Jian Zhaoxing

Chapter 380 The Prison Lawsuit
"Smart!" Lin Zhiqing clapped his hands.

As soon as she said that, the other three looked at her with a "Are you alright?" expression.

Lin Shi'an scratched his head: "As far as I know, Ling Shuo doesn't have homosexual tendencies and shouldn't be into that kind of thing."

Lin Yangyang swallowed hard.

"Qing-meimei, would you rather leave such a beautiful woman like me behind and use a man instead?"

"You want him to seduce Ling Shuo? Can he do it?"

Upon hearing this, Yan Yu's expression instantly changed: "Who are you calling incompetent?"

"You're all show and no substance, but you act like a man. Sending you would be a disaster."

“That’s right, I think so too.” Lin Zhiqing rarely agreed with Yan Yu.

Yan Yu gestured with his chin toward Lin Yangyang, as if to say: See? Even Lin Zhiqing agrees with what I said.

Lin Yangyang covered her mouth and chuckled, then winked at Lin Zhiqing: "Alright, since you've said so, then you can go."

Yan Yu: ? ? ?
Seeing Lin Zhiqing and Lin Yangyang exchanging glances, Yan Yu narrowed his eyes:

"So, you actually plotted against me?"

"Hey, this isn't a scheme." Lin Yangyang waved her hand:

"You volunteered for this, so don't dawdle."

Lin Zhiqing chuckled to herself: "Alright, alright, Yan Yu, only you can handle this."

“You clearly appeared in front of Jiang Liuyun last time, but there was no reaction from the Zhenyuan Marquis’s residence. I think you need to go and make your presence known again.”

"If the Marquis of Zhenyuan's mansion is plotting something, we can test them out. That's one point."

"Secondly, through the Li Jinzhi incident, the Zhenyuan Marquis's mansion must also know our plans, and he will most likely guess that we are going to target Zhou Chongzheng."

“Then this matter definitely cannot be done by the Lin family; it would be far too obvious.”

Lin Zhiqing gave two reasons, which he explained very clearly.

Yan Yu really couldn't find any fault with it.

Seeing that Yan Yu remained silent, Lin Zhiqing clapped his hands, and Chao Yan immediately came in carrying a tray.

On the tray lay a rather exquisite piece of women's clothing, which had obviously been prepared in advance.

Lin Zhiqing picked up the white garment:

“Yan Yu, I have studied Ling Shuo’s illness and found that he has a particular fondness for women who are beautiful but gentle and considerate.”

"This dress was specially made by me. It's much more expensive than the red dress I wore last time. I guarantee you'll look like a fairy when you wear it."

Yan Yu did not want to be a fairy, but under Lin Zhiqing's offensive, he had no room to refute.

The matter was settled rather haphazardly.

Yan Yu asked with a dark face, "And then what? After getting close to Ling Shuo, what else do you need to do?"

After pondering for a moment, Lin Zhiqing said, "I've thought about it. We can't use the same methods we used on the Minister of Justice to deal with Zhou Chongzheng."

“It would be advantageous for us to continue to hold the position of Minister of Justice in order to counter the Zhenyuan Marquis’s mansion, but Zhou Chongzheng is different.”

“His relationship with the Zhenyuan Marquis’s mansion is very solid; we’d better bring him down directly.”

Lin Shi'an frowned: "This is not an easy task. Ling Shuo is only Zhou Chongzheng's brother-in-law and cannot have a significant influence on Zhou Chongzheng."

"Of course not." Lin Zhiqing had already considered this point:

"On the surface, we are getting close to Ling Shuo, but in reality, we are using Ling Shuo to find Zhou Chongzheng's weaknesses."

“Zhou Chongzheng has an excellent reputation outside; even my father often said he was selfless,” Lin Yangyang said. Yan Yu scoffed coldly.
"Selflessness? If the water is too clear, there will be no fish. No one can remain untainted in the arena of power."

"The less you can see or hear someone's shortcomings, the more hard work they put in behind the scenes."

“The dirty tricks that Chongzheng has been up to this week are no better than those of Li Jinzhi.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Shi'an immediately realized what was going on:
"Brother Yan, have you found out something?"

Yan Yu looked at Lin Zhiqing. He had indeed found out about the matter, but he had used Lin Zhiqing's men.

The people Lin Congrong left to the Lin family were naturally all elites, and very useful.

However, Lin Zhiqing doesn't seem to have any intention of making a name for herself.

Seeing this, Yan Yu spoke up himself:

“Zhou Chongzheng is not clean. After I investigated him thoroughly, I found that he was suspected of deliberately using the money from the lawsuits to amass wealth.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Shi'an's expression immediately changed:
"How could such a situation occur in the capital, under the very nose of the emperor, in such an important position as the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review?"

Lin Yangyang didn't quite understand: "Wait, what does 'Yu Song Jun Jin' mean? I've never heard of it before?"

“The ‘lawsuit deposit’ is the deposit paid before a case begins. Last time, when Fourth Uncle was taken to the Ministry of Justice, the Lin family also contributed some money,” Lin Zhiqing explained.

Jun is an ancient unit of weight, with thirty jin equaling one jun.

However, "金" does not mean gold; it mostly refers to copper and can also be used to refer to wealth.

Junjin literally means thirty catties of copper.

However, copper is now mostly just a nominal deposit; there are other financial transactions between them behind the scenes.

"Mm." Lin Shi'an nodded and began to add:
“Take Uncle Si’s case as an example. At the time, the Lin family paid 30 catties of copper as a deposit on the surface, but Zhiqing also secretly slipped in a lot of silver.”

“If Fourth Uncle is innocent, the bail money can be returned to the Lin family; if Fourth Uncle is guilty, the bail money will belong to the government.”

"Was the money given to get the people inside to take care of Fourth Uncle?" Lin Yangyang asked.

Lin Zhiqing nodded: "That's what we mean. The money of officials and wealthy families is unlikely to be affected, but it's not necessarily the case for ordinary merchants and common people."

To put it bluntly, this is a channel for secretly bribing officials.

As the saying goes, "If the water is too clear, there will be no fish."

As long as there is a hierarchy, those in lower positions will always have to give those in higher positions some benefits in order to develop better.

However, when investigating cases involving officials, such privately slipped money could not possibly end up in the pocket of the Minister of Justice.

After all, they are officials; they can easily get themselves into trouble if they are not careful.

But ordinary people and wealthy merchants are different; they have no one to rely on, so they can make a living by taking bribes from lawsuits.

Some unscrupulous officials even deliberately fabricate false cases to extort money from wealthy households.

These are all the unspoken rules of officialdom as understood by Lin Zhiqing.

“They’re right.” Yan Yu affirmed Lin Shi’an and Lin Zhiqing’s explanations, then spoke again:
“I discovered signs that Zhou Chongzheng was manipulating the court’s case, but he did it discreetly, and I haven’t found any conclusive evidence yet.”

"If we get close to Ling Shuo, the most urgent task is definitely to find evidence of this matter."

Lin Shi'an gritted his teeth: "I didn't expect Zhou Chongzheng to be such a gentleman on the surface, but he was actually so cunning."

"Using the prison's judicial funds to amass wealth is a grave crime of abusing power for personal gain and deceiving the emperor!"

An honest person who is colorless and odorless usually contains a deadly poison.

Lin Zhiqing shook his head and continued:
“Precisely because it is a serious crime, if this matter is exposed, our goal of removing Zhou Chongzheng from the position of Minister of the Court of Judicial Review will be achieved.”