Red Mansion: Picking up a Lin Daiyu

Chapter 335 Daddy, You Don’t Know Him
Lin Ruhai's tone was slightly scolding, which immediately made Lin Daiyu unhappy. She frowned slightly, looked at Lin Ruhai, and refused to give in.

The father and daughter were secretly competing with each other. Yue Ling was extremely embarrassed. He just stood up and wanted to smooth things over, but was scared back by the sidelong glances from the two men.

Lin Daiyu was determined to argue, and no one in the mansion could defeat her, including the Marquis of Anjing.

Perhaps because she had been in charge of the house for a long time, Lin Daiyu showed her manners, and her momentum was not inferior to Lin Ruhai. She said confidently: "Daddy cares most about the family tradition of the Lin family. Treating guests with old tea, is this the way of hospitality of our Lin family?"

Lin Ruhai frowned, smacked his lips and said, "He, he is different."

After listening to Lin Ruhai's words, Lin Daiyu became even more angry. "Why is Brother Yue different? Just because we are closer, can he be more careless and neglectful?"

Lin Ruhai was speechless after being refuted. He could only let out a long sigh and called the maid beside him, "Go and change the tea."

Lin Daiyu curved her lips and looked at Yue Ling with great joy and a look of pride on her face.

Yue Ling became more and more restrained. He kept his legs together, his hands hanging on his knees, and his eyes fixed on his toes.

After the new tea was served, Lin Daiyu poured another cup for Yue Ling before handing it over with satisfaction.

Considering that her father had just surrendered, Lin Daiyu did not forget her father's kindness. She also poured a glass of wine for Lin Ruhai and returned to the seat in front of the two concubines.

Holding the teacup handed to him by his daughter, Lin Ruhai felt mixed emotions.

Because Lin Daiyu was in very poor health, he never wanted her to do anything. When he received the tea poured by his daughter himself for the first time, Lin Ruhai was very touched. But when he thought that she was just a foil for Yue Ling and was benefiting from him, Lin Ruhai felt angry.

Thinking about it again, Lin Daiyu took the initiative to pour tea. It is very likely that the two of them were used to this matter. He was moved by it, which was just a common thing for them to get along with each other. Lin Ruhai didn't know how to start talking to Yue Ling for a while.

Lin Ruhai's emotions were filled with rejection but also a bit of envy. He had never felt so complicated before.

He closed his eyes and drank Lin Daiyu's tea in one gulp. It was indeed sweet and refreshing, with a hint of tea fragrance. Lin Ruhai took a deep breath secretly.

Lin Daiyu protected Yue Ling so much that he couldn't get angry with her in person. The situation was too unbearable. He could only have a casual chat with Yue Ling for a few words, leaving Lin Daiyu alone and asking her some questions.

Turning his head to look at Yue Ling, Lin Ruhai slowly said, "I heard that you plundered the wealthy merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang and provided 30 million taels of silver to the capital?"

Yue Ling was stunned and thought: "30 million taels? Isn't it 50 million?"

Yue Ling just nodded silently and didn't respond.

Lin Ruhai took a deep breath and said, "This matter has long been spread in the official circles. You have done a good job. This year's annual salary is several times higher than in previous years. When you return to Beijing, you will not be excluded too severely by the previous civil servants."

"But each of these incidents has caused a sensation both inside and outside the court, and they stand out from the crowd."

"Of course I understand your difficulties. It is not wrong to do things well. After returning to the capital, don't take it lightly and let someone with ulterior motives catch you."

Yue Ling frowned, nodded silently, and asked, "I have been away from the court for several years, so I am not clear about the current situation in the court. I hope Lord Lin can give me some advice."

Generally, high-ranking officials sent abroad would have a high-ranking official in the court to support them, such as Yan Ge Lao to Hu Zongxian, Ming Regent to Qi Jiguang, but Yue Ling only obeyed the emperor.

When you are ordered by the emperor, you just need to do things right and please the emperor, without worrying about the political situation.

But under Yue Ling's advice, the court has been in great turmoil in recent years, and even the prime minister was dismissed, and the position is still vacant.

Yue Ling didn't know the situation in the court in detail.

Lin Ruhai was a third place winner in the imperial examination and had been an official for decades. Most of his peers on the same list became high-ranking officials. Even in Yangzhou, he was better informed of the news than Yue Ling.

Hearing Yue Ling asking about official business, Lin Ruhai was not someone who could not distinguish between public and private affairs, so he nodded and said, "Since your majesty implemented the new policy and was determined to rectify the administration of officials, the court has been divided into two factions. The Zhejiang Party, headed by An Xiang, opposed the new policy, while the party headed by Dongfang Zhi and Chai Pu supported the new policy."

"No nobles or royal family members have expressed their views yet."

"Once your Suzhou case is exposed and Prime Minister An is dismissed, the trend of this new policy will be unstoppable. When their own interests are affected, the nobles will also be unable to sit still."

"After all, they have enjoyed a lot of preferential treatment, and their taxes have been greatly reduced due to the land grants. However, because of this, many fields are registered in their names to avoid taxes. The clarification of the fish scale register this time will greatly reduce their future income."

"Life will become increasingly difficult for them in the future. When you return to the capital to be promoted, you will most likely face these nobles who are military generals."

At the right time, Han Da came to the porch, lifted a corner of the felt curtain and nodded to Lin Ruhai.

Lin Ruhai sighed and said, "If we talk about government affairs, there is indeed a lot to talk about, but you will not stay in Suzhou for a day or two, so we will have time to talk later."

"You've been traveling a lot today. Go and rest for a while. I'll send someone to call you at the dinner."

"You've been busy running around for a while. Why don't you just rest here during the New Year holidays? I will show my hospitality as a good host."

Since the other party asked to leave, Yue Ling had no reason to ask any more questions. He thought that the father and daughter wanted to have a private talk.

After bowing, Yue Ling responded, "Thank you, brother... brother, see you later."

Lin Ruhai nodded in return and watched Yue Ling get up and leave with Han Da. Lin Daiyu, who was chatting with the two concubines on the side, watched Yue Ling leave, so she also stood up and said goodbye to the two concubines.

"Brother Yue has left, and I have to go back too. Let's chat at the dinner."

Lin Daiyu stood up and was about to bow to Lin Ruhai and say goodbye.

Lin Ruhai could not help but roll his eyes. After the felt curtain fell, he hurriedly called out to Lin Daiyu, "Yu'er, where are you going? You haven't come home for eight years. Don't you have anything to say to your father?"

The two aunts consciously refilled the teapot with water, and then left together, taking Xueyan, who was standing blankly in the field, with them. Only the father and daughter were left in the hall.

Lin Daiyu turned around helplessly and came to Lin Ruhai again, tilting her head and asking, "Daddy, tell me, you didn't tell me just now, I thought you would tell me later."

"I just have nothing to say. How can you go with Yue Ling? Where do you think Daddy will be?" Lin Ruhai frowned and said, "Everyone has left and no one is listening. This is the next step. Sit up and talk."

Lin Daiyu pouted and sat on the chair where Yue Ling had just sat.

Lin Ruhai frowned and thought to himself, "What's wrong with this girl? Why doesn't she sit over here? Has no one taught her not to sit on other people's hot stools?"

Seeing that Lin Daiyu was about to pour tea for herself in the teacup that Yue Ling had just used, Lin Ruhai immediately widened his eyes, snatched the teapot from Lin Daiyu's hand, took out a new teacup, and poured one for her.

Lin Daiyu didn't understand what was going on. She held the tea poured by her father, sipped it gently, and looked at him with her big, affectionate eyes blinking.

Lin Ruhai still couldn't bear to give his own daughter a harsh lesson. He sighed and said, "I haven't seen you for many years. Yu'er has changed her personality. She used to be quiet and inactive, but now she is as lively as a rabbit. She is also very talkative. It really gives Dad a headache."

Lin Daiyu placed the teacup in place, gently smoothed her sleeves, folded her hands in front of her, straightened her back, and asked with wide eyes, "What? Why has my daughter changed her temper?"

"However, Daddy is still the same, not much has changed. Seeing that Daddy is in good health, your daughter is really happy."

Lin Ruhai breathed a sigh of relief. This was the first time he felt at ease since they came back. He felt that having this daughter was not born in vain.

After a moment of silence, Lin Ruhai mentioned Lin Daiyu's mother again and asked, "Have you gone to pay homage to your mother?"

Lin Daiyu nodded, her eyes slightly dazed.

Whenever Lin Daiyu mentioned her beloved mother, her expression would change. But now, she was even more shocked because butterflies flew out of the tomb.

From then on, he decided to be with Yue Ling for the rest of his life, and their relationship reached a new level.

Lin Daiyu wanted to tell some strange things, but it involved her and Yue Ling, and it was not convenient to tell her father. She swallowed the words and just lowered her head slightly.

Seeing that she looked unhappy, Lin Ruhai changed the subject, "Well, let's not talk about these things for now, let's talk about your business."

"my business?"

Lin Daiyu raised her eyebrows slightly and frowned in confusion.

Lin Ruhai really didn't want to mention the marriage, so he let Lin Daiyu take this reassurance, and then asked indirectly, "What is your relationship with Yue Ling?"

So that's what happened. Lin Daiyu smiled sweetly and shyly crossed her fingers, "Well... Brother Yue and I, eh..."

"Uncle Yue..."

Yue Ling was gone, and Lin Daiyu came to her senses, her face immediately turning red.

Lin Ruhai couldn't stand seeing him stammering like that anymore, so he waved his hand and said, "You can call me whatever you like, but you must answer your father's questions truthfully."

Lin Daiyu nodded, without showing much joy on her face, but she couldn't help swinging her feet.

"We have a pretty good relationship. Brother Yue takes good care of me. He boils and boils medicine for my treatment. He takes me to exercise, study, play, and go out to see the scenery together. We have done many things together that we never thought of before."

"Go out together? Do it together..."

Lin Ruhai, who was drinking tea, almost spit the tea on the ground and started coughing violently.

Lin Daiyu hurriedly walked behind him and patted his back gently, "Daddy, are you okay?"

Lin Ruhai took out a handkerchief, wiped the corners of his mouth, and asked solemnly: "What did you do? Did you do something out of line? You are a girl in the boudoir, how can you be too close to a man outside?"

Lin Daiyu blushed and said that although she and Brother Yue were close, they had not crossed that line. When they slept together, they both wore underwear, and Lin Daiyu even had an extra bellyband.

But if you say they were not close, after all, before marriage, they both lay together and slept in each other's arms, and not just once, but all the time.

Lin Daiyu hesitated and didn't know how to explain.

Judging from her performance, she couldn't hide the truth at all. Lin Ruhai's mind went blank. He couldn't accept this reality and kept thinking about the worst possible situation.

"you you……"

Lin Ruhai was breathing heavily and pointing at Lin Daiyu, his fingers trembling uncontrollably.

"He is ten years older than you. You just came of age this year. How could you do such an immoral thing?"

Lin Daiyu was also anxious. It was obvious that her father had misunderstood the relationship between her and Yue Ling. She hurriedly explained, "Dad, what are you talking about? Brother Yue and I are not like that. We are innocent!"

"Besides, Brother Yue is not a stranger at all. He has been supporting me for eight years."

"Even so, Brother Yue is always very tactful when we get along with each other on a daily basis, and I... I am also very self-controlled." But at the end, Lin Daiyu's voice was as thin as a mosquito's hum, and she didn't have much confidence.

She had kissed Yue Ling on her own initiative, so she wasn't that self-restrained.

Hearing Lin Daiyu say this, Lin Ruhai could breathe a sigh of relief, "That's good, that's good."

It seems that Lin Daiyu has not been too deeply bewitched by Yue Ling and can still be rescued. Lin Ruhai can't help but think about how to persuade her.

Patting the armrest of the chair, Lin Ruhai sighed, "Don't blame Daddy. Daddy is afraid that you will lose your innocence before you get married, and my Lin family will only be laughed at."

"Besides, Yue Ling has so many girls around him, Daddy is afraid that he will get tired of the old and love the new, and won't cherish the girl once he gets her. Most men are like that."

Lin Daiyu blinked and asked innocently, "Is it the same with Daddy?"

Lin Ruhai was stunned. "How could Daddy be like this? Since your mother passed away, Daddy has never married."

Lin Daiyu nodded and said seriously, "Then Brother Yue wouldn't be as bad as Daddy said."

Lin Ruhai frowned, and was really angry. He asked, "Then explain to me why the girl from the Xue family is with you? And why is she living with you?"

"Yue Ling not only brought her to the Lin Mansion, but also said that she was the older one. How do you explain this?"

Lin Daiyu rubbed her head and asked in confusion, "What's wrong with this? Sister Bao is older than me. Sister Bao has been working for Brother Yue all the time. She lives with us for convenience."

"We don't usually spend much time together. I'm the only one who gets along every night...ah, nothing..."

"Sister Bao must like Brother Yue, but I think it's mostly respect and admiration, and has nothing to do with love."

Lin Ruhai was furious and said anxiously, "How old are you? How can you tell the difference between love and romance? Yue Ling is surrounded by beautiful women and has not even married yet, but the maids in his room stand in two rows. If outsiders knew about this, what kind of reputation would he have?"

Lin Daiyu suddenly realized that her father was concerned about this matter, so she clarified for Yue Ling: "Dad, you misunderstood. Those little girls were not brought by Brother Yue. They were sent by others."

Lin Ruhai was even more angry. "He accepted everything that was sent to him? He accepted everything that was sent to him. This is a sign of moral deficiencies. When he returns to the court, the censors will definitely report him."

Lin Daiyu also stamped her feet in anxiety. She didn't know why she just couldn't get things straight with her father. It was obvious that those girls stayed with Yue Ling at her request. Lin Daiyu was unwilling to let Yue Ling's reputation be damaged.

"Dad, you don't understand him. Things are not what you think!"

Seeing that Lin Daiyu was bewitched by Yue Ling and was much more serious than he expected, and was still willing to be his mistress, Lin Ruhai was furious, "Understand? I want to kill him!"

……

Aunt Bai and Aunt Zhou took Xueyan all the way back to the side room. As soon as they closed the door, they couldn't help giggling anymore.

The laughter was so strange that Xueyan, who was not very smart, was confused. She just looked back and forth at the two of them who were laughing so hard that they were staggering on their chairs.

After a long while, until Aunt Zhou had difficulty breathing, Aunt Bai poured her a cup of fragrant tea and fed her some water.

Aunt Zhou moistened her lips and said, "Young lady is really funny. When entering the house, the Marquis called the old master 'brother', and when the young lady came, she also called the Marquis 'brother'. The Marquis felt embarrassed and had to change his address to 'Lord Lin'. It's really funny."

Aunt Bai also wiped the tears from her eyes and said, "I really don't know how the young lady and the Marquis get along with each other. They are just like the Madam and the Master. The Master is probably teaching the young lady a lesson right now. He must be very angry."

Aunt Zhou nodded repeatedly, "Of course he is very angry. This is the first time I have seen the master lower his head after being scolded in this mansion. He has no choice but to follow the girl's wishes. This family will be lively from now on."

Aunt Bai said, "This is exactly what we want. The servants in the Lin Mansion are all veterans. After the master went out, the house became even less popular. It is really too deserted, even more deserted than a nunnery. It is really uncomfortable."

"This time, there are girls making people happy, and there are so many little girls around in the yard. This should be the most interesting New Year's Day in the Lin Mansion."

The two discussed for a while and then turned their attention to Xueyan.

Xueyan has been very restrained since she returned to the Lin Mansion. She didn't interrupt the two concubines when they were talking, but just stood obediently by the side. She was completely different from the girl she was in the Anjing Marquis Mansion.

However, she hadn't had a sip of water or a bite of food since she got off the boat, and her stomach was already rumbling.

"I'm so hungry! When can you let me go? But I can't eat secretly in the kitchen of the Lin Mansion. What should I do..."

"Xueyan, come here and tell me about the Anjing Marquis Mansion."

Xueyan, whose name was called, suddenly came to her senses. When she heard that the two concubines wanted to ask her a question, her expression darkened. But she walked over obediently, picked up the small stool and sat between the two of them.

"There's nothing unusual about the mansion... When we first came to the capital, we only lived in a very small courtyard. At that time, the Marquis was not yet a Marquis, and he did not hold an official position."

"But life was the most leisurely at that time. There was a jujube tree in the mansion, but unfortunately the dates were not very tasty."

Aunt Bai and Aunt Zhou shook their heads and asked, "How do the girl and the Marquis get along on a daily basis?"

Xueyan thought for a moment and said, "We just eat and live together, there's nothing special about it."

"Food... accommodation?!"

The two concubines looked at each other and asked again: "Live together? In separate rooms, or..."

Xueyan nodded and said, "We live in separate rooms."

The two aunts nodded repeatedly, "It should be so."

Xueyan added: "However, the girl will go to see General Yue every night."

"what?"

The concubines' faces froze, "Why would you go to see the Marquis at night?"

Xueyan shook her head, "I don't know. Then I don't know. The girl didn't say anything."

"Does the girl go back to her room at night?"

Xueyan's stomach growled and she said with a sad face, "I'm a little hungry. Is there anything to eat in this room?"

Aunt Zhou immediately brought over a plate of snacks and placed it in front of Xueyan. "Okay, okay, I'll give you all of this. Tell me what happened to you last night."

Xueyan wolfed down five or six pieces, drank a sip of tea, and swallowed them smoothly into her stomach, burping as she went along.

Looking back at the expectant eyes of the two concubines, Xueyan said slowly: "Sometimes I come back, and sometimes I don't."

The concubines twitched their lips, as if they had heard nonsense. It was still Bai concubine who pressed the issue, "Is it more when you don't come back, or when you come back?"

Xueyan thought for a moment and said, "He used to come back more often, but recently he hasn't come back at all. Only Sister Zijuan and I live in the house."

"Ah? There is such a thing."

The two concubines covered their mouths in shock, as if they had learned a shocking secret.

Aunt Zhou asked tentatively, "Did the girl have her period?"

"Kui Shui?"

"It's about menstruation. You must know about menstruation, right?"

Xueyan licked her fingers and nodded, "I started coming here two years ago."

"hiss."

Both concubines gasped and came to the same conclusion as Nanny Wang: these two people must have crossed the bottom line and groped their way through human ethics.

Aunt Zhou smiled awkwardly and said, "The master is still on guard, but the sheep have all been eaten."

Aunt Bai said helplessly: "I would like to say that it is too late to mend the fence after the sheep have been lost, but it is really too late now."

"That girl wouldn't be embarrassed to say it, the master must not know."

"If the master doesn't know, then he doesn't know. There's no need for us to gossip about it. It's a done deal, so why should we say anything more?"

"But the master wants to keep the girl in Yangzhou and won't let her go to the capital with him. What should we do?"

"I don't think we can keep him here. If you don't believe me, let's wait and see."

Xueyan had no idea what the two of them were arguing about. After she cleaned up a plate of snacks like whirlwind, her mind began to work again.

"Oh, no, the girl didn't let me say these things, you must not tell anyone."

The two aunts laughed and said, "Of course, it won't do us any good if we tell them what we do."

Xueyan nodded with relief, "That's good."

Aunt Zhou asked again: "Since we can't talk about the young lady, let's talk about the other little girls. What do all these people do?"

"As long as you speak well, I have some snacks here, and I'll give them to you."

"real?!"

"of course."

Xueyan grinned and said happily, "Well, let's start with Sister Zijuan. She is a very good and strange person. Sometimes she is diligent, and sometimes she is lazy. Whenever she is lazy, her legs become like this."

Xueyan imitated Zijuan's actions, making the two aunts laugh.

Of course, the aunt, who had been through a lot, noticed something strange.

"Sure enough, these girls are here to share the burden with the young lady..."

(End of this chapter)