'Lin Daiyu' of the Red Chamber

"Really?" Lin Ruhai regained consciousness immediately, got up and asked the doctor: "Then how is her body?"

"My lord, please don't worry, my aunt fainted due to some fright, just rest for a while. I will prescribe two anti-fetal medicines here, and take them on time for my wife, so that the mother and child will be safe."

Lin Ruhai nodded, rewarded the doctor with an ingot of gold, and urged the servants to grab the medicine quickly.

Aunt Zhong still closed her eyes, Lin Ruhai slowed down and sat quietly beside her.Looking at Aunt Zhong's slightly pale face, Lin Ruhai felt guilty for her previous arrogance, and held her hand apologetically.

Aunt Zhong moved her fingers, then opened her eyelids, and seeing Lin Ruhai sitting in front of her, she called out "Master" sadly, and then shed tears.

Lin Ruhai was worried that Aunt Zhong's bad mood would affect the child in her stomach, so she quickly reached out to wipe away her tears and coaxed: "Don't cry, be careful to hurt the child in your stomach."

"Child?" Aunt Zhong sat up abruptly, covered her stomach, looked at Lin Ruhai in surprise, and confirmed, "Master, do you think I have a child? Have our child?"

Lin Ruhai nodded with a smile.

Aunt Zhong threw herself into Lin Ruhai's arms happily, weeping with joy.He kept murmuring: "Master, I finally have a child, and I finally have a child of the master."

"Tell you not to cry, you're disobedient." Lin Ruhai gently wiped Aunt Zhong's tears away, and told her to pay attention to her body, and if there is anything to eat, just ask the housekeeper, she will never be wronged.

Aunt Zhong nodded, her smile faded away, revealing a miserable look.She grabbed Lin Ruhai's arm and begged: "Master, look, with my body, there must always be someone capable of taking care of me. Zhang Si's family is still with the eldest sister, can I come back?"

Lin Ruhai hesitated, sighed, and sent someone to call Daiyu.After a while, Daiyu brought Zhang Si's family and two maids into the door.

Aunt Zhong was lying on the couch, and as soon as she saw Daiyu coming in, she pretended to get up and ask for obeisance.Lin Ruhai hurriedly stopped her and told her not to move.

Daiyu smiled and walked to Lin Ruhai to say hello, and then congratulated Aunt Zhong who was bedridden.Daiyu then called Zhang Si's family to come forward, and said to Aunt Zhong: "My aunt is used to him, and now that she is pregnant, she should have someone to take care of him smoothly."

Because of Lin Ruhai's presence, Aunt Zhong naturally smiled and thanked Daiyu.

"Aunt Zhong is polite. I kept her by my side because of Auntie's and Xueyan's affairs. Now that Xueyan has been sent away by me, and there are few people around Auntie, I should return her." Daiyu finished speaking, and then Smiling, he said to Lin Ruhai: "Father, Aunt Zhong is very happy. It would be a great joy for our family if she could add a child to the Lin family in the future. My daughter heard that it is not easy for this woman to be pregnant for ten months, and sometimes things are easy to happen. Let us But be careful, you need to select a few capable people to take good care of your aunt."

Lin Ruhai nodded and looked at Daiyu approvingly.He was worried that Daiyu would be jealous, but now it seems that he was worrying too much.Not only did Daiyu not care about Aunt Zhong's previous recklessness, but when she heard that Aunt Zhong was pregnant, she also took great care to think about Aunt Zhong.What a good daughter who is calm, magnanimous and sensible!

Alas, after all, Daiyu is a 12-year-old child.Unlike other daughters, Daiyu has a mother's love, and now she has to be sensible early, to accommodate others and take care of others.She lived in Jia's mansion, probably like this too.Lin Ruhai felt sour all of a sudden, feeling sorry for Daiyu, who had lost her mother when she was young, and turning all her attention to Daiyu, the enthusiasm for Aunt Zhong's pregnancy that had been retained in her heart diminished a lot.

With tears in her eyes, Lin Ruhai held Daiyu in her arms, feeling sorry for her.After all, Daiyu is his good daughter-in-law, who represents the face of the Lin family.It's great that Aunt Zhong can add a son to the Lin family, but no matter how good it is, it's just a concubine, and it can't compare with Daiyu's.Lin Ruhai must distinguish clearly which is more important, otherwise, after his death, he will have no face to face his first wife under Jiuquan.

Lin Ruhai touched Daiyu's little face with pity, and told her: "Don't always worry about others, the most important thing is to take care of yourself."

Daiyu nodded with a smile, and stuck out her tongue mischievously at Lin Ruhai.

Aunt Zhong looked at the two of them jealously, tilted her mouth, and said "Ouch", which immediately attracted Lin Ruhai's attention. Lin Ruhai walked nervously to the bed and asked her what was wrong.

"It's nothing, just now I wanted to lie down, but I suddenly felt that I couldn't move my waist, and I'm fine now." Aunt Zhong raised her eyebrows at Daiyu, and then smiled, "It's thanks to my eldest sister that I returned Zhang Si's, otherwise I really don't know what to do without her."

Daiyu smiled lightly, and said to Aunt Zhong: "Auntie, be careful in everything, don't worry about anything, nothing in this house is bigger than Aunt Zhong's belly. From now on, just take care of yourself and don't worry about the house. chores, everything is up to me.”

With a single sentence, Daiyu easily accepted Aunt Zhong's housekeeping rights.How could Aunt Zhong not be angry, with an angry look on her face.

Seeing this, Daiyu's smile grew stronger, she stopped looking at Aunt Zhong, and turned to Lin Ruhai and said, "Father, don't worry, I will tell my servants later, and warn them that even if there are urgent matters in the mansion, you can't take care of them." You have to stay close to Aunt Zhong first. (Don't talk about love when you are lonely)"

Lin Ruhai nodded in satisfaction, and praised Daiyu for being sensible.At this time, the servant girl brought a bowl of boiled anti-fetal medicine, Zhang Si's family hurriedly took it, and smiled and waited for Aunt Zhong to take the medicine.Aunt Zhong coughed twice, trying to attract Lin Ruhai's attention and concern.

Seeing this, Daiyu said to Lin Ruhai: "My aunt needs to take medicine, and this baby insurance needs to be rested. Father, let's not stay here and trouble her."

"Yes, yes, yes," Lin Ruhai nodded, praising Daiyu for her thoughtfulness.Instead, she told Aunt Zhong to have a good child and left with Daiyu. The father and daughter returned to Lanyuxuan talking and laughing, painting and playing chess. They chatted until it was getting late. After dinner, Fang left.

On the second day, Daiyu ordered someone to go to Zhang Si's house to hand over the housekeeping rights.As soon as the thick account book arrived, she began to check the accounts in it.

The Lin Mansion has a simple staff and not many masters, so the servants in the mansion are naturally not as large as the Rong Mansion, and there are less than 200 people in the front and back houses.According to the records in this account, the people in the mansion spent a full 260 taels of silver on meals alone, and this did not include Lin Ruhai's banquets and New Year's expenses.After Daiyu came here, she made a simple understanding of the prices in this era. The monthly food and clothing expenses of an ordinary family of five are two taels of silver.There are three things here, food, clothing and other miscellaneous uses.Even if calculated according to this level, at most 60 taels of silver will be used.

The food of the masters must be better than that of the servants, even if the table is full of big fish and meat for three meals a day, one tael of silver a day is enough.Daiyu, Lin Ruhai, and Aunt Zhong and Aunt Xia, the half masters, will cost 120 taels of silver at most.What's more, Daiyu hadn't come back when this account was made, so the expenses were not hers.The masters will never eat big fish and meat every day, and the table is full of fancy dishes. The three of them spend a month on it. Counting the New Year's party, 60 taels is enough.

Daiyu calculated in this way, the figure is fictitious. If the specific price of Yangzhou's price is carefully investigated, it will definitely be less than 120 taels.That is to say, 140 taels of silver have been missing every month for the cost of 'food' alone in the mansion.

Daiyu looked through other expenses. Although she didn't know the specific prices, she could generally see that all the items had extremely high water content.The total monthly expenditure of the Lin family was more than 400 taels of silver, about half of which was water, and its whereabouts were unknown.The accounts are all done, but who would believe that a catty of cabbage costs [-] Wen?

Daiyu listed all the things that could be priced on a piece of paper, and invited Wang Momo to inquire about the price.

Wang Momo took the paper, looked at it for a long time, and said with a embarrassed smile: "Oh, girl, this old servant can't read."

"Look at me, I was in a hurry and forgot about it."

Daiyu hesitated for a while, looking at the people in the room, Zijuan and Chunxian were not fit to show their faces.

"At this time, I realized that there are fewer people around me, and I lack a smart and capable woman by my side."

"Girl, I have someone to choose, but I don't know if I can do it. She is a young lady from a downtrodden family. She can read and understand poetry. She has a quick temper. She married a follower in our house. A few years ago, because of her small child, she has been Nursing the child, she didn't seek a job. Now that the child is older, she also wants to find a job to supplement the family."

"Whose family is it? Tell her to come and have a look."

"It's the second son of Zhou Pu, the old housekeeper of our mansion, Zhou Lu's daughter-in-law. I'll call her right away." After Wang Momo replied, she turned around and went out to call for someone.

While Daiyu was eating two ginseng nourishing pills, Madam Wang brought someone here.When Zhou Lu's family came in, they bowed to Daiyu and kowtowed on their knees.Daiyu saw that she looked upright, without squinting her eyes, and there was a sense of fortitude in her brows, her first impression was not bad.

Daiyu smiled and asked her to get up and let her sit down and drink tea.When the tea was served, Zhou Lu's family didn't dare to sit down, holding the tea in both hands, and standing obediently in the middle of the floor.

"I told you to sit down, why are you being polite?"

Daiyu insisted again and again, Zhou Lu's family sat down carefully, sticking his buttocks to the edge of the stool, not daring to sit in it anymore.

Daiyu glanced at Zijuan, and Zijuan immediately handed the paper with the items written on it to Zhou Lu's family, and asked her how much she knew.

Zhou Lu's family looked at it carefully, from the beginning to the end, and after confirming that it was correct, he cautiously said: "Ms. Hui, I know all the little ones."

"Well, tomorrow, you take this list and go outside to ask the price. Ask three different companies for each item, and record the location and price clearly. You will get back to me after you have finished asking. There are so many things on this list that you can't finish it in a day. You just wait until you have made a note of it before returning to me. You should take five taels of silver back first, and if the matter is done well, there will be a reward."

Zhou Lu's family listened attentively to the explanation, responded, took the paper, and said goodbye.

Worrying about the accounts, Daiyu didn't use much for lunch, and just after an hour, she felt empty in her stomach and a little hungry.Daiyu asked Zijuan to get her a bowl of stewed rotten porridge.

Daiyu's illness was born with weak qi and blood, so she had to take medicine to warm her up slowly, but taking medicine was always very bad for the stomach, so Daiyu liked to use some soft and rotten things to nourish her stomach.

It takes a lot of time to cook rotten things, and it is impossible for the cook to cook a bowl of soft and rotten porridge in a long time.Zicuckoo wanted to make a qualified bowl of porridge, but also wanted to be fast; he had no other choice, so he was in a hurry in the kitchen.It happened that Aunt Xia brought someone over and ordered the servant girl to bring out two bowls of porridge.

This porridge is different from ordinary porridge. Not only does it contain goji berries and jujubes, but the most amazing thing is that the soup is black, but it smells very fragrant.

Zijuan was staring greedily, Aunt Xia walked over with a smile, stroked her black temples and asked Zijuan, "Look at my hair?"

"It's black and shiny, it's better than our age." Zijuan smiled, and she spoke the truth.

Aunt Xia seemed very satisfied with Zijuan's answer, she smiled softly, and pouted to serve the two bowls of porridge to the maid. "It's thanks to them. This porridge is made from the soup of Polygonum multiflorum."

"Ah, no wonder!" Zicuckoo carefully looked at the porridge, stirred it twice with a spoon, and found that there were lotus seeds, black beans, hawthorn and poria cocos in it, which seemed to be a very nourishing medicinal porridge.

Aunt Xia smiled kindly and said: "This is a secret recipe handed down from my family. It is very effective in warming the body and nourishing the face and hair. I have boiled a lot today. I would like to ask my eldest sister to taste it. If it feels good, I ask someone to boil it and send it to me every day. After eating this food for a long time, it is easy to produce results."

Zijuan was worried about having no porridge, so she had the opportunity to pick up a ready-made emergency, of course she would.After asking her name, she thanked Aunt Xia and happily brought it to Daiyu.

Daiyu was still reconciling accounts, smelled the fragrance, put down the book, stared at the things Zijuan was carrying, and said cheerfully: "Hurry up and bring it here, I'm so hungry that I have no strength."

Daiyu found that the porridge was black, and looked at the azalea strangely.Zijuan immediately copied Aunt Xia's explanation just now, and preached the benefits of this porridge to Daiyu.

"Aunt Xia said it's called Emerald Polygonum multiflorum porridge"

"The name sounds good, but the effect is as good as she said?"

Daiyu raised her eyebrows suspiciously, took a spoonful, put it into her mouth, and tasted it.His body froze immediately, and he dropped the porcelain spoon in his hand.