Old man Chen was also somewhat annoyed by his son changing his name on his own, but since the name was given by Master Magistrate, he couldn’t say much. Hearing Lan Hua speak so bluntly now, his heart felt even more unpleasant. His old face blushed crimson red, and he was at a loss for words for quite some time.
"Shi Mei, why don’t you say something?" Wang Qiaoxin thought Chen Shimei’s silence was entirely because he had a soft spot for this little village girl and immediately felt jealous. Her complexion turned unsightly.
Chen Shimei dared not look at her, nor at Lin Yuan, because his guilt was overwhelming. However, at this point, there was no choice but to keep compounding his mistakes.
"Yuan, Lin Yuan, I know your family’s circumstances are not good. If you are short of silver, you can tell me, I don’t mind. But you didn’t take to heart what I said about my parents, and I am very disappointed. Don’t you remember the promise you made to me back then? You said you would treat my parents as your own, care for them daily, and never neglect them. Have you forgotten all these words?"
Lin Yuan scoffed, this fellow, not mentioning a word about the silver he was supposed to give her and incessantly shifting the topic to matters only known between the two of them. How shameless he was, even now, still fantasizing about rekindling that sliver of goodwill in her heart, to soften her up and help him cover up the past?
She couldn’t help but sigh inwardly for the poor, deceased silly girl, Lin Yuan. This was the man she once set her heart on—irresponsible, ungrateful, fickle, in summary, whatever was the most disgusting, he did it.
Lin Yuan smiled and looked over Old Chen and his wife’s attire, then at Chen Shimei’s clothing and retorted instead of answering, "Young Master Chen, may I ask, could you have taken out two taels of silver for me three months ago?"
Chen Shimei, seeing Lin Yuan smile, thought she might be reminiscing about their past and still harbored fantasies about him. Little did he expect, Lin Yuan would confront him with this question.
Chen Shimei hemmed and hawed, unable to speak, and Wang Qiaoxin was startled. She remembered the scene when she stumbled upon Chen Shimei on the street a month ago. He stood at the corner of the street in patched, filthy clothing, exuding bookish charm, yet it couldn’t hide the air of destitution about him.
Later she learned that at that time, Chen Shimei had only three copper coins to his name.
Three copper coins—Wang Qiaoxin knew all too well what that implied. Coupled with the Chen family’s dilapidated appearance today, she became acutely aware of their destitution. However, because she liked Chen Shimei, she didn’t care about it at all. After all, her father was Master Magistrate, so she had no worries about food and drinks; keeping Old Chen and his wife was like having two more servants.
But what she never expected was that Chen Shimei would deceive her!
Wang Qiaoxin, a perceptive person, immediately felt embarrassed, turned around, and glared at Lv Liu, then fell silent.
Lan Hua chuckled and said, "Two taels of silver? Everyone here knows the state of the Chen family in our village, don’t they? Let’s not even talk about two taels—weighing even two copper coins would be a struggle."
At Lan Hua’s words, the diners all burst into laughter. Even though the Chen family were outsiders, they had lived in Lin family hollow for many years, and as Lan Hua said, everyone understood the situation. When Lin Yuan set up a table at their doorstep, they had even extorted two taels of silver from her. To speak of taking out two taels now was simply laughable!
But how could Old Chen, who was so concerned about face, so easily swallow his own words?
"Little Disaster Star, stop your nonsense; it’s you who took the silver from my son!"