The Kangping Life of Mrs. Xing in Honglou

Chapter 26 Jia Baoyu Opens Mengning State Mansion to Negotiate Marriage

Five months after leaving Jia Lian on duty, Zhang Junhao, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, received a letter from Jia She. After reading the contents of the letter, Zhang Junhao was furious, scolding Jia She for his incompetence. A counselor can't do such a small thing well. Doesn't he still have a brother-in-law who is a patrolling censor in Yangzhou? Yangzhou has only been back and forth for three months, so how come he asks him far away for help? With the back and forth and the arrangement and operation, no matter what, a year has passed. If something really happened, the day lily would be cold.

No matter how much he disagrees with Jia Amnesty in his heart, Jia Lian is his sister's only son, and he can't ignore it. After thinking about it, he sent a letter to his son's instructor, Weng Yifan, asking him to recommend someone who is familiar with various ministries of the court. Jia Lian sent another letter from his counselor. In the same year, he sent a letter to Gu Nianyan, the Minister of Rites, asking him to take care of Jia Lian in the ministry.

After dealing with these, Zhang Junhao read Jia She's letter again. Jia Lian is now 19 years old, and his talented sister has also passed away for 19 years. He took out a painting from the drawer under the desk, opened it, and it was A dignified, beautiful and elegant woman is leaning against the window to admire the moon.

Zhang Junhao looked at the person in the painting, and said silently in his heart: "Sister, Lian'er has already married and established a business. That bastard Jia She, knowing that you and the Wang family are not getting along, even asked Lian'er to marry the daughter of the Wang family as a gift." Daughter-in-law, how can he be worthy of you for acting like this? Years ago, Lian'er joined the Ministry of Rites as an errand, and he wrote to ask for help, asking me to help Lian'er. My sister's only son, I will help him no matter what, sister, you can rest in peace."

Zhang Junhao put away the painting, picked up the pen, and wrote a letter to his eldest son in Beijing. His eldest son, Zhang Qingshu, was taking the scientific examination in Beijing this year. Zhang Junhao thought twice about writing, and in the letter asked his eldest son to meet Jia Lian in private.

Not to mention Zhang Junhao's entanglement in his heart, the Rongguo Mansion is already in chaos.

The old lady was bedridden when she heard the news of Jia Zhu's death. After Mrs. Wang was slapped by Xing Yue, she was in a trance. When she went down the steps, one of them accidentally fell and hurt her head. Now she is also lying on the bed. Li Wan was pregnant and rested in bed. For a while, no one in the second-bedroom inner house was able to come forward to take care of Jia Zhu's funeral. Xing Yue could not count on it. Wang Xifeng had never handled the funeral. The old lady made the decision. The old Mrs. Xu was in charge, and the big house Wang Xifeng assisted in taking care of Jia Zhu's funeral.

Mrs. Xu from the East Mansion can help for a while, but she can't stay to be the housekeeper of the Rongguo Mansion. The old lady thought over and over again in her heart. Yue and Wang Xifeng called over to discuss.

"I brought your mother-in-law and daughter-in-law here today just for the sake of housekeeping, eldest daughter-in-law, you see that the second room is old and sick, and now Zhu's daughter-in-law is pregnant, that is the only one left by my poor grandson." Flesh and blood, no matter what, I have to keep it. This Pearl daughter-in-law will put aside everything for the time being and concentrate on raising the baby. No one can manage this huge family. Come here and help the housekeeper, what do you think?" The old lady said, although she meant to ask for advice, her tone could not be refuted.

"The old lady is old, so she should enjoy the blessings. Zhu's daughter-in-law is pregnant, so she naturally puts the child first and cannot take care of the house. As for Mrs. Wang, I have consulted the imperial physician. Her injuries are no longer serious. I think it is better to let her go." Mrs. Wang can take care of it herself, besides, although the family has not been divided, but the family property has already been divided, it is not appropriate to let Lian's daughter-in-law take care of the second brother's property." Xing Yue refused without thinking, and let Wang Xifeng take care of it. The second room's mess, Wang Xifeng's clever idea, is not Wang's opponent at all, isn't it the same as the original book?She will never agree.

"Because of Zhu'er's death, the second daughter-in-law is in a trance, praying in front of the Buddha all day, I'm afraid she can't do anything." The old lady has heard what happened to Xing Yue and Mrs. Wang before, and she can't wait to Wang's death, her poor grandson, young and promising, was killed by Wang's.

"Old lady, it's not that I don't agree. After all, it's a division of the family property. Lian's daughter-in-law can't take care of her uncle's house. The name is not right, so what do others think? Besides, Lian's daughter-in-law is still in charge of the big house. Well. In my opinion, it is better for the second younger sibling to take care of it. With the distraction of the stewardship, it can also reduce the pain of bereavement. This Baoyu is still young, and the second younger sibling will always be like this." Xing Yue is desperate Agree, although she wants the Wang family to live a lifetime in front of the Buddha, but she can't let Wang Xifeng take care of the second room's house anymore. Wang Xifeng takes care of the first room and the second room. This is different from before.

According to her estimation, it was the old lady's idea to make Wang Xifeng the housekeeper. The Wang family may not know that in the Dream of the Red Chamber, it was because the two families did not divide the property. With Wang's greed for money, how could it be possible for Wang Xifeng to get his hands on the property of the second room.

Xing Yue's guess was right. This time Wang Xifeng was asked to be the housekeeper. The old lady did not ask Mrs. Wang. Before Mrs. Xu and Wang Xifeng were allowed to take care of Jia Zhu's funeral, Mrs. Wang really couldn't manage it, and she couldn't let the eldest son be careless like that I'm gone, I have to agree.

Seeing that Xing Yue was determined not to let go, the old lady knew that there was no way out here, she was not feeling well, and she didn't have the mentality to get Xing Yue to agree, so she planned to go another way and go directly to Jia Amnesty and Jia Lian. Presumably if she spoke, they would definitely agreed.

Seeing that the old lady didn't speak, Xing Yue wondered why the old lady gave up so quickly. Xing Yue decided to keep her hand, got on the carriage and left Rongguo Mansion, and told the little girl to tell Wang's ears about today's events.After returning home, Wang Xifeng was also left behind.

"Lian's daughter-in-law, today I rejected the old lady's proposal, are you not happy?" Xing Yue looked at Wang Xifeng and asked.

"Daughter-in-law is not unhappy." She said so, and she was very unhappy in her heart. She didn't think there was anything wrong with being a housekeeper for her aunt. Just helping to take care of Jia Zhu's funeral, her private treasury had a lot of money. She paid 2000 taels of silver. If she could manage the house, she would get more than that.

"Don't coax me, I don't know your thoughts yet, and you don't even think about it. Is your aunt a good person? You want to take her money, don't pay the dowry and break the army, and put yourself The dowry is put in." Xing Yue saw through Wang Xifeng's careful thinking at a glance, this Wang's daughter is ignorant, seeing money, she suffered a loss once, and she doesn't have a long memory, so she joins Wang's side.

Wang Xifeng stood on the side with her head bowed and did not speak, she knew in her heart that what Xing Yue said was right, her aunt was counting on her from the beginning, if she was the housekeeper, she would definitely not get well.

Xing Yue looked at Wang Xifeng, who put away his small thoughts, and said, "It's good that you understand in your heart, your aunt, hmph, your elder brother Zhu passed away, and Lian'er has nine months of meritorious service. Now that Lian'er is an official, it's time to talk about it." If there is any trouble in your house, if there is a child in your clothes, I will be the first to forgive you." Xing Yue warned Wang Xifeng that these are all laws, and now Jia Lian If you have a real job, you must pay attention to this.

"I have a set of imperial court regulations here. When you are free, ask the people around you to read it to you. It will save you from doing illegal things when you don't know, and hurting Lian'er." Xing Yue originally planned to ask the nanny to teach her For Yingchun and Wang Xifeng, it's just that it's hard to find a nanny from this palace.

The four nuns enshrined by her family had taught Yuanchun before. Xing Yue worried that these people were not loyal, so she led Yingchun and Wang Xifeng to the wrong place.After the new year, Yingchun will be six years old, it's time to learn the rules, if you still can't invite a suitable nanny, then you can only let the four nanny in the family teach.

When Xing Yue saw Jia Amnesty, she taught him what the old lady said today, so that he could have a bottom line in his mind, don't think about anything, and agreed to the old lady.Sure enough, the old lady called Jia Zheng and Jia She over at night. When she mentioned this matter, Jia She was prepared and declined to go back.

On the second day after receiving the news, Mrs. Wang begged to go to the old lady's house to pay her respects, saying that Zhu'er had passed away, and she wanted to take Baoyu back to live in her yard to comfort her in the pain of losing her son.Half of it is out of sincerity, and the other half is to deliberately anger the old lady. If you want to hand over the butler power to Wang Xifeng without saying a word, I will take the old lady, your sweetheart, away from my side.

How could the old lady not know what Wang meant, she was dissatisfied with her, and then she said, you are in charge of everyone, how can you have time to look after Gu Baoyu, Baoyu should be under my nose to rest assured.Only then did Wang go back contentedly.

The eldest son with high hopes passed away. After Jia Zheng was sad, he pinned his hopes on the other two sons. It's just that Jia Huan had just learned how to walk and couldn't speak clearly. Naturally, the five-year-old Baoyu became the object of Jia Zheng's attention. , was carried to the study from time to time to be questioned by Jia Zheng.

Jia Zheng was very worried about the fact that Baoyu caught Rouge when he caught Zhou, and he had a promising eldest son before him, so he neglected a lot of Baoyu's education in recent years. Baoyu wrote a lot of words. After Jia Zheng took the school examination, he specially invited a teacher to come into the mansion to give lectures to Baoyu. Didn't he turn up his face and scold Jia Zheng, Jia Zhu has exhausted his body because of studying, does he also want Baoyu to follow in the footsteps of his elder brother?Prevent Jia Amnesty from discipline.

Wearing mourning at home, it is not easy to go to other places, so Xing Yue went to Dongfu to visit. Mrs. Xu and You Shi were discussing with Jia Rong and Jia Qiang with a brochure. After the three of them were polite, Xing Yue saw Looking at the brochures and portraits scattered on the table.

"Sister-in-law, nephew and daughter-in-law, are you going to choose a daughter-in-law for Rong'er and Qiang'er? You are interested." Xing Yue secretly sighed, this trip was worth it, and she wanted to know how Qin Keqing would get in From the Jia family, is her identity as noble and private as everyone guessed?

"Sister and sister, you came just in time. Help us take a look. We have picked out a few of them, but we haven't made a final decision yet." Mrs. Xu and You Shi have been looking at a bunch of portraits for several days, and finally Five satisfactory ones were picked out, but in the end it has not been decided which one.

Jia Zhen is now a third-class general. When Jia Rong and the others arrive, they will have no titles to attack, so their wives can only be found in the families of third- and fourth-rank officials.

Mrs. Xu took out the selected portrait and showed it to Xing Yue. Xing Yue took it and looked at it. The woman in the painting was graceful and slender, looking like a romantic beauty. Looking at the annotation next to it, it was Qin Keqing, the daughter of Qin Bangye. Xing Yue's hand holding the painting trembled slightly, pretending to be indifferent and listening to You Shi's explanation, after listening to Youshi's explanation, she put down the painting as if nothing had happened, picked up the other paintings and looked at them carefully. female.

Xing Yue finished reading and thought to herself, since God gave her this opportunity, she would not let Qin Keqing, who caused trouble, enter the gate of the East Mansion. The East Mansion and the West Mansion have not released five clothes yet. This East Mansion committed a crime. Xifu will be implicated.

From the other four portraits, I looked and looked carefully, and picked out two with good looks and good conduct, and said: "Sister-in-law, nephew and daughter-in-law, I think these two are suitable for Rong'er, this Liu Tongyun, looks The appearance is outstanding, the expression between the eyebrows is also dignified and gentle, the housekeeper is also very good, he treats people and things well, and handles them well. His father works in the official department, and Rong'er will be an official in the future. It is also a great help, and this, too Not bad, I think it's good to play with Rong'er."

"Auntie, my mother was optimistic about this Qin Keqing. Her father, Qin Bangye, was a fifth-rank official, but he was an upright official with a good reputation. I heard that Qin Keqing was gentle in character and generous in handling things, and was a perfect match for Rong'er." You Shi He picked up Qin Keqing's portrait and said.

Hearing Youshi's words, Xing Yue's heart was alarmed, and he must dispel the idea of ​​the two of them. He took Qin Keqing's painting and said: "Sister-in-law, niece and daughter-in-law, this girl is outstanding in appearance and graceful. From a human point of view, she should be pretty good, but this girl was brought back by Mr. Qin from the Yangsheng Tang since she was a child. That is to say, Mr. Qin is only her adoptive father, and Rong'er's wife is the clan wife. Appropriate, secondly, this marriage is a good marriage between the two surnames, and this adopted daughter is not appropriate; thirdly, I see this girl, there is a little more flirtatious between her eyebrows and eyes..." Xing Yue did not finish speaking, but the two Realizing what Xing Yue was going to say, they all nodded.

"Thanks to my brother and sister reminding me that I didn't consider it properly. It is indeed wrong to hire this woman as the wife of the Jia family." What is the Yangshengtang? It is a place to adopt abandoned children. Jia's family was also implicated, and put Qin Keqing's portrait among the remaining portraits.

Then I looked at the portraits Mrs. Xu and Youshi had chosen for Jia Qiang, and picked out two of them. After dinner, I went home. Looking at the attitudes of Mrs. Xu and Youshi, I didn’t know the identity of Qin Keqing. Could it be that Qin Keqing's noble status was fabricated by others? Xing Yue shook her head and put this thought to the back of her mind. Now is not the time to think about it.