorize legal terms or regurgitate legal documents. I strove to make this year’s competition clearly separate from any of the previous competitions. The topics I picked all rely on a person’s gradual accumulation of legal literacy and their unique legal perspective! So you don’t have to scramble to prepare. I have great confidence in you!”
Qian Wei went to the stage followed by Liu Shiyun’s enthusiastic encouragement. Because of the large number of participants the contest had been divided into group stages, then elimination rounds, and finally a show-down between the last two contestants. Qian Wei drew her lot and felt very relieved to find that she was not in the same group with Lu Xun.
Liu Shiyun hadn’t lied, she really did not choose topics that could be answered with just rote memorization, on the contrary, the topics were all drawn from actual legal cases and required the contestants to give relevant legal guidance. That being the case Qian Wei was really like a fish in water. After all, she was an experienced lawyer who had practiced law for several years in her last life. She was not good at rote memorization but analyzing cases and applying practical guidance was her strong point. Because of this, Qian Wei breezed through the contest, it was easy for her to stand out within her group. In order to quickly proceed to the white-hot final showdown, the group stage of the competition actually happened with many groups in different venues at the same time. Qian Wei finished her group stage early while the other groups were still enthusiastically competing. So Qian Wei was happy and she had some free time, so she wanted to sneak to another group’s match and watch them.
By this time, there were still three group stage competitions that were ongoing. Two of them had hardly any spectators while the third one had so many spectators that the venue was almost full. Qian Wei squeezed in to see what was going on and the situation was immediately clear.
It was Lu Xun’s group.
“When Mr. Chen rescues a woman who is commiting suicide, it creates a Negotiorum gestorum* debt between the two. According to the provisions in the General Principles of Civil Law, the gestor may require the principal, or the beneficiary in layman’s terms, to pay the necessary expenses. These expenses include any expenses generated directly by the service activities the gestor undertook, as well as any actual losses suffered by participating in said activity. Therefore, Mr. Chen can ask the rescued woman to pay compensation for the treatment of any physical injuries incurred while rescuing her.”
Almost every time Lu Xun finished answering a question there would be a round of applause from the crowd. Although the 19-year-old Lu Xun was much younger than his crafty advanced version, Lu Xun was still Lu Xun in the end. No matter how complex the case was, he could uncover the truth just using his mouth, with his clear logic and meticulous thinking. The case analysis drawn up by his team was much more complex and in-depth than the one drawn by Qian Wei. Even though there were many problems and the contest quizzed him on everything from the all-inclusive civil law to the extremely specific micro real estate law, Lu Xun could answer every time, and the most terrible thing was his frigid and incisive style of answering, he never spoke a word of nonsense, he was like an accurate legal machine, able to flawlessly remember any law.
There was no doubt that the final winner would be Lu Xun. Qian Wei looked at the other boys who were competing with Lu Xun and her heart was full of sympathy. To be put on the same stage as Lu Xun was simply asking to be unilaterally slaughtered and abused. It was a one man show where Lu Xun got to look brilliant, while everyone else got to be disgraced.
What Qian Wei didn’t expect was that while she was still busy sympathizing with those contestants who were on stage with Lu Xun, very soon it would be her turn. On the very next draw, it was her turn to be Lu Xun’s unfortunate cannon fodder.
As the host of the competition, Liu Shiyun’s voice was very strong: “We are now entering the second knockout round, the first competition will be between the light of our law school, Lu Xun, and our law school’s flower Qian Wei! The competition format this time will be a brand-new role-playing model, the competitors will have a lot drawn for them which will determine their roles in the role-play and also how they will be tested on their legal literacy and IQ. Please look forward to it!”
Lu Xun’s title as the ‘light of law school’ was well-deserved, meanwhile, Qian Wei could only be thick-skinned and accept the embarrassing ‘flower of the law school’ title for now. She happened to glance off stage and see Mo Zixin, the real flower of the law school, who was sitting in the audience. Fortunately, Mo Zixin did not seem to want to fuss about Liu Shiyun’s words. Instead, her eyes were focused on Lu Xun, probably because Lu Xun seemed very dazzling at the moment. The 19-year-old Lu Xun was tall and attractive. His snow-white face was covered with his typical haughty coldness that could effortlessly drive off strangers, but the wonderful contrast between his handsome face and his icy temper really made people unable to tear their eyes away.
“Lu Xun, are you nervous to face Qian Wei, who swept the group stage?”
After hearing Liu Shiyun’s playful question, Lu Xun, the focus of the audience, just smiled lightly and lightly swept his eyes toward Qian Wei.
“…” Qian Wei thought to herself: Your contempt should not be so obvious. Even if I am a low achiever I at least still have a few years of legal experience. Young man, let’s see if reality can teach you how to be a gentleman after facing me!
“Then we will move on to the next stage of the competition. I will now draw the first question for Lu Xun and Qian Wei.” As Liu Shiyun spoke, she drew a piece of paper and unfolded it. “In the first question, you two are a couple who are breaking up and are about to divorce, with 30 million yuan worth of common assets. Now, how do you use your legal knowledge to maximise your own share of the marital property and reduce the amount the other party receives during the division?”
Qian Wei: ???
What kind of question was this? Shouldn’t they be being tested on how to use the law more professionally during a professional skills contest? Didn’t she know that divorcing couples who were fighting for property were some of the most ferocious people on Earth? Was this topic really in line with promoting a harmonious society? Liu Shiyun, she really was a person true to her word! She only studied hard in order to learn better loopholes in the law! Even the questions she made up reeked of Liu Shiyun’s style!
After reading the question, Liu Shiyun added, “There is no speaking order, so you can both rush to answer the question. In addition, neither party can repeat the views or methods already used by the other party. So whoever speaks first will seize the opportunity! Also pay attention to the role-playing! Qian Wei is the wife, and Lu Xun is the husband. Alright then, go!”
Although Lu Xun was also surprised by the strange topic he quickly regained his composure. He looked over at Qian Wei and said, “You first.”
Qian Wei thought: Hehe, let me show you my wisdom. You want to know how to transfer marital property? This kind of problem was so practical that Qian Wei felt pretty confident in winning.
She smiled and said, “If I’ve decided I want divorce there are a few things to do before I ask for the divorce. First, I won’t wake him up, I’ll sneak out of the house and go to a small bank to get…” Qian Wei paused. Remembering the ‘role-playing’ rule, Qian Wei stumbled to say, “I’ll get a new bank card that ‘my husband’ doesn’t know about; then I’ll withdraw all the cash from my old bank cards, particularly the salary card, a little bit at a time, intermittently over a long period of time and deposit all the money into the new bank card. I’ll make sure my husband knows neither the bank I’m depositing in nor the account number of my new card. Even if he sues for divorce, he won’t be able to use the courts to inquire about the cash flow of my new card bank, and regarding all the times I withdrew cash from the old bank card, I will tell the court that the money was used for joint family expenses. For example, I could buy a shirt from the market for ten yuan, but then claim that I bought it from a vendor for thousands of yuan, which is very difficult to disprove. In this way I will naturally transfer all the joint property away flawlessly.”
Qian Wei glanced at Lu Xun and continued speaking proudly, “In addition, Article 24 of the Marriage Law stipulates that creditors who take over the debts borne in either the husband or the wife’s name and used on the ‘family’ during the existence of a marriage relationship shall be considered to be joint debts shared by the husband and wife. So I will ruthlessly take out a lot of huge loans from my relatives, such as my brothers, sisters, or my parents, while we are still married. Then I’ll just write on the loan documentation that the money was borrowed to be used to speculate in the stock market. Meanwhile in the real world, I will take the income for ‘stock speculation’ and instead transfer it into the family mortgage or another large joint purchase, the loan will no longer be considered a personal debt, so it will need to be shared by both husband and wife. So neither my husband nor I will get any money but I will still accrue a lot of debt and using that I can easily squeeze my divorced husband’s money dry. Then ultimately, after the other party is forced to help pay off the debt, the money will all go into the pockets of my relatives, so isn’t it pretty much just my money at that point?”
In 2009, Article 24 of the Marriage Law had still not been revised, so it could easily be exploited to rip off the other party during a divorce.
After Qian Wei answered, the whole scene went quiet. Even Liu Shiyun forgot to liven up the atmosphere because she, and everyone else, was obviously shocked by Qian Wei’s answer. After a moment of silence many whispered discussions broke out.
“Damn it, I can’t believe there is such a method. I’m convinced.”
“Qian Wei is so ruthless. After today, who would dare to marry Qian Wei? If he ever wanted a divorce, he wouldn’t even get a single penny.”
“I don’t know how she came up with such a calculating plan**…”
Qian Wei did not care about their reactions. She just thought: Young people, you are really too naive, when you get off of this campus and enter society, you will learn that the hearts of people are sinister. These tricks are just little things in the real world. For a professional skills competition they should be more than enough.
Just when Qian Wei thought victory was at hand, Lu Xun smiled softly: “Have you finished giving your answer?”
“En!”
“Then it’s my turn.” His expression was light. “I won’t use my wife’s method because it’s actually very risky. First, although the new bank card she opened is difficult to track down and verify, it would be very troublesome to transfer tens of millions in common property with many small cash withdrawals. And if she wanted to get around that by making particularly large withdrawals each time, then when she claimed it was used for family expenses in court the court would obviously see through her unreasonable claim. It is very likely that those kinds of withdrawals would not be recognized as family expenses by the judge. In addition, if she met a husband like me, who likes to keep his accounts clearly, the family expenses would be clear at a glance, so it is not realistic to transfer the money this way. As for the method to make use of Article 24 of the Marriage Law, it is reasonable to forge a debt of one or two million yuan and claim that it was used for family expenses, but there is a total of 30 million yuan in common property. Are you going to create debts of 10 million yuan at a time and argue that the money was used for household expenses? That is so obviously fake that it would be child’s play to disprove.”
Qian Wei was stunned. She didn’t expect that even the nineteen year old Lu Xun was so sharp and could methodically identify the possible loopholes in her answer. But she didn’t think Lu Xun could come up with anything more feasible than what she suggested.
“Lu Xun, you can’t just ask questions. Unless you have a better way, I still win.”
Lu Xun smiled: “There is a country called Dominica in the Caribbean. As long as the applicant has reached the age of 18, has no criminal record, and donates 100,000USD to the country’s economic diversification fund, any applicant can easily obtain this country’s passport. The whole process only takes three months. Although our country does not recognize dual nationality, as long as you do not take the initiative to cancel your ID card at home, you can have de facto ‘dual nationality’. After getting your Dominica passport, you can use the new passport to register bank account A in Macao, and at the same time register bank account B with using your ID card and Hong Kong and Macao pass. Then you can find an underground bank in Macao and transfer your domestic funds to bank account B through that underground bank to avoid the foreign exchange controls, then withdraw all the money and deposit it into bank account A. After that, you just claim that you gambled in private underground casinos in Macao and lost all the money. In this way, even if your wife or the domestic courts find bank account B they will see that according to the ID card and other information, all the money has already been lost. Meanwhile, bank account A that was registered with your Dominic passport cannot be found and any money ‘lost’ while gambling cannot be traced. Besides, the money is already in Macao, so even if the other party somehow could find something, the courts couldn’t do anything about it. At that point the other party has absolutely no hope of recovering the money,” Lu Xun said, glanced at Qian Wei, “How about it? 30 million worth of joint property, by spending 100,000 US dollars and the very small handling fees of an underground bank it can all be easily transferred away. Plus there is no risk of it being recovered by the government and the account will be in your own name so your ownership of the money is guaranteed. After all, even if you could create a false debt and deliver the money to your friends or relatives that does not necessarily make it yours.”
Qian Wei was stunned. It was really terrible that a 19-year-old law school student could come up with such a complex and profound plan. She thought that since she at least had a few years of work experience that she would be more than enough to handle a 19-year-old Lu Xun. Now she knew that the reason Lu Xun would become an all-powerful partner in a law firm in the future and it had nothing to do with the fact that he had been 28 years old, because he was the same at the age of 19. Some people, no matter what their age, were sharp like lethal weapons that could be unsheathed at any time.
The crowd was boiling again.
“Oh my god! Lu Xun is amazing! How did he come up with something like that!”
“How handsome! After listening to Qian Wei’s answer, I really couldn’t think of a better way. I didn’t expect Lu Xun to come up with something. He was so meticulous with his thinking. I’m impressed. “
“I feel that Lu Xun really has a wide range of knowledge. He knows about small countries in the Caribbean and the operation methods of the underground banks in Macao. After listening to the two plans, Lu Xun’s is definitely better.”
Qian Wei: ???
We both came up with similar ideas to transfer marital property? Why did they say I had a calculating plan when I outlined my idea? Why does Lu Xun, who clearly came up with the more calculating plan, have everyone praise him for his foresight and solid legal knowledge? Just because of Lu Xun’s face, can he do whatever he wants? Can you girls not have such obvious double standards?
*I am not a Chinese or American lawyer so I could only search up this Chinese legal term (无因管理) and find the English equivalent that you see there. Going off the wikipedia page this seems to refer to some legal concept where a person who is being saved has a financial obligation to the person who saves them even if they didn’t consent to being saved beforehand.
**he says ‘chicken thief idea’ here more or less (鸡贼) which after some googling tells me it means the person is calculating or stingy. I made a note of it here since it comes up again at the end of the chapter.
Tl note: this ideas both Qian Wei and Lu Xun put forward to transfer their wealth away are fun and interesting and I really hope I didn’t butcher anything too badly. In case anyone doesn’t know Macao and Hong Kong are both territories adjacent to China.
