mesbooks Chapter 2145 - 2134: Shocking Upheaval in the Zheng Family
Chapter 2145 - 2134: Shocking Upheaval in the Zheng Family
But this lively scene seemed to have nothing to do with Ning Fan; he stared unblinkingly at the bonfire, no one knew what he was thinking.Just then, Sangganda said, "Mr. Ning, conditions are limited and we've neglected our guest, I truly must apologize."
Ning Fan was stunned for a moment, then quickly said, "Village Chief, you've misunderstood. I was just thinking about something."
"Thinking about the merchant ship?"
Sangganda laughed. "You don't need to worry, sir. In at most a month, the merchant ship will arrive here. They won't miss this harvest season."
The dried sea fish from Hill Village were all for the upcoming trade.
Ning Fan shook his head and replied with a smile, "For Hill Village, this should be a decent harvest too, right?"
"Perhaps."
The conversation ended there, and the men of the village were already walking over with wooden bowls in hand.
The next step, naturally, was to offer drinks.
Strictly speaking it wasn't wine, it was more like juice.
This "wine" was brewed by fermenting wild fruits from the forest, with very low alcohol content. It tasted sweet, with the unique fresh fragrance of fruit.
Looking at the simple, honest smile on Lum's face, Ning Fan raised his wooden bowl and drained it in one go, his gaze drifting toward the winner in life.
Vivian was currently enjoying being hand-fed by Eve and a whole group of girls.
She didn't have to move a finger; the girls were already handing her neatly sliced pieces of fish.
When Vivian picked up a bucket of fruit wine and drank straight from it, the atmosphere of the banquet instantly reached its peak.
The revelry went on until the latter half of the night, then the villagers began to disperse one after another.
At first light tomorrow, everyone in the village, men and women alike, would have to work.
Because he wasn't quite sure about the exact relationship between Ning Fan and Vivian, Sangganda had long since arranged for two wooden huts to be tidied up.
The two huts were very close to each other; from this simple arrangement alone, you could tell Sangganda was a seasoned old hand.
"This should be some girl's room."
A grass rope was strung across the middle of the room, with a few bandeau cloths hanging to dry.
Hill Island had a typical tropical climate, in a perpetual summer, and the people on the island all dressed like this.
The bed was just the simplest four-legged wooden frame, with a layer of gray burlap laid on top.
Lying down on it felt a bit rough and stiff, and with Ning Fan's nose that was sharper than a dog's, he immediately smelled a faint girlish fragrance.
Through the wooden window beside the bed, he could see lights outside, flickering like fireflies.
It wasn't long before the lights began to go out.
Although the villagers of Hill Village had already learned to refine oil from sea fish, they were still very thrifty, and they didn't keep the lamps burning long at night.
Ning Fan let out a sigh. "It's too poor here!"
Whether it was the fish they caught or the oil they refined, all of it was trade goods.
The only resources the villagers could truly use for themselves were the forest behind the wooden huts.
Once the forest was overexploited, it would spell catastrophe for Hill Village, so life here was extremely harsh.
Just then, Ning Fan's expression twisted awkwardly; he hurriedly shut the wooden window and covered his ears.
On this little island with no entertainment to speak of, what else could couples do to pass the time?
"I wonder how Xu Ruolan and the others are doing?"
...
Earth, Huaxia, Hong Kong Island Administrative Region.
An unexpected incident had stirred up heated discussion among all the citizens of Hong Kong Island.
In less than three days, the direct bloodline of the Zheng Family, an old established conglomerate on Hong Kong Island, had all dropped dead one after another, leaving only one person unharmed.
Once this spread, it immediately caused an uproar across Hong Kong Island.
The police were busy investigating the truth, while the citizens were busy gossiping and speculating on where things were headed.
The ones under the most stress were, of course, the other wealthy families on Hong Kong Island.
Even though the coroners had already made the autopsy reports public, proving that these were all natural deaths or accidental deaths.
The more they said that, the more on edge those wealthy families became.
After all, even tabloid reporters knew that anything that looked "normal" on the surface definitely had something fishy underneath.
Some media outlets had already started openly calling out the police, claiming they were deliberately blurring the truth to deceive the general public.
This kind of conspiracy theory didn't need evidence in the first place.
Within three days, every single direct heir of a family died in "accidents" — something that outrageous, who would believe it?
This was obviously an act of revenge.
As for who had struck?
Both the police and the other wealthy families were secretly investigating, on edge.
The police were nervous because of the pressure to crack the case, while the conglomerates were worried someone would use the same method on them.
For a while, Hong Kong Island was gripped by a sense of dread at the slightest whisper of trouble.
The pampered second-generation heirs who usually swaggered around and indulged in vice seemed to have vanished overnight, which actually made the nights on Hong Kong Island a lot quieter.
Some people even felt that staying on Hong Kong Island wasn't safe and were getting ready to go abroad, only to be told that departures were restricted.
Within a week after the incident, the police had summoned a string of celebrities and gentlemen for questioning.
Those with a sense for patterns already realized that everyone being questioned had had conflicts with the Zheng Family.
Either over romantic entanglements, or because of business clashes.
The incident was causing a huge stir on Hong Kong Island, but eerily, Zheng Tianhang, who was in Fusang, knew nothing about it.
Fusang, Ikebukuro District, the hotel where Ning Fan had previously stayed.
Looking at the entering Tang Xiaoyue, Tang Tianxing said kindly, "My good granddaughter, you've been wronged."
"It's just a bit of playacting, nothing to feel wronged about."
Tang Xiaoyue frowned. "I'm worried I won't be able to stall him for much longer. Today he suddenly thought of calling home."
Tang Tianxing shook his head and smiled. "What's done is done. Even if he finds out the truth now, it doesn't matter anymore."
Looking at that gentle smiling face, Tang Xiaoyue suddenly felt a chill in her heart, but when she remembered that she herself was involved, her feelings grew all the more tangled.
Tang Tianxing had been informed of the Zheng direct line's deaths the moment it happened.
Just as he was about to tell Zheng Tianhang, he received a call from a collateral branch of the Zheng Family.
After a round of bargaining over interests, Tang Tianxing agreed to their request and promised to delay this matter for seven days.
Seven days later, if the legal heir Zheng Tianhang still hadn't shown up, the collateral branch of the Zheng Family could, through some maneuvering, smoothly seize control of the Zheng Family's assets.
After learning of her grandfather's plan, Tang Xiaoyue felt it was despicable, but when she thought of her own fate, she tacitly went along.
Even though her marriage with Zheng Tianhang was just for show, she was still wearing the hat of the Zheng Family's Young Mistress.
These past few days, Tang Xiaoyue had endured the torment of her conscience and stayed with Zheng Tianhang the entire time.
She stuck to him like glue in the daytime, and at night, Tang family-arranged hostesses took over, trying to keep Zheng Tianhang drunk on wine and women.
Even the bodyguards around Zheng Tianhang had all been bought off by the Tang family.
Even the few who were truly loyal had no choice but to cooperate when their wives and children were threatened.
Even the people sent by the police were blocked outside by the Tang family.
Besides, Zheng Tianhang had always been a playboy; aside from money never being enough, he rarely contacted his family.
From the first death in the Zheng Family up to today — a span of four days — he had been completely cut off from the outside world and had no idea about the upheaval back home.