Lin Qing paused, looked up at Mo Zechen, and said in a sincere tone.
"If the prince suspects that what I said is true or false, the prince can send his own people to check whether there was a restaurant in Xuancheng with good taste and low price three years ago. It was closed down for no reason three years ago."
"As far as I know, the guests who showed up at the restaurant that day, as well as the owner and his family, were either dead or suddenly became rich."
Lin Qing's words were almost explicit.
What he meant was that those who did not cooperate were all dead, and those who cooperated were all won over by the government.
"If there really is a gold mine in Xuancheng, why didn't you tell me about it when you were in the capital?"
Mo Zechen turned his finger and asked unhurriedly, "Rather than saying that officials in Xuancheng are corrupt, wouldn't it be easier to attract His Majesty's attention by directly saying that there are gold mines in Xuancheng?"
If His Majesty knew that the officials in Xuancheng had concealed the existence of the gold mine and even mined it privately, His Majesty would probably directly dispatch nearby military camps to surround the entire Xuancheng.
"Does Your Majesty think I don't want to say it?"
Lin Qing sneered, "The matter of the gold mine has been hidden from His Majesty for so many years. No matter how stupid I am, I can guess that they must have a protective umbrella behind their backs."
"Whenever I mention the gold mine, I'm afraid I will die before I can explain everything clearly. By then, the gold mine will be suppressed, and my death will be meaningless."
Mo Zechen nodded slightly. Lin Qing was right about this.
The wages of avarice is death.
In order to protect one's own interests from being violated and to save one's own life, what does it mean to kill a civilian?
Lin Qing continued, "The second year after my father was falsely accused and imprisoned, the government did not allow us to visit my father."
"No matter what we did, the government officials wouldn't let go. Later, the town master fell in love with my sister and said that if my sister married him, he could let us visit our father."
"My sister agreed to this marriage behind my mother's back, thinking that this would at least ensure that my father could live a more comfortable life in prison. But the master is nearly fifty years old, one year older than my father."
"I thought that no matter how hard life was, it would be like this, but later I realized that this was just the beginning of the suffering."
Lin Qing had a stiff smile on her lips, grief filled her eyes, and tears fell uncontrollably.
"Less than half a year after marrying him, my sister suddenly became seriously ill. I didn't even see her for the last time, and she was hastily buried by him."
"Later I accidentally learned that my sister bit her tongue and committed suicide."
"The master once entertained his Shang Feng at home. As a result, she drank wine and defiled my sister through her drunkenness. In order to please Shang Feng, the master not only failed to seek justice for her, but also tried to punish me many times after that. My sister drugged her and put her on someone else’s bed!”
Speaking of excitement, Lin Qing clenched her hands into fists, and the backs of her hands were covered with veins. The bones even made a slight "creak" sound due to excessive exertion.
"My sister endured it at first because she was worried about my father's situation in prison. It wasn't until she found out that the government didn't allow us to see my father that he had already died in prison that she committed suicide."
Mo Zechen didn't speak, but frowned.
Although his personality was a little cold, after hearing Lin Qing's experience, he felt some sympathy and pity for Lin Qing.
Mo Zechen asked tentatively, "Was your father lynched by the government and died in prison?"
According to Lin Qing, his father was wrongly accused and imprisoned, probably without a court trial.
According to the law, lynching cannot be carried out at will without a public trial, and it cannot be confirmed that the other party is a prisoner. Once the violator is discovered, he will be severely punished.
Since the people in the government just locked people up and didn't kill them at the beginning, why would they cause trouble a year later?
Lin Qing took a deep breath to calm down, then slowly said, "My father froze to death."
His father seemed strong, but when winter came, his body became very weak and he was extremely afraid of the cold.
They prepared winter clothes for their father early, fearing that he would freeze in the winter, but the jailer took off the newly made winter clothes.
Even on New Year's Eve, because they were in a hurry to go home for a reunion, they were afraid that if they didn't watch and they would be held accountable if there was a fire, they put out all the braziers for heating when they left.
The prison was already cold, and it was windy and snowy that night. How could my father's body be able to bear it?
"He died on New Year's Eve when the whole family was reunited. At that time, other people's families were reunited, and my family was separated by yin and yang."
"After my father died, they were worried that our family would cause trouble if they found out, so they didn't allow us to see him."
"I have a question. Since your father is dead and you may escape from their control at any time, why don't the officials deal with you directly?"
Mo Zechen really couldn't understand this.
He did not believe that a group of people were so bold that they dared to conceal the existence of the gold mine and take it for themselves. He did not believe that they would be merciful to Lin Qing.
"Because I lied to them."
Lin Qing explained, "When they came to arrest my father, they planned to arrest our entire family."
"I lied that my father told me about the existence of the gold mine, and he kept it secret at that time. As long as something happened to their family, someone would expose the gold mine."
"The government officials didn't dare to bet on whether what I said was true or false, so they just arrested my father and used my father's safety to threaten our family to obey them honestly."
"I didn't tell you the truth before because I didn't believe you."
Now that things have come to this point, Lin Qing honestly admitted that he didn't believe Mo Zechen at first.
"I don't know who is protecting those corrupt officials, so in my opinion, all the powerful officials in the capital are suspects."
Mo Zechen raised his eyes and looked at Lin Qing, and asked in a deep voice, "Do you believe me now?"
"Do not believe."
Lin Qing shook her head, "But I don't have time to test you slowly."
"I know the specific location of the gold mine that my father discovered. This was when I knew the real cause of death of my father and my sister. I pretended to be complicit with them and gained their trust, and they took me there personally."
"But I'm not going to tell you right now, I need you to do something for me."
Lin Qing used a consulting tone, but her eyes were extremely firm.
That expression seemed to say that if he didn't agree, he wouldn't tell him the specific location.
Mo Zechen thought for a moment and asked, "What do you want me to do?"
