“Why?” Wen Yingniang frowned and couldn’t help thinking that it was strange. Could it be that yesterday, Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge saved her because of some hidden agenda?

“Yesterday, Young Master Zheng told us that your maiden family can make ships, and we want to buy some big ships!” Zhao Jinge stated directly.

Wen Yingniang wondered what Zhao Jinge wanted from her and hearing his answer, she finally understood.

They had many craftsmen in the Wen family, and the ships they made were meant to be sold, so there was no problem at all in selling them to the Jinzhen Escort Agency. Wen Yingniang agreed without thinking. “No problem. I will write a letter to my second brother when the time comes. He will definitely sell the ships to you.”

“Thank you.” Zhao Jinge told her.

“No need.” Wen Yingniang waved her hand and went out.

After seeing Wen Yingniang leave, Zhao Jinge started playing with Zhao Mingzhu again and managed to take care of some of the affairs of the Jinzhen Escort Agency sent by He Chunsheng. He also read the account books sent by the brick kiln on the side of Fucheng.

The brick kiln on the side of Fucheng was currently under the control of Jiang Xiaomei and her husband Zhang Bai.

Not long after the Jiang family sued Jiang Zhen, Jiang Xiaomei married Zhang Bai and then followed Zhao Jinge to Fucheng to burn bricks.

Zhang Bai was not a free person in the past, but recently Jiang Zhen redeemed his deed of sale and let him marry a wife, so he was very grateful and worked especially hard. He not only worked hard to burn bricks but also had many apprentices. So not long after the brick kiln of Zhao Jinge was opened, the output unexpectedly exceeded that of some brick kilns that had been open for decades on this side of Fucheng, making Zhao Jinge a lot of money.

The account book of the brick kiln was very simple, so Zhao Jinge finished reading it quickly and then asked the people who came to report it some questions.

Knowing that the people he and Jiang Zhen brought back from the coast were living well at the brick kiln factory, Zhao Jinge’s mind was at ease. Then he specifically instructed his people to prepare some meat for the kiln workers every day so that they could nourish their bodies.

The people who came to report responded one after another.

After doing these things, it was already afternoon but Jiang Zhen had not come back yet . . . Zhao Jinge carried Zhao Mingzhu to the gate looking for someone to ask about Qingfeng House’s situation when he saw the side gate open.

Was Jiang Zhen back? Zhao Jinge was delighted and was about to welcome him, but he found that it was Wen Yingniang who came back, and on top of that, her expression was very ugly.

“Miss Wen, what’s wrong?” Zhao Jinge asked worriedly. Not only was Wen Yingniang’s expression ugly but the people around Wen Yin Niang . . . he smelled rotten eggs from a few maids. Were rotten eggs being thrown at them?

“Met a group of crazy people,” Wen Yingniang responded coldly.

She went out and went to the mansion she bought in Fucheng. At first, she didn’t encounter anything, but in the afternoon, a group of scholars suddenly appeared.

They called her a lioness and a poisonous woman, scolding her severely and even encouraging other people to throw rotten eggs at her.

If it weren’t for the people around her, she would probably be stinking up the place now.

Wen Yingniang trembled in anger whenever she thought of the scene at that time.

Why are there so many noisy people in this world?

That group of stinky men, were they living off their women just like Liao Qinghe? Were they afraid that the women in their families would use her as an example and start to make trouble, so they tried to suppress her first? If not, why would they be so angry and aggrieved for Liao Qinghe’s sake?

Why don’t they just go to hell?

Wen Yingniang cursed those people from beginning to end countless times in her heart; however, even then, she still suffered a loss.

“Zhao Jinge, can you help me find some people to collect money and do other things for me? I am in need of them.” Wen Yingniang sent her servants off to wash up then looked at Zhao Jinge.

When she left the Liao family before, she took a lot of things with her, but she still gave them some consideration in the divorce.

The Liao family have collected calligraphy and paintings for generations but she did not let them be used to repay the debt when she married into the Liao family, nor did she take them when she divorced. She also did not touch the Liao family’s 30 acres of land outside the city.

Regardless of this, Liao Qinghe instigated a group of people to scold her!

After Wen Yingniang sent people to inquire about it, the circumstances of the matter became very clear.

It turned out that because of the trouble made by Wen Yingniang yesterday, the Liao family stayed up all night last night. After getting up this morning, they also found . . .. . . they did not even have breakfast to eat!

Wen Yingniang had even taken the cook away!

It took some effort for the Liao family to find one of their remaining servants who was good at cooking to cook them a meal, but because of the lack of ingredients and ablility in the end it was very unsatisfactory to eat.

Then they discovered they really had very little money left, so after eating this meal they didn’t know what they should do about the next meal.

At first when Liao Qinghe encountered such a situation, he could not help but feel anxious, so when some of his friends came to see him he started to complain.

Liao Qinghe was one of four top scholars of Fucheng; although he had not yet become an official, his poems were very popular in Fucheng. Many young students admired him very much and always sympathized with him – such a man of outstanding knowledge even married a merchant-born lioness who was still childless.

Liao Qinghe had always been very forgiving to this woman but she was surprisingly ungrateful. Under the circumstances, and even with Liao Qinghe’s being so tolerant of her, she dared to leave the Liao family.

Young scholars have always been the easiest ones to provoke, so in their anger they found some people to give Wen Yingniang a lesson.

However, Wen Yingniang had no intention of holding back. If you want to teach me a lesson, I can naturally teach you a lesson too!

Jinzhen Escort Agency operated it’s business here for some time, so naturally they got to know many different kinds of people. Zhao Jinge was able to quickly bring some people to Wen Yingniang.

Wen Yingniang gave them two silver each, explained some things and gave them a few names before letting them go. Then she said to Zhao Jinge: “I will still live with the Zhao family for the next few days so I will need to trouble you to take care of me. Don’t worry, I’ll compensate you for the trouble with silver.”

 When she got married, the bottom of her dowry boxes had 200,000 silver and in addition to that she owned several shops. Over the years her family would also periodically subsidize her, so she wasn’t lacking money.

Zhao Jinge promised Jiang Zhen to build a good relationship with Wen Yingniang, so he agreed to her request.

However, he still had some doubts. Why did Wen Yingniang give such information to the people he sent to her?

Zhao Jinge was a little confused at first but the next day he understood – the Liao family and several other scholars had the entrance of their houses filled with dung and filth.

Wen Yingniang was planning to confront those people!

She was a woman and did not feel comfortable hiring strangers to protect her. Since the shopkeepers working under her had other things to do, she planned to follow Zhao Jinge for now.

Wen Yingniang’s behavior could be considered offensive to the scholars in Fucheng, but they had no way to deal with her.

The large families of Fucheng would not rashly offend Wen Yingniang and some of them didn’t even like the Liao family. The people who threw rotten eggs at Wen Yingniang were basically scholars with a good relationship with the Liao family.

Although these scholars wanted revenge, they really couldn’t make a big deal out of this and Jiang Zhen found some people to patrol his doorstep so no one dared to come over.

However, if Wen Yingniang was left alone, bad luck would probably find her immediately.

Because of this, when the Zhao family wanted to return to Hexi Village a few days later, they could only take Wen Yingniang with them.

This time, they were going back to Hexi Village for two reasons: one was to bring back some of the people they had brought back from the seaside, and the other was to celebrate Zhao Mingzhu’s first birthday.

Zhao Mingzhu was already one year old, and since the Zhao family was not short on money, they naturally wanted to give her a birthday party.

Wen Yingniang followed Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge and sat on one of the best ships owned by the Jinzhen Escort Agency. She looked around and finally said, “This ship is not as good as ours. No wonder you wanted to buy ships from our family.”

“Mm-hmm.” Zhao Jinge nodded.

Jiang Zhen always tried to avoid spending time with Wen Yingniang, so the person who had the most contact with her was Zhao Jinge. Jinge was not very good at talking, but he spoke truthfully.

“By the way, don’t you have many good-looking maids? How come you didn’t bring any of them out this time?” Wen Yingniang asked. While living with the Zhao family, all the maids sent to serve her were good-looking, but currently she didn’t see any of them.

“They are all working in the kitchen,” Zhao Jinge said. Those maids were usually responsible for working in the kitchen and cleaning the vacant courtyard, and they were also responsible for guests.

Wen Yingniang took a look at the two dark and thin ger children beside Zhao Jinge and then at the two elderly servants beside Zhao Liu and was a bit speechless. “You let those maids work in the kitchen? Jiang Zhen doesn’t say anything about it?” This jealousy was too obvious!

“He said he didn’t like having a group of maids hanging around.” Zhao Jinge, feeling a little smug. Jiang Zhen was not a person who would be deceived by beauty!

Wen Yingniang looked at Zhao Jinge with a complicated look and some envy.

Liao Qinghe had always been flirtatious, and the maids around him were all beautiful. They all acted too familiar with him. Many of her servant girls fell for Liao Qinghe.

She had been uncomfortable at first, but then she got used to it. She thought that all women and gers had to live like that, but Zhao Jinge didn’t.

Maybe she could also find a man to marry into her family?

She was already old and divorced, so it was basically impossible for her to find a better man than Liao Qinghe. However, it wouldn’t be a problem to find some good-looking man who had no money to marry her.

It would be good if the man were talentless, so if she kept an eye on him, she wouldn’t have to worry about him acting on his own and he would be obedient to her.

Wen Yingniang thought of  many things, but that was all it was. She didn’t want to find a new man for the time being.

She said she was going to send someone to Minnan, but she hadn’t sent someone over yet.

Wen Yingniang sighed, but unbeknownst to her, at that moment a big ship had arrived in the Fucheng docks. The people who got off the ship were all from the Wen family.

Wen Yingniang’s parents really loved her, so they had someone watching over her in Fucheng.

When they learned about her current situation, they sent someone to pick her up.

 

Edited by: Faro

Proofreader: Antiope1

 

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