USWHC -Chapter 306 Bubble of Foolishness (Part 6)

Yes, Ji Yi was indeed concerned for his ailing father—but naturally, this wasn’t some distant “Qi Kingdom’s rich father.” The one he worried about was Old Master Ji, the Ji family patriarch who had suffered a stroke.

And the person selling the Shang Lu root wasn’t some random townsman either—it was Ji Laoda himself. Once they heard that Old Madam Ji had successfully sold the root, they immediately headed back home.

At the crack of dawn, Ji Yi and Zhu Jie arrived at the Ji household. As soon as they entered, the sounds of merriment inside greeted them—loud and chaotic, with everyone more excited than the next.

“Mother, leave all this money for me to prepare my dowry! When I get married, I’ll dress even better than Hua Feixue!” Ji Mei’s excited voice rang out.

“Mother, let’s head to the town and get some meat today! It’s been so long since we smelled the aroma of meat; everyone at home is so weak, I think we’re all malnourished!” Even Sister-in-law You’s voice had grown sharp, like a whistle pressed against the throat, loudly joining the conversation.

“Mother, we should renovate the house too! Make it even better than Erhan’s new place!” Ji Laoda’s voice rang out piercingly as well.

Amid all this chaos, a weak voice shouted loudly: “That money belongs to Yi! You can’t spend it! You can’t spend it!” But no one paid any attention; everyone was too busy excitedly making plans.

Just then, the door swung open, and Zhu Jie strode in. Her face, dark and storm-beaten, looked icy cold.

“How did it go? Mother, did you get the money?” Zhu Jie asked in a crisp voice, though it wasn’t a question—her expression was filled with certainty.

“Got it!” Old Madam Ji honestly admitted this time, though she didn’t say how much.

“Five hundred taels!” Old Master Ji bluntly added, leaving her no wiggle room. Not only that, he kept insisting: “You promised—the money we got back was all for Yi!”

“Who said that?!” Old Madam Ji immediately bristled, hands on her hips. “When did I ever agree to give that much? I only said I’d return the principal of one hundred taels! Everything else was my own skill and effort!”

“Your skill? Isn’t it because Erhan and his wife planned it so well? They even spent an extra hundred taels for this! Don’t think nobody noticed just because they didn’t mention it—I saw everything!”

“So what? That just proves they’re incompetent. Look, I didn’t spend a single cent, yet I get five hundred taels!” Old Madam Ji claimed all the credit for herself, making Ji Yi and the others seem utterly useless.

“If they didn’t spend money, do you think those scammers would be so easy to fool?” Old Master Ji said unhappily. “The money belongs to them!”

Old Madam Ji’s eyes widened—no way was she handing over freshly earned silver. She clutched the notes tightly to her chest; they were all kept close to her body.

But Ji Yi remained calm: “Father, just let Mother keep the money! We’ll have more soon anyway. Yesterday, we even ran into someone from the Liao Trading Company—they said the soap is ready and will hit the market in a couple of days, and they’ve asked us to help promote it too.”

“The money you earn is yours, and this money must be yours too. Otherwise, what if scammers come after you again?” Old Master Ji insisted.

“Do you think I’m stupid? One scam after another!” Old Madam Ji retorted angrily.

“But Erhan and the others really were amazing this time. They barely had any contact with that scammer, yet somehow got them to obediently come back and redeem the goods. How did you do it?” Ji Laoda asked in awe. With such skill, they could practically become professional scammers themselves.

“Nothing special. It’s all about greed—both ours and theirs,” Ji Yi smiled, deliberately leaning toward Ji Laoda. “We just created an illusion. They followed our plan step by step and fell right into the trap.”

“Don’t worry, Father! All the money we lost to the scam has been recovered, and even counting what we gave to the villagers, we still earned quite a bit. Think of it as an early New Year gift for the villagers!” Zhu Jie teased with a playful grin.

Old Master Ji still looked worried. “I hope they don’t give up so easily. It would be bad if they came for revenge.”

“Why fear them? They won’t come at all, but even if they do, watch me deal with them!” Zhu Jie said confidently, not the slightest bit afraid, even a little smug.