The tension in the courtroom had reached its peak.
At the plaintiff's and defendant's tables, everyone except Su Bai was nervous.
On the bench.
Yang Yu struck his gavel. "The hearing will now resume. Will the plaintiff and defendant please prepare their closing statements."
"Counsel for the plaintiff, are you ready?"
"We are ready, Your Honor."
"Please deliver your statement."
"Yes, Your Honor."
The crucial moment had arrived!
Su Bai straightened his lawyer's attire and slowly rose. "Your Honor, I would like to ask you a question."
Bang! Bang!
"Does the question from the plaintiff's counsel relate to this case?"
"Yes, Your Honor."
"Permission granted. Go ahead."
Yang Yu looked at Su Bai at the plaintiff's table, suddenly intrigued by the question he intended to ask.
"Your Honor, how do you view people who operate on the boundary of illegality?"
Yang Yu regarded Su Bai with interest.
The fundamental issue in this fraud case lay in where that boundary was drawn.
When Su Bai suddenly raised this question, Yang Yu knew that the plaintiff's lawyer had already guessed what his ruling would be.
Faced with Su Bai's question.
A flicker of interest appeared in Yang Yu's eyes. Was he trying to persuade him through his closing statement?
"Let's hear your statement."
There was no need for clever people to speak in riddles.
The presiding judge had given him an opportunity. Whether he could persuade him now depended on his statement.
Su Bai briefly gathered his thoughts:
"Your Honor, members of the bench, our closing statement is as follows:"
"We believe that the courtroom is sacred, a place where every assertion must be supported by evidence.
In this case, we brought a charge of fraud against the defendant. The defendant denied it but failed to produce corresponding evidence to refute it."
"This alone demonstrates that the opposing party has no rebuttal to the claim we have brought."
"Furthermore, the defendant, Xie Jing, bore very little responsibility within the family and fell far short of fulfilling her marital obligations.
Combined with her deliberate fraudulent conduct, this shows that she did not regard her husband as her life partner or her other half at all. This is fundamentally incompatible with how one should approach marriage."
"Moreover."
"The defendant, Xie Jing, collaborated with her lawyer, Ye Fei, to defraud my client. Their deliberate intent is a fact."
"I would like to ask the wife: during the three years of their marriage, did my client do anything that violated or betrayed that marriage?"
Xie Jing remained silent.
Su Bai continued:
"Why is the wife unable to answer that question?"
"There can surely be only one reason: her silence means she has nothing to say. My client, Zhang Tongwei, never betrayed his marriage."
"Yet despite that, the wife remained insatiably greedy and sought to defraud my client, attempting to coerce him into surrendering his separately owned premarital assets.
Someone like her has little regard for marriage and treats it entirely as a means of making money!"
"Furthermore!"
"The defendant's lawyer, Ms. Ye, has her own fan group and short-video account, through which she promotes and encourages harmful conduct within marriages for profit.
As a lawyer, Ms. Ye, retained by the defendant, encourages her followers to seize their spouses' premarital assets. She knowingly breaks the law!"
"As a lawyer, could she possibly be unaware that such conduct is illegal?"
"She clearly knows!"
"Yet she continues to use these methods to commit fraud. She has plainly desecrated the sanctity of the law and forgotten the basic professional ethics of a legal practitioner!"
"Ms. Ye's actions skirt the boundaries of the law. I understand that she has won over a hundred marital lawsuits. That means at least a hundred families have broken apart because of conduct like hers."
"Not only have those families broken apart, but their separately owned premarital assets have also suffered substantial losses!"
"This is an infringement of private property rights!"
"To my knowledge, many of Ms. Ye's followers, encouraged by her, are preparing to engage in this conduct or are already doing so. If they succeed, the severity of the consequences goes without saying."
"This gravely contravenes the law's protection of private property!"
"Even if Ms. Ye obtains a lawful division of premarital assets through litigation, the deliberate fraudulent conduct remains a reality!"
"As counsel for the plaintiff, I urge the defendant to recognize as soon as possible that her lawyer's conduct is illegal and shameful, report it promptly, and seek leniency!"
"Your Honor, that concludes my statement."
Su Bai looked at Yang Yu on the bench. His expression had not changed at all, leaving Su Bai uncertain about what the presiding judge was thinking.
I'll take it one step at a time.
I've won already, anyway.
Yang Yu betrayed nothing on his face, but he had already reached a decision. He looked toward the defendant's table. "The defendant may now deliver her closing statement."
After hearing Su Bai's closing statement, Ye Fei was utterly stunned!
This...
He's pointed the whole damn attack straight at me!
If the court accepts that statement, won't I end up behind bars, eating prison food?!
"Your Honor, I request that the opposing counsel's statement be struck, because it targets me personally! It has little relevance to this case!"
Bang! Bang!
Yang Yu frowned slightly. "Request denied!"
"Please deliver the defendant's closing statement. If you decline to do so, you will be deemed to have voluntarily waived that right."
On the bench, Liu Hongmei watched this unfold and sighed inwardly. The defendant's lawyer is finished.
Ye Fei was frantic, but there was nothing she could do. She could only steel herself and give her closing statement. "Your Honor, members of the bench."
"Our closing statement is as follows:"
"As the lawful wife of the plaintiff's client, my client may have fulfilled fewer obligations, but she did shoulder some responsibilities. For the plaintiff to bring her to court with a single complaint hardly honors the affection between husband and wife."
"I personally believe that a husband and wife should have a harmonious relationship. It should not come to this."
"As for the opposing counsel's accusations against me personally, I cannot accept them!"
"Because I am protecting women's rights within marriage!"
Unable to offer a rebuttal, Ye Fei could only appeal to emotion.
Once her statement was finished.
Yang Yu looked at Xie Jing at the defendant's table:
"Defendant Xie Jing, do you have anything else to say?"
Xie Jing was panicking. In truth, her resolve was badly shaken, and she desperately wanted to admit her wrongdoing in court.
But...
Admitting fault would be tantamount to sentencing herself to death in advance.
Afraid she might say something else wrong, she merely shook her head. "Your Honor, I have nothing to say."
Yang Yu nodded slightly, arranged the documents in his hands, and struck the gavel without hesitation.
"Both parties have concluded their arguments. The court will now deliver its judgment."
The clerk announced, "All rise. The presiding judge will now announce the verdict!"
A rustle swept through the room.
Everyone in the courtroom rose!
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(End of chapter)
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