Chapter 163
Previously, Jiang Mingzhe had not returned to Jiangcheng, and things were unclear.
Chunyao understood that he said nothing out of fear that his and the Jiang family's enemies might harm Ye Yunniang and her children.
Now, Jiang Mingzhe escorted Ye Yunniang home in a carriage, not caring about the stares of outsiders.
This showed that the Jiang family was about to rise again in Jiangcheng.
At this time, both Jiang Mingzhe and Ye Yunniang needed a helping hand.
If they went over to offer their allegiance, it would both help Ye Yunniang and prove their own worth.
"Those fools in your maiden family are just a bunch of brainless, glory-seeking idiots who blabber about everything. What could they possibly do?" Jin Dachuan's words were quite harsh.
"Jin Dachuan, what do you mean?" Chunyao frowned.
"I mean you should keep your maiden family in check. Don't let them act out of line, parade themselves in front of Lady Ye, and offend the Second Master."
"Don't slander my brothers. Ye Yunniang is just an ignorant widow. Me going to help her is doing her a favor." After Chunyao finished speaking, Jin Dachuan's face turned extremely ugly.
Chunyao realized she had misspoken, "I didn't mean..."
"No wonder Lady Ye distanced herself from you later on."
"Distanced herself from me? What are you talking about? How could Ye Yunniang distance herself from me?" Chunyao didn't believe it. With Ye Yunniang's weak and gentle temperament, she always listened to whatever Chunyao said.
"I misspoke earlier. You are just as stupid and arrogant as your brothers." Jin Dachuan said, walking out of the room.
His thoughts had changed.
Originally, Jin Dachuan's plan was that when Jiang Mingzhe returned, he would continue working as the Jiang family's cook.
Now, seeing how Chunyao spoke and acted, for the sake of his own family's future, he realized he couldn't return to the Jiang family.
Ye Yunniang led the children in organizing and putting away the items they had brought back.
Once they finished tidying up, Cai Damei also had dinner ready.
Sitting in her own special chair, Bao Shuyi looked around left and right, "Where is big brother?"
The "big brother" Bao Shuyi referred to was Jiang Mingzhe.
Originally, Jiang Mingzhe wanted Bao Shuyi to call him "brother-in-law." But Ye Yunniang felt that since they weren't married yet, calling him brother-in-law was inappropriate.
Cai Damei told Bao Shuyi to call Jiang Mingzhe big brother.
"Big brother went home," Cai Damei answered.
"Isn't this big brother's home?"
"No, this is our home," Li Ping answered. He was the happiest that Jiang Mingzhe had left.
"Where is big brother's home?" Bao Shuyi asked curiously.
"He doesn't have a home," Li An replied. The Jiang family's estate had been confiscated, so how could he have a home?
"Is big brother a beggar?"
Bao Shuyi remembered Ye Yunniang saying that beggars who begged for a living on the streets were people without homes.
"Yes, yes, yes, little aunt, he is a beggar," Li Ping chimed in, sparing no effort to smear his own biological father.
"Eat your food," Ye Yunniang stopped the children from saying anything more and scooped a spoonful of steamed egg custard for Shushu.
Then she picked up some of their favorite dishes for the three children.
Cai Damei ate her meal calmly without saying a single word.
After dinner, Li Pan and Li An cleaned up and went to wash. The two of them had taken over the chore of washing dishes in the house.
Li Ping led Bao Shuyi to wipe the table.
Ye Yunniang went to fetch and boil water.
After the family finished washing and tidying up, they each returned to their rooms to rest.
While the Li family was resting and falling asleep, Jiang Mingzhe met Bao Min in a small courtyard.
"Evidence of Xing Wenzhi's crimes." After learning the reason Ye Yunniang was abducted and sold, Jiang Mingzhe arranged for his subordinate, Wen Yuan, who was best at gathering intelligence, to thoroughly investigate Xing Wenzhi and everything behind the Xing family.
Before Jiang Mingzhe even returned to Jiangcheng, Wen Yuan had investigated everything so clearly that he even knew what a cat in the Xing family had done.
Bao Min took it and flipped through it. The filthy deeds Xing Wenzhi had done over the years were truly numerous.
Framing political opponents and causing them to be exiled, hiring assassins to kill, accepting massive bribes, illegally seizing farmland...
Pulling out any single one of these would be enough to get Xing Wenzhi beheaded. Added all together, not a single person in the Xing family would be able to escape.
After reading it, Bao Min placed it on the table. "Ye Yunniang has decided to marry you."
"Yes."
"You win."
"The biggest difference between you and me is that I never gamble with feelings." Through his many years in business, Jiang Mingzhe had met too many people and experienced too many things.
Jiang Mingzhe understood one thing: never gamble with feelings, and never deceive those who treat you with sincerity.
"My wife was ill, and I was afraid her body wouldn't be able to handle it," Bao Min explained.
"Could it be any more dangerous than the deaths of Li Jun and his son, or their relatives forcing the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law for their property and trying to kill them?" Jiang Mingzhe retorted.
"It's not the same."
"Bao Min, stop making excuses. In your heart, your official position and your future are more important than she is," Jiang Mingzhe voiced the thoughts hidden deep in Bao Min's heart.
"That's not true. The citizens of the entire city rely on me; our prefectural office cannot fall into chaos."
"During the disaster relief, did Xing Wenzhi really help you?
Xing Wenzhi colluded with others to embezzle the disaster relief grain.
As for the treasure you took from my Jiang family, Xing Wenzhi secretly hoarded quite a lot of it." Jiang Mingzhe pulled out a few pages from the evidence, which clearly recorded Xing Wenzhi's corruption.
"The real reason you didn't make a move against Xing Wenzhi is that you were afraid of the Lin family behind Madam Xing. You were afraid the Lin family would strike at you. What you truly feared was losing your position as the magistrate of Jiangcheng."
Bao Min's face revealed the anger of someone whose true motives had been exposed.
"Bao Min, you disappoint me greatly." Jiang Mingzhe was genuinely disappointed in Bao Min.
The man sitting before him was no longer the passionate Bao Min who wanted to serve the country and its people.
Instead, he was Magistrate Bao, someone who weighed every option and calculated every gain and loss.
"What could I do? My sister-in-law's brother commanded the battle poorly and died in action, ending everything with his death.
But my eldest brother was implicated and locked in the heavenly prison, causing my sister-in-law to fall gravely ill.
Brother Wenbo pleaded for mercy and was punished with a year of solitary confinement to reflect on his mistakes. Yunluo went missing in an accident.
I was the only one the family could count on. At that time, if I had recklessly caused trouble for the Xing family, what would have awaited the Bao family was complete ruin."
Bao Min could only suppress everything, allow the Xing family to continue their rampant behavior, and focus on doing a good job with the disaster relief in Jiangcheng.
He planned to use the merit from this to exchange for his eldest brother's life and beg for Brother Wenbo to be released from confinement.
Facing Bao Min's outburst, Jiang Mingzhe only said one sentence.
"Bao Min, you are very calculating."
After the floods ended, Bao Min deliberately concealed a portion of the truth and did not tell Cai Damei.
He knew Cai Damei's personality; she would get angry and take the children away to the frontier to find Ye Yunniang.
Bao Min knew Jiang Mingzhe was at the frontier and knew about his feelings for Ye Yunniang.
Jiang Mingzhe would definitely go save Ye Yunniang.
Once he found out the reason for Ye Yunniang's abduction, Jiang Mingzhe would definitely activate his hidden forces in Jiangcheng to thoroughly investigate Xing Wenzhi.
This evidence was the most crucial link for Bao Min to deal with Xing Wenzhi and the Xing family. At the same time, it could be used to severely damage the Lin family backing the Xing family.
Furthermore, it would allow Bao Min to clearly gauge Jiang Mingzhe's true strength.
"You were the one who taught me that there can never be too much deception in war," Bao Min smiled, feeling smug that he could outsmart Jiang Mingzhe.
"I never taught you to deceive the feelings of your own woman and daughter," Jiang Mingzhe's words made Bao Min's smile vanish.
"I will not give up on my wife." Bao Min had set his heart on Cai Damei and would absolutely not let her slip from his grasp.
"I'll wait and see."