Me! A disgraced celebrity! Starting by seeking justice for impoverished students.

"Understood, Mr. Zhou."

Zhang Bingyan responded in a deep voice.

"I keep an eye on the finance department and try to make sure they see normal project accounts."

"Regarding the contract lawsuit, we will also defend ourselves in stages, trying to prolong the process and minimize the amount of compensation!"

"Hmm," Zhou Hongtao responded, then added, his tone turning colder.

"Tell Li Xue to keep a close eye on the artists. They can't let a single word slip out."

"If she messes up again, she's fired!"

"Yes……"

The phone call ended, and the office fell silent again.

Li Xue's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled down a little, but her back was already covered in a layer of cold sweat.

She was genuinely afraid that President Zhou would fire her in a fit of anger.

Zhang Bingyan handed the phone back, but his face showed no sign of relaxation; his brows were tightly furrowed.

He spoke with certainty, but he knew the truth in his heart.

Jiang Chen's ability to relentlessly pursue this matter demonstrates that he is no mere figurehead lawyer trying to ride the wave of popularity.

This contract lawsuit is unlikely to be easy to win!

What's worse, there are too many holes in the account!

It's impossible to clean it completely in such a short time!

"Let's go to the finance department."

Zhang Bingyan took a deep breath and stepped outside, thinking, "Cover as much as you can."

Li Xue hurriedly followed, her steps frantic.

Both of them knew that this time, it was no longer just a few million in compensation!

If you're not careful, you could even ruin the company!

……

Just after 2 p.m., there was a gentle knock on the door of Chen Qiaowei's personal law firm.

Two court staff members in uniform walked in, carrying a thick stack of neatly bound photocopies of financial documents.

Upon learning that the person was a court employee, Chen Qiaowei immediately called Jiang Chen out.

The two sides met and sat down on the sofa to talk in detail.

The head judge's assistant smiled and said, "Attorney Jiang, we've recovered the accounts with Xingchen Entertainment."

"We have compiled and backed up all of Han Zihe's projects for the past three years, including settlement details, cost expenditure vouchers, and corresponding bank statements, and sent them to you."

"The other party's finance department didn't dare to stop us, but the accounts were a mess. We spent the whole morning checking them and picked out the directly relevant parts."

"Thank you both for your hard work!" Jiang Chen quickly stood up and took the materials. His fingertips touched the thick pages of paper, and his eyes lit up.

These financial documents are the key to breaking the deadlock!

Soon, Jiang Chen saw the court staff off.

He carried the materials and walked quickly back to his office.

Chen Qiaowei also came over, and the two sat down side by side, turning the pages one by one.

The first few pages looked normal.

The above shows the commercial performance fees, endorsement contracts, and platform revenue sharing; the figures all match up.

But the further you turn the pages, the more flaws you find.

Chen Qiaowei's brows furrowed deeper and deeper as she pointed to one of the expenditures, 300,000 yuan, her voice rising: "Jiang Lawyer, look! This 'Artist Promotion and Publicity Fee' is noted as being for the promotion of a girl group's new song. This isn't Han Zihe's project at all! How did it end up in his operating costs?"

Jiang Chen tapped the line of text with his fingertip, his expression calm yet tinged with coldness: "Read on."

Turning to the next page, there was a "company annual team building expenses" of 280,000 yuan, which was directly allocated to Han Zihe's annual costs according to the artists' proportion, amounting to 120,000 yuan.

Later, several "business hospitality expenses" and "gift purchase expenses" of varying amounts appeared one after another, with the attached invoices all from high-end restaurants and luxury goods counters.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that these were private expenses, yet they were all labeled as "project public relations" and included in Han Zihe's operating costs.

"That's outrageous!"

Chen Qiaowei angrily slammed the account book on the table, her chest heaving slightly.

"He's responsible for all the publicity losses of other artists, the company's annual party, and even the boss's luxury purchases and meals?"

"This isn't profit sharing! It's like they deduct all the miscellaneous expenses from the artist's share first, and then only give the artist a pittance left!"

"So the company is guaranteed to make money, and if they lose, the artists have to pay for everything, but they take the lion's share of the profits first? That's outrageous!"

Jiang Chen stared intently at the several unusual expenditures recorded on the transaction history, his expression darkening.

"That's pretty much what I thought," Jiang Chen murmured.

"The so-called 'company unilaterally calculates operating costs' is essentially a trap set by a bully."

"The contract only specified the profit-sharing ratio, but did not stipulate the cost scope, leaving the company with full control over the accounting."

"They can put whatever they want in there. The artists have no right to check the accounts or raise objections. No matter how much work they do or how much money they earn, after deducting costs, they don't get much."

"Han Zihe has performed in hundreds of commercial shows and taken on more than a dozen endorsements in the past few years. On the surface, his total revenue is over ten million, but after deducting costs, he only gets a few hundred thousand. He was tricked by this scheme."

He paused, his eyes sweeping over the words "cost accounting," and said with certainty, "This is our breakthrough."

"Unilateral accounting and unreasonable cost allocation violate the principle of fairness in standard terms and are inconsistent with the cost accounting practices of the brokerage industry."

"The court won't recognize the costs of these haphazardly placed stalls!"

Chen Qiaowei nodded and quickly picked up a pen to mark on the voucher: "I'll mark all these unusual expenditures, check them one by one, and show them to them in court. Let's see how they argue then!"

Jiang Chen didn't say anything, picked up his phone, found Zhou Guilan's number, and dialed it.

The phone was answered after two rings, Zhou Guilan's voice tinged with caution: "Attorney Jiang? Is there any news?"

"Auntie, let me tell you about the progress."

Jiang Chen softened his tone, "The court just retrieved Han Zihe's project transaction records."

"The situation is just as we thought. The company has put a lot of costs that shouldn't have been included on his shoulders. His income has been deducted for other artists' publicity expenses, company annual meetings, and even personal expenses."

"The actual amount of compensation he was deducted from over the past three years was more than we estimated."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone, followed by the suppressed sobs of an elderly person.

"This child...this child once told me, 'Mom, if I do commercial performances for another two years, I can pay off the debts and take you to a big city for medical treatment.'"

"I thought he earned a lot, but who knew... who knew he was working himself to the bone, and the company was taking all his earnings..."

Han Guilan cried intermittently, unable to speak coherently, "He suffered such a great injustice, but he didn't tell me, afraid that I would worry..."

Jiang Chen waited quietly for her to cry for a while before speaking softly.

"Auntie, don't be too sad. We can settle these accounts one by one, and the law will support us in getting our money back."

"The key now is your resolve..."

"Attorney Jiang, you don't need to say anything more."

Han Guilan took a deep breath, and her crying stopped.

"We'll fight the lawsuit, we absolutely must!"