Chapter 122 - 85: Ironclad Proof in Hand! The Household Register

"Isn’t it just two or three years?"

"Big deal. I’ll just stay a bit longer!"

Upon hearing this,

Zhang Wei offered another reminder, his tone helpless:

"Ms. Liu, this... this is a case involving two deaths. Your attitude could..."

"Two hundred thousand!"

Liu Jingqi’s voice was laced with barely suppressed anger.

"I’ll have my parents give him two hundred thousand. That Yang Huan is sure to be satisfied."

"I know for a fact that even when the boss gave her a bonus, that fat broad only made seven hundred a month."

"That’s more than she could make in twenty years of slaving away. Besides, she’s sick. She wouldn’t have lived another twenty years anyway."

"I’m paying two hundred thousand for her life. Yang Huan is the one getting a great deal!"

At her words,

Zhang Wei shook his head and sighed, but said no more.

’It wasn’t her worldview that made him sigh; it was purely that, from a lawyer’s standpoint, this was a terrible bargain.’

’After all, never mind my personal feelings.’

’A few simple words of apology could have the same effect as two hundred thousand yuan.’

’So why not just say them? Especially since the plaintiff is just a teenager. Squeeze out a couple of tears, and it’d be easy to win him over.’

’And yet, she insisted on spending two hundred thousand.’

’A sum that might not even solve the problem.’

’But hey, it was fine by me.’

"Alright, that concludes this meeting."

Zhang Wei nodded, then stood and walked toward the exit with his briefcase.

"I will relay this to Mr. Liu."

With that,

he left the consultation room.

He walked through the hallway and back into the main lobby of the detention center.

He had an officer sign him out, and then finally walked out the main entrance of the detention center.

The moment he stepped outside, two figures closed in on him from either side.

"Lawyer Zhang, how’s our Qi? Has she been suffering in there?"

Cai Fei rushed up to Lawyer Zhang, her face a mask of anxiety.

They had come with him but weren’t allowed inside, so they had been waiting at the gate.

"They don’t deliberately mistreat inmates at the detention center."

"Since Ms. Liu is a minor, the authorities will grant her certain considerations."

Zhang Wei said, offering a small measure of reassurance.

Then,

he relayed Liu Jingqi’s exact words to the couple.

And their reaction...

"Two hundred thousand it is, then!"

Liu Hao gritted his teeth, not objecting in the slightest. A dark look immediately flashed across his face.

"Lawyer Zhang, I need you to contact that kid, Yang Huan, for me."

"I’ll pay two hundred thousand for his letter of forgiveness!"

At his side, Cai Fei nodded in fervent agreement.

Instead of refuting Liu Jingqi’s words, she chimed in to support them:

"That’s right. If she doesn’t want to apologize, she doesn’t have to."

"Besides, it’s not like our Qi did anything wrong."

"That damn girl had nothing better to do than go tattling to the teacher. Wasn’t she just deliberately trying to get our Qi in trouble!?"

"And then that Lv Guangjun just had to get involved and confront our Qi about it. If he hadn’t, none of this would have happened!"

"Our daughter is so well-behaved! She didn’t do anything wrong! She’s just a child..."

"Why on earth should she have to apologize!?"

Though they were Liu Jingqi’s adoptive parents, they doted on her far more than most biological parents would.

The reason was simple.

They had tried to conceive for twenty years without success. Only after a visit to the hospital did they learn the truth: they were infertile and could never have children of their own.

But by then, an obsession had already taken root in their hearts, and Liu Jingqi’s existence became the sole focus of that obsession...

"In that case..."

Zhang Wei paused.

He didn’t try to dissuade them. As long as he wasn’t arguing for an acquittal, getting a reduced sentence was simple—especially for a minor.

Besides, neither the public prosecutor nor the victim’s legal counsel had submitted any new evidence.

’They can’t just spring new evidence on us, can they? That’s not realistic. After all, anything relevant to the case is already with the police. If there were more evidence, the authorities would already know. The only logical conclusion is that the case is straightforward, with no other evidence to be found.’

’Unless... the other party somehow found a way to overturn the Juvenile Protection Law.’

At this thought,

Zhang Wei couldn’t help but crack a smile.

’Arguing for innocence in a death penalty case—there were still lawyers in Dongguo who could pull that off.’

’But overturn the Juvenile Protection Law? What a joke.’

’In all the years since the nation’s founding, Zhang Wei hadn’t just never seen it happen—he’d never even heard of it!’

Zhang Wei nodded and said,

"I’ll make the arrangements."

「Meanwhile.」

Nearly two thousand kilometers from Lusen City...

...

Your Province, Yan’an City, Lianshan County.

Taocun Village.

"Excuse me, sir. Could you take a look and see if you recognize this child?"

「Eleven in the morning.」

In a field on the outskirts of Taocun Village, an old man smoking a dry pipe turned to look at three young people approaching him.

The arrivals were none other than Xu De and his two companions.

Xu De halted.

He looked up at the village before them, nestled in a ravine—an ordinary, underdeveloped place.

’This... this is the place Sister Zhang told us about. Taocun Village!’

On January 27, 1990—the night of the Spring Festival,

a disappearance had occurred in Taocun Village.

A three-year-old boy had gone missing. The timing was close to when Liu Jingqi was ’abducted,’ and the location was right here in Lianshan County...

At this thought,

Xu De brought his gaze back to the present.

He focused on the old man smoking the pipe in front of him.

He pulled out a photograph. It was a blurry picture of Liu Jingqi, taken twelve years ago.

"Sir, does this person look familiar to you?" Xu De asked.

’The case was twelve years old; asking an old-timer was more reliable than asking someone younger.’

Old Zhou leaned in for a closer look, one hand on his hip and the other holding his pipe. He squinted at the photo, then shook his head and said:

"Don’t recognize her."

"You sure you don’t recognize her, or are you just saying that?"

Wang Chao leaned in from behind, eyeing the old man with suspicion.

Old Zhou looked at the three unfamiliar young men, his expression placid. He raised a withered hand and pointed to his own eyes.