Chương 31: Retrieval
Walking in, closely escorted by a female guard was the Zhang heiress, her messy hair with chunk of spilled food, stuck to her face, taking over most of her sight.
Inside the room was a couple of single tables and chairs arranged at various angles. The only source of light, came from dirty windowpanes that was high up on the faded green walls with only two ceiling fans present. Hong Ruolan of Hongsheng Holdings sat on a blue metal chair with a table across. She had her eyes closed, while muttering some words under her breath, "Mom! I'm sorry!" After saying this, did she open her eyes.
The guard walked closely by the inmate and waited until she took a seat across from her "visitor" before returning to station herself by the door.
Hong Ruolan wondered if the guard had brought in the wrong person, she couldn't believe that the one that sat in front of her at the table was the former President of Zhang Corporation known to be the top 1% among the country's wealthy. Although, her family did business with the Zhang's, she was in a league of her own and as such, people like the Hongsheng family could only flourish from the crumbs that came off the Zhang family's wealth and power.
The heiress to Hongsheng Holdings could no longer watch the injustice the Zhang heiress was going through, which was why she decided to step in, contrary to what her mother would have wanted her to do. Hong Ruolan and Zhang Mi both attended the same school up to high school, before the Zhang heiress branched off to take her college classes concurrently in the states and at her home country by distance learning. Thereby, hastening the progress of her education, this was in alignment to what the Zhang family wanted. Who would have known that while in school, her parents would die suddenly from a car accident? It all worked out in the end, as the Zhang heiress balanced both schooling and running the family business hand in hand. One thing she was grateful for was that her parents left a will to pass everything they had to her.
It took some time before Hong Ruolan could gather her thoughts together, there was pity in her dark eyes as she looked at the sorry state that the Zhang heiress was in, since the time Zhang Mi walked in, her head was still lowered.
Hong Ruolan took the initiative to start the conversation, by first introducing herself and asking if the Zhang heiress could remember her, after she waited for some seconds and still no response from Zhang Mi, that was when she told the Zhang heiress the reason why she came to see her in prison.
It was then that the Zhang heiress began to show signs of interest, by pushing the wet sticky messy hair away from her face. When Hong Ruolan saw the exposed face with bags under her sunken dark eyes and looking very sickly. This was a painful sight to behold, it was as if she was looking at another person and not the Zhang heiress. That was when she lost control of her emotion, breaking down right there, sobbing her eyes out.
Zhang Mi looked at the elegantly dressed woman in light blue lacy sleeveless gown, she had on very little make up on with clear glossy nail polish on her fingers which was resting on the table. Her dark hair with brown highlights was tastefully styled against her chin. Wearing on each earlobes a gold clasp dangling earring, displaying the gentle beauty that she was. It reminded the Zhang heiress once again of all the things she had lost and may never get back again.
The Zhang heiress waited for the other woman to get herself together, as her eyes continued to watch the display of sorrowful emotion on Hong Ruolan's face.
Not much was said between the two of them, after the sudden burst of tears from the heiress of Hongsheng Holdings. Reaching into her red handbag, Hong Ruolan took out a white handkerchief, wiping at her face and nose.
After clearing her throat, she then told Zhang Mi that she had hired a lawyer from ShanXue firm who will be taking her case, but he could not be with them, instead he will talk through video conferencing. Zhang Mi's face remained expressionless as she spoke, the Zhang heiress already had enough and just didn't care anymore if the woman had a motive or not. Reaching into her bag to pull out a device which had a portable modem attached as she connected them to begin the video call to the attorney's office.
On the first call placed, there was no response, by the second try on the third ring did the person on the other end pick up the call and began speaking with the women in the prison waiting room.
"Good afternoon, I am Ding Bohai, I'll be representing you at your next trial in court."
As the lawyer spoke he took note of the appearance of his client, seeing how haggard and deathly pale she looked, that was when he knew he had to act fast, or else she might not be able to make it to the trial in two weeks!
Ding Bohai put forth the suggestion to have her trial moved forward, by contacting the judge handling her case. He asked if there was anything else that she would like to tell him, in relation to her stay in prison. But, Zhang Mi refused to share what she knew, not trusting either of them to keep their word.
The lawyer had on his face an understanding look, he was a man in his late fifties, he had seen it all when it came to handling cases like hers, he could tell from her body language that she was scared and didn't trust either of them to help her. Without pressing further, Ding Bohai told them that he would keep in touch through Hong Ruolan and the Zhang heiress will get to know where she stood regarding her case.
With that, the video call ended and Hong Ruolan gave an hasty farewell to the Zhang heiress, as she made her way out of the room with the guard following some distance behind.
Unknown to Zhang Mi and Hong Ruolan, the lawyer they spoke with earlier had secret recorded their video call, saving it on his USB to securely send it to the email contact of the Presiding Judge, who was an alumni of the law school he attended.
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In the States....
Working behind the laptop, to finish some projects he was working on, was Lu Yi. His eyes glued to the white screen as he kept typing away on his computer. All of a sudden his phone rang, he wanted to ignore the buzzing chime from his phone, but the sound kept distracting him from what he was working on. Annoyed and curious to see who could be calling him at around ten at night. Reluctantly picking up the phone by his desk, he saw a number that resemble those of his home country, that was when his curiosity rose up a notch. As he pressed the green button to receive the call, he could hear some music play in the background.
"Hello Brother Lu! This is Ye Mingyu! We attended the same high school! Guess what?! Do you still remember Zhang Mi?! The news going around is that she was found to have embezzled money from her company and they had to put her to jail! At least, that's what I saw on the news and she even beat her ex's girlfriend! It is all over Beibo! You should check it out!"
The voice on the other end, sounded so delighted by the news.
When Lu Yi heard this, at first he was upset because for one, he couldn't recall the face of the person he was speaking with, also the person his caller spoke about was a family friend that they hadn't seen each other for almost two decades and therefore he didn't know how she looked like as of now, instead he felt a sort of disconnect as the other person spoke of his family friend from childhood.
He waited until the other man was done, before politely ending the call by thanking him and promising to check on the story online.
As Lu Yi dropped the phone, he couldn't help, but be thankful for the decision his parents made to move abroad. Imagine someone calling to gossip about another's misfortune, who has time for that here in the State!
Feeling a bit amused and also irritated by the turn of event, Lu Yi returned back to his computer to continue from where he was, before the interruption from the call.
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