Who would study psychology unless they had some issues?!

Led by the assistant with thick black-framed glasses, Nan Zhubin and his entourage first walked to the courtroom entrance.

After a brief exchange, the court clerk guided the group to their respective positions.

Honestly speaking, although Nan Zhubin had engaged with numerous criminal cases for various reasons up to this point, it was his first time visiting a courtroom.

Looking around, the judge's bench was at the highest point in the front of the courtroom, directly facing the entrance; just in front of the judge's bench at a slightly lower position was the clerk's bench, facing the courtroom.

Behind the clerk's bench were two parallel seats, the left was for the prosecution and plaintiff, and the right was for the defense. These seats faced the judge's bench.

These seats were separated by an aisle, with the spectator's area behind it.

Nan Zhubin and his party were arranged in the front row of the spectator's area. Turning his head, Nan Zhubin estimated there were about a hundred more seats behind them, prepared for other observers.

At that moment, people were already seated in the plaintiff and defendant seats; behind them, there was an empty seat, which should be the witness seat where Nan Zhubin would soon be.

Witnesses were only guided to the witness seat by the clerk when they needed to testify; otherwise, they didn't stay in the core seating area, either waiting in a designated waiting room or in the front row of the spectator area for their turn.

The spatial arrangement of these seats generally followed the order from front to back of "judge's bench - clerk's bench - plaintiff and defendant's seats - witness seat - barriers and aisle - spectator area."

Square and orderly, everything was in its place.

Nan Zhubin speculated that the distribution of the indoor seating might also involve some psychological principles in its design. Once inside, his mind cleared somewhat, as if a weakened version of "Emotion Rebalancing" had been applied.

In addition, a few court officers were scattered around, their sharp eyes scanning the surroundings.

With a "click" sound, the main door of the courtroom opened, and the observers, who had been waiting outside, entered in groups of three or five.

These people generally included citizens interested in law, media professionals, law students wanting to gain practical experience, intern lawyers wishing to improve their skills, and anyone else interested in trials who had applied to attend.

"Hey?" A young cameraman, permitted to record, lit up as soon as he sat down and turned on his device, instinctively pointing the lens at Nan Zhubin, who was looking around.

"What are you doing!" Seeing the cameraman absorbed, a nearby media reporter noticed something amiss and gave him a not-too-light nor too-heavy slap on the head.

"Distracted at this time? Do you know the nature of today's case? Do you know how much effort I put in to secure this opportunity for us? And now you're slacking off?"

While scolding, she leaned her head close to the lens: "I want to see what it is that's got you so... hiss!"

For a moment, the media reporter experienced a conflict between sentiment and rationality, thinking that having the camera focused like that wasn't bad.

Fortunately, she quickly found a balance between the two: "No rush, the person is sitting in the front row of the spectator area, probably going to testify later. Seems like it could be a newsworthy point... keep an eye on him later, but our primary task today is to capture the trial comprehensively, understood?"

The cameraman nodded repeatedly. For a moment, he seemed to have rediscovered the feeling of studying art back in school.

Once almost everyone was seated, it was time to formally begin the trial.

The court officers closed the main door again, and Nan Zhubin saw the clerk stand up, saying loudly, "Please be quiet!"

No one would make a noise at such a time.

The clerk continued, "Now announcing the courtroom rules. First, without court permission, no audio, video, or photography is allowed; second, no random movement or entry into the trial area is permitted;"

"Third,..."

"Fourth,..."

"..."

"All participants must follow courtroom rules and maintain order in the court."

After reading out the courtroom rules and confirming the scene one last time, the clerk said, "Please stand. The chief judge and judges will enter the court."

A group of three people, dressed in judge's robes, appeared in everyone's view and took their seats at the judge's bench. Nan Zhubin paid extra attention to the middle-aged man sitting in the middle, whose attire and appearance weren't prominent due to the uniformity required by the judge's robe and appearance regulations.

Nan Zhubin merely recalled that Xia Tian seemed to have mentioned before that because of the special nature of this case, the court had specifically appointed the head of the criminal division as the chief judge for this trial.

Which seemed advantageous for his side.

"Please sit down," the clerk announced.

Everyone sat down, quietly and orderly.

"Report to the chief judge, the prosecution... the defendant... the defense attorney..." Every time the clerk mentioned an identity, she added the person's name and position in detail, "... have all arrived at court."

She added, "Victim Nan Zhihao was summoned but did not appear in court."

This provided Nan Zhubin with new information: Nan Zhihao had applied and been approved to attend but did not come last minute.

This somewhat explained the urgency and agitation of Lawyer Zhan and the other plaintiffs just now.

"Court preparations are complete, reporting concluded!"

Upon hearing the clerk's final words, the head of the criminal division, seated in the center of the judge's bench, nodded.

He raised the gavel, and struck it with moderate force, "The trial now begins!"

...

"Now verifying the information of those present. The defendant..."

After the chief judge struck the gavel, the quiet courtroom became even more solemn.

Nan Zhubin listened quietly as the clerk completed the final preparations for the trial, including verifying identities, announcing the case details, explaining the court personnel, and informing of litigation rights.

Meanwhile, Nan Zhubin also silently went over the information he would need to provide later.

"Is the litigation representative requesting recusal?"

After inquiring each of the other litigation participants, the clerk said, "None of the parties request recusal, the court preparations are over, and now the court investigation begins."

The clerk flipped a page of the materials in hand and cleared her throat.

"It has been lawfully verified that between XX and XX of 20XX, the defendant Wang Zhenhai gathered Zhang Qiang and others, forming a criminal gang engaged in telecom network scams as a business. This gang illegally obtained personal information of retired military veterans and used AI technology to replace the defendant's face with the victim's comrade-in-arms likeness, impersonating comrades to scam via video calls and social media, defrauding a total of 1.67 million RMB from nine victims..."