In the name of love

When he got up to pay the bill, Ai Ting suddenly opened his mouth, his ageless face looked a bit gloomy looking at the setting sun outside the window.

"Yes, please tell me, Chief Ai." Ji Lan said seriously.

Ai Ting pursed his lips, seemingly hesitating for a long time.

"...Prosecutors cannot apologize. An apology is something they do only to ask for forgiveness and want to shirk responsibility. The moment a prosecutor decides to prosecute the defendant, he is doomed to bear that responsibility for the rest of his life, regardless of whether the prosecution is correct or not. Whether or not, he cannot escape, nor should he."

Both Ji Lan and Yulu listened quietly until Ai Ting turned around and lowered his head in front of Ji Lan.

"But if you see Ye Chang, please replace me, Ai Ting, and say 'sorry' to him."

Ai Ting lowered his head heavily as he spoke.Until they left the cafe, Yuli didn't see him look up.

Yulu and Ji Lan walked together on the sidewalk at night, both of them had a lot of emotions in their hearts, and they were silent with each other for a while, until Ji Lan spoke first.

"Next Monday is the judgment day." Ji Lan said.

Yulu glanced at Ji Lan's profile.

"Well, it depends on the verdict," he said.

In fact, from the last verbal debate to the present, there are still many doubts in Yulu's heart.Including the enigmatic cross-examination when Xiaoxin came on stage at the end of that day.

It feels like Xiao Xin is protecting that man named Lu Xing.After reading Lu Xing's letter, Yulu actually felt the contradiction in this person's heart.He said that what he did was to give love to others, but he also said that he was a sinful person, and that God had forgiven him, but in the end he wanted others to punish him.

After all, this person is afraid.Yulu thought, he was just a person who dared not face his own destiny.

What puzzles Yulu is that Xiaoxin was sexually assaulted by Lu Xing, which is almost the "truth" that is ready to come out, but Xiaoxin is still unwilling to identify the murderer in court after being hurt by Lu Xing in this way.

"What is the senior thinking?"

Ji Lan asked suddenly, and Yulu realized that he had been paying attention to him.

"Oh, I was thinking about your conversation with that kid, in court."

Yulu replied blankly: "Didn't you ask him 'Did Lu Xing force you?'? As a result, the child seemed to answer 'No, I'm sorry.' But Lu Xing should have done nothing wrong with forcing Xiaoxin, right? Anyway, a child and an adult have consensual sexual intercourse, and they didn't have any such tacit understanding before, no matter how you think about it, it's impossible!"

Ji Lan seemed to glance at him with a subtle expression, at least Yulu couldn't read the meaning of his glance.

"In this case, there is one thing that I have always found very strange."

In the end, Ji Lan didn't answer his question directly, but spoke in her usual soft tone.

"strangeness?"

"Well, it's about the cigarettes." Ji Lan said slowly while walking: "Didn't Ye Chang and Ms. Wu both testify that there was a smell of cigarettes when they walked into the toilet? That's all for Ye Chang, he was in Luxing I followed into the toilet not long after, and Lu Xing was probably still smoking at that time, so it is not surprising that there is a smell of smoke."

"However, Ms. Wu entered the toilet after 06:30 p.m., that is, after Lu Xing had sexually assaulted Xiaoxin and left the toilet after destroying the evidence. At least one hour had passed. According to reasonable It is inferred that Lu Xing probably took the cigarette butt away or flushed it away, and since the toilet has a transom and the door is open, the smell of cigarettes should not stay until Ms. Wu enters the door."

"What the hell is..." Yulu's mind froze again.

"I couldn't figure this out at the time, but the smell of smoke was beneficial to Ye Chang. Since the prosecutor had no objection, I didn't want to expose the weakness of my argument."

Ji Lan shrugged, "But after that cross-examination... plus this letter, I finally understand, it should be said, I finally found the 'answer'."

He took a shallow breath.

"The reason why the smell of smoke didn't go away is because the cigarette butt was still lit, at least until Ms. Wu went into the toilet."

Yulu couldn't react for a while, "It's still on fire...?"

"Well, it literally means that not only did Lu Xing not throw the cigarette butt into the toilet to flush it, but also because he was too panicked after committing the crime, he could not care about the future, so he lit the cigarette butt and left it in the toilet. It was burning, so when Ms. Wu entered the door, she could smell such a strong smell of smoke."

"Wait, wait a minute." Yulu was a little confused, "But didn't the police say that they didn't find any cigarette butts in the toilet? Lu Xing didn't extinguish it himself, so where did the cigarette butts go?"

"Lu Xing didn't destroy the evidence, someone did it for him."

Yulu's terrified appearance seemed to finally arouse Ji Lan's smile, and the beautiful facial features seemed not so gloomy, "And this person was the only one who was still in the toilet at that time."

"The only one left in the toilet? Ah, you mean..."

Yulu opened his mouth wide, but couldn't make a sound for a moment. He stood blankly on the sidewalk next to the road, feeling his heartbeat surging with the sound of the growing car.

"Yes, Xiao Xin, who briefly woke up from a coma, probably heard the noise outside! He knew that someone was coming, and vaguely knew that Lu Xing had escaped, which made him feel relieved, but he looked up. , but found a burning cigarette not far away. Seeing Lu Xing smoking and watching the sunset in the courtyard for so long, Xiaoxin must recognize whose cigarette it is."

Ji Lan's voice is still full of storytelling charm.

"Those were Lu Xing's cigarettes—the cigarettes that belonged to 'Papa'. Even though he was only ten years old, Xiaoxin vaguely knew that what Lu Xing did to him was very bad, and it was unforgivable in the adult world. 'If this cigarette is found, Dad will be arrested, right?'”

"Xiao Xin, who was thinking this way, fought his bloody and exhausted body, and stretched out that little hand of redemption to the still burning cigarette butt..."

Can't let "Daddy" get caught.

"Daddy" cannot be turned into a bad person.

"Dad" didn't do anything bad. It was me who did the wrong thing, and I hurt him.

Yulu stood in the cold November night wind, the corners of his eyes suddenly became moist.

He could almost see how the scarred young man reached out to grab the burning cigarette butt at the last moment, as if grasping the last trace of longing for his father, stood up resolutely, and threw the cigarette butt into the toilet , flushed away, and collapsed back to the floor after exhausting all his strength.

So, I have to protect "Dad"...

Standing on the busy street, Yulu took a few deep breaths to calm down his emotions.He finally gradually understood what Ji Lan said in court.

Sanjiu in the name of love

Standing on the busy street, Yulu took a few deep breaths to calm down his emotions.He finally gradually understood what Ji Lan said in court.

Ten-year-old children are still at the stage of vaguely understanding the so-called human instinctive sexual behavior.

As Huai Yu said, people seem to have an innate instinct to avoid fear when it comes to sex. Perhaps the hidden education of society and adults also has a blessing effect. For children, sex is like a mysterious and unsolvable things that excite them mixed with a sort of immoral shame.

Yulu thinks that Xiaoxin has made a friend who he regards as his "father", which actually contains elements of fighting against his single mother who loves gambling. "My mother is not good to me, so I want a father who is better than my mother." But while doing this, Xiaoxin also felt guilty. He still loved his mother, and he thought it was wrong to associate with strangers behind his mother's back.

When Lu Xing hugged Xiaoxin, Xiaoxin's sense of guilt might really turn into fear. Is it really okay to go on like this?Is it better to let mother know?That incident happened when Xiaoxin was still struggling with longing for Lu Xing and guilt for his mother.

Xiaoxin trusted Lu Xing. According to Lu Xing's letter, before sexually assaulting Xiaoxin, he said to Xiaoxin, "I did these things to you because I love you."

But for a ten-year-old child, sexual intercourse only brings him pain. In terms of the status quo of heterosexual education dominating, Xiaoxin may not even have the opportunity to realize that this kind of same-sex behavior is called sexual intercourse.

He just felt pain, pain, and discomfort.This feeling is no different from an adult beating and punishing him.

Why did this happen?Why would he be punished like this?

My mother is not wrong, I betrayed my mother, "Dad" is not wrong, "Dad" just because he loves me.

It must be me who is wrong.

It's my fault. I cheated on my mother, so I was punished by my father.

Yulu suddenly understood why Xiaoxin, who had been listless all the time, suddenly became relieved after receiving the painting that Lu Xing put in the mailbox.He must have felt that this painting represented his father's forgiveness, that his father was no longer angry with him, and that after severely punishing him, he was a good boy again.

"It turns out that what Pheromones said is not completely unreasonable..."

Yulu said with emotion, and Ji Lan glanced at him, "Mr. Huai helped us a lot, especially during the final oral debate."

Yulu was taken aback, although he was more surprised that Ji Lan knew who the pheromones were.

"help?"

"Well, didn't I tell a very long 'story' in court? But in fact, until the night before the trial, I still couldn't understand Lu Xing's mental state when he finally decided to sexually assault Xiaoxin.