False evidence

Chapter 210 Jiang Budai (Part 2)
The 'beggar' seemed somewhat surprised, but after a moment of stunned silence, he actually laughed.

"What are you laughing at?" I asked coldly.

The 'beggar' quickly stopped smiling and said, "I originally thought you were just a doctor, but I didn't expect you to be so knowledgeable. You've misunderstood; I'm not the kind of person you think I am."

Yue Rong came over and tugged at me, clearly displeased with my harsh words, and whispered:
"You already said you wouldn't take his money, so why are you still making things difficult for him?"

"Do you know what the 'Cloth Bag Diviner' is?" I asked in return.

Yue Rong nodded: "I know, there are divination slips in the bag. The person asking the question takes out a divination slip from the bag to interpret the divination. I've had someone do it before, and it's quite accurate."

I ignored him, checked the time, and turned my face towards the door.

The 'beggar' laughed again, but said to Yue Rong, "Madam, your husband has misunderstood me. He thinks I'm a swindler."

I frowned, about to say something, when Yue Rong asked the other person with great curiosity:

"I do believe in fortune telling, but why would he think you're a fraud?"

I was somewhat taken aback. I looked at her expression, then turned to look at Meng Chao and Yan Fengwei.

Meng Chao's attention was entirely on the 'beggar,' while Yan Fengwei gave me a mischievous wink.

It was obvious that he also sensed something amiss in the 'beggar's' words, but Yue Rong, a lawyer by profession and always cautious, seemed oblivious to it.

Faced with Yue Rong's question, the 'beggar' appeared quite patient and explained to her methodically:
"Although your husband is young, he must have seen a lot of the world. There are some swindlers who also call themselves fortune tellers. When you go to them for divination, they will first ask you some seemingly unrelated questions. After you answer, the divination slips they take out of their bag will be exactly the same as what you said, even word for word. That's because they hide a dwarf or a half-human who was harvested when they were young in their bag. Whatever you say, they write it down in their bag, so of course it's 'accurate'!"

Yue Rong turned to look at me: "Is that so?"

Seeing how focused she was on her question, I could only nod.

At this point, the 'beggar' simply put down the cloth bag and pressed it down hard, saying, "There's no one in here. Besides my belongings, there are only talismans."

As he spoke, he sat down on the ground, pulled on a rope that was used to tie the bag, casually made a circle around it, closed one eye, and looked me up and down through the rope with the other.

He suddenly exclaimed "Huh?" and looked at the others again.

After looking at all four people in the room, he put down the rope loop, and his face was filled with blankness.

Yan Fengwei leaned on the counter, raised his chin at him, and said, "Hey buddy, figured it out?"

The beggar shook his head in a daze, muttering to himself:
"I can see that, but I'm confused. How many people are in this room?"

Meng Chao, his eyes gleaming, chuckled, "Are you nearsighted, astigmatic, or just can't count? Why don't you count on your fingers and you'll know?"

The 'beggar' actually started counting on his fingers, but in the end, he seemed unable to count, so he gritted his teeth, opened the bag, and took out a slip of paper.

He unfolded it and glanced at it, then looked as if he had suddenly realized something.

"So this is ah!"

"Have you figured it out? How many of us are there?" Yan Fengwei joked.

The 'beggar' actually nodded very seriously: "It looks messy, but there are only six and a half."

"Hey, hey, what do you mean by six and a half?" Meng Chao leaned closer to him. "Tell me properly, why is there half a person left?"

After a moment's thought, I stepped forward and pulled him aside, while simultaneously bowing to the 'beggar' with clasped hands: "May I ask your honorable name?"

The beggar quickly stood up: "I don't tell people my name. My surname is Jiang. You can just call me Jiang Budai."

"What do you mean by six and a half people?" I asked again. For the first time since announcing his name, Jiang Budai showed a rather unkind expression.

Seeing his eyes darting around, I took out my wallet.

He quickly waved his hand: "Don't misunderstand, don't misunderstand! I don't want money. You saved my cat, and I'm already very grateful to you. It's just... there are some things that can't be said too clearly."

He seemed genuinely anxious, and suddenly pointed at Yan Fengwei: "Isn't he considered one and a half people?"

My eyes darted around, and while stopping Yan Fengwei from speaking, I nodded to Jiang Budai.

Yan Fengwei received a wisp of Lin Qin'en's consciousness from his previous life. His knowledge of antiques alone was far superior to that of ordinary people in the industry. In a sense, wasn't he just a Yan Fengwei and half of Lin Qin'en?

Seeing Jiang Budai still looking troubled and looking downcast, I shook my head inwardly: "Alright, no need to say anything else."

Jiang Budai shook his head, looked around, and finally his gaze landed on Yue Rong: "I must have been mistaken earlier. She's not your wife, is she?"

"What did you say?" Yue Rong glared at him, her eyebrows actually standing on end.

I finally realized something was wrong.

However, at that moment, the sound of car brakes suddenly came from outside.

Upon seeing that it was a police car, Jiang Budai remained calm, but Yue Rong's expression changed drastically.

Then, she shuddered and almost fainted.

I quickly helped her up.

It wasn't until Gao He and the others entered that she came to her senses. She looked at me blankly for a moment, then saw me holding her in my arms, and quickly moved away as if avoiding a plague.

I realized what was happening and subconsciously glanced at the umbrella hanging on the wall, and I began to understand what was going on.

After listening to Cao Jinxiu recount the past, I finally understood the origin of this umbrella.

The Cao family's eyes are like a ruler; they are extremely accurate in judging people.

When she said those things to me, she was obviously referring to me as someone else.

That person was Lü Xin.

Back then, when Lü Xin was a customer of Cao Furui, he would naturally be treated well when he went to the counter to deposit jewelry.

What he said at the time was grand and even touching, but in just half an afternoon, he and the matriarch of the Cao family made a hasty retreat (taking away all the deposited valuables)!

The old woman who later left her umbrella, though she was an old woman, left an unforgettable impression on the Cao family's manager at the time.

How captivating and beautiful it was!
The two of them, one with just a few words, were able to seduce a respectable woman;
One person, with only a middle-aged appearance, can bewitch all living beings...

If I hadn't seen these two people through divination on several occasions, how would I have known who this pair of "monsters" were?
The entrustment by 'Cao Wuxin' (Lu Xin) was nothing but a conspiracy.

The 'old woman' also went to Cao Furui to store her belongings, but she only said one sentence—"On rainy or snowy days, let him hold an umbrella for you"—and nodded.

Tong Jiawen

What became of this woman in the end is unknown.

However, if she is indeed that 'old woman,' this one sentence alone is enough to prove that her love for Lü Xin outweighs her hate...

(End of this chapter)