Chapter 83: Sabotage

“Father, what’s going on in the Han Family?” Ren Shizhong asked after he had sent the prying men out.

Ren Yonghe sat on the Taishi chair in the study and pondered for a moment, “The Han clan suspects that Han Dongshan has made a fortune using their clan assets, so now they are making such a fuss because they want a piece of the pie.”

>> Taishi chair

Ren Shizhong’s face was tinged with worry: “Originally I thought the Han Family’s situation was simple, but I didn’t expect it to be like this..”

Ren Yonghe waved his hand lightly and interrupted: “Whether the water of the Han Family is deep or shallow has nothing to do with us. The only thing I think about is whether the saltworks can go on. If the Han Family had sold their belongings at some point in time, then they are not as rich as they appear to us. Han Dongshan has repeatedly revealed the strength of the Han Family in front of us, I originally thought it was because he wanted to give us a piece of mind, but now that I think about it, I think it was a bit too deliberate.”

Ren Shizhong could not help but frown: “Father, are you saying that the Han Family is trying to trick us?”

Instead of answering, Ren Yonghe asked, “What was the result of the last time I asked you to send someone to check on the salt farm? Is the information credible?”

Ren Shizhong nodded: “It is roughly the same as what the Han Family said, it does not look like a fraud.”

Ren Yonghe thought for a moment and smiled slightly, “Since it is clear that you were asked to investigate, it is natural that there is no mistake on the surface.”

“No wonder I always feel that the Han Family seems to be somewhat deliberately close to our Ren Family, this is quite different from their usual style of acting.” Ren Shizhong could not help but ponder.

“It’s hard to conclude this matter, let’s just wait and see.” Ren Yonghe said in a light voice.

“Then the matter of the marriage between the Ren Family and the Han Family.. should also be delayed until the situation becomes clearer?”

“That’s natural. I’m afraid the Han Family will be too busy to take care of their child’s marriage for the time being, so it won’t be too late for them to come back to the Ren Family to ask for marriage after they have taken care of their family affairs.” Ren Yonghe said lightly.

“Yes, this son understands.” Ren Shizhong answered respectfully.

“By the way, where is Yiyan? Didn’t I ask you to take him with you?” Ren Yonghe remembered that his Eldest Grandson had not appeared in front of him all morning today and could not help but frown.

Ren Shizhong said, “Yiyan caught a wind chill the day before yesterday, so I let him rest for a few days.”

Ren Yonghe snorted coldly at his words, “Why did I hear that he fought with you because two miners died in a coal mine collapse a few days ago?”

Ren Shizhong paused and bowed his head, “Yiyan is just a little less experienced. That day was the first time he went with me to deal with mine matters, and he was a bit uncomfortable.”

“You don’t have to defend him.” Ren Yonghe interrupted, “Do I still not know my own grandson? He was raised in the inner house since he was a child, and he was pampered by you in every possible way. Now he is indulging in the pleasures of the bedroom between a young couple and has developed a womanly nature. How can such a person achieve great things in the future? How can I trust you with the Ren Family business after I am 100 years old?”

Ren Shizhong saw that his father had not been shy about mentioning his son’s obsession with the pleasures of the boudoir, could not help but feel very embarrassed.

“This son will discipline him properly in the future.”

“Well, go down.”

And the Han Family had a real headache this time.

After the group had their lunch, they still hadn’t found a solution to the problem. The Han clan wanted Han Dongshan to spit out the embezzled clan property, and since Han Dongshan had never seen those legendary things at all, there was naturally no way to make the Han clan get what they wanted.

In the end, the Han clan agreed. Some of them stayed at the Han residence, while the rest went back to Jizhou. The Han Family began to look for the man who had come to buy the necklace of the naga pearl, as Han Zuwang had said. The two sides began to fight a protracted war.

Ziwei Courtyard has been paying attention to the affairs of the Han Family. Matron Zhou also sent out a servant to spy on the Han Family.

Although there was no way to know the details of the matter, the development of the matter was still very interesting to Ren Yaoqi.

One thing that worried Ren Yaoqi was that Zhu Ruomei had not yet contacted her.

Originally, she had explained to him that no matter whether the matter was successful or not, Zhu Ruomei would come to the Ren Family and notify Mrs. Yuan to tell her as soon as he returned to Yunyang City.

However, there has been no news from Zhu Ruomei. She was worried that he had gone astray and had not done what she had asked him to do.

But today, the Han clan has already made a scene.

This means that Zhu Ruomei has successfully used that unfounded legend of the Han Family to stir up the conflict between Han Dongshan and the Han clan, just as she said.

But why had Zhu Ruomei not passed the message over to her?

After leaving the main room in the evening, Ren Yaoqi was about to ask someone to summon Xiang Qin over to ask her. But the maid from the west courtyard came to say that Ren Shimin had asked her to go to the study room in the west courtyard.

Ren Shimin had many quirks. Not only did he have a cleanliness problem, but he also liked to sleep alone. Sometimes he would stay in the west courtyard at night when he got lost in his study, reading, and painting.

He had a wife and a concubine. But in his eyes, they were not as pleasant as the books and paintings that he loved.

He just stayed in the main room of the Ziwei Courtyard for seven or eight days a month. Not to mention Concubine Fang’s courtyard, it was not bad if he could go there once a month.

But Third Master Ren’s capriciousness was well known throughout the Ren Family. Even Old Madam Ren could do nothing about him.

When Concubine Fang first joined the Ren Family, she used all sorts of tactics to win favour. It had some effect at first because, after all, Ren Shimin was a normal man. But as time went on, nothing worked, and when Concubine Fang had a child and was able to gain a foothold in the Ren Family, she stopped thinking about it.

After all, she was not afraid to compete with women for a favor, but she had no chance of winning against Ren Shimin’s hobby.

When Ren Yaoqi entered the study, Ren Shimin was sitting in the inner room reading a book. His hair was spread out making him look feeble. Maybe he was seeing something interesting, but he didn’t realize that Ren Yaoqi walked up to him.

Ren Yaoqi turned her head to look at the candlestick on the table. Suddenly has bad intentions, she knocked and moved to block out the candlelight. The sudden darkening of the light caused Ren Shimin to blink, and only after a moment did he look up in realization of something.

“What is Father looking at so intensely?” Ignoring Ren Shimin’s angry expression, Ren Yaoqi asked with a smile on her face.

Seeing that it was Ren Yaomin who had arrived, Ren Shimin’s face looked a little better while chiding, “Why did you come in without telling me?”

Ren Yaoqi said innocently, “I did call out to you, but you didn’t even hear me.”

Ren Shimin helplessly put the book aside, “Fine. Stand away, you’re blocking the light.” He also muttered, “You should be six or seven parts full of the evening meal, don’t be so fat that your father won’t recognize you.”

Ren Yaoqi: “....”

“What does Father want from me at this time?” Ren Yaocheng decided not to bother with him and found herself a small stool next to him and sat down.

Ren Shimin smiled and thought for a moment before saying, “Your grandfather called me in the evening, saying that he wanted to put aside the matter of your third sister for the time being and wait until later.”

Ren Yaoqi was delighted: “The marriage is not going to work?”

Ren Shimin looked at Ren Yaoqi who was beaming with joy. Previously he didn’t want to say anything, but felt entangled again, so with a serious face he advised, “Your grandfather just said to put it down for the time being. He may bring it up again after the matter of the Han Family is over.”

Ren Yaoqi gave Ren Shimin a big smirk, she didn’t take his words seriously.

She had already come this far. If she would still let Ren Yaohua and Han Yunqian still tie the knot, she might as well die again.

Ren Shimin didn’t know what his daughter was thinking, and was still babbling, “..Han Yunqian has no good point.. other than a little good-looking, a little knowledgeable, a little clever and stable.”

Ren Yaoqi glanced at the book Ren Shimin put on the couch, saw that it was ‘Ancient Mirror’, and said, “Father. ‘The head is red and the forehead is white, the body is blue and yellow. It has no scales nor saliva, but the body looks like a snake with dragon horns, a sturgeon-like sharp mouth, shining, moving. It lies in muddy water, so it can’t go far away.‘ What is it talking about?”

>> Ancient Mirror

Ren Shimin froze, picking up the book he had put aside earlier and looking through it carefully.

Ren Yaoqi coughed lightly and stood up, “Father, I will go out first. Don’t read too long at night, it will hurt your eyes. If you hurt your eyes, you will have to bend over on the table when you paint in the future, which is not very elegant.”

Ren Shimin nodded as he flipped through the book, “I know, I’ll sleep later.”

Ren Yaoqi then turned around and went out. She instructed the maid to go in and light another candle, then told her to cut the candle into small pieces in the future to remind Ren Shimin not to read too long at night.

The next day, Ren Yaoting from the East Mansion came.

She had heard some news but was not sure yet, so she came to the West Mansion. It was a rare occasion that she came to Ziwei Courtyard.

The visitor was a guest, so the two sisters, Ren Yaohua and Ren Yaoqi, accompanied her together to talk in the second west room of the main house.

Initially, she held back from asking Ren Yaohua about her marriage and instead talked about Ren Yilin’s withdrawal from the marriage.

The last time the Second Madam of the East Mansion, Su, went to Jizhou was to help Ren Yilin withdraw his marriage.

“.. My mother promised the Liu Family a lot of favors, only then the Old Madam of the Liu Family promised to return Second Brother’s eight-characters letter to my mother.”

>> Eight-characters letter

“What about that young lady from the Liu Family?” Ren Yaoqi rarely asked a lot.

Ren Yaoting shook her head, “Not clear, I heard it from one of the maids who serve my mother. They only met the Old Madam of the Liu Family, Miss Liu did not come out to meet the guests.”

She turned to Ren Yaohua and said, “It seems that things are not going well this year. Firstly my Second Brother’s marriage has failed, and I heard that you, Third Sister ....”

Ren Yaohua knew what she wanted to say as soon as she heard this beginning, and without giving any face at all she immediately stood up and said coldly, “I just remembered something I have yet to do. Fifth Sister, you should entertain Seventh Sister well.” After saying that, she left without waiting for Ren Yaoting’s reaction.

Ren Yaoting’s face flushed red then whiten, she could not stand up.

Ren Yaoqi smiled and poured a cup of tea for Ren Yaoting, “Seventh Sister, don’t mind. Third Sister come as soon as she goes.”

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Ren Shimin is a bad husband but he is also so damn relatable lol