Chapter 740: Chapter 268 Judgment Chief: Please Plaintiff Elder Do Not Sleep

They would not consent to the demands, proceed with divorce judgments, or divide properties. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

This type of evidence... belongs to illegal collection, infringing upon the privacy rights of others.

The other party could even sue in court over this matter, seeking reasonable compensation.

"What?"

Upon hearing this, Han Tianming’s eyes widened. His face was full of confusion.

He was brimming with confidence. He thought he had found his opponent’s vulnerability, but he didn’t expect Qin Mu to dismiss it without a word.

The loophole he’d found, it turned out, was confined to civil litigation. In criminal proceedings, illegally gathered evidence... was still admissible.

"That... that that..."

He stuttered, unable to articulate a complete sentence.

Meanwhile, next to him, another person in the dock suddenly stood up and said defiantly, "Then we were just being truthful when we posted about the incident online. How is that publishing false content? How is that defamation?"

To avoid imprisonment, they racked their brains, rapidly depleting their mental energy. They were all trying to find excuses to counter Qin Mu.

Cheng Chuxiao had conceded in court, saying he would pay whatever was required, but Qin Mu still refused to back down.

Clearly, their only option was to confront Qin Mu and strive to defeat him in argument.

This was the free debate segment of the court. They all had the right and qualification to speak.

And as that person finished speaking, Han Tianming’s eyes lit up, and he quickly chimed in, "Exactly! What part of the content we published was untrue? We reported the facts. Is telling the truth a crime now?"

The rest stood up one by one. One of them added, "We haven’t slandered you at all. We just reported a true event. The people who criticized you were netizens acting of their own accord."

"If they cursed people, what does that have to do with us? We just wanted more people to know about this incident; they’re the ones who can’t tell right from wrong."

"In the article we shared, we even mentioned that we didn’t have our dog on a leash. Netizens saw that too. We didn’t hide anything!"

"For this matter, we shouldn’t be considered as defaming, right?"

"..."

It seemed as though everyone had found a breakthrough. Including Cheng Chuxiao, all seventeen of them lit up with excitement, as if they had grasped a lifeline.

This was the breakthrough they thought they’d found. Qin Mu, in his lawsuit, kept saying they had spread false content, which led to the online harassment. But in reality, their article hadn’t deliberately hidden anything. It recounted how Cheng Chuxiao went to the nursing home, hadn’t leashed his dog, how the dog had chased an elderly person, and was subsequently killed by him. It was those dog-loving netizens, their compassion overflowing, who had spontaneously started the online attacks; it had nothing directly to do with them. At most, they had merely acted as a news source, publicizing something the public didn’t know.

「Meanwhile,」

In the courtyard of the nursing home in Jin City, Li Weiguo, Song Tiancheng, and others also heard the defense statements from Cheng Chuxiao and the sixteen others.

For a moment, they just looked at each other.

"Has anyone read that article? Did they really not hide any facts?"

"They haven’t found a way to turn the case around, have they? If they didn’t spread false information, does that mean they didn’t commit a crime?"

"It seems that way. I once heard Xiao Qin say that if you’re spreading a fact about something that already happened, it’s not even illegal, let alone a crime."

"..."

The elderly people frowned, a sense of worry creeping in.

Having been in contact with Qin Mu for so long, they’d picked up some legal knowledge. Exposing real events online, as long as it didn’t infringe on anyone’s privacy, wouldn’t constitute an illegal or criminal act.

If they had merely spread the news about the dog’s death, and the subsequent online harassment was spontaneously carried out by netizens, then they wouldn’t have to bear any criminal responsibility.

This line of defense they’d found... it could even help them get acquitted completely!

"That’s not very likely, is it? Zhang Wei has given up resisting. Although he’s lost every case, his skills are truly remarkable."

"I think so too. Zhang Wei must have thought of this as well. They’ve probably misunderstood something somewhere."

"Have you noticed? By doing this... any appearance of them pleading guilty and accepting punishment is gone, right? They’ve lost any chance for a reduced sentence."

"I actually admire their courage, daring to confront an angered Xiao Qin head-on."

"..."

The group whispered among themselves. After some serious analysis, they all felt a sense of relief.

They were in Qin Mu’s domain now, and they didn’t believe these amateurs could defeat him.

Even Zhang Wei was shaking his head, which seemed to indicate there was no hope for their case.

At this moment, on the projection screen, after Cheng Chuxiao and the sixteen others finished speaking, Qin Mu proactively stood up.

A hint of barely discernible mockery touched his lips. "You were saying... you didn’t spread false information?"

It was the very picture of a king’s disdain.

Cheng Chuxiao and the others flinched, but they still braced themselves and nodded, insisting that what they had spread was fact, not falsehood.

"Nonsense!" Qin Mu retorted sharply. "The article you published online indeed didn’t hide anything. However, it one-sidedly exaggerated the maliciousness of our elderly client’s actions, focusing on how he killed the dog with exceptional arrogance and refused to compensate."

"Let me ask you, when our client, Mr. Zhang Qingyuan, an elderly man, was being chased by a large dog and had a walking stick in his hand, striking back at the dog—wasn’t that a perfectly normal human reaction?!"

"After the dog was hit and its ferocity was fully revealed, for our client to then kill it—wasn’t that entirely reasonable under the circumstances?"