Chapter 49: DID YOU EVER FABRICATE A MEDICAL REPORT?

"He broke my door lock," Zi Sihan said. "He followed me to the convenience store and stood outside it for forty minutes. That’s not a contentious divorce. That’s harassment."

"Or," Li Wenbo said, "it’s a father desperate to maintain contact with his daughter during an emotionally difficult separation."

"Objection." Bai Feng’s voice was still entirely level. "Counsel is testifying."

"Sustained," the judge said. "Mr. Li, ask questions. Don’t make arguments."

Li Wenbo moved on.

"Zi Sihan, your daughter is five years old. In the five months since the divorce, has Liao Changsheng paid child support consistently?"

"Yes."

"Has he attended scheduled visitations?"

"The ones I allowed, yes."

"The ones you allowed," Li Wenbo repeated, turning that phrase toward the room. "So you have been controlling his access to his own daughter?"

"I’ve been following the agreement set by the court," Zi Sihan said.

"Which you petitioned for terms on."

"Which my lawyer petitioned for based on the documented history of violence. Yes."

Li Wenbo looked at him for a moment.

Then he said, "No further questions," and sat down.

Bai Feng rose immediately for his redirect.

"Zi Sihan. During the forty minutes Liao Changsheng stood outside the convenience store, did you call the police?"

"Yes."

"What did the responding officer document?"

"That Liao Changsheng had followed me from my building and remained on the premises despite being asked to leave."

"Thank you. One more question." Bai Feng paused, and when he spoke again his voice was quiet and entirely direct. "In seven years of marriage, did you ever once file a false report against Liao Changsheng?"

"No."

"Did you ever fabricate a medical visit?"

"No."

"Did you have any reason, prior to this custody proceeding, to document your injuries with the consistency that these fourteen medical records reflect?"

Zi Sihan looked at him.

"I documented them," he said quietly, "because I was afraid that one day I would need to prove that what was happening to me was real. Because I had been told so many times that it wasn’t."

The courtroom was very quiet.

"No further questions," Bai Feng said, and sat down.

Li Wenbo called Liao Changsheng to the stand.

He was a broad shouldered man with a pleasant face and the practiced ease of someone who had spent years learning to perform normalcy. He answered Li Wenbo’s questions smoothly, spoke about his daughter with what sounded like genuine warmth, and painted a picture of a marriage that had simply broken down under ordinary pressures.

Then Bai Feng rose.

"Liao Changsheng," he said. "On the evening of the fourteenth of last month, where were you between eight and ten pm?"

A pause. "At home."

"Your home, or your former marital home?"

Another pause. "My current residence."

Bai Feng turned to the judge. "Your Honor, I’d like to submit exhibit R. Security footage from the building where Zi Sihan currently resides, timestamped between eight seventeen and nine fifty two pm on the fourteenth of last month, showing the defendant in the building’s lobby."

The courtroom shifted.

Li Wenbo was on his feet. "Objection. This evidence was not disclosed in pretrial—"

"It was disclosed on the fifteenth," Bai Feng said, without turning around. "Three days before the deadline. The filing timestamp is exhibit S."

The judge looked at Li Wenbo.

Li Wenbo sat down.

"Overruled," the judge said. "Exhibit R and S admitted. Continue, Mr. Bai."

Bai Feng looked at Liao Changsheng.

"Would you like to revise your answer?"

Liao Changsheng’s jaw was tight.

"I went to check on my daughter," he said.

"At eight seventeen pm on a Tuesday, without prior arrangement, in violation of the separation agreement?"

"I was concerned."

"About, what specifically?"

"About whether she was being taken care of properly."

"I see." Bai Feng turned a page. "And on the twenty second of the previous month, where were you between two and four pm?"

The pleasant expression on Liao Changsheng’s face was working considerably harder than it had been five minutes ago.

Li Wenbo leaned forward. "Your Honor, I’d like to request a brief recess—"

"Denied," the judge said. "The witness will answer the question."

Liao Changsheng answered.

Bai Feng asked four more questions.

Each one was a door Li Wenbo could not close fast enough. By the time the redirect was finished Liao Changsheng’s account of a normal beleaguered father navigating a difficult divorce had collapsed under the weight of footage, timestamps, phone records, and the particular quiet devastation of a lawyer who had spent weeks preparing for exactly this and had not missed a single detail.

The judge did not take long.

She looked at the room over her glasses and spoke with the brisk certainty of someone who had already made up her mind before the closing arguments and had simply waited for courtesy’s sake.

"In the matter of custody of the minor, the court awards full custody to the plaintiff, Zi Sihan, effective immediately. Supervised visitation for the defendant may be reviewed in six months subject to a behavioral assessment." She looked at Liao Changsheng. "The court further issues a restraining order against Liao Changsheng, prohibiting contact with the plaintiff outside of court approved visitation arrangements. Violation of this order will result in immediate legal consequences." She closed the folder in front of her. "The criminal charges of assault and harassment are referred to the relevant prosecutorial body for further proceedings. This court is adjourned."

The gavel came down.

Bai Feng did not react visibly.

Mingzhu exhaled once, quietly, beside Guiying.

Zi Sihan sat very still.

Guiying watched his face and saw it, the moment the verdict landed in his body, the particular stillness of someone who had been holding themselves together for so long that the arrival of something good felt almost more dangerous than the bad things had.

He did not cry.

Not even a single tear.

The hallway outside was quieter than the courtroom had been.

Bai Feng spoke briefly with the legal team, efficient and unhurried. Mingzhu coordinated something on her phone. The others filtered off in pairs to handle their respective parts of the handover, housing, healthcare, schooling, the full infrastructure of a new life being assembled in real time around a person who had not yet had a moment to breathe.

Bai Feng looked at Guiying.

"Stay with him," he said, with a small nod toward Zi Sihan, who was standing near the window at the end of the corridor. "His mother is with his daughter. So it’s just him right now."