Chapter 928 Panic, Caused A Mess!
The people downstairs all cast their eyes at the servant-like man for instruction after they saw Madame Dong go out of the tea room on the opposite side and go downstairs.
When Madame Dong entered the tea room, he stopped the other people from following her.
This servant was Wei Dahai’s henchman. He had been wandering around the gate of Butterfly Clothing Shop for the past few days, with the purpose of getting her whereabouts to see if there was anyone behind her.
Butterfly Clothing Shop was indeed enviable. It was not big in scale, but it ran a booming business. It also sold some exquisite toggle-and-loop buttons.
Even though Wei Dahai’s servant did not know much about the needlework, he knew that the shop must make profits with so many customers satisfied with it, such as noble ladies and madams who always came and left with happiness. “How great it is!”
Of course, he had more than one purpose in spying at this place. It would be better if he dug out some secret information about Butterfly Clothing Shop to threaten Madame Dong. In that case, everything would be a lot easier for him.
“Now we have to stay still and go on the tracking first. As long as we keep an eye on her, we will finally find something,” the young servant thought in his heart and then waved to those unrelated people.
The people dispersed, pretending to be busy. The servant was about to leave, but suddenly Madame Dong walked straight to him! His heart skipped a beat and he had a bad feeling about it.
“Did Madame Dong find out that I have been keeping an eye on Butterfly Clothing Shop these days?”
With such an idea in his mind, he stepped back, turned around, and was about to leave. But Madame Dong had already arrived in front of him and slapped him hard, which made him stagger a few steps and almost fall down!
“Hey! Why did you slap me?” The servant tried hard to keep his balance and glared at Madame Dong.
“Go and tell Wei Dahai to stay away from me! I will not marry him even if that takes my life. Does he think that he can force me to marry him by sending you to be on the trail of me in this place? No way! If he wants to change a wife, I advise him not to bother persuading me because I’m not interested in him at all!” Madame Dong said harshly.
She put her hands on her hips, with her eyes focusing on the gathering people, and said again, “What do you think of it, everyone? I am a widow, and I should have the right to decide whether I remarry or not, right? Should they force me to give in like this?”
Madame Dong’s loud voice immediately interested those people on the road. Most of them were Misses and Madams from aristocratic families, the regular customers of Butterfly Clothing Shop.
“He forces someone to marry him? And he even plans to divorce his current wife?”
“Who sent this servant? He even sent a stalker?”
“Which mansion does such a bad guy come from? How can there be such an evil man? If I were his wife, I might die of anger if I heard such a thing!” The pedestrians on the street began to point and comment. More and more people stopped their footsteps and listened there out of curiosity, whether they had heard about it or not.
Anyway, there was a lot of information in Madame Dong’s words, and the more they thought of them, the more unusual they thought of the matter.
“Could it be Lord Wei, Wei Dahai?” someone who had heard about Wei Dahai’s name before asked with his eyes flickering.
“Who is Lord Wei?” another person immediately asked him when hearing such a name.
That person didn’t want to say too much. But since he had been questioned too many times, he had to be perfunctory. “Lord Wei is a good governor. I don’t think he could do such a thing!”
“Why can’t he? People like Lord Wei do such kind of thing! I heard that he had got about ten beautiful concubines in his mansion so far!” some other person who knew Wei Dahai curled his lips and said disdainfully. Obviously, he was discontent with Wei Dahai.
“What... what are you talking about?” the servant hurriedly rebuked when realizing the situation was out of control.
“Did our shopkeeper say it wrong about you? You and your people have hovered outside here every day and cottoned up our workers once they walked out of the shop. You asked them about Madame Dong and her husband’s family and bragged about how good your mansion was. We have nothing to do with you. Why do you keep an eye on our shopkeeper?” a shop-boy squeezed out from Butterfly Clothing Shop and shouted at them, with his hand pointing at those people.
In recent days, Madame Dong was not the only one who saw these people sneaking around.
“Go back and tell your master not to pester me anymore. It has nothing to do with me whether your master divorces his wife and remarries or not!” Madame Dong said in anger, turned around, and left, without taking a look at the servant.
After Madame Dong left, the onlookers’ attention fell on the servant. Since someone had already known his master’s name, the servant did not dare to track Madame Dong anymore. He turned around, pushed the onlookers, and fled.
He rushed to a place where there was no one, and then he gasped for air with his hand holding against the corner of the wall when he was sure that he was beyond people’s notice.
He calmed himself down and started to ponder. The more he thought about it, the stranger he felt. So he rushed back to his mansion.
Wei Dahai was in the study discussing with his advisor. When he heard that the servant he sent out had returned, he asked him to come in and report.
“Master, the shopkeeper of Butterfly Clothing Shop said your name out in front of other people just now. She also told others that you wanted to divorce your wife and remarry. In the end, she said that you’d better give up because she wouldn’t marry you even if you do so!” the servant reported.
“What? Did she really say that?” Wei Dahai’s face turned livid. That was such an insult against him! What’s more, he didn’t intend to divorce, and he just wanted to take Lady Ming as his mistress, which could not be publicized to everyone!
The veins on Wei Dahai’s forehead bulged. He predicted that the imperial censors would impeach him tomorrow.
“She did say so, and there were many onlookers at that time. Some... some people even mentioned your name. It seemed that... they knew you!” the servant said timidly.
Wei Dahai stood up in annoyance and walked around the study a few times before he said, “Go and call those people back. Stop keeping an eye on Butterfly Clothing Shop for the time being!”
Wei Dahai did not want to get into big trouble. He was just an average official without any greatly powerful ministers as his friends. Among his acquaintances, at most one or two were high-ranking officials, and the rest were just the ordinary. He himself was not in the eye-catching group currently.
No situation could be better than that!
Wei Dahai didn’t want to stand out at all, especially at this time. He had thought it was simple to keep a low profile, but he didn’t expect that Lady Ming was so ruthless that she traded her own reputation for the exposure of his name. He had to stop forcing her.
He had to put it down first.
“Yes, Master!” The servant breathed a sigh of relief, turned around, and left.
“Sir, are you going to let it go?” A middle-aged man sitting by the window looked at the irritated Wei Dahai with cold eyes.
Wei Dahai was out of sorts and said with evasive eyes, “Butterfly Clothing Shop’s business is in a booming state!”
“Butterfly Clothing Shop is running a booming business, so you can’t do anything to it now. Since the shopkeeper dares to offend you openly, I am afraid that she will spare no life to fight against you if you push her too hard. Moreover, in the capital city, there are a lot of officials at your level or above yours. But, you have acquaintance with Nanny Wei!” the middle-aged man said slowly, with a meaningful look on his face.
Wei Dahai slammed his hand on the table and said, “She’s just a woman. How could she push me into a dilemma?”
“So, what are you going to do, Lord Wei? The previous plan won’t work anymore!” the middle-aged man asked.
Wei Dahai was stunned for a while. He frowned and looked at the middle-aged man. “Why don’t you teach me, Sir?”
“As the ruthless shopkeeper doesn’t care about the friendship with you, why should you care about it?” the middle-aged man said.
“What do you mean?” Wei Dahai could sense something in his advisor’s words, so he calmed down slightly.
“Since she refused your asking for a marriage with her, why not make her beg you?” the middle-aged man said with a sinister smile, “No matter how good the business is, her shop is merely a small one without power behind it. It is still very easy to deal with her. You don’t have to do it yourself. You can take action in other ways!”
“Shall I ask someone else to deal with Lady Ming?” Wei Dahai asked.
“Yes! It will be just fine as long as others never suspect you! Then, you can do anything you want once she submits to you. Not only she herself but also her shop will be under your control. No one is going to criticize you because it is she who asks for that. I think no one will know about it if you hide her outside from the mansion! Since she gives in to you, she won’t make any trouble!” the middle-aged man suggested.
Wei Dahai nodded repeatedly and thought it was a good idea.
“Who should do that for me?”
“Don’t you have a good relationship with Marquis Xing, Lord Wei? It was also he who told you about the shopkeeper surnamed Dong. There is an old saying that a guest doesn’t bother a second host! Why not ask Marquis Xing for help?” The middle-aged man thought for a while and believed it was the best and most reasonable way.
In addition, Marquis Xing also knew about their past. He would understand why Wei Dahai could be affectionate for so many years. It was quite reasonable to ask him for help.
“Marquis Xing may not agree!” Wei Dahai shook his head and said, “He is a proud man! When we were young, we had a good relationship. But after he got the title of Duke Xing, he alienated himself from me, and later we nearly lost touch with each other. It was surprising that he took the initiative to tell me about Lady Ming!”
“But the situation is different! If it were in the past, he might not even give you a glance. But he is going through a difficult time now. Since he took the initiative to tell you, why don’t you seize such a good chance? A powerful aristocratic family like his has a strong foundation! It still has more power than other families even though it seems to be declining. Marquis Xing’s Mansion has been haunted with bad luck recently and everything goes wrong for it. Many of their close acquaintances start to keep a distance from them!”
“Lord Wei, if you ask him for help now, he will feel your kindness and trust. Marquis Xing will agree to help you! Furthermore, we don’t have to deal with a shopkeeper on the surface at all. We just need to make her shop be ostracized by some other shops!” the middle-aged man said meaningfully. Obviously, he knew Marquis Xing’s current situation well and saw through his mind.
If Shao Jing had heard the middle-aged man here, he would definitely be shocked. “How can an advisor of such a small official be so smart?”