After nightfall, there was a figure walking back and forth at the door of Mo Zechen's room.
After a long time, he stopped walking back and forth, took a deep breath, stood in front of Mo Zechen's door, raised his hand, hesitated for a moment, and knocked on the door.
"KouKou——"
"Come in."
Almost as soon as the knock on the door rang, Mo Zechen's cold voice came from inside the house.
Mo Zechen heard Lin Qing's footsteps as soon as he was about to reach his door.
Mo Zechen also knew that Lin Qing walked back and forth at his door for a quarter of an hour before making up his mind to knock on the door.
He did not intervene vocally, letting Lin Qing struggle enough and wait for him to make a decision.
Mo Zechen raised his head, his deep eyes fell on Lin Qing, and spoke coldly.
"Have you thought about telling all the things you have hidden?"
Lin Qing pursed her lips and avoided Mo Zechen's eyes. It was obvious that he was still hesitating.
Mo Zechen frowned, not being used to Lin Qing, and said bluntly, "If you haven't thought about it, just go out."
"Because of your concealment, I have been doing useless work in Xuancheng for nearly half a month. I don't have time to tell whether you are telling the truth or a lie."
If he hadn't had a flash of inspiration in his mind today and discovered some problems, he might not have guessed that Lin Qing was hiding something from him, or even lying.
Lin Qing's face stiffened slightly when Mo Zechen said this.
He was silent for a long time before asking in a hoarse voice, "Can I believe you?"
Mo Zechen raised his eyes and looked at Lin Qing, but said nothing.
Lin Qing felt a little uncomfortable when Mo Zechen looked at her.
"Do you think you have any other choice besides trusting me now?"
Mo Zechen didn't say anything nice, but said a fact that was right in front of him.
"You can choose to keep hiding it, but are you sure you can bear the consequences?"
Mo Zechen's words without any emotion made Lin Qing's hesitant heart finally make a choice.
"It's a bit long. Is the prince interested in hearing a story from me?"
"Sit down and talk."
From the look on Lin Qing's face, Mo Zechen knew that the story he wanted to tell must be very long, so he asked Lin Qing to sit down and tell it.
"I originally had a very happy family. Although my family was poor, my parents did their best to be good to me and my sister."
"When I was nine years old, my father sent me to school. He hoped that I would become a talented person and shine brightly in the future."
After Lin Qing sat down, he talked about his own affairs.
"The master who taught me said that I am quite talented in reading and can endure hardships. If I study well, I may not be able to be named on the gold medal list in the future."
"Because of Master's words, my father worked hard to support me in studying and looked forward to the time when I would be named on the gold medal list."
"But studying is a very expensive thing. Within one year, the little money the family had was spent. My parents even borrowed it from relatives and friends, but it was still a drop in the bucket."
Mo Zechen said quietly, "But I went to your house today, and the furnishings in your house don't seem to be as poor as you said."
"We have to talk about what happened next. This was also the beginning of my family's nightmare."
Lin Qing chuckled, but the smile was a little bitter, and there was a bit of hatred in his eyes.
"My parents are both honest farmers who don't know how to make a living, they only know how to farm. However, due to the terrain, Xuancheng has many mountains and forests and few fertile fields."
"Five years ago, my father listened to a casual joke from the villagers and had a whimsical idea of reclaiming a piece of land in the mountains and forests. He thought that if he could do it, the family's income would be more."
"Five years ago? Wasn't it three years ago?"
Mo Zechen couldn't help but interrupt Lin Qing's words.
He remembered that Lin Qing's uncle said that Lin Qing's father was full and had nothing to do three years ago, and suddenly he had a sudden idea to go to the mountains to cultivate fertile land.
Why did Lin Qing say it was three years ago?
The time doesn't match up!
"The accurate time is five years ago, but except for me, everyone in my family always thought it was three years ago."
Lin Qing explained before continuing.
"My father's idea of cultivating fertile land had just begun, when something unexpected happened."
Lin Qing clenched his fists and tried his best to stabilize his emotions, "When my father was reclaiming wasteland in the mountains and forests, he accidentally dug up several pieces of unsmelted gold."
"Although my family lived in poverty, my father did not dare to secretly pass on the money from unknown sources, so he turned it over to the government."
"I thought it was an accident, but the next day my father changed the land to clear it, and halfway through the clearing, he found gold that had not been smelted."
"My father quickly realized the problem and reported the matter to the government. After people from the government came to investigate for a period of time, they suspected that there might be a gold mine under the mountain forest that my father was reclaiming."
When Mo Zechen heard this, he did not interrupt Lin Qing's words, but his brows furrowed deeper.
He never remembered that anyone in Xuancheng reported the emergence of gold mines in Xuancheng.
Could it be that someone from the government later discovered that this was an error?
"At first, the officials rewarded my father with a sum of money and told him that he could not go near that mountain in the future, nor could he tell others about the gold found on that mountain."
"They said that this matter was related to the secrets of the imperial court. If anyone else knew about it, my father would be charged with treason. My father was timid and was frightened by the other party. After taking the reward, he never dared to tell the outside world about it."
"After he got home, he told his mother that he accidentally helped a person. The person was a rich man. In order to thank his father, he gave him a large sum of money."
"Just when our whole family was so happy about this windfall, we had no idea that the danger was approaching step by step."
Lin Qing smiled mockingly.
"My father forgot about his discovery of the gold mine at that time. But three years ago, my father went to town to sell the extra food at home and passed by a restaurant when he came back."
"Originally, I thought I would make some money and go home happy with a couple of drinks, but unexpectedly I heard a group of drunken officials talking about the gold mine my father accidentally discovered five years ago."
"It was then that my father learned that the government did not report the matter to the court, but secretly mined it himself."
"My father realized that he had heard something he shouldn't have heard, which might put his family in danger. He hurried home and couldn't sleep in the middle of the night so he talked to me and wanted to ask me what to do about this matter."
"But before I could think of anything useful, my father was arrested the next day. They made up trumped-up charges and put my father in jail."
"They also threatened our family behind our backs. If we dared to tell anyone about the gold mine, they would kill my father immediately."
