Ji Yunhuai acted swiftly and decisively. With conclusive evidence and the Gu Group's undisguised support, the commercial crime case against Ji Cheng proceeded exceptionally smoothly.
In court, Fang Youcheng presented a staggeringly detailed chain of evidence: accounts showing how fictitious projects had been used to siphon off company funds, records of bribes paid to suppress competitors, documents covering up serious safety hazards caused by illegal operations... every charge was backed by irrefutable proof, crushing every attempt by Ji Cheng and his legal team to argue their way out or find a scapegoat.
The final verdict was handed down: for multiple serious commercial crimes, Ji Cheng was sentenced to life imprisonment, deprived of his political rights for life, and ordered to forfeit all his personal assets.
The news rang out like a final death knell, marking Ji Cheng's complete downfall within the Ji Group and high society as a whole.
The once-glamorous, relentlessly scheming second young master of the Ji Family ended up behind bars, his reputation in ruins, reduced to a despised laughingstock and cautionary tale among his peers.
One afternoon shortly after his imprisonment, the sky was overcast. Heavy clouds hung low, so oppressive that they seemed to make it hard to breathe.
Inside the visiting room of the maximum-security prison on the city's outskirts, the pungent smells of disinfectant and fresh paint mingled in the air. The place was cold, devoid of any human warmth.
Wearing a standard-issue gray-blue prison uniform that hung a little loose on him, Ji Cheng was escorted into the cramped visiting booth by a guard.
In just a few weeks, he seemed to have aged twenty years. His once-meticulously groomed hair had turned gray and disheveled, his eyes were sunken, and his cheekbones jutted out. Not a trace remained of the refinement he