A single sentence stumped Shangguan Yao, and he suddenly fell silent.
How ridiculous. Since childhood, he had never been recognized. There was no father in his life, and not even a mother in the true sense. As a person in the entertainment industry, his mother had always only cared about her own career and ignored him. He had lived in fear of having no father since he was a child.
He had always said that no matter what, he would never recognize that man and would never interfere in his affairs. But now that Wang Keding was really in trouble, he couldn't help but come to Yan Xia.
He just wanted to find out the reason and see if there was a glimmer of hope left to fight for him.
Yan Xia looked at him and said, "You want to save Chief Wang, right?"
A look of uneasiness flashed across Shangguan Yao's face. He picked up the teacup and took a sip to hide his emotions.
"Regardless of who I'm here for today, you're also a party involved in this case. The final sentencing depends on the testimonies of the witnesses. You and Fang Jiangyi should know what you're thinking. The heavier Fang Jiangyi's sentence, the more unfavorable it will be for you."
Although he looked carefree, in fact, he had graduated from a criminal police school.
When he was a child, Shangguan Yao had witnessed his mother's most difficult days in the entertainment industry. She was exposed for having an illegitimate child, and multiple media outlets reported that her private life was chaotic. She was even harassed by netizens and asked to leave the entertainment industry.
At that time, he made up his mind that when he grew up, he would become a police officer, a police officer who could catch all the bad guys in the world.
But as he grew older and entered the criminal police academy, he found that some things were not as simple as they seemed. Maybe his naive ideas back then were just in vain.
"Brother Jiangyi will hire a lawyer to defend himself. No matter what kind of sentence he and I will face, I still have to say, Shangguan, wake up. Chief Wang has embezzled and accepted bribes on a huge scale, and his case involves some higher - level people. Once he falls, the things those people have done will be in jeopardy. To protect themselves, no one will let him go easily."
They will definitely keep him in prison and not give him any chance to fight back.
Hearing this, Shangguan Yao's face turned pale.
Actually, he had long known that there was no room for reversal. He was just deceiving himself, just to clear his conscience.
Yan Xia said, "Maybe, if you really can't let it go, you should try to see him one last time before the final verdict comes out."
Seeing Shangguan Yao in such pain, she suddenly felt a bit guilty. After all, she had hurt him.
So she said, "Shangguan, I'm very sorry."
Shangguan Yao didn't say anything else and left Yan Xia's residence.
But on that day, Yan Xia saw another piece of news.
Shangguan Yao, the illegitimate son of Wang Keding from the Municipal Bureau, had a car accident, and his life or death was unknown.
When Yan Xia saw this news, she was still looking up information about relevant sentencing.
A car accident? How could it be so sudden?
He had been chatting with her just fine in the morning, and suddenly he had a car accident. Did Shangguan Yao drive here by himself? Was it because he was too worried about Wang Keding and was distracted after she said those words that he had the accident?
Later, she heard that Shangguan Yao's injuries were not serious and that he would be able to leave the hospital after some recuperation. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.
On the tenth day after the New Year, Wang Keding's case was officially prosecuted.
After such a long - time investigation and sorting, the context of the case was basically clear.
It was an undeniable fact that Wang Keding had embezzled and accepted bribes. A lot of evidence pointed to his crimes. He seemed to have given up struggling and admitted all the charges brought against him by the prosecutor.
Not only in the Xinghaiwan project this time, but also the bribes he had accepted before. He had transferred and exchanged all these ill - gotten gains through banks, securities investments, and other financial industries.
Then, it was the court's investigation into Fang Jiangyi's bribery.
The prosecutor's charges against Fang Jiangyi were as follows:
1. Crime of duty encroachment (involving the transfer of one billion yuan of company funds).
2. Crime of bribery (the one - billion - yuan funds transferred to Wang Keding's account).
The defense lawyer refuted all the prosecutor's charges one by one.
After Lu Qianzhou stopped interfering, he became more and more at ease. In a limited time, he found enough evidence to prove his innocence.
First, although Fang Jiangyi had strongly promoted the Xinghaiwan project, he had not participated in the whole process. He had only participated in some important decisions. It was the CFO of the company who had really contacted Wang Keding, misappropriated the company's public funds for performance and other personal purposes, and bribed Wang Keding. The CFO had control over both personnel and finance.
Second, the one - billion - yuan transferred to Wang Keding's relative's account was also transferred from the account of the CFO of Shengshi Company, which further proved Fang Jiangyi's innocence.
Moreover, under a lot of evidence, the CFO had already admitted his crimes. And the CFO's assistant had also confirmed his criminal behavior and explained the process of framing Fang Jiangyi.
Yan Xia looked at the CFO who was brought to the courtroom. She didn't know what means Fang Jiangyi had used to make him take the blame. In Shengshi Company, Yan Xia had once met this CFO. He was a very amiable middle - aged man. But calculating the time, he had just become the CFO after Fang Jiangyi took over Shengshi. Maybe he had been a pawn that Fang Jiangyi had planted in advance. He just didn't expect that he would play the role of a scapegoat now.
In a short period of time, Fang Jiangyi had successfully cleared himself of all charges.
In the courtroom, Yan Xia was stunned by Fang Jiangyi's methods.
No wonder Lu Qianzhou had been so on guard and refused to give him a chance to turn things around. Now that Lu Qianzhou had just loosened his grip, Fang Jiangyi had already prepared the evidence to make a comeback.
All the prosecutor's charges were refuted by the defense lawyer's evidence and eloquence. It seemed that Fang Jiangyi was fully confident to walk out of the courtroom unscathed.
From a short distance away, Yan Xia met Fang Jiangyi's eyes in the courtroom. There was no extra emotion in his eyes, only coldness.
Yan Xia thought that he must hate and loathe her in his heart.
In the final first - instance verdict, Wang Keding, for accepting huge bribes and with extremely bad circumstances, was sentenced to life imprisonment, with all his personal property confiscated and his political rights deprived for life.
As for the CFO, the crimes he was involved in were:
1. Crime of duty encroachment.
2. Crime of false accusation and frame - up.
3. Crime of bribery.
His sentence was 20 years in prison and a fine.
As for Fang Jiangyi, the man who had been thought to fail from the beginning, was actually acquitted and walked out unscathed. He just had to wait for the final appeal verdict to be completely free.
As for Yan Xia, the original charge against her was shielding. But since Fang Jiangyi's charges had been cleared, there was naturally no such thing as her shielding behavior.
When Wang Keding was being taken away, he looked meaningfully in the direction of Yan Xia and Fang Jiangyi several times. It seemed that he had something to say. Finally, he even gave Yan Xia a grateful smile.
The smile made Yan Xia feel uncomfortable all over.
They had joined hands to send him to prison and sentenced him to life imprisonment, but he still smiled at her...
In the court, Fang Jiangyi seized the opportunity to talk to Yan Xia.