Mayor Zhang’s face becomes black immediately. A huge frown is plastered over his face and it is obvious he knows all about the case that these two people have raised.
“Zhang Yi and Teng Hua, enough is enough! I have already passed judgment on your case and do you really want to bother the judges from the governor’s office about your petty case?” he yells at two of them.
It seems like the old man is Zhang Yi and the old woman is Teng Hua. I look towards Judge Cui and Judge Tang and they both have a smile on their face. “Mayor Zhang, it is fine. This is not the first time this has happened and we don’t mind. Since this is Judge Shang’s first riding circuit, why not let him preside over this case?” Judge Tang says with a smile on his.
While he spoke in a polite manner and kindly asked Mayor Zhang, it was clear that he was not asking and would not allow Mayor Zhang to refuse.
“Come, let us all head to the guest hall where we shall listen to your case.” Judge Teng says and waves towards Mayor Zhang to lead the way.
“While our primary role as travelling judges is to look for miscarriages of justice and corrupt, this will also often happen in villages as they do not have magistrate who is independent of the big families in villages. The choice to hear out these cases and pass judgment is up to us, although we will usually not interfere with the mayor’s decision, we do sometimes hear some interesting cases sometimes and decide to preside over them. Since you are new, we will allow you to preside over this alone and watch how you pass judgment over the case.” Judge Cui informs me of the decision that he and Uncle Tang made together as we are heading over the guest hall.
…
Upon reaching the guest hall, Ding Sha who somehow became the leader of the guards informed Zhang Yi and Teng Hua to wait outside while we get ready. As we enter the guest hall, it is a large building with 8 different rooms.
The middle hall is the living room and 8 rooms are attached to the left and right side of the middle hall. We quickly decide which room we want and leave our personal bags there as there is no difference between them besides their position. We then take around 30 minutes to create a mock courtroom to try the case.
While we call it a mock courtroom, there really is nothing much besides the guards taking the position at the left and right area of the room, removing all the furniture in the middle hall and just leaving a long table at the back of the room and three chairs for the judges to sit on.
After everything is done, Liu Kang who is standing at the outermost position in the hall summons Zhang Yi and Teng Hua into the room by shouting loudly, “Summon Zhang Yi and Teng Hua!”
Zhang Yi and Teng Hua quickly enter the room and knees down as per court etiquette and greets us “Zhang Yi/Teng Hua greets the judges!” They loudly say together.
Mayor Zhang also accompanies the two people into the room and stands at the side of the room with an unhappy look on his face. The unhappy look was not directed towards us as he would not dare to show us his displeasure but towards Zhang Yi and Teng Hua. Obviously, nobody cared about him or his opinions and feelings at this point.
As this my first case, Judge Cui and Judge Tang had already briefed me on what I should do and that I will be conducting this trial on my own. The normal procedure of a trial is to first hear the complaint, then move on to the defendant and ask if he has anything he would like to tell us or if there are any points in the plaintiff’s story. The plaintiff is the person who is making the complaint.
If the story is clear and both parties are happy with the facts told to us, then we can make a judgment. If we require more proof or facts, we can ask the people present. Sometimes the parties will bring witnesses along with them and we should listen to their side of the story as well. If we think that one of the parties is lying, we may ask them again or beat them until they tell the truth. Torture is also fine in this world but the use of torture is normally reserved for serious crimes.
As the village chief had already passed judgment on this case, this is considered an appeal and there is no need for us to visit the scene and all the related evidence should be passed to us but it seems like there is no need for any evidence in this case.
“Who is the one making the appeal?” I make my voice as deep as I can and ask solemnly.
Teng Hua replies loudly “Lord, Teng Hua is the one making the appeal. I am a chicken farmer and ten of my chicken was stolen two months ago! Two weeks ago, I went to Zhang Yi vegetable farm to buy vegetables from him and saw a new chicken farm there so out of my curiosity, I went to take a look.
To my surprise, I found my chickens at Zhang Yi’s newly built chicken farm and raised a case with the village mayor. I was able to identify them as all I brand all the butts of my chickens with a flower mark because my name is “Hua” (Flower) and I really like flowers!”
“Zhang Yi said that he bought the chickens from an outsider who was living has been living in the village for the past three months and claim that he has no knowledge that it was stolen! Mayor Zhang ruled that as Zhang Yi did not know the chickens were stolen when he bought them and he paid a good amount of money for them!” she says with a grievance.
“I am unhappy with the decision because Zhang Yi and Mayor Zhang are relatives! Mayor Zhang is biased!” Teng Hua says loudly as the mayor is at the sides to show her displeasure.
“Audacious! How dar-“, the mayor stands up and shouts at Teng Hua.
“Sit down!” I shout at the mayor before he finishes. “Let her finish saying her piece.”
Teng Hua was shocked at the exchange between the mayor and me but she continued after I instructed her to do so.
“I was the one who was robbed and Zhang Yi got a cheap deal buying the chickens. Now the chickens are found yet why am I the one making the loss?? Zhang Yi had also approached me before, with intentions to buy my chickens and open a chicken coop and know that the chickens are way more expensive than what he bought them for! He must have schemed with the thief!” she says in a crying and aggrieved tone.
Ah! I think I know what happened! This is difficult since none of them is at fault. Someone else stole Teng Hua’s chickens and sold them to Zhang Yi. Zhang Yi did not know that the chickens were stolen and bought them from the thief. Now, Teng Hua has found her chickens at Zhang Yi newly built chicken farm and wants them back but Zhang Yi had already paid good money for the chickens and he would suffer a loss if he had to return the chickens to Teng Hua.
