Return of the Antagonistic Lady Boss

Chapter 497: Chapter 471: Absolute Competence

Qian grabbed Jia Xiufang’s head and walked towards the door. Jia Xiufang curiously turned her head, while the middle-aged woman knelt on the ground, refusing to get up, crying with all her strength.

”My brother has a mental illness; my father passed it down to my brother. When he attacked people, it was a mental episode. Your Honor, you must help us. Please don’t convict my brother Liu Changfu. I have elders and children depending on him to make a living. Oh, my great master of justice!”

The last few words were exaggerated and drawn out, shouted like she was performing in an opera.

Jia Xiufang had never seen such a scene. Even though Qian dragged her to the door, she couldn’t stop looking back, her propensity to find drama exciting kicking in.

”Comrade, please control your emotions. We are still investigating Comrade Liu Changfu’s case, and the evaluation results are not out yet. Can you come to the office to discuss it tomorrow?”

Liao Fugui’s advice obviously had no effect.

Seeing that neither soft nor hard approaches worked on him, the middle-aged woman’s eyes darted around, finally fixing on Qian and Jia Xiufang, and suddenly crawled over while still kneeling, clutching Jia Xiufang’s leg.

”Oh mother of the great master of justice! Speak a word of fairness, my brother needs to support the family. If he goes in, what are we going to do? Please say something, I beg you!”

”Uh, well, I—” Jia Xiufang hadn’t spoken when Qian covered her mouth with her hand. This situation couldn’t be casually commented on.

Qian tugged on Jia Xiufang, and seeing she didn’t provoke any sympathy, the middle-aged woman focused again on Qian.

She held onto Jia Xiufang’s leg, not letting her leave, while turning her face to plead bitterly with Qian.

”Wife of the great master of justice, say a fair word!”

”I am not his wife,” Qian calmly stated. This woman sought help indiscriminately, mistaking Jia Xiufang as Liao Fugui’s mother and herself as Liao Fugui’s... ugh, terrifying. Qian couldn’t imagine what kind of woman could endure Comrade Fugui’s meticulous, archaic language and quotations.

”They are not my family. Comrade, please go back. We will make a reasonable evaluation of Comrade Liu Changfu based on his results.”

The woman’s proclaimed brother Liu Changfu had already been evaluated by Liao Fugui and his colleagues. He had no mental illness. Although there were family members with mental illness, when he wielded a knife at someone he quarreled with, he clearly acted independently.

Upon hearing about a reasonable evaluation, the woman realized she couldn’t gloss over the situation. She suddenly leapt up, taking a knife out of her pocket, pressing it against Jia Xiufang’s neck, and screamed.

”Are you forcing us poor folks to a dead end?! Is that it?! My brother is the only laborer in my family. If he’s sentenced, who will take care of my paralyzed mother?!”

Jia Xiufang didn’t expect that trying to be a bystander would drag her into trouble. She felt the chill from the knife on her neck, and the woman’s garlic breath on her face, causing her legs to tremble with fear.

Seeing her mother involved, Qian’s face instantly darkened. She moved forward, ready to take the woman’s knife, only to hear the woman threatening with a trembling voice.

”Don’t come any closer! If anyone approaches, I’ll kill her!”

”Ma’am, please calm down, let’s talk this over,” Liao Fugui said tensely. He hadn’t expected the woman’s emotions to escalate so dramatically.

”There’s nothing to talk about! Unless you agree to write a statement proving my brother has a mental illness, so the judge won’t convict him!”

Thinking about it, Qian figured if Liao Fugui was smart, he’d comply with the woman, get her to release her mother. A written statement isn’t effective alone; it requires multiple confirmations to be valid. Just writing anything to appease the woman would suffice.

”Even if I write it now, it won’t have any effect. Release the person. Your actions hold no meaning,” Liao Fugui’s words made Qian internally curse, ”Damn you! Such a bookworm, can’t you act according to the situation?”

”He can write for you. Just calm down; we’ll help solve any problems you have. First, release my mother.” Qian interrupted Liao Fugui’s foolish words.

”But he said it won’t be effective!” The middle-aged woman had clearly reached her breaking point.

After many days of running around and begging, only to face repeated disappointments, she was emotionally exhausted, leading to such extreme actions—a reaction to unbearable pressure.

”He’s useless. I’m Chen Xiaoqian, a psychologist. I have more influence than him.”

”Really?”

”Really. If you don’t believe me, I’ll have him write it.” Qian glared at Liao Fugui, seeing him still standing foolishly, she picked up a slipper from the shoe rack and threw it at him. ”Hurry and get a pen, what are you looking at?!”

Liao Fugui was awed by Qian’s sudden transformation into a domineering queen. He took the slipper that hit his glasses and hurried off to find paper and a pen.

”Can you now release my mother?”

”No way... Only when he finishes writing and stamps it will I release her!” Though unsure how the material would be written, the middle-aged woman assumed a stamp would make it valid.

”You must be tired standing. Why don’t we sit on the sofa? I see you have dark circles under your eyes. You must be exhausted, worrying over your brother’s affairs. If you’re uneasy, you can keep holding this chubby old lady hostage, okay?”

Qian worked to stabilize the other’s emotions. Jia Xiufang, initially terrified, trembling, found solace unexpectedly upon hearing a remark about being a chubby old lady.

She looked towards Qian, hoping her daughter would leave, to stay away from danger. Yet, Qian returned a reassuring gaze. For some reason, Jia Xiufang felt less afraid seeing her daughter’s confident expression.

Liao Fugui fetched paper and pen, hastily squatting at the coffee table to write, unsure of what he even penned. His attention was entirely on the hostage situation, worried that his kindly neighbor might suffer because of him.

Qian stood not far from the middle-aged woman, speaking softly.

”You’ve worked hard for your brother’s sake. It’s rare to see sisters like you who care so much nowadays. Your brother isn’t young; why didn’t your sister-in-law step up when something happened to him?”

”Don’t mention that woman, she looked down on our family’s poverty and ran off with a rogue. My brother was distracted by it, always in a bad mood. That day, he had been drinking. Someone called him a fool, and in a fit of anger, he did something stupid with a knife. My dad had a mental illness; after he died, the whole family relied on my brother. Now, with him like this, what can I do?”

Qian guided the woman to release her tension, keeping her focus on the knife threatening her mother, while speaking in a gentle, disarming tone, using her professional expertise to defuse her mother’s critical situation.