In the name of love

... "

"Come up! Do you hear me?"

Ms. Wu said eagerly, as if she was afraid that Ji Lan would have contact with the boy.Xiaoxin pouted again, looked curiously at Ji Lan and Yulu who were sitting on the sofa, and then turned and went upstairs reluctantly.

Seeing Ji Lan straighten up, Yulu seemed to want to stop him for a moment, but then he did it back as if giving up.Seeing Ms. Wu pushing the wheelchair back to the table, he asked:

"Your son...is he in good condition?"

Ms. Wu glanced at Ji Lan, her eyes were full of tiredness that could not be concealed.

"Well, now I can only eat the liquid food prescribed by the hospital. I have undergone a minor operation on my intestines and I am still recovering. The broken ankle is still not healed. Other than that, there is nothing serious..."

Ji Lan showed a gratified expression from the bottom of her heart. "That's really great. I saw the news before and thought..."

Ms. Wu suddenly woke up and added, "At first, it was really miserable at the beginning, and I couldn't move in bed, but after all... After all, it has been several months."

She looked at Ji Lan's face without a trace of falsehood, and for a while showed an expression like giving up.

"...It's not wrong to exaggerate in the news. But the prosecutor told me that it would be better to exaggerate the report, which is more beneficial to the case, so I didn't care about it, as long as we don't report our names. Xiaoxin Her tutor knew about it, she saw the news and even called home to ask Xiaoxin if he needed to suspend school."

Yulu feels a little bit emotional, angels and demons are always relative, and the media has never been stingy with either side.

"What about your mood? Is Xiaoxin still in a stable condition?" Ji Lan asked gently.

Ms. Wu seemed to be completely affected by Ji Lan's tone, and she answered along the way: "I was worried about this at first, but the child refused to say anything. Before the police station, people from the Women's and Children's Police Team came to ask him, and some Social workers came to make home visits...but Xiao Xinli ignored them, he locked himself in the room for a long time, only willing to talk to me, and refused to even do the injury test."

Ji Lan nodded, Yulu had heard about this incident since the beginning of the case.

"But the prisoner was identified by Xiaoxin, wasn't he?" Ji Lan lowered her voice and asked again.

"Identify...? Is there such a thing?"

Ms. Wu looked a bit taken aback, and it took her a long time to remember, "Ah, is that that one? A policewoman took a list of photos of people's heads and asked Xiaoxin if she could remember who raped him. But Xiaoxin Believe him or not, the policewoman pointed to one of the photos and asked: Is it this person? Xiaoxin seemed to nod at that time... and it seemed that he didn't, and the policewoman left happily. If it is identified, it is probably that."

Ji Lan and Yulu looked at each other, and they both saw helplessness in each other's eyes.Yulu has done a few criminal cases more or less, and knows that such things are usually just a cover, but he didn't expect it to be like this.

"And then...? Since when did Xiaoxin want to speak?" Ji Lan asked again.

"Later... after the social worker persuaded Xiaoxin to go for an injury test, after a while, Xiaoxin gradually became willing to talk. But he still didn't want to mention what happened that day. The social worker went back and forth several times, wanting to talk to Xiaoxin. Talk more."

Ms. Wu rubbed her wrinkled brows.

"A lot of people have come here these days, wanting to talk to Xiaoxin, including the police, social workers, and others from the White Rose Foundation... Every time they come, they bring candy to Xiaoxin, which is what Xiaoxin asked just now. But Xiaoxin Xin is willing to chat with them about God of War and Pleasant Goat, but as soon as it mentions something related to the case, Xiao Xin's attitude is very repulsive."

Ms. Wu paused, then suddenly said, "Ah, I remembered..."

Ji Lan leaned over, "What do you remember?"

"Xiaoxin, he received a letter from a classmate. It seems that he suddenly became willing to talk to people because of receiving that letter."

"What letter?"

Ji Lan hurriedly asked, Ms. Wu lowered her body, rummaged for a while under the coffee table full of sundries and newspapers, took out a stack of bundled letters, rummaged inside for a while, took out a thin piece of cardboard, Spread it in front of Ji Lan and the others, "This is it! That kid didn't put away anything, so I have to clean up the aftermath."

Both Yulu and Ji Lan turned their heads to look at it, and when they saw it, they couldn't help but let out a soft "ah".

There is no writing on the cardboard, only graffiti drawn with crayons.

And this graffiti is nothing but the family portrait that Yulu had seen in the materials, painted on the wall of the atrium.

It's just that the painter seems to be more refined, and bright colors are added. After Yulu actually met Xiaoxin, the boy in the painting felt more like him, as if he had watched Xiaoxin copy it.

"I think it should be sent by his classmates... This kind of graffiti is clearly drawn by children, but I don't know why I drew a family portrait. It should be because I know the situation of our family, so I specially drew this to cheer for Xiaoxin. Some classmates used to come to play with him at home. He was a very lively and popular kid before, and he could chat with anyone..."

"Did your son not say anything when he saw this painting?" Ji Lan asked calmly.

Ms. Wu thought for a moment, then shook her head, "I asked him which classmate sent it to him, but he just held the painting, looked at it for a long time, and then dropped it. But I could tell he was very happy. "

"Where is the envelope of this letter? Is there a postmark or something?" Yulu suddenly thought.

Ms. Wu shook her head again. "The envelope is an ordinary kraft paper bag, and it was stuffed directly into my mailbox. There is no stamp on it."

"When was it?" Ji Lan asked, "When did you receive this painting?"

Ms. Wu really thought about it, "This is what happened... a week later. Or maybe two weeks, I'm not sure..." She put on the embarrassed look in court again.

Yulu saw Ji Lan looked back at him, a week later, just before Lu Xingyuan left for Australia.It was almost certain that this was what Lu Xing sent to the boy. Seeing the excitement in Ji Lan's eyes, Yulu turned to Ms. Wu again.

"Mrs. Wu, can you give us this picture?" He asked earnestly.

Yulu saw that Ms. Wu raised her head and looked at Ji Lan's unshaded eyes.

"...Is it really not him?"

she asked, her voice hoarse.

"Really... Isn't it that person? Did the court arrest the wrong person? You didn't lie to me?"

Ji Lan and Yulu looked at each other again, Ji Lan seemed to think for a long time before speaking slowly.

"I don't know, Ms. Wu, no one knows." Ji Lan looked at her. "That's why we need courts. Only when everyone involved in it does their best, will there be no regrets. Leave people like me sorry."

Ms. Wu was silent for a long time. Yulu saw her let go of the drawing paper, and Ji Lan gave her a grateful look, carefully accepted it and folded it.

When the two packed up the materials and got up from the sofa, Ms. Wu suddenly spoke again in a low voice.

"Were you... scared?" She asked Ji Lan.

Ji Lan was startled, and Ms. Wu added: "I mean, you were kidnapped."

Yulu saw that Ji Lan didn't seem to expect that the topic would turn back to him, so he paused for a while before answering. "Of course I'm afraid... I was worried that he would kill me. When I was young, I liked reading books, especially novels. Kidnappers in mystery or criminal novels would tear up their tickets before ransoming them. I was afraid that he would do the same. Do it."

His tone was calm, but Ms. Wu shook her head. "No...I don't mean when you were kidnapped, you said you...by him...by that bad guy...when you did those things."

Ms. Wu looked a little embarrassed.

"Would you be afraid? How did you feel then?"

Seeing Ji Lan, Yulu's face turned slightly pale in an instant.The young man sitting on the sofa seemed to be no longer the young lawyer who ruled the court. Back in time, Yulu seemed to see a nine-year-old boy sitting in the small room of the police station, curled up, wrapped in a blanket, accepting the Questions that adults seem to understand but do not understand.

"...Yeah." Seeing Ji Lan, Yulu forced a smile, "Of course I'm scared."

"Are you crying?" Ms. Wu seemed to be addicted to asking, and continued to ask, "Are you struggling? Did you say anything to that bad guy? Or did he say something to you..."

"Mrs. Wu." Yulu stood up, maintaining a business smile as much as possible.But he saw that Ji Lan on the sofa had already clenched his suit pants tightly, and his chest under the coat was suppressing his breathing.Yulu could see that the young man in front of him was trying his best to endure something.

"Feel sorry."

Ms. Wu soon noticed it too, and she quickly lowered her head, "Sorry...I...I asked too many questions."

She was a little panicked, sipped her saliva and said, "Because I... I don't know what Xiaoxin went through, and I can't accompany him through it, I think if I know what he really went through, I can help him ...I don't know what to do with him going through those things."

She was incoherent.Seeing Ji Lan pursed her lower lip, Yulu took a shallow breath.

"Well, I understand." Ji Lan said calmly: "No one will know how to go through that."

Ms. Wu sent them all the way to the gate of the courtyard, and the sun had already set in the west.In a few hours they would be standing in court, defenders and prosecutors, confronting each other.But now Ji Lan was just pushing Ms. Wu's wheelchair, and the two of them looked up at the setting sun in the distance.

"May I ask you one last thing, Mrs. Wu?" Ji Lan asked while saying goodbye.

Ms. Wu looked at him unexpectedly, and Ji Lan said: "My son, he... I have little faith in him, and I miss him very much."