Reservoir Dogs chapter 18
Lawyer
After completing the statement, Xiao Zhou first went to the bathroom to clean up the dirt on his body. He dabbed with water, but the more he wiped, the more there was—a murky green mess. His shirt was simply unbearable to look at. At most, he could dilute it a bit and dissipate some of the smell.
When he came out of the bathroom, he bumped into Xu Cuiping’s lawyer. Xiao Zhou stared at him, standing dumbfounded for a while.
The lawyer obviously did not recognize him. Seeing him blocking the way, he was a bit impatient. “Don’t block the way, I’m in a hurry.”
Xiao Zhou opened his mouth but didn’t move, just staring at him.
The lawyer frowned, feeling he had encountered a lunatic, and sidestepped him, hurrying to see his client, checking if she was maintaining silence as agreed before the police.
Xiao Zhou stood still for a moment, then suddenly turned around, ran towards the lawyer, blocked his way, grabbed his collar, eyes blazing with anger, facial muscles twitching.
The lawyer was lifted up by his collar, forced to tiptoe, looking at Xiao Zhou’s uncontrollable anger, his face turned pale in an instant, stuttering, “What… what are you doing?”
Xiao Zhou gritted his teeth. “Do you remember? Five years ago, you defended a case for someone, and it cost 500,000 yuan in total.”
The lawyer widened his eyes, looking very confused.
Xiao Zhou sneered, “At that time, you solemnly guaranteed that there would be no problem with this case, you had connections, and you would definitely get the defendant acquitted. But from taking on the case to its end, you never visited the detention center to talk to the defendant or understood the case. You kept finding ways to ask for money, sometimes saying you needed to give gifts to this judge, sometimes saying you had to treat that prosecutor. When the family raised doubts, you kept making excuses and pretended to be knowledgeable, claiming you had connections everywhere.”
The lawyer was visibly embarrassed, his face flushed but unable to justify himself.
Looking at his embarrassed look, Xiao Zhou continued, “But what was the result in the end? In court, you were so nervous that you couldn’t say a word. Not only did you accept all the prosecutor’s charges, but you couldn’t even come up with any defense arguments, like a complete fool.” He paused, and the smile on his lips grew colder. “No, I’m wrong. You’re not stupid; the families who were fooled into giving you a large sum of money are the fools.”
After listening to him, the lawyer kept looking at Xiao Zhou’s face, then suddenly realized, raised his finger and said, “I know, you are the murderer! Wait, you were sentenced to 10 years, how did you get out?” Suddenly panicked, “Don’t mess around, this is the police station!”
The man’s cries for help quickly drew attention. Two police officers came over and sternly rebuked, “What are you doing here? Is this a place where you can cause trouble?”
Xiao Zhou’s hand holding the lawyer’s collar, his veins bulging on the back of his hand, stared at him for a while, tightened and slowly loosened.
The man was put down, breathed a sigh of relief, felt embarrassed, stood up straight, straightened out his messed-up clothes, pointed at Xiao Zhou’s nose and bluffed, “I’m telling you, this is a lawful society now, don’t falsely accuse people without evidence, I will sue you!”
As he passed by, he bumped Xiao Zhou’s shoulder fiercely.
Xiao Zhou stood steadily, unmoved, and said in a low voice, “My father has a bad heart. We were going to use that money for his surgery.”
The man heard it but didn’t even pause and walked away.
Sunlight poured through the large glass windows high in the corridor, casting scattered spots of light on the ground. A pair of leather shoes walked over the patches of light on the ground, the figure partly in light and partly in shadow, standing in front of Xiao Zhou. “Do you know him?”
Xiao Zhou looked up and saw Jiang Chengyuan. His emotions had calmed down, his eyes drooping tiredly. “Yeah, he was the lawyer in my case’s first trial. He took a lot of money from my family and eventually accepted all the prosecution’s sentencing recommendations.”
Jiang Chengyuan said, “This lawyer is notorious in the industry for incompetence and adept at shady dealings.”
Xiao Zhou said, “He came to us voluntarily, speaking confidently and using a lot of professional terms and social niceties. He even claimed it was pro bono, not charging a penny in legal fees. We were so grateful, just following his instructions.”
Xiao Zhou sighed softly. “Little did we know, he later manipulated us for money through various processes. He justified it with righteousness, claiming it was all for the case, networking, finding ways, and even said he put in a lot of favors without telling us. It was as if not giving him the money would not only waste his goodwill, but also lose the case.”
Jiang Chengyuan gently pressed Xiao Zhou’s back of the head, softly speaking, “There are many such cases. Next time, keep your eyes open. If you’re paying, find someone with clear terms. At least if you get cheated, you know who to blame.”
Xiao Zhou paused, “But some cases are different.”
“Hmm?”
Xiao Zhou whispered, “The one who helped me appeal in the second trial, he was very good.”
“Who was it?”
“His surname is Liang, Liang Hanqing. We originally heard about Professor Wu Yichang’s reputation and wanted to ask for his help. Unfortunately, he had already passed away at that time, and we eventually found one of his students.”
When Xiao Zhou mentioned Wu Yichang, Jiang Chengyuan’s face changed slightly, but soon returned to normal. He put his arm around Xiao Zhou’s shoulder and casually said, “Let’s go back to the hotel first, that smell on you is really unpleasant.”
Trapped in his embrace, though he complained with his mouth, his body still stayed close. Xiao Zhou noticed that Jiang Chengyuan always liked to touch him. Perhaps this was a way to alleviate his pheromone disorder.
Because they were so close, even though Jiang Chengyuan had used suppressive patches, Xiao Zhou could still detect a faint, lingering smell of alcohol pheromones. Perhaps Jiang Chengyuan’s pheromones were also related to his emotions, such as the disturbance just now at the meeting. Although he showed no outward reaction, his emotions were still touched, causing his pheromones to become unstable.
Following him, after two steps, Jiang Chengyuan suddenly stopped and reached out to grab Xiao Zhou’s arm, lifting it up close to his face, scrutinizing it. His fingers brushed over Xiao Zhou’s elbow where there was a bruise. “When did you get this?”
Xiao Zhou hadn’t noticed his own injury. “Probably just now when I dove too hard and hit the ground.”
Jiang Chengyuan frowned, “Be more careful next time.”
Hearing his concern in the words, Xiao Zhou hesitated for a moment, then suddenly said, “I want to ask you for something, I don’t know if it’s possible?”
Jiang Chengyuan raised an eyebrow, “What is it?”
Xiao Zhou said, “Can we not file a case against Xu Cuiping this time?”