At nine o'clock in the morning, the federal court officially opened.
Before the trial began, Preston arrived late, just as Guding had anticipated. Guding finally met this guy named Preston.
At the first glance, Guding felt like laughing. The word "spherical" was the most fitting description for his body shape. His legs were completely out of proportion, as thin as bamboo poles and seemingly only half the length of a normal adult's. In contrast, his arms appeared unusually long. This peculiar combination of features wasn't the end of it; his face was even worse.
His face was full of fat, with layers of neck fat piling up from bottom to top, making him look like he had three extra chins. His mouth was extremely small and brightly colored as if he had applied lipstick, perfectly fitting the description of "cherry lips." Above his mouth was an excessively large nose, thrice the size of a normal person's, with a reddish tip. Going further up were his eyes, which were no bigger than mung beans—this wasn't a metaphor. His eyes really were just that size. As for his eyebrows, they were entirely invisible; it was unclear whether he'd shaved them or if they had never grown. In any case, each of his facial features was unbearably ugly on its own, and together, they were simply intolerable.
Guding took one look at him and could no longer look directly, silently marveling at the wonders of creation.
"Time's up, let's start," Preston looked at the time and urged. His voice was quite effeminate, enough to make one's hair stand on end, causing unease.
Guding nodded at the judge, "It's okay, let's start first."
Guding hadn't been able to wait for Reid, but he wasn't worried. Reid, although a chatterbox and a gossip, and always seeming cynical, was quite reliable when it counted.
Finally, the presiding judge tapped the gavel, announcing the trial, and asked Preston, the plaintiff, to begin reading the indictment.
Guding listened silently. In the indictment, Preston not only accused him of releasing the wanted criminal Cain but also blamed the system failures of Tianhe Prison Headquarters and more than eighty branches on him, emphasizing that this amounted to an A-level crime causing disturbance throughout the entire Star Domain, which necessitated the death penalty.
Even though the system failure of Tianhe Prison was indeed caused by him, judging by Preston's expression, it seemed he was unaware that he was the real perpetrator; he merely wanted to shift this part of the responsibility onto him to increase his guilt.
Guding had been brought to the federal court temporarily and had no time to prepare a defense statement.
The presiding judge said to Guding, "If you don't have a defense statement, just say a few words. He's said so much, you must have a different opinion."
Guding nodded, "I'll just say one thing, if you claim these things were done by me, then show the evidence!"
The presiding judge summarized both statements then proceeded to the evidentiary process.
Guding had no materials to submit, and Preston hadn't prepared much either since he didn't have any conclusive evidence.
All the materials were in electronic form. The Sea Emperor took less than a second to finish reviewing them and said to Guding, "His so-called evidence is just some videos of prison system anomalies and chaos, along with some speculative text."
After reviewing the materials, the presiding judge raised an objection to Preston, "Mr. Preston, the materials you submitted do not contain any actual physical evidence. If it's missing, please provide it promptly."
Preston's face turned blue, about to speak, but his lawyer stopped him.
"We haven't prepared the new evidence yet, but it will be available soon," the lawyer whispered something to Preston afterward.
After listening, Preston glanced in Guding's direction with a sinister smile on his face. However, he was completely unaware that everything the lawyer had said had been overheard by the Sea Emperor.
"That lawyer said obtaining physical evidence isn't difficult; if there is no outcome in court, the prison can unilaterally request to detain the suspect for 72 hours until the case trial is over. During detention, he could use his position to extract a confession with torture and use your fingerprints and iris scans to create fake evidence," the Sea Emperor relayed what he heard.
"Aren't fingerprint and iris scan records time-stamped?" Guding typed his question on the watch screen, which others assumed was just an ordinary civilian watch and paid no attention to what he was doing.
"Changing the record time is simple, anyone who knows a little bit about record programs can do it," the Sea Emperor explained, "If you don't want to suffer, you'd better win this case today."
The trial was about to enter the witness questioning phase, yet Reid was still nowhere to be seen, making Guding slightly worried for his safety. Reid should have come directly after breakfast, forty minutes should be enough, but now it had been an hour.
Guding hadn't expected Reid to encounter another situation.
After receiving Guding's call, Reid hastily changed and left his house, even though he told Guding not to worry. He still took it seriously. He just bought a donut and a can of milk from a roadside stall for breakfast, eating while heading to the parking lot.
He had only eaten half of the donut when he reached the parking lot entrance and his communicator rang; it was an unknown number. He glanced at it and disconnected the call. But after two seconds, the communicator rang again. He hesitated but answered, assuming it must be something urgent.
"Hello, who is this?" Reid stuffed the rest of the donut into his mouth and asked unclearly.
"Are you Reid?" A female voice came through the line, sounding quite sweet.
"I am, do you have any business? I'm a bit busy right now." Reid threw the remaining half-can of milk into the trash can at the door, heading inside the parking lot.
"Do you know where Guding is?" The question from the other end made Reid pause.
"Who are you?" Reid immediately became cautious.
"I'm Pama from the Pharmacy Department of Sea Blue Star's Basic Military Academy. I have some potion-testing questions to consult him about." The woman's response made Reid even more wary.
"Sorry, you've got the wrong person, Guding doesn't make potions." Uttering this, Reid hung up. He increasingly felt that the issue Guding was facing was not simple.
No sooner had he hung up than the communicator rang again, and it was the same woman's number. He hesitated but answered again, wanting to hear what story she would concoct.
"Why did you hang up?!" The woman's voice carried an accusatory tone.
"Lady, I'm really busy right now, and when making up stories, please investigate the background first rather than just saying some obviously flawed things..."
Reid's words were cut off by the other side, "Reid, if you want to graduate successfully and enter the High-level Military Academy, I advise you not to hang up and listen to me till the end."
The tone from the other side sent chills down anyone's spine, and even the usually bold Reid was slightly stunned by the threat, "Who exactly are you?!"
"I've said I'm Pama from the Pharmacy Department. I didn't expect Guding hadn't told you, his best buddy, that he's a Pharmacist," Pama's tone slightly relaxed.
"Pama... why does that name sound familiar..." Reid finally realized, "Are you that Pharmacy professor?! The genius woman who became a B-level pharmacist at twenty-two, currently serving as an elder at the Medicine God Alliance branch in the Tianhe Star Domain?"
"Yes, that's me! Now, are you interested in talking about Guding's situation?" Sensing the surprise in Reid's tone, there was a hint of pride in Pama's voice.
(Sorry, I had this chapter ready at 11 p.m. yesterday, and only noticed the network outage when the scheduled upload failed. I called the landlord in the morning, and he just arrived. Although I mentioned in the group that today's update might be late, some new friends who haven't joined the group didn't know. Anyway, here are two updates together, so you don't have to wait.)