Chapter 130 - 88: The Eve of the Trial, Nothing is Lacking

Zhang Wei’s attempts to reach a settlement weren’t going well. The opposing party refused to meet, so he shifted his focus back to sentence reduction.

...

「December 25th.」

There were two days left before the trial.

Sensing a hot-button issue, the major newspapers began featuring the case once again.

Public discourse on the case began to brew and spread throughout Lusen City.

Cases involving minors are always controversial.

A brutal murder, even more so, became the center of attention!

In 2002, Dongguo didn’t have many forms of entertainment. In their spare time, people would bring up the case, endlessly voicing their opinions and views.

...

「December 26th.」

One day left until the trial.

The case gradually returned to the public eye.

Of course, the case drew the most attention from those within Lusen City’s judicial system, especially the legal community.

Lawyers looking at the case imagined themselves handling it, and many privately shook their heads as they shared their opinions.

「Inside Lu De Law Firm.」

Lawyer Zhong, who had previously declined Sun Zhigang’s case, looked at the morning paper and shook his head slightly.

"Tsk. There’s a floor to what can happen in cases like this... and that floor is the defendant ’winning’..."

He was pessimistic about the case. After skimming the morning paper, he tossed it in the trash.

「Inside Meijin Law Firm」

A major Lusen City law firm with nearly a hundred employees.

A senior lawyer was looking at the morning paper, coffee in hand. He shook his head slightly upon reading about the case and commented:

"In terms of evidence gathering and having an instinct for it, that lawyer is definitely top-tier."

"If this were any other case, one where the defendant wasn’t a minor, and he pulled a move like this... he could have absolutely flipped the whole case."

"Unfortunately, the case is what it is. It can’t be changed."

「Sanhe Law Firm」

Sanhe was a small boutique firm in Lusen City—not ’boutique’ by any official ranking, but in the ’small and elite’ sense. The firm wasn’t large, but when it came to economic cases, they were an unstoppable force.

The firm’s top lawyer looked at the paper and gave a frank assessment:

"That lawyer’s approach is too extreme. It’s a dead end."

"If he’d persuaded his client to change their demands—pivot to financial compensation and give up on pursuing criminal retribution—he could have gotten the settlement up to 300,000!"

"..."

Countless lawyers weighed in with their opinions.

The more senior the lawyer, the more pessimistic their outlook.

The better they understood the law, the clearer it became that the prosecution didn’t have the upper hand. They were fighting with everything they had just to achieve a draw; even the best possible outcome was merely a stalemate.

No one voiced an optimistic view.

...

「December 27th.」

2:00 PM

The day before the second hearing of the first trial in the No. 18 Middle School case.

Countdown to trial: 23 hours, 30 minutes.

Reporters were drafting their questions for tomorrow, pondering which thorny questions would yield the most information.

News stations were preparing to broadcast updates on the case.

Other lawyers had their eyes fixed on the courthouse, awaiting the trial.

There were prosecutors, too, chain-smoking as they stared at the text of the Juvenile Protection Law, feeling a deep sense of powerlessness.

Of course...

Some lawyers, however, were making other moves.

Xu De, for example.

2:30 PM.

Lusen Medical University, fifth floor of the law department, outside the door to the forensics center.

Xu De held a forensic report in his hand. It was fresh off the press, the paper still warm to the touch.

A few lines of text were clearly printed on it.

[FINDING: Based on the results of the DNA analysis, the tested samples support...]

[A BIOLOGICAL MOTHER-SON RELATIONSHIP!]

Seeing this, Xu De looked down. He glanced at the red, plastic-covered household register in his left hand, and then at the anonymous DNA parentage report in his right, which had been rushed through.

In that moment, Xu De broke into a wide grin.

’Now... I have everything I need!’

Until...

...

...

The next day...

December 28th!