The Splendor of the Red Chamber

mid March.

Jia Lian received another letter from Jia Zheng and Wang Xifeng.

Jia Zheng's letter was much thicker than before, detailing the current state of affairs in the court.

The most crucial piece of information is that the emperor fainted several times from crying during the funeral of the crown prince, and later simply fell ill, unable to attend to state affairs for several days.

With the emperor's illness, undercurrents in the court became even more turbulent.

Some officials even conspired privately, planning to submit a joint memorial to the emperor after the crown prince's grand funeral, urging him to establish a new heir as soon as possible to avoid unrest among the people.

To put it bluntly, the fear was that the emperor would also die suddenly like the crown prince, leaving behind a mess that was impossible to clean up.

The ever-cautious Jia Zheng, of course, dared not get involved in such matters. He even repeatedly instructed Jia Lian in his letter to behave himself in Yangzhou and not to cause any trouble.

As expected, the Rong and Ning mansions were prepared to remain neutral.

No, this time it should be said that none of the three parties are helping each other.

When the current emperor and Prince Yizhong were vying for the throne, the late emperor acted entirely from the perspective of an arbitrator.

Both sons were equally dear to the emperor, and naturally, the late emperor did not want the four princes and eight dukes to get involved, unnecessarily increasing the intensity of the struggle for the throne.

Therefore, the neutrality of the four kings and eight dukes at that time perfectly aligned with the late emperor's thoughts and ideas.

But now the two most qualified to compete for the throne are the emperor's two half-brothers.

Will the current emperor willingly relinquish his position as heir apparent?

At this point, the four kings and eight dukes still wanted to remain neutral. What would the emperor think?

More importantly, do the four kings and eight dukes still have the qualifications and strength to remain neutral?

Jia Lian was deeply worried about this. Even if he were in the capital, let alone Yangzhou, he probably wouldn't be able to change the ingrained thinking of Jia Zheng and others.

I spent half a day worrying from afar.

Jia Lian put the letter aside and went to look through Wang Xifeng's family letters.

Sister Feng's letter is in a completely different style.

First, he complained that Jia Lian didn't trust him, saying that he had just refused the request from the old nun Jingxu of Shuiyue Nunnery and had not participated in the despicable matter of the prefect of Chang'an forcing a woman to break off her engagement and remarry.

She turned down the offer of three or four thousand taels of silver so easily; she could easily be called a generous spender. How could she be a greedy and short-sighted woman?!

[PS: In the original novel, Wang Xifeng, driven by greed, agreed to this arrangement, ultimately forcing a loving couple to their deaths.]

Then Sister Feng complained that her sister-in-law, Jia Yingchun, was useless, always delaying the tasks assigned to her, not only failing to help but also causing a lot of trouble.

Therefore, delegating power is impossible.

Sister Feng went directly to Physician He and got a prescription for health preservation, saying that once she took the medicine on time and recovered, she could still conceive a son on her first try.

Then she wentssiped about this family and that family, writing a whole bunch of random things.

It wasn't until the very end that they reluctantly mentioned Qin Keqing was pregnant with a "posthumous child".

The old lady cursed the "misfortune" upon hearing the story, and Madam Wang kept chanting Amitabha Buddha.

Then, changing the subject, she began to mock Li Wan for standing up for Qin Keqing, which resulted in Lady Wang finding fault with her and punishing her by making her recite the Heart Sutra ten times.

This entire piece, spanning three or four thousand words, doesn't contain a single sentence about the imperial court, giving it a distinct flavor of "retreating to one's own little world, oblivious to winter, summer, and autumn."

Hey~

This woman has absolutely no sense of crisis.

However, considering that she had refused the nun Jingxu, Jia Lian still wrote a long poem praising Fengjie and advised her that medicine is three parts poison, and it would be best to take some time to practice the Eight Pieces of Brocade.

I just got to this point in my writing.

Then Lin Daiyu's voice came from outside: "Second Brother Lian, I'm coming in."

Before Jia Lian could respond, she pushed the door open and entered.

Jia Lian did not get up to greet her, but simply put down his pen and waved to Lin Daiyu.

Without hesitation, Lin Daiyu walked to the opposite side of Jia Lian, rested her arm on the desk to support her chin, and craned her neck to examine the letters, asking curiously, "Brother, are you writing a reply to Sister Feng?"

Having spent so much time together, the two had long since forgotten all the formalities and formalities due to Jia Lian's deliberate attempts to get close to each other.

"Your sister Feng has brought good news. She says that Rong-ge's daughter-in-law is pregnant with a child born after her death." Jia Lian said, taking out a small booklet and handing it to Lin Daiyu: "Take a look at this first."

"Really? Then she'll finally have someone to rely on from now on!"

While Lin Daiyu was happy for Qin Keqing, she curiously flipped through the booklet and found that it was full of transaction records.

Who is the seller? Who is the buyer? Who is the person in charge? What was the negotiation process like? How does the transaction price compare to the market price?

The records were meticulously detailed, one entry at a time.

Lin Daiyu was initially impatient to look at these accounts, but she knew that Jia Lian must have had a purpose in showing them to her, so she patiently read them from beginning to end.

After reviewing them, she looked up in confusion and asked, "Is there something wrong with these accounts?"

Lin Daiyu could certainly see that this was to help the Lin family sell off their assets, but given the current state of the Lin family, it wasn't surprising that they were selling off their assets ahead of schedule.

Jia Lian explained seriously, "My uncle told me to send all the money from the sale to the capital and give it to my second uncle, Zheng Er, to keep. He also told me not to tell you, so you wouldn't overthink it."

But after much hesitation, I still think I should tell you, so you won't always feel like you're living under someone else's roof and secretly worry about things that upset you.

As he spoke, Jia Lian pointed to the booklet and said, "I have specially arranged for your steward, my maid Zhao'er, and my second aunt's maid to handle this matter together."

He also instructed them to record everything in detail so that they could check the accounts at any time. Even if they couldn't completely eliminate embezzlement, the amount shouldn't be too far off.

"No wonder these accounts are all in triplicate."

Lin Daiyu flipped through the booklet and made a rough estimate. She exclaimed in surprise, "This must be worth over ten thousand taels of silver. I thought my family was poor, but I didn't expect them to have so many properties."

"This is only two or three tenths of it."

Jia Lian said, "These are the best-selling properties under your Lin family's name. Once they are all sold off, we can raise at least 500,000 to 600,000 taels of silver. If we find a good buyer, we can even raise 700,000 taels."

"There are... so many?!"

Lin Daiyu's expression changed slightly, as if she wanted to ask but dared not.

Jia Lian knew that she was intelligent and probably thought the same thing as him, but as the saying goes, "a son should not speak ill of his father," so she couldn't openly question whether her father was a corrupt official.

Especially now, Lin Ruhai is like a candle flickering in the wind, and he could pass away at any moment.

"Hehe~"

Jia Lian raised his hand and patted Daiyu's head, changing the subject: "You are now a first-class rich girl. Even if your cousin Xue got married, she certainly wouldn't have received this much as a dowry. If Baoyu offends you again in the future, just throw mountains of gold and silver at him."

Lin Daiyu blushed, shook her head, and shook off Jia Lian's hand, saying angrily, "What does my family's business have to do with him? If he's afraid to offend me because of these mundane things, then he's truly offended me!"

Seeing that she no longer pursued the origin of these valuables, Jia Lian secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

He secretly made up his mind that once he returned to the capital, he would talk to Jia Zheng and Lady Wang openly to prevent his uncle and aunt from having any designs on the money.

…………

From then on, Jia Lian would report the accounts to Lin Daiyu every month, and patiently teach her how to keep accounts and general ledgers, while also explaining the problems that would arise when managing the household affairs.

Although Lin Daiyu was not interested in these matters, seeing Jia Lian's patient, meticulous, and tireless teaching, she knew that he was doing this entirely for her future, and thus trusted Jia Lian even more.

He calls her "brother" in front of everyone and behind their backs, completely dropping the "Lian Er" prefix.

During this period.

Jia Lian kept a close eye on the developments in the imperial court through his correspondence with Jia Zheng.

The emperor fell ill in early March and did not recover until early May. As a result, during the grand court assembly on May 15, a group of civil officials jointly submitted a memorial urging the emperor to establish an heir as soon as possible.

Among them were many important figures, such as Grand Secretary Yu, Second Grand Secretary Han Zhang, and the Hai family, which had five members who served as tutors to two emperors.

As expected of a veteran of two dynasties, Chief Minister Yu had just led the charge in the court meeting and then immediately submitted a memorial requesting to retire.

This clearly shows that the future new emperor wants to owe the Yu family a debt of gratitude, but doesn't want to get involved in the upcoming battle for the throne.

This truly proves what it means to be "old and cunning, old and slippery".

Now let's talk about Yangzhou.

As the weather warmed up, Lin Ruhai's condition began to fluctuate again. By mid-June, he had not eaten or drunk anything for two consecutive days.

Lin Daiyu stayed by the bedside, crying until her tears ran dry.

Jia Lian also temporarily gave up studying and practicing martial arts, and quietly began to prepare for Lin Ruhai's funeral.

Just then, a doorman came to report that two old ladies had come to visit, one of whom claimed to be the mother of Sheng Hong, the former magistrate of Yangzhou.