Chapter 307: The Absent Defense Attorney

Wu Meng looked at Bai Qi and me, sighing. "Take care of yourself, Gao Jian. If you need anything, just let me know, and I'll do my best to pull some strings for you."

"Just take good care of Bai Qi. Don't worry about the rest."

Wu Meng left with Bai Qi about ten minutes later. As far as he was concerned, this visit was likely the last time he would ever see me.

The law does not accommodate human feelings. The situation was heavily stacked against me. Not a single lawyer was willing to take the case; in anyone's eyes, overturning the verdict was impossible.

"Court opens tomorrow, and you're still dreaming of recanting your confession today? Keep dreaming!" Wu Yang sneered, shutting the hospital room door. "That lawyer you hired isn't exactly reliable, either. You two plotted for two days, leaving him with less than twenty-four hours to actually prepare. And he wants to slip under the police radar? Spring a surprise rescue? What an absolute joke."

I barely spared Wu Yang a glance in response to his mocking tirade, instead resuming my circulation of the Profound Truth Mental Method to accelerate my physical recovery.

I had to prepare for both possibilities. If Du Yu succeeded, great, but the odds were slim. He had far too little time; asking him to pull it off was practically demanding a miracle. If he failed, my transfer to prison would be my last chance to escape. I needed to get my body back to peak condition as quickly as possible.

...

At eight o'clock the next morning, before I had even eaten breakfast, the doctor entered my room flanked by armed police to give me a comprehensive physical examination.

"It's truly astonishing. Despite such severe injuries and mild internal bleeding, he's mostly recovered today. The man's vitality is incredibly tenacious."

The doctor and nurses marveled repeatedly, while Wu Yang let out a sigh of relief. "Looks like court can proceed as scheduled."

He had been worried my physical condition would delay the trial, but now there was clearly no need for concern.

Lunch was exceptionally lavish, feeling very much like a last meal.

I wolfed it down and was escorted out of the room by the armed police, still wearing my hospital gown. "Enjoying" the fearful, awestruck gazes of the patients lining the halls, I was led to the hospital entrance, where three police cars had long been waiting.

Wu Yang pushed me into the middle vehicle. To prevent any escape attempts, the three cars drove in a tight, snake-like convoy, keeping their speed strictly controlled.

"Behave yourself. Our guns are fully loaded, and we have the authorization to shoot you on sight." My handcuffed hands were draped under a jacket, affording me the final sliver of dignity granted to a prisoner.

"Don't worry, I won't do anything stupid," I promised verbally. But hidden beneath the jacket, unseen by anyone, my fingers gripped a metal hairpin—swiped from a nurse during my physical checkup.

I bent the metal pin into the exact shape I needed. Completely unnoticed by Wu Yang, I unlocked and relocked my handcuffs, practicing the motion several times.

The convoy drove directly to the Jiangcheng People's Court. With sirens blaring the whole way, traffic parted around us, and we soon reached our destination.

Over twenty steep stone steps led up to the courthouse entrance. The foundation stood several meters taller than the surrounding buildings, overtly projecting the absolute majesty of the state machine.

The entire structure was built with sharp, rigid angles, radiating an inviolable aura of solemn, forbidding authority.

By the time I arrived, a massive crowd of reporters and police had already gathered outside. My case had sent shockwaves through Jiangcheng. What was even more despicable was the invisible hand working in the shadows to inflame public sentiment, actively trying to link me to the unsolved serial killings from five years ago.

Before the media could swarm us, the armed police escorted me down a side path and directly into the courthouse's holding cell.

"Reporters from every major outlet are here. A trial of this magnitude is utterly unprecedented in Jiangcheng." Wu Yang pulled the jacket off my handcuffed wrists and sneered. "The whole world is watching you, Gao Jian. Even if you're sentenced to death, you can die satisfied with the attention."

Sitting on the holding cell's hard wooden bench, I didn't bother to look up. The Jiang family was entirely responsible for this circus. They wanted to sentence me to death out in the open, using public opinion to pressure the authorities into skipping standard legal procedures. It was why my trial was being held a mere three days after my arrest.

'What a ruthless move, Old Master Jiang!' He thoroughly understood that long nights bring many dreams. He also knew his own hands weren't as clean as they appeared. If I were given enough time to catch my breath, hire a competent lawyer, and prepare a real defense, this lawsuit would have dragged on for months without a verdict.

Glancing at the wall clock, I saw it was 2:10 PM. Fifty minutes until the trial began.

The door of the holding cell opened. Judicial police officers from the courthouse bailiff squad entered and changed my outer clothes. Then they stepped outside to stand guard alongside the armed police, ensuring I couldn't make contact with anyone.

At 2:40 PM, a bailiff walked over to me, his brow furrowed. "Court is about to commence. Why hasn't your defense attorney arrived yet? Did you actually retain one?"

'No one came?' My heart skipped a beat at the news, a flurry of chaotic thoughts racing through my mind. 'Did something happen to Du Yu? Given his past behavior, he doesn't seem like the type to be late. Is he really an undercover cop?'

"He talked a big game, but now he's acting like a coward," Wu Yang scoffed. "This attorney you hired really is a joke."

"Just wait. Court hasn't started yet, has it? He'll be here," I replied evenly. Forcing down the chaotic thoughts bubbling up in my chest, I sat back in the cell and silently recited the Profound Truth Dao Chant to center my mind.

"You're awfully optimistic. I doubt he's showing up," Wu Yang said, finally venting his lingering resentment. "You're public enemy number one right now—everyone is out for your blood. Who would willingly invite that kind of trouble just to help you? A man would have to be an absolute idiot to go against the entirety of Jiangcheng for your sake!"

Exhaling the stale and inhaling the fresh, I guided Qi into my body. With the steady ticking of the clock echoing in my ears, my restless heart slowly found peace.

At 2:50 PM, the bailiffs took over from the armed police and marched me down an internal corridor. This passageway led directly into the courtroom and was designed specifically for the most heinous, high-profile criminals. It was built with the explicit purpose of protecting defendants from being attacked by furious, grieving families.

Walking through the long, suffocating corridor, I suddenly realized I wasn't panicked at all as I finally faced my impending trial. 'What is meant to come, will come.'

Bright light washed over me. The instant I stepped out of the corridor, I became the focus of the entire room.

Generally, photography and recording are strictly forbidden in a courtroom without prior judicial authorization. But this case was an exception. With public outrage boiling over such a monumental scandal, the authorities had allowed several major media networks to jointly livestream the trial—both to placate the masses and to publicly demonstrate the unyielding majesty of the law.

The court had set only a few basic ground rules for the gallery: all communication devices were to be turned off, and clapping, shouting, or any other behavior that disrupted the proceedings was strictly prohibited.

At 2:55 PM, I was marched over to the defendant's seat. The bailiffs unlocked my handcuffs, taking up positions flanking me to control my arms on either side.

In stark contrast to the desolate defendant's desk, the prosecution's side was packed. While I didn't recognize most of the faces, I did spot a few familiar figures. Jiang Chen sat in the very front. Beside him was a lawyer around forty years old, dressed in a sharp black suit with his hair meticulously combed. The excessive amount of hairspray, however, gave him a rather stiff, uncomfortable look.

The man wore a pair of thin-framed French Essilor glasses; the frames alone were easily worth eight thousand francs.

'Gou Changzheng?'

My gaze swept further back through the crowd, eventually landing on Balding Uncle and the old man from the Xinhu High School convenience store.

It was obviously their first time attending a court hearing. Mimicking the people around them, they sat rigidly upright, too intimidated to speak or even shift in their seats.

I had been brought to the largest courtroom in the Jiangcheng People's Court, capable of accommodating a gallery of a hundred people.

Court was about to commence, and the gallery was fully packed. The front rows had been seized by several major media outlets. With a cursory glance at the nearly one hundred spectators, I realized I couldn't spot a single familiar face.

'There are familiar faces among the prosecution, yet not a single person in this entire gallery is here to speak up for me.' A pang of desolate sorrow welled up inside me. Sea after sea of unfamiliar faces stared at me with morbid excitement—the vast majority of them likely planted here by the Jiang family.

'They truly blot out the sky with one hand. Are they even manipulating the gallery and the jury?' My eyes darkened. The scene from five years ago might repeat itself. But what was even more terrifying this time was that my enemies had dragged me straight into the courtroom. Armed with crucial evidence for twenty-one separate charges, they had completely severed my avenues of escape.

'I saved this city, yet will it abandon me now?'

Finally, my eyes drifted over to the defense attorney's desk. The empty seat stared back, as if silently mocking me.