novelraw Chapter 281 - 179. Lawyer’s Schemes ②
Chapter 281 - 179. Lawyer’s Schemes ②
Chapter 281: 179. Lawyer’s Schemes 2
Entering the courtroom.
An Cheng walked into the courtroom with Shi Nian. The seats for the audience were already fully occupied, and there were numerous media present to film.
Their eyes swept across both sides of the aisle and they each spotted the brothers Tang Yanxi and Tang Yanqing.
Shi Nian nodded with a smile, knowing Tang Yanqing would certainly come; An Cheng, however, frowned impatiently at Tang Yanxi’s arrival.
In contrast, Tang Yanqing slightly lifted his chin, a small confident gesture towards Shi Nian. Although his attitude was always proud, his gaze was clearly filled with encouragement. From the moment Shi Nian entered the courtroom, his eyes had been on her, watching her walk towards the front.
Unfortunately for Tang Yanxi, he wasn’t as fortunate as his brother, meeting An Cheng’s cold glance again. Although this wasn’t unexpected, it left him feeling somewhat heavy-hearted. To make matters worse, his brother sitting beside him didn’t spare him and immediately let out two "ha ha"s.
Sitting at the prosecution table, An Cheng patted Shi Nian: "Act like the media isn’t there, don’t be nervous."
Shi Nian responded with a calm smile: "You forget, I am a reporter myself. Don’t worry, I’m not nervous."
.
The court session began.
After the case was stated, they proceeded to the cross-examination stage.
An Cheng first called Shi Nian to the stand.
As the court doesn’t tolerate lies, Shi Nian publicly acknowledged her identity for the first time, explaining that she was not Nana, but Shi Nian, a reporter for "Deep Throat."
With her identity revealed, the audience in the gallery erupted in an uproar.
The instincts of a lawyer prompted Xiang Yuan to seize the opportunity and stand to question.
Step by step towards the witness stand, Xiang Yuan, meeting Shi Nian’s gaze, began to hesitate.
Seizing a weakness exposed by an opposing witness is a lawyer’s survival instinct in court; but at that moment, he forgot the witness he was to interrogate was Shi Nian.
Four years of marriage, his expression couldn’t hide from Shi Nian; she clearly saw his hesitation and guilt.
Shi Nian also realized that his current feelings might serve as a shield for her defense against him.
In the blink of an eye, thousands of shifts occurred in their hearts.
Xiang Yuan finally stood firm before the witness stand, grasping the railing, gazing into Shi Nian’s eyes: "Prosecution witness, I’m sure you heard the stunned gasp from the gallery. As the defense lawyer, I share their sentiment: We originally believed the innocent female student was harmed by a classmate, and my heart was filled with sympathy; but now we discover, we were all wrong, the victim is not an innocent female student, but a journalist wielding her pen as a sword."
"Hence, we have reason to suspect that Mark’s conflict with you didn’t arise out of nowhere, but rather because you deceived him first. When Mark discovered your true identity, feeling deceived or having his privacy violated, that’s what provoked him."
An Cheng frowned and quickly rose: "Objection! The defense lawyer is speculating."
Xiang Yuan retorted sarcastically: "Your Honor, you also heard the gasps from the gallery just now. And Your Honor, along with the jurors present, didn’t you nurse the same doubts?"
The judge slowly nodded: "Objection overruled. The prosecution witness will answer the defense lawyer’s question."
Shi Nian lightly bit her lip, staring into Xiang Yuan’s eyes: "First, as a reporter, my purpose in going to Kangchuan University wasn’t to deceive anyone or dig into anyone’s privacy. I was there because of a series of student fatalities at Kangchuan University. It was for justice, not personal gain."
"Secondly..."
Xiang Yuan interrupted Shi Nian’s explanation: "Sorry, prosecution witness, I didn’t ask you what you were doing at Kangchuan University. Please directly answer my question: Was it because my client discovered your journalist identity that he got angry out of feeling deceived? Please answer me with either: Yes or No."
Shi Nian took a deep breath and could only answer: "Yes."
"Oh..." another low murmur swept across the gallery.
Seeing how the situation turned unfavorable, Shi Nian tightened her grip on her fingers with self-reproach. She was confident before entering the court, thinking she could substantiate the accusations against Mark, but she didn’t expect that, before professional lawyers under such a legal system, she would not even get a complete statement opportunity, only able to answer the lawyer’s designed questioning with a "yes" or "no."
She looked apologetically towards An Cheng. An Cheng nodded at her to show comfort.
Xiang Yuan walked over to the jury box, gazing at each juror: "First, I don’t wish to vilify the profession of journalism. Journalists are uncrowned kings, and much of society’s truth is exposed by them. They arguably do even more than the police in upholding justice and ensuring the public’s right to know."
"However, we cannot overlook that, as the times progress, shadows have increasingly begun to cloud the journalists’ uncrowned king’s title. Such as the violation of interviewees’ privacy by journalists exploiting their interview rights, or all-out efforts for sensational news effects, makes us wary of the journalism profession. Especially those from noble families or possessing media-sought resources, bear a natural wariness towards journalists."
Xiang Yuan pointed at Mark: "My client is exactly like this. As the heir of the prestigious Lin Qi family, he conducts himself quietly, avoiding media attention while studying at university. So, when he learned that the girl he’d always liked was a journalist, that her close interactions with him might have been for investigating news about him... my client, a young hot-blooded man, could indeed have gotten angry. Just like every passionate man present here, wouldn’t you agree?"
A few male jurors in the jury smiled, evidently swayed by Xiang Yuan.
Xiang Yuan took the opportunity to lead: "So the fact of harm did occur, but it was not intentional by my client, and it is completely unrelated to the murder accusation."
He said this while glancing at An Cheng, bowing to the judge: "Your Honor, I have temporarily finished my questioning."
.
An Cheng rose to cross-examine.
An Cheng stood in front of Shi Nian, offering a calm look of reassurance to help Shi Nian calm down.
An Cheng asked: "Earlier, the defense attorney said that the harm done by the defendant to you was due to discovering that you were a journalist, and in a fit of righteous indignation, he couldn’t control his emotions. So witness, please tell me, during your conversation, at what point did you notice him losing control of his emotions? Or, what content was discussed that made him angry, leading to the subsequent attack?"
An Cheng’s question was well-posed, giving Shi Nian a bit of assurance.
"I won’t forget: there are slight discrepancies between the facts and what the defense attorney stated earlier. The key point is not that he found out I was a journalist, but that after he personally admitted to killing Sean to me, he discovered I was secretly recording his confession, and only then did he become angry and start to strangle me!"
An Cheng smiled with satisfaction, didn’t elaborate further, but quickly refocused the argument before retreating back to his seat with a smile: "Your Honor, I will also pause my questioning here."
.
Subtly, the expressions on the faces of the jury members varied.
Tang Yanxi quickly asked Tang Yanqing: "How is it?"
Tang Yanqing closely observed the facial expressions and body language of the twelve jurors and slightly exhaled: "When Shi Nian first revealed his identity, all twelve were unanimous, showing dissatisfaction and suspicion towards Shi Nian; however, after An Cheng’s cross-examination, five have changed their stance successfully guided to the deeper reasons behind the murder accusation."
Tang Yanxi slightly furrowed his brow.
Though the situation has improved slightly, 5 to 7 is still not optimistic.
.
Next, Mark appeared in court.
An Cheng rose to question, while Xiang Yuan carefully observed Mark’s expression.
What made Xiang Yuan very uneasy was: when Mark was on the witness stand, as An Cheng approached him, a peculiar fervor suddenly surged in his normally lazy and indifferent eyes!
Xiang Yuan saw it, and naturally An Cheng did too.
Similarly, Shi Nian, who had returned to the spectator’s seat, saw it as well.
Across the aisle, she couldn’t help but look at Tang Yanqing.
Tang Yanqing was also closely observing the expressions of everyone in the courtroom. His eyes needed to simultaneously observe 1 judge, 12 jurors, plus 2 lawyers and 1 witness... the burden he bore was self-evident.
But he still felt her gaze, tilted his head to accurately meet her eyes, and slightly raised his eyebrow.
Shi Nian tilted her head, gesturing towards An Cheng’s attire. Tang Yanqing raised his brows, then gave a proud smile, quickly nodding his head.
Shi Nian then sat back down, her heart like a fluttering deer, but she felt relieved.
Perhaps only she and he in the entire spectator’s area understood what An Cheng’s attire signified.
——Tong’s wife.
In Mark’s case, for Shi Nian, perhaps whether Mark harmed her or even whether Mark confessed to killing Sean was not as important. What Shi Nian truly wanted to uncover from Mark’s case was whether the series of murder cases at Kangchuan University were independent or, as she speculated, causally connected to the Child Wife Case.
Zhou Guanghan, Queen S, Sean’s death, Spicy Girl’s disappearance, were they really all residual effects of silencing related to the Child Wife Case.
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[Everyone: Su is not a law scholar, and this is the Anglo-American legal system, so although Su has done a lot of homework, researched many legal provisions and cases, and differentiated between various state precedents, there might still be some errors. If there are professionals among the readers, please bear with us. See you tomorrow~]
Thank you: Lan for the big red envelope, zhengqy for the red envelope; irenelauyy for the flash diamond, 15007275749 for the flash diamond + red envelope
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