First-Class Lawyer

There was a small, inconspicuous inn on White Dove Street not far from where the homicide occurred.

The first and most of the second floor was a bistro that offered a wide range of beers. In all honesty, though, all its flavours were mediocre. The cook was a part-timer who wasn’t very good at cooking and even had to return to his home every other day. r9xRcO

When the cook wasn’t around, the store only had sausages and beer, as well as an extremely unenthused boss lady.

The boss and his wife’s bedroom occupied half of the second floor, and the third and fourth floors were partitioned into ten pigeon-hole-like rooms to provide lodging. The square footage of the rooms in this inn was worlds apart from the rooms in Hanjin Garden Hotel, just a block away. It was tragic.

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Yet, this was one of the few shops on White Dove Street that could sustain itself. As the room prices were low, there were always people stopping over De Carma who required cheap accommodation like this.

The reporter duo, Bens and Hersey, were making inquiries with the lady boss when they unexpectedly discovered that the inn had a good view. When sitting at the booth by the windows on the bistro’s second floor, they could glimpse the lobby entrance of Hanjin Garden Hotel through a gap in a short building opposite, and if they headed to the third and fourth floors, there would be even less blocking their view. uz1Ogq

Bens wasn’t especially keen on feeding the bugs in the bushes at Hanjin Garden Hotel’s entrance. After all, there wouldn’t be any business tycoons swaggering out and about during the night, let alone coincidentally swaggering into his lens.

But he still wanted to be able to keep an eye on the hotel entrance at all times.

Taking that into account, this inn was actually a pretty decent choice.

After polishing off a plate of sausages last night, Bens took a look around the third and fourth floors. While the pigeon-hole rooms were small, they were clean. So, he held his nose and booked two rooms, planning to temporarily stay with Hersey for the night, and to head over after seeing from the window that guests were heading out of Hanjin Garden Hotel.

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Little did he expect to open his eyes in the morning to a raging rainstorm obscuring everything outside the window.

No matter if it was the windows of the room or the glass balcony door, they were shuddering in the storm, blurred with streaming rainwater. It was impossible to tell animals and humans apart from a ten-metre distance away, not to mention Hanjin Garden Hotel, which was even further off.

“Let me tell you a joke: the view here is excellent,” Bens said mockingly.

Hersey, “…The weather forecast says that it won’t last long. It should end by evening.” I94LTk

“If the weather forecast was reliable, would we still be holed up here?” Bens, probably crazed from anger, cursed everything that moved.

“De Carma’s hurricanes are supposed to be different from other planets. It’s notoriously hard to predict…” Hersey poured a glass of beer for him in consolation, then buried his head back into his food.

This was irrefutable. After all, if De Carma’s hurricanes could be forecasted, then Southcross Law Firm wouldn’t have chosen to risk organising an event in this weather, lest they incurred losses from upsetting the guests.

Bens knew this, naturally, so he glared at him irritably, “Is your tongue getting sharp at this time again?” 1dUv7J

In fact, during this period, Hersey had become more verbose than before. He was no longer as shy, possibly because he had been taken on quite a few trips and had formed ideas of his own. Sometimes… occasionally, he would talk back a bit, or initiate some suggestions—

After Hersey finished his food, he hedged, “Right, teacher, speaking of Southcross Law Firm…”

“Mm, what about it?” Bens took a large gulp of beer, grunting vaguely.

“During the last time we went to Tian Qin, we met—” jdiZeJ

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“Po sbe vjgf ab ygfjx atja uijrr, P’ii tjnf atlr ybaaif xlrr sbeg gbis-qbis tfjv.” 

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

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“We can’t.” Bens had his beer mug raised, but, upon glimpsing the menacing glare the lady boss shot him, he awkwardly set it down lightly.

“Do you have amnesia? Have you forgotten how upset everyone got?!” The resentment was deeply etched on Bens’ face. “I refuse to deal with them a second time in my life.”

“They should be quite reasonable people…” said Hersey, not giving up.

“Oh—” Bens pulled a face even longer than a donkey’s, drawling. “Then do you mean that I’m being unreasonable?” Zy3fjR

Otherwise?

Hersey didn’t make a sound, silently drinking his beer.

“I’m telling you, even if I suffocate to death over here, I will never attempt to contact them to ask for information, never ever! So what if they’re insiders? So what if they’ve got information?” Bens was steely. “I’ve got a backbone, I’ve got my pride. So don’t waste your breath. It’s no use. Keep dreaming.”

The rainstorm continued to wreak havoc, without signs of abating. RY15Mw

Bens showed a frosty look and straightened his neck. This backbone lasted for about ten minutes, before he silently lowered his head, fishing out his smart device.

—

The two mansions of Hanjin Garden Hotel flanked a garden restaurant that was completely enclosed by a wide glass dome. The fierce gales and heavy rain were barricaded outside, sounding muffled due to the noise insulation.

The classy and relaxing music was neither too loud nor too quiet, perfectly setting the ambience. 2qUIn5

There weren’t many people dining out. In this weather, most people chose to stay in their rooms like Young Master Joe.

Of the Manson brothers, Brewer Manson was absent. Instead, his assistant was hurrying about, never taking off his earpiece, constantly on the comms with various people.

From his expression, he should be dealing with some work-related matters, and the results were very satisfactory.

Now and then, he would pause and dial another comms. Reading his lips, respectfully calling “boss”, he was presumably reporting his progress to Brewer Manson. uyi2UR

On the other hand, the younger of the brothers, Miller Manson, did appear in the restaurant, even tipping his glass at Gu Yan and Yan Suizhi as he passed by. Whatever he did, he always had such an abstruse smile on his lips that it was hard to tell if he was simply making a greeting or expressing some sort of subliminal provocation.

He eventually joined Cliff, the business tycoon in space shuttles. His hands were spread behind on the sofa, languidly chatting with the other.

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When the waiter served the aperitifs and appetisers, Yan Suizhi swept a glance over at them, then lowered his gaze, continuing to play with his smart device.

“Who are you texting?” asked Gu Yan. 1zPQ4p

“My landlord,” said Yan Suizhi.

Gu Yan arched his eyebrows.

The esteemed Professor Yan seemed to have grown extra eyes elsewhere, correcting without even a lift of his head. “Mr Mervin White, the man who almost became my landlord. Stop arching your brows, o’ distinguished lawyer.”

The distinguished lawyer’s face was as it always was. He sipped his aperitif. “Have you been in touch with him the past few days?” xTKVuS

“No,” Yan Suizhi’s face was sincere. “How can I have the mind to care about others when a mint essence has me spellbound and incapable of clear thought?”

Gu Yan, “?”

“But he didn’t contact me, either,” Yan Suizhi said. “Which I find quite odd.”

The space shuttle was still being repaired on the emergency lane. He was a tad worried that something would happen to the landlord. ZzEKuj

His message received no response from the other side.

Yan Suizhi projected the time calculator, checking the time in the star sectors in the vicinity of the orbital route, making sure that it wasn’t in the dead of the night, before straight-out calling his landlord.

Sudden bad weather wouldn’t affect communication calls within the planet, but this might not be so for calls that extended outside the planet.

Sure enough, an alert came through the earpiece: TZkbGe

Signal is unstable. Communication device cannot be reached. Please try again later.

After three attempts to no avail, Yan Suizhi directly opened the interstellar news page on his smart device.

“Can’t connect?”

“Mm,” Yan Suizhi nodded and started to search for the shadow of Mr Mervyn White’s figure in the news. 8UZfd

Fortune of all fortunes, Mervyn White wasn’t that down on his luck. Today’s news was practically spammed by articles about the contagion, without touching on anything else.

“No news is good news,” Yan Suizhi said. “Maybe he’s still stuck on the road. I’ll try again in a while.”

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As he spoke, he skimmed the articles on the screen in passing, and an expression of surprise crossed his face. “The virus has a cure.”

“When did that happen?” Gu Yan was similarly taken aback. nQSxtK

“Let me check,” Yan Suizhi glanced through the time stated in various articles. “They’re all saying that it was announced this morning, slightly over an hour ago, thereabout.”

Hearing this, Gu Yan followed suit, opening the news page and giving a few articles a rough read.

Usually when a rampant pandemic broke out in the alliance, the research institutes affiliated with major medical companies would start to work overtime, racing to be the first to find the cure. Whoever could smoothly pass the Medical Board’s tests would seize the initiative, getting unlimited business opportunities for a long time afterwards.

Most of the time, the first to do so would be the research institute at Spring Ivy Hospital, though it would occasionally also be other, slightly smaller institutes that came out on top, such as Orchid Medical, Montigo, Westshore, etc. nei72h

In this case, the drug was produced by the one that came in fourth in the overall ranking, Westshore. Unlike Spring Ivy’s hospital structure, it was an independent pharmaceutical company, a latecomer to the industry that was only just established twenty-odd years ago.

Some people said that in the medical field, it was only about 300,000 hospitals short of Spring Ivy.

However, Westshore didn’t seem to be in a hurry to overtake anyone. Its core business was in pharmaceuticals and had never revealed plans to set up a hospital.

This time around, Westshore exceeded expectations, not only developing a drug for treatment, but also immunisation. vVddtU

Articles said that Westshore had already negotiated a business deal. Special drug distribution centres would be set up across the alliance, providing support for quarantine, testing, and treatment, preventing further spread of the virus whilst relieving the pressure on major hospitals.

Whilst reading the articles, Yan Suizhi’s smart device suddenly began to vibrate. A communications request cut in.

“Mr Mervyn White?” Gu Yan asked.

Yan Suizhi glanced at the contact name jumping on the request screen and his brows flew up, looking quite surprised. “No.” YFs9dy

“Who is it, then?”

“Guess?”

Gu Yan started. “It’s someone I know?”

“Is there anyone in my address book that you don’t know?” Yan Suizhi said. “Nevermind just knowing him, you’ve even menaced him before.” YVdGPQ

“I’ve done something so lawless?” Lawyer Gu felt that a certain someone was beginning to talk rubbish again.

Yan Suizhi turned the screen to him. Lawyer Gu swept a glance at the name and, without another word, silently started on his appetisers.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

The caller was none other than the reporter that was shameless to the core—Bens.

No one could read what Yan Suizhi was thinking, but a gentle and elegant smile suddenly graced his face. He picked up the call. BOsYpL

Gu Yan was too familiar with this smile. Every time the esteemed Professor Yan smiled like this, it implied that the other party was going to drop dead from anger.