After Left Hand left, Meng Qing opened his terminal and saw a reply from Lin Bai: She’s still under investigation and might take a few days before trial. I’m having dinner with the trial court friends tonight. I’ll ask about when her case will be tried, who the presiding judge, lawyer, and jury are.
Meng Qing typed: Take me to a place first, s20376, i9380, e3903, ln, 78.52°n, 12.07°w.
Lin Bai quickly replied: You’re going to travel right after surgery? Aren’t you afraid your brain will leak out?
Meng Qing: I like this dark joke.
Lin Bai: Going now? Wait ten minutes. Your chip has been removed. I need to locate your exact position first.
While waiting for Lin Bai, Meng Qing got out of bed and walked slowly around the room, moving his limbs. He didn’t feel anything unusual. Then he tried punching and kicking, finding that intense movements caused dizziness, but after taking a few deep breaths, he recovered.
Soon a light vibration came from his arm, and he pressed to confirm.
The next moment, he was on a cold, desolate street, with light snow falling from a lead-gray sky. He was looking down at his terminal and was about to look up when everything went black. A strong sense of vertigo hit him, making him lose perception of his surroundings. He instinctively spread his arms to prevent falling.
Fortunately, this lasted only an instant. He quickly steadied himself, slowly opening his eyes. Although the dizziness persisted and his vision was blurry, he didn’t pass out.
Meng Qing self-deprecatingly laughed: “Glad my brain didn’t leak out.” He walked up the steps and pressed the doorbell.
Yu Yi looked around the room, the gray walls bare and empty. Having nothing to look at, she shifted her gaze to her wrists, where the special police had placed a metal ring on each, telling her she couldn’t leave this room before exiting, leaving her alone.
Yu Yi looked at the metal rings that seemed like silver bracelets. She tried to remove them, but though they weren’t tightly fastened, she couldn’t slide them off. She also tried the door, seeing them easily slide it open with just a hand, but when she imitated their action, the door wouldn’t move even a crack.
She had been in this room for two days. They didn’t let her starve or suffer, bringing meals at intervals and providing water. On the third day, the thin woman she’d seen at Left Hand’s clinic appeared at the door.
Yu Yi wasn’t sure of the exact time, but they had brought six meals, and she had slept twice in between.
The thin woman sat across from Yu Yi, looking at her coldly.
Yu Yi met her gaze, speaking assertively: “I am not the Yu Yi you speak of, and I have not committed any crimes. You cannot detain me here.”
The thin woman leaned forward. She asked: “Then why did you run?”
“I did not run. Master Meng forcibly took me away.”
“Did he also forcibly take you to that underground clinic? Why didn’t you escape when he was having surgery?”
“I said, that place was completely unfamiliar to me. I grew up in the Marquis’s residence and had never lived alone before. Going to so many strange places made me at a loss.”
“Actually, you don’t need to explain much. Everything you’ve done is recorded and documented. It won’t be erased just because you changed the past.”
“That was not my doing,” Yu Yi insisted.
“From a legal perspective, that person is you.”
“But I have no knowledge of everything that Yu Yi has experienced!”
“That’s precisely why I spent two extra days to ensure you are no longer ignorant.” The thin woman spoke while operating her terminal.
Yu Yi silently watched her project the file materials on the side wall, which Meng Qing had already shown her before, but she had not mentioned it, only watching the materials played by the woman.
After the thin woman finished displaying each page, Yu Yi calmly said a statement that would make her want to vomit blood: “These are not my actions. I am only fourteen, but the first page of the file states that Yu Yi became an executor at seventeen. How could a fourteen-year-old do what was done at seventeen?”
The thin woman raged internally, but Yu Yi’s comment provoked her. Coldly, she closed the projection on her terminal. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t admit your crimes. The tribunal will decide based on material evidence.”
Yu Yi counted the number of meal deliveries, and after six times, they took her out of the room.
When she left, her wrists suddenly and involuntarily drew together. She was startled to find the two metal rings on her wrists touching. Upon careful examination, they were not actually connected and could still slide up and down, but she could not separate her wrists. The two metal rings on her wrists seemed to be locked together by an invisible force, completely inseparable.
The tribunal was much smaller than Yu Yi had imagined, not even as large as the guest hall of the Hou residence.
She was brought to sit in the center of the tribunal, with a high platform in front of her. A person in a black robe sat seriously behind it. Seven people sat on one side of the high platform, and six on the other, including the three men and one woman who had arrested her earlier, plus two others she did not recognize.
After the trial began, the presiding judge read out some tribunal rules, and Yu Yi listened silently, promising to honestly explain the facts she knew.
Lin Bai sat in the audience, watching Yu Yi in the defendant’s seat at the center of the tribunal. When she turned back, their eyes met for a moment, and he felt something strange.
He did not understand why Meng Qing, who was in the same situation as himself, was so persistent about her case.
Lin Bai’s terminal was recording the trial proceedings and transmitting audio data to Meng Qing’s terminal.
After hearing the indictment, Yu Yi strongly defended herself, arguing that she was not the same person as the other Yu Yi and should not be held responsible for another’s actions. The bureau had agreed to her arrest, and the judgment from above had essentially been made.
Because her future self is her current self, they are the same person, and therefore she can be presumed guilty.
The seven jurors left the tribunal to discuss for half an hour before the final verdict. Two jurors believed she should be acquitted, arguing that the investigation bureau could only arrest her, who had not yet committed crimes, because they could not arrest the executor Yu Yi who had already committed offenses. The other five agreed she was guilty, but one suggested a lighter sentence, as the current her had not committed any illegal acts.
Guilt was determined by jury vote, but the actual sentence was decided by the tribunal’s presiding judge. He announced that Yu Yi would undergo a frontal lobe excision and be exiled to a desolate time and space, with a lifelong sentence.
When the judge announced the sentence, a small commotion erupted in the tribunal.
Even the jurors who had found her guilty felt the punishment was too severe. But the judge believed this punishment was appropriate, as sentencing was not just about punishing criminals, but more importantly about warning those who have not yet committed crimes, to prevent them from being like her.
Meng Qing listened to the verdict through his earphones and closed his eyes. He had already guessed this result. The newly appointed deputy director urgently needed a typical case to establish his authority. The presiding judge and two jury members were directly appointed by the deputy director, and the only previous case of frontal lobe excision sentencing was also handed down by this judge.
He looked at the person across the room who was already looking impatient.
“How about it? Are you buying or not?” It was a middle-aged man with a weathered face, his voice so hoarse it barely sounded human.
