Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

Seeing Ding Lisheng collapse to the ground with a thud, Zhao Lin was so shocked that he opened his mouth and couldn't utter a word. Then he saw Chan Yi kick him twice with a cold face, pressed his wrist twice, and said coldly, "You won't die." He couldn't help but shiver and became really scared.

He raised his head and looked at Chen Shao. Seeing that she was also looking at him, Zhao Lin hurriedly withdrew his gaze and kowtowed, saying, "Sir, spare my life. Everything I did was ordered by Lord Ding!"

Chen Shao had lost his patience to argue with him, so he asked directly, "Where did Ding Lisheng buy the jade chess pieces?"

Zhao Lin did not dare to hide it. He looked at Zhang Boshan with a guilty look and answered eagerly, "I bought it from the Zhu family and the Gu family."

Chen Shao raised his voice slightly: "Zhu family and Gu family?"

"Yes." Afraid that she would not believe him, Zhao Lin quickly explained, "The Zhu family, the Gu family, and the caravans of the Fan family and the Qi family have always had business dealings with the Shan Kingdom. The jade chess piece was brought back from the Shan Kingdom by the caravans of the Zhu family and the Gu family and sold to Lord Ding."

Chen Shao keenly grasped the word "especially" and asked, "What do you mean especially?"

Zhao Lin was afraid of saying something wrong, but he didn't dare not answer. He hesitated for a while before saying, "Every time the caravans from the Zhu, Gu, Fan, and Qi families come back from Shan, they bring some jade to sell to Lord Ding. Lord Ding buys it and then resells it to me and others."

Chen Shao interrogated: "Why did they sell the jade to Ding Lisheng?"

Zhao Lin took two steps back stiffly, looked at Ding Lisheng a few more times, and then stammered, "They said that the General of the State loves Qingyu very much. If you want the General of the State to look at you with respect, you have to please him."

Chen Shao pressed, "Who are they, and who did they say these things to?"

"They are the Zhu family, the Gu family, the Fan family, and the Qi family." Zhao Lin's teeth began to chatter unconsciously because of fear. "They only told these words to Lord Ding. I and the rest of us only know these things from what Lord Ding told us."

Chen Shao didn't care whether he could bear it or not, and continued to ask: "Who are the others?"

Zhao Lin replied tremblingly: "Besides me, there are also some wealthy families or scholars in the city."

Chen Shao took out a pen and paper, motioned for Chan Yi to pass it to him, and said, "Write down all the rich families and scholars on the paper."

As he wrote, he reminded: "General Li has already sent people to surround Zhao's residence. If you dare to be sneaky and cunning again, you will end up like this. I don't need to remind you."

Zhao Lin's hands were already shaking badly, and when he heard her words, he couldn't help shaking even more. Chan Yi couldn't bear it, so she took the paper and pen and said coldly: "You talk, I'll write!"

Zhao Lin thanked her reluctantly and recited the names while recalling them. After writing down nearly twenty people, he slowly stopped and thought for a moment to make sure that there were no omissions. Then he shook his head and said, "These are the only ones I know."

Chan Yi handed the paper over. Chen Shao looked at it and asked, "Do the Zhu, Gu, Fan, and Qi families only deal with Ding Lisheng?"

A hint of humiliation flashed across Zhao Lin's face. "Yes."

Chen Shao looked at him, "Why?"

The humiliation on Zhao Lin's face intensified: "They look down on their subordinates."

Chen Shao's eyes flickered over his face, and after making sure that he was not lying, he asked again: "How did the Zhu family, Gu family, Fan family, and Qi family tell Ding Lisheng that the general who assists the country likes Qingyu? How did Ding Lisheng or you judge whether what they said was true and not a lie?"

Zhao Lin was stunned.

He never seemed to think about it.