[Qing Chuan + Red Mansion] Midas touch

"There's nothing to do at our house tonight. It's getting late, you should go back to bed too." Zuo Xi didn't intend to get up, and yawned when she was talking to Ying'er under the covers, "By the way, tomorrow Find two sets of plain clothes and wear them for a while."

Ningguo Mansion is the eldest house of the Jia clan, and Qin Keqing, the young lady of Ningguo Mansion, is gone. The Ningrong and Rongfu and the Jia clan in the back streets are about to move.

The Xue family lives in Rongguo Mansion, but they are not members of the Jia family, so they should sleep and rest tonight.Tomorrow, follow the people from the Rongguo Mansion and walk over there as a formality.

In fact, not only would he go to that mansion tomorrow to express his condolences, but the day after tomorrow would be the third day after Qin Keqing's death, so he would also go to that mansion to offer incense.Moreover, ancient funerals were extremely cumbersome. Apart from these two days, there were also the first seven, three seven, five seven, and one hundred days...

Ying'er backed away when she heard the words, but stopped when she reached the door.Turning around and telling Zuo Xi, "When I was inquiring about the news just now, I might as well hear someone say that Second Master Bao vomited blood."

Baoyu from Rongguo Mansion is the cousin of his own girl, even though she usually doesn't try to court Baoyu, it's hard not to tell her the news.

Zuo Xi twitched the corners of his mouth, admiring Baoyu's sentimentality again.

He is really indispensable everywhere.

"There are a lot of weird things about him. It's nothing, and it's worth your fuss." Reluctant to comment on Baoyu's sentimentality, let alone put the dead on his lips to discuss right and wrong, Zuo Xi immediately said Changed the topic: "Have someone replace the lanterns outside and cover them with the blue gauze cover from before." When they moved into the Lixiangyuan, they found that the lanterns hung in the yard and on the door were all red lanterns.Earlier, the Xue family had a filial piety, but it was not easy to light white lanterns brightly when they lived in Lixiangyuan, so they made a batch of lantern covers and a batch of white lanterns with water-blue gauze.

On the white lantern was written the three big characters "Rikain" horizontally, and then covered the written white lantern with water-blue gauze, which was elegant and courteous.

However, this batch of lanterns and gauze covers were all put away after the filial piety.

Ying'er got the order to go out and make arrangements without mentioning it.Zuo Xi stayed on the bed for a while, then put on his clothes and got out of bed, went to the dressing table and took the box containing Daiyu's letters to the bed.After nestling back into the quilt again, Zuo Xi opened the box and opened the letter on the top again.

The imperial physician and the doctor arrived in Yangzhou, and after some inquiries and various consultations, they finally confirmed Lin Ruhai's condition.

There was something growing in Lin Ruhai's body.

Zuo Xi suspected it was something like a tumor, but she had no evidence.

Daiyu also said in her writing that Lin Ruhai's illness would not be cured if that thing was not used.But there have been many people with this kind of thing throughout the ages, but in the end, without exception, they were not cured.Today's medical skills do not have a very good treatment method, but it is just a matter of survival.

So Lin Ruhai is now relying on various medicinal supplements and Chinese acupuncture to continue his life.

Since last year, Daiyu's letters to Zuo Xi have been full of sadness and fear.

Lin Ruhai's condition was good and bad, and sometimes he could talk to Daiyu for a few words.When it is not good, it may be sweating from pain, or unconscious, or vomiting continuously.

Daiyu has been waiting for the sick at the bedside, and she spends every day in anxiety.

Zuo Xi understood that kind of torment all too well.

Daiyu at this time is the same as when Zuo Xi was guarding in the corridor of the ICU of the hospital back then.

Every day, the doctor in charge would tell Zuo Xi about her mother's condition, sometimes it got better, sometimes it got worse, sometimes this value increased, and that value was too low.At that time, Zuo Xi spent every day in this kind of news that came and went and repeated.

Those days are so hard.Even though time has passed, when I think about it again, I still feel miserable.

Zuo Xi knew that Daiyu also encountered the same situation as she did back then, but Zuo Xi loved Daiyu even more.

Because her situation was more difficult and dangerous than her own at that time.

Folding the letter again and putting it in the envelope, Zuo Xi took a look at the small box full of letters, thought for a while, and put all the letters into his small apartment.He put the empty box on the drum stool next to the bed.

Although Ying'er and the others are not very literate, there is not much privacy for such letters outside.

After putting away the letter, Zuo Xi glanced at the time and saw that it was getting late, but she didn't feel sleepy right now.

Zuo Xi, who couldn't sleep, went back to the small apartment in a flash of his mind.

Go to the desk first and write a page in the diary, recording everything that happened in the past two days.Then I went back to the first floor and put my hand on a big rock that I didn't know when it was put into the small apartment.But in the blink of an eye, the stone changed from a pitch-black ordinary stone to a golden gold.

Gold is extremely soft, and this large piece of gold can be cut into countless pieces of small gold with large scissors.

After putting the cut gold into small pieces and extruding them into a long mold, Zuo Xi put these irregular but almost uniform gold bars into the cabinet under the stairs of the small apartment.

Zuo Xi would pick up a few small stones while taking a walk every day. Sometimes he used the excuse of going to the temple to worship the Buddha, and he would put some large stones into the small apartment when people were not paying attention when he went out.

Fortunately, her golden finger never picks stones, no matter what material the stone is made of, it can undergo qualitative changes.

Strictly speaking, agate, pearl and emerald are all stones, but Zuo Xi has never tried them.

Before I bought the silver ticket for the Xue family to sacrifice the fields, I used seven Mazar-sized Taihu stones to turn them into gold and exchanged them for silver tickets.

In the past few years, Zuo Xi exchanged half of the gold pointed out by the gold finger into silver notes, and half into silver. Some were kept in the small apartment, and some were kept in the boudoir outside.

When Zuo Xi crossed over, he knew that Aunt Xue was in charge of the Xue family's wealth.Aunt Xue took out a sum of money every year and put it in the family's public account to use for the family's family expenses, as old father Xue did when he was alive, and added it at any time if it was not enough.The original owner can check the account of the Xue family at will, and the money in the account can also be used at will, but in fact, if the amount of money that the original owner can control exceeds a certain amount, he has to discuss it with Aunt Xue.

Therefore, both the housekeeper and Ying'er thought that the money she was spending now was private money given to her by Master Xue before his death.For this point, Zuo Xi has never explained, nor can he explain.

However, compared to these trivial matters, the feeling of having spare money in one's hand makes one feel confident when doing things.

Zuo Xi sometimes worried that her golden finger was too big and would break some balance, and then the golden finger would be taken back by the time traveler, or the gold she tapped would be turned back into stone.So someone with a little thought will regularly exchange gold for silver notes and store silver in the small apartment.

Be prepared~

……

In the early morning of the next day, Zuo Xi changed into the plain dress that Ying'er had specially found out, combed her simple hair, and only wore two silver hairpins inlaid with pearls and white jade and a phoenix hairpin with pearls on her head.

"This hairpin is delicately made. Among the young masters in the Hefu, besides the girl, only Grandma Lian Er has such a good thing."

"How can others compare with our girl? The girl's jewelry is all made by us, which is cute and exquisite." Yinger heard Wen Xing say this, and smiled and said: "Although the family also raises I'm a jewelry maker, and my craftsmanship is passable, but I just don't care about it. Miss, how about wearing this pair?"

The earrings that Yinger handed to Zuo Xi were a pair of crystal leaf earrings, Zuo Xi nodded, took them casually and put them on.

Even if it is Bao Yi, she is also a girl in Qi, so Zuo Xi still has three pierced ears in one ear like everyone else.But usually I find it bothersome, the top two pairs of ear holes are only plugged with silver nails, and I only wear a pair of earrings every day.

After tidying up for a while, Zuo Xi went to Aunt Xue's main room.In the past, Xue Pan had already finished practicing arrows.

"Why didn't my sister practice archery today?" Seeing Zuo Xi, Xue Pan asked her with a smile.

"Don't mention it, I was sleepy last night, and I was dazed for a while at dawn. Now my son is still shaking when he walks." He put his hands to his lips and haha, "It's getting colder today, brother, remember to wear more clothes when you go out That's good."

As soon as Zuo Xi said that he didn't sleep well last night, Xue Pan also thought of the news he got up early and heard, "When I got up early and heard Xiaodouzi talk about it, I was taken aback. How come everything is gone?"

Xue Pan's sleep quality is good, and he didn't wake up after so many trips to the cloud last night, and Xiaodouzi went to pick Xue Pan on purpose.Not wanting to be stunned by sleep, Xue Pan kicked him, and the one who kicked him turned over with an unhappy face and continued to sleep in the dark.It was Xiaodouzi who got up early to wait for Xue Pan to wash up, and Xue Pan heard Xiaodouzi talk about it.

"Who says it's not." Zuo Xi entered the room and sat casually in her usual seat, "The former son and Feng girl coaxed the old lady to play cards, and won two dicks from mom."

Before Xue Pan could speak, Aunt Xue came out from the inner room. As she came this way, she took Zuo Xi's words, "Such a lovely person, but such a blessing. I was joking with the old lady yesterday, and your aunt still They said that the plum blossoms in their house will be in bloom in a while, and they went to his house to drink and enjoy the plum blossoms. Who would have thought that the people would be gone before the night, and I don’t know how it happened so quickly.”

Ever since Qin Keqing suffered a serious illness that year, her body and bones have not been as good as before.Originally, she was slender and weak, but since then she has a fragility that is not frightening.Although it happened suddenly, it didn't make people suspect the cause of her death.

Zuo Xi was a bit puzzled about Qin Keqing's death, but he just looked at Aunt Xue who was full of emotion and Xue Pan who was full of pity, and never expressed his doubts.

After dinner, Zuo Xi and Aunt Xue first went to Rongxi Hall to find Mrs. Wang, and then followed Mrs. Wang and other female family members of Rongguo Mansion to Ningguo Mansion to express their condolences.

Zuo Xi's side advances and retreats with all the female relatives, and there is nothing to say.It was quite surprising to see Xue Pan.

He didn't send the masonry coffin out, and even whispered to the people around him with a puzzled look on his face: "I see that brother Zhen doesn't look like a dead daughter-in-law, but more like a dead daughter-in-law." My mother." When he said this, Xue Pan, a fool, was still comparing whether he was as sad as Jia Zhen when Xue's father passed away.

Not only was Jia Zhen's attitude puzzling to Xue Pan, but even Jia Rong's attitude was quite puzzling to him.

It's not like his wife is dead, it's more like... Before Xue Pan could think about it, someone came from the palace.Not only did people come, but the news that Jia Rong had obtained Wupinlong Banwei also spread in Ningguo Mansion.

Only this moment diverted Xue Pan's attention completely.

More than 1000 taels of silver. The most important thing for his Xue family is silver.

Good guy, I'm sorry for your future.

"Drinking too much cat urine, I want to go to the house to lift tiles. If you take such a big step, you are not afraid of pulling your crotch..."

Aunt Xue was dumbfounded when she heard that her son wanted to buy an official with money, she pointed at Xue Pan and scolded him.And Zuo Xi, who was listening to the whole process, almost choked to death with a mouthful of sweet soup.

One is the words scolded for Aunt Xue, and the other is the idea of ​​donating an official for Xue Pan.

Putting down the bowl, he patted his chest again to calm himself down.Knowing that Aunt Xue's temperament is unreliable, Zuo Xi began to save the country in curves.She said with a smile on her face, "Don't be angry, Mom. It's said that great wisdom is like foolishness. I just look at my brother with that kind of meaning. Usually, he doesn't show the mountains and show the water, but he can make big decisions at critical moments. I see It’s kind of feasible to do this.”

"Your sister also thinks it's okay?"

It's okay to fart, can't you go wherever you go down-to-earth?

No matter what he thinks in his heart, Zuo Xi still nodded to Xue Pan with a look of optimism: "Why not? Isn't the Second Master Lian in this mansion also a fellow acquaintance who donated a fifth rank? Now Brother Rong in the East Mansion I also donated my background. It can be seen that donating to an official can be done as long as you have connections and can afford the money. But..."

"But what?"

"Yes, but what?"

Hearing the transitional term "but", not only Xue Pan, but even Aunt Xue began to urge Zuo Xi to continue.

"It seems that the donated officials don't have any real errands. They don't need to work or go to the court. They don't say that they know it. No one else knows that they are also officials." After a pause, Zuo Xi looked at Aunt Xue , and look at Xue Pan, "The most important thing in our family is money. In terms of connections, whether it's uncle or Jiuye, as long as my brother wants it, he can donate an official to do it. When my brother donates an official, Mom is the wife of Gaoming, and I am also a lady from the official family, and my background is no lower than that of the girls in this mansion.

It's just that Jia Lian and Brother Rong are incompetent people, so they donate if they donate.But my brother has real skills, his archery skills are superb, even if he can't shoot through Yang with a hundred steps now, he will become a great weapon in time.In the eyes of people with real ability, this donating official is like cheating. In the future, even if my brother stands in the court with real ability, he may still be looked down upon by his colleagues.That's all, I'm afraid of donating an official for the sake of the future, but in the end the future will be delayed because of the donation.Official salt has become private salt. Is brother willing? "

"...Naturally I'm not reconciled."

That's it.

Zuo Xi disapproves of donating officials.I am worried that after Xue Pan donates his official position, he will not practice arrows as hard as he is now, and finally slowly return to the original character setting, ruining the current situation.And Xue Pan, just as Zuo Xi intended, began to waver.But Aunt Xue on the side started to drag Zuo Xi back, "If your brother donates the official position, the people you look at will be able to improve."

Aunt Xue, who has been watching the marriage for Xue Pan, knows her own situation.

Officials, they look down on the Xue family.A merchant's house, Aunt Xue still doesn't like him.It's really high or low.But if his son donated an official, the situation would be different.

The Xue family really needs a good marriage.

Zuo Xi: "..."

Donating officials = good marriage?

This problem is too real.