Dream of the Red Chamber: My Daiyu Has Been Reborn

"Isn't Miss Lin afraid I'll take the money and run away?"

Daiyu simply smiled slightly: "If you were capable of running away, you wouldn't have rushed back to report the loss before your injuries had fully healed. Besides, even if Miss Huang really did run away, it's just worldly possessions anyway. This thousand taels of silver has allowed me to see a person for who they truly are, so it's not a loss."

Huang Ying paused for a moment, then laughed heartily and carefully tucked the silver note into her bosom.

"I never expected Miss Lin to have such a temperament. I, Huang Ying, am impressed."

After discussing some details, Huang Ying got up to take her leave, preparing to immediately get to work on the shop.

Daiyu saw Huang Ying out of the courtyard and then instructed Zijuan to escort her out of the mansion. Afterwards, she returned to her room and sat alone by the window, lost in thought.

A thousand taels of silver might be an amount that an ordinary family could never accumulate in a lifetime, but for her, it was just an insignificant corner of her Lin family's assets.

Perhaps because of this marriage agreement with the Gu family in this life, her father, fearing she would be looked down upon, gave her far more personal money than in her previous life. She had a whole box full of those banknotes; it was all the confidence her father gave her.

In her previous life, she never knew where all that money ended up until her death. Now that she's been given a second chance, if she can't use that money for her own purposes, then she'll have truly wasted this good fortune.

Meanwhile, on Jia Baoyu's side, his head maid, Xiren, served him day and night. The other maids, such as Sheyue and Qingwen, also dared not neglect him.

Grandmother Jia was extremely worried, sending people three times a day to inquire about the situation, fearing that her precious grandson might develop some kind of chronic illness. She summoned the imperial physician and prepared ginseng soup for him. However, the effect was quite obvious; Jia Baoyu was at least beginning to resemble a human being.

Of course, it could also be thanks to Jia Zheng, after all, Da Lianbao gets beaten by him every few days, so he's long been toughened up and is quite resilient.

After two days of delay, the Shuntian Prefecture, perhaps feeling that it was about time, finally sent someone to the Rongguo Mansion to deliver the message.

The constable Sun, sent by Zheng Yuanqi, stood in a side hall of the Rongguo Mansion and respectfully presented the official document from Zheng Yuanqi, the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture.

"Reporting to Your Excellency, under the personal supervision of the Prefect, after two days of tireless work, we have finally apprehended those audacious thieves in your son's case."

The constable, Sun, bowed deeply, his face plastered with an unusually obsequious smile: "After interrogation, it was found that those people were all idle scoundrels and ruffians from the capital city. That night, they were drunk and mistook your young master for an enemy, which is why they attacked him."

Jia Zheng's face was so gloomy it could drip water. He flipped through the documents and looked at the names written on them before casually tossing them onto the table.

"Is it really just a few thugs mistaking him for someone else?"

Sun, the constable, twitched his eyelids and became even more respectful: "That's right. Those local ruffians have all been interrogated, and they were indeed just confused after drinking. The Prefect has already imprisoned them all, given each of them forty strokes of the cane, and exiled them to the army. In addition, the Prefect also said that although the matter has been investigated and clarified, it was ultimately the Shuntian Prefecture's dereliction of duty that disturbed your esteemed household, and the Prefect will personally come to apologize in a couple of days."

Jia Zheng stared at the bailiff for a long time, then suddenly let out a cold laugh.

Do you really think he's a fool? The idea that a thug mistakenly identified someone while drunk is something that might fool ignorant women and children. The night Jia Baoyu was beaten, he clearly gave his name. Even if a thug had the guts of a bear and the gall of a leopard, he wouldn't dare to strike so hard.

Since Zheng Yuanqi dared to evade the issue like this, it meant that either the other party couldn't find out the truth, or they didn't dare to investigate. Either way, it meant that it was not appropriate for the Jia family to delve any further into this matter.

"Thank you for your trouble, Lord Zheng. Someone, escort Officer Sun out."

As soon as the bailiff left, Lady Wang, who had been listening from behind the screen, rushed out and said urgently to Jia Zheng, "Master, are we just going to let it go like this?"

"What good would it do to just let it go?" Jia Zheng slammed his hand on the table. "This matter ends here. Since Zheng Yuanqi has given us a way out, we can only accept it. If we continue to make trouble, our Rongguo Mansion may not necessarily come out on top either."

……

February 12th is the Flower Festival.

As dawn broke, Pear Fragrance Courtyard came alive with activity.

Zijuan, Xueyan, and the two nannies got up early. Xueyan was in charge of scenting the clothes they had chosen together two days ago. Nanny Zhou and Nanny Sun were even busier, as they both came from the palace and valued etiquette the most. The two laid out Daiyu's hairpins and jewelry one by one, and carefully checked every stitch of the clothes, for fear that something might be amiss.

Daiyu sat in front of the mirror, which reflected a delicate face. Her eyebrows were like distant mountains and her eyes were like autumn water. Although she had not yet fully grown up, one could already see her stunning beauty in the future.

Zijuan fixed Daiyu's hair into a bun and was about to take the white magnolia hairpin that Daiyu usually wore when Daiyu raised her hand and stopped her.

After hesitating for a moment, Daiyu finally took out the peach blossom hairpin inlaid with rubies and gold from the bottom of the makeup box and handed it over.

"I'm wearing this one today."

Zijuan paused for a moment, then smiled and carefully placed the hairpin in Daiyu's hair. The ruby ​​on the peach blossom hairpin shone brightly in her dark hair, making Daiyu's skin appear even whiter than snow.

Xueyan clapped her hands and said, "Miss looks really good in this peach blossom hairpin. It's much brighter than the white magnolia one."

Daiyu glanced at her and said, "You talk too much." Although she was being sarcastic, her ears unconsciously turned a light red.

Just after finishing breakfast, a servant came to deliver a message. Daiyu got up and went ahead with Zijuan, Xueyan, and the nanny.

When they arrived at Rongqing Hall, Grandmother Jia had already made preparations, and Madam Xing, Madam Wang, Li Wan, and the three sisters of the Spring Festival were all waiting for them.

Although Wang Xifeng also wanted to show her face and make friends with those noble ladies, she could only regretfully stay in the mansion because her foot injury had not yet healed.

"Now that everyone is here, let's set off." Grandmother Jia helped Yuanyang to her feet.

As the group exited the mansion, they saw that the carriages and horses of the Rong and Ning mansions were already prepared. The carriages of the Rong mansion were lined up in a row, while the Ning mansion, because it only had one Lady You, only had two carriages prepared. One was Lady You's, but it was unclear who was in the other one.

When Lady You saw Grandmother Jia come out, she quickly went up to her and bowed, saying, "Grandmother."

Grandmother Jia waved her hand, telling her to get up.

Seeing that it was getting late, Grandmother Jia instructed everyone to get into the carriage and head straight for the Princess's residence in the East City.

Xueyan curiously lifted a corner of the carriage curtain, peeked out through the gap, and whispered, "Miss, the streets are quite lively today."

Daiyu also went over for a look and saw that many houses on both sides of the street had placed flower branches in front of their doors, which looked quite beautiful. The Flower Festival is the birthday of all flowers, and there are folk customs of appreciating flowers, catching butterflies, and eating flower cakes.

Upon arriving at the gate of the Princess's residence, Daiyu stepped down from the carriage and was slightly taken aback by the scene before her, as it was completely different from when she last visited.

The main road in front of the Princess's residence was already lined with carriages of all colors, the vermilion gates were wide open, and servants were everywhere. But what caught the eye most was the abundance of flowers displayed in front of the gate.

It wasn't the usual arrangement of a few pots and plants in a typical household; instead, the open space in front of the mansion was transformed into a veritable sea of ​​flowers. Peonies, peonies, crabapples, and magnolias of all colors vied for attention, as if spring itself had been brought to the front of the mansion.

At this moment, Grandmother Jia and the others had all gotten off the carriage. Seeing the scene before them, they were all taken aback.

As expected of members of the imperial family, their pomp and circumstance far surpasses that of the Jia family.