Jian Zhaoxing

Chapter 176 Criminal Psychology

If they wanted to find fault with the other members of the Lin family and wipe them out, they could only instigate the Lin family's "rescue from the execution ground".

To make this happen, the Lin family members certainly cannot be locked up.

This is precisely why the imperial edict did not deprive the Lin family of their freedom.

If the Lin family is to be convicted for storming the execution ground, the only solution is to set them free and let them storm the execution ground.

This is the royal family's objective.

Lin Zhiqing's goal was to make the royal family believe that they were going to storm the execution ground, thus granting them their freedom.

With freedom, she was able to do what she was about to do.

Because there are always unexpected events, Lin Zhiqing was worried that the royal family would not take the bait, so she prepared two plans in advance.

But now that she has achieved her goal, she naturally doesn't need to choose the more troublesome option.

Before her fourth uncle was beheaded, she gained her freedom and was able to get involved, push forward the next plan, and make a final gamble.

"Oh, I get it!" Lin Yangyang clapped her hands:

"No wonder you told us to act completely despondent and calm after the imperial edict was read out."

"Are you trying to make those corrupt officials think we've given up hope and are pinning all our hopes on breaking us off the execution ground, which is why you're expressionless?"

"Smart." Lin Zhiqing snapped his fingers.

People always try to guess the meaning behind other people's expressions and states based on their subjective judgments.

What Lin Zhiqing did was to use psychological suggestion to plant the idea in the minds of the officials of the Dali Temple that he was going to break into the execution ground.

At specific moments, whenever the Lin family members showed unusual expressions, those officials would use this psychological suggestion to fill in the blanks in their minds, thus convincing themselves otherwise.
That's right, the reason they remained so calm was because they felt there was still a glimmer of hope after the execution.

So, their goal is to storm the execution ground!

This logic formed a closed loop in their minds, so they were unwilling to let go of this opportunity to uproot the Lin family in one fell swoop.

And when they had this idea, Lin Zhiqing succeeded.

That's the beauty of psychology.

Compared to Liu Mang's method of creating a hypnotic environment through various senses and objects, Lin Zhiqing's method of psychological suggestion is more sophisticated.

Its advantage is that the target person may not even realize that they have been influenced by psychological suggestion.

Because things are developing according to the logic in his mind.

In other words, this is no different from self-hypnosis.

Lin Zhiqing explained all of this to Lin Yangyang in detail.

Others listened attentively, and in the process, they learned quite a bit about the philosophy of mind.

Lin Yangyang nodded thoughtfully: "Qing-meimei, if someone else were to explain these things to me, I definitely wouldn't understand."

"But how come I become interested in those things that make people sleepy when you talk about them?"

"I have to admit that Xiao Qing'er has a silver tongue. If I go to buy medicinal herbs another day, I'll definitely take you with me to negotiate the price properly," Lu Nanyue couldn't help but admire.

Lin Zhiqing shook her head: "It's not as exaggerated as you all say. This is only the first step."

"What was the second step again? Qing-meimei, say it again, I forgot."

"Oh dear, Lin Yangyang, you're so silly. Xiao Qing'er has already said it several times."

Lin Shi'an watched the three people bickering and making a fuss, and his heart calmed down considerably. The melancholy that had been shrouded by the imperial edict seemed to have dissipated a lot as well.

He was about to join the discussion when, in the blink of an eye, he saw Jiang Liuyun and Lu Huai looking at Lin Zhiqing with great admiration.

Do not!
It wasn't admiration! That look in his eyes was clearly... infatuation.

The moment this thought crossed Lin Shi'an's mind, he was taken aback.

How could he know it was affection?
Just as he was lost in thought, Lin Zhiqing tapped the table: "Cousin, do you remember the arrangements we discussed during the day?"

"I remember, I remember." Lin Shi'an came back to his senses and nodded quickly.

"And what about you two?" Lin Zhiqing looked at Lu Huai and Jiang Liuyun.

The two men said in unison, "We remember."

“In that case, I can rest assured. Uncle, you need to pay close attention on the day of Fourth Uncle’s execution to see which officials are present.” Lin Zhiqing looked at Lin Congli.

Lin Congli nodded slightly.

He now clearly has more faith in Lin Zhiqing.

Lin Yangyang and Lin Congli, father and daughter, have one thing in common: when they wholeheartedly believe in Lin Zhiqing.

No matter what Lin Zhiqing says, they will not ask "why" until the matter is accomplished; they will only nod and do it.

Lin Zhiqing gave this extra instruction because she suspected that Liu Mang was not the sole perpetrator of her fourth uncle's affair.

Or to put it another way, there is likely a powerful figure behind Liu Mang.

This wasn't something Lin Zhiqing imagined out of thin air.

She developed this suspicion after obtaining the evidence at Liu Mang's residence.

Because when ordinary people do something wrong, their first instinct is to destroy the evidence.

But Liu Mang was different; he placed the evidence in a place he thought was safe.

Of course, ordinary people really have no way to escape from the hypnotic array and also escape from the white-haired man with high martial arts skills.

Putting aside the fact that Lin Zhiqing is knowledgeable in psychology, there are very few people in the world who can obtain such evidence.

This raises the first question: why did he keep the evidence?
After much deliberation, Lin Zhiqing could only come up with one plausible explanation from several other letters that contained incriminating evidence against certain officials in the court.

That is, Liu Mang wanted to use that evidence as leverage in his own hands, which he might be able to use at a crucial moment.

Of course, it's unsound to conclude from this alone that Liu Mang had powerful backers.

The most difficult thing to explain is that Liu Mang did take action after he obtained the evidence.

It's obvious to anyone with eyes that the evidence in Lin Zhiqing's hands is related to Liu Mang.

However, neither the Dali Temple nor the royal family had any intention of investigating or taking action against him.

Even if they wished they could uproot the Lin family, according to the art of rulership, a cunning and scheming person who framed his colleagues and caused chaos in the court should at least be warned, if not punished.

However, based on Lin Zhiqing's observations over the past few days, nothing has happened on Liu Mang's side.

Thus, Lin Zhiqing had two guesses in mind.

First, Liu Mang had powerful backers who were able to remove him from the royal family's sights.

Secondly, Liu Mang was helping the royal family scheme against the Lin family, so no matter what he did, the royal family ignored him.

Lin Zhiqing couldn't determine in the short term which category Liu Mang belonged to.

Therefore, he wanted to start by investigating the people present on the day his fourth uncle was executed, to see if he could find any clues.

From the perspective of criminal psychology, some murderers do indeed go to the scene to admire their masterpieces.

The first reason was to confirm whether any evidence remained, and the second was to satisfy psychological pleasure.

Even if the possibility is small, Lin Zhiqing doesn't want to ignore it.