A madman in France? How come he's always at crime scenes!

The Criminal Investigation Brigade of Chuanhe District, Tongcheng City, responded quickly after receiving the report.

At 9:50 p.m., Zhao Anmin, the district captain, arrived at the scene with technicians and forensic doctors, set up a cordon, and turned on the high-powered lights.

Forensic doctor Lao Zhou had already gone down into the pit and squatted down to examine it for a long time.

"The soil has seeped into the bones; this ditch has been buried for at least ten years."

Old Zhou, with an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips, turned to look at Zhao Anmin, who had huddled close to the kang (a heated brick bed).

"The heavy rain a couple of days ago loosened the topsoil, which is why it's exposed now. If it had been a few days later, it would probably have been covered back up by mud."

Zhao Anmin stood on the edge of the ditch, looking down at the skeletal remains curled up in a ball at the bottom of the pit. The skull was tilted to one side, and the jaw was half-open, as if it were grinning at him sinisterly.

How precise can the time of death be?

"At first glance, it seems to have been more than ten years."

Old Zhou, wearing gloves, examined the bone. "We'll have to wait until we get it back for a carbon-14 dating test. But I'll let you know first: there's a depressed fracture in the back of the head, a blunt force injury. If it wasn't done by the person who reported it..."

That's most likely a murder case.

Zhao Anmin frowned; it was a case from over a decade ago.

At that time, Chuanhe District had not yet been changed from a county to a district, and Shiqiao Village was so remote that it didn't even have a decent cement road. There was no surveillance, no electronic records, and even the household registration files from that year might not be complete.

Where is the person who reported the crime?

"He left after giving his statement."

Detective Sun Jin, standing nearby, flipped through his notebook. "A lawyer from Yuanda Law Firm in the east of the city, named Wu Liang. He said he came to the village to provide legal advice. On his way back to the city at night, he stumbled upon a young couple who had fallen into a ditch. When he went to help, he discovered their bodies."

Zhao Anmin raised an eyebrow.

"What's your name?"

"Wu Liang. Wu (mouth-sky Wu), Liang (good-natured Liang)."

Zhao Anmin snorted through his nose.

"An unscrupulous lawyer? His parents must be quite something to have gotten this."

……

"Attorney Wu, we were introduced by Xiao Zhang." The old lady put the plastic bag on the table with tears in her eyes. The eggs rolled around in the bag a couple of times. "She said you are a very honest person."

Wu Liang glanced at the few boiled eggs, then at the elderly couple dressed in farm clothes, and swallowed back the "consulting fee of two hundred per hour" that was on the tip of his tongue.

"Could you please describe the situation? Is it a criminal or civil case?"

"My son ran someone over with his car!" The old man sighed heavily.

Who was the deceased?

"There was a woman in my son's neighborhood," the old woman wiped away her tears. "She was sleeping at the entrance of the garage. My son was driving to work this morning... and he ran her over."

"Um... driving over... wait?"

Wu Liang looked up in surprise. "Sleeping by the garage door?"

"Yes. That woman, right..."

The old lady's expression became somewhat subtle as she considered her words.

"I'm not talking badly about dead people behind their backs, Attorney Wu, but the whole neighborhood knows about this. She had a fight with her daughter-in-law, saying that her daughter-in-law poisoned her food to harm her, so she sleeps every day with a rolled-up blanket on the driveway in front of the garage."

"Not just on the streets," the old man added, his suppressed anger barely contained.

"She's picky. In the summer she sleeps under the shade of a tree, and in the winter she sleeps on the sunny side. She doesn't care if cars pass by. When the property management comes, she lies on the ground and rolls around. When the police come, she says her daughter-in-law sent them. Tell me, who would do that?!"

Wu Liang shook his head. When a person is down on their luck, even drinking cold water can cause them trouble.

Who would have thought that someone driving to work would run over and kill a person sleeping on the main road!

"She sleeps by the door of your son's garage. Does your son know?"

"How could I possibly know!"

The old lady sighed.

"My son, Zhou Hai, was leaving for work that morning, just as dawn was breaking. There was a small hill when the car was pulling out of the garage, creating a blind spot. The woman was wrapped in a blanket and sleeping right in the middle of the garage entrance, and my son didn't see her at all. As the car went down the hill after the front of the car, he felt a bump, and he thought he had hit a speed bump."

"and then?"

"Then, when he was waiting at a red light after driving out of the residential area, the driver of the car behind him caught up and banged on his window, saying that there was blood on his son's tires. My son got out of the car and was stunned when he saw it."

Wu Liang pondered for a moment.

"Attorney Wu."

The old lady pushed the eggs forward, her eyes red-rimmed.

"My son really didn't do it on purpose. He's been honest for half his life, how could he intentionally run someone over? He still can't get over it, he cries every day in the detention center, saying, 'Why don't we pay compensation? We'll pay any amount, we'll even sell the house...'"

Don't sell it.

Wu Liang interrupted.

The elderly couple stared wide-eyed at Wu Liang in disbelief.

Wu Liang closed his notebook and looked at them.

"I'll take this case."

"Thank you, thank you Attorney Wu! I'm just glad my son can get out, no matter how much compensation I have..."

"No need, ma'am," Wu Liang shook his head. "We'll file for acquittal in this case."

"By the way, do you have your two sons' car keys? Can I borrow them for a moment?"

……

After symbolically collecting a consultation fee of 100 yuan and seeing the elderly couple off, Wu Liang peeled a boiled egg and stuffed it into his mouth.

Zhang Jiajing poked her head out from the kitchen: "Boss, do you really think you can get away with this?"

"Let's look at the evidence."

"Someone died, after all. How can they be innocent?"

"There is definitely room for maneuver in this case." Wu Liang leaned back in his chair and rolled his eyes at Zhang Jiajing. "But we still need to find evidence. The more cards we have in our hand, the better we can handle this case."

Then he gave a wicked smile: "Besides, this case is so interesting! We can promote it and our law firm will become famous, right?"

Zhang Jiajing nodded thoughtfully, then patted her hunched chest, recalling the events of the previous night with lingering fear:

"Boss, do you think those skeletons could be part of a big case? They've been buried for who knows how many years!"

"Maybe his ghost is already haunting you, watching you from behind to see if you pass the bar exam?"

"Ouch! Boss, you're scaring me again!"

Zhang Jiajing was so angry that she slammed the kitchen door shut and decided to ignore the guy.

Wu Liang shrugged, reached into his pocket, and pulled out the small leather booklet.

He flipped through this booklet almost twice a day, hoping to find something new inside, but every time he opened it, it was the same short story, the same date, completely unchanged.

I returned from reporting the case in Shiqiao Village too late yesterday and went straight to bed after washing up. I didn't have much hope today, so I just casually flipped through the pages.

Eyes wide open.

The short story about the mountain girl and the human trafficker is still there, but below the story, above the originally blank date, several lines of text have been added.

Name: Wu Liang

Client: ?

[Case details: ?]

Wu Liang couldn't help but shudder.

really!

Wu Liang brought the booklet close to his nose and smelled it.

There was no smell of ink, and the handwriting looked like it had been on the book for a long time.

The sky outside the window was beginning to darken, and the law firm was quiet except for the clattering of vegetables being chopped and the sizzling of oil in the pan from the kitchen.

Wu Liang sat in the chair, holding the open booklet in his hand, sensing that something was quietly happening.

If the short stories in this booklet record the truth, then if I could get involved in this case...

Wait, isn't this supposed to be a legal article? How did it turn into a criminal investigation?

Just then, my phone vibrated in my pocket.

Wu Liang took out his phone; the screen displayed an unfamiliar number, a local number.

"Hello? This is Yuanda Law Firm..."

The voice on the other end was that of a middle-aged man, his tone indifferent and businesslike.

"Is this Attorney Wu Liang? I'm Zhao Anmin from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Chuanhe District."

"There are a few details I'd like to verify with you regarding the body in Shiqiao Village. If you're free tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, please come to the team's office."