Episode 15: The Eighth Trial

Night fell, and a strange chill hung in the cold air, yet the city beneath the neon lights remained beautiful and alluring. The glass facade of Tianze Entertainment's headquarters reflected the lights of the whole city, and people warmly welcomed the moment of judgment — no one cared whether he was innocent; they only wanted to know who would be judged next.

The next day came a grand executive party — red carpet, flashing cameras, celebrities gathered. Amid the interweaving cameras and champagne, the atmosphere was strangely off-key; no one knew that this was the stage for the “Eighth Judgment.”

Several A-list stars in gorgeous gowns held glasses of red wine, smiling as they chatted with a few investor tycoons, caring only about winning more resources, utterly indifferent to the media's warnings.

Xia Zilan held a glass of red wine, though he really did not like drinking. He wore a grey suit and had styled a cool hairstyle. Bai Yujing had introduced him to several investors for his next drama, but he had no interest at all, feeling it was just another brainless script.

A few fans had quietly slipped in. Seeing him standing to one side, they took out their phones to record him. Xia Zilan walked over and chatted with them. “How did you get in? Is no one guarding the door?”

“Brother, all the security outside ran off!” one fan replied, seeing her idol. “Can you give us a hint about your next drama?”

Xia Zilan was a little disappointed and shook his head. “I haven't even seen the script. It doesn't feel like a role I'd like.”

Another fan asked, “Brother, will the Judge come tonight?”

Xia Zilan said again, “I don't know!”

“Xia Zilan,” Bai Yujing cried out in surprise. Turning, she saw him interacting with fans. She quickly swallowed her anger and said gently, “Are you here to ask Zilan for an autograph?”

Xia Zilan sighed, looked around at the lively scene, and smiled. “Sister Bai, they're good people!”

Bai Yujing looked at the young girls chasing their idol all the way here, and put on a cordial smile. “This is a Tianze executive party. If you want to interact, I'll arrange something with the fan club next time. It's getting late, your families will worry — head home early!”

After saying goodbye to the fans, Xia Zilan turned to see Bai Yujing with a stern face, clearly angry. Looking aggrieved, he lowered his head and said, “Sister Bai, I'm sorry! Those investors — I just wasn't quite used to them!”

Bai Yujing softened her tone, her expression calm. “These are good resources. I've read the script. It's very challenging — a modern suspense drama.”

Just then, Jiang Yanzhou came over holding a glass of red wine. With a warm smile and refined manners, he said, “Junior sister, long time no see! You didn't even say hello when we met.” He turned to Xia Zilan, raised his glass, and congratulated him: “Congratulations! You're sure to love your next drama. It's very challenging!”

Xia Zilan froze for a moment, raised his glass in return, but felt very ill at ease, forcing a smile: “Thank you!”

Bai Yujing's expression changed. She set down her wine glass, her tone icy: “Mr. Jiang, so you still remember we're from the same school. We chose different paths. When we meet again, we're just passers-by.”

Jiang Yanzhou kept smiling, swirling the wine in his glass. “Junior sister, when did you choose this line of work? Weren't you a fund-decryption specialist in finance? Being an agent is exhausting work.”

Bai Yujing replied coldly, “And you were once a top trading analyst, yet here you are as an agent all the same.”

Xia Zilan felt as if his head were about to explode. Bai Yujing turned out to be such an impressive figure — no wonder she had so many resources and could always hold the winning hand. He exclaimed in amazement, “Sister Bai, were you really that formidable before?”

Situ Hengyi blended into the crowd in a black suit. In his earpiece came a technician's murmur: “All normal. No target found yet!”

To get close to the target, he had no choice but to blend into the party. Su Yizhou had staked his word at the municipal bureau, and all the officers had infiltrated the party. Today he had dressed up specially, borrowing a suit from some film crew. He looked around, finding nothing suspicious at all.

Xia Zilan walked over and patted him on the shoulder, saying, “Officer Situ—” He immediately sensed something was wrong and switched tone: “Wonderful, we finally got you here! Have you come to our company's party too? Mr. Situ, we're so glad you could come. By the way, for my next drama, I'm going to play a policeman—”

Situ Hengyi turned and looked at him with a smile. Just then a voice came through his earpiece: “Signal locked. Dark-web channel codename: Judicm-08. Their livestream has begun — inside this building's internal system.”

He looked up at the ceiling. Every bulb in the glittering crystal chandelier might conceal a camera.

This party was not just a celebration, but a “group experiment.”

Amid the music, the host raised his glass and announced with a smile, “Let us toast to Tianze's new film, Floating Light!”

Applause mingled with flashing cameras. In that very moment, all the screens suddenly flickered at once, the music stopped abruptly, and in its place came that familiar electronic voice: “The Eighth Judgment begins!”

The lights went out.

The giant screen lit up. A man with his face covered was forced to sit in a chair — Du Feng, Tianze Entertainment's deputy director and head of funds. His face was deathly pale, a microphone stuffed into his mouth.

The electronic voice continued: “Du Feng, four years ago, you embezzled a charity fund, transferred the money into an offshore account, and took part in money-laundering transactions to suppress evidence of public opinion about the Yu Mengge incident. You know that fall was no accident.”

The room fell dead silent.

On camera, Du Feng struggled wildly, making muffled sounds through his mouth: “I didn't! That was an order from the top!”

The electronic voice continued: “But you took part in murdering Yu Mengge, squeezing artists' funding sources and using them for money laundering — and you became one of the murderers.”

On camera, Du Feng shook his head, crying out in a hoarse voice: “I don't want to die! I didn't abuse him. It was Sister Rong's setup. I didn't take part! Please don't kill me!”

The electronic voice asked coldly: “Yu Mengge didn't want to die either! Your whole entertainment industry knows that, doesn't it?” Then another electronic voice answered:

“Evidence uploaded.”

The screen began playing transfer records, chat screenshots, and audio files — every one a nail of truth.

People began to panic. Some media reporters took out their phones to livestream, and the comment feed instantly exploded:

“My God! Is it true?”

“Is this the real truth of the entertainment industry?”

“This is disgusting — a bunch of hypocrites.”

Situ Hengyi rushed toward the control room at once. “Cut the projection signal! Block the livestream channel!”

The technician worked the controls, trembling as he said, “I can't! The system has been counter-invaded! This was a pre-planted program!”

Xia Zilan looked at the bound Du Feng on the screen, pulled Bai Yujing beside him, and said cautiously, “I remember now. This Du Feng once wanted me to go socialising. It was he who introduced Tian Sirong to me.”

Bai Yujing calmly watched the dishevelled Du Feng on the screen, without a shred of sympathy. She turned to look at Jiang Yanzhou; his calm was a little frightening. She said nothing at all.

Jiang Yanzhou stared at Du Feng on the screen, drained his glass of red wine in one gulp, wiped the corner of his mouth with the handkerchief from his suit pocket, then threw the handkerchief away, his expression extremely calm — so calm it was chilling.

The electronic voice sounded again, cold as a machine: “Du Feng, you have three minutes to tell the truth. If you choose silence, you will face ‘public judgment.’”

The countdown lit up.

Du Feng's breathing grew faster and faster, his terrified eyes sweeping across the screen:

“I'll talk! I'll tell everything!”

He cried out, his voice hoarse —

“That year, Yu Mengge was blacklisted by the company because he knew things he shouldn't have known... videotapes, transaction lists, and... and—”

Before he could finish, the screen suddenly went black.

After the lights flickered twice, they came back on. The judgment livestream was over, leaving only a scene of wreckage, as people stared fearfully at the video overhead, waiting for some information to come in —

The screen lit up again, and a line of text slowly emerged: “The eighth, Du Feng. This is not the end, but the beginning of the reckoning.”

Situ Hengyi looked up at Du Feng on the screen. He could only watch helplessly as Du Feng was judged, murmuring, “The Judge was never out for revenge... he is settling accounts with this world.”

The room fell into panic.

Some cried, some ran, some began livestreaming — in this moment, “truth” was no longer something to seek, but entertainment for a national carnival.

Xia Zilan found it rather interesting. His curiosity was especially strong, and he wanted to go and check, but Bai Yujing grabbed him and dragged him straight away, not letting him get involved in these irrelevant events.

Jiang Yanzhou watched their retreating backs, a cold expression on his face, gazing indifferently at that line of text on the screen. He sighed, picked up a wine glass from the table, took a sip, closed his eyes, savouring the fine wine, and marvelled that it really did have five years of age on it.

He said faintly, “What a pity... I thought he would have held out a little longer.”

Situ Hengyi looked at that line of text on the screen, his face dark. “He is not just an avenger...”

“He is designing a collective judgment.”

Then a strange voice, calm and familiar, suddenly came through his earpiece: “Situ Hengyi, you think you're chasing me? In fact, you were already on my list long ago.”

Situ Hengyi's body stiffened, his eyes instantly turning cold. What exactly was the Judge hinting at?

On the screen appeared a file photo — it was of himself.

Inside the police station, it was already a hive of activity. The hotline was being blown up again, netizens accused the police of incompetence and of failing to uphold justice... and demanded that the truth of the Yu Mengge case be made public —

Du Feng was killed by the Judge using the same method, and after netizens watched the whole judgment process online, the Yu Mengge case returned to public view and became a hot topic, shooting up the trending lists again — but it was all suppressed by the authorities, while the public used every means to break through the internet blockade and debate the topic heatedly.

All sorts of rumours also appeared online, the most common being that Tianze's senior management had silenced Yu Mengge to cover up a money-laundering scandal, and people were very curious about these “seventeen people” — who exactly were they? Who would be judged next?

Self-media blogger Qian Musheng even produced a follow-up report, constantly receiving tip-off letters from enthusiastic viewers and doing a series of in-depth digs, while all public criticism pointed at Tianze Entertainment.

Su Yizhou was scolded again by the municipal bureau for letting the murderer kill in full view of everyone, and for misleading public opinion, stirring up a trend in society that worshipped the “Judge” and treated him as a Batman upholding justice.

And the police had become the incompetent party, unable to give the public a truth, unable to protect people's interests, and even letting innocent people suffer unjust blame.

Inside Tianze Entertainment, panic also reigned. Faced with public distrust, accusations of treating human life as grass and disregarding others' lives, and the evidence published by the Judge, the whole internet exploded — scolding, sarcasm, anger, amazement... every finger pointed at Tianze's senior management...

He Yuchuan stared at the news headlines, nearly furious. Faced with the Judge's provocations and the successive online exposés, he had originally hoped this press conference could turn public opinion around, but now it was completely out of control. The Judge understood their every move, seeming to know everything about what happened back then.

He had a very bad feeling: Tianze Entertainment had been infiltrated from within. How could the broadcast have been inserted? He had clearly hired a top internet technology team for maintenance — how could it have been hacked? Someone inside must have leaked it.

At that moment, the marketing director rushed in, looking flustered, tense, and stammering: “Mr. He, this is bad! Xia Zilan got into a fight with Fan Zhiqi's fans, taking his fans along. The other side called the police, everyone was taken to the station, reporters photographed the whole thing, and Weibo and all the major media have reported it.”

He Yuchuan slammed the table, a surge of anger in his heart. The meeting he had planned to hold had to be cancelled, and trying to control his emotions, he ordered: “Notify the PR department to handle the online information. Fan Zhiqi must not appear again. All unfavourable information must be wiped clean. I don't want any more problems.”

The marketing director replied at once: “Are we giving up on Fan Zhiqi? He still has many advertising endorsements, unreleased dramas, and several concerts. The company's losses will be huge.”

He Yuchuan, instead of angry, appeared very calm, with a disdainful smile, his eyes fixed on the photograph on the desk, saying meaningfully: “Just one artist. We have so many artists under us — we're not short of this one. Go and deal with it quickly, and bring in Lawyer Qin. He can handle many matters.”

Inside the police station, Xia Zilan sat on a chair, nonchalant and unconcerned, the marks of being beaten clearly swollen on his face, while opposite him sat a Fan Zhiqi fan, who had not come off any better, with a bruised eye. He glared arrogantly at Xia Zilan and said angrily, “You're lying. Our Zhiqi is not like what they say online. It's all fake, all rumours.”

Xia Zilan propped his chin on his hand, pouting, full of defiance, and said, “I won't settle privately. Anyway, I'm not in the wrong. At worst, I just won't be an artist anymore...”

Seeing him say this, Bai Yujing immediately cut him off, her face stern, scolding: “Little ancestor, you finally have the success you have today — how can you just give up like that? So many people want to become famous, are you...?”

Xia Zilan covered his face, letting out a hiss of pain, feeling it still hurt a little, and said dismissively, “Sister Bai, I work more than ten hours a day, more tired than a beast of burden. Normal people work eight hours a day and get weekends off. We artists are human too. Being glamorous means nothing — behind it is all bitterness.” The more he spoke, the sadder he became, covering his face, the pain unbearable. “When filming, I still get injured, and I have to bear all kinds of psychological pressure, and go drinking with clients, and unspoken rules... all kinds of personal safety. So many people have died recently. I think quitting is a very good choice.”

Bai Yujing scolded him: “Don't talk nonsense. I never made you go socialising, and I won't let you sign with any agency.” She took out an ice pack and had him press it against his face. “Next time you can't be so impulsive, taking fans along to fight. I really admire you — such nerve!”

Xia Zilan frowned. “But... what about my fans?”

“Hello, I'm Qin Shaohua, your retained lawyer,” Qin Shaohua said, handing over a business card, speaking in a very gentle tone. He wore gold-rimmed glasses, the lenses reflecting the police station's lights. “Xia Zilan, we've met again!”

Xia Zilan looked up and exclaimed in surprise, “Lawyer Qin, how did you come here?”

Bai Yujing took his business card and looked carefully at the words “Daozhan Law Firm” written on it, then looked up at him and said coldly, “Did He Yuchuan send you?”

Qin Shaohua smiled. “Hello, it's an honour to defend you!”

His smile was so low and deep, yet carried a trace of warmth, and a trace of calm and coldness. He looked at Situ Hengyi behind him, with a feeling of déjà vu. “Officer Situ, hello!”