First-Class Lawyer

What happened was George Manson.

This young princeling was found lying in a luxurious bath amidst a haphazard scatter of wine bottles. The bath was filled with liquid that smelled strongly of liquor. His arms bracketed both sides of the tub, and he had five or six injection marks on his wrist. A syringe lay on the ground, as well as three partially-fragmented vials of medicinal liquids. 

The peculiar aroma dissipating from the medicinal vials was distinctive to a famous and potent injectable hypnotic.

George Manson seemed to be suffering from some bout of restless insomnia when he was found. After downing strong liquor for a day and a night, yet failing to achieve any results, the young master had poured wine into his bath in his drunkenness—possibly hoping to infuse himself into deeper intoxication?

In any case, it was difficult to discern the logic of a drunk man. When he found that he couldn’t fall asleep bathed in wine, he went ahead to inject himself with the hypnotics. But his hand when administering the injection was unsteady, nearly stabbing his wrist into a hornet’s nest.

Even so, he was still successful in injecting the drug into his body in the end. However, how could an impatient drunk tormented by insomnia pay attention to the dosage? In a fit of rashness, he impulsively gave himself thrice the limit dosage for an adult… 

Several messages lay in Gu Yan’s smart device, received during the shuttle journey.

The first was from Laura:

-Ohmygoodness, have you heard? Something went down.

The second message quickly followed the first, less than a few seconds after; it was from Joe:

-Fuck! Something happened to Manson!

The third tailed two hours after the first two, once again from Joe:

-We’re at the ICU. I called over all the doctors I could. His situation doesn’t look good. I’m so fucked, one get-together and I almost lost three lives. Ke Jin just had another panic attack too.

The fact that Joe didn’t even use any exclamation points went lengths to show how genuinely distraught he was by the situation, and how critical George Manson’s condition was. 

After those three messages, there weren’t any new messages.

Regardless of who it was, Laura, Joe, or anyone else, he didn’t receive any other messages.

Gu Yan tried dialling a call over to Joe, but the communication line couldn’t connect. The same occurred when he tried to contact Laura.

As he attempted to contact those at Yaba Island, Yan Suizhi pushed open the door to his office. 

By then, Gu Yan was trying to reach Elena. He paused when he saw Yan Suizhi. “Why are you still in the office at this hour? What are you carrying?”

Yan Suizhi showed him the other side of the paper bag with the large logo of a certain restaurant printed on it. The restaurant was quite far from Southcross Law Firm, but they were famous for their confectionaries. As Ms Fizz frequently waxed praises of them, Gu Yan had a vague impression of the brand name.

He never had much interest in confectioneries, so he hadn’t been there for a meal. He had only heard it from Fizz that the confectionaries from that store were beautiful to look at, and the prices even more so.

Lawyer Gu’s eyebrows bunched together. “No eating in the office.” 

Dfrlvfr, ab yf rqfcvlcu rb ijnlrtis, j mfgajlc rbwfbcf wera ralii tjnf hfgb rfcrf bo jkjgfcfrr ktfc la mjwf ab wbcfs, mbwqifafis obgufaalcu atja tf kjr cbk vlga-jrr ygbxf.

Kgeat yf abiv, la kjrc’a jr lo Tjc Velhtl kjcafv ab fja lc Xe Tjc’r boolmf, flatfg. Po tf jmmlvfcajiis vgbqqfv rbwfatlcu bc atf mjgqfa, tf kbeiv bcis yf eqrfaalcu Xe Tjc jujlc. Ccv jii firf jrlvf, atlr raevfca rmtbbifv tlr afjmtfg klat fzmfqalbcji gfjvlcfrr, vblcu rb klat yjiir bo raffi.

“You’ll have to pick it up with the upper management of your firm.” Yan Suizhi showed a blameless expression. “They called for a redundant ‘intern education’ meeting lasting from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., with only forty minutes set aside for lunch.”

It had only been slightly over a week since he had come back to consciousness; his physical indicators were not up to par, and his constitution was still slightly weak. He had already started feeling starved from four in the afternoon and was giddy by the time the meeting ended. 

If Yan Suizhi went out for food under such circumstances, he’d probably greet Gu Yan from the newspapers tomorrow—Breaking news! An intern at a famous law firm actually fainted and died of hunger out on the streets; the mentoring lawyer is inhumane! So, he had readily called for take-out, collecting it downstairs.

When Yan Suizhi walked into the room and the light shone at him, Gu Yan then found that his face was very pale, so pale that it looked bloodless.

Gu Yan silently turned around, his back facing the intern’s desk, pretending that he wasn’t the one who had just said ‘no eating in the office’, or perhaps preferring to simply keep it out of sight and out of mind.

Elena’s communication line soon returned a message: Unable to be reached at this time. 

He frowned and was about to dial again when he felt someone pat him on the shoulder.

“Hm?” He questioned doubtfully, but as soon as he turned his head, a cold object was shoved next to his mouth.

Gu Yan immediately stepped away, only then could he see that it was a cherry, even with a little whipped cream on the stem, obviously plucked from some dessert.

“What are you stepping back for? Are you that afraid that I’d poisoned it?” Yan Suizhi said snippily. 

Eyes downcasted, Gu Yan stared at the cherry evenly for a moment. “I don’t need it.”

“You’ve already touched it, it would be a little inappropriate to return it now, no?”

Gu Yan fell silent for a moment before finally accepting his fate, biting off that cherry. His eyebrows were still furrowed as he ate it, like the cherry was coated in arsenic.

Yan Suizhi tossed the thin cherry stalk into the bin, then told Gu Yan, “You’re considered an accomplice now that you’ve eaten it. If anyone in the firm snitches later, remember that you have a part in it too.” 

Gu Yan’s eyes flicked over, looking at him numbly.

Yan Suizhi returned a smile, unruffled. When he turned back to his desk, he sucked the bit of cream from the tip of his finger before picking up the grease-free hand sanitiser on his desk, squeezing a little onto his hand. Very carefully, he rubbed it all over, then used a tissue to wipe his hands clean.

When he looked back up again, Gu Yan suddenly dropped his gaze, still frowning as he redialled the line.

“Did anything happen?” Yan Suizhi asked. “Is the line unable to connect?” 

“Mn,” Gu Yan quietly answered. “Something happened to Manson.”

“Who?” Yan Suizhi blanked, then belatedly remembered the drunken talk of the young master who had stared at his hands as they were leaving. “What happened? Joe told you?”

Gu Yan flashed his smart device. “The messages received on the shuttle were from Joe and Laura. Nearly twenty hours have passed since the last message, and I can’t get hold of any of them.”

He pithily told Yan Suizhi of George Manson’s situation and said, “I managed to pull up two short articles earlier, but they were deleted when I refreshed.” 

Hearing this, Yan Suizhi did a search on his photon computer as well. After trawling through a dozen pages, he finally came across an clickbait article on a random, unremarkable website. It was flagrantly titled ‘Manson Heir Commits Suicide’, though in the actual writing, it also stated that the nature of the incident had yet to be determined.

But, similarly, it was deleted upon a quick refresh.

The chances of coming across such a page out in the cold, without being first in the know, were slim to none.

After that, no matter the keywords used, he couldn’t find any other relevant information. 

The police had no reason to delete such sketchy news spectating the nature of the incident; if any party would be affected, it would be the Manson Group. As such, it was clear as day who had ordered for the deletion of the articles.

However, that wasn’t the point. The main point was…

“If the gist of what the reports consolidated is true, supposing it was an accident or suicide, Joe, Laura, and the rest wouldn’t be implicated,” said Yan Suizhi. “There’s only one possibility if you can’t reach any of their communication devices.”

They were all at the police station, temporarily cut off from the outside world. 

“Oh, right.” Yan Suizhi thought for a moment before walking to stand in front of Gu Yan’s office desk. “We can just ask Kane.”

“Chief Kane?” Gu Yan said, “I don’t have his communication number.”

“Give me a moment.” Yan Suizhi reflexively tapped his smart device twice, openly pulling up his address book in front of Gu Yan to find Chief Kane’s number. And then he slammed to a halt.

Because his address book was less than a screen long. It only contained three contacts—Gu Yan, Fizz, and the intern Luke. 

The latter two both had their real names stored in a perfectly normal manner. Only the first was one of a kind. The name was saved as: Grouchy Student.

Yan Suizhi, “…”

Gu Yan, “…”

The scene instantly became quite awkward. 

But the distinguished Lawyer Gu wasn’t afraid to turn it even more awkward. Yan Suizhi saw him lift his gaze to sweep a look at him. Gu Yan then straightened up, making a few taps on his smart device, utter calm on his face as he dialled a number.

A second later, a communication request from ‘Grouchy Student’ popped up on the screen of Yan Suizhi’s smart device.

Brilliant.

The man was caught red-handed; the evidence was irrefutable. 

Gu Yan gave a nod. He started to send a message to someone.

Yan Suizhi intuitively felt that this surely couldn’t spell anything good.

Ten minutes later, Gu Yan still managed to get in touch with Chief Kane, asking for the full story. An hour ago, what happened to George Manson had been classified as an accident, but a new lead turned things around.

“Right now, we’re leaning more towards premeditated murder.” Chief Kane said, “We’re still investigating it, as such I can’t go into details with you, there are regulations to be followed. Yaba Island will be on temporary lockdown for the next two days. Both of you are not allowed entry either, so just be patient and wait for news.” 

While Gu Yan was speaking to Kane, Yan Suizhi also received an unexpected call from the firm’s internal line.

“Ms Fizz?” He was a little surprised. “You haven’t clocked off yet?”

“I just finished keying in the last entry, I’m right about to leave,” said Fizz. “Oh, by the way, I wanted to inform you that the travel allowance for the last two days has been transferred to your asset card. Please confirm it.”

Yan Suizhi was afraid that his call would affect the call on Gu Yan’s side, so he simply walked out of the office and checked his asset card. 

Sure enough, he had received an incoming payment. However, the additional note read: 2,000 xi has been deducted.

“Deducted?” Yan Suizhi couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Fizz said, “Ah, oh yes. Gu said that your performance during the business trip was less than satisfactory.”

“…” Yan Suizhi, “For example?” 

Fizz, “Uh… Talking back.”

Yan Suizhi, “…” Who talked back to whom?

Fizz, “Poor conduct.”

Yan Suizhi, “…” Bullshit. 

The esteemed Professor Yan had never been punished for such an issue in his life and suffered from a brief spell of indigestion. After a while, he gave a low chuckle. “Did all of these blind accusations come from Lawyer Gu? When did he say it?”

Fizz thought back. “Ten minutes ago.”

Yan Suizhi, “…Got it.”

After hanging up, Yan Suizhi changed the contact name from ‘Grouchy Student’ into ‘Pettymint Essence’.