TSBFL Chapter 123.1
Chapter 123.1: 塵埃落定
‘The dust has settled.’
[Idiom : things come to their proper settlement (or due course)]
As soon as Gu Lang said those words, the whole room was quiet for a moment.
Zhao Lao Ye’s face immediately turned ugly, only after he saw the gazes cast at him from the side, he thought of his current situation, and immediately restrained his expression, looking at Gu Lang in front of him and said in a cold voice, “Don’t you dare to slander!”
Gu Lang, however, looked at him with a smile yet not a smile on his face and said in a loud voice in front of everyone, “You should know best whether it’s an unfounded slander or not. You think that I was too young to remember so many things, but why haven’t you ever thought that I would be capable of investigating the truth when I grow up?”
Zhao Lao Ye’s face became more and more ugly, with his cautious nature, how could he not have thought of this kind of thing, after Gu Lang came back, he sent people to investigate him, and finally got the conclusion that he was just a sickly boy who was not enough to be feared, and could not become anything big. But who would have thought that this moment of carelessness had caused his current predicament?
Gu Lang looked at the annoyed expression of Master Zhao and knew that he must have thought of something, but he was not interested in looking into it any further at the moment.
Gu Lang turned his head to look at the people present and said aloud, “Ladies and Gentlemen, some of you think that this servant has taken matters into his own hands (took his own initiative) and sent people to hurt us. But if we had no grudge against this slave, why did he spend so much energy to do so?”
As soon as Gu Lang’s words left his mouth, someone from the crowd of spectators interjected as if he desire to see the world plunged into chaos; “But with your family status with Old Master Zhao, it’s even more unlikely that you’ve ever crossed paths, so how can you prove that it was Master Zhao who instructed him to do all of this?”
The corners of Gu Lang’s lips hooked up, with a pleasant smile on his face, and he looked at the person who asked the question. He saw that he shrank his neck and hid behind the crowd after he finished speaking in awe-inspiring righteousness, as if he was afraid of confronting Gu Lang.
However, Gu Lang laughed softly, with a bit more irony in his tone, “That’s right ah, you are right, my family background and Zhao Lao Ye’s are worlds apart, and even my whole body is not even a finger compared to Zhao Lao Ye’s. However, more than ten years ago, Gu family was the richest family in the city, while Master Zhao was not as prosperous as he is today, he was just a hawker who left his home town with his whole family and needed my Gu family’s financial help to survive.”
As soon as Gu Lang’s words came out, the whole room erupted in an uproar, and it was obvious that his words had brought a great shock to the crowd. Gu Lang’s smile grew stronger as he ‘half believing, half doubting’ looked at them and continued, “Back then, Zhao Yuan’s family fled to this place, and his whole family were in a miserable state. My mother had just come back from burning incense in the temple, and when she passed by and saw their miserable state, she was immediately moved to compassion, and not only arranged a place for them to live, but also gave them silver money to settle down.”
Hearing this, someone in the crowd suddenly sucked in a breath of cold air and suddenly yelled, “Yes ah, I also heard my father talk about it. The Zhao family was a foreigner, and when they first came here, they even became neighbors with my family.”
The man next to him, hearing his words, snorted with disdain and said, “You’re probably dreaming ba! How can the Zhao family be your neighbors when your family lives in such a shithole?”
“Your house is the shithole, what’s wrong with my house there? My father said all that, my father couldn’t have lied to me.” The man was very unconvinced and couldn’t help but push back.
The people next to him were even more unconvinced and started to argue about this issue, “What’s wrong with your father? Who doesn’t know whether your father has bragged or not.”
The uproar they caused only attracted people’s attention for a moment, and then their attention was drawn back by what Gu Lang said next.
“My father has always been indulgent towards my mother, seeing that she saved your lives and gave you settlement fees, he didn’t say anything as long as my mother was happy. However, you even used the excuse of thanking her to appear in front of my father from time to time, and in the end, you even relied on that mouth that confused black and white and spoke well. You became a regular guest in my Gu family’s house, and even gained my father’s favor because of it.”
Chen Xing has been listening quietly at the side, from the moment Gu Lang started to speak, he felt that there was something not quite right about him today. At this time, to see his smiling face, however his eyes as if wrapped in a layer of frost, together with the tone of voice has become more and more cold up, knowing that what he is going to say next is not that simple.
Chen Xing hesitated for a moment, and then gently took Gu Lang’s hand, in the moment he froze and shook the hand that connected, telling him without using words that he would be by his side, always supporting him.
Just as Chen Xing thought like that, along with Gu Lang’s speech, Gu Lang felt that he could not suppress the violence in his heart. He waited for today and has been waiting for a long time, long to the point that since he was a child from the moment he left this town, he has been waiting for this day to come.
At the moment Chen Xing’s hand touched him, he froze for a moment, his feverish brain also slightly cooled down for a moment, and then he gradually returned to the calm manner just like in the past.
“My father lent him money to open his business, introduced his own contacts to him to pave the way, and treated him as a close friend. However, he joined forces with the then county magistrate and faked an accident with bandits coming down from the mountains, killing my entire Gu family! All of this can be described with ‘heart of wolf and lungs of dog’ (Idiom for heartless and ungrateful)!”
Gu Lang’s every words were spoken in a strong manner, like a heavy hammer hitting everyone’s heart, and finally, as if someone suddenly woke up. Looking at the ugly looking Master Zhao in the middle of the scene, he suddenly murmured, “No wonder, my father said that the Zhao family suddenly became rich, and had such a good relationship with the former County Magistrate, so this is the reason why ah!”
“This Master Zhao is really cruel ah! Others saved his family, and then he harmed his whole family. It’s not even too much to say that he’s a beast.”
“If you feed an animal for a long time, people will recognise it. Master Zhao’s family is even worse than animals ah!”
Gu Lang spilled out all the secrets he had buried in his heart over the years, and looking at the unpredictable face of Zhao, he took a few steps forward to his front, and relying on his position of being half a head taller than him as he looked down at him and said in a cold voice:
“Zhao Yuan, I don’t know, whether by taking that money you would feel scared that night or you’ll think about my father and mother, who are died miserably and down in the Nine Springs—in the nether regions and who treated you like a dear friend, but you’re harming them in such a way. If they are aware of this, they probably regret saving your family’s lives!”
At this moment, Master Zhao was no longer as calm as he was at the beginning, especially after listening to Gu Lang’s account of the series of evil deeds he had done, the color of blood on his face was dissipating little by little, and he was even more powerless to face Gu Lang’s questioning at the moment.
Soon after, Master Zhao felt a stabbing pain in his arm, and he turned his head to see Mrs Zhao staring at him, her eyes sharp with a bit of determination.
“Lao Ye, I know you’ve been feeling guilty for all these years for not saving the Gu family, but you can’t just let him throw dirty water on us like this! We still have our family members waiting for us to return to our mansion, the old madam even told me when I left the mansion to bring you back safely.”
![After entering a book, he just wants to be a flower vase [Entertainment Circle]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/image_2022-10-19_141804903.png "After entering a book, he just wants to be a flower vase [Entertainment Circle]")
