The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 461 Mu Ya Nu Becomes a Disciple

Jia Yingchun had made an appointment with Jia Huan yesterday to have her portrait painted this afternoon, so after lunch she took a short rest and went straight to Yueweiju. But Jia Huan was not at home. She felt a little disappointed and sat for a while before saying goodbye to Ping'er and Mandalin.

After coming out of Yueweiju, seeing that it was still early and it would be boring to go home, I wandered aimlessly in the garden. Unconsciously, I walked outside of Xiaoxiang Pavilion. After hesitating for a while, I finally decided to go in and sit for a while.

"The second young lady is here." When the maid on duty saw Jia Yingchun, she hurriedly bowed and greeted her, and then announced her in.

Lin Daiyu was reading a book. When she saw Yingchun and her servants come in, she stood up and greeted them, saying, "Second sister is here. Zijuan, please pour some tea."

Jia Yingchun said hurriedly, "Don't worry, I just came out from Huan Ge'er's place and drank tea. I'm not thirsty now. It would be a waste to pour tea for me."

"Then just leave it there. You are a guest here, so how can you be impolite?" Zijuan said with a smile, while bringing the tea and pouring a cup for Siqi who was accompanying her.

Lin Daiyu asked Jia Yingchun to sit down and asked casually, "What is Huan-di doing now?"

Jia Yingchun replied: "What a coincidence! Huan'er is not at home."

Lin Daiyu's heart was moved, and she said with a smile, "Then he must have gone to Sister Bao's place."

"Not really. I heard Ping'er say that he went out. Someone came to visit him early in the morning, and then they went out together. I guess he had some social engagements."

"Oh!" Lin Daiyu's pretty face felt inexplicably hot.

Seeing a pile of manuscript paper on the desk, Jia Yingchun picked it up and asked, "What is Sister Lin reading? Hey... This seems to be Huan Ge'er's handwriting."

It turned out that Lin Daiyu was reading the novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber written by Jia Huan in his spare time. It was said that during the three years of mourning in Jinling, Jia Huan worked as a copywriter in his spare time. He copied out several famous martial arts novels by Jin Lao in order to earn some living expenses. However, the fat man Xu Wenhou was very kind. Every year, the ice cream business gave him thousands of taels of silver in dividends, so he had no shortage of money. Therefore, he did not sell these manuscripts to booksellers, but left them in a corner of the bookcase.

Not long ago, Jia Huan accidentally found these manuscripts and was seen by Lin Daiyu, so she borrowed them to read. Lin Daiyu originally just wanted to kill time, but she was so fascinated by them that she couldn't stop reading.

It is human nature to be curious. This kind of martial arts novel with chapters is obviously very fresh in this era, just like the amazing fairy tales and fantasy novels when they first came out. So Jia Yingchun only read the first chapter and was immediately attracted. She read several chapters in one breath and then said with a sense of unsatisfaction: "Sister Lin, can you lend me this manuscript to take back and read it?"

Lin Daiyu smiled and said, "I can't make the decision, and I haven't finished reading it yet. Why don't you ask Brother Huan yourself later?"

"Okay!" Jia Yingchun reluctantly put down the stack of manuscripts in her hand.

At this time, the maid outside reported: "Miss Xiangling is here."

After a while, Xiangling came in after lifting the curtain. The bright red rouge mole on her forehead was particularly eye-catching, making the already stunningly beautiful maid even more charming.

Xiangling bowed to Lin Daiyu and Jia Yingchun, and said with a smile, "So you are here, Miss. I just ran into Xiuju and Wang Shanbao, and they seem to be looking for you everywhere."

Jia Yingchun was startled and said, "I'm afraid it's the eldest lady who's looking for me. Sister Lin, I'll go back first."

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Shanbao's voice was heard asking, "Is the second young lady here?"

"Yes." The maid on duty outside the door replied.

"Well, I finally found her!" Wang Shanbao said as he lifted the curtain and rushed in. Seeing Jia Yingchun was indeed there, he immediately said, "Second Miss is here. The master is looking for you. Come with me."

When Jia Yingchun heard that it was the master who was looking for her, her heart skipped a beat. She did not dare to be negligent and hurriedly got up and left the house with Siqi.

Wang Shanbao then smiled and bowed to Lin Daiyu, saying, "I'm sorry to bother you, Miss Lin."

Lin Daiyu did not have a good impression of Wang Shanbao, and was too lazy to entertain her. She just nodded in response. Wang Shanbao left the room awkwardly, curling her lips and thinking, "This lady loves to act like a lady. What's so great about her? She is still living under someone else's roof. It's good that Miss Bao is approachable and polite to everyone."

At this time, Lin Daiyu looked through the window, watching Jia Yingchun hurriedly walk out of the yard, and frowned thoughtfully.

Everyone in the mansion knew that Jia She and his wife usually didn't pay much attention to the second girl, Jia Yingchun. Now they suddenly sent someone to look for her, and it was someone sent by Jia She himself, which was obviously unusual. So Lin Daiyu couldn't help but think of the ugly man named Sun she ran into that day... "Miss Lin!" Xiangling called out, pulling Lin Daiyu back from her thoughts.

Lin Daiyu smiled and said, "I had forgotten about you, but Sister Bao asked you to come? What do you want from me?"

Xiangling shook her head and smiled, "The young lady has gone out to check the accounts, and I have nothing to do at home, so I went for a walk. Oh, by the way, while I have some free time now, it would be my good fortune if Miss Lin could teach me how to write poetry."

Lin Daiyu joked, "Since you want to learn poetry, you can take me as your teacher. Although I am not proficient in poetry, I can still teach you roughly."

Xiangling said with a smile: "Then I will take Miss Lin as my master. You are not allowed to be annoying."

Lin Daiyu smiled and said, "It's not difficult at all. It's worth learning. It's just a matter of introduction, development, turn and conclusion. The development and turn are two pairs of couplets, level tone and oblique tone, virtual and real, real and virtual. If there is an odd sentence, even level, oblique, virtual and real don't have to match."

Xiangling suddenly realized, "So that's how it is. No wonder I got a book of old poems and read a few of them when I had some free time. I found that some were very neatly matched, while others were not. I also heard someone say 'One, three, and five don't matter, but two, four, and six are clear.' When I read the poems of the ancients, some were smooth, while others were wrong in two, four, and six. That's why I was puzzled every day. Now that I've heard you say that, it turns out that these rules of style are not important. What matters most is that the words and sentences are novel."

Lin Daiyu nodded and said, "That's exactly the truth. Words and sentences are secondary after all. The key is to establish the meaning. If the meaning is genuine, even the words and sentences don't need to be embellished. This is called 'not letting words harm the meaning'."

Xiangling clapped her hands and said, "I understand. I only love Lu Fangweng's poems. The heavy curtains are not rolled up, and the fragrance stays for a long time. The ancient inkstone is slightly concave and holds more ink. It's really interesting."

Lin Daiyu shook her head and said, "You must not read poems like this. Because you don't know poetry, you love these simple poems. Once you get into this pattern, you can never learn it again. Just listen to me. If you really want to learn, I have the Complete Works of Wang Wei here. You can read a hundred of his five-character regulated verses and study them carefully. Then read one or two hundred of Lao Du's seven-character regulated verses, and then read one or two hundred of Li Qinglian's seven-character quatrains. After you have these two or three people in your mind as a foundation, you can then take a look at Tao Yuanming, Ying Yan, Xie, Ruan, Geng, Bao and others. You are also a very smart person. In less than a year, you will be a poet."

Xiangling was delighted when she heard this and said, "In that case, Miss Lin, please lend these books to me. I will take them home and read them slowly."

Lin Daiyu then told Zijuan to bring Wang Wei's five-character regulated verse and handed it to Xiangling, saying, "Look at the ones with red circles, they are the ones I selected. Read one by one. If you don't understand anything, ask your friend, or you can ask me."

Xiangling thanked her happily, took the collection of poems and went straight away. Lin Daiyu smiled. Although Xiangling was a little confused about other things, she was very insightful in learning poetry, which was why she was willing to teach her.

As mentioned earlier, Lin Daiyu's personality is proud and independent. If you catch her eye, she will be happy to interact with you. If you are a vulgar fool, she will not bother to pay attention to you, such as Wang Shanbao, the housekeeper.

So some people say that it is Lin Daiyu's "arrogant and self-centered" character that makes her unpopular, but I think this statement is both right and wrong.

First of all, Lin Daiyu is indeed aloof and self-righteous, but she is not indifferent to the lower world. For example, Xiangling is just a servant, isn't her status low enough? But Lin Daiyu is willing to be her teacher and teach her patiently, so it is not correct to say that Lin Daiyu is indifferent to the lower world. She just doesn't want to associate with vulgar things that are not worthy of her attention. For a spiritual woman like Xiangling, even though she is just a servant, Lin Daiyu is still willing to treat her sincerely.

For example, Prince Beijing gave a string of beads to Jia Baoyu, who then gave it to Lin Daiyu, but she threw it away directly, saying that she didn't want it because it had been worn by a wild man.

Isn't the status of Prince Beijing high enough? Lin Daiyu still disdains him, so Lin Daiyu is not a "snob". She has her own set of criteria. No matter you are a noble or a servant, as long as you are in her eyes, she is willing to associate with you. On the contrary, even if you are the emperor, she is too lazy to even look at you. She is so willful!
Let's get back to the point. When Jia Yingchun arrived at the east road of Rongguo Mansion, the eldest wife, Mrs. Xing, was already waiting there. When she saw her, she complained, "Why are you here so late? Come in with me. If you are any later, I'm afraid your father will get angry."

Jia Yingchun followed Madam Xing into the living room with trepidation. The Zhongshan wolf Sun Shaozu had been waiting for a long time, and when he finally saw Madam Xing bringing a beauty in, he looked at her in a hurry without blinking.

This beauty was about sixteen or seventeen years old, with an oval face and skin as white and tender as freshly peeled spring lychees. She was gentle and silent, very approachable, and behaved elegantly and gracefully, obviously a lady from a wealthy family.

"My daughter greets my father!" Jia Yingchun bowed to Jia She. Her face was a little pale and her voice was a little trembling. She was obviously very nervous.

Jia She nodded and said, "This is your great brother Sun Shaozu. His family and ours are old friends. Now he is my father's disciple and is currently the commander of the East City Army. Go and pour a cup of tea for your great brother Sun. Don't be rude to him."

Although Jia Yingchun resisted, she did not dare to disobey and offered tea to Sun Shaozu as he was told. The latter almost drooled at this moment. Although the Miss Jia in front of him was not as good as Miss Lin whom he met that day, she was equally beautiful.

"Thank you, Second Miss." Sun Shaozu took the tea and took the opportunity to casually stroke the back of Jia Yingchun's hand with his index finger. He felt it was as smooth as cream and as soft as boneless. He was even more fanciful for a moment and his greedy eyes lingered on Jia Yingchun.

This guy was extremely ugly to begin with, and his hungry wolf-like appearance frightened Jia Yingchun so much that she almost fell to the ground. She just lowered her head and trembled slightly.

Jia She coughed lightly and said, "Take the young lady away."

Mrs. Xing smiled and took Jia Yingchun out. After the latter walked out of the living room, she couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and almost fainted.

(End of this chapter)