Chapter 144: Childhood sweethearts confess their true feelings
Ping'er was so frightened that her face turned pale, thinking that something had happened to him.
Fortunately, Baoyu turned around and climbed up again, muttering in despair: "What a family of meritorious nobles, but in their bones they are actually a bunch of robbers!"
Ping'er heaved a sigh of relief and hurried forward to help him brush off the dirt on his body. She half complained and half warned him, "How can you say that? If you still have a trace of kindness in your heart, don't talk nonsense after you leave this door. Just pretend you haven't heard of this matter!"
"Don't worry, sister."
Jia Baoyu forced a smile, revealing a smile uglier than crying: "Even if I die, I will never involve you."
Having said that, he walked out of Wang Xifeng's yard like a zombie. He was in a daze and had no idea where to go, so he just wandered around the inner house aimlessly.
"What's wrong with you? Why do you seem to have lost your soul?"
Suddenly, a laughing voice came into his ears. Jia Baoyu looked up and saw a master and a servant flash in front of him. Who else could it be but Lin Daiyu and Zijuan?
When he first saw Lin Daiyu, Jia Baoyu felt ashamed and aggrieved. He lowered his head slightly, and a few drops of "golden beans" fell to the ground.
"ah!"
Daiyu was really frightened by him now, and hurried forward to ask softly, "What kind of madness have you had, or are you angry with that girl again? Quickly wipe those tears, or if others see you, they will think it was me who provoked you."
The more she tried to comfort him, the harder Jia Baoyu cried.
Finally, Lin Daiyu became impatient and stamped her feet, saying, "What on earth are you doing this for? At least tell me! You keep silent and it drives me crazy!"
As he spoke, his eyes began to turn red.
Seeing that she was about to cry with him, Jia Baoyu wiped her tears with his sleeve, pulled Daiyu behind the rockery without saying anything, and sent Zijuan aside.
Then he told Daiyu all about how the Jia family had embezzled 600,000 taels of silver from the Lin family in order to build a separate courtyard, hiding only the part about "one man promised to two families".
After saying this, he gritted his teeth and swore, claiming that even at the risk of his death, he would return the money to Daiyu!
Lin Daiyu listened in a daze for a long while, and then saw him swearing and threatening to commit suicide. She frowned slightly and said, "You didn't spend the money, so who wants you to pay it back? Besides, you can't lift it with your hands or shoulders. Even if I sell you, you won't be worth much."
Who knew that the word "sell" would hit Baoyu's heart!
So he looked at Daiyu infatuatedly, and tears flowed down again.
Daiyu had no idea that there was a drama of "one man selling two houses". She just thought that he was worried about her and felt very relieved. She sighed and said, "In fact, you don't need me to tell you. I already knew about the money."
"You...you know about this?!"
Jia Baoyu was so shocked that his eyes widened, and even his tears stopped flowing.
Lin Daiyu sighed again and murmured, "When I went south last year, there were still many good things in Yangzhou, which were not inferior to the furnishings in this mansion. When I returned to Beijing, there were only two carts of worthless sundries left..."
"Then why don't you say it out loud? The ancestor loves you the most, for sure... for sure..."
Halfway through his words, Jia Baoyu suddenly remembered that the use of the money to build a separate courtyard must have been approved by his grandmother, and he could not continue for a moment.
Lin Daiyu smiled bitterly and said, "That's hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. How many pairs of white eyes have turned red? Even if the ancestor loves me so much, can I really offend this whole family?"
Seeing Lin Daiyu's face full of sorrow, such a small person seemed to have become accustomed to the fickleness of the world, Jia Baoyu felt more and more depressed and irritated, but he didn't know how to vent.
After a while, he suddenly raised his hand and slapped himself in the face!
Pah~
Just with this one move, half of my cheek started to swell up!
Jia Baoyu seemed to feel no pain and slapped his own baby face again.
"What are you doing?!"
Daiyu hurriedly grabbed his arm and said anxiously, "This is not your fault!"
"Who said it wasn't my fault?!"
Jia Baoyu burst into tears and cried, "If I were a capable person, how dare they make this decision without even asking us? If I were a capable person, I would never let them bully you like this without any way to stop you!"
Seeing him blaming himself like this, Lin Daiyu couldn't help but feel real emotions. She held Baoyu's hand and said seriously, "This matter was originally a big stone in my chest, but today seeing you standing by me like this, I feel much more relieved. It doesn't matter whether it's money or not."
Then he smiled and said, "If these six hundred thousand taels of silver can save the whole mansion from the crime of deceiving the emperor, I think it is worth it!"
As everyone in the mansion spoke, there was clearly only one Baoyu in their eyes !
"Sister Lin..."
Jia Baoyu was so moved that he wished he could marry her right away, but when he thought of the saying "one man for two families", his heart felt as if it was being cut by a knife.
"That's right."
Lin Daiyu asked, half out of genuine curiosity and half to change the subject: "Where did you hear this?"
Baoyu hesitated and said, "I...I promised her that I would never betray her."
"I can guess it even if you don't tell me!"
Lin Daiyu raised her index finger and tapped it lightly on her lips, then blurted out, "It's the second brother of the Sun family , right or wrong?!"
"Brother Sun?"
Jia Baoyu was stunned and asked in astonishment: "He...he also knows about this?"
Seeing his expression, Lin Daiyu knew that she had guessed wrong, but she still nodded and said, "He came back from Yangzhou with Brother Lian. How could he have kept all these secrets secret? It was precisely because she knew that Daddy's money had been emptied that Sister Rong sent me a pile of gold leaves on my birthday."
As she spoke, she could not help but glare at Baoyu and said angrily, "At that time, you still said that Sister Rong was rustic and could only give useless gifts!"
Jia Baoyu scratched his head in embarrassment, but suddenly he said, "I understand! Brother Sun asked me to check the accounts because he wanted me to find out the matter myself!"
Lin Daiyu asked suspiciously, "Second Brother Sun asked you to check the accounts? What's going on?"
Jia Baoyu hurriedly told him the whole story.
Daiyu pondered for a while after hearing this, but shook her head and said, "I'm afraid it's not that simple. Besides, he may not know that the money has been misappropriated. I think he is targeting others."
"Targeting others? What others?"
"Of course it's those good servants of yours who are willing to eat people without leaving any bones."
Lin Daiyu raised her lips and said disdainfully, "I heard from Sister Rong that when the Sun brothers were begging for money in Rongguo Mansion, they suffered a lot of injustice from your servants!"
"Is this true?"
Jia Baoyu's eyes widened, his face full of disbelief: "The Sun family is an old friend of ours, how dare the servants be so bold?"
"Old friend?"
Lin Daiyu snorted, wanting to use herself as an example, but fearing that Baoyu would make a scene, she hesitated for a moment before saying, "Let alone old friends, do you remember Jiao Da from the East Palace?"
"Could it be that old man who likes to curse people when he gets drunk?"
"Old man?"
Lin Daiyu glared at him and said, "If he hadn't risked his life to carry Duke Ning back from the battlefield, there would be no Ningguo Mansion at all!"
"I heard that when he escaped back, he had no food to eat, so he stole food for his master while he was hungry. He drank horse urine when he had no water to drink, and gave the half bowl of water he got to his master!"
"When the old Duke Ning was alive, he treated Jiao Da even better than his own son - but what about now? Now that he has lost his support, even the second-class servants in the mansion dare to bully him!"
"When the Sun brothers were down and out, in the eyes of your servants, they were probably not as good as Jiao Da!"
Lin Daiyu paused for a moment and then got back to the point: "I guess the second brother of the Sun family probably got some news and knew that your good servants had tampered with the garden when it was being repaired, but he didn't want to point it out, so he tricked a fool like you into stirring up a hornet's nest."
"This is not a joke. I think you should just pretend and don't take it seriously..."
"No!"
She was about to persuade him, but Jia Baoyu was already furious. He gnashed his teeth and swore to the heavens, "I will get to the bottom of this matter! No matter which servant embezzled the money, I will make him pay it back every penny!"
The money from "selling my body" was all embezzled by the servants, no wonder he was so furious.
