Early Monday morning, at the Federal Building on San Francisco's Golden Gate Boulevard, F.B.I. agent Zhu Yuting sat in a courtroom on the fifteenth floor and waited. The courtroom has a golden wooden floor, as is always the case in newly renovated courtrooms.

They generally don't have windows, so the architects tried to use lighter colors to make the interior look a little brighter.

It was her guess, and for a long time she was always waiting in the courtroom.

This is true of most law enforcement officers.

At this moment, she was worried.

In the courtroom, she was always worried.

She often has to prepare for months, even years, for a case, but once the case goes to court, it is uncertain.

The defendant may be cunning or incompetent, the judge may be a sharp-eyed enlightened man or an old and infirm old stubborn, and the jury may be a group of wise and responsible citizens, or a gang of coarse low-level moths who themselves deserve to go to jail.

There are four men on trial today, and they are, John, Kate, Chen Du, and Chen Ma. The Chen brothers are the big bullies, and the other two are their superiors.

They teamed up with a triad in Japan to build a money laundering network to launder black money from the Northern California drug industry.

It took Zhu Yuting a year to find out what they were doing, and another year to find evidence.

One of the big advantages of her when she's investigating Asian criminals is that she looks like an Oriental.

Her father is a green-eyed Chinese, but she looks like her deceased mother, who is Chinese.

Zhu Yuting has a slender figure and dark hair, and is an authentic mixed-race beauty.

The two Chinese criminals never imagined that this beautiful Asian mixed-race girl turned out to be an FBI agent with outstanding abilities.

She was working with an assistant prosecutor, and she knew a lot about this person.

The man's name was William Wong, and until a year ago, the two of them were living together.

He was as old as her, twenty-six years old, an experienced, energetic, brilliant man, and she thought the case was a perfect one, but the defendant hired the best team of criminal lawyers in San Francisco to concoct a brilliant and brilliant defense.

Their lawyers subtly undermined the credibility of the witnesses' testimony, as the witnesses themselves inevitably came from the criminal camp, and they also misrepresented the supporting documents that Zhu Yuting had collected to confuse the jury.

Neither Zhu nor William Huang knew what the final outcome of the trial would be.

Zhu Yuting can't let go of this case, and there is a special reason.

Her immediate supervisor, the Inspector of the Asian Gang Crime Task Force, was retiring, and she applied to take over the position. The head of the San Francisco Bureau's Secret Service Director will support her application, and she knows it.

But she also has a competitor, Ma Wencai, who is also an ambitious agent, and is in the same age group as her.

And Ma Wencai also has a strong backer, his best friend is the assistant secret service director, who specializes in all the investigative activities of the white-collar crime task force.

Personnel promotions are the responsibility of the Personnel Service, but the Special Service Supervisor and Assistant Secret Service are also very important.

At present, the competition between Zhu Yuting and Ma Wencai is very exciting.

She wanted that job, she wanted to move up quickly at the FBI, she was a good agent, she was going to be a great team leader.

Over time, she would grow into the best secret service director the FBI has ever seen.

She's proud of the FBI, but she knows she can build it better, she'll bring in new technology faster, streamline the management system, and most importantly, eliminate agents like Mr. Ma.

Marvin is a traditional type of magistrate, lazy, brutal, and unscrupulous.

He didn't arrest as many bad guys in prison as Zhu Yuting, but he arrested more big guys.

If an investigation goes well, he'll skillfully get involved, and if something doesn't go right, he'll get out of the way quickly.

The head of the secret service has hinted to Zhu Yuting that as long as she can win today's lawsuit, she will be the one who sits in the position of inspector, not Ma Wencai.

In the courtroom, Ms. Zhu was joined by most of the members of the case team, including the Inspector, several agents who worked with her, a linguist, the team leader's secretary, and two San Francisco Police Department detectives.

To her surprise, neither the Agent Director nor the Assistant Agent Director were present.

It's a big case, and the outcome of the trial is important for both of them.

She felt a little uneasy, wondering if something was going on in the precinct.

She decided to go outside and make a phone call. But before she could get to the door, the clerk of the court walked in, and he announced that the jury was about to return.

So she sat down again.

After a while, William Wong came back with the smell of smoke on his body, and after they broke up, he started smoking again.

He pinched her shoulder, counting as encouragement.

She smiled at him in return.

He looked quite handsome, with short hair neatly cut, and wore a dark blue suit and white button-down shirt with a crimson Armani tie.

But she had no feelings for him anymore, no passion, she didn't want to mess with his hair anymore, unbuttoned his tie, and put her hand in his white shirt.

The defendant's lawyer returned, the defendant's bench, the jury was present, and finally, the judge walked out of the office and took his seat.

Zhu Yuting put her hand under the table and clasped her fingers.

The clerk stood up: "Jury members, you have made your verdict. ”

There was absolute silence. Zhu Yuting realized that she was slapping with her foot and stopped.

The head of the jury was a Chinese store manager.

He stood up, and Zhu spent a long time trying to figure out his attitude towards the defendants, because two of the defendants were Chinese, and she didn't know if he would sympathize with them, or if he would celebrate them because of the shame they had brought to their people.

He said in a cold voice, "We have made a verdict. ”

"How do you decide the accused, guilty or not guilty?"

"The charges were convicted. ”

As the news spread, there was a moment of silence in the courtroom.

Zhu Yuting heard someone in the dock behind her sigh.

Resisting her urge to cheer, she looked at William Wong, who was smiling at her.

Attorneys for the accused, who were paid a lot of money, sorted through their papers, avoiding each other's eyes.

The two reporters stood up and hurried out the door, ready to make a phone call.

The judge, a skinny old man with a bitter gourd face, about fifty years old, thanked the jury and then adjourned the trial, which was pronounced a week later.

I succeeded, Zhu Yuting thought, I won the lawsuit, sent the bad guy to prison, and promotion was not a problem.

Inspector Agent Zhu Yuting, only twenty-six years old, is a rising star in the secret service world.

"All stand up. The clerk said.

The judge left the courtroom.

William Huang gave Zhu Yuting a hug.

"You've done a great job. She said to him

"Thank you. ”

"You gave me a good case. He said.

She saw that he wanted to kiss her, and took a step back.

"Well, we're all doing a good job. She said.

She turned to look for a colleague.

She walked among them, shook hands with them, hugged them, thanked them for their efforts.

Then, the defendant's lawyers came.

Among the two of them, the senior one was named Huang Kang, a partner at the gold medal law firm, and he looked very noble, in his sixties. "Congratulations, Miss Zhu Yuting, you won beautifully. He said.

"Thank you. She said, "This case is more thrilling than I expected. I thought there was no suspense, but you intervened. ”

In the face of her compliment, he tilted his head, and his well-groomed hair was not messy. "Your preparation has been impeccable. Are you trained as a lawyer?"

"I went to Stanford Law School. ”

"I knew you must have a law degree. By the way, if you're tired of the FBI, please come to me. At our firm, you can get twice as much in less than a year than you do today. "

Flattered on the one hand, and at the same time feeling that her profession was insulted, her reply was scathing: "It's really good work, but I want to put the bad guys in jail, not just to help them get away with it." ”

"There are ideals, admired. He said calmly, then turned around and began to greet William Wong.

Zhu Yuting realized that she was too sensitive. It's her fault, and she understands it. But whatever, she didn't want to work at a gold medal law firm anyway.

She picked up the briefcase.

She can't wait to share the victory with the Secret Service Director.

The FBI's San Francisco office is in the same building as the courthouse, two floors down. As soon as she was about to leave, William Huang grabbed her arm.

"How about we go to dinner together?" He said, "We should celebrate. "

She is currently not dating. "Okay. ”

"I'll make a reservation and call you when the time comes. ”

She remembered the first thing she had felt, that he wanted to kiss her, and then she felt a pang of regret that she had just made an excuse to refuse him.

When she walked into the lobby of the FBI's Nikayama branch, she was once again puzzled, wondering why the head of the secret service and the assistant head of the agent had not gone to attend the trial.

There is nothing unusual at the scene, and the carpeted corridor is quiet.

The messenger robot, a small mechanized cart, is busily moving from office to office in a set route.

For law enforcement agents, they have a privileged environment.

The difference between the FBI and the police department is the difference between a company's headquarters and a factory building.

She made her way to the office of the Secret Service Director.

Luo Jiahao always had a special affection for her.

He was a very early supporter of female agents, and now the percentage of female agents is 10 percent.

Some agents will give orders in a loud voice like a general in the army, but Law Ka-ho is always calm and polite.

As soon as she walked into the outer office, she sensed that something was wrong, and his secretary was obviously crying.

Zhu Yuting said: "Huang Yao, are you okay?"

The secretary was a middle-aged woman, she had always acted calmly and efficiently, but now she burst into tears, Zhu Yuting tried to comfort her, but Huang Yao waved her hand to prevent her from approaching, and then pointed to the door of the inner office.

Zhu Yuting walked in.

Dading is a large room, and the interior decoration is luxurious. There was a large polished conference table, and Zhu Wu, the assistant agent in charge, sat behind Luo Jiahao's desk, his coat had been taken off and his tie had been loosened.

The man was very large and had a barrel-shaped chest. He raised his head and said, "Come in, Zhu Yuting. ”