My Youth Began With Him

”Mrs. Zhou, there’s no point in this lawsuit, the defendant’s lawyer… is my teacher, my mentor, do you understand? He was my professor while I studied in the United States.”

”What?!” Mrs. Zhou also lost her cool.

”Dennis Wu is incredibly skilled, we don’t need to go on with this suit. We should just admit defeat, we’re wasting our time with it anyways. Plus, if the defendant has the ability to hire someone like Dennis Wu, it means that she has an impressive background, and you guys should be careful and not piss them off.” Zhang Shaochang was nice enough to warn them.

”Stop spreading rumors; we already looked into her background. She’s just a head nurse at a hospital. Aside from the fact that she’s the illegitimate daughter of Huo Zhenghai, there’s nothing else special about her. Plus, I heard that she already cut off all ties with the Huo family, so why would they take care of her? I didn’t pay you to babble nonsense, you have to win this lawsuit for us, or else… we will make you pay for it.”

Mrs. Zhou insisted on going on with the trial, and she even threatened Zhang Shaochang…

”Your Honor, I’m ready, can we start?” Dennis Wu spoke perfect Chinese; he was elegant, gentle, and polite.

Huo Mian looked at Dennis Wu gratefully, ”Thank you in advance, Uncle Wu.” (TL: the polite way of referring to a guy a lot older than you in China)

She was the calmest defendant that Dennis Wu had ever seen in his 57 years of law practice. She even called him ’uncle’, which was really cute.

He nodded at Huo Mian to show his understanding.

On the other hand, Zhang Shaochang was beginning to sweat. He knew that if he lost a trial with no chance of winning to begin with, it would affect his future career as a lawyer. As a lawyer, the higher your success rate was, the more valuable you became. He had worked as a lawyer for almost 8 years now and barely lost. Therefore, his reputation had been pretty good, doing especially well these few years. However, if he lost today, life as a lawyer would definitely become harder for him.

Moreover, the lawyer of the opposing party was his mentor and he was defending such a scumbag client; if his peers found out, he would also be in big trouble.

No matter which perspective Zhang Shaochang looked at this trial from, he still thought it would be best to give up. Sadly, Mrs. Zhou didn’t.

She was so aggressive that Zhang Shaochang had no choice but to bite the bullet…

”Next, let’s have the plaintiff’s attorney cross-examine the defendant,” the judge announced.

Faced with pressure, Zhang Shaochang slowly walked up to Huo Mian. He took a deep breath, ”Ms. Huo, I have a few questions I would like to ask you. Please think carefully before answering them.”

”Okay.” Huo Mian’s voice was clean and crisp, creating a ripple in Su Yu’s heart…

”Please tell me where you were at 11:20 PM on September 6th.”

”The Seductive Fox Nightclub.”

”With whom and what were you doing?”

”I went to pick up my friend, Zhu Lingling, because she was drunk.”

”Then what happened?” Zhang Shaochang asked.

Huo Mian stopped for a second before slowly replying, ”I saw Lingling in Zhou Guangming’s arms. She didn’t respond when I called her name and was completely unconscious. Therefore, I suspected that she was drugged.”

”Allow me to interject, Zhu Lingling might have been unconscious because she was drunk, you can’t assume that it was because my client drugged her, that’s not fair.”

Dennis Wu raised his hand immediately, ”Objection, your honor. The plaintiff’s attorney cut off my client, which may cause deviation in her memory of that night, and result in an incomplete recollection of what happened. It’s unspoken inducement.”

”Sustained, the plaintiff’s attorney must let the defendant finish before asking additional questions.”

Zhang Shaochang’s expression changed slightly, and he felt even more pressured…

Dennis Wu looked at Huo Mian kindly, ”Please continue.”

”Lingling usually has a high tolerance for alcohol, and she would never drink to the point of losing consciousness. Plus, she went with her boyfriend that night, how did she end up in Zhou Guangming’s lap, with her clothes all over the place? I saw that Zhou Guangming’s hands were doing inexplicable things to her body, so I became angry and went up to stop him. Then we got into a conflict.”