Reborn in the 1970s — Married a Proud Rough Man-Chapter 164 - 68: You Miscarried, Was the Baby Jing 4’s?
Jie Jingwei cut to the chase. He took a wad of cash from Xu Chunyan’s crossbody bag and placed it on the stone table. "Here’s a thousand."
Qin Mei gave it a cold glance, a cunning, mocking smile playing on her lips. "Jing Er, a thousand isn’t enough."
Jie Jingwei’s expression darkened, and he looked at Jie Jingchen, who was sitting beside Qin Mei.
Jie Jingchen ignored him, acting as if it had nothing to do with him.
"Qin Mei..." Xu Chunyan was on the verge of erupting but instantly suppressed her anger. She took several deep breaths, then looked at Qin Mei with a beaming smile and asked softly, "Fourth Sister-in-law, what are you trying to say?"
"It means I’m raising my price. It means I’m taking this opportunity to rip you off," Qin Mei stated bluntly with a smile.
"You..." Faced with such blatant honesty, Xu Chunyan was at a loss for words.
"How much?" Jie Jingwei asked.
"This much." Qin Mei held up her index and middle fingers.
"Another two hundred?" Xu Chunyan asked with a sneer. This time, she was surprisingly quick about it, pulling twenty bills from her purse. She counted them out in front of Qin Mei and slapped them hard on the stone table. "Satisfied? Can you set my brother’s jaw now?"
Qin Mei didn’t move. She stared at Xu Chunyan as if she were an idiot, her red lips parting. "Second Sister-in-law, only two hundred more? Who do you think you’re insulting? The price is two thousand. If you can accept that, I’ll do it. If not, take your brother and get out of my sight. And a friendly reminder: don’t have any regrets after you leave, because next time, the price will go up by another thousand."
Xu Chunyan was so furious she was speechless. Two thousand... It was a fortune that would kill her to part with.
"We don’t have two thousand," Jie Jingwei said, raising a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"I don’t believe you," Qin Mei said with infuriating nonchalance. She reached out, took Jie Jingchen’s large hand, and pulled it toward her, examining his long fingers.
Jie Jingchen stared at her, watching her toy with his fingers. He said nothing, simply letting her be.
"Jing Er, what should we do?" Xu Chunyan asked, looking at Jie Jingwei’s grim face. ’Last night, I had to use every seductive wile I had just to convince him to agree to take out a thousand. A thousand yuan! It’s like he’s bleeding me dry! Now Qin Mei’s raising the price on the spot—doubling it. She’s too greedy.’
"I’m only putting up one thousand," Jie Jingwei said curtly. He wasn’t willing to add even a hundred more.
’Xu Chunwang is her brother. If she decides to save him, she can have the Xu family come up with the other thousand. If she doesn’t, then I’ll have saved this thousand.’
Xu Chunyan was torn, caught in a difficult position.
"WHIMPER... WHIMPER..." Xu Chunwang cried out, terrified his sister would abandon him.
Irritated, Xu Chunyan shook off Xu Chunwang’s hand as he tugged at her sleeve. Gritting her teeth, she made a hard decision. "Fine, two thousand it is. I only have one thousand right now. I’ll write you an IOU for the rest."
"I don’t take IOUs." ’Qin Mei wasn’t a fool. What good was an IOU? Debtors call the shots. If Xu Chunyan turned out to be a deadbeat and refused to pay up later, she wouldn’t see a single cent.’
"Qin Mei, don’t push your luck," Xu Chunyan said through gritted teeth. She had already compromised, but Qin Mei still wasn’t satisfied.
Qin Mei shrugged, her tone unyielding. "Either put two thousand in front of me, or take your brother and get out of my sight."
"Where am I supposed to get another thousand on such short notice?" Xu Chunyan glared at Qin Mei, her mask of civility finally slipping.
"That’s your problem," Qin Mei said coldly, still playing with Jie Jingchen’s fingers.
Xu Chunyan stormed into the house. A moment later, she stormed back out, hopped on a bicycle, and rode off.
Qin Mei wondered, ’Is she going to get the money? Are the banks even still open at this hour?’
Jie Jingwei sat down on the stone bench, shooting a pained glance at the money on the table. ’All that hard-earned money, going straight into Qin Mei’s pocket. It’s infuriating. I don’t even make a thousand a year.’
"Fourth Sister-in-law, you’re being shortsighted," Jie Jingwei said sarcastically. "It’s better to boil the frog slowly. Trying to get rich all at once like this will only ruin your own prospects."
Qin Mei glanced sideways, giving Jie Jingwei a cold look before smiling. "Jing Er, this is a case of Zhou Yu beating Huang Gai—one is willing to deal the blows, and the other is willing to take them."
Jie Jingwei was left speechless. He clicked his tongue against his molars and reminded her, "Fourth Sister-in-law, you two are sisters-in-law."
Qin Mei flashed a deceptively innocent smile. Without even looking at Jie Jingwei, she continued to toy with Jie Jingchen’s fingers and said irresponsibly, "Jing Er, if you and Second Sister-in-law get a divorce, then we won’t be sisters-in-law anymore."
Jie Jingwei was rendered completely speechless. ’He and Chunyan are true loves. Even if Jie Jingchen and Qin Mei were to divorce, he and his wife never would.’
’Trying to stir up trouble and get him and Chunyan to divorce, huh! She shouldn’t blame him for giving her a taste of her own medicine.’ "Fourth Sister-in-law, about your miscarriage... was the baby Jing Si’s?"
The moment Jie Jingwei finished speaking, a dead silence fell, so profound that the sound of breathing was suddenly audible.
A shadow fell over Jie Jingchen’s devastatingly handsome face. A storm brewed in his amber eyes, and a vicious aura radiated from him, too powerful to be suppressed.
Qin Mei gave Jie Jingchen’s fingertip a gentle squeeze. A tremor ran through him, and his dark, profound gaze shifted to her.
Qin Mei’s lively eyes sparkled. She gave Jie Jingchen a playful wink, and just like that, the vicious aura radiating from him dissipated.
"I didn’t have a miscarriage. It was just my period," Qin Mei stated the truth. "The ’miscarriage’ was just a ploy to keep your father-in-law locked up for a few extra days. Now that he’s been released, the story has served its purpose."
"I don’t believe you." Jie Jingwei’s face was ashen, a mocking arch to his eyebrow.
"It doesn’t matter if you believe it. What matters is that Father believes it. Oh, right, I forgot to tell you—we told Father the truth that very day. Jing Er, you know full well that if I had really miscarried, would Father have let the Xu Family off so easily?" Qin Mei said, effectively flattering Mr. Xie.
Jie Jingwei fell silent. ’While staying at his mother-in-law’s, he and Chunyan had discussed this. Chunyan had wanted to use the miscarriage to stir up major trouble, drive a wedge between Qin Mei and her husband, and turn Jie Jingchen into a laughingstock. Of course, all of that was supposed to happen after Qin Mei reset his brother-in-law’s jaw.’
’They had planned to add fuel to the fire in front of Father. But hearing now that Father knew the truth all along made Chunyan’s whole scheme seem utterly ridiculous.’
’Father knew the miscarriage was fake, yet he still sent them to stay with their mother-in-law for a few days. His heart was still biased toward Qiao Yanqiu’s son.’
A dark look crossed Jie Jingwei’s eyes, but by the time he looked at Jie Jingchen, his expression was back to normal. "Jing Si."
"Jing Er, remind your father-in-law to think before he acts. He wouldn’t want to do something he’ll later regret," Jie Jingchen said, his gaze cold and heavy, a chill glinting at the corner of his lips.
"And you? Did you think before you laid a hand on my brother-in-law?" Jie Jingwei paused before continuing, "My in-laws only have one son. Aunt Qiao crippled him, effectively ending the Xu Family’s line..."
"Given a second chance, my mother would do the exact same thing," Jie Jingchen cut in arrogantly, his icy gaze fixed on Jie Jingwei.
"Their son is crippled and the Xu family line has been severed. Do you really think they can just live out their days in peace, Jing Si?" Jie Jingwei sneered. "My father-in-law despises evil. Aunt Qiao robbed the Xu family of their heir, so for him to demand an eye for an eye, blood for blood—is that so unreasonable?"
Qin Mei fixed her gaze on Jie Jingwei and reminded him with cold sarcasm, "Jing Er, you’re a member of the Jie Family, too."
’Jie Jingwei wanted to stay out of it, so she was determined to drag him right into the muddy water.’
Jie Jingwei’s eyes were locked on Jie Jingchen, trying to gauge his reaction. He felt a flicker of disdain at Qin Mei’s words and said, "I am part of the Jie Family, but I’m not Aunt Qiao’s son."
Qin Mei fell silent. ’So Xu Anshan wasn’t taking revenge on the Jie Family, but on the Qiao Family. The Qiao Family was in Xiangjiang, far beyond his reach. Jie Jingjue was also Qiao Yanqiu’s son. The reason he targeted Jie Jingchen... was partly because of her.’
’She bore an undeniable responsibility for what happened to Xu Chunwang at Qiao Yanqiu’s hands.’
’This time, by extorting them, she’d probably earned another black mark against her name. But who cared? As long as she was making money and having fun, why should she care what anyone else thought?’
