The Art of Teasing - Chapter 113

Chapter 113

Ye Ling knew Wen Zhengyu was furious. She sent a reply to Wen Zhengyu: "Wait for me to come home." She gripped her phone, staring at the photo Wen Zhengyu had sent, her heart aching with distress, and her chest filling with rage. Wen Zhengyu had lived this long and never suffered such humiliation. Everyone, seeing how soft and mild her temperament was, thought she was easy to bully, so their claws all reached for her.

When she'd arrived at the studio and suddenly saw Yao Yao injured, she'd known immediately that Yao Yao must have come looking for trouble and come out the worse for it. She hadn't just caused trouble—she'd laid hands on someone.

She went to the hotel where Yao Yao was staying and knocked on her door.

Yao Yao appeared in the doorway, eyes red and swollen, looking at her with a deeply wronged expression.

Ye Ling's face was expressionless as she said, "Let's talk inside."

Yao Yao turned and sat down on the sofa, drawing in ragged breaths as she said, "If you want to avenge her, go ahead."

Ye Ling entered and closed the door behind her. She walked over and sat in the adjacent single armchair, watching the sobbing, conspicuously wronged Yao Yao, and said slowly and evenly, "I've already decided to terminate my cooperation with you and withdraw all projects and investments." Her voice was so calm it had no ripples whatsoever, but the words she spoke left no room for negotiation.

Yao Yao raised her head in shock, eyes bulging round, staring at Ye Ling in disbelief.

It took her a long moment to make a sound, and when she did, it was near-hysterical: "You're protecting her this much—for her, you're treating me like this."

Ye Ling frowned, her face dark as she said, "Put away these underhanded tricks! The moment you stretched out your claws to cause trouble, you should have foreseen this outcome. Crying and wailing now is too late. If you have time to cry, you'd better think hard about how to clean up the mess after I pull my investment. I'll arrange for someone to handle the withdrawal tomorrow. Prepare yourself early." With that, she rose and headed for the door.

Yao Yao sprang up from the sofa and rushed in front of Ye Ling, both hands clutching tightly at Ye Ling's arm, crying out, "You're scaring me, right?" But what met her were Ye Ling's eyes—exceptionally sharp and cold—making her flinch involuntarily. Only then did she continue her tearful wail: "I didn't do anything else. I've liked you for so many years. I can't accept it. You used to treat me so well, and now, for her, you turn against me at the drop of a hat. You're even pulling your investment. If you pull your investment, I'll have no choice but to jump off a building."

Ye Ling's voice remained cold. "If you want to jump, go right ahead. Whatever comes after, I'll discuss it with your grandfather."

Yao Yao sucked in a sharp breath, staring at Ye Ling in stunned disbelief, her whole body trembling.

Only when she saw Ye Ling was about to leave did she frantically tighten her grip on Ye Ling's hand to stop her, pleading her case: "I've liked you for so long, and then you suddenly fell for someone else. I just wanted to see what kind of person she was… I only meant to intimidate her, but at that moment she suddenly turned her head and ran right into my hand, and that's how her face got scratched. I was thrown to the ground by her bodyguard and security—I'm covered in bruises from head to toe—and you don't care about me, you just take her side… wuwu…" She spoke between sobs, utterly wronged. "I showed her our photos to make her think there was something between us, and she wasn't even angry, she just kept calmly doing her work. She doesn't even have you in her heart…"

At the mention of Wen Zhengyu, Ye Ling found herself instinctively thinking of her. She could picture Wen Zhengyu's reaction and understood why Wen Zhengyu appeared so unruffled. It wasn't that she wasn't hurt or upset—she simply didn't know how to express it. Her temperament was slow; she needed time to process everything first. Like someone with a blunted sense of pain, even when wounded, she wouldn't react until she saw the injury.

She pulled herself back to the present and said, "Regardless of the reason or original intention, when you do something, you bear the consequences. What I'm doing isn't for Zhengyu—it's for myself. The person you reached out and scratched wasn't her. It was me." She finished, forcefully pried Yao Yao's hands off, turned, and walked out.

Yao Yao spun around and rushed toward the balcony, clambering onto the railing as if to jump.

Ye Ling swept her an indifferent glance, utterly unmoved. "If you jump, I can even save myself the trouble of withdrawing my investment. Your death would, at most, result in a single negotiation between me and your grandfather or your eldest uncle, securing a few advantages for the relatives on your side of the family." She finished, turned, opened the door, and walked straight out.

Children who lack exceptional parents and are born into large families with many descendants are never indispensable. She had been willing to help Yao Yao establish a firm footing, but that didn't mean she would continue indulging her at the cost of her own ruin. Yao Yao had done these things, and it made Ye Ling feel not that Yao Yao liked her, but that she had a grudge against her. How great a grudge would it take to storm someone's door and try to wreak havoc on their household peace?

Once in the car, Ye Ling immediately called Yao Yao's eldest uncle and informed him that Yao Yao had scratched Wen Zhengyu's face and that she intended to pull her investment.

Yao Yao was young, only twenty-one, still in university. If Ye Ling sent someone to handle this directly, it would look like bullying. When she'd invested in Yao Yao's venture, she'd done so with Yao Yao's eldest uncle's approval. Now, having Yao Yao's own eldest uncle—her guardian—come out to handle the investment withdrawal was entirely reasonable and proper. Besides, if she left a messy trail behind her, it would look bad on her as well.

Ye Ling's investment had primarily been made out of consideration for the longstanding cooperation between their two families and a desire to give Yao Yao—who hadn't had it easy—a helping hand, providing her with a noteworthy achievement she could present. That way, after graduation, when her family saw she had some promise, they would put effort into arranging better prospects for her. The capital she'd invested in Yao Yao was, for a university student, an enormous starting fund, but for Ye Ling and the Yao family, this amount of money was negligible—the key was to get the matter sorted out clearly.

The Yao family had profited handsomely from the matter of the Ye family's second branch. Yao Yao's eldest uncle was thoroughly aware of the inside story and naturally knew who Wen Zhengyu was. His niece had stormed someone's door and scratched Wen Zhengyu's face, and the reason was that his niece's sexual orientation was problematic and she wanted to barge in and insert herself between them. An incident like this was not only a loss of face and a clear fault on his family's side, but Wen Zhengyu was no soft persimmon to be bullied at will. The Yao family inevitably had to make their stance known, and Ye Ling's withdrawal of investment was only to be expected. Since Yao Yao was in the wrong, and Ye Ling wasn't the type to quibble over this amount of money, the two parties came to an agreement very quickly.

Ye Ling instructed Dong Yuan to have someone keep an eye on Yao Yao until Yao Yao's eldest uncle's people came to pick her up. Although Yao Yao had no parents, with Ye Ling's support over the years, she had enjoyed a fair degree of favor and regard from her elders within the family—there was a certain air of youthful pride about her. Youthful pride easily leads to forgetting oneself; a temporary stumble can make someone dizzy enough to do anything rash.

Because of her, Ye Che and Old Man Ye the Second had come after Wen Zhengyu, and now Yao Yao had come to scratch Wen Zhengyu's face. Ye Ling's heart felt an indescribable suffocating misery.

Handling Yao Yao's matter hadn't been difficult, but the back-and-forth travel had taken time.

Ye Ling arrived home just in time for dinner.

Old Master Wen saw Ye Ling, pulled a sour face, stood up, and walked away.

Wen Zhengyu had been scratched on the face by Yao Yao in the studio exhibition hall. Not only had the employees seen it, but painting-buying clients and art-world peers delivering works had seen it too. Old Master Wen knew about it before Wen Zhengyu even got home. If not for the fact that Wen Zhengyu, seeing Ye Ling return, had someone add a bowl and chopsticks for Ye Ling, Old Master Wen would have thrown her out directly. But since his granddaughter had added the bowl and chopsticks herself, what could he say? He'd leave!

Ye Ling, having dragged Wen Zhengyu into trouble yet again, felt terribly upset. She cradled her soup bowl and took a sip to steady herself before saying quietly, "I didn't scratch her face according to the standard you specified."

Wen Zhengyu made a soft sound of acknowledgment, waiting for Ye Ling to continue.

Ye Ling sighed. "Her face—it isn't worth much. By your standard, I wouldn't have recouped the loss. It would have been a bad trade. She's still a student; she hasn't even graduated from university, so I went to settle accounts with her family elder instead." She paused, then added, "From now on, any support she had from me is gone. With no parents devoting themselves to planning for her, and with uncles and aunts having their own children to arrange things for, without outside support and being someone who can't see things clearly herself, her prospects are just about set." In large families like theirs, the gap between having one's own career and being idly supported at home was the difference between heaven and earth. With many children in the family, opportunities naturally go to those with ability.

Wen Zhengyu paused briefly, then fell silent. What she feared most was people who thought themselves clever, stirring up storms and chaos while treating everyone else like fools to be manipulated. She hesitated, then still asked the question: "How did she end up with so many photos of the two of you together?"

Ye Ling said, "Her family's connections are close to my brother's father-in-law's family. She likes clinging to me. During school breaks, she always liked coming over to my place, and she interned at my company for a while too." She fell silent for a few seconds, her thoughts circling back, then looked at Wen Zhengyu and asked, "Worried there's something between me and her?"

Wen Zhengyu shook her head and answered honestly, "Not worried, just curious."

Ye Ling asked, perplexed, "Why aren't you worried? Is it confidence in yourself or confidence in me?"

Wen Zhengyu swept a glance over Ye Ling, picked up her spoon, lowered her head, and resumed drinking her soup, unwilling to answer such an idiotic question.

Ye Ling leaned closer and coaxed softly, "Come on, tell me."

Wen Zhengyu shook her head, continued drinking her soup, and said nothing.

Seeing Wen Zhengyu insist on not telling, Ye Ling instinctively prepared to offer a condition in exchange: "Then tonight I won't sleep on the Arhat bed."

Wen Zhengyu asked, surprised, "You're going to sleep on the floor?"

Ye Ling's volume rose slightly. "In the bed."

Wen Zhengyu was silent for two seconds, then said unhurriedly, "Then tonight I'll sleep in the Painting Hall."

Ye Ling could not, of course, let Wen Zhengyu go sleep in the Painting Hall. She argued furiously, cajoling with all her might, but even when her lips went numb from talking, Wen Zhengyu remained as immovable as a mountain, insisting that Ye Ling sleep on the Arhat bed.

After dinner, Wen Zhengyu sought out Old Master Wen and accompanied him on his walk.

Old Master Wen, seeing the scratches on Wen Zhengyu's face, felt another wave of troubled vexation. "How many times now have you suffered like this? In over twenty years, all those years before you met her, the troubles you've endured since meeting her are far more than what came before." By now, he didn't even want to say Ye Ling's name.

Wen Zhengyu said, "Back then, I stayed home every day. With the security standard our family had before, they'd have needed to drive an armored vehicle in to get to me." In the past, her family had displayed many antiques, and the old gentleman, fearing theft, had installed a security system even tighter than the studio's current one. She added with a touch of reflection, "To think someone actually likes Ye Ling enough to come scratch my face." She teased, "Where there's a market, there's competition. It seems your granddaughter-in-law still has quite a bit of market appeal."

Granddaughter-in-law! Old Master Wen was abruptly and thoroughly choked. Then he heaved a deep sigh. His granddaughter was so biased her elbow was practically bent toward the street outside; her face had been scratched raw, and she was still helping Ye Ling talk her way out of it.

Old Madam Zhang's information channels were equally swift.

When Wen Zhengyu returned home after accompanying Old Master Wen on his walk, she found her maternal grandfather, maternal grandmother, Lian Xin, and Lian Xi already seated in the guest hall, with Ye Ling sitting in attendance on the side.

Old Master Wen, Old Madam Zhang, and Old Master Lian had originally been in-laws through their children. After the incident with Lian Huaijin, the two families had cut off all contact, and he had been avoiding the old couple ever since. Now, suddenly finding these two elders at his door, he naturally understood why they had come.

Wen Zhengyu, bearing the marks on her face, entered with her expression as composed as ever.

Lian Xin and Lian Xi, for Wen Zhengyu's sake, both rose to greet Old Master Wen politely.

Old Madam Zhang, seeing the scratches on Wen Zhengyu's face, found her expression growing even darker. She rose abruptly, exclaiming with agitation, "Didn't she have bodyguards? How did she still get hurt?"

Wen Zhengyu said, "Mind your blood pressure, elder. This little mark on me is nothing. It'll fade in a couple of days. Anyway, I didn't come out on the losing end. Wen Jing and the security guard threw her to the ground on the spot. She was knocked so hard her arms and knees broke the skin and bled. And Ye Ling has already found her family elder. It was just some kid still in school throwing a reckless tantrum."

Old Madam Zhang pulled Wen Zhengyu close. She put on her reading glasses and examined her carefully. Seeing the marks left on that fair, delicate face, she thumped Wen Zhengyu lightly with a heart full of ache and said, "How is it that you just can't stay out of trouble?" She took Wen Zhengyu's arm, ready to snatch her away. "Come, stay at my place."

How could Wen Zhengyu abandon Old Master Wen and Ye Ling at a time like this to go with the old lady? She said, "You're already here, elder, and you haven't seen my room yet. Let me show you my bedroom and the Painting Hall. When I sold the house last year, I was still heartbroken over the Painting Hall, but who'd have thought Ye Ling had kept it so perfectly? She didn't move a thing." She also invited Old Master Lian and her two cousins to join, shooting a meaningful glance at the two cousins.

The old lady asked Wen Zhengyu, "You're not coming to my place?"

Wen Zhengyu said, "I'll go tomorrow. Tonight, you and Grandfather can stay at my place."

The old lady sighed and said, "We won't stay. Staying would just trouble the heart. As long as you're all right, that's enough. We're heading back."

Wen Zhengyu looked at her maternal grandmother with pleading eyes, then turned to Old Master Lian and called, "Grandfather."

Old Master Lian said, "Roll a boiled egg over your face and apply a compress. It'll heal faster. It's getting late. Your grandmother and I will head back first. Now that we've seen you're not seriously hurt, we're at ease. In the future, you must be even more cautious."

Wen Zhengyu obediently agreed.

Lian Xin and Lian Xi each supported an elder as they took their leave.

Wen Zhengyu and Ye Ling saw them all the way to the main gate and waited until they had gotten into their car and driven away before helping Old Master Wen back inside. She said to Old Master Wen, "You needn't worry either, elder. This will be better in a few days."

Old Master Wen patted Wen Zhengyu's hand and said, "Rest early." He waved his hand, sending the two of them away.

Because of what had happened with her mother, her maternal grandparents now wouldn't even look Old Master Wen straight in the eye. Old Master Wen couldn't hold his head up in front of them, and now, to lose face like this right in front of her—his granddaughter—must have made him feel terrible inside. She pulled Ye Ling over and sat with Old Master Wen for a while, letting Ye Ling—this eyesore to the old man—divert his attention and distract him, lest the old fellow, at his advanced age, start overthinking things and lie awake all night.

Ye Ling, too, didn't want the old man to worry, so she explained Yao Yao's matter to the old gentleman in full detail. Honestly, it boiled down to a half-grown kid who didn't know any better. Give her a lesson, and with her family elders keeping her in line so she can't cause more reckless chaos, the matter would pass.

The two of them sat with Old Master Wen until he grew tired, then bid him goodnight and returned to their own small courtyard.

Wen Zhengyu had originally been a tiny bit angry with Ye Ling, but having her maternal grandparents come with her two cousins had, instead, made her feel aggrieved on Ye Ling's behalf. At the very least, given her family's circumstances, Ye Ling had to endure considerable pressure being with her. She noticed Ye Ling listlessly lagging half a pace behind her and slowed down to walk side by side with Ye Ling, saying softly, "If you don't want to sleep on the Arhat bed… it's all right if you sleep in my bed."

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