Translator: SJade, Editor: Dj22031
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Auntie Lang brewed two cups of osmanthus oolong tea, and took out some cookies, nuts, dried fruits, osmanthus cakes, mung bean cakes, etc. to make a tea platter and sent it to the two of them.
“Sister.” Xu Mingjing was not in the mood to eat or drink. “Just now Zhengwen came back early and said he was fired by his brother-in-law.”
“Yes, I know about this.” Xu Mingzhen took a sip of tea and said, “Wenci last night discussed it with me.”
“Sister, do you agree?” Xu Mingjing was shocked.
She always thought that Xu Mingzhen should help her.
“Take a look at these.” Xu Mingzhen didn’t say anything more and just took out two ledgers.
It was the same as what Tan Wenci showed Yuan Zhengwen that morning.
Xu Mingzhen expected that Xu Mingjing would come to see her, and it would be today, but she couldn’t tell the specific time.
So Xu Mingzhen had asked Tan Wenci to leave two copies for her.
Nothing was more convincing than facts.
Xu Mingjing took the account book handed over by Xu Mingzhen with a puzzled look on her face, and heard Xu Mingzhen say: “The one on the left is the real accounting record, and the one on the right was made separately by Yuan Zhengwen to explain to the company.”
Xu Mingjing majored in accounting at university and saw the problem at a glance.
“Is this…so different?” Xu Mingjing looked up at Xu Mingzhen in shock.
“We didn’t do this to wrongly accuse him.” Xu Mingzhen sighed, “When we originally assigned him this position, we actually expected that he would get some benefits from it. Wenci also acquiesced to this. It was considered as helping my brother-in-law by him. But he can’t go so far. He’s not just getting benefits, he’s sucking the blood of our family. If one thing goes wrong, the company’s financial problems will affect the entire company.”
“He’s like this using our affection for you to harm us. In our family, we cannot be that Mr. Dong Guo[1].” Xu Mingzhen said, “Besides, this company is not ours, it is Wenci’s hard work. He can do it because I want to help you, and I’m very grateful. But if something like this happened, it would be hard for me to raise my head in front of him.”
Xu Mingjing’s heart was cold, and her lips were trembling uncontrollably.
“Sister, this is the text’s fault. But you can’t compare it to the story of Mr. Dong Guo and the wolf. We…our family is not a wolf.” Xu Mingjing’s heart was hurt by Xu Mingzhen’s metaphor.
Xu Mingzhen said to herself that maybe Xu Mingjing was not, but Yuan Zhengwen and Yuan Keqing were definitely wolves.
“Sister, this is something Zhengwen did wrong. Can you give him another chance? I promise, he will never do it again.” Xu Mingjing wrung her fingers and begged, “He is fired now, and I’m without a job, which means our family has been cut off from all sources of income. Keqing still has to go to school.”
“This time, Zhengwen was indeed frightened. He will definitely remember and learn from this lesson in the future.” Xu Mingjing begged.
Facing her sister like this, Xu Mingzhen felt soft-hearted for a moment, but immediately firmed up.
“Mingjing, Zhengwen is too worried. I’m afraid you don’t understand a lot about him.” Xu Mingzhen took a deep and slow breath.
She picked up the cup and took a sip of tea. She hesitated for a moment, but decided to speak out: “By chance, I was invited by Wei Zhiqian to attend Mrs. Wei’s birthday party.”
“I know this.” Just Xu Mingjing couldn’t understand, weren’t they discussing Yuan Zhengwen’s work? Why were they discussing this topic again?
“Because Wei Zhiqian only gave us an invitation and didn’t invite Keqing, so I didn’t dare to take Keqing on my own initiative. I was afraid of making the Wei family unhappy. The Wei family may be tolerant, but we still have to be careful.” Xu Mingzhen said.
“I understand this.” Xu Mingjing didn’t understand why Xu Mingzhen suddenly said this, but she still felt anxious and forced an insincere smile, “After all, that is the Wei family, we all have to be careful, if we make the slightest mistake, we will make them unhappy, but it will bring trouble to ourself.”
“Keqing mentioned to me that she wanted to go, but I explained to her that I couldn’t take her there.” Xu Mingzhen added.
“Did she mention it to you?” Xu Mingjing frowned and sighed, “How can this child be so wilful!”
“Sister, to tell you the truth, she also mentioned it to me when she came back and said she wanted to go, but I refused.” Xu Mingjing said, “I said the same thing as you. I told her that this is the Wei family’s birthday banquet. You can’t decide who to take or who not to take. If you could bring her, you would have definitely taken her.”
“As long as you can understand.” Xu Mingzhen tugged her lips and saw Xu Mingjing smiling, so Xu Mingzhen said again, “But Yuan Zhengwen and Keqing don’t seem to understand, maybe they still think I didn’t take her there deliberately. Yuan Zhengwen seems to be not satisfied with just serving in Tan Yue and wants to make a big difference.”
“Sister, what do you mean?” Xu Mingjing listened to Xu Mingzhen’s words and felt something wrong.
“He secretly took Keqing there without telling us. Keqing went to Shengyue’s door and waited, blocking Wei Keli’s path and letting Wei Keli take her in.” Xu Mingzhen’s mind flashed through Yuan Keqing’s behaviour at that time and the hand on her leg couldn’t help but tighten, “Wei Keli, it was him who took her to Wei family’s banquet to let her get to know others. But then she turned around. It’s such a shame that such a stumbling block could be put in place for me at such a young age.”
“It seemed to people that I, being a mean aunt, deliberately didn’t bring her here. When she saw me in front of so many people, she even shrank back, looking very scared of me. Am I not good enough in normal times, so that when she sees me, she has to act like seeing some vicious woman?”
“It also made people think that I don’t know etiquette. I took an invitation for the Tan family but brought people in at will. Then will it be the same for other families? Can you just take an invitation and bring your relatives and friends? At that birthday party, there were no seats or name tags for Keqing. They had to be added temporarily. It means that the Wei family did not invite Keqing from the beginning, and I did not understand the Wei family correctly.”
“I didn’t know Keqing had gone!” Xu Mingjing’s shock was unfailing, “She never mentioned a word to me.”
“Let’s not talk about Keqing’s things. Keqing couldn’t go there by herself. It was Yuan Zhengwen who took her there. He wanted to let Keqing know more people and do something big. I can’t even believe it when I came out.” Xu Mingzhen let out a long breath, “Not to mention this, men all have a bit of ambition. But when he deceived our family like this, did he ever think that we helped him with so many things?”
“They, father and daughter, are stabbing us in the back.” Xu Mingzhen took a deep breath, calmed down, and took another sip of hot tea, “So we thought, since Yuan Zhengwen has such ambitions, we don’t want to let him be subdued, so just let him get out of Tan Yue and show off his talents.”
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[1] Relating to the fable of Mr Dongguo and the ungrateful Wolf by Ma Zhongxi. Read more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wolf_of_Zhongshan