CHAPTER 112: CHAPTER 112 TEN WULONG AND FENGCHU

Although he wasn’t very proficient in law, he knew that minors were exempt from punishment unless they were involved in particularly cruel and heinous criminal cases. They could all be exempt. As long as he could collude with his six-year-old grand-uncle... perhaps he could, like Yang Lina, use his nephew to obtain an acquittal! This was an inspiration he’d gained from seeing Yang Lina’s case. After all, he had received several thousand likes, enough to land him in jail even with a proper defense. But by trying this, he at least had a hope for acquittal!

"Defendant, this is a court of law, and you are responsible for every word you say. Are you sure you didn’t post this comment?" Zhou Quanmin furrowed his brows and asked sternly once more.

Jiang Lin swallowed nervously. But he still steeled himself and defended, "Really, I’m telling the truth. I really didn’t post that comment."

Zhou Quanmin looked deeply at Jiang Lin. For Jiang Lin to reveal such critical information only during his final statement... it was quite unusual. From his many years of experience as Judgment Chief, it seemed highly likely to be a desperate attempt to evade punishment.

"Defense attorney, what do you have to say about this matter?" he then asked, turning his head to look at Zhang Wei.

Zhang Wei, given the opportunity to speak, took a deep breath and stated truthfully, "Regarding this matter, my client did not inform me beforehand. I earnestly request that the court allow us sufficient time to gather evidence and prove our innocence."

He didn’t refute his client immediately. Instead, he planned to confirm the situation with his client after the court session.

Zhou Quanmin nodded. "If that is the case, this trial will be postponed for further review. We will now proceed with the next case."

Cases like this, where doubt existed, indeed required careful consideration. And since this was not a criminal public prosecution case, collecting evidence was not the responsibility of the prosecutor’s office. According to criminal law, in private prosecution cases, the plaintiff must find the evidence themselves to demonstrate that their rights were violated and to prove the defendant’s illegal and criminal behavior. Qin Mu had already submitted the relevant evidence and whistleblowing materials. As for the defendant, once the opposing party had submitted evidence, their only recourse to refute the claims and clear their name was to find their own evidence and prove their innocence. Only in exceptional cases could they apply for the prosecutor’s office to intervene in evidence collection.

"The next case, defendant Zhao Kai..." Zhou Quanmin struck the gavel, proceeding with the trial of the fourteenth case.

However, the subsequent defendants, having seen the examples of Yang Lina and Jiang Lin, were all remarkably in sync. They unanimously proclaimed their innocence, claiming they were not the actual posters of the comments.

"Judge, I didn’t make the comment; my account was hacked at that time! I knew nothing about it!"

"I remember selling that account to someone else last month. It’s very possible that the buyer posted it."

"Judge, please see the truth! My phone was stolen by a thief that day; I had no knowledge of what happened."

"At that time, my dog seemed to have licked my phone screen, turning it on..."

For the sake of exonerating themselves, the following individuals all presented various excuses, adamantly denying they were the actual publishers of the comments. This made the trial of the case incredibly difficult.

As a result, by five o’clock in the afternoon, the trials for only twenty-two individuals in the entire defamation case had been completed! The evidence for the first twelve individuals was clear, allowing their cases to be concluded. But starting with Jiang Lin, ten consecutive people claimed they hadn’t posted the comments, offering a plethora of bizarre excuses—some even tried to use their family dogs as scapegoats.

In the defendants’ dock, Zhang Wei watched his clients’ "impressive maneuvers," his face grim. He felt like killing someone. He’d worked hard for several nights, preparing litigation materials and defenses for these people. Then suddenly, in court, they completely went against his advice, trying to exonerate themselves. Ten consecutive people claiming the comments weren’t posted by them... This was almost impossible! The only explanation was that these clients, after seeing Yang Lina’s example, had blindly followed suit, believing they too could use this method to escape punishment! For these internet trolls, this was all too common. Following the crowd was an instinct ingrained in their very being. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been furiously attacking others online, leading to their lawsuits in the first place.

BANG—

Above the courtroom, Zhou Quanmin struck the gavel and said in a weighty voice, "The trial of today’s cases is hereby concluded. Cases not yet heard will continue tomorrow morning at ten o’clock sharp! The ten previous defendants who denied posting the comments must prepare their evidence and submit it to the court within three days. Court is adjourned!"

With those words, he rubbed his forehead, his face etched with exhaustion, and left the courtroom with the other judges.

In the gallery, Zhang Qingyuan and the others had lost all desire to sleep, their gazes fixed unwaveringly on the defendants. They had just witnessed a plethora of excuses. This group, in order to escape punishment, was selling out their nephews, their grand-uncles, or even their family dogs... It was clear to any discerning eye that there was something fishy about this crowd.

Unfortunately, just when things were getting interesting, the trial concluded for the day.

"We were just getting to the good part. How could it end so quickly?"

"Don’t be hasty. Isn’t the trial continuing tomorrow? They’ve only finished with twenty-two; there are still dozens more to go."

"Xiao Qin, do you think with their cunning arguments, searching for scapegoats, they can really get away scot-free?"

"..."

After the court adjourned, Zhang Qingyuan and others gathered around Qin Mu, bombarding him with questions. It was like listening to hundreds of ducks quarreling.

Meanwhile, Zhang Wei seemed to have blown a fuse, storming out of the courtroom immediately after the adjournment. The fifty-six defendants looked at each other in bewilderment, not understanding why Zhang Wei had suddenly lost his temper so dramatically.

"It seems like luck might be the issue after all..." Qin Mu’s eyes sparkled briefly, the corners of his mouth curling up. The first few trials had proceeded normally. The defense arguments for sentence reduction had been quite effective. But starting with Jiang Lin, these trolls... had all developed their own clever ideas. Faced with three years of fixed-term imprisonment, no one would willingly go to jail. After all, many ordinary people had never been involved in a criminal lawsuit in their entire lives. Thus, ten people in succession had "fabricated" various excuses in court, trying to escape punishment.

But... they seemed to have forgotten that the courtroom is a place that demands evidence. Baseless claims wouldn’t suffice; a complete chain of evidence was needed to prove one’s words. And making baseless allegations, fabricating evidence, attempting to evade punishment, and obstructing the judicial process... that would constitute perjury.

"If these ten individuals can’t provide real evidence... their sentences will probably only get longer," he thought. The corner of his mouth twitched. The sudden appearance of these ten budding geniuses was completely beyond his expectations. He even felt a bit sorry for Zhang Wei.