First-Class Lawyer

Gu Yan?

Before the screen lit up, Yan Suizhi had already subconsciously believed it to be another message from Gu Yan. But it turned out not to be the case. 

The sender’s name jumped on the screen, it read: Ms Fizz.

Yan Suizhi gave a start, then began to laugh. Though what for—whether it was because of his preconceived notion, or because of Ms Fizz’s bubbly personality that she would always come to prod at him—he wasn’t sure.

Ms Fizz, [It’s already past 8 p.m. You’ve forgotten about today’s work log again, haven’t you, Mr Ruan Ye?]

Ms Fizz, [Anyway, I’ve good news for you. I just got a call from Adams from upper management, who secretly told me that as of ten minutes ago, your teacher Gu Yan just completed his review. A kind senior on the review board divulged a bit of info; it should be a-okay.] 

Ten minutes ago? Yan Suizhi silently checked the time and vaguely remembered that 11 o’clock on a Twin Night in Redstone should already be approaching dawn; the sky should already have brightened after so many hours had passed.

In general, the process to be awarded the title of First-Class Lawyer involved three stages. The first stage was a continual 3-5 day review where most of the nominations were screened out. The nominees from small firms would practically be weeded out, and even large firms, who had sent several nominations, would only be left with a lone seedling. Based on precedent, less than 5% of nominees would remain, forming the preliminary selection.

The list of those who made the cut would be published to the public for 45 days. This was the second stage. If there were no objections during this period, then those on the list would proceed to the final stage of the process—the final vote.

The ones who participated in the vote consisted of those powerful figures whose portraits adorned the wall of First-Class Lawyers. If Yan Suizhi wasn’t ‘dead’, he would be one of those with the right to cast a vote.

Should more than two-thirds of the votes be cast in favour, the medallion would be conferred.

If the voting committee was a relatively warm and friendly group of people who avoided stepping on people’s toes, two-thirds would be an easy standard to meet. Unfortunately, this group consisted of very individualistic personalities, and not one of them was the ‘I just vote whichever way you vote’ type of good ol’ chums.

Therefore, a bunch of people would always be screened out even in the final voting stage, though this number would still be within an acceptable range.

What Gu Yan was going through now was the first stage. Under normal circumstances, the giving of an oral assurance was an indicator that they got it in the bag; there were unlikely to be further turnarounds. This also meant that even though the list was yet to be publicised, they could already congratulate Gu Yan for smoothly moving on to the second stage. 

Ms Fizz, [Your teacher is one step closer to a First-Class Lawyer medallion, are you excited? Isn’t it exhilarating?]

The corners of Yan Suizhi’s lips quirked up. He replied, [So excited that I’m jumping for joy.]

Ms Fizz, [……………]

Ms Fizz, [Don’t think that just because I can’t see you, I don’t know that you’re spouting nonsense. You have roots growing from your soles. I even suspect that you walked during high jumps in middle school.] 

Yan Suizhi, [I didn’t have high jump in middle school.]

Ms Fizz’s attention was successfully brought off-track:

-No high jump? Then what did you have?

Yan Suizhi, [Horse riding, swimming, or rock climbing. Pick one of the three, I can’t quite recall anymore.] 

Ms Fizz, [???????]

Middle school was something that happened more than twenty years ago. Professor Yan didn’t have much impression of such trivialities. He only remembered that the curriculum was ridiculed as ‘going up the mountains, under the seas, and across the plains’ back then, and he had chosen the one that allowed him to sit down.

He pulled the topic back on track, replying:

-But either way, I’m very happy. 

Naturally, he didn’t feel the type of excitement and exhilaration that Fizz spoke of. After all, he already had one of those so-called ‘sparkly First-Class Lawyer medallions’. But his happiness was sincere. It was only natural that he would be happy that a student he had looked favourably upon was excelling in his field.

He might even be a tad happier than he usually would.

Ms Fizz sent a chain of fireworks emotes, which both expressed her vivaciousness and her delight. But in an attempt to appear less biased, she supplemented:

-Mr Hal might be down on his luck; Hobbes’ review is still ongoing, but the results are obvious… 

Typically, if a firm submitted more than one nomination, in the interest of fairness, each nominee would be under the charge of separate senior staff from upper management. Adams was the one in charge of Gu Yan; Hal was the one in charge of Hobbes.

Based on past experience, only a single potential would be left in a law firm. Since it was already revealed through word of mouth that Gu Yan was on the list, it was predictable that Hobbes wouldn’t make the cut.

As Yan Suizhi walked towards Zhigeng Hospital, he deliberated on a more impartial response.

He stood for a moment at the information booth on the ground floor of the hospital, trying to enter the surname ‘Chen’ into it. The list that came out was hopelessly long. 

Yan Suizhi clicked his tongue softly. The young lady at the help desk nearby had a sharp eye. She poked her head over, asking, “Hello, are you here to visit someone?”

“Tfjt.”

“Pr la tjgv ab ibbx eq yfmjerf atf cjwf’r cba delaf fzjma?” Vtf kjr nfgs rswqjatfalm. “Gbc’a kbggs, la’r j nfgs mbwwbc lrref, sbe vbc’a tjnf ab offi fwyjggjrrfv. Gb sbe tjnf j qtbab? Yg jcs batfg lcobgwjalbc? P mjc ibbx la eq obg sbe.”

“Thanks.” Yan Suizhi thought for a moment and pulled up a random photo of Chen Zhang from the case file. “A friend of mine asked me to come by and visit his relative—” 

“Ah, that…” The young lady’s expression turned complicated. Before he could finish speaking, she replied, “I know him.”

“Oh, that’s quite the coincidence.”

“I know who you want to visit,” said the young lady. “But the situation’s somewhat special. There are police guarding the ward, you’ll have to submit your identification file.”

Just now in Chen Zhang’s house, he was a little puzzled why Chen Zhang’s family wasn’t mentioned in the case file. Information from the welfare hospital wasn’t that difficult to trace if they really looked into the details. 

Now, it seemed that the police had indeed uncovered this, simply that they felt there wasn’t a tenable connection between his family members and the case at Yaba Island. Thus, they didn’t include this information in the case file, which would be open to the public. First, this was done in order to protect these people from being implicated—for example, backlash from the Manson family’s anger, being disturbed by certain more intrusive media platforms, etc. Secondly, in order to step up surveillance, they sent people here to guard this side as well.

Yan Suizhi had followed all the proper procedures, so he naturally didn’t have to mind these. He verified his identity at the help desk. Surprised, the young lady said, “Ah, you’re actually a defence lawyer…”

“Intern.” Yan Suizhi didn’t forget to refine his persona. He asked the young lady with a smile, “From your expression just now, you don’t really seem to like Mr Chen. May I ask why?”

If they were complete strangers, even if a person heard that someone was involved in a certain criminal case, they wouldn’t have made that kind of expression. The way this young lady acted earlier was more like she knew something about Chen Zhang. 

“Um… It’s not that I don’t like him…” She explained a little awkwardly, but soon relaxed at Yan Suizhi’s gentle smile. She said after some thought, “Mr Chen’s grandfather, parents, and sister are all warded in this hospital. His mother aside, they suffer from the same hereditary disease and are now fully paralysed. His mother doesn’t have that hereditary disease, but due to anxiety and overwork, her pulmonary system is very weak. She has been ill for many years. Mr Chen’s situation is quite unfortunate, however…”

“However?”

“He used to come by regularly to visit them once a week in the past; we are all a little familiar with him. But eventually he seldom came, only dropping by for a short while each time before leaving in a hurry. In the last couple of years, he hasn’t come by even once. It’s obvious that he isn’t very glad to see them. Maybe after bearing it for so long, he grew exhausted, like…” The young lady hesitated, but still gritted her teeth and used a more sensitive word. “Like they are a nuisance.”

You can’t get rid of them even if you wanted to, nor can you cast them aside. On one hand, you’re trying your best to support them, yet on the other hand, you don’t want to see them… 

“I understand where you’re coming from.” Yan Suizhi fell into a contemplative silence for a moment. Then, he lifted his gaze and smiled at the young lady. “I’ll go to the ward first then. Thank you.”

She hastily waved her hand. “Don’t mention it, I’m only doing my job.”

After leaving the help desk, Yan Suizhi didn’t rush towards the ward number the young lady gave him, but detoured to a shop at the inpatient unit downstairs instead and bought a very basic recording pen that didn’t have any other functions.

Along the corridor outside the ward, predictably, there were a few people in casualwear buttoning their hats, or pretending that they were waiting for someone, seated on the benches. 

But when Yan Suizhi walked towards the ward door, they all looked at him in unison.

Yan Suizhi could tell who they were at first sight. He flashed his identification card at them.

Those few of them nodded, indicating that Yan Suizhi could go in, just that he had to leave the ward door open. Yan Suizhi showed them his hands, explaining pithily, “A recording pen, the most old-fashioned type.”

They laughed and nodded towards the door. “Feel free to use it. Go on in.” 

To be honest, it wasn’t a pleasant experience to meet Chen Zhang’s family.

Chen Zhang’s mother was bawling. She had a thin tube inserted in her nostrils to help her breathe, and several times Yan Suizhi was afraid that her movements would dislodge it, but she didn’t even care. She just kept crying and crying, saying that she hadn’t seen Chen Zhang in a long time, saying that it had been hard on him; that he barely had the time to take a breather in this many years.

A young nurse was startled by her crying and hurried over to check her body vitals. She seemed exceptionally worried that Chen Zhang’s mother might end up in the resuscitation room as a result of her crying.

During which, the nurse whispered to Yan Suizhi, “The old missus has sneaked away several times. She said she wanted to earn some money to relieve her son’s burden. We almost lost her twice. Luckily, the girl at the desk downstairs saw her holed up in a corner near the port, setting up a stall with a group of people, only then did we manage to bring her back. After that, a small locator chip was added to her wrist monitor.” 

Inexplicably, Yan Suizhi felt his heart twinge when he heard her call Chen Zhang’s mother the ‘old missus’. His gaze fell on her body. Chen Zhang was a little over fifty years old. His mother, who was at most a hundred, was only halfway through life in a world where the life expectancy was generally two hundred. Based on the modern rate of ageing, she could even be considered to be in the tail-end of her prime. And yet, her old age was apparent. Her skin was sagging, and the deep tear troughs under her eyes not only gave her the vicissitude of old age, but also extreme haggardness.

It wasn’t just her. In this room, Chen Zhang’s grandfather, father, and sister all looked much older than the norm.

His grandfather was nestled in the innermost bed, his body shrunken in the later stages of senility. He looked thin and small, and might not be completely clear-headed. Yan Suizhi heard him repeating Chen Zhang’s nickname. After a very long time, the grandfather then slowly lifted his head, wiping his eyes as he said, “Wen’ah, does he not want us anymore?”

He spoke each word slowly and strenuously, pausing for a time after every sentence. 

“Does he?”

“I can’t seem to remember what he looks like anymore…”

Chen Zhang’s sister hadn’t spoken all this while. But at this time, she whispered, “It’s good not to want us anymore. It’s better not to want us, he’ll suffer less.”

The nurse turned her head and swiftly wiped her eyes, the tip of her nose red as she said to Yan Suizhi, “Pardon me. I’ve to step out for a while. If anything happens, make sure you ring for me.” 

Yan Suizhi was seldom afraid of anything; must he point out something that he couldn’t handle, it would be a scene like this.

It wasn’t that he was at his wits’ end. On the contrary, he quickly calmed the sobbing people down under the guise of being Chen Zhang’s friend. Possibly because he appeared gentle and trustworthy, they swallowed down all the lies he said as gospel. In the end, they listened to him in a daze, listening so attentively that they forgot to cry.

Only then did the young nurse, who had slipped out to wash her face, find the courage to return.

Before he left, Chen Zhang’s father suddenly asked in a hoarse voice, “No-nothing happened to him, right?” 

Yan Suizhi smiled. “He’s alright. I even saw him earlier today; he’s really just unable to free himself.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Chen Zhang’s father repeated. “Tell him we’re fine. Don’t worry about us, we’re doing very well.”

By the time he came out from the welfare hospital, the visitation hours in the inpatient department were over. The season wasn’t the same over here in Zone 1 as Zone 3; the temperature was significantly lower. The evening chill poured in through the windows of the corridor, making people feel the cold and blowing away any drowsiness.

The corridors on several floors were silent. The smile had long ago ebbed from Yan Suizhi’s face. The moonlight reflected on his slightly lowered eyelashes, casting a pale light on his countenance. He walked for some time, then as if suddenly remembering something, he checked his smart device. Sure enough, there was a missed call, once again from Fizz. 

The chaos induced by the crying in the ward earlier had actually caused him to entirely miss the communication request.

He glanced at the time in De Carma and dialled a call back to her.

“Hello?” Fizz very quickly picked up.

“Sorry, I was busy just now,” said Yan Suizhi. 

“Oh, I see, it’s fine!” Fizz said. Suddenly, she seemed to sense something, and she asked, “What happened to you? Why do you sound a little… off?”

Yan Suizhi’s gaze, falling outside the window, didn’t change. But he smiled. “Off in what sense? Maybe I’m feeling a little tired. Why did you call me?”

Prompted by him, Fizz immediately shouted, “Oh! Right! Did you hear, the preliminary list from the first stage has just been announced. And guess what! Both your Teacher Gu and Hobbes made the list!”

Yan Suizhi froze. “Are you sure they’re both on it? Not a duplicated name?” 

“It isn’t. Both Gu Yan and Hobbes.” Fizz said, “Is that a good or bad thing?”

Did both being on the list imply that both had a possibility of becoming First-Class Lawyers? No. It was impossible that the timeworn rules would change; ultimately, whether it was Gu Yan or Hobbes, only one would become a First-Class Lawyer. It was very rare for both to pass the first round, an occurrence that probably only happened once in a decade. This meant that the committee had a hard time coming to a decision during this review and had no choice but to postpone it, leaving it to the publicity period or the final voting.

And this wasn’t a good sign for Gu Yan.

Yan Suizhi gave it some thought before replying Fizz, “That’ll depend on whether or not you’re biased.” 

He paused, then said, “I’m biased, anyway.”

Usually, people would round it off with a smattering of polite banalities. It was rare to see someone as frank as him. Fizz froze for a moment, then laughed loudly for a long time. “Well, now that you’ve said so, I suddenly feel better again. This means that I’m very biased too!”

“Gu—” Yan Suizhi spoke thoughtlessly, then haphazardly supplemented with an honorific behind it, “Lawyer Gu. Have he and the others already returned to De Carma?”

“They notified me that they had already entered the port. But it seems like Gu Yan still has to go on a business trip? I don’t know about him. Whatever. This bunch of lawyers are already used to shuttling around all day,” Fizz said. 

—

The next day, there was a last-minute situation at the detention centre, so they agreed with Yan Suizhi to change the meeting time.

It wasn’t until four in the afternoon that he sat in the visiting room again. Before entering the visiting room, he suddenly received a new message from Gu Yan.

The mint essence that had gone missing for a full day and a night suddenly popped up out of the blue: 

-Where are you?

The warden was staring Yan Suizhi down, so he cut to the chase, replying concisely:

-Detention centre.

Following which, he slipped off his smart device and placed it in a transparent pouch. 

When taking the pouch, the warden glanced at his hand again. “Do you still have other communication devices? What’s that?”

Yan Suizhi showed his hands.

The warden nodded and allowed him to enter the visiting room.

Within two minutes, Chen Zhang was brought in by the same warden with the tiger-fierce face from yesterday. Both their expressions looked numb, and even carried a slightly aggrieved look. It seemed that the trauma they received yesterday wasn’t light. 

When Chen Zhang sat down in front of the table, his hand reached to press against hip again. Then, he went straight to the point, throwing Yan Suizhi a sentence. “I still maintain my stance from yesterday.”

He would take it to the grave with him.

Yan Suizhi wasn’t anxious. He only asked, slightly amused, “It’s also entirely within your right to refuse to come to the visiting room, just like the way you initially did yesterday.”

Chen Zhang merely pursed his lips without replying. 

He actually feared this intern a little. He feared that if he refused to meet, this intern would pull something to swindle him again, like he had yesterday. He would experience a roller coaster of emotions every time he got swindled, and the feeling of waiting around ill at ease was unbearable. To prevent the rug being pulled from under him again, he simply came down. This way, sitting face to face, he was conversely able to feel the ground beneath his feet.

Because as long as he didn’t speak, the initiative remained with him.

“I’ve brought the guy. Visitation time is an hour as usual.” The warden grunted like he had a toothache, turning heel and leaving.

The door slammed close. Once again, the visiting room began to descend into the suffocating atmosphere from yesterday. 

Chen Zhang was, unilaterally, suffocating.

Yan Suizhi was in no hurry whatsoever. He was just following through with what he said he would yesterday before he left. He really didn’t do anything, nor was he in a hurry. Just like that, he simply sipped the water in the glass cup, calmly gazing at Chen Zhang.

“…”

Ten minutes passed, Chen Zhang began to shift his chair. 

Twenty minutes passed, Chen Zhang began to scratch his ears.

Thirty minutes passed, Chen Zhang could no longer hold himself back.

Right as he was about to open his mouth, Yan Suizhi abruptly raised his index against his lips, motioning for him not to say anything and to just keep quiet.

“…” 

Chen Zhang was going crazy.

Just as he glared at Yan Suizhi with his expression fallen apart, Yan Suizhi lightly swept his eyes over the time on the wall, then took out something and rested it on the centre of the table. “You don’t need to speak; I don’t intend to ask anything today either. There are twenty five minutes left. I’ll be playing you a recording.”

The item on the table was the very same recording pen that he had bought yesterday to bring into the ward. He had recorded a part of it; it wasn’t too long, nor too short. It spanned exactly twenty-five minutes. The reason why he had chosen something so old-fashioned was because he couldn’t bring any communication devices into the visiting room.

“I haven’t seen him in a long time. Is he having a hard time?” 

The split second that the woman’s wane voice rang out, Chen Zhang looked electrified. He stared wide-eyed and the muscles in his body pulled taut. He stilled completely…

Outside the detention centre, two people were at the cafe across the road, where they could clearly sit with a cup of coffee and watch the entrance of the detention centre. The angle was great; it was a perfect spot to wait for someone, also a perfect spot to keep an eye on someone.

Hersey looked at Bens, who was fiddling with the lens of his professional camera. He couldn’t stop himself from saying, “This isn’t right, is it, Teacher?”

Bens’ hand shook at his sudden voice, nearly dropping the lens. “Hey, this baby cost me 10,000 xi, don’t speak so suddenly! What are you going on about?” 

“Stalking that intern,” Hershey mumbled. “What’s the point of keeping an eye on him and filming him…”

“To get a scoop, of course!” Bens squinted an eye, half his face pressed against the animation camera, his expression shrewd and obstinate. “Don’t look down on him just because he’s an intern. There are many articles that can be written. How he defends his client, whether he ends up winning or losing. If he loses, did he have a deal with the Manson family under the table? If he wins, did he do so by getting overly close to the judge? Or maybe there will be some other twists and turns. The people involved in this case aren’t simple folk, you can write about it from any angle. Don’t you know that a picture can speak a thousand words?”

Hersey whispered. “But I don’t think that this is the right way to do it. You’ve followed him for a day already. Opposite his hotel, you even set up a long—”

“You keep feeling that this and that and everything isn’t right,” Bens cut in irritably. “Are you the teacher or am I? Would I sabotage you? You’re here to work to put food on the table. So let’s just focus on surviving first, alright, young man? Besides…” 

He adjusted the lens. Finding a good angle, he licked his lips, saying, “I still haven’t managed to vent my anger. Will you collect the corpse if I choke to death? My whole body will keep aching until I have a bit of fun teaching that young intern a lesson.”

No sooner had he said this than he felt a not-quite-gentle tap on his shoulder.

His first thought was: who’s this polite dude?

Startled, he turned his head over, and saw a tall, handsome man looking down at him. This man seemed to have just arrived from elsewhere, the grey coat draped over his arm was clearly out of season here, and was wearing a shirt that looked as neat as if it was freshly ironed. 

Bens, “Who are you???”

The other man plucked his camera from under his nose with a glacial expression. With hooded eyes, his gaze hung down on him, and his tone was alarmingly calm. “If I’m not mistaken, the person you’re photographing now just happens to be my intern. I don’t mind wasting some time listening to you explain—how, exactly, do you plan on ‘teaching him a lesson’?”

Bens, “………………………”