Chapter 741: Chapter 268 Judgment Chief: Please Plaintiff Elder, Do Not Sleep_2

He looked at Cheng Chuxiao and the others.

He said coldly, "According to legal and logical presumption, a dog that has been beaten usually has two reactions: either it tucks its tail and flees, or it reveals its ferocity and fights back."

"In the video, we can clearly see this dog didn’t run away. Instead, it continued to charge towards our elderly Mr. Zhang Qingyuan, who then picked up his walking stick to strike back in self-defense."

"Let me ask, if the dog had run away after being hit just once, considering Mr. Zhang Qingyuan’s mobility at seventy-eight years of age, could he really have chased down a vigorous young dog?"

As he spoke, Qin Mu extended his hand and pointed to Zhang Qingyuan, who was seated beside him in the plaintiff’s chair, signaling for him to say a few words.

But he discovered Zhang Qingyuan was sitting there, his head surprisingly tilted to one side.

"ZZZZ—"

He had started snoring.

It seemed the trial was too boring, offering him no opportunity to contribute. Or perhaps he was overly excited the previous night, staying up too late planning his trip to Europe, and had simply become sleepy...

"Ahem."

Qin Mu coughed lightly a few times to awaken Zhang Qingyuan.

On such a solemn occasion... he hadn’t expected Old Zhang to actually fall asleep.

Everyone else in court also witnessed Old Zhang sleeping and snoring, their expressions varying.

Up at the bench, Zhou Quanmin and the other members of the collegiate panel exchanged glances, their faces dark with dismay, utterly speechless.

He sternly admonished, "The plaintiff will please be mindful of his conduct. This is a courtroom, representing the solemnity of the law. Do not fall asleep again."

Actually, he was not unfamiliar with Zhang Qingyuan. Ordinarily, when he presided over criminal cases, Zhang Qingyuan would always sit in the public gallery, listening intently. If he encountered a particularly dull case, he would listen for a while and then simply fall asleep.

But this time, his seat was different; it wasn’t in the public gallery but the plaintiff’s chair. He couldn’t do much about sleeping in the public gallery; after all, no law prohibited spectators from dozing off. But for a plaintiff to fall asleep in court... in over a decade of judging cases, this was a first for him.

"Presiding Judge, perhaps our elderly gentleman has been subjected to unbearable cyberbullying in recent days, and his physical and mental state is poor. Please be understanding," Qin Mu hurriedly stepped forward to explain on Zhang Qingyuan’s behalf.

In the plaintiff’s chair, Zhang Qingyuan, seeing everyone’s gaze fixed on him, was somewhat bewildered and looked around blankly.

For a moment, he thought the case had already ended.

"Don’t sleep," Qin Mu rolled his eyes and quietly instructed.

This is a courtroom. This case could potentially stir the entire nation. Sleeping here would have an extremely negative impact.

Zhang Qingyuan’s old face reddened. He could only brace himself, summon his energy, and sit up straight.

This scene was also witnessed by Cheng Chuxiao and the others. A feeling of disdain spontaneously emerged in their minds. This trial... concerned whether or not they would go to prison. They were wrought with anxiety, desperately trying to save themselves. Yet Zhang Qingyuan, of all people, had fallen asleep. It seemed he didn’t take them seriously at all.

Meanwhile, Qin Mu spoke again, "Moreover, you claim you didn’t conceal any facts. So, I’d like to ask, why did your article fail to mention that the police arrived and made a ruling after the incident?"

These words once again left them speechless.

Previously, when Qin Mu accused them of exaggerating and publicizing Zhang Qingyuan’s responsibility, they could still offer some rebuttal. But this point... it indeed wasn’t mentioned in their article. When they wrote and disseminated their account of the incident, they omitted any mention of the police arriving and making a ruling. They also failed to mention Cheng Chuxiao’s defiance of the ruling, his on-site disturbance, and his subsequent administrative detention.

"According to legal definitions, false information refers to messages that do not completely align with the factual truth, containing either exaggeration or partial concealment," Qin Mu snorted coldly, adding indifferently, "Your actions constitute the spreading of false information, online rumormongering, and defaming someone’s reputation—this is defamation!"

At these words, Cheng Chuxiao and the other seventeen were once again perplexed. They were utterly defeated.

Qin Mu, single-handedly contending against all seventeen of them, was not at a disadvantage in the slightest. No, to be precise, it was a complete rout. The few life-saving points they had desperately concocted were effortlessly refuted by Qin Mu.

From the defense counsel’s table, Zhang Wei witnessed this and shook his head slightly, feeling rather helpless.

The points these few had painstakingly devised, he had considered long ago. Qin Mu’s methods were meticulous, leaving no loopholes. Since he had filed the lawsuit, he had definitely substantiated their criminal acts, leaving no room for sophistry. To absolve themselves legally... was almost impossible. As for sentence reduction, Qin Mu had completely blocked that path.

It turned out that those who stood against Qin Mu... never met a good end; their consequences were invariably tragic. Luckily, he was just a neutral defense attorney, never truly Qin Mu’s adversary.

「An hour later.」

「The Second Criminal Court.」

"Do you have any other points for rebuttal? Think quickly!" Han Tianming urged, looking nervously at Cheng Chuxiao and the others, his expression extremely grim.

During that hour, their minds had been exceptionally active, and they had come up with over a dozen points for rebuttal. Yet, unsurprisingly, all were dismantled by Qin Mu.

In courtroom debate, they were simply not in the same league as Qin Mu.