Chapter 962: The Days When Sun Erlang Was Away (Part 1)
Wangjiang Tower.
Jia Yun hunched over and walked out of the private room. He used his only remaining arm to hold up half of the door and was about to close the other half to keep out the obscene words and chatter in the room.
Unexpectedly, a person suddenly appeared nearby and rushed to close the door.
Jia Yun raised his eyebrows upon seeing this. Instead of being happy, he felt a little annoyed. For a man with such a strong personality as his, the thing he hated most was others treating him differently as if he were disabled.
"Meet Master Wu!"
The visitor didn't realize that he had flattered the horse's legs. He smiled flatteringly, bowed his shoulders, and asked cautiously, "Excuse me, Master, are you free now?"
Jia Yun glanced sideways and recognized the man as Fang Chun, the gardener from West Street. The annoyance in his heart turned into a little bit of pity.
He sighed and said, "What does it matter if he is here or not? Don't you see that anyone can barge in here?"
Then he lowered his chin a little towards the stairs and said, "Let's talk while we walk."
Then, without waiting for Fang Chun's response, he went downstairs.
Fang Chun subconsciously followed for two steps, but couldn't help looking back. Hearing the laughter in the box, he suddenly felt angry and wanted to kick the door open and rush in without caring about anything.
"If you really want to go in, I won't stop you."
However, Jia Yun's light words instantly extinguished Fang Chun's anger and courage.
He hurried a few steps, leaning his shoulders and following Jia Yun in a fawning manner, and said with a smile: "Fifth Master, you are joking. Even if I am blinded by lard, I dare not disturb the master's elegant mood."
At this point, he carefully peeked at Jia Yun's expression, and then hesitantly said, "It's just...it's just that the family is waiting for the rice to be cooked. If you keep being so carefree, I'm afraid that the whole family will be..."
"Have I ever taken a single copper coin from your family? Go ask for the money back from whoever owes you money!"
Jia Yun interrupted his complaint impatiently, raised his hand and shook his sleeves, took out a bottle of Huoxiang Zhengqi Powder, pinched the cork between his index and middle fingers, picked it open with his thumb as if he was familiar with the process, and put it under his nose, shaking his head and sniffing it.
The summer of the fifteenth year in Guangde seemed to have come earlier than in previous years. It was only mid-May and it was already as hot as the dog days of summer.
Just now in the private room, there were four or five pots of ice and charcoal sitting next to each other, but I didn't feel anything. But as soon as I went out, I felt like my whole body was on fire.
Especially since Jia Yun had lost his arm, he still had some residual disease, so after walking a few steps under the sun, he felt dizzy.
Seeing him closing his eyes and sniffing the medicine bottle slowly, Fang Chun was anxious but did not dare to disturb him.
He waited anxiously, and finally waited for Jia Yun to withdraw his "magic power". Just as he was about to plead a few more words, Jia Yun restrained his expression first and said in a deep voice: "Including you, there are a total of five waves of people who came here to collect debts. The first two waves were fine. The master spoke kindly to them. Although he didn't give us a penny, at least we went back in one piece."
"The next two groups were miserable. Not only did they not get their money, but one of them also had a gash on his forehead; the other one..."
He turned around and pointed at the stairs: "He was thrown down from up there, and he's still lying on the bed."
Fang Chun shrank his neck in fear, and his face became more bitter.
Following Jia Yun and walking a few steps forward, he saw that they were not far from the carriage of Rongguo Mansion. He knew that if he didn't do something, his trip today would be in vain.
Thinking of his hungry wife, children and old mother at home, he gritted his teeth, suddenly rushed forward a few steps, knelt down in front of Jia Yun, and cried, "Fifth Master, Fifth Master! Everyone in this capital knows that you are the most kind and righteous! Please say a word in front of the eldest master and save the lives of my family!"
As he spoke, his hands banged against the bluestone slabs.
"What are you doing!?"
Jia Yun first took a half step back, then seeing that he had broken his forehead after a few hits, he stepped forward helplessly and tried to support him.
But Fang Chun didn't care, and was ready to fight to the death if he didn't achieve his goal.
Although Jia Yun had done poisoning before, he still had some chivalrous spirit in his bones. Seeing Fang Chun crying blood, he couldn't help but feel sympathy.
"Forget it, just get up first!"
This sigh immediately gave Fang Chun hope. He quickly got up from the ground, covering his forehead. His head was covered in blood, but his face was filled with joy.
"If we talk about this, isn't it your own fault for being greedy and having no self-awareness?"
Although Jia Yun had already made up his mind to help Fang Chun, he had to say a few words to him first.
He walked to the corridor with his hands behind his back, and checked with the corner of his eye that there was no one around. Then he continued, "As soon as there was a little movement, he jumped in without caring about his head..."
After saying the word "jump", he felt something was wrong, and hurriedly tried to make amends, "Of course, the master will definitely not be short of your little tricks, it's just a matter of time."
"Yes, yes, it's me who is confused."
Fang Chun nodded his head with a bitter face like a chicken pecking at rice, but he was cursing in his heart.
It was certainly reckless of me to have rashly invested the money in the first place, but who could have imagined that the master of the Rongguo Mansion, a relative of the royal family, would not even let go of a few hundred taels of silver from a small family?
Since the beginning of this year's first month, Master Jia She had spread the word that news had come from the palace that Concubine De was preparing to bring the Second Prince home to visit her parents, and in order to better welcome the emperor, the Rongguo Mansion was planning to expand the Grand View Garden.
As soon as the news came out, merchants like Fang Chun who had tasted the sweetness of the market were eager to try their best to get a piece of the pie.
In the past six months, Jia She not only collected countless "deposits and commissions" under various pretexts, but also encouraged each family to stockpile a lot of building materials.
Up to now, there has been no movement from Rong State. It is fine for the wealthy families, but small families like Fang Chun have been forced into a difficult situation.
So in recent days, some people have bravely come to the door to ask for the deposit back.
But how could it be so easy to get money from Jia She?
Not to mention his usual tough face, just to say that the Rongguo Mansion is currently at its peak of popularity, and even if it has a huge response from everyone in the court and the country, at least no one dares to neglect it in the slightest.
Especially in recent months, the prince had clearly used Taoist magic to make a palace maid pregnant with a dragon seed - this matter was also confirmed by several important officials in the court - but the calls for a change of crown prince were still getting louder and louder.
Even Prince Zhongshun, whose eyes were on top of his head, did not hesitate to bow his head and repeatedly show goodwill to the Rongguo Mansion.
At this juncture, how easy is it for a few ordinary people to seek justice?
Therefore, seeing that Jia Yun seemed to be willing to help him, Fang Chun would still greet him with a smile, not to mention listening to him talking nonsense, even if he pointed at his nose and cursed at him .
Jia Yun praised Jia She for a few things, but he also felt that the eldest master was not happy, so he quickly skipped the topic and said in a low voice: "Nowadays in our mansion, the only people who can speak in front of the eldest master are the old lady, the second master, and the second master Bao."
"You can't count on others, but my godfather is a kind-hearted person. It just so happens that the eldest master and Prince Zhongshun are holding a banquet upstairs, and asked me to invite Master Bao to come over. You wait in the corridor, and as soon as Master Bao arrives, we will do this and that..."
After a few whispers, Fang Chun smiled happily. He wiped the blood with a handkerchief and nodded repeatedly in agreement.
Only then was Jia Yun able to escape and rushed to Rongguo Mansion by carriage.
No conversation along the way.
Since he was the manager of the mansion, he had no problem coming in and out.
But when they searched all the way to Baoyu's Yihong Courtyard, they were unexpectedly disappointed. After listening to Si'er who was cooling off in the corridor, they learned that it was because of the unbearable heat that several brothers and sisters in the Grand View Garden had agreed to go to Ouxiangxie to cool off.
Jia Yun hurriedly turned around and rushed to Ouxiang Pavilion.
However, since there were female family members present this time, he could not rush in rashly. So he stood on the floating bridge and asked a maid to go in and report.
Just as he was bowing and waiting for a response, another group of people came from the shore.
Jia Yun looked from afar and saw that it was Xue Baochai who was leading a few maids and servants towards him.
At that moment, Jia Yun lowered his head and retreated to the edge of the floating bridge, but he was sighing in his heart.
Ever since the Dowager Concubine personally acted as a matchmaker and promised Xue Baochai to Sun Shaozong on Jia's mother's birthday last August, Xue's mother and daughter moved back to Zijin Street to wait for their marriage, and had less contact with Jia's brothers and sisters, especially Baoyu.
However, in the past month or so, things have changed.
Sun Shaozong was ordered to leave Beijing at the end of September last year, protecting the third daughter Jia Tanchun and dozens of female relatives along the way, stopping and starting, until the end of January this year, when he finally arrived at Qinglong Mansion, the capital of Qianxiang Kingdom.
The two had originally agreed to get married on March 16th.
Who would have thought that since mid-March, the news from the south suddenly stopped, and until now, not a single word has been sent back.
However, rumors were spreading inside and outside the capital, saying that Nguyen Phuc Trung, the powerful official of Si Huong Kingdom, colluded with people at home and abroad in Zhenla, and suddenly launched an attack on the day of the wedding banquet, killing the Queen of Si Huong Kingdom, the Crown Prince, and many guests.
The troops sent by the imperial court to escort the bride were naturally among them.
Because of these rumors, Xue Baochai resumed her contacts with the Rongguo Mansion - not because she had any other ideas, but because she hoped to find out as much news about Sun Shaozong as possible through the Rongguo Mansion.
Alas~
It is now May 13th. There has been no news for more than two months. It is very likely that Lord Sun has already...
After all, no matter how brave he was, he was facing a country's rebel army, and they would be able to subdue him even at the cost of human lives.
I don’t know what choice this precious girl will make at that time.
Just as he was daydreaming, he suddenly heard someone speaking softly not far in front of him, "Isn't this Yun'er? Haven't you been serving the master recently? Why..."
Judging from the voice, it was Xue Baochai.
Jia Yun did not dare to neglect the matter, and hurriedly bowed and smiled, saying, "To be honest with you, aunt, I came here on the orders of the elder master, who wants to invite godfather to a banquet at Wangjiang Tower."
Baochai was just being considerate as always, not wanting anyone to feel left out, so she had no intention of chatting with him. When she heard him say this, she nodded and said, "I see," and then said that she would help Jia Yun deliver a message, and then prepared to go into the waterside pavilion.
But at this moment, a woman suddenly came running over like the wind, and shouted from a distance: "This is incredible, this is incredible! The third young lady has become the empress dowager!"
