CH 15

Yan Suizhi recalled that the case file previously said Joshua Dale’s address was No. 94 Golden Leaf district, while the victim of the burglary lived at No. 93, right next door to Dale’s house.

However, this shabby place had houses crowded against even more houses. A straight line couldn’t be drawn through them; one house naturally also had four walls facing to the north, south, east, and west. It was impossible to make out which was the victim’s house. Without going down to the place itself, this case couldn’t be cracked. 

No wonder Gu Yan had booked space shuttle tickets as soon as he received the assignment.

“…me, recommend someone?” While Gu Yan’s voice wasn’t loud, he didn’t intentionally keep it down either. So although Yan Suizhi hadn’t meant to listen in, there were some sentences that still fell into his ears even while he was distracted.

“What’s with today? One, two people all lining up to have me be an intermediary.” Gu Yan’s tone was placid. “You should look for someone on management for this type of thing. He can choose the right person for you, I only have an intern with me here.”

Because he heard the word ‘intern’, Yan Suizhi turned to Gu Yan; but the other party didn’t even bat an eyelid—just as if this intern in front of him was dead. 

He couldn’t hear what the other end said, but Gu Yan, again, cut in blandly. “You aren’t picky at all.”

From these words, Professor Yan made a reasonable conjecture. The person at the other end of the line should be looking for a suitable lawyer to consult or take on a case. Perhaps due to the urgency of time or some other reason, he wouldn’t mind having even an intern take it on.

Yan Suizhi’s eyes curved. He reclined comfortably against the chair and thanked the heavens for taking care of him. As soon as he talked about being short on money and needing some extra cash, the road to riches opened before him.

However…

Gu Yan contemplated briefly, then bluntly told the other, “Go look for Adams.”

“…” Yan Suizhi maintained the smile on his face. He twisted his head away.

To hell with you, he stewed in rage.

“What are you looking at?” Gu Yan’s gaze turned to look out of the window as well after he cut the call, but for a time wasn’t able to find what had caught his attention. 

“Your client.” There was a smile hanging off the corners of Yan Suizhi’s mouth, but he didn’t spare a glance for this scoundrel who cut off another’s road to riches. Nevertheless, it was still apparent that he wasn’t in much of a mood, for he started to mouth off again. “Joshua Dale, in that alley right there. He’s probably heading home and is even carrying a sack on his back. There’s a mess of hair at the mouth of the sack.”

He narrowed his eyes as he spoke, paused for a moment before correcting. “Okay, I saw wrong. There’s a human on his back.”

“…”

Based on his description, Gu Yan found the figure amidst the cluttered alleys. “That should be Rosie Dale on his back. As for that man following behind him…” 

“Driver.” Yan Suizhi said, “I watched him get off the driver’s seat of a taxi earlier. But it rather surprises me that Joshua Dale would take a ride home.”

Wine City was filled with unlicensed taxis, and the fare wasn’t cheap. It truly wasn’t the mode of transportation that a man who could barely afford his meals would choose.

Gu Yan’s eyebrows furrowed together. He said to Yan Suizhi, “We’ll go over to look for him after dinner.”

“Didn’t you say tomorrow?” 

“Since we’re already here, it doesn’t matter if we head over a little earlier.”

This restaurant’s lamb chops were grilled to perfection. The meat was crispy, but the portions weren’t big. With the thick soup steaming by the side, it was a perfect serving for Yan Suizhi to slowly savour.

Gu Yan looked at his portion and showed a rare touch of conscience. “Would you like to look at the menu again?”

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“…”

How had he let such an articulate student through the door back then?

Yan Suizhi fell silent for a few seconds before he smiled, saying, “Please don’t trouble yourself. I have my own legs.” 

—

When the two of them entered the cramped low-rise area of houses, it just happened to be dinner hour for the residents, and oil fumes came rolling out of every window. The alleys between the houses were very narrow and quickly filled with thick oil fumes, nearly suffocating them.

Earlier when Yan Suizhi looked down from above, he could at least still make out a vague grain pattern. But now that he was amidst it, Yan Suizhi then found—how was this a residential area? It was clearly a labyrinth.

Just two or three turns into it and people would lose all sense of direction. 

The esteemed Professor Yan was secretly thankful that he hadn’t come here alone, or he would’ve burnt away half his life lost in this labyrinth once stepping foot into it.

Gu Yan miraculously found a logic to how the houses were numbered amidst the mess and took Yan Suizhi down a few turns, finally standing in front of the decrepit No. 94.

It was one of the only two houses that didn’t have oil fumes wafting out from within. The other house with a cold stove was right next to it.

Yan Suizhi murmured a guess, “The house that hasn’t turned on their stove should be No. 93, right?” 

Gu Yan was one step ahead of him and had already found the house number. “Mn. Kitty Bell’s home.”

Mdm Kitty Bell was an elderly woman in her seventies, and had suffered a blow to the back of her head during the burglary. She was still in the hospital. If she could wake up and identify the suspect, the trial for this case would be much easier. Unfortunately, she still hadn’t opened her eyes, and didn’t seem likely to regain consciousness in the short term…

Now, Joshua Dale needed to prove his innocence, whereas the prosecution was gathering more evidence to send him to prison.

Gu Yan bowed his head past the overstretched eaves and knocked on Joshua Dale’s door. 

Yan Suizhi stood beside him, similarly bowing his head to avoid the eaves. He silently delivered an eulogy to his not-so-good cervical vertebra.

“Who’s there?!” The person inside was evidently as inhospitable and startled as a hedgehog.

“Your lawyer.”

A while later, that ratchety door was opened from the inside with an ominous groan, the creaky sound of it giving them a toothache. 

Half of Joshua Dale’s face peeked out and he looked closely at the people outside. “Didn’t you say you’ll meet me tomorrow?”

Yan Suizhi wasn’t in the slightest polite about it. “Let’s talk inside.”

Joshua Dale, “…”

“Your bail has been granted, can’t you at least be happy for two days? Kid, why are you still pulling such a long face?” Yan Suizhi joked as he entered the door. 

Joshua Dale put his initial hostility aside and said moodily, “My sister’s ill.”

Saying that, his eyes turned bloodshot again, and only after gritting his teeth together could he swallow his emotions back down without crying. “She squatted outside the detention centre the whole time waiting for me. And now she’s ill.”

Yan Suizhi went into the narrow bedroom. He looked at the little girl wrapped in a quilt, touching her forehead with a finger. “She’s burning up. How long was she there?”

Joshua Dale, “It should have been five days. She wouldn’t have gone home without me.” 

“Do you have medicine?” Yan Suizhi scanned the room and caught sight of the opened medicine box on the table.

“I’ve already given her some. But I don’t know if it’d be any good.” Joshua grabbed his hair in frustration. After pacing about the bedroom, he brought out an old cotton-padded coat and draped it over the quilt covering Rosie Dale. “Hopefully she can quickly sweat it out.”

Yan Suizhi glanced at the dusty kitchen counter. He asked, “Did she eat anything before taking the medicine?”

Joshua shook his head. “No, she couldn’t eat anything. She only said that she was dizzy.” 

“That won’t do. She has to be hospitalised. It’s useless to take medicine alone when she’s suffering from cold and hunger-induced illness.”

The quilt and cotton-padded clothes were so heavy that the little girl beneath them appeared exceptionally frail, her figure a tiny ball pressed under the cloth, her lips cracked and pale.

Joshua Dale pulled at his hair and right after, he began to search the room.

He was terrifyingly frantic. His feet and hands stomped and tossed all about the place as if he had a vengeance against the cupboard. 

“Are you tearing down the house?” Yan Suizhi wondered.

Joshua Dale, “Finding cash.”

Gu Yan shook his head. He picked up the cotton-padded coat, easily hauling the little girl wrapped in the quilt up. He told Yan Suizhi, “Call for a taxi.”

Joshua Dale froze in front of the cupboard. He clenched his fingers together and obstinately said, “I can find the money. I still have a little left, enough for a trip to the hospital.” 

“I know, just return it to us when we get back,” Yan Suizhi flung a sentence at him and turned out of the room.

This sentence miraculously made it a little easier for Joshua Dale to swallow down. He put away his temper and hurried behind the two of them, calling, “There’s one! There’s a taxi in the alley!

He bolted into the next alley as soon as he came out and shouted into a dark house. “Fix!”

The taxi that Joshua Dale was talking about was the one that Yan Suizhi had seen from the restaurant. 

That taxi driver lived in this alley; after Joshua shouted for him, he wiped his mouth and ran out, opening the door to the driver’s seat and getting in.

“To the hospital?” the driver named Fix started the car and asked.

His voice was so hoarse that it grated uncomfortably against the ears.

Yan Suizhi glanced into the rearview mirror from the backseat when he heard this voice. The driver ended up being a familiar face. There was a scar on his face; he had driven Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan before. 

“Yes! The sooner the better!” urged Joshua Dale anxiously.

Fix didn’t say anything else and stepped on the gas pedal. The car rushed out.

“I was eating in the restaurant up there earlier and just happened to see this car driving into the alley,” Yan Suizhi said. “I was puzzled how you had the money on you to call a taxi. It turned out that you know each other.”

“Mn,” Joshua was completely focused on staring at his sister, so his replies came out a little absent-minded. “We stay near each other, so we would often run into each other in the alley. I happened to see him talking to Rosie when I looked for Rosie at the detention centre in the morning.” 

Fix answered from in front, “I had just passed by and saw her squatting there about to pass out. We live in the same alley, after all, it was hard for me not to care.”

Joshua Dale, more accustomed to falling back on rudeness, went silent when he heard this. After a long while, he then remembered to add, “Thank you.”

Fix glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “Don’t mention it.”

They went to Spring Ivy Hospital, the nearest hospital to Golden Leaf district. 

This hospital chain was very famous and had branches spread across the stellar systems. As it was backed by a consortium, it was a semi-charitable organisation. The fees were not high, and could even be considered very friendly to Joshua Dale…

Oh. For Yan Suizhi in the present, too.

This also meant that this hospital was exceptionally busy. The people moving about were a spitting image of soldiers going off to war.

Thus, it was an hour and a half later that Rosie Dale was finally settled in the infusion room. 

Joshua Dale rubbed his sister’s arm in the infusion room while Yan Suizhi waited outside.

On a large announcement screen in the waiting area, there was a notice that ten experts from the Spring Ivy Hospital headquarters were posted here for the day. They looked exceptionally solemn in the photos that slammed past like wanted posters.

Yan Suizhi leaned against the windowsill and appreciated how ugly those headshots were, then out of his peripheral vision, saw the hospital regulations by the side of the screen. On it, there was an eye-catching line neatly listing the names and addresses of the branches currently authorised to perform genetic modification surgery.

“Genetic modification…” Yan Suizhi narrowed his eyes. 

“What was that?” Afraid that the pair of siblings would starve to death in the hospital, Gu Yan left to buy some food, and ended up hearing Yan Suizhi murmur something right as he came back.

“It’s nothing.” Yan Suizhi glanced at the bag of food he brought back. “So much? Are you sure those two little hungry ghosts can keep this much food down? It isn’t good to eat too much after starving for some time.”

Gu Yan ignored him and went into the infusion room. After a while, he came out again, with half a bag less food but still some left.

He walked to the window, took a coffee for himself and handed the rest to Yan Suizhi. He was just about to say something with a stoic expression to Yan Suizhi when a large tide of people rushed noisily through the doors, scattered with shouts of “make way”, throwing the area into a chaotic frenzy. 

As two stretchers roared past them, Yan Suizhi indistinctly heard someone in the crowd mention something about a pipe explosion.

His eyebrows lifted. He elbowed Gu Yan and said, “Hey. Speaking of explosions, I recall that there seem to be particularly many explosion cases in the files you handed to me.”

Gu Yan rested his elbows against the windowsill. He took a sip of his coffee. “Mn.”

Yan Suizhi asked, “Why have you taken on so many explosion cases?” 

After a while, Gu Yan swallowed his coffee, and he said, “I had a teacher who died in an explosion case half a year ago.”