Sun Yushan's eyes shifted, and he suddenly began making things up.
He pointed at Ji Hanxing. "He and I were high school classmates. We hadn't seen each other in ages and were catching up. We drank too much, and the conversation got a little heated. We lost control for a moment, and that's why we got physical."
Sun Yushan wasn't an idiot. How could he admit to attempted murder? He couldn't even admit to intentional assault! He would blame the drinking, and since they were classmates, he would insist that this was just a minor scuffle arising from a drunken argument.
"If you don't believe me, test me. My blood alcohol level is definitely over the limit."
"And Ji Hanxing hit me too. At most, this was a drunken brawl."
As Sun Yushan spoke, he looked at Ji Hanxing with a sinister gaze. He knew Ji Hanxing had made something of himself now and had Yan Jinyue backing him, but so what?
A trace of disdain and jealousy flashed in his eyes. How could someone like Yan Jinyue be won over by just anyone sucking up to him? Especially someone like Ji Hanxing, who always looked half-dead. Sun Yushan didn't think Yan Jinyue would intervene for Ji Hanxing.
His sister wouldn't leave him to fend for himself, either. Since that was the case, he would drag Ji Hanxing down with him.
Ji Hanxing looked at Sun Yushan coldly. He had seen plenty of this sort of performance, this way of shifting the blame, when he ran a stall at the night market. Beer was a staple at night market stalls, and plenty of people forgot who they were or even their own surnames after a few pounds of that piss.
They would start sexually harassing women or provoking others, then get into fights. Once the police actually arrived, they would immediately claim they were drunk, that alcohol had temporarily impaired their judgment, hoping to make a major incident seem minor and then brush it off altogether.
They would also claim they knew the other person, or that the other person had hit them too, dragging others down with them.
He wasn't merely familiar with it. He had experienced it himself.
That time, a woman had just finished working overtime and come to Ji Hanxing's stall for egg fried rice, only to be sexually harassed by several drunken thugs at the next table. Ji Hanxing had stepped in to stop them, blocking the hands reaching toward her.
Ji Hanxing had spent years scraping by in the night market and had long known what those people were like, so he took the beating without hitting back. In the end, he was badly injured, and his stall was smashed to pieces. But because he hadn't fought back, the charges of intentional assault against them held up. They paid compensation and went to prison.
He simply hadn't expected these young masters, who considered themselves members of high society, to be just as shameless and vile, behaving like thugs.
Sure enough, rich or poor, there were good people and bad.
Yan Jinyue said, "About this incident..."
He had only just begun when Ji Hanxing interrupted him, his voice hoarse. "I'm the person involved. Let me speak."
"Officers, first, I haven't been drinking. I'm willing to be tested."
"Second, I wasn't arguing with him, either. The surveillance footage can prove that."
"Third, he attacked first. He came straight up and grabbed my neck, trying to kill me. I resisted instinctively. That was self-defense."
Ji Hanxing laid out his points clearly, while the officers who had arrived watched the surveillance footage. The charity banquet venue used the most advanced surveillance equipment available. Whether in nighttime clarity and visibility or audio capture, its performance was the best currently on the market.
The footage showed exactly what Ji Hanxing had described. Ji Hanxing had merely been sitting in a corner. After spotting him, Sun Yushan had grabbed his neck as though he had gone mad.
Yan Jinyue waited until Ji Hanxing had finished before signaling to Fu Fangxi and exchanging a few more words with the police.
Sun Yushan's face turned ashen. He hadn't expected Ji Hanxing's reasoning to be so clear and orderly. Seeing Yan Jinyue's side communicating with the police, he was already panicking.
He knew perfectly well the Yan Family's standing and Yan Jinyue's capabilities. He had tried to implicate Ji Hanxing just now only because he thought Yan Jinyue wouldn't get involved. After all, he had never heard of any connection between Ji Hanxing and Yan Jinyue before.
Someone like Ji Hanxing, who acted so aloof, disdained joining their group social engagements, and refused to play by their circle's rules-what right did he have to win the favor of those top wealthy families?
But reality proved him wrong. Yan Jinyue really was helping Ji Hanxing.
"Knock, knock, knock."
Someone knocked on the private room's door, and it was pushed open a moment later. Yan Jinyue narrowed his eyes. He had just instructed the security guards outside not to let anyone else in.
Sun Yuqiong walked in on high heels, looking travel-worn.
Seeing Sun Yuqiong, Sun Yushan's eyes lit up as though he had found his savior. "Sis..."
Sun Yuqiong turned toward his voice, her gaze landing on Sun Yushan. She walked straight over and slapped him across the face.
Smack!
The sharp sound of the slap rang through the private room. From the sound alone, it was clear how hard she had struck him. A large patch of Sun Yushan's face instantly turned red.
Sun Yushan covered his face and looked at Sun Yuqiong in shock. "Sis, why did you hit me?"
Sun Yuqiong glared fiercely at Sun Yushan. "You idiot."
She had told Sun Yushan to use his connection to Ji Hanxing as a high school classmate to get closer to him and see whether he could establish a connection with Yan Jinyue of the Yan Family. Instead, not only had he failed to build that connection for her, he had strangled the man!
An idiot who couldn't get anything right and only made things worse!
Sun Yuqiong was so angry that her hand itched even more, and she wanted to raise it and slap Sun Yushan again.
Seeing this, an officer beside her stepped forward. "Ma'am, please stay calm. Hitting people is wrong."
Sun Yuqiong immediately lowered her hand and apologized to the officer with an excellent attitude, saying she had momentarily lost control of her emotions.
After apologizing to the police, she turned and walked over to Yan Jinyue and Ji Hanxing without so much as looking at Sun Yushan, an apologetic smile on her face.
Sun Yuqiong looked at Ji Hanxing and spoke sincerely. "President Ji, I'm truly sorry about what happened."
Before coming, she had already learned most of what had happened. She could also tell that Ji Hanxing was the key to resolving this, and he happened to be the person involved.
Her gaze also fell on Ji Hanxing's neck. It was covered in dark purple bruises and looked chilling.
"Our Yushan was in the wrong this time. Young people are impulsive, and that's why he lost control."
Ji Hanxing simply looked at Sun Yuqiong without speaking. He wanted to see exactly what she intended to do.
Sun Yuqiong said, "President Ji, we'll cover all your medical expenses this time."
"As for Yushan, you can hit him or punish him however you like, as long as it lets you vent your anger."
Sun Yuqiong's words seemed to favor Ji Hanxing, allowing him to deal with Sun Yushan however he pleased, but they were riddled with traps.
They lived under the rule of law now, and the police were still right there. What could Ji Hanxing do to Sun Yushan? Sun Yuqiong appeared to be offering very generous terms, but in reality, it was an empty statement, no better than hot air.
"You're going too far, President Sun. Let's stick to the matter at hand. The police are right here, and we have both witnesses and physical evidence. We can simply follow the normal legal procedure."
"Whatever it amounts to, that's what it will be. We'll leave it to the law."
Ji Hanxing's expression was cold, and his words made Sun Yuqiong's expression change as well.