This was a devastating blow to Liu Xiuyan, especially given Xu Zhengyang's disdainful and contemptuous attitude that day. Liu Xiuyan, who had always enjoyed a smooth career thanks to her pretty face and excellent acting skills, found it hard to accept. Her vanity and self-righteous pride drove her almost mad, so she went all out in a desperate act.
Once such a rumor spreads in the countryside, it will surely cause quite a stir.
Everyone in the village believed Liu Erhe's family was telling the truth. After all, who in the village didn't know that Xu Zhengyang and Liu Xiuyan used to be dating? Well, various versions of suspicion and speculation emerged: A, it's because Xu Zhengyang has money now and doesn't care about Liu Erhe's daughter anymore. He got bored with her and went to find other girls to ruin. Once people have money, they're all the same; B, remember that pretty girl who used to come and see Xu Zhengyang a while ago? Yes, that rich girl who drives a nice car and is so arrogant, she doesn't even bother to look at the girls from our village. She's definitely prettier than Liu Erhe's daughter. Maybe Xu Zhengyang is rich because of that girl's family background; C, have you noticed? Liu Erhe's daughter seems to be a little pregnant. Oh, right, I saw her suddenly feel nauseous and vomiting while walking last time…
God knows who said Liu Xiuyan was pregnant. And who saw Liu Xiuyan suddenly feel nauseous and vomit while walking? Did they have vision problems or were they deliberately spreading rumors and stirring up trouble?
Instead of stopping these increasingly outrageous rumors, Liu Erhe and his family remained silent.
What does this mean? The villagers were buzzing with discussion.
Enough with the chit-chat, within a few days Xu Zhengyang became, in the eyes of most villagers, a modern-day Chen Shimei, a typical ungrateful wretch.
Xu Neng was so angry about these rumors that he stayed at home and refused to go out. He even grabbed a stick and forced Xu Zhengyang to question him about whether he had taken the girl's body. If he had, he said, "You better marry her properly!"
Yuan Suqin was so angry that she cursed and swore all day long along the street until her voice was hoarse. When she returned, she saw her husband questioning their aggrieved and wronged son with a stick. She immediately flew into a rage and had a big fight with her husband, leaving Xu Neng, who had been displaying his paternal authority, speechless and trembling.
No one knew that the reason Liu Er and his family remained silent about the increasingly outrageous rumors was because they had been condemned by the gods and were so terrified that they dared not say anything to outsiders. Moreover, one night, the family, avoiding the sight of the villagers, went to Xu Zhengyang's house with cigarettes and alcohol to sincerely express their apologies and remorse. Well, Liu Xiuyan did not go.
However, the power of rumors is boundless; they can destroy even the most powerful beings!
Once the rumor spread, Liu Er and his family, who started it all, regretted it too late; they couldn't undo it. The rumor spread rapidly, becoming increasingly fantastical and outrageous...
Xu Zhengyang finally realized with dismay that even the gods couldn't stop matters of the heart! Could this be considered a kind of human faith, where the level of trust in rumors rises to a certain point, becoming a kind of invincible supernatural power? Xu Zhengyang couldn't very well go around the village visiting each village in their dreams, telling everyone to stop spreading rumors!
Even if Xu Zhengyang were to go to great lengths to send messages to each of the local earth gods in their dreams, the result might only be the opposite of what he intended.
Because everyone in the village knows that you, Xu Zhengyang, have a connection with the local earth god. What? Trying to cover it up? Feeling guilty?
Yuan Suqin said, "Zhengyang, don't listen to those villagers' nonsense. We have nothing to hide, so why should we be afraid of what they say? Even if Liu Er and that girl came to us for money, we wouldn't marry her!"
"Yes! Absolutely not! If we become in-laws with someone like Liu Erhe, won't he cause trouble every day?" The honest and simple Xu Neng received a dream from the local earth god one night and learned that his son was innocent. He was furious.
"Sigh..." Xu Zhengyang sighed and said, "I'll go stay in the city for a while."
Yuan Suqin and Xu Neng were stunned and remained silent. In situations like this, the only recourse was to move out for a while; rumors tend to fade with time. Especially rumors like this—they spread and expand quickly, but disappear just as fast. Once neither party makes a statement, the hype usually lasts for about half a month, and then people lose interest.
Xu Zhengyang was still seething with anger. He wished he could catch the person who spread the rumors and beat them up. Unfortunately, he couldn't do that. Even if you knew who started the rumors, you couldn't just go over and confront them, scold them, or beat them up. If they denied it and said they heard it from someone else, what could you do?
Invoking the local earth god's dream? That would be like having a guilty conscience.
However, Xu Zhengyang had no intention of letting it go so easily!
He was going to stay in Fuhe City for a while to avoid the rumors, but he had already made a plan in mind. Once he arrived in the city, he would immediately arrange for the ghost to go to the homes of those gossipy women every night and cause trouble for them personally, without letting their families see the ghost.
I must avenge this humiliation!
Not only that, Xu Zhengyang felt that as a local landowner, it was necessary to teach those gossipy women a lesson so that they would stop spreading rumors and causing trouble, lest they turn nothing into something!
As the saying goes, a loss may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Xu Zhengyang was unaware that his acts of revenge had brought great benefits to himself and the villagers. The villagers began to believe in the existence of gods and finally realized that people should have reverence in their hearts and not act recklessly.
At that time, the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching, and the autumn atmosphere was even stronger.
Xu Zhengyang drove his motorcycle away from Shuanghe Village on a slightly dawning morning, with a thin mist hanging in the air, heading towards Fuhe City.
Volume 3, Judge Chapter 101: Gunshots Ring Out, Panic Sets Through the Hearts
In the afternoon, the antique market was rather deserted. About a third of the stalls in the middle were gone.
On the steps outside the Gu Xiang Xuan shop, Xu Zhengyang sat in a brown chair with armrests, leaning slightly back as he lazily read a book titled "The True Story of Hearing Ghosts." Beside him, Chen Chaojiang sat on the steps, holding a small piece of locust wood in his right hand and a small dagger less than half a foot long in his left, calmly carving on the locust wood.
There was an empty chair next to him, but Chen Chaojiang preferred to sit on the steps with his legs bent and his elbows resting on his knees, which made it more comfortable for him to do the carving.
Xu Zhengyang thought that the shop was missing a small stool, otherwise Chen Chaojiang wouldn't have been sitting on the floor.
"Aren't you bored?" Xu Zhengyang closed the book and asked with a smile.
"Not bad," Chen Chaojiang replied without looking up, his hands still carving the locust wood. The upper part of the wood was already taking shape; it was clear Chen Chaojiang intended to carve a woman. Yes, like a classical beauty from a painting, with long hair styled in a bun, adorned with hairpins and dangling pearls. The lower part of the face hadn't been carved yet; he was currently using the sharp tip of his blade to carve the woman's ears.
The autumn sun was warm and gentle, and the dagger gleamed brightly with every movement.
"I'm sorry to have troubled you..." Xu Zhengyang said with a smile.
Chen Chaojiang didn't stop what he was doing. He lowered his head slightly and said, "What grievance? It's like I'm just taking your money for nothing every day. Don't think I don't know what you're thinking."
That's why I said you felt wronged.
"Hmm?" Chen Chaojiang stopped what he was doing, looked up at Xu Zhengyang, and asked, "You want to fire me?"
"Bullshit..."
Chen Chaojiang smiled, said nothing more, and continued his carving.
"Let's talk for a bit, aren't you bored?" Xu Zhengyang tossed him a cigarette.
Chen Chaojiang didn't even look up. The cigarette brushed past his face, and with a swift movement of his left hand, he flicked the falling cigarette with his dagger, making it leap to his thin lips and catch the filter. Putting down the piece of wood, Chen Chaojiang took out a lighter, lit the cigarette, took a deep drag, and slowly exhaled the smoke, saying, "Yao Chushun isn't a bad guy."
"Hehe." Xu Zhengyang laughed, "I thought you would always dislike him."
"Yeah, it's just that he's a bit ugly."
Xu Zhengyang turned his head and looked into the shop, then laughed and said, "If Master Gu hears what you say, he'll be furious again."
"I was thinking I could at least keep an eye on things for you and prevent him from swindling your money, so I wouldn't be taking a paycheck for nothing." Chen Chaojiang shook his head with a wry smile. "But now it seems I'm completely useless."
"Come on," Xu Zhengyang said, squinting and smoking. Looking at the clear sky, he chuckled, "I heard from Xiao Jin that you used that murderous look in your eyes to fend off several people who came to cause trouble in our shop..."
Chen Chaojiang tilted his head and said, "I didn't do anything, and they were sensible enough to back down."
"Well, it's generally better not to use your hands. We're running a shop, so we have to greet customers with a smile. We can't scare them away."
After exchanging a few casual words, Chen Chaojiang finished his cigarette, flicked the butt accurately into a trash can a few meters away, and then lowered his head to continue his carving.
Xu Zhengyang found it very boring.
A red minivan pulled up in front of Gu Xiang Xuan's shop. The driver didn't get out; the back door opened, and two middle-aged men in black sportswear got out, one of them carrying a bulging brown backpack. Both men had gloomy expressions and, without looking anywhere else, walked straight towards Gu Xiang Xuan.
As the empty-handed man walked past Xu Zhengyang and Chen Chaojiang, he glanced at the two young men before entering the store.
Xu Zhengyang didn't pay much attention. He opened the book and continued reading casually.
Chen Chaojiang stopped carving, his left hand deftly manipulating the exquisite, gleaming dagger, and got up to return to the shop.
Don't actually believe that these serious-looking guys have anything valuable in their bags. Most of the time, it's just an act to give people the impression that I definitely have something good in my hands. Otherwise, why would I be so serious, gloomy, and cautious? These were Yao Chushun's words to Xu Zhengyang. Otherwise, Xu Zhengyang would have really thought that the people who came earlier were probably people from some kind of organization.
Sure enough, after a short while, the two of them walked out of the Ancient Fragrance Pavilion looking dejected.
After the red van drove away, Yao Chushun, with a cigarette dangling from his lips and two yellow jade balls twirling in his right hand, walked out of the shop with a smile on his face. Yao Chushun's appearance now was vastly different from when he hadn't opened Gu Xiang Xuan a few months ago; at first glance, he would remind people of the simple drawing of the landlord Zhou Bapi in their childhood Chinese textbooks.
Chen Chaojiang followed behind him, his pale face expressionless, his left hand still twirling his exquisite dagger, which gleamed coldly as he turned it.
"A fake?" Xu Zhengyang asked with a smile.
Yao Chushun sat down on the chair next to him, took the cigarette holder off with his left hand, blew out a puff of smoke and said, "Damn it, three fakes and one real one. I'll take one and he won't sell it... Trying to play these tricks at Gu Xiangxuan? You're way off. You don't know the name of Master Gu..." Yao Chushun looked contemptuous.
"If you walk by the river often enough, you're bound to get your shoes wet eventually," Xu Zhengyang joked.
"That depends on who it is." Yao Chushun fiddled with the ball bladder, looking with a smile at Tianbaozhai, which stood like a golden rooster standing alone among some antique shops to the south. "Zhengyang, your line hasn't been supplying goods for a while."
"Does the store need anything?" Xu Zhengyang asked.
"Damn it, I just don't understand why you're so indifferent? Do you think you have too much money?" Yao Chushun said with a laugh.
Xu Zhengyang smiled and said, "I'm not short of money right now. I'm too lazy to bother with it."
Yao Chushun was taken aback. After a while, he sighed and said, "Sigh, I can't understand you anymore. It's like you can get your hands on antiques so easily."
“I can’t see through him either,” Chen Chaojiang suddenly interjected.
Xu Zhengyang and Yao Chushun were both stunned, turning to look at Chen Chaojiang. This guy rarely spoke, and when he did, it was rambling and incoherent. Chen Chaojiang ignored their stares, walked down the steps again, and sat down on the lowest step with his back to them. He picked up the piece of locust wood and continued carving the classical beauty he envisioned with his knife. Watching Chen Chaojiang's focused expression, Xu Zhengyang suddenly remembered a term Diao Yishi had used in the capital—"reservedly passionate." It was the perfect description of Chen Chaojiang at this moment.
"Damn it, he's obsessed with women, he's always hugging a block of wood..."
Yao Chushun didn't finish his sentence because Chen Chaojiang turned and glanced at him. Yao Chushun nearly swallowed a puff of smoke, choking and coughing repeatedly. Xu Zhengyang, watching from the side, couldn't help but laugh. Seeing Yao Chushun's disapproving look, he chuckled and started a conversation, saying, "Master Gu, when do you think you'll be able to drive Tianbaozhai out of business? I'm waiting to see you back in your prime, as powerful as ever..."
“A big tree with deep roots is hard to dig up; it will take time.” Yao Chushun’s triangular eyes gleamed as he looked at Tianbaozhai in the distance. “A year. In just one year, he’ll make Zou Mingyuan’s Tianbaozhai bleed. His connections aren’t reliable these days…”
“Zou Mingyuan hasn’t moved at all…” Xu Zhengyang said softly, “It can’t be that he’s afraid of Zheng Ronghua.”
Yao Chushun's expression turned unusually serious as he asked, "Zou Mingyuan is afraid?"
"Then you'd better be careful," Xu Zhengyang said with a smile, but he wasn't too worried about anything happening. After all, Yao Chushun stayed at Guxiangxuan every day. This was an antique market, so what could possibly happen?
Just as he finished speaking, the red minivan that had left earlier returned and stopped in front of Gu Xiang Xuan. This time, the driver still didn't get out, but after the back door opened, three people got out and walked towards Gu Xiang Xuan.
The van was not turned off.
The man walking ahead, carrying a backpack, said in a low voice, "Boss, 15,000, sold."
"Please come in..." Yao Chushun nodded, smiled, and got up to walk into the store.
The three of them paused slightly before reaching the steps, glanced at Xu Zhengyang and Chen Chaojiang, and were about to walk into the shop when Chen Chaojiang suddenly looked up and said, "Don't go in. Just take the money here and leave the stuff."
Xu Zhengyang frowned and narrowed his eyes, staring at the three of them.
Chen Chaojiang was usually taciturn and aloof, but today he suddenly stopped the three people from entering the store, so there must be a reason.
The three ignored Chen Chaojiang, a cold smile playing on their lips, and started walking up the steps.
Chen Chaojiang suddenly stood up, his right hand, which had been holding a locust tree branch, now rested on the ground. He quickly retreated and climbed the steps, blocking the three people at the doorway. In his left hand, he held a dagger between his thumb and forefinger, its cold light gleaming. Xu Zhengyang, unaware of the reason, also stood up without hesitation and stood beside the three people on the steps.
"What does this mean?" the man carrying the bag asked Yao Chushun, who was inside the shop, coldly across Chen Chaojiang.
Yao Chushun was also puzzled. Why would Chen Chaojiang suddenly stop the three of them? Did he think they would rob the store in broad daylight? But since Chen Chaojiang had spoken up to stop them, Yao Chushun naturally wouldn't say anything to outsiders. He just looked outside with his triangular eyes full of doubt.
It was midday, the quietest time of day in the antique market, and most of the vendors in the distance were chatting or simply dozing off. The rarely opened iron gate in the southeast corner of the market was pulled open, and a septic tank truck drove in and parked next to the toilet.
"Let's talk outside," Xu Zhengyang said calmly.
A moment of silence fell over the doorway, filled with an air of strange tension.
After a long pause, the man carrying the bag nodded with a gloomy expression and said, "Okay." He then squatted down, opened the backpack, revealing a blue and white porcelain vase with a slender neck that Yao Chushun had previously identified as genuine. Looking up at Yao Chushun in the room, he said, "Boss, cash is preferred."
"No problem." Yao Chushun smiled and walked to the door. He bent down to pick up the porcelain bottle.
The man squatting on the ground bent down to scoop the porcelain bottle out, probably afraid of breaking it. He held the bottle in his left hand and reached into his backpack with his right to reach the bottom of the bottle, all of which seemed very natural. However, no one noticed that Chen Chaojiang's narrow eyes flashed, and the small dagger in his left hand was quickly reversed and held in a reverse grip as he leaned forward slightly.
Suddenly, the man pulled his right hand out from inside his backpack, revealing a gleaming black pistol. He raised the muzzle and pointed it directly at Yao Chushun's head as he bent over.
Yao Chushun was startled and instinctively leaned back and stepped back.
Almost at the same moment the man pulled out his pistol and aimed it at Yao Chushun, Chen Chaojiang extended his left arm, a flash of cold light, and a short dagger slashed upwards from the side, cutting the man's right wrist where he was holding the gun.
With a crisp gunshot, a spray of blood gushed out.
The bullet entered the upper right corner of the shop door with a soft "thud".
Chen Chaojiang slashed with his knife, then raised his right foot and accurately kicked the pistol that had slipped from his hand, sending it flying into the doorway of a nearby shop. The man whose wrist had been cut groaned and stumbled backward. In his haste, he forgot he was on the steps and lost his balance, tumbling down the stairs.