The destiny of all heavens begins in the Red Chamber

Does the Xue family really have to spend their life savings? That would be too outrageous.

As a result, the money sponsored by the Xue family was directly put into Madam Wang's private treasury. As for the construction of the Imperial Residence, it would definitely require the use of public funds.

This move completely baffled Wang Xifeng.

Fortunately, with the drastic reduction in the size of the family residence, the construction costs naturally plummeted as well.

We invited Mr. Shan Ziye, a renowned expert in the field, to help with the design and planning. The highest price he came up with was less than 200,000 taels.

If we were to simplify things, 100,000 taels would be more than enough.

With a wave of her hand, the old lady naturally chose the highest standard of construction.

The construction of the detached residence for visiting relatives was overseen by Lin Zhixiao, one of the three stewards of the mansion.

This guy seems the most honest, and his abilities are quite good, so no one objects.

By the time things were settled, it was already spring of the following year.

The Xue family moved out of Lixiang Courtyard with ease and moved directly into the three-courtyard house opposite the Rong Mansion.

This three-courtyard house had its back wall facing the main gate of the Rong Mansion. The Xue family had opened a small gate in the courtyard wall to make it convenient for Aunt Xue and Xue Baochai to visit the Rong Mansion.

When the Rong family actually began constructing the detached residence for the emperor's family visit, the Ning family directly sent 100,000 taels of silver as a sponsorship.

Wang Xifeng was not stingy and took out 50,000 taels as a token of her appreciation.

The Grand Master She also offered 50,000 taels, saying it was enough and he couldn't afford any more.

The old lady donated 100,000 taels of silver, making her an absolute tycoon.

The second master of the government managed to raise 50,000 taels of silver, which he also contributed as a sponsorship.

The Shi family, the two marquisate families, sent a total of 50,000 taels of silver, and Lin Ruhai also sent 50,000 taels of silver.

Even Aunt Zhao and her son Jia Huan gave a token gift of five hundred taels of silver.

All this silver ended up in Madam Wang's hands, making her a fortune.

Madam Wang received over 550,000 taels of silver in one go, all of which she deposited into her private funds.

Awesome!

When Jia Huan heard the news, he was completely stunned.

A scene kept flashing through my mind: the classic scene of Zhuge Liang rebuking Wang Lang, with Prime Minister Zhuge's voice exceptionally clear: "I have never seen such a shameless person!"

Whether they knew it or not, their first reaction was that Madam Wang was utterly shameless, using her daughter's visit home as an excuse to amass wealth!

Sometimes I really can't understand why Madam Wang is so greedy.

Regardless, the matter of the provincial residence has come to an end.

At this time, the attention of the entire capital was drawn to the construction of separate residences for the families of several concubines who had already been confirmed to visit their relatives.

At the same time, the prices of various high-quality building materials have also been rising steadily.

At its peak, it was three or four times higher than before, which was quite exaggerated.

There was no way around it; the construction of the Imperial Concubine's Residence had become a battleground for various competitions among the major concubine families, each vying to be the first and fearing that they would disgrace their own concubine.

No matter how expensive the materials are, we have to bite the bullet and go for it.

According to the information Jia Huan obtained, in just a few months, the cost of building materials purchased by just a few concubine families had reached 1.5 million taels!

Fortunately, the Rong family did not become the biggest sucker again.

It's crazy to even think about it. The Rong family probably spent no less than three million taels of silver to build the Grand View Garden.

It was as if all that silver wasn't money; they squandered it recklessly, ultimately depleting the Rong family's last reserves of wealth.

Currently, the Rong family is building a separate residence for visiting relatives, and most of the building materials they are purchasing come from the eight major estates outside the city. Of course, the prices follow the market prices without any discounts.

However, after the eight estates made money, half of it was returned to the public in the form of rent.

In reality, the Rong family's expenses were always within 150,000 taels of silver.

Such expenses were still quite manageable for the Rong family at that time.

Of course, the decoration of the villa and other expenses later on will also be considerable, depending on how Lin Zhixiao, the head steward in charge of building the villa, handles it.

At least during the construction of the villa, this guy and his trusted subordinates did not tamper with anything.

There are certainly some benefits, but they are all within the acceptable range for the core members of the Rong family.

Although Jia Huan was not involved in the construction of the villa, he could estimate the specific expenses and costs simply by looking at the list of materials.

Of course, he only paid attention to it occasionally and didn't put his heart into it.

The mansion was in a state of chaos, with the core members' minds mostly focused on the construction of the provincial residence, making them less sensitive to what was happening outside.

Just then, Jia Huan took the opportunity to do some small things that were not easily noticed, which led to an unexpected turn of events.

At the clan school, in addition to students participating in the preliminary examinations for children and scholars, there are also students participating in this year's military examinations.

Jia Huan naturally had to keep a close eye on things to prevent any accidents from happening.

Chapter 219 Remaining Uninvolved (Please Subscribe)

Without anyone noticing, the clan school gained two more students and one more scholar!

At the same time, three more martial arts scholars emerged!

With such performance, it can definitely be described as an outstanding achievement.

Unfortunately, only the Ning Mansion sent a representative, Jia Qiang, to offer congratulations and gifts. The second master of the Rong Mansion made a brief appearance and showed little reaction to the outstanding performance of the clan school.

Fortunately, Li Wan, a scholar from the Li family, passed the imperial examination this year and became a top-ranking scholar. He is now serving as a local official with the support of the Ning family. Otherwise, he would definitely be angry.

Fortunately, three more unsuccessful candidates emerged from the clan school, filling the vacancies left by the departure of the Li family's candidates.

They were all invited by the Li family's scholar-official, or rather, the Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations), to become temporary teachers at the clan school after failing the imperial examinations.

It can be said that Jia Huan's plan was successful!

With the invitation of a fellow Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) and a Juren (successful candidate in the provincial imperial examination) from the Li family, as long as the clan school does not make any mistakes, it will no longer lack teachers of the Juren level to oversee the teaching, and its teaching strength will definitely be greatly improved.

Regardless of their attitude, their own knowledge is undeniable, and since they lived and ate at the Jia family's residence, they must bear some responsibility.

With these, that's actually enough!

The students' basic courses were taught by a tutor who had been transformed from a retainer of Master Zheng.

As for Wu Xiucai, he was nothing special in the eyes of the Ning and Rong families, so they naturally didn't pay much attention to him.

But things are different here at the clan school; it's quite joyful and uplifting.

In the blink of an eye, the weather turned hot, and the whole capital city was somewhat restless.

Construction on the Rong Mansion's detached residence for visiting relatives has not stopped and is nearing completion.

Just as Jia Huan had predicted, Madam Wang approached Aunt Xue again, asking her to provide various small decorative items as sponsorship, naturally without charging any money.

Aunt Xue didn't mind at all and readily agreed that the Xue family would take care of all these things, showing her nouveau riche style.

In addition, much like in the original novel of Dream of the Red Chamber, there was a crazy purchase of expensive flowers and plants as well as young actors, which can be described as spending money like water.

Fortunately, this time, since the money spent was all public funds, Wang Xifeng kept a close watch on it.

With Jia Huan providing the real-time price list for the capital, it would be impossible for those who were assigned purchasing tasks to make a fortune.

Like Jia Qiang in the Dream of the Red Chamber, who could easily get 50,000 taels of silver just by going to Jiangnan to buy a few young actors and other items, it was a good thing that he didn't even need to think about.

With the Xue family's caravan in operation, all the supplies needed to be purchased in the south were handled by the Xue family, and they could even get a discount on some of the prices. How could Wang Xifeng not make good use of this opportunity?

Whether it was out of a sense of compensation or not, Aunt Xue was frighteningly generous.

For any amount under 10,000 taels, the order is waived without hesitation.

Thus, before the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Imperial Household Department's residence for visiting relatives was completed. They even invited people from the Imperial Household Department to inspect the quality. After receiving their approval, the visit could officially begin.

The old lady and Madam Wang were quite happy. Although they were still a little unhappy, they couldn't care less about that now.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law discussed and decided to invite Yuan Chun back to her family home for the Mid-Autumn Festival, so that they could have a reunion holiday.

"Sir, visiting relatives on the Mid-Autumn Festival is highly inappropriate!"

When the second master of the government announced the news in his study, Jia Huan was the first to object, drawing stares from everyone.

What's wrong with it?

Lord Zheng frowned slightly, but still patiently asked, "Speak plainly!"

"Not only does our household and the common people attach great importance to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but the imperial palace also values ​​it very much!"

Jia Huan said directly, "Especially in the palace, there are so many rituals and rules!"

"Who knows how many palace celebrations Sister Yuanchun will be attending on Mid-Autumn Festival?"

“Especially since there’s a lantern festival in the capital at night, and the royal family wants to share the joy with the people, Sister Yuanchun can’t possibly leave the palace to visit her family then. She has to wait until all the festival activities in the palace are completely over before she can leave!”

Jia Huan said helplessly, "Master, by then it might be past midnight..."

The rest of the sentence was left unsaid, but the meaning was quite clear.

I was visiting my family late at night, but something just didn't feel right!