Chapter 313: The Will of the People

"There's still evidence?"

"That Gou Changzheng got careless. If he had just seized on a single detail from any of the twenty-one charges, he wouldn't have ended up in this state."

"You can't blame the plaintiff for being incompetent; the defense just planned too far ahead. The suspect and his defense lawyer are both brilliant. The lawyer deliberately arrived late to create the illusion that the defendant didn't even have legal counsel, making Gou Changzheng drop his guard. Waiting until Gou had wasted all of the plaintiff's cross-examination time before making a fully prepared entrance—the move was just far too underhanded!"

"The previous pieces of evidence the defense lawyer provided struck at the very foundation of the case. Don't tell me he's planning to enter a not-guilty plea for the defendant?"

"Overturning all twenty-one charges? That's quite the ambition."

More and more murmurs from the gallery drifted into my ears. Even I found it incredible. Du Yu had brought me far too many surprises, and I was deeply curious about his final piece of evidence.

"Order!" Chen Haiyi banged his gavel twice. "The cross-examination phase ends in eight minutes. Will the defense please submit their final piece of evidence?"

Du Yu nodded with a smile and pulled a case file from his bag. The thick dossier was quite old, but it was perfectly preserved, the writing still clear.

"This is a case file I borrowed from the Public Security Archives Management Office. The case it details is the rainy night serial murder case that shocked Jiangcheng five years ago." Du Yu handed the file to the judge.

"Why bring up an old case from five years ago?" Gou Changzheng instinctively sensed something was wrong, craning his neck to try and read the contents of the file.

After flipping through it, the judges had the clerk place the file on the projector. This trial was open and transparent; everyone present had the right to know.

"Five years ago, on a similarly storm-ravaged night, an innocent person died in Jiangcheng every hour after midnight. The methods of murder were cruel, bizarre, and filled with a sense of ritual."

"The murders continued unabated, and the killer left no traces. Just as the entire city's police force found themselves at a total loss, a rookie officer stepped forward. He suspected that the killer had infiltrated the police's internal communications, so he disobeyed the main bureau's orders and hunted the killer alone in the rain. Facts proved him right. Relying on his extraordinary insight and analytical ability, he discovered the killer before anyone else could, delaying the death of the fourth victim."

"The killing ritual was disrupted. Desperate to escape as quickly as possible, the murderer knocked the rookie officer unconscious and dumped him at the fourth crime scene."

"And here is the crucial part. When the police broke down the doors and windows to find the rookie officer in the same room as the dead victim, they didn't immediately call for medical personnel to save him. Instead, they photographed the scene. In the weeks that followed, as the case sank into a quagmire with zero progress, public pressure mounted. They ultimately made the decision to sacrifice a pawn to save themselves. The detectives from the Municipal Sub-bureau and the main bureau uniformly declared to the public that this rookie officer was a major suspect."

Du Yu's voice grew heavy, and the smile on his face shifted into an expression of outright mockery. "Politics is not justice, and interests are not justice. But when politics and interests align, these people turn into crusaders holding the banner of justice high, scrambling to bring this rookie officer to trial. Although the case was dismissed in the first instance due to insufficient evidence, the rookie's life was drastically altered. He was expelled from the police academy and barred from the Police Department. The only driving force keeping him alive was the need to find the real killer!"

"For five years, he endured endless scorn and the pointing fingers of thousands. Finally, he waited until this day. On the night of the incident, the killers from the rainy night serial murders of five years ago returned to Jiangcheng. This time, they were even more deranged—they intended to destroy the Lanjiang Dam. The torrential rain had poured ceaselessly for three days, bringing the river to its highest water level since the country's founding. If the dam gave way, the entire downstream region would be turned into a vast lake. The killers sneaked onto the dam late at night with malicious intent. This rookie officer, wronged for five years, disregarded past grievances. He overcame unimaginable obstacles to reach the top of the dam and ultimately stopped the criminals all on his own. He shot and killed one of the murderers, while the other, driven to despair, dragged him off the dam to plummet down together."

"Countless people held their breath at that sight. Sunlight pierced through the dark clouds, shining upon his falling body. Everyone on the dam saw it with absolute clarity. The man who plummeted off that dam, using his own body to protect Jiangcheng, was the defendant—Gao Jian!"

Du Yu's voice gradually slowed. "It was he who saved Jiangcheng. It was he who saved all of you! And yet, how do you treat him now? You make him wear a prison uniform, put him in handcuffs, restrict his freedom, and point guns at his head. Then you sit in your high seats, looking down on him as he stands trial!"

"Lawyer Du, you seem to be going slightly off-topic. If you have finished presenting your final piece of evidence, I will petition the judge to restart the cross-examination." Gou Changzheng interrupted Du Yu. He had no choice but to do this. Du Yu was already dominating the courtroom, and the people were following the flow of his words. If things continued like this, it would be extremely detrimental to the plaintiff.

"Off-topic? I am merely stating the facts." Du Yu pulled the very last document from his bag. "This is the DNA lab report and blood sample analysis of the criminal shot by the defendant, Gao Jian, along with photographs of the victims discovered in the basement of the killer's residence at the New Century Amusement Park. Furthermore, the analysis of the victims' severed limbs retrieved from the wax museum matches the preserved victim data from five years ago perfectly! All of the aforementioned materials were provided by the Municipal Sub-bureau Criminal Investigation Department, and their contents are entirely authentic and credible."

"This document of yours only proves that the defendant killed a criminal. It doesn't prove that the defendant's actions were innocent." Gou Changzheng was still stubbornly clinging on. The Jiang family had paid him an astronomical legal fee. If he somehow botched a trial that should have been a guaranteed victory, his reputation would be utterly destroyed.

"Article 71 of our nation's Criminal Procedure Law stipulates that those who perform meritorious deeds may receive a lighter or mitigated punishment. Those who perform major meritorious deeds may be given a mitigated penalty or exempted from punishment entirely. The defendant, Gao Jian, killed a criminal single-handedly. Defying death, he protected the Lanjiang Dam, prevented it from collapsing, and saved the lives of millions throughout Jiangcheng. Can such a monumental contribution truly not offset charges of fleeing, resisting arrest, and causing traffic accidents?"

After Du Yu finished speaking, the hundred-plus people in the gallery and the judges all fell silent, lost in deep thought.

The situation was growing increasingly dire for the plaintiff. Gou Changzheng scrambled to speak before the presiding judge could open his mouth. "The law does not accommodate human feelings! Even if everything the defense lawyer said is entirely true, a crime is still a crime. Blatantly provoking the law must be met with sanctions. I appeal to the presiding judge and request to restart the cross-examination!"

Gou Changzheng's words did indeed hold merit. The law does not accommodate human feelings. Several of the judges nodded repeatedly.

"I don't see any need to restart the cross-examination. It's time for this final piece of evidence to show its face." Du Yu set down his briefcase and walked out from behind the defense counsel's table.

"What are you doing? You are not permitted to leave your seat without authorization."

"I am merely going to show you the evidence." Ignoring the bailiffs trying to stop him, Du Yu strode past the plaintiff's table, stepped up to the window, and yanked the heavy curtains open with one hand.

The sunlight was blindingly bright, causing the writing on the projector screen to blur.

"What is this man trying to do?"

"To prevent case details from leaking, the curtains cannot be opened casually during a trial. Lawyer Du, you are knowingly breaking the law."

Du Yu ignored them and simply pointed out the window. "Look out there."

The gallery and the jury were the first to stand and peer outside. The plaintiff's counsel and the presiding judge quickly followed, looking in the direction Du Yu was pointing. Their gazes were caught by something, and they didn't look away for a long time.

Held between the bailiffs, I also stood on my tiptoes out of curiosity. My gaze passed over the windowsill, and I saw the main entrance of the courthouse.

The twenty-some steps were packed with emergency repairmen in electrician and mechanic uniforms, as well as the soldiers who had been on standby at the dam for flood control. But what drew the most attention was the group standing at the very top of the stairs: every detective from the Municipal Sub-bureau Criminal Investigation Department, except for Chen Feng, all dressed in full uniform and facing the courtroom.

Led by Tie Ningxiang and Wu Meng, they stood tall and straight, their right hands raised high in a sharp salute!

"The people outside are the workers and officers who were on the dam that day. They are the warriors who stood on the front lines of life and death, and they are the witnesses to the defendant saving the dam. I didn't force them to accompany me here, but they still chose to come. Even if they can't enter the courtroom, they are determined to testify for the defendant!"

Du Yu took a deep breath, his eyes sweeping across everyone in the courtroom. "There is an absolute gap between legal justice and natural justice in this case. What I want to say is that the judicial system is not just about the implementation of rules on paper. It's about the core values those rules strive for. Even more than that, it's about ethical principles and the will of the people!"