Are You Crazy? He’s only an Intern Lawyer?
Chapter 446 - 442: The Defense Isn’t Counterattacking? The Second Daughter Was Deceived!

Chapter 446: Chapter 442: The Defense Isn’t Counterattacking? The Second Daughter Was Deceived!

"Hello witness, could you please introduce yourself?"

"I am a ground liaison officer for Dongfang Capital International Airlines."

"Could you recount for us the situation at that time?"

"Of course, that night we lost contact with several airplanes on the ground, and we couldn’t even send out signals. Our terminal’s systems had all crashed..."

...

"Hello witness, could you please introduce yourself?"

"I am a commercial co-pilot for Dongfang Capital International Airlines."

"Could you recount for us the situation at that time?"

"Certainly, throughout the flight that day, it started off stable, but around 11 pm, the aircraft’s system started to show errors. I thought it was a fluke, but when I couldn’t reach the ground control, I knew something was wrong..."

...

"Hello witness, could you please introduce yourself?"

"I am a mechanical programming master, and that day I happened to be on a business trip on the very flight that almost had an accident."

"Could you recount for us the situation at that time?"

"No problem at all, though I’m not any expert and can’t analyze the reasons. All I can say is that I was almost scared to death at the time. Who would have thought that during the flight, the plane would suddenly lose control? Even though the flight attendant kept telling me not to be nervous, how could I possibly not be nervous..."

Following the internet investigation department, Xiao Baihe summoned three witnesses in succession.

They were the liaison officer from the control center, the in-flight engineer, and the most crucial passenger.

With these testimonies, the jury grasped the events of that night, and hearing the accounts of the parties involved, they understood just how dangerous it was.

As a result, their glances toward the defense bench had a slight edge of hostility.

However, what the prosecution did not expect was that there were hardly any reactions from the defense bench, not even when Xiao Baihe summoned witnesses for an intense attack. Neither Hu Yaode nor Li Meijia showed much response.

Even when it came to cross-examination, they only asked a few simple questions and never attempted to shift the mood of the courtroom.

Their approach was uncharacteristically passive.

Not to mention the jury, even the spectators in the hearing seats were getting sleepy.

This trial had no excitement, nothing interesting at all about it, following procedure to the letter, truly dull.

On the judges’ bench, Judge Liu yawned.

He could tell that if the defense did not counterattack soon, this case would be settled.

"What’s going on with the defense? Even if they wanted to be considerate of my workload, they don’t have to do this, do they? They’re completely disregarding the interests of their clients and the parties involved!"

Judge Liu glanced at the calm defense bench with immense surprise.

Such a tranquil courtroom scene was something he hadn’t encountered in a long time.

Just think about the past, every time the defense lawyer was Zhang Wei... it was truly a case of sky falling, earth shattering, world turning upside down...

"Ahem, this court hereby announces that today’s session is adjourned. The specific date for the next hearing will be notified by my clerk!"

Following Judge Liu’s announcement with the gavel, the courtroom began to disperse gradually.

"Zhang Wei, have you noticed anything odd?"

"Something’s not right..."

Zhang Wei and Xiao Baihe suddenly huddled together.

The direction they were looking in was precisely where the defense bench was.

Hu Yaode and Li Meijia, along with the defendant Cui Yibin, were preparing to leave.

But on their faces, there was no sign of being at a disadvantage; instead, they were poised, as if...

"They’re hiding a trump card?"

"Perhaps they have undisclosed evidence or an emergency witness ready?"

The two speculated, but unfortunately, there were too many tricks the defense could have up their sleeves.

Especially since the Procuratorate Headquarters had developed a strong ability to adapt to the defense’s tricky tactics, thanks to a certain Mr. Zhang.

Xiao Baihe, in particular, had grown used to these tactics from the defense.

"Ying Ying, remind me when we get back to go through all the case summaries again, as well as the social relations of the defendant Cui Yibin, and the investigation report of his movements before his arrest. Let’s review them together."

"Got it, Sister Baihe."

Tan Yingying agreed, signifying that she and Xiao Baihe were in for another all-nighter.

"Lawyer Zhang!"

Just then, a woman’s voice called out from outside the courtroom.

"It’s Guider Zhou; she’s come."

Recognizing the arrival, Zhang Wei understood.

"You all go ahead, I hope you can confirm the leads!"

Xiao Baihe nodded towards Guider Zhou and then left the courtroom with Tan Yingying.

Zhang Wei, on the other hand, met up with Zhao Xiaoxiao and Zhou Xiaoli.

"Guider Zhou, thank you for your trouble."

"Troublesome indeed, but I hope you don’t disappoint me."

Zhou Xiaoli said, leading Zhang Wei and Zhao Xiaoxiao out of the courthouse and onto a large armored jeep.

In the vehicle, Gao Yang sat in the driver’s seat, with Luo Qi in the passenger seat.

Inside the carriage, Xia Qianjun stared at Zhang Wei with a guarded and unfriendly gaze.

This look seemed to warn Zhang Wei, "If you dare to make one wrong move, I’ll deal with you".

"Big bro-in-law, was it necessary? Was it just because I embarrassed you in public once?"

Zhang Wei grumbled inwardly, this brother-in-law really holds a grudge...

The jeep, carrying everyone, left the Dongfang Capital City Area and arrived at a certain suburban location. After passing through a security check, the lighting dimmed, indicating they had entered an underground facility.

Passing through layers of checkpoints along the way, Zhang Wei and Zhao Xiaoxiao looked around curiously.

"Lawyer Zhang, although I’ve secured your access, please understand that everything you see and hear today here cannot be divulged!"

"We understand!"

Zhang Wei quickly assured, then elbowed Zhao Xiaoxiao.

Didn’t you hear Guider Zhou asking you to promise, hurry up and make a statement.

Initially distracted, Zhao Xiaoxiao promptly nodded like a pecking chicken after Zhang Wei’s reminder.

Zhou Xiaoli relaxed a bit upon seeing their responses.

The vehicle continued to move forward, soon reaching an underground parking lot.

After getting out of the car, a team from the War Department came and scanned Zhang Wei and the other person.

"Are these the items you want to bring in?"

One of the technicians eyed the computer equipment in Zhao Xiaoxiao’s bag with a puzzled look.

Noticing this, Zhou Xiaoli pointed to Zhao Xiaoxiao, "Yes, she is also a technician and will need to examine the evidence!"

"Understood, Guider Zhou!"

Having Zhou Xiaoli’s assurance, the group was quickly allowed to pass.

Following that, Zhang Wei and Zhao Xiaoxiao were brought to a warehouse and had to cede their personal belongings again for scanning and checks.

It wasn’t until 10 minutes later, after confirming there were no issues with the scan results, that they were allowed to enter the evidence room.

Another ten minutes or so passed before Zhang Wei and Zhao Xiaoxiao, following the staff’s directions, found the evidence related to the aviation threat case.

Upon seeing the big boxes on the evidence rack, Zhao Xiaoxiao’s eyes instinctively glanced at the person beside her.

Zhang Wei sighed and rolled up his sleeves to get to work.

After moving box after box of evidence onto the workbench, Zhang Wei was already gasping for breath from exhaustion.

"I can’t go on, little miss, I’m going to sit over there and have some tea. You stay here and keep busy."

Exhausted, Zhang Wei hastily excused himself.

"Ow, off you go then."

Seeing Zhang Wei leave, Zhao Xiaoxiao started to get busy.

She took out her laptop, then began to connect it to the computers, accessing data from the airline’s computer systems, and even the databases of the special combat teams.

"Come on, let’s see what exactly happened that night?"

Lines of code danced across the laptop screen; Zhao Xiaoxiao quickly found the log files from the time of the incident and, reading line by line, she noticed many issues.

"A Trojan virus with a very long incubation period, a worm virus, and..."

She looked for a long time and discovered that these viruses had been implanted into the servers a while ago. However, they did not immediately damage the program but stayed dormant for several months instead.

"Who sent these viruses?"

Muttering to herself, Zhao Xiaoxiao started a data search, looking for the network signature within the virus data.

Half an hour later, after completing the data search, a network signature popped up.

The signature had the suffix Viper.

"Is it Cui Yibin?"

Zhao Xiaoxiao wondered, then looked around cautiously to make sure no one was nearby and that Zhang Wei was resting not far away before she sneakily pulled out a USB drive from her pocket.

"Chai Jingjing, this is the last time I’m helping you!"

As she spoke, she plugged the USB drive into the computer and started a search.

Data codes flickered, and a new network signature appeared, also with the suffix Viper.

"Now, let’s compare them."

The keyboard clattered, codes alternated, and the comparison began.

As time passed, Zhao Xiaoxiao’s brows grew more furrowed.

Ding!

The comparison result came out.

99.99999994%.

Seeing this result, Zhao Xiaoxiao was astounded.

The data of this network signature were too similar, almost identical; no wonder the technicians couldn’t detect it.

If it weren’t for her expertise in this field and having the genuine network signature of Viper, she might not have detected the issue herself.

"Does this mean that Viper is innocent, and someone imitated his signature to fabricate the illusion of his attack?"

Realizing this, Zhao Xiaoxiao let out a sigh of relief, Chai Jingjing was right, Cui Yibin was wronged!

She prepared to unplug the USB drive and then inform Zhang Wei of the result.

But just at that moment, something unexpected happened!

She saw anomalous activities suddenly appear on her laptop screen—a new line of code surfaced and it was executing.

"This... what is this?"

Zhao Xiaoxiao was shocked by the scene before her.

It was a virus!

Moreover, it was a virus with an extremely long incubation period, coming from...

Her gaze immediately fixed on the USB drive; the viruses had emerged from inside it!

With quick reflexes, she pulled out the USB drive and frantically struck her keyboard, trying to salvage the situation.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry..."

Murmuring under her breath, her quiet, urgent voice was to no avail; her own computer had once again become like a wild horse that had thrown off its reins, out of her control.

"Warning!"

"Warning!"

Suddenly, the entire evidence room triggered an alarm, with flashing red lights and a particularly piercing alarm sound.

"This is bad!"

At that moment, Zhao Xiaoxiao looked towards the server connected to the airline’s database, only to find that data within it was being rapidly deleted.

Her mouth agape in surprise, she suddenly realized something.

This is disastrous!

The dormant virus had wiped clean all the data collected by the cybersecurity investigation team and the special combat unit from the airline company.

She then looked back at her computer screen, where among the furiously flickering code, a new file extension appeared.

"Snake!"

Upon seeing this file extension, Zhao Xiaoxiao was astounded.

Because she knew who it was—a top-notch hacker who is typically active abroad and rarely shows a face in Dragon Country’s hacking circles.

She had initially thought that the person was a foreign hacker but did not expect their true identity.

Chai Jingjing was actually a hacker, and not just any hacker, but Snake...

"Xiao Xiao, what’s wrong with you, what’s happening here?"

Zhang Wei hurriedly came over, looking at Zhao Xiaoxiao with a puzzled expression.

There had been no issues just a moment ago, but now there were alarms and flashing lights. Could there be a problem here?

"Zhang Wei, I..."

Zhao Xiaoxiao opened her mouth but didn’t know how to begin.

"Xiao Xiao, if you have something to say, say it quickly. I’ll definitely stand by your side!"

"I...I think I’ve made a mistake!" said Zhao Xiaoxiao, hesitating for a second before finally mustering the courage.

"What mistake did you make? Is it serious, does it affect you?"

"It seems to have a big impact..."

Before Zhao Xiaoxiao could finish, the doors of the evidence room burst open and Zhou Xiaoli along with the people from the War Department rushed in.

"It’s them, arrest them!"

Zhou Xiaoli didn’t speak, but the person beside her pointed at Zhang Wei and Zhao Xiaoxiao, and immediately, a group of men pushed them to the ground, rendering them immobile.

"Separate them for detention, interrogate them individually!"

The War Department personnel immediately proceeded to split the two apart.

"Don’t worry, I’ll stand by you, after all, you are my dear Xiao Xiao!"

As Zhao Xiaoxiao was about to be taken away, Zhang Wei felt helpless but could only shout out to her.

After a short while, the two were separated and then each was pushed into a separate room.

Zhou Xiaoli and a person from the War Department came to see Zhang Wei at the same time.

"Lawyer Zhang, you owe me an explanation!"

"Guider Zhou, if I tell you that I am also unclear about the situation, would you be surprised?"

"I’m not surprised, because I know Lawyer Zhang you are an expert in legal matters, but not necessarily in computer technology," Zhou Xiaoli replied, remaining composed even though a grave incident had just occurred.

In fact, she knew that Zhang Wei wasn’t closely connected to the issue.

"Then I would like to ask, how about Xiao Xiao?"

"Her charge this time is the intrusion into a confidential database and the alteration of portions of the data within it, right under our noses. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she was caught red-handed."

"What if I say she’s innocent too, would you believe me?"

"Lawyer Zhang, it’s not yet time for a court hearing. If you want to defend her innocence, you need to be aware of the proper context," Zhou Xiaoli interrupted Zhang Wei and then pointed to the room next door, "Lawyer Zhang, I know you’re a professional, and you’re even clearer about interrogation than we are. But do you think Zhao Xiaoxiao can remain as calm as you?"

"I know Xiao Xiao is impulsive, and she might become uncooperative under your questioning, but please be aware that she has also been deceived. At most, she could be considered indirectly guilty. The mastermind..."

"The mastermind, we’ll discuss that once we manage to catch them," interjected Zhou Xiaoli with a cold snort before she stood up and left.

It seemed like she didn’t want to press Zhang Wei any further, knowing she wouldn’t get any definitive answers.

The War Department personnel proceeded to ask Zhang Wei several questions as a matter of routine, but Zhang Wei’s responses essentially amounted to saying nothing at all.

After the interrogation, Zhang Wei stayed in a separate room for several hours without his phone, but he remained calm.

At dusk.

Zhang Wei was released.

Unfortunately, Zhao Xiaoxiao was not.

He picked up his phone, which he hadn’t touched in a long time, and hurriedly made a call.

"Uncle Zhao, the thing we were most worried about happened, Xiaoxiao has been used by someone!"

There was no response on the other end of the line, but Zhang Wei could hear heavy breathing.

"Come to Blacksmith Technology and meet me; I’ll send someone to pick you up!"

Zhao Qingyan hung up the phone directly.

minutes later, a business car stopped in front of Zhang Wei.

More than an hour later, Zhang Wei appeared in the office of the research and development department where Zhao Qingyan was.

The two "old fathers" sat facing each other, their faces marked by time.

"Uncle Zhao, I am also to blame for not noticing in advance..."

"Xiao Zhang, no need to blame yourself. Didn’t you suspect beforehand that Xiaoxiao was being deceived? It’s just that I didn’t expect she would be in so deep..."

Seeing Zhang Wei’s self-blame, Zhao Qingyan quickly waved his hand to stop him.

Now the situation was urgent; self-blame was useless.

"Xiao Zhang, what do you think will happen next?"

"Yeah, what’s going to happen next..." Zhang Wei said with self-deprecating laughter, "I guess the defense will definitely make the first move, followed by Chai Jingjing. She will certainly disappear under someone’s arrangement, and they will make sure we can’t find her. That way, it’s as good as having no evidence of her death."

"In that case, the situation will be very unfavorable for us!"

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Zhao Qingyan quickly asked, "So, what are you going to do next?"

"Uncle Zhao, I’ve always had a doubt, so I want to ask you for a favor. Do you have any contacts in Iron Island Prison who could arrange an urgent meeting for me?"

"Iron Island Prison, do you want to see someone today?"

"Yes, it usually requires an advance appointment to go to Iron Island Prison, and meeting someone would take at least two or three days, but I need to see someone right now!"

"Understood, I’ll arrange it!"

Zhao Qingyan quickly made a phone call and then told Zhang Wei some rather good news.

At 9 PM.

Iron Island Prison, visiting room.

Zhang Lang, dressed in prison garb, was led out.

As it turned out, when he came out, he saw an enemy he would never forget in his lifetime.

"Oh, the famous Lawyer Zhang, what brings you to see a fallen man like me?"

"Are you mocking me? Do you know something?"

"Although I have nothing now, I used to be the second-in-command of the CSB Department, and I still have connections!"

"Is that so? I thought your connections were lost along with your incarceration. I didn’t expect anyone to still care about a down-and-out dog like you?"

"You!"

Faced with Zhang Wei’s mockery, Zhang Lang couldn’t restrain himself and almost erupted in rage.

But the Court Guards around him were ready, taking out their batons at the slightest disturbance from him.

"Lawyer Zhang, I almost fell for your trick!"

The anger on Zhang Lang’s face was replaced by a mocking sneer.

"Speaking of which, you seem to be in a worse situation, aren’t you in trouble yourself?"

"I’m different from you; my hands are clean!"

Zhang Lang frowned, feeling that the young man in front of him was insinuating something.

Still, he held back because he knew Zhang Wei was in a worse position now.

"Zhang Lang, let’s not beat around the bush. Was it you who gave Blackfoot the idea?"

"Hahaha, Lawyer Zhang, you really amuse me. What could a prisoner like me possibly do?"

Zhang Lang scoffed, his words heavy with sarcasm.

"Is that so? Then I hope ’Mr. Zhang’ gets along well with his roommates. By the way, I know you’ve always had a single cell before, but this time I’ve arranged for you an 8-person mixed cell, along with 7 rapists. I’ve heard they’ve been in prison so long that their sexual orientation has shifted slightly..."

With those words, Zhang Lang’s face instantly changed.

"Impossible, you couldn’t possibly change my prison arrangement on your own!"

Bang!

Zhang Wei slammed his hand on the table!

"But you threatened my family, and I will make sure you suffer for it. This is to show you the consequences of offending my family!"

Zhang Lang hadn’t anticipated that the Zhang Wei in front of him would become suddenly so impassioned.

Yet, he merely glowered and didn’t respond.

Their meeting ended as an unpleasant one.