When Luo Jialan woke up, she found herself once again facing the door of Court No. 1.
She struggled to move her body and raised her arm to rub her eyes.
“Is she awake?”
“Of course! Whose medicine do you think it is?! Hmph! If I, Chen Lie, want her to wake up at midnight, she won’t be able to drag it till dawn!”
Chen Lie’s round, chubby face was full of arrogance.
Gu Nianzhi stood beside Chen Lie in a navy-blue businesswoman’s suit. Her long, slender pants were perfectly straight without a single crease, just like her aura. She was beautiful and lively when she smiled, and valiant when she did not.
She raised her chin at Luo Jialan, deliberately provoking her with arrogance, “Luo Jialan, today is the day you’ll appear in court again. If you don’t accept the verdict, you’ll have to wait for the second appeal.”
Luo Jialan’s consciousness came back to her in a flash.
She remembered that her home had been broken into by a few members of the special operations forces, and Huo Shaoheng followed in behind. He had said something nonchalantly, and she had fainted from anger at his words.
“… Appear in court again?” Luo Jialan muttered. She looked around at her surroundings, and then down at her watch.
The time and date were shown on it.
It turned out that an entire day had passed since she fainted that day.
“The Imperial City Procuratorate accuses Luo Jialan of intentionally murdering Song Jinning. This is the last court hearing. The plaintiff and defendant, please get ready”
The court staff came over to perform security checks on them before they entered the court.
Cai Shengnan also came. She had bandages wrapped around her head and medicinal cream applied on her face. The green and purple bruises on her were very scary.
She walked to the pale-faced Luo Jialan and said, “Although I am no longer your agent, that matter is independent from this. I like to finish what I started. Since it is the last time you are appearing in court, I am fine with not charging you for it.”
Luo Jialan spat at her viciously.
She finally saw how hypocritical this woman was today.
Cai Shengnan, on the other hand, smiled kindly, as if she didn’t want to stoop to her level.
The door to Court No. 1 opened, and they walked in one by one.
Gu Nianzhi was the last to enter. She turned her head several times to look at the corridor, but there was still no one there.
Chen Lie saw this and tugged at her arm, whispering, “Don’t worry, Young Master Huo will be here in time.”
“… didn’t he return last night?”
“Yes, but Little Ze sent him some important news, so he needs to take command. He’ll bring his men with him over when the situation is resolved.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded. “I hope so.”
However, she also knew that Zhao Liangze’s matter was Huo Shaoheng’s official business. Who knew how long it would drag on?
She could only do her best.
She followed Chen Lie into Court No. 1. The judge, clerk, as well as other relevant personnel were already seated at the front of the room.
Luo Jialan and Cai Shengnan sat at the defendant’s table. Neither of them looked at the other; it did not look like they had any lawyer-client relationship at all.
Gu Nianzhi sat with the prosecutor. Luo Jialan noticed that Song Jinning did not come today.
She felt a little better.
The judge at the head of the court rapped his gavel and said, “For the case of the imperial capital procuratorate accusing Luo Jialan of murdering Song Jinning, both parties will make their final concluding statements.”
Gu Nianzhi stood up. “Mr. Judge, ladies and gentlemen seated in the court, today, on behalf of my client, Ms. Song Jinning, I will make our concluding statement.”
“My client made a great sacrifice for the country 17 years ago. In an experimental accident, not only did she lose her father, but she also lost her health, her memory, and all of a normal person’s cognitive and motor abilities.”
“A person who made such a great contribution and sacrifice for the country was unfortunately abused by Luo Jialan in her own home for 10 years. Her injuries were so severe that she nearly died from them.”
“The motive, evidence, and logical connection behind the mental abuse inflicted on my client by the defendant, Luo Jialan, has already been sufficiently proven in the previous trial. I will thus not repeat it here.”
“I implore the court to consider my client’s great contribution and sacrifice, to consider the cruel actions of the defendant Luo Jialan who plotted over the past ten years to murder my client in order to hide her identity. I plead that she will be given a heavy sentence!”
When Gu Nianzhi finished speaking, she bowed to everyone in the court.
Everyone was influenced by her emotions. They all looked at Luo Jialan with disgust and contempt.
Then, it was the defendant’s turn to give a speech.
It was supposed to be Luo Jialan’s lawyer, Cai Shengnan, who would give the speech. However, since they had already ended their relationship as agent and client, the judge asked, “Defendant Luo Jialan, do you agree to allow your former defense lawyer, Cai Shengnan, to give your concluding statement?”
Luo Jialan was now completely awake.
She had been unconscious for a day and a night, but her mind didn’t seem to have been affected much. It could be that the other party had given her quality drugs.
Luo Jialan composed herself. She thought to herself, that since there was no way out of this bog of a situation, and with case after case piling up on her, she had no hope left for the rest of her life. As long as the other party didn’t gag her mouth, she was going to say everything!
Huo Shaoheng’s words the other day were extremely humiliating. Since they had already fallen out completely with each other, she did not care anymore.
If they wanted to humiliate her, she would make sure that everyone got humiliated together.
In order to exercise their “justice”, these people were not willing to deal with her through dirty means. They even pretended to be righteous by allowing her to court. Since that was the case, she would not hold back any longer.
Luo Jialan stood up and shook her head. “I don’t trust her. I want to defend myself.”
The judge raised his hand, “Go ahead.”
She mimicked Gu Nianzhi’s actions and bowed to everyone in the courtroom, and said, “Your Honor, what I want to say is that even though I indeed didn’t take very good care of Ms. Song all these years, I really didn’t mean to kill her. I had no idea that her health was deteriorating because I’m not a doctor.”
“Besides, there’s a reason why I did this to Ms. Song.”
Luo Jialan looked at Gu Nianzhi maliciously, “… that’s because I was assaulted 12 years ago. I was still underage then…”
Gu Nianzhi, “…”
What the hell!
This woman was really persistent!
Gu Nianzhi immediately stood up and said calmly, “Luo Jialan, 12 years ago, your mother took you on a trip to Rime Mountains in the south, didn’t she?”
Luo Jialan’s momentum was disrupted by her. She was stunned and asked reflexively, “How do you know?”
“You just have to answer yes or no.”
Luo Jialan nodded, she said frankly, “Yes, my mother did take me on a holiday to the Rime Mountains. But do you know why I wanted to go to the Rime Mountains that was in such a remote place? That was because your fiancé, my eldest cousin, Huo Shaoheng, enlisted in the army that year. That year, he went to the Rime Mountains for his recruit training!”
That year, she couldn’t suppress her longing, so she urged her mother, Luo Xinxue, to take her to Rime Mountains to meet Huo Shaoheng.
She gave the excuse that she wanted to go to Rime Mountains to see how the place that Young Master Huo was training at looked like so that she could tell the Huo family when she returned.
Luo Xinxue didn’t suspect anything at the time. Furthermore, she also cared about Huo Shaoheng, so she took her to the Rime Mountains.
Twelve years ago, the Rime Mountains was very underdeveloped and poor. Within dozens of miles in the mountains, there was only a small shabby motel…
Luo Jialan’s eyes sparkled as she forced herself to recollect her thoughts.
She continued, “… It was there that I was violated.”
Gu Nianzhi narrowed her eyes.
She hadn’t expected Luo Jialan to be so good at “misleading” people.
First, she had said she went to the Rime Mountains, then she said that Huo Shaoheng was at the Rime Mountains for recruit training, and finally she said that she was violated in the Rime Mountains.
Anyone who wasn’t smart enough would immediately form such a logical connection in their mind:
Luo Jialan was at the Rime Mountains + Huo Shaoheng was at the Rime Mountains + Luo Jialan was violated at the Rime Mountains = Luo Jialan was violated by Huo Shaoheng in the Rime Mountains.
This way, Luo Jialan didn’t even need to say a word about her being violated by Huo Shaoheng to leave such an impression.
It could only be said that it was fortunate that they were in court. The people here were not so simple-minded and could not so easily be misled by Luo Jialan.
Gu Nianzhi coughed lightly and said, “So just because you were violated in the Rime Mountains, you claim to have a reason to deliberately torture and kill Ms. Song Jinning? I don’t understand this logic either.”
“Huh huh, you are deliberately not understanding me, right?” Luo Jialan sneered. “Anyway, my fate is already in your hands. You can judge me however you want. Why are you still pretending to be merciful?”
Gu Nianzhi walked up to her, she said coldly, “Luo Jialan, recruits aren’t allowed to leave the training camp during their recruit training. What are you trying to imply? Furthermore, the Rime Mountains cover such a large area. Don’t try to purposely suggest things like that; no one is dumber than you. Nobody will be misled by you into thinking that someone innocent is guilty.”
“Huh huh, are you saying that I just hallucinated that I was violated on the Rime Mountains?!” Luo Jialan also became furious.
She had endured for so many years, and in the end, this was the result she got. She could not accept it!
“Well, let’s just assume that you were raped on the Rime Mountains, and that it wasn’t a figment of your imagination. Then why didn’t you call the police 12 years ago? Why did you keep the evidence and wait until only today to bring it out?”
Gu Nianzhi actually brought out the evidence, Luo Jialan’s dress. “Luo Jialan, take a look. Is this the dress? Are the semen stains left behind by the person who raped you?”
Luo Jialan looked at the red silk dress with white flower prints that was utterly destroyed by the stains over it. It really seemed to be her dress…
However, she was still worried. She reached out and said, “Let me take a look.”
Gu Nianzhi handed the dress she had put in the plastic bag to Luo Jialan.
Luo Jialan pulled out the dress from inside and shook it open to take a quick look.
It was indeed her dress. She had marked it on a concealed spot, and no one had discovered the secret.
She nodded. “Yes, that’s the one. I had always thought that the person who did this to me was someone I respected, so I didn’t turn him in. Of course, I could have been mistaken…”
Luo Jialan said pitifully, “But I really thought it was him…”
Although she did not say who this “him” was, everyone knew.
Gu Nianzhi looked at her contemptuously and was about to continue speaking when the door to the courtroom was pushed open with a bang. Huo Shaoheng walked in, dressed in a handsome military uniform. Behind him were two police officers escorting a dejected, balding, greasy middle-aged man in a prison uniform.
He was short and pudgy, and was less than 1.6 meters tall.
The moment she saw him, Luo Jialan’s pupils shrank to the size of a grain of rice. Then, they dilated rapidly, and even her breaths became shorter.
Huo Shaoheng raised his hand.
A police officer walked up from behind him with a file in his hand and handed it to the court clerk and said, “This man’s name is Hao Yin, the former owner of the Rime Mountains Motel. He’s suspected of being involved in several sexual assault cases. According to his account, one of them happened 12 years ago. After our verification, we found that it’s consistent with Luo Jialan’s account.”
The police officer pointed to the file again, “The DNA sequencing results of this man are inside. They are identical to the DNA results of the semen stains on the dress provided by Ms. Luo Jialan.”
In fact, Huo Shaoheng had only found this motel owner’s criminal records after he had entered the DNA sequencing results of the semen stains on the dress into the nationwide police database.
He had already been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for criminal offenses, and had served four to five years in prison.
Luo Jialan’s case was just one of many that he had committed.
Back when he was running that small motel, he had victimized a number of travelling single women in the Rime Mountains.
In the end, only two or three women had come forward to testify against him.
Otherwise, he would not have been sentenced to only over 20 years in prison.
Gu Nianzhi walked up to the man and asked, “Hao Yin, do you know this person?”
She pointed at Luo Jialan, who was sitting at the defendant’s table with a pale face.
Hao Yin turned around and grinned at her, “Of course I know her. Among all the women that I’ve f*cked, she’s the most beautiful, curviest, most tender and tightest virgin, and the only virgin…”
“Shut up!” Luo Jialan’s face turned from white to red. She was so angry that her hands were trembling. “I… I don’t know you! It’s not you! It’s not you! It’s not you!”
“Hahahaha! You treated me as your good brother. That ‘Chan Sheng Jiao’* wasn’t bad, right? Although it’s been so many years, I still think about you all the time…”
This lecherous man almost told the court the full details of his crime back then.
Even the judge couldn’t bear to listen to him anymore. He rapped the gavel in a hurry and said, “That’s enough. Since the culprit has already been identified, take him away. He will be tried later.”
Luo Jialan couldn’t endure her disgust anymore, and she covered her mouth and started retching.
Gu Nianzhi raised an eyebrow and walked over to Luo Jialan, and said in a low voice, “You finally understand how we feel. When you started spreading rumors about my fiancé, I felt the same way as you when you saw this disgusting, perverted man: nauseated.”
Luo Jialan’s eyes turned red from the provocation, and she looked up at her abruptly. She pointed at Huo Shaoheng and said, “I… I… I always thought it was him! I was drugged at that time!”
She looked at Gu Nianzhi and then at the indifferent Huo Shaoheng. “How exactly are you better than me? Is your figure better than mine? Or is your face prettier than mine? Ugh, he’s really blind…”
Gu Nianzhi was in awe and chuckled, “I finally understand.”
“I thought you were the Little Dragon Girl who unfortunately encountered Yin Zhiping, but now I realize you’re actually an unbelievably narcissistic Mrs. Ma.”**
From the Little Dragon Girl to Mrs. Ma, these words provoked Luo Jialan so much that her body wobbled and seemed to almost faint.
But with Chen Lie around, she couldn’t faint even if she wanted to.
After a few injections in court, she couldn’t be more awake.
She could only watch as the judge handed down the sentence, “For the case of Luo Jialan’s intentional murder of Song Jinning, the evidence is conclusive, the culprit confessed. She shall be sentenced to life imprisonment. At the same time, the defendant Luo Jialan is involved in a case of international espionage. This will be handled by the military court instead…
*’Chan Sheng Jiao’ is a traditional Chinese aphrodisiac. It is referenced in one of the most popular Chinese literature works, “The Plum in the Golden Vase”, written by “The Scoffing Scholar of Lanling”.
**In the Return of the Condor Heroes written by Jin Yong, Yin Zhiping raped the Little Dragon Girl. In Demi-gods and Semi-Devils also by Jin Yong, Mrs Ma was a character filled with spite and envy.
