Chapter 644: Chapter 415: The Shocked Judges! [Two-in-One]

The three of them kept waiting. Just when it looked like the call, after ringing so long without anyone picking up, was about to disconnect automatically...

The dialing tone suddenly turned into a connection, and at the same time a low, suppressed voice came through.

"Hello? Chief Judge Wang, what is it?"

"I’m in a meeting right now, and I don’t have much time!"

This was... Vice Director Zhang’s voice!

A meeting? Who was he in a meeting with?

Wang Yao paused for a moment, didn’t press that point, and instead shifted the topic back to the case.

"Do you know about the Upper City ’Stamp Case’? The defendants Sun Hu and Sun Biao participated in producing drugs... How much finished product did the police seize!?"

If what Xu Liang said was true, this matter had already reached the level of a classified secret...

Then Director Zhang would definitely know!

And that was indeed the case!

"The Stamp Case?"

Director Zhang on the other end froze for a second, then realized something, his tone turning serious. "Judge Wang, you’re reviewing this case!?"

Wang Yao said, "I’m in charge of the second instance."

Since the other party even had an impression of such a ’small case’, that already confirmed the authenticity of Xu Liang’s evidence.

But... exactly how much was seized?

Wang Yao frowned, and, in front of the other two beside him, pressed on:

"Did the police seize any finished product!?"

Did they?

They sure as hell did...

Let’s put it this way: just because of the Land God Temple on Lake Island, the people over in Haibei Province were so weak in the knees they could barely stand!

Not from fear, but purely from being so shocked that their whole bodies had gone limp like noodles!

And as for Director Zhang, the emergency meeting he was in right now was also because of this matter.

"We seized some." Director Zhang’s tone was a bit unnatural, sounding rather stiff.

"You really did?"

Wang Yao’s heart gave a jolt. "How much?"

"A hundred jin!?"

Stamps aren’t heavy, but what Sun Hu stole, when it all piled up, was, and not to mention they’d get soaked with water.

A hundred jin was a conservative estimate, but... that was still a full fifty kilograms!

Fifty kilos.

In any prefecture-level city, if a case of this magnitude were uncovered, everyone from top to bottom would be scared out of their wits, cold sweat pouring down their backs!

Right now, Wang Yao and Zhao Yi and Liu Zhicheng all felt a bit uneasy inside.

While on the other end of the line...

Director Zhang was silent for a long moment, as if organizing his words. After a long pause, he suddenly squeezed out a few words.

"Thirteen point two four...."

13.24... jin?

Wang Yao stalled, and his first instinct was to reject that in his heart.

Thirteen jin... not impossible, but that shouldn’t be enough to make the police classify it as secret.

Then a bolder guess... thirteen kilograms?

Thirteen kilograms, twenty-six jin... but why did it still feel off?

Wang Yao frowned, a vague dread rising inside him. His sixth sense kept warning him. He subconsciously glanced at the defendant’s dock, at Sun Hu.

Then he looked at Zhao Yi and the other two, and probed:

"Kilograms?"

Director Zhang said, "Tons."

Wang Yao: ?

In an instant.

The entire bench seemed to freeze in time.

Tons?

What the hell was that?

In drug cases... does that ’unit’ even exist?

The three judges all sat there stunned, faces blank, eyes a bit vacant, as if they hadn’t heard clearly what came out of the speaker.

Until...

"Following the Stamp Case trail, Haibei Province launched operations over there and seized all kinds of drugs, in massive quantities. The total weight adds up to... 13.24 tons!"

When Director Zhang spoke, his tone was very low; it was obvious his state of mind wasn’t right either.

As if he were forcing the words out through gritted teeth.

"Not thirteen jin, and not thirteen kilos."

"It’s a full 13,240 kilograms!"

Boom~!

The words went off in their heads like a bomb.

The three on the bench had their pupils shrink to pinpoints. They jerked their heads up, staring at one another in disbelief, the horror in each other’s eyes plain as day.

Not jin, and not kilos—tons....

Thirteen thousand two hundred and forty kilograms?

Twenty-six thousand jin!?

"Twenty-six thousand jin?"

"Old Zhang, you’re not joking!?"

Wang Yao almost lost control of his expression; even his voice went piercingly sharp. His hand holding the phone was shaking.

From the speaker:

"You think I’d be joking at a time like this?"

Director Zhang’s face was just as ugly. "And that’s only the total from two warehouses. The stuff held by individuals hasn’t even been counted yet!"

"Everyone up top is going crazy right now, do you understand!?"

"There’s even a drug village in Haibei Province, do you have any idea what that means!?"

"Alright, I’m hanging up. As for the case... all the evidence Xu Liang submitted came from the police. Don’t make it public. I’ve got a meeting to attend."

It was real.....

A figure like this, in theory, simply shouldn’t exist in the numbers for a ’drug case’...

Yet it turned out to be real.

Wang Yao’s breathing grew a little rapid, his rational mind felt as if it had been crushed. He stared blankly at Zhao Yi, not even realizing that Director Zhang had already hung up the phone.

Zhao Yi’s head was buzzing too; for a long while he couldn’t sort his thoughts out.

The three of them nearly jumped up on the spot in the courtroom!

Twenty‑six thousand jin...

Even if you take away that "twenty thousand," the remaining six thousand as the remainder...

At the beginning the three of them didn’t even dare think that far. Even with their courage screwed up, they only imagined a few hundred jin; when they asked, they’d only dared to say one hundred jin...

In the end, one hundred jin didn’t even count as a fraction of the fraction!

"This... this..."

All of a sudden, Liu Zhicheng’s gaze shifted; he snapped back to himself.

Immediately, he looked toward the defendants’ bench at Sun Hu and Sun Biao. The corners of his eyes wouldn’t stop twitching, and adrenaline surged through his whole body.

"Madmen... these two madmen!"

Twenty‑six thousand jin!

That’s more than the total amount seized in all of Eastern Country—on the mainland, along the coasts, internationally, at the borders—in 2004 combined!

And this kind of huge case ended up being cracked starting from two dumb crooks driving a car...

"What do we do?"

"The police didn’t tell us the exact quantity of the ’stamps,’" Liu Zhicheng asked urgently.

The other side said the seized quantity involved multiple types, and Wang Hu was only connected to You Piaoyi, so it was very hard to judge his importance.

So how should the case be handled right now?

Merge the two cases? Or directly adjourn?

Honestly, it’s very hard for a normal person to make a firm decision. Even a battle‑hardened veteran judge at this moment would be so shocked he’d have no clear train of thought.

But...

You know how it is.

People’s potential only comes out when they’re forced!

"Split the theft case from the drug case!"

In an instant, Zhao Yi completed his earlier line of thinking and blurted it out.

"At present, there is no evidence in the case proving a direct connection with the drugs. All casualties are based on the ’nature of theft changing into robbery,’ and the injuries to people caused by the robbery."

The case was filed on the basis of bodily harm. Strictly speaking, the above‑mentioned theft requires Liu Ping and the stamp company to re‑bring a lawsuit in another form.

So...

"Render a normal judgment on the robbery case!"

"As for the first theft case involving Sun Long, Sun Hu, and Sun Biao, the judgment is to be sent back."

"At the same time, the Intermediate People’s Court will be responsible for supplementing the charge of ’manufacturing drugs’ and conducting a first‑instance trial!"

Zhao Yi was practically racking his brains, speaking out the only path at the fastest speed.

Wang Yao suddenly paused.

He looked at him, wanting to speak but stopping, then after a long moment his gaze hardened.

"We’ll decide it like that!"

You can’t just casually pronounce judgment in this kind of case... after all, it’s obvious the case details haven’t been fully investigated yet; they don’t even know exactly what Sun Hu and Sun Biao have done.

And yet on their side, they’d already judged it... that doesn’t comply with procedure!

Given that.

They could only first pronounce judgment on the case currently before them.

Thinking of what Director Zhang had just said on the phone, he couldn’t help but feel a cold sweat creeping up his back.

What they’d thought was a small robbery criminal case—who could have imagined... it would develop to this point, like a cudgel smashing down on his head, leaving him dizzy and reeling, totally unprepared.

With that thought, Wang Yao took a deep breath.

He swept his gaze once around the courtroom.

The public gallery.

"What’s going on? Why do the three judges’ faces look all kinds of colors?"

"Don’t tell me the evidence is fake..."

"Heh, if this were fake evidence, the people Xu Liang offended would have come biting long ago. I suspect it’s because the drug quantity is too huge."

"Hard to say. The presiding judge is from the Supreme Court’s No. 1 Criminal Division—what kind of case hasn’t he seen? How could he be scared like that just because of the quantity..."

"..."

During the recess, everyone spoke in low voices.

From their point of view, it was just that everyone in the room suddenly went quiet.

And the three—Wang Yao and the others—their faces kept changing like colored lights, and nobody knew what they’d run into.

Just as they were still talking...

In a daze.

On the bench.

Wang Yao suddenly raised the gavel, then slammed it down hard.

"The case is now in session!"

Back... in session!?

Everyone froze, then stared intently up at the people on the platform.

But the next second, Wang Yao did something that left them stunned.

They saw...

"After unanimous deliberation by the collegial panel."

Presiding Judge Wang Yao suddenly stood up, bowed his head, and began to read.

"This case, the Upper City ’stamp case,’ occurred at 2 p.m. on the afternoon of October 8. The defendants are Sun Hu and Sun Biao..."

"The first‑instance judgment was lawfully rendered by the Upper City Intermediate People’s Court."

"..."

Is this... reading out the judgment?

Everyone was stunned.

Recess and then reconvening, and in the middle of it... there doesn’t seem to be a procedure like this.

So what are they doing?

As everyone listened, they vaguely sensed something was off... until, after a long moment.

Suddenly, someone showed a look of astonishment and exclaimed:

"This is the pronouncement of judgment? How come they’re pronouncing judgment right after going back into session?"

"What did they verify on the phone!?"

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