Chapter 78 Deception and Deception

I overestimated him after two rounds.

Before Li Jin, Huang Liangping chuckled dismissively, shook his head, and waved his hand, saying, "Impossible."

"I was invited by Boss Song and have been staying at Guilai Pavilion for several days now. I don't know when the Prince went to see my wife."

He opened his fan, which displayed calligraphy and paintings by a famous artist, and looked at Li Jin with a nonchalant smile: "But if you didn't do it, you didn't do it. How can anyone have seen it?"

When the time was right, Su Shangxuan took the dagger that had been taken from Shen Wen's hand and deliberately threw it away.

A series of crisp clanging sounds rang out from behind, tracing a parabola before landing not far in front of Huang Liangping.

"Oh dear!" Shen Wen jogged up, quickly picked it up, wrapped it in a handkerchief again, and bowed to Li Jin to apologize: "This subordinate made a mistake. I didn't hold such an important murder weapon properly. Please forgive me, Your Highness."

The murder weapon?

Huang Liangping's face turned pale.

Li Jin remained silent, picked up the teacup, took a sip, and then put it aside.

For the next half an incense stick's time, the entire main hall of Guilai Pavilion was eerily quiet.

But Huang Liangping was different from before. Looking at the handkerchief in Shen Wen's hand, he felt uneasy. He was quite sure that he had just seen a gleaming dagger slide out.

He looked up and glanced at Li Jin.

Prince Jing, who has already visited the Chen family, said the murder weapon was a dagger, and that he was seen by witnesses, as well as Chen Lan...

The smile on Huang Liangping's face gradually lost its confident and composed appearance.

That's about it.

Li Jin deliberately sighed, flicked his fan, and smiled: "Huang Liangping, it's actually very simple. You're just a live-in son-in-law, while the one who died was Chen Lan's own brother, the legitimate son of the Chen family."

He stood up: "May I ask, what loss has the Chen family suffered without you, Huang Liangping?"

He glanced at Huang Liangping's face, maximizing Huang's psychological pressure: "I'm afraid not only will you not suffer any loss, but your wife will also be able to get the share of the family property that is rightfully yours."

In the West Market, at the Guilai Pavilion, Li Jin's simple "just asking" came to a halt amidst Huang Liangping's perfectly timed "loss of control."

Li Jin looked up and nodded slightly to Su Shangxuan.

With a tacit understanding, the two handed over Huang Liangping, who was already standing on the edge of the cliff and only needed one more push to speak, through their knowing glances.

"Young Master Song," Li Jin said calmly, looking at Song Zhen who was still smiling, "I have other important matters to attend to today. I will need Young Master Song's cooperation with the Six Doors afterwards, how does that sound?"

Song Zhen nodded without saying a word.

Seeing that he understood, Li Jin put away the fan and left on his own with Zhou Zheng and Jin Shu.

Once outside Guilai Pavilion, Jin Shu finally asked the question she had been holding back for so long: "Why didn't you continue the interrogation?"

The situation was very favorable; after two rounds of back-and-forth, it was on the verge of a decisive victory. Why did it suddenly stop?

Li Jin looked up and glanced at her face.

Jin Shu turned around, paused, and said, "I mean, we've already found his psychological leverage point. We're just one step away. One push and we can close the case!"

Li Jin remained silent, but instead pulled out a white jade flute inlaid with gold thread from his sleeve: "Take it."

Jin Shu was taken aback.

She recognized the flute; it was the one Song Zhen had tucked into his waistband when she first met him at Jinhua Tower.

"Tuck it on your waist, the more conspicuous the better." Li Jin raised her hand a little higher.

Jin Shu, still confused, took the flute and continued to press, "Sect Leader, he had already..."

Before she could finish speaking, Li Jin pressed the handle of his black fan firmly against her lips, silencing Jin Shu.

He chuckled softly, looking at Jin Shu's surprised and puzzled expression, and after a long while, uttered a single word: "Stupid."

The carriage slowly came to a stop in front of the two of them.

Li Jin lifted the carriage curtain with a half-smile and said softly, "Since we don't have enough limiting conditions, we need to give him enough time to gradually lose his confidence."

He smiled slightly: "You even understand psychological fulcrum, so you must understand the meaning of limiting conditions, right?"

These conditions, though described as limiting conditions, are actually evidence—evidence that Huang Liangping cannot refute or fabricate lies about.

She froze, standing by the carriage. If Zhou Zheng hadn't called out to her, she would still be somewhat dazed.

Li Jin is right; all conclusions at this point are merely speculation.

The interrogation just now relied on a mix of truth and falsehood, deceiving the enemy. If Huang Liangping didn't speak up on his own, the more Li Jin said, the more it would reveal that he knew very little.

Even if the key to swaying Huang Liangping's resolve had already been found by Li Jin, if he gritted his teeth and remained silent, there was really nothing that could be done to him.

Using torture? That's not Li Jin's style.

The carriage swayed gently, first stopping at the Six Doors, where Li Jin personally took out several pieces of evidence from the case, and then headed straight for the Chen residence.

As the sun sets, its golden rays spill across the white-walled, blue-gray streets and alleys.

The deep, vibrant red in the sky, like a gradually undulating silk ribbon, leads the clear blue, star-studded heavens toward the sun.

Inside the carriage, Li Jin lifted the curtain behind Jin Shu and whispered, "The Crown Prince will be there in a little while."

He said, "Don't say a word to him unless it's absolutely necessary."

After saying that, he paused and added, "And you're not allowed to smile at him either."

Seeing Jin Shu's confused look, he laughed and said, "If you understand, just say something."

"Oh." Although Jin Shu didn't understand, she still frowned, scratched her neck, and agreed to this inexplicable special request.

Li Jin's concerns were not unfounded.

Yan Zhao specifically mentioned that when Jin Shu laughs, her feminine appearance is fully revealed. The Crown Prince is neither blind nor stupid; if he were to see her like that, something terrible might happen.

The carriage stopped in front of the Chen residence, the setting sun casting a blood-red glow in the sky.

After getting out of the car, Li Jin stood at the entrance of Guangliang's main gate, her brows slightly furrowed.

We arrived a bit early.

His original intention was to wait until it was completely dark, so that the Crown Prince would not be able to see Jin Shu's appearance under the cover of darkness, and it would also make it easier for the Shadows to evade the eyes of the Crown Prince's guards under the cover of darkness.

Having learned from his previous experience, Chen Wen obediently cupped his hands in greeting, once again lowering his posture considerably.

Li Jin subtly mocked him, saying, "Lord Chen is truly a great man, able to bend and stretch."

He laughed, stepped over the threshold, and asked without turning his head, "Where is the Crown Prince?"

Behind him, Chen Wen, who had been sulking in the study, suppressed his anger and said, "Your Highness has been waiting for a long time."

As soon as he finished speaking, Crown Prince Li Jing stood at the entrance of the Chen family's corridor, staring coldly at Li Jin.

"Li Jin greets His Highness the Crown Prince."

As he spoke, Jin Shu and Zhou Zheng stood side by side behind him and bowed.

In that instant, the Crown Prince's gaze pierced through the gap and immediately spotted the white jade flute at Jin Shu's waist.

He stared for a long time before saying indifferently, "No need for formalities." Then he turned and walked towards the courtyard of Chen Lan, the youngest daughter of the Chen family.

Li Jin glanced at Jin Shu out of the corner of his eye and saw that the flute was indeed tucked into her waistband, so he breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"I heard that you went to Jiangnan again last month and brought back a coroner." Suddenly, the Crown Prince, who was walking ahead, turned to the side and spoke.