Chapter 68-69: Xu De: Senior, I am Counting on You! |
December 14.
The plaintiff received the court summons. At this point, all three parties were aware of the trial date. It was scheduled for December 17, leaving only three days until the hearing.
Following negotiations, to prevent the defense from influencing him, it was decided that the plaintiff, Yang Huan, would enter the courthouse but would not need to appear in court unless absolutely necessary.
Appearing on behalf of the plaintiff would be his state guardian, He Miao.
...
December 15.
Public opinion surrounding the case began to surge.
Numerous newspapers and media figures started tracking and reporting on the No. 18 Middle School case.
However, due to other factors, the media storm was restricted within Qingwu Province. Although it did not spread nationwide, it created quite a stir within Greenwood City.
Among them, Jinmao Law Firm was brought up for discussion multiple times, simply because the victim''s litigation agent was named Xu De.
...
December 16.
The final day before the first trial of the No. 18 Middle School case!
At 5:00 PM.
Inside the Greenwood City Municipal People''s Procuratorate.
In the Criminal Division of the Second Prosecution Department.
"Prosecutor Huang... regarding this case of yours... prepare yourself mentally beforehand."
Inside the office of the Criminal Division, Prosecutor Hu Guang suddenly spoke up, calling out to Prosecutor Huang Shi, who was about to leave. Hearing the voice, Huang Shi turned around and looked at him.
Huang Shi was thirty-five years old this year, with a slender build, above-average looks, and gold-rimmed glasses that gave him an elegant, scholarly aura.
At this age, out in society, one was considered to have stepped onto the threshold of middle age.
But within the system... he was still considered a young man.
Since he was a young man, therefore...
"If you realize the outcome doesn''t align with your expectations... you can discard your idealism and fight for the immediate reality."
Hu Guang stood up, walked over to him, and spoke while pouring water.
Hearing this, Huang Shi sighed and let out a bitter smile. "For this case... I never had any idealism to begin with."
He understood what his colleague meant. It was nothing more than trying to fight for the absolute furthest line within one''s capabilities when a satisfactory outcome was impossible.
But here lay the problem.
He hadn''t even thought about achieving a satisfactory outcome for this case from the very start!
Why?
Because two people were dead, yet the defendant was merely a sixteen-year-old girl!
Particularly, there was no direct evidence to prove that Liu Jingqi had personally, maliciously, and intentionally committed murder. Combined with her age... even with the maximum sentence for aggravated circumstances, she would only get fifteen years.
If sentenced leniently, she might get seven years, and she would walk free after serving just four!
Therefore... Huang Shi had abandoned any ideal of a perfect resolution right from the beginning.
"Sometimes, that is just how cases are."
Hu Guang finished pouring his water, straightened up, and expressed his feelings with a sigh, a trace of reminiscence drifting through his eyes.
When they first started out as prosecutors, who wasn''t an idealist?
But this line of work was exactly like this. Sometimes, you had no choice but to face situations where you had to act as the bad guy yourself, especially when you personally felt pity for the defendant...
Huang Shi was doing well enough. At the very least, he was fighting for the interests of the victim.
"Director Hu, you..." Huang Shi paused, looked at him, and suddenly asked, "did you say all this just to tell me that?"
Hu Guang snapped out of his thoughts, shook his head immediately, and after a moment of reflection, spoke with casual deliberation:
"The civil lawyer for your case... is quite formidable."
"Perhaps you can listen to his opinions more."
The civil lawyer?
Huang Shi raised an eyebrow.
Since when... did a public prosecutor need to listen to the opinions of a civil litigation lawyer?
Even if the other party was Xu De... this wasn''t a defense; this was a public prosecution that required substantive criminal evidence for an indictment!
"He hasn''t submitted any evidence either." Huang Shi shook his head.
Hu Guang looked somewhat helpless, yet also somewhat relieved as he lamented, "When I fought a case against him... he didn''t submit any evidence either."
"I didn''t even know he had a Letter of Forgiveness."
"It was only after the sentencing was handed down and he approached me personally that I found out he also held irrefutable criminal evidence against Li Youcai and Liu Cui!"
After the Li Youcai and Liu Cui incident, Hu Guang had truly come to peace with Xu De.
There was no helping it.
Those two had been howling continuously in the Detention Center about what kind of agreement they had signed with Xu De and what had been negotiated.
But after looking into it slightly, he discovered...
The man had actually avoided every single risk that could be avoided. Even if Li Youcai and Liu Cui wanted to revoke the Letter of Forgiveness, they had no way out. Xu De had even applied for an asset liquidation to force them to compensate Wang Mei for ten years of losses...
In his decades of practice, he had never seen a lawyer who could quietly calculate someone''s downfall to such a fatal extent!
"In short..."
"During the trial, if you run out of ideas, you can appropriately leave more time for him to speak."
Hu Guang patted his shoulder and said nothing more.
Then, he left on his own.
As for Huang Shi...
A look of suspicion appeared on his face.
"Leave time for him to speak? He hasn''t submitted any evidence, so how can he speak without evidence?"
"Or is it a surprise evidence tactic? That doesn''t seem right either. Surprise evidence is easily rejected unless the cross-examination holds up, but he hasn''t made any moves indicating a cross-examination."
Huang Shi frowned, thinking it over for a long time, before finally laughing in spite of himself.
"It can''t be that he wants me to do the cross-examination for him, right?"
As the words left his mouth, Huang Shi also found the thought a bit amusing. He then let out a sigh and left on his own.
...
On this day, some lawyers stared at six-dimensional charts and fell into deep thought, while some prosecutors tossed and turned late into the night, sighing over the meager evidence available.
Some looked at the basic case files and lamented, while others argued with people on the internet about whether the juvenile laws were flawed.
Some journalists began preparing drafts, and some media figures requested resources in advance.
In short...
This night passed exceptionally slowly, as if time itself had ground to a halt.
Until...
...
...
December 17, the day of the trial... arrived!
Inside the Intermediate People''s Court of Greenwood City, Qingwu Province, Dongguo.
Because a capital crime was involved, the Intermediate Court was responsible for the first instance. At 1:30 PM sharp, the Second Courtroom opened on time for the trial.
Furthermore, because minors were involved, the trial was no longer conducted publicly. However, journalists could still wait outside the courtroom doors; if the soundproofing was poor, they could barely manage to eavesdrop.
At noon.
12:50 PM.
"Whew, a case involving a minor..."
Huang Shi stepped into the public prosecution''s waiting room alongside Prosecutors Wang Mang and Zhang Qing.
The three took their seats. As Huang Shi thought about the case, he sighed from time to time.
He felt somewhat unmotivated for this case.
This was not a lack of responsibility toward the family, but simply... a feeling of having strength but nowhere to exert it. No matter what, one could not bypass the juvenile law statutes.
Huang Shi sat in the waiting room with his eyes closed, his breathing steady.
Until...
"Creak~"
The door to the waiting room was pushed open once again. Huang Shi opened his eyes, turned his head, and saw three lawyers walking in.
He paused and instinctively asked, "The litigation agents?"
"That is me." Xu De nodded, looking at this ''ally'' whom he was meeting for the first time, this esteemed ''teammate'', this naturally bound ''community of shared interests''!
A smile appeared on his face.
"Prosecutor Huang, during the trial later, we will be completely counting on you!"
"Counting on me?" Huang Shi found it somewhat baffling. The prosecution had the evidence.
But the evidence was somewhat like an ant trying to shake a giant tree when facing the opposing statutes; it was negligible. How could they count on him?
Lin Yue and Wang Chao felt a bit guilty, shifting their gazes away, not daring to look at the man.
Xu De, however, spoke with a face full of admiration, "Yes, we are counting on you for the trial!"
Huang Shi was left speechless.
No, why were those two looking so guilty?
Huang Shi felt completely mystified. Just as he was about to question them again, a bailiff stepped up to the group.
"Public prosecution, please get ready. The trial... is about to begin!"