Chapter 78: Age! The Judiciary Doesn''t Recognize It! |
He passed out.
At the defense bench, defense attorney Zhang Wei had passed out.
This time, it wasn''t just reporter Zhang Xia. Even Prosecutor Huang Shi felt slightly dizzy.
Fainting during a court trial couldn''t be considered a common occurrence, but it wasn''t exactly rare either.
It mainly happened when the human body, after enduring extreme tension, intense mental strain, and high muscle tautness, suddenly relaxed. The brain would lack oxygen, naturally resulting in fainting.
Some dedicated judges would even stay up late for long periods, overdrawing their bodies until it eventually led to sudden cardiac death.
As for Zhang Wei...
"What time is it?"
Huang Shi felt his head spinning. He rubbed his forehead and asked the people around him.
"Half past five," a reporter replied.
Half past five...
Xu De had spoken for at most half an hour, and he had started presenting evidence at two o''clock. That meant...
He had battled fiercely against Zhang Wei and Sun Bing over the evidence for a full three hours!
Three hours of high-intensity legal maneuvering!
Their opponents weren''t ordinary lawyers whom he could easily suppress, but golden lawyers with extreme competence, tricky perspectives, and lightning-fast reactions...
Yet, both sides had forced themselves to their absolute limits, clashing fiercely the entire time.
And Zhang Wei was clearly under the highest mental pressure of anyone in the room...
To put it bluntly, aside from establishing guilt, Xu De''s evidence wasn''t very aggressive toward Liu Jingqi. Or rather... all the offensive power was smashed directly onto Zhang Wei, inflicting literal physical damage!
It was his first time seeing a trial where, instead of cornering the defendant, they first figured out how to knock the defense attorney out of the game...
And this had lasted for a full three hours!!!
Thinking of this.
Even Huang Shi could hardly contain himself, his mouth twitching slightly.
He looked at the expressionless, seemingly nonchalant Xu De standing beside him, and really wanted to shoot him a speechless look.
Unfortunately, he had also reached his limit. Exhausted and without a shred of energy left, he could only take a deep breath and reply, "Maybe... maybe he skipped lunch and had low blood sugar."
With that said.
Huang Shi waved his hand, ignoring the gazes of the people around him, and led his team away.
After some thought, Xu De quickly caught up with Huang Shi, even intercepting him just as he reached the courthouse entrance.
The few reporters left behind looked at each other, completely oblivious to what had just transpired.
Until...
Not long after, Zhang Wei was frantically carried out of the courtroom.
As he passed by.
The crowd stared at his pale lips and sweat-drenched face, involuntarily gulping.
Until...
The clerk walking out of the courtroom was surrounded by the crowd. He briefly disclosed the details of the case, and the next second...
The expressions of everyone present gradually shifted from confusion to...
Shock!
Meanwhile.
In the main hall of the Greenwood City Intermediate People''s Court.
Huang Shi panted heavily. His throbbing head made him feel like he was going to explode. He just wanted to get a good sleep. His steps toward the exit were incredibly heavy, the sound echoing through the empty hall.
This case...
The energy it drained from him was simply too immense. If Hu Guang had been here... just relying on his forty-plus years of age, he probably would have been worn out and knocked unconscious by the defense bench long ago!
It was only because he was thirty-five that he barely held on.
Right now, Huang Shi only wanted to go back and get a good sleep.
Unfortunately...
"Prosecutor Huang, please wait a moment. We still have some things we want to ask you."
A voice echoed from behind him.
Huang Shi halted his steps and looked back.
He saw that the people chasing after him were none other than the legal representatives, Xu De and his two companions.
Seeing this, Huang Shi''s face darkened, and he couldn''t help but ask, "Lawyer Xu, do you... have some weird fetish?"
Hearing this.
Xu De, who had just stopped in front of him and prepared to ask a question, froze. Looking utterly confused, he asked, "Prosecutor Huang, what do you mean by that?"
"You don''t know what I mean?"
Huang Shi felt that this lawyer in front of him was an absolute demon... a demon who enjoyed torturing prosecutors, and one that they could do nothing against!
Just last month, he had heard that after a trial, Hu Guang had bought a boxed lunch, but before he could even take two bites, he was chased away by this guy and had to investigate the case on an empty stomach... Given the timing of his evidence submission, it was hard not to suspect he was doing it on purpose!
And now...
His head was about to explode, yet here they were blocking him again.
This guy was a devil!
Of course, looking at it this way alone wasn''t enough to confirm anything.
But...
Huang Shi truly couldn''t hold back anymore. Since court was adjourned, he immediately accused him, "Were you doing that on purpose with the evidence during the trial?"
"Doing what on purpose?"
Seeing the other party trying to settle the score, Xu De immediately played dumb. His eyes even cleared up a bit, and his expression looked genuinely bewildered.
"I really forgot to submit that evidence."
"I graduated from Yan University Law School. Being law-abiding is my foundation!"
"The ''De'' in my name stands for the ''De'' in morality!"
A surprise attack with non-compliant evidence would lead to the evidence being rejected, and secretly filming was an outright crime. Breaking the law would result in a prison sentence.
However.
His evidence was not rejected, nor was he sentenced.
Then, didn''t this prove that Xu De hadn''t violated any rules?
If there were no violations, didn''t that mean he was a law-abiding citizen!?
Huang Shi...
Huang Shi''s lips moved for a moment. He stared blankly at Xu De, hesitating for a long time. His throat bobbed up and down, but he couldn''t force a single word out.
Finally.
"Heh."
Huang Shi laughed.
He let out an extremely relieved smile.
Forget it, an ambush was an ambush. If he had to burn his energy covering for him, so be it. At least, as the public prosecutor, he now had the evidence to charge Liu Jingqi.
"Alright, why did you stop me, Lawyer Xu?"
Huang Shi took a deep breath to ease the throbbing in his brain.
"If there''s nothing else... I''m in a hurry to get back to the Prosecutor''s Office. Let''s skip the idle chatter."
Seeing that he wasn''t going to pursue the matter, Xu De immediately said, "Naturally, it''s official business!"
Official business?
The only official business between them was the case at the 18th High School.
"What is it!?"
Huang Shi grew serious, fixing his gaze on the other party.
This person could quietly drop a massive bombshell. For him to actually need to discuss something right now...
He was one hundred percent brewing something even bigger!
Sure enough.
When the other party opened his mouth and uttered a few words...
He saw.
Xu De look at him, frown, and say in a deep voice, "Prosecutor Huang, the age of the defendant Liu Jingqi..."
"It''s not right, is it?"
The defendant Liu Jingqi''s age wasn''t right... The age wasn''t right!
Suddenly.
Huang Shi''s expression instantly turned dead serious. His momentarily relaxed brain tensed up again, and waves of stabbing pain shot through the back of his head. However, he was in no mood to care about the discomfort and instead lowered his voice.
"What do you mean?"
Xu De replied, "Exactly what it sounds like."
"I now suspect that the defendant Liu Jingqi''s age is problematic!"
With that said.
Huang Shi narrowed his eyes, staring fixedly at him.
The implication behind those words was...
He wanted to charge at the legal red line!
The issue of conviction had been resolved, but the giant mountain of the Minors Protection Act was still blocking their way, impossible to pry loose no matter what.
And to win the case... they had to confront this law.
But to put it bluntly, as long as this law existed, a moral victory was impossible.
Unless...
This law was eradicated in the courtroom.
"You suspect her age was faked!?"
Huang Shi''s breathing grew somewhat ragged, his tone anxious. Afraid of being overheard, he lowered his voice.
"Lawyer Xu, regarding this..."
"I advise you not to dig too deeply into it. All I can say is... her age is legally valid, and there is no forgery."
"Even if you look into it..."
"Digging to the very end... will only put the police in a dilemma, roasting them on the hot oil pan of public opinion with no way down. It won''t help the case one bit."
Roasting them on public opinion with no way down?
What did that mean!?
Lin Yue and Wang Chao, who had hurried over from behind, paused slightly, furrowing their brows as they began to ponder.
As for Xu De...
He suddenly retorted with a question, "Which means..."
"You guys already felt there was an issue with Liu Jingqi''s age from the start!?"
With that said.
Without waiting for an answer, Xu De spoke again, "Why not dig deeper!?"
He frowned, shedding his earlier feigned ignorance. Instead, he gave off a sense of oppression. Those sharp eyes seemed capable of piercing through layers of skin to stare straight into a person''s heart!
"Because digging deeper won''t yield anything!!"
Huang Shi''s tone carried a faint hint of anger. It wasn''t directed at Xu De, but rather at the matter itself.
"What do you mean?" Lin Yue couldn''t hold back and asked.
Hearing this.
Huang Shi noticed his own loss of composure. He fell silent for a moment and sighed.
"Let''s sit down and talk."
Saying that, he walked toward a nearby public bench.
Xu De didn''t hesitate. He followed him and sat beside Huang Shi. He didn''t speak, just quietly waited for the man to give him an answer.
Huang Shi wasn''t in a hurry to speak either. He flipped open his suit jacket, pulled out a pack of cigarettes from an inner pocket, and handed two to Xu De.
Wang Chao waited for a long time, only to be surprised that he didn''t get one.
"Snap!"
Huang Shi lit it up and took a deep drag.
The nicotine filled his lungs, gradually calming his anxious emotions and slightly easing the throbbing in his temples.
Watching the white smoke puff out, Huang Shi said, "You should know what the law looks at to determine a person''s age, right?"
Xu De nodded.
Naturally, he knew.
The law didn''t look at your actual biological age; it only looked at your identification. Even if you were an adult in reality, as long as your ID said you were a minor, you would not bear full criminal responsibility.
Unless you underwent judicial bone age testing and a massive discrepancy was found, only then would your age be rewritten!
Otherwise...
Even if everyone knew your age was wrong, they could only stand by and watch!
"From the beginning of the case, the Prosecutor''s Office and the police had their eyes on Liu Jingqi''s age."
"We hired a third-party judicial appraisal institution to test her bone age... Did you know about this?"
Saying that, Huang Shi looked at Xu De.
Xu De recalled for a moment, then nodded.
He had an impression of this matter.
When Sun Zhigang and Tang Xiaohu commissioned him, the first thing he brought up upon receiving the materials was the age issue. Tang Xiaohu had explicitly mentioned the prosecutor''s appraisal actions at the time.
"The appraised age is between sixteen and eighteen years old."
Huang Shi smacked his lips, casually revealing the result.
"Her ID card says sixteen, which falls within the range. Her age cannot be rewritten, and she must be judged as a sixteen-year-old minor."
Hearing this.
Lin Yue, sitting to the side, suddenly caught a key point.
She immediately furrowed her elegant brows and asked intently.
"On what basis did the Prosecutor''s Office suspect her age?"
The three of them targeted her age because of Liu Jingqi''s physical appearance, her psychological fortitude, and the client''s appeal.
What about the prosecution?
It couldn''t be a coincidence that all three parties thought the exact same thing!
"Very simple. Official internal documents."
"Liu Jingqi''s birthday is January 1st. Lawyer Xu, what do you think that means?"
Huang Shi spoke very freely, without any cover-ups.
A January 1st birthday...
Xu De narrowed his eyes, rapidly retrieving a useful piece of information from his mind.
He tentatively asked, "An orphan?"
As the word dropped.
Huang Shi, who had just been about to give the answer, was instantly choked up. He looked at Xu De, his lips moving soundlessly for a moment. Even Lin Yue and Wang Chao looked somewhat surprised.
Finally.
"Lawyer Xu''s legal acumen is... truly flawless. Chen Wei wasn''t wronged by losing to you."
Huang Shi smiled helplessly, adding, "That''s right."
"Liu Jingqi is not Liu Hao and Cai Fei''s biological child. She''s an orphan."
"To be exact, she was an orphan from the Jiaqin Welfare Institute in Greenwood City, adopted by Liu Hao and Cai Fei eleven years ago."
"The couple suffered from congenital infertility. Eleven years ago, they were already forty-two years old, so they went to the welfare institute and adopted Liu Jingqi to treat as their own daughter."
"Besides her, Jiang Yu and Qiao Wang are the same. They come from the exact same place, though those two are within the normal age range."
Most people probably never considered a certain question.
That was...
How exactly did the government determine the age of an orphan adopted from a welfare institute?
After all, most children might just be infants when taken in. They couldn''t speak, and the welfare institute couldn''t find their parents.
In theory, there was no way to know their exact identity.
And indeed, the welfare institute didn''t know their birth identities. Therefore...
For these children, there were generally two methods of determining age.
First, by estimating the age to determine the birth year, and using the date they were found as their birthday.
Or perhaps setting it as February 1st. But the most common, by far, was January 1st!
"When adopted, their bone age is tested. It''s a rough measurement, with a conservative margin of error of plus or minus three years."
Second...
"Welfare institutes generally set the birth date based on the absolute lowest possible estimate."
Huang Shi spoke slowly.
Age was a massive issue. To provide orphans with better safety nets, welfare institutes typically secured their age using the most extreme methods, avoiding situations where they might be too old to enter school and the like.
Judicial appraisals were more precise, narrowing the margin to plus or minus two years.
By calculation... Jiaqin Welfare Institute might have even shaved off an extra year for her. It wasn''t the most extreme case, otherwise, in theory, Liu Jingqi could currently be living under the identity of a fifteen-year-old.
In short...
"From a legal standpoint."
"You cannot find a single angle to overturn her age."
"Even though this age was likely intentionally lowballed, you have no way to overthrow it!"
Huang Shi smoked his cigarette, his tone flat, but concealing countless threads of worry.
Lin Yue said, "But under normal circumstances, in order to make it easier for children to be adopted... welfare institutes intentionally reduce their ages by a year or two."
"Even if Liu Jingqi isn''t an adult..."
"As long as she is legally designated as seventeen, that relieves a tremendous amount of pressure for us!"
Among minors, the law grows exponentially stricter for every two years younger they are.
At sixteen, a life sentence is extremely difficult to secure.
But at seventeen, as long as they perform exceptionally well in this case, there is a very high probability of securing life!
And during the time of the crime, even accounting for the "watered-down" factors of bone age discrepancy and the welfare institute''s attempt to make the child more adoptable, Liu Jingqi was still only fourteen days away from turning seventeen.
Not to mention if you squeezed the water out, she was one hundred percent already over seventeen!
"Heh."
Huang Shi let out a hollow chuckle.
He continued smoking.
"But."
"The judiciary doesn''t recognize it..."
"The judiciary doesn''t recognize your reasoning!"