The Heavens Begin with Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 185 All the beauties belong to Master Zhan

"what?"

"Do you want to remarry?"

"no!"

"Absolutely not!"

To Jia Lian's great surprise, when Mrs. Wang heard that he wanted to remarry Wang Xifeng, she immediately exploded, strongly opposed it and firmly disagreed.

Now, several hostesses in the Jia Mansion have been taken advantage of and become members of the Veil Society. Among the few remaining young ladies, Sanchun is about to marry one, and the only one who has escaped is Daiyu.

The Jia family is now almost destroyed by Master Zhan.

Since losing her virginity, Mrs. Wang has fallen into depravity at the fastest speed. She is now extremely obsessed with Master Zhan, partying every night and almost doesn't even want to save her own master.

Although Jia Zheng had to be rescued due to the need to maintain the family, Master Zheng was careless, impatient with details, and not so observant. As long as he was careful, the news would not leak out.

But Wang Xifeng is different!

She didn't have to go to court to serve as an official, and all she thought about all day were the things going on in the backyard. She loved all kinds of gossip the most. She was also very resourceful and familiar with the servants in the Jia Mansion. If she really came back, I'm afraid that within three or two months, all the secrets in this house would be investigated by her clearly.

Based on her understanding of her niece, if Wang Xifeng really got to know the details of the Veil Society, she would definitely not let it go. Even if she didn't make it public, she would definitely threaten and blackmail her secretly.

But Wang Xifeng is still a hot-tempered person. If you want to use force on her and drag her into the water, it may not be so easy.

So the best way is to simply not let her come back.

Seeing Mrs. Wang's attitude, Jia Lian was stunned at first, then he believed more and more in Wang Xifeng's previous analysis, and wanted to remarry even more.

He frowned and said indifferently:

"I came here just to inform Madam, and I didn't intend to ask for her opinion."

Mrs. Wang's face froze, then she flew into a rage and slammed the table and shouted:

"You are so good, Lian Er, you really only use people forward and not backward!"

"Before, when you asked me to introduce you to someone for a blind date, you acted so servile. Now you don't need to act like that anymore."

"You and your father are really of the same character. It turns out that you are his offspring!"

When Lian Er heard Mrs. Wang insulting my father, he felt unhappy even though he had a bad relationship with Master She. He immediately threw his sleeves and left.

Mrs. Wang became even angrier and ran after him, cursing:

"She was the one who wanted to leave in the beginning, and she is the one who wants to come back now. If no one else wanted her, do you think she really wanted to come back?"

"You believed whatever she said to you, without any opinion of your own. You deserve to be eaten by that Feng girl for the rest of your life!"

Lian Er had no way of saying anything, so he covered his ears and ran quickly. After returning to his house, he asked someone to prepare things and planned to go to Wang's house to pick someone up.

When the servants in the yard heard that they were going to bring Second Madam Lian back, they were quite unhappy.

Now they are unsupervised all day and can do whatever they want. If we bring Second Madam Lian back, I'm afraid she will be ordered to do this and that every day and will have no time to rest.

Feeling unhappy, I started to procrastinate, and after a long time I still didn't prepare everything for the gifts.

I finally got everything ready and was about to go out when Mrs. Xing came over again.

"I heard that the Second Master is planning to call Miss Feng back?" Mrs. Xing asked with a smile as she came in.

Jia Lian stood up to greet him and nodded in response. Seeing this, Mrs. Xing smiled and said:
"Okay, that's a good thing!"

"In my opinion, you two should never have separated in the first place."

"Look, after Feng girl left, there's no one to supervise your family. You get up whenever you want and hang out with those bad friends. You get drunk and look like a mess!"

"Don't always complain about Feng girl controlling you. If she wasn't doing this for your own good, she wouldn't bother to pay attention to you!"

"As the saying goes, a virtuous wife will protect her husband from misfortune. After you bring Feng back home, everything will be the same as before. You will listen to her arrangements for everything at home, and you can just be a hands-off boss!"

Everything Mrs. Xing said was good about Wang Xifeng, but something in her words made Jia Lian inexplicably think of the days when he was dominated by Wang Xifeng.

Over the years, Wang Xifeng has been controlling him very strictly, not allowing him to do this or that. Even a concubine like Ping'er has no chance to cheat. He finally drove Wang Xifeng away and spent a few days of happy single life. Now is he going to jump back into that fire pit?

Or, after learning from this lesson of divorce, will my wife's personality change?

But as the old saying goes, it is difficult to change one's nature. Will she really change?

Jia Lian couldn't help but start to hesitate again.

Of course, Mrs. Xing was the reinforcement that Mrs. Wang called for. After realizing that she could not subdue Jia Lian, Mrs. Wang decisively asked Mrs. Xing to come and play the good cop.

The two of them now have an extraordinary friendship as they have fought together. They all agree on the issue of Wang Xifeng, and unless they can drag her down with them, no one wants this fierce woman to return to the Jia Mansion.

The reason why Mrs. Xing came over now was because they had gathered together in private to discuss countermeasures and rhetoric, among which Aunt Zhao, an expert in men, made the greatest contribution.

Seeing Jia Lian begin to hesitate, Mrs. Xing smiled and said:
"I came here this time for no other reason than to think that when Second Madam left, she took away half of her dowry. Now that she is getting remarried, shouldn't she also bring back the farms, shops, and other things she took away?"

Eh?
Jia Lian was stunned, and then he remembered what had happened.

He usually doesn't care about the daily business affairs of the family. He lives the life of a rich young master with everything provided for him, and he is not that sensitive to these things.

When he was fooled by Wang Xifeng before, he was completely led by her words and did not mention the farms, shops or anything like that. He only talked about remarrying and picking up people.

Now that Mrs. Xing mentioned this, Jia Lian finally remembered that there was also the matter of dowry involved!

"Oh, Master, you wouldn't have forgotten about this!"

Mrs. Xing was startled and slapped her thigh and cried:

"Luckily I came to remind you, otherwise you would have lost out on this remarriage!"

"If the Second Master marries again, it must be a formal marriage. No matter if it is from the Fu family or the Li family, a generous dowry is inevitable."

"But if the Second Master wants to remarry, then we won't covet their other family's things. We can just take back what the Wang family took away. It doesn't matter if it's less."

"Anyway, this was Second Madam's dowry, so you should bring it here, right, Second Master?"

"Well, ma'am, what you said makes sense. This should have belonged to our family!" Jia Lian nodded slowly, but he was very unsure in his heart.

Although Wang Xifeng said that Wang Ren's previous actions were a test for him, he always felt that with Wang Ren's character, even if he allowed the two to remarry, he would probably not return the property.

But if that's the case... then he's really at a disadvantage by remarrying!
Mrs. Xing observed Wang Xifeng's expression and continued to flatter Wang Xifeng, sighing:
"Well, in fact, if it is what I mean, as long as you two can live a good life together, the farm, the shop and so on are just some external things. It's no big deal if you don't have them."

"It's just that this man is poor and has little ambition!"

"Since the master lost his title, all the property has been transferred to the name of our neighbor Rong. Even our Rongguo Mansion has actually become someone else's. It's just that Rong thought we were a family and never mentioned this matter."

"Although we can live in this mansion, the output of the title has been taken away by others."

"Second Master usually doesn't take care of the family accounts, so he doesn't know. Now our family can only rely on the few remaining properties to survive."

"If the master had not used Pei Feng and other concubines to exchange for a long-term sweet potato purchase deal from Master Zhan, I'm afraid we wouldn't even have enough to eat now."

"But the sweet potato purchase business depends on the yield of the land. When Second Grandma divorced, she took away several farms, which greatly reduced our annual sweet potato production. Naturally, our annual income is not enough."

"So, Second Master, don't think I'm a snob. Our family really needs more income!"

"Hiss..." Jia Lian took a breath of cold air, and the balance in his heart shifted again.

After hesitating for a while, he still preferred Wang Xifeng, the original wife, so he said hesitantly:

"I have taken note of what the madam said. This time when I go to the palace, I will definitely take back all the farms and shops that belong to our family."

Mrs. Xing saw that she couldn't convince him, so she smiled and said,
"Second Master, don't blame me for being petty as a woman. What if the Wang family refuses to give it to you? Second Master, what will you do?"

"I think you might as well listen to how much dowry the Fu and Li families are offering first, and then make a decision. How about that?"

After hearing this, Jia Lian's heart moved and his eyes began to wander.

Mrs. Xing pushed him into the house, smiling and scolding him:

"Look at you, you're such a grown-up, but you're still so impatient!"

"Ask the Fu and Li families about the amount of their dowry. You won't be left without a piece of meat!"

"Second Madam lives in the palace and can't fly away. Why are you so impatient about remarriage?"

"Even if it's a day or two late, what's the point?"

Jia Lian thought so too and was immediately convinced. He followed the trend and walked into the house with a smile. He waved his hand and told Xing'er and the others:

"It's getting late now, we can set off tomorrow."

Everyone in the group didn't want Wang Xifeng to come back, but when they heard that their master had changed his mind, they immediately agreed with a smile and dispersed.

Jia Lian pleaded with Mrs. Xing again:

"It is inconvenient for me to come in person to ask about the dowry, so I will trouble you, Madam."

"This is my job, just leave it to me."

Mrs. Xing patted her chest and agreed with a smile, then said goodbye to Jia Lian and left the yard. However, she did not go to ask Li about the dowry, but quickly went back to discuss it with Mrs. Wang and others.

The so-called asking about dowry is just a stopgap measure to delay some time. In the end, even if the Fu and Li families give more, which one Jia Lian will choose depends on his own feelings.

And there is an even more crucial issue, that is, in addition to receiving a dowry, a second wife also has to give a betrothal gift. The dowry and betrothal gift correspond to each other, and generally have similar values.

But in the case of remarriage, there is no need to give an additional betrothal gift.

Jia Lian has little experience and has not considered this problem yet. This matter must be resolved before he reacts.

After hearing the news, Mrs. Wang also felt a headache. She pinched her forehead and sighed:
"Unless the Wang family completely seizes the farm and all that, and doesn't give any to Feng, Lian Er will most likely choose her."

Aunt Zhao listened in and smiled coldly, saying disapprovingly:

"What's so difficult about this!"

"Wang Ren is determined to curry favor with Master Zhan, right? Let's send him a message and explain our situation to him clearly. Let him take away the dowry no matter what. Then we'll see what Master Lian will choose!"

Mrs. Wang frowned when she heard this and said hesitantly:

"The reason why Feng girl came back to remarry was because Wang Ren told her the news, wasn't it?" "After all, he is Feng girl's brother. Who knows what he really thinks? What if he cares about his sister and supports remarriage? Wouldn't we be making things worse?"

"Tsk!" Aunt Zhao curled her lips and sneered, "You are still her aunt, but you don't care about family affection. I have seen Wang Ren before, how can he look like a man with a conscience?"

This sentence made Mrs. Wang silent, and she stopped talking with a gloomy face.

Mrs. Xing hurriedly intervened and said:

"Alright, alright, we are all family now, let's not fight among ourselves at this time, let's keep this Feng girl out first and then talk about other things."

"I think what Aunt Zhao said is quite right. Wang Ren doesn't seem to be a person who cares about family affection. We can try to let him stop Lian Er."

So the three of them reached a consensus. Mrs. Wang called Zhou Rui, gave him instructions, and asked him to go to the palace to deliver a letter to Wang Ren.

Zhou Rui had no idea of ​​the calculations behind this. He just thought that Mrs. Wang didn't want Wang Xifeng to come back to share power, which was exactly what he wanted, so he was happy to run errands.

After Wang Ren received the news, he was shocked and angry.

It was just that he didn't take good care of his sister for a moment, and she actually got out of control and ran to the Jia Mansion to ask for a reconciliation. If Mr. Zhan knew about this, wouldn't he blame him for his incompetence?

He was also very dissatisfied with his sister's short-sighted behavior, and immediately said to Zhou Rui:
"I have received your love and care for Feng girl."

"Go back and tell your wife that my sister is tall and ignorant, and as her brother, I cannot let her make such a mistake again."

After sending Zhou Rui away, Wang Ren began to think about how to make Jia Lian give up.

After receiving a clear reply, Mrs. Wang felt relieved immediately, but in order to be on the safe side, she still contacted Li again, wanting to have double insurance on this matter.

She invited Li to come over for tea, and after chatting for a while, she took the initiative to speak:
"This time I invited my sister here because of Mr. Lian's wedding."

"My family has prepared these betrothal gifts for Mr. Lian. Please take a look at them. If you feel there is anything missing, please bring it up again. Everything can be discussed."

As Mrs. Wang spoke, she took out a gift list from her sleeve, placed it on the table, and gently pushed it towards Li.

Asking directly about the dowry or something like that would be too blatant and beneath her dignity, so Mrs. Wang simply took out the betrothal gift as a starting point.

Anyway, the dowry cannot be much lower than the betrothal gift. The more valuable the betrothal gift she gives, the higher the value of the dowry Li gives back, and the easier it will be to attract Lian Er to change his mind.

Anyway, there are rats running around in the warehouse of the Jia family now, and they can't afford the money. The betrothal gifts will have to be paid by Master Zhan in the end, so there is no need for her to be stingy.

If you think about it carefully, she was also helping Master Zhan to get Wang Xifeng, and it was also doing things for Master Zhan. It was only natural for Master Zhan to spend more money.

However, Li had no idea what Mrs. Wang was thinking. She subconsciously picked up the gift list and took a look at it. She immediately felt her heart pounding and even her breathing became much faster.

On the gift list, there were all kinds of gold, silver, valuables, silks, satins, jewels, jade, houses, land... everything. It must be worth tens of thousands of taels.

The Jia family is indeed worthy of being the descendants of the Duke and royal relatives. The family wealth is really generous!
Li secretly sighed in her heart, and her original idea of ​​disdain for Jia Lian changed instantly.

It doesn't look like Mr. Lian is being excluded from the mansion!
Look at all this wealth. Even if an average small or medium-sized family sells their houses and land, they probably can't come up with so much. Now, they just casually give it to Master Lian as a remarriage. It seems that he is highly valued in the mansion.

And from what Mrs. Wang said, it seems that if the dissatisfaction is not enough, you can continue to add more.

This is really... aristocratic!

Seeing Li's surprised look, Mrs. Wang pretended to be very proud and said with a smile:
"Because time is too tight, I can't raise so much cash in a short time, so the preparations may not be sufficient. If you feel that there is something missing, just tell me and I will ask someone to add more."

"Enough, enough, absolutely enough, this is really... it's too much."

Li waved her hands repeatedly, with a smile on her face.

Originally, the experiences of the past few days had made Li's mother and daughter reach a consensus to abandon Master Lian and turn to Master Zhan. But now seeing so much gold and silver falling down at once, Li's mind suddenly relaxed.

It seems that what Gong Cai said is not entirely right. At least Mr. Lian’s family wealth is still quite substantial!
If this is the case, it would be better for her to be Mr. Lian's second wife. After all, this one is the legal wife, while the other one is the concubine.

But Master Zhan...

Thinking of the instructions she had received when she met her younger brother before, Li hesitated again.

She was a traditional woman who believed in obeying her father when she was young, her husband after marriage, and her son after her husband's death. Unfortunately, her husband died before she gave birth to a son, so the only people she relied on were her husband's uncles and her own younger brother.

Influenced by her environment since childhood, coupled with her own personal experience, she viewed marriage as a means of alliance rather than simply a couple getting married and living together. Naturally, she also had to consider the support her future son-in-law could provide to the family.

She had no son, so the support naturally fell on her uncles and aunts of the Li family, her brothers, and their descendants.

It is obvious that although Mr. Lian is rich, he has no power and is completely unable to provide sufficient support to the family.

Her brother originally had no chance to curry favor with Earl Zhan, but when he heard that day that his niece had the opportunity to marry into the Zhan family, he became inexplicably excited and treated his sister with great courtesy, asking about her well-being and his enthusiasm made her feel nervous.

If she chose Jia Lian, no matter what, I'm afraid her brother would be the first one to be unhappy.

Well, maybe one could marry Master Lian as a concubine, and the other could be given to Master Zhan as a concubine. Wouldn't that be the best of both worlds?

But the palace judge had said before that Master Zhan was used to seeing beautiful women, and if the sisters had not presented themselves together, he might not even be able to get through the door, as no one would be interested in him.

After much hesitation, between money and power, Li finally chose power.

She suppressed her reluctance, put the gift list back on the table, gently pushed it back to Mrs. Wang, and laughed dryly:

"Ha ha……"

"Both my mother and I feel your kindness."

"It's just... it's just that my brother wants to give Wen'er and Qi'er to the loyal and good Earl Zhan as concubines. As a woman, I really can't beat him, so I have to obey his order."

Ok?
Mrs. Wang was stunned for a moment.

What kind of divine expansion is this?

Why is Mr. Zhan everywhere?
However, once this matter involved Master Zhan, Mrs. Wang would have no choice but to continue to stop it. Otherwise, if Master Zhan knew that she dared to secretly ruin his good deeds, he would probably beat her with a big stick so that she could not get out of bed.

Well, if that's the case, it doesn't seem to be a loss. The worst case scenario is that Master Zhan will never beat her again.

Mrs. Wang blinked her eyes and laughed dryly:

"Haha...Is that so? Then, congratulations. It just so happens that several young ladies in my family are going to marry into the Zhan Mansion and become concubines of Master Zhan. In the future, they can definitely take care of each other as sisters."

"Yes, yes. We are all sisters. We will definitely help each other in the future. It would be even better if we could get married on the same day and hold a banquet together."

The topic unknowingly went off topic, and the two began to discuss what should be prepared for the ceremony of taking a concubine in the Zhan Mansion.

After a long time, Mrs. Wang sent Li out the door, and then with a gloomy face, she invited Mrs. Xing and Aunt Zhao to come over to discuss matters.

"What?"

"They are also going to marry into the Zhan Mansion?"

The one who reacted the most was Aunt Zhao. Tanchun was her biological daughter. Every additional woman who entered the Zhan Mansion was equivalent to adding another competitor for Tanchun.

Oh? Only Li Wen and Li Qi married in, but Li Shi didn't?
Oh! That's not bad, then there's no competitiveness.

"So in this situation, we have no choice but to choose Fu Qiufang, right?"

"Fortunately, we prepared two backup options, otherwise I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to stop Feng Lazi from coming back."

Mrs. Wang hurriedly asked Zhou Rui to go find Fu Shi again and bring the gift list with him to fool him. However, Zhou Rui soon came back with a bitter face.

"Madam, Fu Shi said that he has given his daughter to Earl Zhan as a concubine. The betrothal gifts have been received, and the only thing left is the concubine gift. There is no way to regret it now."

"They also said...they also said that this matter was arranged by Master Bao from our mansion."

"What!" Mrs. Wang and the others were shocked. They quickly grabbed Baoyu and asked him carefully, only then did they find out what was going on.

It turned out that after Fu Shi returned that day, he thought about it over and over again. He always felt that Master Bao's words, which had stopped him from making suggestions, seemed to have some hidden meaning. He felt a little uneasy, so he carefully investigated Master Zhan's affairs.

There was nothing hidden about the affairs between the Zhan Mansion and the Jia Mansion. Everything was open to the public and one could know everything clearly with just a simple check.

He asked about every detail, including the rewards received for the meritorious services of Baoyu, Jia Huan and others, and the benefits gained by Xing Zhong, Zhao Guoji and others.

He even studied carefully the stories that were fabricated by the servants in the Jia family.

Then he suddenly discovered that Mr. Zhan took great care of his family!

He was especially doting on his concubines' families.

Let's not talk about the money. His name as a great philanthropist is known throughout the capital. Just talking about the merits, he was able to share the profits of his own merits, which was very remarkable.

In the officialdom, officials have always been greedy for credit. We have only heard of officials embezzling the credit of their subordinates and claiming it as their own credit, but we have never seen officials distributing their own credit to their subordinates.

People in the know can see at a glance that the achievements made by Mr. Zhan have nothing to do with people like Xing Zhong and Zhao Guoji, but these people were forced to be included to share a share of the credit.

It is said that Master Bao has never even been to the workshop, yet he can still get such benefits. If it were an official from our family who came from an orthodox imperial examination system, and spent a few months in the workshop, wouldn't his contribution be legitimate and a hundred times more rewarding?
He couldn't help but feel a little moved.

As for Baoyu's previous behavior, there is no doubt that it was definitely to please Master Zhan and want to gain more benefits from it.

In the next few days, he was struggling in his heart. On the one hand, he felt that it was a loss for his sister, with her character and talent, to be someone's concubine. He wanted his sister to be someone's legal wife so that he could have a strong support. On the other hand, he was worried that if he was too ambitious, he would mess things up again.

Fu Shi was just a minor official with a shallow vision. He couldn't tell which one was more powerful, Master Zhan or the royal family of Jia. If he had a choice, he would certainly hope that his sister would marry Master Lian. Although she was a concubine, she would be the legal wife and her status would be higher than that of a concubine.

But now Fu Qiufang is getting older and older. She is already in her twenties and an old maid. Her value has begun to depreciate rapidly.

If we fail this time, I'm afraid it will become increasingly difficult in the future.

He was worried that this time would be like the past, where he kept delaying in order to become the legal wife and ended up ruining the matter.

He originally thought that this time it was the Jia family who took the initiative to invite him over, and now that the blind date had been done, the Jia family would surely give him a response soon.

But he waited and waited for several days without getting any response. Thinking back to Baoyu's words, he suspected that Baoyu had ruined the matter. He was also worried that Baoyu was actually instructed by Lord Zhan. If he did not know what was good for him and offended Lord Zhan, he would be afraid of losing his job. So after thinking it over, he decided to offer his sister to beg for mercy.

This time he took the initiative to find Master Bao, and with the help of Master Bao, he was able to smoothly bring his sister Fu Qiufang to be received by Master Zhan.

Sure enough, after seeing Fu Qiufang, Mr. Zhan was immediately attracted to her. He gave her a large amount of money and treasures as a betrothal gift and settled the matter that night.

Baoyu didn't know what he had done, but when asked by Mrs. Wang, he proudly told her everything.

After asking these questions, Mrs. Wang and Mrs. Xing looked at each other and lost all interest in talking.

Only Aunt Zhao loved to see Lady Wang's beloved baby suffer a loss. When she saw Baoyu doing such a stupid thing, she giggled non-stop and made Lady Wang very angry.

Anyway, Jia Lian's plan to remarry had completely failed, and she was disheartened and too lazy to care about it anymore. She glared at her son, drove Baoyu away, then pushed Aunt Zhao down on the bed, took out all kinds of magic weapons and props, and started to vent her anger on Aunt Zhao.

Aunt Zhao was certainly not afraid of her. She giggled at her and took out all kinds of magic weapons she carried with her. She and she fought fiercely, until the sky was dark and even the road was wiped out.

(End of this chapter)