The Second Master of the Red Chamber

Under the attic, inside the ancestral hall.

Under the chairmanship of the two clan elders, the ancestor worship ceremony went smoothly.

After Jia Lian read verbatim the "acceptance speech" written by the famous members of the clan, he and Feng Jieer placed the imperial edict and the imperial decree into a sealing plate, which was then taken to the inner ancestral hall for sealing by the clan elders.

At this joyous moment, an inopportune voice suddenly sounded:

"Uncle Lian, there are rumors that you are the grandson of the emperor. Is this true or not?"

The sudden, questioning voice suppressed other noises and made everyone look towards the source.

"It's the fourth child from the third room!"

"How dare he..."

The Jia family members were talking about it.

There was no other reason. After the rumors about Jia Lian's life experience spread, the elders of the clan consulted with Grandmother Jia and reached a unanimous opinion.

Then, of course, they would go back and restrain the people in their respective rooms, telling them not to talk nonsense outside, in order to avoid the disaster of having their property confiscated and their clan exterminated!

Jia Daixiu, who was originally beaming with joy and was arguing with Jia Dairu about who should put the sealing plate away, stumbled and handed the sealing plate to Jia Dairu without thinking too much. He rushed to the front and shouted, "Who told you to talk nonsense here? Where is the third brother's family?"

A middle-aged man squeezed out of the crowd and kicked Jia Qin: "Damn you, you evil creature! Who told you to interrupt the celebration? How dare you!"

Jia Qin held his head in his hands and admitted the beating, while refusing to admit defeat, "I just asked a question that everyone is concerned about. Dad, why did you hit me? Don't you think it's strange? A person from the royal family, a noble, bears the title of the head of my Jia family, and presides over my Jia family's ancestor worship ceremony openly..."

Seeing that Jia Qin was getting more and more outspoken and was bringing disaster upon himself, Jia Daixiu, the son of Duke Ning, was so angry that his beard stood up.

"Jia Gui, is this how you teach your son? Why don't you just get him out of here!"

Jia Qin's father, Jia Gui, kicked Jia Qin hard several times and suddenly became hesitant.

"Forgive me, Master. Although this evil creature was reckless, what he said was not entirely unreasonable.

In recent days, rumors have been flying around in Room 8. Is it true that everyone is not curious and doesn't want to know the truth?

It's a rare occasion that all the people from Room 8 are here today, so we might as well make this matter clear and expose the rumors, and then everything will be fine.

"You two masters, don't you agree?"

Jia Gui's words immediately made Jia Daixiu speechless, because he saw that as Jia Gui finished speaking, many of the clansmen present nodded silently.

He suddenly felt something was wrong and couldn't help but look at Jia Lian and his wife behind him.

Sister Feng had a bad temper. Normally, she would have opened her mouth and retaliated. With her eloquence, she was sure to make Jia Qin and his son speechless.

But maybe because she was concerned about the presence of Princess Zhaoyang and the Fourth Prince, Sister Feng remained silent and just looked at Jia Lian.

Jia Lian let go of Feng Jie'er's hand, walked to the steps, and slowly glanced at all the Jia family members.

Everyone, including Jia Qin and his son, lowered their heads and dared not look at Jia Lian when they came into his sight.

After several breaths, until a pin drop could be heard in the ancestral hall, Jia Lian asked calmly, "What rumor?"

No one responded, and everyone looked at Jia Gui and his son.

Although Jia Gui was already afraid in his heart, facing everyone's gaze, he could only bite the bullet and reply: "Yes, that's right, it's about the matter that the emperor publicly acknowledged that you are his grandson..."

"There is such a thing."

After hearing Jia Lian's admission, Jia Gui had no time to breathe a sigh of relief before he heard Jia Lian continue, "However, after the court's investigation and argumentation, it was proved that the grandson of the retired emperor was someone else, so the current emperor conferred me the title of Duke of Rong to set the record straight."

Jia Lian's voice was calm and his words were brief, but for some reason, they sounded deafening and intimidating to everyone.

Even those who had believed the rumors before began to believe what Jia Lian said.

Yes, if Jia Lian was really the emperor’s grandson, why would the court confer the title of Duke of Rong on him?

It turned out that there was a mistake, but we were afraid that people around the world would spread the rumor, so we used this method to set the record straight!

"Any other questions?" Jia Lian looked at Jia Gui and his son.

"No, no more..."

Facing Jia Lian's gaze, Jia Gui and his son both shrank their heads.

Seeing that a huge storm was completely resolved by Jia Lian's few words, some really smart people who were not deceived by words could not help but sigh.

At this point in time, does it still matter whether Second Uncle Lian (Brother Lian) is a member of the royal family?

With his power, the entire Jia family had to crawl at his feet.

It is the Jia family that is glorious because of Uncle Lian, not Uncle Lian who needs the support of the Jia family.

I thought the matter was settled, but when Jia Lian saw that no one dared to speak, he turned to Jia Dairu and Jia Daixiu and said:

"If I remember correctly, after I returned to Beijing and asked the old lady about my father's life, the old lady ordered that no one in the Jia family should make any irresponsible comments about my father's life experience, and those who violated the order would be severely punished.

Did the old lady's order not reach the ears of each room, or did the heads of each room fail to pass on the order?"

Jia Dairu and Jia Daixiu quickly said that they had passed on Jia's mother's order early in the morning. Other leaders of the other rooms also stood up and said that they had passed it on.

"So what's wrong with them?"

Seeing Jia Lian pointing his spearhead at them again, Jia Gui and his son suddenly felt something was wrong.

There are many reasons why the father and son dared to jointly perform this clumsy drama.

First, there were indeed rumors circulating among the Eighth House, which made them cautious.

Second, Jia Qin secretly resented Jia Lian.

It turned out that after the Mid-Autumn Festival last year, the Jia family planned to move out all the Taoists, monks and nuns who were filling the Taoist temples, nunneries and monasteries in the Grand View Garden.

Among them, the twelve young monks and twelve young Taoists from the Jade Emperor Temple and the Bodhidharma Temple were assigned to the family temple Tiekan Temple. When Jia Qin's mother Zhou heard that there was a lack of a manager, she went to Feng Jieer for help.

Originally this matter had been decided, but when the list passed through Jia Lian's hands, Jia Lian simply erased Jia Qin's name and replaced it with someone else.

This incident made Jia Qin feel resentful, but he did not dare to express it.

However, it was common to curse Jia Lian and say a few bad things about him in private, which naturally influenced the family members subtly.

Third, Jia Qin's father, Jia Gui, usually behaves very well in front of Jia Zheng. However, since he learned about the rumors about Jia Lian, he has been thinking about how to make money every day.

Now that Jia Zheng is far away in the south, he naturally cannot get Jia Zheng's advice.

However, he felt that if he could take advantage of the situation and learn from the generals under Zhao Kuangyin, and directly help Jia Zheng wear a yellow robe, he would naturally have a bright future!

That's right, after the news of today's ancestor worship celebration spread, he saw that many people in the Eighth House were secretly angry, so he wanted to take this opportunity to force Jia Lian out of the Jia family.

In this way, without Jia Lian, the Jia family would naturally be headed by Jia Zheng.

In this way, when Jia Zheng comes back and learns of his achievements, won’t he be able to rise to prominence?

Therefore, he and his son, who had always disliked Jia Lian, came up with this double act.

His plan was very simple. It was to point out Jia Lian's outsider identity in the Jia family's ancestral hall, so that Jia Lian would voluntarily leave the Jia family out of shame.

He was not so naive that he could do anything to Jia Lian. He just knew that a person like Jia Lian would definitely be very proud. How could he still have the nerve to stay in the Jia family after his identity was exposed?

I didn’t expect that many things are easy to imagine but difficult to do.

He never thought that under Jia Lian's power, he and his son would not be able to speak to each other.

Not only did the plan fail to be completed, but it now seemed that Jia Lian had no intention of letting them go, and they realized it belatedly and felt frightened.

Facing the mocking and pitying eyes of the clan members, Jia Gui quickly knelt down and said, "Brother Lian, please spare us. We, father and son, were blinded by greed and rumors and forgot the old lady's orders. Please, brother Lian, spare us this time for the sake of our brotherhood..."

Jia Gui kowtowed loudly.

He seemed to remember the fate of the Yang brothers and sisters.

Jia Lian gave him a cold look, then turned around and asked the two elders, "What do you two masters think?"

Seeing that Jia Gui's scalp was broken, Jia Dairu said with some pity: "They also misunderstood the rumors. Why not let them go this time..."

Jia Lian frowned and looked at Jia Daixiu.

Jia Daixiu sighed, then stood up and said, "Jia Gui and Jia Qin, father and son, ignored the clan's laws, disrupted the ancestral worship ceremony, and slandered the clan leader. Their behavior is bad and has a huge impact. If they are not severely punished, there will be no way to rectify the clan's laws."

After saying this, Jia Daixiu bowed to Jia Lian and said, "Please punish me according to clan law on behalf of the clan leader."

Jia Lian nodded and said, "Drag them away and give them 100 strokes of the cane each."

When Jia Gui and Jia Qin heard that they would be beaten with a stick 100 times, they immediately collapsed. Their wives and children burst into tears and begged for mercy.

Jia Lian ignored him and waited until the servants dragged the family of the third room away. After the courtyard was quiet, he said coldly: "My Jia family has been established for a hundred years since our ancestors. Under the second master alone, there are more than a hundred descendants.

Without the constraints of clan rules and family laws, sooner or later unfilial descendants will bring disaster to the family because of their own mistakes in words and deeds.

Therefore, I hope that after you return, you will remember the clan rules and laws well to avoid falling into my hands again in the future.

The imperial court has already made a conclusion about my father's background, and the old lady and the elders of the clan have also discussed it with each other and no longer have any doubts.

If you still have doubts in your heart, you can raise them now in front of the people in the Eighth House, and I will forgive you."

Jia Lian looked at the two hundred Jia clan members and clan wives, and no one expressed any objection.

What a joke! The last two people who raised objections are going to be beaten with a hundred sticks, and it’s not even known whether they can survive. Only someone would have objections.

"Very good, since you all have no questions, from today on, I don't want to hear anyone discuss my father's background in public anymore.

If anyone dares to disobey the old lady's strict orders, violate the clan laws, and bring disaster to the Jia family, they will be removed from the family tree and expelled from the family."

Everyone was shocked when they heard this, knowing that Jia Lian was really angry, and they all nodded in agreement. (End of this chapter)