It was nearly eleven o'clock when we returned to the apartment, and Ruan Yu fell asleep after taking a shower. Xu Huaisong continued to work in the United States in the living room as usual, working with a laptop.
In the middle of the night, she woke up once and opened the door to see that he was still sitting in front of the computer and typing on the keyboard, with an extremely serious expression.
Xu Huaisong looked up to see her coming out, his tense face eased for a moment, and asked, "What's the matter, can't you sleep?"
She shook her head to indicate no, and helped him turn on the ceiling light in the living room: "Are there still many unfinished cases in the United States?"
He said "hmm" and explained: "But now I'm looking at Zhou Jun's case."
"You don't specialize in criminal affairs," Ruan Yu walked to him and sat down, "You can leave these to Sister Zhang."
Xu Huaisong fell silent.
Ruan Yu rubbed his sleepy eyes, resting his cheeks in puzzlement, and only after a while did he turn his head to look at her: "This case is a bit similar to the one my dad handled ten years ago."
She dozed off and ran away: "How do you say?"
Xu Huaisong pursed his lips, looked at the screen and said: "There are also no witnesses, there is also a lack of conclusive evidence, and the clues at the scene point to the only suspect, and the suspect also refuses to plead guilty, and there is a set of rules that are quite common in the eyes of ordinary people. Dramatic rhetoric."
"What happened to the suspect ten years ago?"
"Because of insufficient evidence, he was acquitted and released, so he should still be living in Suzhou."
"Where is the real murderer?"
Xu Huaisong lowered his head and smiled: "Who knows? Maybe it's the suspect, or maybe someone else."
"There is no result after ten years, the victim's family..."
Ruan Yu didn't continue.
Xu Huaisong was silent, and said: "The family members of the victim believe that the suspect is the real murderer, and my dad is an accomplice who helped him get off the crime, and our family has been in trouble for two full years. If my dad hadn't moved to the United States later, it might have been until now It won't stop."
Ruan Yu, who wrote a book, was at a loss for words at the moment. He didn't know what to say to comfort him, so he reached out and touched the back of his hand.
Xu Huaisong turned his head and smiled: "It's nothing. The reaction of the victim's family is quite normal. Because my dad's defense did have a great impact on the direction of the case.
Besides, for ordinary Chinese people ten years ago, the presumption of innocence was a very vague concept. You tell them that the sentence is not a radish or a pit, and that the suspect cannot be found guilty simply because there is only one suspect. They may not understand. "
"Even now, when talking about nothing, maybe many people will admit that there is no doubt, the human rights of criminal suspects, and procedural justice, but when the bloody tragedy is really in front of them, the emotional tendency of most bystanders is still Will overcome objective judgment, let alone the victim's family."
"What about your father?"
"I've been thinking about this question before. I was wondering whether he knew whether the suspect was guilty or not. But then I found out that there might be no answer to this question at all."
"Because lawyers are not gods, their cognition may not necessarily be the truth. More often than not, their 'knowing' is also 'don't know'. Without the power of gods, but not allowed to have human emotions, this is what many criminal lawyers say. situation."
Having said that, Xu Huaisong turned his gaze to the computer screen: "I want to try to walk the path my father walked, and then tell my mother the answer, although... ten years late."
Ruan Yu rubbed his sleepy eyes with a smile, and leaned over to hold his arm: "Then I'll accompany you."
Xu Huaisong lowered his head and smiled: "Go to bed first."
She yawned and shook her head, and said, "I'm fine at home tomorrow. Aren't you jet-lagged? If it's reversed, we'll work and rest at the same time."
Xu Huaisong was silent before answering: "In a few days."
Ruan Yu said "oh", hugged the pillow and squinted his eyes and leaned against his arm. When he opened his eyes again, the sky was bright and the sun was high, and she was on the bed.
After thinking about it, he must have been brought in by Xu Huaisong after he didn't stay up long last night.
She jumped out of bed and opened the door, and saw that he was still typing on the keyboard in the same posture as last night.
"Xu Huaisong, you really don't want your life!" She walked over to circle his computer, "Are you still sleeping?"
He raised his head: "I slept for a while last night."
"real?"
"Really, on your bed, you hug me and don't let go."
Ruan Yu turned his head back to the bedroom, grabbed the quilt and sniffed furiously.
Xu Huaisong followed and said with a smile, "Okay, I'm lying to you, I'm going to sleep now."
She turned her head and gritted her teeth to stare at him, and said with restraint: "Then why don't you go to bed after breakfast."
Ruan Yu turned to go to the kitchen to make breakfast, Xu Huaisong followed and said, "I'll make a call."
Should this be reported? While holding the pots and pans, she said, "You hit me." After she finished speaking, she seemed to remember something, "Wait, who are you calling?"
"Lu Shenglan, ask her to pass some information on to me."
No wonder it has to be reported.
Ruan Yu waved his hand: "Hit."
Xu Huaisong dialed the phone in front of her: "Hello, I'm looking for Lu Lu."
Ruan Yu turned around suddenly: "What did you say?"
Wise and wise, Xu Huai Song was also taken aback: "What what?"
When Lu Shenglan picked up the phone over there, Ruan Yu signaled him to talk first, and waited for him to hang up before asking, "What did you call her just now? Lu Lu?"
"..."
Xu Huaisong burst out laughing, "It's Lu Lu."
Ruan Yu smiled "hehe" and handed him the warmed milk and sandwiches: "I just think this name is cute, so let me point it out..."
He said "um", turned his head to the living room with a smile on his face.
After Xu Huaisong fell asleep, Ruan Yu began to work in the living room, and sent the revisions of the scripts she had read to Huanshi. In the evening, she received a reply, inviting her to attend the second script meeting tomorrow. It's all day.
She accepted it back, and seeing that Xu Huaisong had slept enough for eight hours, she went to the room to call him, only to hear his cell phone by the bed ringing.
He was awakened and began to fumble for the bedside table.
Ruan Yu helped him pick it up: "No note, it's the number of Suzhou City."
He wasn't fully awake yet, so he reacted for a while before saying, "Help me catch it."
Ruan Yu connected the phone, and heard Xu Huaishi's voice from the opposite side: "Brother!"
"Huaishi? Your brother is sleeping, what's the matter?"
Xu Huaishi on the other end let out a low "ah" because of surprise: "It's sister Ruan?"
Ruan Yu began to laugh: "Which other sister will answer your brother's call?"
"No, no! Sister, can you call my brother for me? I'm at the police station."
"Police?"
Xu Huaisong woke up and sat up, and took the phone from Ruan Yu: "Are you making trouble with someone?"
"Brother, I didn't make trouble, it was my classmates who broke into the police station after fighting."
"Then what are you going to do?"
"Oh, he got into a fight because of me!"
Xu Huaisong immediately thought of something keenly: "Because of you?"
"I don't know either. A few boys in the same class didn't know what to say about me behind my back, so my classmates beat them all up. Oh, the beatings on the side of the road frightened me to death. The police uncle My witness was also brought over, but it should be nothing to me."
"Are there any teachers and parents from your classmate to deal with it?"
"We're on the way, I just want to tell you in advance, the teacher will definitely contact my parents again later, can you help me with this time?"
"It's none of your business, what are you carrying?"
"Wow, you don't know. The classmate who fought this time is the one who was arrested in the piano room with me last time. The teacher is going to accuse me of having a puppy love again! Last time I explained it for a long time, and my mother was still skeptical. If this Come again..."
Xu Huaisong sighed: "Then tell me your number later."
"Okay brother! Also, our final exams are over, and we will hold a parent-teacher meeting the day after tomorrow. You said that if our mother came to hold this parent-teacher meeting, wouldn't we still have to reveal our secrets?"
"Xu Huaisong," Xu Huaisong said through gritted teeth, "Don't push yourself too hard, I'll go back and forth for four hours just to hold a parent-teacher meeting for you?"
Xu Huaishi started yelling into the phone: "Sister, sister, are you there? Have you seen my brother's calculating face? This kind of person, you just have to fall in love with him, absolutely don't marry him!"
Xu Huaisong: "..."
The volume of his mobile phone was not low, and Ruan Yu listened to it at first, and said with a smile: "You just go there."
Comparing with him while speaking: Li Shican.
Obviously, Ruan Yu also thought that the reason why Xu Huaishi's classmate was "outraged" might have something to do with Li Shican's news.
If there were rumors in the school, Xu Huaisong should really go to find out how it was dealt with.
Xu Huaisong said "um", and said to Xu Huaishi, "Tell me the exact time." After hanging up the phone, he sighed, "I'll be in Suzhou City the day after tomorrow, what do you want to do tomorrow?"
Ruan Yu blinked twice, from what he meant, he seemed to have formally invited her on a date
She sniffed and said, "I'm going to Huanshi for a meeting tomorrow."
Xu Huaisong was silent, and after a while he said, "Then you will go to Suzhou City with me the day after tomorrow."
Ruan Yu didn't know why he suddenly became clingy, thinking that he would be fine the day after tomorrow, so he went to Suzhou No. 1 Middle School with him.
The parent meeting is in the afternoon, because the classroom will be occupied, and most of the quasi-senior students will rest in the dormitory.
Xu Huaisong first went to the lecture hall to listen to the speech, and Ruan Yu went to the student dormitory to look for Xu Huaishi. Seeing her bitterly complaining that her mobile phone was confiscated by her mother, she didn't seem to have heard any wind, and she was a little relieved.
In summer, Ruan Yu brought watermelons to the girls in the first bedroom. Xu Huaishi called a few classmates to eat, then pulled her aside and whispered, "Sister, you saved my life this time, and I will rely on you to protect me from now on. What you say works best with my brother."
Ruan Yu smiled, and asked her insincerely, "After that day, how was your classmate?"
"Criticism and education are over."
"Are you hurt?"
"Well," Xu Huaishi replied while gnawing on the watermelon, "Skin trauma, it's okay. But the way his mother looked at me was like that in Korean dramas-'Give you five million and leave my son'. You said I was wronged Isn’t it wrong? I still don’t know what kind of madness he went to fight with others. Those who were beaten said it was because of me, why didn’t I believe it?”
"Didn't you ask him?"
Xu Huaishi shook her head: "I asked, but he refused to tell me. I think I'm probably a scapegoat."
Ruan Yu lowered his head and pondered secretly, and suddenly felt someone poked his lower back, but when he turned his head, he saw a few girls behind him gathered around and eating watermelon.
Just as she was wondering, she saw one of the girls winking at her and pushing her chin out of the door.
Ruan Yu understood what was coming, found an excuse to leave, and waited at the end of the corridor of the dormitory. After a while, she saw the girl walking towards her: "Hi sister, I am Huai Shi's upper bunk, Huai Shi's family is Don't you know the news?"
Ruan Yu frowned: "You know that too?"
She nodded: "Huaishi's mobile phone was confiscated by her mother, so she didn't read Weibo. A few students in the class saw it, because she told us that she met a big star in Hangzhou on the Dragon Boat Festival, and we guessed it was She died. There were some rumors in the class, but before they spread, a male student in our class gave... "
"For what?"
"Violence suppressed..."
Okay.
Ruan Yu smiled: "Didn't other people talk about it?"
"Probably not anymore. Those gossips, after being beaten up by the boy in our class, they dare not speak up."
"Can you tell me what his name is?"
"Zhao Yi."
When Ruan Yu heard the name, she felt familiar, and after thinking about it, she remembered that it seemed to be the boy she met on the green field when she came to No. 1 Middle School last time.
Before leaving, she stuffed a note in the pocket of his school uniform: During the graduation trip, tell her, you must tell her.
"The car lost?"
"Yes, Che Shiyi."
Ruan Yu blinked, and looked at the green field in the distance through the window at the end of the corridor, suddenly enlightened.