MWC – Chapter 53 Special Investigation Team

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The Beiguan Jinshun Inn is a two-story small building, similar to the house at 6 Jing’an Alley that Lu Ming bought. However, its upper and lower floors are divided into more than ten extremely small rooms. It’s a very cheap inn, with a daily rent of about 1 yuan per room.

Currently, this inn has been rented out by Cheng Lingyu for a month at a rate of 200 yuan per month, temporarily housing the entire “special investigation team.”

The task force members mainly come from the Donghai New Development District Procuratorate.

The Kato Masahichi serial child abuse and murder case has been filed with the Donghai Ninth Circuit Court, also known as the Beiguan Court, which has formally accepted it and is awaiting scheduling.

The chief prosecutor, Senior Chief Prosecutor Cheng Lingyu, selected the team members.

The deputy chief prosecutor is Yu Zhengdao, Chief Prosecutor of the New Development District Procuratorate, a highly experienced veteran prosecutor.

Additionally, the team includes an assistant chief prosecutor, a prosecution officer, and two assistant prosecution officers responsible for evidence collection, gap-filling, and other tasks, mostly run by young prosecutors.

The Beiguan Procuratorate also sent someone to join the team: Lu Ming’s old acquaintance, Beiguan Procuratorate’s star prosecutor Hou Dexing, whom Lu Ming regards as a weaker version of Li Mingxuan.

Lu Ming had crossed paths with him in the case of Liu Laocai.

Hou Dexing, within the prosecutorial ranks, is a prosecution officer, the most junior level of prosecutor, as he is young.

As for assistant prosecution officers, they can be considered interns without the qualification to independently appear in court.

Assistant prosecution officers, prosecution officers, assistant chief prosecutors, chief prosecutors, senior chief prosecutors, and so on can be considered as titles in their professional hierarchy, with a seniority system similar to the past.

The team consists of eight prosecutors, forming an unprecedentedly strong lineup.

Now, an external lawyer, Lu Ming, has joined the prosecutorial team.

The largest room in the inn was converted into a conference room, where Cheng Lingyu held the first prosecutorial team meeting, assigning tasks to the prosecutors.

Besides the nine members of the prosecutorial team, there were two detectives sitting in the corner, from the 13th Branch of the Donghai Police Department, also known as the Beiguan Branch.

They were Li Wei, deputy head of the Criminal Division and leader of Group 2, and his deputy, Sha Dahai.

According to imperial prosecution regulations, in criminal cases, the prosecutorial institution holds temporary command authority over the police officers involved in the case.

This setup is similar to what Lu Ming knew from his previous life in South Korea.

In most other countries, the prosecution and police departments have a cooperative relationship in prosecutorial cases, with the prosecution leading and the police assisting.

Although the Beiguan Court has accepted the case, the prosecution’s evidence is still very weak and needs further collection.

Cheng Lingyu assigned tasks to each prosecutor, including the two detectives, while everyone took notes.

Only Lu Ming was empty-handed, staring blankly at the black cockroaches crawling on the floor.

“Lu Qianxing, Counselor Lu, do you have any insights?” Cheng Lingyu suddenly looked at Lu Ming with a somewhat sarcastic tone, clearly dissatisfied with Lu Ming not taking notes like the others.

Lu Ming smiled and said, “No, I’m listening. Prosecutor Wang is responsible for the safety and psychological counseling of the surviving boy, guiding the psychologist to try to get the boy to testify in court. The best plan is to obtain a valid statement and use a psychological report to prevent the defense from demanding his testimony.”

“Prosecutor Gao will work with the patrol officers, taking photos of the boy and finding people who know him to confirm his identity. If we can find his relatives, even better.”

“Prosecutor Zhang needs to cooperate with the patrol department to screen missing local children to see if they match the victims mentioned by Jin Zhengyi. This must be done meticulously, including the villages below.”

“Prosecutor Liu should manage media relations, especially monitoring the defense’s statements to the media, guiding the media to our advantage without generating too much hype to avoid giving the defense grounds for a mistrial.”

“Wow!” A young man sitting next to Lu Ming, with a face still showing youthful innocence, exclaimed. He was clearly a fresh graduate prosecutor named Wang Xiaohu, who joined as an assistant prosecutor last year.

He exclaimed and gave Lu Ming a thumbs up, “Counselor Lu, you’re amazing!”

He had been taking notes diligently, intending to organize his supervisor’s speech later. But now, seeing Counselor Lu, who didn’t need a notebook, remember everything clearly and concisely, summarizing all the key points in a few sentences, made his work easier. This was simply too impressive!

On the other side, Cheng Lingyu paused, then snorted coldly, “Don’t daydream about cockroaches here. Our conditions can’t compare to your law firm, but if we didn’t hire you, we would have more funds for better offices. You get a monthly subsidy of 325 yuan, while we could rent a much better office for 525 yuan.”

Hearing that Lu Ming’s external hiring fee was 325 yuan per month, some prosecutors showed resentment on their faces, which is a sore point for them.

Although prosecutors’ salaries are not low, they are poor compared to the successful lawyers they often deal with.

Assistant prosecutors earn only fifty or sixty yuan a month, while even someone like Cheng Lingyu, the Senior Chief Prosecutor, who is at the pinnacle of the ordinary prosecutor ranks, earns only around 300 yuan a month.

However, hiring external lawyers for prosecution usually means hiring famous lawyers as chief prosecutors.

The so-called monthly subsidy is merely symbolic, as these famous lawyers might not take other cases for several months, focusing solely on being chief prosecutors, not for the money but for the reputation.

Some lawyers, tired of the fierce competition in defense work, might switch to prosecution for stability, considering it much more comfortable. Some do it as a stepping stone into politics.

As for Lu Ming, being hired externally doesn’t make him a deputy chief prosecutor, meaning he can’t sit at the prosecution table, just a team member involved in the case. To watch the trial, he needs to apply for a seat in the audience.

However, given his provision of crucial evidence and the support of Li Guan, whose influence is considerable, he managed to join this formidable prosecutorial team, with his subsidy presumably following standard external lawyer rates.

But clearly, to these prosecutors, it seems unfair.

After all, prosecutors have stability, while the competition in law practice is intense. Many prosecutors transitioned from law practice after failing in the competitive environment, settling for stable incomes, and shouldn’t have much to complain about.

“Let’s continue!” Cheng Lingyu felt the atmosphere wasn’t right and changed the topic, continuing to assign tasks to the prosecution officers and assistant prosecution officers.

“Wang Xiaohu, you are responsible for investigating the underground human trafficking market, checking if there’s any possibility of children being sold to the Japanese. This requires cooperation with local patrol officers. Please assist, Section Chief Li!”

Li Wei nodded lightly, “Rest assured, Prosecutor Cheng. Our Criminal Division will fully cooperate during this period, suspending cases where possible and reallocating personnel to this case.”

Cheng Lingyu then looked at Lu Ming, “Counselor Lu, you will work with Xiaohu. Please guide him well.”

Lu Ming nodded with a smile.

In fact, it was clear to everyone that investigating the underground human trafficking market was a desperate measure.

After all, Jin Zhengyi claimed that most victims were local children from Beiguan, where the underground market for local children is minimal.

Wang Xiaohu, excited to work with Lu Ming, blushed and stammered, “Brother Lu, I’ll make sure to learn well from you!”

He came from a poor family, representing a rare example of changing fate through knowledge and achieving social mobility.

He always excelled academically, graduating as an honor student from the Imperial University Law School, choosing a stable prosecutor’s job.

Admiring the eloquence of lawyers in court, he envied young legal professionals like Lu Ming who could confidently argue in court at such a young age.

At nineteen, Counselor Lu had become a second-rank lawyer in his first year and introduced a “child protection” principle to the Beiguan court, now accepted by most imperial courts.

Counselor Lu was practically his role model.

Despite being older than Counselor Lu, he deeply respected his achievements, addressing him as “Brother Lu” to express his overwhelming admiration.