Indeed.
No matter how he looked at it, this sort of task should never have fallen to Ma Laosan, should it? He was Ma Ang's father, after all, and with his temperament, he ought to have been the last person sent!
"Ah! The trouble is, I was the one who purchased that shipment!" Ma Laosan said with a helpless, bitter smile.
"!" Upon hearing that, Wang Yan understood at once. There must have been quite a bit of shady business involved. If someone else went, wouldn't it all be exposed? He asked no further questions and agreed without hesitation. "All right! Since the Third Elder trusts me!" He paused, then continued, "Will any other elders be going?"
"No!" Ma Laosan said, looking somewhat embarrassed. Without explaining further, he paused and hurriedly added, "I'll handle everything when we get there. You only need to come along, Brother Shi! If there's any trouble, we'll deal with it together!"
"All right!" Wang Yan immediately understood what he meant. Ma Laosan was normally so arrogant that he had offended plenty of the other elders. On the very day Wang Yan arrived, Ma Laosan had tried to put him in his place, and none of the other elders had helped the fellow. He alone had been making trouble... Had Wang Yan not intended to make use of him as well, they would probably have fallen out long ago... Why else would he have bothered flattering him like this?
Now that Ma Laosan was in trouble, nobody would help him. He had brought disaster upon himself and had only himself to blame. Now things had really gone wrong...
Sure enough...
Once they went over, the other elders offered the old fellow no help whatsoever. They all looked ready to sit back and enjoy the show...
Under