Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 45: Unable to Write
Since returning to the Jia Mansion, Jia Cong has not stayed in the mansion for three consecutive days. Every day he has been searching like crazy on both sides of the Liuyang River.

He heard from Guo Zhigui that when Zhishao jumped into the river, it was high tide and the water was faster than usual. There were few ships on the river at that time, so many ships docked overnight.

He was hoping for a lucky break, hoping Zhishao could be rescued by a boatman along the way.

He carefully questioned all the boatmen he met on both sides of the strait.

He then went to the wharf on the south side of the river and asked about all the docked ships, civilian ships, government ships and fishing boats.

After three days of frantic searching, I found nothing.

Three days had passed since he returned to the Jia Mansion. Not only had Tanchun, Yingchun and other sisters not seen him, even when Lady Jia wanted to question him, he was nowhere to be seen.

But he had been looking for someone like crazy these past few days, and almost everyone in the Jia family knew about it. No one expected that Third Master Cong cared so much about his maid.

Tanchun, Yingchun and others became even more worried. They felt that if this continued, Third Brother Cong would drive himself crazy.

Jia Mu and others had seen a lot of things and began to worry.

After searching for three whole days, Jia Cong seemed to have finally given up and stayed in the granary without going out.

Tanchun and Yingchun went to see Jia Cong and found him wearing a strange set of coarse cloth clothes, with disheveled hair and a pale face. He was sitting at his desk in a daze.

She kept rubbing a pair of silver twisted wire bracelets in her hands. Tanchun knew that all the young ladies in the mansion wore gold jewelry, and only the little maids would wear such silver bracelets.

I think this silver bracelet must belong to the maid Zhishao.

Jia Cong said slowly, "I bought this for Zhishao during the Chinese New Year. She treated it as a treasure and was afraid it would be stained, so she would take it off when she did anything."

After hearing this, Tanchun and Yingchun felt sad.

In the past few days, Jia Cong has been frantically searching for Zhishao's whereabouts on both sides of the Liuyang River, and his heart is in agony.

He has always been trapped in the patriarchal ethics of this world, compromising and forbearing, taking things step by step, but he has always been weak and helpless, which is why he is in trouble today and can't even protect a maid.

There were countless hatreds, regrets, and guilt entangled and fighting in his heart, making his heart become hardened and cold little by little.

Suddenly a servant came outside and said that the master was entertaining guests in the upper room. Those guests heard that Master Cong Sanye was famous at the Nanxi Literary Conference, so they all wanted to meet him and ask him for some calligraphy.

The master asked the third master to either have a ready-made one or write one now and take it with him.

Not to mention Jia Cong, even Tanchun's face turned cold when she heard this. This master had just forced his son's maid to death, and now he wanted his son to write for him to save face. It was something he could do.

Although Yingchun didn't say anything, a rare look of displeasure appeared on her face.

They did not know that Jia She was often surrounded by some down-and-out military heroes and unsuccessful minor officials. In the eyes of these people, Jia She was the heir to the title of the Dukedom, and the Jia family had the influence of several generations of dukes.

In their eyes, these are extremely rare treasures. They themselves are not very proud of them, so naturally they want to interact more with these powerful people.

So they usually gathered around Jia She and liked to do things to flatter and praise Jia She.

Only by pleasing Jia She can one gain more benefits from the Jia family and allow one's own family to prosper.

The anecdotes from the Nanxi Literary Meeting a few days ago had already spread widely in the capital. These people knew that the young man who had become famous at the literary meeting was Jia She's illegitimate son.

Some of them did not know Jia Cong's background, or those who knew it deliberately ignored it. After all, he was Jia She's son, so why wouldn't they flatter Jia She?

Jia She felt uncomfortable when he heard them praising the illegitimate child, but he couldn't show it on his face. After all, family disgrace should not be made public.

Since these people like the calligraphy of that bastard, I can just let him write some and give them to them, which will also save my face in front of these people.

Jia Cong glanced at the somewhat impatient servant. Since the servant worked with Jia She, he naturally knew that Jia She disliked this Third Master Cong the most, so he didn't take Jia Cong seriously, but just tried not to show it on his face.

Jia Cong said coldly: "I usually write with Zhishao grinding ink and spreading paper for me. Now she is gone. From now on, I will no longer write in the East Road Courtyard, and naturally I will have no words to give to others."

As he spoke, he grabbed the brushes from the pen holder and threw them into the brazier. In an instant, flames surged in the brazier and burned the brushes to charcoal.

Such harsh words and behavior stunned the servant, and even Tanchun and Yingchun were stunned.

Tanchun's eyes were filled with shock. In the past, Third Brother Cong had never done anything wrong, but what happened today? His words and actions were so sharp, he was going to embarrass the eldest master.

In the end, he was provoked by Zhishao's death, otherwise why would he do such a thing.

The servant was so shocked that his mouth opened wide, but he didn't know how to respond. Jia Cong glanced at him and said, "Go quickly and report back to the master."

"Master Cong, if you go back like this, the eldest master won't agree." The servant was not giving up. He swallowed and asked again.

Jia Cong looked at him coldly: "That's all I have to say. It's up to you whether to go or not. No one is forcing you."

The young servant shuddered, feeling that there was a cold and vicious look in Jia Cong's eyes, as if he was holding a knife to cut his neck, which made him shudder.

Is this still the Third Master Cong?

He didn't dare to stay any longer and ran to reply to Jia She in a panic.

Yingchun said anxiously: "Brother Cong, are you so angry that you have lost your mind? How can we ask him to reply? How can the master let you go? What should we do?"

Jia Cong said calmly: "I am also a man, born in a lowly family, despised by my parents, and living in this East Road Courtyard is worse than a slave. I can't even protect a maid, and my life is very boring.

If the master won't let me go, then he won't let me go. The father is the leader of the son. If he gets angry and beats me to death, it will save trouble and save me from living a hard life."

Hearing this, Tanchun felt a chill in her heart. Third Brother Cong must have been holding his anger in his heart, and now he doesn't want to swallow it anymore.

Yingchun was at a loss after hearing this and sobbed with tears on her face.

Jia Cong then said to Tanchun and Yingchun, "Please come and see me, my second and third sisters. I will remember your kindness to me for the rest of my life."

Tanchun saw that although he was smiling, there was an indescribable coldness in his eyes. Although she was very worried, she pulled Yingchun away.

She had already made up her mind that now that things had come to this, she had no choice but to go back quickly and ask the master and mistress, or the old lady, to come forward to help.

Before leaving, Tanchun's bright eyes were still looking at him with concern. Jia Cong just smiled and nodded to her, letting her rest assured.

After Tanchun took Yingchun out, she was still worried, so she called the maid over and whispered a few words to her before leaving with Yingchun.

……

In the main hall of the east courtyard, Jia She was drinking and chatting with a group of people.

After drinking more than thirty glasses of wine, he was already about 70% drunk, and with the flattery of the people at the table, he was drunk and in a very good mood.

Just as he was enjoying himself, the servant who was going to deliver a message to Jia Cong stepped into the hall evasively. Thinking of the harshness of Jia Cong's words, he did not dare to speak.

Besides, the eldest master has guests. If I say what Third Master Cong said, I will lose face for the eldest master. I have to give him a good scolding before I can deal with Third Master Cong.

Just as the boy was hesitating, Jia She saw him first. He was drunk and became more and more unbridled and crazy.

"I told you to go call that beast, why did you come here alone? Where are the others?"

(End of this chapter)