Chapter 54: Fine, I’ll Talk, I’ll Talk
Prison.
“Grandpa, Grandpa Lin, please let me go. I really know I was wrong.”
“Lin bastard, fuck your grandma. If you can’t beat me to death, wait until I get out, I’ll kill your whole family.”
“I’m Young Master Hu. My dad won’t let you go.”
Prison is a very magical place.
He could understand someone begging for mercy.
He couldn’t understand at all someone cursing him.
So bold, at this time, still daring to shout threats.
Lin Fan held the whip in hand. In front of him, prisoners bound in a row were all his targets. Cracking sounds rang out nonstop.
Every strike was accompanied by an uncontrollable wail and the faint sound of skin splitting and flesh tearing.
They howled in pain from the whipping.
Those cursing him naturally received special attention.
【Whip Technique Proficiency+1】
……
This was his daily morning routine. Practicing this must never be neglected; he needed to thoroughly release a full day’s enthusiasm.
After whipping for a while, he calmly took Pinellia from his pocket and put it in his mouth. Bitter, pungent, slightly numbing to the tongue, but no matter, cultivation was like this.
To become stronger, suffering a bit in the early stages was only right.
【Poison Resistance+1】
Look, what great feedback.
Continue whipping, continue taking the medicine.
【Beginner Whip Technique（Beginner 1/300）】
After a long time, as Beginner Whip Technique reached Beginner, he finally stopped, put away the whip, and set it aside to take out later and dry it properly.
Xu Ming had long been waiting quietly nearby with a basin of warm water and a clean cloth. Seeing Brother Lin’s “care” end, he immediately stepped forward quickly and respectfully handed over the cloth: “Brother Lin, you’ve worked hard. Wipe your sweat.”
“Mm.” Lin Fan wiped his face, then his hands, nodding quite satisfied: “How did the interrogation go yesterday?”
Xu Ming reported truthfully: “Hu Yu confessed everything he should. There are also several other matters; the confessions are all signed and sealed.”
Hu Yu, who had been hanging his head and wailing, suddenly looked up and roared: “You’re forcing a confession! I’m not convinced! I’ll sue you! I’ll have my dad kill you all, waa waa waa…”
Hu Yu, covered in whip marks all over, wailed in pain, voicing his grievances. As Young Master Hu, everyone feared him. He’d lived a life of fine clothes and good food since childhood. When had he ever suffered like this? He was very despairing. Dad, where the hell are you? With our Hu Family’s influence, it’s been overnight already—haven’t you gotten me out yet?
“He’s honest enough.” Lin Fan walked toward the outside of the prison, with Xu Ming following at his side.
For Xu Ming at this moment, weren’t the things Brother Lin was doing exactly what he had wanted to do in the past but had been suppressed by reality and unable to act on?
His dead heart came alive again.
Outside, Lin Fan took down the iron rod and went to the center of the courtyard. He raised the rod and assumed the stance!
The iron rod swung, starting slow and steady, gradually becoming swift as wind. Rod shadows layered heavily, the air-breaking sound like a low tiger roar. Every strike contained terrifying power to tear everything apart, stirring up fine dust from the ground.
Xu Ming stood in the corner, holding his breath and watching intently, his heart shocked beyond measure.
Especially upon learning that the iron rod Brother Lin held weighed sixty jin, his eyes nearly popped out in shock.
Too terrifying.
This was absolutely not power a normal person could have.
【Thousand Jin Staff Technique Proficiency+1】
Lin Fan scheduled his time very fully: practice in the morning, at noon, and in the evening too. Only like this could he feel a full sense of security.
Not long after.
Yang Ming appeared, bringing the little girl to the Public Security Bureau.
The little girl seemed very restrained and nervous, her big eyes full of unease, her little hand gripping Yang Ming’s clothes tightly.
“Bro, this little girl is so sensible, just too pitiful.”
Yang Ming felt heartbroken. With his family background before, it had been hard to have dealings with these bottom-level people. Only after joining the Public Security Bureau had he seen too much but been powerless. Now with Brother Lin leading them to sweep away injustice, he felt that following Brother Lin, they could really accomplish something.
Lin Fan patted Yang Ming’s shoulder and had Xu Ming take the little girl to wait outside first. But clearly, the little girl was a bit scared and hid behind Yang Ming. No choice, Yang Ming could only stay outside with the little girl.
Lin Fan turned and walked back toward the prison.
Xu Ming immediately followed.
In the shady prison cell, the scapegoat sat limply on a pile of straw in the corner, his face sallow, eyes vacant, head tilted up staring at the dense spiderwebs on the cell ceiling, the whole person like his soul had been drawn out, left only with despairing silence.
Xu Ming opened the cell door and walked in.
“Come out.” Xu Ming’s voice was very calm.
The scapegoat stood up woodenly and staggered after Xu Ming out of the cell. He felt his time of death had come; he only hoped his sacrifice could give his child a better life.
He had a serious illness. The doctor said it was hard to treat and not worth it. Already destitute, where would he get money for treatment? Since it was like this, better to leave something for his daughter.
So when he learned there was a chance to take the blame for someone and get silver, he didn’t think twice and took it on.
At this time, he found the constable wasn’t taking him for interrogation or to the execution ground, but to a table, where a man sat drinking tea. Seeing him, the man even nodded.
“Sit.” Lin Fan pointed to the stool across the table.
He didn’t dare sit and remained standing there trembling.
“Brother Lin told you to sit, so sit.” Xu Ming said.
Only then did the scapegoat shakily sit half his butt on the edge of the stool, body tense.
Moments later.
Lin Fan set down the teacup and looked up at him. “Liang Gui, did you kill the man?”
“I killed him. I’ll admit what I should. What else do you want to ask?” Liang Gui was very weak, but on admitting guilt, his tone was firm, without the slightest wavering.
Lin Fan shook his head and sighed softly. That sigh was especially clear in the quiet cell: “I’ve been to your home and met your daughter. Very cute and sensible, just…”
Thud!
Before Lin Fan finished speaking, Liang Gui slid off the stool like he’d been pricked by a needle, went around the table, and knelt directly before Lin Fan, kowtowing nonstop, his voice full of fear and pleading:
“Constable Sir, please show mercy. I’ll admit what I should. Even if there are other cases, I’ll admit them all. They’re all my doing. I only beg Constable Sir to be lenient and not harm my daughter.”
Liang Gui knew the Public Security Bureau’s methods. They had many backlog cases needing someone to take the blame, so he thought this constable wanted him to admit more cases.
He had no resistance to this.
One case or two, he’d admit. What did a few more matter?
Lin Fan gave Xu Ming a look.
Xu Ming immediately went forward and forcefully helped Liang Gui up from the ground, pressing him back onto the stool.
“When did I force you to confess?” Lin Fan’s tone remained calm. “I just want to tell you, you took the beheading crime for Yuan Jiang and got that bit of blood money, hoping your brother and sister-in-law would let your daughter live well. I can understand that intention.”
He changed tone. “But do you know, right after you came in, that good brother and sister-in-law of yours contacted a toothman in the city, discussing selling your daughter for five taels of silver! You think by taking the blame, your daughter will live better afterward?”
When these words reached Liang Gui’s ears.
Like a bolt from the blue.
His already pale face grew even paler.
No blood color at all.
“Impossible, absolutely impossible. My brother and sister-in-law promised me, as long as they feed her, they’ll raise my daughter.”
Though he said he didn’t believe it, his panicked, flustered eyes and instantly crumbling expression showed that deep down, he knew his brother and sister-in-law really might do such a heartless thing.
Lin Fan said: “How impossible? The crime you took for Yuan Jiang means no way out. Though you have a serious illness, it’s not incurable. Better to raise your own daughter to be at ease. Tell the truth now, and I’ll make the call to release you immediately.”
Liang Gui clutched his hair tightly with both hands, his heart in massive struggle and fear, shaking his head crazily. “Can’t, can’t do that.”
Lin Fan nodded to Xu Ming.
Xu Ming understood and immediately turned and hurried toward the outside of the prison.
Not long after, Yang Ming led the little girl in.
“Dad.” The little girl cried out upon seeing Liang Gui, broke free of Yang Ming’s hand, and pounced over.
Liang Gui trembled all over, looked up sharply, and upon seeing his daughter there, his emotions collapsed instantly. He pulled his daughter tightly into his arms, voice choking: “Daughter, my daughter…”
The little girl buried in his arms, sobbing intermittently: “Dad, Uncle and Aunt… they called me a money-losing good, said they were going to… sell me. Dad, come back, I’m scared.”
He felt the sky had fallen.
Liang Gui turned, knelt before Lin Fan, and begged: “Constable Sir, please, I really can’t say it. If I don’t confess, only I die, but if I don’t admit it, it’s not just me who dies.”
At that moment, Lin Fan stood up, went to the wooden rack nearby, grabbed He Sen’s hair who was bound there, and roughly lifted his head.
“Open your eyes wide and see who he is.”
Liang Gui looked up.
Lin Fan said: “Loyalty Hall Hall Master He Sen. He committed a crime, I caught him, no way out.”
Then he went to Hu Yu’s side. Hu Yu cooperatively looked up, but Lin Fan still grabbed his hair and yanked his head back hard.
“Now see who he is?”
“Hu Family Young Master Hu Yu, multiple cases on him. No way out. His dad can’t do anything no matter who he finds.”
“You still think Yuan Jiang can leave the Public Security Bureau alive?”
Liang Gui stared blankly. He recognized them; these bound and tortured ones were all big shots in Yong’an.
“Dad, they all bully me, say I’m a killer’s child. I’m not…” The little girl cried.
His daughter’s words completely shattered Liang Gui’s mental defenses.
“Constable Sir, I’ll talk, I’ll talk.”
