The Red Mansion Big Liar.

Chapter 194 Bargaining
The next day.

After having brunch, Zhang Yun逸 took Qin Keqing, the You sisters, and two maids, and boarded three carriages. They drove out of the corner gate of Ning Mansion and headed straight for the hot spring villa outside the city.

Because there was a night banquet at Rong Mansion during the Lantern Festival, this trip to the hot springs could only last four days.

In the hot spring villa, all necessary supplies are already available, so you can move in right away.

Even so, several people still had bags of all sizes piled up almost filling up the car.

Zhang Yunyi was surrounded by these fragrant packages.

Originally, according to his idea, two cars would be enough, and he could ride with Qin Keqing and You Erjie, and also find some excitement in the car.

It seemed that he was more looking forward to the evening's activities, and in order to let him retain his energy, both of them insisted that he stay with the package.

Just as I was thinking about what to do for the evening, I heard Xier's voice outside.

"Master! I went to my aunt's place yesterday and told her that I would be there today. I have arranged for someone to clean the house again."

The last time I went to the dock to pick up the boat, I saw Lin Zhixiao and thought of the complicated relationship between the servants of the two mansions.

After returning, he asked Youshi to inquire about the servants who came as dowry.

As luck would have it, Xier, who was driving his carriage, was the nephew of the maid who came as a dowry with the original owner's biological mother.

"Is Aunt Wu okay?"

"Good! The master gave me a lot of severance money at the time, and now you are thinking about me, which is great."

The master Xier mentioned was naturally his late cheap father.

Now, he considers himself a servant of the Zhang family.

Clothes are never as good as new, and people are never as good as old. People like Wu Ma have been in the Zhang family for many years and have worked diligently.

Zhang Yun逸 felt more at ease with this, so he asked Youshi to ask her whether she was still willing to follow him.

In addition to Aunt Xier's family, there were two other families. One was an old servant of the Zhang family, who was arranged by Zhang Yunyi to live in Ning Mansion. The male servant was in charge of the warehouse in the front yard, and the female family members were in charge of the access control in Huifang Garden.

Wu Ma's family and another family that came as a dowry from the Ning Mansion were arranged by him to live in two different farms.

Firstly, they had some connection with the Ning Mansion, and they also wanted to avoid taking advantage of past friendship to deceive their superiors and subordinates.

Secondly, letting them manage the affairs of the farm from outside, they can be managers of some size and learn more skills.

The treatment is naturally excellent. Not only is the regular salary twice as high as that of the manager of Ning Mansion, but it is also twice as high.

Zhang Yun逸 also promised that any capable younger generations among the families would be given some support.

As for the future, it depends on each person's luck.

When one person succeeds, the whole family will benefit. It is probably just like this.

It is now the first month of the year and it has not snowed for a while, so the roads are much easier to travel on.

Even so, it took the carriage an hour to travel the more than ten miles out of the city.

When they arrived at the hot spring villa, Wu Ma had already led the women of the farmers and were waiting in front of the villa.

"Master!" Seeing Zhang Yunyi getting off the car, Wu Ma shed tears. "Master and Madam are still alive. They will rest in peace knowing that Master has achieved such success now."

Zhang Yunyi has no feelings for his parents, whom he has never met.

Although he could not empathize with them, he still pretended to be sympathetic and put in enough superficial efforts.

After some greetings, Wu Ma and the women of the farmhouse cleared the packages on the carriage, and Zhang Yun逸, Qin Keqing and others waved goodbye.

"I'm going to check out the farm over there. I'll come back after I finish my work. Do you want to take a rest? If you want to soak in the hot springs, go ahead!"

Zhang Yun逸 didn't need to do the transportation work himself, as Wang Xifeng had already instructed Lai王 to go and pick up the boat.

Judging from the time, they should be delivered to the village by now.

Zhang Yun逸 can only stay here for four days, so he needs to take Zhang Cheng with him to demonstrate how to dry and preserve the fruits.

……

While Zhang Yunyi was busy with his work, Jia Zhen of Ningguo Mansion was also busy. Not long after Zhang Yunyi and his party left, he turned around and came to Rong Mansion.

After finding Jia Lian, he pretended to show concern for his condition and then got down to business.

"To be honest, brother, Uncle She is probably still angry with you because of what happened last time!"

"Oh?" Jia Lian asked knowingly, "What's the matter?"

Jia Zhen sighed and slowly recounted what had happened at Jia Jing's birthday party.

"Actually, what Uncle She said makes sense. Brother has thought about it carefully recently. The most important thing for marriage is family background. Now that something has happened in the family, and the fourth sister is still young, the second sister is not as suitable as me."

"This...what does Brother Zhen mean by this?"

Jia Lian immediately understood what Jia Zhen was up to.

Jia Zhen was also hiding something, and came straight to the point: "Good things should be kept within the family. Yun Yi is now increasingly trusted by the Emperor. If this marriage is delayed, not only will our two families become estranged, but in the end, it will probably benefit an outsider."

Jia Lian thought he had misheard, and hurriedly asked, "Brother, if you have anything to say, just speak up."

The next day after he came back, he was severely beaten for this. Not only Jia She but also Jia Mu warned him to be careful and not let the secret slip in front of Jia Zhen.

At this moment, Jia Zhen actually came forward on his own initiative. It sounded like he wanted to match Yingchun and Zhang Yun逸, which made him feel suspicious.

One cannot help but suspect that Jia Zhen was retreating to advance, and came to ask indirectly whether his family still had evil intentions.

Jia Zhen had not expected that the Rong family would say one thing in front of him and another behind his back. He thought that Jia Lian was just surprised to hear it and had not yet reacted.

So, he pretended to be nice and said, "We are family, so we should not have different opinions. Uncle She didn't want to talk to me during the New Year the other day, which made me feel ashamed. After thinking about it, we are family after all, and we can't have any grudges because of such a small matter. Please tell Uncle She, if he still has this intention, everything can be discussed."

This was undoubtedly confirmed, Jia Lian was overjoyed and said: "Brother, don't lie to me. If this matter is reported by mistake, the master will beat me to death!"

He has been under house arrest since he came back, and Jia She did not urge him too much. In addition, since he had such an unspeakable secret, he had no time to care about it.

But now that he knows that he has been released from prison, Jia She will inevitably bring up the old matter again. He is worried about this matter, and now Jia Zhen can be said to have been given a pillow when he is sleepy.

Jia Zhen immediately patted his chest and said, "We are brothers, how could I cheat you!"

He then changed the subject and said, "However, you also know that my side is not as good as before, and now it all depends on Yun Yi. I have no objection to this marriage, but after all, we had an agreement in the beginning, and the mansion should at least express its gratitude..."

"It should, it should!"

If it weren't for the second sentence, Jia Lian would still have some doubts in his heart, but since Jia Zhen spoke frankly and asked for benefits, he no longer had any doubts.

I've heard that the Ning Mansion is not as good as before, but I didn't expect it to be to this extent.

However, considering Jia She's character of valuing money more than his life, I'm afraid Jia Zhen will ask for too much.

He quickly asked, "I wonder how Brother Zhen thinks it's appropriate to express it?"

Jia Zhen didn't say anything, but just raised his hand and turned his palm in front of Jia Lian.

"Okay, okay, I'll give you five hundred taels!"

Jia Lian couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and took the responsibility.

"What do you mean five hundred taels? It's five thousand taels!"

Jia Zhen glared at him unhappily.

Jia Lian shook his head like a rattle and said, "Isn't this inappropriate? The master is marrying off his daughter, and he hasn't even accepted the betrothal gift yet, but he wants to pay five thousand taels first. How can he agree to this?"

In fact, in Jia Zhen's opinion, five thousand taels was too little.

However, considering Jia She's character, he had to reluctantly lower the bid.

After some bargaining, he finally insisted on three thousand taels and refused to budge.

Seeing this, Jia Lian could only say, "Since Brother Zhen is determined to do this, I have to report to the master before we can make a decision."

"It should, it should!"

……

(End of this chapter)