Chapter 68: A Jade Bangle

  "I think, not only can't this marriage be considered," said Mrs. Guan, "don't even mention that he's just your distant relative, even if he were a close relative, as long as there's a possibility of being related to the second wife, it won't do. Our days have just started getting better, we don't dare provoke these people, or else trouble will arise."

  "I'll go tell Ah Zhang that we're not considering marriage for Zhuo'er yet, the workshop is small and Wang Chengdong won't be invited either." Ye Yuqi stood up and rushed out the door.

  After a meal, he came back, his face flushed with anger, obviously having had a fight with someone. As soon as he entered the door, he gulped down a large glass of cold water and said: "That Ye Jiaming is really being manipulated by the Gong family. I mentioned that to him, and he said we're not considerate of Zhuo'er, that she's already 15 years old and we still haven't thought about her marriage, and they're helping us but we're stopping them. If I had known it would be like this, I wouldn't have adopted Zhuo'er in the first place. He spoke as if he loved Zhuo'er dearly and couldn't bear to part with her. It really made me furious."

  "Can't you just expose his true nature and scold him in the face?"

  "I didn't mince words, I scolded him severely until his face turned red and he dared not speak again. Because of this, I also had a big argument with Ah Zhang, and the promise to help him design jade was withdrawn. No matter how hard he tried to apologize, I just pretended to be angry and left. Ye Yuqi took a deep breath and waved her hand, "Alright, let's just drop it. From now on, we'll be more careful and guard against this kind of thing. If anything happens, we'll take care of it ourselves and not rely on the second house."

  "That family is full of cunning people. It's better for us to keep a distance. Luckily, Zhu'er reminded me today, otherwise who knows what kind of trouble would have arisen? The more I think about it, the more anxious I become." Gu Shi patted her chest and said.

  Ye Zhuo had already returned to her room, but when she heard Ye Yuqi was coming back, she went out the door and came into the hall. Just then, outside, she overheard the conversation between Ye Yuqi's elderly parents. She thought for a moment, then retreated back inside.

  It seems that we have to uproot the Gong family in order to live a peaceful life. This is what she thought.

  It's unclear whether Ye Yuqi had plugged up the loophole, leaving no room for flies to drill; or if there was nothing going on and Ye Zhuo was just being overly cautious. For the next dozen days or so, everything was calm and peaceful. To prevent Ye Yuqi from discovering the secrets of jade carving design, Ye Yuqi only asked Luo Jing to design and carve some elegant stationery items for sale, and do some processing work - all the processing work was done by customers who brought their own jade and asked the jade carver to carve according to their ideas. So it only cost labor, without needing design.

  While Ye Zhuo spent these dozen or so days, apart from practicing splitting incense every night and taking half a day to practice carving on her own, she also watched Luo Jing Sheng carve. She was just a young girl, and Luo Jing Sheng thought she was only there to play with her grandfather, not at all thinking that she would be interested in the art of carving; when he was working on jade carvings, he didn't think to guard against her either. Sometimes Ye Zhuo would ask him questions, and he would patiently answer them. As she watched and practiced, coupled with Ye Zhuo's extremely strong learning ability, her carving skills suddenly made rapid progress. In just over a dozen days, she had already begun carving flowers and animals.

  But unexpectedly, the Ye family was calm and peaceful. Zheng Fangjing had an accident instead.

  On this day, Ye Zhuo followed Ye Yuqi to the workshop and saw Luo Jing Sheng carving a lotus pen holder. Suddenly, they heard a commotion outside and people running towards the street.

  Yeh Yuqi curiously went out to listen, and then hastily walked in with a cane. He said to Yeh Zhuo: "Quickly, let's go to Langyuan Pavilion, your brother has encountered trouble."

  "What?" Ye Zhuo suddenly stood up.

  "It seems like he broke something valuable, and now the master of Langyuan Pavilion wants to send him to the authorities."

  "Go and take a look." Ye Zhuo supported Ye Yuqi as they hastily made their way to the Lang Xuan Hall.

  Langyuan Hall and Yuzhuo Workshop were separated by more than a dozen shops, and soon they saw that the shop was surrounded by people, while Zheng Fanghui was running over from the other end with a big sweat, followed by Liu Shi and Zheng Shi who looked anxious. Ye Zhuo saw this and supported Ye Yuqi, hastening their pace.

  Zheng Fanghui was calling out to go home. At this time, he saw that the outside of Langyue Pavilion was surrounded by people and didn't know how his brother was doing inside. He anxiously shouted: "Make way, I am Zheng Fangjing's younger brother! My mother has come, let us in!"

  The onlookers were all bosses of the surrounding workshops, and Zheng Fangjing brothers also knew them. Upon hearing this, they gave way to let them through, and Ye Zhuo hastily supported Ye Yuqi as they followed inside.

  As soon as he went inside, he saw Zheng Fang Jing excitedly saying: "I told you, this jade bangle was smashed by him, it has nothing to do with me!"

  "Which eye of yours saw that I broke it? You were the one who broke the bangle, and I was far away from you at that time. Hey, Ah Kui is right next to me, he can be my witness." a twenty-year-old young man said.

  "It was either Ah Lin or Zheng Fangjing who broke it." A man beside him hastily said.

  Zheng Fang's face turned bright red: "They are close brothers, of course they speak on behalf of their own people."

  "So we're all old people in Langyuan Hall, aren't you going to say that we're all bullying you, the newcomer?" Ah Lin said with a sarcastic tone.

  "Huang Shifu, this apprentice of yours is not good, breaking things and then honestly compensating, what's the point of randomly blaming others?" A man in his forties wearing a deep blue short jacket slowly spoke up beside him.

  Huang Shifu was standing in a corner, his face gloomy and lost in thought. Upon hearing the man's words, his fists clenched tightly, and he glanced at Zheng Fangjing with some difficulty, his voice somewhat hoarse as he said: "Fangjing, if this jade bangle..."

  "Master, are you also thinking of saying that this jade bangle was broken by me?" Zheng Fangjing interrupted him, "Can't you see? Even if you compromise and ask me to admit to this matter, you won't be able to stay in this Langyuan Pavilion. With them around, there's no place for you."

  "Zheng Fangjing, you can eat recklessly, but you can't speak recklessly." The man in the deep blue short jacket said gloomily, "If you break the jade bangle, you must compensate honestly and not deduct a single coin. If you don't compensate, go see the official directly."

  "Boss Qian, I'd like to ask, is this Langyuan Pavilion managed by you or Master Zhang?" Zheng Fangjing ignored him and turned to a stout man in his fifties.

  Qian Laoban stood aside and was talking to a middle-aged man. At this time, he saw the question and said with a gloomy face: "Niu Lao Ye said that since everyone says you broke the jade bangle, you have to compensate. Otherwise, send it to the yamen to see the official."

  "This jade bangle wasn't broken by my brother, how can you falsely accuse people?" Zheng Fanghui squeezed in and shouted.

  Boss Qian didn't respond and turned his head to ask: "Why haven't the yamen runners arrived yet?"

  "Here they come." There was a commotion at the door and two bailiffs squeezed in, reaching out to seize Zheng Fangjing.

  "What right do you have to arrest my son? What right do you have to wrong him?" Liu's mother cried out, rushing forward and pushing the two bailiffs with force.

  "Madwoman, you'd better push again, or I'll have you taken to the yamen along with her!" a constable shouted.

  "How much is this broken jade bangle worth?" Zheng asked, stepping forward. Since so many people said it was Zheng Fangjing who broke it, and even Huang didn't help him, he had to take the blame. If the jade bangle wasn't worth much, it would be better to compensate first and avoid suffering at the city gate.

  Although Zheng was already over thirty, she had only given birth to one child and her figure remained slender. Originally beautiful, she looked even younger, which made her stand out in the crowd, causing the noisy people around her to suddenly quiet down.

  "It's not expensive, including the jade material and processing fee, it's worth about 250 taels of silver." Old Master Niu said, staring at Zheng Shi without blinking.

  Everyone stopped talking and silently stared at Zheng. The jade bangle was made of a rare purple violet jade, with an extremely valuable color. Plus the quality of the jade wasn't bad either, 250 taels of silver, it really wasn't expensive.

  Liu's family, however, took a deep breath. Even if the Zheng family had saved up over the years, it was still far from enough to pay 250 taels of silver. Moreover, the little money they had saved was meant for Zheng Fangjing and Zheng Fanghui's marriages. If they paid this compensation, they would be in debt again, and the Zheng family would have to go back to their old poor life.

  Ye Zhuo knew that Zheng Shi had this money, seeing her open her mouth wanting to speak, she quickly went forward and pulled her sleeve.

  She didn't mind helping Zheng Fangjing, but Liu hadn't spoken yet. If Zheng agreed to compensate for the silver without hesitation, not only would she not get Liu's gratitude, but also risk being resented by her. She had to say: "That jade wasn't broken by my son, why should you help him compensate? You have so much silver and didn't give us any, instead you want to compensate for someone else's mistake and shift the blame to my son, what kind of heart do you have?"

  Besides, Zheng Fangjing's matter will be handled by the Zheng family themselves. They have silver on hand and should pay compensation first. If there's not enough left over, it's only right that Madame Zheng makes up for it. If they don't quickly bring out the silver, they'll think you've hidden several thousand taels.

  "Mother, don't bother about me, just let them take me to the yamen. I refuse to believe that this world has no justice." Zheng Fangjing said with a fiery temper.

  Ye Zhuo shook his head. It's not clear here, once in the government office, how can it be clear? After entering there, it's no longer just a matter of 250 taels of silver. Bribing up and down, all cost money. After spending this money, finally have to compensate - those officials, for such a one-sided case, do not have the energy to take care of you.

  However, Liu did not speak up, and no one could make decisions for her.

  "Jing'er, you go there and wait first. I'll send someone to find your father, and when he comes back, we'll go rescue you." Liu said tearfully. On the one hand, she was reluctant to spend money, on the other hand, she couldn't bear her son suffering. Besides finding Zheng Pengju to come back and make a decision, there's nothing else she could do.

  Zheng was just straightforward and not stupid. After being pulled by his daughter to hint, he thought again and also understood the key. At this time, seeing Liu opening her mouth, he only went forward to support her and did not take charge of himself again.

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