Looking at her son, "Mao Beard's" mother was filled with worry.
After this ordeal, "Mao Beard" found himself in a golden hall.
"Mao Beard," whose real name is Dai Hongfu, recounted the case details at the entrance of the food stall where the incident occurred.
Previous Page
1
2
Next Page
When asked about his future plans, "Mao Beard" said he still wanted to run a food stall: "I don't know many characters, and I have no special skills. Before opening the stall, I just did manual labor jobs like loading and unloading. I never had a proper job. At my age now, where could I find work? I can only continue running the food stall."
Reporters from the Yangcheng Evening News, whether interviewing in "Mao Beard's" home village of Dongnian Dai or accompanying him to the scene of the crime at his food stall, or collecting relevant materials at the Intermediate People's Court of Zhenjiang, always encountered people who would come up to greet him. Once they learned someone was interviewing him, these people would all vie to describe their impression of "Mao Beard."
4
After being detained in the detention center for several months, the judge approached "Mao Beard" and asked if he was willing to provide some economic compensation to the victim's family. Since receiving forgiveness from the other side could help reduce his sentence, "Mao Beard" readily agreed. He showed the reporter a letter he had written to his relatives at the time, filled with misspellings, where he urgently instructed them to find several distant relatives he considered "powerful." "We rarely interact normally, but this time there was really no other way. If it were something bad I had done, they definitely wouldn't help me, but since they knew I acted bravely, they were willing to help. In the letter, I said as long as I can get out, I'm willing to spend an extra 150,000 yuan. If I were locked up for ten years, my family would be ruined, and even spending 150,000 yuan wouldn't find me a wife as good as mine."
I will change my approach, reflect on the lessons from this experience, and ensure I never make such mistakes again.
1
Zhu Yan and Liu Ling were so scared that they dared not speak. Seeing this, "Mao Beard" stepped forward and confronted the five men, telling them to leave if they weren't going to eat anything. The situation gradually escalated into a verbal altercation between them and "Mao Beard." As "Mao Beard" was about to call 110, his phone was kicked away, and the table was overturned. In the ensuing scuffle, the five men fled onto the road. An enraged "Mao Beard" grabbed a fish-killing knife and chased after them. He Mou turned back, rushed into the food stall, picked up an empty beer bottle, broke it, and viciously stabbed toward "Mao Beard's" temple.
"Sometimes we see young hoodlums fighting with large machetes, those long knives, and nothing serious happens. But with my small knife, I killed someone. Even I can't understand it; I had no grudge against him. It was truly a moment of anger." "Mao Beard" said.
However, the problem before him was very real - lack of money. To gain the forgiveness of the victim's family, he reached an agreement with them to compensate for 180,000 yuan in economic losses. "Where could I possibly get that much money? It was all borrowed bit by bit, 1000 yuan at a time," said "Mao Beard." "The family sold the food stall too, for only 8000 yuan. If I had known, I definitely wouldn't have agreed."
"Article 234 states that intentional injury leading to death results in a sentence of more than ten years, life imprisonment, or even the death penalty. Every day in the detention center, I read legal books, and the tears I cried could probably fill a basin." He said that after knowing the young man he had stabbed had died, he regretted it. Knowing that he might face more than ten years in prison made him even more fearful. "Some words I didn't recognize, but I understood the meaning. Ten years, I would definitely die inside."
On the early morning of July 25, five young men on the streets of Daport in Zhenjiang New Area were verbally harassing and molesting two young women. The owner of the "Mao Beard Food Stall," Dai Hongfu, stepped forward, criticizing the inappropriate behavior of the five youths, only to be beaten and left bleeding from the head. Enraged, "Mao Beard" chased them out with a knife and ended up stabbing one 17-year-old man, He Mou, to death.
At that moment, 17-year-old Zhu Yan (pseudonym) and Liu Ling (pseudonym) were walking by. In the summer night, the girls exuded a youthful aura. Encouraged by alcohol, the five young men in the car called out and teased the two girls through the window. Faced with the lewd strangers, Zhu Yan and Liu Ling quickly ran towards a more crowded area, eventually reaching "Mao Beard Food Stall."
3
Thinking about how he suddenly became a criminal, unable to wear his own clothes freely, sorrow welled up within him.
Regret
"They said, Uncle Mao Beard, there are small hooligans chasing us. We'll hide here for a while." "Mao Beard" arranged for them to sit at a table further inside. Soon, the five young men followed them in. "Running a food stall, you often encounter drunk troublemakers late at night. So, I went up and asked, 'Boss, what would you like to eat?'" "Mao Beard" recalled. However, the five men ignored him, directly grabbing the two girls, trying to drag them out, saying things like "We're your husbands, we'll send you home."
On December 22, "Mao Beard" hurried to the court early in the morning to sign relevant documents. His appeal period for the "three-year sentence, four-year probation" finally passed its last day, and the big stone in his heart finally settled. In the afternoon, at the door of his three-room tiled house in the village, "Mao Beard" spoke to the reporter from the Yangcheng Evening News about the days and nights he spent in the detention center over the past four months. This farmer, who recognizes few characters, casually recited the specific content of Article 234 of the Criminal Law.
During the long four months, "Mao Beard" was unable to see any of his relatives. From July to December, Zhenjiang experienced seasonal changes from summer to autumn and then winter. The bedding and clothes sent by his family were handed over by the detention center police according to regulations. According to the detention center rules, shirts with buttons or zippers must have them sewn shut, turning them into pullovers, before they can be delivered inside. "Mao Beard" had never seen such strict measures before. Thinking about how he suddenly became a criminal, unable to wear his own clothes freely, sorrow welled up within him. "Every time I saw these things, I would cry for a long time. The tears seemed endless," he said. In December, upon learning he might receive a lighter sentence, his spirits lifted significantly. His cellmates noticed his improved mood and started making some lighthearted jokes, "It's getting cold, your family will send more clothes soon."
Defense
Future
Reconstruction
Several meters outside the door of "Mao Beard Food Stall," he hugged He Mou from behind around the neck and stabbed him once in the chest and abdomen.
On December 11, the Intermediate People's Court of Zhenjiang made a first-instance verdict in the "Mao Beard" assault case: Defendant Dai Hongfu was guilty of intentional injury and sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for four years. On the last day of the appeal period for this verdict, reporters from the Yangcheng Evening News rushed to Zhenjiang for interviews, interpreting the "law" and "reason" behind this special case and humane judgment.
2
"Mao Beard's" aunt, Dai Guiqin, runs a pig-selling business in their hometown. "Whenever we slaughter a pig during holidays, we ask 'Mao Beard' to help, but he refuses." Auntie skillfully demonstrated the pig-slaughtering motion—electrocution, then holding the pig's head with one hand and letting the blood out with the other. "It's so simple. He does everything else willingly, except slaughtering pigs. He can't bear to see intestines pulled out. Would someone like that kill a person? It's hard to believe."
Normally, he does everything willingly, except slaughtering pigs, which he can't bear to see. Could such a person kill someone? It's hard to believe.
Based on accounts from "Mao Beard," witnesses near the food stall, Captain Wang Zhiquing of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Zhenjiang New Area Public Security Bureau, and others, the Yangcheng Evening News tried to reconstruct the events of the day of the incident—
On the evening of July 24, He Mou from Lianyungang drank and ate with his fellow townspeople and friends at a food stall on Zhao Sheng Road in the Daport New Area of Zhenjiang. By the early hours of the next morning, after eating and drinking to their satisfaction, they dispersed, and He Mou squeezed into a car with six others, preparing to return to Datong Town dozens of kilometers away.
News spread, sparking heated online debates. Does bravery diminish respect for life? Should those who step forward be given maximum protection? Is Mao Hu a hero or reckless?
Related thematic articles:
Today in the afternoon, the stock market plummeted by 25 points.
A son-in-law got into a quarrel after drinking and dropped his son.
A seventy-year-old has persisted for over forty years in collecting and organizing family archives.