City of Evil (The Seventh Trial in Vain)

  "I won't say what you can do to me?" The suspect was dragged away, still mouthing off. Yu Fei added: "You'll starve to death and no one will be responsible, because the law itself has loopholes and contradictions. If you die, I can push the responsibility very cleanly, it's just that those stupid lawmakers won't make laws, it's their mistake. After you die, your family members won't get any compensation, and they won't even know you died here. You can be detained alone."

  "Use adhesive tape to seal his mouth and cover his eyes, then send him back to the cell." Wen Yong was still worried that the soldiers wouldn't know what to do, so he took the initiative to explain it again. Because solitary confinement is extremely difficult here, every detention room is overcrowded, and solitary confinement is a bit hard to manage. If they seal everyone's mouth and cover their eyes, they won't be able to talk to each other or see each other, which can also be considered as solitary confinement, in order to prevent them from exchanging criminal ideas.

  After the military police took away the first suspect and brought in the second one, Wen Yong repeated what he had just said about legal knowledge, warning them not to think they could get away with it by staying silent, and also telling them that the military police couldn't waste military funds. In order to be accountable to taxpayers and superiors, they wouldn't be given food because if you ate something but still refused to say who you were, there would be no way to explain it to your superiors. The military police would be suspected of embezzling military rations. To avoid suspicion, why don't you go back to your cell and practice "bigu gong" (a legendary qigong that supposedly allows one to survive without eating)? Fellow prisoners who are interested can try it out.

  Of course, not everyone is stubborn. Wen Yong said a few words, but no one responded to them. Yu Fei was overjoyed in his heart because if these people didn't confess, it would be easier to deal with them and there would still be time to investigate and prosecute them. If they starved to death, they wouldn't violate the law, and a peaceful and prosperous world could be created in their own hands. Even if they confessed, participated in gambling, and worked in casinos, the most severe punishment for gambling crimes is seven years in prison, which would not affect their future actions of murder and arson. If they all starved to death, it would be easy to write a report saying that they were secretly colluding with each other to put pressure on the constabulary and eventually starved themselves to death. Yu Fei was naturally delighted that they didn't speak up, so he wouldn't even need to write an investigation report.

  The military police took turns sending the detainees back to their cells, two at a time. They would understand that if they didn't confess, they wouldn't be given food or water and their mouths would be taped shut and their eyes covered. Those who confessed would be treated normally and go through the proper judicial process. Since there were many troublemakers, the military police found a good solution: when taking them to the interrogation room, they wouldn't even give them seats. When the officers in charge of the interrogation asked them questions and they didn't respond, the military police would tape their eyes shut again and take them back. This was just too convenient.

  The thugs and staff at the casino are not unwilling to confess, they are afraid of being retaliated against by their bosses if they speak out. The ones who get caught in the casino are not the bosses, but just managers. The behind-the-scenes bosses outside the prison will know that they betrayed themselves and will retaliate against them and their families. So these people continue to starve in detention, only a few gamblers with no deep background honestly confess. They know that even if the casino is their own, the maximum sentence would be three years. What's more, they are just gamblers, and even without bribing judicial personnel, they will be out in a year at most. Is it worth starving to death here?

  Continuously interrogating over a hundred people, more than eighty of whom didn't even give their names. These people were playing dumb and it was right up Yu Fei's alley. Yu Fei had filled out the case registration form, and also obtained some evidence - just the IOUs these people had in their hands when they were caught. He then began writing a large stack of legal documents: the case registration form, interrogation records, the garrison's arrest record... By the time he finished, it was almost midnight. Yu Fei felt that he was tired enough and should go to sleep. If all these people were to confess, wouldn't he be exhausted to death?

  "These tedious documents are troublesome enough, this is the reason why all the judges are unwilling to handle cases. At their most efficient time, they can only handle one case a day. They don't even know about the loopholes in the law. Such a big loophole was discovered by you, what do you plan to do with those people who starved to death?" Wen Yong asked. Yu Fei immediately said: "Anyway, it's an unidentified corpse, and the family members don't know either. When cremating, we don't need to tell the staff who these people are. Anyway, we don't even know who they are."

  "What about the injured Shen San? If we sue him, our illegal interrogation will be exposed. If we don't sue him, we can't keep detaining him either. The police all know he was transferred to us." Wen Yong is still very meticulous, after all, they were in the wrong from the start, and it's not worth being ruined by a scoundrel like that.

  "Don't worry about this, we're not on duty tomorrow, we'll go to the court to get the arrest warrant." Yu Fei planned to handle some urgent matters first, Wen Yong asked: "Do you know where to apply for the arrest warrant?"

  "I'm well aware of that, locally we have full jurisdiction, and we are the only law enforcement agency of the gendarmerie in Nanyang Province. In theory, we are on an equal level with the Nanyang Provincial Court, so naturally, we need to go there to apply." Yu Fei looked at Wen Yong, who said: "In the past, those military officers were foolish and went to the district court to apply for arrest warrants. Many suspects had bribed the judges there beforehand, so they couldn't get an arrest warrant. Once the detention period was over, the culprits would run away. Even if they didn't run, they would hire lawyers with a lot of money to defend them. So when you came here, there were no detainees or people under custody."

  "They're really stupid, if they start a lawsuit from the district court, these locals can appeal twice without leaving the state. The gendarmerie captain with a law Ph.D. would also be exhausted by them. I'll sue them directly to that place and then they can appeal to the federal high court, those judges are appointed by the president and confirmed by the congress, not easy to be bribed." Yu Fei didn't know what happened before, but he knew that if things weren't handled properly, the thieves would eventually be released.

  Yu Fei had just gotten up in the morning when Wu Junwen came to his door, "Officer, our contract can be signed now, but we still need some necessary legal procedures, such as the military police issuing a permit to carry firearms. My men haven't gone through these procedures yet, would you mind helping us take care of it? If we legally possess weapons and have the contract as collateral, yesterday's incident wouldn't have been so troublesome."

  "What you said is correct." Yu Fei hastily issued some gun permits and signed the contract with the security company, and when Wu Junwen was packing up a large stack of documents, he asked: "Are these contracts really valid? I know the procedure for signing contracts, it seems that the approval of the Ministry of National Defense Procurement Bureau and Contract Review Bureau is required."

  "I know they will either approve or not, and there will be a reply soon. If there is no timely reply, other departments can report them for administrative inaction." Yu Fei plans to go apply for an arrest warrant, Wu Junwen said: "Even in the country with the most sound legal system, laws cannot solve all problems, you know this, many things if they have to go through legal procedures will exhaust everyone, and then the thief can still be above the law."

  "Then can I hire you to get rid of all the troublesome thieves?" Yu Fei said with a half-joking tone. Wu Junwen replied, "No, no, I'm not willing to do that. I've finally set up a clean company, at least cleaner than Heishui Security Company. I hope everything I do complies with the laws of the country where I am, and every penny I earn is clean money. If you have many jobs that easily violate the law, I can recommend someone, but he's not from my company."

  "Alright, I need to, and I also know that legitimate means can't suppress all criminal activities." Yu Fei had an urgent matter to attend to, he must thoroughly eliminate Shen San, who was no longer of any use, leaving no trace behind, as if he had never existed in this world. Wu Junwen handed him a piece of paper with a phone number written on it.

  "Alright, everyone's busy, our contract needs to be approved as soon as possible." Wu Junwen turned and left Yu Fei's office. Yu Fei faxed the signed contract to the superior department for review, then he took a large stack of legal documents to prepare to go to court. Wen Yong walked in and asked: "Can we set off now?"

  "Let's go, we'll take a look at the court, I still don't know where the gate of the state court is." Yu Fei put on the summer uniform of the constabulary, wore his military rank and insignia according to regulations, and left the barracks.

  Wen Yong drove with the windows down, blowing cool air. Yu Fei pressed the button to close the window and turned on the air conditioner. "We should be careful ourselves. Many local criminal organizations consider us their number one enemy. The military police car is indeed very eye-catching on the road. If someone attacks us, isn't it more dangerous with the windows open?"

  "It seems we should be careful." Wen Yong drove carefully, watching the vehicles on the street. The off-road vehicle quickly arrived at the entrance of the court, where security guards and bailiffs were on duty. Yu Fei saw the Jaguar C8 sports car that they had inspected before, and wondered if the woman was really a judge.

  With doubts, Yu Fei walked into the court with Wen Yong. Wen Yong knew that there were many differences among judges and it wasn't possible to apply for an arrest warrant just by finding any judge. He led Yu Fei into the chief judge's office and placed a large pile of relevant legal documents in front of the judge. Afterwards, the two stood upright waiting. The female judge had been searched once before and was not pleased about it. However, these constables were different from those in the past who rarely filed cases or solved them, so they seldom interacted with judges and citizens. She also reviewed the new commanding officer's information of the newly arrived troops, but this guy was indeed a talented individual for being able to capture over a hundred people in one day. Unfortunately, he seemed too young and inexperienced.

  The judge carefully reviewed the evidence and case files, not making things difficult for them. She was somewhat impressed by the young people's work and smoothly signed the arrest warrant. Wen Yong put the documents back in his briefcase, Yu Fei said "thank you" and the two turned to leave.