First-Class Lawyer

Chapter 26 - The Joshua Dale Case (i)

On the day of the court trial, Joshua Dale tossed about the entire night sleeplessly, getting out of bed at five in the morning with dark eye bags under his eyes. His sister Rosie was curled up on another bed, wrapped in a wide quilt like a shrimp.

The environment of the hotel was many times better than that old house of theirs; it even came with soothing aromatherapy to aid sleep. The little girl slept very soundly. To be precise, she had been sleeping very soundly these past few days because she was never frozen awake in the middle of the night, never frightened awake from the movement of rats and cockroaches, and never shocked awake by the shouting and cursing of drunkards in the streets. She had never ever slept so soundly before.

How he wished that she could always sleep so soundly, but he was unable to make any kind of guarantee.

Because today, he was going to trial.

He was very apprehensive, very opposed to it, and unbelievably pessimistic about it...

The ventilation in the hotel room was good; at least, much fresher than the air out on the streets. But he felt that he had no way of staying cooped up in this confined, quiet space, feeling so suffocated that he was about to puke.

So, he tucked the quilt in neatly around Rosie, put on a jacket, and stepped out of the door.

At five in the early morning, the sky hadn't yet turned bright. It was gloomy and overcast with thick clouds, looking like it was going to be a cloudy day.

From the ground floor of the hotel, Joshua sniffed the chilly air, the cold winds traveling through his nasal cavity and boring into his heart. He wasn't quite a completely free man now, and it would be difficult to tell what his future would be. Under the many restrictions, he had many people he couldn't meet, and many places he couldn't go.

And his lawyer had warned him not to run around all over the place.

So, he wandered aimlessly back and forth the dark alleyways like a man at death's door, desperately trying to seize the end of the rope.

Over the years, he had hung around all sorts of construction sites taking on all types of jobs, without conscious design, developing a pair of legs with superb endurance. For him, the distance from Silver Tea Hotel and Two Moon Street was no more than a half hour's jog.

Thus, by the time he came back to his senses, he was already standing in front of his own house.

A long time ago when his grandmother was still around, there was always a portable lamp lighting the house through the night. The brightness was kept dim in order to save power, but if anyone got up in the middle of the night, they wouldn't have to stumble about in the dark.

At that time, no matter how naughty he was outside, he would always see that in a certain room, the ball of light of a portal lamp quietly reflected in the glass window, and his grandmother in the armchair, waiting for him to return home.

Joshua Dale stared at the dark window in a daze for a while. He stuck his hand into his pocket, but it was empty.

He hadn't brought the key to the house with him. It was left in the hotel, pressed under Rosie's pillow.

So he continued to stare at the door for a while more. He didn't know what he was thinking, but he suddenly raised his hand and hesitantly knocked thrice on the door.

He waited outside of the door for a very, very long time, but he never heard the familiar shuffling of his grandmother's footsteps.

No one else in the world would open the door for him and drag him in, nattering, "Are you cold?", "Did something made you sad again?", "Why aren't you smiling?", and so on.