Chapter 491 I will be out before morning.
" I want her to be punished severely." said the young miss of the Wang family as she stared at Su Wan who was sitting in a closed, dark prison cell with her hands tied like she was some sort of murderer. " You have no idea how much I suffered because of her," she sniffed snobbishly as she wiped some crocodile tears that she has somehow managed to squeeze out, she raised her hand and showed the back of her hand which was red due to the reaction of the cream perfume that she applied. " I am having trouble sleeping just because this woman sold substandard products in her shop, if not for her, I wouldn't have gotten these annoying rashes."
Su Wan calmly watched the Wang family miss put on a show and simply sat silently in her cell room, she didn't even open her mouth to defend herself because she knew that right now whatever she says will be used against her. Thus, she didn't even bother to say a word to this woman.
The yamen officers were having a hard time too, it was true that Su Wan was indeed a commoner and her family didn't have any official title but they have heard of the popularity of her shops and knew just how much she earned in just a month. Even with all of their payments combined they would have a hard time raising enough money that will amount to the earnings of one shop and there was also the fact that the man who worked in the restaurant was acquainted with Lord Fei, they have heard rumours that instead of choosing the famous restaurant of the Dong Tong town, the prestigious Lord Fei chose this commoner's husband shop and now the two families were really close with each other.
They were afraid to offend the Wang Family but they were even more afraid to offend Lord Fei who was The Emperor's imperial uncle whom the emperor respected a lot. Offending him would be the same as offending the emperor! And they were just common officials who worked hard in their duty and sometimes commit small crimes like taking bribes and whatnot.. compared to the emperor they were just small fries. By offending the prestigious Lord Fei they didn't want to make themselves subject to the scrutiny of the Emperor!
When they went to catch the criminal as per Lady Wang's complaints they just wanted to scold the latter a little bit like before and let go but who would have known that the esteemed Lady Wang who was famous for her beauty and grace was nothing but an arrogant young lady who was too spoiled to know how the world worked.
" Lady Wang" the honest looking Yamen officer felt a headache coming as he repeated the same thing all over again that he has been telling her for the past few hours. " I know and agree that you have suffered a lot but I am afraid there is not much we can do, the products that you purchased were indeed faulty and yes, you received quite a trouble from them but-" inhaling a deep breath and remembering the name of the lord to give him the patience that he clearly didn't have in his body, the officer continued " this is not a serious crime, at best we can only keep this young lady at the prison cell for a night and that's all, the punishment that you are asking for is too severe for some itchy rashes."
" You mean to say that I am being dramatic!" cried lady Wang, in her anger, she didn't notice that the people surrounding her gave her a ' yes you are' expression as she was too focused on the yamen officer who was still pleasantly smiling at her despite the pulse that was throbbing in his temple.
He raised a hand and with a polite smile declined the accusations that were being hurled at him. " I didn't say that but you are asking us to perform physical punishment on a lady whose only fault was to sell a damaged product, and what's more there is no evidence that she was the one who was at fault, we cannot administer such a heavy punishment without concrete evidence that she alone was the one at fault."
Lady Wang was stunned, she has never been treated like this before. Clearly, she was the one who was suffering, wasn't she? And it was because of this Su woman who didn't make a decent product yet opened such a big shop in the town, so why wasn't justice being given to her as she deserved? She glared at the officer and then turned to look at Su Wan who was calmly sitting in the prison cell." This isn't the end just you wait."
After that, she stomped out of the yamen leaving a trail of fury behind her.
Once she was gone, the Yamen officer turned to Su Wan and smiled apologetically before untying her binds. " Sorry, about this. Don't worry, we are all good people, we won't hurt you, you just need to patiently wait till tomorrow morning and then you can go home."
Su Wan nursed her wrists, though they didn't bind her tight enough for her to get hurt but her wrist still got sore after being tied for so long. She blew out a calming breath to calm herself from cursing at the yamen officer fully understanding why he was treating her well. She smiled and then gave the yamen officer a non-threatening smile as she said " Don't worry about it, I will be out before the morning."
The officer was stunned, he looked at her in surprise and double blinked his eyes before muttering " Eh? But the yamen closes at five after that no one can do anything."
Su Wan didn't answer him and just kept smiling politely, her smile held a mysterious touch to it that made the officer shiver. Why does it feel like he was going to be in trouble tonight?
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Chapter 492 Hmm what should she have
The guard was obviously confused but there was no way for him to know that Su Wan was nor only acquainted with lord Fei, she was the girl whom he has taken an obvious liking to and took her as his adopted granddaughter, and there was also Shen Zizhen and Shen Junxi the two of them would never allow her to spend a night at the yamen. Thus, Su Wan wasn't at all worried about spending the night here at the prison in fact she was calmly thinking about what she would halve after returning home. If she was being honest she was a lot more worried about that lady from the Wang family who talked nonsense with her. She was the one who made this mess escalate so much, hmm... who knows how her god grandfather would deal with her.
Hmm, since it's summer maybe she should have some vegetarian wraps with vegetable porridge, after all in summer no matter how well she cooks the meat would still feel greasy, so she might as well try some vegetables and wash away the greasiness before adding meat back in her meals.
She was even humming as she thought about this and that, looking at her acting like this everyone was stunned including the criminals locked in the prison cells next to her. What kind of rabbit was this? She was actually humming songs despite being locked in the cell? They looked down at their burly arms and legs and then turned their gaze towards Su Wan who was calmly sitting in the prison cell with her thin limbs... what was this don't tell them that this was an omnivores rabbit that eats meat, because no way a small girl like that would be humming and sitting in the prison so calmly like that!
The guards who brought Su Wan to the yamen were even more confused they felt like they were walking in a daze...every once in a while a chill would crawl up on their spine and their sense of foreboding would heighten even more.
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The senses that were telling them that the trouble was on its way were right on point, Lin Yan didn't have the time to send someone to the village and call Shen Zizhen and Shen Junxi. However, there was actually no need for him to do that, Lord Fei alone was enough to deal with this matter by himself but Lin Yan still sent someone from the restaurant to call Shen Zizhen and Shen Junxi, once the two doting uncles found out that their precious niece was taken away to yamen they couldn't sit still even for a second and came rushing to the town urging their drivers to fly the carriage on the road despite the obvious number of pedestrians.
Once they arrived in the town no one wasted a single minute and all of them rushed to the Wang family house. The Wang family was obviously a family that had its own history, there had been many officials appointed by their family because of their quick wits and cleverness, thus, the arrogance that Lady Wang showed was not just the problem of her alone it was the problem of the entire Wang family.
But once the matriarch of the Wang family heard that it was Lord Fei who came knocking on her door, all the arrogance and pride that she has turned into shredded pieces of nothing but rotten pride. She immediately changed her clothes and spouted a considerable number of things to her servant telling her to take care of this and that before she rushed out of her courtyard to the parlour where Lord Fei was waiting for her.
Of course, the Wang family matriarch wasn't the only one who rushed off to meet Lord Fei, The head of the Wang family also ran out of his courtyard without even properly wearing his shoes, he was in such a hurry that he wore a mismatched pair of shoes as he strode in the parlour where they entertained their guests, putting on his best pleasing smile he greeted Lord Fei. " My Lord, why did you take the trouble of visiting someone like me? You should have sent word and I would have come to you."
Someone snorted at his greasy and flattering words, only then did The head of the Wang family look in the direction of Shen Zizhen, Shen Junxi and the three Lin brothers who came looking for him together with Lord Fei, neither of them was looking at the head of Wang family matriarch with a pleasant expression and that made the head of Wang family a bit uncomfortable, as he turned to look at Lord Fei. " And this is-"
When he first arrived here he thought that they were Lord Fei's servants but after taking another look at them, the head of the Wang family was kind of assured that neither of them was a servant, the clothes they were wearing didn't look like they were any worse than his and that kind of raked his soul making him feel uncomfortable all over again. He took another look at the group that was standing beside Lord Fei and suddenly had a feeling that he was going to be in deep trouble, even after taking a double-take, the head of the Wang family could see the uncrushable aura of the five men who were standing there, staring at him like a pack of wolves.
It was as if they were waiting for him to make a mistake so that they can take advantage of his little mistake and tear him to shreds, these kinds of people were the most dangerous.
Lord Fei glanced at the group assimilated behind and took a glimpse of their faces that were twisted as if they were waiting to feast on the blood of the Wang family head, in fact, if his old eyes were working fine he was actually seeing a bunch of fierce animals standing behind them, seeing them like this, Lord Fei chuckled. " Calm down, it's us who are at fault here." Then he turned to look at the matriarch who was arrived just on time and the head of the Wang family before pushing the package that he was carrying in his hands on the tea table towards them " I am here to apologise."
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Chapter 493 I didn't teach her well
" Ap..apologise?" The head of the Wang family was stunned, Lord Fei was apologising to him? But he didn't have the guts to accept such a heavy apology! Lord Fei was the imperial uncle of the Emperor, every official in the country knew that Lord Fei represented the Emperor. Lord Fei apologising to him was equivalent to the Emperor apologising to him, he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to carry the weight of this apology!
Lord Wang wiped the sweat that was forming on his forehead, his heart was beating wildly and even the colour on his face changed, he looked down at the gifts that Lord Fei has brought with him and suddenly felt like a sword was hanging on his neck ... who .. who did he offend today? Lord Wang tried to think about it very carefully but as far as he could remember he stayed at home today and stayed in his study for the rest of the morning, he hasn't even gone out so how can he offend someone? It was unlikely that Lord Fei came to find trouble with him today then who was it... who was the idiot who offended this great Buddha?
Who in his family was stupid enough to do something like this?
He exchanged a look with his mother who has the same confusion mirroring on her face as on his face, seeing that it wasn't his mother. Lord Wang forced himself to calm down and looked at Lord Fei who was sitting in front of him with a smile that was no different than him sucking up to Lord Fei, " My lord, I am afraid that I don't understand... you are the-"
" Ahem"
He wanted to say the title with which Lord Fei was known but then Lord Fei loudly cleared his throat interrupting him, Lord wang was shocked silly, he didn't know why Lord Fei stopped him from saying his title but then he understand... his gaze unconsciously flickered towards the five men who came with Lord Fei, Lord Wang might be a man of great arrogance but he had the capability for being so arrogant after all his wisdom was great enough to once act as the strategist alongside the aides of Lord Fei, he wasn't stupid and immediately understood that Lord Fei was hiding his title from the five men who were standing beside him, when he realised that the esteemed Lord Fei was actually being so considerate and careful in front of these five men, his eyes instantly sharpened strangely.
Lord Wang took a calming breath hoping that no one in his family committed any kind of felony that might have created this mess, his son was currently at the most crucial period of being accepted as one of the aides of the Emperor if they offended Lord Fei, not only will his son's prospects will be harmed, the entire Wang family have to pack their bags and return to the land of their ancestors. " Ah, I meant that you a first rank official...this apology I believe that I can't bear it. If this one has made any mistakes then I will formally apologise to you, my lord."
Lord Fei looked at Lord Wang who was solemnly bowing down to him and laughed humorously, when he arrived at the Dong Tong town he didn't bother to manage these officials who were causing havoc because he has long retired instead of finding trouble with these annoying pests, he just wanted to leave a quiet life with his wife. Though once in a while he would send a report to his nephew condemning the officials who behaved way over the top as for officials like lord Wang as long as they didn't act too brazenly he was willing to ignore their small offences because if he did that then he would have been called petty and his nephew was busy enough dealing with the matters of the country, why will he trouble his nephew by sending him reports about such small things but to think his kindness would lead Su Wan to be locked in the prison, there was no way he would be able to ignore this matter anymore!
He grimly looked at Lord Wang and spoke, " My dear lord Wang, there is no need for you to trouble yourself so much. Like I said that it was our fault so, of course, we have to come here and apologise." His smile was pleasant and so was his voice, Lord Fei didn't show a single ounce of the anger that was currently brewing inside him as he addressed Lord Wang " You see I just adopted a granddaughter, she is a lovely little girl but she is a bit naughty ... and because I haven't taught her properly, she somehow offended your daughter. Don't I need to apologise for that?"
Lord Wang's heart sank. How could he not understand what Lord Fei was saying? He did know that Lord Fei has recently adopted a granddaughter, the rumours were all over the place, he was even thinking about how to get his daughter to befriend that girl who was lucky enough to be adopted by Lord Fei but that stupid girl! She actually went ahead and offended that precious granddaughter of Lord Fei!
Lord Fei was apologising for not teaching his granddaughter properly? If he can't teach someone properly then who can?
Lord Wang secretly took a deep breath as he cursed his stupid daughter for creating unnecessary trouble for him. He knelt on the floor and the matriarch of the Wang family followed suit." Lo...Lord, I failed to teach my daughter properly, please show mercy on us, I will definitely deal with her once she returns home."
Lord Fei almost snorted but then under the glare of his aide Wu Dei who warned him not to speak nonsense when they were at fault too. He sighed and then looked at Lord Wang and the Wang family matriarch before gently smiling as he said " What are you saying Lord Wang, didn't you hear? I just said that the fault lies with my granddaughter why are you apologising like this? Like I said I am here to apologise for nothing more and nothing less."
Lord Wang and matriarch Wang who knew that these words were nothing but empty. "..." >.< only ghosts will believe you!
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Chapter 494 Wang Ruoqing
Lord Fei blocked all the escape routes of the Wang family, there was nothing they could do, if they apologized their apology will not be accepted and if they didn't accept Lord Fei's apology then they will never be able to raise their foot in the capital ever again. The head of the Wang family was so furious that his entire body started to quiver, he knew that his daughter wasn't what he will call smart but at least she was wise enough to know whom she could offend and those she couldn't- to think that girl would act so stupidly that she will actually offend Lord Fei with one move!
He softly inhaled and spoke in a voice that was full of humbleness, " Lord Fei, I knew that my daughter might have done something wrong but I can assure you that she didn't mean it. She is kind and her heart is in the right place, please forgive her and relay our heartfelt apology to your granddaughter. It was never our intention to insult her."
Lord Fei raised his brows in a slightly calm look and spoke in a sharp voice that felt like molten glass was being poured down their ears, " Heh, I would have loved to send your apology to my granddaughter but the thing is Lord Wang, my granddaughter is actually in yamen and your daughter left the order of not letting us see my dear granddaughter. So, excuse me, if I don't do what you have asked me to because I am afraid that there is nothing I can do about it."
Over. Their family was over. The old matriarch of the Wang family was at a complete loss of words after listening to what Lord Fei had to say to them, and after she found out that her idiot granddaughter actually sent this great imperial strategist's granddaughter to the yamen, she knew that their Wang family's end was near. To think that they weren't killed off by those cunning ministers who wanted to end them yet their family's entire fortune died in the hand of her granddaughter! The Wang family matriarch trembled and her knees gave away as she plopped on the floor.
" Lord Fei-"
" Father where are you?" The head of the Wang family was going to plead more for his case but then he heard his daughter, Wang Rouqing's voice and he immediately stiffened, he just hoped that his daughter would not blurt out anything stupid but the fortune that the Wang Family's ancestors have collected seemed to have been used up by them because the gods didn't listen to his plea and the next second he heard Wang Ruoqing's annoyed, whiny voice, " Father, do you know what happened to me today? I was bullied by those Yamen officers, I suffered so much because of these rashes that I couldn't sleep but when I asked the yamen officers to punish that woman who was responsible for making me suffer like this, they refused! They said that they couldn't give a heavy-handed punishment for something so minor and didn't touch that woman! How can that happen? Am I the young miss of the Wang family less than that commoner girl? As long as she didn't die, a few smacks were alright, isn't it? Humph, even if she died what's that's to us... she is just some common village girl, how can she amount to us?"
' Just stop talking you, idiotic girl! Is this the time to say such things?b do you want your father to doe because you think you are living a bit too nicely?' Lord Wang was so angry that he forgot the fear that he was feeling in his heart. Right now, he wished that he could rush out of the parlour and slap that stupid girl!
" Call her here, I want to see just how badly she is suffering. After all, if her injuries are really that grave then shouldn't I provide her proper treatment, since all of this happened because of my granddaughter?" Lord Fei wanted to see this young girl who had the guts to call the yamen officers for such a small thing, if the products of a shop were substandard then of course it was the right of the commoners to complain in the yamen but for the sake of protecting the shopkeepers from being falsely accused there was also a law that depicts that if the quality of the product was degrading then the shopkeeper would be given a month before his arrest so that he could plead his case if he was being falsely accused.
There were several cases when the shopkeepers would go against each other and they would harm their opponents by bribing the workers or something along the line, there was no shortage of dirty deals in this world. But this young lady of the Wang family pushed Lin Chen's arrest even when the one month trial wasn't up if this wasn't misuse of power then what was?
With a panic-stricken expression, Lord Wang looked up at Lord Fei but upon seeing the ruthless smile on that old face, he knew that there was no hope to turn this situation around, in the end, he had no choice but to send a servant to call Wang Ruoqing to the parlour.
When Wang Ruoqing arrived at the parlour where her father entertained the guests, she received a lot of peculiar gazes ... some were blaming, some contemptuous and some were sympathetic. Wang Ruoqing was confused why were these servants looking at her like this? Though she wanted to flare up, Wang Ruoqing still suppressed the anger in her heart. Her father has called her in a hurry if she got there late then her father might scold her. In the entire family Wang Ruoqing was the most afraid of her father and thus didn't dare to slight her father's order.
" Father, did you call-" me.. what was going on why was her father kneeling on the floor like that? What happened, surprised she turned to look at the guests and immediately dropped to her knees. Lord Fei? What was he doing here?
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Chapter 495 Is that what you taught her?
"L...Lord Fei, I am sorry I didn't know... I apologise for my slight negligence." Wang Ruoqing didn't know why Lord Fei came to her house but when she realised the things that she just said, Wang Ruoqing turned pale. When she was young her parents sent her to the capital to be selected as Lord Fei's granddaughter back then she has shown an extremely charming and lovely persona to Lord Fei, she acted like a cute girl who was naive to the point where she can't even bother with the worldly affairs but today she actually spouted out such vulgar words in front of Lord Fei what will he think of her?
With a pallid complexion, she immediately kowtowed. " I was upset and couldn't control my feelings, and that's why I said those words that dirtied Lord Fei's ears, please forgive me. I really didn't know that you were here, Lord."
Though she apologised to Lord Fei inwardly she was cursing the servants for being useless and not telling her that lord Fei actually came to their house, what were those idiot servants doing? They should have warned her that her father was receiving an esteemed guest, then she would have kept a check on her words, now look her image in front of lord Fei has crumbled.
It wasn't that the servants didn't try to stop Wang Ruoqing, they did .. the situation inside was chaotic enough and they tried their best to keep Wang Ruoqing from making it worse but this hedonist and the arrogant young lady didn't listen to them at all and when they tried to stop her she slapped three maids, one of them was around ten and was immediately pushed on the floor with the impact. The servants were also humans when they saw that she was acting like this, they didn't bother with her anymore and let her do what she wanted, the house was going to fall into ruin anyway.
Lord Fei picked up the important part in her speech, he smiled kindly as he patted the back of Shen Junxi's, the latter was too angry to think straight, if not for him maybe the Wang family would have become a battleground. It's the Wang family's fortune that he was here, or else- his lips curled in a sneer before he morphed his expression to that of a kind grandpa and asked " Upset? Who made the young lady of the Wang feel upset?"
Lord Wang and the matriarch stiffened, they hoped that Wang Ruoqing would be smart enough to understand the underlying meaning of Lord Fei but they were deemed to be disappointed because Wang Ruoqing was after all just a young lady whose mind was only limited to scheming in the courtyard of the mansion beyond that she couldn't think of anything. Thus, when Lord Fei asked her this question instead of thinking it through carefully, Wang Ruoqing thought that Lord Fei was worried about her, she didn't even think about why the great imperial uncle of the Emperor would worry about her but she was conceited enough to believe that maybe she charmed Lord Fei when she went to the selection for Lord Fei's grandchildren.
She smiled with stars in her eyes as she looked at Lord Fei and answered, " It was a commoner, she runs a stupid shop in the town. She isn't apt in her skills but she still dared to sell those lacklustre products in her shop. This lowly one brought a cream perfume from her shop and got rashes. I thought that what she was selling was something good and bought it but in the end, she turned out to be a con woman, that's why I sent her to the yamen, like this she will not be able to harm anyone as she harmed me."
Con woman? Ohho, so his good granddaughter became a con woman in such just a single day, why didn't he know about it? He seldom came in contact with these officials, let alone pay attention to what they were doing to think that they were this lawless. His old eyes fell on the reddish rashes that were popping on the back of Wang Ruoqing and suddenly frowned- just for such a small thing she pressurised the yamen? Was this girl's brain filled with water? He does admit that she wasn't completely wrong but that didn't mean that she had the right to mobilise the yamen like her father's background.
He smiled at her with a shrewd glint in his eyes as he looked at Wang Ruoqing and said, " so, for the sake of your sense of justice, it's fine for you to forget the laws of our country? Have you forgotten that the commoners have their rights but so do the shopkeepers. Do you think that without the ruling of the yamen and giving the woman a chance to defend herself, it's fine for you to send her to the yamen? If everyone started to act like you then by the end of just one year, the entire population of shopkeepers and merchants would take a sharp drop." Then he motioned at the red rashes on Wang Ruoqing's skin and sternly asked, " Do you think that for a small injury like that it was fair for you to mobilise and pressurise the Yamen officers? You even wanted them to punish that girl with physical punishment, do you think that you can do anything just because the Wang family is a family of officials? You think commoners are just your stepping stones is that it ?"
The more Lord Fei spoke the angrier he got when he went to war, the officials were the first who panicked and retreated but it was these commoners who were foolish yet loyal to their country who raised their arms and joined the army. They didn't have to but they did because they loved their country and were willing to lay their lives for their country. Lord Wei once fought with commoners beside him, he even saw them die for their country with a smile, thus he sympathised with commoners a lot.
At first, he just wanted to teach a small lesson to the Wang family but after listening to what Wang Ruoqing had to say about commoners, he was furious. He tightly clenched the teacup in his hand - his grip was so hard that the cup shattered.
"Lord Fei!"
"My lord !"
The people surrounding Lord Fei cried but he just raised his hand and stopped them, he turned to Lord Wang and coldly asked, " Is this what you have been teaching your daughter, Lord Wang? Have you forgotten just how many commoners died on the battlefield in the last war? Have you forgotten all about it?"
Lord Wang's heart that was hanging by the string dropped to the bottom of his stomach and rolled somewhere he couldn't sense it - he was done for, this was the end.
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Chapter 496 I won't touch you for now
"Lord Fei, that's ...its not like that, this girl is foolish and doesn't know anything better do just keeps on inviting trouble. Please forgive us, I will definitely get this girl to apologise to your granddaughter." Lord Wang was scared out of his wits, he wanted to haggle a little with Lord Fei regarding his punishment, it was fine as long as he and his family were punished but his son who was participating in the selection of the ministers of the law and order department was left alone.
" You fool! Do you think that this lord is furious just because of my granddaughter?" Lord Fei's voice was fierce, with his tall and intimidating figure he incited fear in the Wang family's members' hearts like no one had before. Picking up Shen Junxi 's teacup next to him, Lord Fei threw it at him, Lord Wang didn't dare to dodge and was hit by the teacup that still had steaming hot tea inside " I am asking you is this what you have taught your daughter? That she can bully the commoners just because she hails from a family of officials?'"
Lord Wang kowtowed, he was embarrassed and furious but there was absolutely nothing he could do except plead for his sins. " I failed to teach my daughter the right and wrongs please forgive me, my lord. I am willing to suffer the punishment on her behalf."
Lord Fei was so angry that he started to smile. He sneered, " Don't worry, I won't touch your son. But that's only because my granddaughter was at fault too, however, I will keep an eye on your family for the time being. I will not be giving you any punishment, Lord Wang nor will I make things difficult for your son if that's what you are worried about but, just this once. If you ever make the same mistake twice then I will not care about a thing that you have to say. Even a petition about how I am misusing my powers won't help you. So, keep your family in check."
Under the watchful eyes of Lord Fei, the members of the Wang family obediently nodded. Seeing them act like this Lord Fei snorted, the Wang family was the classic example of those who bully the weak but fear the strong, he didn't want to waste any more time and came straight to the topic for which he came here, " Lord Wang, your daughter filed a complaint against my granddaughter and that's quite alright, after all, she indeed suffered but she misused her powers and the Wang family name to bully a commoner out of her vindictive impetus, have her write an apology letter and recite it in front of my granddaughter's shop - since both of them were at fault, then the responsibility lies with both of them."
" Yes, yes ... I will certainly abide by the lord's order."
Lord Fei didn't bother with him anymore and walked out of the parlour with Shen Junxi and the others. Once they were out of the Wang estate, Shen Junxi burst out cursing, "Lord Fei why did you stop me? His daughter bullied my niece like that and you just had her write a reflection letter? Why? This isn't enough, they should have apologized to my Wan Wan. That girl is so insidious at such a young age, she dared to use her family name and harmed Wan Wan by sending her to yamen for such a small thing. Wouldn't let her off like that create problems in the future?"
Lord Fei sighed, this was why he didn't want to let Shen Junxi or anyone else follow him, from their disgruntled expression it seemed that no one was satisfied with his way of dealing with Wang Ruoqing, " I know that you are upset, Junxi but don't forget that we are at faults too. If I punished that girl a bit too harshly then things would have backfired and people would have started cursing and hating Wan Wan. Rumours about Wan Wan misusing her backing would have spread around do you want that to happen?"
Though Shen Junxi understood what Lord Fei was saying, he was still upset. He pursed his lips and wheeled around to look at Lin Rui and said forcefully, " You brat, remember to become a high ranking official. If not Wan Wan would be bullied like this, again and again, you got it?"
Lin Rui nodded, with what happened today his determination to pass the exam and become a high ranking official strengthened even more. He will definitely become the top scholar in the next upcoming exam so that no one will ever look down on Su Wan ever again.
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After this short hold up, the sky had already darkened. All of them climbed the carriage and drove straight to the yamen, Lord Fei wanted to deal with the Wang family before getting Su Wan out just in case they tried to create any sort of trouble with Su Wan's release with this the Wang family will be quiet for a while and they will be able to handle the proceedings as quickly as possible. When they reached the Yamen office, Lin Yu and Lin Chen were already waiting for them.
Lin Chen was quarrelling with the guard to let him go inside but the guard was even more headstrong he didn't even listen to what Lin Chen had to say and banged the gates of the prison close. Lin Chen who was refused entry was so furious that he kicked the gate with his foot but no reaction came from inside, furious he wanted to start cursing the guard but before he could do that Lin Jing and the others hopped out of the carriage and came over to his and Lin Yu's side.
" Yu, Chen? What are you two doing here? Shouldn't you be dealing with the workers of your shop?" Lin Yan had told Lin Yu to flush out the culprit, so what were the two doing here?
Lin Yu sighed and rubbed his face, " I wanted to deal with them but I couldn't... the workers keep denying their involvement and what's more they have an alibi, so it's difficult to find that rat. " thinking back at how the workers kept sticking to their story and acted all innocent, Lin Yu was full of murderous intent. How dare they? They had the guts to betray their master but don't have the guts to confess just wait! Once he finds out who it was, he will definitely make them rue the day when they decided to betray them!
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Chapter 497 I'm begging you just leave
Lin Chen had a grim expression, and a violent storm was raging in his heart, he never expected things to develop to this point. Their shop was doing okay and many people had their eye on their successful business, but he still trusted that batch of servants because all of them were honest workers that they bought from the human slave traders, their documents were still in his hands to think that they would still betray them. He cannot say that he was the best boss out there but he was kind and understanding, he has treated the workers really well - to think he just raised a bunch of cruel and savage wolves beside him!
"It's my fault, I didn't pay attention to what was happening in the shop and wasn't careful enough, because of my incompetence such a thing happened." Lin Chen clutched his hands so tightly that there was a cracking sound. He was stupid enough to believe that he could run a successful business like his brothers alone and never asked for help, maybe if he took proper care of the shop together with his brothers there this wouldn't have happened. He was overconfident and thought that he could deal with the situation just like when he was at the time when he was going to deal with Lin Yi.
Everyone watched the quiet and guilty Lin Chen and exchanged a glance with each other, Lin Chen thought that they were blaming him for being so careless. And why wouldn't they? He had one job and yet he couldn't do it properly. And what's more, he didn't even ask for help and just did his own thing, if this wasn't being stupid then what was? If only he put his insecurities aside and boldly confessed that he was having troubles while taking care of the shop then maybe such a situation wouldn't have arisen.
" I am-" Lin Chen wanted to apologize but before he could get those words out, someone placed a warm hand on his head. Startled, Lin Chen looked up and his gaze met with Lin Jing who was peering down at him. Anger and concern outlined his brother's face but there was no blame in those eyes.
" stupid," said Lin Jing as he knocked on Lin Chen's forehead. Though he only said one word, Lin Chen's eyes turned sour, because he knew that his brother wasn't calling him stupid for not taking care of the shop properly but because he was stupid enough to believe that if he asked for his brothers' help, he will be seen as someone incapable.
Lin Jing didn't say anything further and Lin Chen didn't need him to say anything either, the two brothers had a tactic understanding.
On the other side, Lord Fang went ahead and knocked his cane on the gates of the prison. The guard who was on duty was once again disturbed and immediately jumped on his feet, he was just trying to calmly sleep was there any need for all this banging? Don't those two brats know that it was already past the time of their working hours? Enraged he was ready to hurl a myriad of curses but as soon as he pulled open the gates, all the curses were jammed in his throat and his face turned purple because of the sudden surprise that he just received.
He coughed and cleared his throat before pasting a welcoming smile on his face, " L...Lord Fei? H..how can I help you?"
Lord Fei calmly smiled and tipped his chin at the guard and said, " Won't you invite us for tea?"
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Su Wan was sitting cross-legged with an expression of extreme focus on her face, with broken charcoal in her hand. She carefully accessed the thing in front of her before she inhaled a long breath and drew a cross on the ground before drawing a straight line and won the tic tac toe game that she was playing with her cellmate. " There you are! I won this one too so you can't back down again."
Because she was getting bored sitting in the prison doing absolutely nothing, Su Wan suggested playing a game with her cellmate. At first, the woman was a bit apprehensive as to why this young lady that was white as milk doing here but later on, as the two played together, despite their differences they started to get along.
" Ah, that girl won again." the prison warden who was responsible for keeping the order groaned
" You are the foolish one honestly, I told you that the girl has been winning every single game that she played but yet you have to bet on Gu Yao, now stop groaning and pay me the money that I won."
These wardens rarely got anything fun to do in the yamen, when they saw something good was happening they started to watch what was going on and then it didn't take long for them to start betting. The warden who lost made a face but still took out a tael and handed it to her partner, whatever a loss was a loss.
As soon as she handed the money the door that separated the prison and the front lobby was pushed open and then the officer that brought Su Wan to the yamen came rushing in and opened the door of Su Wan's prison in a hurry. He was so flustered that he didn't even see the two wardens who were looking at him weirdly.
" Ah, Miss Su...your family is here to take you, you can leave now" the officer put on his best flattering smile as he addressed Su Wan but the latter didn't even look up, a bit surprised, the yamen officer called out to Su Wan again," Miss Su?"
Su Wan looked up and then feigned a surprised expression. " oh dear, officer what are you doing here?"
The Yamen officer knew that Su Wan had heard what he said but was still acting ignorant felt a heavy pressure on his shoulder, he kind of had a feeling that sending this big Buddha wouldn't be as easy as bringing her in, yet he still smiled politely and said, " Miss Su, your family is here to pick you up so you can leave now."
Su Wan tilted her head with her brows cutely scrunched up as she said in a city voice, " But you said that I can't leave till morning."
The Yamen officer : (;'∀｀)
Wiping the sweat on his forehead he smilingly answered though it was becoming hard to keep his smile. " Miss Su, please your family is waiting"
" But I am playing this game."
" I will play in your stead!" So just get out of this cell! I am begging you!
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Chapter 498 Did they bully you
The officer had to cajole Su Wan for a long time before the latter was willing to come out of the prison cell, once she stepped out Su Wan arched her back and twisted her body around to get rid of the stiffness. The small confinement room wasn't made to accommodate two people thus, she and her cellmate had to adjust a bit here and there, now that she was out of the small room, Su Wan moved around a little to move her stiff muscles, then she turned around and waved her hand at the cellmate who entertained her for the past few hours, " thank you for taking care of me, I will see you soon. Till then, take care."
When the officer heard her words his first reaction was;￣ロ￣）then he immediately prayed to God that this big Buddha never steps inside the yamen ever again, because if she did who knows how many days of his life would be taken away. Worried that Su Wan would change her mind and go back inside to finish off the game that she was playing, the officer hurriedly closed the door of the prison cell and forced a smile as he motioned for Su w\Wan to follow him, " Come with me, Miss Su. I will take you to your family."
Su Wan naturally didn't refuse though she wanted to teach this officer a good lesson for sucking up to the strong while bullying the weak, she had no plans of staying the night in the cramped cell room thus, she too imitated the smile of the officer and mimicked his actions, " after you."
The main lobby of the yamen wasn't far away from the prison, Su Wan only had to walk for ten minutes before she arrived at the main lobby where her husbands, uncles and her god grandfather were waiting for her, she walked over to them but before she could get closer to them, Lin Chen who was already on his tenterhooks rushed towards her. His heart has been uneasy and impatient, only Lin Chen knew just how he sat still in that stupid chair with his tumultuous emotions. " Are you okay? Did someone bully you in here?"
After saying this he immediately glared at the officer who led Su Wan to the main lobby, Lin Chen hadn't forgotten that it was this officer who handcuffed Su Wan and brought her here. At first, he thought that this officer was honest looking and was only doing his job but that was until he found out about the law that provided security to the shopkeepers as well. Good, very good he will never forget this officer and his face, he better not make a grave mistake or else he will gobble him and his job as a Yamen officer!
The officer who was glared by Lin Chen (ーー;), if he knew that this matter will get so troublesome, he wouldn't have minded caring about dabbling his hands in it! He didn't even dare to look at the Su girl in the wrong way much less bully her yet the court already convicted him as a criminal! This was simply too much!
Su Wan noticed the glare that Lin Chen was shooting the officer behind her and smiled placatingly. " I am alright you don't have to worry about me at all, no one dared to bully and they all were very nice." Su Wan was already beautiful and when she smiled, she looked even more refreshing and adorable.
One by one the heart of every person who was sitting in the lobby was shot by an arrow, as they immediately gushed ' how cute'. Even the officer who brought her here with him in the afternoon was shedding tears of joy as he placed his hands over his mouth to stop the cry that was building in his throat, however, in his heart he was already singing praises of Su Wan, ' the lady is so beautiful and cute, even her conduct is good, look at her, she spoke up for him!'
Lin Chen saw Su Wan smile and though he didn't want to let this matter go just like that he still showed a relieved smile. " Is that so, then that's great." Then he placed his hands on Su Wan's shoulder and massaged them for a few seconds, he wanted to take Su Wan in his arms and hug her warm body against his but he knew that he couldn't do that, sometimes he got really scared. Su Wan was just too bold, even if he looked away for a second, she will get miles away from him. " If someone bullied you here because of me then I would have never forgiven myself."
" Ahaha," that's why I said that no one bullied me you brat, do I look like such a goddess to let go of the officer who made things difficult for us? Thought Su Wan inwardly but she didn't say her thoughts out loud and simply kept smiling as Lin Chen took her to where the rest of her husbands were, one by one they took a good look at Su Wan and only when they saw that she was fine, did they heaved a sigh of relief. Just like Lin Chen they wanted to embrace Su Wan but they resisted, no matter how bold they were they can never break the stereotypes of the society they were living in, thus, they turned their attention to the head of the Yamen.
Who was bare feet and looked like he came running from his house without properly wearing shoes, noticed Su Wan and immediately felt gleeful, humph this was the right way to treat such corrupt officials if she didn't have a powerful uncle and god grandfather behind her, she was certain that she would have to spend the night in the Yamen and these officers wouldn't have been the least bit courteous to her. How despicable.
Lord Fei too glanced at Su Wan, he wanted to coddle his baby granddaughter but he knew that he couldn't shed his cold and iron ruler personality in front of others, so he unhappily cleared his throat and with a crossed glare looked at the head of the yamen office, " so can I take my granddaughter back home or there is any other formality that I need to take care of as well?"
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Chapter 499 Pad your stomach first and discuss things later
The head of the Yamen office heard the sarcasm that was beautifully wrapped in Lord Fei's words and grimaced as he uncomfortably answered, " You can..of course, You can Lord Fei but please do remember that the complaints filed against their shop are genuine and I can only delay the matter for a month or so, if they don't come up with a decent answer in the next thirty days, I am afraid I will have to arrest the one in charge again, please do understand that I have nothing against your granddaughter, I am just trying to do my job here."
Lord Fei nodded and didn't refute the Yamen head's words, " don't worry, I assure you that they will come up with a way to rule the complaints out that are submitted against them completely. Won't you?"
" We will" promised the Lin Brothers because of that stupid traitor their wife was subjected to such humiliation, they will never let that bastard go!
By the time their family returned home, it was already very late, Su Wan invited Lord Fei to dinner at her house and the latter politely accepted. The last time, he ate at his granddaughter's house was when he accepted her as his god granddaughter and ever since then he has been missing the authentic and rare dishes that the Lin family served on their table. He did ask his chefs to recreate the dishes that were served at the banquet on his wife's birthday which Su Wan, unfortunately, missed since she was bedridden because of unfortunate circumstances. Those chefs did as he asked them to but no matter how many times they recreated the dishes they will miss something and the dishes wouldn't taste the same, in the end, Lord Fei threw a tantrum and gave up trying to recreate the dishes at his home, ever since then he was eating at the restaurant that Lin Yan ran at the docks.
When the family returned home they noticed that five figures were anxiously pacing in front of the door, as soon as the carriages stopped, these five figures rushed towards them and the first one to reach Su Wan who had just gotten down the carriage with the help of Lin Jing was Fang Tao, the latter threw herself around Su Wan's waist and cried out, " Sister Wan, it's good that you are back when your husband said that you were taken away by the Yamen officers, I was scared to death! It's great to see you return."
When Lord Fei sent word about Su Wan's arrest, Fang Tao and Fang Zimo were working at the Lin house on their latest piece of embroidery but then the worker from the Fei family came rushing into the courtyard and announced that Su Wan was taken away by the Yamen officers, the new was so explosive that Fang Tao felt her heart jump! She would have rushed to save her Sister Wan, if not for those annoying brothers asking her to stay behind with Fang Zimo and take care of the house and the kids.
Su Wan rubbed the back of the crying Fang Tao and softly coaxed her, "It's alright, look at me don't I look totally fine?"
" Exactly," said Fang Zimo from the side with his arms crossed he looked at Su Wan, his eyes carefully examining her body as he spoke in a snide voice " I already told you that if you want to worry about someone, you should have worried about the officer who took her away, I bet she drove him crazy." Though he said that Su Wan could see that his face was lined with anxiousness.
" Sister in law, you scared us." Qi Zhi who was still a little baby, received a shock when he heard that his sister in law was taken away by the yamen. He wasn't a social bird and wasn't an extrovert either but his parents did teach him that he should never try to offend a yamen officer or else he will never be able to return home this was something the Qi couple taught him as a lesson so that he will avoid the yamen officers the next time he saw them but it also served as a very dangerous reminder that made Qi Zhi to be forever terrified of the Yamen officers.
Thus, when he found out that his sister in law was taken to yamen, Qi Zhi cried for hours worried that he will never be able to meet his sister in law ever again.
Qi Mei nodded from the side and then she too rushed ahead and hugged Su Wan's thigh, she too was really scared for her sister in law, only she knew how many dangerous scenarios played in her head as she was waiting for Su Wan to return.
Qi Shuyan didn't say anything but anyone could see that he was just as worried about Su Wan as his siblings.
Su Wan felt her heartache for these little guys, they were really worried for her. Just look at those bunny eyes that were red and puffy it looked like they had been crying for a long time, she picked Qi Zhi in her arms and patted his back as she consoled the three siblings, " I am fine, nothing happened to me but you little Zhi" pinching the chubby waist of the little boy slightly, Su Wan scolded him " but you seemed to have not eaten anything, look you lost a circle. Didn't I say that you are not allowed to lose a circle until you are fourteen?"
" Hehe," Qi Zhi giggled sheepishly as he buried his head in Su Wan's neck to avoid answering that question. His sister in law was taken to such a dangerous place how can he have the appetite to eat anything?
" Oh, you are here!" Fang Xiaolin who was working in the kitchen, immediately came out when she heard the voices coming from outside. Because Su Wan was already burdened enough, she didn't rush forward to hug, that was however just an excuse the glowering glares that the Lin brothers were shooting Fang Tao and the others were enough to make her stop, she unhurriedly walked past the Lin brothers and then tugged Fang Tao away from Su Wan before she incited anymore hate towards herself, " Its great that you are fine, I was really worried about you- you should have seen Tao Tao rushing in my house and crying like a five-year-old rushing to complain to her mother, seriously I never saw her cry like that."
"Sister." chided Fang Tao softly
Both Su Wan and Fang Xiaolin laughed at her blushing face just as Feng Zhai walked out of the Lin courtyard, " oh you all are just in time, I just took the duck soup off the stove that has been stewing for six hours, come in and have a bowl of soup to pad your stomach we can discuss everything later on."
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Chapter 500 Not a burden
Of course, the duck bone soup wasn't enough for everyone to fill their stomach, so Lin Yan went to the kitchen and together with Lin Rui he hurriedly prepared poached fish slices and stir-fried vegetables while the cabbage pickle that Su Wan made just a few days ago was also taken out. The dishes couldn't be considered lavish and compared to what Lord Fei ate every day, they were even a bit haphazardly prepared but Lord Fei didn't complain and unhurriedly ate his meal. Of course that couldn't be said for the two Shen uncles and the Lin Brothers, they have been starving throughout the day, running here and running there, compared to Lord Fei who only missed the evening tea, these poor men were completely famished.
Only after finishing a bowl of rice did they turn to look at the Feng brothers who were silently eating their meals next to them. Lin Yan who was the most graceful one after Lin Rui while eating his dinner looked at Feng Zhai and Feng Dai and asked, "Thank you, brother Dai, Brother Zhai, you took care of the kids and our house when we weren't here."
" Oh it's fine, it's fine" Fang Dai shook his hands with a wide grin on his face, " actually it wasn't much work. We just had a hard time calming down the women who were crying oh so pitifully, once we took care of them the kids instantly stopped crying, like this I learned a new thing that we should never cry in front of kids or else that will trigger them to cry along with us."
When everyone heard his words they all turned to look at Madam Zhu and Madam Huo who blushed embarrassingly. However, Madam Zhu didn't like the stares that they were shooting her and somewhat unhappily snapped, " what are you looking at? I am a woman too! My niece was taken to Yamen and no one explained a thing to me. When I didn't see you all return home by noon, of course, I got worried and" then her voice got lowered as she added, " I wasn't the first to cry anyway it was Sister Huo who started crying, and then I got even more anxious and then it kind of became troublesome."
Shen Junxi swallowed the fish slice that was in his mouth and teasingly wriggled his brows at his wife, as he grinned. " uh-huh, you are really cute, do you know that madam? Even if you were the first to cry, you can admit it. I won't judge you, after all, I know my wife the best you might put on a hard front but you have the softest heart here, ah that reminds me of the first time our son took his first steps you cried for an hOUR OUCH!"
Shen Junxi shrieked suddenly, startling everyone who were carefully listening to him.
Madam Zhu who stomped on her husband's feet to make him shut up turned to look at the small gathering who were looking at her and said with a smile, " I wasn't the one who cried first, it was madam Huo." Then as if to cancel out whatever nonsense that her husband has spouted, she added a gleaming smile that reminded them of the thug who threatens the commoners to pay him weekly rent and repeated, " It was Madam Huo who cried first."
"Yes, Yes" everyone nodded their heads at once like they would say anything else when they were being glared at by such a hooligan like expression.
Su Wan saw the blush decorating her aunt's cheeks and knew that it was certainly her eldest aunt that cried first because she turned her head at Aunt Huo who was still smiling despite being used as a shield and knew that nothing in the world can make this woman cry that easily. Most probably her second aunt was the only one who tried to calm everyone down together with the Feng Brothers. Though Su Wan wasn't present at that moment, she indeed hit the point.
Madam Huo was indeed distressed about what happened to Su Wan but she was not someone who was as jumpy as Madam Zhu whose predictions about Su Wan started with a simple arrest and then took an exaggerated leap of them planning a prison break to save Su Wan from the imaginary execution that she was facing. Though Madam Huo's expression did falter and became bad to worst and by the time the Feng brothers were called by Fang Xiaolin, her expression was one of smiling yet turning blue because of anxiety.
Su Wan knew that her aunt was shy so didn't say anything just picked up an extra piece of poached fish and added it to her eldest aunt's bowl and that was enough to make the woman go all teary eyes once again.
Shen Junxi who didn't learn his lesson after being stomped on once looked at his wife and asked somewhat curiously, " Wife, are you crying-Ah God Damnit!"
Madam Zhu ate slices that were added to her bowl by her niece and sniffed haughtily. " Who is crying? It's just that the fish is a bit spicy so my eyes burned a little, don't tell me your eyes are getting bad old man."
Though Shen Junxi wanted to retort that he wasn't an old man but his wife's strength when she was stomping on someone wasn't something to make fun of, he couldn't even feel his toes! So, he did the right thing and shut his mouth up.
The heavy mood that was weighing upon them ever since the morning swiftly lightened and they all smiled despite the trouble they were facing. Even Lin Chen who was gloomy since the morning showed a small smile, yes that was right. As long as he has his family with him, he will be able to deal with any trouble that came his way. After all, he wasn't alone and - he looked down at the cup of fruit wine that his eldest brother poured for him and smiled gently- he wasn't a burden either.