The world of American TV series: Starting with the L.A. Patrol.

To be honest, if Jack hadn't been passing through Little Rock on his way back to Forrest, he would have preferred Jubal to visit the judge.

He doesn't like beating around the bush, and he hates the false politeness that Americans use in daily social interactions. For example, many Chinese who have just arrived in this country have extremely blind confidence in their cooking skills.

Because no matter what he did, whether it was making dumplings, cooking some porridge, or even mixing some cold dishes, his American neighbors would act as if they were about to cry because of the delicious food.

Sometimes it is really difficult to evaluate taste. Americans, who are used to eating everything sweet, are actually not too fond of many authentic Chinese foods. Most of the time, they are just expressing some kind of habitual compliment on your willingness to share.

This is especially evident at parties, because Americans have the habit of bringing their own specialties, and almost every dish has its own so-called secret recipe.

Unless the taste is so bad that everyone can't keep a straight face and thinks you are deliberately playing a trick on them, you can at least get a comment like "very special". Of course, whether it is really delicious or not will be known by looking at how much is left on the plate.

Just like John once dipped the steamed buns made by Jack into ketchup, this is the true attitude towards friends. Don't be fooled by the American "quickly cooked and quickly cooled" social style.

Chinese people believe in not talking about deep things with people you just met. When people first meet, being polite to each other may be seen as hypocrisy. However, after experiencing the "quickly familiar, quick cold" social style in the United States, many people truly understand what true hypocrisy is.

Two Americans can have a great chat when they meet for the first time. The fat one is praised for being thin, and the thin one is praised for being very enviable. Then they quickly add each other to their circle of friends, leave phone numbers, take selfies, and even talk to each other, telling each other everything from the bottom of their hearts. To others, it seems as if they are old friends who haven't seen each other for many years.

But after the separation, it all ended. The two parties were still strangers and no one would think of contacting each other again.

The reason for all this talk was that Jack came here to ask the judge about his old classmate who was now a fugitive, not to listen to meaningless pleasantries. At the moment, neither he nor Jiejie had time to waste with him.

Seeing them accompanying the judge all the way from the court to the parking lot, and him talking nonsense all the time, Jack had to speed up his pace a little, stand in front of him somewhat impolitely, and said with a hint of apology.

"Sir, considering that Howard Rourke is still at large and given his unstable mental state, he may attack his family and former colleagues at any time. The FBI needs some sufficiently detailed intelligence.

This way we can catch him as soon as possible and avoid more tragedies and even dead bodies.”

"Okay." Arthur Hobbes stopped and looked around intentionally or unintentionally, then spoke in a slightly lowered voice.

"Rourke and I were not only classmates, but we also worked as clerks together in Washington, D.C., so I thought that if I met him and told him the news, it might not be too much of a blow to him."

"So, what was the purpose of your meeting with him?" Jiejie also lowered her voice.

The judge took a half step back, letting a pillar block most of his body. "I am also the chairman of the Arkansas Court of Appeals Nomination Committee. Rourke applied for the vacancy on the Court of Appeals, and I had to inform him of the bad news."

Jiejie and Jack looked at each other and asked quickly, "You mean he wasn't chosen as a candidate?"

"Yes, that's right." Arthur Hobbs explained, "We did consider him at the beginning. You know, considering his qualifications and... In short, it is really unreasonable for him to waste time in the St. Francis County Court.

But we didn’t find out that he had a big problem until we sent out the ‘JNE’, which is a questionnaire that is sent to candidates before they are nominated.”

Jiejie had obviously heard of this process. "You mean the anonymous questionnaire sent out via email to the candidates' close associates and colleagues?"

"That's right." Arthur Hobbes spread his hands. "When the answers are finally submitted to the committee, the identities of the respondents will be kept strictly confidential. This way, we can get real and reliable information."

"So what's the outcome of the Howard Rourke investigation?" Jack needed a clear answer.

"It's terrible." Arthur Hobbs looked a little reluctant, but he lowered his voice and answered, "It contains allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace, bribery, discrimination against and even opposition to people of color, and excessive favoritism towards minority groups.

"In all honesty, the allegations against him are such that he would be acting in a manner unbecoming even to be a criminal court judge, let alone a justice of the Court of Appeal."

"You told him the result truthfully?" Jack realized that they had finally found the fuse that caused Howard Rourke's collapse.

"Of course, I told him that he should give up his application immediately." Since things had come to this, Arthur Hobbes simply withdrew completely.

"As an old friend, I have done my best not to make these complaints public, as what he has done over the past few years is simply incomprehensible.

You should understand that this is Arkansas, whether you are conservative or radical, you can find your place, but he is messing around without any stance at all."

"No position?" Jack probably understood what the judge meant.

"We did hear about a controversial sexual assault verdict. Are you saying that his problem is not his stance, but his lack of a clear stance?"

Arthur Hobbs frowned and looked around again, making sure that no one was paying attention to this place, then he spoke in the lowest possible voice.

"I'm not going to admit to that, I just want you to understand that this is one of the most conservative states in the middle south of the country.

Whether you are a conservative Puritan or a minority group that advocates freedom and rights, even if you take a clear position that women should stay at home to feed their children, you can get support from some groups here.

But Luke is not like that. He tried to play both sides of these opposing groups, but his methods were too clumsy, which made the scene a little too ugly. "

"The result of trying to please everyone is that everyone will attack you," Jack understood.

As if it was because he felt relaxed and effortless talking to an intelligent person, the judge nodded in agreement, "Rourke went too far. He offended everyone he could, and his reputation was almost ruined.

I have also heard about that case. He was too thoughtless when exercising his discretion and was too afraid to speak out when questioned. It can be said that he has chosen all the wrong options. "

"So he had a mental breakdown and blamed everything on the entire system and the system's fault, and started killing people, even pointing the gun at the local prosecutor." Jiejie finally figured out the whole story.

"What?" Arthur Hobbs showed an expression of disbelief on his face, as if he was very surprised by the news. "Are you talking about Skip Hardy from the St. Francis County District Attorney's Office?"

Jack's eyes twitched slightly, a little surprised by his reaction.

"Oh, I thought you'd heard? We found Skip Hardy's body this morning in the DA's office, strangled to death by Howard Rourke, who's wanted for four murders."

"Oh my God, this is really terrible. I've been in meetings all day and haven't heard about this." Arthur Hobbes took out his cell phone with a trembling hand, thought for a moment, and put it back in his pocket.

"In fact, we just decided on the vacancy at today's meeting, among the final few candidates selected."

Jack sighed, "If I'm guessing correctly, Skip Hardy was among the candidates before, and you just selected him."

"We have always considered him as our first choice. My God, I can't even imagine what a horrible crime this is."

Although it is unclear whether the last words of Chief Justice Arthur Hobbes were a performance, it is obvious that the judge killed the prosecutor out of jealousy. The truth will soon be revealed and spread across the country with all kinds of sensational headlines.

Both Jack and Jie Jie felt a little amused when they thought about the fact that Arkansas, a rural state in the United States that is second only to Montana in terms of its presence, would become famous in this way.