Qin Zhongfei has been cleared of any wrongdoing.

Following a week in which the story blanketed the national media and the county's dirty laundry was aired in front of the whole country, the Pengshui PSB realized that it shouldn't have pursued criminal charges against Qin and made a decision to drop the case. The pretrial officer at the PSB called up Qin with the good news, and apologized for the harm caused by this mistaken case, which had been going on since the beginning of September.

In addition, the county procuratorate, on its own initiative, applied for state compensation for the 29 days that Qin was detained - Qin received 2125.7 yuan yesterday (calculated using the average full-time daily wage of 73.3 yuan).

It's comforting to know that the system works.

For more analysis and reactions, see China Media Project.