Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Gu Nianzhi had never seen Gu Yanran so assured before. She couldn’t help the feeling of her heart sinking. However, she managed to keep it hidden from her expression. After being by Huo Shaoheng’s side for so many years, Gu Nianzhi had learned that the acquisition of valuable information was impossible without the willingness to take risks. Every single Special Forces operative was capable and daring—taking risks was a normal, everyday occurrence.
After having been around them for so long, Gu Nianzhi had felt their influence.
Therefore, even though she looked at Gu Yanran with extreme confidence, she had already expected Gu Yanran to have something against her—something huge.
She could have called for a stay, which would have prevented Gu Yanran from speaking. However, if she had done that, then the truth might be forever suppressed.
Gu Nianzhi closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her expression was nothing but determined after that.
She raised her hand. “If the defendant has another opinion, I am more than willing to listen.”
Gu Yanran looked at her for several moments, then shook her head sadly. She moved her eyes, and—mimicking Gu Nianzhi—she looked around at everyone in the courtroom. Everyone on Gu Nianzhi’s side of the audience looked extremely solemn. Yin Shixiong and Ma Qiqi glared at Gu Yanran like they wanted to burn a hole through her. As did Secretary Cao., However, he was always sitting upright with a stern look. It was easy to assume that he was nervous.
As for the audience on Gu Yanran’s side, every single one of them was so nervous, they dared not even breathe properly.
She looked at everyone before smiling. Her gaze returned to the judge. “Your honor, the plaintiff has claimed that Gu Xiangwen’s DNA has no relation to Gu Tian or Xie Qingying’s, and therefore could not be my father. Please excuse the argumentative nature, but I have never seen such an unreasonable assumption in my life.”
Gu Nianzhi’s pupils constricted. She did not expect such a rebuttal from Gu Yanran this time around. She clenched her fists and felt the same rush of adrenaline as she would in combat with an equal adversary.
Even Jin Wanyi gave Gu Yanran a thumbs up. Gu Yanran was even more confident now. She pushed all the DNA reports that Gu Nianzhi had placed on the plaintiff stand away, one by one.
“Your honor, basing paternity judgment on DNA comparisons with strangers is ridiculous!” Gu Yanran shook her head, looking annoyed and full of contempt.
Gu Nianzhi remained stoic. “Then what is your conclusion? Given the lack of evidence to verify Gu Xiangwen’s identity, these are the only methods available to us.”
“I understand where you are coming from.” Gu Yanran took the DNA report that compared Gu Tian and Gu Xiangwen’s DNA. “However, you only knew about one point and not the other.”
“Oh really? Then could you please explain your ‘other point’ to everyone here please?” Gu Nianzhi carefully needled her. She sounded like the host of a variety show. All she needed to complete the image was holding a microphone to Gu Yanran while shouting “Lights, camera, action! Gu Yanran, please tell us your story!”
Gu Yanran did not disappoint. She put down the DNA report. “Gu Tian and Gu Xiangwen’s DNA do not match because Gu Tian was adopted.”
The already-quiet courtroom now fell even deeper into silence. Breaths were clutched in a shock. The only sound came from the central air conditioner, which somehow managed to make it seem even more silent.
The effect left Gu Yanran extremely pleased. She did not wish to break this silence. She looked across the entire room with a huge smile plastered on her face. She’d successfully achieved vengeance for all the embarrassment she had endured from Gu Nianzhi!
But Gu Nianzhi was the first one to snap back to reality. “May I know if you have evidence for that please?”
“Evidence?” Gu Yanran chuckled. She flipped her wavy hair. “Have you forgotten our other auntie…?”
Gu Nianzhi furrowed her brows. “…You mean Gu Jing?” She had only heard Xie Dezhao mention Gu Jing once, and Xie Dezhao only knew about Gu Jing from Gu Tian. He had never personally met her.
“The previous generation of the Gu family had two daughters. One is Gu Tian, and the other is Gu Jing.” Gu Yanran raised her hands to admire her manicure. “Gu Tian is your cousin’s mother. She is adopted. My auntie, Gu Jing, is the biological child of the Gu family.”
“What makes you say that?” Gu Nianzhi asked curiously.
“Because Gu Jing has a congenital gene deficiency—it’s hereditary. I have it as well. In order to find a cure, my father, Gu Xiangwen, changed his specialty from physics to biology. He wanted to personally save her. He adopted Gu Tian so he could use her bone marrow to save Gu Jing in the future.
“However, Gu Tian fell in love with Xie Dezhao. She wanted to get married and have children. She did not wish to continue donating bone marrow to Gu Jing anymore. That was why my father gave up on her when she hemorrhaged during childbirth.”
Gu Yanran looked at Gu Nianzhi with sympathy. “It applies to you as well, Gu Nianzhi. You were an orphan that my father adopted because he wanted to cure me. Sadly, you learned the truth when you were twelve, and went out to sea in a fit of anger. I have no idea what mishaps you encountered, but amnesia was a good thing for you. You were spared the sad truth.”
Gu Nianzhi had already mentally prepared herself when she heard Xie Dezhao mention that Gu Tian required a bone marrow transplant. But after this ‘truth’ from Gu Yanran, she felt dizzy all of a sudden. The ceiling was spinning. Her legs turned wobbly, and it felt like she was standing in quicksand. She could not hold on much longer…
Her hands tightly gripped the edge of the plaintiff stand. Veins could be seen protruding from her hands, and only one sentence appeared in her mind: “My father thought of me as nothing more than a test subject!”
Was it the truth? Her bone marrow, her injuries, all the result of this? She did not want to believe it, but it seemed like she had no choice…
Gu Yanran stared at Gu Nianzhi and was extremely elated to see Gu Nianzhi in a daze. “Aren’t you clever?,” she thought. “I thought you were a genius? Look at you now, just like a lost sheep!”
“Now, do you understand why Gu Tian’s DNA did not match my father’s? She was adopted, so of course they have no DNA relation! You even tried to prove that Gu Xiangwen wasn’t my father, what a joke!”
Gu Yanran’s slightly hoarse voice rang around Gu Nianzhi’s ears. It sounded as sharp and piercing as a knife on a piece of sandpaper. However, the pain of that ringing woke her from her daze. Her black eyes brightened, like stars in the night sky, sparkling endlessly, letting no one see through the dark.
Gu Nianzhi let go of the table. An idea flashed across her mind and she caught the little loophole that Gu Yanran had left. She calmly said, “Since Gu Tian and I were both adopted, why would the DNA of Gu Tian, Xie Qingying, and myself all be related? Tell me, what is going on here?”
Was she trying to imply that she and Gu Tian were relatives coincidentally adopted by the same family? Ridiculous!
Gu Yanran was stunned for a while. She thought quickly and smiled. “You really wish to know?”
“Of course.”
Gu Yanran smiled happily. “Why do you think my father adopted you to cure me? You and Gu Tian share a similar genetic makeup, because you are the illegitimate daughter of Gu Tian’s biological sister.””
Gu Nianzhi asked instinctively, “Gu Tian’s biological sister?!”
Xie Dezhao was extremely surprised when he heard this. “Gu Tian had a biological sister? I thought she only had Gu Jing…”
“It seems like you knew quite a bit about Gu Tian’s biological sister.” Gu Nianzhi used her strongest will to control her emotions. She continued her questioning. “May I know what her name was? Where was she residing? What is her current age?”
Gu Yanran flipped her wavy hair and replied, “How would I know? My mother was the one who told me.”
Gu Nianzhi was a little lost. She felt like she had fallen into a hole or arrived at a bottleneck. She could see that there was a way in front, but she could not seem to get there.
She closed her eyes and finally said, “What evidence do you have that Gu Tian was adopted?”
Gu Yanran produced a plastic folder. “I knew you would want evidence… I don’t have your adoption certificate, but my mother had me keep Gu Tian’s adoption certificate in the safe.”
Gu Nianzhi took the folder and saw an adoption certificate in Japanese. There were also English and Mandarin translations.
“Those are official Japanese adoption records. Your aunt, Gu Tian, was a Japanese orphan adopted in Chiba Prefecture.” Gu Yanran had finally completed telling her side of the story. She sat down and sipped gracefully on some water.
Gu Nianzhi lowered her head to look carefully at the adoption certificate. She had learned some Japanese before, so she was able to tell if it was real or fake. However, she wasn’t yet skilled enough to read documents. She had looked through the Mandarin and English copies a few times, and they seemed legitimate.
Gu Nianzhi showed Xie Dezhao the adoption certificate. “Mr. Xie, please look at the name on the adoption certificate. Is this your wife’s name?”
Xie Dezhao looked closely at the document. Although he did not want to admit it, the name of his wife, Gu Tian, was clearly printed on the certificate. So he had married a Japanese without knowing? And Xie Qingying was half-Japanese blood? As Xie Dezhao’s face turned pale, Xie Qingying covered her mouth in shock.
“Who knows about you, Gu Nianzhi? Maybe you are a true blue Japanese!” Gu Yanran gave a hearty, sinister laugh. This was the happiest day she’d had in years! After all the embarrassment she’d endured previously, in this moment she had vengeance!
Gu Nianzhi, however, began thinking quickly while Gu Yanran was busy laughing. Logically, she had to admit that Gu Yanran had presented a nearly airtight case. However, she instinctively refused to accept this as truth.
Gu Xiangwen had never made Gu Nianzhi feel like anything less than his daughter. On top of that, Gu Xiangwen’s treatment of Gu Tian did not seem like the way a man would treat an adopted sister. Especially not ones who were only used for experimentation. Logically, Gu Yanran’s story made sense. But emotionally, that was a different story.
Gu Nianzhi picked up Gu Tian’s adoption certificate and looked closely at it again. Gu Tian’s original name was written as Kasahara Reiko.
This made Gu Yanran impatient. “Read it a hundred more times, it won’t change anything. It wasn’t my intention to reveal this, so I could leave you with some face. But you’ve gone too far. You continued to push, even froze my bank account. So, I decided to play your game.”
Gu Nianzhi ignored her and finished looking at the adoption certificate. She went to check the three DNA reports again. These three sets of reports were especially commissioned for her under Huo Shaoheng’s instructions. Besides a detailed comparison, they also contained DNA sequencing as well. Not all organizations would provide that, However, Huo Shaoheng was a stickler for details to ensure they had all possible evidence they might require. Therefore, he had Chen Lie include the sequencing as well. Gu Nianzhi flipped the DNA comparison document to the final page. She looked at the DNA sequencing conclusion and her pupils constricted.
“Plaintiff, do you have anything more?” the judge sympathetically asked Gu Nianzhi. The court could not afford to waste any more time.
Gu Nianzhi pursed her lips and told the judge, “Your honor, please give me five minutes to confirm some information. I will give you an answer immediately after that.” Gu Nianzhi was reminded of a news report she had seen a while ago. Although it was just a quick mention, it was immensely helpful to her case today.
The judge looked at his watch. “Okay, five minutes.”
It was only five minutes, no bother to Jin Wanyi or Gu Yanran. They could afford to wait for this.
Jin Wanyi only felt relieved after the final blow was dealt. She looked at Gu Yanran with admiring eyes, thinking on the cunning way she had held on to this piece of evidence. It seemed like she’d had this card up her sleeve for some time… How else could she so easily produce Gu Tian’s adoption certificate? No matter what was said next, nothing would even be as effective. Jin Wanyi rubbed her hands in excitement. If only they could get their hands on Gu Nianzhi’s adoption document…
Gu Nianzhi turned on the laptop and began searching for information quickly. He Zhichu’s heart went out to her from where he was in the audience. He walked up to Gu Nianzhi and softly asked, “What are you looking for?”
Gu Nianzhi did not even look at him, just showed him the page she was looking for.
He Zhichu had initially wanted to give Gu Nianzhi some suggestions. However, after seeing her search terms and then looking at the adoption certificate that had been ‘decorated’ by Gu Yanran, he smiled.
“All right. Do it your way.” He Zhichu went back to the audience and took his seat.
Gu Nianzhi had already brought the information that she had managed to get to the judge and asked, “Your honor, may I please borrow the projector again?”
The judge nodded and got someone to link her laptop to the projector again.
Gu Nianzhi opened the web page that she had just found. “Everyone, look here. This is a map of the genetic sequencing makeup of East Asians, done by the International Genetic Sequencing Organization.”
The projector showed some bar charts.
“Basically, East Asians consist of three types of genetic makeups—0-M175, the people with yellow genes; D-YAP, people with short black genes; and C-M130, people with brown genes.
“Among the East Asians, the Chinese—meaning the main race of the Huaxia Empire—are the only ones with a makeup of pure, 100% 0-M175 yellow genes. However, the Japanese genetic makeup is only 54% 0-M175 yellow genes. 35% of their genes are the D-YAP short black genes, and 9% are the brown genes. Now, let us proceed to the genetic sequencing from the DNA reports we have over here.”
Gu Nianzhi used her phone to scan all the DNA documents to be shown on the projector.
“Everyone can clearly see that Gu Tian’s DNA sequencing has no D-YAP or C-M130, which those of Japanese heritage have. Her genetic sequencing clearly shows that her genetic makeup is purely of the 0-M175 yellow genes. Xie Qingying’s DNA sequencing shows the same results—only the 0-M175 yellow genes. This is my DNA sequence. Likewise, it shows no Japanese heritage have. I too only have the 0-M175 yellow genes.
“Based on these genetic sequencing, Gu Tian, Xie Qingying, and myself lack the genetic makeup of the Japanese. Therefore, the three of us could not be Japanese. Of course, if you were to talk about nationality, that would be another issue. Let us look on.”
Gu Nianzhi showed Gu Yanran and her father’s DNA sequence.
“See this? Gu Yanran and her father’s DNA sequencing clearly shows that their genetic makeup is 54% 0-M175, 35% D-YAP, and 9% C-M130. They are identical to the report that the International Genetic Sequencing Organization had published. Therefore, only Gu Yanran and the vegetative man who had been posing as Gu Xiangwen are pure-bred Japanese!”
Gu Nianzhi’s loud and clear voice felt like an antidote to everyone in court. All their worries were gone in an instant.
“Although not many people have seen Gu Xiangwen in person, all available information shows that he was a Chinese. He had no Japanese genes. Therefore, Gu Yanran, you can save yourself from those stories. The false Gu Xiangwen is your biological father, and you are both pure-bred Japanese. You tried to project your family’s story on us. That’s the truth, isn’t it, Kasahara Naoko?”
Gu Yanran looked like she had just seen a ghost. All of a sudden, her face became pale as a sheet all of a sudden, and her eyes were wide. Her eyeballs looked like they were about to pop out of her skull. Her legs turned to jelly, and she fell onto her seat.
She didn’t believe that all the evidence they’d carefully prepared for so many years would be deemed totally useless by DNA sequencing!
