MWC – Chapter 29 Old Friend (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.

Lu Ming did indeed think that it would be best to lose this lawsuit, just to let Liu Hanming vent his anger. For Liu Hanming to personally take action, it showed that he held Lu Ming’s small, struggling law firm in high regard.

Of course, Liu Hanming probably needed some achievements to get promoted, so he was using small lawyers like Lu Ming as sacrifices to ensure his success. Since there were past grievances between them, it wouldn’t seem like bullying, and people wouldn’t suspect Liu Hanming of targeting small lawyers just to earn points for his promotion.

Lu Ming decided he needed to stay low-key and avoid drawing too much attention to himself.

Moreover, in murder cases, it’s likely that 99 out of 100 suspects are guilty.

Even with a sense of legal justice, helping a known murderer get acquitted wouldn’t sit well with anyone with a conscience. Many criminal defense lawyers suffer from psychological issues to some extent because of this.

However, when Lu Ming returned to his office and received the case file from Wang Da’an, he frowned after reading it for a while.

The suspect, Li Si, was a homeless man from another city who had a lame leg. The victim was Li Xiaoyan, the second concubine of Liu Shoucheng, a prominent figure and second shareholder of Mingjia Entertainment, who was forty-five years old.

According to the case file, three months ago, this concubine’s car had hit the homeless man. Feeling pity, she took him in as a long-term servant. But the homeless man, with a malicious heart, tried to assault the concubine ten days ago. Failing to do so, he killed her and robbed her, fleeing with her money and belongings.

When the police arrested him, they found many of the concubine’s belongings in his hideout. His confession detailed the failed assault, followed by murder and robbery.

However, when Wang Da’an asked him to confess, he recanted on the spot, claiming he was tortured into signing a fabricated confession by the police.

Lu Ming frowned, finding it illogical that the guy didn’t flee Beiguan after committing murder and robbery. After all, as a nameless beggar, it would be hard to find him if he had escaped.

“Brother Wang, what did Li Si say when he refused to confess?” Lu Ming asked as he walked into Wang Da’an’s office.

Wang Da’an smiled bitterly, “He spouts nonsense like death row inmates, saying that Liu’s concubine tried to assault him. He panicked and accidentally knocked her unconscious while defending himself, then left the hotel. He even claims the items found in his hideout were gifts from the concubine.”

“He can’t even make up a proper story!” Wang Da’an shook his head with a wry smile.

Lu Ming picked up the case file again and saw that the concubine, Li Xiaoyan, was 1.78 meters tall and weighed 213 pounds.

Staring at the case file for a while, Lu Ming said, “Brother Wang, arrange for me to meet this Li Si.”

Wang Da’an nodded, “Your eloquence might convince him to confess.”

—

The Beiguan detention center was located in the southern suburbs of the town. The high-walled courtyard with barbed wire looked oppressive, making one long for freedom.

The crude visiting room had only a wooden table and a few chairs on each side. 

A black-uniformed guard stood a few steps away, monitoring every move during the visit.

Lu Ming and Chen Qinghua sat on one side of the table, waiting for the guard to bring Li Si over.

Chen Qinghua occasionally sneaked glances at Lu Ming, who was resting with his eyes closed. This young lawyer had never worked on a case with him before and had only heard Wang Da’an praise Lu Ming highly. But Wang Da’an was mediocre himself, so any lawyer might seem impressive to him.

As for Jiji, she admired Lu Ming greatly, but she had a tendency to admire any successful person or city dweller. With a western beauty as his assistant, Lu Ming naturally appeared like a towering figure to her, making her opinion less credible.

Despite being from the countryside and having attended a mediocre university, Chen Qinghua didn’t think that just passing the bar exam made one better than him in the legal profession.

If he discovered something, should he tell Lu Ming? He wasn’t sure about Lu Ming’s temperament and worried if his casual opinions might upset him.

While Chen Qinghua was lost in thought, the iron door to the inner room clanged open. A guard led out the prisoner in prison clothes. The prisoner had long hair covering his face, which seemed injured, with a white bandage covering almost half of it, and he walked with a limp.

The guard unlocked the prisoner’s handcuffs, patted his shoulder, and then stepped back to the wall.

An earlier guard opened the front door and waited outside.

The lame prisoner struggled to sit down, unable to bend his leg, making it hard to sit without extending his leg awkwardly.

For a long time, Lu Ming said nothing, staring at the suspect with a strange expression. 

The suspect, too, stared at Lu Ming, his eyes full of shock and disbelief despite the bandages covering most of his face.

The eyes looked young, suggesting the suspect wasn’t very old.

Lu Ming gestured to the guard and took out a ten-yuan green note, “Officer, can you get me a cup of coffee?”

The guard’s eyes lit up at the sight of the note, but he walked over slowly, took the note, and said, “You can’t talk during this period, understand?”

Lu Ming nodded and said to Chen Qinghua, “You should get a cup of coffee too.”

Chen Qinghua was taken aback, vaguely sensing that Lu Ming seemed to know the suspect. He hesitated but got up and followed the guard out of the visiting room.

“It’s really you…” The suspect’s voice was hoarse and dry, no longer sounding like the person Lu Ming once knew.

Lu Ming looked at him, countless thoughts racing through his mind, including how much it would cost to ensure this guy would be dead as soon as he got back.

Although the man opposite had a lame leg and his face was wrapped in white bandages, those eyes were so familiar. 

It was his lifelong rival who had fought with him from childhood.

In Wuan, “he” was the symbol of a playboy, while the man opposite was the epitome of young talent.

Their two groups had fought naked as children, had open and secret struggles in their teenage years, practically born enemies.

When Lu Ming first arrived in this world, it was this guy, as the main prosecutor, who had accused him and the Zhen Shi of being adulterers who had conspired to murder Dragon Lord.

Li Mingxuan, the youngest and most promising prosecutor in Wuan.

On the train while escaping, he had read about the Wuan riots leading to a war between two generals, briefly mentioning a Li prosecutor seriously injured in the chaos. At the time, he suspected it was Li Mingxuan, as Dragon Society members had been attacking him when Lu Ming escaped.

But he never expected to see him here in Donghai, in such a miserable state.

Lame-legged, face wrapped in bandages, and now a murder suspect.

But the problem was, he had seen him, meaning his escape was now pointless.

Although there were only official telephone lines between the Empire and the northern provinces, no private connections, all he needed was to write a letter or send a telegram back. If anyone searching for him saw it, all his efforts would be in vain.

Only a dead man can keep a secret forever.

At this moment, Li Mingxuan let out a raspy, eerie laugh, “I didn’t expect you to escape here too, and you succeeded. I failed. It seems I underestimated you before, Lawyer Lu Qianxing, right?”

Lu Ming slowly leaned back in his chair, noticing a pack of cheap cigarettes on the side left by Chen Qinghua. He took one out and lit it.

The unfiltered cigarette was harsh, but it cleared his thoughts.

“Tell me about your case, Li Si, is it?” Lu Ming took out a sheet from the case file, a copy of the confession. “This is your confession. You don’t acknowledge it now, do you?”

“I didn’t kill anyone. They tortured me into giving that confession.” Li Mingxuan seemed to grin, reaching out his hand, “Can I have a cigarette?”

Lu Ming pushed the cigarette pack and matches towards him.

Li Mingxuan shakily took out a cigarette, lit it, and stared at the small flame for a while before letting the match burn close to his fingers and dropping it.

He took a deep, greedy drag, exhaling a thick cloud of smoke, looking at Lu Ming, “Forget it. I’m done for anyway. You don’t need to waste money buying off those bastards to take my life. Right now, I can’t even contact the outside. When I get back to the detention cell, I get beaten. I won’t survive to see trial, they’ll beat me to death first!”

Lu Ming said nothing, just watched him.

“You bastard, sometimes I think, all of this, it’s because of you. If I ever saw you, I’d bite you to death, piece by piece!”

“My whole family is dead, and it’s all because of you, do you understand?!”

Li Mingxuan took a deep drag, looking at Lu Ming with a strange smile, “All because of you!”

Lu Ming was taken aback, “Dragon Society killed your whole family?”

“Dragon Society? All those who tried to kill me were shot dead by Officer Han!” There was a hint of warmth in Li Mingxuan’s eyes, then he shook his head.

Lu Ming just looked at him quietly.

“She… is she okay?” Li Mingxuan suddenly asked, a glimmer of light in his eyes.

“Yes, she’s doing well.” Lu Ming slowly extinguished his cigarette, knowing he was referring to the Zhen Shi.

Li Mingxuan nodded slowly, then took several deep drags, “Alright, I never thought I’d die by your hand. At least I won’t be tortured to death by those dogs. Heaven isn’t too cruel to me.”

Lu Ming smiled, “Maybe.”

Li Mingxuan was silent, then suddenly said, “You should remember, back in court, Zhao Jinsong said he got a tip-off call to check your car, and found Dragon Lord’s body in it?”

“I was curious, so I looked into the origin of that call.”

“And guess what? My whole family ended up dead, all because of that!”

“Haha, haha, haha!”

Li Mingxuan suddenly laughed, a crazed laughter.

Clang! The iron door opened, and a guard rushed in, pointing a baton at Li Mingxuan, “Sit down, sit down and behave!”

Chen Qinghua followed behind.

Seeing Li Mingxuan still laughing maniacally, the guard swung his baton, hitting Li Mingxuan’s head with a thud, but he just kept laughing foolishly.

Thud, thud, more blows landed.

Lu Ming watched quietly, then suddenly said, “Officer, stop. I now request a medical examination and bail for medical treatment for Li Si!”

What? The guard turned sharply, looking at Lu Ming in disbelief. He had thought this young lawyer was quite understanding, tipping him generously, but now, his attitude had taken a 180-degree turn.

“Qinghua, go arrange for a reporter from the newspaper.” Lu Ming said to a completely bewildered Chen Qinghua.

“No, no, Lawyer Lu, what are you doing?!” The guard panicked.

Lu Ming nodded, “Alright, go tell Director Li that Li Si has fallen seriously ill and needs medical bail. If he disagrees, I’ll demand an immediate medical examination. Judge Li mentioned yesterday how humane our detention center is, always ensuring the rights of suspects.”

He thought, even if people in the judicial circle didn’t know, they would have heard about his “special relationship” with Judge Li if they asked around.

Dear Judge Li, don’t blame me for borrowing your influence. I’m a stranger here and can only use your reputation.

“Yes, yes, Lawyer Lu, please wait a moment. I’ll go ask for instructions.” The guard had no idea who “Judge Li” was, but knew better than to cross a generous lawyer. He rushed out to let the director handle it.

Watching Li Mingxuan, who was still laughing foolishly, Lu Ming sat back down, lost in thought.

Chen Qinghua, full of questions, dared not ask anything.