Chapter 183: It's in the Bag

Li Xiang was afraid he’d become a laughingstock if word of this got out. No… in fact, it already had.

“Take a look at this morning’s paper. They even published a notice about a missing child.”

“And the taxis… As soon as the case was announced, every taxi driver we’d mobilized in Lusen City knew the department led a raid to bust a cheating spouse…”

Li Xiang was exasperated.

Unsurprisingly, all of Lusen City was roaring with laughter at the police… It wasn’t malicious mockery, just pure, unadulterated comedy.

A mission to catch human traffickers turning into a raid on a cheating couple—anyone would have a hard time keeping a straight face.

“Hahaha…”

Wu Kang couldn’t help it. Realizing his unprofessionalism, he immediately wiped the smile off his face, only to look up and find Li Xiang staring at him, expressionless.

However, the two of them didn’t have time to chat.

The next second…

“I demand the release of my client!”

“This is illegal! It’s a violation of her rights! We have grounds to sue you!”

A domineering female voice cut through the air.

Li Xiang and Wu Kang turned to look.

Over at the front desk, a woman in professional business attire was harshly berating an officer.

The woman was about thirty, slightly heavyset, and wore round glasses. She had a shrewish, formidable air about her.

Sun Li was about to lose her mind.

She was the lawyer for the defendant, Yang Chunping. At thirty years old, she was unmarried and had no children.

She and Yang Chunping were friends—best friends, really. In fact, it was through her that Yang Chunping had met Guo Tu and gotten the idea to divorce Wang Yu in the first place.

She had planned on making a killing off Yang Chunping’s case by taking a huge bite out of Wang Yu’s assets. After all, the trial was set for the 15th, and today was already the 9th. Their side still had nothing on him.

According to legal precedent, the judge would almost certainly favor Yang Chunping. When that happened, Sun Li could pocket at least a twenty-percent cut of the assets Wang Yu had accumulated over the past few years!

But early this morning…

…she got a call about Yang Chunping being involved in “human trafficking.” When she rushed to the scene, the police gave her a brief explanation…

It was a raid on an affair!

“You have no right to do this!”

Sun Li planted her hands on her hips and yelled angrily.

Li Xiang walked up and stood beside her.

“Who are you?”

Hearing the voice, Sun Li glanced sideways at him and snapped impatiently, “I’m the divorce lawyer for the party involved, Yang Chunping!”

‘A divorce lawyer…’

At this, Li Xiang paused, then gave an officer to the side a look. The officer began processing Yang Chunping’s release paperwork.

Guo Tu, however, couldn’t be released. He had to be detained for a few more days pending a thorough investigation.

Not that Yang Chunping could spare a thought for Guo Tu right now. She just wanted to get out of this “humiliating” holding cell as fast as possible.

Not long after.

*CLICK!*

Inside the holding cell, the iron bars swung open. Yang Chunping stormed over to Li Xiang’s side.

“Who was it, who called the police!?”

Yang Chunping was angry. No, she was utterly furious.

Anyone would be furious if the police burst in on them at a moment like that, to say nothing of having their private life exposed and being forced to spend a night in a police station.

Li Xiang shook his head.

“Sorry, we can’t tell you that.”

Sun Li chimed in, “We’re the victims! We have a right to know!”

“And I have a right to know the specifics of the case!”

Li Xiang still shook his head.

‘The case file? A lawyer isn’t qualified to access the case file. Only official personnel have that authority… unless the lawyer has a court order for discovery.’

‘But clearly, Sun Li didn’t have one for this “wrongful arrest” case. The most she could get was a general overview.’

“Was it Wang Yu!?”

Sun Li immediately put two and two together. The moment she thought of the man who was ruining Yang Chunping’s life, her expression soured.

Yang Chunping realized it, too, and immediately raged:

“That’s right, it must be him, it has to be him!”

“He’s deliberately retaliating against me! I’m going to sue him!”

Hearing this, Li Xiang sighed inwardly and was about to explain.

But unexpectedly, a voice drifted over from nearby.

“Heh. Opposing counsel, please refrain from slandering my client. If you’re going to make accusations, please present your evidence.”

Turning, he saw Xu De and Wang Yu walking toward the holding cells.

Sun Li was taken aback for a moment when she saw Xu De. He looked vaguely familiar, but she didn’t dwell on it.

Yang Chunping, on the other hand, became instantly apoplectic the moment she saw Wang Yu.

“Was it you!? Did you do this on purpose!”

“You bastard, were you following me!?”

Wang Yu was about to speak, but Xu De cut him off first.

“Opposing counsel, please control your client!”

“That constitutes slander. We reserve the right to hold you legally accountable for that remark!”

At that, Yang Chunping immediately clamped her mouth shut.

She wasn’t afraid.

It was purely because if they latched onto this, she’d get a much smaller share of the money… yes, the money.

“Heh, so this is the lawyer you hired, is it?”

“Didn’t you agree you wouldn’t get a lawyer and that we’d clear up this ‘misunderstanding’?”

Yang Chunping shot Wang Yu a vicious glare.

“See you in court!”

With that, she stormed off with Sun Li.

Clearly… neither of them wanted to stay in this place a second longer!

After leaving the detention area, Sun Li calmed down a bit and turned to Yang Chunping.

“What on earth happened?”

“How did you get arrested by the police!?”

Sun Li was confused.

She might not be a big-shot lawyer, but she knew that the police absolutely did not get involved in divorce matters, especially not in raids to catch a cheating spouse.

So why on earth did the Nanshan District police get involved?

And mobilize the entire district’s police force, no less!

“Who knows.”

Yang Chunping was grinding her teeth in anger. “It has to be Wang Yu and that lawyer’s doing!”

Sun Li asked again:

“What did the police ask you?”

“Were there any… other complications when you were arrested?”

At that, a flicker of guilt crossed Yang Chunping’s mind.

Her child, Wang Xiaoyu, had fainted and been left in the bathroom. One could even say the child had witnessed their “passionate encounter” firsthand.

‘But… that shouldn’t be relevant. In the end, I was just caught cheating.’

“No complications,” Yang Chunping said.

Sun Li said, “Good, as long as there were no complications!”

‘No complications meant the divorce proceedings could still move forward as planned.’

‘So what if infidelity was considered a fault and meant a smaller settlement?’

‘You had to understand, any fault was a trivial matter when a “minor child” was involved.’

‘As long as Yang Chunping hadn’t abused the child, it was a near certainty she would get custody. And once she had custody… the infidelity would no longer be considered a real fault.’

‘Even the judge would find excuses for them to get more of the assets!’

So…

“Just wait for the judge to award us the money!” A smile spread across Sun Li’s face, and Yang Chunping’s too.

‘Wang Yu was a high-earner, after all!’

‘If the judge awarded them a 70/30 or even an 80/20 split of his house, car, and total assets, they’d walk away with at least half a million in one go!’

‘Not to mention child support. After his next promotion, he’d be paying at least a thousand a month for the next fourteen years…’

The two of them grew giddy with excitement at the thought of their impending success.

…

…

「Meanwhile, inside the police station.」

“Heh. Tsk, tsk, tsk… tsk, tsk, tsk…”

“Abuse, confinement, doing it… in front of the kid, infidelity…”

Inside an interrogation room, Xu De finished reviewing the case details under his client’s name. He was utterly dumbfounded.

Even Lin Yue, standing beside him, felt her eye twitch as she looked over the information the police had compiled.

According to the police investigation:

Wang Xiaoyu had multiple bruises on her body, with other injuries in less visible areas… Furthermore, tests on her system detected an excessive amount of a sleep aid.

An adult’s dose!

And…

“Mr. Wang, you must feel incredibly wronged right now, don’t you?”

“The police have opened an official case file. The story of what happened will be told around this station for years to come.”

“The newspapers and the taxi drivers will be laughing about it, spreading your story all over Lusen City…”

Xu De looked up at Wang Yu, his tone suddenly turning sorrowful.

“Right now, you must be heartbroken, aren’t you?”

Wang Yu paused, reining in his emotions. He asked tentatively, “I… I should be heartbroken?”

“You are most certainly heartbroken!”

Xu De said firmly:

“Your spouse, Yang Chunping, has caused extreme and widespread damage to your reputation, leading to your depression, mental anguish, and has even affected your ability to work…”

“You’ve been socially executed, so to speak. Therefore, you are grief-stricken and in immense pain.”

“Legally, that means she is liable to compensate you for at least six figures!!!”

As he spoke, Xu De broke into a grin. He lowered his head, squinting at the file in his hands.

‘Information asymmetry, severe damage to reputation, child abuse, false imprisonment of the child, infidelity, cohabitation…’

“Mr. Wang.”

“How much of the marital property do you plan to fight for? What I mean is…”

“You can pick any number you like.”