The stepson of the Lin family of the Red Chamber

"I blamed Mr. wrongly. I'm really sorry. I apologize to Mr. Lin Yao." Lin Yao bowed to express her apology, and then explained, "To tell you the truth, Mr. She, the new girl next to Sister She is not a maid from the mansion, but a maid from the house. I rescued it from a kidnapper yesterday. She said she didn’t remember when she was young, but only remembered that there was a lotus in her name. Just now, Mr. Cai said that the daughter of the old man was named Yinglian. I think Xiaolian might be the old man. Abducted daughter, please tell me, sir, where is your old man's wife now, can you ask her to come and identify her?"

Mr. Jia dispelled Lin Yao's suspicion of him, and he relaxed. After listening to Lin Yao's words, he smiled wryly, "I'm afraid it won't work. I received a letter from my wife last month, mentioning that my old friend His wife has passed away."

The Feng family only gave birth to Zhen Yinglian when she was half a hundred years old. Her body was already injured. The family suffered a disaster and went to her natal family. Her husband became a monk with a mad Taoist priest and disappeared. Broken, unable to recover.

Lin Yao originally thought that Xiao Lian and her family would be reunited soon, but unexpectedly, she got such bad news.

Now he doesn't want Xiaolian to be the daughter of Mr. Jia's old friend.

Lin Yao rubbed her forehead and asked, "Who else is there in the Zhen family? Or relatives?"

Seeing Lin Yao's posture of breaking the casserole and asking the end, Mr. Jia sighed, "I understand the young master's desire to help, but my old friend is an old woman, and all the elders in the family are gone. His Yue family is also unreliable. Yes, if this girl is really Yinglian, sending her to a relative's house might as well keep her here."

Lin Yao was silent when he heard the words, he understood the meaning of Mr. Jia's words.

If Xiaolian is really the daughter of the Zhen family, now that her parents are both dead, and she was kidnapped and sold since she was a child, it must have been spread among her relatives, and even if she is sent back, people will criticize her.I don’t need to mention the marriage for the time being, but let’s just talk about those relatives. Although they are relatives, they haven’t seen Xiaolian in these years, so they definitely don’t have feelings. It is a hundred times more miserable to encounter kidnappers.

In this way, it would be better to listen to Mr. Jia and keep him.

But if you really want to keep her here, if she is not a relative or a relative, what capacity will you keep her in?

"I understand what you mean, sir, but Xiao Lian is not related to our family, if she stays, in what capacity will she stay?" Let her be Daiyu's maid?It's fine if you don't know her previous life experience, knowing that she is the daughter of a kidnapped eunuch, I always feel a little unkind.

Mr. Jia is well-informed, and he can see through Lin Yao's thoughts at a glance. After all, he is still young, inexperienced, inexperienced in dealing with such things, and has a simple mind.

"My lord, you don't have to feel guilty. It's the girl's luck to meet you. Otherwise, you don't know what kind of family you will be sold to by a kidnapper." The servants here are not those who steal and play tricks, even if you are a maid in the Lin family, it is better than being sold by a kidnapper."

Lin Yao glanced at Mr. Jia, frowned slightly, and did not answer, but in her heart she vaguely questioned this gentleman's conduct.

Since it is said to be the daughter of an old man, that old friend must be an old friend of this Mr. Jia. After four or five years, I still remember the old man's daughter. I think the relationship is not normal, but in today's situation, if he didn't see something wrong, he would take the initiative. Asked, will Mr. Jia say that Xiao Lian is the daughter of his old friend?

His thoughts changed sharply, and after a while, he calmed down and said lightly, "Sir, let's continue the class."

Mr. Jia vaguely felt that Lin Yao's attitude towards him was a bit cold, but he didn't care too much. He was just a gentleman who came to teach Lin Yao to read, and he didn't come to make friends with Lin Yao. Children, it's like this If a word makes him unhappy, he will change his face.

After the day's schoolwork was over, Lin Yao went directly to the study of the main courtyard to find Lin Ruhai.

"Come here to find me in such a hurry, is there something important?"

Lin Yao told Lin Ruhai all the information she had asked from Mr. Jia. After hearing this, Lin Ruhai was a little surprised, "It's such a coincidence? The girl you rescued happened to be the daughter of Mr. Jia's old friend?"

"At first I also thought it was just a coincidence, but the characteristics that Mr. Jia mentioned all matched the characteristics of Xiao Lian. There is a high probability that Xiao Lian is the daughter of Mr. Jia's old man named Zhen." Lin Yao said.

Lin Ruhai nodded slightly, not only Lin Yao thought so, after listening to Lin Yao's detailed explanation, he also felt that Xiao Lian was the daughter of the Zhen family.

However, there is no one in the Zhen family now, that is to say, Xiao Lian has nowhere to go.

"Anyway, we still have to wait for the news from the government. If the government can find out where the kidnapper kidnapped Xiao Lian, they can further confirm Xiao Lian's life experience." Lin Ruhai thought for a while, and said, " Don't mention today's matter to Xiao Lian."

"I see, father." Lin Yao responded, and then said, "I'm here today, and I have one more thing to ask my father."

"What's the matter, tell me." Lin Ruhai said.

Lin Yao said sternly, "I remember my father told me that Mr. Jia was a Jinshi and an official, but?"

"Indeed, why do you suddenly ask this?" Lin Ruhai asked suspiciously.

Lin Yao told Lin Ruhai what Mr. Jia said to persuade him before, and then said, "I just want to know why Mr. Jia was dismissed."

Lin Ruhai was stunned by the question. He really didn't check it out. He only tested Mr. Jia's knowledge and confirmed that his knowledge was excellent, so he invited him back to be tutors for the two children.

But now, he felt that he seemed a little ill-considered.

Lin Yaoyuan recounted what Mr. Jia said to persuade him, and asked him why Mr. Jia was dismissed. Doesn't this clearly question Mr. Jia's character?

Lin Ruhai frowned and was speechless for a moment.

"I also ask my father to send someone to the Changmen area of ​​Gusu to inquire about the news of the Zhen family. Although it has been a few years, since the Zhen family used to be a prominent local family, there must be people who remember their family. Mr. Jia is obviously from Huzhou. Do you know the master of the Zhen family, a prominent family from Changmen in Gusu? Mr. Jia said he was an old friend, but I think there is something wrong with this, and Mr. Jia must be hiding something."

Once there is aversion and suspicion towards a person, if these negative feelings are not eliminated, they will increase exponentially.

Lin Ruhai frowned when he heard this, "This..." It seemed inappropriate to investigate Mr. Jia for no reason, but Lin Ruhai was also worried that Jia Yucun's conduct would be bad, and that his pair of excellent children would be harmed at that time. Thinking of this, Immediately he strengthened his mind, "I will send someone to Gusu to inquire about this matter, you can read your book at ease, and don't worry about other things."

"Yes, father." Lin Yao loosened her slightly frowning brows after receiving Lin Ruhai's words, and stood up, "The son has gone back."

"go Go."

As soon as Lin Yao left, Lin Ruhai called Xu Zhanglai and told him to go to Changmen, Gusu, to investigate the Zhen family, and the relationship between the Zhen family and Mr. Jia Hua in the Fuzhong. It would be best to find out. .

Although Xu Zhang didn't understand why he wanted to investigate the relationship between the Zhen family and Mr. Jia in the mansion, but since the master ordered him, he would naturally do so.

Three or five days later, news came from the yamen that the kidnapper had confessed, and a copy of the confession was sent to Lin's residence.

At that time, Lin Ruhai happened to go to the Salt Institute to handle the salt affairs. Before he returned home, the confession was sent to his wife Jia Min.

After getting something, Jia Min sent someone to invite Lin Yao. As for Daiyu, there was no notice.

When Lin Yao arrived at the main courtyard, she greeted her wife, and Jia Min took the initiative to give her mouth to Lin Yao, "This is just sent by the magistrate's yamen, it looks like a confession, didn't you just rescue a girl a few days ago?" , maybe it has something to do with her."

Lin Yao took the confession and picked it up to read it. The confession was clearly written. The arrested person had already admitted that he was a kidnapper, saying that Xiaolian was kidnapped by him during the Lantern Festival four or five years ago. In the area, he didn't know who Xiaolian was from at first, but later he heard that the Zhen family had lost their daughter, who had a rouge mole the size of a grain of rice between her eyebrows, so he took Zhen Yinglian to Yangzhou overnight, and has been raising her until today.

Well, the confession of the kidnapper has hammered Xiaolian's background to death. It is the daughter of Mr. Jia's old friend, Zhen Yinglian.

Seeing that Lin Yao read the confession, not only was she unhappy, but her expression became more serious. Jia Min couldn't help saying, "I read the confession. Didn't the kidnapper tell the girl's life experience? Why do you still look unhappy?"

Lin Yao folded her confession, sat down next to Jia Min, and told Jia Min all the news she had asked from Mr. Jia a few days ago, "The Zhen family is gone, and the family property has been burned down. , even her parents are dead, presumably her grandparents are gone, so what's the use of finding out her life experience now? Xiao Lian has nowhere to go."

"Mr. Jia actually recognized Xiao Lian's father? What a coincidence."

Lin Yao didn't want to mention Jia Yucun more, he said, "Please don't tell her about Xiao Lian's life experience for the time being."

That girl has been looking forward to seeing her relatives and having a home again.

If there was no hope in the past, it would be fine, if you give her hope and then give her despair, Lin Yao is really afraid that she will not be able to bear it, and she will not be able to think about it for a while...

Hearing this, Jia Min knew what Lin Yao was worried about as soon as she changed her mind, and said with a smile, "I'll save you, don't worry." After a pause, she said, "But it's not a problem if you don't tell her all the time. When are you going to tell her?" she?"

"I haven't made up my mind yet, just wait." Lin Yao said with a heavy heart.

Jia Min knew that Lin Yao had the right idea, and she was willing to let Lin Yao make up her own mind on some matters, such as today's matter, she did not intend to intervene.

"It's good that you know what's in your heart, I believe in you."

Lin Yao has always been steady, since she came to their house, she has never done anything to worry her.

Back from Jia Min's place, Lin Yao didn't care about studying and kept thinking about Zhen Yinglian. When Lin Ruhai came back, Lin Yao hurriedly went to see Lin Ruhai and showed Lin Ruhai her confession.

After reading it, Lin Ruhai sighed, "She is also a poor girl."