Chapter 36: Probe (Middle)

  Miss Chun's "Spring Melody" painting, which she and her fifth sister Ronghua both liked, was rarely known to outsiders.

  Yao Hua's gaze suddenly became sharp, even if she knew her preferences, it was not necessarily possible to understand so thoroughly. The other young ladies just sent some books and chess pieces, how did this Eighth Sister happen to send Mr. Chun Chu's painting? "Is there anything else in the mansion about Miss Ba's Rong Hua, tell me all about it."

  At the first glance of this painting, Zhen suddenly felt a shock in her heart and knew that Second Miss would worry about it again. She hastily advised, "Miss, don't think about these things for now, recovering from your illness is the most important thing."

  Yao Hua frowned, and Chu Xiao didn't dare disobey Yao Hua's meaning anymore, so she opened her mouth and told everything that had happened in the mansion over the past few days.

  Yao Hua listened more and more, her heart sank deeper, and surprisingly, her mother did not marry off Eighth Sister to the Wang family.

  "Miss Eighth and Madame returned from a trip to the Hou Mansion, and upon their return, rumors began circulating that she resembled the younger sister of the noble Consort Hua."

  "I also heard from others in the mansion that Sixth Miss is going to marry into the Wang Shangshu's family, but I don't know if it's true. Fourth Aunt suddenly fell ill, especially these past two days she's been severely ill, and it's said that she can't even eat rice now. The mistress says that Fourth Aunt's illness might be fatal, and no one is allowed to visit her."

  Yao Hua's eyes narrowed, she didn't expect that in just a few days of not asking about the affairs of the mansion, there would be such a big change. She had always understood her mother's methods, Fourth Aunt must have been placed under house arrest by her mother, so it seemed that Yan Hua's marriage to the Shangshu Mansion was already settled.

  Miss Ba, who had just entered the mansion, was unscathed in this matter. Although she had heard that Miss Ba was a gentle and humble person, to say that she could achieve all this by being gentle alone would be oversimplifying things.

  "Keep a close eye on Miss Ba and let me know if there's any movement. Also, go ask about the marriage arrangement at the Wang family."

  Xiao hastily agreed.

  "Remember what I'm telling you, don't let Mother know, or she'll worry," she paused and then said, "You and Jinxiu must have had dealings with each other before."

  Chu Xiao Dao said: "Even if we meet in the courtyard, we usually exchange a few words."

  Yao Hua thought for a moment, stood up from the edge of the desk and picked out a chess piece from the red wooden chess box, "I heard that Jinxiu's family life is not very good."

  "Jinxiu's brother is always away from home, and even after a whole year, he can't earn much money. His sister-in-law does some odd jobs, but his father and mother need medical treatment, and with many mouths to feed at home, they are struggling to make ends meet."

  Yan Hua nodded, "You go and tell Cui's family about it, find some chores for Jinxiu to do. Jinxiu is not just anyone, she can handle it."

  Xiao had long been familiar with doing such things, "Alright, I'll go find Director Cui's house in a moment."

  "By the way, take three or four hundred coins to Chui's house."

  "Yes."

  Choi's family soon settled the matter and called Jinxiu to discuss it. Jinxiu naturally thanked them a thousand times and wanted to repay Choi's family, but after searching her whole body, she only had two copper coins. She blushed and smiled awkwardly, "I'll remember your kindness in my heart, I'll definitely repay you in the future."

  Choi Jae's family had already received several hundred dollars from the second young lady, so they wouldn't make things difficult for Jinxiu anymore. With a smile, he said: "You don't have to thank me, this is what my family's second young lady asked me to arrange. The second young lady has always been kind-hearted and doesn't want anything from you, just do your job well in the future." After a pause, he added: "Go back and change into some clean clothes, I'll take you to the mansion this afternoon to make arrangements."

  Jinxiu's wife went home to prepare, rummaging through her trunk to find a relatively clean set of clothes. Sitting on the kang, she thought about this unexpected good fortune and was overjoyed for a while before remembering to send someone to call her husband back. After telling him everything from start to finish, Jinxiu's brother was also extremely surprised and delighted. The couple calculated that by working for the Tao family, their income would at least double in a month.

  "Brother Jinxiu said: 'There's nothing at home that can be taken out to thank Second Miss, so why not just take some things and exchange them for silver money, buy something to bring over, it's also a kind intention. And tell Big Sister to thank Second Miss on our behalf in the mansion.'"

  Jinxiu's sister-in-law took out all the silver money and rice that could be used at home, bought some toys and snacks, and brought them into the Tao Mansion.

  Jinxiu was collecting the clothes in Miss Ba's room, when a maid came in to report, "Miss Jinxiu, your sister-in-law has entered the garden and is waiting for you outside."

  Jinxiu thought something had happened at home and furrowed her brow in worry, but before she could excuse herself to Miss Ba, Miss Ba had already come out of the inner room, "Quickly go take a look at what's going on."

  Jinxiu responded with a sound and hurriedly walked out.

  Jinxiu's sister-in-law was waiting for her on the path lined with green bamboo, a smile all over her face. Seeing Jinxiu arrive, she hurriedly went up to greet her, "Miss, how have you been lately? Let's find a place to talk."

  Jinxiu took her sister-in-law to the pavilion in the west to talk.

  As soon as the two sat down, her sister-in-law put the things in her hand on her knees and smiled at Jinxiu: "The second lady of the Tao Mansion is really a good person."

  Hearing his sister-in-law say this, Jinxiu's heart tightened and he became serious before he could even think carefully.

  Her sister-in-law continued, "The second young lady had Mrs. Cui find some work for me in the mansion, now our family can be considered quite well-off."

  Jinxiu was taken aback, how did the second young lady suddenly find her sister-in-law a job in the mansion.

  "Otherwise, your brother was just about to let me in to discuss with you and see if we can think of a way to send San Ya in as well."

  "What?" Jinxiu furrowed her brow, somewhat annoyed. "You're going to sell San Ya again?"

  She hastily apologized, "Miss, don't be angry, this is also a helpless thing for the sake of livelihood. This whole family except for your monthly allowance, only your brother has labor power, but his legs are not good, and my parents rely on medicine to survive. You have so many younger brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces below you, all of whom need to eat. Back then, selling you into this was also a dead end."

  "But now it's all right, the second young lady has found me a job. According to what Cui mother said, in the future, she can also think of a way for your brother. In this way, we can barely make a living at home and don't have to send San Ya out anymore. Your brother means that in the future, he will save some money and talk to the big madam of the mansion to see if it's possible to redeem you."

  Jinxiu knew the situation at home, but Second Miss helped her for no reason, and no matter how she thought about it, she felt that something was off. Thinking of herself being sold into the mansion, step by step, it was so difficult, and she really couldn't bear to see her younger sister suffer like this again. Just as she hesitated slightly, her sister-in-law stuffed everything in her arms into hers.

  "There's nothing much at home, so I just bought these casually. The young lady is sending them to the second miss as a token of our good intentions."

  Jinxiu looked at those pastries, knowing that they were bought with the family's hard-earned money. If she didn't agree, her sister-in-law would lose this job and the whole family's livelihood would be even harder to maintain. So, holding the pastry package, she only felt a slight burning sensation in her hand.

  After seeing her sister-in-law off, Jinxiu sat outside for a while, hesitated and walked towards the eighth lady's courtyard, but stopped halfway and turned to walk towards the second lady's courtyard.

  When she arrived at the second lady's place, waiting for the maid to enter and report, Jinxiu's heart was already in a mess, fearing that the second lady would use her sister-in-law's affairs to make her do something unwilling.

  "Who knows, it was just Chao Xiao who came out laughing and said to her: 'The second young lady says that she understands your intentions, so take the things your sister-in-law entrusted you with as a thank you.'"

  Jinxiu couldn't help but be shocked, it was actually like this.

  Jinxiu returned to Miss Ba's room, and Miss Ba asked with concern, "What happened at home?"

  Looking at Miss Ba's warm smile, Jinxiu almost wanted to say everything, but the words changed as soon as they reached her lips, "Nothing much."

  In the evening, the little maid who was waiting on them was dismissed, and Ronghua took Jinxiu and Muxin to talk in the warm pavilion.

  Mugun said about the government's affairs, "I heard that originally it was supposed to be the fourth young lady who married far away, but later on, somehow it became the third young lady who got married. The fourth young lady then married into a family in Taiyuan Prefecture, her husband's family is a well-known wealthy family locally and also has connections in the capital. Fourth Brother-in-law is also good at reading books, last year he obtained the qualification of Shengyuan, next year he will take the imperial examination in the capital."

  Mugun put down the needle and thread, lowered his voice and said: "The old lady finally changed her mind, it was because someone next to the third young lady reported something about the third young lady. Although no one knows what exactly was said, but the old lady said that she hated people who secretly plotted, had such thoughts, and went around stirring up trouble everywhere. What kind of person would that be? And yet still hoped for someone's favor."

  "The marriage arrangements for the Third and Fourth Miss indeed ended up being swapped." Mu Jin continued, "It's said that this was because the Fourth Miss had a close relationship with the Second Miss, which led to such benefits. The Fourth Miss still exchanges letters with the Second Miss frequently even now."

  Yao Hua is cultivating her own relationships. The only way to buy people's hearts is with these things, leaving the good ones for those who are close to herself, and in return, getting a bigger reward.

  The two young ladies, Fourth Miss and Eldest Miss, have already regarded Yaohua as their closest sister. The old lady has also taken great care of Yaohua due to her illness, so all the advantages in this mansion have been taken by Yaohua. If Yaohua wants to turn around and use the same tactics on Yanhua and herself that she used on Third Miss and Fourth Miss, with her status, she almost has no ability to resist.

  Everyone in the Fu manor knew that Second Miss was a kind person.

  Ronghua asked Mugen, "Have you heard who accused Third Miss of a crime?"

  Mu Ge shook his head, "I didn't ask about this."

  Jinxiu finally spoke up, "The personal maid of the third miss is Luoying. All of Luoying's family members are in the capital, she didn't want to be a companion and follow the third miss to get married, thinking that if she exposed the third miss' affair in front of the first wife, the first wife would keep her behind, but unexpectedly the first wife didn't keep her, instead letting her follow the third miss to a distant place for marriage."

  All these things seem to be that the third young lady did not win over the people around her, and Lu Ying was a disloyal slave who betrayed her master and ultimately got what she deserved. But in reality...

  Who can know what's going on anyway?

  Thank you, Kitty, for your suggestions. I revised it for half a day just now. Hehe, this is my first time writing about farming, and there are many things that I didn't consider.

  The historical background of Qīn tí I will find an opportunity to bring out as soon as possible, and also the matter of Cài jiā, in the chapter of Hóu yé fū rén I modified it, strengthened the introduction a bit.

  There are still many episodes of Cai Jia's family in the back, =. = I didn't make it clear either.

  As for whether she is a princess or not, it's not necessarily so, but it's more unlikely that she's a commoner. The family must have some background.

  In short, I will strengthen writing from now on.

  Thanks for your support, folks!