Chapter 66: The girls talk about Zhineng'er, Baoyu angrily takes charge of the funeral
"I thought the Qin family was miserable enough, but I didn't expect 'Zhiming' to be..."
Listening to Zhou Rui's sighs along the way, Sun Shaozong finally realized that Shuiyue Temple was actually one of the family temples of Rongguo Mansion, and that this "Chien" had often come here since he was a child. It can be said that he was raised by everyone in the mansion.
Later, because she developed an affair with Baoyu's companion Qin Zhong, Zhineng secretly escaped from Shuiyue Temple, intending to elope with Qin Zhong.
Unfortunately, Qin Zhong's father found out, first drove Zhineng away, and then beat Qin Zhong violently.
Even so, Qin's father was still so angry that he became ill and died before the end of the year.
After Qin's father died, Qin Zhong was so hurt and guilty that he lost his life before the end of the first month of the year.
Therefore, everyone said before that it was Zhineng'er who harmed the Qin father and son - but now it seems that it is really hard to say who harmed whom.
"Ji Lang!"
As soon as he reached the foot of the mountain, he saw Jia Lian rushing up to him, complaining endlessly: "Such a big thing has happened, why didn't you explain it to me clearly, and why did you alarm your sister-in-law first?"
Sun Shaozong was speechless for a moment when he heard this. Just now, he and Wang Xifeng were on the mountainside and the bow of the boat respectively. It would be a stretch to say that they met by chance, let alone "startling"?
Just as he was about to say something, Jia Lian had already seen Jia Qin being carried down the mountain by the yamen runners. He could not help but become very surprised again. After finding out the reason, he hurriedly asked Xing'er and other servants to take Jia Qin and send him to the doctor in a hurry.
After this delay, Sun Shaozong was too lazy to figure out anything. He said hello to Jia Lian and prepared to bring "Wooden Man Zhang" to justice.
But Jia Lian, upon hearing this, would drag him to his room and refuse to let him go. He insisted on keeping him to drink some soothing wine, and also said some nonsense like "You are only responsible for finding out the truth, but you don't care how they judge the case".
Sun Shaozong was a little puzzled at first, but when he smelled the strong scent of makeup on him, he suddenly realized that the "important matter" that Xing'er had mentioned before really was "unavailable"!
As for why he was stopping me from leaving, it was simply because he was afraid that Wang Xifeng would find out about his trick, so he wanted to use me as a shield.
However, such a thing could not be brought up in person, so Sun Shaozong had to stay reluctantly and asked several yamen runners to take the Wooden Man Zhang back to the Daxing County Yamen, leaving Shen Dan to continue to be responsible for hearing the case.
If Shen Dan can make a wrong judgment again this time, Sun Shaozong will really have to write a big "surrender" to him!
--Dividing line--
Half an hour later, Fengjie was in her room.
When Zhou Rui said that the victim of the dismemberment case was Zhineng, whom everyone had known since childhood, the originally cheerful atmosphere in the room suddenly disappeared.
After Zhou Rui left tactfully, the girls were silent for a long while. Finally, Lin Daiyu was the first to break the deadlock. She wiped her tears and said, "She has always been kind-hearted. She would not even hurt an ant. I never thought she would end up like this."
As soon as she started talking, everyone else began to recall the past. Even Jia Yingchun, who was usually very taciturn, couldn't help but tell two or three childhood anecdotes.
The person who spent the most time with Zhineng'er was Jia Xichun.
She twisted her handkerchief and talked excitedly, and couldn't help blurting out: "Originally, it was said that Qin Zhong and his son were killed by Zhineng'er. Now that I see it, Qin Zhong is more like the reincarnation of an evil star. Anyone who has anything to do with him has a bad ending, even Brother Bao..."
"What's wrong with me?"
Before Xichun could finish her words, the door curtain was lifted and Jia Baoyu walked in leisurely from outside. Although his face was still covered with bruises, he was still smiling as if bathed in the spring breeze.
Ever since that day when Jia Zheng said a few bad things about Qin Zhong, which provoked Jia Baoyu to respond sharply and finally resulted in a beating, who in this mansion didn't know that Qin Zhong was Baoyu's Achilles' heel?
Therefore, Xichun was so frightened that her face turned pale and she couldn't utter a word.
Fortunately, Xue Baochai, who was standing by, reacted very quickly. She stepped forward and changed the subject, saying with a smile, "You have an injury, why don't you stay in your own courtyard to recover? Why do you come here to listen to our sisters' gossip?"
"oops!"
When Jia Baoyu heard her mention the words "injuries on the body", he immediately thought of the bruises on his face. He turned his back and covered his face, saying, "I wanted to cover myself with a handkerchief before going out, but just now I heard that something big happened in the mansion, and I was afraid that my sister-in-law and sisters would be frightened, so I forgot about it for a moment!"
Everyone smiled as they saw that even though he had been beaten up, he was still as silly as before.
Wang Xifeng stood up and pulled him to sit beside her, teasing him, "You are ashamed now? Who was it that day who covered his head and exposed his buttocks and was chased by the second master all over the yard?"
Everyone burst into laughter again. Jia Baoyu was not annoyed. He just laughed with them for a few times and then curiously asked, "I heard that a murderous devil broke into our house and injured Jia Qin from the third room. I don't know what happened?"
When they heard him mention this, the girls became sad again.
Wang Xifeng was full of sighs. She recounted the whole cause and effect and revealed the identity of the deceased.
"What?! Zhineng'er...Zhenneng'er was murdered?!"
Jia Baoyu suddenly jumped up , was in a daze for a while, then sat back down dejectedly, with all sorts of emotions on his face, looking absent-minded.
Seeing this, Wang Xifeng was afraid that he would become insane, so she hurriedly said something like "the dead cannot be resurrected", and then comforted Baoyu by saying that the murderer who killed Zhineng had been arrested, which was a comfort to Zhineng's spirit in heaven.
Jia Baoyu finally came to his senses, but he was still a little depressed.
"sister in law."
At this time, Lin Daiyu suggested: "I'm afraid that Shuiyue Temple will not take care of her affairs after her death. After all, we have known her since childhood. How can we bear to see her being treated badly after her death? Why don't we sisters pool our pockets to bury her!"
As soon as this was said, all the girls responded enthusiastically, even maids of some status like Xiren and Qingwen expressed their willingness to donate generously.
The sisters were just contributing their money, when Wang Xifeng suddenly knocked on the table at the top with her jade ruyi.
After drawing everyone's attention to herself, she smiled bitterly and said, "Don't rush to collect money. Money alone can't do it. Zhineng'er's body is still in the Daxing County Office. You and I are both women, so how can we show our faces in public?"
Jia Tanchun was quick to speak and immediately said, "It's hard to say. Let's just entrust the money to someone else."
"Third sister, that's easy for you to say." Jia Xichun retorted: "It's such an unlucky thing, and others can't avoid it. Who would be willing to get involved? "
Ping Erh also said, "That's right. She looks like that now. We are terrified just by hearing about her condition, not to mention that we have to help her bury her!"
As they talked about this, the girls all started to back off again.
Seeing that her proposal was about to fail, Lin Daiyu hurriedly said, "Others may avoid it, but Big Brother Sun will definitely not be afraid! How about waiting until we have gathered enough money and I write a letter to ask Sister Rong to speak up for Big Brother Sun to help Zhineng deal with his funeral?"
In fact, Wang Xifeng and Ping'er, master and servant, had thought of Sun Shaozong early on, but due to their status they could not say it out loud, so they pretended to be embarrassed and sang the same tune in order to lure Lin Daiyu into the trap.
Seeing that Daiyu had mentioned Sun Shaozong as expected, Wang Xifeng immediately clapped her hands and said with a smile: "This is a good idea. With Sun Erlang taking action, it will definitely..."
"I object!"
As he was speaking, Jia Baoyu jumped up and said angrily: "Why should we entrust our family affairs to outsiders? Besides, there are men in Rongguo Mansion!"
As he spoke, he patted his chest and said proudly: "Leave this matter to me! There is no need for everyone to chip in any money, I will definitely do it properly!"
The girls looked at each other, but none of them knew what was wrong with him.
Lin Daiyu was just feeling proud of herself for coming up with a good idea, but when she heard him keep mentioning "our family" and "outsiders", she immediately became annoyed!
So he sneered and said, "Okay, Master Bao will personally take action, so we outsiders don't need to worry about anything! But don't say nice things and end up getting others into trouble!"
Jia Baoyu was provoked by her and stiffened his neck like a fighting cock, shouting, "I didn't say Sister Lin was an outsider. I was talking about the man surnamed Sun! Isn't it to hold a funeral for Zhineng? Just wait and see!"
Having said that, he rushed out angrily.
