If the Deep Sea Forgets You

Anna shook her head. “I don’t know either. It’s a young girl wearing a hospital gown. Her face was pale and it was rather frightening. All she asked was if you worked here. I said yes. Then she just sat there waiting.”

Mo Han furrowed his brows and remained silent.

“Could it be someone you knew from a previous case? Or maybe somebody who wants you to help defend them? Poor thing.”

“What else did she say?”

“Nothing. She was just standing in a corner, waiting with her head bowed. I took pity on her, so I asked her to sit in the reception room and also whether she wanted something to drink. She didn’t utter a single word.”

Mo Han put down his bag. He still didn’t have a clue who could be looking for him, so he went into the reception room. “I’ll go inside. You guys wait outside.”

Pushing the door open, her back was the first thing he saw. Just as Anna had described, she had short hair, and she was skinny and pale. She wore a hospital gown and sat on a chair, facing him with her head slightly bowed.

“Were you looking for me?” Mo Han asked.

The girl opposite heard him, turned, and stood up to face him.

It was then that Mo Han saw her face clearly. She had a tiny face the size of a palm. She had short, somewhat messy hair with a pair of beautiful eyes. Perhaps due to the fact that she was wearing a patient’s gown, she looked pale, sickly, and lifeless.

She looked just like a soulless, beautiful puppet.

The girl’s eyes sized him up, moving her eyes all over his body as though she was looking for something on him. After a while, she asked, “Do you know me?”

Mo Han furrowed his eyebrows, finding the turn of events odd. Few people would look so intensely at him. Even when he was in court arguing a case against somebody, he rarely felt the mysterious sensation he experienced now, as if lost in a thick fog.

“Sorry Miss, I don’t know you. Actually, why are you here in my office?” he asked lightly.

The girl looked back, anticipation filling her eyes. “Can you try to remember? This is really important to me.”

Mo Han chuckled and shook his head. “My memory isn’t bad. Nor do I wish to repeat myself.”

The girl was disappointed after hearing this. She walked straight towards Mo Han before stopping in front of him. She took out a piece of paper from her pocket, raised her head, and glared right back at him. “Then… how would you explain this?”

She had a tiny stature, barely reaching his shoulders, but her expression was intense. Mo Han took the piece of paper from her and had a quick look. It was only then that he realized it was an invoice from the hospital.

It was dated a month ago. At the corner it was signed: “Mo Han – Mo & Associates.”

Despite staring at the paper for awhile, he could not figure out when he had financial involvements with the girl standing in front of him. Just as he was feeling utterly confused, Liu Zhiyuan entered carefully, his posture stooping low in apology, “Barrister Mo, I know who she is.”

“What’s going on?” Mo Han held the invoice in his hand, frustration apparent in his voice.

“Did you forget? The last time we went to the municipal hospital to visit that old man who requested for the notarization of his will, a large number of people blocked up the entrance to the hospital, and refused to leave. We couldn’t drive inside. You told me to get out and take a look. That’s when I saw a girl lying in a pool of blood on the floor. Nobody cared about her as she lay on the floor since she didn’t have money for treatment. You were worried that the old man would die without having his will notarized. So you paid for her to be sent into the operating theater. I was the one who handled all the papers.”

Liu Zhiyuan stole a glance at the girl opposite him. “That’s the girl who was on the floor.”

“But I didn’t tell you to sign my name?” Mo Han’s tone was cold.

Zhiyuan felt a little wronged. “I didn’t have a choice. When she was sent here, there was no next of kin, so there was nobody to sign the consent for surgical risks. The nurse asked for my name, so I just blurted out yours. After all, using your name can create a positive image for our law firm.”

The girl sitting beside them kept quiet. She listened to their entire conversation in silence.