The destiny of all heavens begins in the Red Chamber

Of course, with the Lunar New Year approaching, not many people are in the mood for making any big fuss, which is also a major reason.

The farm is currently in a winter slack season, so there's not much to say. As long as the basic order of the farm doesn't collapse, that's fine.

Of course, the necessary patrols and vigilance by his subordinates are also indispensable.

However, just when things calmed down at the Rong Mansion, rumors about Jia Huan started circulating again.

There are all sorts of opinions, but the main one is that the Second Master Zheng has lost his mind, actually entrusting such a large estate as the Eight Great Estates to a child who is not even ten years old, which is simply a joke.

Some say that the Rong family has been bitten by a snake once and is now overly cautious. To prevent their servants from undermining their family, they actually put an eight-year-old child in charge of their vast estate. The Rong family really has courage.

Some were even less optimistic, stating bluntly that the Rong family would surely be in tears when the winter wheat was harvested next summer.

Screw your crying!

After hearing these rumors, Jia Huan's mood wasn't exactly terrible, but it certainly wasn't great either.

He wasn't the type to swallow insults. Since someone wanted to see him make a fool of himself, he figured they could all become a laughingstock together; he didn't mind at all.

Then, the rumors circulating in the capital city suddenly became quite aggressive, clearly the work of Jia Huan.

Damn it, instead of watching the Rong family's drama unfold, you should take a good look at your own estates and see if they're just like the Rong family's before.

Jia Huan and his underlings 'voluntarily' helped a few easy targets investigate.

These families were either founding dukes or founding sons, but unfortunately, they have no successors and have almost completely declined.

Fortunately, the descendants were not too wasteful and did not sell the estates built by their ancestors.

Then, Jia Huan and his men thoroughly investigated them!

Although the situation was much better than that of the eight major estates of Rongfu, there were still many problems, with about 40% of the output being cut by the servants.

Jia Huan was not polite at all. He took the urgent investigation list and went directly to the other party's family head, demanding one-tenth of the 'service fee'.

At the same time, they also publicized it widely outside.

Anyone paying attention to this matter immediately erupted in an uproar!

On one hand, they were shocked by Jia Huan's audacity in coming directly to slap them in the face; on the other hand, they were astonished by the arrogance of the servants, who were treating their master's family like fools.

Before the New Year, the three impoverished noble families, who had been humiliated in succession, seized the manor manager who had been playing tricks and confiscated his property with the strong cooperation of Jia Huan's underlings. At the same time, they reluctantly paid a high "service fee".

There was no way around it; Jia Huan was not only a member of the Rong family, but the thugs under his command were also not to be trifled with.

At least, those three noble families, who had already fallen on hard times, no longer dared to offend them easily.

The sensational impact of this event is absolutely no less than the ripples caused by the downfall of a high-ranking official of the third rank or above.

It could even be said that some of the shocks it caused were even greater and more astonishing.

Putting aside other matters, the other noble families quickly conducted self-examinations and self-corrections, fearing that Jia Huan, this young boy, might recklessly lead people to help with the 'investigation'.

If a problem is discovered and someone proactively offers door-to-door service, then they'll lose face big time.

Even the other six families, who were also among the eight founding dukes, dared not joke about their family's reputation.

In particular, after a certain founding marquis's family was forcibly "given warmth" by Jia Huan, none of them dared to be careless in the slightest.

Unexpectedly, Jia Huan, who had previously acted as if he was young and therefore daring to do things, suddenly stopped causing trouble.

Outsiders assumed that it was an elder from the Rong family who intervened and told him to stop causing trouble.

That's not actually the case. Jia Huan felt that the time was right, so he stopped stimulating the sensitive nerves of certain guys.

The noble families he had previously visited were, upon investigation, found to be among the main sources of rumors circulating in the city; they themselves had something to hide.

Otherwise, why would Jia Huan and his henchmen come to his door on their own initiative, and why would these guys honestly and humbly offer up 'service fees'? Isn't it because they feel guilty?

Do you really think that these arrogant and domineering sons of noble families are so easy to talk to?

A network of connections built over a century is no joke.

Top-ranking nobles have their own networks of connections, while middle and lower-ranking nobles have their own networks of connections.

In short, once they really start, they won't be so easy to bully.

In the last few days of the Lunar New Year, the entire capital city was in a state of excitement.

It wasn't that anything important happened in the imperial court, but rather that many nobles, after conducting self-examinations and self-corrections, arrested and confiscated the property of corrupt officials on their estates, causing a huge commotion.

The amounts range from as little as ten or twenty thousand taels of silver to as much as one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand taels of silver.

It can be said that the wealth of the stewards of the estates of various families was far beyond what people could imagine.

In short, in this sudden wave of confiscation, not a single estate manager had less than 10,000 taels of silver in assets, which was quite outrageous.

It can be said that although these noble families who conducted self-examination and self-correction lost face at the last minute before the end of the year, they all gained a lot of benefits.

In particular, the nobles who seized tens or even hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in one go were secretly overjoyed and wished it would happen again.

Some families even took advantage of this opportunity to plug the holes in their previous debts to the national treasury, something no one could have predicted.

Some families deliberately kept it a secret, while others simply spread the news on their own initiative.

For a time, in the capital city at the last moment of the New Year, both officials and ordinary people were attracted to this big news, and the instigator Jia Huan was forgotten.

Upon hearing about and learning of the actions and gains of the noble families, many members of the imperial family were tempted.

Even now, if there were no reason left, I would probably send my men from the Embroidered Uniform Guard to thoroughly investigate the managers of the imperial estates near the capital.

No one can resist a handful of silver. Especially when it might be their own money being swallowed up by their subordinates.

The entire city of Beijing was in an uproar, with new and sensational rumors emerging every day.

Jia Huan listened with a smile, in a very good mood.

Damn it, you guys who used to laugh at me are now the idiots in the rumors, I wonder how you feel about that.

Of course, to avoid the affected farm managers harboring resentment towards him as the instigator and harboring inappropriate murderous intentions, Jia Huan began to live a secluded life from an early age.

Without a doubt, the Ningrong Street gang's influence is growing, and the number of its thugs is increasing, which means they know more and more dirty tricks.

Things like hiring someone to commit murder happen almost every day.

Yes, the gang can get accurate information, and they even know the specific identities of those who hire hitmen. Some of them have identities that are absolutely unimaginable.

As the saying goes, cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents!

This is no joke; there are some things that must be guarded against.

Of course, given Jia Huan's current physical condition and keen senses, it would be extremely difficult to harm him unless a true martial arts master was deployed, provided that precautions were taken.

Whenever you go out, you need to have enough guards by your side!

Anyway, he's still young, so he just gives the impression of a kid trying to show off. Let outsiders misunderstand.

However, the bigwig of the Rong family was not easy to fool. Ever since he made the move of bringing people to collect 'service fees', he was summoned to Rongqing Hall by the old lady several times in a row, and each time he was reprimanded without any politeness.

Jia Huan would nod repeatedly to show that he was listening to the lesson, but afterwards he would still do the same thing.

It wasn't that she was deliberately going against them; it's just that the old lady had been a titled lady in the Rong Mansion for too long, and had inevitably lost her sensitivity to outside affairs, and was unaware of the viciousness of the rumors.

If you do nothing, people will think you're cowardly and afraid of trouble, and they'll only go further.

It's actually similar to being a street thug; you have to act tough to intimidate others, otherwise you'll only get endless trouble.

Jia Huan was impatient with all this, and when he imagined the matter involving the old lady, there was naturally a conflict in his thinking.

Chapter 156 'Absolutely Stunning' (Please Subscribe)

There's not much to say about the Lunar New Year; it's the same old story.

We held an ancestral worship ceremony at the Ning residence late at night and had a delicious meal.

Then came the New Year's greetings and receiving red envelopes, but Jia Huan's earnings were pitifully small.

Master Zheng Er completely ignored the trivial matters in the mansion. The red envelopes in his hand were all prepared by Madam Wang, the second wife, and each one contained a single silver bean.

Given Madam Wang's fickle nature, it's already quite generous of her to give so much.

As for the old lady, it was similar to before, a few silver beans, a little more than what Master Zheng had gotten.

The most frustrated one was that the head of the Ning Mansion was of a lower generation, so Jia Huan didn't receive a red envelope at all.

Speaking of the Ning Mansion, neither the old master Jia Jing nor the previous head of the household, Jia Zhen, returned home during the Lunar New Year.

I heard that Jia Zhen was making a fuss about coming back, but he was directly suppressed by Master Jing.

Jia Rong and Qin Keqing lived a very comfortable life, without having to worry about Jia Zhen causing trouble and making a mess. Sometimes things just turn out like that.

It is evident that the couple's relationship, which had almost reached a freezing point, has improved considerably after more than a year of nurturing.

However, when I visited Lin Ruhai on the first day of the Lunar New Year, he gave me a red envelope containing ten taels of silver, exuding an air of wealth that made me feel very good towards him.

Life quickly returned to normal after that.

The hustle and bustle of the mansion had little to do with him, the illegitimate son.

Like Jia Baoyu, he could eat at various banquets until the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, and then participate in all the festivities after the New Year, until the Lantern Festival finally ended the entire New Year celebrations.

Meanwhile, Jia Huan had resumed his monotonous life of going to school outside the mansion and quietly improving his skills at the small martial arts school.

Oh, and there's also the added task of periodically patrolling the farms outside the city!

I forgot to mention that since the Ningrong Street branch has grown bigger, no children have gone missing during the Lantern Festival in the past two years.