The Art of Teasing - Chapter 129
Chapter 129
Although Ye Ling and Lian Xin weren't detained, they were temporarily barred from leaving the capital until both parties negotiated a case withdrawal.
Lian Huaixin bailed them out of the station and brought them to the Lian family's residence in the capital.
The Old Madam had acquired this property years ago. Whenever Lian family members came to the capital, they stayed here, and close acquaintances all knew the address.
Lian Huaixin summoned the steward who managed the residence. "This is Miss Ye from the Fourth Branch."
The Fourth Branch—Lian Huaijin was ranked fourth among her siblings in the Lian family.
Ye Ling was taken aback, even shocked. In the Lian family, there was absolutely no notion that a married daughter was like spilled water. The Lian family had ranked Lian Huaijin alongside her brothers. She held the same familial estate status as a son, with her own branch lineage.
For Ye Ling, who had grown up in a family that treated daughters like grass, this was utterly staggering.
Lian Huaixin said to Lian Xin, "The Old Madam and the Old Master will be arriving in a few days. Have the house cleaned inside and out. Old Master Bian's health is poor, and Old Master Qi's birthday is approaching—put more care into it."
Ye Ling's understanding of the Lian family was refreshed yet again.
She realized that although the Lian family hadn't said so explicitly, they had in fact already acknowledged Wen Zhengyu as their own. As for the Wen family, Wen Shiyi had long since completely squandered it. That father-daughter relationship, if not formally severed, was as good as severed.
She stayed for lunch at the Lian residence, then returned to her own elder brother's home. Her brother's house and his father-in-law's house were separated by only a single wall, with a door cut through the courtyard wall. Whenever Ye Ling went to her brother's place, she basically ate at her brother's father-in-law's.
When she arrived, her father-in-law was home. He asked about the assault incident and remarked, "Why do it yourself and leave them something to hold against you?"
Ye Ling said, "One's own people, one protects oneself. This kind of thing requires handling personally."
The father-in-law asked Ye Ling, "How do you plan to settle this?"
Ye Ling smiled faintly. "If we settle now, Zhao Si won't be able to swallow his pride."
The father-in-law said nothing more, instead showing Ye Ling his newly written calligraphy. He had no other hobbies; in his leisure time, he simply liked fishing and practicing calligraphy. Over the years, Ye Ling had helped him collect no small number of calligraphy albums and scrolls. Her own calligraphy had also received his guidance, so when they discussed calligraphy, they could converse quite well.
Ye Ling's pen calligraphy was beautiful, but when it came to brush calligraphy, her thoughts turned again to Wen Zhengyu.
The calligraphy reflected the person. Wen Zhengyu's brush calligraphy, though still lacking a bit of maturity, possessed considerable strength of character and was remarkably refined.
Ye Ling praised Wen Zhengyu's calligraphy for a while, then said, "If the opportunity arises and Zhengyu comes to the capital, I'll bring her to meet you."
The father-in-law responded, "Alright." He then teased Ye Ling, "Let me meet your wife."
Ye Ling agreed with a smile.
Ye Ling and Lian Xin both had their own social circles in the capital. After beating Zhao Si, neither thought much of it, busying themselves with their respective social engagements and visits.
Wherever Ye Ling went, she was always accompanied by a full complement of bodyguards—she had no fear of Zhao Si trying to retaliate.
As for Lian Xin, the Lian family, starting from Old Master Lian himself, were all of military background. Old Madam Zhang's natal family had been bandits and underworld figures before the Liberation; only after marrying Old Master Lian had her status transformed to that of military dependent. Lian Huaixin was still serving in the armed forces. In Lian Xin's generation, aside from Lian Xi who had attended police academy, even Lian Xin had graduated from military academy, served several years in the army, and only entered business after being discharged. With such backgrounds, they feared no war, let alone a fight. If Zhao Si dared come after Lian Xin, it was uncertain who would be beating whom.
Zhao Si had merely been beaten rather unsightly. His injuries weren't severe—if not for needing to let his face heal, he wouldn't even need hospitalization. He was clear on the Wen family's circumstances: there was only Wen Shishu, and she was divorced. As for the Lian family, some provincial bumpkins daring to stir up trouble in the capital? Zhao Si thus sent people to investigate what connections the Lian family had in the capital, preparing to deal with Lian Xin and Ye Ling together when the time came. Zhao Si had never taken Ye Ling seriously, and he looked down on her fawning, bootlicking conduct.
Neither Ye Ling nor Lian Xin had returned. Wen Zhengyu worried that something had happened that they weren't telling her, and she couldn't set her mind at ease.
She called Wen Shishu, who told her it was nothing serious—the beating was done, and the other party had taken it for nothing.
She called Qi Wei, who teased her, asking, "Do you know what Zhao Si's family does?" Qi Wei rattled off the Zhao family's connections to Wen Zhengyu extensively, then added, "Your youngest uncle went to post bail. Although they weren't detained, they've been restricted from leaving. This matter isn't over yet. Even your youngest uncle's influence isn't proving very useful."
Ye Ling and Lian Xin had told her everything was fine. But they were restricted from leaving—even without Qi Wei's words, she wouldn't have believed nothing was wrong. After hearing Qi Wei's account, she grew even more worried. The Old Master and Old Madam had only just begun looking somewhat spirited these past couple of days; Wen Zhengyu didn't dare let them notice. She thought it over and called her youngest uncle.
Lian Huaixin said to her, "If you're worried, when the Old Madam and Old Master go to the capital in a few days, you can accompany them."
Wen Zhengyu couldn't quite explain why, but in all her life, she had never felt so panicked. After making her rounds of inquiries, she even consulted a lawyer.
The lawyer went on at length about public security cases versus criminal cases, saying the specifics depended on the facts. When the lawyer asked who the parties involved were and she answered Ye Ling and Lian Xin, the lawyer's mouth opened and closed, and after holding it in for quite a while, said, "For their lawsuit, you'll probably need a legal team."
Wen Zhengyu was so worried she couldn't eat dinner.
The next day, the Old Madam came to consult her, asking her to accompany them to the capital. Wen Zhengyu agreed without the slightest hesitation.
The Old Madam looked up at the sky in astonishment—overcast, no sun, and certainly no sun rising from the west. Then, remembering how Wen Zhengyu had been distracted and restless these past few days, her spirit drifting who knew where, she asked, "Has Ye Ling not returned from her business trip? Is she in the capital?" Otherwise, this fussy little worrywart wouldn't have agreed so readily.
Wen Zhengyu froze blankly for a moment, then nodded.
The Old Madam said irritably, "A grown daughter can't be kept at home, indeed."
Wen Zhengyu thought to herself, "Ye Ling beat someone for my sake and is being held in the capital—it's only right that I worry about her." Remembering that Lian Xin had also helped beat the person, she quietly added in her mind, "I worry about Brother Xin too." But she figured Brother Xin had family to rely on; beating someone wouldn't cause him trouble. Ye Ling, however, with no family to fall back on, was harder to say.
The Old Madam was annoyed. "I won't take you."
Wen Zhengyu widened her eyes and turned to stare at the Old Madam for several seconds before saying, "I already arranged with Youngest Uncle yesterday to accompany you."
The Old Madam said with pointed sarcasm, "Oh, you're even bringing your youngest uncle into it."
Wen Zhengyu said, "If I just wanted to go see Ye Ling, I could book a plane ticket myself."
Only then did the Old Madam's mood improve a little. She then brought up Old Bian's health. "At my last birthday, I could see his health wasn't good. This time, I hear he's already bedridden. I don't know if he'll make it past the New Year."
Hearing the Old Madam's words, Wen Zhengyu remembered that at her maternal grandmother's birthday celebration, Old Master Bian had come in a wheelchair to offer his congratulations. Now that he was gravely ill, her heart also felt heavy. She suddenly recalled that a while ago, when she had gone to appraise antiques, Lao Zhou had mentioned that while in the Changbai Mountains, he'd happened upon some ginseng diggers who had unearthed wild ginseng, and had said that wild ginseng was at least a century old. Her family had three elders; she had wanted to buy it then, but Lao Zhou wouldn't sell. At that time, she was poor and couldn't afford the high price.
Such wild ginseng could be used by the Old Master and Old Madam, or given to Grandpa Bian—either would work.
Lao Zhou wasn't short on money. A nearly extinct, century-old wild ginseng like this was nearly impossible to buy even with money, so naturally he was unwilling to sell. Fortunately, Wen Zhengyu now had her mother's dowry and no shortage of fine items. She took out the phoenix headdress set—which she had categorized among her collectibles—from her mother's dowry chest, added a piece of jadeite, and went to find Lao Zhou, asking if the ginseng was still available.
Seeing what Wen Zhengyu brought out, Lao Zhou knew it had to be for urgent use and asked about it.
Wen Zhengyu said, "It's for one of my maternal grandfather's lifelong friends—a comrade in life and death. The elder is gravely ill. My maternal grandparents are going to visit him. I thought he might be able to use it."
Lao Zhou hesitated, then said, "Wait a moment." He went to retrieve the wild mountain ginseng, showing it to Wen Zhengyu to examine first and consider.
Wen Zhengyu had been dealing with elders since childhood, so naturally she couldn't avoid handling all sorts of ginseng and tonic gifts. Her eye had been trained from a young age. Lao Zhou's ginseng had been unearthed with even the fine root hairs perfectly intact, arranged in a rectangular box. Whether in size or appearance, it was the finest Wen Zhengyu had ever seen. She carefully identified it—it was unquestionably wild ginseng.
She exchanged her jewelry and jade for the ginseng and delivered it to the Old Madam.
The Old Madam stared at the ginseng, genuinely stunned for a long while. She looked at the ginseng, then at Wen Zhengyu, then back at the ginseng, then back at Wen Zhengyu—utterly unable to figure out how, in such a short time, she had procured such an excellent ginseng.
Wen Zhengyu said, "It's wild. Last time I wanted to buy it, the seller wasn't willing to part with it. This time, seeing it was for urgent use, and since I brought a set of my mother's phoenix headdress and a piece of jadeite, the seller was willing to trade. You keep it—give it as a gift or use it yourselves. I'm going back to pack."
It wasn't until Wen Zhengyu had left through the main gate that the Old Madam came back to herself. She said to Old Master Lian, who had also just recovered, "Hey, would you look at her—she really does have a knack for finding treasures."
Old Master Lian said, "Those people she associates with love dealing in these things." He added, "Since she went out of her way to bring it, take it along and give it to Old Bian."
Wen Zhengyu was going to the Imperial Capital. Her grandfather and Second Aunt were both in the capital. Her master, some of her grandfather's old friends, and various elders she had dealings with—all would need to be visited. One couldn't go calling empty-handed, so Wen Zhengyu opened her newly established storeroom. Although these were everyday courtesy gifts that didn't need to be overly precious, when she counted on her fingers the number of people she needed to visit, it still amounted to a large pile of gifts. She thought that if Ye Ling ran into trouble, she might need to ask Qi Wei for help, so she also prepared a generous gift for Qi Wei.
The next day, when Old Master Lian and the Old Madam set out and saw how many gifts Wen Zhengyu had brought, they exchanged glances, quietly marveling.
On the plane, the Old Madam, bored, struck up a conversation with Wen Zhengyu. "Who are all these gifts for?"
Wen Zhengyu began counting off on her fingers, slowly listing for the Old Madam and Old Master which people she had prepared gifts for. Even among the old friends the Old Madam and Old Master Lian knew, Wen Zhengyu had prepared gifts for those whose preferences she remembered, saying, "If we need to pay visits, we won't be caught scrambling at the last minute."
As Wen Zhengyu chatted with the Old Master and Old Madam, the plane arrived before they knew it. She accompanied them to the changing room to add layers before exiting. Just as she reached the exit, she suddenly saw Ye Ling standing ahead, smiling warmly at her. That face, like a spring breeze, seemed to melt away the winter cold outside.
Wen Zhengyu was overcome with delighted surprise. Releasing her hold on the Old Madam's hand, she hurried forward. The moment she reached Ye Ling, she was drawn into Ye Ling's embrace.
The instant Old Madam Zhang saw her granddaughter drop her and run at the sight of Ye Ling, her heart clenched. She looked at her suddenly empty left hand, then at the two embracing, and was so irritated she struck Old Master Lian, who was leaning on his cane.
Old Master Lian said, "Count your blessings. She supported you the whole way and didn't support me at all." Honestly, with his legs giving him trouble, she hadn't even offered him an arm.
Only after a moment did Wen Zhengyu remember she was at the airport, with the Old Master and Old Madam behind her. She hurriedly pulled away from Ye Ling's embrace. Seeing Ye Ling's joyful expression immediately put her at ease.
The two of them waited for the Old Master and Old Madam to emerge, each supporting one elder.
Lian Xin stood not far from Ye Ling. His cousin's eyes had only registered Ye Ling, not noticing him at all. Only when he approached his grandparents did his cousin finally see him and call out with delighted surprise, "Brother Xin."
Lian Xin smiled thinly. "Thank heaven and earth, you finally noticed me."
When it came time to board the cars, Wen Zhengyu left the Old Master and Old Madam to Lian Xin and got into Ye Ling's vehicle.
When Ye Ling took her hand, she couldn't help but grip Ye Ling's hand tightly in return. Ye Ling gazed at her. Too embarrassed to engage in any deeply affectionate eye contact with Ye Ling, she could only stare expressionlessly and fixedly straight ahead.
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