Chapter 119

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At dinner that night, He Zheng had not only invited Xia Xingcheng along, but also Ling Jiayue.

From the start of filming until now, Xia Xingcheng and Ling Jiayue had barely shared a scene. The two of them had basically never interacted in private. Today was a rare chance for them to have a meal at the same table.

Ling Jiayue was very quiet throughout the meal. When someone spoke to her, she only responded with a bashful smile. Once in a while, her eyes would meet with Xia Xingcheng’s, but upon the slightest contact, they immediately averted their line of sight.

Xia Xingcheng had no idea whether he was being too sensitive, but he really did somewhat mind about Ling Jiayue.

The veteran actor couple were good-natured and lively. The old gentleman, most of all, was a particularly good drinker. Yang Youming quietly told Xia Xingcheng that, when he filmed with this old man in his early twenties, he would accompany him to drink every single day. In the blink of an eye, almost twenty years had passed, and yet the one thing the old man remained fond of was drinking.

Yang Youming and He Zheng drank with the old gentleman while reminiscing about the past. In circumstances like these, there was nothing Xia Xingcheng could add to the conversation, so he sat there and listened to them as usual, pulled out every stop he could to help Yang Youming block a little alcohol, and asked the waiter for a bowl of warm congee or noodles to warm Yang Youming’s stomach.

By the time the meal ended, Yang Youming was more than a little drunk. He unconsciously tilted sideways and leaned against Xia Xingcheng.

Nobody had brought along their assistants, so He Zheng called for Xia Xingcheng to help him settle the bill.

After propping Yang Youming up on the back of his own chair, Xia Xingcheng left the private room to pay the bill at the counter.

He spent quite a while waiting for the bill, and by the time he returned, he saw that the door of the private room was ajar. When he reached out and opened it, he found that He Zheng and the old couple were no longer inside, and the only ones in the room were Yang Youming and Ling Jiayue.

Yang Youming sat on his chair, his head slightly drooping. In front of him, looking up at him from where she was crouched on the floor, was Ling Jiayue.

Ling Jiayue didn’t notice Xia Xingcheng. She seemed to have just said something to Yang Youming, and her hand was extended to help Yang Youming up.

Xia Xingcheng piped up right then. “Let me,” he said as he walked over.

Ling Jiayue looked like she’d received a fright; she immediately retracted her hand and stood up, retreating to the side.

Xia Xingcheng walked up to Yang Youming and bent down to help him up.

Yang Youming raised his eyes, saw Xia Xingcheng, and flung an arm around his shoulders and got up.

Xia Xingcheng sensed that Yang Youming was truly out of it, like his entire body had no strength left. He’d drank more than he had at Xia Xingcheng’s house during last year’s Chinese New Year.

He spared no strength to prop Yang Youming up and bring him outside. All of a sudden, Yang Youming turned his head and pressed a firm kiss to his neck, calling out, “Xingcheng.”

Xia Xingcheng subconsciously turned his head to shoot a glance at Ling Jiayue, and was startled the instant he saw the expression in Ling Jiayue’s eyes. Ling Jiayue was staring at him. Not much emotion was shown on her fair, pretty face—only her eyes held an indescribable loathing as she looked straight at Xia Xingcheng.

At that time, Xia Xingcheng had merely cast a sweeping glance. Once he’d hauled Yang Youming outside the door of the private room and looked back, Ling Jiayue had already lowered her head, her gaze no longer on them.

The car that was picking them up was already waiting outside the restaurant. Li Yun and Hua Hua had both come in Yang Youming’s nanny car, and the two of them ran over to help Xia Xingcheng with Yang Youming.

Li Yun quietly complained, “Why did you drink so much?”

He Zheng and the two elders had already gotten into another car. He Zheng opened the car window and called Xia Xingcheng over, and told him a few words, asking him to take Ling Jiayue back to the hotel with them.

When Xia Xingcheng came back, Li Yun and Hua Hua had already gotten Yang Youming into the car. He turned to face Ling Jiayue and said, “Get in, we’re going back together.”

Ling Jiayue nodded.

The drive to the hotel from the restaurant took more than half an hour. Xia Xingcheng sat next to Yang Youming. Yang Youming’s eyes were closed. His head rested on Xia Xingcheng’s shoulder, seemingly asleep.

Ling Jiayue sat in front of them, while Li Yun and Hua Hua sat together.

Hua Hua lowered her voice and whispered to Li Yun, “Looks like Ming ge can’t hold his liquor. He’s terribly drunk.”

Li Yun said, “It was fine when he was young. He’s old now.”

Xia Xingcheng suddenly heard Yang Youming say next to his ear, his voice low and muffled, “I’m still awake.”

Hua Hua jumped in fright, and promptly said, “Ming ge, I wasn’t badmouthing you.”

Yang Youming let out a laugh, yet his eyes remained shut as he leaned against Xia Xingcheng. “Li Yun’s right, my alcohol tolerance does get worse each year.” He seemed a bit unwell, and he rubbed against Xia Xingcheng’s shoulder, wanting to find a comfortable position.

Xia Xingcheng touched his forehead and felt that his forehead and cheeks were scorching hot.

Yang Youming softly said, “I’m fine, the alcohol just got to my head a little. It’s just a bit of discomfort.”

Xia Xingcheng noticed that Ling Jiayue had turned her head to look out of the car window. After a while, perhaps from feeling stuffy, she opened her window slightly.

“Please close it,” Xia Xingcheng said to her at once. “Drunk people shouldn’t be exposed to the wind.”

Ling Jiayue looked over at him. Her expression remained the same, and she quickly closed the window, saying, “Sorry.”

Yang Youming opened his eyes, and said to Ling Jiayue, “It’s all right.”

Ling Jiayue gazed at him for a while before lowering her gaze.

Xia Xingcheng stared at Ling Jiayue, and from start to finish, he was somewhat unsure whether he had merely imagined Ling Jiayue’s previous unfriendly gaze because the private room had been too dim.

Previously, the scene where the uniform-clad Xia Xingcheng thought over and discussed the case details in his office were shot on the same day.

This scene was set after Zheng Xujiang gave Han Bohan the supplemented materials on Sun Xunyan’s falling incident. Along with the information about the incident, Han Bohan had also requested the police to gather the testimonies of the friend Cao Yuxiang had contact with before his death. The friend in question was his middle school friend. It was the summer holidays, and Cao Yuxiang had come back from university for a vacation. A day before his accident, he had met up with this friend.

Han Bohan had Xiao Wei look at the materials of Sun Xunyan’s falling accident first. When Xiao Wei took it from his hands, he said, “Sun Xunyan definitely didn’t jump off herself, it’s not as simple as that. I can’t understand how someone like Cao Yuxiang is worth committing suicide over.”

Han Bohan merely said, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

He was sitting on his chair, looking over the transcript of Cao Yuxiang’s classmate’s testimony. His expression remained serene from beginning to end—up until he turned to the third page. His gaze fell and paused on a certain section; he grabbed a pen on the table and, with the pen cap still on, he underlined a sentence. After that, he continued reading the rest of the document.

Sitting behind a desk not far from him, Xiao Wei abruptly jumped up and made his way over to Han Bohan’s desk with the transcript, then said. “Han ge, I think there’s a slight problem with this.”

Han Bohan raised his head to look at him.

Xiao Wei said, “The two students who confirmed that Cao Yuxiang and Sun Xunyan were dating were both Cao Yuxiang’s classmates. When they were asked how they knew of Cao Yuxiang and Sun Xunyan’s relationship, they said that Cao Yuxiang had told them himself. Cao Yuxiang said that he was pursuing Sun Xunyan, and after he said that he’d succeeded—from when he said so to when Sun Xunyan fell, there’s only a week in between.”

Han Bohan didn’t say anything, taking the transcript from Xiao Wei’s hands to read through it.

Xiao Wei half squatted in front of the desk, his eyes level with Han Bohan’s line of sight. He added, “Sun Xunyan’s homeroom teacher’s only said that they once saw Cao Yuxiang and Sun Xunyan leaving the school after evening self study. But leaving school together doesn’t always mean that two people are dating. When Sun Xunyan fell, Cao Yuxiang was the only one at the crime scene, of course Cao Yuxiang could make whatever claims he wanted to make.”

“Alone at the scene. Say whatever he wanted to say,” Han Bohan repeated Xiao Wei’s words seemingly unthinkingly.

Xiao Wei said, “A female student who hasn’t even been dating for a week would kill herself just because her boyfriend mentioned breaking up?”

Han Bohan looked at him. “Then what do you think?”

Xiao Wei stroked his chin and considered it for a while. “I have a guess. Would you say it’s possible that Sun Xunyan rejected Cao Yuxiang’s attempts at wooing her, and after school ended, he locked Sun Xunyan up in a classroom to rape her, upon which Sun Xunyan jumped and fell and turned into a vegetable. Because Cao Yuxiang was still harboring evil intentions in his heart, he climbed into Sun Xunyan’s bedroom at night to rape her, but was strangled to death by Sun Yao?”

Han Bohan took the transcript of Cao Yuxiang’s classmate’s testimony and gave it to Xiao Wei to read, then pointed at the part he had underlined just a moment ago. “Cao Yuxiang’s classmate said that they met up a day before Cao Yuxiang’s accident. Cao Yuxiang mentioned that he saw a female student he liked when he was in high school, and that he wanted to go find her.”

Xiao Wei leaned in to read the line carefully. Afterwards, he looked at Han Bohan, “Sun Xunyan?”

Han Bohan neither shook his head nor gave a nod. He only said, “It adds up—why Cao Yuxiang would break into Sun Yao’s house to rape Sun Xunyan.”

Overcome with righteous indignation, Xiao Wei cursed, “Bastard!”

Han Bohan put the transcript back down.

Xiao Wei said, “Sun Xunyan’s incident should be investigated. After all, what happened then is definitely not so simple.”

Han Bohan shook his head. “Cao Yuxiang is dead. It’s impossible to file another case, and there’s no way to investigate.”

Xiao Wei sighed. “Unless Sun Xunyan wakes up one day.”

Han Bohan was silent.

This case was in Han Bohan’s hands. After reporting to the section chief and the prosecutor general, and after talking it over with the administrative department, he ultimately decided to determine Sun Yao’s actions as legitimate defense, that it did not constitute a crime, and did not need to go to trial.

The prosecutor general asked whether there was room for further evidence. Han Bohan said that any possible addition had all been accounted for. All the evidence at present corroborated Sun Yao’s confession, and he had chosen to believe Sun Yao’s confession and viewed that Sun Yao’s actions were in line with legitimate defence. Furthermore, Sun Yao had a comatose daughter who currently had no one to take care of her, and as this case didn’t go to trial, it would be better to make haste and let Sun Yao out as early as possible so he could tend to his daughter.

The case went to the prosecution committee.

A prosecution committee member asked Han Bohan, “Sun Yao strangled the victim with his arm. The victim had already lost consciousness midway, yet he still didn’t let go. Why shouldn’t it be excessive self-defence?”

Han Bohan answered, “I believe that in that environment, Sun Yao had no way to calmly judge whether Cao Yuxiang had already lost his consciousness or not. When he released him the first time, Cao Yuxiang picked up the wooden stick and attempted to attack the father and daughter again. He strangled Cao Yuxiang the second time out of reasonable self-defense, and hadn’t dared to let go—this is understable. His intention was not to kill Cao Yuxiang, but to prevent him from continuing to attack himself and his daughter.”

Another committee member asked him, “Cao Yuxiang climbed in through a window intending to rape a comatose person on her bed—isn’t this behaviour a little strange?”

Han Bohan showed them an excerpt of the witness testimony from the investigation report. “The day before the incident, Cao Yuxiang told his former classmate that he had seen a female student he liked in his high school days, and that he wanted to seek her out. Cao Yuxiang’s actions seem unreasonable, but there’s an indication that can be tracked.”

By the end, the prosecution committee agreed with Han Bohan’s thoughts on the handling of Sun Yao’s suspected intentional homicide case.

Sun Yao would be acquitted.

The follow-up work concerning Sun Yao’s release had nothing to do with Han Bohan. He still had other cases to deal with, and Sun Yao was no longer of his concern.

That day, he drove to the detention centre as usual. The road in front of the city’s detention centre was always tightly packed with vehicles.

Han Bohan was planning to turn left at the intersection. A ways away from it, he stepped on the breaks and stopped behind a long line of cars waiting for the red light.

His car windows directly faced the iron gate of the detention centre for released detainees. The gate was closed, but there were many people stationed outside—those who’d come to meet their family members or friends who’d been released.

Han Bohan propped his head up on one hand and gazed out, and saw a girl in a white dress squatting at the foot of the detention centre’s outer walls near the iron gates, staring off into the distance.

Within the crowd waiting to meet the released detainees, the girl was truly too eye-catching. The moment Han Bohan saw her face, he immediately recalled that he’d seen her before.

He stared at the girl for a long time. She remained squatting motionlessly from start to finish, her expression unchanging. It was only once the light turned green and Xiao Wei who sat beside him urged him to drive that Han Bohan shifted gears and drove away.

☆ ☆ ☆

Thank you to anon, VitaB, and Tinsunny for the kofis!

t/n – i hope this chapter is coherent :’) if not please complain jksdhfsh

⟵ Chapter 118 | TOC | Chapter 120 ⟶

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