Carrying a Jurassic on me
Chapter 1123 - 576: Public Trial Conference Treats Guests

Chapter 1123: Chapter 576: Public Trial Conference Treats Guests

"Let’s go, let’s go! There’s a public trial happening, Li Xiaogang has been caught and brought back!" At the head of Sancha River streets, the crowd was hurrying toward the area of Laoniu Market, calling friends to join them as they went, bustling like it was Chinese New Year.

Li Mancang’s arrest was taken very seriously by the county too; no sooner had he arrived than the loudspeakers on the streets of Sancha River township had already made several announcements, stating that a public trial would be held that very day.

In truth, there had been fewer public trials in the past two years. In the years before that, it was not only public trials, but several criminals guilty of heinous crimes had even been executed by shooting. Back then, many people even went to watch the executions; it truly satisfied the public’s sense of justice.

Li Mancang was indeed receiving such treatment; he was brought back overnight in a vehicle from the county station. Even before his arrival, the county had quickly made the decision to hold a public trial.

Now, as people’s lives were just beginning to improve, the first signs of illegal fundraising started to appear. Many people were not vigilant and figured that since it was all among acquaintances, and the monk might escape but the temple couldn’t, it would be a great deal to deposit money with others and receive high interest rates.

Little did they know there was now a "monk" who had fled, leaving behind an empty temple, swindling many people—a striking example with educational significance.

Before the wave of migrant workers and during a period when farming lacked subsidies and you still had to deliver public grain, having a little savings was truly not easy. This was evident from the fact that up to this day, there had been only one Rural Credit Cooperative in Sancha River township. If there was savings to be deposited, why wouldn’t other banks come?

Even the employees of the Rural Credit Cooperative had a lot of idle time. During the New Year when the cattle farm had more cattle to take from the farmers, Director Yao of the Credit Cooperative personally brought a couple of employees over to persuade those who had money to deposit it with them—this kind of service attitude would be hard to come by in a few years’ time.

Those who had some savings were mostly involved in small businesses, and that money was scrimped and saved, dime by dime. Yet, out of greed for a little more interest, they almost lost everything.

Thus, as soon as these people heard Li Mancang was arrested, before he even arrived, they called friends and squatted outside the police station entrance. The village at the eastern side of the town, which could be considered Li Mancang’s hometown, saw practically half the villagers show up—he specialized in scamming acquaintances; how detestable!

Fortunately, from the police who brought people back, good news came in time: everyone’s money could still be recovered. Of course, the high interest rates initially promised by Li Mancang, you should forget about them, as that itself was illegal.

As a result, these people immediately rejoiced; being able to get back their principal was already a blessing from their ancestors. Who would dare dream of interest now?

Speaking of this, it’s impossible not to mention that Li Mancang was quite economically minded. During the more than half a year that he and his family fled, not only had the money he took not decreased, but it had actually increased substantially, nearly doubling—this was all earned by him and his family secretly fleeing to Shen City and Hong Kong to set up street stalls. With brains and business experience, in the gold-filled metropolises, he truly thrived like a fish in water.

This scoundrel revealed on the vehicle, "If I had known earlier how easy it was to make money outside, why would I covet those country bumpkins’ small change? If I had closed the flour factory sooner, even if I couldn’t become a big boss in the city, at least I could have set up my family business here by now."

In the words of the people from Sancha River township, he was indeed ’Awesome,’ taking the entire blame himself, repaying everyone’s money. He aimed for leniency in his sentence so he could serve fewer years and then come out still a hero—this scoundrel believed he had found the way to make money, and he was confident that even if he spent a few years in prison, he could continue his small business afterward without worrying about making money.

As for the public trial, he didn’t care much about it anymore. Since he had committed the crime himself, even if there were no public trial, there would be no place for him in Sancha River township in the future; it was just a matter of being scolded more during the public trial.

It’s a pity his plan was good, but his family members, being at least accomplices, couldn’t escape either.

The process of the public trial was very simple. What mattered was that, before the trial, an old police officer from the county came and spoke to everyone for a full hour about the dangers of illegal fundraising.

If it had been another environment or location and the town’s people were asked to listen to such dry legal knowledge propaganda, surely few would have paid attention.

But today, with Li Mancang sitting on a large truck, providing a first-hand account, and with a group of victims below who had yet to receive their money, everyone listened very attentively indeed—at the time Li Mancang had just fled, it was as if the sky had fallen for each victim’s family, and their plights, passed by word of mouth, were almost universally known.

Moreover, everyone knew that this time, Li Mancang had been caught in Hong Kong. Catching him was purely luck. If he had done as he planned originally and stayed in some remote place, who could have caught him?

People discussed and praised Director Lin as ’Awesome,’ saying that it was unexpected for the police chief of Sancha River township to be able to find and bring back a criminal from thousands of miles away, just like the police on TV.

This way of discussing was because Yan Fei thought he was famous enough already, and on this occasion, he specifically instructed not to mention himself, just saying that someone provided a tip and Lin Baoguo personally led the capture—this was Boss Yan keeping his contributions hidden, while Lin Baoguo received unearned credit.