Shen Nian came back to her senses and continued answering, "Alright."
"They were detained for three days for deliberately making trouble, and the police also warned them. They won't come to bother you again before the next court session," said Lu Lingchuan as he picked up the knife on the plate and started cutting the sandwich.
It took Shen Nian only one second to react before she realized that the "they" Lu Lingchuan was referring to were Wang Yong and Hao's wives.
"Okay..." Shen Nian's voice was noticeably softer this time.
Her gaze fell on Lu Lingchuan's hand, watching his hand holding the knife. For some reason, she was drawn to pay attention to that knife.
Seeing the blade of the knife, for some inexplicable reason...she felt a strange urge welling up inside to snatch over the knife and slash her own hand fiercely with it.
"What's wrong?" Noticing her absent-mindedness, Lu Lingchuan's eyes followed her line of sight and fell on his own hand.
Hearing the man's voice by her ear, Shen Nian came back to her senses and retracted her gaze, "Nothing, I just want to eat the sandwich."
Lu Lingchuan looked at her again before handing her half of the sliced sandwich.
Shen Nian took a bite with lowered eyes. There was no more conversation between them.
After the meal, Lu Lingchuan went to the airport while Shen Nian also tidied up a bit and went to the company.
At the company, she first handled the work on hand, and categorized the work that Lu Lingchuan needed to handle according to urgency.
After busy working for two to three hours, everyone else had already gone for lunch, but she was still busy working.
Sitting at her desk, Shen Nian's hair was casually tied up with a rubber band, and a stray lock that wasn't tied up by the rubber band hung down, covering her side profile.
Jiang Lingling came back from lunch and saw that Shen Nian was still busy. She immediately walked over.
"Sis Nian, how come you haven't gone for lunch yet?"
Hearing the voice, Shen Nian looked up and forced a smile, "I haven't finished handling the work on hand."
Jiang Lingling frowned, "Work can never be finished. You can't starve your stomach just because the work isn't done."
After saying that, she pulled Shen Nian along, "Go eat quickly. You'll be even less efficient in the afternoon if you work hungry."
Shen Nian helplessly said, "I'm really not hungry..."
"Whether you're hungry or not, you have to eat. Sis Nian, Sis Nian..."
Jiang Lingling knew Shen Nian had a soft personality and wouldn't refuse her coquettish antics. Therefore, she deliberately acted cute, just to make Shen Nian unable to bear rejecting her.
Sure enough, Shen Nian simply couldn't reject the coquettish Jiang Lingling. "Fine, I'll go eat, alright?"
Only then did Jiang Lingling reveal a happy smile, "Anyway, it's not work hours yet. I'll keep you company."
Her stance clearly showed she was afraid Shen Nian would try to fool her.
Shen Nian helplessly glanced at her, "Let's go."
"Yay!"
...
With Jiang Lingling watching over her, Shen Nian ate a little even without an appetite. Work resumed at 1:30pm, and it was just after 12pm now, so there was still about half an hour of break time. Shen Nian accompanied Jiang Lingling to the lounge to drink tea.
Apart from them, there were also other colleagues resting there. Everyone sat together and chatted about random topics.
Shen Nian quietly sat there drinking water and listening. Soon her cup was empty, so she got up from her chair to refill her water.
The water dispenser in the lounge had three settings - hot water, warm water and cold water.
Shen Nian placed her cup in the middle, then pressed the button for warm water. The water flowed straight down and steadily into her cup.
She stared at the hot water button on the far left. It was a red button with a cup icon on it, with three wavy lines drawn on it to represent steam.
Her mind blanked out for a moment as she reached out and pressed that button. Hot water flowed out, but with no cup to catch it, it all flowed down the drain below.
The stream of water was steaming hot.
She stared at the water stream, and suddenly reached her hand over.
"Sis Nian!" Jiang Lingling's voice came from behind, and Shen Nian suddenly snapped back to reality. She turned her head to see Jiang Lingling rushing over anxiously to turn off the hot water button.
"Sis Nian, what are you doing?!" Her tone was filled with tension.
Shen Nian was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "The water was too warm, so I wanted to dilute it with some hot water."
Hearing Shen Nian's words, Jiang Lingling finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"What's wrong?" She placed the cup under the hot water tap, which now had about half a cup of warm water. After adding some hot water, she picked it up and took a sip. Seeing how anxious Jiang Lingling looked, she couldn't help but laugh wryly.
"I was just getting some water. Why are you so nervous?"
"How can you say that, Sis Nian?" Jiang Lingling puffed up her cheeks, the lingering anxiety still on her face. "Just now when the hot water was flowing, I saw you about to put your hand in it. You scared me to death!"
"..." Shen Nian's drinking motion paused.
Jiang Lingling didn't notice Shen Nian's abnormality and was still thinking about the scene she witnessed just now, feeling somewhat terrified in retrospect. "The water was so hot it was steaming. If your hand had touched it, you would definitely have gotten scalded."
"..." Shen Nian curved her lips. "I was thinking about work just now and didn't pay much attention. It's nothing, don't worry about it."
"Mm-hmm." Jiang Lingling nodded.
Shen Nian smiled at her and the two turned to head back.
After taking two steps, Shen Nian looked back again at the hot water button on the dispenser.
Just now...she did have the urge to stretch her hand over.
She couldn't explain why either. At that time her mind went blank, and she only had that one directive.
To stretch her hand over...
Shen Nian shook her head. She recalled looking at the knife in Lu Lingchuan's hand this morning, and she also desperately wanted to snatch it over to slash her own hand viciously.
She wasn't stupid. Her current state was clearly abnormal.
After work, she might need to go to the hospital for an examination.
...
On the other hand, Lu Lingchuan received a call from Xu Lawyer, and the two briefly discussed the case first.
Xu Lawyer flipped through the documents Lu Lingchuan had brought and frowned deeply.
"The problem is quite serious. The lawyer they hired has very high prestige in the industry. If there isn't more evidence, the probability of them being acquitted is still quite high."
The main issue was that the requests from both sides differed too greatly.
The Lu family strongly demanded the death penalty, while the other lawyer kept pleading not guilty.
The existing evidence could only prove the other party was guilty. Violent rape usually carried a sentence of 3 to 10 years, but with Lu Lingrui's suicide, the situation was more complicated.
According to Article 236 of the Criminal Law, whoever rapes a woman by violence, coercion or other means, causing serious injury or death to the victim, or causing other serious consequences, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years, life imprisonment or death.
The sentence depends on the specific circumstances.
The other party kept insisting they were drunk then, and their brains and bodies were totally out of control. It was purely an accident, and even if they really did something wrong, it was absolutely not intentional. Even if they were wrong, it was not a crime deserving death. So they didn't agree with the Lu family's demand for the death penalty.
The two sides were deadlocked, so it had dragged on for four years without a verdict.
