The presiding judge frowned at the two conflicting recordings. According to the Su Family’s prearranged plan, he was supposed to convict Cheng Xin immediately after Lin Shuyao presented her recording device. But now, something had gone wrong. How could Cheng Xin also have a recording?
With the two pieces of physical evidence in conflict, it would be a clear breach of protocol for the judge to rashly declare Cheng Xin’s evidence a forgery without a formal review by the court’s verification staff. However, the Su Family had long since colluded with the judge to prepare a secondary plan to take Cheng Xin down. Cheng Xin was just an incompetent lawyer with a history of endless failures; he couldn't possibly turn the tables!
The presiding judge immediately announced, "The evidence from both sides is in conflict. I am ordering the verification staff to re-examine the evidence. Call the new witness!"
Cheng Xin followed the judge’s gaze. In the corner of the gallery, a middle-aged man with his head bowed and wrists in silver handcuffs was escorted to the plaintiff’s stand by two bailiffs. Cheng Xin was stunned. He remembered this face clearly; it was Judge Ji Yanming, who had presided over the first trial of Su Tianhua’s rape case and ruled in Cheng Xin’s favor.
Had even Judge Ji Yanming, who had once fearlessly stood for justice, been bought by the Su Family? Was he here to sit at the plaintiff’s stand and frame him?
Following Ji Yanming’s appearance, Wang Mingguo, the head of the gold-standard legal team for Su Tianhua who had previously clashed with Cheng Xin, sat at the plaintiff’s stand with a thick stack of documents.
"Your Honor, this is the evidence of bribery confessed by Ji Yanming. Please review it. I will explain the details on Ji Yanming’s behalf!"
Seeing Ji Yanming and his own star lawyer, Wang Mingguo, take the stage, Su Tianhua’s smile deepened. *Competing with me? You're still too green!*
With a nod from the judge, Wang Mingguo immediately launched his accusation with righteous indignation: "In order to win the first trial of the Su Tianhua rape case, the defendant privately bribed Ji Yanming with 200,000 Dragon Notes in cash on the eve of the trial."
"After accepting the bribe, Ji Yanming suffered immense mental torment. After the defendant lost the second trial of the Su Tianhua rape case, Ji Yanming could no longer bear the guilt and voluntarily turned himself in to report the defendant."
"The 200,000 Dragon Notes in illicit cash were discovered by bailiffs in the refrigerator at Ji Yanming’s home."
"Your Honor, the defendant, as a lawyer, ignored the law and committed bribery within the solemn halls of the court. This is a grave crime. Since the act of bribery is a fact, we can infer that the defendant’s true motive was malicious retaliation for failed extortion! If it weren't for Ms. Lin Shuyao and Mr. Ji Yanming bravely stepping forward to clarify the truth, one can only imagine how many others would have been deceived and harmed by him. In light of this, I implore the judge to uphold judicial order and sentence this unscrupulous lawyer, Cheng Xin, to life imprisonment!"
Wang Mingguo emphasized the final sentence heavily. It wasn't just the most important demand from his client, Su Tianhua; it was also fueled by his own resentment. Losing the first trial of the Su Tianhua rape case a month ago was the biggest stain on his professional career. It was bad enough that he, a lawyer with a one-hundred-percent win record, had lost, but to lose to a disreputable lawyer with a one-hundred-percent loss record was an utter humiliation. He had been mocked by countless peers, going from a top-tier industry lawyer to a laughingstock. He wished Cheng Xin would drop dead immediately.
"Life imprisonment? That’s too light! Just give him the death penalty!"
"If this kind of scum isn't sentenced to death, the moral standards of the entire Dragon Country will regress by a decade!"
"Breaking the law as a lawyer—with multiple crimes combined, he’d have been executed along with his whole clan in ancient times!"
The livestream chat was flooded with comments. The professional trolls were out in force. In reality, Cheng Xin would have been drowned in spit if the public had their way.
The presiding judge received the documents from the court staff and flipped through them with a practiced, serious air. Now that the "evidence was conclusive," he could proceed with the sentencing according to protocol. The longer this dragged on, the more likely Cheng Xin would find a way to escape.
"Bang! Bang!" The judge struck his gavel and declared solemnly, "In view of the conclusive evidence provided by the plaintiff, I now announce—"
At this critical juncture, a shout interrupted him!
"Hold on, Judge! I still have a rebuttal!" Cheng Xin roared, cutting the judge off.
*They aren't even pretending anymore!* Cheng Xin thought. He hadn't even begun his rebuttal, and they were already trying to pass sentence? This cunning old fox was looking for any chance to convict him. If he didn't intervene, he really would be doomed!
Before the judge could react, Cheng Xin spoke up: "I would like to ask the plaintiff’s lawyer: what evidence do you have that the 200,000 Dragon Notes in Ji Yanming’s refrigerator were a bribe from me, rather than planted by you beforehand?"
"With online payments so advanced today, who still carries cash for payments? Doesn't everyone pay online, or keep their cash in a bank account? Following that logic, I could argue that if I wanted to withdraw 200,000 in cash to bribe someone, I would have to withdraw it from a bank. If I did that, wouldn't there be a record? Based on the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty,' please produce the records of me withdrawing 200,000 in cash from a bank!"
As Cheng Xin finished speaking, a system notification chimed in the depths of his mind.
[Ding! Detected that the opposing party is using forged cash evidence. The host’s bank statements from recent years have been uploaded to your phone. Please open to view!]
[Ding! Detected two successful rebuttals. Sending hidden reward: a video recording.]
*Heaven helps me!* With the system backing him up, Cheng Xin felt full of confidence. However, he was slightly curious: what was this "video recording" hidden reward?
Meanwhile, at the plaintiff’s stand, Wang Mingguo was racking his brain, unable to fathom how Cheng Xin could still be so articulate when he was at death’s door. Before he could think of a rebuttal, Cheng Xin didn't give him a moment to breathe and dropped a bombshell.
"Since the plaintiff’s lawyer cannot provide them, I will provide the evidence myself!"
Saying this, Cheng Xin immediately tapped his phone, and with the help of the screen-sharing camera, displayed his bank card transaction history from the last few years.
The first awkward realization for everyone was that Cheng Xin’s bank transaction volume was incredibly low. The people in the courtroom and the livestream audience, who had been holding magnifying glasses to find flaws, all fell silent after scrolling through several pages. Forget about records of a 200,000 cash withdrawal; his bank balance had been under five digits for years. His largest expense was a 2,000 Dragon Note donation for nutritional lunches for children in mountain areas a few months ago. His most frequent daily expense was a 9.9-Dragon Note "shared meal" from a food delivery platform.
"..." The chat went wild. "How is Lawyer Cheng living even more miserably than me? I earn 2,800 a month and treat myself occasionally, but he eats 'shared meals' for every single meal?"
"Amazing. Lawyer Cheng actually donated 2,000 Dragon Notes to kids in the mountains. I feel like a saint if I donate fifty cents."
"I’m starting to suspect that Lawyer Cheng losing every trial was because he got food poisoning from those shared meals..."
Once Cheng Xin’s bank statement was out, the trolls online quieted down significantly. They never expected that an unscrupulous, disreputable lawyer who lost every case would be someone who donated to charity and ate cheap takeout. The contrast was just too stark!
At that moment, Cheng Xin’s face burned. If he hadn't been forced into a corner, he wouldn't have wanted to display such a miserable side of his life to the entire internet. In his previous life, before he went to prison, he lost every case he took and never earned a single cent in legal fees. He had to rely on anonymous part-time legal consulting just to make ends meet. Living a second life, he was done with that existence; he had had enough!
Just then, Cheng Xin suddenly remembered the hidden reward the system had provided. Driven by instinct, he closed the bank statement and tapped on a new file in the corner of the system’s video folder.
Broadcast through the court’s projection system, the large screen began to play the video. The footage was a real-time surveillance video inside a bright living room, with the camera focused on a refrigerator.
Immediately, those in the courtroom familiar with the layout pointed out that this was the living room of Ji Yanming’s house!
In the video, a man wearing a black baseball cap walked toward the refrigerator carrying a black briefcase. A noticeable detail was that the briefcase was bulging, appearing to be stuffed full of items. The man opened the refrigerator and began stuffing bundles of cash from the briefcase into it. Judging by the volume, it was at least a hundred thousand Dragon Notes.
As the video reached its end, the man closed the refrigerator and turned to leave. In the instant he turned, his true identity was revealed. It wasn't Cheng Xin—it was Wang Mingguo, the star lawyer hired by Su Tianhua!