NOVEL NEXT Chapter 628: Shadow Tongue
"I just want Miss Luo to return the children to me. I don't understand why they won't hand me the kids when I have already promised that I will repay them the money that I owe them," Ye Jinglan sobbed. With a handkerchief to his eyes, he wiped the corners of his eyes and cried softly. "I know that I was in the wrong for not being able to return the money that I have borrowed, but I really cannot come up with the money that I owe them. However, I am not refusing to return the money. I will—just give me some time."
Ye Jinglan had spent the entire night cooking up a story. In which Luo Huian and Qi Yongrui had taken the children away. In his story, Qi Yongrui's car had run into Nian Zhi and had injured her severely, even though it was the mer who had done something wrong; he had asked Ye Jinglan to return the money that he had paid for Nian Zhi's surgery.
Ye Jinglan told the reporters that it wasn't that he didn't want to return the money, but at the moment, he had nothing in his hands. He was a widower whose wife had died just a few months ago, and he was still looking for a job. With the inflation getting crazier by the day and the job market getting more and more tricky and troublesome, how could he, an uneducated mer, get a job?
But because he didn't have any resources or connections, he couldn't land a decent job. With no money source, Ye Jinglan had absolutely no money in his hands to pay for the surgery and could only promise that he would return the money to Qi Yongrui and Luo Huian when he got a job. But who would have thought the two of them didn't even have the patience to wait for a month and take the children away from the hospital before threatening him?
He wiped the tears that were trickling down his cheeks and softly spoke into the microphone, "I promise to return the money, but please, can you return the children to me? I cannot help but worry, as they are my responsibility after the death of my wife."
Ye Jinglan was good-looking to begin with, now that he was shedding tears after deliberately putting on makeup that made him look dewy and pitiful, many women and young girls rushed to defend him.
[I never thought that someone as rich as Luo Huian would be so petty? How can she be so miserly? Even if this mer couldn't return the money for the surgery, in the end, wasn't it due to the fault of her husband? Why couldn't she control her husband and stop him from causing such trouble?]
[It's always the rich who have a small heart. I have an aunt who is really rich, but every time we go to her house, she always makes a fuss. It's all because she can't help it, or else she might even count the grains of rice that we eat.]
[No matter how small their hearts might be, they shouldn't have taken the children away from their parents. Just what are they thinking? The child must have been hurt quite severely if she was taken to the surgery. How could they move her? What if there are repercussions due to this? Who is going to pay for it?]
[Why would they care about the child of a poor mer? I believe they wouldn't even care if this child were to die.]
Soon, the entire matter exploded all over the internet, and it didn't take long for Luo Yeqing and Luo Qingling to be alerted. When Luo Yeqing saw the mess that was circulating on the internet, she pursed her lips. If it were the past, she would have lost her temper with Luo Huian and called her right away. But after getting along with her daughter for a while now, she knew that Luo Huian would never do something like this without a reason.
She called Luo Qingling at once.
"Qingling, what is going on? Why is your sister trending on the internet?" Luo Yeqing asked with a frown on her face.
Luo Yeqing was really worried. She wasn't worried about the fluctuating stocks of the Luo family; she was worried about Luo Huian. Luo Yeqing was an old fox who had dealt with all kinds of traps in the business world. How could she not take care of something so small? But she was worried about Luo Huian. What if that girl was entangled in a mess that she couldn't deal with? This was what she was worried about the most.
Luo Qingling was also aware of what was happening on the internet. She pursed her lips and told Luo Yeqing everything that happened with Nan Zhi and Nan Wu. By the time she finished speaking, Luo Yeqing was furious. She smacked the table with her palm and muttered furiously, "This is too much. How can that mer do such a thing? An An went to such great lengths to help that girl, and he dared to ruin her reputation like this? How can he act in such a manner?"
Luo Yeqing was really angry. She had never seen anyone as shameless as Ye Jinglan, who was willing to throw his own benefactor under the bus.
"Mom, leave this matter alone for now." Luo Qingling narrowed her eyes as she stared at the video that was playing in front of her. She said to her mother, "Ye Jinglan might think that he has thought of everything, but the truth is that he is still a little mer from the countryside and doesn't know anything better."
Like a fool, Ye Jinglan was not aware of the fact that Luo Huian had collected enough evidence to prove that Ye Jinglan was not a good stepfather. What was more, Luo Huian had looked for the best surgeon for Nan Zhi to repair the damage that she had received due to her burns. With all the evidence that they had, Luo Qingling didn't believe that they would not be able to prove that Ye Jinglan was lying. It was just that it was going to take some time, and she was afraid that the damage to the stocks of their company would be quite considerable.
"Leave that matter to me." Luo Yeqing's heart was set ablaze when she thought about how this mer was not only greedy but also cruel. Worst of all, he actually dared to target her daughter. Since the mer dared to fight them, she would show them their might.
Having received the permission, Luo Qingling sighed in relief. She ended the call after exchanging a few words with her mother and then turned her attention back to the screen on which Ye Jinglan's video was playing. She tapped her fingers on the surface of the table and turned to look at Dong Geming. She said to her, "What else have you found?"
"I went with Shiliu to the small village where Ye Jinglan lived," Dong Geming replied as she placed the information that she had found with Bai Shiliu and placed it all in front of Luo Qingling. "Though there is no specific evidence that Ye Jinglan was indeed behind the deaths of his wife, we have unearthed something."
"What is it?" Luo Qingling asked as she raised her head and looked up at Dong Geming from the papers that were scattered in front of her.
"Someone told me that when Ye Jinglan was young, he was a bit weird."
"What do you mean by 'weird?" Luo Qingling furrowed her brows as she couldn't understand what Dong Geming was trying to say to her. "Did that mer show some signs of psychopathic tendencies?"
"No." Dong Geming shook her head, and then, after some hesitation, she told the truth to Luo Qingling, "I looked around the village and talked about Ye Jinglan with the people of the village. They told me that there was something weird about Ye Jinglan ever since he was a child. Every time someone quarrelled with him or made him upset, they would suffer greatly."
The reason no one dared to say a word about Ye Jinglan was not that he was really good, but because the mer was the sign of bad luck. They were worried that if they told the truth to others, they would suffer in pain like those who had made Ye Jinglan upset. Some even said that the mer was possessed by something that was evil.
However, Dong Geming didn't believe that there was such a thing. She was certain that there was something else. Which was what she was asked around the village, and soon came to another conclusion, "I believe that the mer awakened as a Shadowtongue. Didn't the council have quite a lot of trouble due to them in the past?"