The Red Mansions

Chapter 90 Xue Baochai: Brother Yun

At the dinner table, Jia Yun felt the enthusiasm of the Xue family.

Xue Wang was in charge of picking up the vegetables and filling his bowl to the brim, while Xue Pan was in charge of pouring the wine, drinking a glass from time to time.

Jia Yun didn't refuse anyone who came, and ate and drank with an open stomach. Anyway, he didn't plan to go back sober today.

On the other hand, Xue Baochai, who was sitting across from Jia Yun, was smiling, watching the fun from the sidelines, but didn't speak.

However, from her shy smile from time to time, it can be seen that her heart is not peaceful.

Today Xue Baochai is wearing a pink padded jacket, which matches her fair skin very well, and she exudes a quiet fragrance, even if there is a strong fragrance of wine, vegetables and rice, it can't hide it.

The fragrance is faint, vague, vague, intangible, unclear, but always lingering around the nose, mixed with the body fragrance of a girl, it smells particularly good.

When Jia Yun was drinking, she looked at her from time to time, and seeing her clear eyes, she could clearly feel that Xue Baochai was in a happy mood.

Jia Yun drank a lot, and soon got Xue Pan drunk.

Xue Wang didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and said: "This bastard, he was yelling that he would drink you down today, but now it's good, but he got drunk first."

Saying that, she asked the servant girl to help Xue Pan back to the room to rest, and she also followed, and asked Xue Baochai to accompany Jia Yun for dinner.

In the living room, in order to keep out the wind, a screen was used to cover it up, which made Jia Yun feel like eating in a private room.

After Mrs. Xue Wang took Xue Pan away, there were only six people in the living room: Jia Yun, Xue Baochai, Yinger, Xiangling, Xiren and Meiren.

Without Xue Pan's fuss, the living room became much quieter.

After Jia Yun picked up the wine glass and took a sip, she raised her head and smiled at Xue Baochai, "Miss Xue, it seems we haven't talked yet, have we?"

Xue Baochai blushed, shook her head and said, "No, strictly speaking, we have talked."

Jia Yun laughed and said, "The last time we talked at Lixiangyuan? It was just a meeting."

"That's true." Xue Baochai pursed her lips and smiled, "The incident happened suddenly at that time. If the son hadn't helped me at that time, if my family fell in front of so many people, I would have lost all face."

Compared with a fall, Xue Baochai would rather jump into Jia Yun's arms. Although it was embarrassing, it was better than others seeing her fall on her back.

Jia Yun nodded and said: "I'm not a young master. If Miss Xue doesn't dislike her, just call me Brother Yun. Back then, it was just my instinct to support the girl, but now I got a daughter-in-law for nothing. Well, speaking of it, I still took advantage of it.”

Xue Baochai covered her mouth with a smile, and said, "Then I'll call you Brother Yun, and don't call me Miss Xue, but I'll call you...Baochai!"

Jia Yun naturally agreed, anyway, now that there are no rules, it doesn't matter what you call.

The two chatted while eating. Of course, Xue Baochai was mainly chatting with Jia Yun, and she didn't eat much by herself.

After a meal, the two got to know each other a lot, and they both felt that they could chat with each other quite well.

After eating and drinking, Xue Baochai invited Jia Yun to go for a walk in her garden.

It was windy outside, so Xue Baochai sent Ying'er back to her room to get two cloaks, one for each of them.

Xiren took the cloak from Yinger and was about to put it on Jia Yun when Xue Baochai suddenly said, "Come here, slave!"

After she finished speaking, her cheeks were already red to the base of her ears.

Xiren glanced at Jia Yun and saw Jia Yun nodding slightly, so he smiled and handed the cloak to Xue Baochai.

After Xue Baochai took the cloak, she shook it off gently, faced Jia Yun, and put the cloak on him.

She lowered her eyes, not even daring to look at Jia Yun, her face was full of shyness.

"Thank you Baochai!" Jia Yun smiled.

As he spoke, he also took the cloak from Yinger, and put it on Xue Baochai himself, and when he was tying the strap on her chest, he lightly brushed her chin with his fingers.

Xue Baochai shook her body, clenched her hands, her face became even more rosy, and she said in a voice like a mosquito, "Brother Xie Yun."

Jia Yun smiled and waved her hand, motioning for her to lead the way.

Xue Baochai nodded slightly, and walked to the garden of Xue's mansion first.

Jia Yun raised her leg to keep up, and walked side by side with Xue Baochai. Neither of them spoke, they just looked at each other from time to time, and at the same time there were smiles on their faces.

After entering the garden, Xiren and the others stopped following too closely, but fell far away, leaving a considerable space for Jia Yun and Xue Baochai.

Xue's garden is well maintained. Even though it's winter, there are still flowers such as winter jasmine, plum blossom, narcissus, camellia, panicle hydrangea, peony, peony, and clivia in bloom.

The flowers are blooming, each competing for beauty, colorful, blooming in clusters, full of vitality and pleasing to the eye.

Jia Yun asked curiously, "Baochai, do you have so many houses in your family to take care of them?"

Xue Baochai nodded and said, "Yes, even if we don't live there, five to ten servants will be left in each house to take care of it, otherwise the house will fall apart within a few years."

"In this case, it will cost a lot!" Jia Yun sighed.

You must know that the Xue family's business routes spread across most of the Central Plains. For convenience, the Xue family also bought a lot of houses in various provinces. It is not a small expense to keep these houses in a brand new state.

Xue Baochai nodded and said with a smile: "The expenses are indeed very high, but in order to support the Xue family's face, those houses cannot be lost, otherwise people will feel that the Xue family is empty, and then the small will lose the big."

In fact, the Xue family's business route is a family business, and there must be many competitors in the open and in the dark.

In order for the upstream and downstream industrial chains on the commercial road to not be disconnected, it is also essential to maintain a considerable volume.

Just like the project bidding in later generations, companies that do not meet certain qualifications cannot enter many projects.

It's just that the current Xuejia Commercial Road does not have core products, but is equivalent to a dealer. It relies too much on the government, especially the Ministry of Households and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and it is prone to problems.

Generally speaking, when an enterprise develops to a certain scale, it must find a way to integrate resources so that the internal and external forms a whole and the operation is coordinated, so that the company can develop better and maximize its effectiveness.

For example, internally integrate the resources of various departments to form a whole.

Externally integrate the entire industrial chain upstream and downstream to maximize profits.

The integration of government and other resources enables the company to have a safe development environment.

The reason why the Xue family has declined so much now is that it has not integrated various resources, and is facing internal and external difficulties and is on the verge of collapse.

Of course, the top priority of the Xue family today is to find a reliable backer to shelter them from the wind and rain.

After all, this piece of fat from the Xue family is so delicious, if it weren't for the threat from the Wang family and the Jia family, it would have been scrambled to eat it up.

Therefore, for the Xue family, the most important thing is to survive first, and the rest can be adjusted slowly.

However, even if the Xue family survived, the time left for them is not long. If they want to keep the Xue family, they must successfully transform before Wang Ziteng dies, or they will decline first.

Jia Yun nodded and said, "Your approach is quite similar to that of the Jia Mansion. Although the Jia Mansion still has titles, no one holds real power."

"So in order not to let people see the truth, even if the house is getting more and more difficult, we still have to maintain the pomp and decency that we should have."

"In fact, this approach can only solve temporary difficulties, and can't change anything. In the final analysis, we must make fundamental and correct changes in order to make a difference."

Xue Baochai frowned in surprise and said, "You mean that the Jia Mansion is also going downhill now?"

"You don't know?" Jia Yun asked suspiciously.

Xue Baochai shook her head and said, "We really don't know. How long have we been in the capital since we stayed in Jinling before? We don't even know the people in Jia's mansion well, let alone know the inside story."

Jia Yun asked, "Didn't your brother often come to Beijing to give gifts? He hasn't heard of it either?"

"Him? If you rely on him for something, you will be pissed off!" Xue Baochai bit her lip and said angrily.

Jia Yun smiled, nodded and said, "That's right, brother Xue is too playful, but it doesn't take much effort to understand the situation in Jia's mansion."

"Don't talk about outsiders, let's say that many servants of Jia's mansion now know that Jia's mansion is going downhill, but they are only talking about it in private."

"Actually, even if you don't inquire, you can tell a thing or two just by looking at the surface of Jia's mansion."

"As I said just now, Jia's mansion has no real power externally, and none of the children of the next generation can stand up. Moreover, the internal consumption is severe. This is due to the deep foundation of Jia's mansion, otherwise it would have been defeated long ago."

Xue Baochai looked at Jia Yun and blinked, admiringly said: "I didn't expect Brother Yun to know so much, but you often hang out with those incompetent children of the Jia family. It's easy to be misunderstood."

Jia Yun laughed loudly and said, "Well, I'm just a bystander. As for playing with the family children, I just don't want to give people the impression that they don't fit in. Sometimes people are too independent, which is not a good thing."

Xue Baochai nodded, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Brother Yun, the Xue family... can you save me?"

Jia Yun said without hesitation: "There are many ways, but don't worry, the Xue family can still survive for the time being. After I get the honor in the examination and have a certain status, it will be much easier to find a way to save the Xue family."

In fact, what troubled him the most was that Xue Pan was so useless, otherwise Jia Yun could find a way to rescue the Xue family and bring the Xue family back to life with some incense left by the ancestors of the Xue family.

In the final analysis, there are only three aspects to the Xue family's problems.

One is the need for a strong backing externally, the other is the need to rectify corruption internally, and the third is the need for competitive core products.

These three aspects, as long as the first one is resolved, the latter two are not so difficult.

After hearing Jia Yun's words, Xue Baochai was slightly relieved, but still worried.

It's just that she also knew that Jia Yun's full promise to help Xue's family was already very good, so she didn't ask for anything more.

Just thinking about something, Xue Baochai suddenly found that his hand was pinched.

She came back to her senses, her heart thumped wildly, and she struggled a few times with her hands, but Jia Yun held them firmly, so she stopped resisting.

Xue Baochai blushed, and said hesitantly, "Brother Yun, Yinger and the others are all watching."

Jia Yun found that Xue Baochai's little hand was weak and boneless, and she didn't want to let go of it. He smiled and said, "Don't be afraid, will that girl Yinger go to my house with you from now on?"

Xue Baochai looked back at Yinger and the others, seeing that they were all standing far away, so she breathed a sigh of relief, nodded and said, "I want to go, she has been with the slave family since she was a child, and although the slave family is master and servant, they are better than sisters."

After a pause, she raised her head to look at Jia Yun, and said with a smile, "There is also Xiangling, mother decided to give her to the servant's family. Although that girl is dumb, she is a responsible person."

Jia Yun was a little surprised, and asked, "Your brother didn't lose his temper? Back then he beat everyone to death because of Xiangling, so he shouldn't be convinced now, right?"

Xue Baochai pursed her lips and smiled, and said: "You guessed wrong this time. Brother heard that mother said that she would give Xiangling to my slave's house to be the housekeeper. I agreed without thinking about it."

"It's strange to say that brother is such a fool, but he can chat with you quite well."

Jia Yun laughed and said: "Brother Xue has a straight temper, as long as the right medicine is prescribed, it will be easy to get along with."

The two were talking, and when they came to the back of a cage of flowers, Jia Yun put her arms around Xue Baochai's waist and looked straight into her eyes.

"Ah, brother Yun, what are you doing, let go!" Xue Baochai was startled, and pushed her hands out forcefully, but was hugged tightly by Jia Yun.

Jia Yun lowered her head and approached Xue Baochai's face, and asked softly, "Baochai, do you regret marrying me so foolishly?"

Xue Baochai took a few deep breaths and was a little nervous. After pondering for a while, she shook her head and said, "I don't regret it. At the beginning, my mother wanted to make a good marriage in Jia's house, and my family was extremely resistant."

"It's just that the daughter's family can't be independent in marriage. For the sake of the Xue family, the slave family has to make compromises and prepare to cooperate with the mother. Fortunately, this matter is over before it starts."

Jia Yun nodded, patted Xue Baochai lightly, and said in a low voice, "Don't be afraid, I will hug you. We are in this garden now, what can I do to you?"

Xue Baochai's whole body was weak, her head was dizzy, and Jia Yun's manly breath permeated her nose, making her lose all thoughts.

After a few times of stubbornness, Xue Baochai took a few deep breaths and slowly buried her head in Jia Yun's arms.

Smelling Xue Baochai's body fragrance, Jia Yun said softly, "Baochai, you smell so good!"

Xue Baochai secretly swallowed her saliva, her whole body was stiff, her eyes were dazed, and she whispered: "It should be related to the fact that my family has eaten Lengxiang pills. There are white peony flowers, white lotus flowers, white hibiscus flowers, and white plum blossom stamens in the pills. It doesn't linger for a long time after eating one pill."

Jia Yun laughed and said: "That's good, taking a pill can not only cure the disease, but also save rouge."

"I'm still laughing. Every time I get sick, I have a severe cough, chest tightness and shortness of breath, not to mention how uncomfortable it is!" Xue Baochai slapped Jia Yun's chest lightly with her powder fist, and said aggrievedly.

Jia Yun patted her on the shoulder and asked, "Do you know what disease you have?"

"I don't know, I only know that it was caused by a heat poison from the mother's womb. I don't know how many doctors I have hired, how many medicines I have taken, and how much money I have spent. With your famous doctor's fairy medicine, there will be no effect at all." Xue Baochai shook his head.

"Later, I also owed a bald monk, who said that he was treating unknown diseases, so I asked him to read it."

"He said that it was a hot poison brought from the womb. Fortunately, I was born strong, so it has nothing to do with it. If I take ordinary medicine, it will not work."

"He just mentioned a sea above, and gave a package of powdered medicine as a guide. It has a strange smell, and I don't know where he got it from."

"He said that it would be good to take a pill when it happened. It's strange, but it's more effective."

Jia Yun asked curiously, "What does the bald monk look like, do you still remember?"

Xue Baochai thought for a while, then shook his head and said: "It's been too long, I can't remember clearly, but I just remember that the monk is quite fat, and his head is much bigger than ordinary people."

After the two talked for a while, Xue Baochai was no longer nervous. Instead, she stayed in Jia Yun's arms a little fascinated, and slowly relaxed as if she was about to doze off.

Seeing that her eyelids were getting heavier, Jia Yun said with a smile, "Don't sleep, it's the second day of the Lunar New Year, don't you know it's inauspicious to sleep during the Lunar New Year?"

As he spoke, he rubbed his face against Xue Baochai's rosy and shiny cheeks, feeling particularly comfortable.

Xue Baochai is getting used to being close to him now, anyway, the two of them are already engaged, so as long as they don't get intimate in public, it's fine at home.

Thinking of this, Xue Baochai smiled sweetly, looked up at Jia Yun affectionately, and felt that the more handsome he looked, the more he liked him. fate.

Seeing Xue Baochai's gentle eyes, Jia Yun knew that she was in love, so she rubbed her face a few more times, and asked in a low voice, "Baochai, are you comfortable?"

Xue Baochai was still a girl of Huanghua after all, so shy and embarrassed, she just hummed lightly.

Jia Yun chuckled, tightened Xue Baochai's waist, greedily smelled the maiden fragrance on her body, and felt that it was the right time to come to the mother-in-law's natal house today, and the harvest was even greater than he imagined.

At this time, Xue Baochai closed his eyes and murmured: "If I really want to just hug him like this for the rest of my life and not think about anything, that would be great!"

After all, Xue Baochai is different from Xue Pan. She is worried about the future of Xue's family, but as a daughter's family, she can't help much, so she fell into a dead end.

Jia Yun patted Xue Baochai's back lightly, and was about to speak when Ying'er came trotting over, looked at Jia Yun shyly, and said to Xue Baochai, "Girl, Madam is here!"

Xue Baochai was startled, and hurried out of Jia Yun's arms. After straightening her clothes, she asked Ying'er, "Where are you?"

Ying'er pursed her lips and said with a smile: "Don't worry, I just entered the garden, and we won't be here for a while."

Xue Baochai breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and said to Jia Yun, "Brother Yun, let's go out now!"

Jia Yun nodded and said with a smile, "Okay, there are quite a lot of flowers in your garden, I want to see them from beginning to end."

The three of them walked out of the flowers, met Xi Ren and the others, and then walked slowly, waiting for Mrs. Xue to come over, so as not to let her see anything strange.

Xue Baochai was very happy at the moment. She pointed to the flowers on the side of the road and said with a smile, "My father spent a lot of effort to get these flowers when he was here."

"Let me tell you this, no matter what time of the year you come here to play, you can see blooming flowers."

Jia Yun admired: "I didn't expect my father-in-law to be an elegant man!"

(End of this chapter)