First-Class Lawyer

Gu Yan paused for a moment. He raised his head, adding, “Or, who do you want to trust?”

This remark was very familiar; Yan Suizhi suddenly felt a little rueful hearing it. 

It was from a lecture many years back. The venue wasn’t at Maze University, but at another established university in Tian Qin, a two-day shuttle ride away from De Carma. Yan Suizhi, leading several other law professors with him, was invited to be a keynote speaker.

It wasn’t compulsory for students to attend the lecture. Those who wanted to go registered at the college, and the college formed a group for them to go over together.

That lecture was an open-doors event with no entry restrictions. The audience was filled with a hodgepodge of people across the different stellar systems; male, female, young, old—the spacious auditorium was packed full.

Almost all the invited professors spoke well. They catered to the general public like popular science and even injected humour into their speeches. Only an old professor, unable to acclimatise to the change in environment, fell sick and spoke slowly in his lethargy. 

It just happened to be a lovely spring afternoon that day, and with so many people in the auditorium, a haze of drowsiness easily diffused through the air. Therefore, by the time that old gentleman concluded his speech, the auditorium of people was dead asleep, leaving only the first two rows of people still blinking madly trying to keep their eyes from closing.

And Yan Suizhi, the last speaker and the grand finale, was fortuitously the speaker right behind that old gentleman.

He placed both hands on the speaker’s podium, swept a gaze around the entire auditorium, and smiled. He said in his head, ‘My, what a time to be alive.’

However, he didn’t have the habit of forcing others to listen to his long speeches, so didn’t mind at all this scene of mass knockouts. He even joked to some half-asleep student nearby, saying, “I haven’t even said a word and you’ve already nodded at me twelve times.”

Just like that, the students there began to laugh, and their laughter instantly woke the group of them up.

In the audience, there was a young student that didn’t laugh along with the rest. He simply raised his eyes and shot a sidelong glance at those students asleep. Half his body was bathed in the spring sun, yet he still looked as cool as fresh mint steeped in a glass cup.

This made him especially striking amidst the crowd.

After shifting his gaze away, he looked back up the stage with nary a ripple in his eyes, just happening to meet Yan Suizhi’s gaze. 

Naturally, at that time, Professor Yan’s attention wouldn’t linger on a particular audience member. So, his eyes simply crinkled with mirth, and he formally began his lecture.

“Professor. In cases like this wherein what your client says runs counter to the evidence given by the prosecution, who should we trust?”

With a smile hanging on the corners of his lips, Yan Suizhi asked her, “Who do you want to trust?”

That girl opened her mouth—she seemed to feel that it was an easy question to answer, at first—but after hesitating for a while, she conversely began to feel conflicted. Finally, she shook her head and she said, “I don’t know…” 

Students who chose law school always started out aspiring to uphold justice.

If they chose to trust their clients, that would mean they had to question the justness of the prosecution. And if even the investigation team at the prosecutor’s office, the highest embodiment of justice, started to go astray and fabricate lies, that would unequivocally cause many to turn shaken and disheartened.

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Some clients would weave excuses of all shapes and sizes to deny their crime. Even if they plead guilty, they would try their best to present themselves in a better light in order to gain a little sympathy.

Some prosecution would spare no efforts in falsifying evidence to send whom they believed guilty into prison, making sure that the other would get a punishment that befits the crime.

“Naturally, there are also some lawyers who often tell lies themselves. Many people know that their clients are guilty, but from when they take on defence counsel to the end, they would often forget that.” Yan Suizhi said to the girl, “Over time, such problems wouldn’t even occur to them. Because this would make it difficult for them to savour their victories, and in this industry, the victor is always the king.”

Yan Suizhi had long forgotten how that girl looked. But he remembered that her expression, at that time, was dejected and lost. 

So, he had concluded with a light smile, “But I’m very glad you raised this question, and I hope that you will keep it in mind and occasionally reflect on it. You likely won’t find an answer, and it won’t be pleasant to think about either. But this question represents the purity of the aspirations that guided you in your schooling days; I hope that you can preserve them as best you can.”

This one scene was Yan Suizhi’s only memory of that lecture, and he had long forgotten all other details.

Soon after that, time turned to when the freshmen at Maze University chose their direct mentors. The ‘mint’ in that lecture became his student—Gu Yan.

Later on, Gu Yan asked a similar question, merely that he took it one step deeper than that girl. 

It should have been at a small cocktail party between Yan Suizhi and his students. He couldn’t remember if it was on his birthday or Christmas anymore, he only remembered it was a winter day. It was snowing lightly outside. He got his students to let loose and have fun, whereas he alone took a glass of wine to the balcony.

He had intended to enjoy the dark view of the street from the balcony, but didn’t expect that someone else was already there.

The person who occupied this prime fengshui land was Gu Yan.

He couldn’t remember what subject it was that had led to that conversation. He only remembered that the student taciturn and indifferent by nature asked him, “Do you also often think about questions such as who is deserving of trust?” 

At that time, Yan Suizhi was slightly intoxicated, his words came out sparser, and his tone lazier than usual. Swirling the glass in his hand, he said, “No.”

Gu Yan, “…”

“Why? Didn’t you say you hope students would occasionally reflect on it in the future, and to preserve the aspirations that guide us?” Gu Yan frowned while asking this.

Yan Suizhi remembered that Gu Yan at that time had yet to storm off in anger as he would often do later on, and was still able to clearly convey a few sentences. That was probably the first time he frowned in front of his teacher. 

“That’s advice for good people.” Yan Suizhi drawled with a somewhat careless air. As he said this, he turned his head to Gu Yan and chuckled lightly. “I’m not.”

Actually, these memories hadn’t surfaced in Yan Suizhi’s mind for many years. He even thought that he had forgotten about these a long time ago.

It was only today, when Gu Yan suddenly brought this up, that he unexpectedly realised he still remembered these.

Who do you want to trust? 

This time, Yan Suizhi prepped himself up with twice as much spirit and didn’t habitually blurt out a sentence of ‘I don’t usually think about such questions.’ He tried to mimic the thought process a student would have and mulled over several answers, readying himself to give a splendid performance.

Little did he expect that Gu Yan wouldn’t even wait for him to answer. He packed up those pages of evidence, saying, “Think about it on your own. I’m going out.”

Yan Suizhi was very angry, “…” I finally found the damn patience to get into the act and you just up and leave??

The distinguished Lawyer Gu was always direct and efficient with the things he said he’d do. He said he’d leave, so he left; soon, only Yan Suizhi remained in the room. 

His leg actually didn’t hurt much anymore, but he couldn’t walk that well, thus Gu Yan didn’t bring him along when he left.

Being an intern without work to do would really leave him so idle that he could turn mouldy.

If he were at Southcross Law Firm, at least he still would’ve been able to dig out and read up on the full story of the explosion case. Here, as he didn’t have any place to dig even if he wanted to, he could only idly lean against the chair and bask in the sun for a while.

But it was, frankly, very rare for him to have the luxury of idle time. Not more than a moment later, he leaned his head against an arm and began reading with a clear conscience. 

Only, his attention wasn’t focused as he read. Those pages of evidence would wobble in his mind from time to time; it was already an occupational disease.

In actuality, this case wasn’t very difficult, at the very least, not as troublesome as he made it look in front of Joshua Dale. If the evidence was really forged, careful inspection into them would surely expose many holes that they could poke at.

The reason why they told Joshua Dale was difficult was only because if the lawyer appeared too relaxed, the client would feel that ‘even if I skimp over a few details and truth, he would be able to resolve it all the same’.

And what he wanted to hear was the truth. As much truth as possible. 

He grew lost in thought at this. His gaze passed through the glass window, falling upon the vast expanse of low-rise houses outside…

Hm?

Not long after seeing this, an idea suddenly struck him.

— 

Joshua Dale was sitting on the carpet of the hotel room in a daze. His younger sister, Rosie Dale, had already recovered the larger part of her energy. She was sitting cross-legged directly opposite him, her dark bright eyes staring at him unwaveringly.

After a while, she patted Joshua’s leg and softly said, “Brother, I’m hungry.”

Once she said this, her tummy cooperatively grumbled.

Joshua broke out of his dejected mood and raised his head, squeezing out a smile at her. “Ah, you’re hungry? Alright, just wait, I’ll go down and buy something for you to eat.” 

“Besides bread, can I have candy today?” Rosie asked.

Joshua didn’t even have to think about it; he replied, “Okay. Candy, too. You’ll have bread and candy, don’t worry.”

With this, he tiredly stood up and in passing mussed his sister’s hair.

Rosie took out a candy wrapping that she had flattened out. “Can I have this kind of candy?” 

Joshua pinched the candy wrapper and looked at the words on it. “Chocolate? I haven’t heard of this brand before, where did you get it from?”

Right as he said this, someone knocked on the door to the room.

Joshua clumsily used the remote control to open the door, only to see Yan Suizhi leaning by the door, smiling at the two siblings. “Rosie? Pretty little missy, tell me. Are you hungry?”

Rosie Dale immediately pointed at him and told Joshua, “Candy. This brother gave me.” 

Joshua, “…” Brother, my ass!

Rosie Dale then turned her head over to Yan Suizhi. She said, “I’m hungry!”

Yan Suizhi motioned with his chin. “Wear your coat, I’m taking you to eat lamb chops.”

Rosie Dale shot up, licking her lips. “Is it yummy?” 

Joshua, “…”

He touched the remote and really, really wanted to close the door. He was very depressed. Did this intern lawyer take the wrong medicine? Why did he suddenly want to take them out to eat lamb chops?

Besides, it’s only three in the afternoon. What kind of lamb chops are you eating??

初心 lit. heart at the beginning, what I translated as aspirations, more accurately refers to the original intent, the original reasons for which you chose to do something in the first place. (alt) As such, these motivations will guide you as you embark on the journey. 

灰心 lit. grey heart, is another concept briefly touched on in here, meaning your spirit has dulled, turned disheartened – used when talking about prosecutors who distort the truth to achieve what they believe is right.

In a sense, Yan Suizhi is telling them not to lose their guiding light, not to sacrifice their ideals in their pursuit of law, a road that can be quite treacherous. The significance of this will be highlighted in a character introduced later on.

‘Take the wrong medicine’ is equivalent to our waking up on the wrong side of the bed. Describes when a person behaves abnormally; acts up because the medicine they took doesn’t match their illness.