Chapter 1168 Unraveling the Mysteries of What Happened Back Then
"Ask away. As long as I can answer, I will answer to the best of my knowledge and will never lie to you."
Qin was not a good person, but to Lin Yue'e, she was someone who sheltered her from the wind and rain.
When Madam Qin was alive, Lin Yuesha was the beloved daughter of the Prefect of the Capital. But now that Madam Qin is gone, even though Lin Shusheng still holds a high position, everyone in the household is opportunistic and no one fawns over Lin Yuesha anymore.
I have a few questions.
Lin Yue'e pondered for a moment and then started asking questions from the beginning.
Looking back, her good days began to gradually decline after Lin Yuesha came to Beijing.
"Father kept his mistress as a concubine for many years, and Mother, who was so shrewd, didn't find out. But after you moved into the Lin family, she suddenly realized it. Is there anything you have to do with this?"
This was Lin Yue'e's first question.
Mother noticed some clues and followed Lin Shusheng to catch him. Father was busy with official duties at the yamen that day, so how did he manage to catch him in the act?
Later, when Lin Yue'e and Jiao Niang joined forces, Jiao Niang recounted the details.
"When Father received the message that there was a fire at the outer residence in Taipingfang, he rushed over from the yamen, only to find that it was a false alarm."
This is the strangest part. No sooner had Madam Qin gone out to keep watch than Lin Shusheng had to go to the outer residence because someone had given him false military intelligence, which conveniently exposed his hidden concubine and two sons.
That day, Qin couldn't get into the courtyard, so she borrowed a ladder from the neighbors and climbed over the wall to get in. In her anger, Qin confronted Lin Shusheng and mentioned that Lin Shusheng and Jiao Niang had killed the woman in red.
This series of interconnected events was so tightly linked that Lin Yue'e felt something was amiss.
"I've been investigating for years, but I haven't found anything."
Lin Yue'e thought she wasn't stupid, but she still couldn't figure it out no matter how hard she tried, until last night when Granny Qin gave her a clue.
That evening, Madam Qin noticed a red lipstick mark on Lin Shusheng's body, which aroused her suspicion.
“That day, Father did not indulge in debauchery at all. He was busy with official duties at the yamen and had no opportunity to get close to women.”
After much deliberation, Lin Yue'e concluded that the culprit was still within the Lin family.
What you've said is pretty close to the truth.
Many years have passed, and Lin Yuesha herself has almost forgotten many of the details. She and Qingxing recalled them and she replied, "You are right. By chance, I learned that Lin Shusheng had a mistress in Taipingfang, and that the mistress had given birth to two sons. So I wanted to expose this matter."
Lin Shusheng himself was a shameless person, but Lin Yuesha was ruthless in her schemes. She made a potato stamp, carved red lips on the potato, and stamped it on Lin Shusheng's clothes.
Qin was a meticulous and suspicious person, and she noticed it that very night.
Next, as Lin Yue'e investigated, the whole process was pieced together.
"I witnessed Lin Shusheng killing Qin Shi."
Lin Yuesha took a deep breath. Jiao Niang was already dead, so there was no need for her to drag the dead down with her. However, Jiao Niang was indeed not as innocent as she claimed; she had been coerced by Lin Shusheng.
"The Qin family cannot tolerate even a speck of dust. For so many years, Lin Shusheng has been living off his wife and controlled by the Qin family. When the Qin family discovered that he not only had a mistress but also two illegitimate children, she was furious and immediately jumped out to threaten him."
The case of the woman in red is Lin Shusheng's bottom line. If Qin Shi exposes this matter after causing great harm to both sides, Lin Shusheng's future will be in jeopardy and his life will be in danger.
"He grabbed Qin's neck."
At this point, Lin Shusheng completely lost his mind. If Jiao Niang had persuaded him, he would not have done something like killing someone to cover it up, given that Lin Shusheng had a business relationship with the Qin family.
Furthermore, the husband and wife are one, and Qin was just saying it in anger.
"Jiao Niang handed over a dagger. Lin Shusheng was caught in a dilemma and had no choice but to kill Qin Shi."
With Qin Shi dead, her maids and servants could not be spared. Lin Shusheng, having already gone this far, decided to take them all down with him and hid their bodies in Yu Zicheng's courtyard.
"Why would Jiao Niang hand a knife to Father if she has a grudge against Old Madam Lin?"
Lin Yue'e had just asked the question when she smiled bitterly, "Yes, it's possible that when my mother was killed, Jiao Niang was kept in the dark and didn't know the truth."
"Before you came to the capital, my parents were loving and I didn't know that my father had been married before and had a daughter."
Lin Yue'e pouted. Since Lin Yuesha had explained things in detail, she would also share some secrets she knew, as a way of returning the favor.
"Before Lin Shusheng was beheaded, he once again smeared my mother. In the case of the woman in red in the capital, my mother was not innocent; at most, she was a cover-up."
After Lin Yue'e finished speaking, she took out several letters from her sleeve pocket.
Lin Yuesha gave Qingxing a look, and Qingxing took the letter after receiving the signal. She realized that it was a correspondence between Lin Shusheng and Old Madam Lin.
In the letter, because Old Mrs. Lin needed someone to write it for her, her words were somewhat vague, and she hoped that Scholar Lin could find a way to take it a step further.
The Qin family is a prominent family in the capital. Since he has married a daughter of the Qin family, he cannot let her remain a lowly official with no status, unable to even enter the inner city of the capital. How can he take care of her in her old age?
In her letter, Mrs. Lin clearly stated that she wanted to make a grand entrance into Beijing.
"If the letters don't reveal anything, this booklet holds some secrets."
The booklet is a rural novel that tells the story of a man who, in order to gain the trust of a wealthy man, kidnaps the wealthy man's daughter and then pretends to rescue her, thus winning the wealthy man's favor.
This booklet was specially brought from the south by someone asked by Old Madam Lin, just to inspire Lin the scholar.
When Lin Shusheng committed his first crime, he was in a panic and returned home covered in blood.
"Back then, our family only had a small courtyard in the outer city. In order to save my father from having to get up too early for court, our family lived in the Qin family's courtyard."
Lin Shusheng murdered people, ripped out a woman's heart, and deliberately created a tragedy as a publicity stunt.
After he returned home, he could not hide it from his wife, Qin.
Lin Yue'e remembers clearly that it was also a rainy night. She was very young when her mother took her to the bedroom because she had a fever and slept with her.
In a daze, Lin Yue'e heard her mother crying, and from the intermittent conversation, she learned that her father had killed someone.
In his panic, Lin Shusheng's jade pendant was pulled off, a disastrous start. If he were recognized, it would be the strongest evidence against him for murder, costing him not only his official post but also imprisonment.
Lin Shusheng knelt down and begged Qin Shi, saying that he had been confused for a moment and did not know why he had done it. He wanted to be promoted so that Qin Shi could be a more respectable official's wife, instead of standing with some of the wives of minor officials and being looked down upon.
Upon hearing this, Qin was deeply moved, thinking that Lin Shusheng had done everything for her sake, and immediately decided to help Lin Shusheng with the aftermath.
On a rainy night, the couple went out and finally found the jade pendant, erasing all traces of Lin Shusheng.
As expected, on a rainy night in the capital, a woman in red had her heart ripped out, and the case immediately attracted the attention of the people.
Solving one case wasn't enough to make him feel like he had done something great. Driven by greed, Lin Shusheng committed crimes one after another, and became more and more skilled at it.
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