I bought a prison in the United States.

Ringo nodded, it seemed Eleanor already had an idea, and he continued:

"Then there's a third thing."

"If one day I am sued because of this prison, whether it's an inmate suing me, the state corrections department causing me trouble, or someone else, I need a lawyer who won't back down in the face of adversity."

"If you want to hire me long-term, are you aware of my fees?"

Eleanor stubbed out her cigarette and tapped her fingers twice on the rim of the coffee can ashtray, producing two dull metallic sounds.

"My deputy told me that we'd be charged based on results."

"right."

Eleanor took a printed price list from the drawer and pushed it in front of Ringo.

The paper had been read many times; its edges were frayed. Several lines of text were typed on it:

Basic consultation fee: $50 per session (first consultation free)

Contract drafting/review: $200-$1000 (depending on complexity)

Negotiating representatives: receive 10%-20% of the benefits secured.

Litigation representation: 25%-35% of the compensation/reduction amount will be charged if the case is won; no fee will be charged if the case is lost.

Special services: Negotiable

Lin Ge's gaze fell on the last line, "What does 'special service' include?"

"Including what you can imagine, and also what you can't imagine."

Eleanor's expression remained unchanged.

"For example, if you need to get the chairman of a county's purchasing committee to change his mind, I can arrange it for you; I know people who can do it."

"Of course, the cost is separate."

Lingo folded the price list and put it in his pocket.

He didn't ask stupid questions like "Is this legal?"

In an era when prisons could be privately contracted out, the line between legal and illegal was never determined by legal provisions.

It depends on how good your lawyer is, how extensive your network is, and how much risk you're willing to take!

"I can't afford these right now. I just borrowed $54,000 at high interest rates to buy the prison, and I have less than $200 in cash on hand."

Although Lin Ge spoke with some difficulty, his expression was not as embarrassed as he seemed:

"Danfoss's order won't be delivered until next week, and we won't get paid for at least two weeks."

Eleanor looked at him and let out a playful laugh.

The radio outside the window changed to Willie Nelson's "Always on My Mind".

Her gaze seemed to flicker slightly during the singing, but only for a moment.

"You can have an extension for the first payment until November 1st. Until then, I will only charge a basic consultation fee of fifty dollars."

Do you have fifty dollars on you?

Ringo pulled a crumpled roll of bills from his pocket, counted them, and found it to be forty-three dollars.

He thought for a moment, then took off his watch and placed it on the table.

It was a precision-engineered automatic mechanical watch, left by his father, and he had no particular connection with it.

Eleanor glanced at the watch, but didn't take it. She simply asked:

"How much is it worth?"

"It would probably be worth sixty to eighty dollars at a pawn shop, but it's more valuable to me because it reminds me of the preciousness of time."

"Then you can keep it."

She pushed the watch back.

"Forty-three dollars, plus the seven dollars you owe me, I'll put it on the tab."

She took a black-covered ledger from the drawer, opened it, and wrote on the first line:

「林戈·陈，1984年9月x日，欠款7美元，首期应付款日：1984年11月1日。」

The handwriting was messy, but every stroke was written clearly.

Looking at the ledger, a strange feeling welled up in Lin Ge's heart.

This woman was unlike any lawyer he had ever imagined.

She wasn't like those guys who wore three-piece suits and had leather sofas in their offices.

They are not like those idealists who hold high the banner of justice and help the poor with their lawsuits for free.

She's more like a middleman, somewhere between a businesswoman and a cleaner, helping you solve problems and then taking a cut of the benefits you get.

In some ways, this woman is the same kind of person as Ray Carson—a venture capitalist!

Why did you move from San Francisco to Tulsa?

Lin Ge asked casually.

Eleanor paused as she was closing the ledger.

The pause was so brief that Lin Ge would not have noticed it at all if he hadn't been deliberately observing.

"Because the competition in San Francisco is too fierce."

Her tone returned to casualness:

"The gray area over there has already been divided up by countless lawyers."

"Back in San Francisco, I had to compete with at least three other people for a single case, but here..."

She gestured with her chin toward the window.

"The lawyers in Tulsa are busy reviewing contracts for oil companies and don't even look at my little business."

"Less competition, higher profit margins—that's basic business logic, you should understand it better than I do."

Ringo nodded:

"That explanation makes sense, but I think that's not the whole reason, is it?"

If someone has lived in San Francisco for so many years, and then suddenly moves to a place like Tulsa, there must be something going on behind the scenes.

"Heh~"

After a while, Eleanor put down her pen, stood up, walked to the window, and turned her back to Ringo.

The sunlight shone on her golden hair, giving the stray hairs held in place by the pencil a honey-like hue.

A pigeon was perched on the fire escape ladder outside the window, preening the feathers under its wings with its beak.

The pigeons in Tulsa are thinner than those in other cities, probably because even pigeons here have difficulty finding enough food.

Eleanor suddenly said:

"My father is of mixed Chinese descent and used to run a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco."

"There's a dish on the menu called General Tso's Chicken, which he makes very well, even though it's not an authentic Chinese dish at all."

"But diners in San Francisco don't care about authenticity; they only care if it's fried crispy enough and the sauce is sweet enough."

"In 1971, a fire broke out in a kitchen oil pan, killing three workers, but the insurance company refused to pay for the accident."

"I wasn't a lawyer at the time, so my father sold the house and gave all the money to the families of those three workers."

"The restaurant declined in the years that followed, and my father also suffered an unexpected stroke."

She turned around and looked at Lin Ge.

Those pale green eyes no longer held sorrow, only a detachment honed by time.

"The landlord of that restaurant is a Chinese businessman surnamed Huang."

"My father owed him three months' rent, and he applied for an eviction order the day after my father had a stroke."

"The court ruled in his favor, and the very next day, my father's hospital bed was moved from the hospital to the street."

"After I finished my funeral arrangements, I moved to Tulsa."

The office was so quiet that only the song playing outside the window, which was nearing its end, could be heard.

Eleanor spread her hands and said:

"So you see, I take rules very seriously."

Her tone was as if she were talking about something that happened to someone else.