Editor’s Note

Lawyer Zheng Ling from Guoyao Qindao Law Firm responded to the Ministry of Justice’s "1+1" legal aid initiative by traveling to Wangmo County in Guizhou Province to provide nine months of legal services as a volunteer lawyer. The locations where "1+1" legal aid lawyers are stationed are mostly counties without lawyers, where conditions are tough, and there is an urgent need for legal services. As an outstanding lawyer from Guoyao Qindao, Zheng Ling has responded to the public welfare call for the second time, rooting herself in impoverished counties and providing legal aid services to local governments and the people. This site will continue to serialize stories of Lawyer Zheng Ling's legal aid work in Wangmo County.

It has been more than twenty days since I arrived in Wangmo as a volunteer lawyer. On this sunny winter afternoon, sitting on the balcony of the public rental housing provided by the judicial bureau, I looked around the once-bare walls of my new home, which I had arranged to be simple yet cozy. Listening to the dialect-filled conversations from the street below, it still feels as if I am in a dream.

It turns out, fulfilling a dream is even more surreal than the dream itself.

If ten years ago, my first decision to join the 1+1 volunteer program was driven by youthful impulsiveness and freshness, then this time, it was a deliberate life decision, made with mature passion.

I love, therefore I am.

At this moment, here in this small town in southwest Guizhou, 2,025 kilometers from Jinan, I am listening with a traveler’s curiosity to the unfamiliar sounds and rhythms around me. I am making an effort to understand and connect with Wangmo, to dissolve this feeling of strangeness and, ultimately, become part of her.

Wangmo is a typical mountainous town with many slopes and winding roads. Despite being here for over twenty days, I still can’t accurately tell my directions. The public housing is halfway up a hill on the outskirts of the town, and the judicial bureau’s newly-built office is at the base of the hill, only a fifteen-minute walk away. Each day, I walk downhill to work and climb back uphill to return home. Since both my work and living quarters are on the town’s outskirts, I am distanced from its hustle and bustle, and in these twenty days, I’ve only been to the town center three times. That town center, right within reach, feels less real to me than the distant streets and alleyways of Jinan, two thousand kilometers away.

Fortunately, the world’s clamor and bustle no longer move me. A quiet life and busy work make me feel fulfilled and happy. And Wangmo has given me all this within just twenty days.

This small county, nestled in the southwestern corner of Guizhou, has a population of 300,000, predominantly Bouyei and Miao ethnic groups. The entire county has only three law firms, with twelve lawyers in total, and the legal aid center comprises only one lawyer (who also serves as the head of the center) and a temporarily assigned senior intern, Xiao Cen. When I reported on October 19, it was a crucial period in the poverty alleviation campaign, and most staff from various departments had been dispatched to the grassroots for poverty alleviation efforts, including the legal aid center head. Hence, I couldn’t meet him. After a brief welcome ceremony organized by the director and deputy director responsible for legal aid, they quickly left for their field assignments, marking my official start.

After a brief conversation with Xiao Cen, people began arriving for consultations one after another. Immediately, I was thrown into work. That morning alone, I received consultations on four cases related to marriage and family, land, elder care, and personal injury, all from Bouyei residents speaking dialects I couldn’t understand. Even those who managed some Mandarin struggled to express themselves accurately and fluently. Fortunately, Xiao Cen, though not a law major, is Bouyei and could act as a translator, and we worked well together.

During breaks between consultations, I glimpsed the “Legal Aid Case Assignment Register” in Xiao Cen’s hands and was momentarily shocked: the center had handled 297 civil cases this year and capped at 196 criminal cases. Xiao Cen was currently applying to the state legal aid center for outside attorneys for a joint crime case with fourteen defendants—because the county didn’t have enough lawyers for assignment, and the case had been pending for a month without trial. Without hesitation, I accepted the defense cases for one of the defendants, Wang, and another defendant, Ma, in an intentional injury case. Thus, my legal career in Wangmo officially began with criminal defense case numbers 197 and 198. Since Ma’s case already had a trial date, it took priority. Fortunately, the court was right next to the judicial bureau, a two-minute walk away, making file review and court appearances extremely convenient—an unexpected benefit, I suppose.

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