Martial Immortality: Starting with the Spirit Beast Scroll Chapter 69 - 65: 2 Gamblers

Zhao Lin didn’t take Gao Xiaoliu and Duan San back to the yan. Instead, he brought them to his own residence on Shuncheng Street.

At first, the two gamblers refused to cooperate, but they both piped down after seeing Tao Erleng.

Zhao Lin found this odd. He asked and learned that Tao Erleng had such a fearso reputation that every rogue in the city had heard of him. To them, he was a cat, and they were the mice.

’This will be easy, then.’

Zhao Lin asked them directly, "You testified that Chai Jie was at the casino all night. In that case, let ask you: how many tis did he relieve himself?"

"Don’t speak. Put your hands behind your backs and use your fingers to show the number. If you two show different numbers, that ans soone is lying!"

The two exchanged a glance. Gao Xiaoliu said awkwardly, "Constable, I was busy gambling myself. How could I have been watching him the whole ti?"

Zhao Lin shot back, "Since you weren’t watching him the whole ti, how do you know he didn’t leave the casino at so point?"

"Well..."

Gao Xiaoliu was speechless. Duan San chid in, "We weren’t following him, but the casino isn’t that big. You can’t help but run into people. He won a lot of money that day; we saw it with our own eyes."

"Right, that’s how it was," Gao Xiaoliu chid in hastily.

"So you won’t talk, is that it?"

Zhao Lin had no ti to waste. He grabbed them both by the collar, lifted them off the ground, and said to Tao Erleng, "Let’s have a little sparring match."

Tao Erleng’s eyes lit up. He rubbed his hands together. "How are we competing?"

"You try to punch them in the head. If you land a hit, you win. If you miss, I win."

The mont Zhao Lin finished speaking, the two gamblers shrieked in terror. "Sir, put us down!" "You’re going to kill soone!"

Tao Erleng paid them no mind and threw a punch at Gao Xiaoliu’s head.

The fist whistled through the air. Gao Xiaoliu squeezed his eyes shut in terror.

Just as the punch was about to connect, Zhao Lin abruptly took two steps back, narrowly avoiding it.

Tao Erleng froze for a second before leaping forward to pursue them, swinging a fist at Duan San.

Duan San, trembling from head to toe, scread at the top of his lungs, "I’ll talk! Let down!"

Zhao Lin felt they hadn’t been scared enough. ’To deal with lazy street scum like this, you have to show them what real trouble looks like.’

He deliberately maneuvered Tao Erleng next to a stack of bricks. When Tao Erleng threw his next punch, Zhao Lin dodged so the fist grazed past the two gamblers’ cheeks and slamd into the brick pile.

CRASH! Dust and debris flew as a large chunk of the brick pile collapsed.

Gao Xiaoliu and Duan San were on the verge of tears, scrambling over each other to speak. "Spare us, Sir! I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything!" " too! Let go first!"

"Stop!"

Zhao Lin stopped Tao Erleng and tossed the two n to the ground.

The mont their feet touched the ground, Gao Xiaoliu and Duan San collapsed into a boneless heap.

Tao Erleng seed disappointed. "Why’d we stop halfway through the match?"

Zhao Lin stared at them and said coldly, "Speak. How much did Chai Jie pay you to lie?"

"Five pieces of silver."

Gao Xiaoliu and Duan San said in unison.

He Qingquan’s eyes widened. ’Could it really have been Chai Jie?’ he thought.

"Very good."

Zhao Lin nodded. "But this alone isn’t enough. We have to prove he went out that night, specifically around seven in the evening."

"I can prove it."

Gao Xiaoliu looked up and spoke rapidly. "That day, I had so business and left ho late. I was just getting to the casino when I saw Chai Jie coming out."

"I asked him where he was off to, and he said he was going out to eat."

Zhao Lin asked, "What ti was this?"

Gao Xiaoliu thought for a mont. "It wasn’t dark out yet. It must have been right around seven o’clock."

Duan San chid in, "Later, when it was dark, I went outside to relieve myself and saw Chai Jie running back in. I nearly collided with him."

"The ti."

"It was already pitch black. Must have been around nine o’clock."

Zhao Lin calculated internally. ’Out at seven, back at nine. The tiline fits.’

"Right. What was he wearing when you saw him?"

"A moon-white long robe."

"A blue silk shirt."

Gao Xiaoliu and Duan San answered, respectively. The mont the words were out, the color drained from their faces.

Even they, fools that they were, understood now. Chai Jie had changed his clothes late at night. Sothing was definitely wrong!

Coincidentally, Chai Qihong had died during that exact ti fra. To say that this had nothing to do with Chai Jie would be utterly unbelievable.

"Figured it out yet?" Zhao Lin’s voice turned to ice. "This is a capital case, punishable by beheading. You dared to commit perjury and harbor a murderer. Do you have a death wish?"

Terrified, Gao Xiaoliu and Duan San dropped to their knees and kowtowed. "Please, Sir, give us a chance to live! We’ll never do it again!"

Zhao Lin let them grovel for a mont before speaking. "I can give you a chance to redeem yourselves. But if you screw it up, you can look forward to rotting in jail!"

...

That morning, Gao Xiaoliu and Duan San arrived at the Chai family’s front gate and started hamring on it with the door knocker.

"Who is it?"

After a long mont, a lazy voice drifted from the courtyard.

"It’s us! Gao Xiaoliu and Duan San!" they shouted.

"What’s with all the racket so early in the morning?"

Cursing, Chai Jie opened the gate. He glanced behind the two n and said sourly, "What do you want?"

Gao Xiaoliu grinned. "My brother and I are a little short on cash. We were hoping Brother Chai could lend us a little sothing to tide us over."

Duan San sidled up. "We heard you sold off your old man’s lumber shop. You must have made a pretty penny, huh?"

"I have no money. Get lost!"

Before they could finish, Chai Jie slamd the gate shut. BANG!

"Hey, what’s with Master Chai?"

"I know, right? When the Officials ca asking questions yesterday, we stuck to the plan."

"Since Master Chai is so ungrateful, maybe we should just tell the truth next ti the Officials co around."

"You’ve got a point. It’s not worth taking such a huge risk for nothing..."

The two went back and forth, their voices getting louder and louder.

"Get in here and talk."

Chai Jie opened the gate again, his face grim...

"Constable Zhao, we’re not posting anyone to watch them. Aren’t you worried they’ll run for it?"

The four of them—Zhao Lin included—were sitting in a private room of a tavern on the next street over, feasting on a table full of food and wine.

Seeing Zhao Lin’s composure, He Qingquan couldn’t help but ask the question.

Zhao Lin, of course, wasn’t about to tell them he could hear the pair’s every move. He just said calmly, "They can run, but they can’t hide. Those two aren’t stupid; they know what’s at stake."

He Qingquan said admiringly, "Constable Zhao, you found the suspects in a single day and even devised this plan to lure the snake from its hole. In all my years at the yan, I’ve truly never seen anything like it..."

"You’re too kind."

Zhao Lin raised a hand to cut off the flattery. He walked to the window, cocking an ear to listen for any sounds from the Chai residence.

Sending Gao Xiaoliu and Duan San to find Chai Jie had been a spur-of-the-mont idea.

The Chai residence wasn’t massive, but it wasn’t small, either.

If they were to just barge in and search, with only the few n he had, it could take ages.

And if he asked to borrow n from Sun Zhang, there was no question that Sun Zhang would take all the credit, leaving Zhao Lin with nothing.

Besides, if the evidence wasn’t in the Chai residence to begin with, a failed search would only alert Chai Jie, making it that much harder to ever find it.

After thinking it over, Zhao Lin had devised a plan.

In a crowded place, if soone shouts, "Watch out for pickpockets!" most people will instinctively check their wallets.

They don’t realize that in doing so, they’re revealing exactly where their money is, creating an opportunity for a thief.

Zhao Lin had initially thought of being the one to "shout about pickpockets" himself. But Chai Jie was smart and cunning; Zhao Lin showing up in person would surely make him suspicious. That’s why he sent Gao Xiaoliu and Duan San to probe him instead.

As for what to say and how to say it, he had already rehearsed the entire script with them beforehand.