A... a witness?!
The moment that word was spoken, everyone in the courtroom reacted differently.
The presiding judge furrowed his brow in thought.
The prosecutors, Hu Guang and Wang Wei, who had been about to say something, paused. It was as if a thought struck them. Their lips moved, but ultimately, they said nothing.
As for the "plaintiffs," Li Youcai and Liu Cui...
The two had been listening from the gallery this whole time. Stunned expressions appeared on their faces; they simply couldn’t figure out who this witness could be.
The gallery erupted in discussion.
"A witness? The defense has a witness? Weren’t they all from Li Family Village at the scene of the crime?"
"In the first hearing, less than a fifth of the testimonies favoring the prosecution were deemed credible. And now the defense just pulls a witness out of their sleeve who supports the defendant..."
"It couldn’t be one of those cops, could it?"
"Doesn’t seem likely..."
"..."
Waves of commotion rippled through the room.
The reporter, Zhang Xia, sat amidst the crowd, frowning as she listened to the surrounding hubbub.
She had investigated this case and had never heard of anyone else being at the scene besides the three involved parties. Theoretically, there shouldn’t be any witnesses for the defendant.
She kept watching, saying nothing.
On the judge’s bench.
BANG!
"Order!"
Zhang Bingxin took a deep breath, taking the rare step of restoring order to the court himself.
The authority emanating from him instantly quelled the unrest. The courtroom fell silent, and all eyes turned to the bench.
Zhang Bingxin said,
"Counsel for the defense, is the witness present?"
Xu De nodded and replied directly, "The witness is in the witness room and ready to be called at any time."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Bingxin didn’t waste any time and struck his gavel.
CRACK!
"Call the witness to the stand!"
As his voice fell, everyone in the courtroom turned their gaze to the side of the bench. They stared at the door, frowning, their minds racing to guess the witness’s identity.
After a moment, the sound of rustling footsteps reached their ears.
Eyebrows rose across the room. The next second, the door was opened by two bailiffs.
CREAK~
A frail woman in faded, well-worn clothes walked in, her eyes betraying a slight nervousness.
The judge and the prosecution sized her up, but the "plaintiffs," on the other hand... were becoming emotional.
"Li Li!!!"
From the plaintiffs’ seats, Li Youcai and Liu Cui shrieked her name.
They stared at Li Li in disbelief, their faces a mask of shock and astonishment.
Who was Li Li?
She was their relative’s daughter. They were usually on very good terms with her. Why would she show up at a trial to testify for the defense?
Of course, that wasn’t what truly bothered them. It was something else entirely.
"You have the nerve to come to court?!"
"You bitch! I’ll rip your damn face off!"
With twisted expressions, Li Youcai and Liu Cui looked ready to ignore all decorum and climb out of their seats to get to Li Li.
They hated her. They hated her so much they could kill her!
They had entrusted their grandson to her care, but she... she had handed the child over to Wang Mei!
Because of that, they were forced to sign a settlement agreement and didn’t even get much compensation money. It was all her fault!
Li Li was guided to the witness stand. Hearing the commotion, she felt a pang of guilt.
But guilt gave way to anger, and she glared back at them with wide eyes.
"Order! Order!"
Zhang Bingxin took another deep breath, suppressing his anger.
"The prosecution will control their party. If you disrupt these proceedings again, I have the authority to have you removed from this courtroom!"
Removed from the courtroom...
Hearing this, Li Youcai and Liu Cui reluctantly shut their mouths, their faces full of resentment. But their furious eyes never left Li Li.
"Witness, please confirm your identity. Are you Li Li of Li Family Village, Lusen City, ID number..."
Zhang Bingxin returned his focus to Li Li.
Li Li had been a little afraid of Li Youcai and Liu Cui.
But now, all she wanted was to see the two of them face justice. Her fear and anxiety turned to anger, and she quickly replied,
"That’s me!"
Zhang Bingxin nodded. After a moment of thought, he asked,
"Witness, at the time of the incident, during the struggle between Wang Qiang and Li Erniu, where were you located?"
Li Li said, "I was right there watchin’... I even saw someone smashin’ the police car."
After confirming her presence, Zhang Bingxin cut straight to the heart of the matter.
"Witness."
"After Wang Qiang pushed Li Erniu out of the vehicle, did you see... someone standing behind Wang Qiang? And was that person armed and attempting to strike him!?"
The moment that question was asked, the courtroom once again fell silent.
Everyone held their breath. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop—or the thumping of your own heart. All eyes were fixed on Li Li in the witness box.
Xu De was no exception. His face was expressionless, but he swallowed hard, his hands unconsciously clenching into fists.
Li Li was the witness.
But that didn’t guarantee she would say what Xu De hoped. The questions were impromptu; no one knew if Li Li actually had the answers the court was looking for.
And her answer, if it aligned with Xu De’s defense, would... set the final course for this trial!
Hu Guang and Wang Wei also stared at her intently.
In this state of extreme quiet...
"Was there someone behind him?"
Li Li finally spoke, her voice carrying to the more than four hundred people in the courtroom. She frowned and said,
"That... I don’t know. I wasn’t payin’ attention."
She didn’t know?
Everyone’s heart skipped a beat. At the defense table, Xu De sighed and began to rethink his strategy.
But then!
"But... I think I remember, when that man first tried to leave, it looked like someone hit him."
Li Li suddenly spoke again.
"Maybe I’m misrememberin’, but I definitely remember he almost fell down. That’s how Er Niu managed to tackle him."
"As for who hit him or from where, I don’t know."
As her words faded, suddenly—
Xu De’s head snapped up. He stared at Li Li on the witness stand.
’The defendant, Wang Qiang, was hit when he tried to leave... he was hit!’
Those simple words spun and echoed in everyone’s mind.
Xu De suddenly let out a long breath.
When he looked up again,
a faint smile graced his face—a smile of immense relief.
A "not guilty" defense might be common in movies and TV shows, but it’s incredibly difficult to pull off in reality.
How difficult?
Let’s put it this way: any case that makes it to court has already gone through the procuratorate’s procedures, filtered step by step.
Therefore, with this pre-screening process, combined with the prevailing principle of finding guilt—albeit with a lighter sentence—in doubtful cases, the conviction rate in the courts in 2002 was 99.4%.
In other words, out of a thousand cases, there was only a 0.6% chance that the court would declare a defendant not guilty. To call it next to impossible was no exaggeration.
And that figure even included cases with inconsistent chains of evidence, questionable proof, or those that were purely false accusations and easily dismantled in court!
Furthermore, that was for all criminal cases, not just homicides.
In a homicide case where the defendant was clearly identified as the killer, the acquittal rate... was infinitely close to zero!
It couldn’t even be described as a probability. It was a rare, exceptional, and unrepeatable anomaly in the judicial system!
But now.
Xu De might just be able... to hook a finger around that near-zero probability and give it a slight, gentle nudge.
"Your Honor."
A voice cut through the silence from the defense table.
"The case has become very clear."
"The defendant, Wang Qiang, had no subjective intent to injure, nor did he engage in excessive pursuit..."
"The arguments put forth by the prosecution are not objective facts, are not supported by evidence, are inconsistent with the facts of this case, and are purely subjective conjecture. They should not be accepted!"
"Therefore, the defense now petitions..."
Xu De spoke, raising his head to stare calmly at the three robed judges on the high bench.
His face showed no joy, no anxiety, no anger—only a placid stillness, like a pool of stagnant water.
He spoke, his voice not loud, but it pierced the ears of everyone present:
"To dismiss all charges from the prosecution!"
The moment the words fell,
a jolt went through the four hundred-odd people in the entire courtroom. The trial, once dead silent, came ’alive’ again.
Hot blood began to surge through their veins once more, flowing into their rapidly beating hearts.
At the defendant’s table.
Wang Qiang, who had been staring down at his cuffed hands, froze in a daze. Then, his head snapped up, his gaze fixed on the figure of his lawyer.
He saw Xu De’s piercing gaze locked onto the figures of the prosecution. Though he stood alone, the aura he projected was in no way inferior.
The foundation of the accusations had been refuted, all perspectives and suspicions negated. No matter how capable Hu Guang and Wang Wei were, there were no angles left in this case for them to exploit.
’And I’m still holding a pile of favorable evidence.’
’In that case, from this moment on...’
’The roles of offense and defense are reversed!’
Xu De looked up at the three figures sitting high on the judge’s bench.
’It’s time... to turn up the heat on the judges!!!’