Chapter 41: The Xue Family Mother and Son Make a Triumphant Entry into the Capital

  In April, news of Lin Daiyu and her brother's arrival in the capital reached Jia Mansion.

  Lady Wang was delighted that Daiyu had returned, but she was also worried that Lin's family would not allow Daiyu to move back to Rongguo House. Lady Wang then advised her, saying that the Lins didn't have a house in the capital and the siblings wouldn't dare live in an inn; as long as Old Master spoke up, how could Young Master Lin possibly defy your words?

  Not to mention the joy of Mrs. Jia, but only that Madame Wang hastily sent someone to Jinling to send a message, asking her sister Aunt Xue to bring Xue Pan and Baochai to Beijing as soon as possible.

  Since the old master passed away, the business has become increasingly difficult to manage. Although they still have the reputation of being a noble merchant family, Xue Pan is foolish and extravagant, and within two years, he squandered nearly half of the family's assets. Xue Baochai has the intention to take care of the family business, but after all, she is just a girl and cannot take charge openly. Her mother is also a person without her own opinions, so the situation in the Xue household becomes worse with each passing year.

  Since her sister, Lady Wang, sent a letter, Aunt Xue had also been thinking about it for a long time. After discussing with her clever daughter, they decided to go to the capital to rely on their relatives.

  Roughly three days later, Cuicui had packed up all the gold, silver, and fine silks from the old mansion in Jinling. She then hired the most famous escort agency in the area to protect them on their journey. With her son, daughter, and over a dozen family members in tow, Aunt Xue hastily set off for the capital, fearful of being one step behind Lin's siblings.

  Xue Pan was indeed not a thrifty person, and despite his mother's warnings, he still managed to get into trouble on the road. While riding his horse across the street, he happened to see someone selling their daughter. The girl was 13 or 14 years old, with a beautiful face like a flower in bloom, and didn't seem like she came from an ordinary family. What's more, she had a bright red mole between her eyebrows that made Xue Pan take a liking to her. He decided then and there to buy her and bring her back to the capital.

  The man who sold the girl was a swindler, thinking that after receiving Xue Ping's money, he would let her come back tomorrow to pick up the person, and then sneak away with the girl and the money in the middle of the night. Who would have thought that Xue Ping paid the silver and didn't say another word, snatched the person and left, which made the swindler so angry that he fell over.

  Xue's mother saw her son being troublesome and buying another useless maid, she was unhappy in her heart.

  Xue Baochai saw that her brother was getting infatuated again, and she also felt sorry for the girl. Taking another look, this little servant girl was quite good-looking after all. She thought to herself, this time when they went to the capital, there would only be a maid named Ying'er by her side. If she were to be teased by her aunt's daughters, it wouldn't be good. So she spoke with the girl's mother and said that she wanted to keep the little servant girl by her own side.

  Xue Pan coveted the mole on Guanyin's face, but in their Xue family, he never dared to offend his sister Baochai. Seeing her open her mouth to ask for someone, he could only put down the foolish thoughts in his heart.

  Xue family rushed to the capital, finally arriving at the end of April. The imperial city was indeed the most prosperous place in the world. Xue Pan rode on a tall horse and saw several fast horses rushing towards him. The man in front wore a black Qilin-embroidered robe, riding a white fine steed, waving a golden horse whip with flowing tassels, galloping straight towards him.

  The street was originally narrow, and Xue's car and horse occupied half the width of the street. The other party rushed over like this, scaring Xue Ping almost fell off his horse.

  Xue Pan had a nickname in Jinling, called "Dull Tyrant", because he always had a dull air about him and was spoiled by his aunt Xue into being fearless. He thought that entering the city would be just like being in Jinling. Seeing these people rushing towards him, he got angry and swung his whip to hit the person wearing the qilin robe. Not only did his whip miss its mark, but he was instead kicked off his horse by the man and ended up covered in mud!

  The servant of the Xue family hurried forward to support his master. Xue Pan's waist was almost broken and he sat on the ground crying for his mother.

  Aunt Xue saw the sedan chair stop, so she sent someone to ask what was going on. When she heard that her son had been beaten, she didn't care about etiquette and hurriedly got out of the sedan chair and rushed to Xue Pan's side.

  "Son, let mother take a good look, where are you hurt?"

  Xue Pan cried out: "Mother, those people want to kill your son! You must get Auntie to avenge me!"

  Aunt Xue saw that her son's face and arm were covered in blood, and she was so heartbroken that she burst into tears. She turned around and scolded the servants of the Xue family: "You bunch of useless things, seeing Master being beaten, you just stood by and watched?"

  "Madam, spare our lives! It's not that we didn't want to help, it's just that things happened too quickly, and before we could even react, the old man had already fallen off his horse."

  Aunt Xue didn't care that they were on the main street, and after hearing what the young servant said, she slapped him in the face with a loud crack, sending the not-so-old boy tumbling to the ground. Her mouth was still cursing nonstop: "Useless thing! Once I have some free time, I'll sell all of you off! Go ask around quickly, who hit Master?"

  That little fellow went rolling and crawling to gather information.

  Xue's mother then helped her son onto her sedan chair, and after a big fuss they finally left. The people on the street had seen enough excitement from this new family in town to have something to gossip about for days, especially the way that rich young master fell off his horse - what an idiot!

  When they arrived at the Rongguo Mansion, the main gate was wide open and Lady Wang personally came out from the upper house to greet them, accompanied by the three girls of the Jia family and Baoyu. The enthusiastic attitude was truly worlds apart from when Daiyu had entered the mansion.

  In front was the touching scene of sisters meeting, but the atmosphere on Mrs. Jia's side was not very good. The big maid beside her, Yuanyang, saw that Mrs. Jia was sitting there without much joy and knew the reason in her heart, so she said: "Old lady, let Yuanyang accompany you to play cards for a while!"

  "You're a poor master, and it's not fun to play with you. The rich masters in our house have all gone to curry favor with others!" There was no lack of acid in Grandmother Jia's words.

  "Let's sit down and rest for a while, and wait to see if any relatives from our family come to pay their respects to the ancestors. That would be the real big shot, and Old Lady can just focus on winning over her."

  Two people were talking, and outside came bursts of laughter, so Lady Wang knew that someone had arrived.

  Wang Xifeng personally lifted the curtain, and Madame Wang led Aunt Xue into the house, with the three sisters surrounding Xue Baochai in the middle, while Baoyu followed closely behind.

  At this time, Jia's mother's upstairs was full of chirping and chattering, what a lively scene.

  "Pay respects to our ancestors!" Aunt Xue smiled and stepped forward to pay her respects to Grandmother Jia.

  Lady Jia was no longer as stern as she had been when speaking to Yuanyang earlier, and repeatedly said: "Alright, alright, alright! Yuanyang, quickly help Madame Xue get up!"

  Xue's mother brought her daughter Baochai to the front and said to Grandmother Jia, "This is my daughter, Baochai. Baochai, quickly pay your respects to your ancestor!"

  Xue Baochai paid her respects to Grandmother Jia with a dignified and composed demeanor.

  Mrs. Jia told Yuyan to bring her old mother-of-pearl mirror, and she carefully examined Xue Baochai's face, saying to Mrs. Xue: "She is indeed a good girl, much better than our three girls at home. Yuyan, go get the gift I prepared for Baochai!"

  "It's too kind of you, I don't dare to accept it. We came to visit you and bring gifts, how could we possibly receive something from you?" Aunt Xue said with a smile, declining the offer.

  Madam Wang said: "It's not for you, it's for your family's precious daughter. Take it, it's a gift from my wife to meet her."

  The mandarin duck handed a delicate package to Baochai, who naturally accepted it with great respect. She felt that the things inside were hard and seemed like gold or silver ingots. But then she thought, what kind of person is Lady Jia? The matriarch of Rongguo House, how could she give such inexpensive things to her juniors! She secretly laughed at her own guess and turned to listen to her mother and Lady Jia's conversation again.

  Lady Wang said: "Since Aunt has come, she can keep you company, and our house is big enough for you to live with your brother and sister."

  Mrs. Wang hastily said, "The second master also said so, he said that the concubine is already old and the nephew is young and ignorant of affairs, living outside may cause trouble, our east-south corner's Li Xiang Yuan, that house with over ten rooms, it would be a waste to leave it empty, I'll order someone to clean it up and invite your mother to move to Li Xiang Yuan."

  Ying-yang listened to Madame Wang's words on one side, secretly thinking it was a bad idea. Last night Old Lady had discussed with her that when Lin Xiang and his brother came, they would let his brother stay in Li Xiang Yuan, while Lin Xiang would still stay in Bi Sha Xuan. How come suddenly the second wife had allocated Li Xiang Yuan elsewhere? Ying-yang quietly observed Grandmother Jia.

  Lady Wang's mother-in-law was delighted and said to Lady Wang, "This is good! Phoenix, this is your aunt, you can rely on her to take care of everything. If there's anything lacking, just ask me for it!"

  Xue's aunt heard the last few words of Lady Jia and just smiled dryly.

  She thought for a moment, and then said to Lady Jia and the others: "Since it's the old lady's kindness, we can't avoid troubling the mansion, but if we're exempt from all daily expenses, that would be the best arrangement."

  Below, the servant girls heard what Xue's mother said and couldn't help but secretly admire the wealth of the Xue family. Before long, everyone in the mansion knew that the Xue family was not short of money, and they came to the Jia Mansion purely out of kinship. From then on, whenever people saw members of the Xue family, they looked up to them with admiration.

  This is a later story and will not be mentioned. Only then did Xue's mother and others bid farewell to Madame Gu, and the crowd went to Lixiangyuan again.

  After the Xue family had settled down, everyone saw that the mother and daughter were also tired, so they bid farewell one after another.

  Xue's mother and daughter finished washing up and sat on the large kang by the window in the main room chatting idly.

  Aunt Xue asked: "What did the old lady just give you?"

  "I didn't get a chance to take a closer look either, but it feels like gold and silver nuggets."

  Xue Aunt called Xiang Qiang to fetch that purse, Xiang Qiang was the little girl bought by Dumb and Stupid King.

  Xiangliang handed the purse to Aunt Xue, and when Aunt Xue reached into it, her face changed color.

  It turned out to be just as Baochai had guessed, and it was a silver locket weighing eight taels, less than one liang. The style was also from the previous year's model. Aunt Xue was so angry that her teeth were itching, and she wished she could bite that old thing, Lady Jia, a few times.

  Baoyu saw the silver thing and was also at a loss, and seeing her mother's unpleasant expression, she hastily comforted: "Mother don't be angry, perhaps the little maid took it wrong, our ancestors would never give such things to girls!"

  Aunt Xue's eyes turned red, and she sighed, saying: "My Baochai, you're just too good at thinking of others. What was taken wrong, I think the old lady did it on purpose. Your aunt has long said that the old lady doesn't like her and wants to match Lin's daughter with your brother. Now that we've come, the old lady must have hated us too. Giving you such a thing is clearly mocking us for being worthless, rushing to get things, Mother is ashamed to death."

  Baochai didn't know that her aunt and the old lady were not on good terms, but for her own future, for the sake of the Xue family's future, she had to come to this capital city. Everything is still up to fate.

  PS: A new chapter is presented, on Sunday, Jinghe worked hard at home writing, but yesterday only wrote one chapter. Seeing everyone's comments, Jinghe was extremely happy, this shows that everyone is no longer just coming here to advertise, but truly starting to pay attention to "Hong Lou Ye Hua".

  Thank you to the readers who pointed out the mistakes, now Daiyu still has some "face", ^_^, this word describes it well, Xinghe's idea is that she hopes Daiyu will grow up slowly. A little girl living in her grandparents' house, always using a thorny exterior to protect herself, after a long time, everyone must have become numb to it. Xinghe hopes that Daiyu can go from being cautious at the beginning to finally blooming magnificently.

  I hope everyone can give me more guidance in the process of reading, O(∩_∩O haha~ Xinghe will work hard to correct it~~~ Thank you for the rewards from Shunshun666, Yitiankuo, xiaojiu, 33033, CX玉, Lingmaomao, Qingqiuchong, Jingshui, Ziyanyufei, Yusifengfeng, Keketianxino! \(^o^/~