The Red Mansion Big Liar

Seeing that his son understood, Jia Jing nodded and said, "Well! There is no need to rush about this matter. Wait a few days before going. Your father must also inform King Ning in advance."

"If there's nothing else, you can go back first!" He waved his hand and lowered his voice, "Remember to win over your cousin. Who knows, when Prince Ning ascends to the throne in the future, he may have to rely on him to fabricate some stories in the name of the late emperor."

After hearing this, Jia Zhen froze and looked at Jia Jing in horror. It took him a long while to come back to his senses.

"Yes! My son will follow the master's instructions."

……

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 41 Seeing through but not daring to call out

Zhang Yun逸 solved the Xue family's problem. Jia Zhen returned to Ning Mansion from Xuanzhen Temple. Only then did Xue Pan, who lived in Lixiangyuan of Rong Mansion next door, slowly wake up.

Although Jia Rong is the legitimate grandson of the Ningguo Mansion, he has to look up to Jia Zhen's mood when spending money.

Although Jia Zhen himself was extremely extravagant, he was not generous to his son. In addition, Jia Rong liked to drink, gamble, and visit prostitutes, so he was not well off.

In the past, he could still follow Xue Pan and benefit from his wealth, but recently Xue Pan started to cultivate his character, which made him have fewer opportunities to play.

He knew very well that it is difficult to change one's nature, and he also heard that Xue Pan was just being kept in suspense by Aunt Xue because of Xiangling.

So, after Zhang Yun逸 and Jia Zhen left, he kept urging Xue Pan to drink.

When Jia's mother and others returned home, Xue Pan was already drunk. Jia Rong finally got what he wanted and went to Jinxiangyuan for free.

Aunt Xue, worried that her son would make a fuss when he found out that Xiangling was given away by her, also went with him.

I had a great time last night, but now I remembered Aunt Xue's instructions. As soon as I opened my eyes, I endured the headache and went straight to the main room.

As soon as he entered the main room, he shouted, "Mom! Mom! I waited until Zhang Yunyi left before I drank too much yesterday."

"Brother, please sit down and talk!"

"Uh..." Xue Pan scratched his head when he found Xue Baochai was also there. "My sister is here too?"

Although he was a little muddleheaded, he was extremely respectful to Aunt Xue and Xue Baochai. Otherwise, Aunt Xue would not have kept Xiangling in check.

"Hey! Hey! Mom knows."

Aunt Xue felt somewhat guilty towards her son.

Xue Pan was unaware of the situation and thought he had been fooled. He looked around and asked, "Where's Xiangling?"

"Son! Sit down and listen to what I have to say."

Xue Baochai immediately stepped forward, pushed Xue Pan to the front of the kang, and made him sit on it.

The mother and daughter repeated what Xiangling and the Xue family had said in their fight back.

But he didn't dare tell Xiangling the news.

Xue Pan was stunned for a moment, and it took him a while to react. He asked, "Did you guys drive Xiangling away?"

"Oh! Although she is in conflict with our family, her fate is very good. If we don't find a good place to settle her down, she will bring trouble to our family."

"A person with great fortune? Did you give her to Baoyu?"

Xue Pan stood up angrily and shouted, "Great! Great! It's obvious that you guys are not paying attention to me, but you use these lies as a cover. Is it possible that Baoyu is the king of heaven and I am a prisoner? Look, I will go to him right now and get Xiangling back!"

Seeing Xue Pan standing up and about to rush out, Xue Baochai quickly raised her arm to block the door.

"Brother! This matter has nothing to do with Baoyu. Please listen to mother's explanation!"

Xue Pan's eyes were like copper bells, and he said angrily: "My dear sister, you don't have to quarrel with me. I already know your heart. Ever since my mother told me that you, as a gold, must choose a jade to be your proper match, you have kept your heart in mind. When you saw that Baoyu had that useless character, you naturally protected him everywhere."

Baochai was so angry at these words that she said in shame and indignation, "Listen, mother, what are you talking about, brother?"

"You are asking for death!" Aunt Xue stamped her feet in anger. "Your mother gave you the child. Why are you taking it out on your sister? Who told you that you gave the child to Baoyu? How can your sister cope with this by gossiping like this?"

"Did you really not give it to Baoyu?" Xue Pan asked doubtfully.

Aunt Xue said angrily, "We all live in this mansion, how can I hide this from you?"

After hearing this, Xue Pan looked at his sister with shame on his face. Seeing Baochai's eyes were red, he immediately slapped himself twice: "My dear sister! It's all my fault, don't take it to heart."

Aunt Xue shook her head and said, "Now that you know you are wrong, you should stop losing your temper and apologize to your sister!"

"Hey hey!" Xue Pan grinned, pulled Xue Baochai back to sit on the kang, bowed and poured tea to apologize.

Xue Baochai sighed and said, "It doesn't matter if I suffer some grievances, but my brother should change his temper, otherwise, he will get into trouble in the future."

"Yes, yes! I'll change it."

Seeing Xue Pan accompanying Xiao Xiao with an expression of willingness to respond to any request, Aunt Xue and Baochai looked at each other and said, "Actually, what Yi-ge-er said is right. We caused such a big trouble in order to buy Xiangling. Now that we have given her away, we have saved ourselves the trouble."

Before, she and Baochai were worried that Xue Pan would be furious, so they didn't dare to tell him the whole truth.

However, truth cannot be hidden. If this matter is not made public, if someone outside hears it and no one advises others, it will cause trouble again.

"Brother Yi?" Xue Pan turned his head and looked at his mother, "Could it be Zhang Yunyi from yesterday?"

"That's right! When it comes to good fortune, Baoyu can't compare to him. I heard from your aunt that it was the late emperor who brought back his soul for him."

"Xiang Ling was given to him? He was the one who said those nonsense?"

"What nonsense! They are helping us because we are relatives."

"Great! How dare this bastard snatch food from a tiger's mouth? Fortunately, I treated him with courtesy. I'm going to go find him and settle the matter!"

Xue Pan turned around and tried to leave, but Aunt Xue shouted, "Come back!"

"Mom! You guys always say I'm stupid, but now I've been cheated and I don't even realize it." Xue Pan's eyes were red with anger. "Yesterday, Brother Zhen asked me why I didn't come out these days. I just mentioned Xiangling, but I'm afraid he remembered it. Seeing Xiangling's beauty, he used words to deceive you. You've been sold out by him, and you're still counting money for him!"

"What! Such a thing happened?"

Aunt Xue and Xue Baochai looked at each other and exclaimed in unison.

"How could it be false?" Xue Pan said complacently, "You always say that I am simple-minded. I can figure out such a simple thing quickly, but you..."

He did think of a word, but fortunately he realized that he was facing his mother and sister, so he swallowed his words in time. As he turned around and was about to leave, he said angrily: "I can't suffer this loss in vain, I have to find him and have a clear argument!"

"Come back!" Aunt Xue called her again.

"He's already shitting on our heads, do we have to endure it? My son can't swallow this!"

Aunt Xue sat down on the kang angrily, causing the ground to shake. She said helplessly, "Don't say he made up this nonsense. Even if he points at our noses and demands the person, we have to give it to him!"

"Why is that?" Xue Pan asked in confusion, "He is a relative of the East Mansion, and we are relatives of the West Mansion. Who is superior to the other?"

"Brother, you are confused!" Xue Baochai sighed, "Why do you think we are rushing to establish this relationship? It's because of Xiangling's case."

"Isn't the case solved?"

"Solved?" Xue Baochai laughed at herself. "In order to save my brother's life, I had to fake my death to get away. Do you know how many people in the family are waiting to eat our family? If mother hadn't taken us to hide in my aunt's house on the pretext of being a concubine, we would have been chased out long ago. We have houses to live in the capital, so why bother living in my aunt's house?"

After hearing what his sister said, Xue Pan also became a little depressed, and said angrily: "Can that Zhang Yunyi still control the family?"

"He really can't do anything about it, but our title of imperial merchant doesn't just concern our family. Let's not talk about the distant ones for now. Doesn't my second uncle's family have a share? If the title of imperial merchant is lost, they will definitely go to war to punish us. At that time, the gold and silver jewelry can still be kept in the name of dowry, but those external properties can't be kept."

"Yes! Listen to your sister's advice. Now they only care about the reputation of Rongguo Mansion. If they knew that we couldn't even keep the imperial merchant, I'm afraid they would not be timid anymore."

Although Xue Pan was a rough man, he knew the seriousness of the matter after hearing what the mother and daughter said. However, the more he thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt, and he breathed heavily.

Aunt Xue saw this and said, "My son! I know I have wronged you this time. Next time you fall in love with any girl, even if it's ten or eight girls, I will never stop you."

After hearing this, Xue Pan finally felt better. He heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Since he is willing to help our family maintain the title of imperial merchant, then I will obey you."

"This……"

Aunt Xue and Xue Baochai looked at each other. They didn't dare to tell him, nor did they mention it to Zhang Yunyi. They could only perfunctorily say, "You don't have to worry about this matter. Just leave it to me and your sister. Just remember not to cause trouble for others."

……

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 42: One wave higher than the other

After sending Xue Pan away, the mother and daughter looked at each other in bewilderment.

It was Xue Baochai who spoke first: "If we had known that he had taken a fancy to Xiangling, we should have taken the opportunity to put forward our request. Now that the person has been sent, I wonder if he will..."

"Alas!" Aunt Xue also frowned and sighed, "Your aunt praised him so much. This is the first time we have met him. We never thought that he was such a lustful and lecherous man with so many evil intentions. I'm afraid that he will succeed in his evil plan and want more..."

At this point, she was already in a state of confusion and rubbed her hands unconsciously.

Yesterday, in a hurry, he lost his composure and grabbed Zhang Yunyi's hand. Now thinking about it, he not only never let go, but also patted his hand meaningfully.

However, if such a shameless act were to become known to others, it would not only ruin his own reputation, but also his daughter's.

What's more, there is a generation gap between them, how can she do it?

I was in a dilemma for a while.

However, Xue Baochai misunderstood Aunt Xue's meaning and thought she was talking about her.

"Mother, don't worry about it. If he is really willing to help the family, it would be a permanent solution. It would be fine for my daughter to marry him."

At this point, she paused, frowned and said, "It's just that I'm afraid he will think he has found our weakness and come up with some unreasonable ideas."

After hearing the first sentence, Aunt Xue knew that her daughter had misunderstood, but after hearing the second sentence, she couldn't tell whether Xue Baochai had seen anything, and she couldn't help feeling guilty.

Seeing this, Xue Baochai said anxiously, "If he wants to take advantage of the situation and force my daughter to be his concubine, mother, you must not give in!"

Aunt Xue finally let go of her worries and breathed a sigh of relief, saying hurriedly, "Of course, our Xue family is a big family after all. We can't just abandon you for life just to keep the title of the Imperial Merchant."

"Mom!" Xue Baochai hugged Aunt Xue like a swallow throwing itself into her arms, burying her head in her arms, "There is nothing in the world that cannot be overcome. Let's work together and we can get through this."

The mother and daughter comforted each other and hugged each other for a long time.

Xue Baochai offered a suggestion, saying, "Although we have already sent Xiangling away, he was the one who deceived her first. Since he made up that story, he must have been a man of integrity. Yesterday, in front of the old lady and my aunt, he was very sure about Xiangling's fate. We might as well start from here."

Aunt Xue knew her daughter was resourceful, so she asked quickly, "Tell me, how do we start?"

"Didn't he swear that Xiangling was from Gusu and asked us to find her family? Why don't we go with the flow and send people to Gusu to search carefully. If they come back empty-handed, if he still pretends to be deaf and dumb, we might as well speak frankly."

Baochai was cautious yesterday. When asked, Zhang Yunyi said that the fire was too big and he couldn't see clearly, so he didn't take the matter of finding Xiangling's family to heart.

But now, he hopes to use this as an excuse to expose Zhang Yun逸’s true face so that he will have some concerns.

Aunt Xue hesitated and said, "But wouldn't that be a breach of trust?"

"Of course we can't make it public. As long as we produce evidence and have my brother's words to back it up, he will know he is in the wrong and won't want to make a fuss. We can make a big show of it, and as long as he agrees to help us, we can give him some benefits. What's the harm?"

In ancient times, people valued favors, and no one wanted to be known for cheating their relatives and friends. Aunt Xue agreed with this and nodded immediately, saying, "Then let's arrange it now."

……

Not to mention that the mother and daughter of the Xue family made a big fuss to find Xiangling's relatives.

After Zhang Yunyi finished his work, he returned to Ning Mansion and said to Youshi who came forward to greet him, "Sister-in-law, please send someone to Xue's house to ask my concubine to come early tomorrow."

Although we have the Xue family's weak spot and are not worried about them causing trouble, we must not be lenient in striking them down in order to prevent them from mistaking the situation.

Yu Shi didn't know the hidden truth and reminded her, "The concubine is an elder. If you don't visit her but invite her over early in the morning, I'm afraid people will gossip about you."

"No problem! Just send someone to tell them to come before I go to the yamen!"

Youshi didn't know what he really thought, so she thought he was using the excuse of going to the government office, so she said, "This is also a reasonable reason."

Zhang Yunyi did not explain and said bluntly: "I just took Xiangling to my room yesterday, so I won't go there tonight."

"Oh!~" Yu looked at him with resentment and lowered her head.

Zhang Yunyi ignored him and said, "Remember to come here tomorrow morning."

He understood human nature very well. The more sympathetic she felt today, the more grateful she would be tomorrow when she found out that he gave her 10% of the sugar revenue.

On the contrary, if she was told about the profits from Baitang first and then told to take Xiangling as her wife, it would make Youshi arrogant.

Even next time something similar happens, there will be a psychological gap. This is human nature.

After sending Youshi away, he returned to Dengxian Pavilion, only to see Ruizhu sitting on the doorstep, lost in thought.

"Why are you sitting here?"

"Uncle..." Ruizhu hesitated to speak.

"Master is back!"

Hearing Xiangling's cheers, she lowered her head and asked, "Master, do you want to eat?"

"Ok!"