Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Huo Shaoheng’s arms were as strong as iron as they tightly encircled Gu Nianzhi’s waist. How could she forget again? She could only compete with Huo Shaoheng when it came to intelligence but not strength. If she fought him by force, even ten Gu Nianzhis wouldn’t be Huo Shaoheng’s opponent. Gu Nianzhi pursed her lips, no longer struggling. She merely pretended Huo Shaoheng was her chair and didn’t appear like anything was amiss as she focused on watching Jin Wanyi and Gu Yanran not too far away.
…
Jin Wanyi finished speaking, crossing her arms and raising her chin slightly to look down at the court official. She appeared very imposing. However, the officials sent out by the Imperial Capital High Court this time truly used the most stringent procedures. They did everything by the book and were also very imposing. “Lawyer Jin, the trials concerning estate disputes are not considered as such.” The leader of the officials spoke without mincing his words. “Ten years ago, the main property of the Johnson estate dispute in England was in the United States. However, the charge was made in British courts and also accepted. Eight years ago, the main property involved in the Hunras estate dispute in Argentina was mainly based in Australia, but it was also accepted by the Argentine courts. White it is true that most estate disputes are accepted by the local courts where the defendant and the property are located, that’s not absolute. So regardless if we are referring to precedents or jurisprudence, it is completely reasonable and legal for Miss Gu Nianzhi to sue Miss Gu Yanran for embezzlement of the Gu estate in the Hua Xia Empire.”
Jin Wanyi’s face flushed a bit. She had just received Gu Yanran’s appointment, so she hadn’t had time to do her research yet and was naturally less prepared than the court officials. Also, the international precedents identified by the court staff were all listed in the bibliography of Gu Nianzhi’s complaint. They had verified the precedents and entered them into the argument. “Right now, could you and Miss Gu Yanran please sign here, and then Miss Gu Yanran can also hand over her passport.” The court official passed the subpoena over to them once again and also took out a receipt for Gu Yanran and Jin Wanyi to sign.
Jin Wanyi glanced at the subpoena and nodded. “Fine, this will do for now.” She took out a pen and bent over to sign on the subpoena.
Gu Yanran grew frantic. “Lawyer Jin, how could you sign it?! I didn’t even agree to it yet!”
Jin Wanyi’s pen paused as she turned around to look at Gu Yanran. “You are the defendant, so your permission or objection is not required when you are being sued by others.” The court officials couldn’t help bursting out into laughter when they heard this. These words were extremely rude, so Jin Wanyi was basically stabbing a finger at Gu Yanran’s nose and calling her legally incompetent.
However, Gu Yanran was very indignant. Back when she was in Barbados, whoever wanted to sue her would really have to consider their own status and power… But Gu Yanran was now in the Hua Xia Empire and under someone else’s roof. She had no choice but to bow down. In that moment, Gu Yanran somewhat regretted giving up Barbados and coming to settle in the Hua Xia Empire. But there were many inconveniences in Barbados as well. As a woman holding such a large estate, there was indeed no way for her to stay there forever. Gu Yanran sighed but finally signed the subpoena. After signing it, she took out her Barbados passport from her bag to hand over to the court official. Gu Yanran’s expression was unchanged, but she secretly gloated to herself. You think taking my passport will trip me up? I have plenty of passports…
But before she even finished gloating, the court official had already spoken again. “Also your American passport, French passport, British passport, and Brazilian passport. Please hand all of them over.”
Gu Yanran was shocked speechless. How did these people know that she had so many nationalities?! On her trips between the Hua Xia Empire and Barbados, she had only used her Barbados passport and never any of the other ones! What she didn’t know was that Gu Nianzhi learned of this information from He Zhichu and had written it all on her complaint. Was this the feeling of having her thoughts completely read by someone else? Gu Yanran shuddered and couldn’t help looking around. It was like there was an eye quietly staring at her from a dark corner. Her entire body went cold, and her limbs stiffened. Her scalp grew numb as her heart pounded.
The court official knew the words written on the complaint were true as soon as they saw Gu Yanran’s expression. They smiled at Gu Yanran and urged her once again. Jin Wanyi was also secretly surprised. She never thought that Gu Yanran would be a multi-national citizen. With so many passports, could she just randomly take one and slap someone in the face with it? Gu Yanran and the court officials had a standoff for a moment, but in the end she still unwillingly took out all the passports from her bag. The court officials sorted out all the passports, and after they confirmed everything was correct, they had Gu Yanran sign the receipt for handing over her passports. After the lawsuit concluded, she could use the receipt to obtain her passports back from the court. Gu Yanran had finished signing it, so the court officials finally left the apartment’s underground parking lot to return to the courthouse.
Gu Yanran and Jin Wanyi didn’t move. They stood beside Gu Yanran’s luxury vehicle as they watched the court officials walk into the elevator. The elevator closed and went up, and Jin Wanyi sighed before turning to look at Gu Yanran. “Miss Gu, what on earth is going on? Why is Gu Nianzhi suddenly filing an estate dispute lawsuit against you?”
Gu Yanran finally regretted messing with Gu Nianzhi now. But Gu Yanran couldn’t be blamed for this. How was she supposed to know that Gu Nianzhi would have such a lucky fate… Someone set up an intricate web of traps to take her life in Europe, yet she escaped from it alive and even looked completely unscathed… If Gu Yanran hadn’t trusted that person’s ability and thought that she would be able to kill Gu Nianzhi off, how could she have gotten in over her head with gloating and end up saying that Gu Nianzhi was adopted?
“This isn’t a good place to talk. Lawyer Jin should come upstairs with me.” Gu Yanran also walked towards the elevator.
Jin Wanyi came that day because she was accepting this lawsuit. Gu Yanran was her client, so she had to understand the situation properly before she could determine the coping strategy. Jin Wanyi followed Gu Yanran into the elevator.
…
Gu Yanran and Jin Wanyi had both left, so it seemed that Gu Nianzhi and Huo Shaoheng were now the only two people left in the entire parking lot. They were sitting together in the driver’s seat of the car. Although Huo Shaoheng’s Mercedes SUV was spacious, it was actually not spacious enough for two people to squish into the driver’s seat. Gu Nianzhi rubbed her temples and said, “Ok, they’ve all left now, so I’ll go, too. Huo Shao, please take me back to campus.” She had already said she wanted to leave, so Huo Shaoheng would have to drive and naturally had to let her go.
However, Huo Shaoheng didn’t let go. He replied calmly, “You don’t want to understand Gu Yanran’s situation? You don’t want to know what she’ll say to Lawyer Jin?”
“I do, but are you going to tell me?” Gu Nianzhi looked up to glance at Huo Shaoheng briefly. “I typically only think about useless things very quickly, then let them go.”
“Get out of the car and come back with me. First, we’ll go listen to what Gu Yanran has to say to Lawyer Jin.” Huo Shaoheng finally loosened his arms, and Gu Nianzhi quickly darted out of his embrace like a wisp of smoke to return to her own front passenger seat. She then quickly opened the door to get out of the car.
Huo Shaoheng also got out of the car and used the remote to lock the doors. He dragged Gu Nianzhi by the hand towards the elevator.
“Huo Shao, let’s do this another day. I need to go back today and sort out my thoughts properly. I will be defending myself in this lawsuit and won’t be using another lawyer,” Gu Nianzhi said seriously as she stood in front of the elevator doors.
