ATPnovel #454 - Full of sincerity
#454 - Full of sincerity
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Seeing the main character of this birthday banquet finally appear, Lu Jing and the others stood up to greet her.
At this moment, the Duke of Yingguo glanced at the empty seat beside him and muttered, "Where did that guy Jiang Lei run off to? Why isn't he here yet?"
"He seemed to be still in his room when we set off," Yu Wen Yu said.
"He wouldn't still be worrying about his head, would he?" The Duke of Yingguo's expression was a little strange. "He's the master of a sect, is he really so scared by a mere bounty? Even Boss Jin has come, if he doesn't show up, wouldn't it make things difficult for his wife? You know, back then, Madam Jiang almost broke with her family to marry him."
"That was a long time ago," Lu Qinghou shook his head. "He has built the Thunderfire Hall to its current prominence, which has already proven that his wife's choice back then was not wrong. Even if there are still people in the Wen family who are dissatisfied with him, they can only swallow it back. However… it is indeed a little strange that he hasn't come yet."
As they were speaking, Jiang Lei's wife, Wen Yi, also looked over. She seemed to have noticed Jiang Lei's absence, so she called over a maid and instructed her with a few words. Then, the maid ran towards Jiang Lei's residence.
Meanwhile, Old Madam Wen had already walked up to Lu Jing and the others, looking at the six of them with a smile.
Li Bufan was the first to offer birthday greetings, and then it should have been Jiang Lei's turn. However, since he wasn't there, Lu Qinghou became the second person to offer birthday wishes. In short, everyone didn't consider their status in the martial world, but simply greeted Old Madam Wen one by one in the order of their marriages.
On the other side, a thin, tall butler was loudly announcing each person's birthday gift.
Lu Jing heard that the gifts from the previous few people were basically worth more than ten thousand taels of silver. Even Yu Wen Yu, the poorest of the group, had sent a precious sword that could cut iron like mud, as well as a four-foot-tall golden crane, which he had confiscated after destroying a bandit stronghold.
So Lu Jing looked at the two ginsengs he had sent, and the more he looked at them, the more they seemed like poverty alleviation products.
If he had known, he would have packed all the ginseng that Chen Hanqing dug out the next day. Not to mention the value, at least it would have looked impressive.
But if he failed to win the top prize and get the grand gift prepared by Madam Wen, then coming to offer birthday greetings this time would be like losing both the lady and the army.
Forget it, Lu Jing didn't really care about face anyway. As long as he was thick-skinned enough, it would be others who would be embarrassed.
While Lu Jing was lost in thought, the Duke of Yingguo had already finished offering his birthday wishes. Then, he heard the thin, tall butler continue to announce, "Lu Jing, birthday gifts: a string of Ghanan beads, a pair of glass bottles, twenty bolts of colored silk, and two hundred-year-old ginsengs."
Lu Jing was slightly stunned when he heard this, but Old Madam Wen on the opposite side had already spoken first, "Hero Lu is too kind. You have already worked hard to escort Xiaochuan home from thousands of miles away. How could this old woman be so embarrassed to accept your birthday gift?"
However, although she said so, the look of satisfaction in her eyes could not be concealed.
Lu Jing's birthday gift was actually the most ordinary among the six, but considering that Lu Jing had not yet married Wen Xiaochuan, strictly speaking, he was not yet a son-in-law of the Wen family, then his gift was full of sincerity.
Afterwards, Old Madam Wen also said to Madam Wen, "Hero Lu is visiting us for the first time, our Wen family can't be stingy. You should also draft a gift list as soon as possible and send someone to the capital together at that time."
"Okay, Mother," Madam Wen agreed readily.
At this time, Lu Jing also thought of something and looked at Wen Xiaochuan behind Old Madam Wen. Sure enough, he saw Wen Xiaochuan winking at him.
Seeing that Lu Jing and the others were about to finish offering birthday greetings to Madam Wen, Jiang Lei still hadn't appeared. Even with Wen Yi's composure and calmness, she couldn't help but frown slightly.
As a result, at this moment, Wen Yi saw the maid she had sent out earlier running towards here in a stumbling manner, with a look of horror on her face.
"Madam, no, it's bad!"
Wen Yi frowned even deeper when she heard this, and gave the maid a look, saying, "Don't shout, tell me what's wrong on the other side."
The maid seemed to have found her backbone when she saw Wen Yi, so she stopped and took a few breaths. However, the panic in her eyes did not subside, and her small face was even paler than Xuan paper.
Until Wen Yi pulled her out of the tent, she still looked like she had lost her soul.
Her performance also aroused the curiosity of many people. After Old Madam Wen left, the Duke of Yingguo took the lead again and said, "Could it be that something really happened to Jiang Lei?"
"What could happen to him in Wen Family Manor?" Yu Wen Yu said dismissively. "I think he probably overslept and is deliberately putting on this act so that people won't gossip about him."
"The look on the maid's face doesn't seem fake," Lu Qinghou paused and then said, "And with Jiang Lei's personality, he doesn't seem like the kind of person who is good at doing this kind of thing. Maybe something really happened to him, not necessarily himself, but very likely an urgent matter related to Thunderfire Hall."
Although there was a bounty worth a million taels of silver, most of the people present didn't really believe that Jiang Lei would encounter any accidents.
Jiang Lei's talent for martial arts was average, and he had been delayed for too long before. Even with the help of various elixirs, his internal strength was not very good. But no matter what, he was a genuine second-rate master, and with the Buddha's Wrath protecting him, there were not many people in this world who could touch him.
However, this time, Li Bufan and the others seemed to have guessed wrong.
Before long, Wen Yi returned with the maid again, and then she went directly to Madam Wen. After a few words, Madam Wen's face changed along with hers.
Madam Wen decisively had people send Old Madam Wen, who had just come out not long ago, back to her room. After a while, a large team of armored soldiers came from a distance and surrounded the tent. In addition, there seemed to be armored soldiers searching everywhere in the manor.
Madam Wen nodded, "Just now, the maid found his body in Hall Master Jiang's residence. His death… was a bit horrific. His head was cut off."