Lian Erye in the Red Mansion

A fifth-generation member of the Jia family, seemingly needing to urinate, pushed open the door and stepped out. He immediately shivered upon seeing Feng Fei, Zhao'er, and the others standing in the courtyard, peering at him. Then, sure enough, he saw Jia Lian at the end of the corridor. Terrified, he nearly wet himself, stammering, "Second Uncle Lian..."

Then he remembered to remind the people inside, "Uncle Lian is here!"

The sounds inside stopped abruptly, and a group of people rushed out. When they peeked out, they saw that it was indeed Jia Lian. They immediately shrank back, not wanting Jia Lian to see their faces.

Jia Zhen quickly emerged as well. Seeing Jia Lian's expressionless face, he felt a little embarrassed and awkwardly said, "Brother Lian, you're here... Well, we're all just hanging out here to pass the time..."

Xue Pan walked over with a familiar laugh and said, "We were having a great time, and it's just in time that Second Brother Lian has arrived. Let's all have a good laugh together..."

When Xue Pan stepped forward to pull Jia Lian, everyone else looked at Xue Pan as if he were a fool.

The man's father is still lying in bed, and you're asking him to come and have fun with you? Even if you don't have that taboo, you should at least be able to read between the lines. Do you think he looks like he wants to have fun with you?

Jia Lian calmly avoided Xue Pan's tugging, thinking to himself, "If it weren't for your mother and sister, I would have kicked you down to the tree below, believe it or not."

Finally, Jia Zhen noticed that Jia Lian's expression was off, and quickly said with a smile, "It was my fault, Brother Lian. Don't be angry, let's call it a day, let's call it a day..."

Jia Lian shook his head again, cupped his hands to Jia Zhen and said, "Brother Zhen, you flatter me. Because of my father's matter, Brother Zhen and Sister-in-law have been busy helping me so much. I am grateful beyond words."

Now that things are mostly settled, it's understandable that Brother Zhen is here to relieve his boredom, and I can certainly understand...

"Haha, Brother Lian, you're too kind. It's all what I should do. After all, we're brothers."

Seeing that Jia Lian was giving him face, Jia Zhen immediately smiled.

That's right. After all, he's the eldest son of this generation, the clan leader. By admitting he was wrong, he was giving Jia Lian face, and in return, Jia Lian had to give him face as well.

The Lian brothers are indeed capable people.

But then Jia Lian said, "However, it's really inappropriate to bring this wine. Not only is my father's coffin still here, but this is also the family temple, and our ancestors are all here watching over it. Brother Zhen, don't you agree?"

Jia Lian pressed him with reason, and Jia Zhen felt the pressure. Just then, he saw Uncle Xing, who was already half drunk, coming out with Xue Pan's new favorite, "Yu Ai." He quickly said, "We were just having a casual get-together. We never thought about drinking. We're just here to send off a funeral, so where would we get any wine?"

But Uncle Xing insisted on drinking, saying he could get his hands on any kind of alcohol… He's an elder, and we younger ones couldn't disobey him, so… You don't know, I, as the older brother, didn't drink a single drop.”

Jia Zhen pounded his chest loudly.

This blame must be shifted to someone, otherwise, if word gets out that he, as the clan leader, was drinking in front of his elders' spirits, it will be extremely inappropriate.

At this moment, Xue Pan belatedly said, "Yes, yes, that's right. We're all here with Uncle Xing. We don't have the ability to get wine without him."

"That's right, that's right..."

For a time, whether it was the sons of the Jia family or those relatives, everyone shifted the blame to Xing Dequan, Madam Xing's younger brother.

Moreover, the more they talked, the calmer and more confident everyone became, because among those present, only Xing Dequan was flushed and clearly looked like he was about to get drunk.

Xing Dequan was drunk, but not in his mind. Seeing everyone's reaction, he immediately cursed, "You bunch of cowards! You were begging me to get you some wine just now, and now you're all shirking your responsibilities! Bah! A bunch of spineless cowards!"

Xing Dequan, maintaining his status, scolded everyone once, then looked at Jia Lian with a smile and said, "Brother, don't be angry. I brought the wine because I was thinking that everyone has been busy with your brother-in-law's funeral arrangements for so long."

I finally have some free time now, so I'm doing you a favor, uh…”

After burping, Xing Dequan continued, "Don't worry, there are only two jars in total. We'll go our separate ways after we finish eating, it won't delay anything."

Xing Dequan spoke in the tone of a close relative or elder of Jia Lian.

In his eyes, Jia Lian was his nephew. Of all the things in the world, the maternal uncle was the most important; how could Jia Lian possibly do anything to his uncle?

Seeing how afraid everyone was of Jia Lian, he became even more eager to flaunt his status in front of them. So he said to everyone, "Come on, let's play a few more rounds and finish the rest of the wine."

"You think you can just walk away after winning my money?"

Jia Zhen looked at Xing Dequan's pretentious show of authority with utter contempt. This foolish uncle, a penniless wretch who still loves to put on airs, had the nerve to ask him for reimbursement for those two jars of wine!

However, Jia Zhen naturally wouldn't compete with Xing Dequan for this now. On the contrary, he was very happy and wanted to see what Jia Lian would say next.

Madam Xing was, after all, the rightful first wife and Jia Lian's legal mother. Xing Dequan was Jia Lian's maternal uncle.

Your own uncle led the way in this, let's see how you get angry now.

Jia Lian wasn't angry at all, because he was very familiar with the temperaments of the Jia family members, and he had even been one of them himself.

If he hadn't happened to stumble upon it, Jia Lian wouldn't have bothered with it at all.

However, Xing Dequan's shameless attitude made him feel quite uncomfortable.

Even Madam Xing had become well-behaved after his repeated reprimands, so how dare her brother, who appeared out of nowhere, act like a big bad wolf in front of him?

"Feng Fei, your uncle is drunk. Take him outside the mountain gate to get some fresh air and sober up."

Jia Lian said coldly, and Feng Fei, who was prepared, immediately rushed forward, grabbed Xing Dequan, and dragged him down.

Having fought alongside Jia Lian for a year, Feng Fei and the others had long since changed their mindset.

Looking back at these weaklings in his own home, whom he was confident he could take down with a single blow, he couldn't help but feel a sense of contempt and disdain. Given Jia Lian's orders, how could he possibly take a drunken good-for-nothing seriously? Therefore, as if escorting a prisoner, he quickly took the utterly powerless Xing Dequan away.

Upon hearing Xing Dequan's curses, Feng Fei instinctively raised his hand to slap him, but fortunately, he reacted quickly and managed to control his hand.

"Brother Lian, this..."

No one else had ever seen such a display. That was the First Madam's own younger brother, and the Second Master Lian's uncle. How dare his personal guards treat him like this?

Is there some personal grudge between him and Uncle Xing, so he's using Master Lian to get revenge on Uncle Xing?

But seeing Jia Lian's unmoved expression, they couldn't help but feel a chill in their hearts.

Even Jia Zhen was startled and tried to smooth things over with a smile.

Jia Lian waved his hand, "Brother Zhen, there's no need to say anything more. I'm just trying to sober up my uncle; I won't do anything to him. I'll leave things here in your care, Brother Zhen."

After Jia Lian finished speaking, he bowed to Jia Zhen and left, leaving behind a corridor of people looking at each other in bewilderment.

Jia Zhen took a deep breath and hurriedly ordered his servant to check the situation outside.

A servant came running back and forth: "Second Master Lian's guards pushed the eldest uncle directly out of the mountain gate, and then had the gate locked."

Jia Zhen, Jia Rong, and the others gasped in shock.

On the night of the funeral, they chased their own maternal uncle outside the mountain gate to get some fresh air and sober up. What respectable family would do something like that?

Among the Rongguo Mansion's Second Master Lian, he is undoubtedly number one.