The day before Shi Tiexin emerged from seclusion, the entrance to Nie's City Courthouse was packed three layers deep inside and three layers deep outside.
People had gathered from every direction, holding signs outside the courthouse and shouting slogans.
"Hell is empty; the devils walk among men!"
"Put the devil on trial! Send the devil back to hell!"
"Age should not be a shield for crime!"
There was a reason people had come here: today's trial had drawn widespread public attention.
The defendant was a thirteen-year-old boy named Isaac.
Charges: rape and murder.
The case itself was quite simple.
Thirteen-year-old Isaac had coveted Fanny, an eleven-year-old girl living next door. A month earlier, he had kidnapped Fanny and raped her. After the rape, Fanny's father flew into a rage, immediately called the police, and personally escorted Isaac to the station, filing rape charges against him.
After hearing the case, Nie's City Court found that Isaac was under fourteen years old, declared him not guilty, and released him in court.
The case had caused some commotion at the time and sparked another round of debate over whether juvenile offenders should bear criminal responsibility, but its impact had not been that great.
The various human rights organizations and other shit-stirring forces in Guo Country were powerful, and "political correctness" had reached the point of madness. Such debates never truly changed anything. Certain organizations cried, "He's still just a child," "He deserves a second chance," and "This is a failure of school education, a failure of parental supervision," neatly stripping Isaac himself of all responsibility.
But then came the aftermath.
What truly drew widespread attention and immense public outrage was what Isaac did next.
Not only did he fail to reflect on his mistakes, he instead harbored resentment toward Fanny's father. He lay