Is It a Coincidence?
Cangman Restaurant had suffered a major blow, while Jiang Wan’s Fuxin Restaurant welcomed its former customers, and business became even more prosperous.
After receiving the letter from her undercover contact, she began sending back the clues that the people she had stationed elsewhere had gathered.
The servant Ma Lai, who had been fired, had returned to the restaurant to beg Jiang Wan to take him back. Cangman Restaurant’s business had been declining day by day, and the people above him could no longer afford to pay his monthly wages. They had also failed to fulfill their promises to him.
He wept bitterly as he repented.
“Manager, I shouldn’t have been blinded by greed for a moment and done something so despicable. I know I was wrong. I’ll work hard from now on. Please, give me a way to make a living!”
“Manager, please…”
Ma Lai was in the entrance hall. The moment he saw Jiang Wan, he immediately dropped to his knees in front of everyone and loudly confessed his actions, attracting the attention of the customers, who all turned to look.
Jiang Wan could feel countless seemingly intentional and unintentional gazes coming from all directions. She took a deep breath.
There was only one reason he had chosen to do this here: he wanted to pressure her into agreeing to take him back.
The moment she saw him, Jiang Wan had already activated her mind-reading ability. His thoughts at that moment, including what he intended to do next, were all laid bare before her.
Jiang Wan calmly and openly rejected him.
“What you did wasn’t simply being momentarily blinded. You deliberately put people’s lives at risk. Now, the only reason you’re here is because the person backing you has fallen and you have no way to survive, so you’ve chosen to come crawling back.”
“If my restaurant were to fall as well, you wouldn’t feel the slightest bit guilty. You’d simply go on living your life there with a clear conscience.”
Ma Lai’s face turned pale. He stammered, his face flushing with embarrassment.
“I…I…”
He hadn’t expected her to expose him so directly.
He had thought that, with so many people watching, she would first agree to take him back and then drive him away. At that point, he could make a huge fuss about it and perhaps even extort some money from her.
But now, it seemed that plan had gone down the drain.
He stood up and brushed at the nonexistent dust on his clothes. No longer caring about anything, he decided to throw caution to the wind.
“So what?”
“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have lost my backer, and I wouldn’t be penniless!”
“This is all because of you! Everything turned out like this because of you, you jinx!”
“Why don’t you just die? I hope you die a horrible death!”
“And let me tell you something—the poison was me! I was the one who put it in!”
“…”
Jiang Wan listened to him completely lose control and curse her furiously. Not a ripple stirred in her heart. If anything, she felt that his words were even more restrained than what she had originally expected to hear.
She simply called over the security guards and had them take him to the authorities, leaving the government office to determine his punishment. He would certainly be imprisoned and fined.
She paid no attention to the customers’ hesitant, complicated looks and returned to her room to arrange the matters that needed to be handled afterward.
She tied a note to the leg of a carrier pigeon and released it.
Then, she happened to notice the letter Ye Yurong had sent her. After thinking for a moment, she ultimately took the letter out again.
Jiang Wan read through it line by line, and a faint warmth gradually filled her heart.
Every word contained concern and well-wishes. Ye Yurong also said that she would send more professional personnel over. She even said that once Lin Yuan recovered from his injuries, she would immediately kick him over here so that he wouldn’t spend every day doing nothing but freeloading.
Jiang Wan put the letter back into its envelope. She then took a locked wooden box from the depths of a nearby shelf.
There was nothing else inside yet.
She placed the letter inside by itself and locked the box.
The door was suddenly pounded loudly.
晟子虛’s booming voice came from outside.
“Jiang Wan! Hurry up and open the door! Open up, open up, open up!”
“It’s urgent!”
Jiang Wan hurried over and opened the door, which she had secured with a bolt.
Back in the modern world, she had also been accustomed to locking the door to her private space to prevent others from disturbing her. It gave her a greater sense of security. After transmigrating into this world, that habit had remained unchanged.
As soon as she opened the door, the first thing she saw was Sheng Zixu, who had things hanging all over him and was carrying bags and packages in both hands. There was quite a lot of stuff.
Jiang Wan suspiciously glanced at him.
“What are you doing? Did you come here to poison me?”
Sheng Zixu was infuriated by her words.
“I came here out of the goodness of my heart to give you a thank-you gift, and you’re not only refusing to accept it, you’re accusing me of poisoning you!”
“A thank-you gift? What kind of thank-you gift?”
“You suddenly show up at my door like this. It’s hard not to suspect that you’re up to something.”
“After all, people don’t show up without a reason.”
Sheng Zixu immediately felt guilty.
He really did have something to ask her about.
“Ahem. Don’t put it so absolutely. Since you said everyone who comes must have a reason, then obviously I have something to discuss.”
Jiang Wan immediately guessed.
“You want money?”
He instantly protested.
“In your eyes, am I really such a money-loving person? Don’t I have any other admirable qualities?”
Hearing this, she actually thought about it seriously for a moment before giving him a blunt answer without the slightest room for negotiation.
“No.”
Sheng Zixu wasn’t about to back down either.
“Why are you so suspicious of everyone? Has someone stabbed you before?”
Jiang Wan didn’t want to argue with him.
“If you have something to say, say it. I’m busy.”
“It’s about my background. You said before that you’d help me investigate it.” He spoke with complete confidence.
Jiang Wan’s mind went blank for a moment.
She couldn’t remember when she had agreed to that. Or perhaps she had agreed and simply forgotten.
Without changing her expression, she brushed him off.
“I’m already looking into it. The situation is rather complicated, so it isn’t something I can figure out immediately.”
Sheng Zixu hadn’t expected an immediate answer anyway. He took the jade pendant from around his neck and handed it to her.
“Here. Take this. If you start with this, you might be able to find out faster.”
Jiang Wan accepted the jade pendant bearing the character “晟”[1] “Sheng” jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3225654_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3225654_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); from his hand.
She looked at all the things hanging around his neck and dangling from his hands.
He looked remarkably like a walking, heavily loaded coat rack.
“Understood. If you have nothing else to do, go and take care of your responsibilities. I’ll let you know if there are any developments.” She bluntly dismissed him.
Before he could even leave, the door in front of him quickly closed.
Truly, he had been shut out.
Sheng Zixu “graciously” chose not to take offense and carried his many packages back to the rear courtyard. In reality, the little man in his heart was squatting on the ground, drawing circles with a tiny twig.
Halfway there, he ran into a waiter who was on his way to find Jiang Wan. He simply instructed the waiter to deliver the things to her and not say anything else.
The waiter reluctantly accepted them. After all, everyone in the restaurant knew that this young master had a close relationship with the manager.
“Yes, yes, yes. I’ll definitely deliver them to you, Young Master.”
After Sheng Zixu had gone far enough, the waiter wiped the nonexistent sweat from his forehead and could only carry the things to find the manager.
The moment Jiang Wan saw what the waiter was carrying, she immediately guessed who had sent them. She told the waiter to put everything down. After he finished reporting what he needed to report, she sent him back to continue his duties.
The door creaked shut.
She looked at the large and small packages piled to one side, all wrapped in brown kraft paper, and casually picked one up to open.
The moment she opened it, she could clearly smell the sweetness of sugar.
She hadn’t expected this person to like sweets.
She opened another, slightly larger package, which contained pastries.
Looking at the pile, Jiang Wan guessed that they were all food. There seemed to be quite a lot of it.
She sighed and decided to have someone distribute it among everyone later so that it wouldn’t go to waste.
Meanwhile, the people Ye Yurong had arranged were also heading in this direction. It was a well-organized caravan, and there were quite a few people.
The person leading the caravan directed the horse-drawn wagons forward in an orderly manner. Since they were carrying a large amount of goods, they couldn’t travel particularly fast.
On the evening of the fifth day of their journey, the sky gradually darkened.
The caravan stopped and found a flat place to make a fire. There were people specifically assigned to watch over the cargo, and everyone remained highly vigilant.
Not long after darkness fell, a woman covered in wounds came running from the distance toward the sound of activity.
Her hair was disheveled from being caught on tree branches, and her body was covered in dirt and grime.
She had no time to think about anything else. She could only pray that the people she encountered were good people.
Her sudden appearance quickly attracted everyone’s attention.
Once she was certain that she had reached the caravan, she immediately collapsed onto the ground.
The leader stepped forward and looked her over from head to toe. At first glance, she looked like someone who had been fleeing for her life.
“Miss, have you encountered some trouble?” the leader asked gently.
The woman’s eyes were vacant, and her body trembled slightly.
But she had no other options.
“Are you good people?”
The leader was taken aback and explained, “Miss, rest assured. We’re merchants from Guihai Wharf. This time, we’re carrying out the shipmaster’s orders to deliver some goods.”
Only then did the woman relax slightly.
She had heard of this merchant group before, but she still didn’t completely let down her guard.
“I fled here. Could you take me to Mizhao Town? I have relatives there.”
The leader hesitated.
After all, her origins were unknown. But when he looked at her again and saw her injuries and filthy appearance, he couldn’t bear to refuse her.
In the end, he agreed.
“Miss, come this way.”
The woman, who had been sitting on the ground, braced herself and slowly stood up.
Following the sound of footsteps, she came to the fire. A place had already been cleared for her. The people who had originally been sitting there had moved over to the side, squeezing together to make room.
The woman naturally felt the warmth of the fire.
“Thank you.”
The leader brought her some dry rations and water.
“Eat something and fill your stomach.”
She felt around for them and accepted them.
“Thank you.”
After that, she didn’t say another word.
The leader sat opposite her and initially wanted to ask her name. But seeing that she didn’t seem willing to talk, he began observing her carefully.
Her face was heavily obscured by dirt, but he could still tell that she must have been quite beautiful.
Her eyes, however, were vacant, without the slightest trace of light.
Combined with the way she had groped around just moments ago, he came to a conclusion.
She was blind.
He couldn’t help feeling sorry for her and could only hope that her relatives would treat her well.
As soon as the sky began to brighten, the entire caravan got ready to set off.
The woman had barely slept at all. When the leader gently shook her shoulder, she quickly woke up.
He arranged for her to sit in a large wagon that still had some empty space and reminded her to hold on to the handrail because the road would be somewhat bumpy.
The woman nodded and agreed.
She gripped the handrail tightly and could feel the things piled behind her. They had no particularly strong smell, and the pile wasn’t very high.
She cautiously leaned backward and felt around.
The pile reached roughly to the small of her back.
After leaning against it for only a few seconds, she straightened herself again.
By the time they arrived, it was already almost closing time at Jiang Wan’s restaurant.
“We pay our respects to Miss Jiang. We’ve come under the shipmaster’s orders to deliver some things to you. There are also some people we’d like you to meet.”
When Jiang Wan heard that someone was looking for her, she had just finished reading the messages sent by her informants stationed elsewhere.
Li the Butcher’s newly married wife had died, though the cause of death remained unknown. And recently, there seemed to have been another incident involving kidnapped children being used to lure and kidnap other children.
She had been wondering who had come.
But the moment she saw them, she immediately remembered that these people had been arranged by Ye Yurong.
She nodded at the leader.
Among them were highly skilled guards, sharp and capable accountants, master negotiators with exceptional eloquence, and various other capable people who would become her subordinates.
This was perfect timing.
With business becoming increasingly prosperous, she was already short-handed. Now she wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of recruiting people herself, nor would she have to worry about screening them.
There were more than twenty wagons in total, carrying various goods, some dried mushrooms, and other supplies. The quantity and variety were nearly comparable to what the larger trading companies sold.
The leader said to Jiang Wan, “The shipmaster knew you might be worried about finding new suppliers, so he sent some supplies over first to help you get through this urgent period. You can take your time finding new suppliers.”
Jiang Wan replied, “The head shipmaster is very thoughtful. It’s getting late, so I’ll find an inn for everyone to rest and properly host you.”
The leader cupped his fists. “Thank you, Miss Jiang.”
He then told Jiang Wan about another matter that had happened along the way, hoping she could help.
After hearing him out, Jiang Wan said, “I’ll help her find her family.”
Hearing this, the leader felt relieved and followed the people Jiang Wan had arranged to the inn to rest.
The woman was wearing a pink dress covered in mud, and she had injuries all over her body. The moment Jiang Wan saw her eyes, she knew that she was blind.
The woman trembled as she asked warily, “Are you also from Guihai Wharf?”
“Yes.”
Other than that, Jiang Wan said nothing more.
The woman remained silent as well and followed her back to her room. Jiang Wan first arranged for her to take a bath, then hurriedly sent someone to fetch a physician.
In the meantime, Jiang Wan carefully asked her a few questions.
“Is your family from here? I can take you back.”
The woman was silent for a moment before finally answering, “My home isn’t here. I came to seek refuge with some relatives. I want to go there after my injuries have healed.”
Jiang Wan pursed her lips.
“Alright.”
Neither of them spoke again until the physician arrived.
After taking the woman’s pulse, the physician said that there was nothing seriously wrong with her. She only had some superficial injuries, along with malnutrition. As for her eyes, there was little hope that her vision could recover.
Jiang Wan’s heart sank to the bottom.
The woman, on the other hand, showed no obvious signs of sadness, as though she had already known this would be the result.
Jiang Wan offered her a few words of comfort and then instructed her to get plenty of rest.
“I’ll be next door. Call me if you need anything.”
With that, she went to rest in the small adjoining room.
Over the next few days, Jiang Wan took care of the blind woman and even found a renowned physician to examine her eyes.
Sheng Zixu noticed how much attention she was paying to a complete stranger, and he immediately felt somewhat displeased.
He began appearing in front of her more and more frequently—in other words, he was deliberately making his presence known.
Jiang Wan noticed it too and directly asked him, “Is your face worth that much? You keep showing it to me over and over.”
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