In the autumn of 1984, Zhong Kailong, who lives in Huangshi Township, Rugao County, Jiangsu Province, took a bus and came to Jiangsu Foreign Trade School with the baggage prepared by his parents.
Zhong Kailong hugged the bag tightly to his chest, which contained his expenses for the entire semester. The money almost emptied the family. The three sisters took out all their personal money. He thought silently that he must study hard. After graduation, I got a good job and made enough money to bring my parents and sister to Nanjing to enjoy their happiness.
After Zhong Kailong entered school, he studied hard and worked hard day and night. Every time he saw other people playing, he always showed envy, and then he lowered his head and plunged into the sea of books.
In 1987, after graduation, Zhong Kailong lived up to his expectations and was assigned to the Jiangsu Branch of China National Chemical Industry Import and Export Corporation as an invoicing clerk in Yanxuanke.
When the news came back to his hometown, everyone praised him for his promise and being a role model in all his hometowns. Zhong Kailong, who was only 21 years old, heard too many praises and gradually felt proud in his heart.
Ordinary invoice clerk
The invoice clerk of Jiangsu Branch of China National Chemical Industry Import and Export Corporation is in charge of the specific work of importing, warehousing and allocating the company's materials. Zhong Kailong also has two seals for materials and financial settlement. To put it simply, He said that only with his seal and signature could this batch of supplies be brought in or out.
Everyone envies Zhong Kailong for sitting in the office and stamping seals every day without worrying about other things, but only Zhong Kailong knows that this job is not easy.
He often gets dizzy when looking at the bills. Sometimes when he encounters careless people, he will get the wrong amount on the bills. Whenever this happens, Zhong Kailong always has to calculate the correct amount from more bills and accounts. , and then have someone come back and revise it again.
Zhong Kailong’s performance won him praise from his leadership. His colleagues joked with him that maybe he would become the person promoted the fastest. After Zhong Kailong heard this, he gave a few words of humility, but he was happy in his heart. I will work harder and hope to be promoted soon and bring my parents and sister to live in Nanjing.
Not long after, Zhong Kailong’s classmates came to the door and said they hoped he could help him a little.
Hearing this, Zhong Kailong went out to buy a set of clothes and tidied them up, wanting to show off in front of his classmates.
When he was studying, few classmates in the class liked him. Every time they saw him studying, they would always make fun of him. Zhong Kailong thought to himself, it's finally time for you to beg me.
classmate made a hotel reservation and waited for Zhong Kailong to come out of the company after get off work. He put on a smile and walked forward, "Kailong, long time no see."
Zhong Kailong smiled and pretended to be distant and said a few polite words to his classmates. After his classmates' kind invitation, he followed them pretending to be helpless.
At the dinner party, a classmate introduced his brother to Zhong Kailong. After a few glasses of wine, the classmate’s brother told him about his difficulties and hoped that Zhong Kailong could help, and promised, "It's done. , your benefits are absolutely indispensable."
It turns out that my classmate’s brother is in the import and export business and is in urgent need of a batch of imported materials. But according to the process, he has to wait for a long time and the funds on hand are not enough to support it, so he wants to get the materials in advance through this relationship, and Zhong Kailong happened to have a batch of imported supplies in hand.
At that time, the foreign trade import and export business management system was not perfect, and the management of major import and export companies was lax. Many people would exploit loopholes for their own personal gain. For example, company A’s order goods were sold privately after being signed by company A’s managers. Give it to Company B and earn intermediary fees.
Although Zhong Kailong wanted to show off, after hearing their request, he shook his head rattle . In his opinion, this was illegal. If he was caught, he would not only ruin his career, but also go to jail.
Zhong Kailong rejected the request of his classmate's brother, "It can't be done, and I don't dare to do it. You can find someone else." After saying that, he stood up and left.
After walking out of the hotel, Zhong Kailong took a long breath and was secretly annoyed. If he had known better, he would not have said that he was loved by the company leaders and that his promotion was just around the corner. If he didn't show off for a few days, he would make people care about him.
What Zhong Kailong didn’t expect was that his classmate’s brother only treated him as a joke and appeared in front of Zhong Kailong from time to time, inviting him to eat delicacies from the mountains and seas, and taking him to various places to play.
The classmate’s brother took aim at Zhong Kailong’s vanity and would always support him every time he spoke.
After hearing too many good words, Zhong Kailong couldn't help but think that he was in charge of the company's import and export materials. As long as he didn't nod, who could take away the materials? The eyes he looked at his classmate's brother were even a little contemptuous, feeling that they, businessmen, had money to support him.
's classmate's brother saw Zhong Kailong's attitude change and knew that his vanity had begun to swell, and he became more and more aggressive. He often invited Zhong Kailong out to eat and drink, and listened to him bragging about his abilities.
At the dinner table that day, my classmate's brother begged again, "Just help me, there will be no problem. You are in charge of this batch of supplies, and where they go is not your business."
Although Zhong Kailong was arrogant, he was very clear about important matters. He waved his hand and shook his head in rejection.
Seeing his insistence, the classmate's brother opened the zipper of his briefcase when no one was around, and came close to Zhong Kailong's eyes, "As long as you agree, this money will be yours."
Zhong Kailong looked at Xun Sheng and gasped instantly. A large pile of money was inside. He immediately covered his briefcase and looked at his classmate brother in shock. He smiled and stuffed the briefcase into Zhong Kai. In Long's arms, he stood up, filled the glass with wine, and handed a glass to Zhong Kailong, "Then I'll trouble Brother Zhong."
Zhong Kailong swallowed his saliva and moved his eyes to the briefcase in his arms again. He was extremely confused. He had never seen so much money. Even in such a good company, it was only a hundred yuan per month. Even if it rose to The job could be raised by more than ten yuan at most, which pales into insignificance compared with this amount of money.
Zhong Kailong glanced at the wine glass in the hand of his classmate's brother and thought that if he did it just this once, no one would notice. He took the wine glass and drank it in one gulp, then picked up his briefcase and walked out pretending to be calm.
When Zhong Kailong got home, he took out all the money and counted it. There was 5,000 yuan. His eyes widened. This was his salary for more than 4 years. He didn't expect that he could have so much money just by signing an order.
After Zhong Kailong tasted the benefits, he gradually lost interest in working. He felt that what he earned through hard work was not as much as what he received for doing things. The huge sense of gap and eager utilitarianism made Zhong Kailong embark on a road of no return.
If there is one, there are two, and if there are two, there are three. Zhong Kailong gradually becomes more courageous. He not only sells supplies privately, but also pockets remittances. Will these behaviors be discovered?
Turning
After Zhong Kailong’s fraud and disguise, the company’s import and export materials and financial accounts were fairly clear, but as time went by, the company leaders always felt that something was wrong. After several investigations, the leader finally discovered something fishy. When Zhong Kailong made a fraud again, the leader led the police to arrest him.
Public security arrest diagram
In October 1990, Zhong Kailong, who was only 24 years old, was convicted and imprisoned. During his tenure, he stole and sold national materials 10 times, embezzled money orders, and accepted bribes. The total amount of stolen money he received amounted to one million yuan. .
According to National Bureau of Statistics data, the total salary of national employees in 1990 was 296 billion yuan, and the average monetary salary of employees was 2,150 yuan. Zhong Kailong's million yuan in stolen money was equivalent to the average salary of 465 people.
This case shocked the whole country. It was one of the largest embezzlement cases since the founding of the People's Republic of China. After repeated investigations, evidence collection and trials, in March 1992, the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court sentenced Zhong Kailong to death in the first instance.
Trial diagram
After hearing the verdict, Zhong Kailong sat paralyzed in the court. He had already had a premonition that he would be sentenced to death, but when he actually heard the result, he was very frightened. Zhong Kailong sat dumbly, Like a soulless puppet, let the police take him away.
Zhong Kailong was so depressed that he sat under the window of the prison cell every day without eating or drinking. In the spirit of humanistic care, the correctional officers at the detention center took turns talking to Zhong Kailong, trying to cheer him up.
Someone suggested to him, "You can try to appeal and see if there are other results." Even though there was little hope, Zhong Kailong still appealed to the Jiangsu Higher People's Court with a sense of luck.
Will the result of the second trial be as Zhong Kailong wishes?
new target
In August 1992, Zhong Kailong accidentally saw a magazine in the detention center, which published an article on computer applications and mentioned a new Chinese character input method that was more advanced than Pinyin code.
Zhong Kailong read the entire article and felt that although the new Chinese character input method was faster, it still had many shortcomings. He suddenly thought, why can't he compile a code that greatly improves the Chinese character input rate?
Zhong Kailong read this article repeatedly. The police officer in the detention center came over and asked, "What's the matter?"
Zhong Kailong held the page in silence, with many thoughts in his mind. Although he appealed, but in his heart Understand that the amount of corruption involved in the case is huge, and the chance of having his sentence changed is extremely low. Even if his sentence is successfully changed, he will have to spend the rest of his life in a detention center. Do he have to be sad all the time?
Zhong Kailong came to his senses and said to the police officer, "I'm fine. I just felt a little emotional after reading this article."
Zhong Kailong said in his exchange with the police that when he was in school, he had read articles about computers and computer programming and was very interested in this new technology. However, due to professional reasons, he did not conduct in-depth research.
Zhong Kailong occasionally uses computers after work. He believes that computers will bring huge changes to people's lives in the future.
After listening to Zhong Kailong’s story, the police officers at the detention center encouraged him to learn more computer knowledge and realize his idea of a new Chinese character input method.
During the second trial, Zhong Kailong made a request to the trial judge, hoping that they could provide some help so that he could complete his dream of computer coding in the last minute.
The judge agreed to Zhong Kailong's request based on the principle of encouraging pending criminals to do more things that benefit the country and the people while in custody. The detention center also provided him with conveniences for writing, putting tables and chairs in the cell, and gave him a copy of " Modern Chinese Dictionary " as requested by Zhong Kailong.
Prisoner learning diagram
Zhong Kailong’s knowledge of computer coding is relatively weak. Due to limited time, he learned computer knowledge while thinking about how to build a new input method.
After thinking for a long time, Zhong Kailong decided to use a specific combination of 26 English letters to represent Chinese characters. He then separated the radicals of more than 7,000 Chinese characters, classified, filtered, and arranged them, and found a new set of rules.
Zhong Kailong raced against time, and would stay in the reading room to study every time he had free time. Several inmates would always follow him and sit next to him and laugh at him, "You have been sentenced to death, what's the use of doing this?"
At the beginning, Zhong Kailong would explain in a good voice that this was fulfilling his dream, but he only attracted louder ridicule. They would not be quiet until they were reprimanded by the police.
was ridiculed more and more times, and Zhong Kailong became calmer. He stopped paying attention to the outside world and immersed himself in the sea of books about computer coding.
In late October 1992, Zhong Kailong completed the tens of thousands of words of the first draft of "Holographic Chinese Code". Hundreds of pages of paper were filled with densely packed code symbols. Zhong Kailong was so happy that he called the police from the detention center and handed over his code. The results of 2 months were shown to them, "Can you see if there is anything bad?"
The police officers looked at the manuscript that was like a heavenly book, saw Zhong Kailong's smiling face, and praised him one after another, saying that he had done a good job. Maybe he could get a reduced sentence for meritorious service.
After more than 2 years of prison life, Zhong Kailong has realized his own problems. If he hadn't been eager for quick success, excessive vanity, and couldn't find his direction after being praised for a few words, he wouldn't have made such a big mistake.
Therefore, when Zhong Kailong heard the police officer's praise, he suppressed his smile and said, "It's not that good, there is still room for improvement."
On December 11, 1992, after careful investigation, the Higher People's Court of Jiangsu Province still upheld the original verdict and submitted it to the Supreme Court for approval in accordance with the law.
After Zhong Kailong learned the news, he put down his pen with a pale face and huddled in a corner. He knew that his sin was unpardonable, but when the judgment of death came again, he was still very afraid.
The police officers at the detention center persuaded Zhong Kailong that there was still some time before the Supreme Court trial and that he could cherish the remaining time. They also cited various examples of sentences changed by the Supreme Court to encourage Zhong Kailong not to give up the opportunity to redeem himself.
Zhong Kailong's eyes turned red and he murmured, "Do I really have a chance to live?"
Can the sentence be changed?
With the encouragement of the police officers at the detention center, Zhong Kailong cheered up. He thought that since the outcome of death could not be changed, he should cherish his last time.
In the spring of 1993, Zhong Kailong comprehensively reviewed and revised the first draft of "Holographic Chinese Code". He copied the radicals and corresponding characters of more than 7,000 Chinese characters more than a dozen times, striving to make a set of the most scientific, reasonable and unique codes. High value coding.
The police officers at the detention center gave him great help. They often went to bookstores and libraries to help collect the latest development information on Chinese character input methods.
Schematic diagram of prisoner learning
In May of the same year, a prisoner who had worked on computer software lived in the cell. He saw Zhong Kailong's manuscript and made some suggestions, "If you want to increase the speed of Chinese character input, you must reduce the repetition rate."
Duplicate codes means that when inputting a code, if it is not unique and has the same characters and words, the input method will display the duplicate codes of characters and words in a certain order. This will increase the time to filter the correct characters or words. Only The repeated code rate is reduced, and the Chinese characters that appear when typing will be more accurate and convenient.
After thinking about it, Zhong Kailong focused his coding attention on more than 4,000 commonly used characters, and compiled high-efficiency codes for Chinese characters with a usage rate of 48% in the dictionary.
Various codes at that time generally used long codes of more than 9 digits, while Zhong Kailong's code only used 3 digits. Many common phrases and short sentences were divided into holographic Chinese codes, and its input speed was very fast. It is 2.1 keys per character. You must know that the Wubi wake-up code at that time was 3.6 keys.
In early August 1993, Zhong Kailong smiled while looking at two copies of "Holographic Chinese Code". The police handed the manuscripts over to the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court. However, they could not judge the value of the manuscripts scientifically. can be transferred again to the Supreme People's Court in Beijing.
At this time, the Supreme People's Court has concluded the review of the death penalty in Zhong Kailong's case. It believes that the facts of the judgments and rulings of the first and second instance people's courts are clear, the evidence is reliable and sufficient, the conviction is accurate, and the trial procedures are legal, so the original judgment is upheld.
Can Zhong Kailong's "Holographic Chinese Code" really change his destiny?
Final verdict
After the Supreme People's Court received Zhong Kailong's two manuscripts, it immediately sent them to the Chinese Character Coding Professional Committee of the Chinese Information Society for technical appraisal.
Experts carefully reviewed Zhong Kailong's "Holographic Chinese Code" manuscript and found that his coding logic was rigorous and that he had made a big step forward in the programming, arrangement and simplification of Chinese character input. They initially determined that "Holographic Chinese Code" had important advantages in coding methods. It is innovative and has inventive value. If it can be further optimized, it can be commercialized and applied.
Considering that these two manuscripts affected the final judgment of this case, the Supreme People's Court instructed the Jiangsu Provincial Court to investigate whether the manuscripts were written by Zhong Kailong.
Investigators went to the detention center to conduct a detailed investigation. Through the accounts of relevant leaders, cadres and fellow prisoners, they basically confirmed that the "Holographic Chinese Code" was written by Zhong Kailong.
The investigators retrieved the reference books and first drafts that Zhong Kailong used to write the manuscript. After careful verification and questioning Zhong Kailong, they confirmed that the "Holographic Chinese Code" was written by him.
On January 15, 1994, a verdict was delivered to Zhong Kailong. He opened it tremblingly, fearing that he would see his death date at the first glance.
Based on the evidence provided in the first and second trials, as well as Zhong Kailong's positive attitude of pleading guilty and completing the "Holographic Chinese Code" during his detention, the Supreme People's Court determined that this encoding method has inventive value, so it sentenced Zhong Kailong to death with a suspended sentence. 2 years to implement.
Schematic diagram of prisoner learning
According to my country's Criminal Law , if a criminal does not intentionally commit a crime during the suspension of execution of the death penalty, after the expiration of the 2-year period, the sentence can be reduced to life imprisonment. If there is a major meritorious service, the sentence can be reduced to more than 15 years. , sentenced to 20 years or less in prison .
Zhong Kailong cried with joy. He held the verdict and said, "Thank you to the country for its tolerant treatment of me. I will definitely change my mind and become a person who contributes to society again."
Schematic diagram of prisoner learning
Postscript
Zhong Kailong was the first unsentenced prisoner after the founding of the People's Republic of China to use his own inventions to receive a lighter treatment while in prison. When Zhong Kailong recalled his days in the detention center, he would always say gratefully, "The detention center is my place of rebirth. Without the encouragement and support of the police officers, I would not be where I am today."
Since Zhong Kailong's sentence was commuted, the taunting voices towards him in prison have disappeared. Many people have gathered around him, begging him to study with them and strive for a reduced sentence.
Zhong Kailong did not refuse them. He shared the books he had read and explained them one by one. Everyone talks about computers every day. Zhong Kailong often said that no matter where we are, we must work hard to learn new knowledge. We cannot Get out of touch with this era so that you can have a good way out in the future.
Their active study performance won the encouragement of the leaders of the detention center. As a learning leader, Zhong Kailong constantly led the inmates to jointly create inventions. After the probation period expired, his sentence was commuted again.
In 2008, Zhong Kailong finally walked out of the place where he had been imprisoned for 18 years. He took a deep breath of fresh air and shouted, "I'm finally out!"
Zhong Kailong in 2022 is already 56 years old. The "Holographic Chinese Code" he created has been buried by the torrent of the times. He also started a family. After having children, Zhong Kailong regretted what he did when he was young even more. He often taught his children to be down-to-earth and immerse themselves in work. Go astray, causing lifelong regret. warns children not to follow their own old path, to be down-to-earth, to work hard and not to dream of reaching the sky in one step.
References:
(1) Xinmin Evening News "Rugao Zhong Kailong: The first unconvicted death penalty prisoner whose sentence was commuted based on inventions since the founding of the People's Republic of China" 20120806
(2) Daoke Baba "Zhong Kailong's Corruption and Bribery Case" 20120403
( 3) World of Literature and History "The first death row prisoner whose sentence was commuted based on inventions since the founding of the People's Republic of China" 20120725
(4) National Bureau of Statistics "Statistical Bulletin of the National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China on the National Economic and Social Development in 1990" 19910222
(5) Hua lvwang 20220104
