After that day, the days returned to a leisurely rhythm.

Melanie and Aunt Pittypat began to spend more time shopping. They needed to buy gifts for relatives and friends before leaving Saratoga, and also wanted to pick out some unique souvenirs for themselves.

Pei Xiang and Edward received another letter from Rhett Butler, and the black-haired captain told his partner that the lawyers and agents in the UK had negotiated large-scale trade contracts with several big businessmen from Georgia. Among them, Henry Hamilton contributed a lot.

In his letter, Captain Butler ridiculed Edward, boasting that he was quite charming, and that an Englishman could win the favor of the stubborn old man in his hometown better than he, an American from the south.

"Edward, I wouldn't be surprised if you came back with a typical southern lady. Really, the upper class in the south has its own rigid and arrogant rules of judging people, and people like me The guy is what they call a rogue and a scum, and you're probably a good boy and a great lad."

After reading Captain Butler's words, Pei Xiang felt that there was a faint sour taste between the lines of this letter, so she commented on her brother:

"It can be seen that our old friend Captain Butler is also a duplicity guy. He really loves and hates his hometown."

"Love and hate?"

Edward recalled a little of his rebellious friend's vitriolic mockery of the southern states, and felt that he hadn't discovered Rhett Butler's "love" at all.

Pei Xiang didn't say much, but let Edward watch slowly.

After that, the two brothers and sisters stopped chatting, but began to summarize the gains from this trip to the United States, and made more specific plans for the future development of the Hoffman family.

Two days later, Pei Xiang received a report from the teenagers who were in charge of monitoring Haydn's whereabouts, saying that Haydn had recently owed a considerable amount of gambling debts and urgently needed a sum of money to get rid of the intimidation and entanglement of the creditors.

After Pei Xiang received the news, he realized that Haydn was going to pester Kathleen Garfield again.

——But Miss Garfield is definitely not a soft persimmon to be kneaded by others, and she probably has prepared a way to deal with Haydn.

At the same time, Rexxar also told Pei Xiang that the informant he arranged at Garfield's house reported that Miss Garfield asked the old butler at home for help, planning to secretly arrange people to teach Haydn without telling Sir Robert.

The two put together the information they had received, sorted it out a little, and guessed most of the next direction of this matter.

"Haydn can't beat the Garfield family. If he goes to 'borrow money' from Miss Garfield again, he will definitely be retaliated." Pei Xiang looked at the few notes Lexa handed her, and said quietly.

"Indeed, if there are no mistakes, they will not only intimidate Haydn in turn, maybe, no, they will definitely create a handle that can restrict Haydn, so that he will never dare to mention the old matter about the library on the third floor."

Pei Xiang frowned, and thought to himself, according to Miss Garfield's hatred for him, he might have to be implicated in this incident.

Rexxar took a sip of tea slowly, and made a decision in a gentle tone:

"I will be responsible for the rest. I will allow more people to 'unintentionally' bump into their meeting. At that time, Haydn, who was so intimidated to the point of desperation, will naturally seize the time to reveal all the truth. Make it clear."

"Haydn will confess easily? He is not innocent in the whole matter. If he tells everything in public, it will be tantamount to cutting off all his options. The reasonable way to reduce losses is to keep silent for the time being and wait for the time to pass. , he can also exchange some benefits and benefits from Robert and his daughter."

Rexxar shook his head, and said slowly:

"Why did Haydn suddenly become so addicted to alcohol and gambling? Why did he suddenly dare to completely offend Kathleen Garfield? This has something to do with his past experience, and it has something to do with his crush hating him. But the most important thing is Sir Robert has recently stopped his research sponsorship for Haydn, and Haydn's career has been ruined."

Pei Xiang raised his eyebrows in surprise: "Why so suddenly? Before... the cooperation between the two of them was quite good. Well, although I am not optimistic about Haydn's research direction, Sir Robert obviously likes it."

"It's also quite interesting to talk about."

Rexxar recalled the inside story he heard from Principal Modinan, and there was a faint smile in his eyes:

"Lucy, in fact, sometimes, we don't need to deliberately take revenge on those malicious people, as long as we do what we think is right, we will punish them unconsciously."

Pei Xiang blinked, and quickly thought about some recent things, and suddenly felt a little dazed.

"I guess, things that can affect Sir Robert recently... Sir Robert suddenly has more enemies because of the child trafficking case. In order to protect himself and his political future, he has to change his political stance to some extent. It can even be said, um , It is not an exaggeration to dock the tail to survive. So, Haydn is the 'tail'?"

Rexxar praised: "Honey, you are always so smart and sharp."

"There is no doubt about it." Pei Xiang raised the corner of his mouth reservedly.

"Well, it seems you like to hear me tell the truth," Rexxar said softly, "It's my pleasure, dear."

"Then tell me quickly, how did Haydn become that 'tail'?"

"Haydn had participated in several large-scale political lectures before, and took the initiative to polish a few inspiring speeches for the speaker at that time, and that speaker... was the five people you hung on the tree one."

"I see."

Pei Xiang understood it, and thought to himself that this could be regarded as an unintentional insertion.Because she had to concentrate on solving Annie's disappearance before, she didn't free up her hands to deal with Haydn for the time being.Unexpectedly, Haydn lost the opportunity to take off in her career because of what she did.

Rexxar continued:

"Haydn now feels that the future is hopeless, and he lives an absurd and decadent life every day. He seems to be paralyzed and depressed, but in fact, he is like a powder keg that explodes at the slightest touch. Just give him a spark, and he will injure everyone who can be injured. people.

"Lucy, leave the rest of the matter to me. I will pass this smoldering flame into Haydn's hands. After the explosion, your life will be calm again."

Pei Xiang gave a soft "hmm".

She added a drop of sugar to the hot tea, stirred it slowly, and stopped asking about Haydn and Garfield.

The next day, when two servants of Garfield's house were beating up Haydn in a hidden corner of the park and forcing him to write a shameless forged letter, they were just broken by a gentleman chasing a thief. .

Immediately afterwards, the gentleman's two companions followed suit.Together, the three witnessed the scene where two servants threatened to bully a gentleman, so they naturally wanted to come forward to uphold justice.

Haydn, who had already been beaten up, saw someone coming to save him, and shouted for help.

The two servants didn't flinch because of this, they claimed that Haydn owed money and didn't pay back, and they were now dealing with personal grievances, please others not to interfere at will, unless someone is willing to repay the debt of [-] pounds for Mr. Haydn.

These words made several gentlemen hesitate, and the ladies and ladies who came later also showed hesitant expressions of disapproval, as if they did not want to stand up for a debtor who did not pay back.

Seeing that these people were about to leave, Haydn panicked.

This is the place where Miss Garfield asked him to meet and give money. It is very secluded and desolate, and no one will pass by easily.If these strangers who stumbled past here by mistake left, he would be completely at the mercy of Kathleen Garfield.

Thinking of this, Haydn didn't care about his face, and immediately yelled about his being threatened by Miss Garfield.

"That vicious woman forced me to write a letter of nonsense. She asked me to admit in the letter that I was going to elope with a lady, but I didn't have enough travel expenses, so I wrote this letter to borrow money from her. .

"She also asked me to write some more shameless false content in the letter. For example, I threatened Garfield with the reputation of the innocent lady, saying that if she didn't lend me money, I would ruin the one who was willing to be with me. The reputation of the girl who eloped, and completely abandoned each other.

"Listen, gentlemen, what a terrible scheme this is! That woman Kathleen Garfield is going to threaten me and that innocent lady with this letter."

Haydn's words successfully attracted the attention of those present. If these words were true, this would definitely be a scandal.

Seeing this, the two servants secretly resented their bad luck, and hurriedly argued:

"This is a complete slander. Wise gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, don't be fooled by this shameless gambler. After he owed gambling debts and was unable to repay them, he relied on my lady's innocence and kindness to repeatedly complain to my lady. Borrowing money. When the housekeeper found out about this, he was very angry. He asked the man to write down the IOU, but this man has been playing rascals all the time, so we had to let him taste the power of the fist."

"Ha, you can really turn black and white! If the gentlemen show up earlier or later, I really can't argue.

"But, oh, right now, at this very moment, God bless you! This letter, look, the letter you forced me to forge, is just halfway through. Please see, gentlemen, is it necessary to forge the date and reason for the IOU? ? Do you want to repeatedly mention the name of an innocent lady?"

As Haydn was speaking, he was about to hand over the half-fabricated letter.Seeing this, the two servants of Garfield's house changed their expressions drastically, and immediately reached out to snatch the paper.

Unexpectedly, there was a gentleman whose reaction speed was extremely quick. He took the first step to snatch the forged letter that was half written when the scramble broke out...

So, the truth came out.

A few hours later, Pei Xiang learned about it from Miss Pittypat, who was out of breath.

"God, oh, I almost passed out when I heard the news. Lucy, Melanie, you'll never know how there are such bad people in this world! God, give me smelling salts... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Pei Xiang and Melanie helped the flushed and frightened old lady sit in the shade, one of them brought her smelling salts and the other fanned her.After coming here for a while, Pittypat, who has always been sensitive and timid, calmed down a little, and intermittently said what she overheard.

"There was a lady there who knew Miss Garfield, and demanded that the matter be brought to light. That, that Haydon, oh, I should have said it was a poor young man, but it turned out later that He didn't feel good at first, and he did ask Miss Garfield for money. So, I spurned him, bah..."

Both Melanie and Pei Xiang patiently listened to Pittypat's confusing narration, and slowly figured out the cause and effect of the whole incident.

After Haydn proved that he was threatened to write that terrible letter, the two servants argued that the whole matter had nothing to do with Ms. Garfield. made.

They said that they just wanted to hold a handle that could threaten Haydn, and they would not really make such a letter public and damage the reputation of that innocent lady—Lucy Hoffman.

Unfortunately, even though the two male servants wanted to take all the responsibility, the others no longer believed what they said, and Haydn kept clamoring to confront Miss Garfield, so they went to Garfield's house Holiday home, ready to explain this matter to Sir Robert.

At the same time, a lady who had the right to speak stood up, and she ordered the servants to invite Edward Hoffman, Charles Hamilton and Pittypat Hamilton.But Pei Xiang, the innocent victim, was ignored intentionally or unintentionally by everyone.

Because in their opinion, telling Miss Hoffman about the scandal at this time would do no good except to frighten a delicate and simple lady.

This also created a somewhat ironic phenomenon, that is, Pei Xiang, the person concerned, was kept in the dark all this time, and she only learned about this "story" related to herself from others when all the dust settled.

For this, even if Pei Xiang had been mentally prepared, he had to sigh helplessly, and even felt a sense of absurdity.

Not to mention the out of place depression in Pei Xiang's heart, only that after Haydn and others arrived at the Garfield's holiday villa, they naturally caused a lot of trouble.

Of course Sir Robert was unwilling to believe Haydn's accusation, and he declared that it was an extremely vicious revenge.For not so long ago, he had discovered that Haydn's research project was progressing slowly and possibly worthless.Therefore, he had to reluctantly stop his scientific research sponsorship to Haydn, and refused to write a letter of recommendation for Haydn.

It is a pity that Sir Robert's speech did not succeed in diverting the attention of those present.

The gentleman who was agile and snatched the letter immediately said, no matter how many grievances Haydn and the Garfield family have, the fact that the two servants forced Haydn to write letters to frame innocent people with fists, kicks and weapons is something everyone witnessed. of.

If this matter was a revenge from the beginning to the end, then these two male servants had colluded with Haydn in advance?In that case he would call in Sheriff Oliver at once, and have the two footmen thrown into jail and hanged.

With a person who is always sane and sober to remind him, and Edward and others who came later could not tolerate Sir Robert and Mui, Sir Robert had no choice but to call in Kathleen Garfield and the old butler .

With the confrontation between the two sides, coupled with the deliberate guidance of the caring person and Haydn's strong sense of revenge, everyone not only figured out the matter of slandering the letter, but also figured out the cause of everything - Haydn and Garfield once worked together to plot Pei Xiang's marriage .

Knowing that this is not the first time that this Miss Garfield has counted on an innocent lady, and every time it is almost to destroy someone's life, the ladies in the room all covered their mouths and exclaimed.They cast contemptuous glances at a man and a woman who accused each other of tearing things apart.

And Edward was even more furious, he immediately punched Haydn hard.It wasn't until Haydn begged for mercy loudly that several gentlemen in the room stepped forward to hold Edward, and tried to persuade him with no pain.

After listening to Aunt Pitty's story, Melanie held Pei Xiang's hands with great pity, and while thanking God for keeping innocent people safe, she firmly expressed her contempt and disgust for Garfield and Haydn.

Miss Pittypat on the side also sighed with sobs:

"Well, Melanie, I despise people like that as much as you do. If this were Atlanta, we'd call on the whole city to boycott them, throw them out, and tell them loudly that in the South, any decent family They are no longer welcome as guests.

"Yeah, it's really, really bad! Oh, poor Lucy, let's go back to Georgia right now, it's not safe here, and sure enough, the Yankees are all bad bastards. God, if Mrs. Merryweather If they know about this, will they accuse me of not being a good protector? Lucy, I'm sorry, it's because our Hamilton family didn't entertain the guests well, which made you feel wronged. This, this... oh, smelling salts ..."

Seeing that Miss Pittypat was about to fall into self-pity again, Pei Xiang and Melanie quickly comforted her with persuasive tones, and eased her excitement with new questions

"Aunt Pitty, why are you back alone, where are Mr. Hoffman and Charles?" Melanie asked softly.

The lady holding the smelling salts to her chest was distracted. She said "Oops" twice before saying:

"When I came back, both Edward and Charles stayed. By the way, Professor Rexxar also rushed over. The men said, um, they wanted to discuss with Sir Robert how to solve this matter, that is, that is. Lucy has an explanation."

Hearing this, Melanie's expression immediately relaxed:

"Professor Rexxar also came forward? That's great, I don't worry about it."

Miss Pittypat looked at her niece in a daze, and muttered:

"What is there to worry about? The truth has been revealed, and the bad guys will definitely be punished."

Melanie smiled softly, and did not reveal her previous worries to her plain-hearted aunt.This is a resort town near New York, not Atlanta, so the Hamiltons really don't have much influence here.The Hoffman brothers and sisters are British, and it is even more difficult to compete with local forces.At this moment, only Professor Rexxar can put proper pressure on Sir Robert's side.

Of course, after worrying, Melanie quickly warned herself in her heart not to think of people as bad.Although Miss Garfield had done something wrong, her father was a gentleman of considerable renown. At such a time, Sir Robert should not violate the principles of justice and ignore the grievances of the victims.

—May the mercy and justice of God bless us...

A little later, the three men finally returned.

Instead of eagerly discussing the final result, everyone sat down to drink some hot tea and eat a few pastries before Edward reported:

"Mr. Haydn did extort money from Miss Garfield before, and the amount was huge. There was no evidence for this matter, and Haydn was quite proud of it. Fortunately, he once took Miss Garfield's jewelry as collateral Well, it just so happens that the piece of jewelry looks ordinary, but it actually has a special mark, which can just prove Haydn's crime."

Pei Xiang and Rexxar looked at each other, and they both guessed that this should be one of the traps set by Kathleen Garfield for Haydn.

Edward took a sip of tea, deliberately ignored the eye contact between his sister and "G", and continued:

"As for Miss Garfield spreading rumors and slandering and instigating servants to beat and threaten Haydn, Sir Robert is willing to negotiate a settlement in private. No matter what deal he has with Haydn, for our side, Sir Robert is willing to give generous financial compensation. At the same time, he Promise to send Kathleen Garfield to study in a girls' school with difficult conditions and strict management for three years, and during this period, the Garfield family will no longer provide her with favorable living conditions."

Pei Xiang nodded slightly, and readily accepted the negotiation result.

To be honest, she had no intention of sending Kathleen Garfield to prison.Not to mention the resistance from the Garfield family, but to say that under the current situation, it is more interesting to keep Miss Garfield outside.After all, you can't hear all kinds of gossip in the prison, and you can't feel the contempt and ridicule from the upper class after your reputation is ruined.

——Since she always wants to ruin my reputation, feel it for yourself.

This afternoon, many people came to visit Pei Xiang for inquiries.

After receiving several waves of unfamiliar visitors, Pei Xiang decisively imitated Miss Pittypat's weak and panicked expression, then pretended to be unwell, and helped Melanie upstairs to rest.

"Honey, how do you feel now?" Melanie hurried around Pei Xiang.

Pei Xiang pulled Melanie to sit down, smiling shrewdly:

"I can't be better now. After all, I just made a fortune. I just don't want to continue chatting with those who come to inquire about gossip. Look, Melanie, how good my face is. I don't feel a little sad .”

Melanie was slightly relieved when she saw that Pei Xiang's complexion was indeed good and her smile was not forced, and then she shook her head indulgently.

"They really don't really care about you. In that case, you can hide in the room, and I will go down and entertain guests with Aunt Pitty."

"Thank you, Melanie."

Two days later, George Rexa returned to Liverpool by boat.

At the same time, Pei Xiang and his party also left the hot spring town and embarked on a new journey again.

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