CHAPTER 394: TRICK THE OPPONENT TO COUNTER IN FORCE (2)

"Not necessarily, you know a person’s face but not their heart. Such a valuable thing, it’s possible someone really took it."

"Qiong’er, think about it, can you think of any suspicious person?"

Li Qiong’er’s eyes were almost brimming with tears, her face pale as she pondered. The commotion here was somewhat loud, and the women at the other tables were startled, craning their necks to see what was happening. Hua Jun and Hua’s mother came over, asking, "What’s going on?"

Jia Wenxiu seized the opportunity to say to Hua Jun, "Qiong’er’s newly bought bracelet was in her bag, but now it’s gone. We suspect it was stolen by someone with sticky fingers."

Hua’s mother felt displeased.

Why did it have to happen at the old man’s birthday banquet of all times? Isn’t this just disrespecting the Hua family? She leaned over to whisper to Hua Jun, "Ah Jun, help Qiong’er look here, and absolutely don’t let this matter blow up or let your grandpa know, so as not to ruin his mood. I’ll go and calm things down on the old man’s side; today is his big day after all."

Hua Jun nodded politely, also knowing that they couldn’t let things escalate at her grandpa’s birthday banquet.

She reassured them, "Qiong’er, don’t worry yet, there are many people at the banquet, and our own people wouldn’t mess around. But some of the cleaning staff, maybe they haven’t seen such things, and took it secretly. I’ll go ask them. You lost something at our house, I’ll definitely give you an explanation."

Ye Binyi looked on with satisfaction as Hua Jun took charge, glancing secretly at Tian Sangsang, could it be her daughter-in-law who took it? She had just seen her daughter-in-law talking to Li Qiong’er, and it didn’t seem pleasant! Such a troublemaker!

Hua Jun went to call all the cleaning staff to inquire, and as she came back, her face didn’t look good, followed by a female staff member.

"Was it her who took my bracelet?!" Li Qiong’er looked at Hua Jun with questioning eyes.

"No." Hua Jun’s bright face showed a troubled expression: "She said she saw someone rummaging through your bag."

"Could it be that someone among us actually took something?" Mrs. Lin asked in shock, "Who do you say it was?"

The female staff member shrank back a little, pointing at Tian Sangsang: "I saw this lady rummaging. At that time, no one was at this table. I thought she was rummaging through her own bag; how would I know something was missing? Anyway, I didn’t take anything; I just saw it, it’s got nothing to do with me."

Upon hearing this, everyone turned to look at Tian Sangsang, their eyes filled with suspicion, disdain or disgust. The people at the other tables noticed the issue wasn’t simple, but as it had nothing to do with them, all they could do was quietly watch.

"Auntie, this..." Hua Jun hesitated, seeking Ye Binyi’s opinion,

"Impossible!" Ye Binyi coldly stared at the female staff member.

"Auntie Ye, don’t draw conclusions too early." Li Qiong’er, being from the Lu family and not getting along with the Jiang family, became emboldened: "It’s not your thing that’s lost now, of course you can say it’s impossible. Tian Sangsang is your daughter-in-law, I won’t mind you speaking for her. But, as everyone knows, she comes from the countryside; she could very well do things like stealing. The last time I went to East Sea, I had an encounter with her, and the evaluations from others about her were not good. You shouldn’t be blinded by your daughter-in-law."

"Our Jiang family daughter-in-law doesn’t need you to criticize." Ye Binyi rebuked coldly.

"Mom." Jia Wenxiu gently tugged on her, anxiously saying, "Actually, when no one was at the table, I also saw sister-in-law rummaging."

Ye Binyi looked at Jia Wenxiu with some disappointment, "Wenxiu, where do you stand? That’s your sister-in-law."

"Precisely because she is my sister-in-law, I hope she will return to the right path, and not make a grave mistake," Jia Wenxiu explained earnestly.

Tian Sangsang raised her eyebrows in surprise, her mother-in-law spoke up for her. But she knew she wasn’t genuinely trying to help her; she was just concerned about the Jiang family’s reputation. After all, she was Jiang Jinghuai’s wife outside. After some time of getting along, she had grasped some of her mother-in-law’s habits. It seemed Jia Wenxiu was ready to risk everything, ha, she wasn’t afraid of Ye Binyi being disheartened with her.

Mrs. Lin said, "Binyi, since Wenxiu said she saw it, you can’t cover it up anymore."

"I think everyone has misunderstood." Tian Sangsang nonchalantly glanced at them with a smile and said, "I just searched my own bag, Auntie Hua can vouch for me, I took out essential oil from my own bag."

"Who knows if you searched your bag and mine at the same time!" Li Qiong’er sneered, "Tian Sangsang, don’t argue anymore; two people saw you take something, are you still being wronged?!"

"Hey, hey, hey, everyone, don’t get excited!" Hua Zifeng came over with a glass of wine, smiling to smooth things over: "My mom asked me to say something, just now, Miss Sangsang indeed took the essential oil."

Hua Jun glanced at Hua Zifeng and then asked the staff member: "Are you telling the truth? My mom said she was taking essential oil. You said she rummaged through the bag, did she take anything out? What exactly did she rummage through? Could you explain in detail? Otherwise, we can’t believe your words."

Under the gaze of so many important people, the female staff member got a bit nervous: "I saw her rummage through a bracelet, a round one, put it into her own bag. As for what essential oil is, I’ve never seen it. Actually, whether it’s true or not, wouldn’t searching her bag make it clear?"

"What good would searching the bag do?" Li Qiong’er curled her lips disdainfully: "Who knows if she’d already hidden it on her body. After she put it in the bag, did she take it out?"

The female staff member hurriedly shook her head: "I saw, no, she just put it in the bag."

Li Qiong’er said, "Then let’s search the bag!"

This really was an elaborate lie. Could she tell something so specific?

Tian Sangsang smiled lightly; her smile was pure and clean. Hua Zifeng looked at her and said to everyone: "Sangsang is my friend; guests that come should be treated with respect, searching a bag is unethical; it’s disrespectful to a person. It’s not good to wrongly accuse an innocent person either."

Ye Binyi’s face darkened, looking at Tian Sangsang as if to say: Quick moves, huh, and since when did you become friends with this Hua family’s playboy? You sure have a lot of friends, one Zhao Chun wasn’t enough, now here’s Hua Zifeng. Really, any kind of unseemly person can be your friend!

"Even if she’s a friend of Young Master Hua, that doesn’t mean she can steal things!" Li Qiong’er emphasized.

Tian Sangsang’s face remained with a slight smile, as she spoke calmly, "Qiong’er, you can search my bag if you want. But if you don’t find anything, I will feel wronged, how will you compensate me?"

Li Qiong’er promised vehemently, "If nothing is found, you can search my bag too."

"Not just that," Tian Sangsang glanced around at everyone, "everyone at this table must let me search their bags too, otherwise it wouldn’t be fair. Since the thief could be me, could it not be any of those present?"

Several ladies nodded, since there was nothing in their bags. But why was Tian Sangsang so certain? Could it be that she didn’t steal it?