The Second Master of the Red Chamber

Chapter 852 Lychee Society

The grateful Lotus Root Official retreated with his companions, deeply thankful for the favor received.

As the commotion in the hall subsided, Qingwen took the opportunity, while pouring wine for Jia Lian, to kneel down beside him and whisper:
"Why is Second Master so concerned about that little actress? He even asked her to take Physician Zhang to examine her?"

Jia Lian turned his head and looked at the charming and clever little face in front of him, which made him feel resentful. He thought of how this girl had been driven out by Madam Wang in her previous life, and how she died of illness due to resentment and lack of care. He felt very sorry for her.

Knowing that this girl would never be able to experience such profound pain in this lifetime, Jia Lian didn't explain too much to her.

"Do you know why I didn't send anyone else, but specifically you?"

Qingwen was taken aback, and subconsciously asked, "Why?"

"Because you have always completed the tasks I assign you carefully and diligently, I feel confident entrusting you with important matters whenever they arise."

If you don't like being assigned tasks by me, I'll teach you a way.

You deliberately slacked off on two tasks I assigned you; once I find out, I certainly won't bother you with anything else.

Upon hearing this, Qingwen immediately smiled and said, "Look at what you're saying, Second Master. I'll do whatever it takes to complete the tasks you assign me, even if it costs me my life. How could I possibly slack off!"

Thinking that Jia Lian's method was deliberately designed to mislead her, she couldn't help but reach out to pinch Jia Lian.

Ultimately, remembering the situation, she only managed to brush her hand between Jia Lian's legs.

She was secretly pleased, thinking that since Jia Lian had said so, she should be extra careful when doing the things he asked her to do in the future, so that she could take credit for him.

Jia Lian simply smiled.

This girl is like a donkey that's easily swayed; after he said those words, he no longer had to worry about her objecting to the tasks he assigned her.

Perhaps because of the incident involving Di Guan, the young ladies in the palace seemed to have little interest in listening to the music or watching the beauties dance.

They moved around frequently, sometimes gathering in twos or threes to whisper among themselves.

Later, seeing that Jia Lian and the others did not stop them, they even started chatting openly.

Aunt Xue sat at the head of the table, watching the two young maids below her pulling Baochai along, their conversation filled with talk about what to do after the banquet. She knew that the younger generation must have other activities planned.

So after watching one program, she got up and said she was going to visit Lady Wang, leaving Jia Lian and the others to enjoy themselves.

Madam Xing had been watching with great interest, but seeing that Aunt Xue was leaving, she also took her leave.

The Jia Lian couple couldn't keep them, so they could only see them out.

When they returned, the hall was bustling with activity.

Shi Xiangyun took the lead and jumped in front of Jia Lian: "Brother Lian, let's go boating later!"

Yingchun said, "Boating is not good. What if we get sunburned in this hot weather? Why don't we hold a poetry club here instead?"

Although Xiangyun really wanted to go out and play, she thought that starting a poetry club would be a good idea, so she didn't object.

At the same time, she looked suspiciously at Tan Chun behind everyone.

Normally, Tan Chun and she would be the most enthusiastic at this time, so why are they hiding in the back today?
Jia Lian called out to Feng Jie, then turned to Xiang Yun and laughed, "What's wrong? Is my banquet so boring that you can't wait to start something else?"

"No, we just..."

Xiangyun felt a little embarrassed by what Jia Lian said and began to stammer.

Seeing this, Jia Lian not only did not let it go, but went even further: "You're full, but I was just watching you eat. I didn't eat much myself. We'll have to wait until I'm done eating before we talk about anything else."

Upon hearing this, Xiangyun immediately touched her bulging little belly and stepped back a bit, feeling embarrassed.

Following behind Jia Lian, Feng Jie found it amusing to see Jia Lian bullying Shi Xiangyun and joined in the laughter:

"Don't feel wronged. I saw it just now. You ate the most of all the people there. I'm afraid it must have been more than a hundred."
Did you know that these days, a single lychee can cost a tael of silver?

So, you spent a hundred taels of his silver on this one meal. No wonder he doesn't like you, and you still went and provoked him.

Sister Feng smiled, her eyes full of mischief.

But she was only exaggerating to amuse Xiangyun.

Even if it's ten taels of silver per catty, that lychee would only cost four or five qian of silver at most.

Besides, it's impossible that Shi Xiangyun actually ate a hundred of them.

Seeing Xiangyun lower her head and chuckle sheepishly, Li Wan quickly stepped in to mediate: "Alright, you two, stop teasing her. If you make her cry, I won't help you comfort her."

Jia Lian smiled and headed towards the main seat.

Seeing that Sister Feng was about to go downstairs, Jia Lian took her hand.

Feeling embarrassed, Sister Feng quietly shook off Jia Lian, but still obediently followed him up.

The maidservant pulled over a small stool, and she sat down next to Jia Lian.

The others just smiled when they saw this. Apart from finding Sister Feng's expression and reaction amusing, they didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

On the other side, after Baochai brought Xiangyun over, fearing that Xiangyun might misunderstand, she whispered some words of comfort:
"They were just teasing you; they didn't really mean you eat too much. It's fine if you suspect others, but it's wrong to suspect them."

Xiangyun nodded repeatedly and replied, "Don't worry, Sister Bao, I know."

I know better than anyone what kind of person Lian Er Gege is. Back then, he gave me that precious gold bracelet just because he said he would.

However, he is also truly despicable.

He certainly wouldn't mind that I eat too much, but he's definitely making fun of me.

He loves to bully me.

So I won't stand on ceremony with him. He has so many lychees here, and he's being so generous with them, of course I'm going to eat my fill!

Xiangyun's heart was filled with joy.

While Sister Feng's teasing might have some genuine meaning, Jia Lian certainly wouldn't care about such mundane matters.

That's why she was willing to do whatever she wanted today. If it were someone else's thing, she would at least be more reserved.

At the top, Jia Lian noticed that everyone was relatively quiet after returning to their seats, and most of their eyes were on him.

After thinking for a moment, he instructed Jiang Yun to continue the singing and dancing, and then beckoned Ping'er over and whispered a few words in her ear.

Ping'er obeyed and beckoned several of her capable subordinates to leave the main hall.

Feng Jie heard Jia Lian's instructions and pursed her lips, somewhat puzzled as to why Jia Lian, with his status, would still be willing to play along with these young maids.

Jia Lian keenly noticed her expression, and after taking a sip of wine, he turned his head and said to her:
"Don't rush off later, you have to compose one today too."

"what??"

Sister Feng's eyes widened in surprise, her expression one of utter bewilderment.

She was clearly a stunningly beautiful and mature woman, but at this moment she actually looked somewhat cute.

Jia Lian snorted, "What's with the 'ah'? You're the 'Supervising Censor of the Poetry Society,' and a member of the poetry club. What's wrong with asking you to compose a poem?"

With a pleading look on her face, Feng Jie realized that Jia Lian was not joking at all. Her heart pounded, and she couldn't help but start to think.

As the saying goes, one is influenced by what one sees and hears. Having grown accustomed to seeing the teenage girls in her family composing poems and lyrics, especially Xiangling, who was even more illiterate than her a few years ago but can now compose a few lines of poetry, she found that writing poetry wasn't so difficult after all.

Many of the poems that Tan Chun had copied down before seemed rather ordinary to her.

So I started fantasizing: Why don't I actually write one today and stun them?
However, ideals are beautiful, but reality is cruel.

Even though she had already guessed the topic of today's poetry club meeting, she racked her brains for half a day but still couldn't figure out how to start!

Jia Lian certainly didn't intend to make things difficult for Wang Xifeng, but seeing her suddenly quiet down, looking deep in thought, he felt a little strange.

Without disturbing her, he invited everyone to sit for another half an hour.

Seeing that everyone was indeed losing interest, and almost no one was eating or talking anymore, Jia Lian finally spoke:

"Alright, the song and dance performance is over. Now, it's time for your most anticipated moment."

The sisters in the palace had already guessed that there was more to the story after they discovered that Jia Lian had secretly told Ping'er about it.

They were just unsure. By this point, they couldn't help but ask.

"What joyous moment is it? Is it time to compose a poem?"

Although Jia Lian was often absent from the Begonia Society, he was undeniably the true soul and core of the society.

Today is the banquet he hosted, and all the elders have left their seats again.

In this situation, composing a poem is simply what one should expect!

Jia Lian laughed and said, "Just now, some of you suggested composing poems, and others suggested going boating."

After thinking about it, I feel that the two are not contradictory.

So, I've decided that the next activity will be composing poetry while rowing. What do you think?

"It's great, great!"

"That's how it should be! On such a sunny day, we should be boating and drinking while reciting poetry!"

All the talented girls were overjoyed, and even Jia Baoyu was delighted.

Last time, Jia Lian took the sisters boating and drinking in the garden, and he missed it. He regretted it for a long time and had to make up for it today.

Ping'er finished the preparations outside and returned to report.

Jia Lian then ordered everyone in the palace to set off.

Before leaving, seeing that only one or two out of ten of the lychees had been consumed, Jia Lian ordered someone to find a few strong female servants to carry two trees onto the boat.

When others saw this, they applauded and realized even more clearly that Jia Lian's topic today must be "lychee".

So everyone started silently rehearsing their speeches in their minds, so they wouldn't be caught off guard at the last minute.

When they arrived at the stream, everyone was surprised to realize that the boating Jia Lian mentioned might be different from what they usually meant.

On the wide stream, a huge painted boat was prominently moored.

This painted boat was about ten zhang long, and about one or two zhang wide and high. Compared to it, the small awning boats of the past were like mice compared to cats.

Everyone looked at Jia Lian and asked, "Is this the same boat that the Empress used back then? Second Brother, how did you manage to get it out?"

When Yuan-chun visited her family, the Jia family specially built an "imperial boat" to facilitate her tour of the Grand View Garden.

That is, this painted boat.

After Yuan Chun used it once, Jia Zheng locked it in the dock.

A year later, this is the first time someone has driven it out of there.

"There are many of us, so we got it out here. What, you don't like the boat?"

Tan Chun said, "It's not that it's bad, it's just that it was used by Her Majesty, after all, and we..."

"It's perfect that Her Majesty used it; we can benefit from Her Majesty's favor."

Tan Chun was about to say something more when Bao Chai tugged at her sleeve. Tan Chun then realized that Jia Lian's thoughts were probably different from theirs, and that if she continued, Jia Lian might get upset.

Then I figured it out.

Since Yuan Chun had bestowed the entire garden upon Jia Lian, everything in the garden naturally belonged to Jia Lian as well.

Even if there are any violations, they can simply be changed, just like Jia Lian renamed the main hall.

……

The giant boat slowly sailed on the Qinfang River.

The moisture rising from the sun, carried by the continuous breeze across the stream, brought coolness to everyone on the boats.

So much so that the ice basins that were moved onto the boat to cool it down seemed somewhat superfluous.

Many people ran to the outer deck of the boat, embracing the warm sun and breeze with the maids, and admiring the scenery along the shore.

It wasn't until the boat reached the vicinity of Xiaoxiang Pavilion and was preparing to turn back that someone couldn't help but come looking for Jia Lian.

"Second brother, shouldn't we start composing poems?"

Jia Lian was originally leaning back on a cool chair inside the cabin, watching the maids, big and small, having a great time.

Upon hearing this, he couldn't help but turn around.

"What, are you all ready?"

"What's there to prepare? Second Brother, you're the host today, we're all waiting for you to give us the questions!"

The commotion inside drew all the members of the Begonia Society closer to them.

Jia Lian glanced around at the talented girls.

Unfortunately, Sister Feng ultimately backed out at the last minute, citing the need for someone to clean the main hall as an excuse for not coming.

"Stop pretending to be confused. I don't believe you can't guess today's question."

Hearing Jia Lian say this, Tan Chun and the others showed a few smirks.

In fact, since they heard yesterday that Jia Lian was going to hold a lychee banquet, most of them guessed that they would probably have to write "lychee poems" today.

Some people even started drafting their speeches overnight.

Seeing Jia Lian glancing at everyone, Daiyu smiled and said, "Even if we can guess the topic, you don't set a rhyme scheme, so how are we supposed to write something?"

This is actually the advantage of assigned topics in essay writing: it prevents cheating.

Everything depends on on-the-spot wit and strategy.

Jia Lian nodded and sat up. After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Did you bring your rhyme box?"

"Brought it."

Xiangyun ran very fast, darted to the table where the writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone were placed, opened the heavy rhyme box, and took out the container that contained only the "rhymes".

Jia Lian took it and suddenly handed it to Xiangling: "You draw it."

Xiangling didn't stand on ceremony and started shaking it. Before long, a stick came out.

Everyone picked it up and examined it:
The fourteenth cold season.

So he laughed and said, "This rhyme is quite standard, but there aren't many options to choose from. The only good ones are '寒, 坛, 团, 丹, 栏'."

If we were to select those obscure characters again, it would be difficult to compose a poem.

Upon hearing this, and seeing that Xiangyun had already brought over the rhyme box of the Fourteenth Cold, everyone looked at Xiangling with some nervousness.

I just hope Xiangling has good luck with her hands and can draw a few useful characters.

Seeing this, Jia Lian reached out and pressed Xiangling's hand, and said with a smile, "Knowing that you are all quick-witted, you should also give us dullards a chance."

Since you asked me to set the topic, I think we shouldn't restrict the rhyme scheme today.

When Jia Lian spoke up, no one objected.

They usually write about flowers, scenery, and landscapes; this is the first time they've written about fruit.

I already felt it wasn't easy to write, and if there are more restrictions, it will only become more far-fetched.

If it were just a matter of rhyme, it would have made things much simpler for them.

So after confirming the rules of the questions with Jia Lian, they went down one by one to work out the questions.

Meanwhile, Li Wan, the president of the association, immediately ordered someone to light an incense stick beside her.

Even though it's just entertainment among the sisters, it still needs to be done in a formal way.

Those who did not hand in their papers after the incense burned out, except for her, Yingchun, and Xichun (who had agreed from the beginning that it would not be mandatory), all others had to accept punishment.

(End of this chapter)