The secret guard delivered the message to the Chen family the night before. Since the whole family was home that night, they stayed home to receive the message and did not go out the next day.
Xingxing and her group arrived on the afternoon of the second day. Chen Tu's family personally went to the city gate to greet them, which truly flattered Zhou Laoda and Zhao Guihua. At the same time, the couple couldn't help but think to themselves that the Chen family's status was reserved for a princess.
When the Chen family went to Lishan County last time, Zhou Laoda and his wife, at Xingxing's prompting, revealed her true identity to everyone. The Chen family was terrified at that moment.
Xingxing sighed, "Sigh, my aunt and uncle are much more at ease. Even though they know who I am, they treat me the same as before, unlike the Chen family who are so reserved."
Zhu Lin chuckled lightly but did not reply. The Chen family was a prominent family in the past, and prominent families have always valued rules and etiquette. Chen Tu's cautiousness was due to his upbringing and habits.
The Chen family's house is a two-courtyard house. They already had a large family, and now that Xingxing and her group of so many people have come, there is no room for them all. Originally, Chen Tu wanted them to stay in another house of the Chen family, which was just acquired this year and is also a two-courtyard house.
However, Zhu Lin refused. The house was in a rather remote location, far from where the Chen family was currently living. It would be more convenient to stay at an inn.
Chen Tu didn't force the issue, but he insisted on paying for the hotel. He and Qing Yan, who was paying the bill, pushed and pulled each other for a while. However, Qing Yan was a bodyguard with extremely high martial arts skills, while Chen Tu was a weak man with a limp. How could he possibly win against Qing Yan? So in the end, he still couldn't pay for the room.
"That night when you came to our house for dinner, my wife and daughter had sent servants to buy a lot of groceries in the morning. They wanted to cook for us themselves. Ever since we came back from Lishan County that day, they've been asking when you could come over. They've been looking forward to it," Chen Tu said with a good-natured smile.
"Uncle Chen, you should go back first. We'll come over by ourselves tonight. There's no need to be so polite. Right now, we need to take a shower and get some rest. You don't need to stay with us." Xingxing felt bad seeing him limping around and still busy making arrangements, so she made an excuse to send him away first.
“Dad, let’s go back first. Xingxing and the others must be tired after traveling for so long. Let them rest for an hour or two, and we can go back and prepare dinner.” Although Chen Yueru knew Xingxing’s identity, they had lived together before, so her mindset didn’t change much.
Bai Yushuang, wearing a veil, spoke up, "Then you all rest first, and we'll all get together again later."
After leaving the inn, the smiles on Chen Tu and Bai Yushuang's faces immediately faded, and their expressions even turned gloomy.
Chen Yueru sighed softly and gently comforted them, "Father and Mother, don't worry. I don't believe that the Ye family would dare to do anything to harm people. Even if they have the county magistrate backing them up, we are not afraid."
After taking over the only cloth shop in Changting County, their business flourished. Last year, they opened two more cloth shops, and their jewelry shop also did very well. Seeing the Chen family's life getting better and better and making a lot of money, it naturally aroused envy.
I heard that the man surnamed Ye used to do business in Nanyang Prefecture. I don't know how he found out that the Chen family made money by opening a cloth shop in Changting County. He suddenly appeared and opened a cloth shop in Changting County as well, and he was targeting the Chen family in every way.
After the Ye family opened their cloth shop, they lowered the prices significantly, hoping to cause the Chen family to lose customers. Initially, the Chen family did lose many customers, and the cloth shop had little business every day. However, Chen Tu was not the kind of impulsive and brainless person.
He not only has a business mind, but has also experienced life and death, and can be considered a person who has weathered many storms. He is not so foolish as to do something that would harm himself and the enemy if provoked by someone.
He could just watch this vicious competition unfold and see how far that guy surnamed Ye could push the price. In any case, the Chen family's cloth definitely couldn't be sold at a loss. If the other party pushed the price down, he had no choice but to follow suit. With one company dominating and two companies competing, profits were destined to be reduced.
But there's a limit to how much he can lower prices. He won't drive the price of cloth down to the point where he doesn't make a single penny, or even loses money. It all depends on how long that guy surnamed Ye can hold out.
Although the Chen family had fallen on hard times, even a starved camel is bigger than a horse. The profit margin of the cloth shop was extremely low, but he could still hold on for a while. However, after some time, the Ye family was also holding on. He knew that the Ye family's financial resources were also extraordinary, and the two families were going to have a tough time.
It all comes down to who can outlast whom. The Chen family has just settled in Changting County and has a shallow foundation. Chen Tu went to the prefectural city to inquire and learned that the Ye family is a big merchant in Nanyang Prefecture. Even if they are not in the top three, they can at least be ranked within the top five. Their wealth should not be underestimated.
To make matters worse, it's said that his brother-in-law is the magistrate of Changting County, which explains his sudden appearance there.
It must be that the county magistrate, upon learning that the Chen family's cloth shop had been making a lot of money in recent years, got the idea to call his brother-in-law over to open a shop.
In Chen Tu's view, the Ye family had the resources to compete with him for food, but business people are always cunning. As the saying goes, no merchant is without guile. No one would complain about having too much money. Seeing that there was something to be gained in Changting County, they naturally set their sights on it.
You could say that it's one thing for the magistrate to let his brother-in-law steal business, no one can stop him, but this guy surnamed Ye, whether he was acting on the magistrate's orders or it was his own idea, he's determined to crush the Chen family.
The cloth shop here is barely surviving, and a few days ago they started eyeing the jewelry shop. The Ye family bought a shop opposite the Chen family's jewelry shop, which has a pavilion, making the Chen family's jewelry shop look a step down in comparison.
However, the Ye family's jewelry shop was also maliciously driving down prices, and now they're barely making any profit, barely hanging on. The other day, someone surnamed Ye even came to the Chen family to provoke them, which really angered Chen Tu's whole family.
Especially Chen Shuhang and Hua Zan. Chen Shuhang is just eighteen years old and Hua Zan is only twenty-one. Both of them are in the prime of their lives and have been suppressed to the point of being extremely frustrated by the county magistrate and the Ye family during this period.
At this point, someone still dares to come knocking on our door to provoke us. Who can tolerate this? That guy surnamed Ye is deliberately trying to humiliate the Chen family.
Furthermore, this man surnamed Ye, seeing that Chen Yueru was beautiful, actually uttered vulgar words saying he wanted to take her back as a concubine. Is this something a human being would do? Chen Yueru is only nine years old.
Afterwards, he even humiliated Hua Zan, saying he wasn't a real man and that he was a live-in son-in-law.
At that time, Hua Zan and Chen Shuhang beat up the man surnamed Ye. Although the man surnamed Ye had a servant with him, the servant did not know kung fu. Hua Zan and Chen Shuhang had both experienced fleeing and fighting to the death with refugees. They had a fearless and ruthless spirit. The man surnamed Ye and his servant were beaten and howled.
The two men were indeed quite ruthless at the time, and the man surnamed Ye was seriously injured.
The man surnamed Ye was already difficult to deal with, and after being beaten up, he was even less likely to let it go. After returning home, he reported it to the authorities. The county magistrate was his brother-in-law, and the efficiency was incredibly high. In less than half an hour, the officials arrived and took Hua Zan and Chen Shuhang away.
This incident happened just four days ago. In the past few days, Chen Tu has been running around trying to find people to pull strings in order to get his son and son-in-law out, but all his efforts have been in vain. The county magistrate simply refuses to release them.
So neither Hua Zan nor Chen Shuhang were there when they went to pick them up at the city gate today. Zhu Lin and the others didn't think much of it at first, assuming the two were busy with something.
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