The Last Ballad

Known in the legal profession as “China's Strongest Criminal Defense Lawyer,” Liu Hongmei is over fifty and has been invited by the Bar Association to speak at a conference for the first time in ten years. The news spreads quickly, and tickets for a previously overlooked public-interest event sell out in an instant.

She left medicine for law and entered the field halfway through life. Every major criminal case she has handled has gone down in the history of criminal defense.

People say she isn't professional enough, yet she has never lost a case. They say she only cares about money and has no shame, yet she has spent most of her life working on public-interest cases.

What made her take this path?

The answer is about to be revealed.

*

In 1993, male genitalia were discarded in public places in five separate incidents. The police suspected the cases were acts of revenge, but they had no leads at all.

The streets were gripped by fear.

Hongmei didn't know what any of it had to do with her.

Until her close friend Xie Fang's birthday, when they sang “Happy Birthday” together.

The candle's smoke drifted in the wind, and Hongmei asked as a matter of course, “You still wish to become the best obstetrician-gynecologist, right?”

Xie Fang was silent for a long time. Only when the sound of a police siren came from the horizon did she speak again.

“No. Not for a long time.”

*

Beyond fate, can we have ideals of our own?

Reader's notes:

1. This focuses on Liu Hongmei's journey as she leaves medicine for law. Hongmei's romantic partner only appears in the final few chapters and has little screen time.

2. The main plot is the Xie Fang case, which takes place in the 1990s.

3. Not based on any real-life cases. Purely a work of fiction.

[The blurb was screenshotted and saved on January 31, 2025.]

Theme: Ideals are the footnotes of life