Volume 6 Chapter 104
by Golden DragonVolume 6 + Chapter 104: The Trial of Lao Huo
“Today’s the day Bi Yangde and Lao Huo are being tried,” Qiu explained. “A lot of people are planning to go watch.”
“Oh right.”
Xia Yi remembered now. There really had been such a thing.
It was just that too many things had happened lately, and she had nearly forgotten about it.
“Are you planning to go too, Xia Yi? If we head over now, we should barely make it in time.” Qiu asked.
“I’m going, I’m going!” Xia Yi raised her hand. “I’m definitely going!”
…
…
Xia Yi followed Qiu to the courthouse.
Molent City’s courthouse was enormous, large enough to accommodate many spectators.
The gallery was already almost completely full.
Xia Yi took a seat beside Qiu.
“Lao Huo really is a beast wearing human skin. I used to admire him so much!”
“You really can’t judge a person by appearances. His reputation’s completely collapsed now.”
“He didn’t just traffic organs, he was also colluding with criminals! What’s been exposed is probably only the tip of the iceberg!”
Before the trial officially began, the crowd buzzed with discussion.
Lao Huo was a highly renowned scholar who had once contributed greatly to Molent City’s development and built up an excellent public reputation.
Now that all this had been exposed, many people felt deeply disappointed in him, while also wondering how the court would sentence him.
“I hereby announce the official start of the trial!”
Once all the court personnel had taken their places, the presiding judge rose to his feet and made the announcement to the entire courtroom.
“Bring forth the criminal suspects Lao Huo and Bi Yangde!”
“Yes, Your Honor!”
Under the eager gaze of the crowd, the court guards escorted the two suspects currently at the center of public outrage into the courtroom.
However, to everyone’s surprise, both Bi Yangde and Lao Huo were lying unconscious on hospital beds.
The two men had suffered severe injuries and had not yet awakened.
“Death penalty! Death penalty! They must get the death penalty!”
Naturally, there were also some thrill-seekers who enjoyed stirring up chaos. Taking advantage of the crowd’s fury, they loudly incited the others, clearly eager to fan the flames.
And it worked, the crowd quickly joined in.
“Death penalty! Death penalty! Death penalty!!”
Xia Yi glanced at Qiu beside her. To her surprise, even Qiu was chanting along. It seemed many people had already come to utterly despise Lao Huo.
“Order! Order! This is a court of law, not a place for childish behavior! Everyone maintains silence!”
The judge had to pound the gavel several times before he barely managed to suppress the uproar.
“Prosecutor, read the charges against the suspects.”
“Yes! Criminal suspect Lao Huo colluded with the illegal syndicate leader Bi Yangde, using the Old Times Wine Cafe as a base of operations to repeatedly traffic human beings, harvest and sell victims’ organs, and force innocent children and women into becoming commodities within their trade…”
The prosecutor began reading out the accusations against Lao Huo and Bi Yangde.
Their crimes were simply too numerous to list.
However, some of the charges struck Xia Yi as odd.
Back at the Old Times Wine Cafe, she had personally seen all the transaction records and knew exactly what Lao Huo had done.
Yet among the prosecutor’s accusations were many crimes Lao Huo had never committed, including several particularly heinous incidents.
It almost felt as though those charges had been deliberately added to make the two men take the blame.
Once the prosecutor finished speaking, the commoners erupted into outrage. Their emotions nearly spiraled out of control as curses and insults toward Lao Huo and Bi Yangde filled the courtroom without end.
“Go to hell, scum!”
“Death penalty! They absolutely deserve death!”
“They’re utterly inhuman, worse than animals! Those two monsters don’t deserve to live in this world!!”
This time, the judge made no effort to restore order. He simply allowed the civilians to verbally attack Lao Huo and Bi Yangde.
“The prosecutor has finished presenting the charges. Do the two suspects have anything they wish to say in response?”
An absurd scene unfolded before everyone’s eyes: the judge was actually questioning the unconscious Lao Huo and Bi Yangde.
How could they possibly answer?
The two men lay motionless on their beds, almost as though they had silently accepted all the accusations.
Xia Yi finally understood.
Kennedy was using them as scapegoats.
He had pushed the two men out to absorb every accusation and every dirty secret, dumping all the blame onto them since they were incapable of defending themselves.
And once the public’s anger was stirred up, nobody cared about the details anymore. They only wanted to see the two men punished as quickly as possible.
The defense lawyer assigned to Lao Huo and Bi Yangde stood up and delivered a token defense that felt entirely perfunctory. After a few symbolic struggles, he still failed.
“In that case, I shall now announce the verdict!”
Amid the furious cries of the crowd, the judge prepared to follow public sentiment and sentence Lao Huo and Bi Yangde to death.
Suddenly, Xia Yi sensed a strange chill crawl over her body.
That sensation…
She knew it all too well.
Disaster?
“What’s going on?”
Xia Yi couldn’t understand why she suddenly felt the aura of calamity. Was it just her imagination?
“Death penalty! Death penalty! Death penalty!!!”
No one else in the courtroom seemed to sense anything unusual like Xia Yi did. The crowd continued shouting endlessly, wave after wave of furious chants crashing through the hall.
“Lao Huo and Bi Yangde, having violated the laws of Molent, shall have all their assets confiscated, be stripped of their rights, and be sentenced to…”
Just as the judge was about to pronounce the sentence, the severely wounded Lao Huo suddenly tumbled off the bed.
“I… I object!!”
Before everyone’s eyes, the crippled Lao Huo, whose legs had supposedly been disabled, actually stood up.
And not only did he stand, he openly voiced his opposition before the entire court.
“Lao Huo, you… how are you awake?!”
The judge stared in shock.
Before the trial had begun, he had already met with the City Lord and knew this hearing was merely a formality, a staged process meant to heap all public hatred onto Lao Huo and Bi Yangde so they could shoulder the blame.
But why had an unplanned development suddenly appeared?
“I refuse to accept this… I refuse!! Damn that Kennedy… he profited from this too… yet he abandoned me!”
Lao Huo’s voice became hoarse and distorted. The whites of his eyes faded into pure black, while eerie red light glimmered within his pupils. His entire body trembled violently.
With a sudden motion, he flipped over the table in front of him. His temperament had completely changed.
“I helped Kennedy’s business all this time… I created so much wealth for him, yet he wants to kill me and take everything away from me!”
“I contributed greatly to Molent’s development too! No one will take away my wealth! No one will deny my contributions! No one… can!!!”
“Court guards, stop him!” the judge shouted. “The suspect is defying the court!”
Upon receiving the order, the courtroom guards rushed forward, preparing to subdue Lao Huo.
Lao Huo let out a furious roar, showing not the slightest intention of surrendering peacefully.
And then, the seemingly frail scholar performed an action so shocking that everyone present was left utterly dumbfounded.
[Translator’s Note: Please join the Gravity Tales’ Discord Server, if you want to hang out.]
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