CH 84

November 1, 2022kaychandra

T/W: This chapter includes the topic of rape

Chapter 84: Convicted

Outside the courthouse, the major media outlets were crowded together. As soon as a vehicle passed by, they all had to stare at it with their eyes burning. It was a pity that Bai Qi, as the defendant, would be transported in a special car by the judiciary, and the Bai family’s lawyer team had mouths as hard as clamshells, so they couldn’t crack them. Therefore, they never intended to be able to inquire about useful news on the Bai family’s side.

However, it didn’t matter if they didn’t get an interview with the Bai family. Their focus was on the Lin family anyway. After waiting for a long time, the reporters finally saw several low-key luxury Bentleys parked outside and Gongxi Qiao stepped down from the first car.

In addition to a few bodyguards, there was a legendary team of highly paid elite lawyers following Gongxi Qiao. Seeing this, the excited reporters took pictures and recorded videos, and immediately surrounded Gongxi Qiao completely, trying their best to find out the news.

“Qiao Shao, why didn’t Lin Kang’s parents show up? Is it because they’re taking care of Lin Kang in the hospital?”

“Qiao Shao, there are rumors that Lin Kang has woken up. Is the news true?”

Under the escort of the bodyguards, the reporters couldn’t get too close to Gongxi Qiao at all, so they could only raise the volume of their questions. Just when they thought Gongxi Qiao wouldn’t answer, he unexpectedly stopped in his tracks.

“Lin Kang has indeed woken up. Indeed, the reason why Uncle and Auntie aren’t coming to court is to take care of him in the hospital. More importantly, who can calmly stand watching a person who has harmed their whole family?”

The reporters were all human. Hearing Gongxi Qiao blatantly tell the media that Bai Qi was the one who had harmed the Lin family before the court session, they instantly felt confident.

Heh, it seemed that Bai Qi was going to be nailed down and convicted this time.

However, apart from the National Station’s legal program team, other journalists could only go in to listen to the trial, but couldn’t record and take pictures.

The judge of this trial was Judge Zhao, who was known for his impartiality in judging cases for the people. Because of his integrity, many media outlets had reported his deeds. Therefore, when they saw that the judge today was him, they had a better understanding of the Bai v. Lin case.

When Bai Qi was escorted to the courthouse, he was very neatly dressed. Apart from his face, which was slightly tired, no one could see any semblance of discomfort. Even when he saw the Lin family’s legal team, he smiled as if nothing had happened. There was no trace of remorse on his face.

The people in the jury box saw this and felt a little uncomfortable. A normal person really couldn’t stand to see this victimization, and still look like they looked down on everybody.[1]

That kind of person, who was corrupted from the roots, no matter how outstanding in appearance, would only make people feel disgusted.

The people of the jury also noticed Bai Qi’s expression. Although they didn’t show any expression on their faces, they frowned fiercely in their hearts. They had seen many criminal defendants, and behavior like Bai Qi’s could only be done by a sociopath.

Bai Qi was judicially prosecuted for a number of crimes, including tax evasion, attempted murder by hire, unlawful confinement and threats, kidnapping and extortion, manufacturing counterfeit and inferior products, rape, and other major crimes. When these crimes were piled together, Bai Qi should be sentenced to at least 20 years or more, if not a life sentence.

The Bai family’s legal team naturally didn’t want their employer to be sentenced just like that. The important points they argued were the four counts of kidnapping for ransom, rape, illegal confinement, and murder for hire.

As for the other charges, they knew in their hearts that the evidence from the police was already nailed down, and it was useless for them to say anything.

Illegal confinement of Lin’s parents? No, no, he just loved Lin Kang. Didn’t he want to take care of his parents who were in poor health? So there was no such thing as kidnapping for ransom.

Murder for hire? How could that be possible? Bai Qi was a gentle and timid person. How could he do such a thing? When Gongxi Qiao was attacked, it had nothing to do with Bai Qi, it was all a misunderstanding.

Rape? Bai Qi had sex with those people with the consent of both parties. Those people never came forward to say anything before, but now they came out after such a long time to make false accusations. They clearly had ulterior motives. The young master of the Bai family had money, power and good looks. He could find any partner he wanted, so why bother to rape someone?

The audience was simply stunned by the shamelessness of the Bai party’s legal team. How shameless could they be? They turned black to white and white to black. Why not just claim that those people actually fell in love with Bai Qi and raped him?

Fortunately, the plaintiff’s lawyer was powerful and eloquent. He seized the loopholes in the other party’s words and the evidence provided by all parties, and left the Bai party’s lawyer speechless.

In fact, everyone knew that the charges against Bai Qi were almost irrefutable, and the evidence was comprehensive. The only thing the Bai party’s legal team could do was to hope that the judge would be a little lighter in sentencing. Before the trial, the Bai family tried to contact Judge Zhao privately, but he didn’t even show his face to the Bai family.

The lawyers invited by the Bai party had recently received a lot of abuse from people, saying that they were aiding and abetting the enemy. Even their own relatives were affected, and all of them were under tremendous pressure and had a guilty conscience. Now, seeing how ruthless the lawyers invited by Gongxi Qiao were, they were blocked from finding any excuses to whitewash their employer.

With public opinion, evidence, popular sentiment, and the defeat of the Bai family in the struggle of the prestigious families, Bai Qi’s fate was sealed.

Because Bai Qi knew this, he simply broke the cracked pot[2], and didn’t bother to pretend to feel any guilt or remorse, even looking at the crowd with a look of contempt.

Few of these so-called righteous people dared to really face the powerful. Only when they saw the defeat of their Bai family did they come out to take a stand and pretend to be good people.

The only one was ……

His gaze fell on Gongxi Qiao in the gallery, and his eyes were tinged with indignation and madness.

Why did the origin of his defeat lie in this person? Besides having a good face, what did Xi Qing like about this person?

Acting skills? What were the artists in the entertainment industry? They were just things. What did it matter if their acting skills were good or bad?

Talent? What a joke, was Xi Qing a person who liked such things?

From the age of 16, he often appeared on occasions where Xi Qing would appear, but although he always tried to appear in front of Xi Qing, Xi Qing never gave him a second glance. Instead, he got close to that brainless son of a bitch from the Xue family.

Now he was even involved in an ambiguous relationship with a showboy. Bai Qi was the young master of a prestigious family, was he still no better than a nouveau riche showboy like Gongxi Qiao?

Some people in the gallery soon noticed that Bai Qi was looking at Gongxi Qiao wrong, but they didn’t think much of it. They just thought Bai Qi was hating on Gongxi Qiao for helping Lin Kang out and ending up in this situation. So, they cursed dirty words in their hearts. What kind of person was this, ah? He did something unethical himself, and others opposed him.

Soon, Bai Qi’s sentence was handed down. In addition to the monetary compensation for the victims, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Everyone felt relieved, but also felt unhappy. In terms of their personal feelings, they wanted to sentence Bai Qi to death. However, according to the law, it was already the result of multiple efforts to sentence Bai Qi to such a heavy sentence.

When Bai Qi was taken out of the courtroom, he didn’t forget to look back at Gongxi Qiao with a gloomy look.

And Gongxi Qiao, who saw this look, just smiled back at him.

Bai Qi’s face instantly twisted up, but he was taken straight down by the armed police. He looked back and could only see the long corridor and the light at the end of it.

Just then, the door at the end of the corridor slowly closed, and the not-so-long corridor became dimly lit.

On the same day, the Bai party’s legal team expressed their dissatisfaction with the first trial verdict and requested an appeal.

Although the media reported the incident, the words they used were a mockery of the Bai family. This was the ultimate meaning of the saying that shameless people were unbeatable in the world.

In the hospital, Mother Lin advised Lin Kang, “You’re still weak, you can’t listen to the radio for too long.” Because of the after-effects of consuming the sleeping pills, Lin Kang’s eyesight and hearing were affected and it would take some time for him to recover slowly.

Mother Lin was worried that her son would be in a bad mood when he heard the news about Bai Qi, and she didn’t want him to continue listening to it.

“Mom, I’m fine.” Lin Kang could already move his arms and legs in front of him, but he wasn’t very flexible and couldn’t exert himself. “How did things work out so quickly?”

When he woke up yesterday, his mind was confused and he couldn’t think of many things. Today, when he heard the news that Bai Qi was sentenced to life imprisonment, he found it strange. His parents said he had only been in a coma for less than two weeks, yet Bai Qi’s sentence came down so quickly?

“Fortunately, Qiao Shao helped us with this case. Otherwise, our family would have nowhere to go to redress our grievances.” Mother Lin saw that she couldn’t persuade him, so she started to change the subject. “Qiao Shao is a good man, ah.”

“Him?” Lin Kang’s expression was a bit dim. Only after a long time did he say, “Mom, tell me about what happened these days.”

Lin Kang’s mother told Lin Kang everything that had happened recently. At the end, she didn’t forget to lament once again that Gongxi Qiao was a good man.

After listening, Lin Kang was silent for a moment before laughing a bit despondently. “Yes, ah, he was always a good person.”

So good that he could only sneak a look, not daring to approach, not even willing to let people say that he was deliberately approaching that person. And he himself didn’t want that person to think that he was like the other artists in the company who were currying that person’s favor to get roles, so he simply stayed away from him and didn’t bother him.

“During your coma, Qiao Shao often came to see you in the hospital. Even the attending doctor was specially invited by him through a friend. When you recover, we’ll go and thank him properly.” Mother Lin saw her son looking depressed and thought he was still thinking about Bai Qi. For a while, she didn’t know how to console him.

“He …… comes often?” Lin Kang closed his eyes and sighed after a long time, “Mom, I want to take a nap.”

“Okay.” Mother Lin took the opportunity to turn off the radio. “Take a good rest.”

Looking at her son who looked calm, tears shone at the bottom of Mother Lin’s eyes. However, thinking of the days ahead, she gritted her teeth and no longer had any negative emotions on her face.

The days ahead were still long, and the bad guys had already been punished, so the three of them just had to live their lives well in the future.

T/N