“On my honor!” Ge Wenguan swore, pointing toward the heavens. “Everything you use was tested by me personally before I dared sign the purchase order! Those profiteers must have cheated me and sent the wrong products! Of course, I also failed to supervise things properly, which is why you had to suffer so much.”
Seeing that Ge Wenguan was not trying to shift all the blame, the Old Master Jiang’s mood improved somewhat.
In truth, after waking up, he had not felt anything wrong with his body. In fact, after a long, deep sleep, he felt refreshed and full of energy, as though he had grown several years younger.
On top of that, the young woman beside him had cried so hard out of concern for him that her pearly tears had put him in an excellent mood. Thus, he did not dwell on Ge Wenguan’s purchasing mistake and let him off with only a light reprimand.
However, the suppliers had to be held strictly accountable.
Ge Wenguan readily agreed. But when he went looking for them, he discovered that, somehow, they had gotten wind of the situation and disappeared without a trace!
Aside from several boxes of the problematic essential oils, they had left nothing behind.
Ge Wenguan cursed a few times, but fortunately, the incident had not led to any serious consequences.
In the end, he could only swallow his frustration and let the matter go.
Bright Moon Tower.
“Sister Qiu, my uncle heard that the main house called for dinner at seven-thirty,” Yu Heng reported.
Qiuyun passed the information on to Mr. Jiang. “All right. Thank your uncle, and ask him to keep watching the main house for us.”
Yu Heng answered sensibly, “It’s only right.”
Jiang Chuling put an arm around Yu Heng’s shoulders. “Once my mother takes over the household, we’ll have your uncle become the head chef in the kitchen and put him in charge of everything!”
Yu Heng looked a little embarrassed. “Thank you, Miss, but my uncle only passed along some information. He didn’t really do anything.”
“Hey, it’s always reassuring to have our own people in key positions,” Jiang Chuling said.
Just then, Mr. Jiang called Qiuyun.
“Come to my study.”
“All right.”
Jiang Chuling quickly raised her hand. “I’m coming too!”
Qiuyun put down her phone. “Let’s go together.”
The two of them went to the study.
Jiang Yihua sat behind his desk. “My men say that after Ge Wenguan left the main house, he hurried out of the estate. He didn’t go looking for his older sister. I don’t know whether he failed to notice anything or simply doesn’t intend to tell her.”
They had no informants in the main house and could only set a trap and lure the target in. The rest would depend on fate.
Qiuyun said, “Normally speaking, when the essential oils caused a problem, Ge Wenguan—who always tries to avoid taking responsibility—would definitely blame the user, Hu Tingxue. Once the Old Master defended her, he should have noticed that something was off. So I’m more inclined to believe that he did figure it out, but felt that this massage therapist posed no threat to Mrs. Ge’s position. He probably decided it was better not to stir up trouble and chose not to tell her.”
Jiang Chuling complained, “How can someone be like that? Granny Ge is his own sister! Her husband is having an affair, and he won’t even warn her?”
Not only was he immoral, he was also ruining their plan!
Qiuyun bent down and gently reassured her, “People like him are greedy, lazy, gluttonous, and slippery all at once. We’ll hold him accountable later.”
Jiang Chuling was satisfied. “Good!”
Since that was the case, Jiang Yihua asked, “Then what do we do next?”
Qiuyun thought for a moment. “Next, we need to find a way to make Ge Wenguan believe that Hu Tingxue could threaten his position as purchasing manager. Only then will he tell Mrs. Ge about this and get her to fight on his behalf.”
The three servants whose names they had found earlier on the list of main-house employees could finally come in handy.
Main House.
Since Hu Tingxue had stayed up all night keeping watch the previous evening, the Old Master had deliberately given her the day off to rest.
She returned to her dormitory and slept through the afternoon. That evening, when she came out for a walk, she overheard a group of young nurses gossiping.
“…Really? Then Mr. Jiang is such a shame.”
Yifeng?
Hu Tingxue could not help stopping. She wanted to hear more about the man she loved.
“It’s true! But Mr. Jiang wasn’t always such a womanizer. I remember when Second Madam had just gotten married, she teased him about finding a wife too. He even blushed back then.”
Hu Tingxue smiled knowingly, unable to stop herself from imagining how adorable Yifeng must have looked when he blushed.
The nurses continued.
“But how did Mr. Jiang become so promiscuous afterward? I heard he changes girlfriends one after another, and none of them lasts more than a month.”
“It’s because of the purchasing manager—that middle-aged, fat man who made the Old Master sleep for more than ten hours today! Tsk, tsk. He’s a womanizer himself, and he dragged Mr. Jiang into it too! Otherwise, look at the other gentlemen in the family. Which one of them didn’t get married in his early twenties?”
What?
Hu Tingxue’s brows knitted tightly.
She had been so groggy from staying up all night that morning—and had cried so much that her head was still muddled—that she had barely paid any attention to that man!
“Huh? He looks so simple and honest. I didn’t know he was a womanizer too!”
One of the nurses laughed. “Oh my gosh, you’re so naïve! He works in purchasing! Didn’t you know that the men who spend the most money at karaoke clubs are construction workers and purchasing agents?”
“Come to think of it, my cousin works in construction. My father once asked him to introduce me to an engineer at his work site, but he flat-out refused and told me never to look for a husband in construction.”
“Then purchasing is probably just as bad.”
“But what kind of background does he have? He made such a serious mistake, yet they let him off so easily.”
The discussion continued, but Hu Tingxue walked silently past the shrubbery and returned upstairs to her room.
She had fallen in love with Yifeng because she believed that beneath his carefree exterior lay a wounded soul.
He was the Old Master’s youngest son. His mother had never been given a proper status, and above him were three elder half-brothers who watched him like hawks. Under such circumstances, he had no choice but to conceal his brilliance so that no one would feel threatened or suspicious of him.
At first, she had believed that the circumstances surrounding his parents had caused him to lose faith in marriage, which was why he spent his days surrounded by women.
She had never imagined that the true culprit behind everything was that fat, haggard-looking Manager Ge!
The next day.
When the Old Master saw that Technician Hu had dark circles beneath her eyes and seemed distracted, he asked with concern, “What’s wrong? I’ve been talking to you, but you didn’t hear a word.”
Hu Tingxue jolted and hurriedly apologized. “I’m sorry, Old Master. I slept for too long during the day yesterday, so I couldn’t sleep at night. I’m just a little tired today.”
The Old Master paused. “You can follow Butler Lin’s example and call me Master.”
Was this his way of treating her as a trusted confidante?
Hu Tingxue immediately responded, “Yes, Master.”
The Old Master felt more at ease and asked gently, “Were you frightened by what happened yesterday?”
“A little.” Hu Tingxue considered whether, now that she was one of the Old Master’s confidantes, she could take the opportunity to put in a few words against someone.
She said cautiously, “That purchasing manager made you sleep for so long yesterday, Master, yet he wasn’t punished in the slightest. What if he becomes even bolder in the future? This concerns your health and safety. How can you let him off so easily?”
The Old Master fell silent.
Now that Technician Hu had put it that way, perhaps she had a point.
Ge Wenguan had always been a slippery man who committed a steady stream of minor offenses without ever doing anything serious enough to be punished. In the past, those small mistakes could be overlooked. But now that he was older, even the slightest mistake could prove fatal.
Fortunately, the essential oils had been entirely plant-based, and the dosage had been kept under control. His body’s reaction had only been so severe because he had suffered similar poisoning in the past.
