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Chapter 7 : The Money That Spoke (Part II)
The housewife turned her head and pulled the child into her embrace. She spoke angrily, "Our Maiden Qiao would never steal another's money. I handed it to her when she left this morning."
"This is a large amount of money. Yet, you are comfortable with letting such a young child take care of it. Your composure is admirable," Jiang Ruan spoke drily. One did not know if it was on purpose or by accident, she emphasized on the word "young" heavily. Her surroundings immediately produced a wave of laughter. This housewife just claimed that her daughter was young in age, yet she handed such a huge sum of money to her. It was a rather unconvincing justification.
"I- I wanted to let her go out to purchase some items," the housewife was slightly enraged.
"What did you want to buy? With this much money, the items that you wanted to purchase must have been a lot. Would Maiden Qiao be able to carry them?"
The surrounding laughter grew louder.
The housewife became more and more enraged, "Why do you need to care about that? Of course, I have things to purchase. Now, I have already mentioned that I gave this money to Maiden Qiao. However, this old man claimed that it is his money. Does he have any evidence or a witness?"
Among the spectators, no one spoke. There was truly no evidence nor witness. Even though one was able to guess the cause of this matter, there was still no one that was willing to help the old man to get out of this predicament. "You are going along with her evil deeds, colluding together and joining her villainy-" The old man stamped his foot in rage, spouting a few phrases in a single breath. Unfortunately, these cultured curses did not have any effect on the onlookers.
"Do not worry, sir," Jiang Ruan spoke.
The old man turned to Jiang Ruan, creasing his brows. He spoke in a stiff tone, "Young lady, I do not want to implicate you. These people are concealing the evidence of their crime. I will persist until the end. I appreciate that you have lent me a hand today. However, you cannot even defend yourself, much less help others. You better protect yourself." When he uttered the two words "young lady", the old man hesitated slightly. It was quite odd to call a child, who could be his own granddaughter, a young lady, but when he faced this young girl, he had a feeling of interacting with a grown woman. He really could not treat her like a normal child.
"Old man, you are ungrateful. My lady has rescued you, yet you failed to appreciate her kindness." After hearing such words, Lian Qiao spoke angrily.
"Lian Qiao," Jiang Ruan stopped her and spoke, "How are you so sure that I am unable to protect myself?"
"Don't tell me that you still have a plan?" The old man raised his voice and it attracted the eyes of the onlookers.
"Sir, you should first mention how you lost the money," Jiang Ruan spoke.
"I did not steal his money. I did not steal his money!" The child shrieked in tears.
"Shut up," Jiang Ruan eyed Maiden Qiao, who was nestled within the housewife's embrace, coldly. After being stared at by Jiang Ruan's cold gaze, Maiden Qiao unconsciously felt fear in her heart. She held her tongue immediately, and withdrew further into the housewife's embrace.
The crowd was astonished. Upon seeing this, the old man thought about it and spoke, "Today was my first visit here. At the end of the street, I bought a deep-fried dough cake from a peddler. I grabbed some copper coins from my purse. After walking for a while, I felt that someone had touched my things. I saw a young girl walking beside me. Since I was being vigilant, I looked into my coin purse and discovered that my money had vanished all of a sudden. So I caught her. As expected, I discovered the money on her. Who knew that she would make bogus accusations against me? It is really distasteful!" After he finished, he glared at the child, whose face had traces of tears.
"Where is the peddler that sold the deep-fried dough cakes?" Jiang Ruan asked.
"It's me." A tan-skinned, middle-aged man came forward with avoidant eyes. He scratched his head, "There were too many customers who purchased the deep-fried dough cakes. I can not remember if he bought anything from my stall." The people of West Street were apathetic. It was evident that these words were meant to patronize.
Upon seeing this, the young girl and the housewife rejoiced in Jiang Ruan's misfortune as they looked at her. They felt that Jiang Ruan was incapable of dishing out any new tricks anymore.
"Since both parties insist that they are right," Jiang Ruan spoke softly, "Then, let the money speak."
Translated by : togekiss
Edited by : Anks & Ely