The Heavens Begin with Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 64 Qingwen is expelled

At Rongguo Mansion, after Grandmother Jia had punished the gossiping servants, Lady Wang and Wang Xifeng were about to leave. Aunt Xue saw that their purpose had not yet been achieved, so she hurriedly interrupted and sighed:
"Luckily, Baochai is strict and Hongye and the others are not here. Otherwise, if I were kicked out like this, I would be so ashamed!"

When everyone thought about it carefully, they realized that among those who had been arrested before, there were servants from various families, even the maids around the masters and mistresses, young masters and young ladies. Almost all the servants from various families in the mansion were arrested. There was only the servants from the Xue family, and there was not a single one left, regardless of gender.

Wang Xifeng was very good at handling things. She immediately smiled and flattered him:
"My aunt is really good at managing the household. You must teach me well later."

Aunt Xue put on a proud expression and said with a smile:
"You say I can manage a household, which is really flattering me. How can I understand that?"

"I just care about my two children, so the people around them are carefully selected."

"I'm telling you, you're also the mother of a child, so the people around this young master and young lady can't make any mistakes, otherwise if they listen to gossip all day long, they will inevitably lead the master astray sooner or later."

"Look at our Wenlong and Baochai. Although they are not as outstanding as Baoyu, they are still pretty good!"

After hearing this, Mrs. Wang and other women with children were all moved, especially Li Wan. She was now completely devoted to her son Jia Lan, and would pay close attention to any method that could help her son become more successful.

Because he was always under the control of Master Zhan, Xue Pan spent most of his time following Master Zhan around outside, and actually didn't have much time to interact with people in the mansion.

With the help of Master Zhan, Xue Pan was surrounded by the halo of being the head of the family at a young age and supporting the Xue family business. This was completely different from the news coming from Jinling.

Since entering the Rongguo Mansion, Xue Pan has never shown his foolish and dissolute behavior. Instead, he is wholeheartedly trying to curry favor with Baoyu and act humble and submissive, leaving a very good impression on the masters of the Jia Mansion.

Moreover, under the instructions of Master Zhan, the Xue family gave rewards everywhere and had a very good reputation among the servants, so naturally no one would say bad things about Xue Pan.

With all the connections between the upper and lower levels established, it was natural that Xue Pan was liked by everyone and became a young talent in everyone's eyes.

Not to mention Baochai. After living together day and night for many days, even as a woman, everyone was impressed by Baochai's temperament and style.

So the question is, Aunt Xue, who can raise such outstanding children, must be very good at educating children!
So a group of women gathered together and listened to Aunt Xue begin to talk about the "Secrets of Parenting".

"…The servants around this child are very important, and we can't be careless at all!"

"People say that if you keep company with good people, you will become good. That's true. If the maids and servants are not good people, they should be sent away early, otherwise they will definitely lead their children astray."

"Don't think that just because you carefully selected them, they will always be good people. People will change."

"Take Pan'er for example. Before he went to the capital, he had several people around him. They were honest and loyal back then, but after hanging out outside for too long, they lost their sense of duty and only encouraged Pan'er to do evil things in Nanjing, hiding it from me."

"Later on the way to Beijing, I discovered that some of these people had bad conduct and their selfishness had outweighed their loyalty, so I wanted to replace those who had gone bad."

"But I don't know how to tell which of these people are good and which are bad, so I just dismissed them all, replaced the people around Pan'er, and selected a new group of clean and honest people to come in."

"How do you think it is now?"

Aunt Xue looked around proudly, and said proudly amid the envious and jealous eyes of everyone:
"Have you ever heard of any irregularities among the servants around Pan'er?"

"After entering the capital, Pan'er worked hard with Master Zhan, and made friends with talented people like Baoyu. I wonder how many of them have become useful people!"

"People influence each other. If the young masters of the various families have become bad, it is probably because they were led astray by the servants."

"So, if you want your children to become useful people, you have to check the maids and servants around them from time to time to see if there are any dirty tricks going on in secret."

"When you conduct random checks, you must not let anyone know beforehand. You must go quietly and search their rooms thoroughly, especially those hidden in the dark. You must check them thoroughly."

"If the maidservant is loyal, she will not be dissatisfied with your sudden inspection. Afterwards, you can also give some money to those who have no problems, and they will naturally be more loyal."

"Especially those maids, they must be strictly investigated."

"I know those little bitches. They would do anything to become the concubines of the young masters!"

After finishing her words, Aunt Xue looked at her sister and said:

"Especially Baoyu, since he is still young, he must not indulge in matters between men and women."

"Anyone who dares to seduce the young master must be a bastard and must be kicked out!"

After hearing this, Mrs. Wang and others all agreed very much and immediately kept Aunt Xue's "successful experience" in mind.

The parenting experience was discussed until the evening, and everyone gathered together for dinner. After dinner, they continued chatting for a while. When it got dark, they agreed to meet again the next day before dispersing.

Mrs. Wang brought her people back to the mansion and sat for a while. She was bored and decided to put her knowledge into practice. She immediately called Zhou Rui's wife and brought a few maids to rush to the courtyard where Baoyu was.

She's going to do a big spot check!
Baoyu was now deeply studying art. When he was blushing, he suddenly heard the chaotic sound of footsteps outside. He was startled and just as he was hurriedly covering himself with the quilt, he saw Qingwen rushing in, snatching his precious book, stuffing it into her arms, and whispering:

"My wife is here!"

When Baoyu heard this, he was immediately frightened out of his wits. His heart began to beat wildly. He was at a loss for words and was about to stand up when Qingwen pushed him down, covered him with the quilt, and whispered, "What are you doing?"

"Pretend to sleep!"

Baoyu came to his senses immediately, closed his eyes, turned sideways, faced the wall, hid his flushed face, and began to pretend to sleep.

Qingwen hurriedly left and went to the courtyard to greet Mrs. Wang.

After Mrs. Wang entered the courtyard, she stood in the middle of the courtyard, looked around, and asked:
"Where's Baoyu?"

Xiren was also a little flustered, and hurried over to pay her respects to buy time, saying:
"Second Master was a little tired during the day, so he went to bed early and is now resting in bed."

After hearing this, Mrs. Wang began to hesitate, wondering whether she should just let it go for now and check again tomorrow.

But she soon remembered that her sister had once reminded her that the random inspection had to be a surprise attack, otherwise if the news leaked out, nothing would be found.

After thinking about this, she waved her hand and ordered:

"When you search, be gentle and don't disturb Baoyu's rest."

Zhou Ruijia quickly agreed and started searching the maids' rooms with a group of maids.

After seeing this, Xiren and the others became even more flustered. After looking at each other, Sheyue smiled and stepped forward to salute and said:
"But someone stole something in the yard, so Mrs. Law came here in person?"

"It's all because of the maids' poor discipline that these little girls made such a big mistake. Madam, please give us a chance to atone for our sins. Tell us what was lost. Maybe we saw it by accident!"

She felt that her words were appropriate and well-reasoned, but she didn't know that Mrs. Wang herself didn't know what she was searching for. When she saw her jump out, she ordered:
"Then let's search your room first!"

Musk Moon's smile froze, but she knew there was nothing to cheat in the room, so she was not afraid. So she led the way and let Zhou Rui's wife lead people into her room and start searching.

After a while, Zhou Ruijia came out of the room and nodded to Mrs. Wang, indicating that no contraband was found.

Mrs. Wang smiled and said to Sheyue:

"You are a good person. Go back and collect the reward of one or two taels of silver."

She Yue's eyes lit up, knowing that she had passed the test, so she smiled and thanked the lady for the reward, and took this opportunity to ask again:

"Madam, I wonder what you are looking for. Do you need my help in the search?"

Mrs. Wang hesitated for a moment, then replied:

"No problem, just a routine check."

"Before, rumors were rife in the mansion. They were all gossiped by people who didn't know their place and didn't know the difference between superiors and subordinates. So we decided to search to see if anyone in Baoyu's courtyard was hiding any contraband. If there were any criminals, we would send them away."

Musk Moon hurriedly lowered her head, fearing that Mrs. Wang would see her expression. She stepped aside and exchanged glances with Xiren and the other girls.

But now that Mrs. Wang was here, it was impossible for them to find an excuse to go back and inform Jia Baoyu. They could only pray to the gods and Buddhas in their hearts to bless them and ask Master Bao to be smart and put away those prohibited items and make sure they were not discovered.

The subsequent search went smoothly and some minor problems were found, but they were not serious, which made Mrs. Wang quite satisfied.

It seems that Baoyu's yard is quite clean.

Xiren and the others were Baoyu's maids, so their rooms were also the focus of inspection, but naturally, nothing was found.

Mrs. Wang then rewarded those who had no problems with one or two taels of silver, reprimanded those who did not have serious problems, and waved her hand to let them go.

Then Mrs. Wang walked towards her beloved son's room.

Jia Baoyu was still lying on the couch pretending to be asleep. Although this much time was enough for him to calm down, he didn't dare to get up because he didn't know when someone from outside might suddenly come in.

When the footsteps sounded again, he dared not move anymore. He just closed his eyes tightly and pretended to be asleep.

Xiren and the others were so nervous that they were afraid that Mrs. Wang would wave her hand and order a search of the room. However, Mrs. Wang had never suspected her own son and had never thought of searching the room.

She just sat beside the bed with a loving smile on her face, tucked the quilt for Baoyu, and then... she felt something wrong under the quilt, as if there was a book pressing under Baoyu's body.

It turned out that when Baoyu was "studying art", he took out all three books. After reading the first and second parts, he threw them aside. When he was studying the third part, Mrs. Wang came.

In a hurry, Qingwen snatched the lower part and put it in her arms, but she didn't know that the upper and middle parts were still in his bedding.

The people outside came too quickly, and Baoyu didn't know where to hide the book for a moment. He was even more afraid that he would be discovered if he didn't hide it well. He didn't know when the people outside would come in. He had no help around him, and he didn't dare to get out of bed rashly.

He thought about it and felt that his mother always loved her son and would not "wake him up" and ask him to get up.

So he pressed the two books under his body. As long as he didn't stand up, no one would be able to find them even if they turned the room upside down.

He thought that no one would find out, but who would have thought that Mrs. Wang doted on her son and came over to tuck in the quilt for him personally, and then the secret was exposed.

"This child fell asleep while reading. He doesn't study hard during the day, and he doesn't care about hurting his eyes at night!"

After she muttered something, she reached out to pull the book out.

This frightened Jia Baoyu so much that he quickly pressed the book down with his body, refusing to let his wife take it away.

He first pressed the book with his body, but when he found that he couldn't hold it down, he grabbed the edge of the book with his fingers and refused to let it be taken out.

As a result, when he exerted so much force, Mrs. Wang immediately discovered it.

My son is pretending to be asleep!

Mrs. Wang knew immediately that there must be something wrong with the book, so she snorted coldly, "Hmph, now that you're awake, sit up!"

Baoyu's body stiffened, and knowing that something bad had happened, he resorted to his ever-effective method of lying, rolled over into the madam's arms, and said with a grin:
"Why is the madam here?"

"If I had known that my wife was coming, I would have dressed and gone out to greet you."

Mrs. Wang's attention was indeed diverted. She pinched his cheek lovingly and said with a smile:
"You naughty monkey, why are you pretending to sleep in front of me?"

"Luckily it wasn't your father who came, otherwise you'd be in trouble!"

Baoyu then said with a playful smile:
"My son wasn't pretending to be asleep. He really fell asleep just now, but he was woken up by the noise outside."

"Madam, you are here to search our house!"

Mrs. Wang said:
"What's the confiscation of property?"

"Talk nonsense!"

"I'm here to do a random check to see if there are any people with bad behavior in your hospital. I hope they won't lead you astray."

Baoyu hurriedly smiled and said:
"The people here are all carefully selected by our ancestors and my wife. How can there be any bad people?"

Mrs. Wang had not found anything before, and she was quite satisfied. She felt that her family's education level was not worse than her sister's, so she nodded proudly and said:
"That's true. If they weren't smart and capable, mother wouldn't have put them with you."

When Baoyu saw that Mrs. Wang was laughing, he hurriedly followed up with a few more compliments, which made Mrs. Wang smile from ear to ear.

The mother and daughter chatted for a while, and then Mrs. Wang got up to leave.

"Okay, go back to sleep. I should go back too."

"Also, don't think that I don't know what you're thinking. You're afraid that I'll know that you're reading some idle books, right?"

"It's fine to look at this thing occasionally during the day when you have nothing to do, but at night when it's dark, be careful with your eyes!"

As she spoke, Mrs. Wang pretended to turn over his quilt, which frightened Baoyu so much that his soul flew away. He hurriedly took out the book and threw it towards Xiren, while he hugged his mother's arm and started to act coquettishly.

Mrs. Wang saw Baoyu's panic and chuckled, twisting his ear lovingly, but she didn't turn back to look at the book. Xiren was also frightened and reached out to take it, but Zhou Rui's wife next to her also wanted to curry favor with him, so she intervened and took the album first.

After Zhou Ruijia took it, she flipped it over with a smile, and then her face turned green.

Although she was illiterate, there were pictures in the album, and the painting was excellent, so she recognized what it was at a glance.

Zhou Rui's wife sucked in a breath of cold air and turned her head around in confusion. She saw Xiren and her four daughters, some covering their faces and sighing silently, some clasping their hands together and begging for mercy, some rolling their eyes, and some lowering their heads and pretending to be dead. It was obvious that they all knew what the book was.

She then regretted her decision and wanted to slap herself in the face. She was so rude!
Why are you reaching out for no reason?
But now that this hot potato has fallen into her hands, it has become a difficult matter whether she should keep it secret or hand it over to Mrs. Wang honestly.

But she missed the opportunity as soon as she hesitated. Mrs. Wang heard the sound of her deep breathing and turned her head, then saw the hesitant look on Zhou Rui's face and the strange expressions on the faces of Xiren and the other four girls.

Mrs. Wang just doted on her son, but she was not a fool. She saw the problem at a glance. She turned her head and glanced at Baoyu, who looked embarrassed and had sweat on his forehead, and reached out her hand with a cold face.

"Show me the book!"

Mrs. Zhou had no choice but to step forward, lower her head, hold the book in both hands and hand it to Mrs. Wang. Mrs. Wang flipped through it and saw that it was illustrated with pictures and text, and there were small words written next to it:

"... Jia Sheng reached out to take off Li's clothes, saying, 'Sister-in-law, you and I...'"

"what……"

Mrs. Wang screamed and dared not read any more. She threw the book to the ground, jumped back, and her face turned pale, as if she had touched a hot potato.

Only at this point did she understand where the rumor about "Master Bao's good wife" came from.

It is true that there is no wind without waves!
I'm afraid these rumors may not be entirely false!

After Mrs. Wang calmed down, she flew into a rage and grabbed Baoyu by the ear. She ignored Baoyu's cries of "Ouch, ouch," and shouted:

"What is this?"

"Where are you from?"

"Who gave it to you?"

"what?"

The people around hurriedly lowered their heads, wishing they could just squeeze into the body, not daring to look at the furious Mrs. Wang.

Baoyu was a irresponsible person to begin with. Now that his crime had been exposed, he hastily raised his hands and swore:
"I don't know who put it under the bed. I was just curious for a moment. I know I was wrong now. I will never look at it again!"

Xiren's heart trembled, and she secretly felt lucky that she did not give the album directly to Baoyu, but instead gave it to him privately, otherwise it would have been a disaster this time.

Mrs. Wang was a doting child, so she believed Baoyu's words immediately.

How could Baoyu, such a good boy, watch such things? It's obvious that someone is seducing him to do bad things!

But she couldn't help but feel angry, so Mrs. Wang pointed her finger at the four girls and shouted:
"Bad maid!"

"Did you put this thing there?"

The four girls quickly knelt down and shook their heads, denying it flatly.

"Madam, please understand. This thing has nothing to do with us!"

Mrs. Wang certainly didn't believe it and shouted:

"Who else could it be if not you?"

"Just looking at the strange expressions on your faces just now, I know that you must know about it!"

Musk Moon kowtowed hastily and replied:

"Madam, if it is said that the Second Master reads idle books, we sisters do know about it, but the Second Master always chases us out of the door every time he reads, and never lets us see what is written in the book. How do we know that this book is banned?"

"It was only when Sister Zhou opened the book just now and let us see the illustrations inside that we knew what the book was about. That's why his expression was a little strange, but he had known about this for a long time."

"As for providing this kind of book for the Second Master, then Madam is wrongly accusing us. We are all girls, how can we get these things!"

Musk Moon's words made sense, and Mrs. Wang also thought they made sense. She began to suspect that the servants had brought in the forbidden books from outside, so she slapped the bed heavily and ordered:
"Call all the servants here!"

Mrs. Zhou hurried out to pass on the message. Mrs. Wang glared at her son with a gloomy face and asked:
"How many more of these filthy things are there? Where are they?"

Baoyu knew that he could not keep the treasure, so he had to lift the quilt again and took out another book. Mrs. Wang took it and looked at it. She saw the word "middle" written on the cover of this book. She picked up the book on the ground and saw the word "upper" written on it. She asked again:

"Where is the second volume?"

Baoyu grumbled and refused to say anything, but his eyes drifted towards Qingwen who was standing beside him.

When Xiren and the others who were kneeling nearby saw this, they secretly groaned and complained in their hearts.

My dear second master, why don’t you just tell a little lie and say there were only two volumes at the beginning?

Aren’t you selling out Qingwen by doing this?

Sure enough, seeing Mrs. Wang looking at her, Qingwen knew there was nothing she could do, so she had to take out the second volume of the album from her arms and place it on the ground in front of her.

When Mrs. Wang saw this, she flew into a rage and pointed at Qingwen and the others and started swearing:
"What a bunch of shameless sluts!"

"Just now you said that you just found out what this album is today, so how did it end up in your arms?"

Qingwen glanced at Baoyu, hoping that he could help her to clarify a few words, but Baoyu at this time had been frightened by Mrs. Wang's rage, and he was like a quail, with his head lowered, not daring to say a word.

Qingwen was disappointed and had to fend for herself. She kowtowed and replied:
"Madam, when you came here before, I wanted to ask the Second Master to go out and greet him, but I saw that the Second Master was reading the forbidden book, so I hurriedly snatched the book away, thinking that I would burn it when no one was around."

"Madam, I really didn't know there were three volumes of this book, otherwise I would have hidden all three volumes at the time. How could you have found them?"

Mrs. Wang thought about it and felt that this did make sense.

Qingwen probably wanted to protect Baoyu and didn't want him to be punished if she found out, rather than burning them privately. But she probably didn't know that there were three volumes in the album.

By reasoning backwards from this, we can know that what the previous people said was true. These maids were indeed not the providers of these picture albums. It must have been the servants who did it.

After thinking about this, Mrs. Wang snorted coldly and glared at Qingwen fiercely. She was about to punish her when Mingyan, Li Gui and other servants were called back. Mrs. Wang put Qingwen aside and began to interrogate them one by one.

Originally, Xiren was worried that Mingyan would be exposed, but she didn't know that Mingyan and the others had already defected to Xue Pan, and had been tipped off by Xue Pan in advance, so they had already cleared themselves out.

The other servants were not so lucky. They were interrogated with many questions, but none of them were related to the album.

Mrs. Wang knew nothing about criminal investigation, psychology, or even management. How could she possibly get the truth from a group of servants?
Finally, seeing that the matter of the picture album was going to become an unsolved case, Mrs. Wang remembered what her younger sister Aunt Xue had said. Since her younger sister could replace everyone around her son, why couldn't she?
Is it possible that there is a shortage of servants and maids in the Rongguo Mansion?
After thinking about this, Madam Wang snorted heavily with a cold face and ordered:
"Since they are unwilling to tell the truth, they are all selfish people. Such filthy people cannot be left with Baoyu."

"Starting tomorrow, you don't have to come anymore!"

"Replace all the people around Baoyu, both men and women, and I will arrange for loyal servants to do the work."

After hearing these words, everyone at the scene was horrified.

Earlier, a large group of people were expelled from the Rongguo Mansion because of rumors. They lost their jobs and had no food or clothing. Are they going to follow suit now?
Baoyu was also panicking, fearing that his sisters would be driven out of the house, so he hurried over and begged coquettishly:
"Madam, please calm down. This is the child's fault. Madam, please don't take your anger out on others."

"They are so young. If they don't have food and clothing, they will starve to death. Please have mercy on them, Madam!"

Mrs. Wang glared and said angrily:

"No matter what you say, it's your fault!"

"They didn't put the album in there secretly. Could it be that it grew wings and flew in on its own?"

"If they hadn't secretly placed the album in your room, how could you have made such a mistake!"

"There are only bad servants in this world, but no bad masters!"

"These stubborn guys did it but are afraid of punishment and refuse to admit it. They are clearly unfaithful!"

"This kind of people cannot be allowed to stay in the mansion!"

Baoyu heard the crying around him and started to cry too, crying loudly and acting like a wild child.

"Why isn't it my fault?"

"I read this book, but I want to drive so many people out. I am the one who killed them all!"

"I am nothing but a filthy person, but I was born into this wealthy family. Isn't this a sign that I am unworthy of my position?"

Mrs. Wang's heart softened when he cried, and she hugged him and comforted him:

"I only said to drive them out of Jiang Yunxuan and not let them stay by your side to harm you and lead you astray, but I didn't mean to drive them out of the house."

"Our mansion is so big, there is no need for people to work, how can we let them starve to death?"

She also knew that Baoyu only cared about women, so she lied:

"They will still be in the mansion, just not in the same courtyard. If you miss them, just go find them. Is there anyone who can stop you?"

After much persuasion, Baoyu was finally calmed down, but he put forward another condition:
"Xiren and the other four are used to following me. I would feel uncomfortable if someone else were to replace me. This incident has nothing to do with them. Madam, please be merciful and let them stay."

Mrs. Wang wanted to make an example of her son, so she couldn't just use the servant as a warning. But she didn't want her son to cry and make a scene again. She was even more afraid that he might get mad and throw the jade again, so she said:

"Others are fine, but Qingwen, who dared to hide such a filthy album, must not be allowed to stay."

Before Baoyu could speak again, Mrs. Wang said:

"She lives in the old lady's room. It was not originally meant for your use, so I'll just return it to the old lady. If you want to see her in the future, just go to the old lady and greet her more often."

When Baoyu heard this, he didn't think Qingwen would suffer any loss from this, so he stopped talking.

When Mrs. Wang saw this, she no longer hesitated. She gave an order to drive everyone out, leaving only Xiren and the other two girls to serve Baoyu.

This group of people were driven out of Jiangyunxuan. Their crying in the middle of the night immediately attracted everyone's attention. However, after finding out the truth, they immediately retreated.

A batch of chickens had just been killed, and all the monkeys were lowering their heads, fearing that they would also be dragged out and sacrificed to the gods.

If it doesn't concern you, you won't care about anything. When you can't even protect yourself, who would care about the life and death of others?

Everyone knew about Mrs. Wang's big deal, but there was no movement from Wang Xifeng, after all, she gave birth to a daughter. But Li Wan could no longer sit still.

Even Mr. Bao had someone secretly feeding him pornographic picture albums, so does her Jia Lan have some too?

So Li Wan immediately asked Wang Xifeng to borrow a few people and began a large-scale search of the people around Jia Lan, which stirred up another disturbance.

However, Jia Lan is an honest child and studies hard. The key is that he is still young and no problems have been found.

The result of this comparison shows that Mrs. Wang is not good at judging people and is the only young master among the families who has problems.

Mrs. Wang was not only embarrassed, but also had a bad impression of these guys who refused to confess honestly. She secretly told Wang Xifeng that the new jobs assigned to them would not be good ones.

This group of people usually work for Master Bao. Not to mention the secret benefits and rewards, even their monthly salary is higher than others. Now that they have lost their status as Master Bao's followers, they are like phoenixes falling into the mud, and everyone wants to step on them.

Only Mingyan, Li Gui and a few other servants who were more valued by Baoyu were not worried. Although they were also assigned a crappy job, they had another source of income secretly, so they took over the new job honestly without any complaints, just waiting for Young Master Xue to make an effort to get them back.

Qingwen was sent back to the old lady, but she didn't care much at first. After all, Grandmother Jia had an extraordinary status in the mansion, and no one dared to mess with the people around her.

But the old lady also felt sorry for the phoenix egg. After learning the reason why Qingwen was returned, she became dissatisfied with Qingwen.

Moreover, Qingwen had a foul mouth and offended everyone. If she had not been pretty and protected by Baoyu, she would have been driven out of the mansion long ago.

Now that she has lost Baoyu's protection, those who were once offended by Qingwen are now looking to take advantage of her misfortune.

No one knew who was behind this, but Master She sent Madam Xing to find the old lady, wanting to take Qingwen away.

(End of this chapter)