A minute to the start of trial, Judge Xue Zihao strode in along with six other Judges to the courtroom, one of the uniformed officers reached out to firmly shut the doors leading to the courtroom, while the remaining eight officers in the room called out in a loud voice, "All rise!"On hearing the call, everyone rose to their feet as the Judges made their way to the head of the platform, a high bench and extended table of dark brown st.u.r.dy wood.
Only when the Judges had taken their seat, did the officers call out again, saying, "Please be seated!"
In the turn, they all lowered themselves back to their respective seats.
Judge Xue Zihao, a man in flowing dark purple robe in his early sixties and of small stature with unremarkable looks, whose graying hair was bald at the middle, one would not call him overweight but neither would he be said to be in good shape, as he could move with ease and agility on his somewhat short feet and plump body. The rest of the Judges stood tall over him, they were roughly nine years his junior in age, as for experience the difference wasn"t that far apart. The Judges all had on the same flowing deep purple robe, that overshadowed the clothing they had underneath the robe .
They all stared at the people gathered in the room from dark solemn eyes, as the officers stood strategically at various points in the courtroom.
In a dignified voice, Judge Xue called for the lawyer from the defense and plaintiff to bring forth their evidence for his perusal. They both got up almost at the same time to give the judge what he had requested.
In no rush whatsoever, the Judge went through the doc.u.ments, his eyes ran through them methodically, before handling them to the other Judges to view.
After taking a brief moment to clear his throat, only then did he say what he had in mind.
"Lawyer for the plaintiff, please step forward and present your case."
Zhou Yunxiang in a corporate black suit and silver tie, rose up from where he sat to represent his client. He told the court that Zhang Tianyu had to rescue the company that his client"s deceased brother established. Letting the court also know that the parents of his client and deceased brother were well off, before the company went bankrupt which led to them committing suicide from the shock and public disgrace that came shortly after the announcement by the press.
Zhang Mi had prior knowledge that her father was the founder of Zhang Corporation, she knew both grandparents died and had heard rumors that it wasn"t from natural cause, hearing the lawyer of her uncle talk about them in a monotonous voice lacking in empathy, made the young woman to shrivel up inside. It was a topic that her parents never wanted to discuss with her and hearing it in court made her understand why they chose not to elaborate on the matter. Zhou Yunxiang ended by saying, "My client has always looked out for his niece and never at anytime showed discontent towards Miss Zhang. He was a parent to Miss Zhang and made sure her time as President of Zhang Corporation went by smoothly, my client had no choice but to take over for fear his niece will rundown the company his beloved brother slaved for all his life, that is why my client had to take legal actions against Miss Zhang!"
The Judges listened with rapt attention, as the lawyer presented his case, pausing only to take notes along the way. Zhou Yunxiang took a seat after concluding his case.
The Judge then asked Zhang Tianyu what his relations.h.i.+p was with the former heiress of Zhang Corporation, to which he basically said what the lawyer had previously described, that he was a role model to his orphaned niece and was a mentor during her struggles to gain hold on the company her father left behind. Expressively letting the whole court know that he harbored no ill will towards her and his only bone of contention was not watching her ruin everything that had taken years in the making, his crime was just seeking legal action to salvage the leftovers from her greedy when she was found to have embezzlement money from Zhang Corporation.
They all listened attentively to the pa.s.sionate tone of Zhang Tianyu, his breaking voice during his testimony served to further stir the sympathy of the court towards his plight in the hands of the "ingrate" that was his niece.
The heiress of Zhang Corporation marveled at how well her uncle acted in front of everyone, if it hadn"t sunk into her head that he was that devious, seeing the play he was orchestrating at the courtroom jarred her from the complacency that a part of her heart truly wanted to believe, that he was going to change and beg her forgiveness for being temporarily blinded by envy towards her inheritance and leaders.h.i.+p of the company.
Such naive thought was seen already by Tao Jun, it took a fresh act from her uncle to wake Zhang Mi up. Her body began trembling from the sudden realization that her uncle was not going to change, but instead will become worse than he already was. While the thought filtered through her mind, the heiress of Zhang Corporation, clenched her fingers underneath the table, refusing to admit defeat, as what she witnessed, p.r.i.c.ked her already bleeding heart.
The Prosecutor was asked by the Presiding Judge if he had any questions for the plaintiff, to which Prosecutor Yu told the Judge that there was nothing to question Zhang Tianyu and his lawyer about. The fiery look on his face was clear for all to see, that the prosecutor was here solely to get the heiress of Zhang Corporation behind bars. Firm in his conviction that she was guilty, even if there was evidence to prove otherwise. That left the Judge with the decision to move on to the defense.
"Can the lawyer for the defendant come forward?"
Tao Jun was dressed somberly in black business skirt suit and dark heels, her hair was held in a bun and her face had a light makeup with plain discrete gold looped earrings on both ears, she had on clear nail polish on her fingers, as she rose from where she sat by Zhang Mi.
The call from Judge Xue was promptly answered, but before completely leaving where she was, Tao Jun whispered to Zhang Mi not to forget the hand signals they went through when she first got in to the courtroom. The heiress of Zhang Corporation nodded in agreement, as she watched the lawyer make her way to face the court and Judges.