The Good Grandson of the Red Chamber

Chapter 106 The Lame Taoist and the Bald Monk Get Beaten

This wave of emotions from the Jia family members provided him with a significant boost.

Although these emotional points were far from enough to exchange for the 10,000 emotional points needed for the fever-reducing pill, at least he managed to recoup some of his investment.

However, when he saw the negative emotional value that Aunt Zhao and Jia Huan and his son had contributed to him, he was speechless.

These two, mother and son, secretly wished for the deaths of their two legitimate sons, Jia Zhu and Jia Baoyu.

Before long, Xia Bei came in and reported that Jia Lian had come to express his gratitude.

Xia Chengzong looked at the gifts Jia Lian had sent, which amounted to at least three or four thousand taels of silver.

It was indeed a generous gift, showing great sincerity.

Xia Chengzong asked them to bring the person in.

After Jia Lian came in, he thanked them profusely and said that he would personally visit Jia Zhu's home to express his gratitude once Jia Zhu recovered.

Xia Chengzong smiled and exchanged pleasantries with Jia Lian, then invited Jia Lian to stay for lunch before letting him leave.

They came with a generous gift of several thousand taels of silver; it wouldn't be right to let them go back empty-handed.

Meanwhile, a bald-headed monk with a tattered, unkempt robe and a head full of sores, and a man dressed in drab, unrecognizable gray robes...

A lame Taoist priest in a colored robe appeared in front of the Rongguo Mansion.

The bald-headed monk struck the wooden fish and chanted, "Namo Jieyuanke Bodhisattva."

The lame Taoist priest shouted again, "We are skilled at healing those whose families are uneasy, whose homes are in turmoil, who are in danger, or who are possessed by evil spirits."

Upon seeing this, the servants at the entrance of Rongguo Mansion hurriedly stepped forward to drive them away.

"Hey you Taoist priests and monks, this is in front of the Duke's mansion. If you want to beg for alms, go somewhere else. Otherwise, you'll dirty this place."

The bald-headed monk laughed and said, "We heard that someone in your household has fallen ill with a strange disease, so we came to seek your help. Please inform us that you are here."

A servant sneered, "Your information network is quite impressive. I don't know where you heard that our young master, Xiao Zhu, is sick, so you came here to swindle some money."

"But your information network isn't that efficient; you don't know that Master Zhu's illness at our manor has already been cured!"

"Hurry up and get away, or you'll pollute this place."

Upon hearing this, the bald-headed monk and the lame Taoist priest looked at each other, their faces showing shock.

How could that be?

Yesterday, Jia Zhu was clearly on the verge of death, so how come he's suddenly better today?

This shouldn't be happening, how could it be like this?

They couldn't help but ask a few more questions, but the servants became impatient and rushed over to punch and kick the two of them.

The two men were beaten black and blue and fled in panic.

They went to a secluded spot where no one was around and started talking.

Something's not right, something's really not right.

"Since Jia Zhu is clearly beyond saving, we should take this opportunity to sneak into the Rongguo Mansion and see what has happened to the Jade of Spiritual Enlightenment."

"Who knew Jia Zhu would actually recover? How is that possible?"

"If nothing unexpected happens, he's supposed to lose his life today!"

"Who saved him?"

"Who is breaking the deadlock?"

"Without this opportunity, how can we infiltrate the Rongguo Mansion and see for ourselves what exactly happened to the Jade of Spiritual Enlightenment?"

The two talked for a while, but still couldn't get to the point.

It turned out that after accepting the mission, they came to the capital of Daqian and had been looking for an opportunity to infiltrate the Rongguo Mansion.

Only now have they found the right opportunity.

They planned to take advantage of Jia Zhu's illness to sneak into the Rongguo Mansion.

But man proposes, God disposes; after they arrived at the Rongguo Mansion, Jia Zhu's illness miraculously improved.

This was completely unexpected.

This forced the two to temporarily leave the city and rest in a dilapidated temple outside the city, while they tried to find another solution.

As evening fell, Xia Xi began to sort through the intelligence she had gathered that day.

He selected the useful intelligence, compiled it, and sent it to the prince.

Xia Xi looked at a piece of intelligence, hesitated for a moment, and finally decided to report it.

He wasn't sure if the message would be useful, and it might even incur a reprimand from the prince.

For some reason, he felt there was something strange about this intelligence report, so he decided to show it to the prince.

Before long, this intelligence was delivered to Xia Chengzong.

-

Nowadays, the amount of intelligence being collected daily is increasing.

Although most of them are trivial matters, they also contain some useful information.

Xia Chengzong skimmed through the pages, flipping through them one by one.

When he came across a message, his hand stopped.

He had been leaning back in his recliner, but now he sat up straight.

His expression turned serious.

He asked, "Xia Xi, what did that monk and the Taoist priest say at the Rongguo Mansion gate? Do you have any detailed information?"

Xia Xi sent only a brief report, without any detailed account.

Hearing how much the prince valued this news, he knew that his judgment had indeed been correct.

He said, "Your Highness, I'll go and get it for you right away."

Before long, Xia Xi retrieved the detailed information.

After reading it, Xia Chengzong's expression turned serious.

These two must be the mad monk and the lame Taoist priest.

Because what they said at the entrance of the Rongguo Mansion was exactly the same as what Jia Baoyu and Wang Xifeng said when they appeared in the novel "Dream of the Red Chamber" after being bewitched by magic.

These two actually made an appearance ahead of schedule.

Why did they appear early?

The answer is not hard to guess.

Presumably, they learned through some means that the Jade of Spiritual Enlightenment had been switched, and they were preparing to come and find out.

This immediately put Xia Chengzong on alert.

Both of them came from the Realm of Illusion, and they were cultivators.

If they find out that I am the one causing trouble behind it all, who knows what they will do?

Don't think they're good people.

They first approached Yinglian—also known as Xiangling—and asked Zhen Shiyin to give them the little Yinglian.

Zhen Shiyin refused, and the following year Yinglian was abducted by human traffickers. Not long after, the Zhen family mansion was burned to the ground, and all their property was lost.

Yinglian was ultimately persecuted to death by Xia Jingui, and her life was tragic and full of hardships.

They approached Lin Daiyu and told her never to see outsiders or shed tears for the rest of her life.

They used the Cold Fragrance Pill as a medicinal ingredient for Xue Baochai, following the prescription of Kaihai.

These two women, one with a jade belt hanging in the forest, the other with a golden hairpin buried in the snow, neither of them had a good ending.

It must be said that their methods were quite vicious.

Therefore, one must be careful and cautious.

However, Xia Chengzong also made a new discovery through this news.

First, these two are not omnipotent; they need to investigate many things, and they cannot know everything just by calculating with their fingers.

For example, they only knew that Jia Zhu was seriously ill, but they didn't know that Jia Zhu had actually been saved by him.

Given this, it won't be easy for them to trace it back to themselves.

If I create some more obstacles for them, they might not be able to trace it back to me for several years.

Secondly, they must be subject to certain restrictions in the secular world, and they probably cannot use their supernatural abilities in the secular world at will.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have been beaten so badly by the servants at the entrance of the Rongguo Mansion, ending up with bruises and swelling on their faces.

Since that's the case, Xia Chengzong's face showed a thoughtful expression.