Chapter 88: Professional in Fraud
As soon as he finished speaking, he winked at the young man beside him.
The young man understood and strode forward to kick the door.
As he raised his foot, the door was opened from the inside.
A plain-looking maid stood at the door, her voice a little hoarse.
"Butler, let them look if they want. It has come to this. If we don't let them search, we'll really accuse the general of harboring a wanted criminal."
The maid moved aside to make way for them.
Butler Li shook his head and sighed, but ultimately did not stop him.
Meng Jin's gaze fell on the maid's face. Although the maid had an ordinary appearance, her eyes were very sharp, especially when she looked at him, she did not show any timidity at all.
Surprisingly, he is even calmer than Butler Li.
Meng Jin smiled, "Are you General Shen's maid?"
Wen Wan, who was wearing a pigskin mask, responded in a gruff voice, "I am the general's Shumo maid."
Meng Jin nodded. "To serve the pen and ink, that means he has read and written books. It seems that this person still needs to read more."
These words seemed to be spoken to Butler Li.
Unfortunately, Butler Li didn't seem to understand and looked at Meng Jin entering the study with a confused look on his face.
Wen Wan sneered in her heart. These people who claimed to be scholars thought that if they spoke more subtly, they could curse others without showing any sharpness. But they were just bullying others in disguise.
She said with a cold face, "My two distinguished guests, please pay attention. The things in this study are all the general's favorite things, especially..."
"Click"
Before she could finish her words, a vase held by a young man broke into pieces.
"Oh my God! You broke the General's favorite antique!"
Wenwan rushed over exaggeratedly, picked up the broken porcelain bottle on the ground, and her whole body was shaky. She covered her face and sobbed.
She cried and choked up as she said, "The general bought this antique vase from a Hu merchant at a high price. He spent 30,000 taels of silver to get the merchant to part with it."
The young man was shocked. "How much did you say?"
Wen Wan sniffed and said in a hoarse voice, "Thirty thousand taels."
The young man almost fainted and took a step back in horror.
As he stepped back, he didn't know what he bumped into, but a bunch of vases rolled down from the shelf with a clang.
Wen Wan screamed, "It's over, it's completely over now!"
She pointed at the fragments at the young man's feet and said, "This one is worth ten thousand taels, this one is worth eight thousand taels, this one is the cheapest, worth five thousand taels, and this one, this one is the most..."
The young man's face turned pale. "Most expensive?"
Wen Wan walked closer and took a closer look, then breathed a sigh of relief. "Fortunately, it's not the most expensive one. It's about the same price as the one you broke at the beginning."
The young man's face turned from pale to black, and he was so scared that he almost couldn't hold the knife.
He looked at Meng Jin in agreement.
Even if he sold these antiques a thousand times, he still couldn't afford the loss.
Meng Jin's face also looked very bad. At this point, he could no longer fail to see that he had been tricked.
Even though he knew it in his heart, the fact was before him: the maid had picked up the pile of broken porcelain bottles one by one and placed them in a brocade box beside him.
Wen Wan kept muttering, "These vases, I'm always terrified when I dust them, I'm afraid they'll get bumped and the general will get angry and sell me out."
"Now, the two distinguished guests broke the antiques. I have to collect all the fragments. When the general returns, he can take the evidence and ask the culprit for compensation."
Steward Li also wore an expression of unbearable grief. "Alas, although he is a high-ranking official from the Imperial Capital, our General is also an official, and we are all colleagues. You can hide from the monk but you can't hide from the temple. At worst, I can let the General take these to the Imperial Capital to file a complaint."
The two of them were like singing a duet, talking back and forth, which made the young man look even more frightened.
Meng Jin remained calm, "Butler Li, what are you talking about? These porcelain bottles look just ordinary to me..."
"How can they be ordinary?" Wen Wan raised her voice, holding up the fragments. "These are antiques! They all have a provenance, used by great scholars from hundreds of years ago. It's said that placing them in the home can protect the house and bring prosperity to children."
She sighed as she spoke, "Everyone knows that it's difficult for my general to have children. That's why I paid a high price to buy these antiques used by great scholars to protect my house, hoping that they will help the Shen family expand. The value of these antiques has far surpassed that of gold and silver."
"Now that these antiques have been broken, our great general might not have any descendants. This is related to the continuation of the Shen family's incense. Even if the matter is brought to the attention of the emperor, I'm afraid he won't easily wrong our general."
The conversation became more and more shocking, and finally involved the descendants of the Shen family.
Who in the government and the country doesn’t know about the difficult life of the Shen family’s descendants?
If this really gets to the court, and Shen Yu uses this as an excuse, Meng Jin will really be in a passive position.
His brows knitted tighter and tighter, and he sneered, "You are such a silver-tongued maid!"
Wen Wan: "I am only speaking the truth. The two distinguished guests are also respectable people. Otherwise, please don't make things difficult for us servants. Can you pay the compensation silver first? If the general comes back, with the silver, maybe he won't make trouble again."
He was so brave to ask Meng Jin for money right away.
Even Butler Li was worried about her.
She was afraid that Meng Jin would get angry and kill her with his sword.
Meng Jin swept his sharp eyes over Wen Wan.
The young man next to him tiptoed cautiously to his side and asked quietly, "Sir, do you want to check more?"
"Heh," Meng Jin said with an unpleasant expression, "What do you think? If we continue investigating, can you afford the compensation?"
After saying that, Meng Jin turned around and left angrily.
The young man hurriedly followed.
After they left, Wen Wan and Butler Li both breathed a sigh of relief.
Butler Li's back was drenched in cold sweat. "Miss Xiaowan, that was a close call. I was really afraid he would recognize you."
Wen Wan was also afraid, but she had to take the gamble.
"Smart people often have a common problem, which is suspicion. The more you hide, the more he will suspect there's something fishy going on. But if I show up in front of him openly, he'll think I can't be the person he's looking for."
She still had confidence in the pigskin mask on her face. After all, even Azhuoxin and others didn't notice anything at the beginning.
What's more, she used an antique porcelain bottle to distract Meng Jin's attention.
*
Meng Jin led the young man out of the yard.
The young man was trembling with fear all the way. "Sir, I really didn't mean to do that in the study just now."
Meng Jin paused, "I know."
The young man was stunned. "You know?"
"Idiot!" Meng Jin was furious. "Can't you see now that we're being scammed?"
The young man realized belatedly, "I see! No wonder the vase was placed on the edge of the shelf. It looked so awkward, so I instinctively picked it up to take a look."
Meng Jin's pupils shrank, and he gritted his teeth and said, "What a cunning maid!"
The young man asked again with a guilty conscience: "Do we really have to pay for the broken bottle?"
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