Survive in the world of Red Mansions

"...In addition to the favor of entering the palace on the [-]th, anyone who has a home in the Chongyu other courtyard who can stay in the customs may wish to invite the inner court Luanyu to enter the private residence, so that the common people can share the joy of family relationships. "

As soon as this decree came out, the entire capital became a sensation. People in the capital who had daughters in the palace were discussing how to deal with it. Of course, concubines whose natal families were out of town didn’t need to think too much about it. Empresses in the palace can leave the palace for a long time.

When it comes to visiting relatives, the empress's natal family, Mr. Sun, the left servant of the Ministry of Rites, is the most qualified, but there is no news about the empress's natal family.According to Sun Shilang's mansion, the aunt in his house is the mother of the country and should not leave the palace easily, and the wife of the servant can also enter the palace to meet the empress, so there is no need to build another provincial house.

The first thing to happen was that the mansion of Concubine Zhou, who had just been promoted to imperial concubine some time ago, had set aside a large area in her mansion to build a family-friendly courtyard.

In addition, Wu Tianyou, the father of Concubine Wu, took the servants of the mansion to visit places outside the city and measure the land in preparation for the construction of the Provincial Court.

There are also other nobles and concubines' natal families in Beijing. Anyone with a little foundation in the family will try to build a yard and invite their aunts to come home to visit their relatives, adding honor to the family and the empress.

This kind of thing that can add luster to the family and the empress in the palace, and can show off, how could there be no Rongguo Mansion.As soon as the Rongguo Mansion knew the will of the province, Mother Jia summoned the children and grandchildren of the Rong and Ning mansions, the two wives Jia She, Jia Zheng, Jia Lian, and King Xing of the Rongguo Mansion, and Jia Zhen and Jia Rong of the Ningguo Mansion to come. Let's discuss the important matter of building a provincial house together.

In order to win the spirit of the empress and not embarrass the Rongguo Mansion, there is no need to compare the relatives of other concubines and nobles who are far behind the natal families of the other concubines and nobles, not to mention surpassing Zhou and Wu, but absolutely It can't be worse than these two.

To build a garden, you must first have a place. Finally, the two prefectures of Rongguo and Ningxia agreed to measure it from the garden of Rongguo Mansion to the northwest. went.

Once there is a place, the blueprints have been prepared, and now it is time to prepare money to build the yard, such as this kind of family-saving garden, not to mention the antiques inside, just to build the family-saving yard, not a few 10 taels I am afraid that money will not work, not to mention that people have already heard about it, because too many gardens have been built at once, and the prices of all materials and objects have increased several times. from where?

Once again, Jia Mu called people from the two prefectures together to discuss countermeasures.

"Today, old lady, I called everyone here to discuss the matter of visiting relatives. It is the honor of the whole family to visit relatives. In addition to the money from the public, each house also contributes part of it."

Although Jia Zhen is the patriarch of the Jia clan, her mother is a girl from the second room of the East Mansion, and has little to do with their West Mansion. When they measured the garden, the West Mansion also gave away some land, and now they want their mansion to contribute money. A little unhappy, so no one who saw the room responded, and he sat silently.

Jia Amnesty has always been treated as an invisible person by his old lady in the mansion, and he himself simply ignores everything and only cares about having fun. The concubine of the second room girl is the honor of the mansion, but he doesn't see any benefits for him, so let him go out now. Money is so difficult!

Jia Zheng always only knew how to talk about poetry and poetry with the Qing guests in the house, and he always only knew how to spend money, and it was too vulgar to talk about money with him.

During this period of time, Mrs. Wang's arrogance has increased a lot because her own daughter has become a concubine. Thinking of the glory her daughter has brought to the two houses, it is right to repair the garden and let the other houses pay for it. Unexpectedly, now Jia Mu When he opened his mouth, there was no one to intervene, and his expression became ugly.

Although Jia's mother knew that it would be a bit embarrassing for the people in the house to pick out the private house's money, she didn't expect that each of them would become a gourd with sawing mouths.

"For the honor of the whole family and the face of the empress, I, an old woman, took 5 taels out of my own money. Zhen'er, you are the patriarch of the entire Jia family. What do you think?"

"It's a great honor for this empress to visit her relatives, and it's also the glory of the Rongguo Mansion, but my second uncle and second aunt are my mother's biological parents, so I can't go past them." It is very clear that it depends on Jia Zheng and his wife. , the amount of silver he took out would never exceed them.

Brothers Jia Zheng and Jia She actually have one thing in common, that is, they both belong to the master who ignores everything. They have never thought about where the money comes from. Every time they want to buy some antique calligraphy and paintings, or treat guests to wine, they need money directly to the account. Fang Zhi is.

Not to mention that the old lady in Rongli has always been partial to him, and it is Mrs. Wang who holds the power of the housekeeper of the Rongguo Mansion. To paraphrase Jia Baoyu's words, there are old ladies and wives, and no one is missing him. Never bothered about money.

Now that I heard Jia Zhen say this, I thought that Jia's mother had given out 5 taels just now. In other courtyards, our second room only pays 4 taels."

Just now, Jia Zheng only said the money, but not how much. Now when Jia Zheng said that the second room gave out 4 taels, Mrs. Wang really wished that she could faint immediately, 4 taels? !I have been the director of the family all these years, and I have saved a lot of private houses after working hard for so many years, but these are all to be left to Baoyu.Empress can come back to visit relatives, it is to give face to the entire Jia family, why should I, my empress's biological mother, take money out?But in this situation, if I don't take this house, and the big house doesn't say it, the West Mansion must have more reasons not to take the money.

"Second Uncle and Second Aunt are the mother's biological parents. If you take out 4 taels, I can't get over it. Let's take 3 taels in the West Mansion!"

When Jia Mu and Mrs. Wang heard it, although Jia Zhen said just now that she would not go beyond the second room, but now she heard that the entire Ning Mansion only paid 3 taels, which is too little. Madam, Madam Wang had no choice but to say: "Brother Zhen, the entire West Mansion only pays 3 taels, isn't it too little?"

Mrs. Wang has never been a articulate person, and she doesn't know what to say in this situation, but Jia's mother asked, and it was related to her daughter, so she couldn't help but keep silent.

"Your Majesty is visiting relatives. It's always a matter of your East Mansion. If you really think that 3 taels is too little, then..."

As soon as Mother Jia heard how it would work, she said that even the 3 taels were gone, "Brother Zhen, your aunt didn't mean that, and she didn't dislike the 3 taels anymore. I took all the other rooms, old man Woolen cloth?"

Mrs. Xing looked at Jia Amnesty, seeing that her master was silent, Mrs. Xing also lowered her head.Mrs. Xing's natal family was also a small family, so she wished she could bring the entire Xing family to the Rongguo Mansion as a dowry, but even so, compared with other daughters-in-law who entered the Rongguo Mansion, the dowry was still not enough.In recent years, apart from her own monthly money and the monthly money of some unfavorable housewives, she has no other income at all. Now if she is asked to use the money to repair the garden, it will not kill her, so the old lady When asked about Da Fang, she simply pretended that she couldn't hear her and didn't make a sound.

"Our big house doesn't have a family manager, and we don't have any other income. Just the monthly money, how much can we save over the years? It's only 5 taels, and there's nothing we can do if it's too little."

Jia Amnesty wanted not to pay a single cent, but every house paid for it, and it was unreasonable for their big house to pay a penny. To give out 5 taels was already generous for him as an uncle, whether he wanted it or not.

Mother Jia and the others felt that Jia Amnesty took too little money, but they also knew that he was also a jerk. Mother Jia also knew that time should be divided, and she couldn't always talk about filial piety. Even if Jia Amnesty became disobedient one day, there was nothing she could do about him. Could it be that she could really sue him for disobedience? !

In the end, there was no other way. Mother Jia asked Mrs. Wang to take out half of the 5 taels from the silver deposit in the public warehouse. , there is no money at that time, what should I do!

In the end, 5 taels from Jia Lian and his wife were added. In addition to the 5 taels from the public house, and from each house, a total of 18 taels was added. 18 taels is a lot on weekdays, but it is far from enough to build a family home that surpasses Zhou and Wu in the minds of the Jia family!

The men of the Jia family ignored everything when they paid their share. Mother Jia and Mrs. Wang saw that the money for building the other house was far from enough, so they all turned their attention to the relatives of the Rongguo Mansion.

It has been more than ten days since the sage's family visit came out. After dinner this day, Lin Hai led Lin Rui and his brother to digest food in the garden.

It suddenly occurred to me that on the side of Rongguo Mansion, the provincial hospital first measured the land and then asked someone to draw a picture. It should be about to start construction now, and it will probably be short of money soon. I don’t know if it will directly come to borrow money, but early It's better to talk to Daiyu.

"Daiyu, your grandmother is currently building a provincial hospital. It is said that it will cost hundreds of thousands of silver. The mansion has not given out so much money at the moment. At that time, it may think of borrowing money from relatives. If there If someone comes to borrow money, you can just push it to me."

"Father, this is impossible. We need to borrow money to build a provincial house. How will we live in the mansion in the future? The emperor's will does not seem to require that a garden be built. You can't just borrow money to live on in the future just because you want to build a provincial house." Bar?"

Lin Daiyu really couldn't imagine that a family would not care about the future life of their descendants for such a false name.

"Sister, don't believe me, just wait, in a few days, someone will come to borrow money in person, or invite people from our family to their house."

"After all, this grandma's house used to be the Duke's mansion, with the royal property of Huangzhuang, and there must be some shops and farms in his own mansion. In addition, the old Duke was a military general back then, so he would always get a lot of things. , does such a large Rongguo Mansion have a few 10 taels of silver in the treasury?"

"It's hard to say. I looked at the mansion. In recent years, there has been little entry and a lot of output. The family is getting thinner and thinner! Not to mention other things, there are many rich servants in that mansion. The Lai who waits beside your grandmother Mammy, her grandson got out of slavery when he was a child, and his family lived in a big mansion. He was raised as a son-in-law since he was a child, and now he is donated to an official. Their family has no money to do this? Their money comes from Where did it come from? It didn’t come from the Rongguo Mansion. There is not much money in the Rongguo Mansion, but the masters in the mansion should have a lot of private houses, and the servants in the family are even more wealthy than those outside.”

Lin Rui listened to it and said, "This Rongguo Mansion is really strange. The grandson of the nanny who waits at home can help him donate a magistrate to do it. Jia Lian, the heir of the eldest house, doesn't even think of finding a job for him. Take care of some miscellaneous affairs in the mansion."

Lin Hai smiled, "Then why do you bother with the matter in the house? Daiyu, don't forget what I said just now, if someone in Rong's house comes to borrow money, you can just push it on me. Good man, it's almost time to leave today, Let's go back!"

Lin Rui followed Lin Hai to the small study in the main courtyard, and Lin Hai handed Lin Rui the materials sent by Lin Zhong.

"The restaurants in the outer city are now in charge of Lin Ran. These are the information collected in the past few days. You can take a look."

"It's a lot of gossip! This is the family of Concubine Zhou Guifei. A businessman surnamed Zhou came to the door with a gift and wanted to join him. Oh, there are also Jia's." Lin Rui roughly flipped through the information in his hand, and saw After a while, he said: "There are a lot of news about these concubines and nobles during this period, it seems that it is all caused by money."

"You should look through these materials in your spare time and read them more. Don't be afraid of trouble. Maybe you can get some useful information from them," Lin Hai said to Lin Rui while sitting aside.

Lin Rui nodded yes.

Lin Daiyu originally said that Jia's family would never borrow money from relatives just because they built the provincial hospital. Unexpectedly, within two days after saying this, someone from Rongguo Mansion came.