After the rebellion was successful, I realized that this place was the Red Mansion

Chapter 119 Miaoyu Explains Taizhen's Secrets, Baoyu Asks for Silver Again

Xiuyan and Miaoyu went to the back room together. After they sat down, a maid came up to serve tea and then quickly left.

Xiuyan looked at the little girl thoughtfully, then turned to Miaoyu and smiled:
"I told you a few days ago that if the emperor came, you should keep the snow water collected from the plum blossoms. I never imagined that my words would come true, and the emperor is actually coming to your place. Did Miss Lin tell you about this?"

If it were anyone else, Miaoyu would never have said it, but Xiuyan was someone she had known for many years, and she knew that Miaoyu wouldn't easily spread the word, so she said:

She sent me two words.

"What word?"

"Tai Zhen".

Miaoyu held the teacup, her head bowed, her cool eyes gazing calmly at the tea leaves inside.

The tea in the teacup was still quite hot.

"Tai Zhen?"

Xiuyan lowered her head and pondered, "This is Yang Guifei's Taoist name. She once became a Taoist nun. Miss Lin, are you trying to say..."

She looked up at Miaoyu and saw that her cheeks were slightly flushed, so she knew that Miaoyu had also guessed what Miss Lin was talking about.

Xiuyan took a closer look at Miaoyu, who was both her teacher and friend. She saw that Miaoyu was exceptionally beautiful, with a cool and elegant demeanor. Her gray monk's robe could not hide her slender figure, and her chest was full and round, surpassing that of many girls in the garden.

While living at Panxiang Temple, Xiuyan saw wealthy families from Suzhou come to propose marriage, urging her to return to secular life and marry. Fortunately, Miaoyu had several relatives who looked after her, so no one dared to force her to return to secular life.

However, she was also greatly bothered by it, so she later came to the capital with her master, hoping to find a Guanyin relic and a palm-leaf manuscript. After her master passed away, she also stayed in the capital.

If Miaoyu hadn't become a nun, she would have been married and raised her children by now.

She still had a head of jet-black hair, and Xiuyan asked her several times why she still kept it, but she never answered.

Thinking of this, Xiuyan smiled and said, "If the emperor summons you to the palace, what will you do?"

Miaoyu simply replied, "Let's wait until he summons us. Right now, it's just Miss Lin sending back a message. Why should I worry about the future?"

“Furthermore,” Miaoyu said, looking at her, “there are many young ladies in the garden, and even you are not yet married. The emperor may very well summon you to the palace.”

Even though Xiuyan was as detached as a hermit, she couldn't help but blush slightly upon hearing this. After thinking for a while, she said, "My aunt did tell me that if I could go to the palace in place of my second sister, the Xing family would have hope. A few days ago, when Miss Yun went to the palace, my aunt wanted my second sister to go with her... Never mind, let's not talk about these things."

She sighed, shook her head, and smiled at Miaoyu, "When you came in just now, a little maid came to pour you tea. What was the reason for that?"

Since Baochai returned to deliver the imperial decree, none of the maids and nuns at Longcui Nunnery have listened to Miaoyu. Only the two nannies and one maid that Miaoyu brought from Suzhou are still willing to obey her.

Just then, a young nun knocked on the door: "Master Miaoyu, Miss Bao has brought two servings of steamed chestnut cake with osmanthus sugar. She said the mansion will be lively tonight, so she brought them for you to try."

Miaoyu ordered her to bring it in, told Xiuyan to take some to eat, gave half of the remaining food to the two nannies and the maidservant beside her, and distributed the rest to the others.

Miaoyu said, "Miss Lin brought me some food, but I couldn't eat that much, so I gave it to them. Perhaps they saw that I was different from before, so they were willing to serve me again."

"Ha." She laughed sarcastically. "People in this world always judge a book by its cover. Among the hundreds of people in the Jia family, who isn't like that? Fortunately, I have a good eye and know that Miss Lin and Miss Bao are different from others."

Xiuyan understood the meaning behind her words. Last time, when Consort Xiande hosted a banquet, she forgot about Miaoyu. But when Daiyu hosted a banquet this time, she remembered that there was a Miaoyu at Longcui Nunnery and gave her different food than the other maids.

After figuring it out, Xiuyan couldn't help but smile; Miaoyu was still as eccentric as ever.

She was genuinely worried that Miaoyu's temperament might anger the emperor.

……

While the women of the Ning and Rong mansions were drinking and playing drinking games, Jia Baoyu, in the military camp outside the city, tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Jiang Yuhan's alluring and gentle figure was no longer beside him; all that remained in the tent were smelly men sleeping on the floor.

This group of people went to work during the day, and when they came back, they didn't take a bath. They just wiped themselves down and lay down in their tents to sleep. All sorts of filth and stench mingled together, making people feel nauseous and want to vomit.

Touching the letter Lin Daiyu had sent him, Jia Baoyu couldn't help but recall the happy times he spent in the Grand View Garden.

At that time, he slept on a red-curtained bed in the Grand View Garden, surrounded by a room full of beautiful maids: Xiren, Qingwen, Sheyue, Qiuwen...

The brothel was filled with the fragrance of cosmetics, unlike now, where he lay among a group of men, smelling their foul odor, suffering endless torment.

But Lin Daiyu was in the palace...

A few days ago, she sent a letter from the palace. When Jia Baoyu saw the handwriting of "Miss Linzidong" at the beginning of the letter, tears welled up in his eyes!

But as he read on, he was heartbroken!

Lin Daiyu was summoned to the palace by the emperor!

And they lived with the emperor!
We ate and lived together for five days...

The various offensive words made Jia Baoyu's eyes widen in horror, and he kept calling out "Sister Lin"!
The only thing that made him feel fortunate was that Lin Daiyu said in her letter that she was still innocent and asked him to wait a few more years.

Lin Daiyu lived in the palace for several years... how could she possibly maintain her innocence?!
Jia Baoyu wished he could grow wings and fly into the palace to rescue Lin Daiyu!

suddenly.

He shuddered as a rough, large hand touched his thigh. Jia Baoyu froze, then slapped the hand away.

"Hey, this kid's got some guts. He's all fair and clean-cut. What good is he if he goes into the army and gets played with?" someone sneered.

Another person sneered, "Since your lover isn't here tonight, we'll have to trouble Young Master Jia to satisfy our pent-up desires."

Several more people inside the tent sat up, all staring intently at them.

Jia Baoyu broke out in a cold sweat. A few days ago, before Jiang Yuhan arrived, the people living in the tent hadn't thought about it that way, and he only had to endure the stench inside the tent when he slept at night.

But after Jiang Yuhan arrived, these former soldiers who had surrendered to the Shun Dynasty, now the logistics troops of the Great Qian Dynasty, learned about the benefits of the actors in Prince Zhongshun's mansion. They could no longer restrain themselves and had to find someone to satisfy their lust every night.

"Be smart and come here!" someone shouted at him, and several more people gathered around.

In a moment of desperation, Jia Baoyu suddenly darted out of the tent, found a direction, and ran as fast as he could, shouting, "Qi Guan, save me!!"

The shouts alerted the others, and people came out from all the tents. Jia Baoyu had already rushed to the outside of one of the tents.

The night patrol came over, intending to take Jia Baoyu away to be punished.

"and many more!"

The handsome Jiang Yuhan hastily threw on a coat, came out of the tent, slipped a small piece of silver to each of the night patrolmen, and said a few kind words with a smile.

The patrolman glanced at him and immediately laughed, "So you're Qi Guan, the opera singer from the household of the late Prince Shunchao! My apologies, my apologies!"

Compared to when she first arrived, Jiang Yuhan is now quite famous. Everyone knows that she is an opera singer with skin that is even more radiant than a woman's.

After seeing them off, Jiang Yuhan held Jia Baoyu's hand, looked at him, and sighed deeply.

Jia Baoyu was also reluctant to let go of his hand, and the two of them were choked with tears. However, an impatient voice came from inside the tent behind Jiang Yuhan, urging him to go in quickly.

"Baoyu, you should go back now and tell them that I will go to keep them company again tomorrow night!"

Jiang Yuhan looked at him, hesitated, and after a long while said, "How happy we were a few days ago, but now we can't... Do you still remember when I escaped from the Prince Zhongshun's mansion and bought a few houses and a few acres of land in Zitanbao in the eastern suburbs?"

Jia Baoyu was filled with shame, because it was he who had spoken to the chief steward of Prince Zhongshun's mansion, which led to Qi Guan being arrested and taken back.

Jiang Yuhan said, "I'm thinking that we don't even have a tent. We don't know how long it would take to earn a few hundred taels of silver to buy a house. And you're always suffering. Why don't you take my silver and let us rent a tent?"

"Absolutely not!" Jia Baoyu quickly stopped him. "You are now free. It is already a great favor that you have stayed with me. All that money was earned by you... how can I use yours?"

Jiang Yuhan sighed deeply.

Having made up his mind, Jia Baoyu gripped his hand tightly and said, "Tomorrow, I'll ask Brother Lian to come back to the manor again..."

"This is unacceptable."

As Jiang Yuhan was speaking, a voice urging him to hurry came from inside the tent, so he had no choice but to bid farewell to Baoyu and enter the tent.

Jia Baoyu couldn't sleep all night.

The next day, as soon as he got up, he rushed to find Jia Lian.

"You want to ask your sister Bao?"

Jia Lian wiped his face with a towel, turned to look at him, and saw that his brother Bao's beard was messy and had not been groomed for a long time, his face was dirty, his hair had a strange smell, and his body had a sour smell. He didn't know how many days it had been since he had bathed.

Jia Lian originally wanted to wipe his face with a towel, but seeing his appearance, he couldn't bear to part with the towel, so he took it away and only gave him the water in the basin.

Jia Baoyu thanked his second brother and wiped his face haphazardly with his hands.

Jia Lian sat on a chair inside the tent, legs crossed. Seeing that Bao-ge was not very good at wiping his face, he could only shake his head helplessly and ignore him.

When I was in the brothel, even wiping my face and washing my hands was done by maids.

"I don't know what your relationship was like in the past."

Seeing that he had washed his face, Jia Lian said, "Your Lin sister is in the palace now, so there's no way to ask her for help. You can only ask the other two, Bao-guniang and Qin-guniang. Yun-guniang can also be asked, as she is now in charge of the East Mansion."

"what?!"

Jia Baoyu, who had just washed his face, looked at him in surprise and doubt, "Sister Yun is in charge of the East Mansion?! Doesn't that mean she's also become the Emperor's favorite concubine?!"

Jia Lian, sitting in his chair with his legs crossed, laughed and said, "How could I receive the Emperor's favor if I weren't a favored concubine?"

Jia Baoyu beat his feet and pounded his chest, lamenting that the world had lost two more pure and innocent girls.

Jia Lian scolded him, "You should get rid of this idiocy of yours. If you continue like this, I can't help you anymore!"

Jia Baoyu then awkwardly shut his mouth and begged him to go back to the mansion and bring some more money to tide him over.

Jia Lian said, "Although Sister Yun is in charge of the household, she now lives with the Shi family. Even if she takes money out of the mansion, it will be given to the men of the Shi family outside. How could it be given to you?"

Jia Baoyu was stunned.

"Besides, Miss Bao and her brother, they are from the Xue family. Although they have been staying at our house for several years, they are not really family. Do you think they will agree to give you money?"

Jia Lian didn't know much about the inner quarters, but in his opinion, why would Xue Baochai easily give him several hundred taels?
Jia Baoyu's face, still flushed from washing, showed great confidence: "Just go ahead and ask for it. Just say it was me who asked, and Sister Bao will give you the money!"

He often played with Sister Bao, and she often went to the Yihong Courtyard. He had a deep friendship with the sisters in the garden. It was only a few hundred taels of silver, so why would Sister Bao refuse?

"That's fine!"

Jia Lian stood up. "I'll go into town again around noon, and we'll see if it works out or not."

Jia Baoyu quickly bowed and thanked him.

Jia Lian waved his hand and went out of the tent to chat with the steward, arranging what tasks the Jia family members would be doing that day.

(End of this chapter)