Chapter 213

Chapter 213: The Wen Family’s Gift of Thanks

Xi Jing Yue and the other person both froze mid-step. They turned to look at each other, then, with the same strange look on their faces, looked back at Du An Rao.

They had no idea that Du An Rao herself was still completely confused.

“Grandfather, do you know me?”

“No, but I know your Master, and I know your surname is Du. You are your Master’s one and only precious disciple.”

“My Master?” Du An Rao’s eyes lit up a little. “You know my Master?”

“That’s not just ‘knowing’.” It was clear Old Master Wen got very excited when he mentioned Du An Rao’s mysterious Master.

He had just been about to pull Du An Rao over to tell her all about how the two of them had met when the manager who had helped salvage the second half of the auction came over first. With him came Ms. Qiu and her son.

“Dad.”

“You En, come over and take a look. This is the person we’ve been waiting for all this time.”

Manager Wen looked surprised, but quickly calmed down. He gave Du An Rao a polite nod.

“This isn’t the right place to talk. Miss Du, would you be willing to come into a private room to talk with us?”

Du An Rao exchanged a look with Jiang Chang Bin and the others, then nodded and agreed: “Alright.”

“Miss Du, what’s going on…?” Ms. Qiu had sharply noticed that the mood was off and quietly tugged on Du An Rao’s sleeve.

“Uh… I’m not really sure either.”

Manager Wen raised his brows, a little surprised: “President Qiu, you know each other?”

“Miss Du is our family’s benefactor.”

“Benefactor?” Old Master Wen seemed very interested in this word. He gave Ms. Qiu a long, meaningful look and said with a faint smile: “Then come along too.”

“Go ahead and run the charge on Miss Du’s card first. When everything is done, send it up to the private room.” After saying that, Old Master Wen seemed to think of something and added with a squinting smile: “Though there’s no hurry. You can set it aside for now. I don’t think we’ll be needing it.”

Du An Rao and the others: “???”

[H-how would we not need it? Could it be that the old man wants to give me a free pass for the sake of his old friendship with my Master? How can I accept that? My Master, whose biggest hobbies besides dragging me out for morning lessons are eating, slacking off, and picking his feet in his room, actually has that much face?]

Xi Jing Yue and Jiang Chang Bin: “…” Does your Master know that this is what he looks like in your heart? Also, from the way you sound, you don’t seem embarrassed at all!

The group moved in a large, noisy crowd toward the private room. As soon as the door closed, the Wen father and son’s eyes flew to the two people standing behind Du An Rao.

They both knew the heir of the Xi family. They just nodded to him as a greeting, then turned their attention to Jiang Chang Bin.

“And this is…?”

Under the probing gazes of the two bosses, Jiang Chang Bin’s scalp tingled.

“This is my cousin. His surname is Jiang. Jiang Chang Bin.”

“So this is Mr. Jiang. A pleasure, a pleasure.” Manager Wen stood up and took the initiative to shake his hand.

He scared Jiang Chang Bin so much that the cold sweat on his forehead almost slid down. He jumped to his feet and waved his hands quickly: “I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare.”

“Since there are no outsiders in the room, I’ll speak frankly. Strictly speaking, saying that I and Miss Du’s Master, Mr. Yuan, are old friends is not quite right. He should count as our family’s benefactor, just like Miss Du is to President Qiu.”

“Pft…” Du An Rao had just poured herself a glass of water to calm her nerves. Not only did it fail to calm her, the shock just got even bigger.

Xi Jing Yue sat right next to her and could already perfectly predict her next move. He easily dodged the spray of water that almost hit him and even had the spare time to pat her back and help her breathe.

“Cough, cough, cough… What did you say? My Master is… is your…”

Old Master Wen chuckled: “No need to doubt it. Your Master is indeed our whole family’s benefactor. About forty-some years ago, I took my wife and children out of town to do business and was plotted against on the way. Not only did I end up heavily in debt, even my wife, who was pregnant with our second daughter at the time, almost died with the baby.”

“At that time, your Master just happened to be traveling and ran into my wife who had gone into labor too early. He helped rush her to the hospital, which is the only reason my wife escaped danger and my daughter was safely born. Later, he saw that the reason my business failed and I went into debt was because someone had used some improper methods to harm me. So he helped me get rid of the bad luck on me and made the one who tried to hurt me suffer the consequences instead.”

Thinking back on those days, Old Master Wen still felt both afraid and sad: “You could say that without your Master, there would be no big family like ours now.”

Du An Rao nodded thoughtfully.

[I didn’t expect my Master to have done something this good back in the day. That really is a bit out of my expectations.]

Xi Jing Yue and the others: “…” So in your heart, what is your Master normally like? Some sloppy guy picking his feet?

Jiang Chang Bin’s focus was a little off. Back when Du An Rao had stayed at their house, she had “mentioned” that her Master had already been living in the temple forty years ago. Now Old Master Wen was also saying that he had been traveling around more than forty years ago.

So just how old is this Master of his cousin’s?

“Just now, you recognized my string of Great Five Emperor Coins at a glance and even knew my surname and that I’m my Master’s disciple. Does that mean you’ve kept in touch all these years? Did he talk to you about me?”

Hearing this, Old Master Wen’s smile faded a little, and a bitter look flashed across his face: “In fact, after that matter was settled back then, your Master went off traveling again. He moves around all the time. I couldn’t contact him at all, not until…”

“Not until twenty years ago. Let me explain this part.” Manager Wen pushed up the glasses on his nose and took over from Old Master Wen.

“Twenty years ago, our family was plotted against again. Just when we were at our wits’ end, your Master appeared once more and helped my father and me avoid the other party’s scheme. Our family was able to reach a higher level because of that.”

[Uh, wow, there really are a lot of people who want to harm your family. Though I guess it makes sense. When you have a lot of money, it’s easy to make enemies and attract jealousy. But Master, your timing is a little too perfect, isn’t it? It’s hard not to suspect you saw this coming in advance!]

But no matter what, it was a solid fact that Du An Rao’s Master had helped the Wen family avoid disaster.

“Over forty years ago, my family was almost ruined because of someone’s plot. We were lucky your Master saved us, but at that time I had just gone through that big change. It took a lot of effort to rise again, and I never managed to repay your Master in time. That has always been my regret.”

“Twenty years ago, our family was hit by the same kind of thing again. Your Master appeared again and saved me and my father. That time, we finally had a chance to repay him, but he wasn’t interested in money or treasures. In the end, after my father and I pestered him so much that he got annoyed, he reluctantly agreed to let us help him lease a small shop that his future disciple might use one day.”

“We followed his instructions and bought this place. Then we expanded slowly, step by step, and that little shop gradually turned into what is now the Duo Bao Ge Auction House.”

“Pft…”