Chapter 85: Wang Chengdong's Accusation
No need, no need, Mr. Ye doesn't have to be polite. Ya-Wen's words were the first to stir up emotions. Nie Bowen didn't want to eat with Xie Yunfeng, but he also didn't want to see the Ye family members. However, since Ye Zhuo came out of the private room and helped Ye Yuqi up, she had been standing there quietly, not saying a word or smiling, extremely well-mannered. Compared to Xie Yungui's behavior, it made Nie Bowen's dislike for her decrease by several points.
Ye Yiqi invited Nie Bowen, just out of politeness, he had always disliked fawning on others. Seeing Nie Bowen refuse, he didn't say much more, supporting Ye Zhuo's hand, and limping into the private room.
Just as Ye Zhuo was about to turn around, he suddenly saw someone rush up from below, grab Xie Yunfeng's collar and shout: "Xie Yunfeng, you despicable person! You clearly promised me 10 taels of silver after the matter is settled. Now that I've done what you told me to do, not only did you not give me the money, but you also sent someone to kill me. I'm going to expose all your affairs!"
This man is not Wang Chengdong, who else can it be? Only at this time he was wearing a deep blue short jacket with several patches, and there was mud on his shirt. His left cheek was bruised and swollen, and there were bloodstains on the corner of his mouth. He looked extremely disheveled, completely different from the elegant young master's image in Yu Zhuo Fang that time.
Xie Yunfeng was taken aback when he saw this person, and after hearing his words, he was stunned for a long time before stuttering: "You... who are you? You... what nonsense are you talking about?"
"What nonsense am I talking about? You Xie family are so unscrupulous, don't you just use people and then abandon them after they've done the job for you? We clearly agreed that I would take that piece of jade to the Ye family and have it made into something, and if it was damaged, they would compensate me. Now the compensation has been paid, three thousand taels of silver, not a single penny less. I've completed all the tasks you assigned to me. Why won't you give me the money? Not only are you not giving me the money, but you're also sending people to kill me. Do you have any conscience? The Ye family has their own way of resolving their troubles, what does it have to do with me? You can't take down the Ye family. What right do you have to take out your anger on me? I'm telling you, from now on, I, Wang Chengdong, have nothing left but my life. If you provoke me, I'll make sure that our Xie family and I will perish together. Let's see who's afraid of whom!"
Upon hearing this, Ye Yuqi was so angry that his whole body trembled, and he pointed at Xie Yunfeng for half a day without saying a word. Ye Zhuo hastily helped him to calm down, speaking softly to comfort him, telling him not to get angry over such a person.
It was Wang Chengdong who made a scene, and the people in the package came out to hear the noise. Yun Lao Yezi and Li Da Shu were still okay. Guan Shi heard that angry! She shook off Zhao Shi's hand, rushed up and gave Xie Yunfeng a slap in the face, shouting: "I'll kill you, this heartless and ruthless thing! Our Ye family is an ordinary family, because of our grandson's miserable death, we got some compensation money, bought a workshop to make a living, where did we offend you? Why do you want to drive us to desperation? You Xie family are devoid of conscience, bullying our widowed mother and orphaned children. Others see that our family is poor and weak, old and young, they sympathize with us, even if they don't lend a helping hand, they won't come to make things difficult for us. But you're good, using such sinister tricks to push us into desperation! What grudge do we have against your family?"
Although Xie Yunfeng was usually quite clever, he was also stunned by Wang Chengdong and Guan's series of accusations. After a long time, he covered his face and said: "It wasn't me, it really wasn't me. I don't know this person, he really isn't someone I instructed. He's slandering me."
He said a few words, and his mind cleared up a bit. He spoke loudly again: "Old Lady Ye, you also said that my family and your family have no grudges. Why would I want to harm your family? What's the benefit for me?" Pointing at Wang Chengdong, he continued: "This person is unknown, who knows who sent him to stir up trouble in our relationship and tarnish the reputation of my Xie family. You can't believe his words."
Guan's family heard this and found it very reasonable, and immediately became hesitant. Yes, even if Xie Yunfeng and Ye Zhuo got engaged and then broke off the engagement, it was still the Xie family that owed Ye Zhuo a debt of gratitude. Now the Ye family had cleanly broken off the engagement, without bothering them or asking for compensation, what reason did they have to come and harm the Ye family? And even if they wanted to harm someone, shouldn't it be the second branch of the Ye family instead?!
Others also nodded in agreement with Xie Yunfeng's words. When people do things, they all have motives. Without any benefits, why would the Xie family do such a thankless task? That was a piece of jade worth over 3,000 taels of silver! What deep-seated hatred did the Xie family have towards the Ye family that made them willing to pay such a huge price just to make the Ye family fall apart?
Ye Chou looked at Xie Yunfeng's eyes, but they flickered with a cold and stern gaze.
Others didn't know, but she knew some of the reasons. At first, Xie Yunfeng insisted on coming to her for marriage, and she had suspected that Xie Yunfeng had guessed that she had a deep understanding of jade gambling. After the Xie family broke off the engagement, she was still on guard for a period of time, fearing that the Xie family would covet or come again to test her, and do something. Later, seeing that the Xie family made no move, not even spreading rumors about her bad luck, she thought that things had ended there, and the Xie family was still decent; perhaps it was just her being overly suspicious, and the Xie family didn't know about her jade gambling skills. But now, after Wang Chengdong's testimony, this suspicion rose up again in her mind.
If Xie's family really guessed that Ye had the skill of gambling on jade, then everything they did to push Ye's main house into a desperate situation would make sense: if Ye really had the skill of gambling on jade, wouldn't there be plenty of opportunities to get top-quality jade material in the future? Such great benefits would naturally allow Xie's family to make up their minds and bet several thousand taels of jade material. Let Ye's main house owe a large debt and be tightly pressed, without giving them the opportunity to borrow... perhaps they even calculated Ye Yuzhang's stingy personality; maybe there was also Zheng's family...
Thinking of this, Ye Zhuo was shocked and looked at Xie Yunfeng's gaze even colder.
If the Xie family wants to scheme against the Ye family's main house, then they would first let Zheng Fangjing have an accident, emptying out the Zheng family's savings. And relying on Ye Yuxi's righteous and just nature, her relationship with the Zhengs, the Ye family's main house wouldn't be able to stand idly by, so they would also be emptied out. In this way, the Ye family's main house would only have Ye Yuzhang left to borrow money from. And Ye Yuzhang is a well-known iron rooster, he only has the habit of swallowing money inward, but not spitting it outward. When the Ye family's main house was at a dead end and wandering aimlessly, could Ye Zhuo still do nothing while hiding her ability to gamble on stones? The answer would naturally be no. So she would have to go gamble on stones. And as for the Xie family, they probably had already set up eyes and ears all over Jade Street, so they would know clearly which store she looked at which raw stone in, and which store she unsealed the stone in, and what kind of jade material was produced, there wouldn't be anything that the Xie family didn't know about.
She had a talent for gambling, and the rumors about her bad luck couldn't stop the Xie family from reaching out with their sinister intentions. Even if they couldn't marry her off as a wife or concubine, they would still create a series of incidents to control Ye Yiqi's and Zheng Shi's fate, making them surrender completely to serving the Xie family, constantly providing them with gambling stones.
Thinking of this, Ye Zhuo felt a chill run down his spine.
Fortunately, when she discovered her talent for gambling, she didn't slack off in learning jade carving and just wanted to rely on the blessings of heaven to pass the days. And today, all her efforts have paid off: she used her own skills to resolve a crisis, without exposing her special abilities and falling into someone else's trap.
Everyone here was hesitant, Ye Zhuo was deep in thought, but Wang Chengdong couldn't take it anymore. When he grabbed Xie Yunfeng's collar, he was immediately tied up by the Xie family's followers. At this moment, seeing Xie Yunfeng casually say a few words, everyone's doubts were dispelled, and he suddenly became anxious, shouting repeatedly: "Everything I said is true! When I first came to Nanshan Town, I originally wanted to work in Old Man Ye's workshop. Later, I heard that the Ye family was recruiting a son-in-law, and I even agreed with the second old lady of the Ye family to become their son-in-law. But the old master didn't care about face at all, and flatly refused me, not even letting me do rough work in the workshop. At that time, I hated him extremely, and cursed loudly by the river, coincidentally being heard by Old Man Xie, who took me back, gave me food to eat, and said he would let me help them with something. After it was done, not only would he give me ten taels of silver, but also help me vent my anger. At that time, I was blinded by greed, so I agreed. But unexpectedly, the Xie family were all despicable people. When I returned to the small courtyard to change clothes, I overheard their conversation, saying they wanted to kill me to silence me, so no one would know what they had done. I was afraid when I heard this, and that's why I escaped."
Xie Yunfeng suddenly heard a flaw in these words, and his heart was joyful. Before Wang Chengdong finished speaking, he loudly said: "If what you say is true, then since you escaped, your first choice would naturally be to hurry up and leave Nanshan Town, not letting the Xie family discover you. But you didn't just escape, you even ran here to grab my clothes and scold me, what's the reason for this? Moreover, who told you I was eating here? It can be seen that all of these are nonsense. Say, who instructed you to do this? You harmed the Ye family and framed the Xie family, what do you want to do?"
"Hmph, I originally wanted to escape, but passing by here and seeing your carriage stopped at the door, I thought that if I didn't tear off your hypocritical face and let everyone know, wouldn't I, Wang Chengdong, be taken advantage of by you Shes in vain? And almost lost my life? I'm not willing to give up, even if I don't want this life anymore, I must speak out and let everyone know the truth." Wang Chengdong's expression was extremely agitated.
"This is utter nonsense. Our Xie family has lived in Nanshan Town for over a hundred years, and our reputation for kindness and generosity is well-known to all. We make countless donations to Guangneng Temple throughout the year, and in our daily business dealings, we have never cheated anyone young or old. When have we ever done anything that would harm heaven and reason? Moreover, no matter what we do, shouldn't we consider the consequences? Our Xie family has no grudges with the Ye family, neither in the past nor present, so how could we possibly harm them, and use our own valuable jade to do so? Your words are truly absurd. Xie Yunfeng knew that if he didn't refute Wang Chengdong's accusations today, his family's reputation would be ruined, and they would no longer be able to survive in Nanshan Town. If Nie Bowen were to look down on him because of this matter, a single word from him could destroy the Xie family, which would be a disaster."
Thank you to Dongfang Fengyun for the Laba garlic reward, thank you to Muyu Yuanyu... for the pink votes. Special thanks to Youhan Xuehua for taking the time and effort to write a long review of this book, with extremely brilliant analysis of several characters, muah! If you like this work, welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation.
