Chapter 157 - 157: Extorter

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Shuiyun County.

Recently, it had been raining heavily, and the people in the county had become much more active. In the afternoon, many people came out to stroll around and eat ice cream bars. They enjoyed the gradually cooling summer wind.

At this moment, many people were gathered at the entrance of Pure and Gentle Women’s Clothing Shop, watching the commotion.

There was a simple stretcher placed at the entrance of the shop. On the stretcher lay a thin girl.

The girl was wearing a dress from Pure and Gentle Women’s Clothing Shop. She was curled up slightly, her face pale and in pain.

Beside the stretcher stood a peasant woman in her forties. Iler cheekbones were high and fleshless. Iler eyebrows were raised, and her chin was sharp. She looked very mean.

At this moment, she was cursing, “Damn it, why didn’t you check when you sold the clothes? There were embroidery needles in the clothes. You harmed my daughter.”

Sang Wanlu was not around, and Chu Qingyue was in charge of the shop. She had never encountered such a situation before. She was very afraid, but she still mustered her courage and said, “How can there be embroidery needles in the clothes? Don’t malign us!”

The peasant woman threw a thick and long embroidery needle to Chu Qingyue and said fiercely, “There’s no embroidery needle? What is this then? It’s this embroidery needle that paralyzed my daughter.”

Upon hearing that the girl on the stretcher was paralyzed, the onlookers immediately expressed their sympathy for her.

From the looks of it, if the compensation was not satisfactory, the woman wouldn’t let this matter rest.

There was still blood on the needle tip. When she heard that the girl was paralyzed, Chu Qingyue was even more afraid. “No, impossible. We checked every dress we sold carefully. It must be your own embroidery needle.”

The woman pointed at Chu Qingyue fiercely. “Are you saying that I was the one who paralyzed my daughter with an embroidery needle?”

No matter how vicious a mother was, she would not paralyze her own daughter. Chu Qingyue didn’t know what to say.

Seeing that Chu Qingyue was silent, the woman thought that she had the upper hand. “You’re the owner of this shop. Just tell me how you plan to resolve this matter.”

Chu Qingyue still felt that it was not the shop’s fault. She had been very serious and careful. “Based on your one-sided story, 1 won’t compensate a dime.”

Upon hearing that she would not compensate, the woman immediately started to make a scene.

“Damn it, you’ve harmed my daughter to this extent and now you want to extricate yourself from the responsibility. How can you do business like this? Aren’t you afraid of being struck by lightning”

“My poor daughter has been harmed by you. Now that she’s crippled, who would want to marry her? Her life will be ruined. You evil people will die a horrible death!”

“My daughter, my poor daughter. If I had known, 1 wouldn’t have come to your shop to buy clothes.”

“You have to pay a hundred taels of silver today. Otherwise, we’ll stay here and not leave. Don’t even think about doing business!”

What happened in the Pure and Gentle Women’s Clothing Shop spread to the county city like a gust of wind. More and more people came to watch.

The onlookers hadn’t had a good show to watch in a long time.

Chu Qingyue was very nervous and afraid. The clothes on her back were wet, but when she heard the woman asking for a hundred taels of silver, she perked up. “If anyone can accuse us and extort our money without evidence, we’ll go bankrupt in no time.”

The woman cried and said, “The dress belongs to your shop, right? The embroidery needle belongs to your shop, right? There are special patterns on the embroidery needle. It’s different from the ones sold at other places.”

Chu Qingyue picked up the embroidery needle from the ground and took a closer look. There was a pattern that looked like a ripple engraved on the embroidery needle. This was their trademark.

This was Sang Wanlu’s idea to prevent troubles. She did not expect it to become evidence now.

Seeing this, Chu Qingyue’s expression changed.

When the woman saw Chu Qingyue’s reaction, she thought it wouldn’t be long before she could go back home with a bagful of silver.

At this moment, a refined man in green and white clothes squeezed in from the crowd. He walked to Chu Qingyue’s side and said, “Qingyue, don’t worry.”

Chu Qingyue had always been strong. When she saw Ning Yuting, her eyes turned red and quickly filled with tears.

The person beside her was as warm as the spring sun. He appeared when she needed help the most and told her not to worry…

She looked away slightly, and her heart beat abnormally fast.

Ning Yuting took out a handkerchief and handed it to Chu Qingyue. “Wipe your tears. Leave the rest to me.”

Chu Qingyue nodded.

Ning Yuting took the embroidery needle and looked at it. “The dress and the embroidery needle indeed belong to our shop, but it doesn’t know we did it. Your evidence is not enough.”

Seeing that someone had come to support Chu Qingyue, the woman was furious. “Who are you? What right do you have to talk here? If it’s not your fault, then why did my daughter get paralyzed?”

“Are you saying she paralyzed herself?”

“Or are you bullying us because you have so many people?”

“You have to give me an explanation today. Otherwise, you can forget about running the business.”

Ning Yuting waved at the shop assistant. “Go and get a doctor to check if that girl is really paralyzed.”

The shop assistant replied quickly, “Yes, Young Master Ning.”

The peasant woman cursed, “If you want to check, so be it. My daughter was fine yesterday, but she can’t even get up today. You can do whatever you want. If I lie, let lightning strike me”

Ning Yuting observed the peasant woman. She did not look guilty at all. Could it be that what she said was true?

“How much is your daughter’s dress?”

The peasant woman glanced at Ning Yuting and said unfriendly, “This dress cost me five hundred copper coins.”

Chu Qingyue nodded at Ning Yuting. It was indeed priced at five hundred copper coins.

Ning Yuting asked again, “When did you buy it? We keep a record of every dress we sold here. Let me take a look.”

The peasant woman sneered and stared at Ning Yuting. “A girl named Zhang Juan came to buy it the morning before yesterday.”

Chu Qingyue immediately went to bring the account book to Ning Yuting. Ning Yuting flipped through the account book. There was really someone called Zhang Juan.

He frowned slightly. This matter did not seem so simple.

He frowned and asked, “Why didn’t you send your daughter to the medical center immediately when she was paralyzed? Instead, you came here to ask for money?”

This was suspicious.

The peasant woman bared her teeth. She said very rudely, “We don’t have money. Do you think we are like you rich people?”

Her voice was filled with resentment and dissatisfaction towards life.

Ning Yuting frowned. “Even if we’re rich, our money didn’t come from nowhere. We worked hard to get it..”