Red Mansion: After being expelled from the family, I was granted the title of Marquis of Mobei

Chapter 102: Enlighten Zhao Paner, sharpen the knife
Such a big man who could make things happen with a wave of his hand and make the whole Jiangnan area full of bloodshed with just a few words, actually came to Qiantang County to look for himself for the Night Banquet Picture. It seems that the secrets behind the Night Banquet Picture are far more terrifying than he imagined.

When she thought of this, Zhao Pan'er couldn't help but feel a little frightened.

Now that I'm caught in such a vortex, I'm afraid it will be difficult to get out of it unscathed.

Just when Zhao Pan'er was feeling hesitant, she heard the sound of a maidservant bowing outside the hall.

Zhao Pan'er knew that it must be the Champion Marquis who had arrived, so she quickly adjusted her mood and then stood up to greet him.

When Zhao Pan'er arrived at the door, Jia Jue happened to arrive outside.

Their eyes met, and Zhao Pan'er bowed respectfully and said.

"My humble daughter, Zhao Pan'er, was blind and didn't know the Marquis's identity. I've been rude to you. I hope you will forgive me."

Jia Jue raised his hand slightly and said.

"Miss Zhao, there's no need to be so polite. Let's go. I have something to discuss with you."

Zhao Pan'er nodded slightly, and then the two of them came to the hall and sat down in order of importance.

Although Zhao Pan'er seemed calm, Jia Jue knew that Zhao Pan'er must be very nervous at this moment, not knowing where to go in the future and what will happen to her.

After a little thought, Jia Jue looked at Zhao Pan'er and said gently.

"Miss Zhao, you are a smart person. I don't need to explain many things to you."

"I know you must be very worried right now, but it's okay. I have no intention of making things difficult for a weak woman like you."

"Although the Night Banquet is a relic left by your father, I know that you are not aware of the secrets contained within it."

"In this regard, you should be thankful. Otherwise, it would be difficult for me to protect you."

Zhao Pan'er hesitated for a moment after hearing this and said.

"My Lord, are you saying this to comfort Pan'er, or, or..."

Jia Jue said with a calm smile.

"There's no need for me to deceive you. Think carefully. If I really wanted to use despicable means, I would just kidnap everyone in Qiantang who is friendly with you and bring them to the Divine Capital to force you to do something. Why would I bother talking to you here?"

"To be honest, I have some admiration for you."

"Although you were brought down to low status because of your father's sin, you did not abandon yourself and degrade yourself."

"Instead, he worked hard to become a strong man. After becoming a citizen, he became self-reliant and never considered using his beauty to seduce others."

"To be honest, this is quite rare."

"Even a place like Leying couldn't ruin you. If I ruin you at my hands, wouldn't that mean I'm even worse than that bunch of bastards?"

"So you can rest assured. As long as you cooperate with me to retrieve the Night Banquet Map, I will protect you."

After hearing this, Zhao Pan'er looked at Jia Jue with gratitude.

"I am deeply grateful for your care, Lord Marquis."

"I think the Marquis has already found out the whereabouts of Ouyang's residence. Just tell me. I will go and ask for the Night Banquet Painting and then give it to you."

Jia Jue waved his hand and said.

"The Night Banquet Picture is no longer in Ouyang Xu's hands."

Zhao Pan'er was surprised.

"How, how could this happen?"

Jia Jue said calmly.

"It was not long after I left the capital, and it happened to be Prime Minister Ke's birthday."

"Ke Xiang is the chief examiner of this imperial examination and Ouyang Xu's teacher."

"Ouyang Xu gave the Night Banquet painting to Prime Minister Ke as a birthday gift."

Hearing this, Zhao Pan'er couldn't help feeling sad.

The Night Banquet Painting is the only relic left to Zhao Pan'er by her father. If she had not been engaged to Ouyang Xu, Zhao Pan'er would never have given something so important to her to Ouyang Xu.

But she never imagined that Ouyang Xu would give his kindness to someone else and use it as a stepping stone for his own promotion.

Before coming to Shendu, Zhao Pan'er still had a glimmer of hope in her heart. Even if Ouyang Xu was really engaged to the Gao family, he might be forced to do so due to the power of the Gao family.

Now it seems that I had misjudged him. He was actually a opportunist, but he had never made any fortune before, so he pretended to be innocent.

Although she has already reached a conclusion in her heart, she will not give up until she reaches the Yellow River. After all, Zhao Pan'er has invested too much in Ouyang Xu. She will not give up unless she meets Ouyang Xu in person to confirm it in person.

After making up her mind, Zhao Pan'er looked at Jia Jue and pleaded.

"My Lord, I have an unwelcome request. I wonder..."

Before Zhao Pan'er finished speaking, Jia Jue spoke calmly.

"I know you want to meet Ouyang Xu, but seeing is believing."

"You want to see if all your hard work has been in vain, right?"

Zhao Pan'er nodded and said with great sadness.

"My Lord, your discerning eye is truly infallible. This is the only thing I have now. I hope your grace will grant my wish."

Jia Jue said with some emotion.

"You already have the answer in your heart, don't you? Why do you have to rub salt into your wounds?"

Zhao Paner sighed and said.

"Even so, I accept it, my Lord. I beg you."

After hearing this, Jia Jue nodded slightly, then took out a note from his sleeve and said.

"Yes, this is Ouyang Xu's address."

"But I hope you can restrain yourself. Even if you confirm Ouyang Xu's true identity with your own eyes, don't get angry and don't alert the enemy."

"After you cooperate with me in retrieving the Night Banquet Painting from the Prime Minister's Residence, I will have my own rules. Can you do it?"

Zhao Pan'er nodded and bowed respectfully and said.

"Thank you, my Lord, for your help."

Jia Jue couldn't help but shook his head and said.

"After all, men are often unfaithful, and misleading others is the key to fame."

"Sweet words sound so nice, but who knows they are all false favors."

"It's a pity that your sincerity is gone."

"Okay, the maids in charge of the other courtyard are all here, please deal with this matter as soon as possible."

"You should take a rest. I still have some official business to attend to, so I'll leave first."

After watching Jia Jue leave, Zhao Pan'er felt a lot of emotion in her heart.

In the past, Zhao Paner’s world was too small after all, with only a small Yuhang Qiantang.

After spending some time with Jia Jue, she finally understood what a great man was.

If I had always been a good girl and had met the Marquis early on, would my fate be different from what it is now?

However, Zhao Pan'er quickly wiped out all the fantasies in her mind.

Even someone like Ouyang Xu, after winning the third place in the imperial examination, became tired of me and moved on to someone better.

How dare I dream of becoming a champion?

After hiding all the thoughts in her mind, Zhao Pan'er looked at Ouyang Xu's address on the note and began to prepare herself mentally.

Not long after, in the carriage, Zhang Han was discussing something with Jia Jue. Zhang Han looked at Jia Jue respectfully and said.

"My Lord, I have already written down the details of how Ningguo Mansion framed Qin Ye in this letter. Please review it."

Jia Jue nodded slightly, then took the letter and began to read.

After reading it, Jia Jue showed a playful smile on his face.

It has to be said that Jia Jue's plan was very successful.

Ever since he knew that Jia Zhen had set his sights on the Qin family, Jia Jue took advantage of the opportunity of the Marquis' Mansion to build an ancestral tomb and temple to bring the Qin family and the Marquis' Mansion together.

And during this process, Jia Jue asked Zhang Han to deliberately conceal the fact that the Qin family had dealings with the Marquis' Mansion.

This meant that Jia Zhen was kept in the dark and thought that there was no way to find the Qin family.

Therefore, Jia Zhen's way of framing Qin Ye can be said to be blatant. He first bribed a merchant who supplied timber to the Ministry of Works, and asked him to report that Qin Ye had asked for bribes from him while supervising the construction of the palace.

Then Jia Zhen took charge of the Ministry of Works.

Except for the Minister Liu Zhiyuan, no one else in the Ministry of Works knew that Qin Ye had worked for the Marquis of Guanjun's Mansion.

So after receiving the money from Jia Zhen, the officials of the Ministry of Works directly summoned Qin Ye and then temporarily detained him.

The series of processes operated by Jia Zhen were completed under Zhang Han's nose, and Zhang Han kept all the evidence very complete.

After reading the letter, Jia Jue looked at Zhang Han with satisfaction.

"Very good, this is well done."

Zhang Han smiled happily and said.

"Thank you for your praise, my lord. I am ashamed to accept it."

Jia Jue said with a chuckle.

"The Shadow Guards are my eyes. You do a great job. How can you not be my eyes?"

"By the way, besides these, has there been any other unusual activity in the Divine Capital while I was away from Beijing?"

Zhang Han said after sorting out his thoughts.

"During the time when the Lord was away from the capital, everything in our mansion was normal, and no villain dared to spy on the Lord."

"As for unusual things, there are two."

"The first thing is that Right Prime Minister Xiao Qinyan and the Young Marquis of Yue are both selling off their property. Even Concubine Yue has sent a lot of jewelry to the Yue family to sell."

"The second thing is Rongguo Mansion. Jia Baoyu from Rongguo Mansion got involved with Qi Guan, a favored actor from Prince Zhongshun's mansion. Jia Baoyu was planning to help this actor escape from the palace."

Hearing this, Jia Jue was thoughtful.

Jia Jue had expected Xiao Qinyan and Xiao Yuehou to sell their property.

After all, Jia Jue received a secret order from Emperor Yongping at the beginning to control the involvement in the customs smuggling case within a certain scope.

It now seems that Emperor Yongping wants these two people to fill the tariff gap of previous years. It is estimated that Xiao Qinyan and Xiao Yuehou will not only lose their fortunes, but also be heavily in debt.

However, based on Jia Jue's understanding of Emperor Yongping, he estimated that simply paying the customs duties was not the end of the matter. There might be some difficult tasks waiting for the two of them to do.

This has no significant impact on Jia Jue for the time being, and Jia Jue doesn't care too much about it.

As for the second incident of Jia Baoyu fooling around with Qi Guan, it actually gave Jia Jue some thoughts.

There is such a thing in the original novel. Jia Baoyu is a two-way plug and is popular with both men and women.

Because of Jia Jue's intrusion, Jia Baoyu was deposed early on, and he probably could no longer be attracted to women.

Then all that is left is male beauty.

However, in the original novel, this incident did not lead to any major consequences. Jia Baoyu was only severely beaten by Jia Zheng, and that was the end of it.

This result obviously did not meet Jia Jue's psychological expectations, so Jia Jue immediately began to think about how to further expand the matter.

Just when Jia Jue was thinking about how to plot against the Rongguo Mansion, inside the Rongguo Mansion, Mrs. Wang and Old Lady Jia were smiling happily.

Just now, Mrs. Wang received a letter from the Xue family in Jinling.

After reading the Xue family's letter asking for help, Mrs. Wang and Old Lady Jia knew that the Xue family was going to be slaughtered.

This is really like the pillow coming when you are sleepy.

Originally, due to Jia Jue's troubles, the financial situation of Rongguo Mansion had been deteriorating, and they had to rely on pawning to survive.

I never thought that Xue Pan was so blind that he fell into Jia Jue's hands.

Mrs. Wang and Mrs. Jia were both aware of the Xue family's situation.

The Xue family came from a royal merchant family and was extremely wealthy, but unfortunately, Mrs. Wang's brother-in-law died early due to illness, leaving the family without a pillar.

In this way, if one has wealth but no power to protect it, he will naturally become a fat sheep.

It’s just that the Xue family is related to the Rongguo Mansion and the Wang family, so the Rongguo Mansion is concerned about its reputation. In addition, the Rongguo Mansion used to have a decent life.

Therefore, Rongguo Mansion did not set any plans to attack the Xue family.

However, because of Jia Jue's rise, not only did Rongguo Mansion's plans fail one after another, but a lot of money seemed to be thrown into the water.

Therefore, Mrs. Jia had already arranged for Mrs. Wang to set a trap for the Xue family, preparing to give them a severe blow.

What Mrs. Jia and Mrs. Wang didn't expect was that before they could even take action, the Xue family actually came to their doorstep.

Isn't this a fat pig that has been delivered to our door? If we don't slaughter it hard, it would be a shame for the Xue family to let them wait for the slaughter.

Mrs. Wang said with a smile on her face.

"Mother, Jia Jue, that bastard, used to only bring trouble upon us, but unexpectedly, he did something good for us this time."

"I was originally worried about how to attack the Xue family, but now it's much simpler."

"My sister wrote me that she will be arriving in the capital in a few days. Mother, please tell me what we should do."

Mrs. Jia said calmly.

"That's easy, just leave her alone for now."

"Our family has a grudge against the Champion Marquis' Mansion, and everyone in the Divine Capital knows it."

"Just tell her that you can't do anything. There's really nothing you can do."

"She will definitely use me to make trouble, saying that our family is close to Prince Beijing, and as long as I come forward, Prince Beijing will definitely help."

Mrs. Wang understood what she meant and said.

"My daughter-in-law understands. I told her that the face of this mansion becomes thinner the more it is used."

"I dare not disturb you."

"If we keep her like this for two days, she'll be willing to pay us a large sum of money and beg us to help her get out of trouble."

"But mother, there's no problem with this."

"But what if the Duke of Beijing intervenes and the Marquis of Guanjun still refuses to give him face and releases him?"

Mrs. Jia said indifferently.

"Is there anything in this world that is guaranteed to succeed? We took the money, did the job, and helped her persuade the prince. If it doesn't work out, it's Xue Pan's fate. What does it have to do with us?"

"How can a Xue family rebel against the gods? Do you think the Xue family has the skills of the Champion Marquis?"

After hearing what Old Lady Jia said, Mrs. Wang also agreed with it.

It seems that I am still young and there is still a lot of room between me and my mother-in-law who is so shameless. I still have to learn more.

After the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law reached an agreement, they discussed how to cut the meat of the Xue family.

(End of this chapter)