Love of Friends in the Red Chamber

In the autumn of this year, the autumn wind came fiercely, and the trees within a hundred miles of the capital were broken overnight, and the crops in summer and autumn were almost useless.Gradually, people fleeing famine came to the city, begging along the street in rags, temples everywhere began to set up porridge fields, and officials and officials gave money and rice one after another, but the hungry people still gathered more and more.Finally, in order to avoid troubles, Jing Zhaoyin joined forces with the admirals of the Nine Gates to submit a memorial to suggest that the imperial court close the city gates and restrict the entry of hungry people into the city.When the emperor saw the memorial, he was furious. He clearly reprimanded the nine admirals, ordered them to strengthen inspections, and strictly guarded them. He also punished Jing Zhaoyin and seized him from office. The cabinet ministers also had to ask for punishment. All of them were fined for one year, and You Zi was furious.Everyone in the court is silent like a cicada, fearing that if they say a word, there will be disasters.

It was at this time that Jia's mother finally found out about the loss of Tongling Baoyu.It turned out that after losing the jade, Baoyu was stunned for a while, and then immersed himself in the books again, but at this time, what he read was not the Four Books and Five Classics, nor the contemporary literary policy theory, but the Buddhist classics, which he copied over and over again in regular script, and gradually Obsessed with some aphorisms, he even pricked his fingers and wrote them in blood. His mind to become a monk became more and more firm, until he became a vegetarian and abstained from all desires.

Baochai refused to listen to her persuasion, and Mrs. Wang finally realized Baoyu's strangeness. This change was another round of blows to her, but she still attributed it to the bewilderment caused by the loss of jade, so she disregarded Jia Zheng's prohibition, and told the truth about the cause and effect. I told Jiamu, expecting Jiamu to be the master, and went to find the two monks, retrieve the psychic jade, and cure Baoyu's dementia.

When Jia's mother first heard this, she was shocked, and she still didn't believe it, because every day when Baoyu came to greet her, she thought it was very good. Although she was not as spiritual as before, she could understand her words.Mrs. Wang cried and said: "Old lady, if you don't care anymore, I'm afraid that Baoyu will really become a monk. Now he doesn't care about anything except worshiping Buddha and chanting scriptures. He used to like playing with the maids most, but now even those little aunts Ignore it—how can this be done?"

Jia's mother said: "it's a strange thing for a fourth girl to become a monk in our family. How can I bear that another young master is also a monk? Besides, where there are still parents, the son will become a monk? Let's call Baoyu, I will Just ask him."

The attacker promised with tears in his eyes, and then went to spread the message. After a while, Baochai came with Baoyu, and Jia Mu held hands with Baoyu and asked Baoyu, "Baoyu, have you recovered from your illness?" Baoyu said with a smile, "You are well. Jia Mu asked again: "Then what are you doing now?" Baoyu replied: "Reading Buddhist scriptures, I am going to become a monk and pray for the old lady and the wife. Give birth to me." He knelt down and kowtowed.

Mrs. Wang couldn't hold back and burst into tears, and Mother Jia also shed tears and said, "Confused child, do you know what a pure place is in Buddhism? People live in the world to suffer, and there is nothing wrong with being a monk. Two things. If you have a Buddha in your heart, even if you don’t leave home and don’t recite the Buddha’s name, it’s also a practice; if you’re always obsessed with obsessions in your heart, you’ll be in the dark and ancient Buddha all day long, and you’ve still entered the magic way—is it so easy to enter Buddhism? ?” Baoyu bowed her head in silence, and said after a long time, “The old lady said so.”

When Jia Mu saw that he promised, but her expression was not awakened, she knew that the matter was not simple, so she sent Sheyue and others to send Baoyu back to take good care of her, then let Baochai sit down, and said to her and Mrs. Wang: " Looking at it now, the child seems to be a different person, leaving only a skin. I didn't believe that that piece of jade was so important. Now it seems that Baoyu's soul may be in that piece of jade. I have to find it Here we come."

Mrs. Wang responded again and again: "Baoyu's behavior really broke my heart. If I had known that he was like this, I would not have married him. Now his wife is pregnant again. Isn't this hurting two people again?" Personal?" Baochai lowered her head with red eyes, and Jia Mu glanced at Mrs. Wang without saying anything, but sent her back, saying that she would call Jia Zheng to discuss it.

In the evening, when Jia Zheng returned home from the ministry, Mother Jia sent someone to call. Jia Zheng hurried to Mother Jia's main room. Xing Xing on the temples, with a tired look on his face, knowing that it wasn't the intrusion of an official's family affairs, he felt a little sad, so he called Hu Po, "Go and bring a bowl of white fungus and bird's nest soup to the second master." In recent years, Jia Zheng has rarely seen his mother being so kind to him, Feeling hot, she took the bird's nest soup with both hands, and said with a smile: "The old lady only cares about those grandchildren all these years, but the son is rarely cared by the old lady." Jia Mu also laughed: "You are beating around the bush. Complaining that I dote on Baoyu and not on you? Then there is such a father who is jealous of his own son?"

Jia Zheng also laughed, and frowned and said, "How can there be parents in the world who don't love their children? There are only a lot of heartless children in ancient times." Jia Mu saw that he still had a grudge against Baoyu, so she persuaded him, "You just When you talk about disciplining your son, you must know that your son is not managed like you, just like Baoyu. He has been a kind-hearted child since he was a child. Even if he likes to play with girls, it is not a big problem. Who is not? Since then? You have beaten him several times, and there is a reason for it, so I won’t say anything. But you destroyed Baoyu’s jade, didn’t you intend to kill him? What did you ask his mother to do? Is it okay? If we say that our son, although he has Cong'er, is still promising, after all, he is young and his foundation is not stable. The Lin family helped him because of Daiyu's favor, not our family friendship. The intertwined relatives who can share weal and woe are now the ones who ransacked the house, the dilapidated ones, and only the Wang family is still in power and can be relied on. If you break up with your wife like this, even I can't help you."

Jia Zheng was very sad when he heard his mother's heartfelt words. After thinking for a long time, he said nonuo: "If the mother doesn't ask, the son won't dare to tell. It's Baoyu's jade. I'm afraid it's the root of our family's disaster. Son Destroying it is also to save Baoyu and our Jia family." As he spoke, tears came down like rain.Jia Mu asked in surprise, "What do you mean?" Jia Zheng told Jia Mu exactly what Jia Yucun said at that time, and said, "My son didn't just listen to Yucun's words. I also know. That is an unreliable person, but my son thought, if you say something outrageous, the current emperor is the most suspicious, and seems to dislike auspiciousness, but if a courtier reports that there is auspiciousness somewhere, the joy will be revealed first. It can be seen that the Holy One must be taboo about such bizarre things as being born with jade. If it is an ordinary family, it will be fine, but it is a Shixun family like ours. Isn’t this a disaster? I smashed it with great fanfare. It is also for people to know that it is just an ordinary object. Who would have thought that the foolish woman would make a list of 1 taels of silver to find that broken stone, out of fear that the noise would not be loud enough? Is there too much money in the family? Mother also knows that in the past two years, our relatives and friends have been dismissed a lot. It’s not because we don’t know how to restrain ourselves. Woolen cloth."

Jia's mother was already stunned. Hearing that the rumors about her family were not good, she couldn't help but her heart beat wildly, and asked: "What does our family have? There are no people who are officials. Send Yuanchun to the palace, now that the imperial concubine is dead, what else can our family do?" Jia Zheng sighed: "If the mother doesn't ask, the son doesn't dare to tell, for fear of worrying the mother—we don't have anything at home. , Zhen'er in the East Mansion, I heard that there are already several censors participating in the play."

Jia Mu was speechless for a long time, and then sighed for a long time: "If you talk about my nephew, he has been clever since he was a child. It's just that his father wanted to become a god, so he didn't discipline him well. He attacked an official at a young age. I can't be happy every day, and I just want to blow up the Ningguo Mansion. However, I am separated from him by a layer, so I can't talk about him very much. In the past two days, I have heard some bad rumors vaguely. The fourth girl is just because of what she heard, she is young and arrogant, and she can't tolerate filth, so she would rather become a monk than cut off the contacts there. At that time, I felt bad. It's just what he did. Something? Can it interfere with us?"

Jia Zheng thought for a while, but he couldn't bear to tell about Wang Xifeng, so he only replied vaguely: "After all, he is an ancestor, and Zhen'er is now the head of the clan. Whenever something happens, it will be pushed down by the wall, and everyone will be pushed. It's a bad thing—as long as the Holy One remembers the word 'Jia', things will be difficult to handle."

Seeing that her mother was tired, Jia Zheng hurriedly called a maid, ordered her to serve her and rest well, and resigned by herself.Back in his own room, he didn't go to Mrs. Wang's, nor to Aunt Zhao's, just rested casually on the low couch in the study, thinking about the conversation with his mother over and over again, the more he thought about it, the more frightened he was, tossing and turning, sleepless all night.

In the early morning of the next day, Jia Zheng hurriedly went to Jia Mu's place to say hello, but heard the servant girl tell that Jia Mu didn't sleep well last night, and she developed a fever in the middle of the night, and it got worse recently.Jia Zheng couldn't help panicking, and hurriedly sent someone to invite the imperial physician, but the imperial physician Wang said that he was not feeling well, so he only sent a young medical officer under him, Jia Zheng was even more troubled, he knew that these imperial physicians were going in and out of the palace , the news is the most well-informed, and he is also the best at climbing high and stepping down, seeing people ordering dishes, Wang Taiyi is like this, if there is a minor ailment, it's fine, if you hear some rumors, you have to get rid of it.Thinking about it this way made me even more flustered.

All of a sudden, Jia Amnesty, Mrs. Xing, Mrs. Wang, etc. came. Although Jia's mother was seriously ill, she knew very well in her heart that she was worried about hurting her liver, which could not be cured by medicine and stones.Then he ordered Baochai to go back to raise the fetus and take good care of Baoyu. Li Wan also went to take care of Jialan's study. Wang Xifeng was sick and sick, so he didn't have to come.Jia Zheng thought that Jiamu loved Daiyu the most, so he wanted to send someone to invite Daiyu to serve medicine. It's not good, there are seven disasters and eight disasters here, don't bring another sick one. Besides, it's not for nothing that the Lin family took Daiyu's house at this juncture, right? Don't let that child worry about it, I Just take two doses of medicine and it will be fine." As he closed his eyes and rested his mind, Jia Zheng felt even more tormented, thinking that Lin Jiarui was the chief minister of the cabinet, so he must know something, but the minister's scheming was unfathomable, so he went to I dare not go to inquire, and I am only sad and bored at home every day.