Chapter 151: Chapter 122 Zhang Wei: Good Thing I Didn’t Take Their Case
...
At nine fifty in the morning, under the escort of the judicial police, the cursing Jia Zuoying and his wife walked into the courtroom. Even handcuffed, the couple was extremely uncooperative throughout the process. The judicial police had a hard time just getting them seated in the defendants’ dock.
Huh? Qin Mu glanced at the spectators’ seats and suddenly noticed a problem. Generally speaking, the spectators’ seats in the courtroom were reserved for the witnesses and families of both litigating parties. But now he saw that, apart from him and Zhang Wei, everyone else in the spectators’ seats was from the nursing home. They were all people he knew. Not a single person from Jia Zuoying’s side had shown up! From the information he had, Jia Zuoying and his spouse were locals from Jin City. At the very least, they would have some relatives. It seems their popularity... is rather poor, Qin Mu thought.
The neighbors from Lijing Garden had an extremely poor opinion of the couple. During the enforcement process, they had even voluntarily provided information. It was as if they were shooing away a plague god. It was evident how detestable the two were in their everyday lives.
At ten o’clock sharp, the judge, namely Judgment Chief Zhou Quanmin, entered the courtroom with two associate judges.
BANG.
The gavel struck.
Zhou Quanmin took a deep breath, his gaze subconsciously drifting over to the plaintiff’s bench. Very good. Qin Mu was not in the plaintiff’s bench. He inexplicably sighed in relief. However, when he finished scanning the defendants’ dock and the spectators’ seats, his expression suddenly froze. This time Qin Mu was not in the plaintiff’s seat but had unexpectedly moved to the spectators’ seats! Clearly, this case was somewhat connected to Qin Mu.
Over the past two months, he had lost count of how many times he had seen Qin Mu in the courtroom. Qin Mu had almost become a regular there. Zhou Quanmin cleared his throat, then refocused his mind.
He declared solemnly, "Today, the Second Criminal Court of Jin City Court will publicly try the criminal case where plaintiff Zhang Tao accuses defendants Jia Zuoying and Wang Fenlan of house encroachment. Now, the court discipline will be announced."
This was a standard procedure for opening a court session. Before the trial began, it was obligatory to read out the court discipline to inform all present. However, before the court discipline could be read, defendants Jia Zuoying and Wang Fenlan started shouting.
"Don’t read it!"
"Even if you read it, we won’t listen! Don’t drag it out, just get on with the trial!"
"Exactly! Do you think we’re scared just because there are many of you? Trying to intimidate us, right? If you have the guts, try us directly!"
"We weren’t born yesterday! Are you colluding with Zhang Tao, trying to frame us?"
The couple screamed at the top of their lungs, unleashing the dissatisfaction they had accumulated over the past few days. Their voices were extremely loud, directly interrupting the reading of the court discipline.
"Silence!" Zhou Quanmin, his face stern, struck the gavel. He said firmly, "Disorder is forbidden in the court!"
Only, no sooner had his words fallen than Jia Zuoying sneered, defiantly shouting back, "What are you banging for?"
"Yeah, I’m talking to you, the one with the hammer!"
"Is this a shouting contest?"
"Let me tell you, we’ve never backed down from an argument!"
He stood tall, chest out, with an expression of utter fearlessness and arrogance. In just a few sentences, he had made Zhou Quanmin tremble with anger. He was practically fuming.
"What? Cat got your tongue?"
Seeing Zhou Quanmin’s silence, Jia Zuoying continued in a cold voice, "Judgment Chief, is it? We haven’t committed murder or arson. If you dare to frame us, we’ll sue you!"
Wang Fenlan chimed in, shouting, "That’s right! Don’t think we don’t understand the law. The developer owes us an apartment. We occupied one in his complex—how is that a crime?"
"Hurry up and try the case! If you can’t clear our names, don’t blame us for suing you!"
Even now, they still believed they were not in the wrong. Even facing Zhou Quanmin, they maintained the same attitude they had shown towards Zhang Tao and the police officers, constantly creating a loud commotion.
"If you know what’s good for you, let us go now! Or else, believe it or not, I’ll smash my head against this pillar right here and die!"
Wang Fenlan was particularly vehement. As she spoke, she began to bang her head against the iron bars of the defendants’ dock. This caused the judicial police’s expressions to change dramatically, and they quickly stepped forward to restrain her.
The trial had not even begun, yet the confrontation was already intensely fierce.
In the spectators’ seats, the elderly from the nursing home saw this scene, their eyes widening in amazement.
"We definitely came on the right day! This is too thrilling! Compared to them, that Liang Shuqi was nothing!"
"Her act is a bit fake, though. She didn’t even draw blood."
"I see it now. These two truly have no regard for the law."
"I thought they would make a fuss when the verdict was announced. I didn’t expect them to start arguing before the court discipline was even read..."
"..."
Zhang Qingyuan swallowed hard. Watching Jia Zuoying and Wang Fenlan’s "heroic" display, he finally understood why his house had been occupied for three years. With such formidable fighting spirit, how could ordinary people possibly contend with them? They don’t even respect the police or the courts; reasoning with them is completely out of the question!
Meanwhile, Qin Mu stared at the epic scene before him, unwilling to blink. Every frame... is incredibly exciting, he thought. The reaction of Jia Zuoying and his wife had completely exceeded his expectations. The trial had just begun, and already, by their efforts alone, the proceedings had ground to a halt. They had delivered several heavy verbal blows to Judgment Chief Zhou Quanmin, completely disregarding him.
Not far away in the spectators’ gallery, Zhang Wei, at this moment, couldn’t help but swallow, watching the unfolding scene with considerable trepidation.