Li Min's words surprised the police present. Through handling cases previously, they’d seen a lot of shameless people in their time, but they had never seen people as shameless as the deceased, Zheng Guohao.

Lin Qiupu roughly recorded Li Min's words and said, “I will check what you said. Don’t leave Long’an in the near future and keep your phone on.”

Li Min slapped his chest really hard. “My body stands straight and tall and I’m not afraid of my shadow being slanted[1]. I didn't kill him. Please investigate as you please... But can my daughter's affairs be kept confidential?”

“You can rest assured on that.”

After bidding farewell to Li Min, Lin Qiupu read Lin Dongxue's message in the project group. She sent, “Attorney Bai has been killed. Hurry on over if you can. The address is...”

“No way?” Lin Qiupu directed the crowd. “Let’s hurry over.”

Attorney Bai died in his own home. When Lin Dongxue and Chen Shi didn’t get through to his phone, they went to his office. Colleagues said that he didn’t come to work today, so they went to his house to visit him. The curtains were closed and his car was parked downstairs.

After knocking on the door several times, no one answered. Chen Shi had a bad gut feeling. He immediately broke the door open and found Attorney Bai dead on the sofa.

He was wearing a button-up shirt, home trousers, and slippers. He lay on the sofa with his eyes rolled back. His chest was stabbed with a sharp weapon and the blood had already spilled into a large pool. He held some documents in his hands. A lot of blood dripped onto the documents that were scattered on the ground.

Chen Shi picked up some documents and skimmed over them. “These are all the previous cases of sexual assault. Isn't this person only responsible for representing rapists?”

Lin Dongxue said, “The door lock is intact... He looks like he was talking to someone about the case, and the murderer should have been brought in by Attorney Bai... The way he’s dressed...”

“What do you think of it?” Chen Shi encouraged.

“He seems to have returned home, ready to rest, but then he suddenly had a guest visit, so he hurriedly put on a button-up shirt.”

“Correct!” Chen Shi went to the bathroom and glanced inside. “The hot water was still boiling in there. If this deadly visitor didn't come, he might have taken a bath and gone to bed... It should have been a case committed last night.”

Chen Shi squatted down, looked at the glass coffee table at an angle so that the light hit the table, and said, “A cup was put on the table. Was it taken away?”

“The poisoning method again?”

Chen Shi went into the kitchen. From the house’s details, it could be seen that Attorney Bai was very fond of neatness and order. He may even have obsessive-compulsive disorder. Everything was arranged in an extremely organized manner. Chen Shi opened the cupboards row after row until he found a drawer that only held glass cups. There were two which had water stain on them, and they were placed haphazardly compared to everything else.

“The killer washed out the cups and put them away. Presumably, they didn't want people to see that they had drunk something face to face with the victim.” Chen Shi pushed the drawer closed, ensuring that it looked the way it was left when Peng Sijue arrived.

Chen Shi went to the study and picked up the schedule on Attorney Bai’s desk. On yesterday's schedule, there was no mention that any guests would be visiting in the evening.

Lin Dongxue asked, “Do you think the killer is the same person?”

“It’s a clean murder. It should be the same person. The murderer may be a woman. A young and most probably beautiful woman. That’s most likely why Attorney Bai would relax his vigilance... By the way, he had the documents of sexual assault cases in his hand. It seemed like he was consulting the visitor about it. It’s clearly not his area of expertise, so the killer must have been really drawn to the victim.”

“If it’s the same person, the scope should be quite narrow. She must have been sexually assaulted by Zheng Guohao and the defense lawyer in that case was Attorney Bai, so she decided to take revenge against two people at the same time.”

“Really?” Chen Shi expressed doubts. “Don't make presumptions. The murderers may also have been two women. Maybe there’s no such connection at all... Let’s go out and take a breather. The smell of blood in the house is really pungent.”

When he got outside, Chen Shi’s smoking addiction acted up. He yawned as he felt his body instinctively ache for it.

“Hmm?” Lin Dongxue raised her eyebrows, as if gently warning him.

Chen Shi smiled. “You don't know how uncomfortable giving up these little sticks are. I didn't sleep well last night.”

“You didn’t have any when you went home?”

“No, you can ask Yueyue.”

“Really good!” Lin Dongxue patted him, then took out a box of small candies, poured one on her palm, and offered, “It’s a reward for you.”

Chen Shi chewed on the small candy and said, “If only it tasted like nicotine.”

“Fuck you!” Lin Dongxue poked him.

Peng Sijue and Lin Qiupu subsequently arrived at the scene one after another, accompanied by an expert in the information department. He turned on Attorney Bai's computer and Chen Shi said, “Let me take a look!”

Attorney Bai's big desk and chair were very comfortable. Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue were sitting there, browsing the files on Attorney Bai’s computer. Chen Shi found that Attorney Bai was very serious and his personal life was the same. There was no messy content on his computer. The sites he visited were all professional legal forums.

An annual salary of over a million wasn’t due to a scam. His life was work and his work was life. But thinking of Attorney Bai’s young age dying like this when he had so much money in the bank, Chen Shi couldn’t help but think of a sentence in Zhao Benshan’s comedy sketch, “Dying with unspent money.”

In one folder, it was all the cases handled by Attorney Bai. They opened them one by one and Lin Dongxue asked, “How many scumbags has he defended?”

“You can't put it like that. The justice of the courts is represented here. Even the most sinful people are allowed to hire a lawyer to defend themselves. This is legal justice.”

“That being said, if such a thing happened to me, after the lawsuit, not only would I not have had my justice, but I would also be slandered. I would definitely take revenge on this society...” Lin Dongxue paused. “Perhaps the murderer thought the same way as well.”

“I really agree with the caning punishment in Singapore. This group of rapists and sexual assaulters have done these bad things shamelessly. They feel that this kind of thing getting spread won’t make men lose face and that only the women would lose face… If we had the caning punishment, these kinds of men would think twice before they pull out their evil tool. Once he commits this kind of crime, he will be pulled to the public to be stripped and spanked. He would be the one who loses the most face and it’s a good deterrent.”

“The canings are too gentle of a punishment. They should be castrated with chemicals!” Lin Dongxue said with a smile.

“Let’s not deliberate about the law here like this. Don't forget your identities!” Lin Qiupu passing by the door couldn't bear to hear it anymore and told them off.

“I'm a driver. Can’t I talk about it?” Chen Shi raised his hand.

Finally, they found a case related to Zheng Guohao, which was truly shocking. Zheng Guohao was really the scum of scum who went wherever the legal gaps took him. He had committed indecent acts towards at least six young girls in the last ten years. Attorney Bai helped him win five lawsuits. He was found guilty for the crime of an overnight stay with indecent acts against a young girl. Zheng Guohao was sentenced to five years, but he was released early due to his good behavior in prison.

Zheng Guohao appeared to be a big client for Attorney Bai. All this information was recorded down by Chen Shi. He’d have to visit these other parties one by one.

1. He’s expressing that he didn’t do anything wrong, so he’s got nothing to worry about with truth on his side.