At around ten in the morning, a sea of reporters formed in front of YuShan High court, making it a struggle for others to get in, they began interviewing everyone of interest with the exception of the Judges and Prosecutor Yu, who went by in a hurry. Ding Bohai and Hong Ruolan stood outside the courtroom, explaining to the reporters that they will be representing the Zhang heiress. This was followed by a torrent of questions, which was mostly answered vaguely by Ding Bohai.There came questions directly aimed at the heiress to Hongsheng Holdings, regarding her motive for stepping in. It took sheer willpower to expertly handled each of them while keeping her composure.
On another end was Duan Feng and Huang Zilin, a slew of questions was thrown at them, leaving little room to answer them all. It mainly centered on his relations.h.i.+p with Zhang Mi and his thoughts on what the outcome of the trial will be. Both Duan Feng and his girlfriend put on a show of togetherness in letting the press know that their love for each other will overcome the court battle with the Zhang heiress.
When someone shouted that the President of Zhang Corporation had arrived, majority of the reporters ran to meet him, bombarding Zhang Tianyu with so many questions all at once, the mic they had was practically jammed at his face. Fortunately for him, Zhang Tianyu had brought some of his men with him, in case an event like this occurred. All dressed in corporate black with an earpiece in their ears, with one of them supposedly the head of the team barking orders for the rest to escort Zhang Tianyu safely into the courtroom.
No matter what the press did to get closer to the President of Zhang Corporation, his security team formed a protective circle around him, pus.h.i.+ng against the obstacles they met in form of rabid reporters. It took but a few minutes to get Zhang Tianyu into the courtroom where the fate of his niece would be determined.
Almost thirty minutes to the start of court proceedings, a group of policemen walked out from one of the doors leading to the court guard room.
When the press saw that the police had finally shown themselves, that was when they knew that it was almost time for the hearing to commence.
A couple of police men entered into the courtroom to begin body search, this was to prevent what had taken place the last time the Zhang heiress was in court.
The remaining stood in front of the huge door that led into the courtroom, in their hands was electronic scanners to detect any hidden weapon or metallic devices that could serve as weapons.
They began checking everyone that walked in, including the ones that were interviewed by the press. The lawyer of Zhang Corporation arrived shortly afterwards and chose not to give an interview with the reporters.
Everyone that walked through the door was subjected to ID check, body search and body scan. With no exceptions whatsoever.
The shuttle bus conveying the Zhang heiress arrived with five male guards standing closely by her. Handcuffed and barefoot in prison uniform, she walked into the courtroom pushed from all sides by the crowd of press, who kept throwing questions at her with no response coming from her end. At one time, she felt as if someone hit the back of her head with a mic, but she kept moving on, swallowing the hara.s.sment and humiliation.
The hearing was opened to the public, this meant that anyone could come in, as long as they kept to the code of conduct at the court. All phones and electronic devices had to be turned off, no recording in any shape or form of anything that took place in the walls of the courtroom. Cameras inside the courtroom recorded everything that took place, therefore anyone caught breaking the law was subjected to a hefty fine and in certain cases imprisoned for a number of years.
Lu Yi arrived very early and almost narrowly missed getting a seat to sit on, he had a straight flight, but there wasn"t much time left to shower and change in the hotel suite he rented on arrival. The cab that dropped him could not get close enough to the main entrance of the court building, it seemed the public was very much interested in the case, after fighting through the growing crowd of people that came to witness the hearing, he also had to push his way against the army of reporters.
When he saw Zhang Mi walk in, Lu Yi waved at her, but she didn"t see him, because of the guards around her, this left him with no choice but to call her by the name her parents affectionately called her by.
"ZiZi!!!!!"
When others referred to her as Zhang Mi, Mi Mi, Miss Zhang, Little Zhang when they were growing up. Lu Yi for no reason preferred to call her ZiZi, without realizing that his action that day had set into motion something that the Zhang heiress held onto very dearly.
When Zhang Mi heard a male voice call out to her, she suddenly went back to the time when her family was still together, before death separated them. The Zhang heiress stopped to turn in the direction of where she heard the voice. Her eyes widened in shock, even though several years had gone by, the young man still bore traces of the boy she once knew. It took a few seconds for her to clamp her mouth shut, which involuntarily flew open on seeing Lu Yi.
The guards noticed she was no longer moving and retaliated by forcefully pus.h.i.+ng her forward. This seemed to bring Zhang Mi back to earth, her shocked expression was replaced by one of helplessness, as she jerked her head back to resume her walk to the front, where the judgement regarding her case was to be pa.s.sed. A pained look came over the face of Lu Yi as he watched Zhang Mi manhandled by the prison guards.
A few steps forward and her movement was halted by Yang Lin and the lawyer that he brought with him. He tried to halt her movements again, but the Zhang heiress was having none of that, despite being handcuffed. Zhang Mi reached out and swung against his face. Yang Lin wasn"t expecting this and staggered backward from the force of the hit. This did not go unnoticed as the guards tried to hold her back, grabbing her firmly by the arms while she fought their hold on her, as she screamed in frustration from not being allowed to get back at the person that shameless stood in front of her after betraying her trust.
At first, Zhang Tianyu did not know what to make of what was going on, he thought it strange that Yang Lin would still want to have contact with his niece, now that she knew of his ident.i.ty. His eyes narrowed as he watched the scene that was playing out in front of him.
While all this was taking place, Duan Feng got up from where he sat alongside his girlfriend, ignoring when she asked where he was going to. He wanted to show that he still had the upper hand in the case.
On getting close enough to where the Zhang heiress stood, with a pleasant smile on his face, Duan Feng stretched out a hand in greeting towards her. The guards slowly relaxed their hold on Zhang Mi and thought it was alright for them to shake hands, since the person offering the handshake did not appear to have ill intentions.
The "solicitous act" was not lost on the Zhang heiress, she knew it was his way of wanting to belittle her in the presence of others. Enraged that he could even dare to pull such a cheap trick at her, without thinking of the consequences of her action, Zhang Mi raised a leg to deliver a hard kick to his groin.
The unexpected turn of event landed Duan Feng on the floor with the rest of the courtroom staring stupidly with their mouths hanging open at the shocking display by the Zhang heiress. Meanwhile, the Judges were in the inner room conversing, unaware of the madness that was going on in the courtroom.