The Hairpin of the Red Chamber

Baochai played with Aunt Xue for a while, and found an excuse to leave. Just as Jia Zheng sent someone from the front, he said that he had invited an old Confucian who had a lot of character and knowledge, and asked Auntie to send someone to look at it. Look, if you can, you can invite it to my brother.

Aunt Xue couldn't help being overjoyed, and said: "The person your master chose is the right one. Don't ask any more questions. I'll send someone to invite him right away." With an earnest heart, as if her elder brother could change it, she hurriedly stopped her and said: "Mom, I have something to say, just listen to me."

When Aunt Xue asked, she said: "Actually, the gentlemen are good or bad, the most important thing is that my brother is willing to listen. I shouldn't talk about other people's family affairs. It's just my aunt's family. It's also very good, the old lady dotes on it, and it won't work if you change several husbands. Brother Bao is young and talented, and there is still room for improvement. Brother, at his age, has no elders to discipline him. After all, Mr. Bao is an outsider. At that time, when my brother comes to cry and complain, Mom will inevitably listen to my brother and want to resign from my husband. At that time, no matter how good the husband is, I won’t care about it, don’t you think so?”

Aunt Xue said: "You're right, I'm definitely not partial to him."

Baochai said: "That's not enough. He's outside. How do we know if he's studying, looking after accounts, or doing something? Everyone in the house must be looking at him. We are enclosed inside, but we have become deaf and blind." gone."

Aunt Xue said melancholy: "Then what do you think?"

Baochai said: "I said, let's clean up a room. Mom takes care of my elder brother. He reads in it every day and doesn't let him go out. I also care about the servants at home. I think Lian's second sister-in-law is separated by a curtain." It's good to be a director, Mom, don't be afraid of trouble, just set up the family law and manage the money, brother can't turn the world around."

Aunt Xue is very kind.Seeing that she deserved it, Baochai knew that she might not be able to control her brother, so she said, "I think Mom can entrust my uncle to take care of her life, and don't ask my brother to go to the exam, as long as he doesn't make trouble again."

When it comes to making troubles, I think it is because of my brother that I lost the chance to support my family. I can't help but feel sad. Aunt Xue just thought she was still thinking about the incident of beating someone to death before, and hugged her in her arms and said: "I know Don't worry about your thoughts, I will definitely clean up the house, and I won't let your brother go out to mess around and cause trouble."

Baochai sighed slightly, nodded and said: "I hope so." Immediately cheering up, Aunt Xue and Aunt Xue agreed on the rules of the house, set down the number plates and other things one by one, who to take what from, and to whom to pay Reporting, and on-duty shifts are all handled one by one, and a mature and prudent family member is specially selected as Xue Pan's long-term follower, and someone is sent to talk to Xue Pan.

When Xue Pan first heard his mother's move, he was naturally unwilling, so he came in and muttered: "Who is there to take care of the affairs of the men outside?" There is a sister-in-law to take care of it, otherwise you go outside to see, among your friends, classmates, servants and money, which one is personally handed over?"

Aunt Xue also helped Baochai and said, "Pan'er wants to control his temper and study hard."

Xue Pan and Aunt Xue struggled for a long time, seeing that his mother was really hard-hearted, she became stubborn, stomped her feet and ran out.

Seeing her son like this, Aunt Xue stood at the door and looked at it for a while, not knowing if she had spoken harshly, she secretly felt a little remorse, and when she saw Baochai, she settled down again, whether she was worried about her son, and hurriedly chased him out Then, after a while, the little girl came back with joy, and said: "The uncle went out, my brother and the others followed, saying whether they went to find the second master Lian or the uncle Zhen."

Aunt Xue felt relieved when she heard that she was going out with people from Jia's mansion. Baochai felt a little heartbroken when she heard that she was going out with Jia Lian and Jia Zhen. In other people's house, it's hard to say, so I just pouted my mouth and said to Tongxi: "You go and call a few boys, and ask Second Uncle Wang to follow, don't go to bad places, come back early at night."

Tongxi looked at Aunt Xue. Aunt Xue hesitated at first, but then she heard Baochai say "come back early at night", and immediately said: "Yes, ask people to follow, it is serious to come back early."

Tongxi left in a flash, and Aunt Xue looked at Baochai and stopped talking.

Baochai knew that she had performed too well, but she couldn't really tell about such strange things, so she had to pretend not to see it.

It was a very tiring day, and I fell asleep on the bed. I heard someone talking and laughing in a trance. When I woke up, I opened the window and looked at it. It was another sunny day. I asked Yinger, "What is Mom doing there?"

Ying'er replied that Mrs. Wang had come, and Baochai got up in a hurry. As soon as she touched her, she felt dizzy and dizzy, her eyes were dry and her tongue was dry. Er took the Lengxiang Wan and ate a pill, and felt better. Fang helped the maids to go out to meet Mrs. Wang and Aunt Xue. Mrs. Wang saw that she was not looking well, so when she asked, Baochai told the reason, and Mrs. Wang said : "Ah, I forgot that day. There are good white plums in that mansion. It would be better to send someone to get them for you."

Aunt Xue said with a smile: "At first, the ones made at home were still buried under the pear tree, and there were always petals in the south, so don't disturb the mansion over there." She also told Baochai to come in and rest soon.Baochai was sitting on the kang in the inner room, feeling dizzy and hot in the eyes, so she asked the little girl to take a look in the glass mirror, and saw that the whites of her eyes were reddish, so it was not easy to bother her eyes, so she lay there thinking about the future.

She was dressed solemnly because of Mrs. Wang's arrival. When she came in, she took off her coat and changed into homely clothes. Ying'er took off the sachet and put it away, and Baochai took the sachet made by Daiyu. Playing with it, when I saw it, I thought of Daiyu's disease brought by her mother's womb since she was a child. I don't know if the saying that she was raised in bird's nest has been established?Although she is being raised by Mother Jia now, she is more cherished than in the Xiaoxiang Pavilion, but after all, it is someone else's home, I am afraid that no one may want to get it. After thinking about it for a while, I remembered one thing and gently lifted the curtain. Going out, he said to Aunt Xue: "Didn't Mom have something for the girls in the aunt's family?"

Aunt Xue clapped her hands and said, "I forgot." She called Xiangling, "Bring that box of flowers." Then she said to Mrs. Wang, "The person who borrowed you will go and give these flowers to their sisters." Send it, twelve in total, two for each of the three girls in your family, two for Miss Lin, and the other four for Brother Feng."

Mrs. Wang declined, but was stopped by Aunt Xue who said, "Bao girl never loves these flowers and fans", and Fang ordered Zhou Rui's family to send them. Baochai hurriedly called: "Sister Zhou." She smiled and called Yinger. He took a book and said: "Some time ago, Miss Lin said that she wanted to use my tricks to take a look. At that time, I couldn't find it in the book, but I found it today. I will trouble Sister Zhou to bring it for me. Tell Miss Lin that I'm not feeling well right now and I can't come out, I'll see her and Brother Bao when I get better."

Zhou Rui's family had no choice but to agree, and took the flowers and books to go, thinking to himself that he would take the other things to the three girls of his family. They would inevitably ask them, but they would have to answer several times, so they went to Daiyu's first, and took Baochai's words. As soon as he said it, he asked Daiyu to pick two palace flowers first.

Baoyu was next to him. He picked two of them for Daiyu. Daiyu said, "The one you chose is too vulgar. I don't like it." She picked up two beautiful ones.Zhou Rui's family clapped their hands and said: "Miss Bao said that Miss Lin must like these two, and told me to look at them first. Sure enough, Miss Lin chose this one!"

Seeing that Baochai understood her, Daiyu slowly lowered her head and said, "She has always been considerate of others." Then she asked, "What is the illness of Sister Bao, and what's the matter?"

Zhou Rui's family said: "It is said that it is a heat poison or something, but I don't understand it, but it looks like my spirit is not good, and my eyes are red."

Daiyu said: "Please trouble sister Zhou." After grabbing a handful of money and giving her, and asking the girl to settle her down for tea and snacks, Zhou Rui's family said: "I have to go and deliver things to those girls." , first sent Sanchun, then went to Sister Feng's place, first saw Ping'er coming out, and said with a busy smile, "Hello, Miss Ping." Putting the flowers in, it happened that Sister Feng was in there to settle the accounts. Seeing her coming in with something, she said with a smile, "What good things did you bring? Show me quickly."

Ping'er looked at her and said, "Look at your future."

Sister Feng said: "Your master's future is not your future, so you can say me."

Ping'er said: "Because your future is mine, so I have to sigh a few words." Sister Feng jumped down and twisted her face and said, "Okay, you are so bold, you can scold me in a different way." What about me, your master?"

Because Jia Lian was not there, Ping'er laughed and quarreled with her, and Fang said, "You can send two to Grandma Xiaorong in Dongfu?"

Sister Feng said: "You decide, it's better to be a girl than a grandma these days. It's really sad to say a few words and say nothing!"

Ping'er just smiled, went out and asked Caiming to send two sticks to the mansion over there, and then ordered Zhou Rui's family to go back to thank him.

Zhou Rui's family ran such a big circle, so dissatisfied and hard to say, they had to go back to thank her again, Baochai grabbed her again and asked, "What did Miss Lin say?"

Zhou Rui's family said: "Miss Lin and Second Master Bao are together, it's hard for Miss Bao to remember, because Second Master Bao came down from school at these times, and his body is not good, and Miss Lin also has some serious illnesses, so I can't come here for a while. , come to visit the treasure girl tomorrow."

Then Baochai said, "What's wrong with Miss Lin? What kind of medicine do you take?"

Zhou Rui's family said: "It is said that it is a weak disease carried in the womb. I use 'Ginseng Yangrong Pill' and occasionally use bird's nest to raise it. It's just that Miss Lin doesn't like it very much."

Baochai knew it wasn't that she didn't like to eat, but she was probably afraid of troublesome others, so she thought about it, so she gave money to Zhou Rui's family and said, "Sister Zhou is bothering you."

Where does Zhou Rui's family value that money?But seeing that it was a reward from my aunt's family, I accepted it with a smile.

However, Xue Pan was talked about by his mother and sister yesterday, and he went out to play with Jia Zhen in a fit of anger and returned early. When he came back, he heard that his sister had fallen ill again. I was so angry that I didn't go out for a few days.

Aunt Xue felt sorry for her son, and called the family members who came and went to ask him about the places he went to. They all presumed that he went to Jia Zhen's place for a drink. Unexpectedly, Baochai was by her side, and ordered them to be separated, and each asked carefully where he went. , what drink, who is there, compare it again, and immediately ask the inside story - but it is gambling outside, winning or losing hundreds of dollars a night - this time Aunt Xue was very angry, trembling, clutching her heart. After issuing the death order, she counted the family's money, but she couldn't read, so she asked Baochai to bring some maids who could read, and kept the account book overnight.