Gustavo would not use his fried chicken restaurant as a money-laundering tool. Instead, through Lydia’s Madrigal Electromotive, he hired Mike as a "security consultant" with a weekly salary of $10,000, aiming to launder the $200,000 over 20 weeks. Gustavo covered the relevant insurance premiums, social security contributions, and personal income taxes, ensuring Mike received the full $200,000 without a cent deducted. Seeing this, Lydia believed the old man in front of her must have extraordinary abilities.
Now, Gustavo needed to deal with a tough opponent, so he had to win over all kinds of capable people. Hector, who had forcibly seized the fried chicken restaurant’s transportation routes, finally got his comeuppance. Eladio thought Gustavo’s approach was good and simply put Gustavo in charge of everything. On the phone, Bolsa claimed it was not about seizing territory, but everyone knew Hector’s era was over. Enraged, Hector grabbed the phone and smashed it to the ground. He completely fell out with Eladio, and Nacho beside him also realized that Hector would soon target his father’s small workshop. Nacho returned home and begged his father to accept reality and not resist in vain.
A representative from the insurance company came to visit Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill. As the saying goes, "no one visits without a reason"—this time, the purpose was to demand that the insurance premiums for all practicing lawyers in the firm be doubled. Alternatively, the insurance company would send an assistant to supervise Chuck’s work, including attending court together and meeting with clients. Since this matter involved Chuck, Howard and Chuck sat in the conference room to negotiate with the two insurance company representatives. Howard wanted to handle it peacefully by leveraging the firm’s consistent excellent practice record. But Chuck directly cited insurance regulations and acted as if he was ready to see them in court. The negotiation ended unhappily, and Chuck’s disregard for the firm’s reputation and repeated creation of enemies made Howard begin to seriously consider a question: Although Dr. Laura’s treatment had helped Chuck, Chuck was no longer suitable to work at the firm. Letting him step down and only retaining the title of honorary partner should be the best option for now. Chuck’s response, however, was still the same: "See you in court."
Jimmy figured the Sandpiper Crossing lawsuit should be approaching the settlement stage. As long as the settlement plan was approved, he could get 20% of the settlement fund—nearly $1 million. With this money, he wouldn’t have to worry about finances anymore. He bought pudding and went to visit Mrs. Landry. It was from Mrs. Landry’s bill that he first noticed the problem, so Mrs. Landry had become the representative of the class-action lawsuit and the best person to ask about the case progress. Unexpectedly, Mrs. Landry knew nothing about the situation; she had handed over everything to Attorney Erin from Davis & Main. Jimmy knew Erin all too well—she was the "babysitter assistant" Clifford had arranged to monitor him. Erin was meticulous, rule-abiding, and rigid. Many legal documents had been sent to Mrs. Landry, but they were all left untouched because Mrs. Landry couldn’t understand them and didn’t want to read them. Jimmy flipped through the documents and indeed found a settlement agreement. But since Erin had suggested waiting a while, Mrs. Landry hadn’t accepted it. Jimmy was trying to figure out how to persuade Mrs. Landry to change her mind and accept the settlement when a group of Mrs. Landry’s elderly friends came to invite her to chair yoga. Jimmy had to leave disappointedly.
Jimmy tried to talk to Howard, but Howard was furious about Chuck’s matter and ignored Jimmy’s suggestions entirely. After thinking it over, Jimmy realized that the only way to solve the problem was to start with Mrs. Landry. He knew Mrs. Landry had the habit of power walking, so he gave her a pair of expensive sneakers, claiming the ones he had bought for his girlfriend were too small. After Mrs. Landry started walking in the comfortable sneakers, Jimmy spread rumors everywhere, saying the law firm was delaying the case to increase its own income, while the clients’ compensation would barely change. He also claimed Mrs. Landry had accepted compensation from the firm, which was why she had rejected Sandpiper Crossing’s settlement offer. The elderly already trusted Jimmy a lot, and seeing Mrs. Landry wearing new high-end sneakers recently, they believed Jimmy’s words even more.
Gradually, the friends who used to talk to Mrs. Landry about everything began to deliberately snub her. Mrs. Landry was distressed and had no idea why, so she could only sit alone in the corner, wiping her tears. At this point, Jimmy pretended to "guess" that maybe it was because everyone wanted to settle and get the compensation to improve their lives. Under Jimmy’s hint, Mrs. Landry immediately contacted Erin from Davis & Main.
With nearly $1 million about to come in, Jimmy excitedly bought the most expensive wine and ran back to the office to celebrate with Kim. But Kim was in no mood. A few days earlier, she had learned about the difficulties Billy’s company was facing: due to the impact of oil drilling, an oil field originally within Texas borders had extended into New Mexico, forcing Billy—who operated on the Texas border—to pay high taxes to both states. Kim’s proposed solution was to choose the lesser of two evils: pay compensation to the landowners in New Mexico as compensation for the loss of land resources. This way, they could bypass the government’s tax policies and save a large sum of money.
Kim had worked day and night to draft the optimal compensation proposal, printed out a dozen copies, and prepared to hand them to the New Mexico landowners at the negotiation meeting. The meeting was set to start in an hour, so Kim really had no time to celebrate. After carefully checking all the materials and confirming they were correct, Kim loaded them into the car, stepped on the gas, and drove toward Texas, leaving Jimmy looking disappointed. But Kim was too tired; her consciousness gradually blurred. She didn’t know how much time had passed when a loud crash woke her up. Her face hit the airbag, the car was parked crookedly by the side of the road, and the front of the car—having crashed into a roadside rock—was deformed. She struggled to climb out of the car, and as she watched the scattered A4 papers floating down, she finally realized she had been in a car accident.