Ch. 143 - Baoyu Inspects the Rongguo Mansion and Ping’er Uncovers the Embarrassment
The Famous Detective of the Red MansionThis chapter is broken. Please report this on discord.
This chapter is broken. Please report this on discord.
"Second Brother Lian, Second Brother Lian? Sister Feng!"
It was noon. Ping'er was out, playing with needlework when she heard someone shouting in the yard.
Looking out through the crack of the door, Jia Baoyu was standing there shouting.
Ping'er hurriedly threw the dustpan onto the cushion with decorative and colorful embroidery, walked out, and smiled, "Stop shouting. The Young Master and Madam went to Tiejing Temple in the morning. I'm afraid they won't come back until night."
Hearing this, Baoyu was greatly disappointed.
That day, when he received the ”mission” from Sun Shaozong, he wished he could find out immediately so that Second Brother Sun could look at him differently.
Unexpectedly, his Uncle, Wang Ziteng’s concubine’s son, suddenly died of an emergency.
Since there was no male host in the house, Jia Baoyu and Jia Lian took turns staying there for several days. He was so busy and sorrowful that he could not attend to Sun Shaozong's errands.
Those who died young these years have always had a plain funeral, so the funeral was only held for three days and was buried outside the city yesterday afternoon.
After that, Jia Baoyu took a rest for another day. After a little relief, he excitedly came to check the accounts, but unexpectedly he didn’t manage to find the one in charge.
He frowned and walked out for a few steps. Suddenly, he remembered something. He turned back with a smile and asked Ping'er, "Sister Ping'er, are all the accounts of the construction of the visiting courtyard with you?"
Ping'er was stunned when she heard it. Her expression seemed like the sun was coming out from the west. Otherwise, why would the slacker suddenly ask about the account books?
"It’s not that I want to check myself, but it’s Second Brother Sun..."
Jia Baoyu also knew this was not in line with his usual style, and he was afraid that Ping’er would treat him as a 'laity'.
So he hurriedly told the matter of Sun Shaozong who wanted to build his garden, but he was afraid that he would be deceived by unscrupulous businessmen, so he asked him to inquire about the situation first.
Ping’er listened, but her heart was clear. She knew that Sun Shaozong's building of the garden was fake, but with this scheming, he thought of harming through the hands of another!
However, because of her bad luck that day, she also hated Lai Da deeply in her heart, and naturally, would not expose Sun Shaozong's plan.
Instead, she wrinkled her willow-curved eyebrows, put on a flustered look, and hurriedly said, "My dear Master, take a rest. This account cannot be investigated at random!"
With Jia Baoyu's temperament, if Ping’er said that she would require Wang Xifeng's instructions, he would probably leave like that.
But Baoyu was not happy with the words, ”cannot be investigated at random.” He stuck his neck and asked, "What do you mean? Am I not a Master in the mansion? Can't I see the garden's account book?"
He forced questions three times in a row and made Ping’er more ”flustered.” She bit her lip and pulled Baoyu into the room. She said, "My Dear Master, how can you not know something good or bad? The reason why I won't let you check that account book is for your own good!"
"For my good? What does that mean?"
"You are not in charge of the family. How can you know how many things are involved in this construction of the other courtyard?" Ping’er smiled bitterly and said, "Madam was worried about this and couldn't sleep soundly all night. If it wasn't for Lady Lin..."
Speaking of the words, ”Lady Lin,” she hurriedly closed her mouth again, as if she had accidentally let it slip.
Jia Baoyu became more confused and asked, "What does it have to do with her?"
"Nothing, it’s nothing!"
Ping’er clumsily ”covered up” and advised Baoyu, "In a word, you'd better not check this account. When you see Lord Sun a few days later, just tell him that our labor and materials are the best. The price is naturally high, and let him find someone else."
Her sayings, especially when Lin Daiyu was involved, it would be strange that Jia Baoyu would give up questioning!
He stretched out his hand and pulled Ping'er's arm. Swinging left and right pestering and swearing that he would never tell anyone else.
This move was just as fierce as Wang Xifeng's, and she couldn’t resist it. As a servant girl, she was even more afraid of being seen by others.
"There is no alternative.” Ping'er also sighed. "Forget it. I will put my life at stake and tell you the truth!"
Baoyu said with a smile, "Don't frighten me, Sister. What matter requires you to stake your life telling me? Besides, even if the sky falls, I will go to the Old Lady to back you up!"
Ping'er sighed again and said lowly, "When the garden was just built, it was estimated that 300,000 or 400,000 silver taels would be enough. Unexpectedly, other mansions started to build courtyards, and Prince Yizhong was engrossed with the market. As a result, the price had risen several times, making our house unsustainable."
"But because we have declared to the Imperial Court regarding the matter of visiting, if the work is stopped halfway, it will be a crime of deceiving the monarch!"
"We had no choice but to embezzle the silver left by Uncle Lin."
"What?!"
Hearing this, Jia Baoyu stared with astonishment, "We used Uncle Lin's money to repair our garden?! How much did we use?!"
Ping’er reached out and scored a six.
Jia Baoyu subconsciously guessed a number, "60,000 silver taels?!"
But Ping'er shook her head and said, "It's more than that. It’s around 600,000 silver taels!"
"60… 600,000 silver taels?!"
Jia Baoyu was scared by the numbers. No matter how dandy he was, he knew what the concept of 600,000 was. Even if the Jia family was big, it wasn’t big enough to earn that amount of money for decades!
His first idea was to rush to the Old Lady and expose this terrible scandal!
But then it occurred to him that if the Old Lady had not agreed, who would dare to make such an enormous expenditure?
He’s afraid that his father, mother, and even uncle have known long ago!
Ping’er looked at him standing for a long time, afraid that he would commit hysteria again. He quickly comforted him and said, "Actually, this silver is also the dowry that Uncle Lin prepared for his daughter. If you two get married in the future, this silver should be our family..."
It’s still fine if Ping’er didn’t comfort Baoyu. However, after she comforted him, Baoyu became more anxious and shouted, "What the hell is this?! Need not mention that Sister Lin and I haven’t gotten married. Even if we really become a family, there is no reason why we would use her dowry without asking her!"
Ping'er was startled by his cold outburst. She stepped back slightly but smiled bitterly, "It's no use yelling at me. I didn't spend the money."
Jia Baoyu suddenly let off steam again and said, "I lost my mind. Please don't blame me, Sister."
Then he said with a straight face, "Don't worry, Sister. Many people treat me as a fool. Only you are willing to tell me the truth. I am grateful. Even if I die, I will not betray you!"
When Ping'er heard the words, she sighed, half moved and half intrigued, and said, "Since I have already opened my mouth, I'll tell you all about it. In fact, our family has also appropriated a large amount of silver from the Xue family. I thought about it privately and concluded that one man might have promised two families!"
One man promised two families?
As if bitten by thunder, Jia Baoyu stumbled back a few steps, tripped over the threshold, and fell on all fours!