Jia Lu through the Red Chamber

Kyoto is located in the north. Compared with previous years, this year is extraordinarily cold. As soon as it entered mid-October, the temperature dropped rapidly.

Not to mention how difficult it is for those poor families, even the aristocratic and powerful families like Jia's family are also very busy.

Wang Xifeng arranged for the housekeeper to take the right card and go to the market to buy carbon. There is no shortage of high-quality carbon, so prepare it early. Girls and boys have to tailor their clothes, and servants and boys have to send out some thick cotton jackets in advance. If they are not distributed in time, whoever is lazy, loves to fool around and is afraid of the cold will go out and talk, and it will damage the reputation of the Jia family for its goodness and charity.

There are also various family banquets during the New Year's Eve, and each good family will send a New Year's gift in return. Even a heroine and strong woman like Wang Xifeng couldn't bear it, and developed a low-grade fever. After asking Mother Jia, let her mother-in-law, Chen, take care of things. I took it.

Daiyu was born and raised in Gusu City, where the climate is humid and mild. Her body is weak, and she can't bear the dry and cold winter. In previous years, when the climate was milder, she would cough twice and be sick for ten and a half days. moon.This year's cold winter, not only did not hear a cough, not only did not hide in the warm pavilion to keep warm like in previous years, but also went out for a walk every now and then.

Today, Mrs. Chen flicked the account book in her hand to the side, leaned back, frowning in worry, Dan'er stepped forward and kneaded it sensibly, with neither loose nor tight force, Mrs. Chen let go of her frowning brows. , waved his hand, and waved Dan'er back.

"You grandma Lian, if you want me to tell you, you are really not ordinary people. Look at the welcome and sending, the exchange of favors, one after another, without her at the helm, how can things happen!"

Dan'er has followed Chen's family for many years, so she understands Chen's thoughts more or less. She heard this with one ear, and other people thought it was a mother-in-law who praised her daughter-in-law for doing a good job, but Dan'er could hear the sarcasm in it. Rolling his eyes, he said,

"Grandma Lian is just relying on her good background, broad knowledge, and broad vision to make these things work. The master sees it as difficult, but it's just that she didn't have much experience before, and she was a little bit helpless. What's more, she No matter how good the helm is, I still have to listen to you, don’t I?”

Mrs. Chen has always been a proud person, and now she is only 30 or [-] years old. Seeing that she is not as good as Wang Xifeng, she feels discouraged for a while. Let go.

Picking up the account book again and checking it carefully, the more calculations became more and more wrong, and I became suspicious in my heart, how could there be such a big gap?

He also wondered if someone had dug a trap to plot against her, and calculated over and over again in front of the ledger, but the calculation was still uncertain.

Generally speaking, the income of Jia's mansion mainly comes from the original Zhuangzi in Jinling's hometown, and later the ancestors followed the founding emperor to conquer the country and encircle a lot of land in the suburbs of Kyoto. He continued to buy a lot of shops and properties, as well as the salaries received by the master and son. Logically, these benefits can not only maintain the dignity of the Duke's mansion, but also have a lot of surplus. Without the ability to continue to expand the industry, Jia's income and expenditure can barely be balanced. This is what she knew when she was in charge of the family. It is only a few years now, so why is there such a gap of several thousand taels?

In the Zhuangzi, all the prospects of the shops below have been given away?Could something be wrong? "

Dan'er recalled, "No," hesitantly said, "But the New Year's gifts that Uncle Lin wanted to send in previous years have not been delivered."

Suddenly, Mrs. Chen checked the list of gifts in previous years, and it was indeed missing. Speaking of which, since Lin Daiyu entered the mansion, the annual gifts that Mr. Lin sent up every year not only included many special products from Gusu, but also other precious silk, embroidery, etc. There are quite a lot of ware, porcelain, calligraphy and painting, jewelry, and there are 5000 taels of silver every year for being filial to Jiamu. Not so much money, thinking about what happened more than half a year ago, Chen couldn't help curling her lips, quite disdainful.

It costs at least [-] taels of silver every year. Such a big gap is indeed difficult to fill, but Chen's face became serious.

Now Jia's family can't make ends meet, and they have to rely on relatives' annual gifts to maintain their balance of payments. Later, they will have to use the foundation left by their ancestors, and then eat a little food.

When Mrs. Chen was young, she often sat on her grandfather's lap, listening to him talk about the times when those princes and princes' mansions couldn't sustain their decency, and they had to use their power to benefit themselves. Defeat has also become inevitable.

If there is no Zong'er who spends money, he may be able to last for three or four generations, and the title of the last generation will be defeated, but people are not enough. No one wants the mansion of the Duke of the Four Great Families to become a small title with no talent. Children and grandchildren, it is necessary to fight hard at this time.

It suddenly occurred to Mrs. Chen that she had faintly heard rumors that the sage was unwell last year. Regardless of whether the rumors were true or not, although the crown prince was already 30 years old, the second and fourth princes were just right in age. It's a decision, Mrs. Chen calculated the age of the girl in the mansion again, and suddenly felt terrified.

Seeing that Jia Yuanchun was sent to the palace, one knew that Jia's mansion was not unambitious. Over the past few years, there was no good news for the eldest girls in the mansion. Those who were obsessed with power had to attract the attention of the girls who were related to the age of the princes.

But the power of the Jia family is not as strong as that of the father-in-law when he was alive, and sending a daughter may not be able to win the eyes of those princes and grandchildren, but the side concubine and concubine are first-class, this game must be held steady, at most the state will be restored to the Duke's mansion. , Two or three generations more, if the pressure is not stable, no matter how big the family is, it is not enough to be copied!

Seeing Mrs. Chen in a daze, Dan'er thought that there were still many women waiting to reply, so she had to offend and interrupt. This is, Mrs. Chen was awakened by the bustling noise outside, and she frowned immediately. He is tall, but his methods are not bad. His yard has always been well-organized, respectful and polite, and has never been so noisy.

Signaling to Dan'er, Dan'er understood, raised his voice and shouted to the outside of the house, "What's going on outside!"

There was immediate silence outside the house, and after a while, a little girl came in, she was not very familiar, and it seemed that she was just pushed and pushed in by other people.The little girl had never met her master before, she lowered her head, she was considered polite, she saluted tremblingly and said,

"It's my aunt who came. My aunt brought a lot of New Year's gifts. The old lady was assigned according to each house and courtyard. The servants, the servants all came over to watch..."

Dan'er pointed at her and scolded, "You shallow-sighted, the master has missed you, so many things you are all clamoring to see!"

The little girl blushed suddenly, and wanted to refute a few words, no matter how many things, grandma's dowry may not be comparable, but fortunately she is not really stupid to this extent.

Mrs. Chen interrupted Dan'er's cursing, "Which aunt is it?"

The little girl said with red eyes, "It's Miss Lin's father, Master Lin Gu."