Chapter 469 - 179: Playing a Trick (Part 2)
Chapter 469: Chapter 179: Playing a Trick (Part 2)
Seeing Chen Wanqing standing there, so angry she couldn’t even lift the branch in her hand, he smiled, took the branch from her, and tossed it on the ground. He then pulled Chen Wanqing onto his lap. "Rest a bit, my love. Catch your breath, then you can settle the score with me properly."
Chen Wanqing pinched him and glared. "Don’t you try to fool me. You’d better confess everything, right now."
"Confess what?"
"The business with the brothel women... Were you involved or not?"
Her voice grew strained as she said the last few words.
She couldn’t bear to imagine Jing getting mixed up with people like that.
It wasn’t that she looked down on those women; to her, all women were the same.
Zhao Jing was her husband, and hers alone. She could not tolerate him having any interactions with another woman that crossed the "red line."
She couldn’t clearly define what that so-called red line was. But the mere thought of Jing doing something behind her back that she couldn’t bear made her feel dizzy.
Chen Wanqing’s lips were pressed into a thin line, her teeth unconsciously biting her lower lip. She looked as if she were about to collapse.
Seeing her state, Zhao Jing finally realized his joke had gone too far.
Filled with regret, he quickly explained, "I haven’t done anything to let you down, my love. I’ve never even set foot in the Red House. Yesterday, I spent two taels of silver to have a beggar pass on a message. I never showed my face, much less entered a place like that. You don’t believe me? Then go ask the old woman at the gate. She saw me leave yesterday. I was back in the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. Just one incense stick. What could I possibly have done in that amount of time..."
He kissed Chen Wanqing’s earlobe, his tone turning intimate. "Every time I’m relentless with you, you always complain that I take too long..."
Chen Wanqing pushed him away. "It’s broad daylight! Can’t you be more serious?"
Her face was flushed, her eyes sparkling. She was radiant, a far cry from the dejected and heartbroken woman she had been moments ago. Seeing this, Zhao Jing’s heart pounded.
He lowered his head to kiss her. "I can’t be serious. Whenever I see you, my love, I just want to..."
Tenderness filled the room, accompanied by the sound of wet, tangled kisses. A long time passed before things quieted down.
"Hiring a cat is one thing, but hiring women from a brothel to frame someone... Isn’t that going too far? Mr. Yin is going to have to bleed a fortune this time. His crime doesn’t deserve such a punishment."
"Don’t worry, my love. To Mr. Yin, this sum of money isn’t even a drop in the bucket. And this isn’t the first time he’s done something like this. Whether he’s hosting a banquet at home or dining out at a restaurant, whenever the mood strikes, he’ll call for brothel women to entertain his guests. He spends dozens, sometimes hundreds, of taels of silver each time without ever batting an eye. He’s loaded. I’m sure he won’t mind losing a little pocket change."
"A little pocket change? That’s clearly a fortune!"
In Xinghua Alley, Yin Xichen was hopping mad, on the verge of a breakdown.
He was agitated, and his head felt like it was about to split open.
Anyone who woke up to find a whole troop of brothel girls at their door demanding payment would find it a bit much to handle.
"Which son of a bitch hired these girls for me? If you’re going to hire people, at least pay for them! Instead, he put it all on my tab, making them come demand payment first thing in the morning and causing a scene for everyone to see. Don’t I have a reputation to uphold?"
Another man in the reception hall said, "I told you not to go out. The banquet could have been postponed, but you just wouldn’t listen. See? I told you you’d face a bloody disaster and lose a fortune soon. It came true, didn’t it?"
The speaker was fiddling with a few tortoise shells in one hand and holding a teacup in the other, sipping his tea unhurriedly.
If any students from the prefectural school were present, they would have recognized this man at a glance.
He was also an instructor at the prefectural school, where he taught the Zhou Yi.
He had a mystical air about him, always tossing his tortoise shells to divine fortunes and futures, whether there was a reason to or not. The problem was, nine out of his ten predictions were wrong. Over time, no one took his divinations seriously.
The night before last, when Zhao Jing was leaving the prefectural school, these two men had been standing in the Book Collection Building, watching the drama unfold with Zhao Jing.
At the time, Yin Xichen had worn a smug expression, saying that ginger is spiciest when it’s old. That young whelp Zhao Jing was still a long way from being his match.
This instructor, Zhou Zuan, the one who taught the Zhou Yi, had taken the opportunity to toss his tortoise shells. And what did the shells say?
They said that there was still a long time to go, and it was not yet known into whose hands the deer would fall.
The hidden meaning was clear enough: the present victory was only temporary. Once Zhao Jing recovered, Yin Xichen would likely be the one taking a beating.
But would Yin Xichen admit defeat so easily?
’He was a man who could defy the heavens and change his own fate! When he got ruthless, even he was scared of himself!’
He had retorted on the spot, "Stop with your divinations. Your predictions are never right. You can’t earn a single coin from them, and you even have to spend money on new tortoise shells every year. It’s not even worth the effort."