books44 Chapter 140: Seeing Through
Chapter 140: Seeing Through
Chapter 140: Seeing Through
"If there's nothing else to say, I'm going to rest now," Ji Meiqing said, directly dismissing him.
Lu Yu looked at her, a strange light flickering in his eyes.
"What do you want to say?"
“We should end this situation,” he said earnestly.
Ji Meiqing thought for a moment, then asked bluntly, "Can I take that as... you want to come back to sleep?"
"Yes." He didn't deny it.
"Then come back to sleep here." She looked at him strangely. "It's not like I'm not letting you come back to live here, it's just that you wanted to move out yourself."
Lu Yu didn't know what to say; in short, he had brought this upon himself.
The next day, Ji Meiqing and Lu Yu took Ji Tianci to the street. After having breakfast on the street, Ji Meiqing took him to pick out a suitable outfit.
After everything was ready, they went to the Ji residence. They presented their visiting cards, and after a while, the steward came to welcome them in.
"Madam has temporarily left on business. Please wait a moment." The butler led them to the courtyard before leaving.
After what happened last time, the servants in Madam Ji's courtyard dared not neglect them. They busied themselves serving tea and water before quickly disappearing.
The three of them were left alone in the room again.
"Madam, I've already prepared the account books?" A person suddenly came in carrying a stack of books, seemingly not expecting a stranger to be there.
The man recognized Ji Tianci and immediately smiled upon seeing him: "Second Young Master, are you here to see Madam?"
“Yes, I’m waiting for my mother. Are you here to see your mother too?” He looked at the person.
He smiled and said, "I came to deliver the account books, but I have other things to attend to now. If you don't mind, Second Young Master, please keep an eye on them for me. I'll go and take care of other important matters now."
"Alright, go ahead." He smiled generously and took the ledgers from his hands.
A thick stack of account books was placed on the table, and Ji Tianci breathed a sigh of relief. Ji Meiqing, however, couldn't stay still and picked them up to look at them.
Lu Yu tried to stop her, but she gave him a dismissive glance. He immediately looked away and focused intently on what was ahead.
The above lists only minor expenses incurred by the household. Ji Meiqing's brows furrowed more and more as she looked at the accounts.
"What's wrong?" Lu Yu walked over, curiously wanting to see what was in her hand.
Ji Meiqing put the ledger back and said naturally, "It's nothing."
He found it strange that he could see her subtle actions but couldn't get any information out of her.
"My stomach is a little upset, please wait for me a moment." After saying that, she immediately left the courtyard. Lu Yu watched her retreating figure, feeling something was strange, but he couldn't quite put his finger on why.
Ji Meiqing went directly to the butler.
She stood in front of him, her face serious, which startled the butler.
"What's wrong with the second young lady?"
"Um... I have a question I'd like to ask the housekeeper." She thought for a moment before finding a suitable way to ask.
"Second Miss, please ask."
"Well... I just saw a mark that looks similar to one I've seen before, and I wanted to ask what it means?"
She drew a line in the air, then, fearing he wouldn't understand, drew it on the ground as well. The steward looked at it for a while before smiling and saying, "This is the shop under Madam's management; it's understandable that the Second Miss doesn't recognize it."
"The madam's?" she asked again, squinting slightly, "Are all her shops like this?"
“These shops were part of the lady’s dowry and were rarely recorded in the Ji family’s accounts. So it’s understandable that the second young lady doesn’t know about them, since they don’t actually belong to the Ji family.”
The housekeeper explained it to her.
"Thank you," she said seriously, adding, "Don't tell anyone about this. It would be a laughing stock if others knew that I, a member of the Ji family, didn't know the true worth of the Ji family."
"Don't worry, this servant won't." He smiled kindly.
Having heard what she wanted, Ji Meiqing returned to the courtyard. Madam Ji, who had returned sometime earlier, changed her expression upon seeing her enter.
"Are you feeling any better?" Madam Ji asked gently.
Ji Meiqing glanced at them in surprise, then realized what they meant and hurriedly covered her stomach, nodding slightly. "It's almost done. I wonder if the food I ate this morning was fresh."
"You have to be careful in the future, and don't eat anything bad, that would be terrible."
Her earnest and persuasive manner was completely different from that of the previous Madam Ji.
After explaining their purpose to her, Madam Ji readily let them go. Knowing that Aunt Liu disliked her, she waited outside with Lu Yu.
"I just checked." She took a deep breath, as if she had been preparing for a long time before saying, "What happened before was my fault. I apologize to you. I'm sorry."
Lu Yu was surprised by her sudden change and didn't know what had happened, so he listened quietly to what she was going to say next. She said, "I was looking at the account books just now and saw Madam Ji's private property. I wasn't sure, so I went to ask the housekeeper. And then..."
"what happened?"
"Madam Ji is setting a honey trap; she wants us to be doomed forever."
Lu Yu understood some of what she meant but not quite. He was very conflicted and couldn't figure out what was going on.
"That Jiang family might be a fake."
Upon hearing this, Lu Yu was stunned. "Didn't we already receive the money?"
“Yes,” she chuckled, “first they deliberately make us believe them, then they trick us little by little…”
Lu Yu fell silent and stopped asking about the details.
"I'll have someone verify this, and the rest will proceed step by step... I'm going to lure you into a trap." She looked at Lu Yu with a confident smile, her eyes almost swallowing him whole.
As she stared at him like that, Lu Yu's mind couldn't help but drift away.
The two waited for Ji Tianci to come out before leaving together. She went to the south of the city and found many beggars, asking them to help inquire about the Jiang family in Jiangnan.
The rest was easier to handle, and the three of them went home together. She didn't ask Ji Tianci how he was feeling; as soon as she got home, she went straight into her room to discuss the house purchase.
Lu Yu knew what she was busy with, so he didn't disturb her.
A few days later, news came that there was indeed a Jiang family in Jiangnan, but unfortunately, there was no one named Jiang Ziyi, only a man named Jiang Nan, who was the only son and the only legitimate son of the Jiang family.
However, he was already quite ill and had no time to deal with these matters. Upon hearing this news, Ji Meiqing's heart sank to the bottom; she hadn't expected the Ji family to treat her this way.
I almost fell for it...
Looking at the number on the banknote, she put it back into the box.