"Bang! Bang! Bang! Boss Du! Boss Du! Are you in?" Shen Feng stood outside the door, pounding on the wooden gate of the small courtyard so hard that it echoed, but unfortunately, there was no response.
"Boss Du! Come out!"
"Boss Du, if you don't come out, I'll call someone to kick the door down!"
Shen Feng was so angry outside that he was about to jump up and down, but there was not a sound from inside.
"Kick the door down!" Shen Feng stepped aside and ordered the two servants he had brought.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
"Master! The door is open!"
Shen Feng pushed the two servants aside and strode into the yard. He entered several rooms one after another and found them all empty. He directly kicked down a wooden door with one foot. "Damn it! No one's here! They've all run away!"
No matter what, Boss Du was not there now. Shen Feng could only leave angrily. "Let's go!"
At this time, the Shen Mansion was also deathly silent. Shen Zhuo was sitting angrily at the upper seat in the main hall. Mrs. Zhu was sitting beside him, looking worried. Even Shen Shi and Shen Miao were in the Shen Mansion.
Everyone sat silently in the main hall for more than an hour before waiting for Shen Feng to come back.
Shen Feng was like an eggplant beaten by frost, his face full of frustration. After entering the main hall, he slumped into a chair and just sat there blankly, not saying a word.
Mrs. Zhu was even more worried when she saw this. She supported the armrest of the chair with one hand and tapped the ground with her walking stick in the other. She asked Shen Feng, "Feng'er! How did it go? Did you find that Boss Du?"
Shen Feng sat there blankly, staring at a spot on the ground, shaking his head without saying a word.
Mrs. Zhu was both surprised and pitying her son when she saw Shen Feng so listless. "Feng'er, what's wrong with you? Don't scare your mother!"
Mrs. Zhu's hands were trembling a little. With the support of the maid beside her, she stood up with the walking stick and walked towards Shen Feng worriedly.
Mrs. Zhu was standing right in front of Shen Feng. Only then did Shen Feng look up at her. Then he let out a wail, threw himself into Mrs. Zhu's arms and cried, "I can't find him! I've looked everywhere, but there's no one! That Boss Du has run away!"
"It's all gone! All gone! All my silver is gone!"
Mrs. Zhu held the walking stick in one hand and patted Shen Feng's back with the other, comforting him, "Feng'er! What on earth is going on! Don't cry first. Tell us the whole thing clearly!"
Hearing this, Shen Zhuo slapped the table and roared at Shen Feng, "Cry, cry, cry! All you know is how to cry! In front of the younger generation, you don't even know what shame is! Good-for-nothing! Kneel down and admit your mistake!"
Shen Feng squinted at Shen Miao who was still sitting in the room. Only then did he stop crying. He raised his head from Mrs. Zhu's arms, lowered his head and knelt down in the main hall.
"You're always scolding! You're your own son, and you don't even give him a bit of face. Where is there a father like you!" Mrs. Zhu immediately jumped out to protect her son when she saw Shen Zhuo scolding Shen Feng.
"I don't give him face? Look at him. He's already in his thirties, and he still hides in your arms and cries in front of his niece! He doesn't know what shame is. If this gets out, it will really bring shame to our Shen family!"
"Bring shame to the Shen family? Where does Feng'er bring shame to the Shen family? There are no outsiders here today. Where will it get out? You think Feng'er didn't bring you glory, right? Then why don't you go find that son of yours born by your first wife and let him bring you glory!" Mrs. Zhu was not afraid of Shen Zhuo at all now and immediately retorted.
Hearing Mrs. Zhu mention his deceased wife, Shen Zhuo immediately felt a bit guilty and said, "Why do you mention her for no reason?"
Mrs. Zhu obviously minded Shen Zhuo's deceased wife very much, and there was undisguised sarcasm in her words. "What? Am I not even qualified to mention her now? If you hadn't betrayed our promise and married her back then, I wouldn't have had to be your concubine. Even until now, I've been gossiped about."
"What are you talking about! This is all old stuff from the past. Don't mention it in front of the children!" Shen Zhuo showed weakness to Mrs. Zhu.
"I'm telling you, no matter how many years have passed, you were the one who wronged me first in this matter!" As Mrs. Zhu said, she began to wipe away her tears with a handkerchief.
"Sigh!" When Shen Zhuo saw that Mrs. Zhu was even crying, he felt even more helpless. "Alright! Alright! The most important thing now is the business. Let the past things go for now!"
A hint of triumph appeared on Mrs. Zhu's face. She knew that Shen Zhuo was most afraid of this. She gave Shen Feng a reassuring look and then sat back in her seat.
"Tell us! What happened!"
Shen Feng lowered his head and told everything that had happened in the past month or so, starting from when he met Boss Du. Of course, he concealed the fact that he had met Boss Du through Hou Si from the gambling house. He only said that it was introduced by a friend.
"We originally agreed that we could share the money within half a month to a month. Just half a month later, I went to find that Boss Du. He told me to wait patiently and that he would definitely give me the money on time."
"I even saw him just four or five days ago. He said that he could collect the silver in a few days. But when I went to his yard yesterday, I knocked on the door for a long time with no response. I also heard from outside that the court is now strictly investigating the private salt - dealing business, so I felt something was wrong. When I went to find him again today, the yard was empty."
"After that, I took some people to search the places where he usually appeared in the capital. They all said that they hadn't seen him for two or three days!"
After Shen Feng finished speaking, the room fell silent again.
Shen Feng hung his head low, his face full of regret and annoyance, looking very much like someone who knew he had made a mistake.
Shen Shi waited and waited. Seeing that neither Shen Zhuo nor Mrs. Zhu said anything, she asked herself, "Brother, this Boss Du you've been talking about all the time. Who is he exactly? What's his full name and where is he from? If possible, we can also look for him."
Shen Feng thought for a while but found that he didn't have any of this information in his mind. He said in a voice as soft as a mosquito, "I heard that Boss Du is from the south. He's a merchant who often does business between our Dongling Kingdom and Xiyue. His family is very rich and he's very generous. As for his name... I don't know. Anyway, everyone calls him Boss Du!"
"You useless fool! Idiot!" Shen Zhuo directly picked up the teacup in front of him and threw it at Shen Feng. "You didn't even bother to find out such simple details as his name and where he was from, yet you dared to take tens of thousands of taels of silver to do business with others. Only a fool like you could do such a thing!"