The son of the red mansion is unscrupulous

Everyone in the East Mansion was sure that Jia Lian's court exam was passed with money, so when Jia Qiang said this, Jia Lian didn't think it was disobedient, and told them to be careful on the road, and then they set off on the road.

After Jia Qiang left, Jia Zhu coughed, chewed purple ginger and said spicyly: "I hope Qiang'er can help my sister-in-law more and be an honest and decent person."

Jia Lian said with a smile, "I don't know what brother Zhen thinks when he knows that Qiang'er has become his son." Some clothes, shoes and socks from childhood had to be sent to Xichun, so they let them go.

As the autumn of August approached, no one in the Rongguo Mansion dared to disturb Jia Lian with trivial matters, and Jia Zhu moved into Jia Lian's outer study under Jia She's guidance.

In the last court examination, no one thought that Jia Lian would win, so everyone's concern was superficial; but now the whole house has high hopes for Jia Lian, so everyone is cautious about his affairs.

Mother Jia ordered her small kitchen to pack three meals a day for Jia Lian and Jia Zhu, and ordered the two little girls, Glass and Jade, to watch in the kitchen every day so that the food would not be dirty. Jia Zhu sent the tonic soup, lest Jia Lian drink it by mistake, she was not allowed to give it away; Jia Amnesty was proud and nervous, summoning Jia Zheng to sit outside Jia Lian's study to drink tea and enjoy the coolness, and personally watched Jia Lian work hard.Even Baoyu, who had always been ignorant, unconsciously understood that Jia Lian's exam was very important to their Rongguo Mansion, so he came to visit him twice a day.

Jia Lian was in the study, being stared at by Ge Kui and Jia Zhu all day long, and Li Bizhou, Yuan Jingfeng, Xu Yuheng, and Xu Yujue came to give pointers every now and then. He has the current situation above him, so he must pass this exam.

In August, the sweet-scented osmanthus is fragrant, and in the rich aroma, finally ushered in the day of autumn.

Qiuwei is stricter than the college exam. You enter the exam room on the first day and start the exam the next day.

Early in the morning, under the leadership of Jia Amnesty, Jia Zheng, and Jia Zhu, Jia Lian entered the ancestral hall in a newly cut single-clothes, offered incense and kowtow to the ancestors of the Rongguo Mansion, and then went to see Jia Mu.

Jia's mother was sitting on the couch, with Jia Min who hurried back to her mother's house standing on the left, and Mrs. Wang who was unwilling to stand on the right. After Jia Lian kowtowed to her, she hurriedly ordered Jia Lian to stand up and said, "I know this Exams are tough, but only in this way can you get ahead."

"Grandson understands."

"Go." Mother Jia waved her hand, fearing that she would delay his departure by talking too much.

Jia Lian kowtowed again, got up and went out, only to leave the Rongqing hall, and saw Xue Pan rushing over.

Xue Pan smiled cautiously and said, "Second brother, brother is here to take you to the examination room."

"Aren't you going to the execution ground?" Jia Lian knew that Xue Pan was so cautious because he was afraid that he would say something unlucky in his own carelessness.

Jia Amnesty, Jia Zheng, and Jia Zhu all spat: "Your child is open-minded, so is that true?" They were also afraid that Xue Pan would follow him and talk nonsense with Jia Lian all the way to delay Jia Lian's final effort, so they stopped him. Then he didn't allow him to follow.

Jia Lian smiled, went out and got into the carriage. After the carriage moved, he went to ask Jin Cai and Lin Zhixiao who gave him the gift: "Did you do anything for me this year?"

Jin Cai said with a smile: "This time I'm taking the exam in the Gong Yuan, who dares to do it? If I go to do it, I don't have to ask the second master to come before he enters the exam room..." Just about to say that he lost his name to Sun Shan, he quickly stopped talking.

Jia Lian frowned, thinking that he would have to take off his clothes this year, so he grabbed another book and read it temporarily. When he arrived in front of the tribute courtyard, he saw Jin Cai and Lin Zhixiao didn't ask him to get out of the carriage, so he sat in the carriage and opened it. Looking out from the curtain, I saw many commoner scholars put their exam baskets under their feet, and they were still holding their books to read. Then they saw Li Bizhou and Xu Yuheng approaching from a distance, so they got out of the carriage and went up to them.

Li Bizhou and Xu Yuheng also dismounted, and they put their hands on Jia Lian's shoulder and patted him.

Xu Yuheng smiled and said, "It would be great if the three of us can occupy the top three this time."

"You are destined to be in the top three, I just want to be in the middle, to go home and have an explanation to the old lady and the master." Jia Lian smiled, seeing that Li Bizhou and Xu Yuheng had reconciled, she felt relieved. tone.

Li Bizhou had a grudge at first, but then he thought to himself that he was the same person as Xu Yuheng. Compared to Xu Yuheng, he was luckier than meeting Fang Shi, who is so safe and ready at any time; later, he saw that Xu Yuheng had suffered a lot , I couldn't bear to embarrass him anymore.After hearing this, he smiled and said, "He is the only one who comes out on top. I think I can only be in the top ten."

Xu Yuheng also smiled and said, "I may not be able to win the top spot, at most I will be No.2."

Jia Lian coughed twice and signaled the two of them to look at others. Sure enough, the surrounding scholars all looked sideways when they heard the three of them being so "modest".

"My lords, we're starting to line up." The servants of the three families reminded.

Jia Lian, Li Bizhou, and Xu Yuheng each carried their own baskets and carried their own burdens and lined up in front of the gate of the Gongyuan.

It is inevitable that someone with bad intentions took the opportunity to quietly throw things with writing paper into other people's baskets, so the line was long and sparse.

This time, they went into the gate room one by one to check. Jia Lian looked at the front of the team eagerly, but he didn't expect what to check this time. As the team moved forward slowly, when Li Bizhou and Xu Yuheng entered the gate room, they had a cup of tea time. It was Jia Lian's turn to go in.

Just after Jia Lian went in, he saw that there was only a large table in the spacious gate room. A guard took his basket and bundles and put them on the table, and someone went to check carefully; then someone asked Jia Lian to change his clothes.

Jia Lian had expected this would happen, so he took off his clothes one by one and threw them to the guards for inspection, but after checking the inside and outside of the clothes, he put on the clothes again, took his own things inside, and did not report until the second entrance. After receiving the number by name, I saw that the small houses in this row are quiet and quiet. In order to prevent someone from cheating, everyone only knows their own number and does not know who is next door.

Jia Lian went into his No.18, first tidied up the small room according to the old rules last time, then went out to fetch water, then sat quietly in the room, probably fell asleep at this time I couldn't sleep at night, so I recited the allusions that I could use against the wall again.

Around evening, Jia Lian boiled tea and ate some snacks.

After dinner, I was afraid that after reciting the book for a while, my mind would be in a mess and I wouldn't be able to sleep well, so I took the extra candle and baked it to melt the dough. The dough man came, made two little rabbits and placed them on the stone table I went to bed, thinking that it was time to go to bed, called the guards to get the sign for fetching water, and went to the well to fetch water to wash up. When I came back, I could vaguely hear weeping from some rooms, and the sound of water boiling from several rooms. With a cooing sound, he still returned to his own room and fell asleep on a recline.

While sleeping soundly, she suddenly heard loud noises. Jia Lian frowned and sat up, wondering how anyone dared to make noise in the Gongyuan. Just as she was wondering, she smelled the smell of meat that made people almost vomit. The smell of meat was mixed together, greasy It's greasy, as if it wants to get into the pores of people.

"Who's cooking? Get out the pot!" The guards yelled outside the door, knocking on the door one after another, and when the door opened to see that there was meat porridge inside, they took the porridge away.

Jia Lian stood at the small window on the door and looked out. He saw many people who had just arrived and couldn't sleep and felt cold. They followed his example and went to cook porridge to eat. After leaving the window, they still went back to sleep on the wooden bed until their turn. In his room, he glanced at it, but didn't move, because there was nothing wrong with him, the people who came just looked at it and locked the door again.

The smell of meat could not dissipate for a long time, Jia Lian was woken up by the noise, and could hardly fall asleep. When it was dawn, he was a little dizzy and took the test paper from the small window on the door. After burning hot tea, he ate with snacks. Then start answering the questionnaire.

Because of the lessons learned by other candidates, he did not dare to cook meat porridge any more, but ate more purple ginger slices wrapped in borneol snowflake sugar to keep out the cold.

After pinching twelve little rabbits in a row, the lock on the door was finally unlocked.

Jia Lian came out with a basket in his arms, but saw that there were three empty rooms in a row on the opposite side. Then he saw that there seemed to be a lot less candidates at the door. Li Bizhou asked him: "Brother, do you feel that there are a lot of people missing for no reason?" Then, he threw the handkerchief wrapped in the little rabbit into Li Bizhou's basket and asked him to take it back for his daughter to play with.

Li Bizhou lowered his head to untie the signboard to see what was wrapped in the handkerchief, and said with a smile: "The first night they were very presumptuous, and they all went to cook porridge, but the tea chopsticks were confiscated, and they had nothing to make tea and could only drink well Water. It was cold, and everyone couldn't stand it, and they all left the Gongyuan after having stomach troubles one after another."

"It turned out to be like this!" Jia Lian smiled unkindly, thinking that with such a small group of people, his ranking could be higher again.

Li Bizhou saw that the veils were filled with small white wax rabbits of different shapes, and said with a smile: "You really have to find something to do if you don't cook porridge." Then, he went out with Jia Lian and waited at the door for a while. After waiting, Xu Yuheng came out with a green face and weak steps.

"Shouldn't you be accepted as Chachoshi?" Jia Lian and Li Bizhou blurted out.

Xu Yuheng nodded, gritted his teeth and said: "Who knew that so many people would cook together? Xuezheng scolded in our character school, 'Are you here for an exam, or is it a competition of who is richer and richer than who has more snacks?'" I felt very uncomfortable in my stomach, and urged Li Bizhou to go home.

Jia Lian watched them go away, and heard someone calling second elder brother in the distance, so he went there, and after only two steps, Zhao Tianliang and Zhao Tiandong quickly took his basket, and all of them said happily: "Second Master, we have been here all the time. Watching outside the door, I heard that many people couldn't hold on to come out the next day. The second master must be in high school this time!"

"Hush—" Jia Lian hissed, and seeing Xue Pan, Feng Ziying, and Shi Guangzhu coming again, he asked in confusion, "Why didn't Yejun come?"

Before Xue Pan and Feng Ziying could speak, Zhao Tianliang said to Jia Lian first, "The elder uncle and elder aunt are waiting at home. They said they have something important to tell the second master."

Jia Lian said in his heart that he just went out, so he was looking for something?

Xue Pan, Feng Ziying, and Shi Guangzhu were clamoring to follow Jia Lian back to Jia's house for a drink, but now that they heard that Chen Yejun had something to discuss with Jia Lian, they went there knowingly and said, "Second Brother Lian stay at home and rest more. In a few days, when the list is released, let's find Lian's second brother for a drink." As they spoke, the three of them dispersed.

After the people left, Jia Lian turned her head and smelled the clothes on her body, followed Zhao Tianliang and Zhao Tiandong into the sedan chair, got into the sedan chair and asked, "What's going on with my aunt?"

Zhao Tianliang smiled and said: "I don't know what's going on, I just look at how the elder uncle and the elder aunt seem to be in the same heart."

Jia Lian thought that Yuanchun finally convinced Chen Yejun, and saw that the curtain handed him a package of things, and what he received was a cup of pheasant soup in a small mahogany barrel.

"This is from the Xu family, Second Lord, drink it while it's hot."

Jia Lian agreed, and guessing that Xu Qingheng made it, he shook the soup with a wooden spoon in the cup, then slowly sipped the soup, and suddenly heard a sentence: "If Jia Jialian hadn't started the second one, we wouldn't have done it either." As for not finishing the paper due to weakness!", Ren Jun couldn't help opening the curtain to look, and seeing two fat scholars, he wondered who told them to swarm to cook porridge.

The sedan chair was carried straight into the front yard. As soon as Jia Lian got out of the sedan chair, he was surrounded by people and went through the inner corner door to Jia Mu's house. After entering the house, he was surrounded by Jia Amnesty, Jia Zheng and Jia Zhu.

Jia Amnesty asked nervously, "How did you do in the exam?"

"Should be a scholar."

The word Ying seemed too lacking in confidence, Jia She's lips moved, and he heard Jia Zhu say: "Master, don't force him, tell him to talk to the old lady quickly, go back to the room and rest. "

Jia Amnesty nodded and said to Jia Lian, "It's good to have a rest." After that, he took a look at Jia Zheng and led him out.

Jia Zhu was not in the mood to care about Jia She's using Jia Zheng as a follower, so after asking a few questions, he led him into the western suite.

In the suite, Mother Jia was sitting on the kang in a homely thong, and Mrs. Wang was sitting on her left with a smile on her face. Wearing a magnolia hairpin and a red golden phoenix in the morning sun, he stood on Jiamu's right hand with a gentle and virtuous face; beside her, Chen Yejun, wearing a snow-blue shirt, bent his knees while waiting to stand.

Chen Yejun was slightly younger than Jia Lian, but he was Jia Lian's brother-in-law. In the past, he shouted like the second brother, but now he was embarrassed and didn't know whether he should stand up or not.

After Jia Lian smiled at him, he kowtowed to Jia's mother first.

Jia's mother hurriedly asked Amber to stop Jia Lian and asked him to sit down on the kang. Seeing that he was in good spirits, she asked about the exam in detail. There will be a happy event.”

Jia Lian laughed and said, "Could it be Brother Zhu's happy event?"

"Sure enough, it's a monkey spirit! You must have guessed it because your sister-in-law is not here to serve you." Jia Mu pointed at Jia Lian and smiled.

Seeing that Li Wan was indeed Li Wan, Jia Lian was overjoyed, so he congratulated Jia Zhu repeatedly.

Jia Zhu coughed twice, knowing that Mrs. Wang would think Li Wan was useless if she didn't see Li Wan's happiness; seeing her happy, she felt that she didn't care about his body, so she didn't dare to look very happy, just smiled and gave up.

"Not only this happy event, but also another good event." Mrs. Wang interrupted with a smile on her face.

"Oh, what's the matter?" Jia Lian asked.

Because Jia Mu didn't know whether Jia Lian should or should not, she kept silent.

Mrs. Wang asked Yuan Chun to speak with a smile. Yuan Chun glanced at Chen Yejun and said with a smile, "Lian'er, do you still remember the Zhen family in Jiangnan?"

"Naturally remember, don't they want to pay back our money?"

Jia Lian said this casually. He said this because the Jia family had [-] silver left in the Zhen family in the book, but he didn't know that Yuan Chun came to raise money for the Zhen family this time.

So this sentence immediately blocked Yuan Chun and Chen Yejun from having anything to say.

Jia's mother also couldn't remember whether the Zhen family in Jiangnan owed money to the Rongguo Mansion, so she smiled vaguely: "There is a girl in their family who is going to marry into the capital, and ask us to help take care of it." Unable to say anything, she simply asked Chen Yejun to follow Jia Lian to the police hall to speak.

Jia Lian glanced at Mrs. Wang and Yuan Chun, who were shy, and called her brother-in-law to lead Chen Yejun out. After passing through the gate of Jinghuanzhai, she saw two greedy seven or eight-year-old young children panicking. Hiding behind the persimmon tree full of persimmons, he just pretended not to see it, and smiled while walking with Chen Yejun: "What is the happy event? It's not worth our joy to marry a daughter."

Chen Yejun clenched his fists in embarrassment and coughed in front of his mouth. Seeing that the little Yao'er who had stolen the persimmons came to present the persimmons to him and Jia Lian as if they were presenting treasures, he intentionally gave them to him with a fierce face. The little boy sent him away, and then said: "The Zhen family didn't have any money at the moment, and they couldn't bear to borrow money from their relatives in Jiangnan. Their wife used to have some contacts with your elder sister, so she sent a letter to borrow money. , only said to give two cents interest when repaying the money. They just didn't get along for a while, after next year, we just need to get the money if we want it."

"You mean, you mean loan usury, right?" Jia Lian said, the book said that Jiangnan Zhen's family received [-] silver from the Rongguo Mansion, but how did the Zhen's keep this money inexplicably?It is said that the Zhen family is a rich and noble family who has taken over several times. This type of family is the most respectable. They help the Jia family to collect debts, and they will send them to the Jia family immediately after collecting the debts. Errands?What's more, when Jia Lian went to Yangzhou, he helped Lin Ruhai to bury Lin Ruhai in the ancestral grave of the Lin family in Suzhou. He was not far from the Zhen family, and he was also known as a housekeeper. The family's fifty thousand silver back to the capital?

In this way, the Jia family and the Zhen family had agreed on the [-] silver, and they would send someone to pick it up when they were waiting for Jia's family, and stay in the Zhen family if it was not needed.There is a reason for mutual trust, but it can also cause people to figure out something strange. The only two explanations are that the Zhen family is tight on money, and the Jia family cares about the face of their relatives if it is not necessary. If this is the case, when Zhao Mama talked to Wang Xifeng about the grand occasion of the Zhen family's four pick-ups, why didn't the always arrogant Wang Xifeng use these words to secretly demote the Zhen family?Wang Xifeng is in charge of the account, she should know about it.

Second, it is good for Jia's family to keep the money in Zhen's family.This benefit is naturally profit, otherwise, could it be that the Jia family is a prophet of the future, deliberately keeping [-] silver in Jiangnan and waiting for it to be used when they go to Jiangnan in the future?

If the Zhen family raises money to start a business, it doesn't look like it.

Although there are several shops in the families of officials nowadays, the shops are all insignificant things, and no officials dare to do business with great fanfare.Otherwise, he wouldn't have used the Xue family's name to make money.In this way, the Zhen family raised money not for the purpose of doing business, but for holding a large amount of money and boldly using usury for interest.

Sure enough, it is true and false when it is fake, the Jia family and the Zhen family are all the same.

Chen Yejun was taken aback, and hurriedly said: "It shouldn't be. How can people like them do such a thing? It is said that last year several villages in their family suffered from disasters and the harvest was not good."

Jia Lian said: "Don't you really think that every family lives on the crops in the village?"

Chen Yejun was stunned, and following Jia Lian sitting on the porch outside his room, he saw dozens of bright red peaches soaking in a large wooden basin. Jia Lian squatted by the wooden basin and gently touched the plump and juicy peach flesh with his thumb. Push it, and all the flesh of the peach will peel off, exposing the hardened peach pit.

Jia Lian took out the peach pits and put them in another basin of clear water, but don't throw the peach meat in the basin as before.

"Violence!" Chen Yejun muttered, pointing at Jia Lian, stood up with a frown, and then sat down uncomfortably, always feeling that Jia Lian's predictions were not bad, and after going back and forth a few times, he simply sat in front of Jia Lian, tentatively saying: " Second Brother Lian, do you think this is possible? We are not the ones who show up in public, everything is handled by the Zhen family, even if something happens, we will not be involved."

Jia Lian was peeling the peaches in his hand, and raised his head slightly. Because he called his second brother, he took his elder brother's air and asked him, "Are you short of money?" Otherwise, how could a son get into the eyes of money?

Chen Yejun nodded in embarrassment, and said shamelessly: "Although there is salary in Shenji Camp, how can it be enough? Besides, after getting married, it is not easy to beg for money with mother all day long. It's all because of money, and I have the heart to support General Feng to make a career, but who would have thought that if I entered the Shenji camp, I would spend a lot of money on drinks if I didn't get the job done."

Jia Lian didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "You are too easy to talk, admiral! Those things that are only willing to listen to you if you invite them to drink, what's the use of having them?" Then he thought that the firearm was not an ordinary thing. The recruits who just came in won’t use it—Chen Yejun may not be able to use it, so those veterans are always asked; and those veterans are all glib, and all of them only think that Chen Yejun has a lot of money, how can they not play tricks? The reason why he asked for a drink.

"How much do you owe? I'll pay it back for you. As for the Zhen family, if the money can't be collected and he comes to ask you to help, are you willing to watch the money go to waste, or follow them cruelly? These are all things that can get you in the mud if you don't pay attention, so don't get involved as soon as possible."

Chen Yejun said ashamedly: "You're talking like who wants to be like this for a long time! I'll learn what those old guys know, who will bother to deal with them?" Yuan Chunti would not follow her words and propose to lend money to the Zhen family; earlier, because of the reputation of the Zhen family, he was not suspected of having him, and secondly, he was really short of money. Let's go to the Zhen family.Huo Di stood up, and said anxiously: "The mother and sister-in-law of the family have already decided to lend them money because of the reputation of the Zhen family. What should I say when I go home?" Look for Yuanchun in Jiamu's yard.

Seeing Chen Yejun go, Jia Lian naturally said to himself, "A good thing? Sure enough, it's a good thing, and it's exciting to watch again."