Lian Erye in the Red Mansion

Jia Lian personally saw Jia Zhen and You Shi off at the door. When he returned, none of the others, including Grandmother Jia, had left.

They all looked at Jia Lian with strange eyes.

A person's abilities are not usually apparent; they only become clear when facing major events.

Even if they were unwilling to admit it, they understood that sending Jia Lian over was the right decision.

Otherwise, I'm afraid they won't be able to reach a conclusion on the site selection issue today! Even if they manage to persuade Jia Zhen to give up Huifang Garden in the end, it will probably cost tens of thousands of taels of silver.

However, Jia Lian did not accomplish this easily; he used almost all of his father's inheritance as a bargaining chip.

"What's wrong? Why are you all staring at me?"

Now that the land has been allocated, I think we should start construction on our house as soon as possible. The sooner it's completed, the sooner we can ask our eldest sister to come home for a visit.

Jia Lian bowed briefly to Grandmother Jia and the others, then sat down and said...

Jia Zheng hurriedly said, "Lian'er is right. I am acquainted with an old gentleman in the ministry. He has unique expertise in garden construction. Even the royal family often commissions him to design gardens."

"After court tomorrow, I will go and hire him to design and build the blueprints for our house."

"Is the old gentleman you mentioned, sir, whose pen name is 'Shan Ziye'?"

"Exactly, how did you know?"

"Hehe, the old gentleman is quite famous, and I have heard of him."

If the master has already taken a liking to him, it would be best to invite him as soon as possible. Now that the imperial decree has been issued, there are probably many families who want to undertake large-scale construction projects. If we go too late, the old gentleman may have already taken on other projects and will be too busy to handle them, which would delay our construction schedule.”

Jia Lian smiled and offered a reminder.

Jia Zheng then took it seriously and nodded in agreement.

After thinking for a moment, he added, "Lian'er, we know how you feel, but you should keep the things your father left behind..."

Jia Zheng was a typical scholar who valued fame over profit.

He felt guilty for having his nephew sell all of his elder brother's belongings to support his daughter's affairs.

Jia Lian glanced at Jia Zheng with a smile. His somewhat shy and conflicted expression didn't seem fake at all, so Jia Lian smiled inwardly. Since this person was easy to get along with, then they would continue to get along like this.

"Master, there's no need to say more. Our family is in dire need of money right now. Since we have it, we should naturally use it to concentrate our resources on important matters."

After all, I'm part of this family, aren't I?

Jia Lian spoke casually, but Madam Xing and Wang Xifeng were not entirely pleased.

Grandmother Jia and Lady Wang had complicated expressions. Grandmother Jia said, "It's rare that you have this intention. Since you insist, then so be it."

However, there's no need for 30,000. You should also consider your daughter Feng and eldest daughter and save some money to buy them new clothes.

How about this, you can just contribute 20,000 like us.

If we ever run out of money in the future, we'll find another way to make expenses.

Seeing that she could salvage the ten thousand, Wang Xifeng quickly smiled and said, "Look at what the old lady is saying. He is the man of the house, so naturally he makes the decisions. Since he is willing to use the whole family's resources to support this matter, I can only be happy for him."

Anyway, I have nowhere to spend the money, so keeping it for me is useless.

My eldest daughter is still young and doesn't need much money.

It's a real shame for my wife; I'm afraid we won't have the money to support her in the future.

Madam Xing sat to the left of Grandmother Jia, and practically suffered there for half a day.

She has no say in anything that involves spending a lot of money at home!

He was already in a bad mood, and then Wang Xifeng brought it up to spur him on; his reaction was predictable.

With a forced smile, he said that he didn't need Jia Lian and the others to offer him any tribute, as important matters were at hand. Then, unable to sit still any longer, he bid farewell to Grandmother Jia.

No one paid much attention to Madam Xing's departure; they had only called her over as a formality.

Judging from the previous results, perhaps in the future we really won't need to call on her for such things anymore.

Jia Lian had done a great service for the family today, so Grandmother Jia and the others had to adopt a friendly attitude and, for the first time ever, show concern for Jia Lian's affairs at the yamen.

Jia Lian merely brushed off this concern, then suddenly said, "Yesterday I heard from Feng that Lin Daiyu's cough has flared up again. How is she now? I'll go see her."

Mentioning Daiyu's illness, Grandmother Jia felt distressed and sighed, "She's still the same, causing trouble every spring and summer, never having a moment of peace... Go and take a look."

Jia Lian then bid farewell to Grandmother Jia and the others, and went to Daiyu's room in the backyard.

When Daiyu entered the Jia family mansion, it was deep winter. Because of the cold weather, Grandmother Jia arranged for Daiyu to stay in the green gauze curtain in her room.

When spring arrived and the weather warmed up, Daiyu was moved to a separate room at the back, and the three sisters of the three springs were also moved out of Rongqing Hall and arranged to live in the three side rooms behind Madam Wang's courtyard.

The reason given was that Sanchun was getting older and it was inconvenient for them to be squeezed together.

In reality, as Grandmother Jia grew older and her energy waned, she found it noisy to have too many grandchildren.

However, this still shows that Grandmother Jia's favoritism is unchangeable. She dislikes the three sisters, but puts her granddaughter and grandson aside.

As for Daiyu, it's understandable since she's a guest from afar.

They even placed Erbao next to Daiyu, so that Erbao would constantly bother Daiyu.

It's absolutely impossible to say that Grandmother Jia had no selfish motives!

The cozy room, with the setting sun just setting through the gauze curtains, suddenly felt quiet and deserted.

Lin Daiyu quietly poured the half-finished medicine into the potted crabapple tree outside the window. Turning around, she saw Zijuan standing at the door, looking at her with annoyance. Feeling guilty, she put the bowl aside as if nothing had happened, sat down, and continued feeding the two squirrels in the cage as if nothing was wrong.

Zijuan walked over, first peeking out the window, then complaining, "If this tree were also sick, it would probably be cured after taking such expensive medicine, young lady..."

Daiyu frowned, pouted, and ignored Zijuan. She was so annoying, always making people drink medicine!

Seeing this, Zijuan had no choice but to put away the bowl and spoon.

But then she saw Jia Lian walking towards her, and she quickly stepped aside and bowed, saying, "This servant greets Second Master Lian."

At first, Daiyu thought Zijuan was teasing her, but when she turned around, she realized that Jia Lian had really come over, so she quickly got up to greet him.

Jia Lian sat down on the stool at the tea table. Seeing Daiyu's slender and delicate figure standing in front of him, he smiled and said, "I heard you were sick, so I came to see you. Why are you so reserved? Sit down."

Daiyu wrinkled her nose slightly, accepted the order and went back to sit down, but turned her head away, seemingly not wanting to pay attention to Jia Lian.

Jia Lian asked curiously, "Did I offend you? Look at that pouty little mouth!"

Anyone who has a persistent cough and is constantly pressured to take medicine will not be in a good mood.

Jia Lian's teasing made Daiyu immediately glare at him with displeasure, asking, "What are you doing here?"

Hmph, I was sick the other day and only came to see you today. I don't want to be grateful for your kindness!

Daiyu found an excellent reason for her behavior.

"The old lady was just talking to me about something. I was passing by here when I heard that someone was sick, so I stopped by to check on them. It's nothing serious."

Daiyu's personality is like a cat's; if you pet her against her will easily make her fur stand on end.

"Now that you've seen it, you can leave."

As expected, Daiyu said in a very unpleasant tone. Perhaps she spoke too quickly in her haste, which aggravated her illness. As soon as she finished speaking, she covered her mouth with her embroidered handkerchief and coughed.

Zijuan, who had just poured tea for Jia Lian, rushed over to help pat his back.

Seeing her stubborn yet delicate appearance, one felt both heartache and exasperation, so one sighed, "She was perfectly fine before, how come she suddenly got so sick again? Could it be because she didn't take her medicine properly?"

Jia Lian's words touched on what someone had just done, causing her to pause in covering her mouth, and a hint of unease appeared in her eyes.

Zijuan immediately complained, "Second Master also said that the young lady doesn't take her medicine properly. She always takes half of the medicine prescribed by the imperial physician and throws the other half away. If this continues, how will the young lady get better?"

Upon hearing Zijuan's complaint, Daiyu was clearly indignant and turned her back to Zijuan, refusing to let her touch her.

Jia Lian watched with a smile, then glanced at Zijuan.

It must be said that Grandmother Jia treated Daiyu quite well; at least the maid assigned to Daiyu was quite good.

Despite his young age, his speech and actions reveal a certain intellectual and reserved nature.

That's true. Otherwise, I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to control a girl like Daiyu, who has such rich inner emotions and is difficult to get along with.

"Oh, why are you telling me this? She won't take her medicine, and you've all tried your best to persuade her. She won't even listen to you. Do you really think she'll listen to me? You think she'll take it just because I tell her to?"

Seeing that Jia Lian was being somewhat teasing, Zijuan quickly smiled and said, "She might not listen to others, but she'll definitely listen to some of what Second Master says."

"Tch, why aren't you getting down here? Stop talking nonsense."

Daiyu couldn't stand Zijuan any longer and told her to drive her away.

Zijuan didn't care at all about being scolded. Instead, she spread her hands towards Jia Lian, indicating: "See? The young lady is becoming more and more willful."

Daiyu's temperament was unpredictable, and Jia Lian didn't have the time or energy to offer detailed advice, but he knew how to go along with this young girl's wishes.

Then he laughed and replied to Zijuan: "I advise you not to count on me. I don't have any 'tightening spell' that can subdue anyone. I just think that since she doesn't want to take the medicine, she must dislike your medicine because it's not good and has no effect."

If your medicine is truly effective and can cure the illness, I believe she will definitely take it.

Who wouldn't want to be healthy?

So instead of complaining here, you should think about how to make the medicine taste better, like adding some sugar...

Daiyu was such a perceptive person that she could analyze and dissect every word spoken by those around her.

Upon hearing Jia Lian's insinuation that she was a disobedient monkey, her delicate eyebrows immediately stood up!

Fortunately, Jia Lian quickly came up with a reason for her not taking the medicine that sounded very agreeable to her, which made her feel relieved.

She thought Jia Lian would also try to persuade her to take her medicine properly, like everyone else, but she was tired of hearing that.

She thought Jia Lian was indeed someone who understood her, always going along with her wishes, but then his last sentence made her blush again.

She naturally understood that Jia Lian had guessed she disliked the bitterness of the medicine, so he asked Zijuan to add sugar.

How infuriating! They still treat people like children...

Zijuan's original intention was to get Jia Lian to help discipline Daiyu, because she knew that Daiyu respected Jia Lian.

To everyone's surprise, Jia Lian said something cryptic and illogical. But judging from the girl's reaction, she seemed quite moved.

She seemed to understand why the young ladies viewed Lian Er Ye differently. Hmph, they were all people who didn't speak according to common sense!