After the Rebirth of the Red Chamber

"Is brother in there?"

Baochai took Ying'er and Que'er and asked in a low voice the young man guarding the door.Behind her, Ying'er and Que'er each held a red lacquered tray, Ying'er had a cup of tonic soup, and Que'er had four snacks.

Xue Pan, who was dozing off with a book in his hand in the room, heard the movement, sat up straight reflexively, rubbed his eyes quickly, and muttered the words in the book.

"Nothingness and formlessness is called Tao. Transforming and nurturing all things is called virtue. The world between king and minister, father and son is called righteousness. Climbing, bowing, bowing and yielding, there is equality between high and low, and the body of intimacy is called etiquette..."

Baochai who was outside the door smiled and shook her head, pretending not to hear anything, and said to the boy: "My wife asked me to bring brother some tonic soup."

The young man didn't dare to neglect, and hastily opened the door for her: "Miss, please come inside, the uncle is working hard."

Baochai knew that he was carrying the task given by Xue Duan, so she didn't intend to embarrass him: "Don't worry, it won't take too long."

The young man smiled mischievously, and said with a playful smile: "Thank you, girl, thank you, girl. Please, please."

Baochai nodded at him, and led Ying'er and Que'er in.She pretended not to see Xue Pan secretly looking at her with the book covering her face, and called out with a smile: "Brother."

Xue Pan pretended to read a few more sentences, then put down the book, cleared his throat, and asked solemnly, "My sister came to look for me, is there something wrong?"

Baochai smiled brightly and said: "I know my brother studies hard, so I specially asked my wife to bring some snacks and soup to my brother. Although studying is important, my brother must also pay attention to his health."

As she spoke, she signaled Ying'er and Que'er to put the things on the table, and served Xue Pan a bowl of soup herself: "This is old duck soup, which is nourishing and not too hot. Brother, please use two bowls."

A complex emotion of pride and guilty conscience suddenly rose in Xue Pan's heart.

What is proud is that since childhood, it is the first time for my sister to affirm him with a faint admiration; what is guilty is that he has not been studying honestly these days, but dozed off more often.

But he can't help it!

Such a thick book with so many words on it.At the beginning, he didn't know those characters, but later he got to know him through characters, which he still doesn't know much.

In the past two days, with the help of my husband, I finally recognized all the characters, and the old man with a gray beard was also left annoyed by his disregard.

In a rage, Xue Duan restrained his feet again, and specially ordered the kitchen to give him only one meat dish for three meals a day, and the rest were all vegetarian.

Not to mention snacks, supper and so on, don't even think about it!

Xue Pan was originally fat and white, so he couldn't help being evil at all, and he could only use tea and sleep to trick his stomach so that he would stop protesting all the time.

In Xue Pan's mind, if the younger sister could come to see him, she would still come to see him with food, she must have begged for a long time in front of the master, and then got his wife to help, and that's what made it happen.

Thinking about it, Xue Pan was moved by himself. While stuffing snacks into his mouth, he slapped his chest loudly: "Sister, don't worry, when brother releases the restriction, brother will find whatever my sister wants for you!"

"Then I'll thank my brother first." Baochai showed a moved expression.But before Xue Pan was satisfied, Baochai frowned, wondering, "But brother, I promised in front of the master that I would persuade you to study hard, so the master let go."

Xue Pan: "...cough cough cough cough..."

—he choked.

Good sister, don't bring such a cheating brother.You clearly know that your brother is not born to study!

Baochai quickly gave him Shun Shun, and brought the soup bowl over: "Brother, drink some Tang Shun Shun."

Xue Pan took it over, "gum-gul-gul" in one breath, and a bowl of old duck soup was finished.

After finishing drinking, he smacked his mouth and said: "There is no better chicken soup."

It is definitely because he has seen less oil and water in the past few days that he can say such things.Just half a month ago, he hated the chicken soup so fresh it was so greasy.

Baochai didn't expose him, but asked a little anxiously: "Did I cause trouble for brother? I'm sorry, brother, I just haven't seen you for several days, and I miss brother."

Seeing his younger sister looking at him timidly, eyes full of anxiety and self-blame, Xue Pan immediately felt distressed, and hearing that his younger sister hadn't seen him for a few days, his heart became sore and limp, and he hurriedly said: "What's the trouble? Although your brother is not smart, he can still read a book!"

Then Baochai laughed again: "I knew that elder brother is the most powerful, even stronger than sister Ling'er's elder brother!"

Xue Pan's face became red all of a sudden, and he said embarrassingly: "Where, where, sister, don't embarrass me."

Xue Pan also knew that the sister Ling'er that Baochai was talking about was the second daughter of Xiao's family.

The Xiao family has always been headed by women, and the wives they marry are more powerful than the other.Relatively speaking, there are not many men who are promising.It's just because it's not easy for women to show their faces and help them go out to discuss business.

But Xiao Ling's elder brother, Xiao Ting, is a child of other people's family in the eyes of the same people around him.

He passed the Tongsheng examination at the age of 12, the scholar at the age of 15, and the Zhongju. At the age of 20, he was admitted to Enke because of the saint's birthday, and he passed the Jinshi examination in one fell swoop.

With such abilities, he naturally didn't want to go back home and be bound by the family rules.Although the eldest lady of the Xiao family is his own mother, she can no longer continue to manipulate this son who has achieved fame, so she has to call the clan and separate him.

However, the two parties also had an agreement: the Xiao family supported Xiao Ting in terms of money, and Xiao Ting wanted to deal with the Xiao family in the officialdom.

It was also because of this benefit that other members of the Xiao family didn't say much.

Such a character, no matter how arrogant Xue Pan is, he dare not say that he is stronger than others.

But Baochai said seriously: "In my heart, brother is the best!"

Xue Pan was very useful after hearing this, and thought in his heart: just for my sister's sake, I must memorize this "Guanzi" by heart!

Not to mention that he can persist in this determination for a few days, just because he can have this determination now, Baochai is already very pleased.

Xue Pan is not material for studying, and both Xue Duan and Baochai are well aware of this.

However, the Xue family will eventually want him to inherit it in the future. Even if he is unable to expand the family business, at least he must be able to maintain it.Otherwise, without other people's hands, the clan members of Xue's offshoots could share the long house.

Xue Duan asked Xue Pan to recite "Guanzi", and he also expected him to learn some great principles, just thinking that it would sharpen his temper so that he could learn to talk business with him in the future.

After Xue Pan finished his snacks and soup, Baochai told his mother's worries about him, and took Ying'er and Que'er to leave.

After leaving Xue Pan's courtyard, Baochai ordered the dishes to be sent back to the kitchen, and then took Ying'er and Que'er to Xue Wang's.

Mrs. Xue Wang was reading the letter from the capital, Baochai stepped forward and saluted, and asked, "Mom, whose letter is it?"

Wang Xue beckoned and said, "My son, come and take a look. This is a letter from your aunt."

Hearing the word "Aunt", Baochai paused for a moment, then smiled nonchalantly, "So it's Aunt."

She stepped forward and took a rough look at Mrs. Xue's hand.

Unsurprisingly, part of the letter was to show off the power of the Rongguo Mansion in Beijing, and part of it said that there were many people in the family and the family business would inevitably be difficult, implying that Xue Wang would give her elder sister a good face when she gave the boxing gift again.

Baochai couldn't stop laughing at it: on the one hand, he was showing off his family's high status and power, but on the other hand, he was justifiably asking their family for money.Her aunt didn't say anything else, the thickness of her skin was really not comparable to that of ordinary people.

What is different from the past is that at the end of this letter, Jia Wang complained to Xue Wang that her sister-in-law Jia Min passed away, and the old lady decided to take the niece Lin to the capital, and her eyes hurt all day long.

The sick young man who opened his mouth and kept his mouth shut fully expressed Jia Wang's dislike for Jia Min and his disgust for Daiyu.

Sister Lin.

Baochai was in a daze.

She hasn't thought of sister Lin for a long time.Counting the time, at this time, sister Lin had indeed entered Beijing and lived in Jia's mansion.

To be honest, Baochai's feelings for sister Lin are quite complicated, just like the feelings for her aunt Jia Wangshi.

On the one hand, she envied Daiyu's family background as the daughter of an official family, even if there was no Baoyu, as long as the Jia family was willing to put in some effort to help her look after each other, she could find a well-matched official son to be her husband-in-law;

On the other hand, she sympathized with Daiyu's parents who died and had no brothers to rely on.Even when she went to her grandmother's house, few of them really loved her.Even the old lady who loves her the most, Sister Lin will always stay behind whenever she meets Baoyu.

Therefore, sometimes she couldn't help but mention her, and sometimes she couldn't help but find trouble to stab her.

However, no matter what, Baochai never thought that because of Baoyu who was nothing but gentle and caring, sister Lin would lose all vitality.

Then, all her complicated feelings towards Sister Lin turned into guilt.Even when she was at her worst in the second half of her life, she would never forget to burn a handful of paper money for Sister Lin at Qingming, for fear that she would have no relatives to worry about in the mortal world and be bullied by evil spirits in the underworld.

Then there is her aunt Jia Wangshi.

Regarding the Jia Wang family, Baochai blamed her on the one hand for making coquettish words, and repeatedly asked her mother for money by taking advantage of her marriage with Baoyu; The blessing of the bullying of the mother and son.

Although it was her initiative to marry Baoyu, Baochai still had to resent Baoyu for becoming a monk.

Because women in this world, whether they are beautiful or ugly, noble or ordinary, cowardly or strong, all hope that their husbands can be their reliance.

Baoyu became her husband, but she didn't let her rely on him for a day.

It can be said that Baoyu's hand-waving behavior successfully made Baochai lose confidence in men in this world.

——It’s better to rely on yourself than to rely on anyone, isn’t it?