The red building is so arrogant

Chapter 390 Exogenous branches [Secondary [-]]

It was still this afternoon.

Inside the Qingtang hut in the Grand View Garden.

As usual, Aunt Xue was only wearing a small dress, twisting a coral bracelet with one hand, and gently shaking the round fan with half of her snow-white arm, sitting cross-legged on the kang like a bodhisattva.

Baochai, on the other hand, was sitting dignifiedly and neatly on the embroidered pier, holding a letter and reading it word by word.

After a long time, she put down the letter in her hand, raised her head and said to Aunt Xue: "It's strange that he suddenly left Beijing to go south, but he almost became the target of public criticism."

As he spoke, he shook the letter in his hand again: "This letter has already pointed out the key point, and with my assistance, brother will definitely win the prize this time!"

No matter what the Xue family's original purpose was, Jiao Shun was able to detect the danger in time this time, thanks to the Xue family's tip-off.

What's more, he made a promise earlier.

Therefore, in the midst of her busy schedule, she asked her mother Xu to send a letter. The letter roughly analyzed the possible situations that the imperial merchants collectively petitioned for orders, and gave several suggestions for the current situation of the Ministry of Industry and Engineering. And relatively gentle, yet effective advice.

As long as Xue Pan followed suit, he would not dare to say that he stood out from the crowd among the imperial merchants, but at least it could change people's impression of him as a dumb king.

"I hope so."

Aunt Xue sighed slightly, turned around tremblingly, and handed the tea that was hanging on the kang table to her daughter: "I don't ask for any good luck, but if your brother's marriage can be settled sooner, I will be thankful." gone."

I asked my sister-in-law [Wang Ziteng's wife] to help find a marriage for Xue Pan, and it has been two or three months, and she has done her best there, but Xue Pan's reputation is really bad. , all shaking their heads - it's okay to have a bad reputation, but the word 'dumb' really discouraged them.

As for those small households who want to cling to, let alone Aunt Xue is not happy, even Baochai can't pass it.

This is also the reason why Baochai is eager to make his brother shine.

Listening to her mother's lack of self-confidence, Baochai was about to say a few words of relief, when she suddenly heard Aunt Xue's concern: "What did you say to be a target of public criticism? Could it be that Brother Shun has encountered some danger? Our family may be able to help The place?"

Because of Xu's family, Aunt Xue always regarded Jiao Shun as her close nephew and nephew. Later, the marriage between the two families fell apart. Although the main reason was Baoyu, Aunt Xue always felt that she owed Jiao Shun.

So when she heard that Jiao Shun was in trouble, her first thought was to help as much as possible.

Baochai smiled and said, "Mom is worrying too much. Brother Jiao went south to Guangdong and Guangxi just to avoid disaster. By the time he returns to Beijing, the turmoil will be over long ago."

"That's fine, that's fine."

Aunt Xue patted her chest gently with the hand holding the round fan, and the little clothes suddenly felt a little overwhelmed.

Xue Baochai looked away hesitantly, folded the letter paper and put it in his bag, got up and said: "I'll think about this letter when I go back, and see if there is anything that can be deleted. Do it accordingly."

Aunt Xue hurriedly got up and followed suit, holding on to her embroidered shoes and begging to stay: "You can go after dinner here."

"No."

Baochai sighed: "Sister Yun got the news yesterday, and she has been embroidering purses non-stop, saying that she wants to give it to Brother Jiao to practice. I have to go back and watch her, lest that crazy girl get exhausted."

Aunt Xue heard the words and didn't hold her back, she put on her coat and sent her daughter out of the house, looked at the sky, and then went to the main room where Mrs. Wang was staying.

Speaking of the main room, the furnishings here are far less refined and elegant than Aunt Xue's room, with simplicity and cleanliness everywhere, plus Mrs. Wang's unadorned commoner clothes, those who don't know may think that she is a widow.

Seeing his younger sister coming in from outside, Mrs. Wang Gujing Wubo showed a slight smile on her face, raised her finger and pointed to the opposite side of the kang table, and asked, "Why didn't you leave Bao girl here to eat?"

"I said I wanted to go back to see Miss Shi, so I didn't keep her."

After Aunt Xue sat down, she turned to look at her sister sideways. After falling out with Jia Zheng for the second time, Mrs. Wang was visibly calmer, and her face changed from the original dignified and kind to calm and composed.

In the eyes of outsiders, she was completely disheartened after being frustrated, and she was going to spend the rest of her life in this hut with the green light of the ancient Buddha.

Only Aunt Xue knows what kind of anger is wrapped in her cloth.

"Ah."

Mrs. Wang nodded slightly, and suddenly said: "Is it because of Jiao Shun's trip to Guangdong and Guangxi?"

Her address to Jiao Shun has changed several times in the past few years. At first it was "the boy from Lai Wang's family", and later Jiao Shun became an official and came under Jia Zheng's eyes, and became "Brother Shun".

Later, Wang Ziteng personally named Jiao Shun, so she took advantage of the situation and changed her name to 'Changqing'.

And recently, because of Jia Zheng's inexplicable suspicion, she began to call him by his first name again, in order to show their estrangement.

Seeing Aunt Xue nodded, Mrs. Wang hesitated again and again, but couldn't help asking: "That's all right, why is he suddenly going to the south with Marquis Baoling?"

Aunt Xue said in a daze, "I don't know much about it. I heard from Baochai that something troublesome happened, so I have to go out to avoid it."

"Ah~"

Mrs. Wang sighed: "It's not easy for him, after all, his background is too poor, so he will inevitably suffer from others in the officialdom..."

Most of the time, she suddenly thought of something again, and her face suddenly sank: "You said it might be your brother-in-law secretly..."

"No way!"

Aunt Xue was stunned, thought for a while and repeated: "Impossible?"

The same three words have completely different meanings. The former is a negation that comes out of the mouth, while the latter brings some uncertain suspicions.

Mrs. Wang didn't say anything, but her face became more and more cold.

Seeing this, Aunt Xue faltered for a while with a bitter face, and suddenly a flash of inspiration flashed in her mind, she hurriedly comforted her and said, "If brother-in-law really did something, wouldn't it prove that he still cares about sister?"

"Humph~"

Mrs. Wang sneered: "What he cares about is his own face and reputation. If he really cares about me, why would he be suspicious of it for no reason?!"

That's what she said, but her expression softened obviously, and she thought that when Baochai came over next time, she would ask if that was the case.

…………

However, Aunt Zhao didn't get the news of Jiao Shun's upcoming journey until this afternoon, and immediately went to Qiushuang Zhai and complained to Tanchun repeatedly.

"This damned cruel thief!"

She crossed Yang Liuman's waist, pointed to the outside like a teapot and cursed: "It's fine to belittle Brother Huan before, but now you don't discuss such a big matter with us!"

In fact, Tanchun had already learned from Shi Xiangyun that Jiao Shun was about to go south to Guangdong and Guangxi, and further obtained a lot of related information from Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai.

Therefore, I didn't find it strange at Aunt Zhao's words, but said indifferently: "What does this have to do with me? I just hope that the boat will capsize halfway, and feed all those evil, evil, greedy, and treacherous to Wang Balao! "

Does that mean it's okay?
Aunt Zhao rolled her eyes and sat down at the table. She didn't care if it was Tanchun's leftover tea, she picked it up and drank half a cup. Then she said, "What shall we do now that he's gone? They say he's catching traitors." To catch a thief and take the stolen goods, the adulterer is gone, so how can you grab that woman by the fox's tail?"

"Not necessarily the wife."

Although Tanchun believed that Mrs. Wang was innocent, he also knew that Aunt Zhao was on the edge of her own horn, and she couldn't persuade her no matter what if she didn't provide evidence, so she just made an ambiguous sentence and changed the subject again: " After he left, my aunt happened to have a few days to celebrate her birthday, so it is reasonable to urge Brother Huan to study and improve."

After a pause, he suggested again: "I heard that Brother Lang has gained a lot recently, why not send Brother Huan to the academy and let their uncle and nephew be companions?"

"just forget it."

Aunt Zhao waved her hands repeatedly when she heard the words: "With your brother's temper, I'm afraid it's not to study, but to make enemies!"

Although she is not self-aware, she is very clear about her son's temper.

Hearing her words, Tanchun was unreasonable, so he had no choice but to quiet down, sighing to himself that Jia Huan was not up to date.

At this time, Aunt Zhao suddenly asked curiously again: "You said he is going to the south all of a sudden, what is the reason?"

"It should be going south to avoid disaster."

In fact, Tanchun had been thinking about this matter for a long time, and he blurted out: "Since he wants to get rid of the old malpractice and implement the new policy, he will inevitably offend the villain. Which one of the famous ministers and officials in ancient and modern times is not full of disasters and dangers?"

"Emotions are like that."

Only then did Aunt Zhao suddenly realize: "It's strange that he doesn't have time to pay attention to Brother Huan, it turns out he's too busy to take care of himself."

As he spoke, he suddenly sensed something was wrong, looked up at his daughter curiously, and said, "How do you know so clearly? What kind of famous minister can be an official, could it be..."

"Humph!"

Tanchun interrupted Aunt Zhao's words with a cold snort, and said with a pretty face, "I heard what Xiangyun, Sister Lin, and Sister Bao said—although I despise his behavior, he has indeed done some things to benefit the country. There is no need to shy away from the matter of benefiting the people!"

On the surface, these words were not leaking, but in fact, she was quite confused in her heart.

Tanchun has always been a person with a heroic complex, and what she admires the most are those good generals who are indomitable and capable. If there is any sadness in herself, it will make her even more tender.

Ever since she lost her life to Jiao Shun, with the intention of knowing herself and her enemy, she has learned a lot about Jiao Shun's actions in the officialdom.

At first, due to the emotion of disgust, the subjective judgment was inevitably biased.

But recently, I was disturbed by Jianxie's remarks, and this evaluation was revised unconsciously.

Now that she heard that Jiao Shun was forced by conservative forces to go south to Guangdong and Guangxi in order to carry out the New Deal, she somehow felt the same.

In the past two days, I have been really annoyed by this several times.

And after each time, she regretted that she shouldn't think about things from Jiao Shun's standpoint, but invisibly, she had already recognized Jiao Shun's image as a capable official.

"嘁~"

Seeing her daughter's righteous words, Aunt Zhao didn't buy it, she raised a slender and straight leg on the round stool, and said proudly instead of ashamed: "I said earlier that this matter is nothing, you are young I don't know much, and there are many dirty things in the mansion gate, not to mention that we are with outsiders, even relatives and brothers are not without..."

"Auntie!"

Tanchun snarled, stepped forward and opened the door and said, "I can't tolerate those dirty things here, Auntie should go talk about it elsewhere!"

"嘁~"

Aunt Zhao originally wanted to tell some old news about Ningguo Mansion, but her daughter unceremoniously ordered her to leave, so she got up and walked out indignantly.

When she was outside Qiushuangzhai, she subconsciously looked in the direction of Qingtang hut, and said angrily: "Let you be free for a while, sooner or later I will find out your fox tail and skin your fox!"

…………

"Ahh~Ahh~"

In Dongkua courtyard, Mrs. Xing was swearing that she would never hide her body, when suddenly she sneezed twice, so she hastily covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief.

Jia Amnesty hid back somewhat disgusted, looked around again, and saw that he had searched all the places that could be searched, and found nothing but a few taels of silver, so he could only walk away resentfully.

Watching him go away, Xing breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that she had given all the money to Jiao Shun, otherwise Jia She would probably spend all her money on it again.

Thinking about Jiao Shun's promise of twice the return, she prayed to God and worshiped Buddha, hoping that this 'beloved' would return as soon as possible.

…………

Ningguo Mansion.

After Jia Rong sent Jiao Shun away, she had dinner with her father, Jia Zhen, and then Shi Shiran returned home.

After entering the gate of the courtyard, you can see that the two lower corridors are already full of boxes, big and small. The maids and women are still wearing flowers and butterflies, constantly holding out things from the inside, and putting them in by category.

Seeing this, Jia Rong raised her voice and said: "Put all the wife's things aside first, and just pack the master's luggage first."

With that said, he stepped into the hall.

In the main room, Mrs. Xu had already received the report, so she hurried forward and asked, "What did you mean by that? Why don't I need to pack my luggage?"

Jia Rong bypassed her and slumped on Luoshan's bed, and said nonchalantly, "I'm thinking about it, you'd better stay in the capital."

"what?!"

Xu's anxious tears came out, and he held his handkerchief and held his heart and questioned: "My lord promised to take me with me, my natal family's 5000 taels of silver..."

"How dare you say it!"

Jia Rong suddenly turned down: "Your family is a salt merchant, and your net worth is more than a million? How can you use such a small amount of money to send beggars?! Besides, I didn't take it for nothing. By then, your natal family will still have some money. !"

Saying that, he got up and waved his hands impatiently: "That's the matter, you stay here to serve the master and wife."

Before the words fell, people had already picked up the curtain and entered the inner room.

Xu finally couldn't help crying bitterly, and the last hope for Jia Rong in her heart disappeared without a trace.

"grandmother."

I don't know how long it took before her big servant girl came out from the room, leaned over and whispered: "I just heard that Second Master Qiang begged his wife to stay in the capital. Why don't you do it?" Learn from..."

Although this maid was occupied by Jia Rong, she knew that Jia Rong was unreliable, so her mind was still attached to Xu.

Xu hesitated and said: "But, but my wife has never liked me very much."

"What time does it matter?"

The servant girl persuaded her earnestly: "At this point, we can only treat dead horses as living horse doctors!"

It is reasonable for Mrs. Xu to listen to her words, and this is the only life-saving straw she can grasp now.

So he went to You's courtyard and knelt down and cried all night.

Seeing how pitiful she was, Youshi was also moved to feel sorry for her, but in the end he could only express helplessly: "I can't hide my affairs from you, so let's just tell the truth. If your Uncle Jiao is in the capital, I will protect you." Naturally, it's not difficult; but now that he's going south with him, it's not easy for me to protect brother Xiong, so can you still control me?"

Xu was completely desperate at this point, her eyes were like peaches from crying all night...

(End of this chapter)