Chance Encounter

Guo Yuan held Lawyer Hu's opinion in high regard. They had worked together for so long, and Lawyer Hu had always been conscientious and responsible.

But Guo Yuan urgently needed money right now. The production company under Tokyo Television had not offered much upfront, and while the eventual returns would be fairly high, that was a matter for later. There was no way a TV drama could be filmed and aired within a month.

Just as Guo Yuan was wavering, he received an email from a production company under TBS.

Their terms were somewhat better than NHK's, roughly reaching the industry's second tier. However, they demanded fairly extensive adaptation rights, meaning they wanted to make large-scale changes to the original work.

This was normal in the industry. Even if a new writer's work received a good market response, books and television dramas were two different things. A popular book did not necessarily make for a popular drama, so many production companies made market-oriented adaptations to works by new authors.

However, Guo Yuan had no intention of accepting those terms. According to the memories he had received, White Night Walk, an outstanding work of social mystery fiction, could win over most audiences without any adaptation.

NHK's offer was too low, while TBS wanted to make sweeping changes to the original. Looking at it that way, the production company under Tokyo Television was the most suitable choice.

Whether an excellent novel adaptation could achieve good results had a great deal to do with whether the creators put their hearts into it and whether they liked the work. Your work had many fans at the production company under Tokyo Television, and the director responsible for adapting it was one of them.

After hearing the narration, Guo Yuan had nothing left to hesitate over. He sent Lawyer Hu an email, stating that he was willing to work with the production company under Tokyo Television.

Lawyer Hu would have to handle the specific contract negotiations.

With the adaptation matter settled, Guo Yuan began thinking that he should prepare for his trip to Hangcheng.

Guo Yuan felt that going there and returning on the same day to discuss this sort of matter was unrealistic. He would probably have to stay for a few days, so he needed to buy some things.

The next morning, sometime after nine, Guo Yuan washed up quickly and headed out.

The supermarket was not far from Guo Yuan's home, about 1.5 kilometers away. He scanned a shared bike and rode toward the supermarket while humming a tune.

But to Guo Yuan's surprise, he had not gone far before he came across a group of people gathered by the roadside near the subway entrance.

As soon as he approached, Guo Yuan heard a woman roar, "You were the one who tried to snatch my bag just now! If my bag hadn't gotten tangled around my hand, you would've taken it!

How dare you do something like this in broad daylight? I'll beat you to death!"

Guo Yuan looked in the direction of the voice and saw a short woman in her early thirties shove a somewhat overweight man in his forties to the ground. Then, together with her companion, she began punching and kicking him.

"Stop! Nobody move! Assaulting someone in public—do you all want to be taken in?!" Two police officers ran over from the other side of the crowd as they shouted.

Only then did the two women stop, their faces full of indignation.

The two officers were a man and a woman. Guo Yuan looked closely and realized that the female officer seemed familiar.

Guo Yuan stared at her for quite a while before confirming it. She did not merely look familiar—she was someone he knew.

The female officer was Xue Ruoyi, the daughter of one of Guo Yuan's dad's former colleagues. Like Guo Yuan, she had been born in 1998.

Back then, both families had lived in the hospital staff dormitories. Besides Xue Ruoyi, there had also been another child born in 1998 in the staff housing named Shi Ze. The three of them had basically grown up together as childhood friends.

Later, Xue Ruoyi's dad switched jobs to another hospital. Her family moved away in 2012, and Xue Ruoyi transferred schools as well. Guo Yuan's and Shi Ze's families, meanwhile, did not move out until 2016.

By that count, Guo Yuan had not seen Xue Ruoyi in ten years.

They said girls changed dramatically as they grew up, and Xue Ruoyi had indeed changed quite a bit. Setting aside the police uniform, her appearance and demeanor were truly very different from before.

Xue Ruoyi now wore a neat, capable short haircut. Her face no longer had the slight baby fat of her younger years, instead becoming a standard oval face. Perhaps because of the change in her face shape, her nose also looked much higher.

The only things that had not changed were her peach blossom eyes and her eyelashes, which looked as though they belonged to an anime character.

"What a small world."

What a small world indeed! you sighed inwardly. You had run into your childhood friend by chance, but she seemed to have run into some trouble this time. She would soon be complained against for arresting the wrong person, and this month's bonus would go down the drain.

Guo Yuan raised an eyebrow at that. The narration said that Xue Ruoyi had arrested the wrong person. Judging by the situation, she would most likely take this man away. Could it be that he was not the bag snatcher?

A friendly reminder: the woman's bag was not snatched by this man. There were too many people at the intersection just now, and she did not see clearly who had tried to take her bag. She merely grabbed a random passerby nearby. The man had diabetes, and his physical condition would not allow him to snatch a bag.

Guo Yuan immediately understood. There were surveillance cameras at the intersection. Xue Ruoyi would take the man away, then check the footage and uncover the truth. The person arrested would surely be unhappy and file a complaint while he was at it, costing Xue Ruoyi her bonus.

Guo Yuan glanced at the two women and the man lying on the ground. She was his childhood friend, after all. He could not just stand by and watch her get into trouble.

So Guo Yuan deliberately said, "This man couldn't possibly have snatched a bag. Could you have arrested the wrong person?"

Guo Yuan did not deliberately lower his voice, so his words naturally reached the two officers in the crowd.

"Sister Xue, I think I just heard someone say that he couldn't have snatched the bag," the male officer said quietly.

Xue Ruoyi turned to look at Guo Yuan. Her expression first turned puzzled, then uncertain, before finally breaking into a smile. Clearly, she had recognized Guo Yuan as well.

Seeing Xue Ruoyi's expression, the male officer guessed that Guo Yuan might be someone she knew.

Since he was Xue Ruoyi's acquaintance, the male officer figured Guo Yuan would not make trouble without reason. He walked over to Guo Yuan and asked, "Sir, you just said he couldn't have snatched the bag. Did you see something?"

"I didn't see anything, but this man couldn't possibly have snatched a bag.

"He is overweight, his face is abnormally flushed, and his skin is extremely dry. The woman only shoved him once, yet he immediately fell to the ground. That is a sign of physical weakness and fatigue.

"On top of that, his palms are swollen, and his fingers show signs of redness and swelling. His eyelids are drooping, with traces of repeated eyelid inflammation. Without a doubt, this man has diabetes.

"Diabetes has many complications, and weakness throughout the body is one of them. From the fact that he fell after a single shove and did not put up any major resistance even while being beaten, only protecting his head, he is definitely the type who suffers from severe full-body weakness.

"In his current condition, let alone snatching a bag, even making a slightly large movement would be difficult for him."

After hearing Guo Yuan's words, the male officer froze. He subconsciously turned to look at the man on the ground.

The woman who had just beaten him said indignantly, "You say he has diabetes, so he has diabetes? I say my friend shoved him over and he didn't fight back because he had a guilty conscience!"

"I-I really do have diabetes. I have diabetes medicine in my bag," the man on the ground hurriedly said as he took out the medicine.

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