The courtroom fell into a brief silence.
“She came out of my own body. How can she just sever ties with us like that?” Li Suhui stared blankly at Ruan Wanning. Her eyes suddenly stung, and tears actually began to fall.
“So you do know she’s your own flesh and blood?” Lin Zhihua looked at the woman coldly. “You raised your daughter with less care than someone would raise a dog. I almost thought your family only had a son.”
Li Suhui’s entire body trembled.
The muscles in Ruan Xingyun’s face twitched. He slammed his palm on the table and cursed, “I refuse to accept this! Judge, I want to sue! I raised her for eighteen years, and this unfilial daughter ran away without saying a word. I want her to pay me a hundred thousand in support every month from now on.”
Even the lawyer they had hired was speechless. “Who asks for a hundred thousand a month in support payments? Besides, neither you nor your wife has lost the ability to support yourselves, so you don’t meet the requirements to claim support.”
Ruan Xingyun immediately turned on the lawyer. “Didn’t you say severing family ties was difficult? Then how did Ruan Wanning manage to sever ties with us?”
“I never said I was confident we’d win.” The lawyer felt aggrieved too. This family had never told him the truth from beginning to end. When he saw the evidence Ruan Wanning submitted, even he was stunned.
He had never imagined that parents could actually be this biased. Their son had been pampered into a fair, chubby child, while their daughter had gone hungry and cold without even having a proper room of her own. They wouldn’t let her continue school and even forced a child to work.
They probably spent more money raising a dog than they did raising their daughter, didn’t they?
Ruan Xingyun, however, simply thought the young lawyer wasn’t professional enough and decided to spend more money hiring one who specialized in support-payment cases.
In the gallery, Ruan Juncai played on his phone with a completely indifferent expression.
So what if they severed ties?
He was about to become a big celebrity anyway. By then, who knew who would be trying to curry favor with whom?
Lin Zhihua coldly watched his ugly behavior and sneered. “You’ve already severed ties, yet you still want support payments? Even tigers and wolves cherish their young. Don’t you know how you’ve treated your own daughter all these years? Calling you beasts would be an insult to beasts.”
Humiliated in public, Ruan Xingyun couldn’t save face. He immediately pointed at Lin Zhihua and cursed, “You damn woman! Who gave you the right to lecture me? Did you bribe the judge? Otherwise, how the hell could I have lost this case?!”
“Say that one more damn time and see what happens.”
Fu Shengyan’s previously casual expression had turned ice-cold. He strode forward, his sharp gaze fixed on Ruan Xingyun like a blade.
“What’s it got to do with you? I—” Although Ruan Xingyun still sounded tough, his momentum had clearly weakened.
Fu Shengyan was well over 1.8 meters tall, nearly half a head taller than him.
“She’s my wife.”
Fu Shengyan let out a cold laugh, putting sudden emphasis on the final word. He grabbed Ruan Xingyun by the collar and looked down at him from above.
The courtroom erupted into commotion.
“What are you doing?” Only then did the bailiffs react, hurriedly stepping forward to pull the two apart.
Lin Zhihua’s heart instantly rose into her throat.
She could tell that Fu Shengyan was genuinely angry.
Just as she was about to stop him, Fu Shengyan released his grip. He slowly rolled his arm and smiled recklessly. “I heard him questioning the fairness of the trial and got a little emotional, that’s all.”
“Look, I didn’t hit him, right?” Fu Shengyan spread his hands. The coldness in his eyes had vanished completely, leaving behind an extremely innocent expression.
“Lawyer Fu, I hope this doesn’t happen again.” The court clerk pushed up his glasses. “Come sign the record.”
Ruan Xingyun collapsed into his chair, his gaze toward Fu Shengyan now carrying both fear and resentment.
The look in that man’s eyes just now definitely hadn’t been as simple as wanting to hit him.
One by one, they signed the court record.
Li Suhui’s fingers around the pen had turned slightly white. Her eyes stared blankly ahead, yet the pen still didn’t touch the paper.
“You can leave after signing, Ms. Li.”
Only after hearing the clerk’s reminder did she suddenly return to her senses.
“Ningning.” Li Suhui choked out her name.
As though she had suddenly realized something, she sprang to her feet, rushed to the door, and threw her arms around Ruan Wanning, crying loudly.
“Mom loves you. Mom really does love you. When you were little, Mom combed your hair every day and took you for walks in the park. It was just later… later…”
Ruan Wanning looked at Li Suhui with a complicated expression and said nothing.
She gently freed herself from the woman’s arms, then took the hand of the person beside her and left.
While the topic #Chu Yidan Buys Paid Commenters to Silence People# was still hanging on the trending list, an earth-shattering piece of gossip suddenly exploded out of nowhere.
Ruan Wanning’s own Weibo account suddenly posted a copy of the lawsuit, along with the court’s judgment.
—Holy crap, holy crap! Asked for proof and actually got it.
—I knew there would be a reversal!
—Here it comes! Time to slap certain anti-fans in the face.
—I don’t know what her fans are celebrating. Isn’t it already a confirmed fact that Ruan Wanning’s public persona collapsed?
After the fans’ comments, the rest of the comment section was basically filled with apologies and words of comfort from netizens, most of them from the same people who had followed the crowd and cursed her harshly before.
Now that the clarification had been released, all the accounts that had helped stir up the controversy became targets of public criticism.
No one had expected parents to favor sons over daughters to such an extreme degree. The netizens who had previously cursed Ruan Wanning now hated the Ruan family to the bone.
Several explosive trending topics appeared one after another, pushing the impact of the incident to its maximum.
—Is Ningning really their biological daughter?! They only cared about giving birth and not raising her? When will parents finally have to pass an exam before having children?!
—I apologize. I shouldn’t have cursed Ningning before.
—It’s not like the family was too poor to put food on the table, yet they made such a young child work part-time. These parents are worse than animals!
—Heh. Didn’t you see how well they raised her younger brother? He goes to a private school that costs seventy or eighty thousand a year, while our Ningning had such good grades and they wouldn’t even let her attend a public high school.
—My heart hurts for Ningning. Thank goodness she severed ties with them. Otherwise, this whole family would keep clinging to her and sucking her dry!
Someone even exposed photos of Ruan Juncai.
—This family lives in our residential compound. A few days ago, they were going around telling everyone their son was about to become a big celebrity. So this is how they planned to debut through negative publicity? (image.jpg)
—LMAO, Ruan Wanning’s younger brother goes to the same school as me. That 1.6-meter fat pig wants to become a celebrity? We absolutely have to boycott him!
—Boycott him together!
The most terrifying force in the entertainment industry wasn’t the fandoms of major celebrities, but genuine passersby like these.
Previously, the Ruan family had used these netizens as weapons. Now that the truth had been reversed, the sincerity with which they turned around and attacked the Ruan family was just as intense.
Before even debuting, Ruan Juncai had already become infamous. Because of the netizens’ boycott, his plan to enter the entertainment industry died before it could even begin. Starlight Entertainment also completely denied the existence of that contract.
Of course, all of that came later.
Fu Shengyan gave Ruan Wanning’s Weibo post a like, then returned his gaze to the documents on the desk waiting to be archived and sighed melancholically.
“Zhizhi, why are people so complicated?”
Lin Zhihua looked up from the documents and reached out to pat her husband’s head. “Even someone who has committed countless wrongs may have their dormant conscience stirred by a certain moment and finally break through the surface.”
“Li Suhui didn’t suddenly come to her senses. In her heart, the treasure she loves most has always been Ruan Juncai. As for Ruan Wanning… perhaps that was the last bit of conscience she had left as a mother.”
She bit her lip, then after thinking about it, still said, “You shouldn’t have been so impulsive in court today.”
“But he insulted you.” Fu Shengyan became extremely angry again just thinking about it. He snorted coldly. “If we hadn’t been inside the courthouse, I would’ve beaten his mouth bloody.”
“You said it yourself. We were inside a courthouse.” Lin Zhihua glanced at him. “There can’t be a next time.”
He nodded, somewhat unconvinced.
Ruan Wanning’s matter wasn’t over yet. She had still entrusted Fu Shengyan with the case regarding Ruan Xingyun’s extortion. Today, they had already transferred all the relevant evidence to the police and were only waiting for the results of the investigation.
After finishing today’s work, Lin Zhihua checked her phone.
Half an hour ago, Tang Yuan had sent her a message saying that Fu Shengyan should come to the hospital for a follow-up examination when he had time.
Only then did Lin Zhihua belatedly remember that Great Lawyer Fu was actually a patient who had just been in a car accident a few days ago.
Before he even had time to receive treatment these past two days, she had already force-fed him legal knowledge and dragged him all over the place.
Looking at Fu Shengyan hugging his phone and grinning foolishly, Lin Zhihua felt both guilty and annoyed with herself.
“Could studying have made him stupid? Would this affect his brain recovering its memories?”
Hearing Lin Zhihua’s voice, Fu Shengyan immediately looked up alertly. “Zhizhi, did you call me?”
Lin Zhihua raised an eyebrow. “Tang Yuan wants you to go back to the hospital for a follow-up. Shall we go tomorrow morning?”
“Okay.” Fu Shengyan nodded, then immediately returned his attention to his phone.
The room fell silent for a full three seconds.
Lin Zhihua instantly narrowed her eyes and turned to stare at him.
Fu Shengyan keenly sensed something. Trying far too hard to conceal it, he turned off his phone screen, then casually raised his head.
“What is it, Zhizhi?”
“What are you looking at?”
“Nothing. Just some ordinary photos.” Fu Shengyan casually spread his hands, attempting to deceive himself as well as everyone else.
A moment later, Lin Zhihua suddenly moved and snatched his phone away.
The camera recognized her face, and the screen automatically unlocked.
Fu Shengyan: “!”
Lin Zhihua opened the hidden album labeled Piggy Kitty.
The next second, a dense collection of photos appeared across the phone screen. The thumbnails weren’t very clear, but she could tell that most of them were portraits.
She could clearly feel the person behind her stop breathing.
Without hesitation, Lin Zhihua opened one of the photos.
An enlarged portrait suddenly appeared on the screen.
Under the sunlight, she stood on the stage in a white school uniform, her head held high and her posture straight, her gaze firm and bright.
Lin Zhihua recognized the scene.
It had been during the second semester of their senior year, when she had gone onstage as the student representative to give a speech at the hundred-day countdown rally for the college entrance examination.
It looked like a perfectly ordinary photo, but the timing of when it had been taken was subtle.
The rally had been held two months after Fu Shengyan lost his memory.
At the time, he had completely forgotten Lin Zhihua and, for a certain unspeakable reason, had even been extremely hostile toward her.
Lin Zhihua couldn’t help recalling what had happened back then.
Early in the morning on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Fu Shengyan had called and said he was coming to her house to celebrate his birthday.
But Lin Zhihua waited until nightfall and never saw him.
Only later did she find out that he had been hit by a tricycle and knocked into a ditch. He still hadn’t woken up.
His condition wasn’t serious.
He spent one night in the hospital and was full of energy again the next day.
Seeing that her son spoke clearly and ate heartily, Shen Weiwei didn’t take it seriously either. She told Lin Zhihua that there was no need to visit him and that studying was more important.
Lin Zhihua didn’t think much of it either.
It wasn’t until school started again that she realized something was wrong.
Fu Shengyan had actually knocked his brain broken.
“Whose desk is this? I don’t like sitting with other people.”
With a foul expression, Fu Shengyan moved Lin Zhihua’s desk beside the trash can, leaving everyone in the classroom stunned.
Lin Zhihua was furious. Right then and there, she packed up Fu Shengyan’s desk, chair, and books and threw them onto the podium.
That was how their feud began.
No matter how patiently everyone tried to persuade him afterward, Fu Shengyan stubbornly insisted that he hadn’t lost his memory and absolutely refused to go to the hospital.
His favorite activity every day was finding new ways to annoy Lin Zhihua.
Today, he would sarcastically criticize her hairstyle.
Tomorrow, he would pick apart the way she walked.
Lin Zhihua found him irritating, so every time she saw him, she took a detour.
Once he realized she was avoiding him, Fu Shengyan also angrily stopped paying attention to her.
By this point, the two of them should have been giving each other the silent treatment for half a month.
Lin Zhihua hadn’t expected him to not only secretly take photos of her, but also quietly keep them saved in his album all this time.
She became slightly lost in thought and couldn’t help letting her imagination wander.
If Fu Shengyan hadn’t forgotten her back then, would the person beside her now still have been him?
Fu Shengyan slowly shifted closer to her.
His breathing was heavy and rapid, making it obvious that he was nervous.
When she couldn’t help letting out a soft laugh, Fu Shengyan finally breathed a sigh of relief and wrapped an arm around her waist, half pulling her into his embrace.
With a gentle swipe of her finger, a photo of Lin Zhihua rolling her eyes suddenly appeared on the screen.
Lin Zhihua: “……”
Fu Shengyan: “!!”
He immediately raised both hands to prove his innocence. “I didn’t take that! The fake Fu Shengyan did! And he was the one who put it in the private album too.”
“Oh?” Lin Zhihua maintained her smile while reaching out and fiercely pinching his waist. “What, do you think you’re acting in Journey to the West? Now you’ve even created a fake Fu Shengyan?”
“He was fake to begin with. How could the real me possibly forget you?” Fu Shengyan declared righteously. “I would never take ugly photos of you, much less secretly save them like some creep.”
Lin Zhihua was so angry at his argument about the real and fake Fu Shengyan that she laughed.
“Then may I ask the real Great Lawyer Fu, why didn’t you delete this photo immediately when you saw it?”
Fu Shengyan froze.
Because the little expression his wife made when rolling her eyes was genuinely adorable.
“And this name.” Lin Zhihua raised an eyebrow. “You’ve gotten pretty bold, huh? So you’ve secretly been calling me Piggy Kitty all this time. What, because I’m lazy and eat a lot?”
“Um, listen to me…” The real Fu Shengyan, unable to explain himself, pitifully moved closer and began spouting nonsense. “This is all part of fake Fu Shengyan’s scheme to drive a wedge between us.”
“Is that so? Then he succeeded.”
Lin Zhihua coldly pushed his face away, took her spoils of war, and mercilessly shut the master bedroom door.
Fu Shengyan: “……”
Where was his phone?
Piggy Kitty wasn’t going to delete all his photos, was she?!
Two hours later, the tablet on the coffee table chimed.
His beloved wife, whom he had specially followed, had posted a new update.
Fu Shengyan eagerly opened it.
Lin Zhihua had posted a nine-photo grid with the understated caption—
“Found a limited-edition version of myself on someone’s phone.”