Lian Erye in the Red Mansion

With a tap of the fingertip, one is instantly transported to the wonderful world of Chapter 87, "The Tragedy of Pardon."

After Jia Lian left the capital, Wang Xifeng ordered Ping'er to move into the main room so that she could sleep with her every night.

Even so, it was difficult to alleviate Jia Lian's worries about leaving home. In addition, his health was getting worse, and he also had to manage complicated household affairs. With several things happening at once, it was inevitable that he would be exhausted and gradually become haggard.

Even her nephew's wife, who often came to visit her, would advise her to get more rest, but she would ignore her.

Only Grandmother Jia saw this and ordered her to resign from her position as manager.

Lady Wang had no choice but to reinstate Li Wan as the head of the household.

However, Li Wan was gentle by nature, and many of the servants in the Jia family were either arrogant, cunning, or opportunistic.

Seeing that Li Wan was not taking care of many things and that rewards and punishments were unclear, Lady Wang increasingly disregarded Li Wan, causing some matters to be delayed and unclear. Lady Wang could only ask the housekeepers to consult Wang Xifeng more often.

Wang Xifeng was inherently power-hungry and fond of showing off. Seeing the state of her household, she believed that everything would go wrong without her, and thus became even more arrogant. Although she dared not seize Li Wan's power due to Jia Mu's orders, she would still sit on the kang (a heated brick bed) and make sure that everyone who came to her with questions understood everything clearly.

It wasn't until her belly swelled high and she was increasingly tormented by the feeling of being neither alive nor dead that she truly put aside her family affairs and stayed home to await childbirth.

Finally, early July arrived, and thankfully, both mother and daughter were safe and sound after the first pregnancy. Everyone in the household breathed a sigh of relief for her.

Grandmother Jia sent Yuanyang to check on her every day, bringing her ginseng, cinnamon, and all sorts of tonics. She wasn't worried that she wouldn't have enough; she was just worried that she wouldn't be able to eat them.

Only Wang Xifeng herself had vowed to give birth to a son to relieve her worries about the future, but to her surprise, it turned out to be a daughter, and she was disappointed for a long time.

Not long after the daughter's full-month celebration, a letter from Jinling broke the tranquility of the Jia family.

Xue Pan, the eldest son of the Xue family, got into a murder case and wrote to the capital for help!

Upon hearing that something had happened at her aunt's house, Wang Xifeng could no longer sit still and immediately went to discuss it with Madam Wang, asking what the reason was.

"I heard that he got into a fight with someone over an actor, and they got into a fight over a disagreement. He probably didn't know his own strength and killed the other person."

"A life is at stake! That good-for-nothing Pan'er!"

While sighing, Madam Wang scolded her good-for-nothing nephew and then handed the letter to Wang Xifeng.

Wang Xifeng said, "I heard from Master the other day that Jia Yucun, who has recognized our family's kinship, has taken office as the new prefect of Yingtian Prefecture. This case happens to be being tried under his jurisdiction. As long as we make a few connections, we won't have to worry about not being able to resolve this case!"

Lady Wang sighed, "There's nothing we can do about it."

I have already written to your aunt and asked her to move to the capital with Pan'er and Baochai.

She had mentioned before that she might come to Beijing this year, and now that this has happened, she'll probably agree.

Their house has been uninhabited for over ten years, so cleaning it up would be a hassle. And since your uncle isn't home right now, I'm thinking of bringing her to live with us... Could you ask the old lady for me to see if she'd agree...?

Wang Xifeng immediately understood the reasoning behind it and said with a smile, "Grandmother loves lively gatherings, and Aunt and Baochai are both good-natured people, so I'm not worried that Grandmother won't agree. What I am worried about is that although we have many houses, I'm afraid there won't be a suitable place for Aunt and her family to live."

"You don't need to worry about that. There is a courtyard in the northeast corner of our mansion. It was originally built as a quiet place for the late Duke when he was alive. Although it is not big, it is quiet enough for them to live in."

There's no need to worry about the master; just wait for the old lady's approval, and then you can have someone prepare it.

Wang Xifeng smiled and agreed. After exchanging a few words with Madam Wang about the murder case, she sneaked into Grandmother Jia's room, looking for an opportunity to speak.

Grandmother Jia was indeed a lively person. She had met Aunt Xue in her early years and had a good impression of her. As soon as she heard Wang Xifeng speak, she knew that her daughter-in-law was too embarrassed to say it herself, so she sent Wang Xifeng to chime in.

He didn't seem to mind, and simply smiled and said, "That's good. I heard that the concubine's son wasn't good, but she did give birth to a daughter, who is exceptionally beautiful, both in literature and appearance. Is that true?"

"I can't guarantee that to the old lady, after all, I only met her when she was very young. But judging from my aunt's tone, she is definitely much better than me."

Grandmother Jia scoffed and said, "In this world, among women from prominent families, it would be hard to find one as outspoken and unreserved as you. Naturally, they are all better than you."

After a laugh, the matter was settled.

Others might be fine, but upon hearing that Master Xue had killed someone over a trivial matter, they instinctively developed a bad impression of the Xue family. Only Jia Baoyu, upon hearing Grandmother Jia and others say that the Xue family's daughter was "beautiful and extremely literate," clapped his hands with joy and tugged at Grandmother Jia, eager to bring her over for him to see the next day!

Less than two months later, the Xue family arrived in the capital as promised, and the entire household welcomed them with great fanfare.

Wang Xifeng, however, was always happy for a while and then disappointed for a while.

He was worried about Jia Lian, but the long distance to the border made correspondence difficult and he couldn't keep up with Jia Lian's situation, so he couldn't help but worry about him every day.

As the saying goes, what you think about during the day, you dream about at night. For several nights, she dreamed of Jia Lian fighting against the Tatar army. How could he, with his delicate appearance, be a match for those fierce barbarians? Before long, she saw him die on the battlefield, which frightened her so much that she screamed in her dream. If Ping'er hadn't been there to comfort her, she might have fallen ill from the fright.

As if her worst fears had come true, a message sent from the border nearly scared Wang Xifeng to death.

Before winter, several Tatar tribes crossed the border to plunder grain, money, and women, engaging in numerous fierce battles with the border troops stationed there, with both sides experiencing victories and defeats...

Wang Xifeng could no longer sit still. Ignoring the advice of Madam Wang and others, she tried every means to find out about Jia Lian's situation.

But as a woman without a noble status, what effective channels could she possibly have to find out the life and death of those lowly fifth-rank military officers trapped on the border?

It was only then that Wang Xifeng realized that she could only wield power within the Jia family mansion. Once she left this small area, she would be no different from any other woman.

Fortunately, she was certain that her uncle, Prince Teng, was unharmed, and she figured that Jia Lian would be fine with him too.

She could only console herself with this thought.

Before the situation outside could be clarified, Jia She unexpectedly ran into trouble.

Previously, people only mentioned feeling unwell, and no one paid much attention. After all, it's winter, and there are more illnesses and aches. Today, it's either someone feeling unwell or someone having a fever and cough, but all we do is call the doctor and take medicine.

But Jia She was different; his illness struck like a landslide, and within a few days he seemed to be on the verge of death.

Seeing that she could no longer hide it, Madam Xing hurriedly sent someone to invite Grandmother Jia.

Grandmother Jia came over with her cane and saw that Jia She's face was dark and his lips were pale. He was lying on the bed trembling all over and couldn't even say a complete sentence when he saw her. She was shocked and hurriedly pressed him for the reason.

Madam Xing said timidly, "Originally, Master was fine, but that day in the room, he accidentally bumped his back on the table. Master immediately cried out that he was not well and called a doctor, but the doctor was no use. He only said that Master was too weak and had taken too much silver and mercury pills."

The master refused to believe it, threw the quack doctor out, and summoned the imperial physician to examine him…

Grandmother Jia asked, "How did the table get broken?"

Madam Xing dared not answer, and Jia She's concubines and maids standing in the room trembled with fear.

After reading it, Grandmother Jia roughly understood what was going on. Although she was utterly disgusted, seeing Jia She's pitiful appearance, she held back her scolding and only asked, "What did the imperial physician say?"

"The imperial physician initially said almost the same thing as the doctor, but seeing that the master wouldn't listen, he said he would prescribe a few doses of medicine and see..."

But after taking even a little bit, I didn't feel any better!

Yesterday we invited Physician Wang to our house to examine us. After examining us, Physician Wang looked very serious. He came again today and said…”

"What did he say? Speak quickly!!" Grandmother Jia pounded her cane with a loud thud.

"Physician Wang said that the master is weak and frail, with damage to his five internal organs, and also... depleted kidney essence, declining energy, and a lot of stagnant matter in his blood vessels, which has poisoned his body. Only by using medicines to nourish the essence and calm the mind, and by using the best tonics to nourish the body, there may be room for recovery. However, he warned him not to take those pills that only promote the generation of essence and energy anymore, saying that those pills all have side effects, and the master's body can no longer withstand them."

Madam Xing could only give a general account of what the imperial physician said. In fact, the imperial physician Wang spoke in great detail. He even said that if Jia She did not calm down and recuperate, he might be in danger of losing his life in one or two months, or even half a year.

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