I'm in the Red Mansion

Chapter 171 Harsh Conditions
Jia Cong could not help but sneer and said, "You want me to give up the garden of Ningguo Mansion and spend hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to build a villa for you to visit your parents. Where in the world can such a good thing happen?"

"How about this, if you want to build it, that's fine. The money for building the villa for the visit to the emperor doesn't need to be paid by your Rongguo Mansion. My Ningguo Mansion will take care of it all."

"However, after the villa is built, it will belong to my Ningguo Mansion."

"In addition, other things that are needed, such as the nuns in the family temple and the opera troupe, etc., need to be purchased by your West Mansion."

"All of this needs to be written into a contract. If you agree, then proceed accordingly."

"If you are not allowed to, then you can find another place to build a villa for your mother's visit, and don't ask for my opinion again."

For Jia Cong, the villa for visiting relatives, which is later known as the Grand View Garden, must be built.

A Dream of Red Mansions is half of Grand View Garden.

If there were no Grand View Garden, the world of the Red Mansion would be eclipsed.

Therefore, the Grand View Garden had to be built, but after its construction, it had to belong to the Ningguo Mansion.

Otherwise, he would spend money and land but get nothing in the end. Jia Cong would naturally not do such a losing business.

After hearing what Jia Cong said, Jia Lian felt that Jia Cong's request was too harsh.

But this matter was not his responsibility.

Therefore, after hearing Jia Cong's words, Jia Lian could not help but say, "Third brother, I will go back and tell the old ancestor and the two masters and hear what they say."

"If they really agree, I will come and talk to my third brother again."

Jia Cong nodded and said, "Okay, that's it."

Jia Lian said goodbye, and Jia Cong saw him out of the yard and then returned.

Jia Cong believed that the West Mansion would definitely agree to his conditions.

Because if the Ningguo Mansion didn't pay, they would not be able to afford the money to build the Grand View Garden.

In the book Dream of the Red Chamber, the reason why the Rongguo Mansion was able to build the Grand View Garden so quickly was not because they were rich.

It is because in the book, Lin Ruhai died of illness, and the Lin family's property was sold and distributed by Jia Lian who went south, and finally brought into the Jia family.

The silver used to build the Grand View Garden was actually brought from the Lin family.

And this silver was originally Lin Daiyu's dowry.

After the Jia family used Lin Daiyu's dowry, they were bound to marry Lin Daiyu.

It's a pity that later on, Lady Jia was defeated by Lady Wang, who refused to let Jia Baoyu marry Lin Daiyu and instead chose to persecute Lin Daiyu to death.

In this way, the Jia family wiped out the Lin family.

And now, perhaps because Jia Cong traveled through time, although Lin Ruhai was also seriously ill, he did not die.

Since Lin Ruhai was not dead, the Lin family's property naturally would not fall into the hands of the Rongguo Mansion.

Without money, what would they use to build the villa for their mother’s visit?

It was just as Jia Cong had expected.

When Jia Lian returned to Rongqing Hall, the brothers Jia She and Jia Zheng were waiting there. Even Lady Xing, Lady Wang and Wang Xifeng were there, preparing to discuss how to build a villa for the visit.

After Jia Lian finished stating Jia Cong's conditions, Jia She became furious and wanted to hit Jia Lian, but was stopped by Jia's mother.

Grandmother Jia said, "Now that Cong has proposed a condition, you all tell me whether you want to agree to it or not."

Jia She could not help but say, "Mother, this is absolutely unacceptable! The queen came from our Rongguo Mansion. If we build a villa for visiting relatives, but it ends up belonging to Ningguo Mansion, what will happen? Won't we be laughed at by outsiders?"

Jia Zheng also said distressedly: "I used to think that Cong was a good person, but I didn't expect him to be so short-sighted and ignore the overall situation."

"We definitely cannot agree to his condition. Since he won't allow it, we should go find another place to build a villa for the visit." Grandmother Jia couldn't help but say, "It's not difficult to find another place, but if we do that, we will have to spend at least hundreds of thousands of silver coins."

"You all know the current situation in the palace. Where can we get so much money? Without money, how can we build a villa for the visit?"

Jia She couldn't help but sneer when he heard this: "Isn't it because my good sister-in-law lent all the money in our family to her mother's family?"

"If we had these 350,000 taels of silver, why would we be in such a mess now?"

When Jia She once again called her out to whip the corpse, Mrs. Wang blushed with shame, lowered her head, and dared not look at anyone.

I was very angry in my heart.

Grandmother Jia couldn't help but say, "Forget it. Now is not the time to discuss this. What we should discuss now is where did this money come from?"

Now Wang Ziteng holds an important position, and it was the Jia family who pushed him to the position.

It’s not a good idea to offend the Wang family too much.

Besides, the Wang family is not unwilling to return the silver. Now they have already returned tens of thousands of taels.

But the Wang family couldn't afford so much silver right away.

After Lady Jia finished speaking, the room fell silent.

After a long while, Madam Wang said, "Mother, building a villa for the royal family is a major event for the family. My second wife is willing to pay 50,000 taels of silver."

Although Mrs. Wang has been in charge of the household for many years, the second wife really does not have that much money.

Mrs. Wang had to use her dowry to subsidize most of the 50,000 taels of silver.

But who was it that made her lose face because of her parents' family?
If she didn't pay the money, she would be unable to hold her head up in this mansion.

After hearing what Mrs. Wang said, Grandmother Jia nodded, and then asked Jia She, "Boss, where is your first wife?"

Jia She could not help but say, "Mother, our eldest house is not the head of the family, and we don't have much income."

"Every year, we only spend money but never earn money. We are not as generous as the second branch, so we can only take out 10,000 taels of silver at most."

The first wife is actually richer than the second wife.

Although Lady Jia let Lady Wang take charge of the household at the beginning, she did make certain compensations to the first wife's family.

But I didn't expect Jia She to be so stingy that he was only willing to pay out 10,000 taels of silver.

This made Grandmother Jia frown.

He wanted to say something to Jia She, but then he thought of the fact that Mrs. Wang had secretly lent the money to her parents' home, so he didn't say much.

Even if Jia She took out another 10,000 or 20,000 taels of silver, it would be of no help.

Grandmother Jia couldn't help but say: "The old woman also took out 50,000 taels of silver, so together, there are 110,000 taels of silver."

"But this amount of money is far from enough! If we find another place outside to build a villa for the visit, the land and foundation alone will probably cost hundreds of thousands of silver."

If you calculate in this way, there is still a shortfall of 500,000 or 600,000 silver coins, which is a really big gap.

This gap is almost impossible to fill.

It’s hard for a clever woman to make a meal without rice!
For a moment, everyone in the room fell silent.

At this time, Wang Xifeng suddenly said, "Grandfather, why don't we agree to Brother Cong's conditions?"

"It is said that after the villa is built, it will belong to Ningguo Mansion. Aren't our two families one?"

"Besides, this is built for our queen after all. Can he still not let us enter the garden after it's completed?"

(End of this chapter)