Red Mansion and Crimson Pearl

Another day passed and it was the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of May.

People from Jia's mother and other places sent holiday gifts, as well as various vegetarian snacks.

Aunt Meng checked everything and found that there were no small white rice dumplings from Jiangnan. She was unhappy. Qingwen observed her expression and complained to Xueyan in private: "Aunt is like this, it must be something delicious that she didn't eat. Can you guess what it is?"

Xueyan couldn't guess either, so she took a detour to find Chunxian to ask.

Chunxian was confused and didn't understand anything.

Finally, Qingwen got angry and went to ask Aunt Meng: "It's the festival, and the family sent vegetarian wine and rice dumplings. Aunt, would you like to drink a couple of cups in the evening?"

Aunt Meng was also feeling hot and waved her hand, saying “No need to bother”.

Qingwen yawned as she spoke, "That's right. It's so hot. I burned wormwood at night, saying it was to ward off mosquitoes, but it actually made me feel choked. I couldn't sleep well, and I couldn't eat well.

"I heard that all kinds of fruits and vegetables are harvested in the garden now. I am greedy."

Seeing Aunt Meng's bored face, he added: "Although the dim sum is innovative, it's just the same few things over and over again. I'm actually tired of eating them."

"Aren't you from Jiangnan? I remember there was a kind of small white rice dumpling in Jiangnan that tasted best when dipped in osmanthus honey. How come I don't see any of them?"

Aunt Meng couldn't help but ask after hearing what she said.

Qingwen suddenly realized, and smiled: "That thing has to be peeled by yourself and eaten with dip to make it sweet. My masters are lazy. If they peel it and serve it to me, it will be dry and hard and not tasty. Cooking is always a thankless job, so we don't like to cook anymore.

"I remember that I vaguely caught up with the tail end of it when I first came to the mansion. I haven't made it for seven or eight years. However, this spring, I was bored, so Sister Liu and I learned to make a lot of peach blossom jam. It seems that it tastes good with this."

Hearing them talking about food, Xueyan couldn't wait to come over and said, "I'm drooling just listening to you! Miss, your appetite isn't very good today. I'll go talk to Sister Liu and ask her to make something fresh!"

He ran to the kitchen and told the Liu family.

The Liu family was worrying about how difficult it was to cook in the summer, so they were overjoyed when they heard this and started to get busy.

It was done in a short time. Aunt Meng ate seven or eight of them. Seeing this, Lin Daiyu's appetite was aroused, so she also ate two, and also took a few bites of vegetarian dishes with vinegar. It turned out to be the most sumptuous meal she had since the beginning of summer.

The Liu family breathed a sigh of relief and happily flattered Qingwen in private: "Ms. Qing is indeed smart. Look at us stupid people. We can neither appease Aunt Meng nor serve Miss Lin well!"

Qingwen was very proud and couldn't help laughing: "You are really filial. You should know that our Aunt Meng and Miss Xue both like to drink wine. You should pick some flowers that can be made into wine and save them for us to drink next year. That would be considered pious of you!"

After hearing this, the Liu family agreed readily and went out to learn how to make wine from someone else. They actually piled up a row of small ceramic jars under the kitchen of Lixiangyuan. This is a story for later.

Everyone in the courtyard enjoyed the meal happily. In the afternoon, they all sat down to drink tea to digest their food, and in the evening, they all took a walk in the courtyard. Lin Daiyu was no exception.

Lin Daiyu followed Aunt Meng's advice and walked three or five times around the yard every morning to circulate her Qi. She had even improved her leg strength. She walked for half an hour before she heard someone knocking on the door.

Daiyu stopped and looked, only to see Mrs. Wang, with a furious look on her face, striding in with her skirt lifted up in both hands, followed by seven or eight maids, servants and old women.

What's going on here?

Everyone looked at each other.

"Miss Lin, you are overreaching! Didn't you seal off the courtyard? Didn't you say you would not go out? Why are you interfering in what happens in Baoyu's room?!" Mrs. Wang looked furious.

Daiyu narrowed her eyes, knelt down and saluted, then calmly asked back: "Second aunt is here to accuse me, please tell me clearly, what happened?"

"My Baoyu is a man of great talent and beauty. It's just that God is jealous of him. He ran into the flower god in the garden, so he got into trouble! He also has Baoyu to protect him, so he is fine now. This is because he is blessed with great fortune and the protection of God.

"It's all over, the family is at peace, and the future is blessed. But it's you who don't know the seriousness of the matter and have no sense of shame, and you've set your sights on our Baoyu!

“What’s the point of being chaste and loyal? You have to observe mourning and close the courtyard. The aunt sent by the palace to teach you is occupying your space all by herself. Why don’t you practice on your own? When you reach perfection, you can ascend to heaven!

"Why did you have to make a big fuss about Baoyu's miracle and make everyone in the house panic! You even instigated the old lady to take action and let a maid run into my Baoyu's room to search for stolen goods!

"What on earth are you thinking? There is a demon in my family practicing magic, and my precious jade is possessed by a demon. If this matter gets out, what good will it do you?"

Mrs. Wang put her hands on her hips, her spit almost spraying on Daiyu's face. Looking at her gnashing teeth, it seemed that she wanted to rush over and tear Daiyu into pieces!

Unexpectedly, Daiyu frowned and asked, "Then the fact that Second Brother and Sister Feng were possessed by a demon, Madam, has long known about it? Why didn't you investigate it?"

"What are you investigating?! It's all right. Now that things have passed, we should make big things small and small things disappear. This is what a prosperous family should do!

"They are all like you. When they encounter a trivial matter, they will make a fuss. Are you trying to show off that everyone else is drunk but you are sober, or are you trying to show off your ability and long arms, and that you can manipulate everyone from the old lady to Baoyu?!"

Mrs. Wang's retort actually sounded like it made sense.

Daiyu sighed helplessly and shook her head, "Second Madam, if this person can harm Second Brother once, he can harm him a second time. If you don't find out, aren't you afraid that he will be even more ruthless next time and take Second Brother's life directly?"

"Pah, pah, pah! Stop spreading rumors here to confuse the people! If you ask me, there is nothing wrong in the world. It is people like you who have ulterior motives who stir up trouble!"

Mrs. Wang spat out, but she didn't dare to spit at Daiyu directly in front of Aunt Meng, so she spat fiercely on the ground a few times.

Daiyu looked at Aunt Meng helplessly.

If Mrs. Wang spoke like this, it was obvious that she was just looking for trouble, and she didn't understand the seriousness of the matter at all.

It's impossible to reason with such a stubborn person!

What should I do?

Aunt Meng slowly walked between Lady Wang and Lin Daiyu, stopped, turned around and scolded Lin Daiyu, "I told you not to meddle in other people's business!

"The madness and death of his son and daughter-in-law are all the business of his Jia family. Even if some evildoers are involved in the future, you have already left this family and have nothing to do with them. You can't be implicated!

"As for the sorcery and sorcery, and the lies that confuse the people, even if they are spread out and cause taboos from the higher-ups, that's what they deserve! If they don't take it seriously, who can they blame?"

"We don't have any witchcraft or magic!" Mrs. Wang almost jumped up!

Aunt Meng smiled sinisterly at her and said, "Just now, the Second Madam said that the maid Yuanyang went to your young master's room to look for stolen goods. May I ask what she found?"