“Oh, that list?” William Carter said, sitting up straight and flipping through with his fingers for him. “I haven’t looked at it yet. It’s fine if it’s destroyed, just have that lawyer send you another copy.”

Locke gave a dry laugh. “My teacher? No, no, no, I’m scared.”

“……”

“And he went out,” Locke added, trying to show he wasn’t that timid. “He doesn’t seem to like me much. He said he was going to see a client, but didn’t take me along.”

William Carter comforted him, “It’s nothing. At least he told you why he was going out.”

Mine didn’t even spare me a glance before leaving.

“And usually, on the first day, interns aren’t taken out,” Professor Carter said blandly. “For the intern, it’s suddenly having a boss who finds things for you to do all day; for the senior lawyer, it’s suddenly having a tail that only causes trouble. Both sides need a moment to cool off.”

Locke: “……” That actually makes a lot of sense.

“Found it.” William Carter pulled out the list, which had items like “case file cover, case file directory, engagement contract” written in order.

“Yes, yes, that’s the one.”

“Alright, you can go back. I’ll just send a copy to your light-brain directly,” William Carter said.

Locke thanked him profusely, making William Carter almost suspect he hadn’t just sent a file, but transferred a million Westies to him.

Although every lawyer’s office at South Cross Law Firm was independent, because of shared HR and administrative officers, there was also a dedicated internal communication system. William Carter found Locke in the list and sent over the checklist.

He was about to close the interface when, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted James Bennett’s name in the list, with the status showing as available.

Senior Professor Carter looked at it for two seconds, and suddenly had an idea.

He raised his eyebrows, opened James Bennett’s interface, and sent a message—

- Lawyer Bennett, is it okay to stay in the office at night?

Having never suffered from lack of money in eight lifetimes, Senior Professor Carter figured that since his lease was up and he hadn’t found a (cheap) (tasteful) new place yet, he might as well make do in the office for a couple of days.

After all, he’d spent plenty of nights in the office when busy before—he was quite experienced.

However, after sending the message, there was no response for a long while.

William Carter stared at the screen, calming his temper, and patiently sent the message again—

- Lawyer Bennett?

After about a minute, the message alert finally sounded.

William Carter lifted his eyelids to look. James Bennett didn’t say a word, just sent over a casual screenshot.

What the heck is this?

William Carter opened it and saw it was a screenshot from the intern handbook, with a line: “Addressing etiquette: interns should address their supervising lawyer as ‘teacher’, in order to…”

And that was it—the sentence was cut off, showing just how perfunctory the other party was, probably just dragged and sent it over without a second thought.

Senior Professor Carter smiled at the chat screen, thinking: Teacher????

This guy must have nerves of steel.

With such a messy seniority, he really couldn’t bring himself to say it.

But he had no problem typing it.

William Carter snorted a laugh through his nose and tapped out a third message to the audacious James Bennett on the holo-screen.

- Fine, Teacher Bennett, I’ll stay in the office tonight.

This time, almost immediately, James Bennett replied with two words, as terse as ever.

- Reason

How could he let his own student know something as ridiculous as “to avoid sleeping on the street”? Even though this student didn’t act like a student at all, William Carter thought about it and decided he still needed to save face. So he made something up:

- Overtime, organizing case files

James Bennett didn’t reply for a long time, probably stunned by his dedication.

Another minute later, James Bennett’s reply came.

- Go back to your place and work overtime.

I…

Senior Professor Carter slumped back in his chair in frustration.

If I had a place to stay, would I need to work overtime here??

He felt the biggest mistake of his life was ever having taught a jinx like James Bennett. So many years after graduation, and he could still get under his skin with pinpoint accuracy.

Fortunately, the frustration didn’t last long. By evening, the chat window William Carter had slammed shut suddenly sprang back to life.

Inside was a new message from James Bennett:

- Six o’clock, come to Newser Port.

- What for

William Carter replied lazily.

- Business trip

- ?

Chapter 6 Business Trip (Part 2)

That afternoon, William Carter had just told Locke that the firm’s usual practice was not to send interns out on their first day. He didn’t expect James Bennett to break the rule just a few hours later.

- What business trip? Where to?

This time, James Bennett didn’t leave him hanging and replied quickly:

- Wine City.

Wine City??

William Carter felt short of breath at the sight of that name.

Wine City was both a city and not a city. When people mentioned it, they were referring to a planet in the Lyra system. A… planet that was basically a garbage dump, teeming with swindlers, thugs, and petty crooks.

In short, it was a planet with a certain “aroma”—the kind of suffocating musty stench that could knock you over from several light-years away.