dream of red mansion

Chapter 20

After Jia Qing came out of Jia Jing's study, he went straight back to his yard, which was Yipintang.

After entering the courtyard, without disturbing other people, he went directly to the flower hall.It is said to be a flower hall, but it is actually a small courtyard without a roof, located in the northeast corner of Yipin Hall.

The current flower hall is very different from two months ago. Two months ago, there were only a dozen or so pots of flowers in the flower hall, of which only two pots were treasures, one pot of peonies and one pot of bluegrass.

But now in the flower hall, there are all kinds of flowers in twos and threes.There are plum blossoms of Lingshuang and Aoxue among the ten famous classical flowers in China; chrysanthemums of independent frosts; magnificent camellias.
There are also other precious and rare flowers, among which a potted crabapple is the most fancy of Jia Qing.

Most of these potted flowers are just seedlings and cuttings. After careful cultivation by Jia Qing and the maids in the yard, each of them is growing well.

Half of planting so many flowers is for hobbies to pass the time, and the other half is because he is going to have a great use.

If I remember correctly, there are many scenes of various rare flowers appearing in the Red Mansion, which means that there are many people who love and cherish flowers in this world.And the people who can have the leisure time to grow flowers are mostly wealthy and noble families, and this is exactly the person he wants to make friends with.

Of course, with the flowers he grows like this, carefully pruned and carefully cultivated, they are worth only a few taels of silver at most, and are of little use to him.

But if he can use some modern methods to breed some more unique varieties than the original flowers, and even use the greenhouse to bloom winter flowers in summer, wouldn't it be extremely precious?He believes that the ancients may have such methods, but they must be very simple and impossible to compare with him.At that time, it will be very useful whether it is to give someone or sell to people who love flowers.

It's still early to think about it now, his flowers are still in the initial stage of cultivation, it's still too early to breed 'exotic flowers', and he is still preparing related matters.

After tossing around in the flower hall for a while, Pei Feng and other maidservants also came after hearing the news.

As soon as they entered the door, Jia Qing said: "There is not enough mud for growing flowers, who of you will fill another bucket?"

No one answered, and the last little girl silently took the mud bucket and small shovel and left to dig the soil in Huifang Garden.

"All of you are too lazy. The last time Jin Er went to dig the mud, this time I asked him to do it again."

The other four maidservants in the courtyard were named Jin'er, Ping'er, Mei'er, and Lian'er, all of whom were taken by Jia Qing.

"We don't do such dirty work as digging. If the second master loves Jin'er, why don't you go by yourself? He just likes to call us, huh!"

This is Peifeng's counterattack.These maidservants are very bold, especially this Peifeng.

But Jia Qing got used to it, and didn't think it was disobedient, just shook his head with a smile, and then said: "Come and see, is this pot of crabapple flowers pruned by me?"

This potted flower was sent in by Li Yan last time, and it was still blooming with pink flowers, but it was about to fail, so it was still the most expensive potted flower, and it took a full tael of silver to buy it back from the gardener.When Li Yan hugged him, he was afraid that Jia Qing would scold him.
As soon as he got this pot of crabapple, Jia Qing couldn't put it down, but he cut two branches and grafted it in two months, and he wanted to expand the cultivation.

All the maids gathered around after hearing the words, and saw that the bushy branch that was originally carried in was now only bare, and now the top was cut off, and it was placed on the ground miserably.

"Second Master really loves to spoil flowers, and he was messed up like this."

"That's right, it really shouldn't be!"

"Poor flower~"

Jia Qing originally wanted to listen to praise, but when he heard a series of complaints, he suddenly felt unbalanced: "What do you know? This is what is good. This is called removing the top advantage. It will look good in the future. They are really a group of creatures with long hair and short knowledge. "

The last sentence made everyone angry, and the waist was grabbed by countless hands, and then spun.

"Yeah, stop it! If you hit my flowers, I will sell you to pay for it~"

This time it's good, originally it was only the waist that was ravaged, but now the ears are also ravaged.

"Ah, let go, it hurts~ Good sisters, I was wrong, please let me go, I will never dare again."

A good show of child abuse ended with someone begging for mercy. The maids proved that not only their hair grew, but their hands also grew the same truth!

After frolicking with the maids for a while, after a while Jin'er came back, Jia Qing led the maids to start the potted pruning and transplanting meeting.

Walking back and forth among Xiangxiang's maids, sometimes pointing out this, sometimes talking about that, so happy and leisurely.

"Second Lord Qing, the boy at the second gate sent word that he has something to report."

A woman's voice came from the corridor, ruining Jia Qing's ease, and said angrily: "Got it, you go down. Wait." Turning to Xie Luan, he said: "Go and get a handful of money. For this woman, she is not from our courtyard, so we don't have to tell people that we don't understand the rules." After hearing this, Xie Luan hurried out.

Jia Qing also packed up and walked towards the second gate.

As soon as he left the second gate, he saw Wang Shun waiting there.Seeing Jia Qing coming out, he ran up quickly and said in a low voice, "Second Master, you have news about what you want us to inquire about."

Jia Qing didn't react for a while, and asked, "What's the matter?"

"It's about Miss Xibian's entry to Beijing!"

Jia Qing suddenly realized, and quickly asked: "You mean sister Lin has already entered Beijing?"

"Not yet. I heard from Zhang Youcai that a fast horse came to report in the morning that the boat picking up people from Yangzhou is approaching the capital, and it is expected to arrive in the afternoon."

"Great, let's go, Wang Shun, let's take a look!"

Jia Qing jumped up and down, and gave Wang Shun instructions loudly.

Wang Shun didn't expect Jia Qing to be so excited, and hurriedly persuaded him: "Second Master, you haven't had lunch yet, besides Miss Biao won't arrive until afternoon."

"What do you know, what if you miss it? Where can I not eat the food? Stop talking nonsense and go!"

Then he turned back and told the woman who was guarding the second door: "If my maid comes to ask me later, just say that I have gone out and won't come back for lunch." The woman hurriedly agreed.

Then Jia Qing urged Wang Shun to leave Ningguo Mansion.

Arriving at the east end of Ningrong Street, which is full of traffic, Jia Qing took Wang Shun to find a tea shed on the side of the street and sat down, planning to sit back and wait.

The last time I met Lin Ruhai in Yangzhou, but I didn't see Lin Daiyu. It is estimated that she might still be in her hometown in Suzhou at that time and did not accompany her.

"Master, do you know Miss Biao? Why do you want to see her so much, and we won't see anyone when she comes over in a sedan chair later."

Can't see anyone? Lin Daiyu is a six or seven-year-old girl, no matter how smart she is, she will always be curious when she comes to Jia's house for the first time, right?He remembered that it was like this in the original book!When the time comes, the moment she lifts the curtain is the moment when I, Mr. Jia, see her beautiful face.

"What do you know? I want to see her only if I haven't seen her. Why should I come and see her?"

Wang Shun opened his small eyes, expressing that he couldn't understand where the second master's interest came from.

Jia Qing ignored the reluctant Wang Shun, he was very excited, turned his head and said loudly: "Shopkeeper, have two glasses of West Lake Longjing!"

The old tea seller ran back and forth: "Master, our shop is small and there is no West Lake Longjing tea."

"Why don't you even forget about the West Lake Longjing, I feel aggrieved, what are you doing?" He said in the tone of a nouveau riche.

Of course the shopkeeper didn't dare to say anything, so he had to say: "There are crude tea, white tea, spring tea, and chrysanthemum tea."

"Stop, let's have two bowls of spring tea! Wang Shun, you see, it's not that the second master is stingy and reluctant to give you good tea, it's really a last resort, and I've wronged you."

Wang Shun was on the sidelines, not knowing what the second master was doing wrong today, he promised and told the shopkeeper to go and serve tea quickly.

There were two young men sitting across a table from Jia Qing and the others, and one of them, dressed as a scholar, said to his companions: "Brother Xianglian, there are too many dudes in Beijing, let's come out at will." You can meet one every time, I really want to teach you how to respect people!"

Another person persuaded: "Forget it, brother Wude, you are coming to Beijing to take part in the next imperial examination. Not far ahead is Rongning Second Mansion, this young master might be a child of the Jia family, why should brother Wude make trouble?"

(End of this chapter)