Chapter 15: Each Side Tells Its Own Story
"Why is Master Fan so agitated? I have something else to say."
Su Mengzhen remained Su Mengzhen. His pale face showed not a trace of emotion; the corners of his mouth twitched upwards almost imperceptibly, a cold glint in the eye more like the glint of a drawn red-sleeved dagger than a smile: "The world of martial arts is treacherous, and I naturally understand the unspeakable difficulties. However…"
He raised his hand again, and Yang Wuxie, who had been standing behind him, stepped forward half a step. This time, he took out not a thin booklet, but a thicker, more worn-out dossier box, along with several secret letters. Yang Wuxie's movements were steady and powerful as he gently placed the items in front of Fan Fenyan, as if setting down two massive stones.
"As for proving innocence, although one must be completely innocent to claim innocence, I am not one to nitpick." Su Mengzhen opened a letter, and Fan Fenyan, who had been so aggressive, was as if he had been doused with a bucket of cold water, watching Su Mengzhen push the letter in front of him.
This letter was given to her five years ago by a demon whom the Zhu family had taken in, when he went to do some work. Of course, the Zhu family had taken in more than just Hua Ruixian; now it had fallen into Su Mengzhen's hands. The letter couldn't prove who the recipient was, as it wasn't specified, but the handwriting and the seal at the end were unmistakably from the "Living God of Wealth"! This was something that shouldn't have remained in this world five years ago. How could the Golden Wind and Fine Rain Pavilion's intelligence network be so powerful!
Perhaps there was something else to refute, and Fan Fenyan was about to speak when Su Mengzhen interrupted him: "He is not an unreasonable person."
Su Mengzhen stared at Fan Fenyan's drastically changed expression and said, "'Living God of Wealth' is charitable and generous, and his reputation for kindness is widespread. I, Su, also deeply respect him. It is only natural for me to be somewhat radical in order to protect myself. However, a tall tree catches the wind, and the branches that it relies on are inevitably a mixture of good and bad."
He tapped the dossier with his long fingers: "This is a list of seven merchant houses that have been affiliated with the Six and a Half Hall for the past three years, specializing in trafficking young children in places like Jiangnan West Road and Jinghu North Road to offer as tribute. It also includes a copy of some of the accounts of three of these houses in their dealings with the core figures of the Six and a Half Hall. The children's whereabouts are as male prostitutes, sold to evil sects for martial arts training, or injured and forced to beg... Every single one of these cases is shocking."
Fan Fenyan's expression finally changed completely, no longer displaying the solemnity of a businessman, but revealing a strong sense of shock, anger, and despair. He subconsciously reached out to look at the file, but his fingers froze halfway through, as if the file were boiling water that would scald his hand.
Su Mengzhen's finger moved to the bottom of the file: "As for the 'friend' that Master Fan just mentioned... I know he is Di Feijing, 'The Bowing Dragon,' a subordinate of Lei Sun, the head of the Six and a Half Hall. This man is highly skilled, as I have already experienced, but he will stop at nothing and take any extreme measures. I wonder if the 'all-out assistance' he promised the Zhu family includes such heinous acts in exchange for the Zhu family's strong support in the capital?"
This was the first blow from Mengzhen Hongxiu. The oppressive aura emanating from her frail body made the air in the entire warm pavilion tremble, making it impossible to look directly at her: "Master Fan speaks of the Zhu family's good reputation, and I know that the Zhu family's good reputation is the result of generations of accumulation, not easily obtained. If, because of a momentary 'unspeakable secret,' or in order to seek 'all-out assistance,' we were to become even slightly involved with such blood-stained, outrageous matters, or even have them endorse and cover it up... Master Fan, do you think your father-in-law can bear the responsibility for this 'unspeakable secret'? Can the Zhu family's century-old reputation withstand the scrutiny of public opinion and the repeated bloodshed?"
Su Mengzhen's words stripped away the last layer of pretense that Fan Fenyan relied on. He first presented irrefutable evidence of the "living god of wealth's" improper conduct, then pointed directly to the present situation, pointing out that Liufenbantang might completely drag the Zhu family into a moral abyss, laying bare the naked exchange of interests and the potential moral binding in the open for scrutiny.
Fan Fenyan's forehead was covered in a fine layer of cold sweat, his lips moved, but he couldn't utter a single word. His sharp mind raced, but he realized that all his escape routes seemed to have been blocked by Su Mengzhen's thunderous second move.
Deny it? The evidence is right in front of them; defend yourself? That will only make things worse; try to bribe them? Su Mengzhen is clearly not buying it; side with Six and a Half Hall? That would be like drinking poison to quench thirst, destroying your own defenses. Only his heavy breathing and Su Mengzhen's steady breathing remained in the warm pavilion; the stalemate had reached a dead end.
Su Mengzhen continued, "Mr. Fan is a wise man; he should know whether the branch is coated with honey or poison. The Six and a Half Hall never leaves room for maneuver. What we promise you today, we will demand tenfold in return tomorrow. What the Golden Wind and Fine Rain Pavilion seeks is long-term cooperation and mutual benefit. Defining the scope is to avoid conflict and concentrate our strength; reviewing the accounts is to facilitate communication and mitigate risks. As for the shares..."
He raised his cold eyes and looked directly at Fan Fenyan: "It is to ensure that our two families truly become grasshoppers on the same rope, sharing both honor and disgrace."
"Mr. Fan thinks that I, Su Mengzhen, only want a share of the pie, but what the Zhu family will gain from cooperating with me is not just immediate profit, but the golden brand that no one will dare to touch on this land for the next ten or twenty years!"
The grand vision was brought to fruition, and the combination of kindness and severity was chilling. Fan Fenyan had fallen into the abyss, knowing he could no longer escape Su Mengzhen's grasp.
Su Mengzhen waited for Fan Fenyan to make his final concession. He picked up the cup of tea, which had long since gone cold, and brought it to his lips, about to take a sip—
"Bang!" The heavy wooden door of the warm room was pushed open violently, slamming against the wall with a loud thud.
A man dressed as a servant of the Zhu family rushed in, his face ashen, in a panic. He didn't even bother to bow, and his voice was trembling with sobs and extreme fear: "Master Fan! Something terrible has happened! Seventh Miss... Seventh Miss has run into trouble at the 'Mudfish Nest' gambling den in the south of Liufenbantang City. She's been kidnapped!"
Fan Fenyan was struck dumb, abruptly standing up, his chair tipping backward: "What?!"
The attendant, panting heavily, added incoherently, "It was...it was Miss Xie from the Golden Wind and Fine Rain Pavilion, and a young master surnamed Shen, who just pulled the Seventh Miss out of there! The Seventh Miss seems to have been frightened, and Miss Xie sent me here immediately to invite you to come and uphold justice!"
"A mudfish's nest"?! Qiqi was kidnapped in the territory of Liufenbantang, but was rescued by Su Mengzhen's cousin and others?
Fan Fenyan's mind went blank, and his vision blurred. Zhu Qiqi was his wife's younger sister, and his father-in-law's darling. For her to get into trouble on Six and a Half Hall's territory was like adding insult to injury. The evidence Su Mengzhen had just presented was still right in front of him, and now his precious daughter was in danger on the other side's turf. How could he possibly seek justice from Six and a Half Hall? How could he face Su Mengzhen, the very man who had just delivered the fatal blow?
His face changed drastically, turning from ashen to ashen. He no longer cared about negotiations or conditions, and didn't even bother to look at Su Mengzhen. He roared at his attendants, "Lead the way!" After saying that, he stumbled and rushed out, with not a trace of the composure of "Lu Shang Tao Zhu" left.
Inside the warm pavilion, only Su Mengzhen and Yang Wuxie remained.
Su Mengzhen's hand, holding the teacup, froze in mid-air. He glanced in the direction Fan Fenyan had hurriedly disappeared through the doorway, then slowly lowered his hand, looking at the cold tea in the cup.
Xie Huailing... Zhu Qiqi... "Loach Nest"... Rescuing people?
He swallowed the mouthful of cold, bitter tea.
.
As soon as Shen Lang finished speaking, "Qiqi had a fight with me, ran away on her own, and got kidnapped," Xie Huailing felt an indescribable sense of exhaustion, like the tide of the Bian River, crashing over her, even more suffocating than being woken up by Zhu Qiqi at six o'clock every morning for three consecutive days.
She closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them again, a rare, tangible look of disdain filled them. Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the high walls of the alley, casting flickering shadows on her face, making her two bright red beauty marks stand out starkly.
At this moment, she resembled Su Mengzhen: "What mistake have I made? And what use are you anyway?"
Shen Lang was momentarily speechless at her question. He wasn't one to shirk responsibility; he knew Zhu Qiqi's willfulness better than anyone: "Miss Xie, it was my dereliction of duty, I failed..."
He worried that Zhu Qiqi's impulsive nature might cause her trouble, so he assigned her the simplest tasks and didn't say much to her. Zhu Qiqi, unaware of Shen Lang's feelings, thought he disliked her and looked down on her. Enraged, she wanted to prove herself and ran away. Her attendant, Hua Ruixian, had suddenly disappeared for the past few days, and the other servants couldn't catch her. During the disturbance, she was caught off guard, drugged, and kidnapped.
"Stop." Xie Huailing interrupted Shen Lang without any politeness, rubbing her throbbing temples.
“Young Master Shen,” she began slowly, her voice trailing off like the last note of a musical instrument, yet leaving no room for sentimentality, “your kindness is truly touching and tear-jerking—or so it seems.”
She sat up a little straighter: "Taking care of her is your choice, protecting her is your intention, which is not wrong in itself. But you want to take care of her safety without telling her where the rules and boundaries are; you want her not to cause trouble without giving her any room to maneuver; you decide her future for her without giving her a clear explanation. You forgot that she is also exceptionally talented. She, Zhu Qiqi, is the jewel of the Zhu family, not a porcelain doll."
Xie Huailing paused slightly, her tone becoming even more sarcastic: "What you consider thoughtful and reliable is, to her, contempt. Shen Lang, you're just a江湖人 (jianghu person, a person from the martial arts world), how can you possibly be thoughtful enough to take care of every aspect of Zhu Qiqi's life? You're just a person who only thinks of yourself."
These words left no room for negotiation and went straight to the heart of the matter. Shen Lang was taken aback, and for the first time, his face, which rarely showed strong emotional fluctuations, revealed obvious astonishment.
He opened his mouth, but couldn't refute her for a moment. Xie Huailing's words, though sharp and harsh, accurately hit a blind spot in his subconscious—he was used to protecting her, used to shouldering everything himself, used to acting in the name of "for your own good," but he had overlooked Zhu Qiqi's strong sense of self and her desire to be recognized and treated equally. She was a living, breathing person.
“I was foolish. Miss Xie hit the nail on the head.” Shen Lang took a deep breath, his tone heavy. He admitted his mistake, but he also had to refute where he was wrong. “But I am by no means only thinking of myself. When I was with Qi Qi, I never thought of myself for a single moment.”
Xie Huailing leaned back on the cushion, her sharp edge sheathed, leaving only deep weariness and impatience: "If you had just admitted it earlier, there wouldn't have been so much trouble. Tell her to her face, stop with the sour grapes. I don't understand you people, you can make a fuss over something that can be explained in two sentences into thirty episodes. Let's get to the point—save her, and save that... Ah Niu guy too?"
“Exactly,” Shen Lang said immediately. “I originally wanted to rush in to rescue them, but it’s a shady spot in the small hall, and there are many spies there. If I force my way in, it’s a small matter of alerting them, but more importantly, it could tarnish Qi Qi’s reputation. Besides, I don’t know the specific situation inside, and I’m afraid they might hurt someone in their desperation.”
His decision to seek out Xie Huailing was correct. The gambling den has already been alerted, and seeking out Miss Biao of Jin Feng Xi Yu Lou is indeed the most effective method.
But she wasn't really Su Mengzhen's cousin; Su Mengzhen hadn't given her any power. Xie Huailing sighed and called up the guards: "I'll think of a way."
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I couldn't stop writing, I just couldn't resist stopping...
Regarding why Ms. Xie did not approve Zhu Qiqi:
Ms. Xie: She's not here, so I'm too lazy to argue; it's a waste of my breath.
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