Transmigration: The Little Chef Calls The Shots-Chapter 1344 - 189, The Cause (Part 2)_2

"Oh, Madam Chen, are you not aware? No matter what, our Lin family is Young Master Chen’s life-saving benefactor. If it hadn’t been for our family taking him in, he would definitely still be mingling with the little street beggars, living a miserable life with no clothes to cover his body and not enough food to fill his stomach! Oh right, not only were they starving and freezing, but they were also subjected to beatings and chases by street ruffians every day, and even stray dogs looking for food could easily drive them away!"

What Lin Yuan said was not an exaggeration; this indeed had been Xiao Linzi’s state when she first saw him. Otherwise, she would not have developed such a lack of affection for Lady Jiang and Chen Leyao upon meeting them.

Lady Jiang was clearly hearing about such matters for the first time; she had originally thought that when Chen Ruochu sneakily left, he had taken silver with him, but she hadn’t expected the boy to have suffered so much out in the world.

A feeling of discomfort suddenly arose in her heart, but her reason quickly overcame that tenderness. What did it matter if he suffered? He should not have been born in the first place. If that maid who cleaned the courtyards had valued and respected herself, she would not have had such a wretched life.

Compared to Lady Jiang’s lack of compassion, Chen Leyao standing nearby was much more soft-hearted. After all, they were bound by blood; even if they did not come from the same mother, they still shared the blood of Chen Haigang.

"My little brother, he really..." Unable to help herself, Chen Leyao murmured, her nose starting to feel sour.

Lin Yuan gave her a deep look, but did not respond. Instead, she continued, holding her sisters’ hands, "Now you all understand, don’t you? We not only took in Young Master Chen, but also sent him to school, and my three younger sisters are also studying at that same school. Speaking of which, they are classmates. Is it wrong for classmates to greet each other when they meet? Or should Young Master Chen still pretend not to recognize us when we meet again? Heh, I actually don’t think Young Master Chen is the type of person who would be ungrateful and disloyal!"

The women all nodded in agreement, and their misunderstanding about Lin Wei and Chen Ruochu was also dispelled.

The misunderstanding was cleared, and Lin Wei’s reputation was saved, but Lin Yuan’s goal had not been achieved. For Lady Jiang to have slandered Lin Wei’s reputation in front of so many people was tantamount to murder.

"Madam Chen, everyone says you are gentle and generous, kind and approachable, hmph, I see that the reality is quite different indeed!"

Lin Yuan glanced at the uncomfortable Lady Jiang and pointed at the piles of fabric: "With such character, the quality of her fabric can’t be much better, right? Otherwise, why would the previously costly Cicada Wing fabric suddenly be sold at half price and buy one get one free?"

Whirling noises arose as the women who had been examining the fabric by the stand stopped their movements.

Yes, that Cicada Wing fabric used to cost quite a bit of silver just for one piece, and now they say the price has lowered. And then there are those Light Mist and Cicada Wing fabrics tossed on the floor like trash – could it be true what this young lady said, that these fabrics were flawed in some way?

"Oh, my, I wouldn’t dare take them, now that I’ve heard that someone bought flawed fabric and developed red bumps all over their body when they wore the clothes made from it! It was so itchy, their child cried from the itching!"

"Really? Oh my! I don’t want it either! I just thought, how could the previously unaffordable Cicada Wing fabric suddenly be so easy to buy? So, it turns out to be defective goods!"

"Just now I saw a maid carrying a bunch of Cicada Wing fabric out of the house! Shouldn’t genuine Cicada Wing fabric be neatly placed piece by piece? How could it be carried out like throwing away trash?"

"I don’t want it, I don’t want it! Chen Ji is really unscrupulous! No wonder the Imperial Merchant was taken away by the Wu Family this time!"

"That’s right, I thought the Wu Family had done something underhanded, but now it looks like the Chen family just isn’t up to scratch!"

The women chatted amongst themselves, and following Lin Yuan’s lead, they continued the narrative and even used their imaginations to invent other versions, amusing Lin Yuan greatly.

The crowd of women who were initially packed three layers inside and three outside quickly dispersed, and Lady Jiang as well as the Shopkeeper Qin who came out later were both terribly anxious, their faces twitching.

However, Xiao Linshuang and the others were happily clapping and laughing, even Lady Liu, who was usually tolerant and kind, couldn’t help but curl her lips in schadenfreude.

Only Lin Wei was somewhat concerned; their words today about Lady Jiang and Chen Ji would certainly not bode well for Linzi at the Chen family.

Lin Wei tugged at Lin Yuan’s sleeve and shared her worries with her.

Lin Yuan patted the back of her hand and looked at Lady Jiang, who was eager to explain, her tone mocking: "Silly sister, do you think that being nice to her today would make Linzi’s life any better? Today, Chen Ji and the Wu Family started a price war; such a foolish idea definitely wasn’t conceived by Linzi. I guess it must be Lady Jiang who locked Linzi up and came over, taking matters into her own hands. Hmph, that old master of the Chen family is also a simpleton; he actually lets Lady Jiang create such chaos!"

Just as Lin Yuan suspected, Lady Jiang had indeed locked Chen Ruochu away in the ancestral hall. The reason given was the same argument she had used to defame Lin Wei – only, in reverse. She described Linzi as having sullied and vile intentions, committing the act of luring away a good family’s daughter and even brought the girl’s aggrieved family into it. She claimed they were all so outraged they wanted to report the matter to the authorities; were it not for her own eloquent tongue, she might not have been able to protect Linzi.

Chen Haigang, a man of straightforward nature, was only focused on researching various novel fabrics and even lacked cunning in doing business – how could he see through Lady Jiang’s lies?