The destiny of all heavens begins in the Red Chamber

Madam could easily suggest to Master Zheng that Zhou Rui and several other trusted stewards manage the affairs.

At that time, the profits from the estate will still end up in Madam Wang's pocket, and perhaps even more than before!

Madam Wang thought the idea was good and felt a bit more hopeful, but now was not a good time.

"Second brother, you've seized eight major estates, shouldn't you give me half of them?"

Upon hearing the news, Lord She rushed over to investigate.

Upon seeing several boxes of gleaming silver, his eyes lit up, and he went directly to Master Zheng Er to speak.

"Brother, here's what happened!"

The Second Master Zheng was not angry. Instead, he repeated Jia Huan's earlier reminder: "If we fail to complete the repayment task this time, all my previous contributions will be wiped out!"

"Not only that, Lian'er will also be affected. The best outcome will be that she will be assigned to a quiet government office to sit on the sidelines, or to a place that requires hard work and mental effort to do manual labor!"

Lord She didn't feel much, since Jia Lian wasn't close to him anyway, and official positions below the third rank were simply beneath his notice.

The Second Master Zheng was not in a hurry and continued, "Not only that, those officials I have offended will definitely launch extremely fierce impeachments, and I'm afraid my elder brother will be affected!"

How exactly will the impact be felt?

Lord She was somewhat displeased and said irritably, "I'm particularly annoyed by the messy affairs in the imperial court!"

"He hasn't done many serious things, all he does is impeach people all day long. I don't know where he gets all that energy, and he even drags innocent people into it from time to time!"

"It's possible that some of the things my elder brother does, if any official disapproves of them, or if they violate national laws or family rules, will be used to impeach him!"

Master Zheng said with a wry smile, "Just like Brother Zhen before, he was originally targeting me, but Brother Zhen ended up suffering a lot of bad luck!"

"Fine, fine, I won't ask you for the silver I confiscated this time!"

Upon hearing Jia Zhen's name, Master She shuddered; that was certainly not a good example.

Thinking about it, that was indeed the case. He waved his hand and said, "But once the estate produces something in the future, I will definitely take half of the profits. I can't let you keep it all to yourself!"

"This one……"

Master Zheng said with difficulty, "I have already made things clear with Lian's wife before!"

"The bulk of the harvest from the estates will be sent to the public treasury for the government's expenses!"

"You bastard!"

Lord She was so angry he almost vomited blood, but finally said, "Since that's the case, you still got a small share, so just give me half!"

After saying that, without waiting for the Second Master Zheng to speak, he turned and left, adding, "This matter is decided!"

Master Zheng watched Master She leave, a slight smile appearing on his face.

If you were to ask what fault Lord She has, you really couldn't find anything particularly obvious.

What are vices like being a womanizer considered in a large family?

Not to mention, Lord She didn't use force; he bought them with money.

In this respect alone, he is far superior to those notorious playboys, and could even be said to be superior to ninety percent of the纨绔子弟 (spoiled brats) in the capital.

As for antiques and trinkets, Master She purchased them all with silver.

In the original novel of Dream of the Red Chamber, it would be unfair to place the blame for Shi Daizi's death entirely on Master She; he was merely a contributing factor.

Putting everything else aside, compared to Jia Zhen, Master She is much better.

His daughter-in-law, Wang Xifeng, was at least as beautiful as Qin Keqing. Did Master She ever have any improper behavior or thoughts towards her?

This time, faced with the potential for tens of thousands of taels of profit a year, he immediately changed his attitude upon hearing that he would have to compete with his daughter-in-law for a share, at least he didn't back down on housework.

After several days of work, the private property of the heads of the eight manors was finally fully inventoried and most of it was converted into silver.

The remaining tens of thousands of taels of silver were borrowed from Lin Ruhai.

When Lin Ruhai heard the news, he also came to take a look. He was secretly amazed by the audacity of the Rong family's son-giving-off-him. It was truly insane.

"Brother Cunzhou, it's best to avoid doing things like this in the future!"

Chapter 152 Debt-Free and Carefree (Please Subscribe)

Lin Ruhai has been in quite good shape lately, and could even be described as relaxed and carefree.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites is a leisurely position with basically nothing to do.

The problem is that such a leisurely position is just right for Lin Ruhai at present.

His health is poor and he needs careful recuperation. He is not suitable for high-intensity work at all, let alone participating in the mentally exhausting court struggles.

In addition, he has been away from the capital for many years and needs some time to adapt to the current court.

Therefore, he truly thrived in his position as the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, living a leisurely and comfortable life.

If the current emperor were to transfer him directly to another busy government office, Lin Ruhai would likely suffer the same short-lived fate as depicted in the original story.

With the drudgery of official duties and the presence of his intelligent daughter Lin Daiyu at home, his health gradually improved with careful recuperation.

The chronic poison that had been troubling him seemed to have gradually dissipated after he left Yangzhou.

In addition, he gradually got to know his classmates, fellow townsmen, and mentors, and thus Lin Ruhai fared much better in the officialdom than the Second Master Zheng.

Putting aside everything else, he was more informed about news from the imperial court than the Second Master Zheng.

Recently, many court officials have been paying attention to the matter of the Second Master Zheng confiscating the property of his servants, treating it as a joke.

In other words, the Second Master Zheng was now a laughing stock in the eyes of many court officials!

Lin Ruhai was naturally displeased upon hearing this, and couldn't help but offer a reminder when he saw Master Zheng.

In his view, the Second Master Zheng's actions of confiscating the property of his own servants were indeed a bit too ruthless.

"Brother Ruhai, I have no choice but to do it this way!"

The Second Master Zheng invited Lin Ruhai to his study to talk. He smiled bitterly and briefly recounted the inside story, finally saying helplessly, "Without confiscating the estate owner's property, we can't report back!"

Seeing Lin Ruhai's surprise, he couldn't help but tease, "I can't really ask you to lend me everything, can I?"

Lin Ruhai gave an awkward smile; this was a difficult topic to discuss!

When it comes to money, the Lin family certainly doesn't lack it. Not to mention lending Master Zheng 400,000 taels, the Lin family could easily come up with a million taels without batting an eye.

The problem is, if Master Zheng really comes to borrow, Lin Ruhai will not lend it, at most 100,000 taels.

The intricacies involved involve kinship, unspoken rules of officialdom, and the Lin family's methods of self-preservation. In short, the matter is quite complicated, and such a large sum of money would not be lent out easily.

Unless the Rong family is facing a life-or-death situation, Lin Ruhai doesn't want to take any risks.

He wouldn't lie to Master Zheng, so Lin Ruhai didn't say anything, but his attitude was already quite clear.

However, I never expected that the old lady in the mansion and Madam Wang would be so stingy.

Master Zheng sighed inwardly, but showed no sign of disappointment. Relatives are relatives, after all; to expect relatives to act in ways even family members wouldn't do is asking the impossible.

After all, Lin Ruhai lent him 50,000 taels of silver without saying a word, which was quite a favor.

He spoke slowly, "Even without the matter of repaying the money, I would still ruthlessly deal with the heads of those eight major estates!"

"If we don't clean them up with swift and decisive measures, they'll probably become even bolder in the future!"

"It's said to be the Rong family's estate, but it's hard to say whether it will ultimately belong to the Jia family!"

Lin Ruhai nodded silently, naturally agreeing with this statement. He felt that although Master Zheng had become a laughing stock, he had done a pretty good job of eliminating the parasites in the mansion.

Don't assume that those estate managers had no chance of eventually turning the Rong family's estates into their own.

As long as they curry favor with a certain imperial relative and are paid a certain amount of silver each year, it is not difficult for them to seize power from the Rong family when their influence is low.

Lin Ruhai, having served as an official for many years, was well-informed and knowledgeable; how could he not understand the intricacies of the matter?

However, it's quite bizarre that the Rong family could allow a group of servants to grow to their current size.

He knew that the top stewards among the Rong family's servants remained as steady as Mount Tai.

"Brother Cunzhou, when do you plan to repay the money?"

Lin Ruhai subtly changed the subject, saying that these were all internal affairs of the Rong family and there was no point in talking about them anymore.

"Let's go tomorrow!"

The Second Master Zheng's attitude was very firm: "I'm worried that if this drags on for a while, something might happen!"

My main concern is that my mother might cause trouble, so I'd rather pay her back as soon as possible for peace of mind.

"That's fine!"

Lin Ruhai nodded in agreement and chuckled, "Once the money is repaid, Brother Cunzhou, what other ideas do you have?"

"Naturally, I will resign from my position as ambassador to demand repayment immediately!"

Master Zheng laughed heartily and said leisurely, "I have basically achieved the goals I wanted to achieve by betting my future, so naturally I will not continue to be disliked!"

"That's how it should be!"

Lin Ruhai clapped his hands and laughed, his last worry disappearing.

He was afraid that the Second Master Zheng would hesitate and then be put on the spot by the Emperor, which would be a terrible experience.

Wasn't this the same situation during my five years in Yangzhou?