The Second Master of the Red Chamber

Chapter 831 Slander
After leaving Tan Chun at the entrance of Qiushuangzhai, Jia Lian left the Grand View Garden.

He didn't go home, but went to the east courtyard.

Zhao Sheng was already waiting at the entrance of the study, which wasn't very big, in the front yard of the east wing.

"So, what did you find out?"

"Reporting to Second Master. Following your advice, we immediately dispatched people to investigate and indeed discovered that someone in the city had been deliberately spreading rumors about Second Master and the Princess these past two days."

The lackeys found several storytellers who performed in teahouses and taverns, broke into their homes that night, and interrogated them.

These people all confessed that someone did instruct them to do so.

Based on all the clues, it can be inferred that those pulling the strings behind the scenes are the same group of people, or rather, they are acting on the orders of the same person.

Since it was just him and Zhao Sheng there, Jia Lian didn't mince words and sneered, "No need to guess, these people must be from Prince Yun's mansion."

Sometimes, the political struggles that seem turbulent and confusing to outsiders are actually quite transparent to those involved.

His romantic affair with Princess Zhaoyang was widely known throughout the dynasty.

Even after the Emperor Emeritus issued his statement, although there might be some discussion about him and Princess Zhaoyang in the capital, it is unlikely that any particularly malicious comments would circulate widely.

It was at least certainly overshadowed by other major events.

Why did such a large-scale, clearly premeditated, release of offensive remarks suddenly occur at this time?

The reason is simple: the Third Prince's injuries have healed considerably, and he can move around a bit now.

It's quite something that they even went so far as to compile so many storybooks and various dubious and bizarre tales!
They really went to great lengths to make them famous.

The reason why the Third Prince did this is also easy to understand.

Princess Zhaoyang had openly opposed Emperor Ningkang that day. Even if he didn't realize it at the time, he probably already guessed that Princess Zhaoyang intended to support the Fourth Prince in his rivalry with him.

However, Princess Zhaoyang's outstanding performance on Iron Net Mountain won the favor of Emperor Ningkang, and she took over almost all the duties left to him after he was confined to his residence.

The Third Prince certainly wouldn't want to sit idly by and watch Princess Zhaoyang grow stronger.

However, he is currently unable to confront his own sister. In this situation, if he wants to win, ruining her reputation through a scheme is a good option.

Especially since Princess Zhaoyang herself has a criminal record, without needing to completely fabricate the facts, just a little guidance would likely be enough to ruin the reputation of this most dazzling pearl of the dynasty, the imperial princess.

What right does a woman have to oppose a person with a bad reputation?

As for why he was given special attention, Jia Lian guessed that either the Third Prince had followed the clues and guessed that he was behind the Tian family case.

Either he was simply needed to tarnish Princess Zhaoyang's reputation, thus causing innocent bystanders to suffer the consequences.

In either case, Jia Lian cannot easily let the other party succeed.

Princess Zhaoyang has sacrificed so much for him, how could he tolerate others slandering her...

Just as he was pondering a countermeasure, Jia Lian suddenly thought of something, his expression froze, and he stopped thinking in his tracks.

Zhao Sheng stood respectfully beside Jia Lian. As Jia Lian's confidant, he was well aware of the significance of Princess Zhaoyang to Jia Lian.

As the person in charge of the investigation tonight, he also knew very well how disgusting and despicable those who spread rumors were, as they almost always attacked the most vile aspects of society.

Seeing that Jia Lian remained silent, he suggested, "Second Master, how about we organize some people tomorrow to go door to door and warn those teahouses and taverns not to spread rumors anymore!"

Zhao Sheng felt that with Jia Lian's current reputation, as long as he warned those people, most of them would know the consequences and dare not offend the important person again.

If Jia Lian wanted, he could even order the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture and the Military Command to suppress the rumors.

However, Zhao Sheng knows his own family's affairs best.

Although fate played a cruel trick on the master and princess, it also meant that those who spread rumors were not entirely talking nonsense.

That's true; if it's all just rumors, it's not really rumors anymore.

Therefore, he understood that this matter was not really convenient to bring up in the open.

Since that's the case, the only option is to take matters into my own hands and deal with those scoundrels in the shadows.

But Jia Lian shook his head: "You should keep this to yourself. Don't spread it around. There's no need to do anything special. I have my own arrangements."

Zhao Sheng was taken aback, but after confirming that Jia Lian wasn't being sarcastic, he had no objection to strictly following Jia Lian's orders.

He suddenly said, "What if we overhear someone saying bad things about Second Master?"

Jia Jing's funeral arrangements are not yet complete; these next few days, they will be going in and out of the city with Jia Lian.

The saying goes, "A subject dies for his master's honor." If they heard someone slandering or even insulting Jia Lian, they would probably find it difficult to remain indifferent.

Fortunately, Jia Lian immediately said, "If anyone dares to say it to your face, then there's no need to hold back. At that time, you don't need to follow my orders; just do as you please, regardless of life or death."

Given Jia Lian's current status, he is no longer afraid to offend even the Third Prince.

There are really very few people in the entire capital who he can't afford to offend.

……

Sure enough, over the next two days, rumors about Princess Zhaoyang spread even more wildly throughout the capital.

These rumors were varied and numerous, but all aimed to attack Princess Zhaoyang. They included claims that she seduced a married man, had illicit relations with another man on the way to her marriage alliance, and, after being discovered, conspired with her lover to murder her husband and falsely accused him of rebellion…

Later, even knowing that she and Jia Lian were siblings, she not only failed to restrain herself but also became increasingly promiscuous. She even had illicit relations with dozens of men in front of the husband chosen for her by the Empress Dowager, and then became pregnant with an illegitimate child of unknown origin... All of this was intended to completely condemn Princess Zhaoyang to the pillar of shame in the imperial family, denying her humanity from both her character and soul.

Because these stories involve all the most famous people in the world, including the most outstanding talents like Jia Lian and Princess Zhaoyang.

Therefore, even though these stories are quite different from the versions that have been circulated before, countless people are still willing to follow and spread them.

So quickly it reached the point where almost everyone in the capital knew about it.

Jia Lian was naturally aware of all this, and even with his deep cunning, he couldn't wait to unleash all his power to arrest and kill all the instigators.

But Jia Lian knew it was no use.

The so-called rumor-mongering is to open your mouth and refute the rumors.

For example, if Jia Lian wanted to use rumors to slander someone, he only needed to send a trusted confidant, and he could basically accomplish it.

Therefore, unless Jia Lian can catch the person or several people at the source and have them identify that the Third Prince instructed him, and then bring a lawsuit before Emperor Ningkang, it might not be of any use.

However, regardless of whether he can accomplish it, even if he can, it will inevitably expose some of his existing strength and power.

This was certainly not a good thing for him, who was already being suspected and tested by Emperor Ningkang.

Moreover, Emperor Ningkang has just seized power, so even if the two princes want to compete, they can only do so secretly. It is not advisable to make a big fuss in public, otherwise it will not benefit anyone.

Wasn't the Third Prince trying to discredit his rival?
But he seemed to have forgotten that Princess Zhaoyang was not only his rival, but also his own sister.

It seems he still hasn't learned his lesson from the Crown Prince incident.

Jia Lian was just regretting that the death of the Crown Prince hadn't completely crushed him, and now he's resorting to such despicable means to deal with his own sister. Ha!

Jia Lian wanted to see if Emperor Ningkang was truly unafraid that his remaining children would die a violent death after his own demise.

Indeed, after considering this point, Jia Lian was prepared to let the incident escalate.

The bigger the commotion, the greater the chance that Emperor Ningkang would receive intelligence, and the greater his anger would become.

However, the fact that things escalated to this point in just two or three days was somewhat unexpected for Jia Lian.

It seems he underestimated the public's interest in gossiping about the lives of these elite aristocrats.

Although things were going according to Jia Lian's expectations, what puzzled him was that Princess Zhaoyang had not reacted at all in the past two days.

He didn't even send him a message through Hu Yuanyao.

Jia Lian did not believe that Princess Zhaoyang had not received the news by now.

Fine, if she doesn't contact me, I'll just have to take the initiative to find her.

On his way back to the city on horseback, Jia Lian had already planned that once he returned to his residence, he would disguise himself and ride in Hu Yuanyao's carriage to the princess's residence.

Although Princess Zhaoyang was naturally carefree, Jia Lian was still somewhat worried that she wouldn't be able to withstand such a blow.

"Second Master..."

"What's the matter?"

Seeing Zhao Sheng's mysterious demeanor, Jia Lian frowned and asked.

Zhao Sheng approached Jia Lian and waited for Jia Lian to bend down before whispering in his ear, "Jin Wenxiang is back."

Jia Lian was immediately invigorated.

After confirming the news, Jia Lian turned around and shouted, "Zhang Yong and Zhao Sheng, stay here. The rest of you may return to your residence."

"Yes……"

Outside the north city wall, at Jia's horse farm.

An elderly woman, nearly eighty years old and extremely thin, alighted from the carriage. Looking at the long wooden fence before her, she asked the man who had helped her down with some confusion:

"Didn't you say the old lady was seriously ill and anxious to see me? How did we end up here? Where is this place?"

Jin Wenxiang replied respectfully, "Old Granny, please don't worry, we're only about twenty li from the capital. I'm afraid you'll be tired from the journey, so please get out of the carriage and rest."

Don't worry, old nanny, this is a horse ranch that Second Master Lian built a few years ago, and most of the people living here are from our household.

"Second Master Lian?"

Although Granny Lai had some doubts, Jin Wenxiang's words made sense.

Although she was eager to see Grandmother Jia, she thought that Jin Wenxiang and his companion had taken good care of her along the way, and that they might have some business to attend to here, so she decided to delay for a while.

But Granny Lai soon realized something was wrong.

After entering the horse farm, although Jin Wenxiang and others served her the finest tea and snacks, they repeatedly told her not to leave the house.

She even later discovered that two heavily armed soldiers had somehow appeared outside her door.

Granny Lai, after all, had served Grandmother Jia her whole life and had some experience.

Seeing this, she had a vague feeling that something big was about to happen...

……

(End of this chapter)