Red Mansion Huacai

Chapter 377 Review
After a while, a maid led Li Weijian to Qinfang Bridge. Li Weijian walked with his hands behind his back. When he got closer, he glanced at Wang Shanbao and Zhou Rui. He was surprised and looked at Feng Jieer. He said, "What's going on? I was about to go to the mansion, but was stopped by a maid. She insisted that I had to report to my second sister-in-law first."

Sister Feng's triangular eyes turned and she looked at Wang Shanbao and said, "Madame Wang knows the most about this matter. Why don't you tell Brother Jian about it?"

"This..." Wang Shanbao knew about Li Weijian and Siqi's affair, and now treated Li Weijian as his own grandson-in-law, and said, "Mr. Li, don't you know that there is a thief in this house? The eldest lady and the mistress sent us to help the second lady to search and see if there are any maids or old women who are colluding with the insiders and the outsiders."

"Search?" Li Weijian was puzzled and thought to himself, the Xue family and Siqi had moved out of the Grand View Garden long ago, so why did they have to search the Grand View Garden?
He immediately said, "Disciplining the servants is one thing, but it's not good to mobilize a large force and ruin the reputation of the family."

Wang Shanbao smiled flatteringly and said, "Your Excellency, what you said is definitely not possible. We know our limits."

Li Weijian didn't know there was another embroidered sachet, so he nodded. Sister Feng looked at him and said, "Brother Jian, are you here for something?"

Li Weijian said with a smile, "It's not that the day is approaching, so I came to send the invitation." As he spoke, he pulled out an invitation from his sleeve and handed it to Sister Feng, saying, "If you are free on that day, you may as well come to our house to have some fun. My sister and I have discussed inviting two opera troupes, one Anhui troupe and one Kunqu opera troupe. They will perform from morning till night, and I guarantee that you will have a great time."

Wang Xifeng took the invitation with a smile, and hooked her little finger on Li Weijian's palm without leaving any trace, and said with a smile: "That's great, I've been really bored lately, it's just right for me to go to Brother Jian's house to have some fun."

Li Weijian smiled and said, "In that case, I will go to the front first and give the invitations to the old lady and the first lady."

If I send an invitation to Lady Jia, I probably won't go, but I have to be polite. As for Lady Xing, because of Xing Xiuyan, she is related to Li Weijian, so it's not right not to send an invitation. I also have to send an invitation to Miss Three, Miss Tanchun, and Miss Four, Miss Xichun, because the little sisters like to be lively.

Sister Feng secretly rolled her eyes at Li Weijian and said, "Brother Jian, why don't you say a few more words about this matter of seizure and collection?"

Li Weijian heard that Sister Feng was trying to shirk her responsibility, and knew that she was unwilling to do so, so he just said, "How can I interfere in the family affairs of the Rong Mansion? That's it, I'll go ahead first."

After bowing and saying goodbye, Li Weijian turned around and walked forward.

Wang Xifeng was secretly annoyed, but Wang Shanbao was pleased, thinking that Li Weijian had ignored the matter because of Siqi's favor. She was a person who took advantage of others' power, so she urged, "Second Madam, do you think we should continue the search?"

Wang Xifeng gritted her teeth and said, "First, search the villa to prevent the subordinates from hiding evil things while no one is there."

This villa is located in the center of the Grand View Garden. Usually, only the maids come to clean the house. No one else comes to visit. What Wang Xifeng said makes sense, so Wang Shanbao agreed. After crossing the Qinfang Sluice Bridge, they headed straight to the villa.

But Li Weijian went to Rongqing Hall first, presented the invitation, and chatted with Lady Jia for a while.

Just as Li Weijie expected, Lady Jia congratulated him with a smile, but said that she was unable to move and would not go to bother him that day.

Li Weijian invited her again and again, but seeing that Grandmother Jia refused again and again, he sighed with regret, drank a cup of tea, and then came out of Rongqing Hall. Grandmother Jia heard that he was going to the eldest lady in the East Courtyard, and hurriedly sent Yuanyang to see him off.

Li Weijian knew very well that the old lady was very proud of her maid Yuanyang, and this was an opportunity for him to be alone with Yuanyang.

Yuanyang walked half a step behind them. They went out of the hanging flower gate and passed through the hall. Li Weijian suddenly slowed down and asked, "Yuanyang?"

"Ok?"

Yuanyang, who had a thick braid, looked up at Li Weijian. Li Weijian saw that the sparse freckles on Yuanyang's face had almost faded away, perhaps because of her age. At this moment, her face looked smooth. The girl only looked at him once, and immediately lowered her head in shame, covering her face with her sleeves and said, "Master Jian, is there something wrong?"

Seeing that no one was around, Li Weijian whispered, "Why did I hear that my second sister-in-law was leading people to search the Grand View Garden?"

The blush on Yuanyang's face faded, and she looked around. Seeing that no one was around, she whispered, "Silly girl came back early in the morning and said that she saw an extraordinary item. Later, the first wife saw it, and somehow, the first wife and the mistress took the item to urge the second wife, and then Zhou Rui's wife and Wang Shanbao's wife accompanied the second wife to search."

"Are you talking about something extraordinary? Could it be that he has hidden a firearm?"

Yuanyang shook his head, hesitating for a while before finally saying, "It's an item embroidered with a pornographic picture..."

Embroidered spring sac?
Although it was a long time ago, Li Weijian vaguely remembered that the silly girl in the play seemed to have picked it up on a rock. In the play, Siqi and Pan Youan had an affair, and they were caught by the maid Yuanyang. It just so happened that the object was near the rock where Siqi had a tryst with Pan Youan, so it was most likely Pan Youan who dropped it.

But now...where did this embroidered spring sachet come from?

Seeing that Li Weijian seemed to be thinking about something, Yuanyang whispered, "Master Jian, you'd better not get involved in such dirty things, lest you fail to catch the fox and end up getting yourself into trouble."

Li Weijian came back to his senses and smiled, "Let's talk about it later... If they only searched the maids and servants, it would be fine, but if they also searched the third and fourth girls' homes, and even the eldest sister's, then I will have to intervene."

The two of them then walked towards the east courtyard again. After walking for a while, they saw the corner gate at the back of Madam Xing's courtyard approaching. Yuanyang suddenly asked, "Master Jian... can you give me two more years?"

Li Weijian stopped and looked at Yuanyang in surprise. Yuanyang said with her head down: "The old lady treats me well. I must serve her well and do great deeds before I can... marry into her family."

Li Weijian pondered, "Has the old lady been feeling unwell lately?"

Yuanyang said, "After all, I am old. I get sick every now and then. I don't look as healthy as I did last year."

Li Weijian sighed and said, "It's rare that you have such affection and righteousness, so I'll just follow your lead."

Yuanyang secretly breathed a sigh of relief. A few days ago, she was sent to deliver something to the mansion of Marquis Zhongjing, and she vaguely heard the maidservant beside Xiangyun mention that she would marry into the family after she reached the age of marriage. After returning, she saw that Grandmother Jia was in this situation again, and she was grateful to the old lady for arranging her future, so she made this decision now.

It was indeed a good future. Yuanyang was the most outstanding maidservant in front of Lady Jia, and the only one with dignity among the maids in Rongfu. She was also in charge of Lady Jia's private property, so Jia She planned to marry Yuanyang as a concubine. If she didn't get out of the pit of Rongfu, she would be tortured to death by Lady Xing and Lady Wang once the old lady passed away.

After entering Madam Xing's courtyard, a maid came to greet him and quickly sent a little maid to report. After a while, Madam Xing came to the main door and smiled at Li Weijian and said, "Hey, brother Jian, are you here to give me an invitation? Come in quickly, we are all family, no need to ask outsiders."

Li Weijian smiled without saying anything. Yuanyang had already returned by then, and Li Weijian followed Madam Xing into the main room. After they sat down, another maid brought them tea, and Madam Xing sat upright in the main seat, her face showing a bit of joy.

She said, "I was hoping that the second young lady and Jian Ge'er would get closer, but I didn't expect that the second young lady still hasn't found a place to stay, and my niece has moved into Jian Ge'er's room instead."

Li Weijian took out the invitation and handed it over, saying with a smile, "It was also a coincidence. I met Xiuyan in Suzhou before. I thought it was just a chance encounter that day and I was afraid that we would never meet again. I didn't expect that she would come to Rong Mansion the next year."

Mrs. Xing said some congratulatory words. First, she praised Xing Xiuyan for her quietness and outstanding character, and second, she said that the two of them were a match made in heaven.

After saying these words of congratulations, Mrs. Xing said anxiously, "Brother Jian, now we are family, and if there are any benefits in the future, don't forget me as your aunt."

Li Weijian didn't care that Madam Xing was flattering him. He thought that Madam Xing had been quiet for the past two years, and that he might need Madam Xing to say something good about the second young lady in the future, so he thought, "It turns out there is a case."

Mrs. Xing immediately perked up and asked, "Is it true? Tell me quickly, brother Jian!" After a pause, she said with some embarrassment, "But brother Jian, you also know that the master owes a lot of money, and I don't have much money on hand now."

This is true. If it weren't so, Mrs. Xing wouldn't have robbed Jia Lian of the money he used to buy medicine.

Li Weijian said, "This is a small investment with great profit. Madam, you should know that pearls can be cultivated. Most of the southern pearls are from Taihu Lake."

Madam Xing continued, "Yes, yes. Pearls are much cheaper nowadays, but they are also expensive. South pearls are not so expensive, but North pearls are particularly precious. A pearl the size of a pigeon egg might cost hundreds of silver dollars."

The northern pearls here refer to the eastern pearls.

Li Weijian continued: "It's hard to say about the Northern Pearl, but the Sea Pearl can be raised now."

"what?"

Li Weijian smiled and said, "I'll send you the recipe later. Madam, follow the same method and find a beach in Tianjin. The investment won't be more than a thousand silver dollars, and you can earn at least a few thousand dollars a year."

Mrs. Xing was overjoyed! She smiled so hard that she couldn't stop, twisting her body around, and simply stood up to pour tea for Li Weijian. A few thousand silver dollars, not so much, two thousand silver dollars a year would be enough for Mrs. Xing's retirement.

It was no wonder that she was greedy. She became a stepmother, childless, and her husband died early. Now her stepson was in charge. As a stepmother, she was not much older than Jia Lian, and she could not count on Jia Lian and Sister Feng to show respect. If she did not seek some personal gain for herself, and only relied on the little money she received every month, she would not be able to make a living.

"Then I will have to rely on Brother Jian from now on."

Mrs. Xing was very happy and started to prepare the meal, determined to entertain Li Weijian.

Li Weijian declined, saying, "We have a long way to go. I just told Sister Lin that I will go home to eat later." After a pause, Li Weijian suddenly asked, "I heard that the eldest lady got a rare item from a maid today?"

Mrs. Xing was startled and asked, "Brother Jian also knows about this?"

Li Weijian said in a hushed voice, "When I passed by the mansion just now, I was stopped by a maid for a moment. After listening to what was going on, I realized that something so outrageous had happened."

Mrs. Xing smiled with some pride and said, "Feng Jieer and Lian Er have always been proud, and now they deserve this!"

Mrs. Xing was not a cunning person, and Li Weijian guessed the general situation with just two sentences. It was probably that Mrs. Xing ran into the silly girl, got the embroidered sachet, and then went to find Mrs. Wang. It happened that Mrs. Wang wanted to take charge of the family again, and the two sides hit it off immediately. One was a red-faced person, and the other was a white-faced person. Sister Feng was in a dilemma and had to follow Mrs. Wang's wishes to search the Grand View Garden.

Li Weijian said, "I just ran into Wang Shanbao, the wife of the second sister-in-law, who was conducting an inspection."

Mrs. Xing pretended to be surprised and said, "Whether to inspect or not is not my business. Madam said that Sister Feng didn't have enough people around her, so I asked Wang Shanbao to go over and help." Li Weijian said meaningfully, "From what I saw just now, Wang Shanbao didn't seem to be going there to help, but to make decisions for my second sister-in-law."

Mrs. Xing blinked her eyes and muttered, "How come Jian'er is involved in such matters?"

............................................................

In the Grand View Garden.

At this time, the villa for the visit had already been searched. Feng Jieer counted the items according to the account book and found that nothing was missing or broken. Feng Jieer was a very strict person, which was much better than when Mrs. Wang was in charge of the household.

After they came out of the villa, Wang Shanbao said, "If I were to ask this old servant, if Second Madam wants to investigate the collusion between the inside and outside, she should check each room. There are only dead objects in the villa, and few people come here normally, so how can you find anything?"

Sister Feng said, "That's not the way it should be said. Since we're investigating, let's investigate everything at once."

Wang Shanbao urged again, "I think we should check the maid in the young lady's room."

Feng Jieer couldn't refuse, so she said, "Then let's check it out."

The group of people came out and went straight to Qiu Shuang Zhai.

The Third Miss Tanchun had already heard about the commotion outside. She guessed that there must be a reason for this, so she ordered the maids to open the door and wait.

Soon, many people came. Tanchun asked, "Sister Feng, what's going on?"

Sister Feng laughed and said, "Because something is missing, we have been searching for days but have not been able to find anyone. I am afraid that others will blame these girls, so we simply search together to dispel suspicion. This is a good way to clear their name."

How could Tanchun believe it? She glanced at Wang Shanbao's wife and Zhou Rui's wife, knowing that this was Lady Xing and Lady Wang's revenge, so she sneered and said, "Of course our maids are all thieves, and I am the first one to be the owner. In this case, search my boxes first. All the things they stole were hidden in me."

As he said this, he ordered the maids to open all the boxes and cupboards, including the mirrors, dressing boxes, quilts, clothing bags and other items, large and small, and asked Sister Feng to copy them.

Sister Feng smiled and said, "I just couldn't refuse. Sister, please don't blame me. Why are you angry?"

So he ordered the maids to close the door quickly.

Ping'er, Feng'er and others were busy helping the secretary to check and collect the documents.

Tanchun glanced at Wang Shanbao's wife and Zhou Rui's wife and said, "You may search my things, but you cannot search my maids. I am more vicious than anyone else. I know everything the maids have. They are all kept in my room, not even a needle or thread. They have nothing to hide. If you want to search, just come and search me.

If you don't agree, just go and tell the old lady that I disobeyed her and I will handle the punishment myself. Don't worry, you will have your day off!
If an outsider attacks a large clan like ours, it will be impossible to kill them all at once. This is what the ancients said, 'A centipede will not die even if it is dead.' We must first kill ourselves at home before we can be completely defeated!"

As he spoke, tears began to flow.

Sister Feng just looked at the wives.

Zhou Rui's wife was afraid of being retaliated by Feng Jie'er and Tanchun later, so she said, "Since all the girl's things are here, please go somewhere else so that the girl can sleep well."

Fengjie stood up and said goodbye.

Tanchun said, "Have you searched it thoroughly? If you come again tomorrow, I won't allow it."

Sister Feng smiled and said, "Since the maids' things are all here, there is no need to search."

Tanchun sneered, "You are really obedient. You even opened my bag, and you still say you didn't look through it. Tomorrow you will dare to say that I am protecting the maids and forbid you to look through it. You'd better tell me as soon as possible. If you still want to look through it, you may as well look through it again."

Sister Feng knew that Tanchun was different from others, so she could only smile and say, "I have even searched all your things."

Tanchun asked everyone again, "Have you all figured it out?"

Zhou Ruijia and the others all smiled and said, "I understand everything."

Wang Shanbao, the housekeeper, was a person with no plan in mind. Although she had heard of Tanchun's name, she thought that people just didn't have the foresight and courage. How could a girl rise up like this? Moreover, she was born out of wedlock, so what could she do? She relied on the fact that she was Mrs. Xing's companion and her granddaughter Siqi was Mr. Li's concubine, so she had respect even in front of the old lady.

Seeing Tanchun like this, she thought that Tanchun was just irritated with Fengjie and that it had nothing to do with them. She wanted to take advantage of the situation to show her kindness, so she stepped forward and pulled up Tanchun's skirt, deliberately lifting it, and said with a grin, "I even turned over the girl's body, and it turned out that there was nothing wrong."

Seeing her like this, Sister Feng hurriedly said, "Mom, go away. Stop being so crazy!"

Before she could finish her words, there was a loud slap and Tanchun slapped Wang Shanbao's face.

Tanchun was immediately furious, pointing at Wang Shanbao's wife, she asked, "Who are you to dare to pull my clothes? I was only doing it for the sake of the eldest wife, and you were old, so I called you 'mother', but you took advantage of your power and made trouble every day. Now you've gotten out of control. You thought I was as good-natured as your daughter, and you were wrong to let you bully her! I'm not angry that you searched her things, but you shouldn't make fun of me."

As he said this, he took off his clothes and skirt himself, pulled Fengjie and said, "You turn it over carefully, so you don't have to ask the servants to turn it over on me."

Fengjie, Ping'er and others hurriedly helped Tanchun to tidy up her skirt and sleeves, and said while drinking Wang Shanbao's wine, "Madam, you became crazy after drinking a few sips of wine. You even bumped into the lady the other day. Get out now! Don't mention it again." They also advised Tanchun not to be angry.

Tanchun sneered, "If I had any temper, I would have hit my head against it long ago! Otherwise, how could I allow a servant to rob me of stolen goods? Tomorrow morning, I will first report to the old lady, and then go over to apologize to you. I will accept whatever is required."

Wang Shanbao, the housekeeper, was so frustrated that he just said outside the window, "Forget it, forget it. This is the first time I've been beaten. I'll go back to my wife tomorrow and go back to my parents' home. What else do I need to do with my life?"

Tanchun ordered the maid, "You are just listening to her talking, are you waiting for me to talk back to her?"

When the waiter heard this, he went out and said, "It is our good fortune that you are going back to your mother's house. I am afraid you will not be willing to go!"

Sister Feng smiled and said, "Good girl, like master, like servant."

Tanchun sneered, "We thieves all have a few words in our mouths. This one is still stupid. He just can't instigate his master behind his back." Ping'er hurriedly smiled and persuaded her, while pulling the waiter in.

Zhou Rui's wife went out first, and when only Sister Feng and Tanchun were left inside, Tanchun asked, "Sister Feng, what is the rule?"

Feng Jieer said angrily, "The Madam has found an excuse for me to use against her. If I don't obey her, I'm afraid it will be difficult to act." She then brought up the matter of the embroidered sachet.

Tanchun was filled with hatred and said, "There are people coming in and out of this garden every day, and it's not just the people in the garden who come and go. Why don't you ask the whole family to search and find everything?"

Sister Feng said, "You have to pick the softest persimmons. It doesn't matter whether it's the old lady's or your second brother's. Do you think any of them dare to check it?"

I heard that they were going to check with Xichun. Xichun and Tanchun had been inseparable in the past few years. Tanchun was afraid that Xichun would be bullied, so she said, "I'll go with you too."

As they were talking, Ping'er came back from outside and said, "Master Jian has come to deliver the invitation to Miss Three."

As they were talking, Li Weijian walked into the room. Seeing that everything was a little messy and Tanchun looked angry, he smiled and handed over the invitation first, saying that everyone should have a good time.

Then he asked, "Second sister-in-law, how is the inspection going?"

Sister Feng frowned and said, "It's nothing, it just irritated my third sister."

Li Weijian said, "I just thought about it randomly. The things that come in and out of the garden might have been brought in from outside. I think it's useless to search like this. Why don't I send a letter of my name and invite a few female embroiderers from the Ministry of Punishment to come. I guarantee that this matter will be thoroughly investigated."

The Dashun's Shenxingsi was different from the Jinyiwei, and previously it only managed the internal affairs of the imperial family. Because it involved concubines, it had to use some female officials and eunuchs to do the work.

Tanchun was feeling aggrieved at the moment, and upon hearing this, she said, "Brother Jian, this is a good idea. Let's investigate it carefully, otherwise wouldn't we sisters be wronged for nothing and have our reputations ruined?"

Sister Feng hesitated and said, "I'm afraid it's not a good idea to mobilize so many troops like this, right?"

Li Weijian smiled and said, "I have had some dealings with the Ministry of Punishment recently. I will seal some ceremonies and make sure they are done properly and not leaked out."

Sister Feng also felt wronged, so she gritted her teeth and said, "I'll pay for the money, brother Jian just needs to invite the people."

Li Weijian bowed and immediately ordered a maid to deliver the letter to the Bo's Mansion. Not long after, Ding Rusong took Li Weijian's name card and rode away. It took only half an hour to invite someone.

Hearing that the female embroidered maids from the Ministry of Punishment had arrived, Sister Feng, Tanchun, and Li Weijian hurried out to greet them. When they arrived at the gate of the Grand View Garden, they saw three women in embroidered clothes waiting in front of the door. The first one was a fat woman with a face full of flesh. Her small eyes glanced around and she looked intimidating without even being angry.

Seeing Li Weijian, the woman stepped forward and saluted: "Your humble servant Yang Si Niang greets Master Li!"

(End of this chapter)