Chapter 373 - Going Back

After Jiang Shuxuan was done speaking, he stared in a particular corner of the room.

“Bro Jiang, what are you looking at?” Seeing Jiang Shuxuan’s gaze fixed at a certain point, Yin Shaoyuan couldn’t help but ask. He turned to look at where the other was looking, but all he could see was empty air. He touched his nose in slight confusion.

Jiang Shuxuan turned away, his voice indifferent as he replied, “It’s nothing.” Then he glanced at Yin Shaoyuan.

Yin Shaoyuan nodded, then turned to look at the judge. He snapped his fingers, and a figure in black gave the judge a stack of documents. .”These are the evidence, apart from evidence of Gu Xijin’s bribery, there is also evidence of her embezzlement of Gu Xiqiao’s oil paintings. Our lawyer will be here soon, and we intend to announce this to the media.”

“As for you guys.” Yin Shaoyuan turned to the group of people from the art world, a sneer on his lips. “You are all distinguished figures from the art world, and you have countless fans. You should know how influential a single remark from you is. No matter who’s at fault, don’t you feel ashamed, attacking a dead person like this?!”

He left with Jiang Shuxuan and the others once he was done speaking.

As soon as he left, every single person from the art world breathed a sigh of relief. An invisible hand seemed to be tugging at their hearts as they thought back to how vicious they had been in attacking Gu Xiqiao just a few minutes ago. They hung their head in shame, feeling guilt coursing through them.

“These evidences must be fake and fabricated by them! Ah Jin is not that kind of person!” The same young man exclaimed. “How can someone like Gu Xiqiao paint such a painting?”

“Enough!” The old man beside him shouted once he was done. “Do you know who those people were? You dare to say these things about them?”

“Who cares? It’s not right to fabricate evidence!” The young man was so angry that you could see the veins popping out. ” I want to sue them!”

“Sue them?” Another person chuckled when he heard that. “Do you know of the Yin family? The top dog of N City? The one who brought in the evidence is the one and only young master of this generation of the Yin family. Wanting to sue him, do you dare?”

As soon as the words were out, the young man had nothing to say. His face had frozen in shock, the words stuck in his throat. Of course he knew who the Yin family was, the most influential family in N City!

That person just now was from the Yin family?

“Based on the Yin family’s style, they have no reason to fabricate the evidence at all, because it isn’t worth their time.” The old man beside the young man said, and he seemed to age another few years as he sighed. “Those paintings really were painted by Gu Xiqiao.”

The young man opened his mouth a few times, but no sound was forthcoming. The disbelief was on his frozen face.

But in his heart, he already knew the truth.

The Yin family really had no reason to fabricate the evidence, after all.

The judge watched these people who had sauntered in with their heads high in the air and their arrogant attitude now left with looks of despair on their faces, their tails tucked between their legs. He couldn’t help but glance down at the documents in front of him, and felt his heartstrings being tugged. An illegitimate daughter who was not significant in anyone’s eyes, could attract such support from the Yin family after her death. Really...

He sighed, it really was an unfortunate matter.

Everyone in the know of the truth felt that Gu Xiqiao was pitiful, especially the people from the Yin family. However, the person herself didn’t feel that she was pitiful, but was staring at Jiang Shuxuan.

Gu Xiqiao had been studying ways to return, and the reason she was here in the first place. Wasn’t she fighting heaven’s will?

But there was nothing to be found as a clue at all. She wanted to rub her temples very much in frustration, but her hand would pass through her own body.

Beside her, Jiang Shuxuan was browsing the net on his laptop for any follow-up development of the case.

He was scrolling very slowly, and Gu Xiqiao knew that he was doing it so that she could also read, and so she sat next to him to look. She turned her head to see the other was pursing his lips without saying a word, the usual cold, indifferent look on his face.

The corners of Gu Xiqiao’s mouth twitched. “You must be bored to death right now!”

Then she turned back to look at the webpage, seeing that the development of this matter was still continuously being updated. Just like the scene in the courtroom, the majority of the people were cursing Gu Xiqiao.

“She’s already dead, why is she still making so many problems!”

“So disgusting, she’s dead but still pulling our Ah Jin down the grave with her!”

“It’s a blessing to society for this kind of person to be dead!”

The comments were all along the same lines, and Jiang Shuxuan’s face got colder by the second as he scrolled down. He closed the lid of the computer with a pop, and said under his breath, “Don’t worry, I’ll handle it.”

Having said that, he took out his phone.

Gu Xiqiao sat in the same spot, and if she could speak to him directly, she would have told him that she didn’t care one wit about those comments about her, really. But it wasn’t like she could.

Jiang Shuxuan was on the line with Yin Shaoyuan outside, and when he heard Jiang Shuxuan’s words, he explained, “Master Jiang, the bigger this incident becomes, the shock that comes from the truth will be even bigger. I’ve sent someone to shadow and record the Gu family, don’t worry. It’ll be handled within the hour.”

One hour later, Jiang Shuxuan sat in front of the laptop once again, turning it on.

“What a disgusting person, it’s great that she’s dead!”

“Ah Jin is innocent, why bother her?”

Such comments were still being made. Gu Xijin just had too many fans, and those passersby that didn’t know the entire story was disgusted by Gu Xiqiao’s vicious heart.

There were some occasional comments that were different.

“Where is your conscience? Talking about someone who is no longer alive in this world like this?”

The Gu family was in a panic initially, but when they saw the comments on the internet that were all supportive of Gu Xijin, they calmed down, thinking that she would be fine.

However, at this moment, several influential users posted a Weibo at the same time.

There were two video links on the Weibo post. One was the house where Gu Xiqiao had lived when she was alive, one that she had rented outside by herself. There were many oil paintings in the video, and even the unfinished ones were warm and familiar.

The other was a video of Gu Xiqiao herself painting which clearly showed her face. It was probably taken by a random passerby.

Finally, there were nine pictures which were evidence of Gu Xijin’s bribery and smuggling...

(verified) Li Yu: Although this is something that someone requested for me to repost, I would have done it without needing to be prompted anyway. I am very familiar with the painting ‘Starlight’, this was the painting that gave me hope in the darkest days of my life. The reason I reposted this late was because I was reading the online comments. I only wish to say, keyboard warriors, please, let her off? //@OP

(verified) Xiao Yun: The truth may be late, but it will never be absent. I didn’t know it was you before this, now that I know, Gu Xiqiao, thank you. //@OP

(verified) Mu Yunfan: A painting will never lie. She has lived such a hard life, but she still managed to be a good person. Her painting has illuminated the life of countless people, but we’ve only been giving her criticism and injustice. I think that’s the reason she didn’t have any attachment to this world. Gu Xiqiao, I owe you one word, I’m sorry. //@OP

All comments on the internet went silent in that instant, as the netizens read the Weibo posts of all these influential figures. Then they thought back to what they had said, and they had no words to describe the feelings they felt.

Especially after they read Mu Yunfan and Xiao Yun’s words.

Gu Xiqiao’s paintings had illuminated the lives of countless people and garnered countless fans. But these fans, what did they do? Not only were they unfair to her, not helping her at all, and instead abusing her existence online.

When they thought about what they had done, it felt like all their breath had been knocked out of them.

A young girl dropped her favourite cup that she was holding, the glass shattering into pieces when it hit the ground, her hands trembling.

“I’m sorry, Gu Xiqiao! Please forgive me!”

“It turns out that the paintings were painted by you, I didn’t even manage to express my gratitude to you 😭😭”

“🕯️ I’m sorry”

And then the matter of Gu XIqiao funding an orphanage came to light, and the currently most famous youth in the financial world, Luo Wenlang said, “Everyone may not be aware of this, but I came from this orphanage. In my hardest time, it was Miss Gu who reached out to help me, but I never had the chance to meet her. When I had the power to finally repay her, she was no longer around.”

When this incident was announced, it attracted the attention of the mass media. All the big screens on the side of the roads were playing what little videos they had of Gu Xiqiao while she was alive.

Gu Xiqiao’s popularity soared to its peak after her death. Because of this incident, the entire N City was thrown into an uproar. Numerous people from all over the world came to pay their last respects, and the flowers placed on her grave were so many to the point it spread to the roads. However, the person was already dead, no matter how popular she was, what was the point?

Jiang Shuxuan watched coldly the video that was being played on the big screen, his nails digging into his palm as he lowered his head.

***

At the same time in prison, Gu Xijin was still waiting for her master and senior brother to rescue her.

She waited for a long time, before Mu Yunfan finally came to see her.

The police officers who came to escort her pushed her to walk roughly, and Gu Xijin sneered at them. “Just wait till I’m out of here, I’ll make sure you pay for this!” She would remember the few days that she was here, them giving her only rancid food to eat and giving her the dirtiest and most tiring work to do!

“Get out?” The police officer looked at her in disgust. “Just wait your days out in prison!”

Gu Xijin felt that the police officer’s attitude was different from what she imagined it would be, since she was going to see Mu Yunfan to get out of here. Perhaps there had been some problems? She didn’t know what had gone wrong until she saw Mu Yunfan.

“I won’t be saving you, but I won’t let you die either... you have to atone for your sins towards her.” Mu Yunfan said this all without any expression, just as he usually spoke, but Gu Xijin could feel the underlying hint of cold and steel in his voice.

Gu Xijin staggered backwards, falling to the ground on her behind. She looked at Mu Yunfan with disbelief in her eyes... He knew... How was that possible?! Gu Xiqiao was obviously dead!

Mu Yunfan didn’t offer any further explanation, turning to walk straight out of the cell.

Gu Xijin was pulled up roughly again, and she looked at the police officer’s contemptuous face. It was like lightning had struck her suddenly, and she finally understood that something was wrong.

Regret, Gu Xijin really felt the regret creeping up on her. However, she was already in jail, and it was far too late for regrets now.

***

Having read the document on the updates on Gu Xijin’s life imprisonment, Jiang Shuxuan closed the document. He then leaned backwards in his chair, narrowing his eyes.

“Bro Jiang, Yi Bing said that there was a problem in the desert. What’s going on there?” Yin Shaoyuan sat in the driver’s seat, a look of confusion on his face.

Jiang Shuxuan looked out the window, not saying anything, before looking back to the ancient text on his lap. “You can leave when you reach the edge, I have something I need to do.”

Gu Xiqiao sat beside him, watching the scenery as the car drove past.

The car reached the edge of the desert, and Yin Shaoyuan dropped Jiang Shuxuan off before turning around and driving away.

At this time, Jiang Shuxuan was looking in Gu Xiqiao’s direction.

His eyes gradually softened when Gu Xiqiao stared back at him, and she naturally knew this was the Jiang Shuxuan that she had come to know after her rebirth. But, how was that possible? She exclaimed with some shock, “Brother Jiang, what are you going to do?!”