Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 568 Mediation 1
"Sorry……"

The mother's wailing eventually affected Chen Dan, causing the stubborn girl who had been holding back her tears to gradually redden her eyes once again.

"You scared your mother to death!"

Chen Dan's mother choked up, then raised her hand to cup her daughter's face. Seeing the bloodstains on her forehead, her eyes were filled with heartache and lingering fear.

"Mom, I'm fine. Don't worry about me, I'll be strong. I won't care about the slander or what others say. As long as I know I haven't done anything wrong, nothing else matters."

Taking a deep breath, Chen Dan helped her mother to her feet. Looking at the police officers standing in the doorway, she whispered, "I'll go to school tomorrow! I have nothing to hide! I want them to know I haven't done anything wrong!"

"Taking two days off is fine too!"

Back indoors, Sun Chang couldn't help but speak up. She knew that rumors couldn't be quickly dispelled in a day or two, and if Chen Dan went back to school now, she would inevitably be subjected to pointing fingers and gossip from her ignorant classmates.

"..."

Chen Dan shook her head, stubbornly remaining silent.

She looked at her mother, who was clutching her arm and wiping away tears, and then at her father, who was breathing heavily beside her. For a moment, she didn't know what to do or how to restore the family to normal.

"cough!"

Zheng Mingxing coughed, attracting the family's attention.

He suggested that Chen Dan's father take his daughter to the hospital for a checkup, but to his surprise, the other party waved his hand and refused.

"I, Chen Dayu, have never been so humiliated in my life! This matter must be resolved now!"

He said that such a small matter did not require a trip to the hospital, and then reiterated that the most important thing now is to explain the situation clearly to the rumor-mongers and restore the reputation of his family as soon as possible.

"Then... let's go to the police station to handle it a bit. Don't let the child get involved in the details. You two adults should discuss the follow-up issues and compensation with the other party."

Zheng Mingxing thought about it and didn't object; the victim also had the right to make his own demands. As for Chen Dan's condition, Yuan Meijuan nodded after examining her and said the problem wasn't serious, so they could wait until the problem was resolved before proceeding with treatment.

Zheng Mingxing then invited the Chen family to go directly there in a police car, but Chen Dayu refused again.

He stated that only arrested criminals ride in police cars, and he himself would definitely not. Seeing that Chen Dan's mother shared the same sentiment, Zheng Mingxing could only take Zhang Ke and Yuan Meijuan back first, waiting for Sun Chang to bring the family of three over in a taxi.

By the time we got back to the police station, it was already getting dark.

The incident of opening the box had been going on for almost the entire day, and Zheng Mingxing was starting to worry about the spread of rumors. He parked his car and waited for Zhang Ke to come over, then gestured for him and Yuan Meijuan to stay quietly outside the police station while he hurried off to find Nie Guoqiang.

Zheng Mingxing couldn't find Lao Nie in the office, so he grabbed Liu Shuangquan and asked him. He then learned that most of the people were with Li Yiduo.

Upon closer inspection, five or six people were gathered behind Li Yiduo, chattering amongst themselves as they watched him operate the computer. Even Nie Guoqiang was pointing at the screen and asking Li Yiduo a series of questions, just like a primary school student, while Li Yiduo patiently answered them while working.

"Old Nie!"

Zheng Mingxing stepped forward and found that on the left side of the screen were several rows of chat windows, while on the right side was a website that was different from what he usually saw.

"You're back? How's it going over there?"

Nie Guoqiang greeted Zheng Mingxing, then pointed at the screen and laughed, "Li Yiduo has contacted the official customer service of WeChat and QQ, and is providing the information to have them delete the relevant chat content. And this is the backend of our Zhangshi community website; Li Yiduo is deleting posts! Now there's good news: those short video platforms and large forums haven't paid much attention to the 'boxing' thing yet. As long as we stop all the messy messages in Zhangshi, this matter won't cause too much of a problem. Hehe... I just realized that opening boxes also costs money; otherwise, simply opening boxes won't get any traffic for people to see."

"Is that even a thing? Doesn't posting it online attract countless bored people just to join in the fun?"

Zheng Mingxing curiously approached and discovered that apart from numerous related posts on the Zhangzhou City community website, search engines yielded very few relevant news articles. Related content on several short video platforms also received few clicks, suggesting that netizens were not particularly interested in this topic.

"There's too much going on online, and it's all chaotic! We've all seen plenty of unboxing videos, so unless it's something particularly eye-catching, netizens don't really care."

Li Yiduo took a short break and then turned to Zheng Mingxing to explain, "To put it bluntly, Jia Wanlin is still young, and what she wrote wasn't eloquent enough. Plus, her imagination isn't very rich; a child like her can't come up with any particularly eye-catching accusations. Hehe... As for Dong Wan and the like, everyone just laughs it off; who would really care? In addition, we stopped her in time and didn't give the girl a chance to spend money, which is why things didn't escalate."

"So, you're saying there are different levels of unboxing, right? High-end unboxing requires professionals; their ability to generate traffic and grab attention far surpasses a young girl's impulsive act. But Jia Wanlin's ordinary unboxing, with its simple content and lack of paid trending topics, doesn't seem to be able to pique netizens' interest or spark discussion. There's just too much content online; an ordinary unboxing won't make a splash, is that what you mean?"

Zheng Mingxing nodded, as if suddenly realizing something.

Li Yiduo chuckled as he fiddled with the computer, then added, "Or to put it another way, people these days aren't bothered by lowbrow stuff anymore; they're more interested in plot twists and turns. Plus, for something like this to really blow up, both sides need to engage in a lot of mutual mudslinging and arguing in front of netizens, revealing all sorts of secrets. Only by slandering and exposing each other can the whole thing become exciting. Generally, the two sides involved will expose each other one day and the other the next to maintain the buzz. Then they'll hire online trolls to help discredit each other and expose each other's private lives—that's how you make it exciting and satisfy everyone online."

"Everyone online..."

Nie Guoqiang grunted.

"Yes! Listening to you say that, I feel like opening boxes has become a business! Platforms need this kind of traffic, online trolls need this kind of business, the parties involved need this way to destroy the other party, and the victims also need revenge..."

Zheng Mingxing shook his head, unsure how to comment on this matter.

However, regardless of the circumstances, this chaotic online order is undoubtedly abnormal. The internet is not for such people to spread negative emotions; from the moment it was conceived, its primary purpose has been to facilitate learning and making friends.

But with the emergence of things like 'unboxing,' the internet seems to have become a demon! It is tempting humanity to degenerate, luring innocent people into the abyss, and destroying morality and order by another means.

‘Dingling bell~’

Zheng Mingxing's phone suddenly rang. He picked it up and saw that it was Sun Chang's number.

Knowing that Chen Dan's family had finally arrived at the police station, Zheng Mingxing patted Nie Guoqiang on the shoulder, indicating that he could also call Jia Wanlin and Hao Junwen's families over so that the three parties could discuss a solution to the problem together.

Inside the mediation room, Jia Wanlin's family and Hao Junwen's family had been waiting impatiently for some time.

Especially since Hao Junwen's parents learned that their son's punishment was likely to be more severe than that of the mastermind Jia Wanlin, they now found Jia Wanlin's family of three extremely displeasing.

Jia Wanlin's parents remained completely unmoved by the stares from the family next to them; after all, as long as their daughter wasn't the one suffering, that was all that mattered. As for the boy next to them… who are you? My Wanlin is not dating at this age!
This attitude immediately made Hao Junwen's father even more irritable.

It was only because Hu Lijun and Liu Shuangquan were sitting in the mediation room that the two sets of parents might have already started arguing.

Just then, the door to the mediation room suddenly opened, and Zhang Ke and Sun Chang led Chen Dan and her parents in.

Upon seeing the two families sitting in the mediation room, Chen Dayu was stunned for a moment, while Chen Dan cowered behind her father in fear. Chen Dan's mother, however, instantly reddened her eyes and, without saying a word, pointed at the people inside and began to curse loudly.

"So it was you who framed my Chen Dan and spread rumors about our family, right? You little brat, you dare to make up anything? How can you be so despicable, so immoral at such a young age! And you all..."

"Who the hell are you scolding?"

Jia Wanlin's father slammed his hand on the table and stood up with a fierce expression.

"So what if I scold you?" Chen Dayu joined the fray expressionlessly.

"How dare you raise your child to be such a disgraceful state and still have the nerve to embarrass yourself here?"

"You are looking for death!"

Jia Wanlin's father roared and was about to strike Chen Dayu.

Hu Lijun and Zhang Ke, who were prepared for this, immediately stepped forward and stopped the two men. "Don't lay a hand on them! Sit down, both of you. What do you think this place is? Back off! Back off! Don't speak, do you hear me?"

Just as Jia Wanlin's mother was about to scream, Sun Chang slammed his hand hard on the table.

"No one is allowed to make a sound! Shut up! This is a police station. Disrupting police work will result in detention! Do you hear me?"

"If you don't want to resolve this properly, then all of you will spend the night in your cells calming down!"

Hu Lijun spoke threateningly without any expression on his face.

Upon hearing this, the group finally quieted down, their preemptive strike vanishing. Especially Jia Wanlin's father, who pursed his lips and obediently sat down, but still maintained his arrogant demeanor, crossing his legs and glaring at Chen Dayu with a cold snort.

His wife and daughter followed suit, looking disdainfully at the three members of the Chen family who were finding seats across the street.

"Ha ha……"

Hao Junwen's father suddenly let out a cold laugh, finding the whole spectacle particularly amusing. He even wished the two of them would fight and be arrested, which would ease his resentment somewhat.

Knowing that the matter was already settled, Hao Junwen's father reached out and handed his hand across the table to Chen Dayu.

"Dear Mr./Ms. Chen, I'm so sorry! My child did something wrong, and I apologize to you, your family, and your child. We didn't discipline him properly, and he really didn't know any better. I'm so sorry for causing you trouble!"

"Forehead……"

Chen Dayu was stunned, completely unexpected that he would encounter the other party taking the initiative to apologize so soon after arriving.

Compared to the other family's parents, what can be said about this attitude and initiative? They've already apologized; are they going to stubbornly refuse to accept it?
"How should I put it? A mistake is a mistake! I apologize to you. But what's done is done, right, Mr. Chen? We should look forward and think about how to resolve this, right? As for the losses your family suffered because of my son, including damage to your reputation and emotional distress, we will compensate you for everything that is due! As for clarification, we will cooperate with the police to tell you the truth clearly, so that you will no longer suffer injustice. Is that alright with you?"

Hao Junwen's father was very sincere. Even when his wife tried to pull him away and tell him not to take all the responsibility on his family, Hao Junwen's father still shook off his wife's hand and insisted on finishing what he had to say.

His words were indeed sincere, but as he spoke, he kept glancing at Jia Wanlin's parents out of the corner of his eye, which made Hu Lijun shake his head helplessly.

Hu Lijun was well aware of Hao Junwen's father's intentions.

But since the other party was generous in admitting their mistake and was trying to ease the conflict, he didn't say much more.

Although Chen Dayu has a bad temper and a stubborn personality, as the saying goes, one cannot hit a smiling face. Faced with Hao Junwen's father's sincerity, he could not get angry at this moment.

Shaking his head, Chen Dayu said in a low voice, "We don't need any compensation, but you must make it clear to the outside world that what's being spread online is all rumors and is false. As long as our family is innocent, we don't care about anything else."

"Hey! Comrade, I disagree with that."

Hu Lijun suddenly interrupted Chen Dayu with a smile, shaking his head and saying, "If you do something wrong, you should be punished; if you suffer losses, you should be compensated. There's an old story called Zigong redeeming his ox. We're all adults, we all understand this principle. Your family has been hurt and suffered losses; therefore, making up for the hurt and recovering the losses are your family's right and the reward they deserve. This is money you are entitled to, there's no need to feel embarrassed."

"It's not that I'm embarrassed..."

Chen Dayu shook his head again, but his voice calmed down.

Zhang Ke's heart skipped a beat. He remembered what Yuan Meijuan had told him before: Chen Dan's mother was always worried that her family, being from out of town, would be easily bullied by the locals. He immediately understood what Chen Dayu was struggling with.

Before he could even offer any advice, Hu Lijun waved his hand, signaling to skip the topic and not giving Chen Dayu a chance to continue declining.

"So, shall I say this first, okay?"

Seeing that all three parties had calmed down, Hu Lijun resumed organizing the mediation.

"To be honest, this matter is very serious. Maliciously defaming and spreading rumors about others is a crime! Do you understand? Hao Junwen's parents and Jia Wanlin's parents, this is a crime, not just a simple violation of the law. I hope you understand that."

Hu Lijun looked at the parents of both families. Seeing that Jia Wanlin's mother was about to argue, he waved his hand and preemptively said, "Of course, I know you like to say that the children are ignorant. But! The law is rigid; it doesn't care about reasons! Take murder, for example. No matter the reason, right? Murder is murder! Even if an honest person is bullied to the point of violence and kills someone, it is still murder! The age difference of the perpetrator and the motive will only affect the severity of the sentence, but will never change the nature of the case! I hope all three parents remember this. Your sons and daughters are indeed minors and will indeed receive a lighter sentence. But that doesn't mean the crime doesn't exist! Youth is not an excuse, and ignorance is not a reason! If a crime is committed, then one must admit it! Otherwise, according to our country's criminal law, refusing to admit guilt will result in a heavier punishment, and this will be recorded in the file."

"Into her file? No way! My daughter will be taking the civil service exam in the future, how can we put something like that in her file!"

Jia Wanlin's mother suddenly raised her head.

Hu Lijun smiled but did not answer, so she could only quickly look to her husband, hoping that he could help solve the problem.

However, Jia Wanlin's father wasn't stupid. He knew very well that Hu Lijun's words were actually directed at him alone. He thought his daughter's young age would exempt her from punishment and only require paying a small amount of money, but it seemed the state had long been prepared for such a loophole.

Will crimes committed by minors be recorded in their criminal records?
Jia Wanlin's father was unaware of this.

Would continuing this commotion really lead to a more serious crime? He dared not gamble.

So he quickly grabbed his wife. Jia Wanlin's father ignored the Chen family and the damned Hao family, nodding and saying, "I already said that! We know our child did something wrong, and we've already prepared to compensate. This is indeed something my daughter did impulsively and was deceived; she didn't do well. On her behalf, I apologize to you. I only hope that you can forgive her, considering that she's still young and her future shouldn't be affected by this mistake! As long as you're willing to drop the case, just name your price! For our child's sake, we'll sell everything we own, even our house, to compensate you!"

"you……"

Chen Dayu's face turned ashen.

Is this an apology? This is clearly a threat, this is moral blackmail!

"cough!"

Hu Lijun coughed again, tapping his knuckles on the table, and said, "Whether it affects the future or not has nothing to do with compensation or apologies. If the child is well-educated, there will naturally be no problem in the future. If the child never learns to respect the law, he will make a big mistake sooner or later. Let's not talk about these extra things for now. Since we are here today, let's resolve this matter properly. At the very least, the reputation of the Chen family must be completely clarified!"

"This one……"

"Of course! Of course! I will definitely do as the police officer instructs!"

The two families had different attitudes.

Compared to Hao Junwen's father's decisiveness, Jia Wanlin's father seemed somewhat reluctant. After all, clarifying the situation meant making his daughter bow her head and admit her mistakes in front of outsiders, and then be criticized. Where would that leave her face?
It's unacceptable for the police to issue a clarification notice only to have their daughter get criticized!

(End of this chapter)