Peasant Girl Bookseller

Chapter 258

Mai Xiang found the manuscript on the table in the study, ran to Cao Xueqin with the manuscript in her arms, and said with a smile, "Godfather, I'm going home now, and I'll send it to you tomorrow morning."

"This girl, she calls me godfather every time she asks for me." Cao Xueqin shook her head and smiled, but she was still very happy. It could be seen that he really loved Mai Xiang.

When Mai Xiang returned home, she picked up the manuscript and read it slowly. Although the ancient traditional characters were already recognized, but there were no punctuation marks and they were vertical. Naturally, it was a bit difficult for Mai Xiang to read.
The first episode is the birthday banquet of Qunfang in Yihong Courtyard. This is Baoyu’s birthday celebration, which is similar to what is described in the novel. The next thing is the death of the second sister You and the third sister. It can be seen that these two people are in Cao Xueqin’s life. The weight in my heart is not light, and I actually listed two episodes separately. In the first eighty episodes, there is another episode that is the death of Daguanyuan and Qingwen, followed by the death of Daiyu.

Tanchun married far away, and Baoyu was ordered to see off her relatives. At this time, Lin Daiyu was extremely weak. In order to comfort the two, Jia's mother, one was to let Baoyu go at ease, and the other was to let her beloved granddaughter recover from her illness. Previously, Jia's mother decided to make a marriage for the two.

With this reassurance pill, Lin Daiyu's health gradually improved. Unexpectedly, half a year later, a bad news came, saying that Jia Baoyu encountered bandits on the way back and was taken captive, and her life and death were unknown.In fact, Jia Huan didn't want Jia Baoyu to go home and collude with the bandits outside to design him to kill him.

Mrs. Wang didn't like Lin Daiyu in the first place, and now she hated Lin Daiyu even more, thinking that Lin Daiyu had indirectly killed Jia Baoyu, disregarding Jia's mother's instructions, she deliberately found someone to leak the news in front of Lin Daiyu, and Lin Daiyu became ill after hearing about it. Before he died, he still held the two handkerchiefs Jia Baoyu had given him, and threw them tremblingly into the brazier.

Mai Xiang sighed when she saw this paragraph, especially Lin Daiyu's sentence before she closed her eyes: "Baoyu, you are so cruel, you still left me first..." It made Mai Xiang very sad, and she was crying Huai Ci entered the door.

"What's wrong with my sister? I heard that my sister won't even eat. Who is bullying my sister?" Seeing the tears on Mai Xiang's face, Huai Ci was heartbroken and rushed forward to hug Mai Xiang.

Mai Xiang took out the handkerchief embarrassingly, wiped away her tears, and said, "It's all written by Mr. It's so touching."

Only then did Huai Ci notice the manuscript in Mai Xiang's hand, and said, "Fool, are you still crying like this for the stories in the book? Just because of this, you don't even eat dinner? I was shocked, it's okay, It's all fake, it's used by Mister to make other people cry."

"I cried like this when I read it. My husband may have been so heartbroken when I wrote it." Mai Xiang wiped away her tears again.

"Okay, don't be sad, I'll watch it with my sister." After Huaici finished speaking, she really took off her shoes and wanted to get on the kang.

"By the way, why are you back? Are you on vacation? Are you hungry?" Mai Xiang then remembered to care about the other party, because it was already dark outside, and she also remembered that she seemed a little hungry too.

"No, I'm really hungry." Huaici originally wanted to say that he wasn't hungry, and he ate something on the way, but seeing Mai Xiang was so sad, he wanted to find something for her to do, maybe she would just leave the story in the book.Besides, Mai Xiang hadn't eaten for a long time, so she definitely couldn't stand it.

"I'll cook for you." Mai Xiang got off the kang after hearing this.

Unexpectedly, Mai Xiang ran into Ye Dafu as soon as he left the house. Seeing that Mai Xiang's eyes were red and swollen like peaches, Ye Dafu hurriedly grabbed Mai Xiang.

"Girl, what's the matter with you? My uncle was mad at you as soon as he came back?"

"No, Dad, I'm sad because I read the book."

"Reading? What book made my daughter cry like this, dad should burn it." Ye Dafu is full of guilt towards Mai Xiang these days.

"Yue Zhang, if you burn this book, I'm afraid my sister will cry even more sadly." Huai Ci came out of the room and said with a smile.

Ye Dafu glared at Huai Ci, and said, "The New Year gift you sent was still thrown in the hall outside, and I missed you by mistake. Who are you going to let clean it up?"

"I'll go, I'll go, didn't you hear that the second sister said that the younger sister locked herself in the room without even eating, and forgot everything when she was in a hurry." Huaici patted himself on the head.

Ye Dafu saw that Huai Ci was so devoted to Mai Xiang, what else could he say?

Mai Xiang went into the kitchen, cooked two bowls of noodle soup, cut two plates of duck with meat sauce, and took them back to her room. Zhao's Mai Huang and others were surrounding Huai Ci to share gifts.

"Second sister, in the future, if you look for a brother-in-law, you should also find a big brother-in-law." Seven-year-old Mai Lu looked at the purple gold butterfly flower in her hand and smiled.

"Why?" Mai Huang turned around and asked.

"Stupid Second Sister, of course I got a gift. The eldest brother-in-law has given us many good things in recent years. Second Sister might as well find one soon." After Mai Qing finished speaking, she covered her mouth and smiled. Hit her, and hurriedly hid beside Mai Xiang.

"Die, mother, you don't care about it, big sister." Mai Huang stamped her feet and ran back to her room.

"What's wrong with Second Sister today? Are you so upset?" Mai Qing stared at Mai Huang's back.

Mai Xiang was also taken aback.

"Okay, let your elder brother-in-law hurry up and eat." Mrs. Zhao made a rare understanding.

After Mrs. Zhao left, Huai Ci picked up the bowl on the table, and Mai Xiang lay on the kang table, holding the chopsticks in her right hand and the manuscript in her left hand. Reading while eating was exercised in school.

This scene is about a golden and jade marriage. After Lin Daiyu is gone, Jia Baoyu returns home, and he wants to marry Sister Lin as soon as he enters the house. I remember that Zijuan once said that sister Lin was going back to the south, and Jia Baoyu went crazy when she heard this. So, this time, everyone in Jia's family gathered together and thought of a trick. The elder sister naturally became the best choice for Bao's second grandmother, but when Jia Baoyu lifted the bride's hijab and saw that this face was not the sister Lin he had been thinking about, Brother Bao went mad again and wanted to smash his The psychic gem.

After reading this story, Mai Xiang found it somewhat similar to Baoyu's marriage in Gao E's follow-up. Maybe Gao E actually collected a few pages of Cao Xueqin's posthumous manuscript, but the story was incomplete and he added a lot.

After reading a story of Mai Xiang, she already burst into tears again, Huaici moved from the opposite side to Mai Xiang's side, and kept wiping Mai Xiang's tears with a handkerchief, and at this time, he had also finished watching Daiyu's death.

"Okay, sister, don't watch it. If you watch it any longer, my sister will cry. Don't worry, my sister. No matter what happens in the future, I will not leave my sister behind. I will definitely be by my sister's side."

Mai Xiang laughed when she heard this, and said, "I'm not sister Lin, I can live a good life if you stay with me or not, so you'd better remember, if you feel sorry for me in the future, I will definitely kick you out of the house, let you leave the house, and then I will take the money and go happily." Mai Xiang smiled while wiping her tears.

Huai Ci squeezed Mai Xiang's face after hearing this, "It's not convenient for you to be happy as a woman with money and not have a loyal person to serve you. Why don't you let me go out with you to have a good time with money? Don't worry. I will definitely take care of it for you, for example, while you are reading, I can feed you on the sidelines."

Mai Xiang blushed when she heard that, just now she was only focused on reading, she didn't have a mouthful, Huai Ci simply fed her to eat, Mai Xiang didn't know that most of the two plates of sauced meat went into her stomach.

"You've been kicked out by me, how can you be loyal? Don't you know there's a saying that says good horses don't turn back?" Mai Xiang looked at the smile in Huai Ci's eyes, deliberately annoyed him.

Huai Ci didn't know whether to laugh or cry, picked up the manuscript and handed it to Mai Xiang, and said with a smile: "There is another saying that the prodigal son will not return money. You can think so far about non-existent things, let's look at Brother Bao's crying spirit, I have given it to you." You have the veil ready."

Mai Xiang took the book with a smile, and picked up the manuscript again. Jia Baoyu was so crazy that he couldn't make it, and naturally he wouldn't have sex with Sister Bao. It was because Jia Mu knew his intentions and opened the Xiaoxiang Pavilion to let him go in to pay his respects. The "fallen leaves are rustling, cold smoke is deserted" in the museum is ecstasy.

The last major event was of course the Jia's mansion being copied. Before that, Yuan Chun was dead, and accidents had happened to the Wang family, the Shi family, and the Jiangnan Zhen family. After leaving the Jiangnan Zhen's house, there were still things left in the Jia's house. It happened that Xue Pan heard this remark, and Xue Pan caused trouble again.

Naturally, the reason is that Jia Zhen did not change her dissolute nature. During the period of national filial piety and family filial piety, it was difficult to go out to meet guests, so she gathered a group of children from aristocratic families at home to eat, drink and have fun. He slipped his mouth and accidentally injured his life, and the Ningguo Mansion was raided.

The Rongguo Mansion was not spared either. In addition to copying the belongings that were hidden in the Zhen family, it also led to the case of Jia She forcibly snatching the stone nerd's ancient fan. Of course, Wang Xifeng's usury and Mokong Jia's large amount of property were also copied.

After the inspection, Jia's mother couldn't bear the blow and fell ill, and everyone in the Jia family was sent to prison. After that, Jia Zhen and Jia Amnesty were exiled, and the female family members of Jia's mansion were sold. After Baoyu was released from prison, he returned to the former bustling place. There were only a pile of ruins left in the Grand View Garden. Jia Baoyu stood in front of the ruins of the Xiaoxiang Pavilion, and the soft voice of Sister Lin still rang in his ears.

"If you die, I will become a monk." Jia Baoyu remembered his promise to Sister Lin, turned around and left, and Jia Baoyu appeared again dressed as a monk.

After reading the story in one breath, Mai Xiang feels that the plot of Baoyu's renunciation does not seem to be very similar to Zhi Yanzhai's reminder. Zhi Yanzhai is talking about Jia Baoyu's resignation at a cliff, and the opera is about Jia Baoyu fulfilling his promise to sister Lin.

Obviously, Cao Xueqin made some changes to this story in order to escape the literary prison. In this way, "Dream of Red Mansions" is more like a love tragedy novel, rather than a wild historical novel with many metaphors.

Mai Xiang doesn't know how Cao Xueqin plans to arrange the ending of the novel. After all, these few episodes cover not much content, and the final direction of many characters in the book is not clearly explained, but judging from these few episodes, Cao Xueqin can also earn a lot of money. Lots of tears.

(End of this chapter)