Chapter 65: The Underground Copper Door
Ye Qizu was very resentful that he did not get the shares of Ye Qingtang from the second son's family.
"There's always room for negotiation in any transaction. The second wife's family is really breaking the rules by selling their shares to outsiders like that?"
Ye Kaisi was helpless. "I submitted my offer after the market closed, and they said they would consider it. When I called back, they said they needed the money urgently and had already sold it to someone else. The other party offered a higher price."
Ye Qizu was still angry. "Who did you sell it to?"
"The second wife's family is unwilling to disclose anything."
Think about it, after all my actions, I managed to drive down my own stock price, only to end up benefiting someone else for nothing, doing all the work for them!
That's really infuriating!
Ye Qizu could only scold his two sons as useless, saying, "You can't even buy shares in your own family. If I had known it would turn out like this, I would have preferred to negotiate it myself."
But since things had come to this point, there was nothing that could be done. They had no choice but to change their minds and arrange a press conference as soon as possible to stabilize Ye Qingtang's stock price.
At the press conference the following day, in addition to presenting the company's healthy financial statements, Ye Qingtang, together with other listed companies, publicly exposed various corrupt practices by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange management team headed by Lu Dexiang...
Subsequently, Lü Dexiang was taken away by the ICAC.
Ye Qingtang's stock price soared.
On her drive home, Ye Baoling listened to the news report on the radio, a smile playing on her lips.
She has basically achieved her goal, and the stock market battle has come to a perfect end.
*
Ye Baoxin, who rarely gets to leave work early, is looking at photos taken by a private investigator in her mother's room.
Her guess was correct; Ye Baoling and Ye Huaizhang did indeed have an illicit relationship.
Zheng Junni couldn't hide the joy on her face: "Who would have thought that Ye Baoling, who used to seem more honest than anyone else, was more of a playboy than anyone else? She's two-timing, with a poor girl next door on one side and a wealthy cousin on the other. Who can play like her?"
Ye Baoxin put the photo back into the envelope: "Mommy, what are you going to do now?"
The most painful thing for Zheng Junni is that she has such a good hand but can't play it.
"I wonder how Ye Baoling is doing with her investigation into Ye Baoshun's media revelations. If she's really that capable and has found out about me, we can easily get her under our thumb with just one of the photos. If she hasn't found out about me, then I'll find an opportunity to completely crush her."
Never to rise again!
As Zheng Junni spoke, she felt incredibly pleased. The Ye family's two incredibly foolish siblings were about to fall into her hands.
Ye Baoxin advised her, "Just keep Ye Baoling in check. If we expose this, we'll offend Ye Huaizhang too."
"Are you stupid? If Ye Huaizhang knew she was two-timing him, he'd be thanking me for it. Besides, our eldest son's branch doesn't need to ask anything of his third son's branch. Why would I be afraid of offending him?"
"In short, it's better to have more friends than more enemies. You exposed Ye Baoling, and Ye Huaizhang also lost face. From his perspective, he may not really be grateful to you."
Zheng Junni rubbed her forehead. She had only been indulging in momentary pleasure. If things really came to that, she would definitely be more cautious.
"Let's see if Ye Baoling is so tactless as to rush in headfirst. We'll deal with it then. Some things don't necessarily require us to do them ourselves."
They heard Ye Kaimin's voice outside. Zheng Junni quickly sealed the letter containing the photos into the drawer, while Ye Baoxin went outside first.
Ye Kaimin came in from outside. He was in much better spirits these past two days than during the stock market crash. He had accepted the fact that he had lost money and could only wait for the market to slowly recover.
Seeing that his index finger was red, seemingly from ink, Zheng Junni couldn't help but ask, "What did you do? Why did you leave your handprint?"
"The old man hired a lawyer and wants me to transfer two of the shops on Huayang Street to Baoling..."
Before he could finish speaking, she exploded.
Why didn't you discuss this with me beforehand?
Ye Kaimin glared at his wife. "Why should I consult you about my street-front shop?"
"I've always been the one collecting rent."
Since having her son, she has made no attempt to hide her temper or personality.
At first it was fine, but after a while, Ye Kaimin couldn't take it anymore. "How long has it been since you finished your postpartum confinement? Why is your temper still like this! Let me tell you, Zheng Junni, I'm the one who calls the shots in this family. You make me angry at Grandpa, and now you're making me angry at you too. What? Do you think I'm easy to bully?"
Zheng Junni couldn't help but feel wronged after hearing this. "I've been subservient to you my whole life, and now I don't even have the right to speak normally? I've been collecting rent from those street-front shops all along. Can't I even ask about them? Besides, how much did Ye Baoling lose? Does she have to compensate her with two more street-front shops?"
Ye Kaimin softened his tone slightly, "The old man said that we should consider it as her dowry."
"She's getting married?" Zheng Junni was quite surprised.
"Give it to her first."
"What if she never gets married?"
"What's the point of you arguing with me? If you're so capable, go argue with the old man!"
Seeing that Ye Kaimin was furious, Zheng Junni didn't dare to provoke him anymore. After thinking it over, she decided to go find the old man herself.
After leaving Shengyuelou, Zheng Junni made a special trip to the kitchen, and then carried a bowl of deer antler slices and sea coconut chicken soup up to the third floor of Xihetang.
At that moment, the old man was listening to the radio. Ye Qingtang's stock price had soared today, and he was in a good mood.
"Dad, I've brought you the soup today."
Ye Qizu looked up at Zheng Junni, but didn't ask why she was the one who brought the soup. He simply said, "Just leave it here. I'll drink it later."
After setting down the soup bowl, Zheng Junni stood aside and said softly, "Dad, Kaimin just came back and told me that the two shops on Huayang Street near Huanzhong Road are going to be transferred to Baoling as her dowry..."
Ye Qizu glanced at her and asked, "Do you have a problem with that?"
Zheng Junni felt nervous. "Of course not. I've always treated Bao Ling like my own daughter. As for a dowry, two street-front shops definitely wouldn't be enough. But isn't it a bit too early to give it to her now? I'm worried that if she has more money, she'll spend it recklessly and become more restless. I've heard that she's been acting quite... well, you know.
Which one should we support?
Zheng Junni hesitated again: "Yes, she is... also very good at having fun. Otherwise, how come she didn't like any of the many blind dates I introduced her to?"
Ye Qizu remained silent.
Zheng Junni quickly added, "I think we can talk about the dowry later. If we're really getting married, we'll definitely prepare well and absolutely can't let down our eldest son's family. For now, Dad, you should keep the property. I'm not saying we want to take it back, just leave it with you for now and give it to Bao Ling when she gets married. This is for her own good. After all, I'm not her biological mother, and she won't listen to me even if I try to control her."
Even if the property remains in the old man's hands, at least she'll still collect the rent. If Ye Baoling's affair is truly exposed later, then Ye Kaimin can go and ask the old man to take it back.
"Alright, I understand." Ye Qizu didn't like talking to his daughter-in-law much. "You can go back now."
Judging from the old man's tone, he must have heard her, so Zheng Junni smiled and reminded him, "Dad, I'm going back now. Hurry up and drink your soup, or it'll get cold."
Just then, outside the door, Liang Meiyun heard Zheng Junni walking out, so she quickly slipped into the room next door.
She had just heard that Zheng Junni had gone to the kitchen to serve soup to the old man, and she guessed that it wasn't that simple, so she followed her.
really!
After Zheng Junni left, she came out and went down to the second floor, where she happened to run into Ye Baoling coming home from get off work.
She said hurriedly, "Baoling, I have something to tell you."
Ye Baoling asked with a smile, "What is it, Second Aunt?"
"Let's talk in your room."
Once inside, before even sitting down, Liang Meiyun recounted in detail what she had just heard to Ye Baoling.
"Just for the rent of two street-front shops, she dared to frame you, saying you were having an affair. That's what a stepmother is like! A smiling tiger, biting people behind their backs. She bit our Baoshun first, and now she's biting you."
Ye Baoling knew that her second aunt wanted to win her over, so she immediately nodded in agreement: "I've always known she's not a good person. When she bought me clothes before, they were all designer brands, but very few of them were wearable. She deliberately picked out ugly and outrageous ones to buy for me."
"That person is incredibly cunning," Liang Meiyun sighed, then asked her, "How's your investigation into the whistleblower going?"
"The phone number used to make the tip has been basically confirmed. It was made from a small shop. But it's not a small shop around here; it's far away, in the North District."
Liang Meiyun was somewhat disappointed: "Did Ah Jin go all that way to the North District just to make a tip-off call?"
Ye Baoling: "But there is a very coincidental point: that small shop is very close to 'Lin Ji Hardware Store'."
Liang Meiyun didn't understand: "What 'Lin's Hardware Store'?"
“Ah Feng, do you remember her? She was the one who used to slander me as a lesbian.”
“I remember, Zheng Junni’s distant relative came to take care of her for about half a year.”
Ye Baoling: "Lin Ji Hardware Store is owned by Ah Feng's family, and she lives there."
Liang Meiyun instantly understood: "It wasn't Ah Jin who made the tip-off call, it was Ah Feng! She instructed Ah Feng to make the call!"
“It’s highly likely. But we don’t have direct evidence, and she won’t admit it based on that alone.” Ye Baoling said with difficulty, “I’m stuck here now.”
"It's already impressive that you were able to find all this information." Liang Meiyun lowered her voice and said mysteriously, "I also have something I want to tell you."
"What's up?"
"I suspect that Ye Baoxian is not a member of our Ye family."
Ye Baoling thought to herself, "Second Aunt, you've finally figured it out!"
She had to feign surprise: "What do you mean?"
“Intuition! This Ye Baoxian doesn’t resemble anyone else. I suspect Zheng Junni isn’t pregnant at all; she bought the child. Why would she choose such a run-down hospital to give birth? To make it easier to fake it. If she gave birth at the Aihe Hospital of the second wife’s family, would she have had the opportunity to fake it? No.” Liang Meiyun reminded her, “Do you remember? That day at the hospital, you said you ran into that Ah Feng, but Ah Feng didn’t even show up in Zheng Junni’s ward that day. Why? Because she’s the one who’s in charge of switching babies.”
Although there were still some minor misjudgments, the overall direction was correct.
Ye Baoling pretended to suddenly realize something: "Second Aunt, now that you mention it, it all seems to make sense."
"Isn't that right? This woman lied to your father! She lied to everyone. The only reason she was able to marry your father was because of her pregnancy!" Liang Meiyun finished speaking and continued, "I've been thinking about this for the past two days, but I have such a big conflict with her right now, I don't have a chance to touch Ye Baoxian. I'm having trouble getting a paternity test done. But you're different, no matter what, you're still his sister..."
Ye Baoling said, "She is also wary of me and the people around me."
Liang Meiyun had carefully considered all the candidates around her beforehand, and she immediately said, "What about Ye Leyan? Ye Leyan has a good personality and is friendly to everyone. Zheng Junni definitely won't be wary of Ye Leyan. You and Leyan are such good friends, you can definitely get her to handle it."
It's not a good idea to use Ye Leyan to do this, but Ye Baoling has other methods. She pondered for a moment, "Let me think about how to do it."
Seeing that Ye Baoling agreed, Liang Meiyun, who had finally found the allied forces, nodded with relief, confident that they could defeat Zheng Junni this time.
The two of them didn't need to have a clear division of labor. Ye Baoling was basically certain that she would go and gather evidence, while Liang Meiyun would definitely be responsible for pushing forward.
*
The water dog has been found in Thailand.
This is the news that Xiao Dahai brought back.
Ye Huaizhang, who had just finished playing golf with his friends and was about to play another round, stopped in his tracks and asked, "Who found it?"
Xiao Dahai: "Lai Yaoming. He did everything he could to survive."
"Are you sure you found a water dog?"
"It's confirmed. He admitted that he paid 50,000 to bribe the minibus driver to crash into your car."
Where is he?
"He's locked up in this abandoned factory. Young Master, are you going to see him now?"
Ye Huaizhang wasn't in a hurry: "Wait until I finish this game."
Two hours later, in a small building at the abandoned construction site, Ye Huaizhang finally met the Annamese water dog they had been searching for for four months.
Water Dog, true to its name, is thin and pale, like a hairless dog.
He was tied to a pillar, his face covered in blood, and his mouth taped shut.
The water dog stared blankly at the man who walked in—tall and slender, with a calm and expressionless face.
He recognized him; it was Ye Huaizhang, the eldest son of the Ye family.
Someone pulled over a chair for Ye Huaizhang to sit down.
Xiao Dahai gave a signal, and the head of the gang went forward to warn Shui Gou: "Don't bark, or I'll shoot you."
The tape was torn off, and the water dog's lips were torn and hurt. He endured the pain and said, "Can I have some water?"
Xiao Dahai glanced at Ye Huaizhang and then ordered, "Give him water."
A henchman brought in bottled water and poured most of it into the water dog's mouth.
The place quieted down, and Xiao Dahai gestured for the other bystanders to leave.
Ye Huaizhang stared at the water dog without saying a word.
Xiao Dahai asked, "Tell me, who ordered you to do this?"
The water dog tried to negotiate: "To be honest, can you let me go?"
Before he could finish speaking, the gang leader slapped him across the face. "Who gave you the right to haggle and argue here! You son of a bitch! You have two sons still in school, right? If you don't answer properly, I'll kill your whole family and make you rich!"
Water Dog's head was buzzing from the slap, and blood was trickling from the corner of his mouth. He wasn't afraid of the pain, but he was afraid that his family would be punished. These people in the gang were capable of anything.
He dared not talk back anymore.
Xiao Dahai warned him, "Answer properly and you'll have a chance to live. If you don't answer properly, you definitely won't. Tell me, who exactly ordered you to do this?"
Water Dog then said, "It was a woman. She asked one of my fellow Annamese to find me and gave me 150,000 to kill Young Master Ye Huaizhang. She promised to give me another 150,000 if I succeeded."
Xiao Dahai: "What does that woman look like?"
Water Dog: "She was in her forties or fifties, wearing a coffee-colored cheongsam, her hair was up, her face was a bit square, and she had an ordinary appearance with nothing special about her. But she was dressed quite richly."
Do you know what this woman's last name is?
"I don't know. My fellow villager called me and said her name is Aunt Mei."
Where did you meet?
"At Chao Hing Noodle Shop in the North District, she told me that if things went well, I should wait for her call at 8 p.m. But when things failed, I didn't go and ran away."
Xiao Dahai then asked, "How did you know our young master would be dining at the Yulinmen Restaurant on the day of the incident?"
"That morning, Aunt Mei paged me to tell me."
Ye Huaizhang beckoned Dong Jian over and said a few words to him. Dong Jian was prepared, so he went to the car and got a photo album.
The album contains photos of almost everyone from the third branch of the family, including relatives and former maids.
Dong Jian took out all the photos from the album that matched the age group and showed them to Shui Gou for identification. As they flipped through the photos one by one, Shui Gou shook his head, indicating that none of them were Aunt Mei.
After interrogating him for another ten minutes or so, Ye Huaizhang knew there would be no other results, so he got up and left.
Although they learned new information, they also encountered new problems.
They went from looking for the Water Dog to now looking for Aunt Mei, which can be considered a step forward.
Back home, Ye Huaizhang sat in his study for a while, lost in thought.
Sometimes, when you don't want to think about anything, you can just empty your mind, stay quietly, and slowly relax. In half an hour at most, you can feel completely refreshed.
*
After dinner, Ye Baoling received a call from Lisa.
Lisa asked the fortune teller about her preferences, "What kind of gift should I buy for her?"
Ye Baoling had already spoken to Granny Tong beforehand, saying, "Granny Tong likes money! I'll prepare a red envelope for you; you just need to give a token amount, like some incense money."
How much is just a token amount?
"It's up to you, there are no rules. We usually give a few hundred or a few thousand, it's up to you."
US dollars or Hong Kong dollars?
"If you want to earn US dollars, you pay in US dollars; if you want to earn Hong Kong dollars, you pay in Hong Kong dollars."
Lisa understood; it would definitely be in US dollars.
Just before hanging up, Lisa reminded Ye Baoling, "Daniel's team is discussing a collaboration with your company. Be prepared, they'll be very aggressive in pushing for lower prices."
Ye Baoling and her colleagues had studied L&D carefully, and she had a general understanding of Daniel's style of doing things.
That was a cunning, stingy, and very good at haggling over prices Grandet.
Ye Baoling also deliberately revealed information: "Our company has another team that contacted L&D's competitors, hoping that L&D will not lower the price too much. Our team can win, we can win."
Lisa wanted to find out which competitor it was, but Ye Baoling dodged the question with a laugh.
After hanging up the phone, Ye Baoling went outside for a walk, then came back, locked the door, went down the tunnel, and headed to the third room to find Ye Huaizhang.
The shares purchased by the second wife were initially paid for by Ye Huaizhang, and she wanted to repay him first.
Ye Huaizhang came to the wine cellar to pick her up. "Are you in such a hurry to pay me back?"
"I don't like owing money to others."
Ye Huaizhang paused, "Am I someone else?"
“You’re not just anyone,” she asked with a smile, “so can I not pay it back?”
Ye Huaizhang laughed and said, "Okay, give me the Ugly King's Jade."
Ye Baoling: "I won't fall for it. Without any transfer or payment record, the 4.3% of Ye Qingtang's shares held by the second son's family will become yours."
"The agreement is in your company's name, how could it possibly be mine?"
The steps here are quite narrow, and he, holding a flashlight behind him, couldn't help but remind him, "Watch your step."
Back in the dressing room, Ye Baoling, as usual, first paid her respects to Guanyin Bodhisattva.
Ye Huaizhang looked at her and didn't think she was the type to believe in ghosts and spirits. He asked, "Do you truly believe or are you just pretending?"
Ye Baoling smiled and said, "I believe in things that are beneficial to me. As for things that are not beneficial to me, then I won't. But when I make a wish, it will definitely be one that is beneficial to me. So, I believe in it."
Genius logic.
Back in the bedroom, she handed him the check: "Remember to deposit it."
Ye Huaizhang put the check into his desk drawer.
Ye Baoling noticed that the desk was covered with photos, and she went over to ask, "What are these?"
Upon closer inspection, they were all photos of the blue brick walls and floors inside the blue brick tunnel.
"You took this picture in the blue brick tunnel?"
He nodded: "At the foot of Silver Serpent Mountain, we suspect there's a door there, and I've taken pictures of the surrounding environment."
He wanted to study methods to break through the door.
Ye Baoling stood there for a while, looking at almost all the same photos until her eyes were tired. "Have you got any clues?"
“Just now, I noticed that the blue bricks inside are two colors. Most of them are dark gray, and a small portion is a slightly lighter color. It’s hard to distinguish them with the naked eye. Taking a picture makes it much easier to tell.” He pointed it out to her in the photo.
Even in photos, it's quite difficult to discern. Ye Baoling asked, "Could the light gray bricks be the key to opening the door?"
"Possibly. I'm thinking that this brick tunnel should be a complete project, so shouldn't the passwords for opening and closing the doors also be consistent?"
Ye Baoling nodded: "Probably. In the Fuxi Bagua diagram, aren't there two trigrams that haven't been used yet? The eldest son's trigram is Qian 1 and Dui 2, the third son's trigram is Xun 5 and Kan 6, and if the second son's son has a cellar, then it's 3 and 4. Could the remaining 7 and 8 be the password to open the door at the bottom of Silver Snake Mountain?"
“Gen 7 and Kun 8.” Ye Huaizhang looked at the photo on the table; he couldn’t match them up earlier.
He suddenly remembered: "No, the hexagram Kun 8 has already been used in the old eldest son's wine cellar."
Ye Baoling also remembered: "It was swapped with the 'Qian Yi' hexagram. Could the one from Silver Snake Mountain be Qian Yi and Gen Qi?"
Ye Huaizhang moved the photo from the bottom left corner of the table to the top, "It really does seem to be true."
The couple were both action-oriented, so they immediately gathered their tools, went down into the tunnel, and headed towards Silver Snake Mountain.
Upon arriving at the foot of Silver Serpent Mountain, where they had previously suspected the location of a blue brick gate, Ye Huaizhang placed half a blue brick as a marker, and the two stopped.
The shades of the blue bricks on either side of the blue brick gate are almost indistinguishable to the naked eye.
After comparing the photos, Ye Huaizhang determined the location of the light-colored blue bricks and marked them with chalk.
He waved his flashlight: "The three rows of six light-colored blue bricks on the left are connected without any openings; that's 'Dry One'."
The flashlight shone to the right. "The three rows of six light-colored blue bricks on the right have two openings, which should be Genqi."
I've found the location, how do I press it?
They tried going from left to right, but nothing happened.
Ye Huaizhang immediately judged: "We should start with Gen 7 on the right and then Qian 1 on the left, because Qian 1 is a substitute for Kun 8."
That makes sense.
They immediately reversed the process, from bottom to top, from left to right.
When the last blue brick was pressed down hard, the light-colored blue brick dented inward.
Then, a tiny crack appeared at the location on the door frame that they had previously identified!
Ye Baoling exclaimed excitedly, "It's ready!"
The two pushed hard against the blue brick door. Fortunately, this door was different from the brick door of the wine cellar; it opened into the mountainside.
The blue brick door slowly opened, revealing a dark interior with a seemingly small space.
The two shone their flashlights inside and saw that the walls were covered with talismans made of some unknown material.
It was eerie and chilling to look at.
If Ye Huaizhang hadn't been there, Ye Baoling would have run away immediately.
She must have kicked something, because when she looked down she saw it was a skull.
She screamed in terror!
She almost fell into Ye Huaizhang's arms.
He saw it clearly and told her, "It's a bull's head."
Ye Baoling opened her eyes and looked down again; it really was a bull's head.
She was terrified. "I thought it was a human head."
"There's another one over here." Ye Huaizhang shone his flashlight on the right wall.
In the center of the wall hung a huge bull's head.
It seems that there was originally a bull's head hanging on both the left and right walls, but the one on the left wall fell down.
It's like a foyer for religious purposes, completely different from the atmosphere of their wine cellar downstairs.
They walked forward for more than ten meters, turned a corner, and found a bronze door standing in front of them.
It is sturdier, more exquisite, and taller than the iron gate of the old third house.
The two stood in front of the bronze gate. Ye Baoling was still somewhat bewildered, having been terrified earlier.
What's behind the door? She was a little scared.
"The door is unlocked."
Ye Huaizhang was bold; he had already pushed hard, but it wouldn't budge.
Pulling it out didn't make a sound.
Ye Huaizhang studied it for a while and said, "This bronze door is not without a lock, but this lock is not an ordinary lock."
He pointed to a hole in the middle of the bronze door, about six or seven centimeters long and three or four coins thick.
Ye Baoling reacted quickly: "This looks like the opening on a piggy bank where you put coins."
As soon as she finished speaking, the young couple looked at each other, and they thought of something.
The bronze medal she found on the mountaintop earlier.
The bronze plaque was the same color as the door, and its diameter was roughly the same as the coin slot on the door.
He asked, "Is the bronze medal kept at home?"
At home.
She almost took the bronze plaque to the bank safe and put it with the ugly king's jade pendant.
"I'll go back and get it." After saying that, she pulled him back, "You're coming back with me."
She was afraid.
Ye Huaizhang smiled. It was good that she still had something she was afraid of.
Ye Baoling rolled her eyes at him: "God gave me brains, and you gave him guts."
"Let's go, honey."
"..."
-----------------------
Author's Note: The exciting part you're all waiting for will probably be in chapters 2-3, so please be patient!
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