Everyone leaned forward to take a look. The names “Wu Shi” and “Wu Bo” were shockingly written on the two pledges. Their thumbprints and the Wu family seal were even stamped by the side.
Everyone was dumbfounded.
Wu Xuanran and the others’ secret planning wasn’t good enough, their plot to steal the betrothal gifts was about to be uncovered.
Wu Qianqing and Guan Tong’s expressions were dark and chilly. In their hearts, they had already guessed what had happened.
Wu Bofang’s expression was also very ugly. Actually, on the day that the Hei family had sent the betrothal gifts over, he had already known of Wu Xuanran and the rest stealing the betrothal gifts. The reason why he hadn’t stepped in to stop them was that he also wanted the materials from the betrothal gifts. That was why he had closed an eye to it, pretending that he didn’t know about the matter. But, he had never thought that the Hei family would discover this matter.
He could only say that his grandchildren were not cautious enough in handling the matter. They actually let their own sons have the opportunity to steal the weapons and use them as collateral, which ended up being used against them.
Since things had developed like this, he couldn’t ignore it anymore.
“Peng1This is the sound effect of something being smashed (not necessarily broken, it could be that he slammed his glass cup on the table, or the sound of a ring on his hand smacking against the table, etc.).——”
Wu Bofang flew into a rage, smacking the table harshly, and sternly asked: “What is the meaning of these written pledges2This might be a bit ambiguous in English, but he’s not literally asking what the written pledges mean, it’s more like he’s asking “how did these Wu family names end up in a written pledge declaring these weapons as collateral”.?”
Wu Qiantong couldn’t help but tremble in his heart, he urgently and angrily said: “Grandfather, it’s fake, this written pledge must be fake!”
He didn’t believe that his son would indulge in gambling.
His wife, Dong Mingji, also had an agitated expression: “That’s right, it must be fake. Our Xiao-Bo would never go gambling.”
She knew that Wu Bofang hated it the most when Wu family members gambled. If the Hei family found out that they had stolen Wu Ruo’s betrothal gifts because of Wu Bo’s gambling, not only would her son have to suffer disciplinary action according to the family rules, his position in Wu Bofang’s heart would also drop by 1000 zhang31 zhang is equal to 10 chi, 3.333 meters or 3.65 yards. It’s not like she’s actually measuring a distance, she just means Wu Bofang’s opinion of Wu Bo will drop drastically.. So, she absolutely could not admit to this.
Wu Qianbin looked at his wife, Liao Liuyan, with a cold expression, using his gaze to question her. The weapons had clearly been stored in the secret room of their storeroom, how had it been taken by their son to use as collateral for his gambling debts?
Liao Liuyan’s eyebrows creased together tightly. Soon after, she thought of how her son had asked her to open the storeroom and entered the secret room today. Could it be during this time that he’d stolen the weapon?
“Fake?” Hei Xin looked at both Wu Qiantong and his wife with a mocking gaze: “Are you telling me that the Wu family seal on this written pledge is also fake? Then your Wu family seal is far too easy to forge.”
This insinuated that if the seal of the Wu family, as Gaoling City’s top clan, could be so easily forged by anyone else, then how could they speak of protecting the safety of Gaoling City?
Wu Qiantong was so angered by this that his face turned green, then red4The original Chinese phrase directly translates as “when this was said of him, his face was green for a moment, then red for a moment”. As I translated in text, it’s meant that he was so angered by the words that the colour of his face changed. I don’t think his face literally changed colours either, it might also refer to his expression changing (although some people’s faces do turn red when they get angry, but I don’t know where the ‘turning green’ comes from)..
First of all, without talking about how complicated the engraving on the Wu family seal was, there was a stamp secretly hidden in it that was difficult to imitate by others. Only Wu family members who practiced the unique Wu family style of magical arts could activate the stamp to press on paper, so there was no way that someone could’ve forged the seal.
Hei Xin said again: “Even if the seal was forged by someone, the thumbprints certainly can’t be fake, right?”
Wu Qianbin spoke up: “Perhaps Xiao-Shi and Xiao-Bo signed the written pledge because they had been threatened by someone.”
Wu Qiantong hurriedly nodded: “Someone must have threatened Xiao-Shi and Xiao-Bo.”
Wu Xuanran and the rest immediately took their side, speaking up for them, thinking that Wu Shi and Wu Bo couldn’t possibly have gone gambling.
Wu Ruo’s gaze flashed with a mocking that he almost didn’t catch and hold back. He had already predicted from before that they would never admit to this.
Hei Xin retorted: “In Gaoling City, who would dare to threaten someone from the Wu family?”
Wu Qianbin’s expression suddenly darkened: “So according to Head Steward Hei, you’ve already determined that we stole Xiao-Ruo’s betrothal gifts?”
Hei Xin said plainly: “This old one wouldn’t dare. However, Fourth Master shouldn’t forget. There are many people in the gambling den who were aware that the two young masters owed the gambling den a large sum of money. At the same time, a lot of people also saw with their own eyes that the Ninth Young Master and Tenth Young Master personally brought the weapons to the manager’s room to pledge as collateral. This is something that cannot be denied.”
Wu Qianbin: “…”
Wu Qiantong was in a fury: “We already said they were being threatened. There must’ve been someone who threatened them to take the weapons to use as collateral.”
Hei Xin smiled slightly: “Fifth Master, don’t be too agitated. This old one only took out these written pledges so that you know where these two weapons came from, not for you to discuss the authenticity of the written pledge.”
Everyone: “…”
Wu Qiantong was stifled.
Wu Ruo closed his eyes, hiding the amusement in his eyes.
He realised that Hei Xin was actually also quite capable of being ‘cool as a cucumber5The original Chinese phrase is 气死人不偿命 (qi si ren bu chang ming) which means something along the lines of “it’s not worth losing your life from anger”. It refers to staying calm and composed even when someone is pissing you the hell off, or not getting into it when someone is purposely trying to make you angry. I would’ve liked to keep the literal translation (“don’t pay with your life when someone pisses you off”) but it’s incredibly long and unwieldy for a title, so I opted to translate it to a shorter English idiom.‘.
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