What's wrong with this lawyer?!-Chapter 1046 - 339: Why Should I Admit Spending Money I Didn’t Spend?

Qin Mingsheng’s face was terrifyingly dark. He had worked at many units before, signed plenty of IOUs, but he’d never faced a situation like this—someone had actually taken him to court over an IOU!

What kind of international joke is this? Since when do I have to pay out of my own pocket for something signed on an IOU?

After the 18th National Congress, one of the provisions in the Eight-point Regulation was specifically about cracking down on public funds spent on food, drink, and travel. The main reason? Some people in certain places went way too far.

Qi Tongwei wanted to turn village dogs into police dogs, while others insisted on dining in restaurants every meal. As long as there was food involved, it always had to be on the unit’s tab, signed on an IOU.

Whether it could be paid or not wasn’t the issue—he was going to eat regardless. If the restaurant wanted their money, they could go ask the unit for it. It had nothing to do with him. He didn’t even work there anymore, so why were they coming after him?

Don’t even get started on the tourism part.

Ordinary people can’t understand what Qin Mingsheng is feeling. In their eyes, if you ate the food and didn’t pay the bill, getting sued is the least of your worries—why are you so mad about it?

But to Qin Mingsheng, this was blatant ignorance of "the rules" and a direct challenge to his authority!

You actually have the nerve to come after me for this money?

The real kicker is, how many damn years has it been? I’m retired now! Yet you’re dredging up this nonsense from the past and taking it to court!

"That Lu Jianshe, I think he hasn’t had enough of prison!" Qin Mingsheng said with a dark expression.

His son, standing nearby, frowned as well and said, "Dad, what exactly is going on? Don’t get worked up just yet."

Qin Mingsheng handed over the complaint and said, "See for yourself. It’s this Lu Jianshe. He used to run a restaurant. Back then, when I was working at that unit, his restaurant was close by, so I often went there to eat.

"Later, I got transferred somewhere else, yet he still came looking for money from me. He’s insane, isn’t he? I told him it was the unit’s expense, but he kept coming after me. Later, he even reported me. Well, he ended up getting sent to prison.

"For many years after that, there was no trouble. But now, I’m retired, and look at this—he’s brought it up again, and even taken it to court this time. I don’t even want to curse him anymore."

Ningtang County is just a small county town with few people. Usually, no one even goes to court unless something gets so bad that all pretense is dropped.

So now that someone’s suing him, Qin Mingsheng feels even worse. If he doesn’t do something about it, he’ll lose all face.

In the future, when meeting his friends, they might even tease him about this—getting chased for money over an IOU. What kind of leader ends up as humiliated as this?

"I’ll call a friend later and ask about this. Suing me... It’s only because I’m retired now! If I hadn’t retired, would he even dare to file a lawsuit? I’d deal with him myself..." Qin Mingsheng grumbled angrily.

His son took the complaint, glanced through it, and suddenly said, "Dad, stop talking for a moment. Look at this—here, the plaintiff’s representative. Do you see this name, Tang Fangjing?!"

Qin Mingsheng was puzzled. "Yeah, I see it. So what? What about Tang Fangjing?"

Now it was his son’s turn to be stunned: "Dad, you don’t know this guy?"

"I don’t know him. Is he famous or something?" Qin Mingsheng asked, looking genuinely confused.

In retirement, his life had been quite routine. He spent most of his time playing mahjong and didn’t enjoy scrolling through his phone, so he really hadn’t heard of Tang Fangjing.

In fact, while Tang Fangjing might be famous now, this is a big country. There really are plenty of people who haven’t heard of him.

Some older folks who don’t like going online or watching short videos might genuinely not know who he is.

Or maybe they saw his name at some point but forgot it quickly afterward.

His son quickly said, "Dad, Tang Fangjing is one of the most famous viral lawyers on the internet in recent years. He’s especially formidable..."

Qin Mingsheng scoffed at this and said dismissively, "What’s so great about a viral lawyer? Like I’m supposed to be scared of him? This is clearly a case about signed IOUs. No matter how you look at it, I shouldn’t have to pay."

"Otherwise, what about all those other IOUs from back then...?"

His son sighed, exasperated. "Dad, just hear me out. Tang Fangjing isn’t formidable because of his fame; it’s because he’s willing to risk his life for cases, you understand? He fights like a madman."

"Dad, I’m not kidding. This guy once almost got run over by a dump truck while working on a case about an abandoned construction project. He barely survived..."

"Please don’t try anything reckless. You’re retired now—just let it go."

"The guy’s a lunatic. How much money can someone like that even make to go this far? And besides, this isn’t even my problem. Look at how much they’re asking for!" Qin Mingsheng snapped, sounding exasperated.

On one hand, his internalized "rules" made it impossible for him to accept someone asking him to pay for these past meal expenses. On the other hand, the sheer amount of money involved was staggering.

Over two hundred thousand yuan. And mind you, it’s been so many years since then. Even Lu Jianshe’s time in prison alone adds up to over a decade.

Old Tang would definitely calculate every yuan of this money—and wouldn’t let a single cent slide. He’d factor in the interest too. Just the twenty thousand alone, with over a decade’s worth of interest at the bank’s rates, amounts to seventy or eighty thousand.

The total of meal expenses and interest? Nearly three hundred thousand!

This wasn’t a small sum. And at the very least, Qin Mingsheng wasn’t going to willingly fork it over.

Even his son was stunned looking at the amount. He muttered, "Is this guy broke or something? How can he even dare to demand so much? And he calculated all that interest too?"

Even if the other side was Tang Fangjing, they’d still need to come up with a plan. The sum was just too large.

The biggest problem was that Qin Mingsheng was now retired. His entire livelihood depended on his pension. This wasn’t like before—coming up with this kind of money would be no easy task.