Justifiable Defence Episode 12 Recap
> Justifiable Defence Recap
Fang Lingyuan, posing as a representative from Huasheng Supermarket, visited the East Suburb Fishery. She told a worker she had already spoken with a "Mr. Zhang" and was just there to see the site and take photos. She later explained to her colleague that this pretense was necessary; the police's recent investigation had frustrated the workers, who wouldn't cooperate if they knew her true identity.
Noticing a dolly, she deduced how the physically weaker Zhou Delong managed to move Duan Hongshan, realizing the fishery was the most familiar and advantageous location for him. Fang Lingyuan later questioned the discovery of the phone, recalling that Mei Zheng claimed to have found it "outside the breeding area." Fang Lingyuan found this improbable; if the phone was dropped during the fight inside the breeding area, it wouldn't have drifted so far.
She considered that Zhou Delong might have thrown it to destroy evidence, but this contradicted his decision to livestream the event. She concluded that the person who found the phone, Mei Zheng, was lying. Fang Lingyuan visited Mei Zheng, who appeared nervous. When questioned, Mei Zheng insisted the phone she gave the police was the one from the water and that she simply wanted to help Duan Hongshan, who had previously helped her.
Fang Lingyuan then asked why the phone's data was completely empty and proposed a scenario: Mei Zheng, knowing Zhou Delong's plan, used Duan Hongshan to get rid of him. Fearing incriminating evidence on his phone, she swapped it with an identical, empty one before turning it in. Mei Zheng challenged her for having no proof. As Fang Lingyuan left, she pointedly noted the new glass wind chime by Mei Zheng's door.
After Fang Lingyuan departed, Mei Zheng went into her room, where Li Mufeng was waiting. Their history dates back to high school, where they had mutual feelings. However, Li Mufeng was sentenced to four years for assault after protecting Mei Zheng from an attacker. Despite having a bright future, he stated he would have defended anyone in that situation.
While he was in prison, Mei Zheng sent him a letter saying she had dropped out of school, adding, "Now we're the same." In the present, Li Mufeng is a glass craftsman and Mei Zheng a diver, and though they rarely met, they kept track of each other. In a tense flashback, Mei Zheng is seen urging someone to "Kill him."
Having learned of her dangerous plan, Li Mufeng provided Jiang Ting's address to Zhang Yuan, a citizen journalist who was searching for her and had filmed Duan Hongshan's arrest. Fang Lingyuan told Duan Hongshan that after attempting data recovery, the phone was found to be completely empty.
Duan Hongshan, however, vividly recalled the hateful comments from the livestream, such as "Without your fancy title, you're nothing," and insisted that the internet would retain traces of the broadcast even if the phone was wiped. He urged her to investigate the online comments and gave her a letter for Prosecutor Gong. Gong immediately identified it as a resignation letter, deducing that Duan Hongshan was preparing to plead not guilty.
Fang Lingyuan later told Gong that the evidence was insufficient for a murder conviction and concluded that Duan Hongshan's strange behavior meant he was protecting someone. After finding Zhou Delong's real phone at Mei Zheng's home, Li Mufeng left without a word. Mei Zheng chased him to his glass workshop and confessed everything. Tearfully, she explained how unfair his past sentence felt and that she had been waiting for a chance to do something for him.
She admitted that while the real phone could save Duan Hongshan, she desperately wanted to "erase everything." Understanding her anguish, Li Mufeng took the phone. At her plea to "destroy it all," he smashed it with a hammer and threw the pieces into a furnace. As they watched the flames, Mei Zheng leaned on his shoulder. When she asked why he was so good to her, he replied, "Because we're the same kind of people."
With the public hearing for Duan Hongshan's case approaching, a key piece of evidence was missing: the exact cause of Zhou Delong's death. At her parents' house, Fang Lingyuan found an invitation to the "Li Mufeng Glass Art Exhibition." Her father recalled Li Mufeng's promising academic start before his life was derailed by prison, stating he didn't seem like a killer and his past actions were likely self-defense.
At the exhibition, Fang Lingyuan met Mei Zheng and asked about a piece called a "Prince Rupert's Drop," or "glass tear." Mei Zheng explained its meaning, learned from Li Mufeng himself, was "Love." She added that his art, long overshadowed by the events of fourteen years ago, was finally seeing the light, symbolizing "a love that was delayed 14 years."
