Chapter 843: The Peasant Girl’s Splendid Manor
Chapter 843: Fooling the Scum (4)
Mo Yan gritted her teeth, holding back her fury. She refrained from rushing up to confront Du Wencai, fearing that such a move might alarm him and cause him to flee. After thinking it over, she drove Da Hongzhao to a nearby spot where she could park the carriage. After paying a small fee for the carriage’s watch, she quietly followed the man and woman who had just left the accessories stall and were heading west along the street.
The pair spent the next hour browsing various stalls. Du Wencai was very generous, buying whatever the woman showed interest in without haggling over the price. Although the items were all cheap, the stall owners, seeing his lavish spending, deliberately raised their prices by a few wen here and there. In less than a quarter of an hour, he had already spent at least two hundred wen.
Du Wencai came from a poor family, yet he refused to follow the path of many poor scholars who earned money by copying letters, as he thought it would demean his status. Someone like him, now in his twenties, had probably never earned a single coin with his own hands.
Despite the Du family’s dire situation, even though the Liu family had helped them pay off their debts, they could hardly spare any money for Du Wencai’s indulgences. That silver was most likely earned by the women in the Du family, who washed and sewed hundreds of garments. Yet Du Wencai squandered it without hesitation, just to make a woman smile.
This behavior of pretending to be rich and pretending to be a nobleman, though despicable, paled in comparison to his selfish and heartless actions, wasting the blood and sweat of his relatives.
"Scum!"
Having witnessed all this firsthand, Mo Yan couldn’t help but curse inwardly, her hatred for Du Wencai reaching its peak. A man as heartless as him, who showed no filial piety, was utterly unworthy of her best friend, Liu Tinglan. She vowed not to rest until she exposed the true nature of this disgusting man and broke the engagement between the Liu and Du families.
The pair continued their shopping for an entire hour. When Du Wencai finally ran out of money, he put on a false, pitying expression and insisted on sending the woman home, pretending to feel sorry for her.
Mo Yan hid in a corner, waiting until she saw the two, still clinging to each other, with one entering a house and the other reluctantly leaving. She then stepped out and, pretending to be lost, stopped an elderly woman passing by. After a few questions, she learned the woman’s identity.
The woman’s name was Tian, and she was sixteen years old. Her father was a constable in the local government, reportedly well-connected and knowing many influential people. In this area, where the majority of families were poor, the Tian family could be considered one of some standing.
Mo Yan didn’t believe Du Wencai was after Miss Tian’s beauty; his lust for power surely outweighed any attraction to her looks. After all, even three Miss Tians couldn’t compare to Liu Tinglan. Most likely, Du Wencai was after her father’s influence, knowing that Constable Tian was well connected.
To expose Du Wencai’s true character to the Liu family and dissolve the engagement, Mo Yan decided to take advantage of the situation. She released Mao Mao from her space, instructing it to keep a close eye on Du Wencai and observe what "good deeds" he was up to in his everyday life.
Mao Mao, which had been well-fed and pampered in the space, eagerly nodded its small head after hearing Mo Yan’s instructions. It flapped its wings and flew toward the direction where Du Wencai had disappeared.
Watching Mao Mao fly off, Mo Yan’s gaze grew cold. If she could gather solid evidence, the Liu family would have no need for persuasion to break the engagement. Although breaking the engagement would still bring negative consequences for the Liu family and Liu Tinglan, the blame would fall squarely on Du Wencai, thus reducing the pressure on the Liu family.
With a breakthrough in her plan, the weight that had been pressing on Mo Yan’s heart for days seemed to lift. Seeing that it was getting late, she returned to where she had left the carriage. After driving Da Hongzhao to the rice shop for a quick lunch and reviewing the accounts, she then made her way to the examination hall to pick up Mo Qingze, who had just finished the imperial examination.
(End of chapter)
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