Chapter 142 Save my son's life, name your price.

The news had already spread throughout the circle, and Su Qiaoer naturally received word of it as well.

"Is it true?"

The very first thought that crossed Su Qiaoer's mind upon hearing the news was Zheng Jie's safety. Hearing this, Father Su nodded.

"It is true."

"Zheng Tian has already been sent to the Hospital."

"The police have already begun their investigation."

Hearing this, Su Qiaoer couldn't help but swallow hard.

"Then Zheng Jie..."

Su Qiaoer's voice trembled as she spoke. She wasn't worried about what happened to Zheng Tian; it was Zheng Jie she was worried about.

"Zheng Jie is fine, though I heard that one of his staff members was involved in an accident and died on the spot. It looks like things are looking grim for Zheng Tian this time. Given Zheng Jie's personality, I suspect he will find a way to ensure Zheng Tian receives the death penalty, to be executed immediately."

Father Su understood Zheng Jie's character quite well by now, and he felt certain that Zheng Jie would not let Zheng Tian off the hook.

"If you ask me, a guy like Zheng Tian would be better off dead."

Thinking back to how Zheng Tian had nearly forced himself on her daughter, Mother Su felt a wave of resentment. Now, she wished Zheng Tian were dead. In the past, Zheng Tian had been their good son-in-law, but now they wished nothing more than for him to die.

Su Qiaoer nodded upon hearing this.

This was exactly how she felt as well.

"Mhm, that's true."

However, the biggest regret for the Su Family was that Zheng Jie hadn't died. They felt that if Zheng Jie were dead, they would truly be safe and wouldn't have to live in fear every single day.

Su Qiaoer returned to her bedroom and lay down on the bed. She took out her phone, wondering whether she should call Zheng Jie, but she realized that she didn't have any standing to call him. Of course, even if she did call now, Zheng Jie likely wouldn't answer. The reason was simple: at that moment, Zheng Jie was with Xia Wanqing and Zhou Ya.

And they were in the middle of battle.

However, since Xia Wanqing was pregnant, she could only act as support, leaving Zhou Ya to bear the brunt of the battle.

...

The next day, Mrs. Zheng arrived at the entrance of the ICU. As she looked at her son inside, her face was filled with worry. In truth, Mrs. Zheng was not doing well; her face was etched with exhaustion, and she had heavy dark circles under her eyes. She hadn't slept at all the night before. The thought of her eldest son in this state broke her heart.

But Mrs. Zheng knew she couldn't stay trapped in her grief; her son's situation was quite complicated. Therefore, after taking a brief look from the ICU entrance, she left. She needed to go meet with a lawyer.

Mrs. Zheng was completely clueless about this matter and didn't know what to do. In such a situation, the best course of action was certainly to contact a lawyer.

About 20 minutes later, in a coffee shop, Mrs. Zheng met with her regular lawyer. Every lawyer had their own area of expertise.

Some were skilled in financial cases, some in civil cases, and others in criminal cases. Clearly, this case was a criminal one, so Mrs. Zheng had specifically contacted a very famous local criminal lawyer.

During this period, she had worked with many lawyers. It could be said that their entire family had been keeping many of the local law firms in business lately.

"Lawyer Zhang, I assume you already know about my son's situation, right?"

Having been in this circle for so many years, she knew all too well that there were absolutely no secrets in it. In her view, within three hours of the incident yesterday, everyone in the circle must have already heard about it.

"I have indeed heard a little about your son's case, though I am somewhat surprised that you came to me. I don't know many details about the case, so could you please give me a brief overview?"

Every criminal suspect has the right to legal defense. If no lawyer is willing to defend you, it doesn't matter, because the procuratorate and the court will appoint a lawyer to defend you.

"This incident happened very suddenly, and I haven't had time to investigate, so I'm afraid you will have to communicate with the police yourself."

The lawyer nodded upon hearing this. Although it would be more troublesome, since he wanted to earn this money, he couldn't complain about the hassle. After all, what jobs in this world allowed you to make money so easily?

"That's fine. We will be responsible for communicating with the police."

"Lawyer Zhang, here is the thing: no matter what, I hope my son's life can be saved. If you can save my son's life, I can increase your fee by another 50% on top of the base price."

Although she didn't know much about the law, she knew this was a very serious criminal case, one that could even lead to a death sentence. Therefore, Mrs. Zheng couldn't care about the cost anymore. She felt that if the other party could really save her son's life, spending a little more money was worth it.

"At the moment, we don't know the specific details, so we cannot give you any guarantees. However, please believe that we will do everything in our power."

"No problem."

After ending the conversation, the lawyer immediately got busy. He had some connections at the Public Security Bureau. With such connections, they would brief him on the current investigation, allowing him to prepare in advance.

Therefore, the moment his contact revealed the evidence they currently had, the lawyer already felt that things were troublesome.

"The current situation is basically like this: we are leaning towards charging him with intentional homicide, and the nature of the crime is egregious. Therefore, barring any surprises, the procuratorate and the court will likely sentence him to death, to be executed immediately, unless you can change this from intentional homicide to manslaughter."

Although the two sounded similar, the actual difference was huge. For intentional homicide, the maximum penalty was the death penalty, executed immediately. However, if it were manslaughter, it would likely result in a life sentence, or perhaps a sentence of around 20 years if the circumstances were not too severe.

"Alright, I understand. I will think of a way to see if we can steer it towards manslaughter. Wait, by the way, has the Zheng Group stepped in on this matter?"

Hearing this, the police officer hesitated for a moment and then sighed.

"Currently, there is no word that the Zheng Group intends to step in on this. Taking this case probably doesn't have much to do with you, right? If you handle the lawsuit normally, they won't do anything to you."

The Zheng Group was not that petty. If he were to handle the lawsuit for the Zheng family, he wouldn't see any problem with it. Everyone relied on their own abilities; if you succeeded, then you were skilled, but almost no one ever succeeded.

"Alright, I understand."

After hanging up, the lawyer recalled what his friend had just told him. His fingers tapped continuously on the desk; it was clear that he was very conflicted. Although there was a certain probability of it being changed to manslaughter, that probability was almost negligible. Furthermore, the opposing lawyers were not pushovers. Therefore, in this situation, he felt the possibility was not very high. In other words, there was a 99.99% chance that the other party would be sentenced to death, to be executed immediately.

"What a headache. There is almost no room for defense."

The lawyer sighed. Meanwhile, the Zheng Group's Legal Department was currently preparing for this case. They had to ensure that the death penalty for the other party was set in stone.

"The only defense the other party might use to try to survive is manslaughter. They might argue that they didn't intend to kill the deceased, but rather intended to kill our Chairman, and that the deceased just happened to die while they were trying to kill the Chairman. Therefore, we believe they might try to use this as their space for defense."

What lawyers studied was basically the same, and lawyers of similar caliber tended to think along similar lines. If the other side could think of manslaughter, the Zheng Group's Legal Department could think of it too.

"So we have prepared accordingly. However, this point is quite easy to refute. Besides, the leadership has already made arrangements in advance, so we don't expect any major issues."

How could the police possibly know whether the Zheng Group had made arrangements or not?

In reality, the group had already pulled strings.

Unless the other party produced decisive evidence to turn the tables, the verdict would absolutely be as it stood now.

For both sides, this was a battle of unequal strength. The Zheng Group held the absolute upper hand—a crushing advantage—while the Zheng family could only be described as clinging to life.

On the other side, Mrs. Zheng had returned to the Hospital. She sat at the entrance of the ICU, waiting for her son to wake up. Just then, the sound of equipment vibrating suddenly came from inside the ICU. She stood up instinctively and looked at the Hospital bed inside. It seemed that Zheng Tian had woken up. Her heart felt slightly happier; at the very least, her son had woken up, hadn't he?

In reality, for Zheng Tian right now, a coma would always be better than waking up, because in a coma, he wouldn't know the current situation. But once he woke up, he would have to face the reality of his paralysis.

And for Zheng Tian, this was something he would never be able to accept.