The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 412 A sudden turn of events
In the flower hall, the candlelight flickered and the atmosphere was a bit depressing. Wang Ren stood in front of Aunt Xue with an embarrassed look on his face, while Baochai stood beside her mother. Although she looked as quiet as usual, there was a hint of worry between her beautiful brows.

Xue Pan complained with a dark face: "My sister warned you that you violated the rules at the beginning, but you didn't listen. Now something happened and the Jinyiwei wanted to arrest people, but you hid in our house. What's going on? Do you want to kill us?"

Wang Ren said awkwardly, "It's just that the Wang family's ancestral tomb was expanded by several feet and a few more stone statues and horses were added. What's the big deal? I don't know who was so evil-minded and envious that he reported it to the Supervisory Censor Jiao Fang. Jiao Fang is a member of the Donglin Party and he wants to bring down my second uncle. He actually wrote a letter to impeach him for such a small matter. It's really hateful."

Aunt Xue sighed and said, "Now the struggle in the court is fierce. Even a woman like me who lives in seclusion knows about it. How can you men not know about it? As the saying goes, a tall tree attracts the wind. Your second uncle is in a high position and is at the center of the storm. I don't know how many eyes are staring at him to find faults, and they want to eat him up skin and bones. But you are not only not cautious, but also high-profile and do whatever you want without any scruples. What about now? Your second uncle can't even protect himself, how can he protect the Wang family, how can he protect you? If you don't do this well, you will lose your head!"

Wang Ren couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat when he heard this, and cried out in grievance, "My nephew originally just wanted to renovate it, but it was the master and mistress who insisted on expanding it, and my uncle and aunt also agreed to the expansion, and even my second uncle and second aunt didn't object at the beginning, so now you blame me?"

Xue Pan rolled his eyes and said, "I don't blame you, but who else? My sister warned you at the beginning, but you didn't listen. You took our three thousand taels of silver and still did what you wanted. Don't think I don't know. With your ostentatious and greedy nature, you must have added a lot of fancy things on your own initiative, firstly to show off the prominence of your Wang family, and secondly to increase the budget so that you can embezzle money."

Xue Pan is usually an idiot, but his words revealed Wang Ren's true nature and hit the latter's sore spot.

Wang Ren was both ashamed and angry. He sneered, "How good are you, Xue the Fool? You act arrogantly just because you have a little money, bullying men and women, and you even call yourself a stupid bully. Bah, don't forget who helped you settle the murder case? It was our Wang family. It's fine if you don't appreciate our kindness, but you scold us Wang family members instead. You don't deserve it!"

Xue Pan flew into a rage and cursed, "You are bringing up these old trivial matters again. It is true that your Wang family has helped my Xue family, but have we not helped your Wang family? For example, every year, you give more than a thousand taels of silver to honor your uncles and aunts for their birthdays and festivals. Your Wang family always asks our Xue family to buy this and that whenever they have something to do. You either pay the cost price or not pay a penny.

The fact that my second uncle was able to sit in the position of Minister of War was also due to the contribution of our Xue family. When the retired emperor was in power, it was our Xue family that helped my second uncle collect rare treasures and present them to the retired emperor, which enabled him to gain his favor.

"Haha, now that your Wang family is in power, you look down on our Xue family? If my second uncle fell this time, I don't think you, Wang Ren, would still be so arrogant. Look at you now, you have become a coward!"

Wang Ren was so angry that his hair almost stood on end. He pointed at Xue Pan's nose and cursed back: "Even if I become a cuckold, I am better than a eunuch like you who will not have any offspring."

As soon as these words came out, not only Xue Pan was furious, but even Aunt Xue's face changed greatly. As the saying goes, don't expose people's shortcomings, don't hit people in the face, and don't be arrogant in the lower three ways. But Xue Pan caused a shameful pain, not to mention that cursing someone to have no descendants is undoubtedly extremely vicious. With Xue Pan's explosive temper, how could he bear it? He immediately rolled up his sleeves and cursed: "If I don't knock out all your teeth today, I won't be called Xue Pan."

Uncle Xue stepped forward, grabbed Wang Ren by the collar and punched him in the face. Wang Ren went crazy in pain and started to wrestle with Xue Pan, which made Aunt Xue so angry that she stamped her feet and shouted loudly.

Baochai hurriedly asked someone to call a few servants to forcibly separate Xue Pan and Wang Ren.

"You're so rebellious! Do you even regard me as your elder?" Aunt Xue was so angry that she was shaking.

Xue Pan felt his nose was a little warm, and when he touched it, he found that he was bleeding from the nose. Feeling that he had suffered a great loss, he yelled at the servants: "The master was beaten like this, are you all dead? Beat him for me, beat him to death!"

Wang Ren was not in a good situation either, his teeth were bleeding, and he said angrily: "Whoever dares to touch me, Ren, will have to watch out for his head."

"Hey, Wang Ren, if you have the guts, go show off in front of the Jinyiwei. Why are you hiding in my Xue family? Bah, you coward, get out of our Xue family!"

"Okay, if I won't stay here, I'll find another place that will. I don't believe you won't have the time to ask for help from the Wang family." Wang Ren flicked his sleeves and was about to leave, ignoring Aunt Xue and Baochai's attempts to dissuade him.

As a result, Wang Ren just walked to the second gate when he heard a hurried knock on the door outside the front gate, and someone shouted: "Open the door quickly, Jinyiwei is arresting someone!"

Wang Ren was so frightened that he turned around and ran back, running straight to Aunt Xue. He said in a trembling voice, "The Jinyiwei are here, Aunt, save me."

When Xue Pan heard the three words "Jinyiwei", he was also frightened. He was scared last time, and he was still suffering from inhumane sequelae.

However, even though Xue Pan was afraid, he couldn't help but taunt him, "Wasn't you very tough just now? Why are you so cowardly now?"

Xue Baochai frowned and said, "It's already this hour, what's the point of your saying these hurtful words?"

Xue Pan muttered something and then stopped talking. He still respected his sister very much.

Aunt Xue was also a little panicked at this moment, and said with a stammer: "What should we do now, Ren'er? Aunt can't help you."

Wang Ren suddenly had an idea and said, "Hide somewhere secret and you can all just say you haven't seen me."

"This... Is this possible?" Aunt Xue's eyes subconsciously looked at Xue Baochai. Xue Baochai couldn't help but sigh secretly. The marriage between the Wang and Xue families meant that they would prosper together and suffer together. Moreover, Wang Ren was her mother's nephew, so how could she ruthlessly abandon him? If she sold Wang Ren to the Jinyiwei this time, the relationship between the two families would inevitably break down and could no longer be restored.

Thinking of this, Xue Baochai had no choice but to say, "Sister Tongxi, take Master Ren to hide in the ice cellar first. Remember to bring a quilt, as it is very cold there."

Wang Ren was pleasantly surprised and said, "Bao girl is really smart. Right, just hide in the ice cellar. It's hidden there."

At that moment, the maid Tongxi took Wang Ren and hurriedly hid in the ice cellar.

"Madam, master, young lady, the Jinyiwei have broken in and we can't stop them at all. They are now heading towards the back house." An old servant hurried in to report.

Xue Pan's face turned pale with fear, and he said in a trembling voice: "What should we do? These bastards are not easy to deal with. If we find them, will they implicate us?"

"Don't panic, brother. Why don't you pretend to go back to your room and sleep, and leave the Jinyiwei to me and mother to deal with." Seeing that Xue Pan was so scared, Xue Baochai was worried that something bad would happen if he stayed here, so she simply told him to go back to his room and pretend to sleep.

Upon hearing this, Xue Pan couldn't wait to scream and quickly slipped away.

Aunt Xue was angry and helpless when she saw her son was so irresponsible. It is said that raising a son is a preparation for old age, so why did she give birth to such a thing? Who can she rely on in the future?
Thinking of this, Aunt Xue couldn't help feeling sad, and couldn't help but think of Jia Huan again. If Huan were here at this moment, he would definitely stand between her and Bao without hesitation.

After a while, the footsteps and voices were getting closer and closer. The light of torches illuminated the courtyard in the cold night. Soon, a group of Jinyiwei wearing Feiyu uniforms and embroidered spring swords on their waists broke into the hall. The leader was Zhou Hua, the Jinyiwei captain who had arrested Xue Pan before.

"Mrs. Xue, Miss Xue, please forgive me for disturbing you so late at night!" Zhou Hua bowed and his attitude was surprisingly good.

Aunt Xue calmed down a little after seeing this, and frowned, "What do you want to do by breaking into my Xue's house at night?"

Zhou Hua smiled and said, "I have been ordered to arrest the criminal. May I ask if Madam Xue has seen your nephew Wang Ren recently?"

Aunt Xue shook her head with a cold face and said, "I haven't seen it. You've come to the wrong place."

Zhou Hua sneered, "Have you really never seen it? If you are shielding a criminal, you will be punished with the same crime!"

Aunt Xue was slightly shocked, and Xue Baochai said calmly: "We have indeed never seen Master Ren. May I ask what crime he has committed?"

"Haha, it's not a big crime actually. It's just that someone reported that the Wang family violated the rules when renovating their ancestral tomb. According to the confession of the craftsmen who helped the Wang family repair the tomb, Wang Ren has been supervising the work on the tomb recently, and they all worked according to Wang Ren's requirements. So we want to find Wang Ren to go back and cooperate with the investigation. If Miss Xue knows where Wang Ren is, please let me know!"

Xue Baochai naturally didn't believe Zhou Hua's lies. How could the Jinyiwei mobilize a large number of troops to arrest someone in the middle of the night just to "cooperate with Zhou's investigation"? She shook her head and said, "I'm sorry, my mother and I haven't seen cousin Ren recently, and we don't know where he is. Captain Zhou, please go back!"

Zhou Hua laughed and said, "In that case, I have no choice but to offend you. Search!"

Zhou Hua waved his hand and the Jinyiwei behind him scattered, everyone showing greed. The Xue family is very wealthy, and they can make a small fortune just by putting some valuables in their pockets.

Xue Baochai said angrily, "It's fine if you break into a private house without any evidence, but now you want to search the house. Are you really taking advantage of the fact that there is no one in my Xue family? All right, you can search as much as you want. If you can find anyone, that's fine. If you can't find anyone, even if you report it to the emperor, I will seek justice for you."

Zhou Hua glanced at Xue Baochai, whose face was covered with frost, and a hint of hesitation flashed in his eyes. He suddenly laughed and said, "Miss Xue, calm down. I was just joking. Never mind. Since Wang Ren is not here, I will look for him somewhere else. Brothers, retreat!"

Zhou Hua waved his hand, and the Jinyiwei actually quickly left the Xue Mansion.

Aunt Xue was so nervous that her heart almost jumped out of her throat. She didn't expect the situation to take such a sudden turn. For a moment, she couldn't believe her eyes and said with a stammer, "He...he's leaving now?"

Xue Baochai herself was a little confused. Although she looked inviolable just now, she was actually very nervous. She was just pretending to create confusion. She really didn't expect that the other party would give up the search directly.

(End of this chapter)