Sha Qing

Chapter 105: Mutual Suffering (1)

Leo couldn't remember how he managed to squeeze out of the circle of reporters, and how he returned to the office building. The noise from the outside world seemed to come from myriad radio frequencies, unintelligible and insignificant. When he locked the door of his office and excluded all of other people's concerns and prying, he felt that the whole world suddenly became silent.

He sat in his chair like a statue, expressionless and motionless, until the intercom rang sharply.

It rang for a long time before he finally pressed the answer button.

The voice of his immediate superior, Gordy, came out from the phone. The old FBI agent who was about to retire always spoke slowly, but now it was with an irrepressible agitation, "What the hell are you doing, Leo?"

"I'm sorry." Leo replied in a low voice.

"You're not good at this so there's no need to apologize. I just want an explanation as to why you've put yourself in such an embarrassing and passive situation to the point where it nearly went completely out of control? It's like it was another person who was on the witness stand." Gordy questioned strictly.

"...I'm sorry." Leo repeated a few seconds of silence, refusing to say another word.

Gordy fumed: "If we aren't in such an urgent situation, I would have given you a beating myself! I have instructed 'our people' in the media to try delaying the spread of what happened as long as possible to suppress the likely unfavorable publicity. As for you, I'll give you 12 hours to-by any means-get that defense attorney to admit to the reporter that he gave false testimony. Leo, this is your only chance to fix this, and I hope you understand how big this mess you've stirred up is!"

"I understand." Leo said, "There's a simpler solution: I'll resign and go to jail."

Gordy seemed to choke, and then he growled, "You did the stupid thing yourself, so go wipe your own ass! Don't just throw your hands up, walk away, and leave this mess to someone else! You want to retire in prison? What about all the energy the government spent on you? How about all the expenditure you've accumulated? Who will pay for it? You bastards are too young! How naïve! Do you think you can handle all of it by yourself once things get completely out of control?"

He took a deep breath, tried to calm his emotions, and said with bitterness "Now, now, go figure out what to do! Get moving! Don't fucking give up on yourself and remember, you only have 12 hours!"

The man on the other line hung up the call with a bang, leaving Leo, who was still holding the phone, in a daze. After such a big mistake, that old man, Gordy, was still desperately trying to protect and save him, which made his eyes warm.

In fact, his situation wasn't completely helpless. As Gordy said, that lawyer was a good point to breakthrough. Everyone has weak points. So long as he employs a less "openhearted" means to hold the opponent's weakness, even if he couldn't solve this crisis immediately, he could make the situation develop favorably towards his direction.

He just felt frustrated-

-- About Sha Qing, about his own complex and contradictory feelings, about the unclear and entangled fetter of gratitude and grievances between the two of them.

They attract and repel each other, save and hurt each other, and neither of them could one-sidedly end their twisted relationship.

Leo tried. In the courtroom, he tried to abandon his personal feelings, and treat Sha Qing as a stranger and a criminal. What he got was a pitfall of flashing knives and swords, and the intensified clashing of fire and water.