The words from his subordinate made Tong Zhi Yang think. Not long ago, his brother-in-law asked him to look for an opportunity to deal with the Ye family. He said that after he got the task done, there would be a chance for him to get a promotion. Tong Zhi Yang could become the prefectural magistrate all relying on his brother-in-law. In Yanjing, his brother-in-law did things for the n.o.bles and had plenty of connections. It’s only natural for Tong Zhi Yang not to raise any objection and agreed readily, everything was handled according to the plans made by the brother-in-law. After the Ye family was miserably bullied and cornered, only then they would give the Ye family the plan they’ve mapped out earlier as a way out of their predicament.
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Of course, Tong Zhi Yang also originally coveted the Ye family’s tremendous wealth. However, he did not dare to think about taking everything by himself. Moreover, the Ye family’s business was famous throughout Northern Yan, it wasn’t so easy to swallow. Now it’s just right, there’s the brother-in-law, there’s the n.o.bles in the capital as backers, and Tong Zhi Yang’s guts shot up. Borrowing this opportunity, he could both obtain the chance to be promoted as well as a huge profit from the Ye family’s money, so why not?
Everything was going perfectly fine, who knew a Jiang Li suddenly appeared.
Tong Zhi Yang guessed that his brother-in-law probably didn’t factor in the Jiang family’s second miss, who had no contact with the Ye family, to suddenly come to Xiangyang and stand up for the Ye family in his initial plan. Even so much as to bring out the Weaving Unit. Of course Tong Zhi Yang knew what the Weaving Unit was, but the heavenly emperor was far away, thus within the city walls of Xiangyang, he could proclaim himself as the ruler. However, in front of a Yanjing’s official, he was nothing.
“This won’t work.” Tong Zhi Yang paced back and forth in the study room. He said: “Bring a pen and paper over.”
His subordinate immediately went to bring a paper and pen over. Tong Zhi Yang wiped the sweat on his forehead, looked at the pen and paper in front of him, and pondered how he should write.
Jiang Li showing up was already outside the plan. Since Jiang Li dared to declare in front of Li Zheng Tang that she had written a letter to Jiang Yuan Bai, it could be seen that Jiang Yuan Bai’s att.i.tude towards the Ye family was not entirely without any affection. In case Jiang Yuan Bai took his anger on him, without mentioning his brother-in-law, he, this tiny prefectural magistrate, afraid would lose his position. Glory and splendor was admittedly lovely, but to lose a wife and break the soldiers was not cute. Tong Zhi Yang decided to write a letter to ask his brother-in-law, perhaps he could ask the brother-in-law to let that n.o.ble make a decision, or at least to inform him which step to take. Otherwise, relying on himself, walking the wrong road, it would be too late for regrets.
As he wrote hurriedly, his subordinate suddenly recalled something and said: “Master, the third master from the Ye family is still imprisoned at the moment. Do you want to release him or not?”
In the original plan, Ye Ming Yu was just an insignificant person. He was not mixed in the Ye family’s business and he didn’t understand anything about the business. That’s why he didn’t specially instruct anybody to handle Ye Ming Yu. It’s just that Ye Ming Yu came to the door himself, so Tong Zhi Yang also didn’t care about it and arrested him. At least the panicked members of the Ye family would bring a big sum of money to redeem Ye Ming Yu. For him, it could be said as an unexpected downfall. However, the situation was different now, if it could lessen his trouble then he would provoke trouble less. With no cause and reason, letting that Jiang second miss bore an even deeper grudge with him was not a good thing.
“What imprisoned? Still not letting people out quickly! Just say that it’s a misunderstanding, the people under acted on their own initiative, has nothing to do with me!” Tong Zhi Yang scolded.
His subordinate rushed out in a hurry to complete the mission.
Tong Zhi Yang stood in the room. The more he thought about it, the more fl.u.s.tered he became. But the circ.u.mstances did now allow him to delay. Just like Jiang Li said, already wrote a letter to inform Jiang Yuan Bai. He should follow closely and immediately write a letter to his brother-in-law, let him think of a countermeasure.
Indeed a sudden and unexpected disaster.
……
Ye Ming Yu returned to the Ye residence an hour later.
The Ye family members were overjoyed upon seeing him returning unscathed. Guan-shi asked Ye Ming Yu whether he was injured in which Ye Ming Yu shook his head to indicate that he was not injured. Although those officials arrested him, he was not easy to push around and didn’t give the other party a hard time. As to how to handle him, in the end he was still the third master of the Ye family. Besides the number of friends he had in the rivers and lakes were not few. If there’s truly a problem, who knows who would be in trouble.
“I was still thinking of taking money to redeem you tomorrow.” Zhuo-shi relaxed her breath, “it’s good that you’ve returned.”
“I also don’t know what’s going on.” Ye Ming Yu scratched his head, “at first those officers were evil and unpleasant towards me and still said that they were going to make me suffer hardship. In the evening, they suddenly became respectful and apologized, saying that it was just a misunderstanding. Then released me and let me go back. I thought the ancient fragrant satin’s matter has been cleared up, but unexpectedly, eldest brother and second brother have not yet returned.”
Everyone in the room looked at Jiang Li.
“Why are all of you looking at Ah Li?” Ye Ming Yu said: “Does this have something to do with Ah Li?”
“This is really thanks to younger sister.” Ye Jia Er then actively recounted what Jiang Li did in front of Li Zheng Tang. She said: “Magistrate Tong must be afraid of the consequences with the relation to the Jiang family, thus the reason why he let third uncle out so quickly.”
Ye MIng Yu also didn’t expect that there’s another layer of relation in this. He looked at Jiang Li and for a moment, he didn’t know what he should say. Though he did not bear any grudges with Jiang Li, he had never had any good opinion of the Jiang family. Jiang Yuan Bai, the kind of person who married quickly after being a widow, the Jiang family and the Ji family’s status being well-matched, in the bottom of his heart, Ye Ming Yu looked down on the Jiang family’s selfish disregard. But today, if it weren’t for the Jiang family’s t.i.tle, Li Zheng Tang would probably have ceased to exist. Being rescued by his own disgust truly made people unable to respond.
In the past, the Ye family always said that they should not have married Ye Zhen Zhen to Jiang Yuan Bai at that time. If Ye Zhen Zhen married an ordinary person, perhaps her destiny would turn out differently. However, if Ye Zhen Zhen were to really marry an ordinary person, without the Jiang family’s reputation to press, how long could the Ye family support themselves? Those years in the past, if not looking at Ye Zhen Zhen as the Jiang family’s madam, afraid the Ye family would not be this peaceful. Ten over years had pa.s.sed, seeing that there’s no contact between the Jiang family and the Ye family, these people straightaway became restless.
In the final a.n.a.lysis, a tall tree attracts the wind.
Jiang Li could make out Ye Ming Yu’s discomfort, smiled and said: “It’s nothing, everybody deceives the weak and fears the strong, Tong Zhi Yang is someone with no guts but greedy, overcautious and indecisive when handling matters. Naturally he could be shaken with the Jiang family’s name. Actually, if he was changed to someone vicious and merciless, the outcome might not necessarily turn out like now.”
“You seem to understand Tong Zhi Yang very much.” Ye Ru Feng couldn’t help opening his mouth to speak.
“Tong Zhi Yang did not show his face from start to finish, always letting other people come forward to handle things. It can clearly be seen that he was a timid person. With his constant and careful thought, afraid that he would only show himself when victory is already within his grasp and after the dust has settled.”