Free Web NovelChapter 419: Chapter 306: See You at the Trial!
The technology can’t be taken out...
Zhu Haoyi’s expression trembled.
The other side was not like him; the tech they were after... that was the real ultimate weapon!
Judging from what the other party meant... they’d already gotten halfway there, all that was left was to get it in hand and take it away!?
Except...
"Me?"
Zhu Haoyi frowned. He’d spent ten years developing in the Eastern Country for rare earths, not for the other side’s stuff!
Unfortunately, the other party clearly didn’t care how Zhu Haoyi felt.
"You’re the focal point of the case, and you’re coming from Zhengyang City. No one will suspect your identity!"
"Even if the plan blows, no one will point the finger at you. Whenever people mention you, their first thought will be the ’head-in-hand complaint’ case!" came the voice over the phone.
This was what they called a stereotype.
Stereotypes make people’s subconscious overlook some very important things.
Zhu Haoyi’s Zhengyang Mining Company had already been labeled nationwide as tied to the ’head-in-hand complaint’ case; the two were deeply bound together.
No one would suspect him!
So...
"When?"
"Wait for instructions."
The voice on the other end spoke frankly, then the call was hung up.
Zhu Haoyi’s face darkened.
Li Yang, beside him, glanced around and then quietly asked:
"What’s going on?"
"There’s a piece of tech in Upper City that needs us to transfer it." Zhu Haoyi took a deep breath and laid out the whole story.
Hearing this, Li Yang immediately frowned.
To be honest, he found this kind of off-plan task extremely annoying.
But...
"Technology in Upper City..."
Li Yang muttered, constantly turning over in his mind what kind of technology he was supposed to help transfer...
To think it would make the other side this cautious!!!
"New tech?"
If it was new tech... what field was it in?
Even at the risk of affecting the rare earth plan, they’d still decided to move this tech...
"No idea, but the people they’ve bought off should show up at the rendezvous point then."
Zhu Haoyi said solemnly.
Li Yang asked, "Where?" ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
"Dongyang Vegetable Market!"
A vegetable market was crowded and chaotic. You could make contact without talking, or talk without making contact. It was indeed a good place to pass intelligence.
’Good thing that clingy, plaster-like lawyer filed the case in Upper City...’
’In that case...’
A sharp light flashed in Zhu Haoyi’s eyes.
If the trial were in Zhengyang City, he’d have no reason to go to Upper City, and transferring the tech would be very difficult.
But since Xu Liang had set the case in Upper City...
He could make an open show of marching on the plank road while sneaking through in the dark!
After committing this matter to memory, branding it in their minds, the two checked the time, picked up their bags, and started getting ready to board.
Not long after.
A plane bound for Upper City let out a rumbling roar.
It shot toward Upper City like a missile!
...
...
Five in the afternoon.
Inside Upper City.
The black mass of people and the clamor of voices surged like a tide all around, wrapping everything nearby, making it all feel a bit suffocating.
"Hey, you didn’t see it. That guy straight-up cut his own head off and carried it in his hand to the court!"
"That’s not all. I heard there was also a severed hand... What do you think this guy went through to do something like that!?"
"No idea, seems like he’s from Zhengyang City... Sigh, Zhengyang City’s that kind of messed-up place, and nobody’s doing anything about it."
"Heh, if they’ve got time to worry about that, why not make some money instead?"
"Tsk, that’s where I disagree with you..."
"..."
Five in the afternoon.
Prime time for the vegetable market.
Xu Liang looked at the dense crowd around him, his face devoid of expression.
The people were old and young, men and women, all of them talking about the morning’s "Liu Jinshui carrying his head to file a complaint" incident.
Streets and alleys, markets, schools, workplaces—on this day, everyone was talking about this topic!
But as they talked...
"Officials are all the same. Zhengyang City, not Zhengyang City—what, you think things are any better here!?"
"What’s wrong with here?"
"What’s right with here? Don’t we still have so many cases every single day..."
"..."
Some people’s chatter escalated into arguments.
Xu Liang remained impassive, starting to pick out his ingredients. Yang Ruoxi, beside him, was grinding her teeth in anger, but she still didn’t do anything out of line.
The noisy public opinion seemed to have nothing to do with Xu Liang.
He just couldn’t be bothered to care.
There had been way too many "sheepdogs of ’05" to keep under control, and by ’15 public intellectuals were flooding in, with more and more "hate-the-country" types.
Liu Jinshui’s case was just a Zhengyang City case, yet it could still be used as a weapon to attack the Eastern Country.
This was also why the Supreme Court didn’t want to see a head-in-hand complaint case.
The first time Liu Mingbo did this kind of thing, the impact had been just as bad....
"Heh, you still have the mood to be buying vegetables here!"
"Do you have any idea how big a mess you’ve stirred up that needs calming down!?"
Right then, a familiar voice sounded in his ear.
Xu Liang froze.
He turned his head and glanced to the side, only to be stunned to see an old acquaintance.
"Huh? Old Zhao!?"
Xu Liang was shocked. Standing in front of him was none other than Judge Zhao Yi, whom he hadn’t seen for a long time.
The other man was picking vegetables as he looked at Xu Liang, his face expressionless.
"Judge Zhao, why are you still in Upper City!?"
"No, wait, shouldn’t you have gone back to Lanshan Province already!?"
Xu Liang remembered that he’d only come to Upper City for a meeting.
By now it was almost a week later... Why was he still in Upper City!?
At the instant he heard this, Zhao Yi’s forehead darkened, and a hint of awkwardness crossed his face, as if he didn’t want the other party to see his embarrassment.
"Don’t worry about that. If I stayed, obviously I’ve got things to do!"
Zhao Yi changed the subject and dragged it back to what they’d been talking about.
"Do you have any idea how big a mess this Liu Jinshui case has stirred up? This is the Supreme Court, not the Middle Court, and there are dozens of major media outlets doing interviews, even foreign reporters in the mix!"
As he spoke, he took a deep breath and forced down his emotions.
This uproar was way, way bigger than the Liu Mingbo case...
How big?
Put it this way.
Even an old hand like Zhao Yi was a bit at a loss, not sure how to handle it, let alone anyone else.
"It’s not just being discussed domestically... right now it’s the same abroad."
"Pretty sure it’s spread across the whole continent. The whole world’s waiting to watch us make a fool of ourselves."
As he said that, his voice turned sullen.
Hearing this, Xu Liang didn’t know what he should say.
He really hadn’t planned on coming to the Supreme Court at the start; for filing a case, the Middle Court would’ve obviously been best, since the Middle Court handles the first instance.
Liu Jinshui using a corpse to force a filing, and the Middle Court taking it seriously, would’ve been better for the subsequent trial.
But...
He really hadn’t expected that blockhead Wang Chao to lead the guy straight to the Supreme Court!
Good grief. When Xu Liang saw the newspaper, if his mental fortitude weren’t strong, he probably would’ve blacked out on the spot in sheer speechlessness.
Even though he was roasting them hard in his head, on his face...
"Heh, what’s that got to do with me?"
"Speaking of which, Old Zhao, how come you’re in this vegetable market?"
Curiosity showed on Xu Liang’s face.
He’d noticed that whether in Qingshi City or Upper City, all his chance encounters with this guy happened in vegetable markets!
The guy was like a vegetable-market NPC that respawns at a fixed point, and he was always the one who spotted Xu Liang first, then decided whether to say hi based on his mood!
"Who am I supposed to ask if you’re asking me? Besides, the core area of Upper City is this tiny. If I don’t come here, where else am I supposed to go..."
Zhao Yi shot back, then paused, and snapped in embarrassment:
"You’re the one dragging the topic all over the place!"
Then.
He took a few deep breaths to calm himself, then something occurred to him and he chuckled, following Xu Liang’s topic to ask a question.
"I hear Lawyer Xu has become Liu Jinshui’s lawyer?"
Xu Liang nodded. "Yeah, no idea where Liu Jinshui heard of me, but that’s what happens when you get famous—people who know you are everywhere."
Unbelievable how shameless this guy is...
The corner of Zhao Yi’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t retort.
He was a bit afraid Xu Liang would thick-skinnedly call him "teacher." If that really happened, Zhao Yi figured every time he slept, his nightmares would be full of this guy’s face.
"You got this case in the bag or not?" Zhao Yi probed, sounding him out.
In the bag or not?
Honestly, Xu Liang really didn’t have any guaranteed win for the first trial.
After all, the court ultimately has to talk evidence. All he had for Zhang Shan being murdered were some information-based conjectures; calling them "evidence" would be jumping the gun.
But...
He thought of what President Duan from Yangnan City in Beihai Province had said on the phone...
Xu Liang suddenly paused.
If what the man said was true, then at the very least, Zhu Haoyi was involved in reselling state-owned resources.
If his suspicions were verified, then Zhu Haoyi... would deserve nothing less than utter condemnation!
"How’s the public opinion on the case right now?" Xu Liang suddenly stopped and asked.
"It’s a total mess. People all over the country are denouncing Zhengyang City, and the authorities’ credibility is dropping."
Zhao Yi let out a long sigh.
The authorities need credibility; only with credibility can social order be maintained and national strength grow.
But things like this... lead to a loss of credibility and an accumulation of negative social emotion!
On the surface it might not look like much, but if you stretch the timeline out a few years, a decade, or even several decades, the side effects will start to show!
"No, I mean public opinion outside Eastern Country."
Outside Eastern Country... Zhao Yi paused, then frowned.
After hesitating for a moment, he spoke:
"They’re obviously watching like it’s a joke."
The case couldn’t be kept under wraps; it was basically a scandal.
Within the continent where Eastern Country is located, relations between nations had long been bad; they’ll stab you three times in the open and another six times in the dark.
With something like this happening now, of course they’d hype it up and then gloat while watching the show.
Only...
"What if the nature of the case changes?" Xu Liang suddenly asked.
The nature of the case changes...
Wouldn’t they still be watching the show?
Zhao Yi didn’t quite get it. Besides, this was a mining company case—how much could the nature of it possibly change?
The reason for filing was criminal homicide. What, were they supposed to chop off their own arm and turn it into a civil lawsuit!?
Xu Liang didn’t answer. He just quietly picked out vegetables.
If the conjectures in his head really got backed up by evidence... frёewebηovel.cѳm
Then the one being watched for laughs wouldn’t be him.
Seeing Xu Liang with his head lowered like that.
Zhao Yi’s eyelid twitched; his instincts told him the guy was up to no good.
"You brat, did you dig up something? What do you mean the nature will change!?"
Zhao Yi felt a wave of dread. He knew that every time Xu Liang pulled that expression, it meant nothing good!
No joke.
He still had that human experiment case waiting for him!
If this case’s nature changed again... he’d be a complete workhorse, and even real workhorses at least get time to graze!
The other guy said nothing, just looked at Zhao Yi with a shy smile. He’d already guessed why Zhao Yi was still staying in Upper City.
"Judge Zhao."
Xu Liang’s gaze was very gentle, but in Zhao Yi’s ears, it sounded like a devil’s whisper.
"See you in court."
With that, Xu Liang turned and left. He glanced at Yang Ruoxi at his side and took a deep breath.
It was time for the trial.
Zhu Haoyi’s motive, and what exactly the people behind him were trying to do...
It all depended on whether the trial could draw it out. Once he sensed their true purpose... they could just wait for a double reversal!
Zhao Yi’s heart gave a heavy thump.
"Come on, what exactly are you trying to do!"
Xu Liang still only replied with three words.
"See you in court."
...
ps: Begging for monthly tickets! QAQ really begging for those monthly tickets
