There is no phoenix

Mrs. Xing heard what Xing Dequan said, and said angrily: "Dequan, you can say that! These years, what your family eats and uses is not my money and my face? If you don't often go out and spend Money, why are there only two people with two mouths? Don’t think I don’t know anything!”

Seeing that Mrs. Xing was angry, Xing Dequan's wife hurriedly said: "Sister, Dequan can't talk, so don't argue with him. We are brothers and sisters, and I know that my sister has helped us all these years. I beg my sister now Give some money, and we can move out. Although there is a concubine in the palace, it is the second room after all. How about the Ningguo Mansion ransacking the house? If my sister can help me more, if one day this place is not good enough, why not There are us. As the saying goes, the emperor has a few poor relatives, so that there is a way out when he is down, isn't it?"

After hearing this, Mrs. Xing calmed down and said: "In my opinion, if you move out to live, you might as well go back to Jinling. Xiuyan is there. After all, they still have some shops in their house. Naturally, you will not miss anything if you go. You also know that 80-year-old Grandma Liu lives with her daughter and son-in-law."

Xing Dequan heard this, and hurriedly said: "Then sister also has to pay us the travel expenses. It will take at least half a month to return to Jinling, and the travel expenses such as food and accommodation are not a small amount."

Mrs. Xing heard this, so she had to scrape together 500 taels of silver, handed it to Xing Dequan, and said, "I will only give you 500 taels, and I won't have any more. You pack up today and tomorrow, and you can go back to Jinling the day after tomorrow. You can still catch up." Spend the New Year with Xiuyan and the others there."

Seeing that he had 500 taels of silver, Xing Dequan naturally liked it very much, and hurriedly said: "Don't worry, old sister, we will clean it up right away."

As soon as Xing Dequan and his wife left, Amber who was beside Jiamu came over and said, "Ma'am, the old lady called me over, saying that my mother has given birth, let's discuss whether we should send something in."

After hearing this, Mrs. Xing had no choice but to follow Amber to Jia's mother.

When Mrs. Xing came to Jiamu's place, she saw that Mrs. Wang, Youshi Baochai, was there.Baochai has been pregnant for nearly seven months, and now she looks more dignified, stable and plump.

Jia Mu looked at the crowd and said, "Now that my mother has given birth safely, I let go of my hanging heart. Although the birth is not a prince, it is also a princess. I let you come to ask if you want to send some things in." ?”

Mrs. Wang said: "The emperor sent someone to send a message, and he didn't say that we are allowed to enter the palace to have a look. Old lady, in my opinion, we should wait for a few days. Maybe the emperor is angry because of such a big incident in the East Mansion. .If we go to the palace now to see the empress, wouldn’t it annoy the emperor even more?”

Mrs. Xing nodded and said: "Master has not found any news in the past few days since he went out. They all said that he was frightened by the East Mansion. I don't know if it will implicate our manor. I heard that those servants in the East Mansion are all The official has been sold, so it can be seen that the emperor is merciless, so we'd better be careful."

Jia Mu looked at Baochai and said, "Bao girl, you have always been the smartest, tell me, what should we do next?"

Baochai said: "Old lady, I never believed in the saying 'the most ruthless emperor's family', but now I really believe it. Back then, the emperor was able to confiscate his own brother's family and destroy his family, and Miaoyu was lucky enough to survive. Now he ignores both of us. The merits of the ancestors in this mansion and the face of the empress ransacked the East Mansion, and I can't guess what will happen next. Since ancient times, the king's heart is unpredictable, and the tree is full of wind. In my opinion, our mansion is getting more and more difficult now. Why don't you sell some of those far-off Zhuangzi's fields and convert them into good money, which can also alleviate the current difficulties in the mansion, and cut down some more if the servants can."

When Jiamu heard this, she shed tears and said, "Our mansion actually wants to have such a field? For many years, we have only bought people to buy fields, but now we want to reduce people and sell fields. Does it sound like a state mansion?"

Seeing Jiamu's sadness, Mrs. Wang hurriedly said: "Old lady, Bao girl is just talking. We have already cut down a lot of people in the spring. I don't think it's better than this. Anyone over fifty who wants to be redeemed, Just let the redemption go out. Keep those young ones, and they will be easy to handle."

Jia Mu said: "Now how many people are there in our house besides those from Zhuangzi?"

Mrs. Wang said: "There are more than 200 people on the list."

Jia Mu asked Mrs. Wang again, "It's almost Chinese New Year now, how much cash is there in the official account?"

Mrs. Wang said: "Just now I went to check the official account, there is still more than 1 taels of cash on it, which is the rent money collected a few days ago, and it is estimated that there will be more than 1 taels in the account next month."

Mother Jia sighed: "It's been like this all these years? I remember that before Feng girl was the housekeeper, we had about 20 taels in our official account at any time. Since the empress visited relatives, I have never heard of more than 10 taels of silver in the official account. .It’s almost Chinese New Year now, and there’s only this 1 taels of silver?”

Mrs. Wang nodded and said: "Next month, there will be some Zhuangzi in distant places paying rent, and there should be more than 1 taels of income."

Jia Mu said: "From now on, let's all save our lives. I live to be almost 80 years old. I never thought that our two Dukes' mansions would become like this."

When Jia's mother said this, she suddenly remembered: "The last time when Lin Yatou got married, it seemed that the father-in-law of the Tanya girl was now the Minister of the Ministry of Criminal Justice. Now Brother Zhen and his son are both in the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice. I still go to ask other people. I am so confused Yes. Bao girl, where is Baoyu? How about letting Baoyu go and go directly to Zhuangyuan Mansion to find Sanyatou’s father-in-law, he is also from the south, I don’t believe he is merciless.”

After hearing this, Baochai hurriedly said, "Old lady, Baoyu and Huan'er Lan'er are all going there to cry because Dai Confucianism passed away."

Mrs. Wang said: "Old lady, it's better to wait for the master to come back, but only two or three days."

Jia's mother said: "Zheng'er has such an old-fashioned temperament. If he wants to come back, he will not go to find someone. Let Baoyu go. Baoyu is already 16 years old, and he should learn to behave. Bao girl, when Baoyu comes back, I will go Pass on my words, let him go to Li Yushi, find out the news about Brother Zhen and his son, it would be better to ask him for help, and see if Baoyu can use his cleverness."

After hearing this, Baochai had no choice but to agree: "Old lady, don't worry, when Baoyu comes back, I will tell him."

Mrs. Xing said: "In my opinion, the old lady, there must be someone who can help, but the old lady should come forward?"

Jia Mu said, "Is it Miss Lin?"

Mrs. Xing nodded and said: "Yes, when the niece left the cabinet, you all went, and Brother Zhen's wife also went. Now her father-in-law is the King of Beijing, and the emperor is also her father-in-law, and her husband is the young prince. The niece now has a royal family. Flesh and flesh, if you say a word, we can't match it with thousands of words."

After hearing this, Mother Jia thought for a while and said, "That's reasonable. The day Lin Yatou came out of the cabinet, she also said that she would pick us up to Beijing Prince's Mansion when she settled down. In this way, she is happy now, and it is inconvenient for us to go there. Write a letter to her to see if she can find a way to save brother Zhen and his son. I don't ask for anything else, if there is no money, the house and the items, there will be no more, so as not to embarrass her."

Mrs. Wang listened, nodded and said: "That's right, the old lady is more tactful, if the niece is willing to help, it should be a matter of little effort."

After discussing for so long, they finally came up with two ways: one is to let Baoyu go to Li Wenzheng's house, and the other is to let Jiamu write to Daiyu.

Mrs. Xing came back from Jia Mu's place, just as Jia Amnesty came in from the outside.Mrs. Xing hurriedly asked: "Did the master find out anything when he went out today?"

Jia She said with a gloomy face: "Don't talk about inquiring, I'm afraid our family is going to be in disaster."

Mrs. Xing was shocked when she heard this, "Could it be that the master heard something important?"

Jia She said: "It took me 50 taels of silver to get the news. It is said that some servants of the East Mansion are in the prison of the Ministry of Punishment. They not only sued Zhen'er and his son a lot, but also sued a lot of our family, saying that we used lynching to force us to death." Girl, Baoyu and I are both involved. He also said that our empress does not like the emperor at all now, and the emperor now likes Li Gong'e, and has never been lucky with other concubines."

After hearing this, Mrs. Xing asked in surprise, "Is what the master said true?"

Jia She said: "Why isn't it true? Didn't Yan Hong and Jin Chuan'er talk about forcing people to jump into the lake? There are even more powerful ones. I'm afraid no one else will dare to say it, but I can feel it."

Mrs. Xing heard this, and hurriedly said: "What should we do? Are we really going to be overwhelmed?"