Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Shenjing, Qingyufang, Xia Mansion.

In the inner courtyard there is a two-story exquisitely embroidered building with carved beams and painted buildings, and flying eaves, which is bright and gorgeous.

A bright red gold-woven satin curtain was hung at the entrance, and inside was a rosewood half-moon door with a ginger-yellow curtain painted with auspicious clouds hanging from it.

The furniture and utensils in the house are luxurious and exquisite, and the antiques displayed everywhere are dazzling.

Every item in the boudoir is by no means vulgar, but extremely gorgeous and magnificent, dazzling and amazing, but lacking in elegance and grace.

Miss Xia was leaning on a recliner, wearing a light blue floral embroidered double-breasted jacket, a yellow-rimmed stand-up collar coat, and an ivory embroidered horse-faced skirt.

Next to the recliner is a purple copper hollow incense burner with the pattern of the three stars of fortune and luck, which exudes warm air and makes the boudoir cozy.

Miss Xia looked a little lazy, with a graceful figure and seductive looks, and she was reading a book in her hands.

The words "Analects of Confucius" were written on the cover of the book, and on the coffee table next to the armchair were other classics such as The Great Learning and The Doctrine of the Mean.

These are the classics that laid the foundation for scholars to study and take the imperial examinations. It is totally out of place for them to appear in the boudoir of a rich and luxurious girl.

In addition, given Miss Xia's arrogant and domineering personality, reading these books of saints and wise men that taught people to be good and cultivate virtue seemed absurd, strange and funny to her.

There were hurried footsteps on the corridor outside the room, and Baochan came in breathlessly, lifting the door curtain.

When he saw his daughter was reading a book, he swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth and hesitated whether to say it.

……

Ever since she had attracted Baoyu to have a one-night stand with her in that half-dirty room in the Jia family, she had never forgotten him.

She had grown up in the inner mansion of the Xia family all her life and had never seen any outstanding men. When she first saw Baoyu's appearance, she naturally felt that he was a rare man in the world.

Not only is he of noble status, handsome, and sweet-mouthed, he can make me happy, and he can also make trouble, making me feel so comfortable...

After returning from the Jia family that time, Baochan could never forget Baoyu. After many twists and turns, her daughter finally agreed to marry Baoyu.

From the day the two got engaged, Baochan, a little maid in the inner courtyard, was full of longing and vision for the future.

He always wanted to marry the girl into the Jia family so that he could steal some romantic pleasure from her. If he could have another chance at that ecstasy in the mud house, he would be willing to die.

But things are not that simple. Since the girl got engaged, she has become more and more crazy.

Baoyu is her legal husband, but she never bothers to mention him. She always turns the topic to Jia Cong, and as a girl she is not ashamed of it.

She was not convinced in her heart, and whenever she mentioned Baoyu in front of her, the girl would not say a single good word.

The first thing she did was to call him a sissy and useless thing, and the second thing she did was to disdain his hypocritical look with a gloomy face.

In short, there was not a single pleasant word. Although Baochan was angry when she heard it, she didn't even dare to fart.

Later, when the girl heard that Jia Cong was appointed as a fifth-rank Hanlin scholar, she became even more delighted and almost obsessed, tossing and turning on her bed at night, unable to sleep.

He even often screamed in his dreams, which frightened Baochan, who was on night duty in the same room with him.

Later, the girl kept praising Jia Cong for being amazing, saying that there had never been a Hanlin scholar at the age of 15 in history, and that Jia Cong would definitely be remembered for generations.

In short, the boy was praised to the heavens, and the girl was even weird and asked people to buy the Four Books and Five Classics.

He said he wanted to study it carefully and broaden his horizons. How did Jia Cong learn such skills from these books?

In short, the girl is becoming more and more crazy. When she mentions Jia Cong, her eyes light up, her face turns red, and she is so happy that she almost wets her pants.

……

Once, the girl said that Baoyu was useless. He was a man of the same age as Jia Cong, but he couldn't even pass the examination to become a scholar. He was a fool and a dirty guy.

He also said that he had been to Jia's house several times and had never seen Jia Cong and Baoyu talking to each other. It must be that Cong looked down on Baoyu, a fool.

If Baoyu didn't have the ability to pass the imperial examination, even if he passed the imperial examination as a scholar, he would not be like this in front of Jia Cong. At least he would have more to say.

He also said that Mrs. Jia was not only stupid enough to eat dirt, but also only knew how to be jealous of Jia Cong. She also taught her own son in a unruly way and didn't know how to be a mother.

Although Baochan had little experience in these arrogant and outrageous words, she felt trembling in her heart when she heard them. She thought her girl was too resentful.

If she married into the Jia family in the future and said a word of such nonsense, the inner chamber of the Jia family would be turned upside down.

Moreover, the meaning of the girl's words is already very unkind. She will not marry into the Jia family in the future and discipline Baoyu to take the examination for the scholar.

Others can't do this kind of reversed yin and yang thing, but this girl with such a domineering personality can really do it...

……

Baochan thought that the young lady already disliked Baoyu so much, and if she told her that the young lady had gotten her maid pregnant, she would go crazy.

Although Baoyu's affairs with other maids made Baochan very angry, she felt that he was the unfaithful man described in the opera.

I am also a maid. If Baoyu wants to do something, he should do it to my belly. Why should it be the turn of that slut with no background?

But she also came from a prominent family and knew that it was common for young masters from wealthy families to have three wives and four concubines and to have children everywhere.

Even if I accompany the girl to marry, I am just a dowry maid. How can I have the right to care about these things?

She just hoped that Baoyu would be able to have fun with other maids, but as long as he still remembered her kindness, it would be worthwhile for her to serve him...

……

Baochan was wondering whether she should tell the girl about Baoyu's ugly deeds.

Miss Xia saw her rushing into the room, frowned and said, "Look at you, you are so anxious, a girl of your age doesn't seem to be calm.

I asked you to go to the front hall and listen to the noise. Why are you back now? The Jia family has been to our house. Did they say anything?"

When Baochan heard this, she felt a little disappointed. The girl knew that today was the day when the Jia family would send the betrothal gift, so she specially sent herself to the front hall to find out what was going on.

If I don't tell her now, my wife may worry that she will suffer in the future, so she must tell her about this in detail.

Then the girl will know that I have been hiding it on purpose. If she gets angry and beats me, it will only be physical pain and will not be a big deal.

But if the girl feels that she is unfaithful and chooses someone else as her dowry maid when she gets married, instead of bringing herself into the Jia family, then all her efforts would be in vain...

Baochan said tremblingly, "Miss, I just heard Mrs. Chen talking to Madam about Baoyu.
This is a bit unpleasant to hear, so please don’t get angry if you hear it, and don’t say that I told you, or the lady will beat me to death.”

Miss Xia frowned and said, "Why are you hesitating? What can Baoyu, a weak-minded guy, do?

If you keep keeping it a secret, Madam won't have to beat you up, I'll teach you a lesson first, so tell me now!"

Baochan said, "Mrs. Chen heard from outside that Baoyu slept with the maid in the room and is now pregnant."

Miss Xia sat up from the recliner and said angrily, "What you said is true!"

Baochan replied timidly, "There is nothing wrong with this. Mrs. Chen is a smart person. She wouldn't dare to talk nonsense in front of Madam unless it was confirmed."

Miss Xia was furious and cursed: "I thought he was a sissy bastard, but I didn't expect him to be even more despicable than the fool Xue."

Knowing that I was about to marry, he got his maid pregnant at this time. It was obvious that he wanted to embarrass the Xia family and give me a warning. What a filthy thing! "

Miss Xia was furious. She picked up the three-legged jade incense burner on the table and threw it to the ground, smashing it into pieces.

……

When Baochan saw this, her face changed drastically. Seeing that her daughter had run to the antique display cabinet again and wanted to vent her anger on the antiques, she hurried forward and tried to stop her.

He said, "The girl doesn't dare to smash valuable things. Last time, she smashed everything in the room and thousands of taels of silver were lost.

The wife scolded me for not taking good care of the girl. The girl got angry and I didn't know how to persuade her, so she fined me three months' salary.

In the past few months, Baochan has no money even to buy rouge, and the girl also laughs at me for looking so dirty every day.

My wife also said that if the girl smashes things again, she will sell this useless girl like me.

Miss, please don't smash it anymore. Please spare Baochan's life. These rare things you smashed will all be your own property in the future."

When Miss Xia heard Baochan's words, she hesitated slightly, and Baochan quickly brought the teacup and tray from the table.

He said flatteringly: "Girl, you can smash it if you want to vent your anger. It's worthless even if it breaks into pieces."

Miss Xia was so angry that she didn't have time to think carefully. She grabbed the four teacups and a teapot on the tea tray and smashed them all with a few crackling sounds.

He gnashed his teeth and said, "Baoyu is such a wretch, I wish I could castrate him to vent my anger."

Baochan asked in confusion, "What do you mean by castrating him? Is it that the young lady wants to give Master Bao a good beating?"

Miss Xia said grimly, "Stupid girl, you have no knowledge. You know that our relative, old man Xia, is a dead eunuch who has been castrated. He will never marry a wife, raise children, or die without a son. Baoyu should be buried as dirty as him."

Baochan's face turned pale when she heard this, and she said, "Young lady, please don't do anything stupid. Master Bao died without a child, and so will you. You two are a couple with a legitimate relationship."

Miss Xia was so angry that her face turned red. She spit fiercely and cursed, "I am disgusted by this useless guy. Do you think I really want to marry him?

Now that he has been soiled by another woman, I will not bother with him anymore.

I won't let him touch my innocent body. If he wants to raise a child with me, he has to die and be reborn!"

……

Miss Xia asked again: "Mrs. Chen only heard about Baoyu's affairs. Did Congge do anything dirty? He also has a seductive maid by his side, but there is no news about anything?"

Baochan felt uncomfortable after hearing this and said, "Mrs. Chen didn't mention Jia Cong. Maybe he is even worse than Baoyu, but the rumor has not spread."

Miss Xia became angry when she heard this, and pinched Baochan's arm ruthlessly, causing Baochan to jump away in pain.

Miss Xia scolded, "You ignorant girl, what a person Cong is! He is much more famous than Baoyu, and more people will pay attention to him.

If he had gotten the maid pregnant, the news would have spread long ago. Now there is no news, which means it didn't happen. He is much more honest than Baoyu!"

Baochan felt dissatisfied and wondered how the girl could have forgotten that the maid she met last time in Jia's Rongqing Hall was prettier than she.

His old lady said it herself, that the maid was the concubine chosen by Jia Cong, and the girl heard it with her own ears.

Jia Cong would not sleep with such a pretty maid, unless he was sick. It was just that he was not as capable as Baoyu to make a woman pregnant...

Miss Xia had no idea of ​​Baochan's evil intentions, so she gnashed her teeth and cursed, "Baoyu is such a bastard, I'm willing to marry him because he has been a virtuous man for eight lifetimes.

We haven't even gotten married yet, but he's already humiliated me like this. Now that the three letters and six ceremonies have been signed, I don't even have time to cancel the engagement.

Otherwise, all the gods in Kyoto will laugh at me, and no one will dare to want me anymore. Jia Cong will definitely look down on me too."

As Miss Xia said this, she pulled out the hairpins on her head and threw them around, then threw herself on the bed with her hair disheveled and burst into tears.

Baochan was so anxious that she didn't know what to do. She wanted to persuade her girl, but she didn't dare to go forward for fear of becoming the girl's punching bag. She stood up and slapped her in the face.

But if the girl was allowed to cry and throw a tantrum like this, and if the wife heard the noise and knew that it was her fault for talking too much, she would probably get a beating.

When she was at a loss, she vaguely heard the girl sobbing and mumbling, "You are the first day of the month, and I am the fifteenth day. Do you think I am easy to bully?"

……

Great Zhou, the Hanlin Academy office.

Today, after Jia Cong's morning court session, he went to the Hanlin Academy to report for duty. He has been in the Hanlin Academy for several months and has become familiar with colleagues at all levels in the academy.

I often go to the courtyard to visit Ge Hongzheng and chat with him.

Although Jia Cong was listed in the Hanlin Academy, he was mostly just going through the motions here, as his main responsibility was still in the Firearms Department of the Ministry of Works.

Another unknown task of his was to complete the production of a thousand breech-loading muskets before the end of the year.

There were only a handful of people in the court who knew all about such military and national secrets.

Although Ge Hongzheng and Jia Cong were both fifth-rank officials, he was Jia Cong's formal superior in the Hanlin Academy.

Jia Cong knew that he would take part in the provincial examination that year, and was appreciated by Ge Hongzheng because of his essay "The Decline of Morality among Scholars" in the examination room.

Ge Hongzheng even recommended himself to Emperor Jiazhao, allowing him, who was only a juren, to enter the Hanlin Academy as a seventh-rank official, which was considered a great respect from someone.

Although this did not come true in the end, the two of them developed a close relationship and had a greater understanding of each other than ordinary people.

Whether out of academic advancement or official etiquette, Jia Cong was always very respectful to his superior after entering the Hanlin Academy.

Ge Hongzheng is a man of great learning, but he is broad-minded and open-minded, without any pedantry.

He knew very well that Jia Cong was valued by the current emperor, and he often did secret things. When the two met and chatted for a while, he often let Jia Cong do what he wanted.

In addition to the director of the court Ge Hongzheng, the official who had more frequent interactions with Jia Cong was Li Congmian, a fifth-rank academician.

This person admired the old poems written by Jia Cong in the past very much, and would often go to Jia Cong's office to sit and chat about poetry.

Li Congmian was elegant, knowledgeable, and polite, which made Jia Cong very fond of him. He heard that his ancestors were a branch of the royal family and were considered a descendant of the Li family of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

However, Li Congmian's family was already five generations away from the royal family two generations ago, and had long lost the aura of royal relatives. They were now just a swallow in the palace of the Wang and Xie families in the past.

Apart from these two people, Jia Cong had some interactions with other colleagues in the Hanlin Academy, and he was just nodding acquaintances.

As for Zhang Wenxu, the top scorer in the imperial examination, and Chen Qirui, the third place in the imperial examination, who were admitted to the academy with him, once they entered the Hanlin Academy, they lost the halo of their gold medals and soon became like everyone else.

Because any sixth-rank official here could have been a top-ranking Jinshi in the imperial examinations. The glory and pride in the imperial examinations has become commonplace here.

Now they are under the guidance of a seventh-rank reviewer, and are tasked with the most basic and tedious clerical work of the Hanlin Academy, and are so busy that they have no time to rest.

They were usually buried in their papers, unlike Jia Cong who had so much free time in the courtyard. Since entering the Hanlin Academy, the three of them had very few opportunities to meet each other.

……

After leaving the Hanlin Academy, Jia Cong did not go to the firearms workshop on the outskirts of the city immediately, but went to an Orasa shop in the east of the city.

Jia Cong once customized a Rubik's Cube in this shop. The owner was an Orasii from the Far East.

Without ever having seen a Rubik's Cube before, this person was able to make a complete and exquisite Rubik's Cube based on Jia Cong's description and explanation. He is a rare skilled craftsman.

But this time Jia Cong did not come to customize the Rubik's Cube, but took out the blueprint he had drawn at home a few days ago and asked the owner to build it strictly according to the blueprint.

As for what it was used for, he did not reveal it to the owner first. It was not because it was a taboo, but he just did not need to know.

He and the store owner agreed to pick up the goods in ten days, and if the dimensions were not correct by then, detailed adjustments would need to be made.

When Jia Cong returned to the firearms workshop, he inspected the workshop as usual to report the progress, and then brought back the relevant drawings for his own inspection.

He also asked the steward Qian Huai to get a newly made breech-loading musket. When he was disassembling it and studying it in the room, he saw Qian Huai rushing in again.

He said, "Your Excellency, a palace eunuch has entered with a token, saying that he is here to summon His Majesty to announce His Majesty's oral instructions."

Jia Cong was slightly startled when he heard this, and quickly stood up and left the office. He saw that the visitor was an old acquaintance of his, Yuan Jing, the sixth-rank guard of Qianyang Palace.

Yuan Jing looked serious and said, "I have received the order from the emperor to order Weiyuan Earl Jia Cong to go to Qianyang Palace to discuss matters immediately."

After Jia Cong kowtowed and accepted the order, he stood up and asked, "Eunuch Yuan, I wonder what the emperor wants to discuss with me in the palace?"

……

Yuan Jing said, "It is inconvenient to talk here. The emperor is anxious to see the uncle, so I dare not delay. I will talk to the uncle on the way."

Jia Cong also knew that there were many people in the workshop and they had many gossips. Although most people were not allowed to leave the workshop before the New Year, there were always some taboos about things in the palace.

Yuan Jing was a close attendant to the emperor, so it was natural and reasonable for him to abide by the rules.

But after thinking for a moment, Jia Cong could not figure out why the emperor had summoned him to the palace so urgently, so he could only wait for Yuan Jing to explain on the way.

The two of them got on the palace carriage and walked for two quarters of an hour before arriving at the palace gate. They got off the carriage and entered the Meridian Gate, passed through the layers of palaces, and finally arrived at the Qianyang Palace.

After Jia Cong entered the palace, not only did Emperor Jiazhao sit behind the imperial desk, but the Minister of the Dali Temple Wei Guanyao and the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard Xu Kun were also standing in the palace.

Emperor Jia Zhao asked, "What did I summon you to discuss? Did Yuan Jing tell you?"

Jia Cong said: "Eunuch Yuan has mentioned to me that the Great Zhou and the remnant Mongols are currently confronting each other in several towns on the nine frontiers, and a war is imminent.

This time, a delegation of 2,000 remnant Mongols came to Beijing to ask for peace. His Majesty was worried that the Mongols were still harboring evil intentions.

In the name of peace talks, they delay time, mobilize troops, use spies to conduct espionage, and intend to commit illicit acts. "

Emperor Jia Zhao said: "Eight years ago, Emperor Chengzong of Liang defeated the Tuman tribe several times, which made the remnant Mongols dare not easily go south again for many years.

The Great Zhou used the tea-horse trade to exchange what it had with the remnant Mongols, and at the same time banned the sale of salt, iron and military supplies to suppress the remnant Mongols.

But since the rise of Anda Khan, he was no longer satisfied with the food and clothing provided by the tea-horse trade. He had been preparing for war for many years and had long intended to invade the south.

The visit of the remnant Mongolian envoys to the capital to seek peace is nothing more than a test of bargaining between the two sides. Even if I relax the scale of border trade, it will not satisfy Anda Khan's appetite!
Now, the remaining 800 Mongolian envoys have entered the city. I have ordered the Imperial Guard and the Dali Temple to mobilize personnel to secretly investigate any irregularities among them.

However, there were too many of them and the clues were complicated. The Jinyiwei and the Dali Temple investigated for many days but did not gain much.

I know that you have been to Nanjing several times, and you are capable of investigating cases, handling affairs skillfully, and often doing things that are unexpected. Today I summon you to the palace. What advice do you have on this matter?" (End of this chapter)