While the retired and the reigning emperors of Jin Corporation reminded the people under them who were in charge, silencing those who got too comfortable and brazen, the custody battle in court had become uglier, messier and more public due to the media spinning things out of control.
Long Hui’s camp continued feeding the cheating allegations between Jiang Ying Yue and Lin Yehan, painting their “immoral affair” as the main reason for Long Hui and Jiang Ying Yue’s break-up. The photo and video evidence only made the allegations more believable.
Jiang Ying Yue’s camp denied the entire matter of course, citing that it was Long Hui who distanced himself from her first. She was tired of playing nice.
The custody case had become less of determining which parent was the best in raising the child and more on destroying each other. Given the formidable legal team representing Jiang Ying Yue, Long Hui decided to recruit more lawyers but still came short when compared to the trio’s combined backgrounds and accomplishments. Nevertheless, his camp only became bolder, throwing allegations on top of allegations in a ruthless effort to discredit her.
Their efforts were certainly effective because public opinion sided with Long Hui and criticized Jiang Ying Yue. She was painted as a loose woman who became pregnant before marriage in order to trap an heir. Then when she bore him a son, she had the audacity to use the child to blackmail her ex-lover for more money and benefits by withholding his paternal rights. Not only that, she even cheated on him with an agricultural tycoon. Truly, her appetite was voracious! Absolutely disgusting! This was the kind of woman that the general public hated!
However, the situation took a sudden turn when Jiang Ying Yue’s legal team presented an unexpected evidence.
It was a video and an audio recording of Long Hui barging into the Gold Heights condo unit where they were living in before. The surveillance video was taken from the front door area so the view of the scene in the living room was limited, but it was enough to prove the authenticity of the audio recording. It showed Long Hui arguing with Jiang Ying Yue because of her suggestive photos with Lin Yehan together with their son at the mall.
Jiang Ying Yue’s first concern was for their child, Long Jun. She wanted to bring their son to Iris Long’s penthouse upstairs so that the two of them could talk. The problem was that Long Hui wasn’t listening at all, even going as far as to curse and insult his own sister, her fiancé Jin Liwei and especially her mother Wei Lan, for corrupting Jiang Ying Yue and their son, Long Jun, into distancing themselves from him.
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The evidence made many of the people watching upset. It showed Long Hui trying to wrench their son from Jiang Ying Yue’s arms in a rough manner. Loud sounds of crashing due to the struggle made the scene appear more violent. However, the viewers could only focus on the frightened and pitiful crying screams of the child as his parents fought over him.
Jiang Ying Yue, who had maintained a rather tough exterior in the next court sessions after breaking down on the first day, started tearing up again upon hearing her son’s cries. It was painful for a mother to listen to her child’s distress whether it was already in the past or not.
It wasn’t only her who became upset. The audience in the court felt for the poor child. What kind of monster could scare such a young child to scream and cry like that? He was only a toddler, a baby!
Looks of condemnation were thrown at Long Hui, making him stiffen in his seat beside his lawyers. He was also upset at the video and audio recording but for an entirely different reason than everyone else. He was upset because he had no idea that there was a surveillance camera in the condo unit! Knowing that the unit was gifted by his youngest half-sister made him indignant and intensified his hatred for Iris even further.
It was her fault! Everything was her fault! Because of her, his life was falling apart!
Before everyone could recover from the shocking video, Atty. Hong Shaoqiang delivered an explanation of the evidence laced with pained anger, condemning Long Hui’s “abusive behaviours” not only to Jiang Ying Yue but to their son as well and the trauma he might have caused the poor child, while at the same time, highlighting Jiang Ying Yue’s protective actions, effectively painting her as a good mother who always prioritized her son no matter what.
This passionate speech was calculated to perfection from the specific words chosen, to the tone of delivery including the deliberate pauses, and the swelling emotions until the end. It was proofread, edited, and polished many times not only by Hong Shaoqiang himself but also by his two bigshot assistants, Kang Huizhong and the illustrious veteran lawyer Deng Gui.
All of these events were broadcast by the media. Public opinion sided with Long Hui, but after this new video evidence, it split with more people siding with Jiang Ying Yue instead. The general public’s impression of Jiang Ying Yue was still low and unpleasant, mainly because most people would judge the woman first and find fault with her over the man in a broken relationship, especially if her social status was lower than the man, and also because she still hadn’t proven to everyone yet that she really didn’t cheat with Lin Yehan while still in a relationship with Long Hui.
However, Long Hui’s violent treatment of her and most especially their son as shown in the new video evidence was too much for most people to handle. So even though Jiang Ying Yue still had to bear the label of a cheating woman, she was now viewed more favourably than the abusive Long Hui. Most also had to agree that based on the video, Jiang Ying Yue portrayed herself as the better parent for their son.
The judge seemed to agree.
