Chapter 437 Pei Qin, You Must Abide by the Women’s Code (2)_1
Lady Chen observed Old Pei’s expression and knew he too was inclined to break off the engagement with the Zhao family. She immediately persuaded Old Pei, "Dad! With in-laws like the Zhaos, they only scheme for their own benefit when it suits them and pass the blame to us when trouble arises. We were unaware before, but now we’ve seen their true colors. In prosperous times they look down on us, and in troubled times we can’t shake them off! Having such a family as relations invites disaster!"
Old Pei was also worried about this. Regarding the current incident, he wasn’t sure whether it was the Qian family who had hired someone to commit murder, nor how it had somehow involved Zhao Junchao and the others. But if the Qian family didn’t step in to smooth things over, Zhao Junchao would definitely pin the blame on his second son and the second son’s wife.
Upon receiving Old Master Qian’s letter, Lady Qian’s face darkened for a long time.
After reading the letter, Pei Zongli immediately took action as instructed.
Zhao Yaocheng was quite dissatisfied. Handling it this way, Jun Chao still couldn’t avoid being tarnished with the stain of theft. He made another trip to the prison.
Zhao Junchao and Zhang Shiqian quickly confessed that they had switched the brocade in the box to give Pei Qin a lesson, just to scare her. They hadn’t touched the brocade, which was hidden in an abandoned house not far behind the inn.
Such a confession full of holes, Wu Dongsi didn’t believe a word. Nevertheless, he still dispatched a Government Officer to search the abandoned house for the missing brocades. One after another, the brilliant and magnificent brocades were found, causing all present to sigh with emotion. It turned out that Zhao Junchao and the others had indeed stolen Shen Songming’s goods—those beautiful brocades must be worth quite a sum of silver.
With the stolen items found and the culprits admitting their mistakes, the Zhao family demanded Wu Dongsi release them.
This was a case involving hiring a murderer, yet they sought to settle it swiftly as a mere theft. Furthermore, they were admitting to a mistake, not a crime. Wu Dongsi called for Pei Qin again and asked her opinion, "They want to settle privately with money and erase the matter of hiring a murderer."