A Dish Best Served Cold (The Man In Rage)
Chapter 354 Start of a Good Show

"Mr Shen, I'm really sorry. I accidentally knocked over the vase in your shop. Please let me know how much it is and I will compensate you in full." Zhang Li clearly knew the shopkeeper, so after Shen Meng arrived on scene, she quickly apologized to him and offered compensation.

"Oh, so it's Miss Zhang. In that case, I'll just take $600,000. This vase is from the end of the Qing dynasty and even though it isn't a remnant from the royal family, our shop spent $800,000 to buy it. However, since Miss Zhang is an old customer of the shop, I'll give you a discount." Even though Shen Meng was furious, he couldn't let it out because it was Zhang Li. He could only sigh and accept the cruel reality before him.

Zhang Li was also very forthright about it. Shen Meng said $600,000, so she was going to pay him $600,000 and she didn't say anything as she just pulled her card out to pay for it.

$600,000 was quite a bit of money, but clearly Zhang Li could well afford it and it might just be a month's salary for her.

But just when Zhang Li was about to make payment, Qiu Mu-Ying stopped her.

"Yingying, what are you doing? I broke the vase, so I ought to compensate him," said Zhang Li in confusion.

Qiu Mu-Ying smiled and replied, "Mum, I'm not saying that we shouldn't compensate the shop, I'm just saying that we shouldn't be fleeced while doing so."

"As I said, you don't have to worry about this. As your daughter-in-law, I'll settle this for you. Just watch."

"But..." Zhang Li was worried and wanted to say more, but Chu Wen-Fei held her back.

"Mum, Yingying is just trying to be filial to you, so give her a chance. Just watch and see how your future daughter-in-law performs," said Chu Wen-Fei with a faint smile.

Once she had settled Zhang Li, Qiu Mu-

Ying looked at Shen Meng. "Mr Shen, we meet again."

"This lady over here is my mother-in-law, and she's also Mr Chu's mother. She accidentally broke that vase earlier, so do us a favor and we can take it that nothing happened. This vase only cost a few hundred bucks anyway, so it's not worth very much, right?" said Qiu Mu-Ying very casually.

"Your mother-in-law? So she's also a relative of Mr Chu?" Shen Meng was stunned for a moment before turning a little hesitantly to look at Ye Fan.

Shen Meng was obviously in a dilemma now.

It was a bit of a stretch to consider Zhang Li as a relative, but she was still connected to Mr Chu after all. If Shen Meng made Zhang Li compensate him, Shen Meng was afraid that Mr Chu might become unhappy.

But if she didn't compensate him, then this vase and the cloisonne vase that was broken earlier would added up to a loss of more than $1 million. Even someone like Shen Meng felt the pain! Since it was so hard to make a choice, Shen Meng could only look at Ye Fan and check what Ye Fan's stand on this matter was.

When Ye Fan saw this, he immediately chuckled. He ignored Shen Meng and looked up at Qiu Mu-Ying. There was a mocking smile on his face as he started to tease Qiu Mu-Ying and Chu Wen-Fei the same way they did to him and Qiu Mu-Cheng earlier, "Mrs Chu, didn't you say that you were a rich man's wife and you were a real big shot earlier?"

"What's wrong now? It's just a vase and you can't bear to pay for it? Looks like you're not really a rich man's wife after all. If you can't fork out the money, tell your cousin here and perhaps we could lend you some money. If you really refuse to borrow from us, then you could always put your house down as collateral."

She couldn't believe a country bumpkin was now laughing at her!

Qiu Mu-Ying was immediately furious. She glared back at Ye Fan. "I can't afford to pay for this?"

"I can't fork out the money? What a joke! Did you think I'm as penniless as you chickens? Every single item on myself is ten times or even 100 times more expensive than all these stupid vases!"

"I said all those things just now because I was giving Mr Shen a chance to butter us up. You're just a useless bum! Did you think I really can't afford to pay for a vase? I'm telling you, never mind just one - even if I've broken two, or ten, I can afford to pay forthem!"

Qiu Mu-Ying laughed disdainfully at Ye Fan. And in order to prove how wealthy she really was, Qiu Mu-Ying lifted a leg and kicked the vase next to her after declaring that she could pay for them. There was a shattering sound.

The vase shattered and so did Shen

Meng's heart.

"You little bastard! How dare you!" Shen Meng's eyes nearly popped out of his head in anger.

He couldn't believe Qiu Mu-Ying actually kicked another vase of his to pieces.

In just one night, the four treasures in his shop that were meant to increase the prestige of his store was left with just one.

"You...how dare you! This is a vase from the Ming dynasty and it's worth $1.8 million! How dare you break it like this!"

Shen Meng was shouting away and his eyes were all red.

Zhang Li was also in shock. After she saw Qiu Mu-Ying purposely break a second vase, she anxiously chided her, "Yingying, are you nuts?"

"What are you doing?!"

Qiu Mu-Ying wasn't bothered and just held Zhang Li's hand as she smiled and comforted her, "Mum, it's really alright. Don't tell me you believe Mr Shen and you really think that was an antique from the Ming Dynasty?"

"This Mr Shen is just joking with us! These few vases look really exquisite, but they actually all imitations made with modern machines, and four of them add up to only $800. If you don't believe me, I'll break another one?"

Qiu Mu-Ying then stuck another leg out as she laughed gently.

"STOP!!!" Shen Meng exclaimed loudly but it was too late.

PIANG!

That last vase instantly fell to the floor and broke into pieces.

That crisp and clear sound was so ironically pleasant to the ear.

Shen Meng was about to go mad soon. He looked at the mess on the floor and his eyes were bloodshot. He fell to his knees as he picked up the pieces on the floor and felt his heart bleeding profusely.

But Qiu Mu-Ying seemed very pleased with herself for kicking over two vases and taking this moment to show off.

She turned her nose up and looked arrogantly at Ye Fan, "Country bumpkin, what do you have to say now?"

"Did you think I'm just like both of you? So poor that you can't even bear to pay a few hundred bucks? I'm going to make sure I slap you two hard in the face!"

"I'm going to use the truth to tell you that I'm not just going to pay for one vase, but I'm going to pay for three. That's right! My family is THIS rich! We're THIS generous! You two are just a bunch of paupers and you can just watch us spend this money and be envious of us!"

Qiu Mu-Ying had clearly done this to purposely anger Ye Fan and Qiu Mu-Cheng. Now she was standing like the victor and showing off proudly to them.

Qiu Mu-Cheng nearly fainted from her anger when she saw how arrogantly Qiu Mu-Ying was behaving. She didn't want to stand around any longer and turned to leave. "Ye Fan, let's go!"

"It's just money, so what is she so smug about? One of these days, I will earn even more than that and I'd earn it with my own efforts! Argh! I'm so pissed!"

Qiu Mu-Cheng was a woman with great pride, so after she had been mocked so publicly, she became furious immediately.

But Ye Fan pulled her back. "Mu-Cheng, don't be in such a hurry to leave."

"The good show is about to start."

Ye Fan smiled faintly as he looked at the shards all over the floor as well as the crestfallen and dejected looking Shen Meng. The corner of his lips curled upwards into a sly smile. No matter how you looked at that smile, it was definitely one with evil intentions and was gloating over someone else's

misfortune.