Red Mansion: Picking up a Lin Daiyu

Chapter 172: Xue Baochai

Xue Baochai, who had been sitting upright and expressionless, heard Yue Ling's words. Her slender eyelashes trembled slightly, and she bit her lips lightly, leaving a row of faint teeth marks.

Only then did Xue Baochai suppress her inner turmoil and prevent the blush from appearing on her cheeks.

"What the Marquis of Anjing said must be official business. I must not think too much about it. If I misunderstand the Marquis about the matter between men and women, it would be too offensive."

"It's a pure and innocent matter, but I'm afraid you'll start to overthink it. Otherwise, you'll be no different from your mother."

Xue Baochai took a few deep breaths to calm herself down before she spoke to Yue Ling, "My Lord, I'm here to talk to you about food."

Yue Ling nodded, "Tell me what the situation is now."

Xue Baochai sat up straighter, stroked her cheek, and said, "Yesterday, the Marquis told the people in the city at the government office that he would open a porridge stall in the near future. I wrote to several shopkeepers in my family and raised grain in Shandong and other places to send it here. There is about 500 stones of grain, which is for the Marquis' urgent use first."

Yue Ling nodded, then shook his head and replied, "Five hundred stones is still too little."

Xue Baochai felt a panic in her heart.

Originally, she would only need 300 dan of grain if she followed the judge's advice, and even if she changed her mind, she would only have to pay some more silver. But now she had specially prepared 200 dan of grain and sent it over, but she did not receive any praise from Yue Ling, but only a sentence of "too little", which made Xue Baochai feel uneasy.

"Now that the Xue family has boarded the Marquis's ship, the Marquis will not really use the Xue family as firewood to sail the ship, right?"

Xue Baochai folded her hands in front of her, looking somewhat helpless, but she still managed to hold on in front of Yue Ling and said, "If five thousand kilograms of grain is used for disaster relief in the city, it is indeed insignificant compared to the victims. If the Marquis still urgently needs more, I can write to the shopkeepers of the various mansions to ask for more."

"Although the Xue family didn't make their fortune from grain, it shouldn't be a problem to raise tens of thousands of kilograms of grain."

After saying this, Xue Baochai couldn't help but take a deep breath.

At this moment, she must show enough value in front of Yue Ling so as not to be easily abandoned. Xue Baochai is well aware of this.

But Yue Ling said: "Even if 10,000 catties flow into the market, it will only hurt the profiteers who have hoarded hundreds of thousands of catties."

"Ms. Xue, you'd better do your best to collect as much food as the Xue family can. The more the better. We are not afraid of having too much, but we are afraid that you can't transport it."

Xue Baochai clutched the hem of her skirt tightly, her palms sweating, thinking that Yue Ling was really asking for too much.

"Oh no, how did things develop in this direction? But I have no way out. Could it be that my mother really predicted it? How could it be possible?"

Xue Baochai thought she was better at judging people than her mother, but the situation seemed to be a little different from the original plan.

"Courage, courage..."

Xue Baochai calmed down again, and heard Yue Ling say, "How much you transport will be how much your Xue family earns. This time I will make those profiteers suffer heavy losses."

Xue Baochai was startled when she heard this, as if she had misunderstood from the beginning.

Standing up immediately, Xue Baochai asked in confusion, "Profit? The Marquis asked me to bring in grain. Isn't that to set up a porridge stall?"

Yue Ling waved his hand, signaling Xue Baochai to calm down, and sat down to talk. "Five thousand catties, ten thousand catties, what difference does it make to the people in the city to set up a porridge stall? It's just the difference of one more day or one less day, which can't solve the fundamental problem. The key is to restore the price of food in the city to parity, or even below parity."

"Let those who are not yet homeless be able to afford food. Let the truly needy enjoy the benefits of the porridge stalls."

Xue Baochai was stunned and only understood a little bit of what Yue Ling said.

"My Lord, what you mean is that you want the merchants in the city to spit out the grain and use their warehouses to provide disaster relief? How is this possible?"

"They value food more than their own lives, so they will definitely not hand it over obediently."

Yue Ling picked up the teacup on the table, scraped off the tea foam, and said calmly: "I have my own way, just do as I say."

Yue Ling raised his eyebrows and asked, "Don't you believe me?"

Xue Baochai frowned and pondered for a moment, "I believe in the Marquis, but please forgive my stupidity. I really don't know how to achieve the Marquis's goal. At first I thought the Marquis wanted to frame them with a crime and put them directly in jail."

Yue Ling shook his head and denied, "Do you think I am such a violent person? It's not that simple. You just said that they value money more than their lives. Even if we search their houses and dig deep into the ground, we may not be able to find the food hidden by those treacherous people."

"So, I'm going to use some tricks. First, I'll take away all their money and food, making them miserable, and then when they're desperate, I'll kill them in one fell swoop. Isn't that wonderful?"

Yue Ling put down the teacup, his brows slightly raised. He always felt that Xue Baochai today was not as calm as she was the day before. She was always startled and did not even return to her seat to sit down.

Since the Xue family was already in charge, Yue Ling suggested to Xue Baochai, "Also, your Xue family should take this opportunity to expand other industries. Originally, the Xue family was a noble family of Ziwei Sheren and a member of the Zhongshu, and was close to the emperor. Until your grandfather's generation, it was also a royal merchant. When it came to you and your sister, all that was left were the money houses and pawnshops in the north and south."

Yue Ling pointed his finger and continued, "Moreover, as an imperial merchant, if you don't deal in salt, iron, tea, horses, timber, silk, porcelain, and grain, how can you still call yourself an imperial merchant?"

When Xue Baochai heard this, her cheeks turned red and she lowered her head in embarrassment.

Yue Ling comforted him, "Of course I'm not blaming you. I'm not the ancestor of the Xue family, so it's not my place to say this. You are naturally intelligent, and you should know the drawbacks of businesses that are mainly money houses and pawnshops."

"Not to mention these two businesses, one is mainly lending money, and the other is depreciation to pay for silver. Both are for the livelihood of the people in distress. How bad is their reputation."

"For these two businesses to develop, they both need huge cash flow support. Otherwise, if something goes wrong or the government policy changes, it will be easy to break the capital chain, causing a large number of shops to close down, and there will be no way to reverse it."

"So I say that this trip to Cangzhou is worthwhile for your Xue family. I will vigorously encourage agriculture and sericulture in Cangzhou, and you can take this opportunity to gradually get the Xue family back on the right track. As for your brother, after he is released from prison, it is better to send him to the military camp as soon as possible to prevent him from causing trouble outside."

Yue Ling's words seemed to be a light shining into Xue Baochai's heart.

The business passed down by his father was declining day by day, which was a concern for everyone in the Xue family except Xue Pan.

It was originally thought that the Xue family had no chance of reviving, and Aunt Xue had no choice but to take Xue Baochai north to enter the palace or arrange a marriage to stabilize the Xue family's business. But at this moment, Yue Ling gave them another way, an upright way.

Xue Baochai held up her skirt and rushed to Yue Ling's side. She held Yue Ling's hand tightly and said excitedly: "Don't worry, my lord. The Xue family will work wholeheartedly for you in the future!"

"As long as I am in the Xue family, the shopkeepers are willing to listen to me. Xuejiafeng will definitely follow the Marquis's lead." Yue Ling looked at his clenched hand, then looked at Xue Baochai, whose eyes were red with excitement, and said awkwardly: "Miss Xue, you don't have to be like this. I know what you mean."

Looking down at her own movements, Xue Baochai realized how rude she was. She quickly pulled her hand back and stepped back, suppressing her shame and greeting Yue Ling. "It is my fault that I lost my composure. I hope the Marquis can forgive me for my offense."

Yue Ling poured himself a cup of tea, shook his head and sighed, "Miss Xue, it's not like you to be so anxious. Do you really have no problem with what I'm telling you?"

Xue Baochai nodded quickly, "I'm sorry to have made you laugh, Lord. I must not delay the important matter."

Yue Ling nodded, "Okay, that's good. In that case, you can go back and do your work first. I will send you a message when the time comes. Everything will go according to my plan."

Xue Baochai bowed her head again, bowed upwards, then walked out of the room with brisk steps.

After Xue Baochai left, Jia Yun returned to the room and saw Xue Baochai, whose face was beaming with rosy glow. He then looked at Yue Ling, who was sighing slightly in the hall, and couldn't help thinking, "This Miss Xue is extremely beautiful and charming. Could it be that the master has fallen in love with her? I'm afraid she will have to live in the mansion in the future, and I have to be more cautious when receiving guests."

"The master is good in every way, except that he has too many romantic partners. He has so many girls around him before he even gets married. We have to wait until Miss Lin grows up a little bit and helps the master take care of the backyard. Otherwise, one more girl will bring one more trouble."

Jia Yun, who thought he had figured out the whole thing, nodded and pondered for a moment.

Yue Ling looked over and asked, "What are you thinking about? Is there anything you want to say?"

Jia Yun quickly came to his senses, bowed and said, "Master, it's already the second day. A few small merchants have come to the government office to hand in their grain and accounts, but the wealthy merchants in the city have not made any moves. What should we do next..."

Yue Ling replied, "After three days, I will draw up charges against the families, confiscate their property, and then go to their houses to cause trouble. We still need to give them a warning. After I enter the city, they won't have a good life anymore."

Jia Yun asked again: "Is this crime collusion between officials and merchants or hoarding goods at high prices?"

Yue Ling smiled and shook his head, "Cutting flesh with a blunt knife is the most painful. I'll tell you what to do..."

……

Posthouse,

Ying'er secretly looked at her young lady and always felt that something was very wrong.

She was worried before leaving the house, but when she came out of the government office, she was so happy that she couldn't help herself, her eyes were full of hope. This made Ying'er curious about what happened in the government office.

Back in the room, Xue Baochai opened the wooden window, leaned on the windowsill, and looked out. Her graceful figure was just like the lush willow trees in the courtyard of the inn.

It was May, and willow trees were covered with catkins, as if they were wrapped in white clouds. When the breeze blew gently, the white catkins fell to the ground.

The catkins were blown away by the wind; some fell into the river, some were swept onto the streets, and some were swept up by the servants below and put into winnowing baskets, where they were gathered together and burned in a fire.

Only a very small number of willow catkins have the chance to take root in the soil.

Xue Baochai's cheeks were beaming with joy, her brows full of spring, and she was also quite interested. Under today's circumstances, she realized something and hurriedly called Ying'er to prepare paper and pen.

Ying'er became even more curious, wondering what had happened that made the girl so happy.

"Miss, today we are not looking at accounts or books, but why are you writing poems? Could it be that something good has happened to you?"

"Let me guess, have you found a good marriage?"

Xue Baochai curled her lips and said, "What good thing is marriage? There are certainly better things than this marriage."

Ying'er was puzzled, "Marriage is a major event in life, how can it not be the best thing?"

Xue Baochai responded, "Marriage is nothing more than the matchmaker's order and the parents' words. Two people who haven't even met each other are going to spend the rest of their lives together. What's so 'good' about this?"

"Forget it. You won't understand even if I tell you. Just prepare your writing first. I already have a draft in mind."

Ying'er pouted and said "Oh", then spread out the rice paper on the table and ground the ink on the side.

Xue Baochai folded her sleeves, picked up her pen, and wrote on the paper in one breath: "Spring dances in front of the White Jade Hall, the east wind blows evenly. Bees and butterflies swarm around in disorder. How many times have they followed the flowing water? Why must they be abandoned to the dust?

Thousands of threads will never change, let him gather and divide as he goes. The laughter of Shaohua has no roots at all. The good wind carries me to the blue clouds with its power. "

When the name of the tune "Linjiangxian" was mentioned again, Xue Baochai was very satisfied and let out a few breaths.

Xiangling stood aside, looking at the poem in a daze, her thoughts becoming confused.

Xue Baochai noticed the fool beside her and couldn't help laughing: "How come you are interested in poetry? You are usually silent and never say a word. You only speak when I ask you."

Xiangling took a step back nervously, then withdrew her gaze and lowered her head.

"I envy your literary talent and courage. I was fascinated for a moment."

Xue Baochai came to Xiangling, took her hand and said, "You don't have to be so restrained in the future. I didn't know you were such a miserable person before, but the Marquis said he could find your biological parents. You will definitely be able to meet them and fulfill your long-cherished wish."

"I don't think you are stupid. If you are interested in poetry in the future, you can take the books on the bookshelf and read them. It's not bad to gain some knowledge. The Marquis seems to have a good impression of you. You should also catch your own wind."

Xiangling nodded repeatedly and was about to kneel down to pay her respects, but Xue Baochai supported her and said to her in a soothing tone, "My dear sister, please don't be like this again. Just stay in the Xue family and rest assured that no one will make things difficult for you."

Hearing this, Xiangling's eyes couldn't help but turn red.

At the right time, Aunt Xue knocked on the door a few times and sobbed outside the door: "Precious girl, it was mother who spoke without thinking yesterday. It's all mother's fault. Don't be angry with mother. Now, mother only has you two siblings by her side. Your brother is in prison, and you are separated from mother. How can mother live?"

Ying'er looked at Xue Baochai with a very conflicted look on her face.

Seeing Xue Baochai nod slightly, he got up and went to open the door with Aunt Xue.

(End of this chapter)