"Have we been found out?"
Yun Que'er nodded gravely. "We were just too careless."
They should have realized earlier that a man like Shen Li, with his status and sophistication, couldn't have failed to see through their scheme.
It would probably be as easy for him to kill them as to crush an ant.
What puzzled Yun Que'er was why Shen Li didn't take things to the extreme.
Ji Chengxuan seemed to know what was on Yun Que'er's mind and continued along the lines of her doubts.
"Actually, I find it strange too. If he really wanted to settle the matter once and for all, silencing us might have been the best option. But he didn't. He didn't even cause any irreparable harm to Brother Yun. So he didn't take things to the extreme. Think about it. Why did he do that?"
Yun Que'er narrowed her eyes.
"If it wasn't because he didn't have the strength, then he must have been afraid of something."
The former was clearly out of the question, so...
"There must be something or someone that Shen Li is afraid of, which is why he didn't dare to go too far."
Ji Chengxuan snapped his fingers. "If you can realize this, it means this wasn't a complete failure. You didn't lose everything."
Even so, being discovered today had cut off all their escape routes.
Shen Li must have calculated that they had no backup plan, which was why he didn't go too far.
What should they do now?
Yun Que'er had a splitting headache.
However, this wasn't the only problem they had to solve. The innocent young man who had been implicated was waiting for an explanation from Yun Que'er.
"Little girl, I don't want to make things difficult for you. But your brother is in such a state now. I'm human too. I couldn't bear to ask him for an explanation, but you have to give me one."
The young man had originally gone to do the job for the money. Who would have thought that the job would be so risky?
Getting beaten up was a minor matter. The most important thing was the camera!
In the whole town, theirs was the only photo studio. The camera had been bought by the boss at a high price from the city.
Now, after the young man took it out without permission, it had been broken. It was smashed to pieces, and not even a single fragment was retrieved.
He had no idea how to explain this...
"I'll help you figure something out," Yun Que'er said.
Since it was their own mess, they couldn't just sit back and do nothing.
"But in the current situation, lying definitely won't work. You can't just say it was broken, can you?"
As the saying goes, you need to see the body if a person is dead. The same goes for a camera.
Even if it was broken, you should at least see the broken parts. So they could only tell the truth.
The young man was terrified when he heard this. "Are you crazy? You want me to tell the truth? Why don't you just let me die?"
The boss would surely skin him alive.
First of all, he couldn't afford to pay for the camera. Secondly, how could he continue in this line of work in the future?
If the news got out, no one would even dare to hire him for other jobs. He would starve to death!
"I should have known better than to be greedy for that little bit of money and agree to help you with this," the young man said dejectedly as he squatted on the ground.
"But if we don't tell the truth, the matter might be covered up for now. But what if it's discovered later?"
The young man became even more annoyed. "I think you're just trying to shift the blame. What, the job didn't go well, and now you want me to take the responsibility? Your abacus is clicking too loudly!"
Yun Que'er was both amused and exasperated. "I don't mean that. Don't worry. No matter how much the camera costs, we'll pay for it. As for the explanation, I'll go with you. If the boss doesn't let you off, we'll take all the responsibility. Our family's business may not be doing very well, but we can still afford to hire someone. We won't let you be without a job and go hungry."
The young man looked at Yun Que'er suspiciously. "You're not just talking big, are you? You're just a little girl. Can you really handle all these things and give me a job?"
"Don't worry," Yun Que'er said seriously as she nodded. "Whoever caused the trouble has to clean it up. Even if our family has to live on porridge and pickles in the future, we won't abandon you."
Yun Que'er's words made the young man feel a bit embarrassed.
"It seems like I'm not giving you a way out... I'm not that unreasonable. As long as the matter is resolved, I won't hold you accountable."
Seeing that the young man had accepted her suggestion, Yun Que'er felt much more relieved.
She turned around and went into the main house to look for money.
This time, they were definitely going to spend a fortune. Maybe all the money they had earned with so much effort would be gone. But Yun Que'er had to do it.
The money was stored in Yun Mo Tan's large wardrobe. It was originally meant to be saved, but there had been so many things going on recently that they didn't even have time to go to the bank. So it was just hidden at the very bottom.
Yun Que'er took all the clothes and bedding piled on top and rummaged for the small iron box hidden inside.
But when she opened it, she was stunned.
How could this be...
They had made quite a bit of money selling the gold coins back then. After purchasing the wood, there were still two or three hundred left. And Yun Que'er remembered that after the wood deal was settled, Li Chengfu had paid them on the spot. Altogether, it should have been more than four thousand.
Even if Yun Que'er had remembered wrong, what about the money left from selling the gold coins?
"What are you looking for?" Yun Fu Jin limped in.
"The money in our family doesn't match up," Yun Que'er said helplessly as she looked at Yun Fu Jin. "Brother, wasn't the money Uncle Li paid us all here? Have you used any of it recently?"
"Absolutely not!" Yun Fu Jin walked forward and looked at the empty box. He was stunned too.
"How could this happen..." Yun Fu Jin murmured.
A few days ago, he and Yun Mo Tan had counted the money. At that time, Yun Mo Tan had said that they should find a chance to deposit it in the bank.
Yun Mo Tan had been going out early and coming back late recently. He simply didn't have the time.
Yun Fu Jin had been so busy that he could hardly keep his head above water. He had almost forgotten about it. And the money they had used recently was just some loose change they had saved before. They hadn't touched this money at all.
Could it have been stolen?
Yun Fu Jin turned and looked around. "We just moved here. Apart from Uncle Ji's family, no one else knows how much money we have. It couldn't have been them..."
Maybe it was someone in the family?
It couldn't have been Yun Yi. Could it have been Yun Jian Zhou?
But why would he do that?
Even if he wanted to go out to eat with his friends, he wouldn't need that much money.
Yun Que'er didn't think it was necessarily Yun Jian Zhou. "I don't think Second Brother would do such a thing. Besides, it's all our family's stuff. Why would he steal it? Maybe it was really stolen. Let's ask Second Brother when he comes back. By the way, where is Second Brother? Why haven't I seen him today?"
What was going on with Yun Jian Zhou recently?
"Who knows?" Yun Fu Jin waved his hand impatiently. "Let's not worry about him for now. Let's think about how to compensate for the camera."