Chapter 368: Half a Win

The door to First Courtroom opened from the inside just as Chai Guizhi was looking down, feeling the second button on the blue jacket. The cloth bag had been washed, the pin put back in place, and still she was afraid it would fall.

At 9:50, more than twenty people sat in the gallery. Tang Guo sat in the last row. When she came in, she'd placed her phone and battery into her canvas bag, opened it for a look, then zipped it shut. Cai Qingru set her thermos by her feet, the water poured that morning. Qinghe's volunteers filled the front row. Two reporters sat at the back, notebooks open on their knees. Two women from the village sat near the door, hands gripping the backs of their chairs the whole time.

At ten, the gavel came down.

Judge Luo stood and read the judgment. He read it deliberately, passage by passage. At the plaintiff's side, standing came first: Qinghe was lawfully registered, its mission explicitly included public-interest activities for ecological and environmental protection, and the environmental public interest at stake in this case fell within the scope of that mission. The 2023 Notice of Order to Correct Within a Deadline was an order to rectify, not an administrative penalty. The defendant's argument that the plaintiff therefore lacked standing was not accepted by the court.

Someone in the gallery let out a long breath. Shen Zhixia pressed her hand flat on the table and did not move.

The judgment took twenty-one minutes to read. The findings were laid out one after another: the four columns of signatures on the seal tags of the fifteen Group A samples, the signatures at every handover, the case lid opened at 2:47, the two iron bars bent out of shape, the pipe from Sedimentation Tank No. 3 connected to the stormwater ditch, the witness's words spoken in court, and the fingerprint on the isotope ratio page. When he reached the defendant's argument that the overflow was incidental and the overflow outlet connected to the emergency pool by compliant design, Judge Luo's pace slowed by half a beat: whether production wastewater from the sedimentation tank mixed into stormwater had nothing to do with whether the design complied; incidental or not did not absolve the actor of restoration liability for damages caused by its discharge.

Han Chongli had been taking notes the entire time. At that line, his pen stopped for half a line.

"Judgment is as follows."

Judge Luo paused and lifted the paper.

"One: The defendant, Jiangzhou Hengyue New Materials Co., Ltd., shall immediately cease discharging lead-containing wastewater beyond the plant boundary through the stormwater outlet and the overflow pipe of Sedimentation Tank No. 3, complete rain-sewage separation rectification within thirty days of this judgment taking effect, and seal the aforementioned overflow pipe;

"Two: Within one hundred eighty days of this judgment taking effect, the defendant shall, in accordance with the restoration plan confirmed by this court, restore the contaminated ditch-bottom sediment in Qingshi Village, the farmland along the ditch, and the soil of the village primary school playground. Should restoration not be completed within the deadline, the defendant shall pay 3,120,000 yuan in ecological environment restoration costs;

"Three: The defendant shall compensate 460,000 yuan for interim loss of ecosystem service function from the time of damage until restoration is complete, to be paid into an account designated by this court and used exclusively for ecological restoration in Qingshi Village;

"Four: The defendant shall bear the appraisal fees in this case;

"Five: The defendant shall publicly apologize in media at or above the municipal level within thirty days of this judgment taking effect;

"Six: The acceptance fee for this case shall be borne by the defendant."

At the second item, Cai Qingru's hand slid off the table's edge and gripped a corner of her own shirt. At the fourth, Song Qiming raised his head, then lowered it again quickly. The lay assessor in cloth shoes sat to the side, watching the mouth that read the judgment.

"The judgment is now served on all parties."

The court clerk came over carrying three copies. Cai Qingru signed the proof of service and passed the pen over. Shen Zhixia signed her name in the agent's column. On the defendant's side, Song Qiming signed. Han Chongli's hand stayed on the table and did not reach out.

Judge Luo finished the final passage: if dissatisfied with this judgment, a notice of appeal may be submitted to this court within fifteen days of service, appealing to the Provincial Higher People's Court; the appeal period is calculated from the day after the date of service.

Cai Qingru asked in a low voice, "Does today count as the first day?"

"No," she said. "The day of service isn't counted. It starts tomorrow, through the 23rd."

Han Chongli stood and squared the pages in front of him. "The defendant has received the judgment. Whether to appeal will be decided within fifteen days."

Judge Luo struck the gavel and adjourned.

At 10:40, the corridor was full of people. Qinghe's volunteers crowded together talking. A reporter raised his camera and was held back half a step by a bailiff. Someone thrust a microphone toward her. "Attorney Shen, a few words?"

"It's all in the judgment," she said. "Written out, item by item."

She walked on. At the open space by the stairwell, her feet stopped on their own.

[Thud. Qingshi Village, first instance won. Judgment not yet effective; not counted for now.]

She stood there, not moving.

[Thud. Main Quest unlocked: Old Case Retrial.]

[Thud. Three items required: the Original True Sample; the Sample Delivery Record; one person willing to tell the truth.]

The noise in the corridor kept moving past her. People went by—talking, laughing, making phone calls. She heard someone send a voice message in a group chat, the loud voice from the rider group: "Did we win?"

"What's wrong." Lu Jibai was half a step behind and to her side, voice low.

"Nothing."

"You're pale."

"I stood in there for two hours." She switched the judgment to her other hand. "Let me reply, then I'll come down."

She lowered her head and typed into the group: Verdict's in.

Tang Guo pushed through the crowd and pressed a hand to her back. "I didn't open a single camera. Battery's still in my bag." She laughed as she said it, but her eyes had gone red.

Cai Qingru came over holding the judgment and spread it open in the light under the window. "That phrase in the second item—'the restoration plan confirmed by this court'—that's written right there on paper."

"Use it to talk construction." Lu Jibai pulled a page from his inside pocket, its edges pressed flat—the four points copied down on April 7. "Check each item against acceptance. Don't let them simply tell us the repairs are done."

Cai Qingru took it, folded it into thirds, and put it in her cloth bag. "At acceptance, who signs?"

"The court signs. Our only job is to turn every item into something that can be photographed and measured."

Prosecutor Qi snapped his briefcase shut beside them and walked over just to say, "My part ends here. From now on, it's between you and the court."

"Fifteen days?" she asked.

"Fifteen days." He nodded, took three or four steps, then turned back. "Those two slips for the child—don't lose them."

Lu Jibai looked down at the line about the appeal period, studying it closely. "These fifteen days, I'm treating as zero."

At 10:50, the sun was hard on the eleven steps at the main entrance. She walked down holding the judgment; Lu Jibai stayed on the side by the traffic lane.

Footsteps came up from behind, leather shoes striking stone once. Han Chongli, briefcase switched to his other hand.

He stopped beside her for half a step.

"Congratulations," he said. "If your father could see this, he'd say your complaint was written better than his."

The edge of the judgment in her hand creased under her grip. She opened her mouth, but nothing came up. She tried to take the whole sentence in, to think of where to answer, and couldn't find a place to start.

Lu Jibai stepped half a pace between them, putting her position behind his own, and said nothing.

Han Chongli glanced at him, said not a word, and continued down. The sound of his leather shoes carried all the way to the parking lot below.

Song Qiming followed after, and as he passed her he also stopped a step. "On the seal tag of that Group B case, my column wasn't signed by me. The February 25 case-opening record shows it. If it goes up a level, that's what I'll say too." Then he was gone.

At eleven, she reached the bottom step. Chai Guizhi stood on the patterned bricks, both hands gripping the straps of her cloth bag. When she saw her come down, she reached out and took hold of her sleeve.

"Little Shen," she said. "Read it to me."

"Here?"

"Here." Chai Guizhi hugged the cloth bag to her chest. "I can't read. I'm afraid I'll forget by the time I get home. Last night I tried to draw two marks in my notebook. They didn't come out right."

The two women crowded in, standing close. One of them still clutched a half-empty plastic bottle.

So she read, right there at the bottom of the steps. Tang Guo stood on her right, Cai Qingru hugged her cloth bag on the left, and Lu Jibai stood behind her.

"Item one: the court says they can't discharge water from that outlet anymore. Within thirty days, they have to seal the pipe on Tank No. 3 and separate the stormwater from the sewage."

"Thirty days?" Chai Guizhi asked.

"Thirty days from when the judgment takes effect," she said. "Today's ruling doesn't count yet. We wait fifteen days. If they don't appeal, then it takes effect."

"Oh." Chai Guizhi nodded, pressing the date into her memory. "Then another thirty days."

"Item two: within one hundred eighty days, they have to restore three things—the mud at the bottom of the ditch, the land along the ditch, and the soil in the school playground. If they can't fix it, they pay 3.12 million."

"Three million one hundred twenty thousand." Chai Guizhi repeated the number slowly, then looked up. "Who gets that money?"

"It doesn't go to them, and it doesn't go to us," she said. "It goes into the court's account. Used only to repair this ditch."

"Item three: 460,000 yuan. That's for the water that couldn't water the fields and the vegetables nobody dared eat, from the day the discharge exceeded standards until the day it's fixed. It goes into that same account."

One of the women in front suddenly asked, "Is our family's plot included?"

"Everything along the ditch is included," she said. "Which plots, which sections—the appraisal lists them point by point. During the repair, they'll measure stretch by stretch."

"Item four: they pay the appraisal costs. Item five: they publish an apology in the newspaper. Item six: the litigation costs are theirs too."

When she finished, Chai Guizhi didn't move. She pressed both hands against the cloth bag, then asked, "When the work starts, who's watching?"

"Cai Laoshi and her people are watching," she said. "When it's done, the court handles acceptance. If they miss the deadline, they hand over that money and the court hires someone to do the work."

"I'll be at the ditch every day," Cai Qingru added beside her. "The moment they break ground, I start filming."

Chai Guizhi shifted the bag to her other hand, stood for a while, then lifted her head. "So we won?"

She thought about it.

"Half a win," she said. "The other half is them actually doing the repairs."

Chai Guizhi nodded, pressed the safety pin on her bag, and said she'd go back and tell Xiaoyu—that her grandmother understood one thing today. She turned toward the bus stop, walked a few steps, then looked back. "Little Shen, whenever you're coming to the village, tell me ahead of time. I'll sweep the yard."

Tang Guo came down the steps and stood beside her. "Director He is waiting at home for you to read it."

"I know. Not a word left out."

She looked down at the judgment in her hand. At the bottom of the last page was the court's seal. Above it, a line with three judges' names, and beside it a line with four lay assessors' names. Hers was not there.

She closed the judgment and slipped it into her bag. A little dust rose from the steps in the wind and settled on the tops of her shoes.

Three items. Not one of them signed yet.