Read Novel Full Chapter 279: Give Me My Wife Back
Chapter 279: Give Me My Wife Back
October 26, 2:10 PM, second floor of the Zhengping Firm.
Downstairs, someone was washing the concrete floor, a plastic basin scraping across it—once, twice. When the desk phone rang, she was midway through copying the page for the 23rd into the ledger.
"Zhengping Firm."
"Lawyer Shen, this is the Chengdong District People's Court." It was the clerk she'd met the day the ruling was served. "Just letting you know, the respondent filed a reconsideration application this morning. One page."
"One page."
"One page. It says 'the child needs to see her father,' and 'matters between husband and wife are none of the court's business.' No other materials attached."
She pressed the pen cap back on. "When will there be a decision?"
"Once it's reviewed, we'll send a written copy to both you and the respondent. The copy for the police station stays as is."
"During reconsideration—"
"It does not suspend enforcement." The clerk said, "I've read that sentence three times. He asked too, and I gave him the same answer."
[Thud. One reconsideration. The order stands.]
She flipped to a new page and wrote: October 26, 2:10 PM, court called. Reconsideration application, one page, no attachments. After writing, she did the math: the order had taken effect at 3:30 PM on the 22nd. Today was day four. He had five days to file, and he'd made it. She added one line beneath her entry: He's counting the days.
In the noodle shop, He Xiufen was counting loose change, bundling one-yuan notes into small rolls with rubber bands.
"It won't loosen." He Xiufen didn't look up.
"What does he want?"
"He wants people to think it's loosened." She wrapped the rubber band one last turn. "Last time he tore up paper—tore it up for himself to see. This time he filed paper—filed it for you to see."
"I'll call He Lan tonight."
"Call. Don't let her hear it from someone else first."
October 27, 3:30 PM, second floor of the Zhengping Firm.
Across the street, the candied chestnut cart was stirring chestnuts, its iron spatula scraping the wok in bursts. The street-facing window was open a crack.
He Lan sat in the old wooden chair by the window. Two pages of the Evidence List lay spread on the table.
"Seven groups, two pages." Shen Zhixia pushed the pen toward her. "Start from the first page. Look at each page and sign the corner. On the last page, write one sentence."
"What sentence?"
"Write: 'I confirm the above seven groups.'" She said, "When we're in court, the judge will ask: who gave you these papers, who took the photos, who made the recordings. When he asks, I can't answer for you."
He Lan went through page by page. At the group of nine photos, her finger paused on the second one—the one of the neck.
The pen touched paper and signed slowly. When the name was done, she traced over it once more.
"He Lan—"
The voice came up from downstairs. He Lan's pen scratched a line across the page.
"He Lan! Give me my wife back!"
Shen Zhixia rose and walked to the stairwell. The door curtain was lifted; He Xiufen already stood just inside the doorway, one hand bracing the frame.
"People hide her, and you still hang out a lawyer's sign!"
"I brought my kid her schoolbag! Can't even deliver a schoolbag?"
"I don't recognize that piece of paper!"
Lu Jibai stood up from the innermost table, half a bowl of noodles still uneaten. He walked to the entrance and stood beside He Xiufen, not stepping outside.
"Put the schoolbag on the ground," He Xiufen said.
"I want to see her."
"She's not here."
"She's here every day!"
"Then come ask every day. I'll note it every day." He Xiufen said, "One note is nothing. Ten notes make a book."
Lu Jibai spoke: "That gray-pink schoolbag in your hand—is it your daughter's?"
"It's my daughter's."
"Your daughter is nine, goes to Liuhe Primary School, gets out at four-thirty in the afternoon." He said, "You're standing here now. At four-thirty, you still won't see her."
"I—"
"If you have something to deliver, send it through the court, or write an address and mail it to the school." Lu Jibai said, "You stand at the door shouting, then it's not about a schoolbag anymore."
She went back inside for her phone. Her fingertip tapped the screen twice, missing the mark.
"Police report. Old Town area, outside the Zhengping Firm, there's a man shouting at our door, demanding to see a client by name. That client has a personal safety protection order."
"Has he gotten physical?"
"No."
"Is he still there?"
"At the door."
"Officers are on the way."
He Lan had already stood up, cloth bag in hand, body angled toward the door.
"Back stairs." Shen Zhixia pushed her into the hallway. "Go down, turn right out of the alley. There's a laundromat—go inside and sit. Don't stand on the street. I'll call you when it's handled here."
"Xiaotian—"
"I'll be at the school gate at four-twenty. You leave the laundromat and meet me there." She said, "Go."
He Lan took two steps, then turned back. "Those two pages—the Evidence List—"
"I'll keep them. You've already signed your name."
The police hadn't arrived yet when she went downstairs. She stood half a step behind He Xiufen, phone raised, camera pointed at the three steps outside the door.
Feng Guoming saw her. "You're the lawyer."
"That's me."
"Where is she?"
"If you want to see her, go to the court."
"I've been to the court!" He lifted the plastic bag in his hand and pulled out a gray-pink schoolbag, a small plastic charm dangling from the zipper. "I'm bringing her schoolbag. Is that a crime too?"
"Delivering a schoolbag isn't a crime." She said, "Standing at someone's door shouting 'give me my wife back'—that's counted separately."
He stared at her. "You tell her to think it over. The kid's surname is Feng."
"What surname the child carries, and how the court decides who she lives with—those are two different things."
[Thud. He didn't come inside. Standing outside the door still counts as coming.]
At 3:49 PM, two officers arrived. The older one carried a notebook.
He asked who'd made the report, checked IDs, asked what the man had come for.
"I'm bringing my daughter her schoolbag."
"The schoolbag?"
He lifted it. The officer glanced at it, then turned to He Xiufen. "He Lan works here?"
"No. She's a client here."
The officer looked back at Feng Guoming. "She filed for a protection order?"
He paused. "I tore up that paper."
"Torn up, but the paper's still on file at the court." The officer said, "Let's go. Register at the corner."
"I'll leave the schoolbag here."
"Take it back. If you have something to deliver, send it through the court."
He picked up the schoolbag and walked four or five steps toward the corner, then looked back once at the second-floor window.
At 4:05 PM, the older officer tore a handwritten triplicate slip from his notebook: report time 3:36 PM, arrival 3:49 PM. In the incident column was written "doorstep harassment." The reporting party signed. She signed her name and folded her copy in half.
"The original stays at the station. This copy's for you." The officer said, "If he comes back in the next couple of days, call this number directly." He wrote a cell phone number on the back of the slip.
Both tables of customers in the noodle shop had left. He Xiufen draped the rag over a chair back. "If he latches onto 'I came to deliver a schoolbag,' which clause do you stop him with?"
"Clause three doesn't reach my building." Shen Zhixia said, "'Residence, supermarket, school, two hundred meters'—none of that applies to where he was standing."
"Then which clause do you write?"
"Clause two. Harassment, stalking, contact. 'Contact' is hard to prove. 'Harassment' is easy—he stood at the door shouting for nineteen minutes."
He Xiufen pushed the chair under the table. "When you write it up, copy the exact words. 'Give me my wife back' is the best line. Don't change a single character."
At 4:20 PM, in front of Liuhe Primary School. He Lan emerged from the row of trees, cloth bag hugged to her chest.
After a ten-minute wait, the dismissal bell rang. The child came out of the line and saw her mother. She glanced first at the space behind her, then walked over.
"Mom, why are your hands so cold?" the child said.
On the way back to the shelter, no one mentioned what had happened downstairs.
At 8:00 PM on the second floor of the Zhengping Firm, one page of report was finished.
The title read: "Report on the Respondent's Violation of the Personal Safety Protection Order." Item one: from 3:30 PM to 3:49 PM on October 27, when officers arrived, the respondent stood outside the entrance of the Zhengping Firm, shouting loudly and demanding to see the applicant by name three times. His exact words were "give me my wife back." Item two: this location is not the applicant's current residence; the respondent came here specifically to find the applicant. Item two of the protection order prohibits harassment, stalking, and contact. His conduct falls under "harassment." Item three: two attachments—a four-minute-twenty-second on-site video, original phone file and one USB copy; one copy of the report receipt.
The video was named "October 27, 3:37 PM, downstairs entrance." Two backups were made.
At 8:10 PM, the guard room of the Chengdong District People's Court. The duty officer recorded the time in his book, took the envelope, and watched as she wrote the presiding judge's name on the front.
She called the clerk. The voice on the other end said: "I'll be in at eight-thirty tomorrow morning. The moment the doors open, I'll submit it."
October 28, 10:00 AM, second floor of the Zhengping Firm.
"Denied." The clerk said over the phone, "The written decision will be delivered today—one copy to you, one to the respondent."
"What's the reasoning?"
"One page. It states the protection order's findings of fact were clear, the procedure was sound, and the circumstances don't meet the standard for revocation."
"Thank you."
"One more thing." The clerk paused half a second. "The report you filed last night—I submitted it. The judge read it. We'll be calling him in for questioning."
Lu Jibai was writing at the neighboring desk, pen still moving. "Sent back."
"He filed on the morning of the 26th. Denied this morning."
"Fast is good." He set down the pen. "Those nineteen minutes he stood at the door yesterday are now a page. Once the paper's at the court, it's not just you saying he came."
"The court says they'll call him in for questioning."
"Once they question him, there's a price tag on it."
At 1:00 PM, the Women's Federation duty room called: temporary shelter beds were limited to ten days, and the 28th was the cutoff.
She called He Lan. He Lan said her cousin was taking the afternoon off to come pick her up. Everything was already packed—just two bags.
At 4:00 PM, in the old locomotive depot area north of the city, a six-story building. The sound-activated lights in the stairwell worked on one floor and not the next. On the third floor, a faded paper "Fu" character was pasted to the iron security door.
When Su Hongmei opened the door, her apron was still dusted with flour. She wiped her hands on it twice.
"Come in, come in. Don't worry about shoes—I'll mop later." She kicked the cardboard box by the door aside. "Back again. The place is still small. Don't mind it."
The inner room held a one-and-a-half-meter bed and an old wardrobe. A row of medicine boxes sat on the windowsill. The outer room had a long sofa, the fabric worn through in one spot, one side of the springs collapsed when you sat down.
At 5:20 PM, the community police officer arrived downstairs on an electric scooter, notebook in hand.
"Name's Gao. I cover this area." He asked how many people would be living there, which room, which school the child attended, what time she left and returned, which route she took, whether the building had access control, and whether the unit door locked at night.
He copied Shen Zhixia's cell number and the firm's landline into his notebook. "I do a loop through this section once a day. If anything happens, call that number."
"Her old address—we've already given word over there." He closed the notebook. "Address changed, so my records need updating too."
"I'll file a one-page change-of-address notice with the court tomorrow morning and copy the police station." She said.
"Good. Send me a text once it's filed."
[Thud. She moved. The order moves with her.]
Su Hongmei pulled an old blanket down from the top of the wardrobe and shook it out twice. "I'll share the inner room with Lanlan. Xiaotian can take the sofa out here."
"I'll sleep on the sofa." He Lan said, "Your back's bad."
"You're on your feet all night—"
"I can sleep on the floor."
The child said it fast, as if she'd already decided. "Just spread the blanket. I don't mind the cold."
The room went quiet. The blanket in Su Hongmei's hands stopped midair.
"At home I always curled up to sleep anyway." The child added, "The sofa being short is fine."
He Lan set down her cloth bag and walked over to the sofa. She crouched, pressed a hand on the frayed spot. When she pushed down, a spring creaked.
Shen Zhixia opened her notebook and wrote the final line of the day: 5:40 PM, north of the city, one bed.
When she finished, she didn't close the notebook. The pen tip stopped beneath that line.