You're Strong But Now You're Mine-Chapter 168 - 167: I, Le Yu, am definitely not a scumbag full of bad intentions!

Chapter 168: Chapter 167: I, Le Yu, am definitely not a scumbag full of bad intentions!

Jing Qingfu’s funeral did not consume much of Leyu’s thoughts.

According to tradition, Huiyao also has a custom of a seven-day vigil, and there is even a saying of three years of mourning.

But since Leyu was not particularly interested in grand gestures, the clansmen tacitly forgot these customs, and no one urged Leyu—alas, the man’s son is already overwhelmed with grief. Although he seems unaffected, he’s actually mourning deeply in his heart. We as relatives should not reopen his wounds.

"Jing Qingfu is finally dead," if the clansmen didn’t express any sentiment or sigh over this, it would certainly be insincere;

But if one were to speak of how much affection the clansmen had for Jing Qingfu, perhaps this one sentence would perfectly encapsulate their true attitude towards the patriarch who had developed and strengthened the Jing Family—"Jing Qingfu is finally dead."

Now that Jing Zhengwu is dead, Jing Zhengtang has surrendered, and Jing Zhengfeng is merely a sidekick causing trouble, the Jing Family’s clansmen have no choice but to submit to the new patriarch Jing Zhengwei, whether sincerely or grudgingly.

In fact, there’s not much difference from before; only their previous master was Jing Qingfu, and their current master is Jing Zhengwei.

They somewhat realize that the new patriarch has little affection for the old one and naturally wouldn’t provoke him. Some even directly suggested hastily burying Jing Qingfu—an old fence-sitter, this spineless nature gave Leyu more confidence in controlling the Jing Family.

However, now that he’s dead, Leyu isn’t so far gone as to desecrate a corpse for amusement, so he entrusted the funeral arrangements to the old steward Fude, who had followed Jing Qingfu for decades, and Fude silently accepted the task.

Aware of the old steward’s estrangement from him, Leyu was not surprised.

Jing Qingfu’s death was quite reasonable. After all, he had been struggling to live a life of subterfuge in recent years, and his sudden passing was normal, especially after surviving an assassination attempt by his ex-wife today, then barely recovering to deliver his last words to his sons before peacefully passing—this was all a very reasonable development.

The only ones privy to Jing Qingfu’s health issues were those two medical officers and the old steward. Given Jing Qingfu’s health, he should have lived a while longer, but he unexpectedly died during a meeting with Leyu... the old steward might have some suspicions, but he couldn’t find evidence.

Even if he did, what could he do?

Father killing son, son killing father, brother harming brother, brother stabbing brother, these are the conduct rules of the Jing Family. Back then, Jing Qingfu took over the Jing Family at a young age upon his father’s death, so it’s hard to say if there was any family scandal involved.

However, the old steward still asked a question: "May I ask how the patriarch plans to deal with the grand madam? The grand madam is still in the side room."

Leye was taken aback, suddenly realizing that this was the ex-wife who had attempted to assassinate Jing Qingfu, the mother of Jing Zhengwu, and the old enemy of Jing Zhengwei.

In a flash, Leyu understood why Jing Qingfu merely kept the grand madam under house arrest. Now that Jing Zhengwu is dead, the existence of the grand madam is also a threat to Leyu. Logically speaking, Jing Qingfu could have easily ordered the household staff to kill the grand madam at that time.

But he didn’t do so.

If it’s said to be out of love, that would underestimate Jing Qingfu.

He left the grand madam for Leyu’s sake—the new and old grudges, coupled with the justification of avenging his father, would mean that even if Leyu took up a knife right now and chopped off the grand madam’s head, the Tai family couldn’t trouble him, the patriarch of the Jing Family.

Jing Zhengwu’s death was the prelude to Jing Qingfu establishing power for Leyu.

The existence of the grand madam was Jing Qingfu’s offering to give Leyu the chance to establish authority personally.

What establishes one’s own authority more than killing the rival’s mother?

Nothing!

Even with that old body growing cold, Leyu still felt a chill down his spine.

Was the grand madam’s visit to see Jing Qingfu today a coincidence, or a scheme?

Was it an opportunistic cruelty, or a carefully premeditated malice?

How many more ’gifts’ has he left for me?

The scariest thing is, I easily followed his train of thought and grasped his intentions.

No, no, no, this must be Jing Zhengwei’s wicked thought process, not mine. I’m just a cultured and amiable honest young man... Leyu said, "Report to the authorities, notify the Patrol Execution Guard to take the grand madam for interrogation, compile the evidence and send it to the Patrol Execution Guard, and assign someone to submit a lawsuit to the Governor’s Office, accusing the grand madam of attempted murder."

Everyone froze.

Report to the authorities?

The Patrol Execution Guard dares to meddle in the Jing Family’s affairs? Do they even need to?

But soon, some clansmen suddenly realized and repeatedly exclaimed, "The patriarch is wise!"

"The patriarch is wise! The Tai Family is bound to suffer a serious setback this time!"

"Exactly! If the matter becomes widespread, and the Tai Family doesn’t give us a satisfactory explanation, they won’t be able to survive in Xuanzhu County!"

Leye, realizing that the clansmen had already concocted a myriad of conspiracies, didn’t bother to explain further. After all, they were all just capitalist dogs biting each other, let them be.

He just didn’t want to take the bloodstained path that Jing Qingfu laid out for him.

"Who wants to take on this task?"

A few clansmen volunteered to stand up, and Leyu waved his hand for them to accept this advantageous task, then looked at the assembled clansmen in the hall and said, "I know what you’re thinking, and I’m aware of your concerns."

"Anyone who had secret agreements with my second or third brothers can write them down and hand them to me by tomorrow night."

The clansmen immediately started sweating profusely, each loudly proclaiming their innocence, "Oh Wei, how could your second uncle possibly..." "Young Master Wei..." "Brother Wei..."

"Stop." Leyu picked his ear, blew away the earwax, and casually said, "First, you can call me Patriarch, Young Master, Master, Young Master Lord, or even Patriarch Lord, just don’t use my name."

"Second, I have no intention of pursuing these matters. Since they are my brothers and since I am now in this position, I should be responsible for their actions."

"Feel free to write it down, and I will try to accommodate your wishes."

"After all," Leyu smiled: "I’m just a newly appointed patriarch with many things I don’t understand, and in the future, I still need everyone’s efforts for the Jing Family. The Jing Family Chamber of Commerce is the chamber of commerce for all Jing Family clansmen."

Upon hearing this, the clansmen immediately felt relieved, replacing it with bursts of joyous excitement!

Indeed!

Jing Zhengwei actually has little foundation within the Jing Family Chamber of Commerce, if he wants to control the Jing Family, he still needs us old folks!

Not only can he not hold us accountable, but he must also win us over, otherwise who would work for him?

Worthy of Jing Zhengwei, truly insightful, knowing when to make the right moves!

This is indeed a new patriarch, love it, love it!

Pleased, the clansmen left, and Leyu turned to silently watch Jing Shou beside him, "I need to look at the situation of the Jing Family’s properties."

"Oh, and send someone to call Yin Minghong over, I have some matters to instruct him on."

For major tasks like slaughtering pigs, it’s not suitable for Leyu to do it himself, but having White Night take over is a different matter.

If the Jing Family clansmen truly thought the new patriarch was an easily manipulated outsider, they would face White Night’s dire turns waiting for them.

The first step in pig slaughtering is to coax the pig onto the slaughter table.

Sigh, how could I come up with such cunning schemes, it must be Jing Zhengwei’s sinister thoughts influencing me, I’m a decent person... Leyu quietly consoled himself, refusing to admit that he was becoming more like the Jing Family scum.