Chapter 911 Borrowing Ginseng
Just after the fifth watch [five o'clock in the morning].
Hearing the bell ringing outside, Xiu Ju lifted the quilt reflexively, groped for her clothes at the head of the bed, and stretched her long legs diagonally to the ground.
Soon, a pair of lotus-like feet were put into the embroidered shoes, but after searching the head of the bed, there was no trace of the little clothes.
Xiu Ju sat on the bed in a daze for a while before suddenly waking up.
Yesterday, Sun Shaozong came over in the middle of the night, and she also had sex with him on this big bed, but after they were done, he didn't want to stay in the hostess's bed.
Because she was really tired, she simply went back to the small bed naked, so the underwear was naturally left on the big bed.
So he hurriedly got up in the dark and went to the big bed in the north.
He first took a tinder from the flower table beside the bed and carefully lit the candle. Sure enough, he saw a few pieces of clothing hanging in a mess on the horizontal bar at the head of the bed.
Xiu Ju leaned forward, sorted the clothes into categories, took off a few of her own pieces, and put them on herself rustlingly.
"What time is it?"
At this moment, Sun Shaozong's deep voice was heard from the bed with a curtain drawn.
Xiu Ju paused, leaned forward and whispered, "It's just after the Yin hour, should I get up now, or..."
As soon as the words fell, a timid moan was heard.
Xiu Ju felt a burning sensation on her face, and she quickly put on her clothes and went outside to get some warm water to wash up.
When everything was ready, she was wondering whether she should go back in to serve when she heard Jia Yingchun calling from inside, "Xiu Ju, bring in a basin of water."
It seemed that they were just playing around and had no intention of returning in the morning.
So Xiu Ju poured another basin of hot water and hurried into the inner room, only to see Jia Yingchun with her hair loose, helping Sun Shaozong to get up, so she hurried forward to help.
The master and servant worked together to help Sun Shaozong wash and dress, and after he left through the secret passage, they then prepared everything in front of the dressing table.
It wasn't noticeable when they were busy, but when they finally had some free time, the aftereffects of a late-night battle suddenly hit them, and the master and servant were yawning in competition with each other.
But with her hair full of pearls and jade, it was really inconvenient to lie down and take a nap.
Fortunately, the master and servant already had experience, so they put pillows on the bed in the outer room and leaned against the armrests to take a nap.
Not long after, there was a gentle knock on the door. Xiu Ju hurriedly got down from the bed and went to the door, asking, "Is Sister Yuan Yang outside?"
After Yuanyang responded from outside, she unbolted the door and welcomed Yuanyang into the house.
But when Yuanyang entered the room, he saw that both the master and the servant looked tired. He wondered what had happened last night.
He cursed inwardly, "What a shame!", but then hurriedly pulled Xiu Ju around to look around so as not to leave any clues.
Xiu Ju knew that he couldn't hide it from her, but the two of them kept it to themselves and neither of them was willing to point it out - but occasionally when she found some traces that shouldn't be there, Xiu Ju still couldn't help but feel embarrassed.
While we were busy here, we suddenly heard the loud noise of the courtyard door being smashed outside.
The masters and servants in the room were all stunned. It was just past six o'clock, who was so blind as to dare to be so reckless?
Could it be...
Did something big happen in the front yard?
Thinking of this, Yuanyang did not dare to delay and hurried out with Xiuju to greet him. As they opened the door, they raised their voices and asked, "Who is it that comes to knock on the door so early in the morning?"
Then I heard a maid outside anxiously saying, "My dear girl, this is terrible. Master Bao is seriously ill. Look, the second wife sent Zhou Ruijia over early in the morning to ask our wife to borrow the old mountain ginseng to save her life!"
This old woman was one of Jia Yingchun's dowry, and had served in Rongguo Mansion for decades. So when she got anxious, she couldn't tell what was at home and what was outside.
But when Yuanyang heard that Baoyu was seriously ill and even had to borrow Laoshan ginseng to save his life, how could she care about anything else?
He hurriedly led the old woman in to report.
After a while, Zhou Rui's wife was also brought in. After a tearful talk, everyone realized that Jia Baoyu became ill because of worry about Qiu Wen.
It was just a minor ailment at first, but it has become increasingly serious over the days, and even changing two doctors has not helped.
By yesterday, he had a high fever all day and his mind was becoming increasingly blurred.
Because of this, Mrs. Wang had several big quarrels with Jia Zheng and ordered people to search the world for famous doctors. Last night, she heard Lin Daiyu mention that the Sun family had recently obtained a lot of Liaodong old ginseng, so she sent Zhou Rui's wife over early in the morning to discuss borrowing it.
"My aunt also knows this."
When Zhou Ruijia said this, she suddenly felt a little embarrassed, and hurriedly tried to make amends, "Our family is not like those small families that treat this thing as a treasure. Normally, if someone in the family has a disease or disaster, as long as they ask Madam for help, she will definitely grant their request!"
"No one had planned for this kind of thing to happen, but it just happened to our Second Master. Curry was left with only a handful of ginseng whiskers."
She is clearly trying to brag. Others may not be aware of the current situation in the Rongguo Mansion, which is loose on the outside but tight on the inside. How could Jia Yingchun, who has to support her mother's family from time to time, not know the truth?
As the saying goes, it is easy to go from frugality to extravagance but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. Ever since the construction of the Grand View Garden, the Rongguo Mansion has been in a dilemma of not making enough money.
Even though the Lai family and other powerful slaves were confiscated and a lot of silver was recovered, it was still not enough to make up for the years of living beyond one's means.
It was also for this reason that when everyone in the mansion heard that Wang Xifeng had secretly hidden more than 100,000 taels of foreign wealth, they were so excited.
Let's not talk about gossip. When Yuanyang heard that she still didn't forget to flatter Wang Furen at this time, she felt helpless, but it was not easy to expose her. She just smiled and said jokingly: "Aunt, why are you saying these things? Are you afraid of our wife and don't care about the relationship between sister and brother?"
After saying that, he turned back and reported, "Madam, we have six ginsengs over a hundred years old in our library, seventeen over fifty years old, and about a hundred more of varying ages."
This is both a reminder to Jia Yingchun and a way of showing off wealth.
Jia Yingchun thought for a moment and said, "Take three of each of the 100-year-old ginseng and the 50-year-old ginseng. Ask someone to arrange it, and I'll take them over myself later."
Yuanyang responded respectfully, but did not leave in a hurry. Instead, she reminded: "Madam, should we inform the Second Master about this?"
“Yes, yes, yes!”
Jia Yingchun nodded hurriedly: "We should inform the Second Master about this matter. Xiuju, go to the front and take a look. If the Second Master has already gone to the government office, we can wait until the evening to discuss it."
Speaking of "evening", her face turned red for no reason. Fortunately, Yuanyang and Xiu Ju obeyed her orders, and Zhou Rui's wife beside her thanked her profusely. In the chaos, no one noticed anything wrong.
…
Without mentioning how Jia Yingchun prepared, Xiu Ju received the instructions and hurried to the front yard to look around and listen, only to find out that Sun Shaozong had not left the house, but was entertaining guests in the hall.
Xiu Ju then went outside the living room door again, planning to wait for Sun Shaozong to send the guests away, and then report to him that Jia Baoyu was seriously ill and send someone .
"...Shen Lian has no way to repay your love and care..."
"Yesterday, in front of Lord Xue, it was inconvenient to bypass him, but Shen Lian knew in his heart that Lord Xue was willing to give up his love for me because of your mediation..."
"Wait for the bride to come..."
Since he was guarding outside the door, he was bound to hear something, vaguely and indistinctly, it seemed like his second master had acted as a matchmaker for someone.
However, Xiu Ju did not think much about it. She just waited for the guest to say goodbye and left, then hurried in to report.
When Sun Shaozong heard that Jia Baoyu was seriously ill and even needed old mountain ginseng to keep him alive, he was shocked. He immediately ordered someone to go to the government office to ask for half a day off, intending to visit Rongguo Mansion with Jia Yingchun.
