Chapter 28 Dirty Wealth

In the 210th year since the founding of the Great Wei Dynasty, Li Jin had never seen a peasant woman like Granny Liu before.

Even if she skinned and bled those girls to extract all their value, she could never easily obtain these things on her own.

There must be a web behind her, and the girl's murder was just tearing a hole in one corner of that web.

Inside the house, beneath the broken tiles and crumbling walls, Li Jin sat imposingly on the long bench, with the Mingqian Longjing tea still in front of him, served in a small Tang-style glazed porcelain cup, emitting wisps of white steam.

The difference was that this time, Granny Liu was forced to kneel before Li Jin by the yamen runners.

Terrified, she bowed to everyone present, crying out her innocence: "Injustice! Injustice, sirs! I have always been law-abiding and would never dare to commit murder!"

After shouting for a long time, her tears had dried up and her throat was parched, but seeing that Li Jin, this smiling tiger, was completely unmoved, the fifty-something-year-old Granny Liu became utterly helpless.

It's completely impossible to figure out which card this official is playing.

Jin Shu stood behind Li Jin, her brows slightly furrowed. Even now, she still couldn't believe that this simple, rural old woman was actually the madam of an underground brothel.

Even though she had already witnessed Li Jin's reasoning abilities, she couldn't help but feel that there might be some misunderstanding.

Watching Granny Liu tearfully plead her case and listening to her wailing of injustice, Li Jin calmly picked up the teacup in front of him and gently inhaled the fragrance of the pre-Qingming Longjing tea.

He was genuinely in no hurry; he was waiting for Granny Liu to slip up and reveal her true colors.

A "businessman" who deals with wealthy businessmen year-round, when faced with this situation, might not be thinking about clearing his name or proving his innocence; he is more likely to be thinking of crooked ways to pay money to avoid trouble.

Sure enough, seeing that Li Jin remained calm and unmoved despite her shouting for so long, Granny Liu slumped to the ground, a glint of shrewdness flashing in her eyes, and changed her strategy.

"Sir, there must be some misunderstanding!" She paused, her gaze falling on Li Jin, who exuded the aura of a high-ranking official. "Sir! I couldn't possibly kill her! She's penniless, she has nothing, why would I kill her!"

She took two small, kneeling steps forward, grinning obsequiously, "Well, sir, you've been working so hard these past few days investigating cases, I have a little silver here..."

When she finished speaking, Li Jincai put down his teacup, raised his chin slightly, and smiled as he looked at her face: "Old lady, I'm only giving you one chance." He said, "Think carefully about what we really want to hear from you."

Grandma Liu's face froze for a moment: "This..."

Time passed slowly. She knelt on the ground, and in Li Jin's eyes, her cheeks grew paler and the beads of sweat on her forehead became finer.

"This... I'm just a village woman who farms, how would I know what the official wants to hear!" After thinking for a long time, Granny Liu decided to take a gamble.

She was betting that Li Jin had no leverage over her, and that he was just bluffing and trying to trick her.

She's been so careful all these years, how could she possibly be caught red-handed so easily?

"Besides!" Her voice suddenly rose a few decibels, her posture became much firmer, and the aggrieved look on her face just moments before was magically replaced by anger. She pointed at Li Jin, "Even if you're an official! You have no evidence, so why do you say I'm involved in this case? I'm just a neighbor. Something happened to her family, and I went to report it to the authorities. Does that make me a murderer?"

"If that's how it works, what if someone's house catches fire someday? Just because I chopped two pieces of firewood in my yard, does that mean I'm responsible? That's completely unrelated!"

She pouted, clearly dissatisfied, and glared at Li Jin with her arms crossed: "You constables, instead of catching the real murderer, you're just blocking an old woman like me with her grandson. What kind of skill is that!"

"What a fine sight of a diligent, hardworking farmer taking care of her grandson." Li Jin put down her teacup and said unhurriedly, "A farmer, wearing a white jade hairpin from Hetian and a Yunnan old mine jadeite bracelet with floating patterns on her wrist..."

As he spoke, he watched the wonderfully varied expressions on Granny Liu's face.

Seeing her subconsciously raise her hand to cover her hairpin, the arrogance on her face just now was replaced by fear in the blink of an eye.

"In your room, you casually place lustrous pearl earrings and wear different gemstone rings. You use Tang-style glazed porcelain teacups and drink tribute-grade pre-Qingming Longjing tea... You, a peasant woman, are you growing a money tree?"

Li Jinbian said, his smile undiminished, but Liu Apocalypse felt no warmth from it.

On the contrary, the oppressive aura rendered her unable to move while kneeling on the ground.

The man before her was younger than any of the high-ranking officials she had ever met, but he was also more terrifying than anyone she had ever seen.

The imposing aura emanating from his entire body, along with his penetratingly cold gaze, inexplicably overlapped with that of the underworld judge in the story.

Although her eyes and brows were smiling, no one could feel the joy in them at all.

"Among the high-ranking officials and nobles of Yiyang City, who doesn't know you, Granny Liu? Who doesn't know that you have beauties as lovely as jade and three thousand beauties?" Li Jin glanced at her face and, with words that were both poignant and sharp, peeled away the layer of skin that Granny Liu had hidden from her true nature, bit by bit.

He paused, chuckled softly, and his gaze grew even sharper and more piercing: "And who doesn't know that you seduce those girls and coerce those already suffering people to exchange for that greedy, dirty so-called wealth?"

Inside the house, it was extremely quiet.

Sure enough, he knew everything.

Grandma Liu stood there, her lips trembling, her withered hands rubbing her fingers together, her eyes darting around.

"You actually think you can hide it?" Li Jin sneered, crossing his arms. "You've been in Yiyang for so long, haven't you ever heard that the Six Doors has an omniscient person?"

At this point, a look of terror finally appeared on Granny Liu's face.

Her mouth was half-open, she stammered, and with all her might, finally, her body went limp, and she collapsed to the ground, bursting into tears: "It wasn't me! It really wasn't me!"

At this point, the last layer of disguise she used to protect herself was finally torn away by Li Jin himself.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Li Jin stood up and half-squatted in front of her, his tone softening considerably: "I'm asking you, what is it that you have that you've got in your hands, that you've used to get the victim to do things for you?"

Grandma Liu knelt on the ground, weeping bitterly, sobbing, "Her...her husband! Her husband was...was killed by Yiyang..."

Even as she finished speaking, she still hesitated and wavered. When she looked up and met Li Jin's piercing gaze, she finally broke down and uttered a name: "Fang Qing!"