The Secret of the Yoga Club: The Women's Identity is Not Simple

Meanwhile, Zuo Ning's men launched a new round of thorough search in that abandoned development zone.

Last time, Ma Jinli only searched the ground and bushes, but this time he arranged for more people, expanding the search area several times over.

Two of his men found a broken, dead branch with a few drops of dried, blackened liquid on it in a thicket of bushes south of Building 3.

They sealed the leaf in an evidence bag and sent it for testing. The DNA comparison results came out in the evening and matched perfectly with the hair sample left by the thin man in the rented room.

Zuo Ning was leaning back on the sofa with his eyes closed, resting, when he received the call. After listening to the report, the corners of his mouth slowly curved into a smile.

With eyewitnesses and the victim's DNA evidence, the case can now formally enter the judicial process.

On the day of the trial, a large number of reporters gathered outside the Intermediate People's Court of Hehai City.

The murder and drug cases involving Shun Tong Logistics have been widely discussed locally because they involve the "rumored lover" of Police Chief Ye Qinghan.

The gallery was full of people, including a few whom Lin Feng knew. Old Qian, wearing his faded work uniform, sat in the corner with his hands clasped on his knees, looking even more nervous than when he was in court himself.

Shen Qianqian sat in the back row, her baby face without makeup, her eyes red, clearly indicating she hadn't slept well for the past few days. She simply couldn't believe that her mother and Lin Feng could have...

Su Mengya sat next to her, with an empty seat between them. Neither of them spoke, but their eyes were fixed on the defendant's seat.

Yang Ru and Luo Ruoxi also came.

When Lin Feng was brought in by the bailiffs, there was a slight commotion in the gallery. He was wearing the gray vest issued by the detention center, and his hair was a bit longer than before he went in, but he looked to be in good spirits.

After walking to the defendant's seat, he glanced at the audience and nodded slightly when he saw Shen Qianqian and Su Mengya. Then his gaze continued to search the courtroom.

Ye Qinghan was not present. After being detained, she was directly placed under isolation and investigation by the Discipline Inspection Commission. Due to their different ranks, they would not appear in the same courtroom.

The prosecutor began reading the indictment.

He was charged with both intentional homicide and illegal possession of drugs. Lin Feng's answer remained consistently the same: "I didn't do it."

The physical evidence was presented one by one.

The steel wire rope that strangled Liu Wei was placed in a transparent evidence bag on the display table. The prosecutor used a laser pointer to circle the photo and explained in detail the material and length of the steel wire rope, as well as the fiber residue extracted from it, which perfectly matched the strangulation marks on the deceased's neck.

Then came the drug test report. The test results of the batch of white powder and colored pills found in the Shuntong Logistics truck were projected onto the big screen, with the purity and weight clearly marked in red.

The defense attorney stood up and pointed out directly that these physical evidences lacked a direct connection to the defendant. No fingerprints of the defendant were found on the steel cable, the truck steering wheel, or the drug packaging.

The defendant was not present at the logistics parking lot on the night of the incident, a fact supported by multiple witnesses.

They quickly moved on to the second case.

Lin Feng is accused of intentional homicide. The victim, nicknamed "Skinny," was beaten to death with a blunt instrument by Lin Feng in an abandoned development zone in the south of the city on the night of the incident. His body is still missing.

After the reading was completed, the prosecutor presented the physical evidence in turn: the withered leaf stained with the thin man's DNA, the fragments of a camera found near the crime scene, and a recording.

The prosecution then applied to summon key witnesses.

When Wan Jingquan was brought in by the bailiffs, the whispering in the gallery suddenly became much louder.

He changed out of his tattered homeless clothes and put on an ill-fitting white shirt. His hair was cut short, and his beard was shaved, making him look much cleaner. However, his cloudy eyes still darted restlessly around in their sockets.

Standing in the witness stand, he took the oath as instructed by the bailiffs, his voice hoarse and rough, exactly the same as in the recording.

Zuo Ning sat in the corner of the last row of the audience, wearing a dark jacket, a mask, and a baseball cap with the brim pulled low.

From the moment Wan Jingquan walked into the courtroom, his gaze was fixed on him. Five hundred thousand in cash, to be paid in full after the deed was done—this was the condition he had his men offer Wan Jingquan.

An old man who collects garbage has never seen what 500,000 yuan looks like in his entire life; it's impossible for him not to be tempted. As long as he finishes saying what he needs to say in court today, Lin Feng is doomed.

Wan Jingquan began his statement.

He said that he was sleeping on the third floor of that unfinished building that night when he was woken up by noises from below.

Looking down, I saw a car parked in the open space below, and a man and a woman inside were doing *that*.

A short while later, the man rushed out of the car to chase after the person. He ran very fast and soon returned, covered in blood.

Then the woman drove away, and the man stayed downstairs for a while longer before leaving. He only dared to go downstairs to check after they had both left.

The next day, I heard that the person who had been stalking and taking photos had gone missing.

After he finished speaking, the prosecutor held up Lin Feng's photo. "Witness, was the man you saw that night the same person in the dock?"

Wan Jingquan squinted and stared at Lin Feng for a long time. The courtroom was so quiet that the hum of the overhead fluorescent lights could be heard.

Zuo Ning's fingers clenched slightly on her knees, while Bai Xu sat up straight in the front row of the audience.

Then Wan Jingquan spoke, his voice still hoarse, but what he said caused an uproar in the entire courtroom.

"Well, it was dark, and I couldn't see very clearly from upstairs. He seemed a bit fatter and shorter than this person. I'm not sure." He scratched the back of his head and added, "Also, I saw a blue sedan, but the lawyer said this person was driving a black Volkswagen, so the colors don't match."

"And one more thing... the third photo was also forged by them, and they forced me to identify it!"

The audience erupted in uproar.

Zuo Ning suddenly stood up from his seat. His mask covered most of his face, but his eyes, which were visible, were filled with unbelievable rage.

Bai Xu dropped his pen and, as he bent down to pick it up, bumped his forehead on the back of the seat in front of him. The judge banged his gavel several times to quell the noise in the room.

The defense attorney stood up, his voice clear and firm. "Your Honor," he said, "the witness's testimony in court contradicts his recorded statement, and the third photograph is suspected of being forged. According to the witness's own description, the man he saw was fatter and shorter than my client, and the color of the vehicle did not match the one my client was driving that night. We request access to the parking lot surveillance footage from Ms. Ye Qinghan's residential complex, which can prove that Lin Feng was driving a black Volkswagen that night, not the blue sedan the witness described. Furthermore, the witness's incorrect description of the vehicle type itself indicates a serious deficiency in his observational skills, and the reliability of his testimony should be questioned."

Lin Feng sat in the defendant's seat, a very faint smile on his lips.

He wasn't laughing at Wan Jingquan for recanting his testimony; rather, he knew this would happen all along.

Wan Jingquan was never one of Zuo Ning's people from the beginning. He was a mole planted by Sister Hong, who deliberately let them discover him, but unexpectedly, he came in handy here.

That seemingly flawed account of the "blue sedan" was precisely the protection they deliberately designed for Wan Jingquan, and also the source of Lin Feng's confidence.

By deliberately "making mistakes" on key details, Wan Jingquan could logically overturn his testimony when he recanted in court without being charged with perjury.

This is the real purpose of Wan Jingquan being placed in the Keda Hotel: not to be a witness for Zuo Ning, but to turn against him at the most crucial moment.

Given the incompleteness of the evidence chain, the presiding judge adjourned the court temporarily, requesting the prosecution to supplement new evidence and further verify the authenticity of witness Wan Jingquan's testimony.

As the bailiffs led Lin Feng back out of the courtroom, he glanced back at the gallery. Shen Qianqian was wiping her eyes with a tissue, Su Mengya was straightening the crumpled hem of her skirt, and Lao Qian gave him a thumbs-up, the thumb still trembling slightly.

While this dramatic reversal was taking place in court, the outside world had already completely changed.

Private photos of Wang Hao and Xiao Yu were widely circulated online, quickly becoming the focus of public discussion.