Red Mansion: Picking up a Lin Daiyu

Chapter 448: Search of Rongguo Mansion (Part )
Although the voice was soft, it was very firm.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw three little girls walking out from the darkness.

Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun, hand in hand, decided to face the coming storm together.

Everyone in front of the hall was surprised. They could not have expected that under such high pressure, three little girls would stand up and be determined to report their family.

It is common sense that relatives keep secrets for each other, and exposing one's own sins is even more unacceptable to the world.

Even though Wang Ziteng had repeatedly reminded them that confessing and being lenient might be a way for them to survive, everyone in the Jia family remained indifferent. This was the reason.

Moreover, are it possible for just a few little girls to get hold of the core secrets of the family and expose the wrongs and mistakes of the huge Rongguo Mansion?

Those who came to search the house naturally judged people by their appearance and were full of suspicion.

If the Jia family had been so careless in keeping their mouths shut, they would have been destroyed.

Jia Baoyu was stunned on the spot, watching his closest sisters from the past walking towards him little by little.

Of course, he was not heading straight for him, but for Wang Ziteng who was beside him.

Without time to think too much, Jia Baoyu climbed up from the ground with his hands and feet, wiped his snot and tears, spread his hands in front of the sisters, and began to persuade them, "Sisters, what kind of occasion is this now? How can you still make trouble in front of the palace? Do you really want to die? This is an outside matter, it is not for you and me to interfere!"

"How can these crude warriors reason with you? Aren't you afraid that they will chop you into pulp with one blow?"

"What's the point? Right and wrong will be judged by justice!"

Tanchun frowned and immediately retorted, "Besides, what are you doing outside or inside the mansion right now? Why don't you get out of the way and stop blocking the way?"

Jia Baoyu remained unmoved. He thought he was doing his sisters' best and continued to dissuade them, saying, "Sisters, listen to my advice. This place is full of soldiers. It's not a place for you to show yourselves. Besides, what your second uncle wants is evidence of my Jia family's guilt. Where can my Jia family get any evidence? Isn't this just making something out of nothing? Why are you here to muddy the waters and cause trouble?"

"Causing trouble?"

Tanchun sneered and said, "Do we need to add to the chaos in the Jia Mansion today? The roots of the disaster were already laid by the previous people. What the Imperial Concubine said is absolutely right!"

The three men pushed Baoyu away together. Baoyu didn't pay attention to his feet for a moment and fell to the ground, his mind even more dazed.

He and his sisters grew up together and were very familiar with each other. They could even write poems and play together some time ago, but now they were like strangers.

If Tanchun had not called him brother verbally, based on the way Tanchun looked at him, Baoyu would have thought she was his enemy.

Although the Jia family had treated them badly in the past, and Grandmother Jia had lectured them in public more than once, those were all sermons, all for their own good. How could they still feel jealous?

Baoyu suddenly raised his head, looked at the backs of the three people, and choked up and said, "Even if you look down on me and don't listen to me, you should at least think about the difficulties of our ancestors, right? My eldest sister betrayed our ancestors, are you going to do the same? How disheartening!"

The Sanchun sisters, however, acted as if they hadn't heard anything. They just looked at him coldly and continued walking forward.

The chill in those eyes made Jia Baoyu feel cold from head to toe. It was even more difficult for him to accept this change in his heart. It was as if a crack had appeared in his heart. He could no longer utter many words and could only shed tears.

On the other side, Sanchun remained as energetic as ever, and they all bowed to Wang Ziteng.

"We have a piece of evidence of the crime that Wang Tongzhi is investigating in the Jia family. This note was taken from the wooden box high up on the bookshelf in the second wife's room."

As she spoke, Tanchun presented the note that she had prepared in her sleeve.

In the crowd, Mrs. Wang saw the folded paper, her pupils suddenly shrank, she broke free from the support of the maids around her, and without caring about the pain from the kick she had just received, she rushed over and hugged Wang Ziteng's legs.

"Brother, brother, are you going to dig up our roots? I can't watch that!"

Wang Ziteng frowned. It was already this time and his sister was still making a fool of herself in public. Even if he wanted to cover it up, it was too late.

He swept Madam Wang aside again, "Get out of here!"

However, this time Wang Ziteng used much less force and failed to get rid of the troublesome Mrs. Wang.

Wang Ziteng certainly has compassion in his heart, and he himself is also a tragedy.

Having worked in official circles for decades, although Wang Ziteng has never reached a high position, he is well aware of the ins and outs of the court.

Today, he led his troops to raid the Jia Mansion, with which he had a close relationship. How would his colleagues in the court view him? And how would the four kings and eight dukes, with whom he had close ties, view him?

He became an isolated minister, a complete isolated minister, and from then on he could only be a sharp knife for Emperor Longyou, the knife of the New Deal reform.

Wang Ziteng originally thought that Yue Ling would play this role, but he didn't expect that Emperor Longyou was so sympathetic to Yue Ling that he would become a scapegoat one day.

All the officials will criticize him, and the four kings and eight dukes will turn against him, but what can Wang Ziteng do?

Emperor Longyou had the leverage over the Wang family in his hand, so if he wanted to kill the Wang family, it would only take him an imperial edict.

He had no choice but to make the sharpest knife possible to demonstrate his role and to protect the Wang family. As for the Jia family, that was the first time his sharp knife saw blood.

Seeing that Wang Ziteng's mind was in a trance for a moment, Mrs. Wang suddenly stood up and tried to grab the rice paper. However, she didn't expect that Wang Ziteng would be ruthless the next moment. He hit Mrs. Wang with a knife and she fainted on the spot.

Jia Baoyu crawled over again and threw himself on Mrs. Wang's body, crying and wailing.

Jia She and Jia Zheng were about to come over to take Madam Wang back, but Wang Ziteng immediately glared at him, pointed his sword in front of him, and shouted angrily, "Let's see who dares to move!"

But Baoyu crawled fast enough and hugged Mrs. Wang in his arms, crying loudly.

Wang Ziteng was too lazy to pay attention to him and read the contents of the note carefully. When he saw the first line, he realized that something was wrong.

His Wang family had also welcomed the late emperor to the south of the Yangtze River and was very familiar with this past. He could tell at a glance that all the items on the list were for the imperial palace.

At that time, it was the Zhen family who built the palace and took care of all the affairs of the late emperor. Later, when the late emperor's health deteriorated and he no longer came to Jiangnan, the palace was almost abandoned and no one cared about the things in it.

But no one has ever thought that it was not in the Imperial Household Department, but was scattered among the people.

Needless to say, this was the dirty stuff of the Zhen family, but now it appeared in the Jia family, and it was recorded in detail in the name list, and even a few damaged objects had been used as silver by Mrs. Wang. Having an interest in the Zhen family, which had been confiscated and exterminated, was one crime, and now hiding the royal dirty stuff was another crime. These two items made it difficult for Mrs. Wang to escape.

But Wang Ziteng thought that his sister was very cunning and shouldn't be so stupid as to do such a thing, so he couldn't help but look at Grandmother Jia.

"Three years ago, the Zhen family was implicated in the murder of the Suzhou prefect. It was later found that they were the biggest driving force behind the Japanese pirates on Shuangyu Island. They were actually raising pirates to cause trouble, so their three clans were confiscated."

"Before their family was confiscated and their clan was exterminated, a female member of the Zhen family went north to Beijing and came to Rongguo Mansion to seek favors. At that time, the rumor was rampant in Beijing that the Zhen family had promised a large sum of money to Jia Mansion. Who would have thought it was true."

"The Jia family did not hand over the property to the national treasury, but dared to keep it privately. It was the former emperor's property. Old Lady Shi, do you have anything else to say?"

At this moment, Grandmother Jia had recovered from her shock, and she responded to Wang Ziteng's questioning with ease.

She resumed her stately demeanor and slowly sat up. Even though she was sitting on the ground, she calmly responded with dignity: "I don't know about this matter. It must be a private plot by the second brother's family. Why don't you arrest him and interrogate him in the prison?"

Wang Ziteng could inexplicably see a hint of satisfaction on Lady Jia's face, which really made him angry.

Could it be that this old pervert was sure that he would not torture his sister?
But Mrs. Wang had never suffered any hardship since she was a child. If she were to be thrown into the Heavenly Prison, a place where no human being could be kept, she would naturally take all the blame on her own initiative. Why would she need to be tortured or forced to confess?
Just when Wang Ziteng was hesitating, two more people walked into the hall.

Xing Xiuyan pushed Yuanyang and walked into the hall holding a treasure box.

"Yuanyang? Are you okay?"

Grandmother Jia's pupils shrank slightly, and she asked in astonishment: "What are you going to do? Who told you to take that thing out?"

Yuanyang cried and almost became a tearful person, "Grandfather, Yuanyang was wrong and shouldn't have betrayed you, but what they said is indeed right, you can hide it on the first day, but you can't hide it on the fifteenth day."

"In the old days, my ancestor once told me that if anything unexpected happened in the mansion, this thing would be able to save lives. Now that the mansion has suffered such a disaster, Yuanyang took this thing out. If my ancestor values ​​the Jia Mansion more, don't blame Yuanyang and find a way to survive for our descendants."

"I often wiped the old master's court robes. It's a pity that the mansion has become like this. If the old master's spirit is still in heaven, he must be deeply saddened by what happened today."

Looking at Jia Lan again, Yuanyang wiped away her tears with her sleeves and said, "Before the old master passed away, he said that there is still a way out for the Jia family. Please make it happen, old ancestor."

"Yuanyang swears to heaven that after I have guarded the mausoleum for my ancestors for three years, I will commit suicide in front of the mausoleum and never live in vain."

"They? Who are they?"

Yuanyang just turned her head away, "Grandfather, they said that this was all planned by Duke Dingguo. No matter how much we try to show off, it will be like hitting a rock with an egg. The Imperial Concubine is even more concerned about right and wrong, and she will not stand on our side!"

Grandmother Jia laughed and glared at Yuanyang, "Sure enough, you shouldn't trust anyone so easily!"

Wang Ziteng was overjoyed when he saw this, and ordered his soldiers to break open the treasure box and take out the items inside. However, he found only a letter inside. The heavy weight actually came from this box.

When the letter was unfolded, the content on it was even more shocking. It was a suicide letter from the women of the Zhen family, complaining to Lady Jia that Mrs. Wang had accepted their money and failed to save the Zhen family, causing their family to be broken up and all their property to be lost.

The women of the Zhen family, left with nowhere else to go, had no choice but to commit suicide.

But now the person who wrote the letter was dead, and Mrs. Wang was still unconscious in the hall. For a moment, no one could refute the authenticity of the letter.

Seeing Wang Ziteng's surprised expression, Grandmother Jia actually laughed triumphantly.

"How is it? Have you read the text? This is all your sister's fault. I, an old woman, had good intentions to suppress it, but who knew she was so rampant that she actually exchanged all those items for silver. Now you have to suffer the consequences."

"If you really came here with the imperial order, then you should arrest her. This has nothing to do with other people in the mansion. As for the excessive luxury of this imperial residence, it was all arranged by your sister. You can ask the people in the mansion. The blame lies with her, so just punish her. Don't disturb the innocent people in my Jia family, and don't offend the imperial concubine inside!"

Sensing that the atmosphere was not good, Yuanyang's face changed immediately, his legs became weak with fear, and he sat on the ground.

Wang Ziteng glared at Yuanyang, pointing the finger at him, "What a big show you put on me! I was fooled by you! Tell me, what was originally in the treasure box? Where did it go?"

Yuanyang was stunned. She had thought that there must be something harmful to Lady Jia or the Jia family inside, which was why Lady Jia asked her, her most trusted personal maid, to look after it. She had not expected that this was not the case at all.

"No, no, I didn't touch the objects inside, let alone open it..."

Yuanyang was terrified, as if she had accidentally given false testimony.

How could Wang Ziteng believe the one-sided words in the letter? Besides, there was almost no evidence to prove it. Where could he find anyone from the Zhen family at this time?

How could Wang Ziteng be willing to have his sister's guilt confirmed in this way? It was obvious that Lady Jia was the one who should be punished the most in the mansion.

The palace fell into dead silence again. Wang Ziteng could no longer be partial. He gritted his teeth and said, "Search! Go out and search! There must be more crimes in the mansion!"

Just to say, it is impossible for Lady Jia to completely evade the blame.

The girls from the Duke Ding's Mansion who had been watching the excitement from the sidelines were also shocked, especially Xing Xiuyan, who came to Lin Daiyu at a loss and said, "Miss Lin, we..."

Lin Daiyu shook her head calmly and fell into deep thought for a moment.

As the soldiers who were confiscating the property dispersed, Qin Keqing blinked and asked Xue Baochai beside her, "Sister Bao, what's going on? I was distracted just now and didn't realize why General Wang was not convicted."

Xue Baochai shook her head. "The note that Tanchun took out was taken from the Second Madam's room. It can only prove that the Second Madam was suspected of having touched the Zhen family's property. And the evidence taken from Yuanyang's hand further proves that the Second Madam has a vested interest in the Zhen family."

"But anyone with a discerning eye knows why the Zhen family would only look for the second wife and not the old lady? The old lady had a trick up her sleeve to push all the crimes onto the second wife and clear herself and the Jia family of suspicion. In layman's terms, she made the second wife a scapegoat!"

"Wang Tongzhi is the second wife's half-brother. How could he tolerate such an outcome?"

Qin Keqing opened her mouth and said, "I always thought she was not smart, but I didn't expect she had such tricks?"

Xue Baochai looked at Jia She and said suspiciously, "Perhaps this method was used quite often in the old days."

"So what should we do now? The Sanchun sisters are still waiting to perform meritorious deeds to escape punishment!"

Xue Baochai couldn't help but sigh, "Although it is a merit, it may not help the sisters get out of this situation."

At the right moment, Lin Daiyu's eyes lit up and she said, "I see, you missed a place!"

(End of this chapter)