Enemies locking eyes instantly rekindled the bitterness of the past, and Cheng Xin could still recall every agonizing detail of his previous life.
Yet what unsettled Cheng Xin even more was that Lin Shuyao, whom he had once helped, was now sitting comfortably at the plaintiff's table right beside Su Huatian.
The sight of this woman only fanned the flames of rage burning deep inside Cheng Xin.
How ironic. You can know a person's face, but never their heart.
I once helped you, helpless and abandoned, win a first-instance victory in a rape case, and now you turn around and sit at the plaintiff's table to accuse me?
Su Tianhua glared at Cheng Xin from the plaintiff's table and picked up right where he left off.
"The motive is simple! As a notoriously disreputable lawyer across the entire internet, you barely get any cases and have no source of income. You wanted to use Lin Shuyao's rape accusation against me to extort a fortune from the Su Family!"
"And because the Su Family refused to pay you, you harbored a deep grudge, bribed the judge, and tried to help Lin Shuyao win her case just to send me to prison!"
As soon as Su Tianhua finished speaking, the members of the jury nodded in succession, and people in the gallery began standing up one after another to hurl accusations at Cheng Xin.
These people were all former clients or family members of clients Cheng Xin had represented in the past.
"He must be out of his mind with poverty! Not only did he cheat me out of a massive legal fee back then and lose my case, but now that his reputation as a lawyer is ruined and he can't get any clients, he's resorted to extortion! How on earth did a scumbag like this ever get admitted to Southeast University of Political Science and Law?"
"That unprincipled lawyer Cheng Xin took an exorbitant agency fee and promised to help my son win, but he ended up getting my son locked up instead!"
At that moment, the viewers watching the live stream of the trial quickly chimed in with their own commentary.
"Makes sense. The Su Family is so filthy rich, anyone would want to extort a payday from them, right?"
"Lawyer Cheng has pocketed huge legal fees over the years while sending all his clients straight to prison. Is it any surprise he's trying to shake down the Su heir now that he has the chance?"
……
Seeing the commotion in the gallery growing louder and threatening to spiral out of control, the presiding judge finally spoke up to restore order. "Silence! Let the defendant speak."
Under the judge's stern authority, the courtroom gradually grew quiet.
Yet beneath that outward calm, the audience's deep-seated hatred for Cheng Xin remained stubbornly unquenched.
Cheng Xin glanced at the ugly expressions on the faces of the people in the gallery, his own expression turning a shade colder.
Those people had deliberately concealed facts and manufactured perjury, which was the sole reason they lost their cases or ended up behind bars. What did that have to do with him?
As for collecting exorbitant legal fees, that was absolute nonsense.
Not only were his firm's rates lower than the industry average, but he also guaranteed a full refund in the event of a loss. Had he ever taken a single penny from these people?
Cheng Xin calmly addressed the presiding judge. "In Su Tianhua's rape case, I stood up against the plaintiff's powerhouse legal team and successfully secured a first-instance victory for Lin Shuyao."
"At the time, the Su Family publicly declared a reward of one million for whoever could win the trial for Su Tianhua. If I were truly desperate enough to extort the plaintiff, wouldn't it have been much easier to intentionally lose the case and collect the reward offered by the Su Family?"
"Furthermore, judging by my past record, it should be entirely expected of me as a lawyer to lose a case. Why on earth would I go through the painstaking trouble of bribing a judge?"
"To extort because I have no money, and then spend money to retaliate against you because the extortion failed—doesn't that completely contradict itself?"
Just as his voice trailed off, a prompt rang out in Cheng Xin's mind.
[Ding! The Lawless Outlaw System has been triggered.]
[Passive Skill 1: Words of Absolute Authority]
[The host's words carry greater prestige and credibility in the legal world, making them inherently more persuasive and believable.]
Whether it was because Cheng Xin's argument made undeniable sense or because the Lawless Outlaw System had worked its magic, not only did no one on the jury dare to speak out in rebuttal, but even the public opinion in the live-stream chat began to shift.
"Uh, well... what he's saying actually makes a bit of sense..."
"Could it be that we really wronged Lawyer Cheng?"
However, before the public tide of opinion could fully turn, the live-stream chat flooded right back to Su Tianhua's side.
"What nonsense are you spouting? If he didn't bribe the judge to win the first instance, are we supposed to believe Lawyer Cheng pulled it off on pure personal skill? The opposing counsel was a top-tier dream team!"
"I'm laughing out loud. Are we seriously supposed to believe Lawyer Cheng just happened to have an off day during his first year in practice, and instead of losing his client the case, he actually won?!"
……
Inside the courtroom, Cheng Xin glanced at the real-time chat broadcasted on the court screen, his heart turning to ash.
It was utterly exhausting. Even with the system's backing, such a logical and evidence-based defense still couldn't wash away the public's deep-rooted prejudices against him.
Were these people simply not going to rest until they threw him behind bars?
Meanwhile, seeing Cheng Xin's words turn the tide at the plaintiff's table, Su Tianhua could no longer sit still.
A dark, sinister smile crept across the corners of his mouth as he exchanged a glance with Lin Shuyao, signaling her to speak.
Prompted by Su Tianhua's cue, Lin Shuyao, wearing exquisite makeup, stood up timidly and addressed the presiding judge with a sob in her voice.
"Your Honor, it's like this. Su Tianhua and I used to be in a romantic relationship. A month ago, I went to Chengxin Law Firm for a consultation. During our chat, I happened to mention to Cheng Xin that I was Su Tianhua's girlfriend. Cheng Xin then manipulated me, urging me to accuse Su Tianhua of rape so we could extort money from him, and promised that whatever we extorted would be split seventy-thirty. That's how the whole accusation against Su Tianhua started."
"I feel deeply remorseful about this. I've already broken up with Su Tianhua, issued a sincere apology, and received his forgiveness."
"Now, I would like to submit the recording of my consultation with Cheng Xin at the law firm."
Lin Shuyao pulled a digital voice recorder from her pocket and played the recording right there in front of everyone in the courtroom and the millions watching the live stream.
True to her word, the audio content matched her claims completely—it featured Cheng Xin conspiring with her to extort Su Tianhua!
As soon as the recording finished playing, the online attacks against Cheng Xin escalated by several levels.
"There's actual audio evidence? Well, you have to believe it now!"
"Lawyer Cheng is utterly devoid of morals and competence. When he couldn't make an honest living as a lawyer, he decided to dig through the criminal code for ways to shake people down!"
……
Hearing Lin Shuyao's words and the contents of the voice recorder, Cheng Xin couldn't keep his composure.
With the memories of his past life, Cheng Xin had known all along that Lin Shuyao would produce this voice recorder.
It wasn't that he panicked because the opposing side had produced a smoking gun; rather, in his previous life, it was precisely because Lin Shuyao presented this crucial piece of evidence that Cheng Xin was convicted and sent to prison.
The miserable ending he suffered behind bars was a nightmare that still haunted him after his rebirth!
As for Lin Shuyao's testimony and the voice recorder she produced:
Without a doubt, almost everything Lin Shuyao had just said was completely fabricated, and the audio recording itself was undoubtedly a fake that Su Tianhua had hired someone to generate using AI voice cloning.
Cheng Xin had never seen that voice recorder before, and considering how Lin Shuyao had wept tears like rain when she came to him for help, she certainly hadn't been in any state to make secret recordings!
"Defendant Cheng Xin, the plaintiff has now provided key evidence in the form of a voice recorder. How do you plead regarding the contents of this recording?"
Yet even with the system's help, he currently seemed to have no way to prove that the audio on that recorder was forged by Lin Shuyao.
After all, everyone in this courtroom had been bought off by the Su Family in advance. Even if he claimed verbally that the recording was fake, absolutely no one would believe him!
[Ding! Detected that the opposing party is using fake audio evidence. The genuine real-time recording from that day has now been forwarded to the host's phone. Please open and check!]
At this, joy surged through Cheng Xin's heart as he hurriedly pulled out his phone to check.
Sure enough, sitting right there in the audio recording app's files was a single file.
Cheng Xin immediately hit play and turned his phone's speaker up to the maximum volume.
As the recording began to play, the voices of Cheng Xin and Lin Shuyao instantly rang out from the phone's speaker, complete with the sound of Lin Shuyao's intermittent weeping.
The moment he saw Cheng Xin pull out his own recording, the color drained entirely from Su Tianhua's face.
Because the recording Cheng Xin produced was completely different from Lin Shuyao's version. In Cheng Xin's recording, it was entirely Lin Shuyao claiming she had been sexually assaulted and begging Cheng Xin to help her prosecute Su Tianhua.
Hearing the sound of her own tearful voice, a look of sheer terror washed over Lin Shuyao's face, her grip tightening so hard on her own voice recorder that her knuckles turned white.
When the recording provided by Cheng Xin finished playing, the entire courtroom fell into absolute silence.
Su Tianhua, seated at the plaintiff's table, was so enraged he looked ready to grind his back teeth to dust. Try as he might, he simply couldn't figure out how Cheng Xin had managed to keep a recording of Lin Shuyao coming to beg him for help back then!
"Your Honor, I would like to ask why the recording provided by the plaintiff is completely different from the recording on my phone of the client coming to me for help at that time?"