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Chapter 82: Chaotic Situation
Ren Yaoqi sighed and patiently guided, “The others may not be relevant, but if this matter is true, then why would the Han Family risk selling unseen treasures at the time? Was there something they had to do in their haste to leave Jizhou and come to our Baihe Town?”
After thinking about it, Ren Yaohua suddenly understood and said in surprise, “Because the Han Family urgently needs money? But isn’t the Han Family very rich? They are also about to open a salt farm in partnership with our Ren Family, and I heard that to open a salt farm it takes a lot of silver just to get open up relations of the upper and lower levels. Could it be that… they just pretended to be capable to cheat on us?”
Ren Yaoqi shook his head, not easily concluding: “This I do not know, after all, the Han Family is usually a recluse.”
Li was listening to the conversation between the two sisters and could not help but say, “I hope this matter passes quickly, if it drags on for too long I am afraid…”
After hearing this, Ren Yaoqi knew that Li still had illusions about the marriage to the Han Family. She said seriously, “Mother, I hope this matter will drag on for as long as possible. It is also a good opportunity to see the Han Family’s character clearly through this matter. If they are truly the kind of people the Han Clan says they are, do you think this marriage can still go on? Such profit-oriented, despicable, and shameless people should be shunned!”
Her words were a little heavy, and Li and Ren Yaohua both looked at her with some surprise.
Li was hurriedly explaining, “I just think that if this matter is a misunderstanding, it would be a pity to delay it…”
“True gold is not afraid of fire. If they have a clear conscience, there will always be a day when they are proven innocent.” Ren Yaoqi said slowly and comfortingly.
It’s just that she couldn’t help but sneer in her heart. Maybe other things can be explained clearly, but money matter, it depends on whether people are willing to believe it.
When it comes to profit, people will only believe what is good for them, this is human nature.
Let’s see! She didn’t believe that the marriage would go smoothly, given the shrewd nature of the Old Master of the Ren Family.
The Ren Family had already sent someone outside to quietly monitor the Han Family’s movements.
Although the Han Family now was not as chaotic as before because of the return of Old Master Han and Han Yunqian, everyone had been called by Old Master Han to sit in the Flower Hall. The atmosphere was very stiff.
Before Old Master Han returned, the young and strong men from the Han Clan had been inspired to the fervor and were about to barge into the inner courtyard to search the Han Family’s courtyard. Then Old Master Han came in and saw each of them with a stick in their hands confronting the Han Family servants while arguing.
Some folks still had a stick in their hands and didn’t know where to place it, so they put it on their feet.
Old Master Han’s eyes swept over the faces of the men, and stopped on the man of about forty who was sitting with his legs crossed on the pearwood cross-chair at the front on his left.
>> Pearwood cross-chair
He laughed a little. His smile was still bright and friendly: “Why don’t you send messages first when you come to my house? If I know beforehand I could be at home to receive guests. I happened to be out of the house today on business, and was surprised when I came back.”
The man in his forties pulled at the corners of his mouth and was not convinced: “Han Dongshan, don’t bullshit with us. We’re not here to be guests. We’re here to settle an account.”
Han Dongshan did not move like a mountain: “Oh? What do you have to settle with me, Brother Zuowang?”
Han Zuwang stood up violently and pointed at Han Dongshan, “You still want to deny it now? Hurry up and hand over the ancestral property of our Han Family!”
He looked Han Dongshan up and down for a few moments, the disdain in his eyes very obvious. “It’s enough that you’re an old man who relied on your wife to make a fortune, but now you’re still hogging your wife’s family’s property. I’m ashamed of you! We had some respect for you, but now it seems that your skills are only based on the ancestral heritage of our Han Family. Who can’t make money when they have capital to build on? These days, those who have money get richer and those who don’t have money get poorer. The whole Han Family has been screwed over by you, and after you’ve thrown a few leftover bones, we still have to be grateful to you!”
With these words, the people who came with him did not turn away.
They had just let in and secretly tried not to gawk at Han Family. But some of them had seen many good things. Two rows of sixteen pearwood cross-chairs of the same color in the Flower Hall are not something any ordinary people can afford. Not to mention those large and small decorations in the Flower Hall.
When they thought that these were the Han Family’s assets they all were supposed to have a share, they felt pain in their hearts.
If anyone else had heard such words, they would have been so angry that their faces would have turned red. But Han Dongshan’s face remained unchanged. He asked calmly, “Honestly I don’t know what assets the Han Family has. After my father-in-law died, I gave all the original Han Family assets as an offering farm to the clan. I even paid the ancestral house with that money. I genuinely don’t understand, where did Brother Zuwang hear this from?”
>> Offering farm
Han Zuwang couldn’t help but give a ‘bah’, “Isn’t the current patriarch of the Han Family just a dog in front of you? If you tell him to go west, will he go east? Besides, that small amount of land is only a fraction of our Han Family’s assets, and you are only bringing it out to silence us. As for where we heard it from…”
Han Zuwang brushed aside his mouth and sneered, “The last time you sold our grandaunt’s pair of blood jade bracelets that are said to be ancient treasures, you accidentally leaked the news, and let another treasure-loving person find it. He said he was willing to pay three times the price for the naga pearl necklace you have. Do you know how much three times the price is? That’s three thousand taels of gold!”
>> Blood-jade bracelet
>> Naga pearl necklace
Han Zuwang’s eyes were red with anxiety.
Even with Han Dongshan’s shrewdness, he couldn’t help but shout at this, “Ridiculous!”
He frowned and glanced around at the crowd, “You believe such nonsense? There is no such thing as a blood jade bracelet or a naga pearl necklace!”
But the crowd all looked at him without saying anything. Their eyes had indifference, jealousy, fierceness… everything, except trust.
Han Dongshan couldn’t help but shake his head and pull the corners of his mouth, revealing a hint of mockery. Soon he collected his look again and said with a straight face, “I haven’t seen those things you are talking about. Since you say someone has bought some blood jade bracelet from me, then bring the person here and confront me!”
Han Zuwang snorted, “The man later found out that I was tricking him. I didn’t have the thing he wanted. He was afraid of ruining his master’s affairs, so he ran away overnight. Where can I find someone for you? Is it possible? Or is there someone who wants to deceive us on purpose? What good does it do for them to deceive us? You, on the other hand, moved to Yanzhou for no reason at all, so that you could sell your treasures without us noticing. People are not as good as heaven is, someone came here for fame, but they found the wrong place! I happened to be near your family’s ancestral home that day, but that man mistook me for you! Otherwise, we would have been kept in the dark still!”
Han Dongshan frowned slightly and looked down in contemplation.
Han Yunqian glanced at the crowd and said, “Grandfather, all the uncles are tired after a long morning’s journey. It’s already noon. It’s not too late to discuss it after lunch.”
He said with a faint smile, jokingly, “The monk can run away, but the temple won’t run with him.”
>> The monk can run away, but the temple won’t run with him
Han Dongshan nodded, “Let’s talk about it over dinner then.”
All the members of the Han Family also had empty stomachs, so they had no comment on what they said. Han Yunqian was right, they were already here, so there was no fear that Han Dongshan would run away.
Han Yunqian instructed the steward to invite everyone to the dining room for the banquet.
When everyone had gone out and only the grandparent and grandson were left in the Flower Hall, Han Dongshan’s face was already gloomy.
“In your opinion, who is behind this?”
Han Yunqian thought for a moment, “The one with the most reason to do so would be Han Zuwang, who has always regarded you as his rival. This time, he is also the one most likely to benefit from inciting all the clansmen.”
Han Dongshan nodded and smiled coldly, “If this is really his work, I have underestimated him, he is more capable than his father!”
The sarcasm on his face increased as he thought of something, “The Han Family’s patrimony? How dare these fools believe that the Han Family has left any family property! If I hadn’t raised these losers all these years, they wouldn’t have been able to get a full meal! Now that they’ve grown strong, they’ve come to bite me back.”
Han Yunqian bowed his head and said nothing.
Han Dongshan glanced at him and said in a light voice: “See, Qian’er. This is what Grandfather usually tells you about human nature! For the sake of money, people in this world will feed their conscience to the dogs! A good person is only for others to see, don’t take it seriously, or one day you will regret it so much that your intestines will turn green.”
“Yes, Grandfather.” Han Yunqian bowed his head and replied in a low voice without refuting.
Han Dongshan, however, raised his eyebrows and asked, “What are you thinking about?”
Han Yunqian shook his head and smiled, “No, I just feel that there are some things about this matter that don’t make sense.”
“Then send someone to investigate! Find out who is the person that Han Zuwang said, even if you have to dig three feet underground to find him! Once we find him, the trouble will be solved!” Han Dongshan said in a deep voice.
“Yes, Grandfather.” Han Yunqian answered again.
“Go and stabilize those people first. Although none of them are capable of accomplishing anything, the gathering of the rabble together is enough of a headache.”
“I’ll go to the inner courtyard to check on Grandmother and Mother, they must have been shocked just now.” Han Yunqian said in a low voice.
Han Dongshan nodded and let Han Yunqian go.
At this moment in the Ren Family, Old Master Ren and Eldest Master Ren were just about finished listening to the news they had inquired about, and the father and son were discussing matters in the study.