The head of the Red Mansion

Chapter 126 Picking up people
Min Tae is envisioning the future.

He realized he had indeed misunderstood.

The Jia family members are all good-looking, and the daughter resembles her mother. As long as the Jia family is willing to give her a chance, she can find a good husband in the capital.

At that time, he might be able to escape from this wretched place of Yansui and go to the capital.

As the saying goes, it's good to have a big tree to lean on for shade!
Then Minmei discovered that her mother's missing jewelry was being returned piece by piece. The owner of the silk shop brought various fabrics for them to choose from, as if the person wanted to make up for all the losses of the past few years at once.

"Mother~"

Min Mei was really uneasy. "If you can't eat, then don't eat."

Seeing her mother feel like vomiting even while eating, she was terrified.

"It's okay... I'll be fine after a while."

Jia Wen kept rubbing her chest, trying to swallow the mouthful of rice she had just eaten.

"Mother, do you really want to go back to the capital to visit your family?"

With my maternal grandfather gone, after returning to the capital, which member of the Rongguo Mansion is truly my relative?

"No!"

Jia Wen shook her head, "I want to get better soon so I can find your brother."

She was afraid that something might happen to Bai Ge'er outside.

"He's still young and doesn't have much money. If he can't get into the Duke's mansion..."

Although it's summer and we don't have to worry about getting cold, everything is expensive in the capital. Once the money runs out, how will the children survive?
“Your father doesn’t want the Duke’s mansion to know about Bai Ge’er’s affairs, Mei’er, your mother must get better as soon as possible.”

She can eat it.

I've been so sick lately that I don't want to eat anything.

Jia Wen believes that if she eats more, she will adapt and return to a normal diet.

"Keep all the jewelry that those people returned safe for your mother."

Back then, her family was doing well. Although her stepmother didn't like her, she never lacked the gold and silver jewelry she was entitled to each year.

All those items together would amount to about two or three thousand taels of silver.

This is the foundation upon which she and her children live.

"Once we get to the capital, your mother will take you and Bai Ge'er to find a small courtyard and we'll live our own lives."

She wants a divorce, but the Jia family probably won't support it.

Min Tae and the Min family would not agree either.

So if you want to live well, you have to rely on yourself.

"Ok!"

Min Mei nodded, "Don't worry, Mother, I'll keep them all."

If she could, she would sell her mother's dowry and turn it all into silver.

"My uncle came over today to discuss sending gifts to the capital. He implied that he wanted to use your dowry for business purposes. He was persuaded and tried to discuss it with me, but I shut him down."

"good……"

Jia Wen felt very sad, thinking that it was all because she, as a mother, was useless, which led to Mei Jie'er being known for her shrewishness at such a young age.

"From now on, Mother will take care of these things."

The reason why his daughter could retort without being punished was mainly because the Jia family had risen to power, and Min Tai wanted to benefit from them, so he didn't dare to lay a hand on his daughter. "As long as you and your brother are alright, that's all that matters to me."

The affection they once shared as husband and wife has long since vanished.

Jia Wen knew that if anything happened, Min Tai would kill her without hesitation.

The main reason for saving her now is because Bai Ge'er is in the capital, and he is afraid that his son might have said something to the Jia family.

……

Capital, Rongguo Mansion.

As darkness fell, Wang finally found an opportunity to have her niece summoned.

"aunt!"

Wang Xifeng acted as if she were at home with Madam Wang. She took the tea brought by the maid, offered one to her first, and then took her own. "Please tell me what you need."

She didn't want to waste time arguing with her aunt.

Wang Xifeng just wanted to go home and be with Jia Lian, so she got straight to the point.

"It's no big deal."

Madam Wang glanced at Ping'er, who had come with her niece, and thinking of what happened that night, said, "It must be Ping'er. She's getting older."

Ping'er: "..."

Her heartbeat became somewhat irregular.

Since the Second Master and Second Mistress got married, all the people who used to be by the Second Master's side have been married off by the Second Mistress because of her advanced age.

They're all located quite far away.

Although they were all assigned to manage the estate as minor stewards, everyone in the manor knew that it was tantamount to being exiled and never to return.

The same was true for the three other people who served the Second Madam.

One of them was frivolous and tried to seduce the Second Master, but was randomly assigned someone by the Second Madam. The other two were people who were recruited by the mansion and married off to the Second Master.

Now, only she is left by Second Grandma's side.

how……

"Ping'er is two years younger than me."

Wang Xifeng's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly smiled and said, "How is she too old? Aunt, you're just thinking she looks old, aren't you? There's nothing we can do about it, she was given to us by her parents."

Of her four maids, she relied on Ping'er the most.

In this household, if there was anything she didn't handle properly, Ping'er would always clean up the mess for her.

“Aunt, as you know, Second Master will be taking office in a couple of days. I need to know about the families of the officials in the Ministry of War. If you really don't have anything important to say, I…”

She wanted to say, "I'm leaving now."

The information on the various officials in the Ministry of War was obtained by the eunuch, who said that they should familiarize themselves with the information first, then match them with the appropriate characters, and make sure they have some contact in the future.

In the past, Jia Lian and Wang Xifeng would not have paid any attention to Jia She's words.

But now, both of them know that the old man was genuinely concerned for them.

Wang Xifeng didn't want her aunt to say anything about marrying Ping'er off, so she used this as an excuse to leave in a hurry.

"No hurries!"

Madam Wang glanced at you with a stern look, "There's another matter I've brought you here for. When the family property was divided, the marriage and children's properties of Yingya, Tanya, Baoyu, Huanzi, and Congzi were all separated. They're young, and as their sister-in-law, you have to keep an eye on them. Otherwise, those managers outside might think they're easy to bully, and who knows, one might suffer losses today, and another tomorrow."

You need a legitimate reason for everything you do.

She didn't believe her niece wasn't tempted.

After repaying the national treasury debt, the public accounts were all in the red.

In other words, they only confiscated the property of the Lai family and the Zhou family; otherwise, this niece would still be worrying about the expenses of such a large family.

Now that the two families have separated, the hard-earned surplus of public funds has gone to the second family forty percent. Madam Wang doesn't believe that her niece won't worry about the future.

After all, the old lady still had expenses for Baoyu and Tanchun.

Back then, in order to quickly divide the family property, the eldest brother-in-law specifically patted his chest and said that all the expenses for the old lady's family would be his, and that he could support his mother as well as his nephews and nieces.

hum~
Everyone can say nice words.

But the one who actually paid the money and took charge was her niece.

Madam Wang believed that her niece wouldn't complain about having too much money.

"In that case, you will personally take over the businesses of Yingya and Cong, and hand over Baoyu, Tanya, and Huan to me."

Madam Wang said with a compassionate expression, "I am their mother, and I have to think about their future livelihood."

This?
Wang Xifeng laughed, "Aunt, you're too late."

Too late?

Madam Wang was startled. "What's wrong? Has your husband changed his mind?"

"Why would you go back on your word?"

Wang Xifeng said, "It's the eldest aunt of the East Mansion. She was also worried that those managers would line their own pockets, so she had all the promising properties cleared out separately. She listed the average income over the past twenty years and made those managers sign a pledge to give the average amount to their younger siblings every year so they could use it as their private savings."

Why would she interfere when everyone else has already taken care of things?
However, Wang Xifeng learned this method from her aunt. These days, she has also been using this method to thoroughly investigate the properties of the eldest son's family.

Two managers and one head of the estate have been arrested so far.

This helped the eldest son's family recover a significant amount of losses.

"...Aren't they living with the old lady?"

Madam Wang was puzzled. "Even if you have private savings, it's not a good idea to store them there, is it?"

"Why wouldn't it be easy to store?"

Wang Xifeng laughed, "Who doesn't have a few boxes in front of them? Silver doesn't take up much space."

She had checked and found that her brother-in-law and sister-in-law's businesses generated about 240 or 250,000 yuan in revenue each year.

Silver is hard to store, so let's exchange it for gold.

“My aunt said before that when they are a little older, I should teach them more about housekeeping, so that they won’t be so ignorant of the ways of the world.”

Mrs. Wang: "..."

Her head was buzzing.

My niece kept mentioning her aunts, and she was getting really angry.

But can she just let this fire rage on her?

Now that the clan rules have been changed, she can't even send a concubine to Lian Er's family. If she falls out with Feng'er, what will happen in the future...?

"I see, I misunderstood."

Madam Wang tried her best to maintain a kind expression on her face. "Alright then, I have nothing else to do. You can go and do whatever you need to do."

She couldn't touch Tan Yatou and Huan Xiaozi's things, but Aunt Zhao could do it.

She was a money-grubbing person, and she still couldn't believe it; she could see that her son and daughter were better off than her.

"Well, Auntie, I'll be going now."

Without even taking a sip of tea, Wang Xifeng hurriedly fled Pear Fragrance Courtyard with Ping'er.

Neither of them are fools.

She knew they wanted to use her as a pawn.

"Second Grandma..."

"When did you offend your aunt?"

Halfway there, the two spoke almost simultaneously.

"Don't worry, I wasn't fooled, was I?"

Wang Xifeng was quite satisfied with Ping'er's loyalty. "But you, why does your aunt dislike you so much?"

"I don't know either!"

Ping'er had a vague idea of ​​what was going on, but she didn't want to say it out loud.

After all, the Second Grandma's exhaustion that day was the real kind of 'exhaustion'.

"Fine, just try not to go there too often in the future."

“I’m just staying with my grandma, everything’s fine. Why would I run off to the second branch of the family?”

"...Then let's go back!"

Ping'er couldn't guess the reason, so Wang Xifeng couldn't help but suspect that her aunt wanted to find fault with her in managing the household, so she wanted to get rid of Ping'er, whom she regarded as her right-hand woman.

Call ~
Wang Xifeng let out a long sigh of relief and led Ping'er back to her own courtyard in a flash.

She needs to discuss these matters with the Second Master.

This would also prevent him from agreeing to anything on her behalf without her knowledge.

Wang Xifeng once worried that the elders would say she was jealous, and that she was trying to elevate Ping'er to Jia Lian's concubine.

Now that she has the support of the clan rules, she no longer needs to worry about this.

Wang Xifeng saw her husband waiting for her in the courtyard from afar, so she quickened her pace and went over with a smile on her face.

The young couple entered the house hand in hand, while Madam Wang of Pear Fragrance Courtyard remained seated for a long time without moving.

She didn't come to her senses until the clock struck, "Where is Master today?"

"Reporting to Madam, Master is at Concubine Zhou's place today."

Aunt Zhou?
Isn't that the back room of Rikain?
You, Jia Zheng, have come all the way to her courtyard, yet you never come to sit for a while.

Madam Wang's heart was filled with emotion. With a 'smack,' she dropped the cup in her hand as if she had accidentally dropped it. "Put yourself away and come over here to massage my legs."

"Yes!"

Jin Chuan'er agreed tremblingly.

At that time, Jia She, who had been traveling hard, had not yet rested.

My third sister, Wenniang, is ill.

Judging from the time it took for Bai Ge'er to arrive in Beijing, she might already be gone.

But it's also possible that it's just barely clinging to life.

After all, Brother Bai wasn't around, and Sister Mei was in that state, so she couldn't just close her eyes without worry.

So hurry, he might still be able to save him.

Although Jia She had no feelings for his younger sister whom he had only met a few times, he began to feel a fatherly affection for her as she visited him more and more often.

Second Sister was born out of wedlock, so she definitely couldn't compare to Yuan Chun.

If you really marry up, and things don't go well, like Lian's wife, you'll have two mothers-in-law and a sharp-tongued sister-in-law, making it even harder to have a good life.

Therefore, the only option he could give her was to marry down.

After all, if he were still alive after she got married, things would be fine, but if he were gone, Yingchun might not be able to rely on her brother and sister-in-law.

If she marries into a lower social class, she will have her dowry in hand, and with a few trusted confidants, her husband's family will have to look up to her.

But this is the same choice her father made for his three half-sisters.

He initially thought that his father didn't care about the poor husbands his father had chosen for them, but now...

Jia She sighed.

His father cared deeply, but he never expected that his three younger sisters would suffer so much.

He couldn't save those who had died before, but he genuinely wanted to save his third sister.

"Sir, the post station is just ahead. Would you like to continue or rest?"

"Are you able to leave?"

Jia She did not answer, but instead asked them if they could leave.
For safety reasons, he once again drew six guards from Ningguo Prefecture.

With them around, walking at night shouldn't be a problem.

"The capital is relatively peaceful."

Huo Qi, who was leading the team, said, "The moonlight is beautiful tonight, so we can walk a little further."

Traveling at night is arduous, but the master is not an unscrupulous person.

When I returned from Tianjin last time, not only did my wife and husband give me a reward, but my father and mother also gave me a reward.

So, it's tough, but so be it.

"Let's go then!"

Jia She gave him the authority, saying, "You can rest whenever you feel you can."

If he doesn't understand, he won't give blind instructions.

"Yes!"

Huo Qi cupped his hands and shouted, "Brothers, cheer up, let's travel another fifty miles and rest!"

They are young, and fifty miles is nothing to them.

Jia She sat swaying in the carriage, his eyes half-closed, wondering if he should find a more comfortable position. After a while, he heard the rapid sound of horses' hooves coming from ahead.

Judging from the sound, the other side at least outnumbered them.

He couldn't help but become wary.

Fortunately, the horse team trotted past them quickly.

Huo Qi and the others kept their hands on their waist knives with great unease, watching them run further and further away until they were out of sight, before they set off again.