Chapter 141 — Old Buffon's Origins

"You—" Chen Shutang looked at Yang Ce in astonishment. "Really? Yang Ce, you're not fooling me, are you?"

"I might fool anyone else, but never you," Yang Ce said with a shake of his head. "And not just the Wang Group—the Mingyang Security Company in Songjiang, and my father's Heavy Industry Group—all of it is my business now."

"Mingyang... Yang Ce..." Chen Shutang murmured the two words, then suddenly understood. She looked at Yang Ce as though she no longer recognized him. "What on earth is going on?"

Yang Ce had been with her since high school, and Chen Shutang naturally knew exactly what his family's circumstances were. Yet she had never imagined that Yang Ce—usually so cheerful and carefree—could actually have so many businesses.

When had he even built up all these businesses? She was his girlfriend; though she wasn't with him every waking moment, surely she should have been able to see some sign of it?

And yet Chen Shutang had known nothing at all. How could she not be astonished now?

"Mengyan, this has to be told from the beginning. If you want to hear it, I'll tell you slowly," Yang Ce said, a little amused at Chen Shutang's stunned expression.

To be continued.

685. The Story of How Yang Juehuan Made His Fortune

"All right, then let's talk as we walk," Chen Shutang said with a nod. She was of course intensely interested in the matter of Yang Juehuan; she had already had some misgivings when Yang Yongjin first told her about it. Now that Yang Ce was volunteering to tell her, she was naturally delighted.

"Fine. Since you're willing to listen, I'll start from the beginning. Hmm, where should I begin?" Yang Ce pondered for a moment.

"Start with how you dug up your first pot of gold," Chen Shutang said after a moment's thought.

"What exactly counts as one's first pot of gold?" Yang Hengye asked.

"It means the first time you got your hands on a thousand yuan—and of course it can't be money your parents gave you. It has to come from someone else," Chen Shutang said.

"Oh, a thousand yuan." Yang Ce thought it over, then laughed. "Does New Year's money count? It isn't from my parents, but I did get it out of other people's hands."

Chen Shutang shot Yang Puqi a look, somewhat speechless. "What do you think?"

"Heh heh." Yang Hengye shook his head. "Just joking. If we're talking about the first time I got my hands on more than a thousand yuan—well, does money that passed through my hands count?"

"Money that passed through your hands? What does that mean?" Chen Shutang asked, curious.

"It means the money came into my hands, and then I gave it to someone else," Yang Yanzhou said.

"It came into your hands and you gave it to someone else? How much was it?" Chen Shutang asked.

"Three thousand and some, or four thousand, something like that. I didn't really count it exactly." Yang Shuoxuan could not recall the precise figure.

"What happened? Tell me," Chen Shutang said, her interest roused.

"Back in our senior year of high school, Sister Ying tutored me every day until very late—you knew that, right?" Yang Ce began from the beginning.

"Mm." Chen Shutang nodded. She clearly did know about it.

"One night I walked Sister Ying home, and we ran into two robbers." Yang Yanzhou paused there and smiled. "Well, you can imagine how it turned out—your husband turned the tables and robbed them instead."

"Good grief." Chen Shutang shook her head with a helpless air. "Fine. I suppose that barely counts as your first pot of gold. And afterward, I'm guessing you handed the money to your parents—or turned it in to the authorities?"

"Actually, no. On my way home that day, I ran into a girl who was selling herself to pay for her father's medical treatment. She offered me her first time—" Yang Ce had not finished before he was cut off.

Chen Shutang's heart clenched at Yang Juehuan's words. "So you bought it?"

"More or less." Yang Yuting nodded.

"You—" Chen Shutang's eyes went wide, and she stared at Yang Ce in astonishment—though what showed in her gaze was mostly anger and indignation. "Yang Ce, you actually—you actually did such a thing?"

Yes, Chen Shutang could just about forgive and accept those careless mistakes of Yang Ce's. But actively taking advantage of someone's misfortune, buying her first time—that was a bit too immoral, wasn't it?

If Chen Shutang was not angry now, that would have been the strange thing.

"Mengyan, don't get so worked up—let me finish," Yang Ce said. One look at Chen Shutang's expression told him she had gotten the wrong idea.

"At the time, I just handed her all the money and left," Yang Yanzhou said.

"So you only gave her the money—you didn't have that kind of relation with her?" Chen Shutang breathed a sigh of relief at Yang Juehuan's explanation.

"It did happen—but—" No sooner had Yang Ce said this than Chen Shutang's face flushed crimson, as if she wanted to devour him alive. Yang Ce hurriedly added, "But she was Lin Yanhe!"

"Lin Yanhe? What?" Chen Shutang stared at Yang Ce in astonishment, never having imagined that Yang Ce and Lin Yanhe had met in such a way.

"That's right, she was Lin Yanhe." Yang Jincong laughed. "Otherwise, did you think she would let me off so easily? Remember, I forced myself on her back then! If she hadn't recognized me during the identification and insisted to the death that I was her boyfriend, your husband would be in the big house right now, gazing at you from afar."

"So that's how it was." It was the first time Chen Shutang had heard the inside story of this affair, and the shock in her heart was beyond measure. When Yang Ce had told her back then, she had wondered why Lin Yanhe had let Yang Ce off so easily. After all, this sort of thing was extremely serious for a girl.

Now Chen Shutang finally knew the truth of the matter, and she was filled with emotion. It seemed Lin Yanhe was a girl who knew how to repay kindness. That alone made Chen Shutang's goodwill toward her surge.

"She really did have it hard," Yang Ce said with a sigh. "Later we met again, but I didn't recognize her, and she didn't tell me she was Lin Yanhe—she made up a false name, Shen Lin. I didn't know at the time; I just treated her as a familiar friend."

"Then how did you find out afterward?" Listening to this plot that belonged in a romance novel, Chen Shutang could not help feeling a little wistful.

Her own romance with Yanzhou had come about naturally, without any of this miraculous chance encounter, so Chen Shutang was very curious about the story of Yang Ce and Lin Yanhe.

"Later, Lin Yanhe's mother, Aunt Shen, happened to discover that her daughter was no longer a virgin. Lin Yanhe had no way out, so she could only cobble together a reason and say she had a boyfriend. But Aunt Shen didn't let her off so easily—she told her to bring the boyfriend home." Yang Jincong glanced at Chen Shutang with a smile.

"I know. Then she came looking for you to pose as her boyfriend and pull the wool over their eyes, right?" Chen Shutang instantly grasped the crux of the matter from Yang Juehuan's words.

"Mm." Yang Yuting nodded. "She asked me to pretend to be her boyfriend, and so she couldn't keep her name from me anymore. But it seems she still doesn't know that I already know she's the girl I forced myself on back then."

"She's never mentioned this matter all along?" Chen Shutang was rather curious. Lin Yanhe could have used it to win Yang Juehuan's affection.

"No." Yang Yanzhou said, "She even had Xia Xue help her cover it up."

"Then treat her well from now on," Chen Shutang said. Her prejudice and misgivings about Lin Yanhe no longer existed; what remained was only emotion and sympathy.

"I know. But Mengyan, I really thank you—thank you for understanding," Yang Yanzhou said.

"All right, enough flattery." Chen Shutang said, "Go on with your rags-to-riches story."