Lian Erye in the Red Mansion

What Jia Lian said to Feng Jie that night was far more than just a suggestion.

The current situation at Rongguo Mansion is indeed somewhat restricting his development, unless he really puts aside his pride and does something like "usurping someone else's place".

But clearly he didn't need to.

Even now, aside from the assets handed over to Sister Feng and those under the Lin family's name, he still controls over a million in cash flow!

With so much wealth in hand, one could easily take a few hundred thousand taels of silver to build a spacious and luxurious villa, bring in beauties like Baochai and Daiyu, and live their own quiet lives behind closed doors. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Therefore, Jia Lian personally went to the Lai family's residence to conduct a thorough investigation over the past two days.

The Lai family spent a lot of money to build a back garden in imitation of the Grand View Garden, acquiring the land deeds of more than a dozen surrounding households. Those land deeds eventually ended up in the hands of the Rongguo Mansion.

Furthermore, Jia Lian mentioned to Lai Sheng that he wanted to build a new house and had his eye on Lai Sheng's land. Lai Sheng immediately expressed his delight, saying that he had long wanted to move to a different place...

Therefore, the territory is large enough and there is no shortage of money. All he needs to do is go to the Ministry of Works to invite a few skilled "designers" to conduct a survey and draw up construction blueprints, and then he can hire people to start construction.

His mourning period will end next spring, and he wants to marry Baochai and Daiyu together after the mourning period ends.

Therefore, time is of the essence.

However, due to the "pleading" from Grandmother Jia relayed by Sister Feng, Jia Lian did not do these things in a grand manner, but instead made preparations in secret.

He didn't think that Grandmother Jia and the others could come up with any good way to stop him. In fact, by now, there were very few things he couldn't do if he wanted to. At least that was the case within the Jia family's two mansions.

After settling his own affairs, Jia Lian returned to Ningguo Mansion to check on Jia Jing's funeral arrangements.

Although his skills in handling funeral arrangements had long been superb, his wife and daughter-in-law, Lady You, were also excellent homemakers, so Jia Lian naturally didn't need to do everything himself or worry too much.

After casually looking around and finding nothing amiss with Madam You and her daughter-in-law, Jia Lian headed west to find some peace and quiet.

My original intention was to visit Tianxiang Tower to find Gu Qingyi and the other four beauties, along with a dozen or so young actresses, for some amusement. However, I had to think that the funeral would be held at Ningguo Mansion the next day, and it would be inappropriate to be singing and dancing in someone else's mansion at this time of year.

So he forced himself to walk away and headed towards the Grand View Garden, intending to find the ladies and deepen their friendships.

Before he could decide which stop to go to first, he had just walked behind the Yihong Courtyard when he heard beautiful music coming from Longcui Mountain.

Jia Lian immediately quickened his pace, stepping up the dozens of stone steps in front of the mountain gate, and arrived at Longcui Nunnery.

Following the sound of the zither, it was easy to spot two stunningly beautiful women exchanging ideas about the zither under the rose trellis in full bloom.

The beautiful woman sitting cross-legged on the cool mat, holding her zither and playing it, didn't show any particular reaction when she saw Jia Lian. Another beautiful woman, who had been sitting quietly at the stone table watching, looked up and glanced at him, but her delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly, she snorted softly, and turned her head away, pretending not to notice him.

Jia Lian seemed oblivious and sat down directly beside her. Only after the beauty finished playing the zither did he clap his hands and laugh, "Not bad, Qingyi's zither skills have improved again. I'm afraid there are few people in the world who can rival Qingyi in the art of the zither."

Given time, the Qingyi role will surely leave a significant mark on the history of vocal music.

Gu Qingyi put down the zither, stood up and bowed, saying, "Your Excellency is too kind. My skills are meager and I am truly unworthy of such praise."

Before Jia Lian could say anything more, Miaoyu snorted, "Someone has ruined the perfect atmosphere. Sister Qingyi, let's go inside and talk."

He then got up and gestured for Gu Qingyi to leave.

Fortunately, Gu Qingyi was not as arrogant as her. She glanced at Miaoyu, who was obviously throwing a tantrum, shook her head and smiled, without saying a word or moving.

Miaoyu's face darkened. She felt that her friend was being disrespectful to her, leaving her in an awkward position where she couldn't leave or stay.

She was going to leave eventually, but as soon as she took a step, her hand was grabbed and she was pulled back by a powerful force.

"Let me go! In broad daylight, what kind of behavior is this, pulling and tugging at me like this..."

Looking at Miaoyu's face, which was still incredibly beautiful even when she made a sour face, and even had a touch of charm, Jia Lian smiled while secretly wondering if he hadn't visited this lady for too long, causing her to feel resentful again.

But after thinking about it carefully for a long time, I realized that I had only been away from Longcui Nunnery for two days.

So he asked with a smile, "Tell me, what's going on this time? Why are you giving people the cold shoulder as soon as you arrive?"

In front of outsiders, when Jia Lian held her hand and asked her questions with a doting expression, Miaoyu was still quite embarrassed.

So much so that he could no longer hide his displeasure.

She said hesitantly, "It's nothing. I was just curious why the Duke, who is so busy with official duties, didn't take his Lin sister or Xue sister out of the city to play today, but instead thought of coming to my Longcui Nunnery."

Upon hearing this, Jia Lian immediately protested, "That's heartless! I did send someone to summon you that day, but you refused to go. Now you're blaming me?"

Jia Lian's dismissive attitude made Miaoyu blush.

She glanced hastily at Gu Qingyi, who was staring straight ahead but whose eyes were clearly fixed on the gossip, and said angrily, "Yes, it's me who's heartless and unreasonable. Anyway, I'm someone nobody wants to talk to. Go away, don't come here, go find your well-mannered Xue family sister!"

Miaoyu was not entirely being unreasonable.

The day before yesterday, Jia Lian took all his sisters out of the city for a spring outing, and he did send someone to invite her.

However, she was both jealous and annoyed by the sudden news that Jia Lian was going to marry Baochai, and also constrained by her status, so she refused without thinking.

But what she really wanted was to go out of the city with Jia Lian and the others.

She even thought that if Jia Lian really cared about her and came to invite her personally, she would reluctantly agree.

But it didn't happen.

When the girls in the garden returned, she learned from the maids' conversations and her own chats with the girls how happy they had been that day, and she couldn't help but feel extremely regretful.

That was bad enough, but Jia Lian had been acting as if he had forgotten about her for the past two days, and hadn't come to see her at all.

Adding to the matter of Baochai, all these factors combined mean that if she could show a pleasant expression to Jia Lian, she wouldn't be the emotionally unintelligent Miaoyu Fairy.

Jia Lian could naturally discern some of the emotions in Miaoyu's sarcastic remarks.

But he didn't care much and didn't intend to explain.

Women of this era, especially women of men as outstanding as him, have a very good ability to cope with their own problems.

Even if they can't console themselves, the people around them will help.

What he needs to do is, within his power, take care of their physical and mental well-being and help these delicate flowers grow up healthily as much as possible.

Fortunately, Jia Lian knew exactly how to take care of Miaoyu, a beautiful eighteen-year-old girl, both physically and mentally.

Hiding a smile in his heart, Jia Lian stood up and said righteously, "Nonsense! Who said no one wants to talk to my little nun? Are you implying that she's not human?"

With a laugh, Jia Lian picked up the tall yet lithe Miaoyu and carried her in his arms.

When Miaoyu heard Jia Lian call her "little nun" in front of outsiders, she immediately perked up and was overcome with shame.

This was simply because this title, which she clearly disliked, was a word that Jia Lian liked to use when he was alone with her in the deep meditation room, discussing profound truths and doctrines.

Just as she was about to retort in shame and indignation, Jia Lian picked her up.

There was no point in saying anything now, so she hurriedly said, "What are you doing... Sister Qingyi is still here..."

She was so embarrassed she was almost incoherent. In her heart, she even believed that Gu Qingyi didn't know the true nature of her relationship with Jia Lian!

Little did she know that after their first meeting and learning about her general background, Gu Qingyi was already convinced of it.

Do you really think that the top courtesan in Jiangnan is so outgoing that she calls you "sister" the first time you meet her?

Seeing this scene, Gu Qingyi's expression hardly changed. Seeing that Miaoyu had stopped struggling in Jia Lian's arms, yet Jia Lian still showed no intention of putting her down, she understood that Jia Lian had the idea of ​​favoring her.

He then bowed slightly and prepared to leave silently.

Jia Lian was certainly not as foolish as Miaoyu. He knew that his relationship with Miaoyu could be kept secret for a while, but not forever.

In fact, many people have probably speculated about his relationship with Miaoyu by now. However, there has been no significant gossip or rumors circulating in either household.

Perhaps they dared not spread the rumors, or perhaps Jia Lian had too many scandalous stories about him, making Miaoyu insignificant.

Regardless, Jia Lian certainly had no reason to hide his relationship with Miaoyu from Gu Qingyi.

Using a combination of words and force, he half-coaxed and half-forced Miaoyu to stay quiet in his arms, and then headed towards the meditation room.

Suddenly remembering something, he turned to look at Gu Qingyi, whose figure was as tall as Miaoyu's and whose cold face was exactly the same. He casually instructed, "You follow too."

Gu Qingyi was taken aback, then seemed to recall some embarrassing scenes, and her usually calm face finally blushed a lot.

If Gu Qingyi was like this, one can only imagine how ashamed Miaoyu must have felt.

Upon hearing Jia Lian's order, she immediately raised her neck, as if to express her opinion.

Jia Lian noticed immediately, and while forcefully restraining her with both hands, he lowered his head and kissed her thin lips.

The kiss was light and gentle.

Even though it wasn't the first time Jia Lian had kissed Miaoyu, she immediately felt his love and affection through that kiss.

Before she could fully grasp the situation, Jia Lian looked up and said softly to her, "Be good, listen to me."

So she stared blankly at Jia Lian for a moment, then turned her head and buried her face in Jia Lian's chest, like an ostrich.

Jia Lian couldn't help but let out a hearty laugh.

Ignoring the two women's embarrassment, he strode forward, leaving only one sentence behind: "Take the zither with you too."

Gu Qingyi was truly unable to keep up with Jia Lian's pace this time. It took her a while to realize Jia Lian's intention.

After hesitating for a moment, he finally turned around, picked up the guqin from the ground, and followed Jia Lian.