Red Mansion: Picking up a Lin Daiyu

Chapter 90: Happy Housewarming (First Order)

Prince Kang's Mansion,
After Yue Ling sent Lin Daiyu home, he brought a group of people to Prince Kang's mansion.

It’s not that he loves money, but he really wants to complete the task assigned by the King of Qin as soon as possible, and he also wants to see how much wealth the King Kang’s Mansion has.

The guards stepped forward and removed the seal.

Two rows of personal guards entered the door and lined up to clear the way for Yue Ling.

When Yue Ling walked into the door, he saw that the Prince Kang's Mansion, which was decorated with lights and colors the day before, was now hung with many white banners.

"How is this going?"

A guard stepped forward and answered, "After hearing the news of Prince Kang's death, Princess Kang was afraid of being humiliated, so she hanged herself. This is what the servants of Prince Kang's mansion hung for Princess Kang."

Yue Ling nodded slightly, "Let's also inform the Ministry of Rites. They should be buried together and rest in peace."

"Yes."

Led by the accountant of Prince Kang's Mansion who was found, Yue Ling first came to the treasury of Prince Kang's Mansion.

He sent someone to hammer down the copper lock on the door. Once the door was opened, he could see that the treasury was actually a courtyard of its own.

"Master Yue, in the rooms to the east, south, west, north, and east, and in the porches, all kinds of valuables are placed. To the north are silver ingots, gold ingots, and some jewelry. In the room to the west, there are all kinds of silks and satins, most of which are tributes from the wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River..."

The accountant introduced everything while handing the accounts to Yue Ling.

"Master Yue, this is the account of the mansion, please take a look. We dare not make any falsehood in the account."

Yue Ling took it and flipped through it, and saw the last white page recorded: "The current silver in the treasury is 1,983,500 taels and 6 coins, including various properties totaling 1,057,000 taels..."

Yue Ling raised his lips and asked, "Is there really so much silver?"

The accountant hurriedly replied, "No more, no less. There are still many tributes that have not been included in the account book."

Yue Ling nodded, "Let's go and check out the cash first."

Yue Ling indeed did not expect that the Kang Wang Mansion would be so rich. Most likely, the Qin Wang did not expect it either. According to Yue Ling's understanding, the Qin Wang Mansion, which kept receiving rewards and surrounded by more people, did not seem to have so much silver.

Of course, the silver converted from various properties is a bit superficial. It also includes the deeds of various farms and shops, as well as antiques and paintings that are difficult to cash out, which is not as real as cash.

After entering the treasury, he went straight to the room where the cash was stored.

Looking around, the mahogany boxes in the treasury were stacked like a hill. Despite this, there was no dust on them, which meant that someone cleaned them regularly.

Yue Ling casually opened a wooden box, and instantly it reflected silver light, and large silver ingots weighing fifty taels were placed inside.

The accountant introduced: "One box here is 10,000 taels, the small box over there is gold ingots, and there is a secret compartment underground, which contains 50 silver winter melons and 50 gold winter melons each."

Facing the room full of gold and silver, Yue Ling felt a little emotional. He patted the two mahogany boxes and told his attendants, "Take these two out and divide them among the brothers."

The flag officer of the Royal Guard hesitated and said, "Ah? Divide it among us? Is that appropriate? His Highness has already given us a lot."

Yue Ling said calmly: "There is no reason to let you work in vain. This reward is also earned by you for me. We are just sharing the blessing."

The flag officer hurriedly said hello and called out to the people outside, "Come quickly and collect Commander Yue's reward!"

Soon the money in the two boxes was divided up, and Yue Ling threw a silver ingot to the accountant, saying, "Take them to load all the silver into the car and send it to my house to stack it up. Also pack up the antique paintings and calligraphy, jade and porcelain, silk and satin, and even the new wooden cabinet and screen in the remaining rooms."

"As for the items used by people in the palace, if you want, you can go and copy them. Of course, the deeds of shops, farms, mansions, and the items bestowed by the emperor must be handed over to Your Highness."

"Yes."

Everyone happily agreed and got busy.

Yue Ling walked out of the treasury gate and stopped in a pavilion. Looking at the guards carrying various valuables back and forth, he felt a little relieved.

From having a net worth of less than a thousand taels to having no worries about food and clothing in this life, or even in several lifetimes, I have indeed become indifferent to money.

"If it were my previous life, I would have just wanted to lie down and do nothing if I had so much money. But in this life, there are still many things I want to do..."

……

In the courtyard,
Zijuan and Xueyan were busy packing their bags and taking all the necessary things to the cart outside the door.

Lin Daiyu came back from the palace and saw that the two had even taken down the curtains on the bed. She smiled and said, "Why are you still carrying these insignificant things? You can't be short of these commonly used things in the new house, right?"

"Just pack up my books and paintings, and leave some clothes for changing. Oh, and don't forget to take down my swing."

When the two little maids heard Lin Daiyu's voice, they looked outside the door and saw Lin Daiyu in a palace skirt standing gracefully at the door. They all walked over with surprise and looked her up and down.

"Wow, this skirt is so pretty. No wonder the girl can't stand anything else."

Xueyan wanted to reach out and touch the material of the skirt, but Lin Daiyu patted the back of her hand and said, "It's covered with dust, so don't touch it. This is the dress given by the Crown Princess, so please help me take it off and put it away."

The beautiful palace skirt was complicated to put on. In the palace, more than a dozen palace maids surrounded her and helped Lin Daiyu put it on. Taking it off was a lot of work, and the two maids were exhausted and panting.

Xueyan fell on the couch and sighed, "I don't know what the new home will look like, and how much bigger it will be than here. If it is very big, I would like to discuss with General Yue to plant a few more fruit trees in the garden. I will take good care of them and wait for the fruits to be eaten next year."

Zijuan helped Lin Daiyu comb her hair and took off her headdress. She smiled and said to Xueyan, "You are just talking. You can eat it, but planting trees is probably only fresh for a few days."

The two maids chattered happily in her ears, but Lin Daiyu said, "It must be bigger than this place, and the mansion given by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince must be much bigger. However, there are only two of you in the mansion. I don't know who will be sad to clean such a big mansion."

"Xueyan, you just sweep the dust in front of the door every day and you are too lazy to move. And you still say you want to plant trees."

Xueyan's face fell immediately. She imagined herself running around the mansion with a feather duster all day long and said distressedly, "Yeah, why didn't I think about this."

After racking her brains for a while, Xueyan asked tentatively, "Can we not move?"

Zijuan covered her mouth and laughed, "Then why don't you discuss with General Yue whether you can find some more maids to bring into the mansion."

Xueyan shook her head and said, "That's different. What if someone else comes and she's not a good person and goes against us all day long?"

Lin Daiyu replied, "Brother Yue will have his own way. How can he make you thinner? Look at you. Your face has become rounder since you came to Beijing. If you go back to Yangzhou, your father will probably not recognize you."

……

The luggage was sent away by the gatekeeper outside the courtyard, and Yue Ling drove the carriage, carrying three little girls, towards the new mansion.

The carriage was swaying, moving slowly on the road. Xueyan poked her head out of the carriage and asked Yue Ling, "General Yue, what does the mansion look like?"

Yue Ling smiled and said, "I haven't seen it yet, so I don't know what it looks like."

Xueyan asked worriedly, "What if it's too big and I can't clean it?"

Yue Ling replied: "If it is very big, then take care of our accommodation first, and I will find some servants to come in after a few days. We have to find some trustworthy people."

When there are too many people, it is easy to cause all kinds of disputes. Yue Ling does not want his mansion to be as corrupt as the Rong and Ning mansions, where the servants are all masters at serving different people according to their tastes, fighting openly and secretly. Even when sending a palace flower to Lin Daiyu, she has to rank first.

But at the moment, Lin Daiyu should look down on any palace beauties.

The carriage slowly stopped and Lin Daiyu lifted the curtain to look outside.

I saw a mansion without a plaque near the street. On both sides of the vermilion gate were two stone lions, as mighty and domineering as the two pairs in front of the Ning and Rong mansions.

Although it is a mansion deep in the inner city, it is no more noisy than Ningrong Street, and there are not many shops facing the street. This is because this place is adjacent to the imperial city. After going around a few alleys, you will reach the offices of the six departments.

After getting off the car, the three little girls got on the sedan chair and walked straight into the courtyard inside the second gate of the mansion.

The three of them looked curiously at the outer curtain of the mansion from the sedan chair.

There are wooden walkways on both sides of the bluestone paved ground, and the path leads directly to the houses on both sides of the outer courtyard. At a glance, there are layers of pink walls and black tiles. These are just the houses where the servants live.

At that moment, teams of imperial guards were busy at the corner gate carrying various objects into the treasury deep in the west side.

The sedan chair went straight through the second door and landed on the ground. The girls quickly opened the curtains and got out.

It was also because they had been free and unrestrained with Yue Ling for a long time that they were no longer as restrained as they were in the Rongguo Mansion and could freely visit the courtyard.

Yue Ling looked at it and thought it was funny, "Xueyan, don't run around. It will be bad if you get bumped into something."

The decoration inside the second door is different from that outside the curtain.

After passing the large colorful screen with marble carvings, the ground was replaced with cobblestones with different patterns on it, like flying birds and auspicious beasts.

The central hall is the main courtyard of the mansion. The hall has embroidered doors, carved eaves, jade steps and red courtyard, just like a small Rong Xi Hall. There is a series of couplets on each side. Yue Ling took a closer look and found that they were the work of King Qin.

"His heroic presence on horseback is fearsome and his prestige spreads far and wide; his heroic spirit on the battlefield reaches the sky, and his courage dominates the world."

Yue Ling was slightly embarrassed, thinking in his heart, "Your Highness is exaggerating too much, it's not that serious, I should take it down and send it to the house for framing."

Instead of going to the palace, Yue Ling took the girls to the back to find a place to live.

The mansion only had one main courtyard, unlike Rongguo Mansion, which had several courtyards. The main courtyard was also large enough. The main room, facing north and south, had three independent doors. Including the porch and the warm room connected to the main room, there were five rooms in total.

There are side rooms on the east and west sides, each with three rooms, and behind them leads directly to the third gate and the road to the back garden.

Not counting the back hall in the courtyard, it would be no problem for ten or twenty people to live in the entire main courtyard.

Standing in the middle of the courtyard with the girls, Yue Ling said, "I will live in this main room. Sister Lin, you can choose any place you want, anything you want. This time it's spacious, and you don't have to squeeze into one room."

Lin Daiyu looked around and finally pointed to the porch next to the main room and said, "I'll live there."

Yue Ling was startled, and then confirmed with Lin Daiyu: "The porch is still a little small, the east and west wing rooms are more spacious, you can each have one room."

Lin Daiyu shook her head. "It's small, but much more spacious than before. The yard is bigger, there are fewer people, and there's not much fireworks."

Yue Ling rubbed Lin Daiyu's head and nodded, "Okay, as long as you like it. Let's clean up the main room first and live in the inner room first."

"You guys go and wander around the back garden. I'll send someone in to clean it up."

……

Imperial City, Eastern Palace,
The King of Qin slowly woke up from his couch, rubbed his swollen head, and asked in a deep voice: "What time is it?"

The Qin Wangfei, who was serving beside her, brought a bowl of soup and came to the couch, saying with a smile: "It's already past the hour of Xu, Your Highness has slept for nearly five hours."

Helping the King of Qin to sit up, the Queen of Qin scooped up a spoonful of soup and blew it gently to her lips. She took a sip to taste the temperature before feeding it to the King of Qin again. "This is a tonic soup. Drinking it will help you recover."

The King of Qin nodded slightly, and drank the bowl of soup in obedience to his wife. He wiped his mouth and saw a pile of papers on the incense table not far away. He asked in confusion, "What is that?"

Princess Qin followed the King Qin's gaze and took the stack of papers in her hand, smiling and saying, "Yue Ling went to copy the Prince Kang's mansion, and these are the land deeds and land deeds that were sent to him."

King Qin took it and flipped through it, becoming even more confused, "Are there so many?"

Princess Qin smiled and said, "More than that, nearly two million taels of silver were seized."

"Two million taels?"

The King of Qin was shocked and his eyes widened.

Princess Qin laughed even more, covering her mouth with her hands and shaking with joy, "Why, you can't bear to let go? If you regret it, just come again."

The King of Qin lowered his head and murmured, "I have already given it away. What is there to regret? After all, it was given to Yue Ling, so a few million is not a lot. The house I gave him, which was converted from a royal garden, is worth tens of thousands of taels. It cost tens of thousands of taels to build, so if it is sold, it will naturally be worth more than that."

"But I can't understand why Prince Kang's Mansion is so rich. It was completely unnoticeable in the past. It really doesn't make sense."

Princess Qin thought for a moment and said, "Your Highness has never asked for more tributes from his servants, so he may be different. Maybe there are other ways to save money that we don't know yet."

The King of Qin nodded and said, "We still need to investigate the details of the Prince Kang's Mansion."

Pointing at the table, King Qin asked again: "What's in this brocade box? Could it be that these are the jewels that Yue Ling selected as a gift for you?"

Princess Qin smiled and shook her head, "Yue Ling is not one of those dignitaries in the court who only know how to make connections. These are the letters he found in the mansion between the ministers in the court and the border and the King Kang. I sent them to your Highness for your review first."

Hearing this, the King of Qin lay down again and covered himself with the quilt.

"Forget it, let's watch it another day. It will only make me upset if I watch it."

　There is one thing I forgot to mention yesterday. I don’t know if it was one or several friends who always helped me correct the typos in the book. To be honest, I check more than three or five times every time I post a new chapter, but I write it down according to my own ideas, and when I read it, I read it with inertia, so it is difficult to find typos. So I am very grateful to the friends who have been catching bugs. I am very grateful.

　　The first day's daily limit has been reached!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)