Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Gu Nianzhi’s thoughts drifted for a while, but it wasn’t for long.
It wasn’t her time to pursue her background right now; it was the time for Gu Yanran to perform. She could not allow herself to snatch her spotlight away.
Gu Nianzhi collected her thoughts and listened quietly to Ye Xuan while he finished his sentence before nodding and saying, “Thank you very much.”
Immediately after that, she concluded with the words that Ye Xuan had just said: “…Mr. Ye Xuan had just said that the person who had chatted anonymously with him was actually another person, but Gu Yanran had pretended to be that person after that. Am I correct?”
Ye Xuan replied, “…Yes.”
Why did it sound so weird?
Ye Xuan added, “…The person who had chatted anonymously with me that time was Miss Gu Nianzhi. I know that you had lost your memories after the accident and had no recollections of what had happened in the past. However, at that time, it was indeed you.”
Gu Nianzhi squinted, her bright eyes showing that she was deep in thought. She turned around, stood in front of Gu Yanran, and lowered her voice, saying, “Defendant Gu Yanran, why did you pretend to be me and chat with Ye Xuan? Why did you lie and pretend that you were the person who saw Ye Xuan immediately when you were at the orphanage?!”
Gu Yanran felt a shiver running down her spine when she heard that question from Gu Nianzhi.
She had thought that she would be able to stop Ye Xuan from testifying in court, but she did not expect that she would fail in doing so.
How could she handle the things that Ye Xuan had divulged?
Gu Yanran looked at the screen with eyes full of hatred and remained silent, looking solemn.
Gu Nianzhi turned to look at Jin Wanyi, who was looking triumphant as she sat beside Gu Yanran, then said, “Lawyer Jin, your client isn’t talking. Shouldn’t you be talking now?”
Jin Wanyi looked at Gu Yanran and whispered to her, “…Yanran, are you going to answer, or should I answer on your behalf? I don’t know anything about your childhood…”
“Must I answer?” Gu Yanran’s brows furrowed. “What has this got to do with the inheritance lawsuit?”
“It has all the relevance there can be.” Jin Wanyi could not even stop the things that were happening anymore. “Gu Nianzhi is trying to prove that you have all the intentions to lie. Therefore…”
“Lie?!” Gu Yanran clenched her fists instinctively and her arms jerked. “I did not lie! Why on earth should I lie?!”
Right at that moment, she remembered Gu Xiangwen, who was still unconscious in the hospital in the headquarters of the special forces. She calmed down.
She looked up at Gu Nianzhi and said coldly, “Gu Nianzhi, have you chatted with Ye Xuan anonymously before? Show your evidence. As for me, I have all the evidence that I was the one who had chatted with him anonymously. On top of that, I was indeed seven when I saw Ye Xuan in the orphanage for the first time.”
She allowed her memories to drift back to more than a decade ago when the waves crashed on the shore of Barbados.
Trees had fallen all over the place because of the strong typhoon. There were also houses that had been destroyed by the flood. Roads were damaged, and street lamps were also broken. They fell across the roads and blocked the way.
The plane she was on was the first one that was allowed to land after the typhoon.
Mother held onto her tiny hands and descended from the tall steps from the plane. Looking over at the destroyed surroundings, she mumbled, “Yanran, Mother is going to bring you to see someone.”
She was seven years old that year.
…
Gu Yanran closed her eyes and took a deep breath to suppress all her overwhelming emotions before opening her eyes again and looking at Ye Xuan, who was on the screen. She then said coldly, “Ye Xuan, when I first met you, I was indeed seven years old. You were only four years old then. You definitely do not remember that anymore, but I remember that it was raining cats and dogs that day, with strong winds. The winds were so strong that many roofs were being blown off from the houses. I saw you first amongst all the other orphans. However, you did not respond to anyone at that time, and sat at a corner of the wall, hugging onto a teddy bear.
Ye Xuan was taken aback.
“…Do you still remember that when you were four years old, there was a Sister Ranran whom you played pretend with?” Gu Yanran’s voice turned gentle. “Our fate traces back further than where you remember we started…”
“Sister Ranran?!” Ye Xuan forgot about all his mannerisms and stood up abruptly. He almost ran to the front of the camera and breathed heavily. He sounded anxious as he asked, “You are really Sister Ranran?! How did you know about Sister Ranran?! Why didn’t you ever mention that you were Sister Ranran?!”
The Sister Ranran who was small in size was Gu Yanran?!
She really did not look like she was seven years old at that time!
Gu Yanran smiled sadly. “I thought you had already known…”
Ye Xuan was losing himself due to shock.
What on earth had he done?!
Who exactly was the one he should be eternally grateful for and protect all his life?!
Ye Xuan’s eyes traveled from Gu Nianzhi to Gu Yanran, then back to Gu Nianzhi again. They darted to and fro, showing that he was extremely confused. It felt like his brain was buzzing with swarms of bees, and it made him frustrated. He couldn’t think straight.
He screamed in pain and fell in front of the camera.
Gu Nianzhi turned around to look at the screen. When she spoke, her voice was calm and collected, and it helped Ye Xuan feel relaxed and empowered. “Ye Xuan, calm down. The person who had played pretend with you in the past might be the one who wants your life right now.”
Just one sentence was all that was needed for Ye Xuan to not feel confused anymore.
Chuckling softly and sadly, he thought, ‘Yeah. However beautiful it was in the past, it seems to be in proportion to how ugly it has become now.’
When a beautiful relationship has gone, the two people involved had better not cross paths with each other ever again.
Gu Yanran raged the moment she heard that. “Gu Nianzhi! Do not accuse people! We are in court; I can sue you for slander if you attempt to accuse me! When did I want Ye Xuan dead?!”
“Did I say that it was you?” Gu Nianzhi snickered. “Were you the only person whom Ye Xuan had played pretend with in the past? Why are you so eager to be that person whom I was referring to?”
Jin Wanyi couldn’t remain quiet anymore. She had to say something to protect Gu Yanran. “My client had said that she had played pretend with Ye Xuan when she was young. The plaintiff immediately said that the person who had played pretend with him in the past wanted his life now. With such an obvious case of hinting and misleading, anyone with brains would be able to correlate. Please, I hereby request that the plaintiff not mislead anyone here in court.”
Gu Nianzhi remained silent.
She had not expected the fighting spirit of both of them to return.
Whatever had happened to Ye Xuan in America was indeed hard to link up to Gu Yanran if they were looking for leads that way.
Even if all of them knew that Gu Yanran was the one who had plotted the entire scheme, they did not have evidence to back their accusations up. Therefore, they could not mention it in court.
By reminding Ye Xuan, Gu Nianzhi was only trying to clear his confused thoughts. She did not intend to accuse Gu Yanran of hiring assassins to get rid of Ye Xuan.
From this point of view, it would actually be hard for Gu Yanran to sue her for slander as well.
However, due to the fact that Gu Nianzhi had used vague words, as well as the fact that she had said ‘perhaps’ and did not directly accuse Gu Yanran of engaging people to get rid of Ye Xuan, they wouldn’t be able to sue her even if they had wanted to.
However, the judge still reminded Gu Nianzhi in a fair manner, “Plaintiff, please watch your words.”
“Sure, your honor.” Gu Nianzhi nodded, acknowledging her mistake.
Jin Wanyi and Gu Yanran breathed a sigh of relief. They looked at each other and felt more confident than ever.
Gu Nianzhi did not give them more time to breathe. She continued on to her next question: “Defendant Gu Yanran, you said that you had chosen Ye Xuan when he was four years old. However, why was it that Ye Xuan only knew that he was selected three years later? And by a girl that was four years old? You still have not explained who that little girl was.”
Gu Yanran opened her mouth and Gu Nianzhi immediately said, “Please do not continue to insult all our intelligence and insist that that little girl who was four years old was you. You were already ten at that time and would be unable to pretend that you were four anymore.”
Gu Yanran glared fiercely at her. “That was another orphan. Yes, that was you, Gu Nianzhi. That time, father had adopted you, and it wasn’t because you pointed at Ye Xuan that he was selected; it was because I had selected Ye Xuan a long time ago!”
Gu Nianzhi did not care about how much hatred and jealousy there was in Gu Yanran’s words. She rearranged the things that Ye Xuan and Gu Yanran had said and managed to find two leads.
“…Which means that Mr. Gu Xiangwen had gone to the orphanage twice. Once was when defendant Gu Yanran was seven years old and Ye Xuan was four years old. According to Gu Yanran, she had already selected Ye Xuan at that time. Three years later, Gu Xiangwen went to the orphanage again. This time around, he adopted Gu Nianzhi…” Gu Nianzhi paused for a while when she had said her name. She felt weird about it, almost like she was talking about something that had happened to someone unrelated.
“That time, Ye Xuan had seen Gu Nianzhi and seen that Gu Nianzhi had pointed at him, and his life changed. Is that correct?”
Ye Xuan remained silent for a while before saying, “I remember the one three years later. However, as for the one that happened three years before, I only remember Sister… Ranran. I do not remember seeing Uncle Gu.”
Upon knowing that small-sized ‘Sister Ranran’ was Gu Yanran who was three years older than him, Ye Xuan felt that he had to visit a counselor after he went back that day.
“My father was looking at us play from outside the window. It was no wonder that you did not remember him then,” Gu Yanran added with a gentle voice.
Gu Nianzhi smiled. Her bright, lively black eyes rolled around and zoomed past Gu Yanran. “The defendant is really good at adding details.”
“I was merely stating the facts.” Gu Yanran shrugged. “You are biased against me.”
“Now it is me who is biased against you?” Gu Nianzhi shrugged, looking at Gu Yanran like she was a joke. “However, you were the one who said that you only had one meal a day before you were seven. Did I make that up?”
Gu Yanran’s expression changed. “What are you trying to imply?!”
“Gu Yanran, you still have not explained why you could only have one meal a day before you were seven years old.” Gu Nianzhi refused to let go of this loophole. “Let us assume that you are Mr. Gu Xiangwen’s biological daughter and the daughter that he had doted on so very much. Then why did he only give you one meal a day before you turned seven?!”
Gu Yanran tried to think quickly to answer that question. However, she realized that she was unable to account for that question no matter how she chose to answer it.
Eventually, she had no choice but to go all out: “…Did I say that it was Father who gave me a meal a day?!”
“Then who was it who only gave you one meal a day?!”
“Before I was seven years old, I did not live with my father. I lived with my mother!” Gu Yanran’s expression turned extremely cold.
