Marrying Gold and Jade

Lin Ji is an extremely rigorous person. He closed the doors and windows and turned around and said, "Some things have no solid evidence. They are just my speculations."

Lin Yu followed him with his eyes, watching him sit back down opposite her.

"Do you know how much money the Lin family can earn in a year?"

Lin Yu had to learn a lot since she was a child, including music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, as well as needlework, rituals, and music.

The only thing he never let her handle was the family business.

Seeing people shaking their heads, Lin Ji just said: "The taxes my father has to pay every year are far more than 10,000 taels of silver."

"I understand what you mean," Lin Yu whispered, "There must be some misunderstanding between my father and mother that made him feel that it was not worthwhile to send money to my maternal family."

"Is it just between them?"

Lin Ji's question almost confirmed her guess.

"And me," she said, her bright eyes losing their luster, "my father seems to firmly believe that I am not his daughter."

Lin Ji nodded and said, "This is the biggest problem between the two of them."

Disbelief appeared in the girl's dark eyes, "This is impossible!"

She once didn't understand why her father wanted to keep her even though he knew that Wan Ying was fake.

It turns out that the problem was not Wan Ying's identity, but herself.

The father thought that his mother had betrayed him and that he was a "bastard".

So he stayed at home, under his mother's nose, and allowed everyone to bully him.

He is taking revenge on his mother.

Also taking revenge on myself.

"Who does he... suspect?"

Since it is confirmed that the mother betrayed me, there must be another man involved.

After unraveling the matter, the situation has far exceeded Lin Yu's imagination.

It turns out that even if Wan Ying is fake, I may not be real.

"Don't worry, stay calm."

The man's voice was deep and cold, and it actually worked like a mantra to calm Lin Yu's rapid breathing.

"I came to the Lin family when I was five years old. I had not yet received enlightenment. Do you know who my first teacher was?"

Lin Ji was five years old and had not yet been reincarnated.

Lin Yu naturally shook his head.

The person on the other side did not keep her in suspense and told her: "It's Butler Qi."

"Uncle Qi?"

Lin Yu thought of that face that was always gentle and would never refuse any of her requests.

"He is a man of great learning and talent. His knowledge is not inferior to any great scholar I have met in the imperial capital."

"My father was relieved and asked him to teach me all the way until I passed the prefectural examination at the age of thirteen and was about to go to Yingtian Prefecture to study. Only then did I ask him about the confusion that had been in my mind for many years."

"Since you have the talent to govern the world, why are you trapped in this small space and unable to realize your ambitions?"

Having said this, Lin Ji paused for a moment, as if he had turned back into that teenage boy again.

Lin Yu felt that the person he was talking about was very unfamiliar. As far as she could remember, Uncle Qi had been living in the mansion and was her father's "loyal servant". He had nothing to do with the knowledgeable "sir" that Lin Ji was talking about.

"So, why?"

"We have been teachers and students for many years. He told me about the past." Lin Ji told her, "Uncle Qi was born in a poor family. He passed the imperial examination at the age of twelve, but his mother passed away and he was delayed for three years."

"Three years later, after the mourning period was over, he was going to take the autumn examination, but he was arrested and imprisoned for cheating. He lost a toe while being tortured in prison, and was never allowed to take the examination again for the rest of his life." His voice became softer and softer, as if he was feeling sorry for someone.

"This is the last lesson he taught me. It's better to go slow than to rush."

Lin Yu was puzzled, "Why would he cheat?"

Even though he had never participated in the imperial examination, Lin Yu knew how young a twelve-year-old scholar was. After all, looking throughout Songjiang Prefecture, there were a lot of twenty-year-old "tongsheng".

"Uncle Qi, even if you don't pass the imperial examination at the age of fifteen, you are still very young at the age of eighteen or twenty-one. Why would you ruin your future?"

Lin Ji shook his head gently, "It's not that he's anxious, but he's doing the 'ghostwriting' for someone else."

A ghostwriter is a person who writes articles for other people.

"This matter was reported to the government office. After I took office, I checked the files. The other party was the son of a minor official at the time. He promised to give him 100 taels of gold once the results were announced."

"One hundred taels of gold..."

Converted into silver, it would be about one thousand taels.

"He is a candidate with a bright future. What does he need so much money for?"

Lin Ji had been talking about Butler Qi for a long time, and it seemed that he could finally go back to the topic.

"From the county exam to the prefectural exam, you need five or six guarantors along the way, one or two of whom are scholars."

"The file records that Uncle Qi is from Huating County, Songjiang Prefecture. In his three examinations, his guarantors were all from... the Ruan family of Huating."

The Ruan family, her maternal grandparents' home.

"The file also contains his confession from that year. He asked for 100 taels of gold as a betrothal gift to marry the woman he liked."

This sum of money suddenly sounded familiar.

Just now in the flower hall, she heard that one of the conditions for her mother's marriage was ten thousand taels of silver per year.

"You mean, the person Uncle Qi wanted to marry back then was... my mother."

"This is my conjecture," Lin Ji admitted frankly, "After all, he lost a toe and refused to say which girl he wanted to marry."

Lin Yu's head suddenly hurt.

The man opposite was still saying, "The Queen Mother celebrated her birthday within a year and issued a general amnesty, allowing money to be used to redeem sentences. My father saw Uncle Qi's talent and redeemed him, and has since taken him in as his confidant..."

When he came out of Qihe Hall, Lin Yu truly felt that he had lived his life again.

Such a complicated relationship can be uncovered between the people you are most familiar with.

And Lin Ji was right. The matter between Uncle Qi and his mother was just speculation, and the Ruan family's request for a large sum of money as a betrothal gift was also his own guess.

She had one more most important thing to ask her mother.

I don’t know if my parents had any more arguments after the flower hall. Lin Yu searched for his mother in several places before he found her under a corridor in the garden.

"Yu'er, come here, come to your mother." Ruan quickly saw her daughter.

Lin Yu said nothing, walked forward silently, and fell into his mother's arms again.

Ruan stroked her hair, her voice slightly hoarse from exhaustion, "Mother always urged you to get married before, but in fact, it was not because of you that I was anxious, but for myself."

"You saw your father's appearance today."

"Yu'er, mother only wants you to find someone worthy of your trust and not get involved in these messy things at home."

The girl looked up in her arms, "It's not a mess."

"My mother's business is my business."

Ruan sighed, "Good child," and held her tighter in her arms.

Lin Yu could tell that her voice was very nasal, maybe she had just cried, so she didn't want to ask any more questions, and just said, "What do you want to do next, mother?"

The woman straightened her up and pulled her to sit down on the porch chair, their hands still tightly clasped together.

"I've been married to your father for more than 20 years, so your mother isn't getting young anymore."

At this point, her beautiful face showed struggle.

After a moment, she said, "But I can't stand my husband's suspicion and cold treatment of me. I thought, when you get married, I will, I will..."

After hearing the words "divorce him", Lin Yu suddenly couldn't hear anything.