Chapter 826 - 829: Fault
Chapter 826: Chapter 829: Fault
How could Bai Jingli not hear the schadenfreude in his voice? She suddenly roared at him, "Don’t make sarcastic remarks here. My mother found out the truth. The Li family suddenly changed their attitude all because of you.
"Who knows where you offended people? On the outside, no matter what they say, we are a family, so they targeted me instead.
"At first, we wanted to save you some face, so we didn’t say anything. I didn’t expect you to be so unreasonable, so there’s no need for us to cover up for you anymore.
"It’s clearly your fault! Why should I be the one to bear the consequences for you?"
Bai Jinglie said, "You can’t just spout nonsense. I’ve lived a very simple life all these years. Where would I go to offend anyone?"
Ever since he was forsaken by the Holy Emperor, few people were willing to associate with him.
"This is what I found out from the people I sent to investigate," Bai Jingli said sternly. "They made it very clear. The Li family is just returning a favor."
"This is so baseless. Which family are you even talking about?" Bai Jinglie didn’t want to take the blame for this. Who knew if these siblings hadn’t colluded beforehand? If he didn’t agree, they might use this as an excuse to threaten him.
Bai Jingyang said, "My mother made some inquiries. Someone from Yi Province came over a few days ago and met with the Li family’s father and son for several consecutive days. It was after they came that the Li family completely dropped all pretenses."
"Yi Province? I’ve never even been there..." Bai Jinglie suddenly frowned. He couldn’t exactly say that. Back then, Gu Wenheng was serving as the Inspector General there, and it was precisely at that time he had lost all the evidence he held.
"What? Remembered it now?" Bai Jingyang mocked. "Back then, you kicked us out of the Marquis Mansion. Why should we bear the consequences of the sins you committed?
"No matter what, you have to step forward and handle this, or else we’ll go outside and find someone to judge the matter."
Bai Jingyang was now a man with nothing left to lose. He originally wanted to save some face for everyone, but now he decided to just tear away all pretenses.
This time, someone took out their grudges on them. What about the next time? The siblings weren’t Bai Jinglie’s human shields. Why should they suffer all this?
Bai Jinglie said, "I’ve truly never been to that place, but I was involved in some matters there a few years ago.
"I’ll have someone look into this. If it’s aimed at me, I will give you an explanation when the time comes."
"What kind of explanation can you give me?" Bai Jingli cried out. "My entire family has been broken apart by you! The Li family said that if I don’t agree to let him take a co-wife, they’ll force me to ask for a divorce!"
Bombarded with these accusations, Bai Jinglie also grew a bit impatient. "The situation is still unclear. It’s useless to yell at me.
"Isn’t your mother vastly capable and full of tricks? Why didn’t she teach you a few moves? Since you’re living such a miserable life, you shouldn’t ask me for help; you should go back and ask your mother."
"Marquis Bai, no matter what you say, my mother is still your elder. It’s not right to mock her like this," Bai Jingyang said coldly. "Now that you know what’s going on, hurry up and figure out exactly what kind of powerful figure you’ve offended. They targeted Jing Li this time; next time, it might just be you."
A while later.
After sending them away, Bai Jinglie finally dispatched people from his own mansion to gather information.
The news came back quickly. Clearly, the other party hadn’t even bothered to cover their tracks.
The newcomers were indeed from Yongchang County. Back then, Lu Sui and the others had acted on their own and allied with the eldest son of an aristocratic family. Not only did they fail to harm Gu Wenheng in the slightest, but they also handed their weaknesses right to him.
Not only were the people here reprimanded, but several aristocratic families in Yongchang County were also dragged into it.
Under Gu Wenheng’s manipulation, several originally inseparable aristocratic families fell apart. Much of their properties and businesses were divided up, reducing them to second- or third-rate families.
Over the years, it wasn’t that they hadn’t thought of seeking revenge against Gu Wenheng. However, he kept rising in the ranks, and he was completely beyond the ability of mere merchants like them to contend with.
But all of this had started because of Marquis Wu’an. Afterward, he could still sit comfortably as a Marquis, while those like them, who had been implicated for no reason, lived increasingly difficult lives day by day.
This also gave them an outlet to vent their frustrations. Everyone in the world knew that Marquis Wu’an had lost the Holy Emperor’s favor, but they still didn’t dare to confront him directly.
As it happened, these aristocratic families liked to provide financial aid to scholars in their daily lives, and the Li family had been one of their beneficiaries back then.
The young man from the Li family had been lucky enough to marry into the Marquis Wu’an Mansion. When they went to his door to call in this favor, the other party only bargained a little before agreeing. This made them feel that the Marquis Wu’an Mansion was even more desolate and declining than they had imagined.
Seeing his tightly knitted brows, Deng Meimei spoke up, "Marquis, how about I write a letter to the Southwest?"
Bai Jinglie shook his head. "It hasn’t reached that point yet. Also, you should send fewer letters there on ordinary days. The Holy Emperor has been trying to take back the military power in the Southwest for many years now, so he definitely has people keeping an eye on it. Let’s not implicate Father-in-law over this trivial matter of ours."
It was only because he had the Southwest General as his father-in-law to back him up that his life in Shangjing wasn’t too difficult. However, he couldn’t expect to achieve anything great either.
Deng Meimei said, "...But now, even mere merchants are bullying us at our doorstep. It is truly infuriating.
"Marquis, my father also has some old friends in the capital. How about..."
"Stop. I will handle this matter," Bai Jinglie said, afraid that Madam would ruin things. "Truth be told, we are not mortal enemies. I bet they don’t dare to blow this out of proportion either."
"But what about Jing Li?"
"She brought that upon herself. After all these years, she hasn’t given birth to a single son or daughter for the Li family, so she should have made plans early on." Bai Jinglie sighed. "Later, I will make a trip to the Li family’s home. I presume the other party will give me at least this bit of face."
The Li family seemed to have expected this. When Bai Jinglie arrived, the Li family was entertaining guests.
This was the second time Li Yonghong had seen Bai Jinglie, the Marquis Wu’an. "Marquis."
He knew the grievances between the two branches of the Bai family, so naturally, he didn’t dare to call him older brother.
"Brother-in-law Li, it seems I’ve come at a bad time today. You still have distinguished guests here."
Bai Jinglie looked at Li Yonghong meaningfully. He had already sent a visiting card yesterday, yet the Li family was still entertaining guests at home today.
Li Yonghong smiled and said, "These are our family’s benefactors. They happened to visit today, so please bear with us, Marquis."
While they were talking, these people had already come over and greeted Bai Jinglie under the lead of Mr. Li.
"Regarding Marquis Bai’s purpose for coming today, we rough men won’t beat around the bush with you," Meng Haotian took the lead and said. "I assume the Marquis has already investigated us thoroughly over the past two days.
"It’s not that we want to make things difficult for the Marquis Mansion, but regarding the events back then, our families were all victims."
Bai Jinglie laughed. "Truth be told, aside from your own reasons for being suppressed, the person you should really be looking for is Mr. Gu. If you really get down to it, my actions were merely an unintentional mistake."
The Family Heads silently cursed him in their hearts, thinking what a great "unintentional mistake" it was. However, considering their purpose for coming today and the huge disparity in status between the two sides, everyone held back their anger.