The Hall of Valor Conference Hall is more often used as a venue for President Hilbert Jean Angers to award certificates and medals to graduates every year at graduation, but in a small number of cases, it is also used. Used for serious occasions.
Such as the secret party's hearing.
"Quiet." King Solomon knocked the hammer.
There was silence in the conference hall. The deans and tenured professors of the jury had expressionless faces. They stood on the side of the stage in black clothes like tombstones. Their old faces were filled with weariness and indifference to history. It is perfect to serve as a jury, because their verdict is absolutely fair and will not leave the criminal any chance to escape.
On the left and right sides of the conference hall are selected student representatives, mostly cadres of the Student Union and Lions Heart Club. They sit on the long steps with clearly defined heights on both sides. They sit in a rigorous and solemn posture and look at the square wooden railing in the center of the hall in silence. Blonde girl.
"I declare the hearing officially begun." Solomon, who was wearing a black robe on the high platform, said solemnly, "The shooting in the small town of Carmel has generated heated discussions in the college recently. Both the pros and cons are arguing fiercely. As to whether Mandy Gonzalez collaborated with the enemy and rebelled against the party and colluded with forces outside the party, the investigation team representing the secret party made strong accusations and irrefutable evidence."
He lowered his head and picked up the document and said, "It includes the fingerprints on the murder weapon, the source of the Philosopher's Stone, and the angle of entry of the gun... Seven pieces of irrefutable evidence have been collected and presented to the court in recent days, and the prosecution has made so far The self-defense is...none, the accused party did not make any self-defense!”
Discussions immediately started in the conference hall, but the next moment Solomon knocked the hammer again and said, "Quiet."
At this time, the investigation team on one side of the conference hall stood up, and the person who spoke was a young man. The slim suit and the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose showed competence and calmness, "Your Excellency King Solomon, the accused Remaining silent until now can be regarded as a passive response to the court. I suggest that we directly enter the final prosecution process and transfer the accused to the control of the Enforcement Department as soon as possible.”
King Solomon hesitated for a few seconds, but after his eyes fell on the girl who had remained silent in the wooden fence, he finally knocked the gavel, "Mandy Gonzalez, do you admit that you shot and seriously injured Lin Nian, the Commissioner of the Executive Department? ?”
Silence answered him.
"Mandy Gonzalez, do you admit that you are affiliated with forces outside the party and that you carried out this assassination under the instructions of forces outside the party?"
Still silent.
"Mandy Gonzalez, after this hearing you will lose all rights to defense and appeal, and will be transferred to the Enforcement Department interrogation room. Your silence will cost you your last chance to defend yourself."
silence.
On both sides of the hearing, hands were raised.
King Solomon looked over and saw that the person raising his hand was a student representative, and among the student representatives, this person was also quite important. He nodded to indicate permission to speak.
In the crowd, Chu Zihang, the president of the Lion Heart Club, stood up and looked at the girl behind the wooden fence and said, "He will be very disappointed with your appearance now."
After saying this, he stopped talking and looked at the girl quietly, and the girl still remained silent, as if she was dead.
Chu Zihang sat down, and there was no more movement. King Solomon glanced at the entire conference hall of the Hall of Heroes. No one had the intention to speak anymore. In fact, Chu Zihang's raise of hands this time should have been ignored. But this hearing was too short, almost like a simple questioning before execution. An interrogation without any defense was tantamount to a unilateral sanction... He really wanted to see someone stand up and raise objections, but From beginning to end, no one spoke for the girl, and she did not even defend herself.
Just when King Solomon was about to raise his gavel to strike, someone suddenly spoke again.
"If you didn't do it, just say something."
"Quiet, please keep quiet if you have nothing to do with it." King Solomon banged his gavel and said sternly.
But everyone in the venue was looking at the speaker at this moment, with heavy expressions on their faces.
Behind the wooden fence, the girl heard the voice, raised her head slightly, looked over, and saw the black-haired girl, who was looking at her from a distance, with complex emotions in her eyes that made people afraid to interpret them.
Until the end, Mandy Gonzalez only showed an indescribable smile and shook her head gently. It was unclear whether she was giving up or really giving an ineffective defense to herself in the end.
King Solomon's gavel also settled at this moment, and the final verdict was made, "Mandy Gonzalez is suspected of first-degree murder, violation of party discipline and rules, collusion with forces outside the party, contempt of court, and bad attitude." It’s serious. After being ruled by the trial committee, I will never have the right to appeal or defend myself for the rest of my life. I will not be eligible for parole or commutation of my sentence. I will be imprisoned for life!”
The final word.
The picture on the laptop screen stopped. The progress bar reached the end, and the picture dimmed and a pause prompt appeared.
Lin Nian, who was wearing a hospital gown, sat on a chair. He had watched the video from four months ago over and over countless times, and it was only this time that he didn't drag the progress bar back to the starting position.
He looked at Professor Manstein, who was sitting on the edge of the bed and was also accompanying him, and asked, "Life imprisonment?"
"The secret prison in Chernobyl, you should know that place. Three months ago, she was escorted to the torture car by the investigation team and the execution department. After being transported for a long time, she arrived at her destination on September 20. Today is the second month of her sentence," Manstein said.
"Life imprisonment, no parole, no defense, no appeal." Lin Nian said softly, looking at the blurred court preview next to the pause sign, "This is the end of the rest of her life."
"It's an ellipsis. Being locked up there doesn't mean death. She still has a long period of time to repent and redeem herself."
"Self-salvation in a nuclear radiation area?" Lin Nian asked, "The most important thing is that she did nothing wrong at all."
"Lin Nian..." Manstein opened his mouth, but ended with a sigh. He stretched out his hand, shook it twice and gently pressed Lin Nian's shoulders on the chair, "...it's too late now."
"Don't talk to me in this tone, okay? Professor Manstein." Lin Nian avoided Manstein's hand and stared at the screen and said, "You are her mentor, you know what she is like What kind of things would a person do... I am the victim, don’t you even believe what the victim said? The person who hurt me was someone else, not her."
An indescribable emotion flashed across Manstein's eyes. The words came to his throat and seemed to be stuck by something. His face was unusually rosy, and he suppressed the eager emotion, dullly. Said, "Of course I know what kind of person she is. Even if the evidence is placed in front of me, I don't want to believe it. I found her and asked Schneider to let me see her. I asked her why she didn't speak and why she remained silent from beginning to end. She remained silent...but she didn't say anything, nothing at all. What do you think she meant?"
Is it a disguised default...
"The Beretta was her sidearm, and the gun only had her fingerprints on it. The surveillance video was shot down in advance, and there was no trace of the presence of a third person. And the most important thing was... her voice. Manstein took a deep breath and said, "Her spirit is not the 'mountain' recorded in the case. The investigation team took her blood for testing, and it turned out that her bloodline indeed exceeded the standard... In the subsequent remarks The spirit spirit released through Long Wen's compulsory induction during the spirit test does indeed match the details of the shooting."
"Discipline." Lin Nian said.
"Do you know what the crime is for colluding with forces outside the party to murder the executive department commissioner?" Manstein's voice was trembling, and his hands could not help but clenched into fists, "I asked her not to plead guilty, if there is anything I would help her with the matter, but she was unwilling to tell me anything... She knew what she was facing, and she was willing to accept it. Do you know how many times I went to the execution department until I was put under house arrest by the investigation team? But She ignored all of this...I want to help her...I really want to help her...but I can't..."
Lin Nian closed his eyes and seemed to be able to feel Manstein's helpless and angry collapse. Mandy was his student. How much he wanted to believe that Mandy was innocent, but his trust was repeatedly broken. The indisputable fact was crushed. In the past four months, he was forced to accept this painful reality... His student was the murderer, and his persistence was crushed like a joke. In pieces of wordless silence.
Lin Nian now understands that even if he is the only one who knows the truth, his right to speak is already very small. The trial has been settled and the person has been sent to the detention center. It would be okay to say that a person was carried into a coffin. If not death, the coffin with Mandy Gonzalez written on it has been sealed into the earth, and the mountains to climb are one after another in order to dig her out.
"I understand." Lin Nian said, "We will consider this matter in the long term."
Manstein looked at Lin Nian and said nothing. He only thought that Lin Nian's previous defense for Mandy was just to conceal the facts and help the girl escape the crime, because he knew Lin Nian and this boy had some problems. It’s time to value friendship and affection more than anything else.
"This incident was beyond my expectation and involved a lot of things." Lin Nian stopped arguing with Manstein. "I need time to sort out my thoughts."
"A lot has happened in these four months, and you may need some time to accept it, but your sister never stopped to see you during this time... I think you should spend more time with her Let's talk." Manstein lowered his head and said, "I hope you can be more open-minded. At least because you are fine for the time being and she didn't really hurt anyone, she was not directly purged by the party rules. Life imprisonment..."
"No, someone was injured, and the injury was serious, but it wasn't me." Lin Nian said.
"who...?"
"It's nothing..." Lin Nian slowly shook his head after a long time, "I'm a little tired now... I want to be alone for a while."
Manstein nodded, stood up and left, closing the door behind him as he walked out of the ward, leaving Lin Nian alone in the room.
He closed his eyes, and the scene in his memory reappeared before his eyes, and the meaning of the girl's last roar finally emerged.
At the last moment, she didn't want to ask for help, but wanted to remind Lin Nian.
That shot was not aimed at her at all, but at Lin Nian.
Or the person behind Lin Nian.
"Yelena, are you still there?" Lin Young called loudly.
But no one in the ward responded to him. The curtains were blown up by the wind, and heart-breaking snowflakes drifted in. The outside of the campus was frozen thousands of miles away.
