The crime scene was enough to make anyone's blood run cold.
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From 《史记·酷吏列传》: the Han official 义纵 executed over four hundred prisoners in a single day, and afterwards the whole commandery '不寒而栗' - shivered though not cold. The story fixed the idiom's emphasis on terror rather than cold.
memory
栗 (lì) here is the verb 'to tremble' (not the chestnut). 不寒而栗 = 'not cold, yet trembling' - shivering purely from fear.
