Fu Lingtian spoke each word coldly, seeing that He Yue still refused to tell the truth.

He then took out an iron plaque from his pocket, a plaque used by salt merchants when acquiring salt. He tossed it to He Yue, letting him see it for himself.

"Hmph, look at this!"

"ah!"

"How did this end up here? You, who are you?!"

"You talk too much. It's the same question: where is this iron block used? If you don't tell the truth, I'll kill you right now!"

Although He Yue is a big shot in the business world, he still can't stand up to people who are more capable than him.

He was so frightened by this person that he dared not move, and he even wet his pants in fright and knelt on the ground.

"Sir, you are a government official!"

"Hmph, I said I only want to hear what I know. Otherwise, I'll have your head removed immediately, or, I'll hand it over to the Emperor!"

"You know the emperor, but he hates people who deceive him the most. If he finds out, do you think your fate will be good?"

Fu Lingtian snorted coldly and smiled, waiting for He Yue's reply.

"Yes, yes, please, sir, don't hand me over to the Emperor! I'll tell you everything!"

"I am just one of the merchants in our Daliu Town; there are several of us who also sell."

But because business was tough, or because they lacked connections, and only stubborn people persisted, they unexpectedly succeeded.

"Hmph, so you've gotten started, but I bet you've done it by selling it at exorbitant prices!"

"I'm here to ask you, was it you who caused the salt boats to capsize due to divine power?"

He Yue was so frightened that he trembled and hadn't regained his senses. It was only Fu Lingtian's rebuke that brought him back to his senses.

"The salt boat capsized, I really don't know anything about that. I only know that if we salt merchants want to get our goods, we go through a town in the neighboring Yuezhi Kingdom."

"After checking with the local official through the iron card, we can then collect the salt."

Fu Lingtian picked up the metal card on the table and frowned. "Lord Xiang?"

"But is there someone with the same name as the Water Department Physician, Lord Xiang?"

He Yue lowered his head timidly: "I don't know, I only know that he is a high-ranking official surnamed Xiang. He is in charge of the salt market there."

What does he look like?

"I know even less about him. Every time he attends an event, he wears a black mask or a black cloak, covering his face."

"Perhaps it's due to some kind of illness, or maybe it's an addiction that's hard to break?"

"You really don't know anything about the prime minister's affairs?"

He Yue saw that Fu Lingtian was still determined to continue investigating Li Yan's matter. In order to keep it a secret, he knelt down with a thud and could only shake his head.

"All I know is that salt shipments must pass through Daliu Town, and Lord Li Yan's men are in charge of Daliu Town."

In reality, it's Lord Li Yan who's in charge. He personally designated a few of us as special salt merchants to sell salt. We can even sell it at twice the price.

"The three of us saw that this was profitable, and since it wouldn't be much more than double the price and ordinary people could afford it, we agreed."

"Later, later."

Fu Lingtian then picked up where he left off: "Later, you became greedy for money. Seeing how much money you could make, you thought, why can't I do it myself, why do it for someone else?"

"Then, you go and bribe the prime minister to let him continue to give you special privileges, right?"

"No, it's not that old man!"