Min Ziqiong stood beside them, stunned for a good few minutes, watching Ying Chen and the other two as if she were an outsider, bewildered.
She didn't understand. She had been home the entire time these past few days, yet it felt like she had vanished from the face of the earth. She felt like she had missed so much.
What were these three talking about!
What was this about fragmented magical artifacts?
What was this about fifty million?
And what was this about destroying evidence?
Min Ziqiong wanted to ask, but the three of them didn't give her any room to speak.
The drama these three were putting on was so intense, with no dull moments and constant highlights, that Min Ziqiong could only stare with her mouth agape!
"Not worth it? Why do I feel it is? After all, I am a law-abiding citizen. It's only reasonable to report illegal matters to the authorities," Ying Chen said, glancing at Min Ziqiong's mother.
Min Ziqiong's mother was breaking out in a cold sweat.
"Calm down, Ying Chen, calm down. Once the police are involved, it won't be good for either of us. How about this, I propose a compromise? Can we both take a step back?"
"You already took fifty million from us. If you return the full fifty million to us, we'll forfeit our right to claim triple damages for the fake item. And you won't tell anyone about our business."
"In other words, once the fifty million is returned, all our grievances will be settled! We'll pretend we don't know each other, and we won't owe each other anything! How about it?"
Min Ziqiong's father quickly chimed in, "Yes, yes! Grievances settled! We'll just go back to three days ago, when we never came to the villa, never bought fragmented magical artifacts from you, you never received our money, and you never even saw us!"
Ying Chen suddenly understood, "Oh... I get it! You're saying, let everything go back to the beginning! Back to the moment before the ivory jade bottle was shattered!"
Min Ziqiong's mother clapped her hands, "Exactly! Back to that moment!"
Ying Chen, appearing reasonable and understanding, nodded, "Alright! No problem! I don't object."
Upon hearing this, Min Ziqiong's parents were overjoyed.
But in the next second, a single sentence from Ying Chen struck them like lightning, leaving them stunned on the spot.
"Then please restore the ivory jade bottle! Once it's restored, I'll pretend nothing ever happened."
They looked at each other, neither of them expecting Ying Chen to make such a demand.
Restore the bottle?
How was that possible!
Let alone the fact that the bottle had been shattered into powder and was impossible to restore; even if it could be restored, the powder was already incomplete!
When Master Yang Zhenren and Mr. Hu Daheng had come looking for him in anger, they had scattered most of the powder!
It had caused them to search for a long time just to gather a small pinch to bring with them to dispute the matter.
This small pinch wasn't even enough to restore the bottle's spout, let alone the entire bottle!
"Ying Chen, you're making things impossible! How about you ask for something else, like we buy you an identical bottle?" Min Ziqiong's father tentatively suggested.
Ying Chen smiled slightly, "Making things impossible? It's fine, then let your wife compensate me."
???
Three big question marks appeared in Min Ziqiong's father's mind.
He could understand every word Ying Chen said, but strung together, they made no sense!
Why could he not compensate, but his wife could?
It wasn't until half a minute later that Min Ziqiong's father suddenly realized.
Ying Chen was playing on a homophone - "qiǎng rén suǒ nán" (making things impossible for a man) sounded like "qiǎng rén suǒ nǚ" (making things difficult for a woman). If he couldn't do it, then his wife could!
Min Ziqiong's father's face immediately darkened.
He hadn't expected that Ying Chen, who always appeared stern and humorless, would tell such a dad joke!
It was just that this dad joke wasn't very funny at all!
"Ying Chen, are you determined to make trouble for us? Let me tell you: your bottle cannot be restored! You tried to fool us with a fake, and now you're shamelessly demanding we restore it for you. Aren't you being unreasonable?" Min Ziqiong's mother said indignantly.
"When it comes to being unreasonable, I can't compare to the two of you. Besides, on what grounds are you so certain it was fake? I distinctly remember giving you the genuine article! You both saw it with your own eyes and confirmed it with your own mouths back then!"
At this, Min Ziqiong's parents became anxious, "Why were we fooled by you? It's because we trusted our eyes too much! The fact is, you showed us genuine fragmented magical artifacts at the time, but you secretly swapped them for fakes when handing them over!"
With that, Min Ziqiong's mother pulled out a bag of powder from her pocket.
"Come, come, you say you gave us the genuine fragments. This is what you gave us back then. If you can call them, and they respond like they did that day, we'll admit we were wrong! We were being unreasonable!"
"Not only will we not want the fifty million, but we'll find a way to gather the remaining fifty million for you!" Min Ziqiong's mother stated confidently.
Clearly, she was convinced that Ying Chen had given them a fake, and that Ying Chen would be unable to command these fake fragments.
"That's right! If you can command these fragments, we'll pay the remaining amount as promised! If you can't, then you'd better hurry up and return the fifty million to us!" Min Ziqiong's father also chimed in.
Then they crossed their arms and watched with an air of amusement.
To their surprise, Ying Chen seemed completely unfazed.
Instead, he looked at them with a half-smile and asked, "Are you sure?"
His attitude made Min Ziqiong's father inexplicably uneasy.
"Old woman, why does this kid not seem scared at all?"
"Hmph, he's just pretending to be calm! He thinks this will scare us into backing down. I've eaten more salt than he's eaten rice, do you think I'll fall for it?" Min Ziqiong's mother snorted, then said word by word, "We're sure!"
"That's good," Ying Chen nodded.
Then his gaze fell on the clump of powder in Min Ziqiong's mother's hand.
"Ivory Ruyi White Pure Vase! Where are you?"
Swish!
As Ying Chen spoke, something that made Min Ziqiong's parents' faces turn ashen happened.
The powder in Min Ziqiong's mother's palm, as if hearing a military command, suddenly stood up!
They all faced Ying Chen uniformly, like soldiers being inspected by a general, arranged in neat rows!
"How... how is this possible!" Min Ziqiong's mother shrieked.
"You must have done something tricky! You must have some magnet or other device on you!" Min Ziqiong's mother said, backing away repeatedly.
She stopped only after retreating a hundred meters.
"Again!"
"Whether you have magnets or contraptions on you, they won't work at this distance!"
"If you can still command them, then I'll admit these are genuine fragmented magical artifacts!" Min Ziqiong's mother shouted at Ying Chen.
Ying Chen calmly and leisurely replied, "Ivory Ruyi White Pure Vase, since this person doesn't believe in you, why are you still in her hand?"
"Come back!"
Whoosh!
The powder in Min Ziqiong's mother's palm seemed to come alive, jumping off her palm in unison. Like a disciplined army, they surged towards Ying Chen like a tide!
In the blink of an eye, only a handkerchief used to wrap the powder remained in Min Ziqiong's mother's palm; not a single grain of powder was left!
"This is... this is uncanny! Why were they so unresponsive when Master Yang Zhenren inspected them earlier?" Min Ziqiong's father muttered in disbelief, watching the scene.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Min Ziqiong's mother was utterly terrified, as if she had lost her parents.
Suddenly, she lost her balance and sat down on the ground!