Chapter 1905 - The Public Trial Assembly

"Director Ding, are you asking how many of these crowd members are actors?" Mu Min said.

Ding Ding coughed once: "He who makes the first clay burial figures—will he have descendants? Stirring up popular sentiment certainly produces good results, but..."

Before she could finish, Gao Lingquan, who'd been protected by police on the platform, somehow suddenly tumbled down from the stage. Seeing their enemy fall, the common people below grew even more frenzied. They surged forward wanting to tear at Gao Lingquan's flesh. In an instant they broke through the cordon, swallowing Gao Lingquan beneath the crowd. Mu Min grabbed her walkie-talkie: "This is Number One! Protect Gao Lingquan!"

At her command, the White Horse Battalion below unsheathed their bayonets. The gleaming blades formed a line, instantly forcing the frenzied crowd back. Several police officers hurriedly dragged out the limp Gao Lingquan and sent him back up to the platform.

By now he was barely recognizable as human. His face was swollen, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. His hair was completely disheveled, with over a dozen tufts torn out by force, leaving his scalp spotted with bald patches like ringworm; in some places the scalp itself had been torn away, streaming blood. His clothes had been completely shredded to strips, one arm hanging limply—clearly broken—and both hands were bloody, several fingers having been bitten off upon close inspection.

Though this wasn't her first time attending such a "struggle session," Ding Ding was still startled by Gao Lingquan's wretched state.

Dragged onto the platform, whether from extreme shock or some internal injury, Gao Lingquan now lay limp on the ground like a dead dog, unable to stand.

On and off the platform, voices surged, the chaos intensifying.

Liang Xinhu called for order repeatedly from the stage. With difficulty, he managed to lower the noise somewhat, but below the crowd remained in an uproar.

Mu Min quickly grabbed her walkie-talkie: "Judge Liang! Hurry and pronounce sentence! We can't let him die at the hands of the crowd!"

Allowing Gao Lingquan to be killed by the masses would certainly be cathartic, with strong theatrical effect and great propaganda value. But it would amount to the Senate legitimizing lynching, seriously undermining the Senate's legal foundation. Liang Xinhu of course understood this reasoning. If they let him be beaten to death and then pursued legal accountability against the common people, that would be a lose-lose situation. He hurriedly turned his amplifier to maximum volume and loudly read the verdict: Based on the confirmed evidence of multiple counts of rape and indecent assault of women under particularly egregious circumstances, and intentional injury resulting in death, he was sentenced to death.

The moment the verdict was announced, a thunderous cheer erupted from below. Again people tried to climb onto the platform to seize Gao Lingquan. Liang Xinhu ordered the White Horse Battalion to clear a path with bayonets. Several police officers hastily lifted Gao Lingquan and headed toward the gallows.

By now Gao Lingquan showed no reaction, allowing himself to be manipulated like a puppet. The police officers quickly slipped the noose over his neck, and with a click of the trapdoor, the entire venue erupted in thunderous cheers. Still unsatisfied, people surged toward the gallows. Those with great grievances who felt their anger unvented wanted to use the knives and axes they'd brought to dismember the corpse, but were again driven back by National Army bayonets.

In the venue, some cried, some shouted, some laughed—chaos reigned. Some set off firecrackers, others burned spirit money. The defendants awaiting trial below the platform were pale as ghosts. Even those who'd boasted "in eighteen years I'll be a fine man again" began to twitch—at this rate, if the Australians relaxed their guard for even a moment, they would be torn apart and devoured alive!

Seeing the situation spiraling out of control, Mu Min immediately radioed for the Navy sailors on standby to enter and maintain order. At the same time, she ordered that people could exit but not enter the venue, and had the weak, elderly, women, and children dispersed in batches.

Zeng Juan crouched atop a mound, watching this heart-stopping scene. It was his first time witnessing such a spectacle. He found it both novel and vaguely sensed an incredible power: common people were not merely fish on a cutting board! As long as someone took the lead, they too could unleash astonishing energy.

"I won't leave, I won't leave, even if you beat me to death I won't leave... Husband—" Suddenly a piercing cry rang in his ears, startling him. He saw below the mound two police officers pulling and tugging at a woman dressed entirely in mourning white, clutching a spirit tablet.

She had apparently fallen; her mourning clothes were covered in mud and sand, with footprints from being trampled. She was drenched in sweat, her face frighteningly red. She cried out: "I won't leave! I won't leave! I want to watch that dog thief Mo Rongxin die—"

The police were also sweating profusely, trying to persuade her: "You're a woman alone. You nearly got trampled to death when you fell just now—you were lucky! Whatever grievances you have, the Chiefs have avenged them for you. If you fall again and lose your life! What revenge can you speak of then..."

"Even if I die, I'll die content! Please, two constables, have mercy!" The woman absolutely refused to leave. Zeng Juan, seeing her clutching the spirit tablet and begging piteously, couldn't help but feel compassion. He shifted aside and said: "Officers, let this elder sister come up here to sit. It's safe here; she won't fall." Then he said to the woman: "Elder sister, if you don't mind, squeeze in here for a bit."

The woman thanked him and quickly climbed up, sitting down beside Zeng Juan. Seeing she'd found a stable spot, the police stopped trying to evacuate her.

"Thank you, young fellow!"

"No need for thanks." Zeng Juan, mindful of "propriety between men and women" and because she was a widow, didn't speak much with her, turning his gaze to the trial platform.

Here, the prisoners below the platform were brought up one after another. After the earlier interrogation and execution, the crowd's emotions had been fully aroused. Each time one came up, the entire venue roared "Death sentence!" By the end, even the reading of charges was drowned out—before the prosecutor could open his mouth, there were already shouts of "Death sentence!" Each time a prisoner was "verified and executed," dropping with a thump through the trapdoor, the entire venue erupted in cheers. This killing frenzy infected even the Elders on the platform; Liang Xinhu's pace of judgment noticeably quickened.

"Don't get swept up by the emotion of the venue. Take them one by one!" Mu Min continuously transmitted orders from the command platform via walkie-talkie, controlling the rhythm and emotions.

The fifteenth prisoner brought to the platform was none other than Mo Rongxin. He'd been arrested only a week earlier—even before the plague broke out, he'd already been placed on the key surveillance list. Truthfully, up until his arrest, he still couldn't figure out why they wanted to arrest him. As Mo Rongxin saw it, the Australians were targeting him simply because they coveted the Wenlan Academy's property. Though losing this lucrative asset would be bone-piercingly painful, if the Australians gave even a hint, he was certainly not someone who didn't know when to advance or retreat. As for his marital alliance with the Gao family, he could simply have his son divorce Gao Tianshi's daughter.

Unexpectedly, the Australians had unceremoniously arrested his entire family. Before Mo Rongxin could even begin to comprehend what was happening, he was thrown into prison and severely interrogated. Only then did he understand: the Australians were going to dig up his very roots!

Minute questions about trivial matters from years and decades past, one by one—some things were so long ago he'd completely forgotten them, and the interrogator had to remind him before he could vaguely recall. Originally he'd still harbored some hopes, since he hadn't been directly involved in the Witchcraft Case itself, thinking the Australians merely coveted his property. But when the interrogator placed before him confession after confession documenting his past evil deeds, Mo Rongxin knew he couldn't escape—the Australians were going to settle accounts with him for everything.

Quibbling, denial, feigning madness and playing dumb—he tried them all. But ultimately he couldn't withstand the Australians' severe torture. Mo Rongxin finally confessed, including all his connections with the gentry over the years and all the dirty work he'd done for them... Perhaps because he was in despair about his own and his family's future, Mo Rongxin frantically implicated every single gentry member in Guangzhou, pouring out everything—whether verified fact or mere "hearsay"—all the scandals he knew. The harvest far exceeded Mu Min's imagination.

Hearing the name "Mo Rongxin," Zeng Juan secretly nodded. This old fellow was no good either!

Mo Rongxin had controlled the Wenlan Academy for years, eating meat himself while feeding the scholars dishwater—this was common knowledge throughout Guangzhou. But only when the prosecutor began reading the charges did Zeng Juan realize he'd known only the surface—Mo Rongxin was not merely a greedy academy steward, but a villain with several lives on his hands.

When the prosecutor read about how Mo Rongxin had instructed gamblers to lure Scholar Wang into gambling, then violated his wife Lady He, ultimately driving Scholar Wang to suicide, suddenly the mourning-clad woman beside him stood up and cried out: "I am Lady Wang née He! This beast in scholar's clothing set up a scheme that drove my husband to his death, then sold me to a brothel!"

Because the mound was some distance from the trial platform, He Xi shouted with all her might, her voice piercing, her eyes nearly bursting. She raised the spirit tablet: "Mo Rongxin! So you too have your day! Look at this tablet... He's come to take you away..." She then burst into wild laughter that gave Zeng Juan goosebumps all over.

Her cry caused a stir in the venue. The aggrieved families all began wailing. Over a dozen scholars from the Wenlan Academy joined in angry shouting from below. Some were good friends of Scholar Wang; others had protested in the past when their benefits from the academy had been embezzled. To say they harbored deep personal hatred for Mo Rongxin would not be accurate, but in all these years at the academy, with Mo Rongxin controlling academy affairs, acting tyrannically, and practicing nepotism... their hopes of advancing through study had been utterly destroyed. This hatred was no less than He Xi's. Following this, the crowd's emotions, which had just begun to calm, ignited once again. Bricks and stones rained down upon Mo Rongxin.

Seeing the situation turning bad, Liang Xinhu hurriedly pronounced sentence. The police immediately dragged the trembling Mo Rongxin from the platform toward the gallows.

Heedless of the sea of heads before her, He Xi—with strength she didn't know she possessed—clutched the spirit tablet and desperately pushed through the crowd. The crowd, whether out of sympathy or awed by her determined gaze, parted to let her through all the way to the gallows. The noose was just being placed around Mo Rongxin's neck.