Lian Erye in the Red Mansion

Chapter 32 Trip to Jinling

The ships dispatched by the Jia family arrived in Yangzhou more than half a month ago, and all the men, women and servants were arranged by Lin Ruhai to stay temporarily in the Lin residence.

Now that Jia Lian has returned from Suzhou, everyone must come to pay their respects and follow his instructions.

Surprisingly, the leaders were Zhou Rui and his wife.

Jia Lian took out a prescription from his sleeve, handed it to Zhou Rui, and instructed, "Buy ten jars of each item according to the list on it. There's no need to transport them back to the Lin residence; just load them directly onto the ship."

Zhou Rui took it and saw that there were only a few lines of text, each line listing a wine shop and the name of a famous wine. Zhou Rui was very puzzled: "Why is Second Master buying so much wine?"

"The master enjoys drinking, and these are some fine wines from Jiangnan that are rare in the capital. So I specially bought them to present to the master. What, you're not willing to do it?"

"I wouldn't dare... This servant will immediately send someone to do it."

Zhou Rui's impression of Jia Lian was probably still based on what he had seen a few months ago. When he suddenly heard Jia Lian's somewhat unfriendly tone, he was startled and quickly agreed without saying anything more.

Jia Lian then said, "This matter is my private affair, so there's no need to use the government's funds. Just keep a good record of the accounts and come back to me for reimbursement later."

"Second Master, you are overthinking it. That's not what I meant." Zhou Rui thought Jia Lian was being paranoid. Although he was Lady Wang's personal attendant, he still didn't want to offend Jia Lian.

Jia Lian shook his head, refusing to argue with him.

Buying more fine wine to show respect to Jia She was something Jia Lian had planned as soon as he arrived in Yangzhou. He had already asked around for the most famous wines in Jiangnan and selected five kinds that were not commonly found in the capital, intending to bring back two or three cartloads of them.

In fact, if it weren't for financial constraints, Jia Lian would have liked to get several hundred jars of them to take back and put in that room for Jia She to drink from, to entertain people, and to drink with his concubines and actresses in various ways...

However, good wine is always expensive, and even so, it would probably take away half of his money!

"After tomorrow, I will go to Nanjing again. It will take me three to seven days. To make things easier, you don't need to come with me. Just stay in Yangzhou and wait for me to return before heading back to the capital."

After seeing Jia Yucun today, Jia Lian suddenly thought of someone.

She is Xiangling, the first-ranked woman in the secondary register of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling.

Speaking of this girl, Jia Lian couldn't help but sigh. She was originally from a gentry family in Suzhou, and her father was none other than Zhen Shiyin, who had been a mentor to Jia Yucun!

When Jia Yucun was down on his luck in Suzhou, he was fortunate to be valued by Zhen Shiyin, who not only took good care of him in his daily life, but also took the initiative to provide him with travel expenses and winter clothes to keep warm after learning that he wanted to go to the capital to take the imperial examination but could not go because he did not have enough money. This enabled Jia Yucun to go to the capital smoothly and pass the imperial examination with flying colors.

However, the Zhen family suffered misfortune. In the same year they helped Jia Yucun, their daughter was kidnapped, and their house was burned down, causing them to scatter from their homes...

What's most infuriating is that Jia Yucun, who received such courtesy and favor from the Zhen family, clearly promised them to help find his daughter. Later, when he became the prefect of Yingtian, he did indeed learn of Xiangling's whereabouts. However, in order to curry favor with the powerful, he not only failed to repay their kindness but also aided and abetted the evildoer, helping Xue Pan, the eldest son of the Xue family who forcibly bought Xiangling, to escape the charge of murder!

Xue Pan was the most despicable man in the world. After obtaining Xiangling, how could he possibly cherish her in the slightest? After being abused in every way, Xiangling finally died tragically at the hands of Xue Pan's wife, Xia Jingui.

This is also one of Jia Yucun's sins, and it is enough to prove that he has no gratitude whatsoever and is a complete ingrate.

However, since Jia Yucun has not yet been appointed as the prefect of Yingtian, Jia Lian wondered if he could go to Jinling City at this time and find Xiangling before she met Xue Pan and the dead Feng Yuan, thus freeing her from her tragic fate.

It just so happens that the Jia family is the head of the four great families of Jinling. Although most of the Jia family's roots have now moved to the capital, there are still old houses and some old friends and relatives in Jinling.

As the legitimate son of the Jia family, he had finally come to Jiangnan, and he should go back and visit others.

For large families, relatives and friends are the greatest extension of their influence, and those who can represent the family to visit relatives and friends are essentially those who have gained this influence!

This is why, in the original novel, Wang Xifeng was able to command the military governor of Chang'an by using Jia Lian's name!

Because Jia Lian was in charge of the household affairs, he was responsible for handling all the social interactions between the Rongguo Mansion and the outside world. In the eyes of outsiders, Jia Lian was able to represent the Rongguo Mansion.

Therefore, while other relatives were one thing, important relatives in Jinling City, such as the Zhen and Xue families, still needed to be visited.

Zhou Rui and the others had no objections to Jia Lian's words; they could all understand why Jia Lian was going to Nanjing.

Zhou Rui even reminded him, "When Second Master goes to Nanjing, he will definitely visit relatives and friends, and he will certainly need a lot of money. That's not difficult. There must still be some silver in the old treasury of our old house. If it's not enough, Second Master can go to the Zhen family to withdraw some."

"Over the years, a large portion of the profits from the estates and residences in the south has not been transported back to the capital; the Zhen family has been keeping them for us. Second Master can also take some out for use."

Jia Lian nodded.

After Zhou Rui and the others left, Xing'er, Zhu'er, Wang Xin and others petitioned to go to Jinling with Jia Lian.

They were all people who used to follow Jia Lian around.

After coldly rejecting their request, Jia Lian packed his things and went to Lin Ruhai to resign.

……

Inside the study, the old butler was reporting to Lin Ruhai on the major and minor matters of their trip to Suzhou.

Lin Ruhai didn't care much about other matters, but he asked, "Are you saying that for the past month or so, Jia Lian has been by Yu'er's side every step of the way, taking care of her in every little detail?"

The old butler nodded with a smile.

Lin Ruhai was somewhat skeptical: "Has he never gone out alone, for example, after your wife's coffin was buried?"

In Lin Ruhai's view, even if Jia Lian was a filial son and wouldn't be like Lin Lang and the other good-for-nothings who went out to fool around during Jia Min's mourning period, he would still inevitably go out for a stroll after Jia Min's burial and when Daiyu was recuperating in her hometown of Suzhou.

After all, Suzhou is just as prosperous as Yangzhou.

Before the burial of the lady, Second Master Lian devoted himself to planning and arranging the funeral every day. Originally, many people in the clan were not very obedient to Second Master Lian, but later, seeing that Second Master Lian acted steadily and meticulously, even the elders in the clan began to praise him.

As for what happened after Madam's burial, I heard that Second Master Lian practiced martial arts in his courtyard every day. This old servant even caught him practicing twice. Second Master Lian, with his guards, was indeed practicing quite well.

Lin Ruhai frowned upon hearing this. Did Jia Lian want to abandon his literary pursuits and take up martial arts? Given his family background, it was indeed a good path.

Lin Ruhai had already realized that Jia Lian probably had limited talent in academics. However, as a pure scholar, he was not very optimistic about the path of military service.

"Oh, right, she did go out one day, but it was because Miss was in a bad mood, so I took her out of town to the temple fair. Although I didn't go with her, I later heard from Granny Wang and the others that Miss had a great time that day. They also said that since that day, Miss seems to have been much less depressed than before."

Lin Ruhai nodded upon hearing this. No one knows a daughter better than her father. He knew his daughter's personality better than anyone else. Although she hadn't been back from Suzhou for very long, the changes in his daughter hadn't escaped his notice.

You need to be more cheerful.

No wonder her wet nurse said that Daiyu had already agreed to go to the capital. It seems that seeing that her cousin Jia Lian treated her so well, and considering that the rest of her maternal uncle's family were probably not bad either, she felt less worried and was therefore willing to go.

Seeing Lin Ruhai hesitate, the old steward waited a while before taking out the account book he had prepared, placing it in front of Lin Ruhai, and saying:

"Master, everything else is fine, but what I admire most is this."

When Master Lian was in Suzhou, although he was involved in everything, big and small, he was not adept at handling money matters. All accounts were personally recorded and kept by servants. The accountant of the old mansion also said that Master Lian had never withdrawn a single tael of silver. Therefore, even if the servants wanted to find fault with Master Lian, they had no way to do so and in the end, they could only respect him. This is why the matter concerning the mistress was handled so smoothly.

Master doesn't know, but those people in the old mansion are becoming more and more useless. If it weren't for Second Master Lian, I alone probably wouldn't have been able to control them. They're all trying to embezzle money, and they even dare to bully the young lady…!

Lin Ruhai sighed softly; this was the tragedy of the direct line's dwindling numbers.

The steward and others are, after all, servants. How can the people in the clan be completely obedient? He himself is too busy to manage the clan's affairs. Even if he wanted to find a capable person to manage the clan's affairs, he would have nowhere to turn. Jia Lian is, after all, an outsider. After this trip, he will be returning to the capital.

Otherwise, he really intended to discipline those unfilial sons in the family!

He picked up the accounts and flipped through them casually; indeed, he had saved a considerable amount of money compared to his expectations.

Although he didn't care much about the money he saved, it was still the result of Jia Lian's hard work in helping him, and he was grateful for that.

Just then, he heard Jia Lian requesting an audience, so he quickly let him in.

He wasn't too surprised to hear that Jia Lian was going to Nanjing, since he himself wanted to keep his daughter with him for a while longer anyway.

After seeing Jia Lian off, Lin Ruhai sat behind his desk for a long time, unable to shake off his unease.

Considering his upright and honest life, he achieved high rank and wealth, and his wife was a virtuous and gentle lady from a respectable family, certainly not a jealous and wasteful woman.

Unfortunately, he lost to the world in the matter of having offspring.

If he had a son, even if he didn't bring glory to the family, or even if he was just of average appearance, why would he feel so powerless in managing his household and governing the country?

It's a pity that Lian'er is already married, otherwise...

Shaking his head, Lin Ruhai picked up the blank memorial and began to write earnestly.

Upon hearing of his wife's passing, the Emperor sent an imperial edict yesterday to express his condolences. Having received such favor, he should serve the Emperor with utmost loyalty and diligence, so as not to fail the Emperor's boundless grace!