Yore Descry (昔日的描述)

Glimpse 21; Interest

Haoyu had just finished his first and hoped to be last court hearing, loosening the tie of his casual black and white suit that was neat only moments ago. The cold of winter stopped him from taking off his blazer as he stepped out of the room and walked down the empty hallway to leave, his dark eyes staring at the floor he paced on, his mind somewhere else.

"Where are his parents?"

"He's alone?"

"Does he not have a guardian?"

"Does nobody care about him?"

Haoyu's pace halted as his eyes closed, he sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. Hearing to those whispers moments ago made him just as uncomfortable as he is even after the trial ended, there were multiple occasions where Haoyu had to force himself to think of something else.

"Oi," Haoyu looked over when he heard a voice that seemed to be talking to him, and he turned to meet Mr. Liu's smile. The detective was leaning against a wall with his hands in his pockets, "You did well," he took out a heat pack and offered it to Haoyu.

"Thank you, but I'm okay." Haoyu smiled back to him, slightly.

"I didn't expect you to show up," Mr. Liu scoffed, "You did well with a low paid lawyer, I'm surprised."

"I've seen enough prosecutions on the news to know exactly what to say," Haoyu said calmly, "What's going to happen to Lisha?"

"Oh, the little girl? She got adopted just this morning," Mr. Liu replied, which shocked Haoyu enough to widen his eyes.

"By who...?"

"You seem fairly concerned for her..." Mr. Liu didn't expect his reaction, "I'm not sure yet, do you want me to ask around for you?"

"If you can, it would give me relieve to know who her new caregivers are." Haoyu nodded as Mr. Liu took out a cigarette to light it, a few moments of silence came after, where Haoyu just dazed to the thin layer of water covering the courthouse parking lot. "So, are you really not going to look into my parents' case?" Haoyu asked, in a very low voice.

"Hm? Did you say something?"

"Nope, never mind." Haoyu turned away, which made Mr. Liu furrow a brow, but said nothing.

Chengxi was at the home he shared with Wufei, an apartment at a complex located at downtown Weihai. The 30-year-old had just come home from signing the legal documents for an adoption, still wearing the dress shirt that he just rolled up to his elbows and started cleaning the third room in the apartment. It was a small storage room that Chengxi was trying to clean, moving out the boxes and finding stuff that they can throw away to save space. Even though he had turned on the television in the living room to keep Lisha entertained ever since they got back, Lisha would peek into the room once in a while.

"Uncle, are you not tired...?"

"I'm okay, Lisha. Thanks for always checking up on me," Chengxi chuckled, turning to her in the midst of vacuuming the room.

"When is Wufei-dage coming back...?" Lisha seemed to long Wufei.

"He told me that he's going to fetch a few things before coming home," Chengxi said to her, "It was supposed to be his day off today, but he had to attend a trial."

"What's a 'trial'?" Lisha tilted her head.

"How do I explain it... It's a process where a criminal faces a judge and is given the consequences, the criminal can plea and say their apologies to affect the judge's decision." Chengxi tried to explain as best as he could, "Ugh, I'm really not good with words..." he thought, which Lisha can hear.