Apply for Acquittal!

"A... a witness!?"

The moment those words rang out, everyone reacted differently.

The Presiding Judge frowned in thought.

At the Prosecution Bench, Hu Guang and Wang Wei, who had been about to speak, paused. They seemed to realize something, but though their lips moved, neither said a word.

As for the "plaintiffs," Li Youcai and Liu Cui...

The two had watched the proceedings all this time. Now they stared in bewilderment, unable to figure out who the witness could be.

The gallery erupted in discussion.

"A witness? The defense has a witness? Didn't they say everyone at the scene was from Li Family Village...?"

"At the first hearing, the testimony favoring the prosecution was less than one-fifth credible. Now the defense has pulled out an eyewitness on its side..."

"Could it be those police officers...?"

"Doesn't seem likely..."

"..."

The murmurs swelled.

Sitting among the crowd, reporter Zhang Xia frowned at the uproar around her.

She had investigated the case. As far as she knew, no one besides the three parties had been at the scene. In theory, there should be no witness who could testify for the defendant.

She kept watching without a word.

At the Judges' Bench.

Bang!

"Order!"

Zhang Bingxin took a deep breath and, unusually, called the courtroom to order.

His authority quelled the commotion at once. The courtroom fell silent, and everyone turned toward the judges.

Zhang Bingxin asked:

"Defense, is your witness present?"

Xu De nodded and answered plainly, "The witness is already in the Court Witness Room, ready to be called at any time."

At that,

Zhang Bingxin wasted no time and brought down the Gavel.

Crack!

"Call the witness!"

As his words fell,

every gaze swung toward the side entrance of the courtroom. People stared at the door, frowning as they guessed who might come through it.

A moment later, soft footsteps reached their ears.

Brows rose throughout the room. The next second, two Court Bailiffs opened the door.

Creak...

A slight woman walked in. Her clothes had been washed until they had faded pale, and her eyes held a trace of unease.

The judges and prosecutors studied her. The plaintiffs, on the other hand, suddenly grew agitated.

"Li Li!!!"

At the Prosecution Bench, the "plaintiffs" Li Youcai and Liu Cui cried out sharply.

They stared at Li Li in disbelief, shock written across their faces.

Who was Li Li?

She was a relative's daughter, and they had always been close. How could she appear at the Trial Hearing to testify for the defense?

But that was not what troubled them most. It was something else.

"You dare come to court!?"

"You bitch! I'll tear that filthy face of yours apart!"

Li Youcai and Liu Cui twisted with rage. Disregarding courtroom order, they started rising from their seats to go after Li Li.

They hated her so much they wanted to kill her!

They had entrusted their grandson to her care, only for her to hand the child over to Wang Mei!

Because of that, they had been forced to sign the Letter of Understanding and had barely received any compensation. It was all her fault!

Li Li was escorted to the Witness Stand. Hearing the commotion, she looked a little guilty.

But her guilt soon turned to anger. She widened her eyes and glared back at them.

"Order! Order!"

Zhang Bingxin took a deep breath and suppressed his anger.

"Prosecution, control yourselves. Disrupt this Trial Hearing again, and I have the authority to remove you from the courtroom!"

Removed from the courtroom...

Only then did Li Youcai and Liu Cui fall silent, their faces full of resentment. Their furious eyes, however, never left Li Li.

"Witness, please confirm your identity. Are you Li Li of Li Family Village, Greenwood City? National ID Number..."

Zhang Bingxin turned his attention back to Li Li.

At first, Li Li had been somewhat afraid of Li Youcai and Liu Cui.

Now all she wanted was to see the two of them brought to justice. Her fear gave way to anger, and she hurried to answer:

"That's me!"

Zhang Bingxin nodded. After a moment's thought, he asked:

"Witness, when Wang Qiang and Li Erniu were struggling during the incident, where were you?"

Li Li said, "I was right there watching... I saw people smashing the police car too."

Having established that, Zhang Bingxin went straight to the point:

"Witness."

"After Wang Qiang pushed Li Erniu off the vehicle, did you see anyone standing behind Wang Qiang? Was that person holding a weapon and trying to strike him!?"

The instant he asked,

the courtroom fell silent again.

Everyone held their breath. The room was so quiet they could hear one another's heartbeats as they stared at Li Li on the Witness Stand.

Xu De was no different. His face remained blank, but he swallowed and unconsciously clenched his fists.

Li Li was a witness.

That did not mean she would say what Xu De hoped. The questions had come without warning, and no one knew whether Li Li even knew the answer the court needed.

If her answer supported Xu De's argument, it would... decide the course of this Trial Hearing!

Hu Guang and Wang Wei watched her just as closely.

In that profound silence...

"Was there someone behind him?"

Li Li's voice reached all four hundred people in the courtroom. She frowned and said:

"I... I don't know. I didn't notice."

She didn't know?

Everyone's heart seemed to skip a beat. Xu De sighed at the Prosecution Bench and began rethinking his approach.

But then!

"But I think I remember someone hitting him when he first tried to leave."

Li Li suddenly spoke again.

"Maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but I remember he nearly fell. That's how Erniu managed to tackle him."

"I don't know who hit him or where they hit him, though."

Her words fell.

In an instant,

Xu De snapped his head up and looked at Li Li on the Witness Stand.

When the defendant, Wang Qiang, tried to leave, someone hit him... Someone hit him!

Those plain words circled through everyone's minds.

Xu De let out a long breath.

When he looked up again,

a faint smile had appeared on his face—a smile of relief.

Not-Guilty Defenses might be common in films and television, but mounting one in practice was difficult.

How difficult?

Put it this way: every case brought before a court had already gone through the Procuratorate's procedures and been screened step by step!

With that prior screening, and judgments generally leaning toward the Presumption of Guilt in Case of Doubt or Leniency in Case of Doubt, courts had a 99.4% Conviction Rate in 2002.

In other words, out of a thousand cases, a court would declare a defendant not guilty in only six. Calling it nearly impossible was no exaggeration.

And that figure even included cases with broken Chains of Evidence, questionable proof, or outright false accusations that were easy to expose in court!

What was more, it covered all criminal cases, not just murders.

In a murder case where it was clear the defendant had killed someone, the acquittal rate... was infinitely close to zero!

It could hardly be described as a probability. An acquittal was a rare, extreme, unrepeatable exception in the justice system!

And now,

Xu De might just... nudge that near-zero probability upward by the slightest fraction.

"Presiding Judge."

A voice came from the Defendant's Bench amid the silence.

"The facts of this case are now clear."

"The defendant, Wang Qiang, had no intent to injure anyone and did not pursue anyone beyond reasonable bounds..."

"The prosecution's arguments are not objective facts. They have no evidentiary support, contradict the facts of this case, and amount to pure speculation. They should not be accepted!"

"Therefore, the defense now requests..."

Xu De raised his head and looked steadily at the three robed judges seated at the Judges' Bench.

There was no joy on his face, nor anxiety or anger. Only stillness, like a pool of unmoving water.

He spoke, his voice quiet yet audible to everyone:

"Dismiss all charges brought by the prosecution!"

The instant his words rang out,

more than four hundred people in the courtroom jolted. The Trial Hearing, moments ago deathly still, came "alive."

Hot blood surged through their veins once more and rushed into their pounding hearts.

At the defendant's seat,

Wang Qiang had been staring down at his cuffed hands. He froze, then jerked his head up to look at the figure standing before him.

There,

Xu De stared intently at the prosecutors. Though he stood alone against several of them, his presence yielded nothing.

Nearly every accusation had been rejected, every interpretation and suspicion refuted. No matter how capable Hu Guang and Wang Wei were, this case no longer gave them an angle to pursue.

And Xu De still held a stack of favorable material.

In that case, from this moment on...

the tables had turned!

Xu De raised his head toward the three figures seated high at the Judges' Bench.

It was time... to turn up the pressure on the judges!!!