Wen Shouyi was frozen speechless after listening to Gu Nianzhi’s words. She clenched her fists so hard, her nails tore through the skin.
“Why don’t you say it?” Gu Nianzhi looked up from the laptop to stare at Wen Shouyi, her large eyes suddenly squinted. The expressionless and silent Wen Shouyi somehow gave her a sense of deja vu: how could this be? Gu Nianzhi knew she had never looked at Wen Shouyi directly. Since the first time they had met and had that unpleasant conversation in front of the C University Law Department’s female dormitory, Gu Nianzhi had consciously blocked out Wen Shouyi face entirely. Even Wen Shouyi’s image in her mind had always been blurry, and it wasn’t because she didn’t remember, but because she didn’t want to remember her face. Gu Nianzhi had never developed such resentment for anyone before.
While Wen Shouyi was still silent, she reflected on her strange feelings and impression of the woman. Coughing lightly, Gu Nianzhi decided to treat Wen Shouyi normally. Too much neglection or emphasis on Wen Shouyi was to display a lack of confidence. Gu Nianzhi didn’t see any reason why she should feel inferior to Wen Shouyi.
Wen Shouyi snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Gu Nianzhi cough and coughed herself. “Since you know that you can find it online, then why do you have to ask me? Can’t you look it up yourself?”
“Are you kidding me?” Gu Nianzhi raised her brows. The corners of her eyes lifted as she looked at Wen Shouyi playfully. “There are so many things on the internet, so how could I look up anything without even a clue? Do you want to me search your name with Dou Qingyan’s on the Gou?”
Wen Shouyi’s mouth twitched. “On the Gou?”
Resting her head on one hand, Gu Nianzhi looked at her with annoyance. “Yeah, the American Google. You’ve used it before, so don’t pretend. Hurry up and tell me, what kind of case was it and which court was it held at? Who was the defendant and who was the plaintiff? What was the final verdict and what was the case number? I will look it up for sure and contact the American courts to verify if you insist on being uncooperative.”
Wen Shouyi couldn’t play dumb anymore. She was expressionless as she looked down and away from Gu Nianzhi, saying dryly, “It was the Doug Supermarket from the city of Buffalo, suing Dou Qingyan for shoplifting. In addition to this, there were other cases of possession of illegal drugs.”
Gu Nianzhi froze. “Dou Qingyan? Shoplifting?” Shoplifting was a petty crime. “She’s the daughter of the Prime Minister of the Huaxia Empire. Why would she need to steal from a supermarket?!” Gu Nianzhi was confused. “Are you sure about this?” She could believe that Dou Qingyan was charged with the possession of illegal drugs, since there were always a few black sheep in rich and powerful families. But, she couldn’t see how Dou Qingyan would steal household goods worth that totaled to less than ten US dollars.
Wen Shouyi’s confidence finally returned as she sneered at Gu Nianzhi and replied, “What’s so weird about that? Dou Qingyan shoplifted because of her mental illness; it wasn’t real theft. How do you think she got out of it? We showed her bank deposits and psychological records to the judge and thus, she wasn’t charged.”
Gu Nianzhi finally understood: so this was a ‘rich person’s disease’. She smiled ruefully and shook her head. “Is that so? Poor people go to jail when they shoplift, while spoilt children of the wealthy can afford to shoplift as a hobby and then blame it on mental illness. You city folk really know how to play.”
Wen Shouyi kept silent. After a while, she smiled at Gu Nianzhi and gave her a knowing look. “Mental illness is indeed a disease, yet it just has to be treated. Many people have mental illness but pretend to be normal people, but then suddenly, one day, this illusion breaks down with a boom! When that time comes, the true difficulty begins.”
Wen Shouyi was implying something, but Gu Nianzhi ignored her completely. To Gu Nianzhi, the current conversation only served to beat each other down and see which woman could get more information out of the other. So, it wasn’t necessary to believe what the other person was saying, as long as everything was recorded accurately. the truth would surface when they looked at the evidence after the interrogation. “Miss Wen, you sure know an awful lot about mentally ill people pretending to be normal. Is this because you have personal experience? Why don’t you tell me how that feels like? How does the person look like when they have an episode? Tell me, so that I can advise Dou Qingyan to go see a psychologist when I see similar symptoms,” Gu Nianzhi quipped to Wen Shouyi’s nonsense.
Wen Shouyi realized that nothing was getting past Gu Nianzhi, and couldn’t help being impressed by her. She had to admit that He Zhichu had too keen of an eye. “Actually, I don’t know much either, but I have heard that if someone receives a great shock, they will sometimes block their true memories and fabricate a new set of false memories. They pretend to be someone else in order to live peacefully. However, once the truth is revealed, they certainly can’t accept the immense psychological stress and therefore, can’t survive.” Wen Shouyi spoke slowly, her cold gaze resting on Gu Nianzhi’s face like she was a bamboo viper spitting venom. Her aim was to provoke her.
Gu Nianzhi felt very uncomfortable by this feeling and tried to control herself from throwing herself at Wen Shouyi and slapping her pale, round face.
Huo Shaoheng sensed something was amiss with Gu Nianzhi as he watched from the other room and sent her a text: “What is it? Is the interrogation going smoothly?”
Upon seeing a text from Huo Shao on the laptop, Gu Nianzhi’s inner turmoil finally settled down. She replied: “It’s fine. I’m still interrogating her.” She looked up again to grin at Wen Shouyi. “Miss Wen is truly knowledgeable. So, does the patient look like you when she experiences an episode?” She had only wanted to snub her and say it purely as an unrelated insult, but Wen Shouyi’s face fell and actually contorted all of a sudden. She glared at Gu Nianzhi as though she hated her with all her heart and wanted to eat her alive, making Gu Nianzhi shiver.
“Miss Wen, you’re scaring me when you look at me like that.” Gu Nianzhi shrugged, but didn’t appear frightened at all. “I can’t help but think that I hit a sore spot.”
“Yeah, right.” Wen Shouyi quickly composed herself but was a little pale. She clutched her chest and frowned. “My wound is hurting me, please let me rest for a second.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded and didn’t continue the interrogation. Instead, she began to sort the results of the earlier questioning and made two notes about Wen Shouyi. One, Wen Shouyi had a complex, and it probably has to do with her identity issues. Two, Dou Qingyan’s case was trivial and there should be nothing deeper about it. But, the fact that Dou Qingyan was able to hire Wen Shouyi as a lawyer and befriend her was worth looking into. This point could be delved into through the interrogation with Dou Qingyan. After making the two notes, Gu Nianzhi looked up to see Wen Shouyi looking much better and drinking water. Gu Nianzhi nodded. “Shall we continue?”
“Alright.” Wen Shouyi’s voice had normalized. “I apologize for earlier, that was rude of me. I hope Miss Gu will be understanding.”
“Ok, I understand.” Gu Nianzhi didn’t dig any deeper; she knew that Wen Shouyi had certainly taken new precautions, so it wasn’t worth prodding her from that angle anymore. She began questioning Wen Shouyi and He Zhichu’s relationship. Folding her hands together on the long table before her, Gu Nianzhi asked with a smile, “How long has Miss Wen been working under Professor He for? You are an Associate Professor at the Harvard Law School, yet why do you have to stoop down to acting as Professor He’s nanny? ”