“Lawyer Gu, please do not coerce my client into giving a confession!”
Jin Wanyi quickly stopped Gu Nianzhi and Wen Dayou from continuing their conversation. She was also worried that Wen Dayou didn’t understand the law and would accidentally expose their strategy.
Gu Nianzhi patted the defendant’s seat and beamed. “That’s enough. You don’t even allow me to ask questions, and you still have the cheek to accuse me of coercing a confession. Lawyer Jin, did you win all your previous cases like this?”
Jin Wanyi blushed and braced herself to say, “I told you, you can ask me.”
“Okay, it looks like I’ll have to ask you.” Gu Nianzhi turned to look at the judge in the dock. “Your Honor, may I begin my questioning?”
The judge raised his hand. “Please don’t delay any longer and get to the point as soon as possible.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded and pointed at Jin Wanyi’s laptop. “You don’t use the big screen in court anymore, do you?”
Jin Wanyi froze and shook her head. “No, I’m done using it.”
“Okay, then I’m going to use it.” Gu Nianzhi easily walked back to the plaintiff’s seat and connected her laptop to the big screen in court.
Jin Wanyi: “???”
Was this Gu Nianzhi’s questioning?
Was this a lawsuit, or was this a child’s house party?!
Gu Nianzhi connected the big screen, but did not immediately show her evidence. Instead, she maintained the blue screen and walked back to the dock, nodding at Jin Wanyi.
“Lawyer Jin, the first question I want to ask is, you just said that Gu Xiangwen had been crying to your client many times and wanted them to bring me out to meet him. Do they have any concrete evidence to prove that my father, Gu Xiangwen, really cried to them?”
Jin Wanyi curled her lips in disdain. “I told you that he was crying to them in private. What evidence do you want?”
“That means that no one else saw him except for the couple, right?”
“Of course. Gu Xiangwen was a wanted criminal with a life-threatening lawsuit on his back. He couldn’t just come to the house to visit my client and let everyone saw him look for my client. It’s all done in secret.” Jin Wanyi refuted clearly.
“Then are there any other videos or notes that prove that Gu Xiangwen did ask them to do this?” Gu Nianzhi tried her best to find out if Jin Wanyi had any evidence of this.
Jin Wanyi shook her head. “Of course not. My client was honest. Why would he beat around the bush like that?”
Gu Nianzhi nodded and smiled. She then stopped smiling, she said coldly, “That means the sobbing is just their side of the story. As everyone knows, my father, Gu Xiangwen, died in the fire eight years ago. So this is your plan, dead man tell no tales?”
Jin Wanyi’s smile was frozen by Gu Nianzhi’s words.
“… What do you mean by dead man tells no tales?”
“There’s no proof.” Gu Nianzhi’s voice was as cold as a frozen mountain spring.
“But my client swears that they’re telling the truth. They’re honest people, for their entire lives…”
Jin Wanyi rambled on about how honest Wen Dayou and Liang Meili were, and even the character testimonies of their neighbors and colleagues.
Gu Nianzhi looked at the testimonies Jin Wanyi presented and laughed mockingly. “They can confirm Wen Dayou and Liang Meili’s characters, but can they confirm that Gu Xiangwen once went to Wen Dayou and Liang Meili?”
Jin Wanyi was silent.
“To take a step back, if what they said is true, then may I ask when and where Gu Xiangwen went to them? How many times did he cry? Even if they can’t find a witness to prove it, they should be able to remember, right?”
“Yes, yes, yes.” Jin Wanyi was elated. She secretly praised Wen Shouyi for doing her homework. She had considered all of this. She took out a document signed by Wen Dayou and Liang Meili, she said, “I visited them yesterday and made a temporary note of it.”
Gu Nianzhi took the document and looked through it casually. She said calmly, “So eight years ago, Gu Xiangwen came to you seven times. Four of them were in the workers’ room of the He family’s mansion, and the other three were when he was out buying groceries.”
“Oh, right. If he was out shopping for groceries, why did you say that no one could verify it? There were plenty of people at the market, right? How could a grown man hold onto you and cry and no one could see it? There was no record in what’s new on Weibo, or what’s in the encyclopedia of embarrassing things?”
Gu Nianzhi pursed her lips in amusement, she continued, “Do you dare show this to the He family? For example, let General He or Young Master He know that the person they wanted for several years actually entered the He family mansion’s workers’ room openly. Not just once, but four times!”
“Also, the He family’s security practically did not exist. Anyone could come and go as they pleased…” Gu Nianzhi shook her head, “If that’s the case, I think the safety of General He and Young Master He is a problem. I don’t know how they survived for so many years…”
Wen Dayou’s heart tightened and he quickly winked at Wen Shouyi.
Wen Shouyi was deep in thought, trying to figure out how to fill in the gaps.
Suddenly, she remembered that Gu Xiangwen was very good at hypnosis, she immediately said, “Actually, that’s not surprising. The He family’s security was indeed top-notch, but this was only for ordinary people, not Gu Xiangwen. Gu Xiangwen was a master of hypnosis, and those security guards were nothing to him. He could go anywhere he wanted as he pleased.”
Gu Nianzhi laughed, “Lawyer Wen, when you have time, study more. Research more scientific literature and read less unreliable legendary novels. Hypnosis is very magical, but this kind of deep hypnosis can only work on one person at a time. It can’t work on a group of people at the same time. The He family’s mansion was surrounded by armed military police. Do you think Gu Xiangwen could hypnotize them at the same time and sneak into the He family’s mansion?”
“Besides, if he’s so powerful, why would he ask your parents for help? Your parents are only gardeners. Why would he need two servants to do such a dangerous thing?”
“If he really could hypnotize all the military police at the same time, he might as well just go to his room and find me. Why would he need to go to your parents to complain and spend so much effort to wait for the birthday party to produce all kinds of evidence for you to catch him?”?
Gu Nianzhi clicked her tongue and concluded, “In short, in order to shift the blame to Gu Xiangwen, you guys didn’t even care about common sense. To make such an obvious illogical thing was a shame. Can I add on to sue your parents for perjury?”
Wen Shouyi’s eyes twitched as she listened. She couldn’t understand from the complete evidence, where did Gu Nianzhi get this loophole from?
Jin Wanyi looked over again and again, but Wen Shouyi didn’t give her any hints. She had no choice but to bite the bullet and say,”… no matter what, you were indeed in Gu Xiangwen’s hands in the end!”
Gu Nianzhi snorted. “That’s another thing. At least now it proves that Gu Xiangwen’s crying for help to Wen Dayou and Liang Meili didn’t exist at all. They made it up.”
She turned to look at the judge’s bench. “Your Honor, I request the court to agree that the other party’s testimony is invalid because they have no concrete evidence and can not justify themselves. They can’t even produce a picture. The evidence of their fabrication is too obvious.”
The judge thought about it and agreed that what they said about Gu Xiangwen crying to them multiple times was too dramatic and sounded strange. He then asked Jin Wanyi kindly, “Defense lawyer, do you want to ask the client if there’s any evidence that Gu Xiangwen cried to them? Any evidence is fine.”
If it was just based on what they had said, this piece of evidence would probably be invalidated.
Jin Wanyi subconsciously glanced at Wen Shouyi.
Wen Shouyi’s face was livid. She had not expected that even Gu Xiangwen was dead, Gu Nianzhi would still be able find so many loopholes in a piece of evidence that had no evidence to back it up.
She sat and didn’t say anything. She merely glanced at Jin Wanyi.
Jin Wanyi understood and said in a wronged tone, “Your Honor, since the court is unwilling to accept this piece of evidence, there’s nothing we can do. But my client can swear…”
“Enough. If swearing works, why do you need a judge to trial it?” Gu Nianzhi looked up at the big blue screen in disdain, the corners of her lips curled into a mocking smile. “It’s like you don’t know that people can lie. A person like you has never lost a case. I’m suddenly full of confidence in my future in the legal world.”
She pressed the button on her laptop, and the computer turned on. Her screensaver appeared on the big screen.
It was a white swan flying freely — a strategic nuclear bomber.
The judge then announced, “Gu Xiangwen’s pleas for help from Wen Dayou and Liang Meili are invalid. Counsel for the defense, please carefully organize your words.”
Gu Nianzhi quickly said, “Thank you, Your Honor.”
Opening her folder, Gu Nianzhi continued, “Now let’s take a look at the testimonies of these two passers-by, as well as Ms. Wen Shouyi’s testimony.”
“The two passers-by said that they saw a tall and skinny man at the corner of the street holding the hand of an 11-or 12-year-old chubby little girl as they got into the car. Although they didn’t see the front of the car, they recognized Gu Xiangwen and my 12-year-old photo from the side.”
“And Ms. Wen Shouyi at that time, directly told Young Master He that she had just come back from school and saw someone taking a little girl to the corner in front of the door and leaf in a car.”
Gu Nianzhi looked around the courtroom and fixed her gaze on Wen Shouyi. “The two witnesses didn’t come today, but Miss. Wen is also one of the defendants. I want to ask you, as the defendant, will you accept my question?”
…
