Red Mansion: Picking up a Lin Daiyu

Chapter 364: I like you, do you know?
Lin Ruhai, who had looked sick, seemed to regain some vitality. He smiled and said, "I will take care of the rest. Come find me later."

As he spoke, Lin Ruhai broke away from Yue Ling's arm, glanced in Xue Baochai's direction with an ambiguous look, as if he was gloating over someone else's misfortune.

Yue Ling could guess everything just by looking at his expression.

Lin Ruhai must have been thinking, "This pervert has fooled so many girls, and now he's made one cry. Let's see how this ends. What a sin!"

Yue Ling sighed and shook his head, saying, "Alright, brother, go first. If anything unexpected happens, you can send a message to Zhao Hao and Liu Xianglian to mobilize the Cangzhou army to blockade Yangzhou City."

"okay."

After Lin Ruhai got on the sedan chair, Yue Ling turned around and went to the shaded place, walking side by side with Xue Baochai in the corridor.

As the night deepened, the Qionghua Pavilion adjacent to the Slender West Lake overlooked the sparkling water in the distance.

The evening breeze blows, and the cool breeze brushes across your cheeks, which makes your heart calm.

The wooden bridge under her feet creaked with every step. Xue Baochai lowered her head and looked at her feet. Unconsciously, a few drops of crystal clear water streaked across her face and fell down.

Even though Xue Baochai was a girl with a strong nature, she never cried or made a fuss no matter how much trouble her mother made or how incompetent her brother was. But on this day she suffered a great injustice and she couldn't help it.

The two came to a pavilion. Yue Ling stopped and sighed, "I did hide something from you, but..."

Before she could finish her words, Xue Baochai's tears had already fallen to the ground like beads from a broken string.

Looking back, Yue Ling saw Xue Baochai crying so hard that even her makeup was smudged, which made him feel a little guilty.

This was the first time he made a girl cry, and it was even the first time in both of his previous lives, which made Yue Ling a little overwhelmed for a moment.

Raising his hands, after hesitating for a long time, Yue Ling finally held Xue Baochai's shoulders with both hands and shook her gently.

"Listen to me first. There really is a reason behind this. It's not that Lord Lin and I are plotting against you on purpose."

Xue Baochai raised her head slightly, pursed her lips, and sobbed, "Okay, my lord, please tell me."

Seeing her so aggrieved, Yue Ling couldn't bear it. He raised his arm to wipe away the tears from her eyes and sighed, "I have to say that your performance on the stage just now was very good, even better than what Lord Lin and I expected."

"When you left the stage at the end, you deliberately designed to shake out the letter, which was a perfect shot. At that time, even I was amazed."

"Of course I know your letter is forged, but Governor Cui must not know whether it is real or not. And you mentioned the canal transport before. He doesn't know your background, so he can only believe the real one and not the fake one."

"This scene belongs to you alone. It is perfect."

Xue Baochai stared at Yue Ling's eyes, and felt relieved to see that he was sincere in his words and was not trying to fool her. She rubbed her eyes and said "hmm" softly.

Yue Ling further explained: "You are not a pawn at my mercy, so don't be uneasy about it. Our real goal has always been to find out the person behind the scenes, not the position of the general merchant."

"If the Bao family is innocent, his position as the chief merchant cannot be shaken. At most, he can share some power with others."

"And the person who created this unjust case is the reason for our layout. Therefore, Lord Lin and I did not tell you the final arrangement."

"I'm afraid that after you learn the truth, you will be restrained on stage, and at the end, you won't have the proper reaction, thus exposing your flaws to the other party."

"They have always been very vigilant. Cui Ying is also a veteran in the officialdom, not one of those good-for-nothings like Cangzhou."

"At this moment, Lord Lin should have led the salt soldiers to surround the prefectural government office. The case has been settled. You have made an indelible contribution. No one will erase your achievements."

"I will never..."

When Yue Ling finished his last sentence, Xue Baochai's crying, which had just stopped, continued.

She fell headfirst into Yue Ling's arms, tears welling up in her eyes, wetting Yue Ling's shoulders, as if she wanted to cry out all the grievances in her heart.

Yue Ling sighed secretly, raised his hand and gently stroked Xue Baochai's back, saying: "I'm sorry for making you feel wronged. I can see clearly what you are thinking, and I will not treat people who are good to me unfairly..."

Leaning on Yue Ling's shoulder, Xue Baochai sobbed and said, "My Lord, you don't know how I felt when I heard that the final vote was from Peijifang."

"I just felt like the world was hanging upside down, and everything in front of me was pitch black. I was so uneasy. The Marquis and I have always been exchanging interests. I know this, but I don't want this to happen, because the premise for the exchange of interests to be established is that I have matching value."

"This is too tiring. I can't keep up with the Marquis. I have tried my best to make the Xue family provide stable value, but I don't want the day when the Xue family becomes insignificant to the Marquis and I no longer have a reason to stay with the Marquis."

"By then, I will be even less than a stone on the roadside. I will roll away on my own without your kicking."

"I do not like this."

"Master Hou."

Yue Ling let Xue Baochai's emotions go, gently held her in his arms, and nodded in response, "I'm here."

Xue Baochai raised her head, her eyes sparkling with tears, shining brightly in the moonlight.

"I like you, do you know that?"

"I know."

The evening breeze made the night dark, and the two of them stayed together in silence.

……

The prefect’s Yamen,

In Cui Ying's outer study, he had already changed out of his official robes, washed his hands in a copper basin, wiped his forehead with a wet towel, and slowly exhaled.

Outside the screen, the scholar who had just been on the stage was sitting upright in a chair, his fists clenched on his knees, his face looking a little uneasy.

"I called you here to warn you. Don't think that you can be free and easy after you get the position of General Merchant. Don't care about right and wrong and show your fox tail impatiently for others to catch you."

"You didn't expect that a small tea merchant could know your affairs so clearly, did you?"

The scholar timidly replied, "I didn't expect it, but I'm glad you were here."

Cui Ying sighed and walked out with his hands behind his back, "I never thought that this tea merchant would be so capable."

After pondering for a moment, Cui Ying stopped pacing in the study and sat behind the desk. He then asked, "Have you ever lost any of the letters you sent to the government office before?"

The scholar shook his head repeatedly, "You are joking, sir. How dare we lose such an important thing?"

Cui Ying's eyes narrowed and he said, "Think about it again. Have you ever lost anything? Or are there any unsent letters that you lost later?"

Seeing Cui Ying's expression change, the scholar couldn't help but become cautious and began to recall it carefully.

After a long while, the scholar whispered, "As far as I know, no such thing has happened, but I can't guarantee that it has not happened. My Lord, give me some time and let me send a message back to ask."

Cui Ying looked very unhappy. He stood up and said angrily, "I just said something so important, but now you can't remember it. Do you think this is a joke?"

The scholar immediately stood up, bowed his head and said repeatedly: "I deserve to die, I deserve to die."

"Damn?"

This word seemed to offend Cui Ying's taboo. He turned his head suddenly and said word by word with gritted teeth: "If something goes wrong, not only you will die, I will die, and everyone will die!"

The scholar trembled as if a thorn was on his back and dared not answer.

After Cui Ying lost his temper, his breathing gradually calmed down. He returned to the desk and carefully recalled the details that had just happened.

"This teahouse can accurately report the draft water level of Jinhu Town's ships. It must have a close relationship with the Canal Transport Office. It is reasonable that most tea is transported by canal."

"It's just that I don't know much about the background of Lingji Tea House. For a moment, I don't know where to start."

"Later, when the fake salt business was discovered, the matter was resolved in court by Marquis Anjing."

"I randomly picked the salt permit from the salt garden, how come I missed this detail of taking office? Could it be that..."

Suddenly, Cui Ying seemed to have figured something out. He felt a chill on his back and layers of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Prefect Cui stopped talking and just sat there in a daze, which also scared the Confucian scholar.

Glancing over from the corner of his eye, he could see that Governor Cui's face was turning pale and his pupils were dilated with shock.

"Prefect, what happened?"

Before he finished speaking, there was a commotion outside.

A petty official knocked on the door in a hurry and said, "Sir, something bad has happened. Sir Lin has brought the salt soldiers to surround the government office and wants you to go out to meet them!"

"what?"

The scholar's face was filled with horror as he saw Cui Ying slowly slide down from the back of the chair and fall to the ground without seeming to feel any pain. He stood there without blinking.

"Sir, sir, something happened outside, sir?!"

Such an emergency was simply not something the Confucian scholar could handle. He anxiously stepped forward to help Cui Ying up, but even after using all his strength, he was unable to pull him up from the ground.

Cui Ying realized that something was wrong. He found it difficult to calm the surging emotions in his heart. Everything in front of him seemed to have double images and his mind was spinning.

The scholar kept waving his hands and shouting in front of him, but Cui Ying seemed unable to hear what he was saying. It was not until a few sips of water were stuffed into his mouth that he became a little more sober.

The scholar was so anxious that he almost cried, and said, "Sir, please think of a solution. If you reveal your true identity at this moment, won't we all die?"

Cui Ying took a few deep breaths and said, "Yes, that's right. Help me go back and put on my official robes first."

Soon, there was a loud shout from outside the door, "Master Lin, you can't go in, Master Cui hasn't come out yet! Master Lin, please wait a moment, this is against the rules."

"Hey, Master Lin, how could you do that?"

"Master Lin, you are a top scholar after all, why do you slap someone?"

Lin Ruhai responded with full energy from outside, not looking sick at all, "Get out of here! If you stop me here again, I'll take it all with you!"

With a creak, Lin Ruhai pushed the door open and saw the Confucian scholar on the stage supporting Cui Ying, who was wearing an official robe, and walking out from behind the screen with laughter.

"Oh, Lord Lin, why are you visiting the government office so late at night? I am sorry for not being able to greet you. I hope Lord Lin will forgive me."

"Master Lin, you just caught a cold, why didn't you go back to your house to rest, but came to my place instead?" Lin Ruhai frowned, and did not answer Cui Ying's question, but asked in return: "Why is this person still in Master Cui's house in the middle of the night?"

Cui Ying slowly sat down at the guest seat and introduced calmly, "Oh, so Lord Lin is here for this. Hasn't the new chief merchant just been elected? He is also a merchant from Yangzhou, not some tea merchant who jumped out of nowhere to take over. I can give him some advice as if he were my own son or nephew."

"To be honest, the firecracker business in Jinhu is very big. Not only for the private sector, but also for the government, most of the firecrackers are made by them. Of course, they have some dealings with me."

"I wanted to avoid suspicion and not choose them to be the salt merchants, but unfortunately they were chosen by Lord Yue and Lord Lin. There is nothing I can do, so I have to force them to do it."

Cui Ying naturally poured a bowl of tea for Lin Ruhai and pushed it forward.

The Confucian scholar bowed in person with a flattering look on his face.

Cui Ying had finished speaking, but he had no intention of stopping, and continued to ask, "Didn't Lord Lin just recover from a serious illness? Why do you look so energetic today? Could it be that he has some unspeakable secret that requires him to pretend to be sick?"

Lin Ruhai kept his breath calm and did not want to argue with him.

Cui Ying also saw that Lin Ruhai didn't want to talk, so he didn't want to make the situation too awkward. Instead, he said with a smile, "It was just a joke, Lord Lin, don't take it seriously. Who can predict when your illness will start and when you will recover?"

Yue Ling arrived late, squeezed through the crowd, and came to Lin Ruhai's side. He looked into the hall and saw Cui Ying still sitting there with a righteous look on his face. He became angry and said, "Brother, you go and arrest his relatives and family members. Let me handle the verbal disputes."

Lin Ruhai nodded slightly and said, "I've asked someone to do it."

"What can I teach you, Lord?"

Hearing this, Yue Ling was both angry and amused. He didn't expect that Cui Ying had a good psychological quality and could still shamelessly pretend to be doing nothing at this moment.

"It's not that I'm here to teach you, but I have something to ask you."

As he spoke, Yue Ling took off the imperial sword from his waist, took a few steps forward, sat down opposite Cui Ying with his horse and sword in his arms, and slammed the sword on the table.

The imperial sword was gilded all over, and under the candlelight, it shone brightly, illuminating the entire study.

At this moment, Yue Ling's might was fully displayed, causing all the bystanders outside the house to swallow their saliva and hold their hearts in their arms.

The sword bestowed by the emperor is extremely valuable, and the one engraved with "Act at Your Dispatch" is even more like His Majesty's personal presence.

When Yue Ling unsheathed his sword, the officials outside the room slowly knelt down.

The scholar in the room broke out in cold sweat on his back, and his robes were wet without him noticing.

Cui Ying, who was sitting opposite him, could not help but frown, but said with a pleasant expression, "Please speak, my Lord."

Yue Ling curled his lips and said, "Master Cui, how much profit have you made from Jinhu Town, which you have close ties with?"

Cui Ying endured the curse in his heart and shook his head, saying, "My Lord, you are joking. The business of Jinhu Town has nothing to do with me. I don't ask them for a penny. If you don't believe me, you can ask them."

"Oh?"

Yue Ling tilted his head, as if he had just seen the scholar in the room, and asked with a smile: "So, you framed the Bao family, killed the shopkeeper, forged salt permits, and defrauded the salt warehouse of official salt many times, which is a crime of smuggling salt."

"You took advantage of the convenience of transporting goods and used sandwich ships to sell the smuggled salt to various places in Jiangnan. Did you do this all by yourself?"

"You must have made millions of taels of silver, right? Now you want to clean up the mess, so you urgently need a general merchant identity to put your money out in the open."

"Do you want to donate it to some important person in the court and put it into your account?"

The scholar swallowed his saliva. He didn't expect that Yue Ling not only told him the whole story of their scheme, but also their subsequent plans. How could this not make people feel terrified?
Taking a few deep breaths, the scholar suppressed the turmoil in his heart and said, "My Lord, you are joking."

"Are you kidding?"

"Okay, okay, let's talk about the corpse dumping incident in Jinhu Town."

"Master Cui, it was no accident that you ordered the yamen runners to beat the woman from Hengyang to death. Her son had participated in the provincial examination in Yangzhou Prefecture, and on his way home, he happened to run into someone transporting illegal salt in Jinhu Town, and was killed to silence him, and his body was dumped in the wild."

"It was a rainy day when the body was dumped, so it was difficult to destroy the body, so we had to dump it in the mine and wait for disposal at another day."

"A few days later, when we went up the mountain, we heard strange noises coming from the body and thought it was a ghost demanding our lives, so we didn't dare get close to it, so we buried it on the spot. Then the legend spread in Longgang Village at the foot of the mountain that we had angered the mountain god, so the villagers were not allowed to go up the mountain casually, for fear of finding the body."

"Once they have rotted into bones, there will be no evidence, right?"

"Officials and businessmen are colluding and doing a great job of coordination. I actually think that the most terrifying thing in this world is not ghosts, but the human heart!"

Yue Ling stared at Cui Ying aggressively.

Cui Ying was also unable to hold back her expression and wanted to pick up the teacup to calm down.

Yue Ling stretched out a finger, pressed down the teacup, and said calmly: "Master Cui, don't drink this tea. If it is poisonous, you will die here. How can I catch the big fish behind you?"

Hearing this, Cui Ying's pupils shrank sharply. If he had not lowered his head at this moment, a fatal flaw would have been revealed.

"My Lord, you are saying something for no reason..."

Yue Ling laughed loudly, stood up and clapped his hands, saying: "That's right, I was just joking."

Then he suddenly drew out his sword, swung it horizontally, and cut off both parts of Cui Ying's black gauze hat and the scholar's body with one strike.

The black gauze hat broke into two pieces, and the scholar's thigh was broken. He fell to his knees in the hall with a thud, followed by a painful roar.

Layers of papers fell from the scholar's bag, covering the entire room like snowflakes.

Yue Ling used the tip of his sword to push aside the salt permits and said, "In order to help Jinhu Town clear the obstacles, you deliberately distributed old salt permits to replace new ones. No matter who comes to compete, you can use this to catch them all in one fell swoop."

"Yes or no, look at the old salt permit you issued, why is it also on him?"

"Do you think my father-in-law would let you easily get the old salt permit?"

Looking at the miserable state of the Confucian scholar, Cui Ying's forehead was covered with cold sweat. He wanted to open his mouth to explain something, but it was as if his throat was blocked by cotton wool, and he was oppressed by Yue Ling's momentum and could not make a sound.

Outside the hall, the bailiffs who witnessed the whole process were terrified. They didn't even dare to look up and knelt down.

Everyone was shocked by the boldness of Governor Cui, and even more shocked by the skills of Marquis Anjing. As the saying goes, seeing is believing. Only today did they realize how sharp Marquis Anjing was.

After sheathing the sword, Yue Ling spoke in a cold voice, "Come here, Yangzhou prefect Cui Ying is a sycophant who abuses his power for personal gain, colludes with officials and businessmen, and bullies the people. He single-handedly facilitated the unjust case against the Bao family, and even tried to prove it several times. Today, this marquis holds the emperor's sword and patrols on behalf of the emperor to put this treacherous official and his accomplices in jail, and will send them to the capital for investigation soon!"

"As ordered!"

Cui Ying raised his head again, no longer calm as before, with a look of grief on his face, begging desperately: "Master Lin, we are colleagues, how can you put me to death like this!"

Lin Ruhai said coldly: "Who gave you the courage to stir up trouble behind the scenes and take human lives? Even a thousand deaths are not enough to thank the emperor for his grace!"

……

On the way back home, Lin Ruhai and Yue Ling walked side by side, feeling relaxed.

Yue Ling couldn't help but ask: "Brother, you have been an official for many years and are more familiar with officialdom. Do you think there is someone behind Cui Ying?"

Lin Ruhai groaned for a moment and said, "In Suzhou, you dragged Prime Minister An into the water. The only ones who have some weight in the court who can speak in front of His Majesty are Mr. Dongfang and Lord Chai. The two are favorable contenders for the position of Prime Minister."

"Mr. Dongfang is just like you and me. He is also an old official of the Qin Palace. He doesn't need to take these crooked paths. He is also not someone who would do that."

"As for Lord Chai, I haven't met him much, so I don't know him very well. As for the royal relatives who are still capable, your Majesty is in his prime now. Although his princes are underage, it's still early. Why are they so impatient to cause trouble? I think it's probably just Cui Ying who misleads us."

"We have solved the salt case so far. As for the deeper issues, it is indeed more appropriate to leave it to Your Majesty to decide the right and wrong."

"After confiscating the private property in Jinhu Town and Cuiying and making up for this year's salt tax, I will be able to give an explanation to His Majesty."

"Don't seek merit, but avoid mistakes..."

Yue Ling frowned slightly and asked, "Does brother also think that someone is trying to overthrow the imperial power behind the scenes?"

Lin Ruhai tilted his head to look at Yue Ling and asked, "Yue Ling, how long have you not been back to the capital?"

Yue Ling calculated carefully, "About five years and eight months."

Lin Ruhai asked again: "In the past five years, you first went to Cangzhou, then attacked Shuangyu, conquered Suzhou, and then came to Yangzhou. Wherever you went, there was a bloody storm, and the impact on the court was huge. Do you think this will cause dissatisfaction among some people?"

"These people dare not do anything to the emperor, but they can do anything to you. However, outside the capital, you hold the military power in your hands, like a dragon in the sky, like a dragon in the water, no one can do anything to you."

"But there were still several times when Japanese pirates attacked and tried to kill you. Do you think it was accidental? Or inevitable?"

"Or, don't you think that His Majesty has protected you during these years when you were away from the capital?"

"When you return to the capital, it will be the time when Emperor Longyou decides to confront everyone, and the struggle will reach its peak. No matter if they want to split the government, shake the country, or have selfish motives and return to the Yuan Dynasty when the gentry and landlords benefited, they will eventually be swept away by your majesty, and the new law will be implemented to consolidate the foundation of the country and trace back to the source."

"Whether or not we can create a prosperous era is what you and His Majesty have to do after you enter the capital. Anyone who hinders you from doing your job is a traitor. There is no need to delve into who is behind this."

"I think you should have the answer in your mind after you lied to him just now."

"You just need to remember your original intention, and when you look back, you will have a clear conscience."

Yue Ling nodded slightly, "I will teach you."

Lin Ruhai still shook his head and said, "Having said this, I still need to remind you one thing."

Yue Ling was startled when he heard this, and he cupped his hands and said, "Brother, please give me some advice."

Holding the reins, the two of them stopped just outside the gate of the salt yard. Turning their heads to look over, Lin Ruhai said quietly, "The Flower Goddess Festival in two days is Yu'er's birthday. Have you thought clearly about what to give Yu'er?"

Yue Ling was stunned. He had been busy outside during the day and slept with Lin Daiyu at night. How could he have had the opportunity to prepare a gift? He couldn't help but say, "This... This is really negligent."

Lin Ruhai snorted coldly and said, "Yu'er may not care, but you can't be careless. How dare you treat Yu'er badly? How can I trust her to you?"

"drive!"

After waving his whip again, Lin Ruhai rode straight into the courtyard, his heart full of resentment towards Yue Ling.

Yue Ling was full of complaints, "You've been so busy worrying about you that you forgot about my important matter! My fourteenth birthday is the day I can get married when I'm fifteen!"

"The last gift for my boudoir before I get married... what should I give... Hey! I got it!"

(End of this chapter)