Chapter 425 Roster
The third day of July, in the main hall of Sun Mansion.
"It would be best if that turtle could be rich all his life, and never have a time when his stirrups are too short. Otherwise, if he gives me a chance..."
Listening to his cheap elder brother's mumbling curses, Sun Shaozong couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart. Who could have thought that the turmoil caused by Tao Zhu Jin Bei would eventually affect his own elder brother?
This story begins when Shui Rong vomited blood and fell into a coma a few days ago.
However, after Shui Rong fell, there was a great chaos in the palace, but it soon returned to peace under the suppression of Princess Wei.
After suppressing the chaos in the palace, Wei did two more things:
First, he arrested Zhou Mo, the chief secretary of Prince Zhongshun's palace, and all his followers. Then he personally took charge of the punishment, whipped them one by one until they were covered with bruises, smeared them with salt water, and sent them to Shuntian Prefecture!
Secondly, she led a group of female soldiers armed with knives, guns, sticks and clubs, rushed into Prince Zhongshun's palace and smashed things. Before leaving, she shot down the plaque of the palace with an arrow!
After this incident, the two sides have completely broken off relations.
On one side was the most beloved grandson of the retired emperor and the empress dowager, and on the other side was the most beloved younger brother of the current emperor. One felt that he had been taken advantage of, and the other was angry about being humiliated by a woman, so neither of them was willing to give in.
The dispute spread from the clan house to the Golden Palace, and finally reached the Emperor Retired, but it still ended in a draw.
After several fights, both sides realized that it was difficult to completely defeat the other side, so they began to vent their anger on others.
Prince Beijing had just sent someone to report that Prince Zhongshun's followers were corrupt and harming the people; Prince Zhongshun immediately retaliated by exposing Prince Beijing's cousin who was bullying the royal family in the clan house.
A few days ago, even Sun Shaozu was implicated. The newly promoted commander-in-chief had the word "Quan" added to his title, meaning "temporarily serving as commander-in-chief."
This also means that Sun Shaozu, who was originally ranked second among the four commanders, suddenly became half a head lower than his three colleagues. Although his actual power did not decrease much, he lost a lot of face. How could Sun Shaozu not be very angry?
Therefore, whenever he mentioned the water banyan, he would refer to it as water turtle.
Of course, there were also people who benefited from this struggle, such as Jia Zheng. Originally, it was difficult for him to be transferred to another post , but now that a group of officials were implicated, he easily got the job of provincial education commissioner and would take up the post in a few days.
Let’s not talk about Jia Zheng for now.
Sun Shaozong was scolding and drinking with his elder brother when he heard Zhao Zhongji reporting loudly outside: "Master, Rongguo Mansion sent someone to deliver a list of names. I wonder if you and the second master would like to take a look at it first?"
This so-called roster is naturally the list of servants that Rongguo Mansion is preparing to exchange with this side, so that the Sun family can first screen and eliminate unsuitable candidates.
As for the Sun family's roster, it had already been sent to the Rongguo Mansion a long time ago. Now it was just waiting for both parties to confirm before exchanging the people and their indentures.
Sun Shaozu was so angry that he had no interest in looking at the roster. He cursed, "What the hell! Just send it to my wife and let her make the decision."
Sun Shaozong was also not , because except for Yuanyang who took the initiative to apply for transfer, it was estimated that none of the outstanding maids and servants in Rongguo Mansion would appear on the roster.
Outside, Zhao Zhongji heard what the two masters said and seemed to have no interest in the roster, so he hurried to the backyard and asked the gatekeeper to deliver the things to the inner house.
When the roster was delivered to the inner house, Jia Yingchun was discussing with Ruan Rong whether to distribute cloth according to the usual practice and let the servants in the house tailor their own clothes; or to follow the current custom in large mansions and make uniform clothes for the low-end servants to distinguish between their status.
Seeing a list of names being sent in from outside, Jia Yingchun took it and said to Ruan Rong with a wry smile, "Although they are all servants from my mother's family, I usually don't like to care about these trivial matters. I'm afraid I may not be able to recognize many of them."
As she said this, she placed the roster between the two of them and casually opened the cover. When she saw the first name clearly, she couldn't help but exclaimed.
“Huh!”
Not only her, Ruan Rong, who was watching from the side, could not help but widen her eyes in surprise, and said in astonishment: "It's okay for Yuanyang, but why is she also on the roster?"
What caused the two men to be extremely astonished was the two bright red words "Qingwen" on the booklet!
Even an outsider like Ruan Rong knew that Qingwen, like Xiren, was the most favored maid in Jia Baoyu's room, and would most likely be promoted to become a concubine in the future. But her name was clearly written on the roster. Isn't that very strange?
The two of them speculated wildly for a long time but still couldn't get to the point, so they had to put Qingwen aside for the time being and continue reading.
But when she turned to the second page, Jia Yingchun was surprised again, because the name "Caixia" was written in red on the white paper.
Caixia is the most senior maidservant beside Madam Wang, but how come she is on the roster?
In this way, from Yuanyang to Caixia and then to Qingwen, wouldn't all the maids around the three generations of grandparents and grandchildren be included in it? !
Isn't this too unreasonable?
Jia Yingchun suddenly felt uneasy and stammered, "This... this list, could it be that there is something wrong with it?"
"This is not something that Second Madam Lian can decide on her own. I think she should be right." Ruan Rong shook her head, but then said, "But the first wife might as well send someone to find out the truth first, so as to avoid this unclear matter from being involved in any quarrels."
Jia Yingchun thought this made sense, so she called Xiu Ju in and asked her to go back to Rongguo Mansion and find out what was going on with Qingwen and Caixia on the list.
Stop talking nonsense.
But Xiu Ju hurried to the Rongguo Mansion without anyone to lead the way. She found Wang Xifeng's courtyard on her own. As soon as she stepped over the threshold, she felt a fragrant breeze coming towards her.
Xiu Ju originally thought it was a maid in the courtyard. She was complaining that the smell was too strong and alluring, like that of a girl from a brothel, but suddenly she saw the person walking towards her. It turned out to be the male owner of the courtyard, Jia Lian.
"Second Master Lian."
Xiu Ju quickly dodged to the side, and saw Jia Lian walk out of the courtyard without looking around, leaving behind only the rich fragrance in his sleeves that took a long time to dissipate.
This Master Lian...
Since when did you start liking to put on makeup?
And it produces such a pungent smell?
Xiu Ju was stunned for a long while before she remembered the important matter. She hurried to the main hall to introduce herself and was led by Ping'er to Wang Xifeng.
When Wang Xifeng heard Xiu Ju's intention, she couldn't help but smile bitterly and said, "Don't say that Second Sister is puzzled. Even I was shocked when I first saw it. To be honest, Baoyu even came here to make a scene. But Qingwen's name was chosen by Second Madam herself. How could I dare not obey?"
Then, she briefly mentioned the reason why Qingwen was disliked by Mrs. Wang because she acted bossy in front of her master.
But when it came to Caixia, Wang Xifeng's face was chilled, and she sneered, "As for Caixia, she is really kind-hearted. She even dared to secretly send things to Aunt Zhao on behalf of Huan Lao San without telling the Second Madam!"
"Now that the truth has been exposed, the Second Madam has done her utmost by not kicking her out of the house out of consideration for their past relationship!"
