During the inquest before the court hearing, Fu Fusheng had given a completely contradictory response: he had s.h.i.+fted all the blame to Liu Yi, drawing a line between them and painting himself as the victim at the same time.Odd Zhuo later felt that Fu Fusheng had probably done this mainly to absolve himself of criminal charges. Now that the situation had developed to this extent, whether Raven Studio could continue to operate or not was now in question. Given that it was on the cusp of becoming listed, Fu Fusheng absolutely wasn"t willing for his efforts to go to waste just like that.
The prestige and wealth that he had acc.u.mulated over the last three years in the magic treasure design industry might come to nothing in the wake of this trial. Thus, he was scared.
Looking at the current situation, paying for damages wasn"t a big deal for him, as the money could be earned back. However, he absolutely couldn"t have a criminal record. Submitting someone else"s work in a compet.i.tion and flaunting it as your own creation was a type of academic plagiarism.
After the incident with the earliest plagiarist in academia, Doctor Zhai, Huaxiu Alliance immediately issued new laws and regulations to rectify and prevent large-scale academic plagiarism, the heaviest sentence for which was over thirty years in prison, a fine of five hundred thousand HNY, and being stripped of all academic qualifications and achievements.
Fu Fusheng was so scared that he would spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Since he had the guts to say these words to the judges, he was definitely self-confident. Long before the court hearing, he had already learned that basically everyone related to the plagiarism case back then was dead. Without any witnesses, Fu Fusheng appeared very confident.
Chief Judge Liang Xin looked right into Fu Fusheng"s eyes; as an experienced judge, he could determine whether a person was lying or not just from the expression in their eyes.
Unfortunately, this was a court of law in the cultivation world, where every word and every action had to be based on evidence; saying "Your eyes look like those of a murderer" alone wasn"t enough to convict someone.
This was an extremely high profile case, and at the same time, it was extremely difficult to extract a guilty confession. Furthermore, some of the people involved were no longer alive. Without any evidence, Fu Fusheng as the defendant would certainly evade responsibility. Chief Judge Liang Xin had already expected all of this, but who would have thought that Fu Fusheng would be so resolute without leaving himself even the slightest leeway.
But as the chief judge, Liang Xin wasn"t affected by Fu Fusheng. His expression still as unruffled as an ancient well, he turned to look at the prosecution. Since the prosecution had pressed public charges, they definitely must have found evidence.
"Prosecution, please proceed." Liang Xin raised his hand to indicate that the prosecution was allowed to present their case.
Fu Fusheng"s lawyer was called Wu Yuanji, and one of the few formidable lawyers which Songhai city had. Furthermore, all judges found this person very hard to deal with. He would take on defense cases, and was single-minded in showcasing his might. Thus, he would only help defend a person"s "innocence"; to back up his argument, he was very good at finding points of doubt and loopholes in a case, taking every opportunity to create evidence in favor of the defendant.
Since Fu Fusheng"s defense lawyer this time was Wu Yuanji, Gao Tian felt that things had become slightly problematic.
"Is there something wrong with this person?" Little Silver asked quietly.
"He"s called Wu Yuanji; he"s very good at sophistry and can fake evidence without giving himself away – he"s a very tricky lawyer. He"s defended over one hundred cases, and they were all acquittals – so far, he"s only lost one case."
"What case was it?" Little Silver became curious.
Gao Tian said, "There was a family where the wife cheated on and cuckolded her husband, who killed his wife"s lover. He was later charged with first degree murder, but because of Wu Yuanji, he was ultimately released due to insufficient evidence. In the end, when the man was released, he killed his wife."
Little Silver and Odd Zhuo: "…"
As Gao Tian and all the judges on the panel expected, Fu Fusheng was much more composed than anyone could imagine, probably because of Wu Yuanji"s presence. He was so unperturbed it was astonis.h.i.+ng.
Even more than that, Wu Yuanji didn"t think much of this case at all.
He sat calmly with his legs crossed on the defense side. Such a frivolous att.i.tude hinted at disrespect toward the court, which was also the reason why judges didn"t like him. But this guy was a notorious legend in the lawyers" circle.
This was because this person dared to take on any case, and even defended murderers.
It was just that Wu Yuanji never expected that in the only lawsuit he lost, his client would be crazy enough to go and kill his own wife after being acquitted. That was when Wu Yuanji had been given the t.i.tle "demon"s lawyer," meaning the lawyer who defended demons.
But Wu Yuanji didn"t think it was important what the world called him. The most important thing was that he thought he was very capable; in the lawyers" circle at least, he didn"t think there was anyone who was his match. Furthermore, he didn"t take on cases for the costly lawyer fees.
What he liked to do most was challenge himself.
The more difficult a case was, the bigger the indescribable thrill he got after his client was p.r.o.nounced "not guilty."
Was this abnormal?
Maybe there really was something wrong with Wu Yuanji"s head, but he was extremely pleased with the t.i.tle "demon lawyer."
As long as he took on a defense case, it would definitely end in an acquittal.
What was the most important thing in a court of law? Wu Yuanji laughed every time he thought about it.
That was right, the most important thing was evidence.
But what if there wasn"t any evidence?
If there was no evidence, then it was useless to press charges.
Hence, long before things developed, Wu Yuanji had already disposed of the final person, Liu Yi – he was sure it had been flawless and without the slightest error.
That was right, it was Wu Yuanji who killed Liu Yi – but Liu Yi was the only one he murdered. As for the others who had died before Liu Yi, it wasn"t Wu Yuanji who did it; he had just copied that person"s MO and gotten rid of Liu Yi without leaving any evidence behind, and all the unfavorable evidence now pointed to Father Zheng.
Liu Yi was dead.
What other ruling could there be for this case? What new evidence could the prosecution bring to the table?
He smirked.
It was at that moment that Gao Tian stood up. He turned to Chief Judge Liang Xin and all the members of the jury, and gave them a deep bow. "Chief Judge Liang Xin, members of the jury: I now call a new witness to the stand!"
At these words, everyone present was utterly shocked.
There was actually another witness?Refers to PhD holder and actor Zhai Tianlin, who was accused of plagiarising another journal article for his own paper.