Years later, X University once again became the talk of the entire internet.
The Huang family had spent a fortune trying to suppress the news trend, but unfortunately, the money dropped yielded zero results.
Clearly, someone behind the scenes was pulling the exact same maneuvers against them.
Madam Huang felt a sharp pain in her chest. “It has to be the Guan family! Picking a fight with our Huang family over a complete nobody, are they out of their minds?” She now loathed the meddling Guan clan with a passion.
“Let them meddle,” Mr. Huang muttered, his expression grim yet far steadier than his wife’s. “No matter how big the noise gets, what good is having top-tier lawyers? Don’t forget our Linzhi has a get-out-of-jail-free card. Once the storm passes, this will all blow over.”
Wasn’t that precisely how things had been handled right after Zheng Ze’s death?
Although this time, Jin Yan’s family was backed by the Guan Group’s elite legal team, successfully indicting Huang Linzhi and leaving him in a heavily disadvantaged position, the defense played its trump card:
“My client suffers from a psychiatric disorder and was experiencing an active episode at the time, rendering him completely incapable of recognizing or controlling his actions. According to our nation’s legal provisions, he bears no criminal liability. Here is my client’s medical evaluation report.”
The Huang family’s attorney submitted Huang Linzhi’s psychiatric assessment to the court, while the Huang couple looked smugly toward Jin Yan and Guan Hongyu’s mother, who sat in the gallery observing.
Look at that. No matter how much you thrash about, the ending is always the same.
Years ago, whenever Jin Yan’s family sued Huang Linzhi, the cases were invariably dismissed under the psychiatric exemption clause, allowing him to walk free.
Facing the Guan family’s legal powerhouse this time, the Huangs had intentionally exaggerated the severity of Huang Linzhi’s psychiatric profile in his medical records just to be safe.
Yet, unexpectedly, Jin Yan’s family didn’t react with the furious outbursts that nearly got them thrown out of court years prior; instead, they remained utterly serene, as if they had anticipated this exact play.
Guan Hongyu’s mother, sitting among the observers, remained equally unruffled. Whether she possessed absolute faith in her family’s legal team or simply didn’t care about the verdict was impossible to tell.
Su Youqi even flashed them a faint smile.
A creeping sense of unease flickered within the Huang couple as they watched their reactions, stirring an ominous premonition in their chests.
They weren’t given much time to dwell on it, however.
Due to the intense public interest surrounding the case, the trial moved at maximum speed, and Huang Linzhi’s psychiatric report was verified in short order.
The evaluation indeed confirmed a condition that exempted him from criminal liability.
We’ve won!
Pushing aside that lingering sense of foreboding, the Huang couple prepared to claim their impending victory.
What they never anticipated was that the opposing legal team wouldn’t waste a single breath arguing over criminal liability. Instead, the lawyer pivoted mid-argument:
“According to our nation’s criminal code, when a mentally ill person causes harmful consequences while unable to recognize or control their actions, and it is verified through statutory procedures, they bear no criminal liability, but their family members or guardians shall be ordered to strictly confine and treat them; in cases of necessity, the government shall enforce compulsory medical treatment.
“Clearly, given Huang Linzhi’s current medical condition, he meets the exact criteria for government-mandated compulsory psychiatric treatment…”
The Huang family had never imagined that the Guan family’s legal strategy wasn’t focused on securing a criminal conviction, but rather on packing Huang Linzhi off to a mandatory asylum.
Their own defense counsel had been entirely preoccupied with leveraging the psychiatric clause for a total acquittal, giving zero thought to the prospect of compulsory medical treatment.
Consequently, the Huang family’s lawyers found themselves severely disadvantaged, dragged along helplessly by the opposing counsel’s well-prepared offensive.
Securing a criminal conviction for Huang Linzhi would have been difficult, but locking him up in a medical facility was surprisingly straightforward.
Especially since the Huangs had cleverly tried to exaggerate his illness in the medical reports earlier.
Ultimately, the court ruled that Huang Linzhi be transferred to a renowned psychiatric hospital for compulsory treatment.
This outcome completely shattered the Huang family’s initial strategy of sneaking Huang Linzhi back abroad or paying off a connected private asylum to stage a superficial confinement.
Yet they were entirely powerless to change it. They certainly couldn’t stand up in court and expose their own medical report as a complete fabrication without facing severe perjury charges.
Huang Linzhi never imagined such a verdict either, frantically urging his parents to pull every string they had.
He refused to rot in a psychiatric ward surrounded by genuinely unhinged people!
Under intense public scrutiny from internet opinion, the execution of the sentence moved at blinding speed. Despite his desperate resistance, Huang Linzhi was dragged away to the asylum.
Before stepping through the doors, he flew into a raging fury directed at his parents, lashing out so viciously that Mr. Huang, exhausted from running around and absorbing insults on his behalf, turned around and stormed off in disgust.
Madam Huang felt a pang of maternal sympathy, but with her husband—who recently acquired a new romantic interest—ignoring her completely, her hands were tied.
“Useless! You’re all useless! You can’t even handle a single ordinary person!” Huang Linzhi roared in his empty room.
“Don’t be so angry. We’ve barely even started,” Su Youqi appeared with a smile. “I knew you wouldn’t settle down quietly, so I specifically picked out the finest psychiatric facility for you. The environment and medical resources are top-tier—no need to thank me!”
Huang Linzhi snapped in blind rage, “You manipulated this behind the scenes!”
“I didn’t do anything of the sort.” Su Youqi wagged his index finger, leaned close to Huang Linzhi, and murmured, “Though a ghost might start handling you very shortly. I’m here today to deliver your final parting gift. Really, don’t mention it.”
Su Youqi stepped back and casually snapped his fingers. Zheng Ze materialized right before Huang Linzhi’s eyes.
Since Huang Linzhi refused to accept the judgment of human law, he could now accept the judgment of his victim.
Back when he was detained, every single protective talisman on Huang Linzhi had been thoroughly stripped away. Stripped of all spiritual defense, he stood before Zheng Ze like a pristine little lamb waiting for the slaughter.
Zheng Ze drifted right up to Huang Linzhi, cracked a wide, chilling grin, and whispered, “I gave you a chance.”
But you chose not to cherish it.
With that, Zheng Ze dropped his disguise.
The horrifying, bloody spectacle of Zheng Ze’s fatal plunge replayed vividly before Huang Linzhi’s eyes.
Huang Linzhi let out a piercing shriek on the spot. “Ahhhh! There’s a ghost! A ghost! Ghost!”
The terrifying sensation of nearly being strangled to death by Zheng Ze rushed back into his mind with crystal clarity. Without any protective talismans left, how could Huang Linzhi dare let Zheng Ze follow him into the psychiatric hospital? In a place like that, his cries to heaven would go unanswered and his pleas to earth would find no response. He lunged forward to grab the guards escorting him, shouting frantically, “I won’t go in! There are ghosts! Make my parents bring an expert to banish it, or I’m not stepping foot in there!”
The guards, completely blind to Zheng Ze’s soul, exchanged glances. As expected, he’s a genuine lunatic seeing ghosts in broad daylight.
Sensing the guards’ disbelief, Huang Linzhi pointed straight at Su Youqi. “He brought the ghost here! He’s a celestial master, he can control spirits!”
Su Youqi promptly widened his eyes, meeting the guards’ gaze with an expression of pure, innocent bewilderment.
Right on cue, the hospital intake personnel arrived. Accustomed to dealing with difficult patients, the medical staff smoothly humored Huang Linzhi, coaxed him across the threshold, and slammed the heavy ward doors shut behind him.
The hospital worker handling the handover with the guards remarked with casual indifference, “You get used to it after seeing enough of them. His case is pretty basic. We’ve had patients claim they saw angels or dragons, and others who insisted we were a pack of alien monsters.”
With Zheng Ze’s assistance, the formerly sound-minded Huang Linzhi was systematically driven into genuine madness, condemned to spend the remainder of his days locked inside a psychiatric ward.
Seeing the situation, Mr. Huang simply washed his hands of the matter entirely; after all, he still had other children.
Madam Huang felt a lingering desire to intervene, but with her philandering husband ignoring her completely, her hands were tied.
Attempting to fake mental illness to evade justice only resulted in becoming truly insane—a fitting definition of reaping what one sows.
Now flush with cash, Su Youqi made another trip to the Zhou Family Spirit Shop, dropping a small fortune to secure a pristine new dwelling for Nan Ke.
Su Youqi beckoned to Nan Ke. “Come on, Boss. This jade Buddha is infinitely more comfortable. You can anchor yourself inside and still watch the outside world through it. Plus, this piece looks like it was kept in a temple shrine for years—the ambient incense energy is exceptionally dense, perfect for nourishing your wandering soul.”
“Thank you.” Nan Ke drifted inside to test out his new home. The spiritual space was clear, bright, and infinitely superior to the pitch-black prayer beads he had occupied before.
“Don’t mention it, I’m just spending the betrothal gifts your family gave me anyway,” Su Youqi replied. “Though I should thank your family on behalf of Zheng Ze and Jin Yan’s household. If Auntie hadn’t stepped in behind the scenes to mobilize media contacts and lean on the asylum’s administration, things wouldn’t have gone quite so smoothly.”
While the Guan family had intervened, their motivations were split between pursuing justice and protecting a peer, meaning the resources and effort they deployed were fundamentally limited. That gap alone wouldn’t have bridged the financial and institutional power discrepancies between the two families. Relying solely on the Guan family’s backing would have made this frictionless victory nearly impossible.
Adding Qin Shuya into the equation, however, changed the game entirely.
Her status introduced an absolute paradigm shift. A single word from Qin Shuya effectively blocked every single exit route the Huang family attempted to take.
No matter how many millions the Huang family poured into the fire, it sank without a trace, failing to kick up even a single ripple.
Crucially, Qin Shuya had operated entirely in the shadows without ever approaching Su Youqi to claim credit.
The Guan family, initially bewildered by the sudden wave of inexplicable goodwill directed their way, managed to sniff out faint whispers of information, which Guan Hongyu casually passed along to Su Youqi during a chat—otherwise, he would never have known. After all, everyone initially assumed the Guan clan was pulling all the strings.
Of course, the Guan family remained oblivious to Su Youqi’s true relationship with the Nan family, simply assuming the Nans shared their overflowing sense of justice and shared an identical disdain for the Huang clan’s bully tactics.
That was when Su Youqi finally understood why Qin Shuya had explicitly promised that the Nan family would back him up.
Since the Nan family had already investigated Huang Linzhi’s actions, how could they possibly have missed investigating Su Youqi’s background—including his harassment at university and the systemic abuse he endured back at the Su household?
Su Youqi felt no resentment toward the Nan family for running a background check. He had already moved into the main estate, so conducting routine inquiries was standard procedure; not checking would have been the abnormal response.
And the fact that Qin Shuya kept quiet while quietly extending a helping hand left an overwhelmingly positive impression on Su Youqi.
“Just a minor gesture,” Nan Ke’s gaze cooled slightly. “If we hadn’t crossed paths with it, it’s one thing, but running right into our territory…”
Su Youqi nodded in full agreement.
He shared that exact philosophy.
He wasn’t some self-appointed global crusader roaming the earth to enforce universal justice, but whenever injustice crossed paths with his hands, he would happily manage it within the limits of his capacity.