Brewer Manson’s gaze crossed five rows of seats, never wavering from Yan Suizhi.
While Yan Suizhi wasn’t quite well-acquainted with this eldest son of the Manson family, they weren’t complete strangers either. Some time or other in the past, they had two instances of direct contact. Once, they had clinked their glasses together during a wine reception for elite lawyers; the other time was during a case that involved a judge. When collecting evidence beneficial for his client before a trial, he had exchanged pleasantries with the other.
Even just from these cursory encounters, he was clearly able to sense that not only did Brewer Manson look different from George Manson, their personalities were also miles apart. This was someone troublesome to deal with, a person best left unprovoked.
Although Yan Suizhi was facing Gu Yan, he was observing Brewer Manson’s movements out of his peripheral vision.
This subtle distinction was only noticeable to Gu Yan, standing close to him.
“Who are you looking at?” Gu Yan lowered his eyes, gazing at him.
Yan Suizhi, “Brewer Manson. He keeps looking over here. Teacher Gu, please act more like a teacher. Under normal circumstances, you should be consoling the intern who is being forced beyond his ability.”
The volume of his voice when he said these words was so low that no one else could hear him. From a distance, it really looked like he was rambling out of nervousness, but was also afraid of being overheard by the others in the courtroom…
No matter how one looked at it, this was, preposterously, a stunning rendition.
Next to the glow of Professor Yan acting skills, Gu Yan paled into insignificance. He answered, “Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have an intern in the first place.”
Also, wasn’t ‘Teacher Gu’ rolling off a certain someone’s tongue a bit too naturally?
Yan Suizhi gave a dissatisfied tsk.
After a while, with his gaze half-lidded, Gu Yan said evenly all of a sudden, “This is just a court trial. Regardless of the result, you will receive a perfect score on the assessment from me.” With that, he raised a hand and patted him lightly on the shoulder.
Yan Suizhi, “…”
When saying this, Gu Yan’s voice was modulated, just loud enough for Brewer Manson at the back to hear the gist of it. When finished, he didn’t give Yan Suizhi a second look. He turned his head away and rightened his photon computer and his seat, about to sit down.
During this, his gaze met Brewer Manson’s.
“Lawyer Gu.” Brewer Manson nodded at him, giving him a polite and lukewarm greeting.
Gu Yan returned the nod. “Mr Manson.”
“I didn’t realise that the defence lawyer is an intern under you, Lawyer Gu.” Brewer Manson spoke again.
“He isn’t.” Gu Yan flatly denied. “To be precise, he is Mr Moore’s intern. I’m only covering him for a few days.”
Brewer Manson offered a very faint and courteous smile. On the surface, it was impossible to read his thoughts on this matter, but Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan were both clear that the clarification had likely put half of his mind at ease.
As for the other half…
Again, Brewer Manson cut to the chase, saying, “I remember saying that if the chance arises, I must invite you to sample the new batch of wine from the winery. Why didn’t you mention that you were accompanying your intern to Tian Qin? There’s always time for a glass of wine, right?”
He said this with a pleasant and polite smile, but his words were very deliberately chosen.
As a rule, the defence counsel and defendant weren’t allowed to casually meet the victim and their relatives, preventing coercion and suchlike scenarios from happening. Brewer Manson couldn’t be more aware of this, but he made light of it by saying that he wanted to meet Gu Yan for a drink. Essentially, it was a tactful reminder to Gu Yan that he wasn’t the one on the defence counsel; that he shouldn’t forget his place and meddle in this.
It wasn’t Gu Yan’s first time interacting with him, so he immediately understood the implicit meaning. However, with Gu Yan’s nature, the style of his response was his customary indifference. “Actually, I had only just arrived in Tian Qin two days ago. If it weren’t for having to drop by this trial, I would likely still be at the signing table at the criminal court in Zone 2.”
Similarly, this statement carried double meaning. First, he simply didn’t have the leisure to accompany intern on an interstellar trip. Secondly, he had only come to sit in on the trial as a courtesy. It basically meant that he didn’t have the time nor the interest to help the intern with this case; the intern had managed everything independently.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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This judge didn’t ring any bells with Yan Suizhi. Instead, Gu Yan was the one who provided a brief introduction from behind him.
Judge Luther, with half his head of hair turned white, had some ties to Gu Yan and Yan Suizhi. He was once a lawyer at Southcross Law Firm from De Carma in his younger days, but had only worked there for about a decade before becoming a judge.
“Luther is still in touch with one of the lawyers at the firm as they were previously in the same cohort and got along well with each other.” Gu Yan said, “They also met at several various lawsuits after that.”
There were many lawyers with closer relations to judges, but there wouldn’t be any without the least bit of relation either. All in all, they were once law students. They could easily be classmates, teachers, students, alumni, etc. In some cases, this relationship could avoid scrutiny, but not always.
Some lawyers would try to rub elbows with judges in order to get a slight edge in lawsuits, regularly hosting drinks to get better acquainted. Even if they didn’t play this way, after going through many lawsuits, some level of acquaintanceship would naturally form.
Therefore, this didn’t come as any surprise to Yan Suizhi. He flippantly asked, “Oh, is that so? Which lawyer is he friends with?”
Gu Yan, “Hobbes.”
Yan Suizhi, “…”
Going speechless for a moment, he asked Gu Yan with a smile twitching on his lips. “This guy doesn’t have a fetish for forcibly giving people zeroes right? I can’t find someone who can give me a 100 to save the day at a time like this.”
Gu Yan, “…”
He was leaning forward slightly to say a little something else at first, but once he heard Yan Suizhi whip out a mention of that ‘wrong-side-of-bed 100 points’ from that day, with nary a flicker in his expression, he sat upright again, leaning back in his seat.
“You aren’t even going to say it?” Yan Suizhi raised his eyebrows. “Don’t be so petty, what were you going to say?”
But Gu Yan stayed without any intention of opening his mouth.
Yan Suizhi was tempted to laugh. “Fine, cling to your temper then. His being friends with Hobbes doesn’t really count for anything. The judges in the district court of Zone 3 can’t be too crooked, all thanks to the good atmosphere cultivated by the Chief Justice from back then.”
At the mention of this, Gu Yan graced him with a look.
The former Chief Justice of the criminal courts on Tian Qin was famous for his upstanding and uncompromising nature. Many law schools would touch on him in passing during lectures; it was natural for Gu Yan to have heard of him.
Perhaps because the topic was right at hand, Yan Suizhi dropped a rare tidbit of his personal history. “The first case I took on was handled by that Chief Justice. Before the trial started, I met his eyes and smiled at him out of courtesy, but he remained expressionless. Thanks to him, I wasn’t able to get nervous at all on my first trial.”
And after that, all the more so, he never got nervous.
Gu Yan actually showed a little interest in this offhand topic, asking, “Why?”
“Because that Chief Justice never changed his expression throughout the trial. Not by a single jolt. So I kept wondering if there was something wrong with his facial nerves.”
Yan Suizhi was someone who never distinguished ally and foe. He held a ‘I’m looking upon a fool’ type of smile for others, and likewise when speaking of himself back in the prime of his youth.
For some reason, Gu Yan’s reason turned minutely odd. He looked at Yan Suizhi for a moment, then calmly jerked his chin towards the side door a short distance away. “Go for your pre-trial conference.”
Yan Suizhi tucked his smile away. He stood up and unhurriedly went into the adjoining room with the judge and the prosecutor.
As usual, the pre-trial conference was a mere formality that they walked through. Soon, the three men came out from the room and returned to their respective seats. The defendant, Chen Zhang, was also brought in by a bailiff.
Each time he appeared, he was visibly more haggard than the day before. His face was full of grey stubble and a heavy aura of pessimism and despondence was entrenched in his form.
He clearly wasn’t in such damp spirits at the meeting the day before; whatever was on his mind last night, it made him look like he had swallowed a gun.
Yan Suizhi’s eyes flickered towards where the defendant was seated and was immediately blinded by the funeral mood pouring off his client. He immediately averted his gaze without any qualms.
From the glass booth, Chen Zhang had caught his fleeting look over.
Chen Zhang also wanted to give his own defence lawyer a more positive reaction, but he really couldn’t pull himself together now. The impending trial killed off his hope by the second. Moreover, this terrible situation was of his own making; he was immeasurably vexed.
At the same time, he also felt remorse for his lawyer. It was already difficult for an intern to win a lawsuit; it was more probable that the intern would trip over his own feet due to his fraying nerves at his first court appearance. Moreover, Chen Zhang had even been uncooperative in the earlier stages, adding another layer of difficulty for the intern.
‘I won’t blame you even if you lose…’
Chen Zhang looked at Yan Suizhi’s figure, saying this in his head. But his stiff and trembling fingers betrayed him.
There were some in the gallery who were pleased to see him in such down straits.
Seated next to Brewer Manson, his assistant whispered, “Look at that instructor’s apocalyptic expression. I can only imagine how desperate the defence lawyer must be now.”
Brewer’s gaze didn’t waver. “Without Gu, it’s only natural that an intern can’t make any kind of turnaround.”
In actuality, despite having no direct contact with Gu Yan and Yan Suizhi, they were still aware that Gu Yan was undergoing a First-Class Lawyer review the other day and had gone to Zone 2 as soon as he arrived in Tian Qin. The words, disguised as a question to Gu Yan, were simply a reminder.
“What if Lawyer Gu wants to meddle?” That assistant spoke again.
Brewer Manson glanced at him askew. “Don’t you remember how he reassured the intern earlier? ‘Regardless of the result’. That is basically a tacit admission. Of course, we can’t rule out that he’s only just saying it for our ears.”
His assistant, “Then—”
“But don’t forget…” Brewer Manson said, “He has just passed the preliminary screening for First-Class Lawyers and is due to enter the public notification period. He already got through the round that he needs to stay the sharpest for; the only thing he needs to do in the meanwhile is to make sure that it’s solid. A smart man wouldn’t take on a controversial case and get involved in something that could easily invite trouble during this phase.”
His assistant nodded, immediately understanding what was left unsaid. “Indeed. With how things are, he probably had a massive headache when his intern received this case.”
What was the safest way to handle the George Manson case?
Of course it was to let the intern take the reins, for him to argue boldly then lose as a matter of course. The guilty would receive the deserving sentence, the case would receive the due closure, and everyone would be happy.
Brewer Manson didn’t spare the intern another look. His gaze slid to the defendant’s dock. After a moment, he grunted, saying softly, “My dear brother is still lying in a hospital, waiting for justice to be served. No one had better think of letting the defendant get away scot free…”
Dong.
With a wooden face, Judge Luther solemnly knocked the gavel.
The buzzing in the gallery ceased. The courtroom fell silent as everyone sat upright.
The carefully selected jurors filed into the courtroom. Led by the jury foreperson, they swore an oath of impartiality in accordance with the court proceedings.
“The defendant, Chen Zhang, ID no. 11985572, residing in 19 Camphor Forest Lane, was employed as a diving instructor by Hardymont Diving Club at the time of the crime.” The judge spoke slowly, each word enunciated so clearly that the setting seemed exceptionally sombre. Even those in the gallery could feel the pressure, not to mention the one in the bulletproof glass booth.
When the gavel struck, Chen Zhang had involuntarily shuddered. He looked at the judge vacantly as he listened to the information being read out, before the wooden face asked him, “Do you dispute any of the details?”
Chen Zhang shook his head. “No.”
“Is that you?”
“Yes.”
The judge once again confirmed the plaintiff’s information, George Manson. The prosecution answered it in his place.
“Good. Then, the rest of the time is yours, gentlemen.” Judge Luther nodded at the prosecution and the defence counsel before saying to the prosecutor, “Mr Bard, you may begin your opening statement.”
Bard looked to be roughly the same age as Gu Yan. As one of the lawyers that the Manson family kept on retainer, he exuded a natural air of superiority, but not in a derogatory sense. This gave him a domineering aura, which wasn’t a bad attribute to have in court arguments, easily allowing him to occupy an advantageous psychological position, especially when the opposing counsel didn’t match him in vigour. It also sent the jury a signal—that his claims were well substantiated and factually clear, which was why he could hold himself with such conviction.
Bard stood up and nodded at the judge, then turned a friendly gaze in Yan Suizhi’s direction.
One could interpret this as a sympathetic look from a senior to an inexperienced junior.
“Thank you, Your Honour. On December 5, 1:12 a.m. Tian Qin time, Mr George Manson was found unconscious in the bathtub of his suite with H32 hypnotics injected into his system. Three vials in total, a dose sufficient to kill a male adult. This is general knowledge. The police conducted a full-scale investigation, searching and examining the scene, then formed a clearly deduced chain of evidence. The list of evidence from the prosecution has been projected on the screen.”
Bard cast the list of evidence on the courtroom’s holographic screen so that the jury was able to read it clearly.
“The available evidence shows that on the night of December 4, Mr Chen Zhang went down from the window ledge of his suite on the second floor, infiltrating Mr George Manson’s suite. Due to his superior vision, he was able to avoid the miscellaneous objects scattered about the room without alerting the bodyguard and service staff guarding the suite. He entered the bedroom and injected Mr George Manson, who was lying drunk in the bathtub, with the aforementioned hypnotic. With full knowledge of the lethal dosage, he injected three whole vials…”
From the booth, Chen Zhang hung his head and rubbed his cheeks hard. A portion of Bard’s statement was lifted word for word from his oral confession, words that he himself had uttered.
Now, his heart throbbed painfully with every word that he heard. Were it possible, he would have liked to block out all sounds so that he wouldn’t have to hear another word.
Bard rattled off a steady stream of words, giving a brief summary of the case and the evidence. During this time, his gaze occasionally fell on Chen Zhang, but more often on the judge and Yan Suizhi.
He wasn’t at all worried about this case. It was a classic ‘open and shut case’—the outcome was dreadfully predictable. There wasn’t no need for the case to be tried; the trial itself was basically just a matter of going through the motions.
The odds were overwhelmingly stacked in his favour. In terms of experience, evidence, and even the influence of the victim’s family, he had the upper hand. As for the other side? All they had were pitfalls.
Earlier, out of boredom, he had even envisioned what he would do if he were Chen Zhang’s lawyer. But he spent no more than two seconds on this hypothetical before dismissing the fancy as a pointless endeavour. He believed that any lawyer facing such a situation would choose to plead guilty, which could possibly grant a more lenient sentence for his client.
Unquestionably, it was only intuitive that an intern lawyer would choose to do so as well.
But even if it was a guilty plea, he wouldn’t let the other party get off lightly. It would be an utter disgrace if he did.
“…Thus, I have decided to charge Mr Chen Zhang with premeditated murder.” Upon concluding, Bard nodded at the judge and sat down.
He straightened the hem of his lawyer’s robe, putting on a polite, almost perfect smile, then looked to the defence table. As he waited for that young intern to speak, he silently uttered a prayer for him: May God bless and protect this young man, don’t let him shake too visibly in the courtroom.
Judge Luther turned to Yan Suizhi and said, his words enunciated as clearly as before, “Mr Ruan Ye? You may begin your opening statement.”
As Yan Suizhi stood up, he very earnestly gave a gentle exhale, which to everyone appeared as if he was expelling a deep breath to relieve his nerves.
Gu Yan, “…”
After letting out that faux exhale, Professor Yan passed the peak of his acting career. He lightly tugged at the hem of his lawyer’s robe, then smiled genially at the judge and at Bard. He said, “The opening statement won’t take up too much time. I will only say one thing. I assert that my client, Mr Chen Zhang, is not guilty.”
Bard, “????”
Brewer Manson, “???”
Professor Yan is aiming for the Best Actor award, I see
Vincenzo just popped in my mind lmao XD petition for this novel to get adapted into a live action drama. I want Gu Yan and Yan Suizhi to be the next Vincenzo.
i love him so much 😭🤣😭🤣
YeS to both!! many of the court scenes remind me of Vincenzo simply because of the dramatic in-court shenanigans. Also, if this novel were turned into a live action, it has the potential to become a MASTERPIECE.
So trueeeee 😂
Oops. I didn’t mean to comment under you but yes Professor Yan truly is aiming for an Oscar 🤣🤣
Gu Yan: oh here it comes. Here it comes. That infuriating smile that makes people want to beat him up in a sack
Damn, your comment got me cracking up 🤣🤣. I hope he doesn’t give “I’m looking upon a fool” kinda smile to the judge and prosecutor
I rarely find novels that can pull off dry humor properly. I abhor slapstick and derogatory humor. Kudos to both the author, for writing it, and the translator, for understanding and conveying it beautifully. A satisfying read.
thanks for the chapter <3
Mu Su Li’s one of the the best author I’ve encountered when it comes to plot and humor. So goooodd!
Yan and his wonderful acting 😭
That prayer thoo😂😂
Shts about to go downn, y’all better be prepared for it
Someone should give our good dean an award for actor of the year
i love how every time yan suizhi tries to act like an intern, gu yan is always speechless, lol
idk professor yan reaching the peak of his acting career w that exhale seems p accurate. this is coming from a theater major.
thank u!
Intern Yan is about to astound the court with his legal prowess 😁💪
Thanks for the chapter 💞
I’m currently inside my classroom where I’ll take my exams and yet here I am smiling ‘coz of him 😭