Chapter 158
Ye Yunniang sat up straight and looked at Taohong, "Where have you seen her?"
"A creepy old woman with triangular eyes who stays by Xing Jinxiu's side."
"Thank you." Ye Yunniang made a mental note of it.
Returning to her residence, Ye Yunniang told Jiang Mingzhe what Taohong had said. She asked him to help analyze why Xing Jinxiu would target her.
Ye Yunniang carefully recalled, but there was no enmity between her and Xing Jinxiu.
"Xing Jinxiu mistook you for Shushu's mother, thinking you were the woman Bao Min had hidden away."
Hearing Jiang Mingzhe's speculation, Ye Yunniang looked relieved. "Thank goodness Xing Jinxiu got the wrong person."
Ever since Cai Damei moved into the prefectural magistrate's estate, she had been sick and was very frail.
Thinking about the suffering she endured along the way after being abducted, she figured that if it had been Cai Damei, she probably wouldn't have survived to reach Northern Frontier City.
If something happened to Cai Damei, Ye Yunniang wouldn't be able to live on.
Jiang Mingzhe once again deeply realized how important Cai Damei was in Ye Yunniang's heart.
He calculated in his mind how he could replace Cai Damei's position in Ye Yunniang's heart.
At the Jiangcheng prefectural magistrate's estate, Cai Damei also learned the truth behind Ye Yunniang's disappearance from Bao Min.
On that rainy night when Bao Shuyi had a fever, he kept crying out for his mother. Ye Yunniang didn't correct him while taking care of him.
All of this was seen by the doctor who came to treat him.
Bribed heavily by Xing Wenzhi's men, the doctor revealed everything he had seen in the magistrate's estate.
Xing Wenzhi firmly believed that Ye Yunniang was the woman Bao Min had hidden away.
When Xing Jinxiu found out, her first thought was to kill Ye Yunniang. But then she felt that killing her wouldn't be enough to vent her anger, so she ordered her servants to hand Ye Yunniang over to human traffickers.
She told the traffickers to take Ye Yunniang to the Yan Kingdom and sell her to a family with many brothers.
"You found this out a long time ago."
"When you all talked about the dream, I was seventy percent sure it was Xing Wenzhi's doing."
Xing Wenzhi was very careful; everything Bao Min found was only circumstantial evidence. Furthermore, due to the heavy rain, Jiangcheng was almost flooded, and the entire magistrate's estate needed to work together to overcome the crisis.
Bao Min suppressed the matter regarding Ye Yunniang.
Now that the droughts and floods had ended, the commoners had returned to their normal lives.
Bao Min would thoroughly investigate Xing Wenzhi and give Cai Damei an explanation.
"What I want is not an explanation." Cai Damei's voice was cold, disappointed in Bao Min.
"Madam, I..."
"Yunniang,
have you found her?" Cai Damei interrupted Bao Min's explanation; she didn't want to hear it.
"Tong Mo went to the Yan Kingdom to search for her. He will definitely bring Ye Yunniang back." Bao Min believed in his nephew's abilities.
Cai Damei didn't ask anything else. She got up and went into the inner room to rest.
Bao Min knew Cai Damei was angry with him. He stepped forward, wanting to explain his difficulties.
"My Lord, an urgent report from the capital." A servant reported from outside the door, halting Bao Min's steps.
Bao Min turned around to handle his official duties. By the time he finished and returned,
Cai Damei and the children were nowhere to be seen, and many of their belongings were missing.
He sent someone to Sunset Glow Alley, but they couldn't find anyone. After asking around, he learned that Cai Damei had taken the children and left through the North Gate in a carriage.
Escorting them were the guards from the escort agency.
Using his identity as the prefectural magistrate, Bao Min found out from the escort agency that Cai Damei had commissioned them to escort her and her four grandchildren to Northern Frontier City.
As the prefectural magistrate of Jiangcheng, Bao Min couldn't leave the city. He sent Luo Xin to lead men in pursuit. "You must protect Madam well."
"Yes." Luo Xin acknowledged the order and led his men to give chase.
Bao Min's gaze turned toward the assistant magistrate's estate. For causing his wife to leave him, he would definitely destroy the Xing family.
"Grandma, is it really okay not to tell Lord Bao?" Li Pan was worried that Bao Min would be anxious if he couldn't find them.
"He doesn't need to know," Cai Damei said in a flat tone.
"Is Mother really in Northern Frontier City?" Li An was more concerned about news of Ye Yunniang.
"She is," Cai Damei affirmed.
"I wonder if Mother is hurt?"
"Mother will definitely be fine."
"We will find Mother."
Ye Yunniang had no idea that the family she missed so much was currently on their way to Northern Frontier City.
Bidding farewell to all her acquaintances, Ye Yunniang sat in the carriage and left the Green Capital.
Unlike the cramped and crowded carriage when she came,
the carriage Ye Yunniang was riding in now was not only spacious but also lined with thick cushions.
If she got tired of sitting, she could just lie down.
However, Ye Yunniang didn't lie down. She sat in the carriage, learning how to keep and read account books from Jiang Mingzhe.
The Baise Embroidery Shop was hers now, and she needed to run it.
Previously, Baise had taught her a little bit about bookkeeping.
Since it coincided with the drought, there hadn't been much business.
Ye Yunniang hadn't made any mistakes in her bookkeeping.
But things were different now,
The Baise Embroidery Shop was her property. She had to manage it well, expand it, and develop it into the number one embroidery shop in Jiangcheng.
There was a saying from Baise that Ye Yunniang really liked.
"Ye Yunniang, no matter how much Jiang Mingzhe loves you or how much wealth and treasure he gives you, you cannot consider these things as something you will possess forever.
No matter what, as women, we must have our own unique ability to make money—a skill that allows us to live well even if we leave anyone."
To run the Baise Embroidery Shop well, Ye Yunniang needed to learn a lot of things.
Bookkeeping and reading accounts were the first steps.
Ye Yunniang originally wanted Jiang Mingzhe to arrange for an accountant to teach her.
But Jiang Mingzhe volunteered to teach Ye Yunniang himself.
Ye Yunniang thought that since Jiang Mingzhe was so incredible at business, teaching her would be a piece of cake for him.
However, once Jiang Mingzhe started teaching her, Ye Yunniang once again experienced the difference between a genius and an ordinary person.
To Jiang Mingzhe, bookkeeping and calculating accounts were as simple as eating and drinking.
When Ye Yunniang did the accounts, she had to spend half an hour, or even an hour, just to calculate the price of a single item.
As for auditing, Jiang Mingzhe could spot a problem at a single glance. Ye Yunniang had to painstakingly compare and calculate little by little. She would spend half a day finding a minor issue, yet completely miss the root of the problem.
After suffering another blow to her confidence, Ye Yunniang suggested.
"Why don't you arrange for a female accountant to teach me bookkeeping first? Once I've mastered that, I'll learn auditing from you."
"I'll explain it more slowly," Jiang Mingzhe said, unwilling to give up this chance to be alone with Ye Yunniang.
"It's taking up too much of your time."
"Are you complaining that I'm not a good teacher?"
"No," Ye Yunniang denied. "It's just that I'm too stupid and can never seem to learn it."
"You're doing very well," Jiang Mingzhe encouraged.
"Really?"
"Yes, real—"
The carriage suddenly stopped, and Ye Yunniang lost her balance, falling backward.
Jiang Mingzhe caught Ye Yunniang in his arms, using his own body as a cushion.
"What happened?"
A guard stepped forward and answered, "Master, a woman rushed out from the side of the road and blocked the carriage."
"Send her away." Jiang Mingzhe's attitude was cold and hard. Having traveled for many years, he had seen plenty of these petty tricks. He had long ceased to be soft-hearted.
"Master, you should probably take a look."