Chapter 859: Scumbag Brother and Scumbag Father, Stay Away (5)

“Dad, I really was wrong, this time I really was wrong.”

Meng Chongxi’s heart gave a jolt; the almost despairing look in Meng Wengan’s eyes filled him with a very bad premonition.

Over these years Meng Wengan had actually done quite a few things, and every time it was the family who helped clean up after him.

Only Meng Chongxi would believe that none of those things were Meng Wengan’s fault, that it was always someone else who led his son astray.

Sending him to the county to study had also been because Meng Chongxi felt there were a group of people in the old academy who weren’t there to study properly and would be a bad influence on Meng Wengan.

He had never once reflected that the problem might actually lie with Meng Wengan himself.

Anyway, with that incident when he was a ten-year-old child student, in Meng Chongxi’s mind Meng Wengan would sooner or later pass the exams in high rank.

“Dad, I’ve really caused trouble this time, it was all those people who harmed me, I don’t understand any of that stuff, they tricked me into doing those things.” Meng Wengan clung to Meng Chongxi’s thigh and wept bitterly. “They coaxed me into going to a gambling house.”

At the word “gambling house,” Meng Chongxi almost collapsed headfirst. How could anyone touch that sort of thing? Take your eye off it for a moment and the whole family is ruined.

Mrs. Zhang and Xu Yunniang’s faces simultaneously went chalk-white. A gambling house—just hearing the words made people blanch. How many perfectly decent households had been broken up because of them.

Especially the women of the family—how many had been sold off by those gamblers.

“Gambling house”—just hearing those two words, women felt it was a nightmare. As long as anyone connected to them got mixed up with gambling, it was absolutely a calamity for them.

For a moment Meng Chongxi couldn’t speak either. Meng Wengan looked up at him pitifully, kowtowing and admitting his fault, constantly pushing the blame onto those disreputable friends, painting himself as some pure lotus in a prosperous age who was entirely dragged down by others.

Mrs. Zhang was at a loss for words; Xu Yunniang too suddenly lost all appetite. Yet in this household neither of them had any say.

“Explain it properly.” Meng Chongxi came back to his senses and kicked Meng Wengan away with one swipe of his foot, making Meng Wengan cry out in pain and lie wretchedly on the floor.

Seeing him like that made the whole family even more tense; this time it was clearly not going to be something simple.

Rage was churning in Meng Chongxi’s chest; he obviously understood how terrifying it was to get mixed up in gambling.

“How much did you lose?”

Meng Wengan froze for a moment, then hastily held up two fingers, his whole manner trembling. Seeing that Meng Chongxi was going to cover for him, his taut features relaxed quite a bit.

“Twenty taels?”

A load lifted from Meng Chongxi’s heart. That wasn’t much; they could scrape it together. At worst he could go farther afield to take jobs. Then have Mrs. Zhang, Yunniang, and Yan’er make more sachets and embroidered handkerchiefs to sell; between them they could still manage to pull the sum together.

Just as Meng Chongxi was about to state his decision, Meng Wengan said in a shaking voice, “It’s not twenty taels, it’s… it’s two hundred taels.”

This time Meng Chongxi staggered and fell. Mrs. Zhang hurried over to help him up.

Qiann Yan had been sitting the whole time without moving; watching the way Meng Chongxi was about to faint, she thought that the way Meng Wengan had turned out now was inseparable from his indulgence.

If it weren’t for that doting, for him stepping in to cover for him every single time, would Meng Wengan have grown such a temperament?

“What did you say?” Meng Chongxi roared. “Say it again!”

“Dad… it’s two hundred taels…” Meng Wengan squeezed his eyes shut and, teeth clenched, laid everything out in full.

In short, he’d been taken to that place by others, he hadn’t gone of his own accord, he hadn’t known how deep the waters ran in there, and that was how he’d lost so much.

“Boss Huang gave me ten days to scrape together the silver. If I can’t get enough by then, he’ll chop off two of my fingers.”

Rushing over, Meng Chongxi beat him up. “Is that damned thing something you can touch?”