"Ah! If you hadn’t mentioned it, I might not have noticed the resemblance. I remember last year, Yihong Courtyard had promotional albums, featuring beautiful paintings of these girls! How strange that the girls from Yihong Courtyard have ended up in Flower House?" Someone deliberately chimed in.
Madam Chen’s face changed, and she sternly said, "What nonsense are you talking about?"
The man in the audience sneered fearlessly, "How is it nonsense? I happen to have the beautiful painting from the Yihong Courtyard’s promotion here. Let’s compare and see if these ten girls are the ones in the painting."
"It’s really true that the ten girls who didn’t end up appearing on stage at Yihong Courtyard last year have now appeared on stage in Flower House. Did you steal them?"
The murmurs from the audience grew louder.
Gradually, their voices drowned out Madam Chen. She glowered and instructed her servant, "Take note of those who are causing trouble and look into who’s causing it."
The clever servant nodded, understanding, and said, "I understand."
As he spoke, he scurried into the crowd.
As expected, troublemakers couldn’t stay still on an important day like today.
Madam Chen shouted, "Don’t talk nonsense! These ten girls belong to my Flower House, and all have signed servitude contracts! How could they be from someone else’s house? We at Flower House would never stoop so low as to do such a thing!"
"Hey! You think we’ll believe you just because you said so? I’m telling you, the county magistrate’s men are here today, why don’t you ask them? After the ten girls from Yihong Courtyard went missing, Sun Family tried to report it to the authorities, but they were intercepted by the county office and not allowed to report it or arrest anyone. In the end, they dragged the Sun Family’s Yihong Courtyard down!"
"Flower House is really so brazen! They blatantly snatched people from Yihong Courtyard, and even bribed the authorities!" 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
"Tsk tsk, these days, money can make the devil grind the millstone. Otherwise, how could Flower House rise so quickly? I think there must be a lot of dirty secrets behind this! Maybe they’ve been stealing from Yihong Courtyard from the beginning. You know, back then, Yihong Courtyard was one of the top flower houses in our Lian’an Town, but now it’s closed down! Flower House, tsk tsk..."
Madam Chen’s face grew even uglier as she listened to the increasingly bold talk, "Our girls at Flower House have always been fair and upright. Why would we have to steal talent from others?"
"Hah! You’re still stubborn as a dying duck? Then ask Zhou Shiye to tell everyone the truth about why Yihong Courtyard went bankrupt!" The man snorted coldly, showing no fear.
As expected, a thin middle-aged man stood up, stroking his beard with an inscrutable air, "This matter, I do remember. The main reason for Yihong Courtyard’s collapse was that they failed to present the girls they had long promoted, causing public outrage. However, I know that their girls suddenly disappeared, and Sun Family did indeed try to report it. But they were intercepted by the arresting officer at the time. I later learned about this and directly dealt with that officer."
With this statement from Zhou Shiye, not only did he "clear the grievances" for Sun Family but also gained himself a good reputation for being upright and honest.
In the end, he couldn’t help but sigh with regret, "Alas, such a pity. Yihong Courtyard was a great business, but unfortunately, it collapsed in this upheaval."
The crowd was boiling like an exploded pot, and many started to accuse Flower House of being treacherous, malicious, and intentionally destroying Yihong Courtyard.
Madam Chen glared at Zhou Shiye with wide eyes, never having imagined that this hypocritical beast could lie so earnestly!
The reason Sun Family couldn’t report to the authorities was that they didn’t have servitude contracts for the ten girls in the first place!
She had anticipated that someone might recognize the ten girls from Yihong Courtyard’s promotional albums, but she had already thought of a response. It wasn’t a big deal or a difficult issue.
However, she didn’t expect that this would become a target for those with malicious intentions.
The hall became noisy and chaotic.
A servant squeezed out of the crowd and whispered in Madam Chen’s ear, "Those who just started trouble all come from the same place. They must have been bribed."
Madam Chen’s eyes darkened, and she knew she’d been set up.
"You go tell the boss about this, and I’ll hold the fort here."
"Yes."
The ten frightened girls on stage trembled. They had never seen such chaos.
Madam Chen tried to reassure them, "Good children, don’t be afraid. I’m here. You can go down first. The boss is here, and nothing will happen."
"Yes."
Madam Chen continued to deal with the people on the stage. She was good at socializing, and although this matter wasn’t easy for her, she could still maintain a semblance of calm.
At this time, the servant sent to inform Ji Xinhe returned with the news.
Upon hearing the news, Xin He snorted, "Have you found out who’s behind these troublemakers?"
"Not yet, but I’ve sent people to watch them. By tonight at the latest, we’ll know who’s stirring up trouble behind the scenes!"
Their swift tactics indicated long-term planning. Even the county office’s Zhou Shiye was bribed, but he was notoriously greedy. How much silver did it take to buy his loyalty?
Flower House had also given money to the county office before. After all, businesses always hoped for the authorities’ convenience, but they never expected that the county office would take their money and still not help them, forcing them to resort to extreme measures.
There were many corrupt officials in the world, and Ji Xinhe didn’t have time to care for them all. Therefore, she’d never had a conflict with Zhou Shiye. He wanted money, so Flower House would offer him some to make things easier. It wasn’t a bad deal.
Doing business always requires greasing the wheels.
But when this man took her money and dared to bite her back, he left her no choice but to show him no mercy!
"No matter who is behind this, we need to resolve the matter immediately. If it affects tonight’s event, the losses will be huge," Xin He said solemnly.
"Yes, madam, please give your orders!"
"You have your people keep an eye on the troublemakers for now. Also, you go do something else... " Xin He quickly instructed.
But who would have thought that before she could finish speaking, a servant rushed in excitedly, "Madam, the matter with Flower House has been resolved! The county magistrate has come out to clear things up!"
Hearing this, Xin He couldn’t help but feel some suspicion, the county magistrate?
Whose move was this? Mu Houchu? Impossible. If he acted, he would have discussed it with her in advance. Moreover, he was still in the prefecture city and hadn’t returned yet.
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