Is This Rain? Is It Falling on Me Alone?

Shen Tao was extremely busy.

What kind of trouble has the Jiang Family gotten into?

"Surprisingly, hundreds of women have already come to our door, and the number is still increasing."

Zhou Wanwan said:

"I've already assigned you several accountants and several hundred bodyguards, but they're not all here yet!"

Do you think the Jiang Family only swindles and deceives people in our Xin'an County?

They're constantly scamming people all over the country, and the Jiang Family has a huge number of members. Can you guess how many there are?

These women from the Jiang Family are all swindling wealthy and powerful widows and noblewomen who have no husbands.

Because women like this are the easiest to hook.

The accountant on the other end wiped the sweat from his brow and said:

"We have now registered 220 shops, 162 estates, and countless fields and forests."

What is the Jiang Family planning to do?

The Jiang Lineage clan patriarch's face was deathly pale, and his lips trembled as he said, "The Jiang Lineage is finished. Quickly notify your second uncle and have him come to save the day."

The Jiang Lineage members quickly rushed out, Shen Tao asked, "Master, should we stop them?"

Zhou Wanwan said calmly, "Let them be! Even if they come, it won't change anything."

The Jiang Lineage produced one general, one prefect, and three county magistrates.

Soon, those people arrived.

The prefect said coldly, "County Magistrate Shen, what are you doing?"

Shen Tao said calmly, "Naturally, it's about tallying the losses suffered by those women."

The prefect scoffed, "Nonsense! What's there to statistic about? Didn't they all do these things voluntarily?"

The Jiang Lineage clan chief nodded and said, "That's right, they gave these things voluntarily."

The women all gathered around and said, "Who are you calling a volunteer? If they hadn't deceived us, how could we have volunteered?"

"They clearly cheated us; a whole village of swindlers, not a single one of them is any good."

The Jiang Lineage clan chief said coldly, "Have some decency in your words, or don't blame us for being impolite."

Chu Yanran sneered, "The Jiang Lineage Clan Chief has quite the airs! I'd like to see what you can do to us!"

The Jiang Lineage clan chief looked at her disdainfully and said, "Chu Yanran, who told you about this? And who sent you to cause me trouble?"

Chu Yanran smiled faintly and said, "If you don't want others to know, then don't do it in the first place."

"Very well, the Chu Family is fine. We can't touch the Chu Family, but the others had better think twice." The Jiang Lineage clan patriarch looked at the women.

The women were too frightened to speak.

Chu Yanran said, "Are you threatening them?"

The Jiang Lineage clan chief chuckled and said, "This can hardly be called a threat. I'm just warning them not to go too far."

Some women immediately wavered; they knew how powerful the Jiang Family was.

In particular, the Jiang Family also has a general.

Then a general rode up on his warhorse, leading several thousand men, charging over menacingly and shouting, "Who dares to touch the Jiang Family? Are they tired of living?"

Shen Tao looked at them and said, "Regional Commander Jiang, wouldn't you like to find out the truth of the matter?"

Regional Commander Jiang looked at Shen Tao and laughed heartily:

"Isn't this Imperial Uncle Shen? Something terrible has happened to your family!"

Your parents are in jail, they can't even get a meal, and you have the leisure to meddle in their business?

"By the way, you're about to be exiled, Imperial Uncle Shen. I'm quite curious, how are you feeling?"

Shen Tao sneered:

Regional Commander Jiang, my feelings are none of your business.

However, what your Jiang Family has done is disgusting; you've actually cheated on so many women outside. It's utterly immoral."

Regional Commander Jiang said calmly:

"Really? Isn't this a case of one party willing to give and the other willing to receive?"

Every man in our Jiang Family is an outstanding individual.

"What does it have to do with the Jiang Family if you women are willing to give yourselves away?"

The Jiang Lineage clan patriarch nodded and said, "That's exactly what they say! What does it have to do with us?"

That's incredibly shameless.

Chu Yanran said:

"Your Jiang Family is shameless, actually trying to shirk all responsibility."

Jiang Ce clearly said he wanted to marry us, but now he's going back on his word.

How can you do this to us?

Jiang Ce looked at Chu Yanran and said, "I never said I wanted to marry you; it was all wishful thinking on your part."

Qin Shuang sat blankly to one side, staring at Jiang Ce.

She never expected Jiang Ce to be this kind of person, never expected that Jiang Ce had more than 10 women outside.

Qin Shuang looked at Jiang Ce and said, "Jiang Ce, what are you thinking? Besides me, you actually have so many other women?"

Jiang Ce said helplessly, "What could I do? I didn't have much money back then, so this was the only thing I could do."

Qin Shuang angrily retorted, "What about my houses, shops, estates, and my dowry? You've taken them all!"

Jiang Ce sighed and said, "Alright, things are already like this, can you please stop arguing?"

"You still think I'm noisy? It's clearly your fault, give all those things back to me."

Jiang Ce said:

"Fine! That's perfect, I don't want to be with you anymore anyway."

You stayed at the Nie Family last night. You know perfectly well what happened between you and that idiot.

The Nie Family members standing nearby said:

"I don't care what you do, can't you just take care of our family's affairs first?"

"Return our betrothal gifts first."

Jiang Ce said:

"Why should we return the betrothal gifts? Shen Tao should be the one to return them."

We were originally going to marry Shen Miaomiao into the Nie Family, but who knew Shen Miaomiao would end up with Shen Tao?

Shen Tao scoffed, "I didn't see any betrothal gifts. You know perfectly well where they went."

Qin Shuang said:

"The betrothal gifts mysteriously disappeared, and we have no idea where they went."

Now that you've married Shen Miaomiao, you should return the betrothal gifts to her.

Shen Miaomiao looked at Qin Shuang and said:

"The betrothal gifts should naturally be returned by whoever receives them; there's no reason for me to return them."

I didn't even see a single hair of the betrothal gifts."

"Do you even have a place to speak here? Have you no shame? You've completely disgraced me."

Shen Miaomiao covered her mouth and laughed, "Who's shameless here? She actually found a man like that, and now she's living a peaceful life?!"

Jiang Ce glared at Shen Miaomiao and said, "Shut up! Do you even have a place to speak here?"

Zhou Wanwan, sitting next to her, greeted, "Miaomiao, come and have lunch!"

The Old Scholar Tree brought Zhou Wanwan a huge table of food, more than she could possibly finish.

Braised shark fin, braised sea cucumber with scallions, abalone with toad, stir-fried prawns, braised fish at the palace gate, roasted duck, eight-treasure gourd duck, imperial cherry pork, chicken slices with Furong white, pheasant rolls with pine nuts, stewed pigeon with lingzhi mushroom, first-class bird's nest...

Shen Miaomiao also came over and said, "It smells so good! Your chef's skills are amazing."

The people around sniffed.

It smells so good.

Jiang Ce and Qin Shuang walked over, and Qin Shuang said, "Oh! You're eating so well at midday? I'll just grab something light!"

She plopped down as if to sit, but suddenly, her chair was pulled out.

"Thump..." Qin Shuang fell directly to the ground.

She got up and said, "What's going on? Is there something wrong with this chair?"

Jiang Ce walked over and looked at the milk tea next to him, saying, "I didn't expect there to be milk tea here. I was thirsty."

He was about to walk over when suddenly a bucket of ice water fell from the sky, drenching him completely.

Jiang Ce looked up at the heavens and said, "Are you crazy? Is this rain? Is it raining specifically on me?"

In the dead of winter, Jiang Ce was shivering with cold and had to go inside to change his clothes.

Just as Qin Shuang was about to sit down, there was another loud bang, and she fell to the ground. The stool also tipped over and hit her with a loud crash.

Qin Shuang cried out in pain, "Is this stool deliberately trying to mess with me? Believe me or not, I'll burn you to the ground and use you as firewood!"