Chapter 64 The Selfish Young Master Forced Miss Lin to This Point
"Feel sorry."
The boy's eyebrows drooped, looking very apologetic. He was about to stand up when he said, "I'll go find someone to fix it."
"Forget it, forget it!" Lin Shutang quickly pulled him back. "You're not familiar with Yizhou City, where would you find someone to fix it?"
She took the remains of the female bird from Shen Yun's hands and said with some regret, "It's probably been sitting there for too long, and the mechanisms have rusted. It's not your fault."
“Then I’ll throw it away.” Shen Yun looked down at her.
"Hmm." Lin Shutang sighed. The damage was so severe that even if his senior brother came, he wouldn't be able to repair it. It only made him feel bad for him.
"Remember not to let your senior brother find out, he'll be heartbroken," Lin Shutang reminded him again.
Shen Yun nodded, turned around and left the room.
The faint smile that had been playing on his lips vanished instantly. He stared coldly at the pile of broken pieces in his palm, then tossed it into the dustbin.
Turning around, he saw Song Ying standing in the courtyard, walking towards him, his gaze slowly shifting from the slag bin to him.
Shen Yun looked at him, tilted her head slightly, a smile appeared on her lips, her gaze slowly swept over him, and she turned and went back into the room, without any intention of explaining anything.
Song Ying clenched his fists inwardly. During this period, he had frequently sparred with this man, but the man had always brushed him off with a few words as if they were a gentle spring breeze. On the contrary, he himself had repeatedly failed to gain the upper hand.
Now, they have even been sent out of the small courtyard and are staying at Jingmutang.
He could only find time to visit his junior sister, but he still had to endure her provocations.
Song Ying entered the room indignantly and saw Lin Shutang sitting at the table fiddling with some kind of instrument. Shen Yun sat next to her, as if assisting her, occasionally handing her the tools she needed.
From a distance, the two appeared to be working together seamlessly, and Song Ying even detected a hint of harmonious melody in their performance.
Song Ying watched with envy and stepped forward. "Junior sister, something has happened at Jingmutang. You need to come with me."
Lin Shutang looked up when she heard the voice and saw Song Ying with her brows furrowed. She knew it must be something serious, otherwise her senior brother could handle it by himself, why would he come to find her personally?
She immediately stood up and walked towards Song Ying, asking, "Senior brother, what happened?"
Noticing that Song Ying's gaze was subtly shifting behind her, Lin Shutang seemed to realize that there was another person in the wooden room. She turned to Shen Yun and said, "My senior brother and I are going to Jingmu Hall. We'll be back tonight. You and Chang Geng don't need to wait for me for dinner."
Because of the brief moment when he turned his head, Lin Shutang did not notice the smile that Song Ying gave Shen Yun behind him.
Shen Yun shifted her gaze from his face to Lin Shutang, and gave a faint reply, "Okay."
After Lin Shutang left, his face turned terribly cold.
A dark figure leaped down from the roof beam and stood right behind Shen Yun.
"What happened to Jingmutang?" His voice was devoid of any emotion.
"I heard that refugees flooded in, and the shop was almost completely looted," Yingxiao said, sharing the information she had gathered.
Shen Yun sneered, "He's quite willing to harm himself."
"Does the young master have any instructions?" Yingxiao inquired. "Now is a good time. Would the young master like to give it a push?"
Shen Yun didn't know if she had heard Ying Xiao's words, but her gaze fell on the table, and her expression deepened.
He suddenly felt very bored.
What he's been doing all this time is ridiculously childish.
Even things that Yingxiao still remembered, he completely forgot about.
"Go." He nodded, stood up from the desk, and strode towards the door, instructing, "Also, send a message to that person to wait for me at Zhangtai Ferry."
-
Jingmutang's crisis this time is not small. Originally, it was just some low-class thugs who broke in, but later, perhaps seeing that these people had gained a lot from it, a swarm of refugees poured in.
In these difficult times, these refugees can't even get enough to eat, so they don't care if what they're doing is illegal. They're just thinking of taking advantage of the chaos, hoping that with so many people around, they'll never be caught.
Many valuable ornaments in the shop were taken away, and there was still a lot of rare wood stored in the warehouse, which could be sold for a lot of money.
That is certainly enough for these people to risk their lives for.
Song Ying truly hadn't expected that his initial intentional indulgence would lead to such serious consequences. When he tried to clean up the mess, he discovered that it was beyond his ability to resolve alone.
These past few days, he and Lin Shutang have been living and eating at Jingmutang, trying to do as much as possible to make up for the losses.
Any agreed-upon deals that can be cancelled should be cancelled as soon as possible; for those that cannot be cancelled, compensation should be paid accordingly.
As for the refugees, only a few were eventually caught. The rest had long since vanished from the vast city of Yizhou.
After several days of worry, Lin Shutang finally managed to appease some customers and had some free time. He dragged his tired body back to the courtyard and just wanted to get a good night's sleep.
Upon hearing this, Song Ying drove over without stopping. As soon as Lin Shutang entered the courtyard, Song Ying stopped her. "Shutang, Jingmutang can't do without you for the time being. Your senior brother knows nothing about managing shops. I've rented a small courtyard near Jingmutang, which is worse than you traveling all that way. Why don't you pack your bags and come with your senior brother?"
Lin Shutang shook her head, brushed his hand away, and said wearily, "No need, Senior Brother."
"I won't leave Jingmutang alone. Besides, I'll be taken there by carriage, so I'm not tired."
Seeing that she wouldn't listen, Song Ying became a little anxious and decided to make his point clearer: "Shutang, I didn't think things through before. With Master not here, as your only family, I naturally have to think about you."
“You are not married yet, and it is inconvenient to live with a man from another country. The neighbors are all watching, and if rumors start to spread, I am afraid it will damage your reputation.”
Song Ying's words were sincere and heartfelt, seemingly showing that she was thinking of Lin Shutang in every way, but upon closer listening, it was clear that she had a preconceived notion.
Lin Shutang looked at Song Ying, her eyes initially blank as she listened, but later growing increasingly disappointed. Her lips trembled. "I don't know what others think, but I understand very well what Senior Brother means right now."
Song Ying was immediately stunned.
"If you feel that having a junior sister like me who disregards her reputation is damaging to your image, then you should refrain from coming here in person in the future."
Lin Shutang turned to leave as he spoke.
Song Ying immediately panicked. His junior sister had always been gentle and kind, and she was always close to him. When had she ever spoken to him so coldly?
In his panic, he pulled Lin Shutang into his arms, saying, "Shutang, that's not what I meant."
“You know what kind of person your senior brother is. How could your senior brother think of you like that, and how could he feel that you would tarnish his reputation?”
He hurriedly explained, ignoring Lin Shutang's struggles in his arms.
It was his fault; he was completely blinded by greed, actually saying such vicious things to his junior sister because of an outsider.
His junior sister was naturally free-spirited; how could he possibly discipline her with the rules of etiquette?
Song Ying's voice was so humble. Although Lin Shutang was angry, after all, they had been siblings for so many years. Although he didn't speak, he just felt depressed.
Song Ying didn't know what she was thinking, but when she stopped talking, he became even more flustered, as if he was afraid that he would really lose this junior sister in the future. He held her tightly in his arms and repeated, "Senior brother was wrong."
"It's my senior's fault."
Lin Shutang was held tightly in his arms. Seeing that her senior brother had already admitted his mistake, she felt even worse. After all, her senior brother was thinking of her.
She's been too tense lately, and she's become a bit paranoid, unable to distinguish right from wrong.
She sighed, gave a muffled reply in his arms, and reached out to push him away, "I understand, senior brother, please let me go."
Song Ying held her hand tightly, persistently asking from above her head, "Has Junior Sister forgiven Senior Brother?"
His voice softened, no longer sounding as anxious as before.
Seeing his mood change so quickly, Lin Shutang was stunned for a moment, but didn't think much of it and nodded in agreement, saying, "I wasn't really angry with my senior brother."
She got up from his embrace and looked up at him. "But senior brother, please don't say such things again. It's not only trampling on me, but also disgracing Shen Yun."
As she said this, she noticed Song Ying's gaze falling behind her.
Turning around, they saw Shen Yun standing under the eaves, looking at them from afar through the sparse leaves.
Just as Lin Shutang was about to call out to him, she saw him sweep his extremely cold gaze over the two of them, then turn and leave along the corridor.
It was as if they didn't take it seriously at all.
The sound that was about to escape Lin Shutang's throat ultimately died down. She sighed. It was her fault for breaking her promise and not returning for so long, and she had forgotten to send someone to deliver a message to him.
"Senior brother, you should go back," Lin Shutang said, heading towards her room. She needed to get a good night's sleep and think about these trivial matters tomorrow.
-
Lin Shutang's peaceful days didn't last long. Just one day after returning, Jingmutang encountered a new situation.
Some customers who had already agreed on compensation suddenly wanted to back out and ask for additional compensation.
Even those customers who were initially willing to peacefully terminate their contracts began to back out and demand compensation from Jingmutang.
So much so that Lin Shutang completely forgot about apologizing to Shen Yun, but it seemed that the other party was deliberately avoiding her, and she hadn't seen Shen Yun for several days.
Lin Shutang had been traveling to countless places recently and was extremely busy, so she simply went with him.
She personally went to various places to negotiate, but was turned away in many of them.
People have visibly lost a lot of weight.
Occasionally, when I return to the small courtyard, the candlelight in the study has burned out until the end of my days.
Shen Yun saw all of this. He stood under the eaves, the cold wind of the night blowing his robes, and the faint light of the candlelight in the distance reflected in his eyes, like a cold lamp buried in a deep pool.
It wasn't until fate intervened that he entered the room and stood by the window, watching the figure leave.
Even after all this hardship, you still refuse to come to him?
...
"Young Master, Miss Lin has contacted the Qin family." At noon, Yingxiao brought the new message.
He had been following Lin Shutang for the past few days, and today he saw her asking someone to make connections, which seemed to indicate that she was about to enter the Qin family.
Third Master Qin of the Qin family is the head of the Yizhou Merchant Guild. With his help, Jingmutang's current crisis can naturally be resolved.
Behind the scenes, they were fueling the flames, hoping to get Jingmutang on board the merchant guild's big ship, and then discover who had treacherous ambitions and wipe them all out.
Yingxiao believed that although the process was somewhat bumpy, the goal had been achieved, and his young master should be happy.
But upon hearing this, the young master's eyes instantly turned cold, his expression inscrutable, and he seemed to let out a cold laugh.
Yingxiao didn't understand. Wasn't the young master forcing Miss Lin to this point just to bring about this situation?
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Author's Note: I just realized, did Jinjiang (a Chinese online literature platform) swallow my author's note emojis?! (Shocked) It makes the author seem very indifferent. (Peacefully closes eyes.)
There should be a few more chapters of the flashback sequence, maybe two or three if things go smoothly (looking up at the sky...).
For those who don't want to watch it yet, you can save it for later [lop-eared rabbit head]. I'll see if I can add a note in the synopsis saying the flashback route ends. [dog head carrying a rose] (dog head carrying a rose)
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