Chapter 5 — One Sentence Scares Away the Whole In-Law Family

Beneath the surface of that fragile tranquility, however, a swift and ferocious undercurrent was beginning to churn violently. Exactly one week prior to the scheduled court session, an entirely unexpected phone call interrupted my morning. It was from my sister-in-law, the younger sister of Chu Hang and the mother of little Dao Dao, whose name was Chu Le. Her voice carried an overwhelming sense of fatigue, laced with an unmistakable, desperate plea.

"Sister-in-law… no, Su Qing. Could we please meet just once?"

"You and I have nothing left to say to one another."

I rejected her outright without a moment's hesitation.

"I know you harbor deep resentment toward us—you hate my mother, and you hate my brother," she blurted out in a breathless, hurried rush. "Yet this matter has now dragged Dao Dao into the vortex as well. I am begging you as a mother, can we please just meet face to face?"

She had deliberately invoked Dao Dao. Silence lingered on my end for a few agonizing seconds before I finally relented.

"Thirty minutes from now, at the cafe downstairs."

Unwilling to let them discover the location of my current residence, I purposely chose a spot several neighborhoods away. When I arrived, Chu Le was already seated at a corner table. She appeared considerably more haggard than before, heavy, dark bruised circles resting beneath her eyes. The woman who had once constantly assumed an air of superiority and condescension in my presence now resembled nothing more than a defeated, bedraggled rooster.

"Speak. What is it you want?" I pulled out a chair and sat down, cutting straight to the core of the matter.

She nervously stirred the coffee sitting untouched before her, not daring to lift her gaze to meet mine. "I… I came here on behalf of my mother to offer you an apology."

"An apology is entirely unnecessary. Save those words for the courtroom."

"Su Qing!" She jerked her head upward, her eyes webbed with a network of crimson blood vessels. "Must you insist on driving every single thing to such a merciless, bitter end? You filed charges against my mother for defamation, and now our entire family has been thrown into complete chaos! Our relatives call us day after day, hurling abuse at us, claiming our household married a raving madwoman who is now dragging all of them into legal disgrace!"

"This is not a situation of my making; it is simply the direct consequence of her own actions," I corrected her coldly. "When she chose to spread those malicious fabrications across a chat group containing over a hundred people, she ought to have anticipated this very day."

"But she is my mother! And she is an elderly woman!"

"Regardless of how advanced her age may be, she must still bear the full responsibility for her words and her deeds. Within the world inhabited by adults, such a thing as absolute immunity does not exist."

Realizing that persuasion was entirely useless against me, Chu Le drew in a deep, trembling breath and abruptly shifted the subject. "Fine, let us leave my mother's predicament aside for the moment. My brother… my brother is being driven to the brink of insanity by you. He has even lost his livelihood."

I raised a single eyebrow in surprise; this indeed qualified as novel information.

"He was terminated by his company. Because the attorney you hired took the liberty of dispatching a formal legal notice straight to his corporate legal department, asserting that he was suspected of covertly transferring marital assets during the marriage, alongside allegations of domestic violence. His firm places immense value on corporate reputation and employee ethics, so they strongly advised him to resign."

A palpable vein of bitter hatred vibrated within Chu Le's tone. Yet within my own heart, not a single ripple stirred. This had been the deliberate counsel of Attorney Wang. Even though Chu Hang's primary salary card remained securely in my possession, I harbored lingering suspicions that he maintained alternative, clandestine streams of revenue. A single legal letter sent directly to his employer served the dual purpose of serving as a severe warning to him and compelling the company to yield the most objective and accurate income certification documents. This was merely sound litigation strategy; she had no grounds to hold me at fault.

"Therefore?" I prompted calmly.

"Therefore, can you not raise your hand high and let it fall lightly, and withdraw this lawsuit?"

Chu Le finally articulated the true purpose behind her desperate rendezvous. "Our family is willing to provide monetary compensation! That piano, we will pay for it in full! Name your own price!"

"It is far too late," I stated flatly. "In the beginning, all I asked for was a simple apology, but none of you were willing to grant it. Now, the only thing I desire is justice."

"Just what on earth will it take for you to finally stop!" she cried out, her composure on the verge of complete shattering.

I fixed my gaze upon her, articulating every single syllable with crystal-clear precision: "I want a divorce. I want full custody of Le Le. I want Chu Hang to leave with absolutely nothing in his hands. I want Zhang Cui Lian to issue a public apology addressed to both myself and my late father within that very same family chat group of over a hundred members. Not a single one of these demands is negotiable."

Chu Le's face drained of every last trace of color, turning deathly pale. She understood with chilling clarity that no room remained for further negotiation. Staggering to her feet, she glared down at me from above, her eyes once more igniting with a vicious, venomous malice.

"Su Qing, do not celebrate your triumph too soon. Do you truly believe victory is already guaranteed? Let me tell you right now, my brother possesses a fatal piece of dirt on you!"

With those parting words, she whipped around and stormed away, the sharp, rhythmic clicking of her high heels against the polished floor sounding remarkably like a formal declaration of war. I remained seated in solitude, lifting my coffee cup to take a slow, unhurried sip. Dirt, you say? I am more than eager to witness what pathetic tricks they have left to play.

08

The morning of the trial arrived under a heavy, sunless shroud of overcast skies. I encountered Chu Hang and Zhang Cui Lian standing just outside the threshold of the courthouse. Having not laid eyes on them for merely a few days, Chu Hang appeared to have aged a full decade; his face was covered in unkempt stubble, and his gaze was clouded with a dark, murky despair. Zhang Cui Lian wore the desperate demeanor of someone facing down a mortal enemy, her trembling hands clawing tightly onto the arm of her son. Flanking them was a legal counsel whom I did not recognize. The moment Chu Hang caught sight of me, his eyes burned with the venomous intensity of a poisoned blade.

Inside the courtroom, the atmosphere was thick, frigid, and relentlessly solemn. My attorney, Wang, presented the case and submitted the evidentiary documents in a remarkably fluent, methodical manner. The video footage capturing the foul abuse, the crisp screenshots of the defamatory remarks, Chu Hang's deceitful text messages, alongside the official income verification and termination notices issued by the company… piece by piece, the evidence fell like heavy boulders crashing directly against the defense bench.