CH 136

Chapter 136 – Failure

Master Wu was a highly shrewd man. If not, he would not have been able to build up such a large family business. Although he trusted Yu Wen and his own judgement, it was still his first time dealing with Jiang Chao, and even if Jiang Chao spoke eloquently, he would still keep a watchful eye out. He sent his family’s chief steward to keep an eye on the Jiang family’s movements. If there was even the slightest change in the Jiang family, he would know about it immediately.

As soon as he heard the Chief Steward’s words, he immediately rose to his feet, and his expression was worse than his Chief Steward’s. “Something happened to Master Jiang? What happened? Don’t speak in halves! Explain clearly.”

Yu Wen was also panicking.

He was good friends with Master Wu, and naturally he interacted with this chief Steward on several occasions. Not only was he a loyal and honest person, but he was also calm and collected, and he had never seen him stammering like this before. What’s more, he spoke of Jiang Chao, who was doing business in partnership with them.

After Master Wu stood up, he also got up with a tense expression and said, “Chief Steward, what happened on Master Jiang’s side?”

The chief steward breathed in deeply and swallowed, and his mind settled down a little before answering, “I’ve been in Suzhou all this while. However, I haven’t seen Master Jiang since the day before yesterday. At first I thought that he left for NingBo. However, I was uncertain, so I tried to find out more. Master Jiang had indeed gone to Ningbo, but the Song family sold the ancestral land that Master Jiang had previously pledged to the Song family as collateral. I wondered if the Song family was unhappy with Master Jiang and deliberately made things difficult for the Jiang family now. So I discreetly went to the pawnshop where Master Jiang had put his boat as collateral. It turns out……”

He became distraught and looked as though he couldn’t continue speaking.

The faces of both Master Wu and Yu Wen suddenly became even more unsightly, as they both asked sharply at once, “What was the result?”

The Chief Steward’s eyes dimmed a little as he said with difficulty, “The result was that four days ago, Master Jiang had already converted the ‘live’ pawn to a ‘dead’ pawn!”

‘Live’ pawn, means that one could buy it back again within a stipulated period. With a ‘dead’ pawn, it was equivalent of a permanent sale, and even if one had the funds later, they could not buy back the items. Moreover, the price of a ‘dead’ pawn was three times more expensive than a ‘live’ pawn.

Yu Wen’s eyes rolled back and he fell down on the tai shi chair behind him.

Master Wu staggered, but he was stronger than Yu Wen, and quickly stood up by holding onto the edge of the table. He then asked the Chief Steward hurriedly, “What about the Jiang family? Are his mother and his sister still in Suzhou?”

“They are all here!” The Chief Steward said bitterly, “And by the looks of it, they don’t know that Jiang Chao is no longer in Suzhou. I didn’t want to create trouble for the women and children, so I didn’t say anything and only said that I was visiting Master Jiang on your and Master’s Yu’s behalf…… “

At this moment, Master Wu’s heart was filled with mixed emotions, and he didn’t know how to respond. He just nodded reflexively and said, “It’s best not to mention it, so that his family wouldn’t worry. No matter what grievances we have with the Jiang family, we can’t bully a widowed old lady. Let’s approach things one by one. You did the right thing on this.”

The Chief Steward hung his head and said in a low voice, “I went to Master Jiang’s shop afterwards, as well as the places he usually frequented, but I didn’t see him. The workers in the shop and the waiters in the wine shop and teahouse also said that they hadn’t seen Master Jiang for several days. I made some discreet enquiries, and the families who have taken shares in Master Jiang’s maritime business have all given their silver to Master Jiang …… I am thinking if we should go to Ningbo Province ……”

“Go!” As Master Wu listened, he suddenly seemed to have recovered his senses and said resolutely, “Anyway, Ningbo Province is not far from us, and we don’t lack the silver for the travel expenses. We have to find out clearly no matter what, whether he went to Ningbo or not? What did he do there? If it’s a misunderstanding, I will apologise to him.”

But what if it wasn’t a misunderstanding?

Did Jiang Chao run away with their silver?

Yu Tang’s chest felt like it was lodged with a large stone, and she couldn’t speak for a long time.

In her previous life, Jiang Chao was a successful and trustworthy businessman, but why had everything changed with her?

Had she misjudged the person or did things changed drastically from her previous life because of her intervention?

The corners of Yu Tang’s mouth parted, as she wanting to ask Master Wu, but yet not knowing where to start.

Just as she was deliberating what to say, Shuang Tao let out a startled cry, “Madam, what’s wrong?”

Everyone’s eyes immediately fell on Madam Chen.

Madam Chen had fainted and her body slowly slumped down.

“Mother!” Yu Tang quickly stepped forward and held Madam Chen’s body up.

Yu Wen went pale with fright, as he helped Yu Tang to hold Madam Chen and squeezed her waist, muttering fearfully, “Don’t scare me, you’ve had such a hard time recuperating, if something happens to you, what will I do?”

Yu Tang was even more upset with herself.

She had forgotten that her mother was still around, and she was so preoccupied with the gains and losses of the business that she neglected to take care of her mother.

Their family had invested six thousand taels of silver, which was a huge sum of money.

Many people had never even seen six hundred taels of silver in their lifetimes.

She hurriedly said to her father, “Mother probably got too agitated. Quickly, take her back to the inner room, Shuang Tao, go and send for a physician.”

Master Wu also returned to his senses and said anxiously, “Huili, your daughter is right. You should quickly take sister-in-law to rest. People are living, but business is not, we can’t let sister-in-law suffer because of business matters. Aren’t we doing all this work so that everyone in the family can live happily?”

Yu Wen was extremely grateful and carried Madam Chen into the inner room, and poured a cup of hot tea for Yu Tang to feed to Madam Chen, before he went outside to wait for the physician.

Master Wu was waiting anxiously for Yu Wen outside, and upon seeing him appear, he immediately approached him and said, “Business is important, but sister-in-law’s health is more important. You shouldn’t worry about the things happening in Suzhou for now, I’ll go there myself. The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming up soon, so we should get through it before we can do anything else.”

Yu Wen felt a mixture of guilt and gratitude, and bowed to Master Wu, saying ashamedly, “Brother Wu, it is all my fault for dragging you down.”

“What words are you saying?” Master Wu pretended to be angry and said, “The partnership was something I did out of my own volition, and besides, in business there’s always losses and gains. Just take good care of your wife at home, and I’ll tell you as soon as I have any news.”

Yu Wen sent Master Wu out the door somewhat ashamed.

Afterwards, he engaged a physician, bought the medicinal herbs and boiled it, and worked all afternoon. By the time Madam Chen had taken the medicine and recuperated under Yu Tang’s care, it was already time to light the lamps for the night.

Madam Chen always trusted her husband’s judgement, so despite such a big incident, when she considered that their family was still safe, sound and all together, she felt much better. She asked Old Aunty Chen to get her dowry and handed it over to Yu Wen, saying gently, “Don’t worry, I have some jewellery and two hundred taels of silver, all of which were things you gave me in the past, so you can take them and use them first.”

Yu Wen was too embarrassed to accept his wife’s goodwill and said, “I should be the one saying this to you. Although that amount of silver was a lot, as I’ve mentioned before, it was a windfall, so we can just treat it as though we didn’t have it in the first place. There’s no need for you to take your personal silver to cover mine. Put it away, we are not short of silver.”

For a brief moment, he regretted that he had not told his wife about the nautical chart, otherwise she would not have been so worried.

While Yu Wen was hesitating, Yu Bo’s family came over.

It was exactly like the old adage, “Good deeds go unnoticed, but news of calamities travel a thousand miles.” As soon as something bad happened on Yu Wen’s side, Yu Bo’s family knew about it immediately.

Madam Wang and Lady Xiang went to the inner room to reassure Madam Chen, while Yu Bo sat down at the front seat and said sternly, “You are smarter than me, so I didn’t check on your personal affairs. This time you have to speak the truth, do you have any external debts?” He further added, “Although our family’s shop does not earn much silver, it is still a little better than your earnings from the fields. I’ll try to help you pay off Master Wu’s silver. If you can’t pay it back now, I’ll find a way to help you pay it back slowly!”

This was a clear assumption that Yu Wen had external debts.

He didn’t believe his previous claim about a windfall at all.

At this point in time, it was even more difficult for Yu Wen to tell his elder brother clearly.

He said embarrassedly, “Brother, I am already at this age and I have some degree of propriety and control in what I do. As for Master Wu’s silver, there is an agreement between me and Master Wu, so don’t worry about it, just go about your business.”

“We are one family, so there’s no need to speak as if we are two separate families.” Madam Wang walked out of the inner room some time ago, looking a little worn out, and added, “Previously, brother-in-law spoke of sharing half of the profits with us. Now that the business has suffered a loss, it is only natural that our family’s half should be accounted for as well. Although we can’t afford it at this moment, we will help you to pay back the silver even if it’s just a little. Don’t stand on ceremony with us, little brother-in-law. Seeing you suffering like this, your brother and I cannot just stand aside, and enjoy by ourselves. What kind of a brother would he be?”

Yu Wen was deeply grateful, but he really didn’t need his brother’s silver, so he looked towards Yu Yuan pleadingly, in hopes that he would say a few words to help out.

Yu Yuan didn’t know if he should laugh or cry.

One lie often requires many more lies to keep.

The matter of the nautical chart that was originally hidden from them to keep the peace and safety of their family, now became a secret which could not be revealed.

Just before arriving, his father had reprimanded him for this, and he was counting on his uncle to help him out, so how could he persuade his father still?

After three days, Master Wu rushed back from Ningbo still covered in dust. He walked past his own home without entering and instead went straight to the Yu family.

“It’s something that happened at Boss Wang’s place.” He didn’t even have time to drink a sip of his tea as stood in the courtyard with Yu Wen and recounted the events he had enquired about on his trip, “Didn’t Boss Wang set up his own business from one of his former employers? The two sons of his former employer were afraid that Boss Wang would take over their business, so they joined forces to frame Boss Wang and had all three of his sons imprisoned. Boss Wang was so ruthless and heartless. After bailing out his sons with some of the invested funds, he sold the ship and ran away with his family. All the invested silver in the business was also taken away by him. Master Jiang was the first to sense that something was wrong and immediately rushed to Ningbo, but he was still a step too late. He is now in a hurry to see if he can get anything back to settle his debts.”

Yu Wen sighed at this and commented, “That is something that couldn’t be prevented!”

All the anger, worry and fear from before instantly dissipated.

It wasn’t a problem with his judgement, only that they trusted the wrong person.

Master Wu also felt the same and said, “Previously, we only invested in Master Jiang because we had a good impression of him, and now that something like this has happened, Master Jiang can’t be blamed for it all. There’s no need for us to be anxious, let’s see what Master Jiang has in mind before deciding our next course of action.”