First-Class Lawyer

Brewer Manson’s gaze crossed five rows of seats, never wavering from Yan Suizhi.

While Yan Suizhi wasn’t quite well-acquainted with this eldest son of the Manson family, they weren’t complete strangers either. Some time or other in the past, they had two instances of direct contact. Once, they had clinked their glasses together during a wine reception for elite lawyers; the other time was during a case that involved a judge. When collecting evidence beneficial for his client before a trial, he had exchanged pleasantries with the other. 

Even just from these cursory encounters, he was clearly able to sense that not only did Brewer Manson look different from George Manson, their personalities were also miles apart. This was someone troublesome to deal with, a person best left unprovoked.

Although Yan Suizhi was facing Gu Yan, he was observing Brewer Manson’s movements out of his peripheral vision.

This subtle distinction was only noticeable to Gu Yan, standing close to him.

“Who are you looking at?” Gu Yan lowered his eyes, gazing at him. 

Yan Suizhi, “Brewer Manson. He keeps looking over here. Teacher Gu, please act more like a teacher. Under normal circumstances, you should be consoling the intern who is being forced beyond his ability.”

The volume of his voice when he said these words was so low that no one else could hear him. From a distance, it really looked like he was rambling out of nervousness, but was also afraid of being overheard by the others in the courtroom…

No matter how it was put, this was, preposterously, a stunning rendition.

Next to the glow of Professor Yan acting skills, Gu Yan paled into insignificance. He answered, “Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have an intern in the first place.”

Also, wasn’t ‘Teacher Gu’ rolling off a certain someone’s tongue a little too naturally?

Yan Suizhi gave a dissatisfied tsk.

After a while, with his gaze hung down, Gu Yan suddenly said evenly, “This is just a court trial. Regardless of the result, you will receive a perfect score on the assessment from me.” With that, he raised a hand and patted him lightly on the shoulder.

Yan Suizhi, “…” 

When saying this, Gu Yan’s voice was modulated, just loud enough for Brewer Manson at the back to hear the gist of it. When he finished, he didn’t give Yan Suizhi a second look. He directly turned his head away and arranged his photon computer and his seat, about to sit down.

During this, his gaze met Brewer Manson’s.

“Lawyer Gu.” Brewer Manson nodded at him, giving him a polite and lukewarm greeting.

Gu Yan also nodded. “Mr Manson.” 

“I didn’t realise that this defence lawyer is actually an intern under you, Lawyer Gu.” Brewer Manson spoke again.

“He isn’t.” Gu Yan denied flatly. “To be precise, he is Mr Moore’s intern. I’m only covering him for a few days.”

Brewer Manson gave a very faint and courteous smile. On the surface, it was impossible to read his thoughts on this, but Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan were both clear that this statement had likely put half of his mind at ease.

As for the other half… 

Again, Brewer Manson cut to the chase, saying, “I previously said that if the chance arises, I must invite you to sample the new batch of wine from the winery. Why didn’t you mention that you were accompanying your intern to Tian Qin? There’s always time for a glass of wine, right?”

He said this with a pleasant and polite smile. But  his words were very deliberate made.

As a rule, the defence lawyer and defendant weren’t allowed to casually meet the victim and their relatives, preventing situations such as coercion from happening. Brewer Manson couldn’t be more aware of this, but he made light of it by saying that he wanted to meet Gu Yan for a drink. This was basically a tactful reminder to Gu Yan that he wasn’t the one on the defence counsel; that he shouldn’t forget his place and meddle in this.

It wasn’t Gu Yan’s first time interacting with him, and he immediately understood the unspoken meaning. However, with Gu Yan’s nature, the style of his response was his customary indifference. “Actually, I had only just arrived in Tian Qin two days ago. If it wasn’t because I had to drop by this trial, I would likely still be at the signing table at the criminal court in Zone 2.” 

Similarly, this sentence conveyed two messages. First, he simply didn’t have the leisure to accompany intern on an interstellar trip. Secondly, he had only come to sit in on the trial as a courtesy. In essence, it meant that he didn’t have the time nor the interest in helping the intern with this case; the intern had managed everything independently.

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This judge didn’t ring any bells with Yan Suizhi. Instead, Gu Yan was the one who gave him a quick rundown from behind him.

Judge Luther, with half his head of hair turned white, had some ties to Gu Yan and Yan Suizhi. He was once a lawyer at Southcross Law Firm in De Carma in his younger days, but had only worked there for a decade or so before becoming a judge.

“Luther is still in touch with one of the lawyers at the firm as they were previously batchmates and got along well with each other.” Gu Yan said, “They also met several times at various lawsuits after that.” 

There were many lawyers with closer relations to judges, but there wouldn’t be any without the barest relation either. After all, they were all once law students. They could easily be coursemates, teachers, students, alumni, etc. In some cases, this relationship could avoid scrutiny, but not always.

Some lawyers would try to get on the good side of the judge in order to get a slight edge in lawsuits and regularly host drinks to get better acquainted. Even if they didn’t play this way, after going through many lawsuits, some level of acquaintanceship would naturally form.

Yan Suizhi wasn’t surprised to hear Gu Yan say this. He flippantly asked, “Oh, is that so? Which lawyer is he friends with?”

Gu Yan, “Hobbes.” 

Yan Suizhi, “…”

Going speechless for a moment, he asked Gu Yan with a smile twitching on his lips. “This guy doesn’t have a fetish for forcibly giving people zeroes right? I can’t find someone who can give me a 100 to save the day at a time like this.”

Gu Yan, “…”

He was originally leaning forward slightly to say a little something else, but once he heard Yan Suizhi whip out a mention of that ‘wrong-medicine-induced 100 points’ from that day, without a flicker in his expression, he sat upright again, leaning back in his seat. 

“You aren’t even going to say it?” Yan Suizhi raised his eyebrows. “Don’t be so petty, what were you going to say?”

Still, Gu Yan remained without any intention of opening his mouth.

Yan Suizhi wanted to laugh. “Fine, keep holding your temper then. Him being friends with Hobbes doesn’t really count for anything. The judges in the district court of Zone 3 can’t be crooked by much, all thanks to the good atmosphere cultivated by the Chief Justice from back then.”

At the mention of this, Gu Yan graced him with a look. 

The former Chief Justice of the criminal courts in Tian Qin was famous for being righteous and uncompromising. Many law schools would touch on him in passing during lectures; it was natural that Gu Yan would have heard of him.

Perhaps because the topic was right at hand, Yan Suizhi dropped a rare tidbit of his personal history. “The first case I took on was handled by that chief justice. Before the trial started, I met his eyes and smiled at him out of courtesy, but he remained expressionless. Thanks to him, I wasn’t able to get nervous at all in my first trial.”

And after that, all the more so, he never got nervous.

Gu Yan actually showed a little interest in this offhand topic, asking, “Why?” 

“Because that Chief Justice never changed his expression throughout the entire trial. Not by a single jolt. So I kept wondering if there was something wrong with his facial nerves.”

Yan Suizhi was someone who never distinguished ally and foe. He held a ‘I’m looking upon a fool’ type of smile for others, and likewise when speaking of himself back in the prime of his youth.

For some reason, Gu Yan’s reason turned minutely odd. He looked at Yan Suizhi for a moment, then calmly lifted his chin towards the side door a short distance away. “Go for your pre-trial conference.”

Yan Suizhi put his smile away. He stood up and unhurriedly went into the adjoining room with the judge and the prosecutor. 

As usual, the pre-trial conference was a mere formality that they walked through. Soon, the three men came out from the room and returned to their respective seats. The defendant, Chen Zhang, was also brought in by a bailiff.

Each time he appeared, he looked visibly more haggard than the day before. His face was full of grey stubble and a heavy aura of pessimism and despondence was entrenched in his body.

He clearly wasn’t in such damp spirits at the meeting the day before; whatever was on his mind last night, he ended up looking like he had swallowed a gun.

Yan Suizhi’s eyes flickered towards where the defendant was seated and was immediately blinded by the funeral mood pouring off his client. He immediately averted his gaze without any qualms. 

From the glass booth, Chen Zhang had caught his fleeting look over.

Chen Zhang also wanted to give his own defence lawyer a more positive reaction, but he really couldn’t pull himself together now. The closer to the trial, the less hopeful he felt. Further, this terrible situation was of his own doing; he was immeasurably vexed.

At the same time, he also felt remorse for his lawyer. It was already difficult for an intern to win a lawsuit; it was also highly possible that he would make a fool of himself by being too nervous for his first court appearance. In the earlier stages, Chen Zhang had also been uncooperative, adding another layer of difficulty for the intern.

‘I won’t blame you even if you lose…’ 

Chen Zhang looked at Yan Suizhi’s figure, saying this in his head. But his stiff and trembling fingers betrayed him.

In the gallery, there were some who were pleased to see him in such down straits.

Seated next to Brewer Manson, his assistant whispered, “Look at that instructor’s apocalyptic expression. I can only imagine how desperate the defence lawyer must be now.”

Brewer’s gaze didn’t waver. “Without Gu, an intern naturally can’t make any kind of turnaround.” 

In actuality, despite having no direct contact with Gu Yan and Yan Suizhi, they were still aware that Gu Yan was undergoing a First-Class Lawyer review the other day and had gone to Zone 2 as soon as he arrived in Tian Qin. The words, disguised as a question that he had directed to Gu Yan, were only just a reminder.

“What if that Lawyer Gu wants to meddle?” That assistant spoke again.

Brewer Manson glanced at him askew. “Don’t you remember how he reassured the intern earlier? ‘Regardless of the result’. This is basically a tacit admission. Of course, we can’t rule out that he’s only just saying it for us to hear.”

His assistant, “Then—” 

“But don’t forget…” Brewer Manson said, “He has just passed the preliminary selection for First-Class Lawyers and is due to enter the publicity period. He already got through the round that he needs to stay the sharpest for; the only thing he needs to do in the meanwhile is to make sure that it’s solid. A smart man wouldn’t take on a controversial case and get involved in something that could easily invite trouble during the publicity period.”

His assistant nodded, immediately understanding what was left unsaid. “Indeed. With how things are, he probably had a massive headache when his intern received this case.”

What was the safest way to handle the George Manson case?

Of course it was to let the intern go loose, for him to argue boldly then lose as a matter of course. The guilty would receive their deserving sentence, the case would receive the due closure, and everyone would be happy. 

Brewer Manson didn’t spare the intern another look. His gaze turned to fall on where the defendant was seated. After a moment, he grunted, saying softly, “My dear brother is still lying in a hospital, waiting for justice to be served. No one had better think of letting the defendant walk away from here…”

Dong—

With a wooden face, Judge Luther solemnly knocked the gavel.

The buzzing in the gallery ceased. The courtroom fell silent as everyone sat upright. 

The carefully selected jurors entered the courtroom one by one. Led by the jury foreperson, they swore an oath of impartiality in accordance with the court proceedings.

“The defendant, Chen Zhang, ID no. 11985572, residing in 19 Camphor Forest Lane, was employed as a diving instructor by Hardymont Diving Club at the time of the crime.” The judge spoke slowly, each word enunciated so clearly that the setting seemed exceptionally sombre. Even those in the gallery could feel the pressure, not to mention the one in the bulletproof glass booth.

When the gavel struck, Chen Zhang had involuntarily shuddered. He looked at the judge vacantly as he listened to the information being read out, before the wooden face asked him, “Do you dispute any of the information asserted?”

Chen Zhang shook his head. “No.” 

“Is that you?”

“Yes.”

The judge once again confirmed the information about the plaintiff, George Manson. The prosecution answered it in his place.

“Good. Then, the rest of the time is yours, gentlemen.” Judge Luther nodded the prosecution and the defence benches before saying to the prosecutor, “Mr Bard, you may begin your opening statement.” 

Bard looked to be roughly the same age as Gu Yan. As one of the few dedicated lawyers for the Manson family, he exuded a natural air of superiority, but not in a derogatory sense. This gave him a domineering aura, which wasn’t a bad attribute to have in court arguments, easily allowing him to occupy an advantageous psychological position, especially when the opposing counsel was lacking in vigour. It also sent the jury a type of signal—that his claims were well substantiated and factually clear, which was why he could hold himself with such conviction.

Bard stood up and nodded at the judge, then turned a friendly gaze in Yan Suizhi’s direction.

This could be interpreted as a sympathetic look from a senior to an inexperienced junior.

“Thank you, Your Honour. On December 5, 1:12 a.m. Tian Jin Time, Mr George Manson was found unconscious in the bathtub of his suite with h32 hypnotics injected into his system. Three vials in total, a dose sufficient to kill a male adult. This is general knowledge. The police conducted a full-scale investigation, searching and examining the scene, then formed a clearly deduced chain of evidence. The list of evidence from the prosecution has been projected on the screen.” 

Bard cast the list of evidence on the courtroom’s holographic screen so that the jury was able to read it clearly.

“The available evidence shows that on the night of December 4, Mr Chen Zhang went down from the window ledge of his suite on the second floor, infiltrating Mr George Manson’s suite. Due to his superior vision, he was able to avoid the miscellaneous objects scattered about the room without alerting the bodyguard and service staff guarding the suite. He entered the bedroom and injected Mr George Manson, who was lying drunk in the bathtub, with the aforementioned hypnotic. Clearly aware of the lethal dosage, he injected three whole vials…”

From the booth, Chen Zhang hung his head and rubbed his cheeks hard. Some of the words said by Bard were lifted word for word from his oral confession, words that he himself had spoken.

Now, his heart throbbed painfully with every word that he heard. If it were possible, he would like to block out his hearing and not listen to another word. 

Bard rattled off a steady stream of words, giving a brief summary of the case and the evidence. During this time, his gaze occasionally fell on Chen Zhang, but more often on the judge and Yan Suizhi.

He wasn’t at all worried about this case. It was a run of the mill ‘formulaic case’—the outcome could already be predicted without having to go to trial; the trial itself was basically just a matter of going through the motions.

The odds were overwhelmingly stacked in his favour. In terms of experience, evidence, and even the influence of the victim’s family, he had the advantage. As for the other side? All they had were pitfalls.

Earlier, out of boredom, he had even envisioned what he would do if he were Chen Zhang’s lawyer. But he spent no more than two seconds on this hypothetical before dismissing the fancy as too worthless to mull over. He believed that any lawyer in such a situation would choose to plead guilty, which could possibly grant a more lenient sentence for his client. 

Naturally, beyond any doubt, it was only intuitive that an intern lawyer would do so as well.

But even if it was a guilty plea, he wouldn’t let the other party get away. It would be an utter disgrace if he did.

“…Thus, I have decided to charge Mr Chen Zhang with premeditated murder.” Upon concluding, Bard nodded at the judge and sat down.

He straightened the hem of his lawyer’s robe, putting on a polite, almost perfect smile, then looked to the defence table. As he waited for that young intern to speak, he silently uttered a prayer for him: May God bless and protect this young man, don’t let him shake too visibly in the courtroom. 

Judge Luther turned to Yan Suizhi and said, his words as enunciated as clearly as before, “Mr Ruan Ye? You may begin your opening statement.”

As Yan Suizhi stood up, he very earnestly gave a gentle exhale, which to everyone appeared as if he was letting out a deep breath to relieve his nerves.

Gu Yan, “…”

After letting out that faux exhale, Professor Yan passed the peak of his acting career. He lightly tugged at the hem of his lawyer’s robe, then smiled genially at the judge and at Bard. He said, “The opening statement won’t take up too much time. I will only say one thing. I assert that my client, Mr Chen Zhang, is not guilty.” 

Bard, “????”

Brewer Manson, “???”