Chapter 214 The Shocked City

I’m talking about the kind of pressure you feel when you get up on stage to perform.

For most first-timers, just seeing that many people in the audience, it’s a miracle if your legs don’t turn to jelly!

Now, imagine replacing that audience with a crowd of department-level leaders and countless section-level officials...

Under those circumstances, with three directors from top-20 national law firms leading the charge against you... you think you could still answer questions?

It’s a wonder your brain wouldn’t just freeze up!

What’s more, after the selection, the final list would still be sent to the provincial office for the top leadership to review.

The on-site judges are all department-level. What rank do you think reviews the summary?

Deputy-ministerial!

Across the entire country, there aren’t many people standing at the top of that pyramid. Every single one of them is a prominent figure!

You can only imagine how immense the psychological pressure would be.

The difficulty is immense.

Unbelievably so!!!

This is why most people are content with just being shortlisted and don’t dare to dream of actually being selected... An ordinary person simply can’t withstand that kind of pressure.

"He’s 25 this year. His mental resilience hasn’t been fully developed yet."

"If that prosecutor, Hu Guang, had come with him, there might have been a glimmer of hope."

"But the ones who came with him are Zhang Bingxin and Huang Shi. The former is non-competitive, and the latter lacks experience. His ability to handle psychological pressure is questionable."

"In conclusion..."

Shishan pondered for a long while before finally letting out a breath. He already had an answer in his mind.

"He can be shortlisted!"

Getting shortlisted is an affirmation of your case and your abilities.

But whether or not you’re later selected for the classic case collection...

That depends entirely on you!

If your mental fortitude isn’t up to par and you can’t even answer questions in that kind of setting, you’ll have no one to blame if you’re not selected.

As for actually getting selected?

To be honest,

it didn’t seem logical.

People within the system constantly exude the intimidating aura of someone in a position of power.

Let me put it this way.

Take a police officer, for example. Even a First-Class Police Sergeant, a deputy chief of a local station who isn’t even a Police Supervisor, can make an ordinary person nervous and scared.

What rank is someone like that, generally?

Deputy Section Chief.

And a Deputy Section Chief will also get nervous and scared when they meet a section-level official...

Let alone department-level officials and the deputy-ministerial level figures who might show up in person!

It stands to reason that no matter how mentally tough a 25-year-old lawyer is, there’s no way he could withstand that.

"Alright."

Everyone nodded, breathing a sigh of relief.

They had reached a consensus.

Shishan nodded and said,

"Then let’s close the scoring and submit the documents."

"Mm."

Everyone nodded and began organizing the selection files in their hands.

Shishan thought for a moment, then placed the two cases from Lusen City on the very top of the pile. He then took the files and left for his office.

「Qingwu Province, Lusen City.」

In the municipal government building, inside the office of the General Affairs Section of the Municipal Political and Legal Affairs Commission.

「January 16th, 8:30 in the morning.」

The Section Chief ambled into his office, starting another day of his nine-to-five life.

"A simple meal of pickles and tofu, better than any emperor’s..."

The Section Chief hummed a little tune, grabbing his mug to brew some tea.

The tea leaves swirled as the boiling water was poured in, releasing a fragrant steam. A gentle sniff was enough to make one feel refreshed and invigorated.

SLURP~

"This is the kind of life even the gods would envy."

The Section Chief sat in his chair, slowly sipping his tea, and began his daily routine.

First, he started handling official business.

The General Affairs Section was an excellent post. While it might seem like logistics, usually handling information and the like, it was by no means an idle position. It came with real power!

Of course, the information they handled generally wasn’t anything crucial.

If there was major news from the province, the mayor would be the first to know. As for news within the city... nothing major had happened in a small place like Lusen City for years.

On a normal day, he just handled miscellaneous official duties.

Only a commendation from above would be memorable enough to stick with him.

But a commendation... what was there to commend in a small place like Lusen City? That its carbon emissions weren’t high enough? Or that its economic growth had finally surpassed the speed of a snail?

In any case, it had been a long time since the Section Chief had received a call from the province about anything other than routine official business.

Until...

BRRRRING~!

Suddenly, the landline on his desk began to ring insistently. The Section Chief paused, put down his pen, and picked up the receiver.

"Hello?"

"Yes, this is Lusen City... What!?"

"Let me confirm, you’re from Qingwu Province... Are you certain that for this year’s criminal case selection..."

"Two cases? It’s really two cases!?"

The Section Chief shot up from his seat, standing bolt upright, his face a mask of astonishment.

A clear voice came through the phone’s speaker.

"Yes."

"For this year’s classic criminal case selection, Lusen City has two shortlisted cases."

"They are the Li Family Village case and the No. 18 Middle School case, which has already been approved by the High Court."

"The province is now notifying you to contact the person in charge of these cases and have them travel to the provincial capital, Wutong City, to participate in the scoring conference for the selection in one week."

"The relevant documents have been mailed to Lusen City. Please ensure your section receives them."

"Ah... oh, oh, I understand..."

"..."

BEEP!

The line went dead.

The Section Chief’s eyes were wide with shock, his face a picture of disbelief.

’Shortlisted slots?’

’For the classic cases selection led by the Political and Legal Affairs Commission this year, two of our cases got shortlisted?’

’Two cases? And both are criminal cases!?’

You have to understand.

The news this year was that there were 60 shortlisted slots in total. Fifty of those were for civil, administrative, and economic cases.

A mere 10 slots were allocated to criminal cases!

Ten might sound like a lot, but not so much when compared to just two, right?

But what if I told you that Qingwu Province has a full 16 cities!?

Sixteen cities competing for ten slots. On average, it takes two cities just to get one slot.

But in reality, because the provincial capital has better political resources and its cases have a greater impact, at least three slots are reserved for its cases.

That means seven slots for fifteen cities to fight over!

That’s not even one slot for every two cities!

And now...

"Two cases? Lusen City alone has two!?"

The Section Chief was stunned. Forget two cases; the last time Lusen City even had a single criminal case shortlisted was years ago. And now there were two at the same time!

Immediately after, came a surge of excitement. He shot to his feet, forgetting his tea, and rushed to report the news up the chain of command.

First was the deputy secretary in charge of his division.

Next was the executive deputy secretary.

Finally, in short order, he found himself on the phone with the City Party Secretary’s office.

"What? Are you sure!?"

In his office in Lusen City, Secretary Shi’s face lit up with pleasant surprise after receiving the call, and he couldn’t help but sit up straighter.

Shi Ci asked again,

"You’re certain we have cases shortlisted this year? And two of them are criminal cases?"

Civil, economic, and administrative cases were shortlisted quite often.

But criminal cases were pitifully few and far between.

The selection process was tough, and it was normal to go years without a single nomination.

’What? You’re saying it’s just a shortlist nomination?’

A shortlist nomination carries significant weight!

Even just a nomination is cause for a city to celebrate with firecrackers.

"It’s true, Secretary Shi, it’s true. The province just called to notify us personally. The files are currently being mailed to Lusen City."

"Two cases in total."

"They are the Li Family Village case and the No. 18 Middle School case."

Listening to the voice on the phone,

"Haha..."

a delighted smile spread across Shi Ci’s face. He felt completely refreshed.

Lusen City had been stagnant, its economy slow, its judicial environment antiquated. This had been the biggest challenge for them during their tenure.

Who would have thought...

that this year, they would actually have cases shortlisted!

And two of them! A whole two—you couldn’t count them on one finger, you needed two!

Never mind whether they would be selected in the end.

Even if they weren’t, this was still an excellent thing for the regional secretary.

"Secretary Shi, the court and the procuratorate have also received the news and are already making preparations, but we can’t get in touch with the lawyer who handled the cases at the moment..." the voice on the other end said.

’Can’t contact the lawyer?’

’Right, the lawyer needs to submit the materials and conduct the defense on his own.’

Secretary Shi had been a little overcome with joy and had only just remembered this. He immediately said,

"That lawyer... right, Xu De."

"Haha, of course! A virtuous man. His name even has ’De’ in it!"

’How rare, how very rare... Lusen City actually got two cases nominated!’

’This is truly a first in history!’

Shi Ci urged,

"Where is he? Go find him! Contact him now!"