Chapter 256: Jiang Lai Submits New Evidence

A single sentence struck Lin Shutong and Shen Xun speechless in an instant, their faces turning from white to ashen.

Meng Lü: "Our side has an investment contract, sufficient to prove this is a cooperative relationship, not a gift."

Zhong Poqian gave a light laugh and cross-examined in court: "The so-called investment contract presented by the defendant has no project initiation documents, no scientific research achievement reports, no fund usage breakdowns, no dividend records — it is entirely a fake contract signed after the fact. The so-called 'research fees' are a fixed monthly amount with zero investment risk; in essence, they are gratuitous transfers based on an improper relationship."

The judge's sharp gaze swept across Lin Shutong and Shen Xun's faces as he asked whether there were project initiation documents, scientific research achievement reports, fund usage breakdowns, and so forth.

Lin Shutong could only produce one research project report and four published papers — one in a top-tier journal, three in ordinary SCI journals.

Publishing four papers in four years is a normal level, yet it was at this very level that she entered a national-level project.

Even now, thinking back on it makes people in the field find it laughable.

The evidence Meng Lü submitted was insufficient — it would have been good to have fund usage breakdowns, but Lin Shutong had never produced them.

Just then, Jiang Lai said, "Presiding Judge, I wish to submit new evidence."

As soon as her words fell, everyone was stunned.

Lin Shutong and Shen Xun looked at Jiang Lai in shock and bewilderment — the evidence was already this thorough, how could there still be new evidence!

What evidence?

Shen Xun was bewildered.

Lin Shutong was also dumbfounded.

In the entire courtroom, only Jiang Lai, Ke Zhongyu, Zhong Poqian, and Assistant Zhou revealed a trace of relaxed triumph.

Ke Zhongyu leaned slightly back in his seat, and even while seated, his imperious gaze still swept across the courtroom.

Ke Zhongying asked curiously, "Brother, what is it?"

On the day Assistant Zhou returned from investigating abroad, Ke Zhongying had not been at the Ke Clan, so she was unclear about it.

Ke Zhongyu glanced at his sister from the corner of his eye and said with casual indifference, "Just listen."

Ke Zhongying turned back to look at the courtroom, staring without blinking.

Everyone was staring at the new evidence being handed over by Zhong Poqian — it was very thick. What on earth was it?

Relying on a lawyer's keen instinct, Meng Lü had already begun to break out in a cold sweat. This was very likely to be crushing evidence.

After the evidence was submitted, before it was immediately projected onto the screen, Jiang Lai asked Lin Shutong one more question: "Are you certain that the one hundred and twenty million Shen Xun gave you was entirely used for scientific research?"

All the color drained from Lin Shutong's face; even the carefully applied blush could no longer conceal it.

She shook her head slightly, instinctively feeling it was impossible.

How could it be?

How could it...

The screen displayed footage of Lin Shutong entering and exiting high-end restaurants and hotels, attending various cocktail parties and banquets, dressed in haute couture, adorned with expensive jewelry and bags.

A life of extravagance and debauchery — she could even be said to be flanked by paramours on both sides.

She bore no resemblance to a scientific researcher; she was the very picture of a young heiress who knew nothing but how to squander.

But where was the Lin family wealthy?

The Ji Family was not a prominent clan either.

Lin Shutong, in her high heels, nearly lost her footing and almost collapsed to the ground. She forced herself to say, "Photoshopped — photoshopped, fake, it's all fake..."

The evidence on the screen continued to play: she lived in a high-end apartment in a prime location, leased luxury cars worth several million... all manner of receipts and invoices, as densely packed as falling snow.

The entire courtroom erupted in uproar.

Lin Shutong was completely panicked, yet Zhong Poqian gave her no chance to interject.

With Zhong Poqian taking the field, he went all out, his tone calm and sharp: "Presiding Judge, our side has conducted a special audit of the household income and expenditures of Defendant One, Lin Shutong. Based on the occupational income, fixed salaries, and lawful personal assets of Defendant One's parents and Mr. Ji Lao, we can definitively rule out the possibility that the large expenditures in this case originated from financial support by the elders of either party."

"Based on this calculation, of the so-called 'research fees' that Defendant Two, Shen Xun, transferred over a long period, a full two-thirds of the funds precisely correspond to and completely cover all of Defendant One Lin Shutong's large personal consumption expenditures during her time abroad."

"This objective data is sufficient to prove that the funds in question were not used for scientific research investment but were directly used for Defendant One's personal living expenses — in essence, gratuitous transfers."

A glint of sharp light flashed through Zhong Poqian's eyes, a look of imminent victory on his face as he turned the question back on Lin Shutong: "Defendant One repeatedly claims that this money was used for research funding, yet the reality shows a significant discrepancy — does this constitute fraud against Defendant Two and his lawful wife?"

Meng Lü's scalp went instantly numb.

This time they had truly hit a brick wall.

Regardless of whether Lin Shutong had fully disclosed the breakdown of these research funds, given the sufficiently detailed evidence the opposing side had uncovered, their probability of winning was vanishingly small.

Meng Lü was speechless.

Lin Shutong looked at Shen Xun in panic and explained, "A-Xun, it's not like this, it isn't..."

Her explanation looked so pale and powerless.

Shen Xun, as though drained of all strength, slumped down, his gaze toward Lin Shutong already so complicated that he did not know how to express it.

Anger, fury, collapse, disbelief... none of these were sufficient to express it.

He could not find the words, could not even pinpoint his own feelings at this moment — he only knew that the blood throughout his body seemed to have congealed, his heart could no longer pump, and his brain was beginning to go numb and ache.

He felt as though something was squeezing him, squeezing relentlessly, about to crush him flat.

All these years, the money he had sent to Lin Shutong — only a portion went toward research; the greater part was spent on packaging herself, mingling in high society abroad, and carrying on ambiguous affairs with all sorts of men...

For the sake of a woman like this, he had perfunctorily neglected the wife who attentively cared for him for four years.

For the sake of a woman like this, he had wronged Jiang Lai for four years.

For the sake of a woman like this, he had destroyed his own reputation and was left penniless, reduced to selling off all his assets just to pay for his mother's surgery.

Shen Xun buried his face in his hands in collapse and let out a low, guttural roar in the courtroom.

Jiang Lai saw the veins bulging repeatedly on his neck; when he released his hands, the remorse and pain in his eyes spread through his eye sockets along with the bloodshot redness.

She looked away.

Lin Shutong reached out to steady Shen Xun, but was shoved away by him, and she fell onto the cold floor.

Lin Shutong's face was covered in tears; when she looked up, she saw her parents and grandfather sitting there, all staring at her with gazes of anger and despair.

Pitch black.

Lin Shutong wanted to explain something, but suddenly saw her maternal grandfather stand up, pointing at her, his whole body trembling.

If they hadn't been in a courtroom with people holding him back, her grandfather would certainly have come down and slapped her hard across the face twice.

Lin Shutong wanted to call out to her grandfather—just like when she made mistakes as a child, she only had to call out to him coaxingly and he would forgive her.

Before she could voice the call, Ji Lao collapsed heavily in front of everyone; if the driver and the people nearby hadn't caught him quickly, he might well have lost his life today on the steps in the middle of the courtroom gallery.

Everyone was startled. Lin Fu and Lin Mu quickly rose to send Ji Lao to the hospital, without a single glance back at their daughter still slumped on the courtroom floor.

Sitting in the corner, Gu Yinxue watched Lin Shutong, her heart already beginning to hesitate—did she really want to place someone like this at her brother's side?

Seeing Shen Xun's shattered state, if her brother ended up like that, she couldn't quite bear it.

The solemn courtroom fell into a brief uproar, until the great doors closed again and the gavel struck, and only then did silence return.

The trial still had to continue.