Chapter 47: CRIMINAL CHARGES OF ASSAULT AND HARASSMENT

Guiying shook his head, then dipped the dumpling into the chilli oil, he didn’t remove it until it was fully coated.

"Mhm. He’s quite young, his name is Zi Sihan, he’s been married to some alpha for two years and they have a five year old daughter. They had gotten divorced five months ago, but his ex-husband still comes to assault him. Bai Feng said Zi Sihan had finally come to report his ex-husband after seven long years of assault. I admire him."

Liuxian raised a brow, as he added more dumplings to Guiying’s plate.

"Why?"

Guiying dropped his chopsticks and reached for the glass of water instead.

"Because he had the courage to leave. Who knows what he might have gone through to finally get that divorce or how he managed to cope after thinking he had escaped the man yet he still came to find him. It must have taken everything in him to report him. The chains that hold you back in an abusive home get more and more tangled as you go, making it impossible for you to escape but he managed to do that. Now with the help of the OMF, he can live a peaceful life with his daughter."

Liuxian smiled, what a naive yet strong heart.

"Here’s my card, it’s yours now. Use it as you like, baby, no limits."

Guiying’s nearly drooled seeing the black card, an unlimited card? That he could use without guilt?

"Seriously? There’s no strings attached right?"

Liuxian laughed, Guiying looked like a stray cat who had been offered milk and didn’t know if he could trust the one who offered but really wanted the milk.

"There’s no string attached. Buy a yacht, a mansion, bugatti, Ferrari, maybach. There’s no limit."

Guiying beamed "You’re the best, hubby. I’ll use it well."

He would be crazy to refuse free money.

"Sure, now run along or you’ll be late."

Wang Chengli pulled up outside the city court at seven fifty eight.

Guiying stepped out, adjusted his bag on his shoulder, and looked up at the building.

He had never been inside a courtroom before. Not in this life, not in his past one. He had spent enough time being a victim of things that should have been taken to court to understand what it meant to finally stand inside one on the right side of proceedings.

He walked in.

Bai Feng was already there.

He was standing in the corridor outside the courtroom with the particular stillness of a man who had done this many times and had long since stopped feeling anything other than being focused.

He was wearing a suit that was simple and devastating in equal measure, the kind that communicated authority without requiring decoration. Beside him stood Shen Mingzhu, who was dressed sharply, her expression was solemn or rather something close.

And beside Mingzhu, sitting on the corridor bench with his hands in his lap and his eyes on the floor, was Zi Sihan.

Guiying looked at him.

Zi Sihan was young.

That was the first thing, Guiying noticed.

Younger than Guiying had expected, with the kind of face that must have been beautiful once and was still beautiful but it wasn’t enough to hide the pain.

He was thin in the specific way that spoke of months of not eating properly, of stress that lived in the body and refused to leave.

There were shadows under his eyes that had nothing to do with the hour and everything to do with the years of abuse.

A handsome man reduced to this, Guiying thought. Like he had aged overnight.

Bai Feng looked up when Guiying approached and nodded. "Tang XiaoYu. Good, you’re on time." He glanced at his watch. "We go in in ten minutes. The opposing counsel is Li Wenbo, which means he’ll open with character assassination. He always does. Let him."

He looked at Guiying and Mingzhu. "Do not react to anything he says in there. Zi Sihan’s composure is going to be the most important thing in that room today. The moment the opposing side gets an emotional reaction they will use it. Our job is to make sure the facts speak louder than anything else."

"Understood." Guiying said.

Mingzhu nodded.

Bai Feng turned to Zi Sihan and crouched slightly to meet his eye level.

"How are you feeling?" he said. His voice had shifted, quieter and more direct than the briefing tone.

Zi Sihan looked up. "Ready," he said. His voice was steady. Barely, but steady.

Bai Feng looked at him for a moment.

"You have already done the hardest part," he said. "Everything from here is ours to handle."

The courtroom was smaller than Guiying expected and more charged than he was prepared for.

The opposing counsel, Li Wenbo, was a man in his fifties with the practiced confidence of someone who had spent decades winning cases by making the person on the other side of the room feel like the problem.

He sat at his table with the comfortable weight of someone who had already decided the outcome and was simply waiting for the formality of it.

Beside him sat Zi Sihan’s ex-husband. Liao Changsheng.

Guiying looked at him once and then deliberately did not look at him again.

The proceedings opened.

Li Wenbo rose first and Guiying understood immediately what Bai Feng had meant.

The opening was smooth and calculated, framing Zi Sihan as unstable, as difficult, as someone whose claims of abuse were conveniently timed to a custody dispute over a child the ex-husband clearly adored.

Every word was chosen.

Every pause was placed.

It was, technically speaking, a very good performance.

The judge, a woman in her sixties with silver hair and the particular expression of someone who had seen every kind of human behavior a courtroom could produce and was not impressed by any of it, settled into her seat and looked at the room over her glasses.

"We are here today in the matter of Zi Sihan versus Liao Changsheng," she said. "Petition for full custody of the minor, and criminal charges of assault and harassment filed against the defendant. Counsel, are both parties ready to proceed?"

"Ready, Your Honor," Bai Feng said.

"Ready, Your Honor," Li Wenbo said.

"Then let’s begin. Opening statements. Mr. Li, you may proceed."