Chapter 26: Preparing for Chu Yuan Jiang\nI didn’t know how to respond. After a while, I murmured, “He….he’s in a poor condition right now. Hmm, by the way, did you just say we can’t meet like before?”
Lin Ye said faintly, “I will go find you from now on.”
I lowered my head and smiled, “Okay. So from now on I will wait for the emperor to visit me.”
“If you do your job nicely, I will have more chances to visit you.”
“How can you not trust me on this……”
I went back home and had a simple meal. In the afternoon, I went to the office and dealt with all the matters that piled up during the last several days. The men in charge were my old subordinates, who had been working independently when we were in City X. I wouldn’t dare to say they could make big progresses, but I trusted them enough that they wouldn’t make a mess.
The night was gone before I noticed it. When the dawn arrived, I drove straight to Lawyer Zhuang.
This time he greeted me with cheerful smile, unlike the serious face he gave me before, “Hey, isn’t that Boss Ou? I have heard that you got promoted highly recently. Congratulations!”
I simpered, “No way, I am just an assistant.”
“That’s still one step forward. Congrats. The new place at least guarantees income whether the market is good or bad. Life must be much easier than fighting on the battlefield alone like you did before.”
“It is all due to the help of friends. Let’s not talk about this today. I have something troublesome that needs your assistance, Lawyer Zhuang.”
He was surprised, then led me inside, “Come, let’s sit down and talk.”
I told him the basics.
“I see what you mean, but as for what to do exactly, I can’t make a conclusion before meeting him in person and hearing the exact story from him.”
“Then, are you busy at the moment?”
He took a sip of tea from the cup, “Not really.”
“How about we set off right now?”
I went to the City X hospital with Lawyer Zhuang. Chu Yuan Jiang blinked at me and smiled in bed when I walked in, “Why are you back again?”
“I have brought you a lot of tasty food.” I passed him the bags of snack.
“I haven’t finished the food you brought me last time.” He casually fumbled through the bags, grabbed a banana, then returned the bags to me. I put them on the counter.
“The most important thing for you is to eat well right now. You need to get healthy again.”
He peeled the banana and took a bite.
“I got you a lawyer here. Do you want to talk to him?” I tried to sound as casual as possible.
He paused for a bit, and threw away the unfinished food in his mouth. “Okay, you can tell him to come in.”
Until then I finally let Lawyer Zhuang in and introduced him to Chu Yuan Jiang. Then I closed the door for them, “You two can talk. I will take my leave now?”
After I finished all the cigarettes on me in the hallway, Lawyer Zhuang came out.
I immediately went up to him. Lawyer Zhuang shook his head in a bitter smile, “He is not cooperating.”
“What’s wrong?”
“He was quite open about most of the story, but there were some details that he was unwilling to talk about. There are some criterias for self-defense by the law; if he doesn’t give me a clear picture, I can’t work around it. Moreover, with his attitude to me, there is no way he can react to the questions by the opposite lawyer on the court. I know it hurts his dignity, but he has to tell it.”
“Fine, I will talk to him.”
I walked in and sat next to Chu Yuan Jiang. He stared at his own hands, but his eyes were full of bitterness.
I sat wordlessly until he spoke, “What are you sitting here for? Speak out your shit.”
“You know what I want to say.”
“Junzi, it’s not even guaranteed how this will turn out……I am actually quite content with the current result.”
I stood up, “Do you not want to live?”
“It’s not like that, just…..” He squinted slightly, “There is not much point in living. The doctor said my legs might not recover for the rest of my life. What do you expect? Me lying in bed forever? And you taking care of me?”
“Why do you always talk about the negatives? People can even recover from cancer. Why don’t you, such a big man, have some confidence in yourself?”
He remained silent. After a while, he spoke, “Get out.”