MWC – Chapter 23 A Loving Father and a Filial Son (Part 2)

I AM DROPPING THIS NOVEL. IF ANYONE WANTS TO CONTINUE THEY CAN. IF POSSIBLE PLEASE SHARE THE LINK SO I CAN BINGE READ TOO.

Ninth Circuit Court, Third Trial Courtroom.

Judge Li Guan looked at Lu Ming, who was seated as the lead defense attorney for the defendant. The old lady’s eyes were full of reproach.

Lu Ming pretended not to notice.

To Lu Ming’s left sat the second defense attorney, Gao Wentian, who came from the city. 

He was a handsome man in his forties, with a slicked-back hairstyle, a black short trench coat, and a gold Twin Lions watch, looking like a successful person.

His face was not looking good. He was barely responding to Lu Ming. Being usurped from the lead defense position by a novice lawyer was a great humiliation for him.

However, this was requested by the client, Liu Laocai, and he could do nothing about it. He sat there sullenly, with his eyes closed, trying to rest.

At this moment, Liu Keyue walked up to the witness stand.

Liu Keyue, Liu Laocai’s eldest son, known as “Little Third” by him, had a face somewhat resembling his father’s, with a round face and small eyes. He occasionally glanced toward his father, looking a bit uneasy.

As the prosecutor stood up, Lu Ming rose again. “I reiterate that the defense opposes the prosecution’s summoning of Liu Keyue as a witness. If there is suspicion of Liu Keyue’s illegal behavior, the prosecution should charge him. I would be very willing to be Mr. Liu Keyue’s defense attorney…”

Judge Li Guan waved a hand and looked at the jury. “The testimony of the new witness is closely related to this case, so you should listen carefully!”

Lu Ming shook his head and sat down.

The prosecutor, wearing a dark blue uniform, had a smug look on his face.

He was a young man in his late twenties, named Hou Dexing, very handsome, which made Lu Ming momentarily feel as if he saw another Li Mingxuan.

Unlike the four northern provinces, in the East Sea, there was an independent prosecutor’s office directly led by the municipal committee.

Prosecutors directly prosecuted criminal cases, and sometimes they hired powerful independent lawyers as prosecution representatives for important cases.

Prosecutors had no rank points, and the grand prosecutor’s office had its own system for evaluating their work ability.

For defense lawyers encountering prosecutors’ cases, winning or losing meant 10 evaluation points.

However, Hou Dexing had a high win rate in the North Gate Prosecutor’s Office and was a rising star there.

He slowly paced to Liu Keyue’s witness stand. “Mr. Liu Keyue, Ms. Deng Hongmei reported to me that you had several private meetings with her. Is this true? Many people have seen you together. If you lie, it will not be beneficial to you or your father.”

Liu Keyue’s round face looked unnatural as he glanced towards his father, Liu Laocai. He said, “I just wanted to see if she needed any help. After all, she is still an employee of New Era.”

“So, you were willing to pay a huge sum of 3000 yuan just to help her?” Hou Dexing asked calmly.

“Yes, yes…” Liu Keyue nodded quickly.

“It wasn’t under the instructions of your father, the defendant Liu Gaoyu?”

“No, really no!” Liu Keyue looked at the jury, “Really, it wasn’t my father’s instructions…”

Watching his behavior, Lu Ming leaned back slightly, examining him, then turned to look at Gao Wentian beside him.

“If it wasn’t your father’s instructions, does that mean you felt sorry for Ms. Deng Hongmei and gave her 3000 yuan? Can I assume that you believed everything she said, felt pity for her, and wanted to make up for your father’s mistake, believing she was wronged? Is that the only way to explain your actions?”

Hou Dexing’s tone was severe, firing off questions like a barrage. Lu Ming suddenly stood up.

“Objection! Objection to the prosecution’s speculative questions!”

“Objection to the prosecution asking multiple questions simultaneously!”

“Objection!”

Hou Dexing ignored Lu Ming’s series of objections, and Judge Li Guan’s repeated “Objection sustained.”

“You do believe she is a victim, right?” Hou Dexing pressed.

Then he turned and slightly bowed to Judge Li Guan. “Your Honor, I have no further questions.” He returned to the plaintiff’s bench and gave Lu Ming a provocative smile.

Liu Keyue’s face was pale, nearly collapsing on the witness stand, looking fearfully towards his father.

Liu Laocai’s face was livid, watching the jury whispering and buzzing.

He knew he was done for.

This son of his was simply incapable of achieving anything positive.

What could be more convincing to the jury than the subconscious accusation from the suspect’s son?

If the suspect’s own son believed the other party was a victim and went to make amends, could the suspect still be innocent?

In the courtroom, everyone’s eyes turned to Lu Ming, the newly hired lead defense attorney for the defendant. It was rumored that he was a novice lawyer, but Liu Laocai was not an ordinary person, so this young lawyer must have some extraordinary qualities.

Lu Ming frowned, deep in thought.

“Defense attorney! It’s your turn!” Judge Li Guan’s eyes were not very friendly as she looked at Lu Ming.

Even this quirky old lady of a female judge deeply loathed crimes such as sexual assault.

Lu Ming slowly stood up. At this moment, the courtroom door was pushed open. Pamela, wearing a black professional suit with an impressive figure, walked in, immediately drawing the attention of most men with her long, beautiful legs in black stockings.

She walked to Lu Ming, handed him a piece of paper, which he looked at and then casually put in his pocket. He glanced at Liu Keyue and then at Gao Wentian beside him, revealing a mysterious smile.

Pamela walked to the audience seat and sat down, still attracting many men to sneak peeks at her.

Lu Ming slowly walked to Liu Keyue. “Your father indeed didn’t instruct you to give a 3000 yuan check to Ms. Deng Hongmei, right?”

“Yes!” It was a friendly lawyer on his side, so Liu Keyue regained some composure and hurriedly answered.

“And because your check-writing authority is capped at 2000 yuan, you had to split it into two payments of 1500 yuan each to avoid your father’s notice, correct?”

“Yes!” Liu Keyue nodded again.

“And Ms. Deng Hongmei did not accept this money, right?”

“Yes!”

“Then, where is this money now? Is it still in your account?” Lu Ming asked casually.

“…Yes!” Liu Keyue nodded quickly.

“How is your relationship with lawyer Gao Wentian, who is sitting at the defense table, your father’s second defense attorney and formerly the lead defense attorney? How is your relationship with him?” Lu Ming pointed to Gao Wentian.

Gao Wentian frowned, leaning forward, staring at Lu Ming with a vigilant look in his eyes.

“It’s okay, I guess…” Liu Keyue looked at Lu Ming, puzzled.

“Did you know him before?” Lu Ming asked.

Hou Dexing at the prosecutor’s bench frowned, about to stand up, but Judge Li Guan said, “Defense attorney, you don’t have much time. Please get to the point quickly.”

“Did you know lawyer Gao Wentian before?” Lu Ming continued his question and then said to Judge Li Guan, “Your Honor, this question is very important.”

Liu Laocai looked suspiciously at this scene, then turned to look at Gao Wentian. They were both sitting at the same long table, the defense table.

Gao Wentian was the second defense attorney, with an empty chair between him and Liu Laocai, which was Lu Ming’s seat as the lead defense attorney.

Gao Wentian stared intently at Lu Ming’s every move, his frown deepening.

“No…” After hesitating for a moment, Liu Keyue answered cautiously.

“Oh, you didn’t know each other before… Then, you didn’t pay lawyer Gao Wentian’s legal fees for your father, did you?”

“Yes, I didn’t pay…” Seeing Lu Ming’s clear eyes, Liu Keyue’s face suddenly changed.

“Then, why did my clerk find that you transferred money to lawyer Gao Wentian’s account several times?!” Lu Ming took out that piece of paper from his pocket and waved it in front of Liu Keyue. The paper had Western characters and some numbers on it.

Liu Keyue’s face instantly turned pale, looking to Gao Wentian for help.

Gao Wentian stood up abruptly. “Lu Ming, what do you mean? Don’t talk nonsense. He commissioned me for a case, which involves client confidentiality and has nothing to do with this case!”

Liu Keyue immediately said, “Yes, I wanted to hire lawyer Gao Wentian for a case.”

“Then, what kind of case requires a prepaid fee of thousands of yuan?” Lu Ming remained calm.

Liu Keyue was speechless, his face pale, his small eyes rolling around frantically as if struggling to come up with an answer.

“I said it has nothing to do with this case and involves the confidentiality agreement between me and Mr. Liu Keyue!” Gao Wentian shouted.

Pamela, sitting in the audience, watched the scene helplessly.

It was just a piece of paper with random printed content, causing such a commotion in the courtroom.

She glanced at Lu Ming again. Despite his slightly thin figure, when he stood in the courtroom, he exuded confidence and an imposing presence, giving people a sense of reliability as if he could never be defeated.

She vaguely guessed what Lu Ming was doing because she had been with him throughout this case from the beginning.

At this moment, Lu Ming glanced at Gao Wentian, then at Liu Keyue, and smiled inwardly. As expected, The Western assistant indeed had its advantages.

They both thought the paper was a bank transfer record.

A Western clerk naturally had a broad network and could easily obtain a bank transfer record.

Liu Keyue didn’t know much Western language and quickly lost his composure when frightened.

Like himself, Liu Keyue seemed educated but didn’t take learning Western languages seriously. In the Zhongzhou people’s enclave, Western languages were seldom needed, as the empire was a federation with four official languages.

In contrast, some traditional Western aristocratic families living in indigenous areas mastered the local language among the four official languages. For instance, in some traditional aristocratic families living in the East Sea, Chinese was a mandatory subject because Zhongzhou people made up the majority. Pamela, for instance, was very fluent in Chinese.

On the other hand, nouveau riche families or many ordinary Westerners in indigenous areas were usually very proud and never bothered to learn other languages. To communicate with them, one had to understand Western languages. In the imperial core area, the actual Western enclave in the southwest, there were no other languages.

Therefore, to enter the true upper echelons of the empire, understanding Western languages was essential.

As a lawyer with ambitions, Gao Wenzhou’s Western language skills were likely good, but he was too far away to see the contents of the paper clearly. Seeing Liu Keyue so panicked, he assumed that Liu Keyue had seen an accurate record of the transfer.

Thus, he tacitly acknowledged that Liu Keyue’s transfer to him had been exposed.

He admitted to receiving Liu Keyue’s remittance only by taking on a case commissioned by Liu Keyue.

In this way, his bluff achieved its purpose.

However, if he had enough connections, he would naturally have real evidence instead of vaguely bluffing Liu Keyue with “thousands of yuan.”

Being a lawyer truly required a wide network of friends. Investigating some matters would be much more efficient.

But he was just starting out here, and that was unavoidable.

Even just a few days ago, he had thought of being an ostrich, but unexpectedly, after handling two consecutive cases, he was likely to become famous in the North Gate lawyer circle.

Fortunately, it was only within the small circle of lawyers and in this small satellite town of North Gate.

“Alright, I withdraw the previous question.” Lu Ming smiled at the indignant Gao Wenzhou.

Then he looked at Liu Keyue. “Mr. Liu Keyue, if my client Liu Gaoyu is convicted, will you take over as chairman of the New Era Company board of directors?”

Gao Wenzhou, who had just sat down with a cold snort, immediately stood up again.

But before he could speak, the chief prosecutor, Hou Dexing, sprang up. “Objection, Your Honor! The defense is starting to tell stories!”

Hou Dexing initially wore a mocking expression, thinking this novice lawyer was nonsensical, not knowing what he intended to do.

But now, he finally understood the other party’s intention: they were preparing to fabricate a story about the suspect’s son colluding with the suspect’s defense lawyer to frame the suspect.

A story of a prince unable to bear waiting for thirty years, attempting to seize the throne by framing his father, was familiar in Lu Ming’s world. In this world, even if there were similar stories, they were dark legends rather than popular literary works.

“Objection sustained!” Judge Li Guan waved his hand.

“Your Honor, I have no further questions!” Lu Ming bowed slightly.

These questions didn’t need Liu Keyue to answer explicitly; they just needed to plant doubts in the jury’s minds.

Here’s the translation:

“These questions didn’t really require Liu Keyue to answer truthfully; it was enough for the jury to have doubts.

At this moment, sure enough, the jurors were whispering and discussing as they looked at Liu Keyue and Gao Wentian.

Hou Dexing frowned as he watched this scene unfold.

Liu Keyue took out a handkerchief, wiped the cold sweat off his forehead, stepped down from the witness stand, and looked at his father, whose face had turned pale, then lowered his head and hurriedly walked out of the courtroom.

“In court, I request to summon Witness Number One, Ms. Deng Hongmei!” Lu Ming bowed slightly to Judge Li.

Deng Hongmei was seated in the plaintiff’s position at the prosecution table. She was a young woman in her twenties, dressed in a light blue dress, looking graceful. A faint beauty mark on her snow-white cheek added to her charm.

However, at this moment, she resembled a frightened rabbit, sitting quietly on the witness stand, not uttering a word.

“In court, I hope Ms. Deng Hongmei will testify for the last time. She has been under considerable mental stress, and I hope the court will show some compassion!” Hou Dexing spoke with righteous indignation, his royal prosecutor’s badge on his uniform adding to his authoritative demeanor.

“I believe today should be Ms. Deng’s final appearance in court!” Lu Ming gestured slightly to the judge’s bench.

Judge Li nodded. “Ms. Deng Hongmei, please take the witness stand.”

Deng Hongmei slowly walked up to the witness stand, looking like a fragile and frightened little rabbit, immediately evoking sympathy.

Approaching Deng Hongmei, Lu Ming sighed softly. “Diabetes patients suffer greatly, don’t they? Diabetes, known as ‘thirsting disease’ colloquially.”

Deng Hongmei looked up in surprise at Lu Ming.

Lu Ming shook his head. “Tolbutamide isn’t a miracle cure, despite being touted as the first synthetic sulfonylurea for lowering blood sugar. While the medical community cheered, believing that diabetes, or ‘thirsting disease,’ would finally become history, in reality, diabetes is hard to cure. Soon, the medical community will lament this. I believe you’ve already experienced this deeply.”

Deng Hongmei’s body began to tremble, her voice trembling as she asked, “Is that true, Lawyer Lu?”

“Yes.” Lu Ming nodded at Deng Hongmei and added, “I understand what you’ve done. I hope you understand yourself.”

Watching Deng Hongmei, Lu Ming’s eyes showed a hint of compassion. He turned to Judge Li. “I have no further questions in court.”

Everyone was bewildered.

Deng Hongmei looked at Lu Ming in disbelief.

Judge Li also stared at Lu Ming with some surprise, glanced at the clock, picked up the gavel, and announced, “Court adjourned! If there are no new pieces of evidence from either side, closing arguments will be presented tomorrow!”