The Second Master of the Red Chamber

Chapter 19
"Ahem, please don't get angry, my lord, we didn't intend to disturb Mrs. Lin's peace, to tell you the truth, we came here today to express our condolences.

We have always been taken care of by Mrs. Lin, how can we be disrespectful to Mrs. Lin?

What we did before was really due to my lack of consideration, so I will disperse after this, and discuss the matter of salt administration with Mr. Lin alone at another day..."

Finally, after a few breaths of stalemate, a smooth-skinned person broke the embarrassment.

But listening to his words, it is obvious that he was only forced to give in due to Jia Lian's status, and he did not accept Jia Lian's words, otherwise he would not say anything to discuss it at another time.

Naturally, Jia Lian didn't care too much. With today's incident, I believe they would no longer harass the Lin family in the name of condolences.

As for the salt administration...

After all, it involves huge interests, and it is also Lin Ruhai's responsibility. How can he help solve it with a few words?
Therefore, it is Lin Ruhai's headache or his headache, his only role is to help him beat this group of people, maybe they will pay more attention to propriety in the future.

Therefore, without further ado, he said indifferently "No", so a group of aggressive salt merchants walked out under the guidance of the housekeeper.

Those who were tactful and courteous, or those who felt that they had not offended much with their words before, bid farewell to Jia Lian.

Of course, Jia Lian couldn't return the courtesy, he was still holding a sword, so if he put away his pose at this time, wouldn't he lose his momentum?
However, he still nodded to those polite people who hadn't spoken much before.

These thieves and wealthy landowners may have a chance to deal with them sometime. We can't let them be too wary of themselves, otherwise it may not be easy to wield a sickle in the future...

After a while, the steward came back and smiled at Jia Lian, "Thank you, Second Lord, for helping my master out of the siege. Second Lord may not know that these people come here almost every day, and the same group of people come every time, but after they enter the door They would go to the wife's spirit to offer a stick of incense, and the slaves and others would not be able to drive them away. Who would have thought that they would stay in the house and never leave, and if they insisted on seeing the master, the master would be annoyed, sometimes patiently seeing them , but no result.

Heh, being so intimidated by the second master today, I'm afraid they won't dare to bother our master again in a short time. "

Jia Lian shook his head and smiled, "It's just a matter of duty. The younger generation is afraid that I will cause trouble for my uncle by not doing well."

"No trouble, no trouble. According to this old slave, to deal with these shameless guys, you have to be as tough as the second master. Our master is too gentle, so he can't do anything about them!"

Jia Lian smiled, and let Zhaoer hold the sword in his hand.

This is the sword he took out from Dongkuayuan back then. He liked it at first, but this time he also needed a weapon for self-defense when going south, so he followed the example of those knights in the rivers and lakes and wore it around his waist.

However, before entering the Lin Mansion to pay homage, it will be entrusted to Zhao Er.

"Okay, please trouble the housekeeper to take us to the place where we will stay."

"Yes……"

……

In the study room, after the housekeeper came back, he told Lin Ruhai what happened in front of the side hall.

Lin Ruhai originally thought that even if Jia Lian could send those people away, it would take a lot of effort, because he knew how difficult those people were!

Those people are actually small salt merchants in Yangzhou City.Those families that are really powerful will judge the situation and will not openly oppose the court, so they send these brats to pester them.

And he knew the reason, but he still had nothing to do with them.

In fact, if those big salt merchants really came to make trouble, it's okay to say, he can still make an example.

But for these small characters, it's meaningless to clean them up, not to mention the trouble.

"Gou Li's family and country are based on life and death, not by profit or loss. I heard these words, and I felt quite enlightened. I didn't expect to be able to say them from his mouth. It can be seen that he is a young man with ideas and ambitions. With such a background, there will be a lot of luck in the future!"

Lin Ruhai murmured to himself, and suddenly laughed again: "But I thought he was a calm kid, after all, he was still young and energetic, and he would even use a sword if he didn't agree with each other, so he was afraid that he would offend those people very badly." .”

The old housekeeper had a surprisingly good impression of Jia Lian, so he said with a smile: "Young man, how can you not be arrogant? It's just that the master is an elder, and he naturally behaves in front of the master, and he dare not make any mistakes. His courtesy.

As for using the sword, the old slave felt that the second master Lian had done a good job, and he should be as tough as he was with those people. "

Lin Ruhai smiled. Naturally, he didn't blame him. Although Jia Lian's actions were rough, he finally solved the problem for him.

He has been really depressed for these people recently.

……

The Lin family is thin and has many houses, so the housekeeper arranged a courtyard for Jia Lian alone.

Jia Lian saw that there was a spare room in the courtyard, so he politely refused the Lin family's arrangement of another servant for him, and asked Zhao'er and others to live in a side room in the courtyard on the grounds of saving trouble.

In this way, it is convenient for him to order, and secondly, it is convenient for restraint.

The servants of Jia's mansion have a heart of wealth and honor, and they came to Yangzhou with great difficulty, I am afraid that their hearts will be wild.

He didn't want to be like Jia Zheng, who let his servants ruin his good reputation because he didn't control his subordinates.

Jia Lian didn't stay in the courtyard for a long time, Jia Lian simply tidied up the place, and then went out, walking along the mourning hall, while observing the buildings and population situation of the Lin Mansion.

"I've seen Master Biao..."

"Ah."

Jia Lian found that most of the servants in Lin's mansion looked at him with extraordinary respect.

Jia Lian was a little surprised at first, but after thinking about it for a while, he understood the reason.

Although Yangzhou is known as the most prosperous in the world, it is only a local state capital after all, and the governor is only a fourth-rank official.Therefore, he, who was born in the Beijing government, was already considered unattainable.

On the other hand, maybe the news that he justly scolded those salt merchants in the side hall and confronted them with swords has already spread in Lin's residence.

Presumably those salt merchants did have a different status and prestige in Yangzhou, but he was able to subdue those people alone, which naturally made the people of the Lin family admire him.

Thinking of it this way, Jia Lian felt happy too.

Although after a few days of hard work, he finally managed to build a good impression in front of Lin Ruhai.

The only pity is that Lin Ruhai is a short-lived person.

If he can live longer, not only will Lin Daiyu not be lonely and depressed in the future.And he, even in the Jia Mansion, will have an extra powerful arm.

Just as he was feeling sad, he saw the old butler chasing up from behind, before approaching, he smiled and said, "Look around for the second master, the master has already prepared meals in the living room, please invite the second master to have lunch."

Jia Lian frowned and could only follow the housekeeper back.

"Second master doesn't know, since our wife left, the master's health is not good, so he usually doesn't eat out.

Today, because the second master arrived, the master specially ordered the kitchen to prepare meals, and he specially invited the second master. "

On the way, the old housekeeper said this, Jia Lian listened, and hurriedly cupped his hands, thanking his uncle for his kindness.

When I got to the front hall, I didn't see Lin Ruhai either. There were only three tables of noodles in the upper and lower halls, but there was no wine.

There were also more than a dozen people sitting without moving their chopsticks. When they saw Jia Lian, several young people greeted him with smiles.

Jia Lian knew that these were probably members of the Lin clan, who came from their hometown in Suzhou to help with the funeral.

The ancestors of the Lin family used to be a Marquis, and they belonged to Zhongming Dingshi's family. Although they have lost their titles, they still have the style of a big family, so there are only men here. It is expected that the female relatives should be in the backyard, and they will take care of them.

"I met Lian's cousin in Xialinyi."

"Lin Yuan, I met Lian's second cousin..."

Sure enough, Jia Lian's reputation spread in the Lin residence in less than half a day, and as soon as he showed up, a group of younger generations from the Lin family came to make friends.

The housekeeper introduced them with a smile, but they were all Lin Ruhai's nephews, or even grandnephews...

Then the butler will invite Jia Lian to the hall.

This move immediately changed the expressions of many people.

At this time, there were only three people at the table in the living room, and they were all elders of the clan who were of the same generation as Lin Ruhai, or even a generation higher.

Jia Lian even saw the jealousy on his face when he introduced himself as Lin Yu with a smile before that.

Thinking about it, he felt that he had bigger teeth and couldn't even go to the hall. Now that the butler arranged it like this, he felt slighted and lost face.

Although Jia Lian didn't care much about the members of the Lin family, they greeted them with smiles and didn't want to offend them for nothing, so he pushed aside the housekeeper's arrangement and said with a smile, "I'll just sit here."

After speaking, he sat next to him.

"But……"

The housekeeper was in a dilemma, but at this time Lin Ruhai also came out from the back hall.

After Lin Ruhai and the elders sat down after paying respects, he couldn't see Jia Lian, so he called the housekeeper.

"Didn't I tell you to invite Brother Lian to come over?"

"This..." The old housekeeper gestured to Jia Lian's location with his eyes.

Seeing this, Jia Lian got up and saluted.

Lin Ruhai laughed, and said with a smile: "What are you doing sitting there, come up and sit."

"Thank you uncle, but my nephew will just sit here."

Lin Ruhai understood the expressions of the nephews and nephews in the hall, and said with a smile: "You don't have to be like this, you have an official position, so you are different from them after all, sit up."

Many people in the hall originally only knew that Jia Lian was born in a public house, but they didn't know that he had the position of a colleague.But Lin Ruhai didn't know how to talk nonsense, so he became more respectful and advised Jia Lian to take the seat.

"That's right...Since uncle let you go up, Cousin Lian, don't be polite..." Lin Yan also persuaded, seemingly very generous.

When Lin Ruhai invited him again, Jia Lian couldn't refuse anymore. Seeing them like this, he bowed his hands and walked into the hall.

He bowed to the four elders in the seat, and then sat down.

(End of this chapter)