The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 363 Big Appetite
Xue Baochai pondered for a moment, and suddenly knocked on the screen. Xue Ke immediately understood, stood up, took out a vermilion lacquer box from behind the screen and opened it. Suddenly, a golden light was dazzling. It turned out to be a box of gold ingots, probably weighing two or three hundred taels.

Jia Yucun's eyes flashed with greed, but he pretended to be unhappy and said, "What do you mean, Mr. Ke?"

Xue Ke smiled and said, "Although the case is under the investigation of the Jinyiwei, Lord Jia is the official of Yingtian Prefecture. Even if it is inconvenient for him to intervene, at least he can have a say. I hope Lord Jia will take the trouble to do this. This is just a small token of my appreciation. If my brother is saved from the disaster, there will be a generous reward."

Jia Yucun said angrily with a stern face: "Master Ke, please respect yourself. I am not the kind of person who is greedy for money and bends the law for personal gain."

Xue Ke was originally timid and awkward, and suddenly he was embarrassed to the point of blushing and being speechless. Xue Baochai hurriedly said through the screen: "Master Jia, calm down. I have heard that Master Jia is honest and upright, so how dare I use this money-stained vulgar thing to sully your virtue. But my Xue family has nothing else, and my brother has to be saved, so I resorted to this desperate measure. I dare to use my reputation to guarantee that my brother has no intention of supporting the thieves, and has nothing to do with the illegal salt case. I only implore the prefect to see through everything, uphold justice, and clear my brother's name. I absolutely dare not let you bend the law for personal gain."

Aunt Xue nodded vigorously and said, "That's right. I hope Lord Jia can redress my son's injustice and clear his name."

Jia Yucun's expression eased when he heard this, and he nodded, saying, "I can understand the feelings of Madam Xue and Miss Xue. Well, I will shamelessly give it a try, but I dare not guarantee it."

Aunt Xue was overjoyed and stood up and bowed, saying, "Thank you, Master Jia."

Xue Baochai also stood up and bowed.

Jia Yucun coughed lightly and said, "There is no time to lose. I will go to Lei Zhenfu to smooth things over and try to rescue Pan'er as soon as possible. Please put away these things."

Xue Ke was surprised. Could it be that his elder sister had made a mistake and that Jia Yucun was not a greedy person?

At this time, Xue Baochai on the other side of the screen said, "Master Jia is upright and incorruptible. He is truly a model official. But we cannot let you work in vain. Besides, it costs money to smooth the relationship. A few hundred taels of gold is just for the time being. If it is not enough, Master Jia can send someone to get it at any time."

Jia Yucun couldn't help but praise inwardly. He heard that the business of the Xue family was managed by this woman. She was indeed well-versed in human relations and her words were pleasant to the ears. She was actually ten or a hundred times better than Xue Pan. It was a pity that she was not a man, otherwise the Xue family might still have hope of revival.

Jia Yucun pretended to refuse for a moment, but finally accepted the box of gold ingots. Xue Ke also became sensible for once and had someone wrap the box with cloth, and then quietly carry it into Jia Yucun's sedan chair through the corner door.

After sending Jia Yucun away, Aunt Xue said anxiously, "This case actually involves the Yangzhou smuggling salt case. I wonder if Jia Yucun can handle it."

Xue Baochai comforted him, "Don't worry, mom. Brother will be fine. But I'm afraid our family will be seriously hurt this time."

Aunt Xue was surprised and asked, "Why?"

Xue Ke and Bao Qin both looked at Xue Baochai in surprise. The latter sighed and said, "As the saying goes, the innocent are innocent. My brother did not support the thieves, and he has nothing to do with the smuggling of salt. As long as the Jinyiwei investigates seriously, they will definitely find out. I'm just afraid that the other party is deliberately obstructing it. If other departments are handling the case, it would be fine, and they would give some face to my uncle. But it turns out that the Jinyiwei are in charge of this case. The Jinyiwei are the emperor's people..."

Xue Baochai did not say it explicitly, but Aunt Xue and others understood it immediately. The power struggle between the emperor and the retired emperor was almost known to the world. Prince Yi Zhong was the victim of the recent private salt case, and Wang Ziteng was also promoted by the retired emperor. How could the Jinyiwei give Wang Ziteng face? I'm afraid they want to bring Wang Ziteng down so as to take credit for it from the current emperor.

Aunt Xue became even more anxious when she thought of this. She said with red eyes, "If that's the case, how can you be sure that your brother will be okay?"

Xue Baochai sighed softly, "Jia Yucun is a man who is very good at seeking personal gain and is extremely greedy. He was dismissed from his post before because of his greed and injustice. Since he dared to accept our gold this time, he must be sure that he can get the person out. However, the people in the Pacification Office are also a group of greedy wolves. If we want to feed them, how can our family not suffer a great loss of vitality?"

Xue Ke nodded and said, "Sister, what you said makes sense. The key is that Brother Pan has offended Lei Zhenfu, who is extremely ruthless. He will definitely take advantage of the situation and blackmail us."

Aunt Xue stamped her feet and said, "There's nothing we can do about it. It was that bastard who got into trouble. As long as we can redeem him, even if it costs a hundred or eighty thousand taels of silver, we'll have to accept it."

Xue Baochai sighed inwardly, fearing that the other person’s appetite might be more than just one hundred or eighty thousand taels!

…………

On the eighth day of the eighth month in the seventh year of Qiansheng, the first session of the provincial examination ended. As the sun set, Jia Huan walked out of the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall calmly. Mu Ye and Jin Bao had been waiting outside and immediately went up to him and took the examination basket.

"How did Third Master do in the exam?" Jin Bao asked impatiently.

Mu Ye smiled and said, "Is there any need to ask? He must have done very well in the exam. Didn't you see that our Third Master was the first one to come out?"

Jia Huan smiled and said, "You are the smart one. Let's go. I have been eating pancakes and salted fish for three days, and my mouth is full of fishy smell."

It turns out that the provincial examinations do not provide food. Candidates must prepare their own meals. The examination room only provides braziers and charcoal, which can be used for heating and heating food. In order to save time, most candidates only bring simple food such as pancakes, which can be used for a meal after heating. Jia Huan is quite different. In addition to pancakes, he also brought eggs, salted fish, bacon, rice, etc. The salted fish and bacon were all cut in advance, and they just needed to be put into the pot with water and rice and boiled. The fragrance made the candidates in the neighboring examination rooms cry with greed. Damn, which animal? It turned out that he brought meat with him!
Because the three meals were nutritious enough, although Jia had to take the exam for three consecutive days, he was still in good condition and was not as listless as other candidates.

When Jia Huan returned home, the foreign maids Mandarin and Xiao Yuanyuan had been looking forward to it for a long time and had prepared a sumptuous dinner. When they saw Jia Huan coming back, they were both delighted.

After Jia Huan had a hearty meal, he took a comfortable hot bath with the shy service of the foreign maid, and then slept until five in the morning of the next day. He went to the examination room in high spirits to take part in the second round of the provincial examination. Naturally, he had no idea what had happened in the Xue family in the past few days.

On the fifth day after Xue Pan was imprisoned in the Jinyiwei prison, Xue's mother and daughter were still anxiously waiting for news from Jia Yucun at home. It turned out that just yesterday, Jia Yucun had hinted that the Zhenfu Division had agreed to release him, but on the condition that the Xue family had to pay a ransom of 50,000 taels.

Aunt Xue was eager to save her son, so she immediately prepared 50,000 taels of silver and sent it to Jia Yucun at night, thinking that she would see her son Xue Pan return safely today. However, she waited and waited, but there was no news until the evening.

"Second Master is back!"

Just when Aunt Xue and the others were getting restless, Xue Ke finally came back, but he didn't look very happy. Aunt Xue knew something was wrong when she saw him, and asked hurriedly, "Ke'er, didn't Pan'er come back with you?"

Xue Ke said angrily: "It was originally agreed that they would release him if he paid 50,000 taels of silver, but after receiving the silver, they suddenly changed their mind and said they wanted another 30,000 taels."

Aunt Xue was shocked and angry. She asked in a trembling voice, "How can a man named Lei go back on his word? What does Jia Yucun have to say?"

Xue Ke said angrily, "My nephew looked for Jia Yucun, but the doorman said he was out on business and not in the government office. God knows if he was avoiding me on purpose."

Aunt Xue's expression changed, and finally she gritted her teeth and said, "Precious girl, how much silver do we have left in the warehouse?"

"Thirty thousand taels of silver is still within my reach, but..."

Aunt Xue interrupted, "Never mind, saving your brother is the most important thing. Hurry up and open the vault to get the money and send it over."

Xue Baochai frowned and said softly, "Mother, why don't you wait a little longer? At least hold off for a few more days. If the other party sees that we are sending silver so easily, I'm afraid they will blackmail us even more."

Aunt Xue cried, "Although this is true, your brother has already been in jail for five days. The Jinyiwei jail is not a place for human beings. If he stays there any longer, he might lose his life. Is the silver more important than your brother's life?"

Xue Baochai's eyes turned red with grievance. She didn't know how to make sense of the situation at the moment. She asked someone to open the treasury and take out the money to pack it in boxes, but she found that there was still a shortfall of more than 500 silver coins. She could only send someone to a pawnshop under the name of the Xue family to transfer some funds to make up the difference.

As a result, when the 30,000 taels of silver were sent to the Zhenfu Yamen, they accepted it but did not release the person immediately. They just asked him to go home and wait for news.

Aunt Xue was dumbfounded, but the bad luck was yet to come. In the afternoon, the shopkeepers of various businesses under the Xue family came running to report that their shops had been suddenly sealed up by the Embroidered Uniform Guards, and they were temporarily not allowed to open for business, and all account books had to be handed in.

Aunt Xue suddenly felt dizzy and fell to the ground. She pinched her philtrum for a while before she woke up and burst into tears: "It's over, it's over, my Xue family is over, completely over... Yes, Huan Ge'er, ask Huan Ge'er for help."

Aunt Xue was crying when she suddenly woke up Jia Huan. She jumped up and grabbed Xue Baochai's hand, saying with tears in her eyes, "Bao girl, go find Huan'er for help. Just think of it as a request from your mother."

Xue Baochai blushed, fell to her knees and cried, "Mother, you don't have to do this. If there was any way, I would save my brother. Now that you say this, I am even more ashamed."

Aunt Xue regretted her decision and said hastily, "I was so anxious that I lost my mind. My son, please don't take it to heart."

Xue Baochai said with tears in her eyes, "I had expected that they would ask for a lot, but I didn't expect their appetite to be so big. It's clear that they want to swallow up all the property of my Xue family. Don't worry, mother. Even if I sacrifice my life, I will not let them get what they want."

After Xue Baochai finished speaking, she kowtowed three times to Aunt Xue, and then said to Xue Ke and Baoqin, "When I'm not at home, I'll trouble my brother Ke and sister Qin to take good care of mother."

Aunt Xue was surprised when she heard this: "What are you going to do, Bao girl?"

"Don't worry, mother. I know what I'm doing." After saying this, Xue Baochai turned around and left. She went back to her room to touch up her makeup, then went out with Ying'er and Xiangling.

(End of this chapter)