Volume One, Chapter 14: Still Early
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Zhou Jincheng had no intention of going back once he stepped outside. He glanced at his wristwatch.
“Is there anything else?”
He asked the female lawyer standing before him.
She was captivated by his face, but his question brought her back to reality, and she quickly said, “Oh, it’s like this—I’ve recently been doing legal aid and came across a case. I’m not sure if I should take it on...”
“Go ahead.”
Zhou Jincheng just wanted to hear her out quickly; he needed to get back and take his medicine.
“It’s about a single mother who was just released from prison and wants to regain custody of her child. But her daughter has a heart condition, the surgery is expensive, and the foster family...”
The female lawyer’s voice abruptly stopped. She noticed Zhou’s expression darkened slightly and didn’t dare continue.
“Yu Jin?”
Zhou’s tone was flat, but beneath his thin glasses, a rare shadow flickered in his eyes.
“Yes, the female convict’s name is Yu Jin.”
The female lawyer nodded, about to ask more but was cut off by Zhou’s words.
“Watch your words.”
“Y-Yes... the client,” she corrected under his impassive gaze.
She was curious—if Zhou knew this woman, why was she seeking legal aid? Wouldn’t it be a matter of a single word from Zhou to assign a lawyer for her case?
“Do you know her?”
“No need to take her case. It’s none of your business now. You may leave.”
Zhou’s reply was evasive and distracted.
“All right.”
The female lawyer glanced back repeatedly as she watched him drive away from the restaurant.
At the same time, Yu Jin said she wanted to buy some daily necessities and asked Du Yimei to take her to the supermarket near her home.
After leaving the supermarket again, she carried a plastic bag filled with toilet paper and laundry detergent.
From a distance, she noticed a tall man standing downstairs.
She kept her head down, paying no attention.
“Reporter Yu.”
She stopped, gripping the bag tightly—the voice was Zhou Jincheng’s.
Looking to the side, she was surprised.
Wasn’t he on a date with Wen Yu just now? Why was he here?
“Lawyer Zhou, what a coincidence.”
Yu Jin thought he probably didn’t live nearby—this area was full of small apartments, only suitable for single occupants, with cheap rent.
“Not a coincidence. I’m waiting for you.”
Zhou wore a deep black suit with a high-quality pale blue shirt underneath. The drape of his trousers accentuated his tall and upright figure.
He approached her with steady, unhurried steps, expressionless.
Just like... before.
Yu Jin didn’t understand why he had come. Instinctively, she took two steps back, clutching her bag tighter.
“Talk while we walk.”
Zhou seemed not to recognize her yet; his tone was even. She breathed a sigh of relief.
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“All right.”
They walked side by side, Yu Jin deliberately keeping a distance, enough space for another person between them.
Zhou had to look down to see her—her long curled lashes, delicate and slender features, a high bridge and small, slightly upturned nose.
He remembered Chu Nanqing also had delicate features, though her nose wasn’t as high but still not low.
“Lawyer Zhou, what’s this about?”
Yu Jin waited a long time with no word from him. Approaching her doorstep, the atmosphere felt strange.
Zhou lowered his gaze, his voice low and steady.
“You entrusted the Legal Aid Center. Does that mean you don’t trust my abilities?”
Yu Jin was stunned and stopped, looking up at him.
How did he know about this?
Of course—he was a prominent lawyer with many close colleagues. If she hired a lawyer, there was no way to hide it from him.
“No.”
She denied it firmly.
It wasn’t a doubt about his capability; she was all too aware of how powerful he was.
If he wanted, he could shape the outcome of any case in countless ways.
“If not that, then why?”
Zhou looked down at her with a stern expression, much like when he once asked her:
Why did you always follow me?
At the lecture hall, the cafeteria, the library—wherever he went, she appeared.
The difference now was that Yu Jin’s face showed no blush; she dared to meet his eyes.
“No reason. I just want to change lawyers. Don’t I have that right?”
“Of course you do.”
“But among all the cases I’ve handed you but you didn’t take on, who else in Jingjiang would?”
“Even if they took your money, your daughter wouldn’t come back.”
Mentioning Xiao Jing, Yu Jin’s expression changed subtly. Her fingers curled tightly, the plastic bag’s handle digging painfully into her hand.
“I...”
“The Ji family hired an American legal team, including—” Yu Jin bit her lip, but her words were cut off.
“My teacher, Professor Chen Zongxi,” Zhou said without a trace of emotion, though his eyes beneath his glasses seemed to darken.
Not with respect, but with guilt.
Guilt toward whom?
It couldn’t be his teacher.
“If you worry I might deliberately lose the case to please my teacher, your concerns are unnecessary.”
“I have basic professional ethics. Even facing my teacher, I won’t go easy in court.”
He spoke each word steadily, his voice weighing heavily over Yu Jin.
A sourness rose at her nose; he was right. He had the minimum professional integrity and would be ruthless to anyone.
He could list her crimes before the judge with a poker face, watch her be sentenced, and then walk away resolutely.
For five years, he never once visited her at the Chengxi Women’s Prison.
Every time someone came, she was the first to look toward the door.
Even Du Yimei noticed—she was waiting for someone who would never arrive.
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“I understand. I’ll think it over.”
Yu Jin’s demeanor gave Zhou the strange impression that he was the one pleading with her.
He was the one desperate to take the case.
“How long will you consider?”
Yu Jin thought for a moment. “By tomorrow. I’ll leave you a message then.”
“I won’t harm you, Reporter Yu.”
His words made her shiver; her panicked eyes darted toward him before quickly looking away.
“Harm me...?”
“What’s wrong?”
Zhou watched her thin shoulders tremble, biting her lip, eyes reddened.
“Nothing. I should go home.”
“It’s still early.”
“No, it’s...”
This conversation felt familiar. When they first got together, he often worked late at the firm. A call would summon her out at midnight.
She wanted to return to the dormitory, but he said it was still early.
In the end, when the dorm door closed, she feared waking the aunt and getting in trouble, so Zhou took her to the firm.
At first, she slept on the sofa. Later...
Her first time was on his desk.
In the cold winter, the heating was on full blast, and the marble surface was unforgiving.
Yu Jin tilted her head up; her delicate nose almost touched his high bridge. He lowered his head, eyes closed, with long black lashes clearly visible.
He seemed about to fall asleep.
“Lawyer Zhou.”
Hearing the voice beside him, Zhou slowly opened his eyes, tiredness in them.
“Sorry.”
He should rest now; sleepiness had finally come.
Just as he turned to leave, only a few steps away from Yu Jin, he snapped wide awake, completely alert.
He raised his wrist; the back of his hand turned white as the platinum watch gleamed under the dim streetlight.
He was already late for his medicine.
What was that sleepiness just now? He usually couldn’t fall asleep in bed, yet now he nearly nodded off standing.
Yu Jin carried her things up the stairs to the sixth floor; the building had no elevator.
She wore flat shoes today, the faint sound of sand scraping underfoot.
The plastic bag’s handle bit painfully into her palm. At the fourth floor, she set the bag down to switch hands.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shadow on the third floor landing.
Just as she leaned over to look, darkness enveloped her; the shadow flashed past. She heard footsteps descending but saw no one.
She thought of the news article she had written today:
Recently, Jingjiang City has seen multiple cases of stalking; several women living alone were victims of home invasions and drug-facilitated sexual assaults...