The Second Master of the Red Chamber

Chapter 26 Seeing Xiuyan

Jia Lian returned to the front hall smiling all the way.

Originally, I just wanted to see Miaoyu with my own eyes, and see what this girl, one of the twelve beauties, looks like.

On a whim, he made fun of it, and Jia Lian was also surprised.

I don't regret it.

Anyway, Miaoyu didn't really want to become a nun, so it's not considered a blasphemy to the Buddha.

Anyway, Miaoyu is not clean at all, let her experience the sexuality of men and women in advance, so that she will not come to Jia's mansion in the future, and see a fake man Jia Baoyu, causing her heart to be messed up and unable to control herself.

Anyway, Jia Lian thought he couldn't do it if he wanted to imitate Jia Baoyu's "freshness and refinement" and belittle himself and men as a group to cater to all women and win the girls' favor.

As for an abnormal woman like Miaoyu, it is estimated that only Jia Baoyu's person and behavior can get along with her, so Jia Lian never thought of befriending her like an ordinary woman from the beginning, hoping to impress her heart.

Therefore, Jia Lian felt that what happened today would probably leave a deep impression on her heart against such a high-minded woman who doesn't look down on all the worldly people and claims to be lonely.

As for whether the impression was good or bad, Jia Lian didn't care.

Seeing that Daiyu was still being baptized by the master, Jia Lian didn't care about her. After explaining to Mother Wang and others, he left Panxiang Temple.

I found Zhao'er and the others. They were gathering under a big tree root to throw dice. When they saw Jia Lian, they quickly put them away.

"Did you hear what I asked you to inquire about?"

"Hee hee, I got it. The second master is right. There really is a family named Xing living outside the Panxiang Temple. It is in the area to the left of the temple. Even though it is separated by a wall, it is also the house of the Panxiang Temple. It is rented out to outsiders all year round, and there are about seven or eight families."

Hearing Jia Lian's question, Zhao'er stepped forward like a dog leading a child, and replied with a smile.

Jia Lian asked them to lead the way to Xing's house.

Xing Xiuyan is also a rare woman in the Red Chamber. Although she is not included in the main book, it is certain that she should at least be at the top of the auxiliary book.

Besides, as Mrs. Xing's niece, Xing Xiuyan is also his legal cousin. Since he is here as a cousin, it's fine if he doesn't know about it. Now that he knows, there's no reason not to take a look.

Panxiang Temple was originally a small temple. Later, the land was enclosed and a wall was built to separate some of the original houses of the temple. Later, the temple was no longer needed, so it was rented out cheaply to poor people who had no houses to live in.

The Xing family has rented here for seven or eight years because of this convenience.

On this day, Xing Zhong, the head of the Xing family, went out to do some work, leaving only his wife Shao Shi and young daughter Xiuyan at home.

Xing Xiuyan helped her mother do the usual needlework, so she packed up the books and textbooks borrowed from Panxiang Temple the day before yesterday, wrapped them in a bundle, and said goodbye to her mother.

Mother Xing asked: "You went to look for Miaoyu again? If you go to her so often, won't Miaoyu bother you?"

"No, sister Miaoyu is very nice."

Xingmu said with a smile: "Then remember to come back early for dinner."

Xing Xiuyan complied with her mother's words, and walked out with her bundle in her arms. As soon as she stepped out of the courtyard, she looked up and saw several men approaching.

Seeing that they seemed to be coming towards their house, Xiao Xiuyan thought for a while, motioned to them, then turned and shouted to her mother inside: "Mother, is there any visitor from our house today?"

"What guest?" Hearing her daughter's voice, Xing Mu dropped her head and came out.

Seeing a few strangers who had already arrived at the door, he hurriedly protected his daughter behind him and asked, "Who are you looking for?"

Seeing Shaw's vigilance, Jia Lian, who led Zhao'er and Zhang Yong to find him, couldn't help thinking that ordinary people in this era really don't feel safe. They are afraid of strangers like this. Miaoyu before was And so is the woman in front of me now.

In contrast, the little girl was much more normal.

"May I ask if this is Uncle Xing's house?"

Jia Lian cupped his hands to Shao and asked.

"You are?"

Jia Lian didn't want to scare Shao and the others too much, so he directly revealed his identity when he heard the words: "Jia Lian, the junior, once heard from his wife at home that my uncle's family lived in Panxiang Temple in Suzhou, and happened to be in Suzhou recently, so I came here to visit Da Uncle and great aunt."

Shao took a careful look at Jia Lian and the others, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Are you from the Rongguo Mansion in Beijing?"

It's no wonder that Shao's cautiousness, although she knew that her husband had a very good younger sister who married into the Rongguo Mansion in Beijing and became the head wife, she was very rich.After all, the family and her husband are not from the same mother, and the relationship between siblings is relatively weak, so that there is hardly any communication for more than ten years.

When she suddenly heard that the other party sent someone to visit them, she was naturally very surprised and sudden.

"Exactly."

Jia Lian smiled, glanced at the girl who poked her head out, and said with a smile, "Is this cousin Xiuyan?"

Seeing that Jia Lian even knew her daughter's name, if it wasn't a bad person, it would probably be all right.

Shao immediately showed a smile of extreme surprise, and hurriedly greeted: "It's really a rare visitor. I didn't expect that after so many years, the eldest sister can still remember us. Well, is she doing well now?"

"Our wife has always been happy and healthy, very good."

"Indeed, she is such a lucky person..."

Shao suddenly became embarrassed, looked left and right, and said in embarrassment: "Our family is poor, you see, this distinguished guest has come to the door, and we have nothing to entertain, this..."

Hearing this, Jia Lian looked into the courtyard. Although the courtyard was really not big and there were only two rooms, it was neatly organized and clean.

"Auntie was joking. I'm a junior. It's wrong to bother me rashly. If Auntie says this again, she's blaming my nephew."

After hearing Jia Lian's words, Shao's smiling eyes narrowed.

Although Jia Lian didn't wear gorgeous clothes because of Jia Min's new funeral, it was just his ordinary plain clothes, and the noble demeanor he wore couldn't be concealed at all.

Looking at Jia Lian's fair skin, handsome appearance, and the elegance and politeness in every word and deed that ordinary people can hardly match, he thought that if such people were all bad people, there would be no good people in the world.So throwing away the last trace of worry, he greeted several people to come in one after another.

Jia Lian followed in, but Zhao'er and Zhang Yong stood outside the door very politely, refusing to come in despite being greeted by Shao.

The demeanor of such a big family made Shao secretly admire him even more.

So I personally took a new bowl and poured tea with Jia Lian. Seeing my daughter standing beside me in a daze, I hurriedly said, "What are you doing standing there, why don't you come over to see your cousin?"

Xing Xiuyan had already put down her book, and when she heard her mother's words, she approached Jia Lian to greet Jia Lian very politely.

Although she was born in a poor family, Xing Xiuyan's etiquette is somewhat of a family style, even people from a big family can't find anything wrong with it.

Jia Lian also took a rough look at Xing Xiuyan.

The little girl in her teens, although she was dressed in hairpin and thorn cloth, was clean on her body, her golden eyes seemed to be shining, she looked very cute.Especially the dusty and elegant demeanor faintly emanating from his whole body, which was not found among all the women Jia Lian had seen before.

It can be seen that he is Miaoyu's apprentice.

However, although Xiuyan has inherited Miaoyu's demeanor, she doesn't have Miaoyu's aloofness and aloofness that can be seen at a glance.

It's no wonder that in the future, he will be able to write poems like "It seems that it is an ordinary color, and the shade is up to him in the ice and snow".It is conceivable that when she grows up in the future, she must be a superb beauty with both elegance and beauty.

"Come on, please sit down and drink tea..."

Shao pulled out the bench beside the table, wiped it with his sleeve, and invited Jia Lian to take a seat again.

Jia Lian knew what she was thinking, and if he was more polite, the other party would feel uneasy, so they invited each other and sat down, and then asked: "Why isn't uncle at home?"

"He, he went out to work with others. I heard that Zhang Yuanwai's family in Nancheng was going to build a manor outside the city. There was a shortage of labor, so your uncle went. These days are very busy. I'm afraid I'll have to come back very late."

This is the suffering of running around for the sake of the family. Although Shao said the truth, he couldn't help but stare at Jia Lian, for fear that he would show disgust.

Jia Lian didn't have any, so he casually chatted with Shao Shi, thinking that Daiyu's affairs might be over, so he didn't want to wait any longer.

He took out the 20 taels of silver that had been wrapped in silk in advance, and then said apologetically, "This trip was in a hurry, and I came to the door without a gift. Clothes, it can be regarded as a little bit of my heart."

"How does this make..."

Shao quickly refused, although they were poor, they still knew each other with money, so how could it be so heavy, how could it be only a few taels.

Jia Lian smiled, seeing that they didn't answer, she bowed and took Xiuyan's hand, and put the money into her hand.

"Hey...Xiuyan, why don't you thank my cousin, you girl..."

Seeing that Jia Lian gave it seriously, Shao Shi did not resist the temptation in his heart after all, but asked Xiuyan to thank him out of courtesy and politeness, and at the same time blamed Xiuyan for answering.

Jia Lian originally came here just to see Xiuyan in advance, but now that his goal has been achieved, he got up to leave.

"The younger generation has other matters, so I won't bother my aunt too much. When my uncle comes back, please ask my aunt to say hello for me."

"Why are you leaving? It will be noon soon, so it's not too late to go after dinner..."

Shao tried his best to persuade him to stay, but he couldn't. He could only watch helplessly as Jia Lian and others suddenly arrived and then left.

For a moment, I felt a little dreamy.

He reached out to pick up the small package that his daughter was still holding, and carefully unwrapped the high-quality blue silk.

Wow, there really is a pile of white flowers inside, all of which are small silver coins the size of one or two taels.Taking out one and biting it, to be sure it was true, the smile on Shao's face became brighter and brighter.

(End of this chapter)