Red Mansion and Crimson Pearl

Chapter 379: Jia Lian Seeking Death

Rongguo Mansion.

Although the house was decorated with lights and colorful lanterns, everyone in the house held their breath and was trembling with fear. No one dared to talk or laugh loudly, and there was not the slightest bit of festive joy of the New Year.

The reason was two letters that arrived at the mansion one after the other early in the morning.

One letter was written by Jia Lian himself to apologize to his elders at home, saying that this was the first Spring Festival that he could not show filial piety to his elders and that he missed them very much and so on.

There was another letter inside this letter, but it was written to Wang Xifeng.

The other letter was from You Erjie, asking her to pass it on to Youshi.

Wang Xifeng sneered in her heart. After settling down Jia's mother who was very pleased, she immediately took her letter to Mrs. Xing and opened it in front of her mother-in-law.

Sure enough, it requires money again.

Wang Xifeng seemed neither annoyed nor upset. She put the letter down with a smile, turned around and took the letter from You Erjie and opened it neatly.

Mrs. Xing was shocked: "This is a private message between sisters, how dare you open it and read it?!"

Wang Xifeng didn't say much, just curled her lips to show that she had smiled, unfolded the letter, read it ten lines at a glance, slammed it on the table, and sneered:

"Good Second Master, what a good man! And you still have the nerve to ask me for money!"

Mrs. Xing held the letter in her hand, but unfortunately she was illiterate, so she ordered someone to call Xichun from the back and ask her to read it to her.

Wang Xifeng didn't care about her. She couldn't sit still, so she stood up and walked to the window. She seemed to be so angry that her chest heaved, but in fact she was quickly calculating in her mind what to do with the matter.

Xichun came over and blushed at the first glance. When she looked more closely, she was startled. She didn't care about being embarrassed and told Mrs. Xing the news in the letter:

"You Erjie had been pregnant for a long time, but Qiu Tong kept harassing her in the county and caused her to have a miscarriage.

"Not only that, Qiu Tong also instigated Brother Lian to take away all of You Erjie's private property and lend it out at high interest rates!

“But they all came from other places and don’t know the local conditions.

"It was easy to release, but when I collected it, I ran into some local bastards. Not only did they not return the money, they also reported it to my second brother's superiors!

"Now my second brother is confined to his house and not allowed to go out. I'm afraid I'll have to go after him after the New Year!"

Mrs. Xing was shocked and immediately became anxious. She raised her head and called Wang Xifeng: "What should we do?!"

Wang Xifeng turned around, her face already covered with tears. She wiped them with a handkerchief, looked at Xichun, and smiled sadly: "Sister, why didn't you finish reading?"

Mrs. Xing was shocked: "More?!"

Xichun sighed helplessly, put the letter back on the table, and whispered, "Second Sister You said that she has been bedridden for more than a month and may not live long. Please ask Grandma Zhen to collect her body."

Mrs. Xing frowned: "This is due to lack of recovery after miscarriage..."

"Madam, please stop deceiving yourself." Wang Xifeng laughed bitterly, "It's because the Second Master is stingy with the money that he refuses to treat her."

Mrs. Xing left in silence.

After a while, he whispered, "This matter is too big. I can hide it from the old lady, but I can't hide it from the master..."

Before she finished her words, Wang Xifeng closed her eyes, fell to the ground, and fainted.

After a flurry of activity, Mrs. Xing had no choice but to order people to carry the "fainted from grief" Wang Xifeng back to her own courtyard.

Then he took the two letters and invited Jia She to come and discuss the matter.

Wang Xifeng was not in any trouble. She waited until there was no one else in the room except Ping'er before she opened her eyes and immediately ordered Ping'er, "Send the letter to the Lin residence!"

The lunch on the first day of the new year is a grand banquet hosted by the emperor to entertain the princes from all directions.

Tai Shang was invited to join in the fun.

Here in the Yanjia Hall, a quiet little banquet was held.

The Queen Mother praised Hongchang for being clever and sensible.

Cheng Qian also felt that when eating with Hongchang, the Queen Mother seemed to be able to eat half a bowl more every time, so she smiled and encouraged the Queen Mother to keep Hongchang.

Daiyu and the other two were eager to be together, so they also begged.

Seeing this, the Queen Mother ordered several dishes from the banquet and said, "Send these two to the Kejin Palace and tell them that I am leaving Hongchang to celebrate the New Year, and I will ask the princess to come and pick him up on the Lantern Festival."

Pointing at two vegetarian dishes, he said, "Zhaoqing and Yimin are in the palace, so Master Miao and Miss Zhen at home must be lonely, so send this to them.

"Tell them both that they are young girls, don't think too much, just have a good New Year and live a good life."

Then he pointed at the other two desserts and said, "Send these to Kou Zhaorong's palace and tell her that Xiaoqi is not a child who can be taken care of without worry. Please ask her to work harder."

The whole table looked at it for a long time, and finally pointed to a bowl of nourishing soup: "Send this to the Queen, and tell her that she will be asked to discipline and train the concubines during the New Year. Thank you for your hard work."

Daiyu burst out laughing when she heard this.

The Queen Mother turned around and glared at her: "Don't laugh at the Queen!"

Daiyu waved her hands hurriedly: "I am timid, I would never dare to do that!"

In the afternoon, the Queen Mother took a short rest as usual.

Only then did Daiyu show signs of fatigue.

Tanchun invited Hongchang to live with her: "My place is big." She also told Xiaohong: "Don't disturb your sister's rest with trivial matters."

The three of them went back to their rooms to catch up on some sleep.

She slept until noon and did not wake up. It was because the empress dowager was afraid that the three of them had fallen asleep and asked someone to wake them up.

After helping Daiyu to get up and watching her drink the hot tea and wake up, Xiaohong whispered to her the news that Qingwen, who had brought her the gift of food, had brought back.

Daiyu was silent for a long time.

When Wang Xifeng sent Jia Lian to serve as an official in another place, she probably had already foreseen this situation.

Now she must be well-informed about how to deal with it.

"Mrs. Lian said that she was only worried that the people in Rong Mansion would want to save Jia Lian, so she had to ask the princess for help. Now, the princess asks you to make plans early."

Xiaohong carefully observed Daiyu's subtle expression and asked in a low voice, "Should we tell the county lady about this?"

"Of course I have to tell you." Daiyu sighed, "With such a big mess at home, if she doesn't know what's going on, it will be troublesome if someone asks her about it."

When the two of them had packed up and came to find her, Daiyu told Tanchun about this in front of Hongchang.

Tanchun was so angry that she gritted her teeth and cursed: "You know the law but break it, how dare you! You have done everything to get yourself killed! You deserve to be fired from your job tomorrow!"

Hongchang glanced at her, then at Daiyu, and said nothing.

Previously, she came to Daiyu to inquire about the emperor's intentions, and Daiyu gave her a hint. Now that the Rongguo Mansion's mess was exposed to her by Daiyu, this was tit-for-tat.

You have to listen even if you don’t want to, you have to know even if you don’t want to know, you have to spread it even if you don’t want to spread it…

Hongchang felt that he already respected Daiyu's wisdom, but now he couldn't help but reflect on himself and felt that he seemed to have underestimated her.

By the evening, the matter had taken several turns, and not only had the Empress Dowager heard about it, but Emperor Zhaoming also knew it clearly.

While watching Emperor Zhaoming drink the hangover soup, Tao Xingjian sneered, "I heard that Wang Ziteng, Shi Ding and Shi Nai entered the capital together in the afternoon.

“The timing was perfect.

"Tomorrow is the second day of the Chinese New Year, both Jia Lian's wife and Wei Ruolan's wife should return to their parents' home.

"No wonder Zhao Qing wanted to let this matter spread!"

Emperor Zhaoming raised his bowl of soup and said, "It's the right time to watch a play during the New Year. Isn't this just right?

"Just wait!"