Struggle of Baochai

Don't talk about Baochai, just say that the other eight households of Xue's family in Jinling heard that something happened to Xue Hong, so they got together to discuss.

Xue Hong's side is the direct descendant of Xue's parents, and now there are only two brothers Xue Hong and Xue An. Xue Hong is the eldest and the head of the Xue family. During the restructuring of the Qing Dynasty, Xue Hong was also a talent. Taking advantage of the time, he took many orders from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, bought many new-style textile machines and set up textile workshops, and started businesses such as porcelain, jewelry, and hotels. The Xue family's business is booming, and the other families who have already made them jealous.

And Xue Hong's brother, Xue An, has never been a stable person. Since the separation, he has taken his wife and children abroad to start foreign trade business. Due to the distance in these years, the two brothers have not seen much, but The relationship between the two brothers is really good. Xue An often sends letters to his brother and sister-in-law to tell him about his situation. It is said that Xue An's business is doing very well, and he earns no less money than Xue Hong.

Now that Xue An is not in the Qing Dynasty, and with the fall of Xue Hong, only Xue Pan is left in the branch of the Changfang, a dude who can't support the family. The wealth of the long house.

On this day, the other seven houses got together to discuss how to share the wealth of the long house.

The old man of the fourth room is still in good health, and he is also the oldest in the Xue family. He is called the fourth master, and the meeting place of the other seven rooms is the fourth master's house.

Xue Ding, the eldest son of the fifth room, stood up and bowed to the fourth master, and said in a loud voice: "Si Bo, now Brother Hong's life or death is uncertain, and Pan'er has gone to the capital again. There are only two women in the family, sister-in-law and niece. My nephew is thinking about it." I thought we should take care of it, but my nephew is not talented, so I thought about going to my elder brother's house to help manage the housework, and someone else should take care of those other shops."

Xue Fu of the third room didn't want to do it when he heard it, and immediately stood up anxiously: "What do you mean? Don't think that no one knows your little thoughts, butler? With your greedy appearance, I'm afraid you have to take care of all the money Put it in your own pocket, and help manage the shop? Don't give the shop manager a foreign name."

"Lao Liu, what do you mean by that?" Xue Ding quit: "I have a good heart, so how can I have so many dirty minds as you said, or that you have no good intentions and saved others by yourself, so you think that no one is innocent. Be safe."

"Who has no good intentions." Xue Fu yelled: "You don't mention it if you are afraid that others will say it. What's the matter? If you want to make money, it depends on whether your brothers agree or not."

Xue Kuan from the seventh room waved his fan, smiling like a fox: "Sixth brother said yes, tenth brother, this is your fault, none of us brothers are worried about something happening to the eldest room, even if we help, we should all be of one mind Working together is the right thing to do."

The fourth master just coughed now, picked up the teacup and drank water: "Sixteen is right, old ten, you are impatient, so let's do this, the second and third rooms ask your daughters-in-law to go to Hong'er to help Hong'er." The daughter-in-law will take care of the housework, and we will go to look after Hong'er's jewelry shop with the fourth and fifth rooms, the sixth and seventh rooms will manage the hotel, and the eighth room will guard the porcelain factory."

The distribution of the fourth master seems to be fair, but no one knows that the four-bedroom and five-bedroom shops take a big advantage. The most profitable shops in the long house are jewelry shops. Xue An brought back many kinds of gemstones from abroad. These gemstones It was extremely popular in the Qing Dynasty, especially in the Jiangnan area. It was very popular with the wives and girls. Xue Hong's jewelry shop is simply a cash cow, and the four and five houses will manage it. I am afraid that the jewelry shop will have to fall to them in the future. .

It's just that the seniority of the fourth master is there, and all the houses have benefited, so no one said anything, so they discussed how to discuss with Mrs. Xue, how to get her to agree to the business of everyone entering the long house.

The Seventh House of Xue's family was playing tricks, and Baochai didn't know how long she woke up from a daze. She opened her eyes and looked at the sun outside. The sun shone in and hurt her eyes. Baochai knew that she had slept for a long time before she opened her eyes. My eyes were not used to it, so I closed my eyes and opened them slowly after a while. Looking around, I saw that the room was very quiet, only Xiangling lay there in front of the desk on one side and fell asleep, and Yinger was sitting at the other door. Sewing on a stool.

"Yinger," Baochai said, her voice hoarse.

When Yinger heard this, she put down her sewing and ran over. She said happily, "Girl, you're awake. What's wrong with the girl? By the way, I'll ask someone to tell the wife, so that she won't worry about it."

"How many days have I slept?" Baochai asked.

"One day and one night." Ying'er lowered her head and wept: "The girl lost her mind, we were all frightened, and my wife seemed to be distressed. We were all worried about this day, and even the little girl was also very worried. If you insist on guarding the girl until she wakes up, no one will listen to her advice."

Baochai's heart warmed when she heard that, she was very close to Xiangling in her previous life, and now she is somewhat grateful to hear that Xiangling treats her so sincerely.

Asking Ying'er to help her up, Baochai suddenly remembered something. She thought of her father's death in her previous life, and how the Xue family's seven households persecuted their orphans and widowed mothers, and her face turned pale again.

"Ying'er, go and invite your mother, just say that I have something to discuss." Baochai pushed Yinger and told her to invite Mrs. Xue. Baochai didn't know if Mrs. Xue wrote to the Wang family after she passed out and asked her uncle to send someone She came to help take care of the affairs, she was terrified that the Qifang would take advantage of the chaos to search, and the Qifang were all ruthless, if one was not careful, they might take the property of the big house as their own, and take their mother and daughter Swallow it into the belly together with the skin and bones.

While she was worried, Xiangling woke up, seeing Baochai sitting on the bed, she was overjoyed for a while, and hurried over to touch Baochai carefully, and when she found that she was indeed awake, Xiangling smiled very sweetly.

Ying'er hurried to invite Mrs. Xue, Baochai held Xiangling's hand and said weakly: "I'm really sorry, I wanted you to stay at my house, and then I will find your parents for you. How did you know that you were fooled?" Things, I haven't been taking care of them these days."

"Where are you talking?" Xiangling burst into tears when she heard this: "If it weren't for you, I would still treat the kidnapper as my father, being beaten and scolded. The dirty place has ruined my innocence, and your family has shown me a great kindness, and you are willing to take me to take care of it, I am already grateful, if you still say these kind words, I will feel even more ashamed."

While talking, Mrs. Xue came in holding Tongfu's hand. As soon as she entered the door, she saw that Baochai was fine and shed tears for a while. This incident persuaded Xiangling and the others to go out, and when only the mother and daughter were left in the house, Baochai grabbed Mrs. Xue's hand and wept: "Mom, it's all my fault. If it wasn't for my bad ideas, Daddy won't either..."

"My son, how can Mom blame you." Mrs. Xue put her arms around Baochai to comfort her, "This is fate, and besides, you are also doing it for the good of our family."

Baochai lay in Mrs. Xue's arms, tears streaming down like strings of dropped pearls: "Mom, now Daddy doesn't know what to do, and my elder brother has left again. Only our mother and daughter are left at home. I'm afraid someone will look for you." Regarding our matter, Mom should write a letter to Uncle, asking Uncle to send someone to help, so as to save others from making bad ideas."

Mrs. Xue nodded quickly: "What my son said is that Mom has written to your uncle, saying that the steward of your uncle's house will come over in a few days, let's hold on for a few more days, and when your uncle sends someone, we will not be afraid gone."

"Mom is thoughtful." Baochai felt certain after hearing this, "I'll send Yinger to Zhu's house in a while, and ask sister Xiuzhen to ask for leave. I'm afraid I won't be able to go to school for a few days."