Chapter 1: First encounter with the arrogant Er Ye, Part 3 — Three Marriages by Ming Yue Ting Feng (三嫁, 明月听风)

May 9, 2015 by inno 5 Comments

Chapter 1: First encounter with the arrogant Er Ye (Second Master), Part 3 of 3

Ju Mu Er said softly: “The shops in the East Avenue all belong to Long Er Ye. The lowly miss dares to appeal to Long Er Ye to build awnings in front of the shops.” This request surprised Long Er very much. He raised an eyebrow and repeated, “To build awnings in front of the shops of the entire street?”

“Yes,” Ju Mu Er bluntly replied.

Long Er laughed. “This is quite interesting.” He asked in a gentle voice: “Miss Ju, you and I are complete strangers. I have not met you before today. What makes you think that I will listen to your appeal to build awnings in front of the shops of the whole street?”

“This building-of-awnings issue, if Long Er Ye decides, he will not suffer any loss.”

“Really?” Long Er laughed: “Miss may well have more unexpected, more unreasonable and no less ridiculous requests?”

Ju Mu Er closed her mouth tight, her face blushed. Indeed, to look for a stranger randomly and for no reason ask him for his money, how can one justify this matter. Ju Mu Er stiffened. She didn’t know what to do. Talking to Long Er Ye is more difficult than she imagined. She thought of the many things she planned to say before coming here, now she didn’t know how and where to start.

Long Er’s face was wearing a smile, but inside his heart he was seething with anger. He hated people who are after his money. So he spared no mercy towards Ju Mu Er. He asked with a sneer: “Miss, do you know how many shops are there on East Avenue?” She must not have known, then he can continue to mock her naiveté and wishful thinking.

“From east to west is thirty-seven, from west to east is thirty-three.”

Long Er was immediately taken aback. He didn’t expect Ju Mu Er to calmly answer and actually give him the right figures.

Ju Mu Er sensed his doubts, explained: “I am blind, in order not to get lost, I like to count as I walk.”

Long Er was silent. He was carefully watching Ju Mu Er’s face. When talking to people, he has always been able to know if they are telling the truth or lying by looking through their eyes and facial expressions. Ju Mu Er’s facial features, in fact, she has the most beautiful eyes, unfortunately beneath the long eyelashes, her jet black pupils do not reflect the stirrings of her soul, rendering her face almost devoid of expression. She seems very calm and relaxed.

Long Er unexpectedly cannot read anything from her face at this moment.

Long Er asked: “Do you know how much money it will cost me to build awnings for the whole seventy shops?”

Ju Mu Er shook her head: “I have no idea, but regardless of how much, I can make Long Er Ye recoup his money.”

Long Er looked at her homespun clothes and blind eyes, smiled and said: “I believe Long Er’s ability to make money is not worse than that of Miss.” As he said these words, he looked on to the opposite corner of the tea room. Ding Yan Shan frequently looked towards him. Long Er kept thinking there’s this young lady who annoys him, but out of courtesy he has to go back to socialize with this boring girl. His heart felt heavy.

Long Er’s successive questions allowed Ju Mu Er to recover her composure; she quickly seized the opportunity to deliver her prepared speech: “Er Ye, your business is expensive and rich. Of course, I don’t regard myself above you. My abilities are really few. But, if Er Ye has requests, if I can do it, I am willing for Er Ye to build the awnings in the East Avenue.”

“Tell me, why do you want to build the awnings in the East Avenue?”

Mu Er bit her lips, her request already seemed absurd to Long Er, but as for her reason, she dreads he will find it even more ridiculous, right?

“Do you really want to know it?” Long Er stared at Mu Er’s face, and eventually noticed that she seemed embarrassed and awkward. Long Er is thinking, he wonders what could be behind this, whether there are any matters that are difficult to bring up to him.

Ju Mu Er bit her lips pondering over the situation before her. Even if she makes up a reason, she fears it is still difficult to convince him, she might as well tell him the truth.

“My neighbor younger sister earns a living selling flowers in the East Avenue. This street has no awnings where one can take shelter from the rain. Exposed to sun and rain every day, it is very hard for her. Because she’s dressed in thick plain cotton clothes, wearing no gold and silver ornaments, in case it rains, she cannot even run to the storefront to evade the rain. She got ill because of this. Two days ago, there was a heavy rainstorm. She went home very wet, laid sick in bed, and almost lost her life. At home, she also has an old mother to take care of. I couldn’t help, then I thought of asking Er Ye to build awnings in the street; to let her work but, no longer suffering from the sun and rain on the weekdays.”

Long Er listened to her somewhat flabbergasted, showed no reaction for a long time and asked: “Is that all?”

Ju Mu Er nodded, Long Er wanted to laugh, he said: “Miss Ju, your neighbor younger sister was exposed to the sun and rain, fell ill, but, what has that to do with me? To say your sister who is doing business in the East Avenue has fallen sick, do you actually blame me for that?”

Mu Er’s face stiffened: “I didn’t mean it that way …” Long Er didn’t allow her to finish: “Miss, you thought I’m a big Samaritan, I’m not willing to be this fool actually. This matter need not be further discussed, I’m telling you now, no way!” Just for the sake of a florist girl to have a place under the sun and rain, Long Er should construct awnings for this entire street? And, just who is she?

This Ju Mu Er has the cheek to dare to bring this up, but he is not willing to listen to her.

“Er Ye, building the awnings for Er Ye is also a good investment.” Ju Mu Er sensed Long Er is preparing to leave, she got a bit anxious.

“The Long family’s ways of making money are countless, but, definitely count this one out.” Long Er said very rudely: “Miss Ju, please do as you wish,” he wanted to catch up with people.

“Er Ye.” Ju Mu Er anxiously called out. She pursed her mouth tightly, somewhat angry and anxious, with hushed voice said: “Er Ye, if I have a way to let Er Ye get out of here with a justifiable reason, you don’t need to go back and deal with the annoying guest, Er Ye promised to build the awnings, how about it?”

Long Er raised an eyebrow; in his heart he was very surprised. This blind woman is rather amusing. She could not convince him by appealing to his human emotions, to tempt him with the promise of profit unable to accomplish as well, will this change the method of goading somebody into action?

Ju Mu Er did not wait for Long Er’s reply, hurriedly talked ahead: “When I was waiting outside, the tea house elder brother-servant told me that Er Ye has an honored guest. I could hear voices, the other one that of a woman. While Er Ye is taking time to see me, I sensed that Er Ye while talking didn’t have pleasure in his voice, so I boldly infer that Er Ye chatting together with this person is not at all happy. How about I use this matter to strike a deal with Er Ye? If I can let Er Ye not only not provoke that honored guest, but have the suitable reason to leave her, Er Ye promises to build the awnings on this East Avenue, how about it?” Long Er looked at Ju Mu Er’s appearance closely, thought suddenly how this matter became really interesting, he said: “I have my own way to extricate myself, who needs you to meddle?” “The way of Er Ye is to let a servant come in, bring an urgent message saying that there’s an official matter to be dealt with by Er Ye and that he needs to leave right away. Although this is quite effective, Er Ye knows this trick makes many people suspicious as presumably Er Ye has tried this multiple times already. The honored guest might think that Er Ye is just finding excuses. But, my method is simple, logical, certainly not superficial. Er Ye can walk out honestly and with clear conscience; the honored guest will even rush to send you out.”

Long Er, in this case, thought that this got more interesting; he does not really care if Ding Yan Shan might think that he is perfunctorily looking for excuses, because he is indeed perfunctorily looking for excuses, but what could she do?

Everyone has his own pretext, but, the rest knows the real score. But, Ju Mu Er piqued his curiosity, she talked big and with such confidence that he’d really like to know what she is about to do.

“Fine, tell me then, what is your clever plan?”