At ten o'clock sharp that morning, the trial of the foreigner Sir Hawking, Justice of the Peace Kenneth, and the foreigner Senior Superintendent Richard formally began at the Hong Kong Island High Court.
The first to stand trial was naturally Richard, the foreigner who served as Senior Superintendent of the Police Force's Monitoring Department.
In terms of status and position, Richard ranked somewhere in the middle among everyone implicated.
His position was neither particularly high nor particularly low.
Yet what he represented made him the most important of all those involved.
He was a serving senior police officer, a commander in the Disciplined Services with armed personnel under his command.
Within the entire illegal interest group, Richard served as the link between its upper and lower levels.
He was the key that allowed the foreigner Sir Hawking and Justice of the Peace Kenneth to directly manipulate and influence Triad crime.
That was why Richard was the first to face the series of trials that day.
Having taken off all his equipment, Zhou Quan sat in the public gallery in a plain white shirt alongside people from various walks of life.
At that moment, he wore no police number or lanyard on his chest, nor any rank epaulettes on his shoulders.
His purpose there was simple: he was truly there only to observe.
Lai Wing-lim and Oswald were responsible for the proceedings against Richard and the others.
As the Department of Justice's Director of Public Prosecutions, Lai Wing-lim was responsible for bringing the prosecution on behalf of the Police Force and the Department of Justice.
Oswald sat on the jury, where he could determine the final outcome to a considerable extent.
Of course, Oswald could only influence the court.
The person who truly had the final say was the female judge