The winter in the capital is cloudy and rainy, cold and unbearable, even if there is no rain and no wind, the sun is often covered by thick clouds, and occasionally a little bit of floral sunshine shines from the clouds, which can also make people happy.

However, today, it turned out to be a rare good weather. The sky was blue and cloudless, and the sun had just risen in mid-air before it warmed the morning air, but it was already starting to brighten and brighten.

Ling Li raised her hand to block the dazzling light reflected by the sun on the glass window, and raised her eyes to look at the huge national emblem hanging in front of the watchtower.

The courthouse was always built in a solemn and solemn style, with the huge doorposts that could only be hugged by three or four people, the empty foyer several stories high, and the long and high staircase of the main entrance, which seemed to be climbed with great difficulty.

Almost all of the criminal cases that can be tried here are cases with life sentences or above, and behind the sound of the gavel in the courtroom, I don't know how many past events have been annihilated, how many names have been ticked off, and how many victims' blood debts have been repaid.

It's just that, for the same reason, Ling Li has come here for the third time. Why can't the high judgment seat and the Dharma emblem hanging in the center of the courtroom give her a clear answer?

Father, mother, sister, brother, four once vivid lives, when they were displayed in the court for a while, only the cold word "Death Year" after their names remained.

Ling Li took a deep breath, took some heavy steps, stepped on the stairs step by step, and when she reached the top, her legs and eyes were a little astringent and sour.

The courtroom was already full of people, Ling Li found a place in the middle and back to sit down, and next to her was a girl with short hair and a handsome manner.

The girl smiled at Ling Li in a friendly manner, Ling Li nodded lightly in response, and then waited silently for the court to begin.

The girl said hello to Ling Li, and then lowered her voice and chatted with the woman beside her.

"I heard that this case is already in trial for the sixth time, why is it so entangled? What are the facts of the case? The girl asked softly, speaking standard fluent Mandarin.

The woman, who was in her forties, said, "You just graduated, and you don't know how much of an impact this case had back then." The defendant was a male doctor at the Affiliated Hospital of Funan University, who was the first doctor in cardiac surgery at the time, but he had an extramarital affair with an intern doctor in his twenties. It was easy for the man's wife to agree to the divorce, but the mistress's family did not agree, so the man poisoned the mistress in a fit of rage and killed the mistress's entire family. ”

The girl's eyes widened in disbelief: "Even if you kill the whole family, you won't even kill your young and beautiful mistress, right?" ”

The aunt sighed and said slowly: "I heard that the junior lost his children, twins, and made the defendant angry. As the so-called Lang is like iron, especially this kind of man who calls for wind and rain, where is a woman more important than a child? You're still young, and you'll understand later. ”

Ling Li listened to their conversation silently and looked around.

In this trial, most of the reporters came. It's just that after eight years of back-and-forth, she is the only family member of the victim, and I don't know how many waves have been changed.

Obviously, the girl next to her was a "newcomer", and the voice that was a little puzzled sounded again: "According to you, this defendant is indeed guilty, why hasn't he been sentenced yet?" ”

The aunt pouted: "It's not the reason why torture extorted confessions, retracted confessions in court, and evidence was problematic." The defendant hired a good lawyer, and in five trials over the years, he was sentenced to death four times, except for the first second instance when he was remanded for retrial. ”

He pouted to the front again: "Look, the short-haired woman wearing a camel-colored coat in the middle of the front row is the defendant's wife." The man looked for a young and beautiful mistress, and made a fuss and put himself in. Who knows, in the end, he ran around, petitioned, and went bankrupt to find a good lawyer to save him, but it was his wife who was abandoned by him back then. This woman is stupid, and she is hopeless. ”

The girl blinked and continued to ask, "Then you say, can he get the punishment he deserves this time?" ”

The aunt sighed: "It's hard to say, I heard that the police have new evidence, but I have been following this case for four years, and the death penalty has not been approved by the Supreme Court and remanded for a new trial." I don't know if this time will change. ”

Ling Li listened to their conversation in a daze, and raised her eyes to look at Shi Meina's back in the front row of the courtroom.

She still had neat short hair that had just passed her ears, and her back was as straight as ever, as if nothing could crush her, and the scene always reminded her of the grass in the wind.

Shi Meina's face was already a little blurry in her memory, but Ling Li still remembered her tense and resolute expression. She had some resentment towards Shi Meina, who was standing on the opposite side, but she had to admire this woman's tenacity.

If it weren't for this woman's constant struggle and persistence, giving up her eight-year life to run around for her husband who had changed her mind, and standing firmly behind Zhong Chengheng, would Zhong Chengheng have already surrendered to the law?

Gradually, her thoughts drifted away, and it was not until the bailiff took the defendant that she suddenly realized that the trial had finally begun again.

Ling Li looked at Zhong Chengheng who slowly walked into the trial court with an expressionless face.

He wears a dark gray suit, a white shirt underneath, neat short hair, and a tall and thin figure, and at first glance, he seems to be stuck in the same way as he was eight years ago. Standing tall and straight, it seems that eight years in prison could not make him bow his head slightly.

As stated in the indictment, from beginning to end, Zhong Chengheng never showed a little guilt or remorse, he did not admit guilt, did not compromise or confess, and always insisted on defending his innocence.

Such an attitude indicates that there will only be two outcomes waiting for him, not guilty, or the death penalty, and there will never be a choice to survive.

Before the case, 34-year-old Zhong Chengheng was known as the first knife in the cardiac surgery department of Funan University.

He didn't look good, he had a wide Chinese face, a humped nose with high cheekbones, slender eyes, and some thick upper eyelids that looked a little puffy.

Although he was tall, he was really too tall, almost 1.9 meters, and he was too thin, and he always looked at the crowd like a telephone pole.

It's just that his sharp eyes and tough temperament combine the not-so-good-looking facial features into another sharp and neat taste like a scalpel.

At that time, my sister, who was addicted to the love affair of a moth to a fire, once described that as long as Zhong Chengheng held the scalpel, it was as if Sun Dasheng was wielding the Dinghai God Needle, and he would immediately stir the heavens and the earth.

It is precisely because of this that Ling Ling, who is loved by thousands of people, can leave behind her boyfriend, who has been dating for many years, and devote herself to a relationship that is despicable to the world.

It's a pity that Zhong Chengheng is not a hero of the world, so naturally he can't give Ling Ling a future with colorful auspicious clouds. He's a demon who will only lead her into the abyss from which she will never recover.

Zhong Chengheng arrived at the defendant's position in the center of the courtroom, but did not sit down immediately, but squinted his eyes slightly and looked around.

He nodded slightly in Shimena's direction, then looked up at the back row of the auditorium, his eyes as if he was looking for someone.

It wasn't until he saw Ling Li's figure in the bustling crowd that he looked at her for a moment from a distance of more than ten meters before he slowly sat down again.

Intersected with Zhong Chengheng's gaze for just a few seconds, Ling Li couldn't tell the feeling in her heart a little, neither the overwhelming hatred back then, nor the word "forgive", or even no waves.

She has been looking forward to his death for eight years, but she has been disappointed again and again, countless nights of crying alone with wet pillows, and moments when she is overwhelmed by hatred, what she thinks about the most is not the grievances of her family, but whether there is any way to go back to the past?

Even if I had time to say goodbye to them, it would be better than deep remorse now.

Everything is ready, and the trial is finally about to begin. After the clerk read out the trial rules, all the staff stood up, and the three judges of the collegial panel walked into the courtroom.

When the gavel rang to announce the opening of the trial, Ling Li looked at the three young faces on the trial seat, a little stunned.

The collegial panel turned out to be composed of three female judges, and all of them looked quite young. Among them, the presiding judge seems to be the oldest, and he is only in his thirties.

Ling Li frowned, a trace of doubt passed through her heart. It stands to reason that the court should attach great importance to such a major case, which has been remanded for retrial twice and repeatedly for eight years, why would it be handed over to such a young collegial panel?

However, the matter was a foregone conclusion, and Ling Li calmed down and listened to Zhong Chengheng's lawyer read the appeal.

This is Professor Yu, a well-known criminal procedure expert in China, who once worked at a certain university of political science and law, which is known as the Whampoa Military Academy in the political and legal circles, and later gradually faded out of the academic circles, specializing in taking on some influential unjust cases, and is good at using public opinion to create pressure on the trial organs, and there are some suspicions of hype, but it is also true that many really problematic cases have been dug up, and they have a mixed reputation in the industry.

I don't know if it was for fame, or if Shi Meina's generous reward after she lost her family wealth allowed Professor Yu to spend eight years on this case.

The grounds of appeal stated in the appeal letter are very simple, Zhong Chengheng believes that he did not commit the crime, and that the confession of guilt made during the trial was caused by torture and the content is untrue, and he requests that he be acquitted.

It's just that the few cases mentioned on it made Ling Li feel like she was in that nightmarish time.

The golden courtyard reflected in the setting sun, the epiphany that no one picked the withered leaves, the closed door of my father's clinic, my brother's schoolbag scattered on the ground, and the vomit and blood stains all over the house.

There are also relatives who are connected to her blood in the hospital morgue, lying quietly and silently. The cold touch of their skin was still on their fingertips, piercing through the marrow and bones as if it could freeze her too.

On that day, she dragged the forensic doctor who was about to perform an autopsy at the door of the autopsy room, and sincerely requested: "My little brother is most afraid of pain, please be gentle for a while." ”

That night, she took her father's favorite coat, her mother's most cherished ring, the silk scarf that her sister had saved up for a long time, and a pair of sneakers that her younger brother had just bought.

At that moment, when her relatives, who had been refrigerated in the morgue for more than a year, were sent to the incinerator, her uncle was crying so much that she was about to faint, but she only felt that the big stone in her chest seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, but not a single tear could flow from her eyes.

Others say that she is strong, but it is difficult to understand the pain of her happiness when she was young.

Don't cry, it's not because you're strong, it's not because you're strong, it's just because no one will feel distressed anymore.

The second sister of the Ling family, who was bold back then, finally grew up overnight.