Chapter 37 - Zuo Chao (1/2)

Chapter 37: Zuo Chao

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

After Li Sui hung the phone up, he immediately began booking a flight home. SiMa JingRong saw the change in Li Sui’s mood, so he went over to see what he was doing, “What happened? You’re going back now?”

“Hmn. It’s an urgent matter.” Li Sui said as he checked on his phone, he wasn’t in luck, the usual flights were either full or cancelled.

“You don’t have to book a flight. If you take my family jet, you can get home right now.” After saying that, SiMa JingRong called for the waiter to pay the tab.

“Are your matters over here done already?” Li Sui asked.

“What matters? I’m only here to have fun.” SiMa JingRong hurried him, “You’re in a hurry, right? That matters more.”

Fortunately, most of the things Li Sui needed to do here were done—all that’s left were small matters which didn’t really require Li Sui’s supervision. Li Sui asked a few trustworthy workers in the hotel to pack up his things for him while he rushed to the fishing village to get the turtle bait Lu Shang asked for.

When Li Sui returned to the house, the sky was still bright, and he was home earlier by at least three hours. No-one was in the house; Lu Shang must have gone out. Li Sui returned without much notice, so Aunt Lu wasn’t notified, and naturally she wouldn’t be here so early. Li Sui pulled his luggage up, then phoned the people in the bamboo dojo to get a better grasp of the situation. After he had a basic understanding of everything, he knew that this wasn’t a problem that could be dealt with anytime soon, so he went to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

Right after Li Sui finished preparing the bean sprouts, the door moved, and Lu Shang walked inside. Li Sui had a big smile on his face as he turned around to look at Lu Shang, but before he said anything, Lu Shang spoke, “Aunt Lu. Make some sweet soup, Li Sui is coming back tonight.”

Li Sui stared at Lu Shang changing his shoes, he asked in confusion, “Lu Shang?”

The person at the doorway was obviously fazed by the other’s voice, and he raised his head to look at Li Sui, then smiled and said, “You’re back.”

Li Sui was about to say something, but then he saw a purple bruise on Lu Shang’s head, and his expression changed immediately, “What’s wrong with your head? Did you get hit by something?”

“It’s fine. I just bumped into something.”

Li Sui walked over, holding Lu Shang’s face up for a careful inspection of the bruise, then he said with worry, “If you got hit a little further down, then it might have hurt your eye. Does it hurt? Did you apply medicine on it yet?”

“No, it’s just a small wound.” Lu Shang didn’t put much thought into it; he picked up his glasses from the drawer, then asked, “You’re so early today, have you finished everything already?”

“More or less. Today, I came back with JingRong.” Li Sui went for the first-aid kit in search for cotton swabs and medicine, “Uncle Yuen told me about the problem with brother Zuo, so I came back to help you.”

“That’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about.” Lu Shang took his blazer off, he sat down on the sofa and said, “I have already sent people to look after him at the holding center. However, getting him out on bail might not be easy, that would definitely take a while.”

“Did he fight them?” Li Sui squatted down in front of Lu Shang, then picked up some of the medicine using a cotton swab, carefully applying it onto Lu Shang’s forehead, “Hold still.”

Lu Shang closed his eyes and let Li Sui apply the medicine on him, “No, he didn’t, but one of his men did. That person even had weapons, the police found it on him. Zuo Chao was their leader, so he would be held accountable either way.”

“So, it could be said that he did fight, there’s no getting out of that.”

“Yes. What we have to be clear about is that he really did something wrong. We don’t have to think of ways to cover that up, what we need to focus on right now is how to get him…”

Lu Shang opened his eyes to see Li Sui staring at him with heavy eyes, so he asked, “What’s wrong?”

Li Sui said, “Give me a hug.”

Lu Shang laughed, he opened his arms, and the second he did that, Li Sui jumped him, hugging Lu Shang tightly. Li Sui’s chin was rubbing on Lu Shang’s neck, his eyes smiling happily, “I’ve missed you a lot.”

“How are you getting more childish the older you get?” Lu Shang smiled as he patted the back of Li Sui’s head.

“Don’t care.” Li Sui tightened the hug then said, “This minute is mine, even big brother Zuo has to stand aside.”

Somewhere in the holding center, Zuo Chao sneezed in the dark, cursing, “Damn, this place is cold!”

After some time, the sound of a lock turning came from the door, then the door opened. Someone obviously walked in, then froze, then that person closed the door and went back out.

That was when the two finally let go of the hug, they stared at each other in a second of confusion, then both laughed.

“Ask Aunt Lu to come in, it’s cold out there.” Lu Shang hurried Li Sui.

Neither of them ate much for dinner. During the meal, Li Sui reported what he did in HaiNan briefly, and what he got was a simple compliment from Lu Shang, “Quite good, you’re no doubt my student.”

“So this time, let me deal with this.” Li Sui said.

Lu Shang thought for a while, then said, “You can’t do it alone. Tomorrow, I’ll ask Xe WeiLan to tell you the details about the situation, you should discuss with him. There’s actually one more problem—Zuo Chao has a car factory which buys stolen cars off and revitalizes them, then sells them again. Now that Zuo Chao is in the holding center, the illegal parts of this factory will become a problem, so we need to deal with that as well.”

Li Sui nodded his head seriously.

At night, both of them had a lot on their minds. Lu Shang and Li Sui took a simple bath together. Li Sui noticed that Lu Shang was tired during their bath, so he massaged the spot on Lu Shang where he read was beneficial to the heart. After that, they fell asleep on the bed embracing each other.

The next morning, Li Sui went out very early. When he was studying abroad, he did study a little about law; though it might be different from the mainland, this knowledge was still applicable in some cases. After discussing with Xe WeiLan, they decided to start with the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.

As for the holding center, they didn’t even think about going there. Since the head of the holding center was one of Liu XinTian’s uncles, so they knew that going would be useless. Luckily, a warden there was indebted to the Lu family, so he guaranteed that Zuo Chao won’t be mistreated there.

Xe WeiLan basically broke his legs running around in the past days, he asked everyone he knew for favors. Perhaps because both Liu XinTian and Lu Shang were involved, most people didn’t want to be a part of this, because no matter which side they’d offend, it would be bad for them. Among the people Xe WeiLan found, they either hid from him by taking the day off or pretended to be useless. In short, they all had the same stance, remained neutral and did things by the law.

Doing things by the law sounded good and all, but in fact, that was against in Zuo Chao. After all, he really did illegal deeds, so how serious would his sentence become? They did not have a say in that.

“A decision has arrived about the congressional hearing, it will be held next week at the earliest. This week, we need to go meet with everyone who will be a part of the congressional hearing committee,” Xe WeiLan said; he hadn’t slept for days, so his eyes were swelling.

Li Sui sighed; it had been three weeks already, but there was zero progression on the case. “If this incident happened in the Lu family’s turf, then he’d definitely be out already.”

“Yeah, it’s basically just fighting on the streets. The one who got injured just has a little scratch, he’s still staying in the hospital just to put the heat on Zuo Chao. I’ve never seen someone so thick-faced.” Xe WeiLan shook his head, then asked, “Oh, what did you do with the car factory?”

“I shut it down for renovation.”

“What!?”

Li Sui turned his head back, then asked, “What?”

“You shut his factory down?” Xe WeiLan asked in disbelief.

Li Sui frowned, “The factory was illegal to begin with; if it keeps on running, then it’d become bashing material for the prosecutors. Moreover, I’ve visited the factory, and the employees there aren’t good people, either. Brother Zuo just got arrested and they were already thinking about ways to profit from his absence. Besides, their leader is gone, what if they go out and pick a fight again, then it would be even harder for us to get Zuo Chao out.”

Xe WeiLan slowly realized that Li Sui and Lu Shang seemed to do things in similar ways, but in fact they were very different from each other. Lu Shang was gentler, he’d give people warnings first, then use force afterwards. Li Sui was still young, so he didn’t hide his sharpness, he valued the results more than the process, also, he didn’t mind pissing people off.

“Okay then, if you say so.” Xe WeiLan said as he didn’t feel right questioning him.

It went smoothly at the congressional hearing, reaching the conclusion that the defense posed no threat to society and could be released. Li Sui was really happy, and the second he got home, he reported it to Lu Shang, “A decision has been reached at the congressional hearing (i); the Ministry of Public Security (ii) will have to release him in ten days. We can prepare to get brother Zuo back.”

T/N:

(i) The Supreme People’s Procuratorate is in charge of the congressional hearing.

(ii) The Ministry of Public Security controls the holding centre.