Chapter 31: Return to Lijia Village |
"Animal... Animal, you animal!"
"I''ll kill you! I''ll fucking kill you!!!"
Inside Yangteng Law Firm.
Suddenly, without warning, Chen Wei erupted, lunging at Sun Hao like a wild beast.
Sun Hao had just been about to ask how the case was going and whether Xu De had lost.
But in the next second, his vision went black.
"Bang!"
A fist the size of a sandbag smashed directly into his eye socket. Seeing stars and with his vision blacking out, he stumbled backward.
"Ugh!"
But Chen Wei wasn''t finished. His eyes bloodshot, he straddled the fallen man and rained down blows with both hands.
"Teaming up to set me up, huh?!"
"One second you say we''ll only use the confession, and the next you destroy its credibility, huh?!"
"Just an ordinary college graduate, huh?!!!"
He ground his teeth, punctuating every furious sentence with a falling punch.
He was a lawyer. Theoretically, he shouldn''t resort to violence.
But then again...
Even if he beat Sun Hao to a pulp, the man absolutely wouldn''t dare call the police!
The reason was simple: whether it was leaking information privately or setting a trap for him, if even a sliver of it got out, the Bureau of Justice would make sure Sun Hao suffered the consequences, and even Jinmao would purge this parasite!!!
Sun Hao wanted to beg for mercy.
Although he didn''t know why he was being beaten, he knew that if he didn''t beg for mercy, he''d likely be spending at least half a month in the hospital.
But there was a problem.
Chen Wei''s second punch had landed square on his mouth. The agonizing pain of nearly having his teeth knocked out made it hard to even open his mouth, let alone beg!
He could only cradle his head in his arms, whimpering in defense.
"Stop hitting me... please stop!"
Unfortunately...
Seeing him in this pathetic state didn''t quell Chen Wei''s anger; it only stoked the flames.
"Damn it! You even had the nerve to mock me to my face after court adjourned! Sun Hao, and to think I actually treated you like a classmate!"
This shout finally snapped his stunned colleagues out of their daze, and they rushed over to pull them apart.
"Stop, Lawyer Chen! Stop hitting him!"
"Can''t you sit down and talk this out?"
"..."
Several people frantically restrained Chen Wei, hastily dragging the two men apart.
"Let me go! I''m going to beat this animal to death today!"
Chen Wei continued to struggle. Even a three-year-old child could clearly hear the seething fury in his voice.
Only after he was dragged away did Sun Hao stagger to his feet. Bruises were already forming on his face, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He touched it, immediately wincing and sucking in a sharp breath of cold air from the pain.
He looked up at Chen Wei in disbelief.
"Are you crazy?!"
Chen Wei was furious, struggling continuously. "You know perfectly well what you did!"
What he did?
He hadn''t done anything!
Bewilderment washed over Sun Hao''s face. He was just about to ask, but seeing Chen Wei on the verge of breaking free, he shuddered in terror and bolted outside.
In the blink of an eye, he was out the front door.
Seeing him disappear, Chen Wei''s anger finally dissipated slightly. His face was dark and deeply unpleasant.
The surrounding lawyers cautiously let go, still lingering with apprehension. They looked at him in confusion and asked:
"Lawyer Chen, what... what happened?"
Chen Wei flew into a humiliated rage.
"Ask, ask, ask! Ask my ass!"
"Don''t you have eyes? Can''t you read tomorrow''s morning paper?!"
The mere thought of it made Chen Wei break down.
Barring any accidents, by tomorrow morning, the entirety of Greenwood City would be talking about Xu De''s performance in this case.
And he, who had made a fatal error, would be reduced to a clown in the background...
A clown known to the whole of Greenwood City!
After all, a lawyer''s reputation was everything. Once the morning paper was published, Chen Wei''s future career would suffer a devastating blow!
After all, what client would want to pay top dollar to hire a lawyer who made a mistake and lost so spectacularly?
So, when he said he ''wanted to kill Sun Hao,'' he wasn''t just venting.
He really wanted to murder the bastard!
"Tomorrow''s morning paper?"
In the lobby.
The lawyers exchanged bewildered glances as they watched Chen Wei drop that sentence and leave.
It was just the morning paper... what could possibly make him abandon his image like that?
They weren''t the only ones wondering. Sun Hao, beaten black and blue, was thinking the exact same thing.
"The morning paper? What morning paper?"
Standing just outside the firm''s main entrance, having not gone far, Sun Hao frowned, racking his brains for the reason he had been beaten.
He felt intensely aggrieved. He had just taken a severe beating for no apparent reason, and he couldn''t even call the cops...
"What the hell is Chen Wei going crazy over?"
"The morning paper will just report on Wang Qiang''s case. It''s not like anything unexpected could have happened there."
"Impossible..."
Sun Hao muttered to himself, blood still seeping from his mouth. "He''s just an ordinary college grad. There''s no way he has that kind of ability."
"Keep in mind, the public prosecutor is Hu Guang, and the presiding judge is Zhang Bingxin... It''s impossible. Absolutely impossible!"
He babbled on, almost as if trying to hypnotize himself.
However, despite his internal denial...
He made a mental note about tomorrow''s morning paper, ready to check it first thing to see exactly what had happened.
"Wait."
In a daze, Sun Hao seemed to remember something, and his expression froze.
"Chen Wei is already back, so... where is Xu De?"
......
......
Where was Xu De?
Naturally, he was executing his plan: moving a child from one location to another without anyone noticing.
In layman''s terms, stealing a child!
8:30 PM.
Night had fallen, draping the sky in a deep, obscure gloom, dotted only by a handful of faint stars.
The silent wilderness was pitch black, exuding an oppressive atmosphere that made it hard to breathe. The bumpy dirt road was flanked by small, low grave mounds. When the wind howled, it sounded like the wailing of lonely ghosts.
Suddenly.
"Vroom!"
On the narrow, winding path, a rattling minivan pierced the silence with its dim yellow headlights.
Four people sat inside.
Xu De was in the driver''s seat, Lin Yue in the passenger seat, and Wang Mei in the back, alongside a young man.
The young man appeared to be in his twenties. He sported a buzz cut, stood roughly 1.8 meters tall, and had a sturdy build. He had an ordinary face and looked a bit slow on the uptake.
At this moment.
The man stared out at the dark silhouettes of the grave mounds flashing by and couldn''t help but look at Xu De in the driver''s seat. He asked:
"You''re a lawyer?"
"I am a lawyer," Xu De replied, keeping his foot on the gas.
"Are you really a lawyer?" the man pressed.
Xu De glanced in the rearview mirror and nodded. "One hundred percent genuine."
The man looked down at the minivan, then at the assortment of clubs resting by his feet.
He looked back out at the pitch-black sky and couldn''t hold it in any longer. "Why do I get the feeling that what we''re about to do might be illegal!"
He knew Lin Yue. They weren''t exactly close, but they could be considered friends.
When he heard there was work that paid money and included meals, he had eagerly jumped on board.
Except...
After getting into the van, the man realized this job seemed a bit sketchy!
Hearing this.
Xu De didn''t show much emotion. He glanced at the man in the rearview mirror again, steering the wheel down the bumpy road, and asked in return:
"You graduated from a top university?"
The man put on a confident expression and patted his chest. "One hundred percent genuine, a Project 985 graduate!"
"What was your college entrance exam score?" Xu De raised an eyebrow.
To be honest, the guy''s aura and speech patterns... didn''t quite match the academic background Lin Yue had described.
"550," Wang Chao said.
Xu De: ?
"550?"
Xu De nearly slammed on the brakes. He looked up, locking eyes with the man in the rearview mirror in mild astonishment.
Based on when this guy would have taken the gaokao, that score would at best get him into a Tier 1 university.
Where did a Project 985 graduate come from?!
"Hehe, actually, my normal performance was only enough for a Tier 2 university."
Mentioning this made the man a bit bashful. He scratched his head and said sheepishly:
"But the night before the exam, I had a dream. I dreamt I was in the exam hall, and when I woke up and went to take the test... hey, some of the question types on the paper were exactly the same as in my dream!"
"So, even though my normal score was around 500 points, I got bumped up to 550 and scraped my way into a top Tier 1 school."
Xu De nodded, then frowned. "But that''s still not enough."
Back in his day, he had fought tooth and nail, nearly dying on the way to school, to get into Yanda despite terrible resources. He was naturally sensitive to scores.
"That''s true."
"But right after I enrolled, guess what happened?"
Saying this, the man clapped his hands together, producing a crisp smack.
"The school upgraded! It passed the review and officially moved from Tier 1 into the Project 211!"
"I figured, since I was already there, Project 211 was fine. It wasn''t a loss, so I kept going. But who would have thought, just a few years after I graduated..."
"Hey, the school upgraded again!"
"It joined the first batch of Project 985 key construction universities!"
Saying this, the man patted his chest.
"So, I became a graduate of a Project 985 university!"
Xu De: ......
In the passenger seat, Lin Yue covered her face, at a loss for words.
A graduate of a first-batch Project 985 university with a normal score of 500...
The man suddenly asked again, "Oh right, I''m Wang Chao. What''s your name, brother?"
"Just call me Xu De."
Xu De took a deep breath.
He tucked away his emotions. His brow furrowed tightly, but he didn''t continue discussing the matter with Wang Chao. He lapsed into silence. Only the roar of the engine proved that time was still flowing.
In the passenger seat, Lin Yue also reined in her expression. Her brows were slightly knitted, her gaze unfocused as her mind drifted, clearly deep in thought.
What were they going to do?
Steal a child back.
But... was a child really that easy to steal?
Lijia Village was no different from a dragon''s pool or a tiger''s den. The people in that godforsaken place weren''t even afraid of the police. The entire village operated as a lawless land!
If they were exposed while stealing the child... the trouble would be massive.
This was also why Xu De, aside from needing his identity as a civil litigation lawyer, needed an extra male helper.
Thinking of this, Lin Yue felt a surge of nervousness, her breathing growing rapid.
She felt a bit anxious.
After all, she was practically gambling her career and personal safety to accompany a lawyer she barely knew on this risk.
But when she thought of Wang Mei and Xu Hong... Lin Yue''s brows tightened, her resolve slowly solidifying.
While her thoughts were running wild...
Suddenly...
Lin Yue felt herself lurch forward, her body involuntarily thrown toward the dashboard.
"Screech!"
An ear-piercing screech of brakes shattered the dead silence.
"What''s wrong?!" Lin Yue snapped out of her daze and asked urgently.
Xu De sat in the driver''s seat. He didn''t answer directly, only staring straight ahead and saying,
"We''re here."
We... we''re here? Here where?
Everyone in the car froze, then uniformly looked up.
As they did, countless dark silhouettes of buildings appeared on the distant hillside. There was no electricity there, not a single speck of light at this hour. It looked like a dead city; only the wind blew through the alleys. There wasn''t a single trace of human life.
This was...
Lijia Village!
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