In order to eat, I signed a contract with the system

Chapter 366 Dream of Red Mansions - Jia Yingchun 37

Now that the matter was clarified, Grandmother Jia could finally go to bed. Although she still felt very sorry about the future situation of the Jia family, she felt fortunate to know about this matter in advance. If the king wants his subjects to die, they have to die. How could the Jia family escape from the above meaning?

But he has to think carefully about the next arrangements. The eldest brother is old and still useless, and he must not know about this at all. Although the second brother is more stable than the eldest brother, after all, it is his daughter who is conferred the title of princess. It is probably impossible to ask him to give up his honor and believe in this matter.

In this case, I can only rely on myself. Grandmother Jia has already made up her mind. At this moment, she can't help but feel lucky that her two sons Jia She and Jia Zheng are both incompetent people. Although they are idle all day long, they will not make any big mistakes. When the emperor settles the accounts, as long as they don't make mistakes and save their lives, there will be no problem at all.

At this time, Jia's mother didn't know that her two sons didn't do many bad things, but her daughter-in-law was very bold. Not only did she do many things that were against the will of heaven and earth, she even knew how to use her sons' name cards and seals to pave the way.

After the imperial edict for the visit came down, the Jia family officially began to build the garden for the visit. For the sake of the Jia family's face and Jia Yuanchun's dignity, the second wife wanted to bring back all the good things in the world to build the garden.

It just so happened that Jia Zheng thought the same, and the couple hit it off immediately and started to waste the public treasury of the Rongguo Mansion. The head of the eldest wife, who should have objected to this, one hid near the stable and spent the whole day playing with women or buying antiques, while the other just guarded her own private property and didn't care about anything else.

Jia Lian and Wang Xifeng did have some objections, but they were still hoping to benefit from Concubine Xian De's fame. Since the public treasury was opened for Concubine Xian De's reputation, they naturally endured it.

In order to let Concubine Xian De know her efforts, Wang Xifeng came out to help with the arrangements not long after Xiao Yue was born, and Jia Lian turned into a manager and ran in and out all day long to buy and sell building materials.

Soon the public treasury of Rongguo Mansion was used up, but the garden was only half built and they could not stop. The Second Wife was unwilling to use her own private treasury, and the Second Master naturally did not want to use her own private treasury. For this reason, the couple of the second room looked at each other and tacitly turned their eyes to Jia She's private treasury and Jia Mu's private treasury.

Jia She's private treasury contained not only the dowry of Jia Daishan's biological mother, Old Lady Wang, but also the dowry of Jia Lian's biological mother and the dowries of two generations of mistresses of the Rongguo Mansion. It was naturally extremely rich.

And Lady Jia was born the daughter of a noble family and was very much loved. She had a large dowry and had been in charge of the family for decades. She managed the family well and her private treasury was always full of funds, which was far more than any other public treasury in the Jia family could match.

With two such wealthy men right next to her, how could the Second Wife be willing to let them go?

"Madam, the virtuous concubine in the palace wants to go home to visit her parents. The garden is half built and there is no money in the public treasury. What's next..."

Hearing the couple from the second wife coming to her to ask for money, Grandmother Jia was immediately disappointed. According to her experience, the Rongguo Mansion's treasury could still produce at least 100,000 taels of silver, which was more than enough to build a garden specifically for the visit of relatives. How come it was all spent so quickly?

"Isn't one hundred thousand taels enough for you to build a garden for your mother's visit?"

"Old lady, what do you mean by 100,000 taels? There are only 50,000 taels in the government treasury."

The second wife's eyelids jumped when she heard what Grandmother Jia said. How did this old lady know that there should be nearly 100,000 taels of silver in the treasury? Would she be caught if she secretly embezzled some of it?

"The specifications of this royal garden are different. Besides our Rongguo Mansion, the Zhou and Wu families, who also have imperial concubines, are also building imperial gardens. Merchants took the opportunity to raise prices, and the cost has more than tripled. This... It's not that we are spending recklessly, but these 50,000 taels are really not enough!"

The Second Master naturally did not forget to embezzle some of the money and quickly spoke up to help the Second Wife explain. In fact, he did so to cover up the matter of reducing 100,000 taels to 50,000 taels.

Even if Grandmother Jia discovered the problem, she could do nothing at this time. She had completely seen through the Second House's true colors, and she followed the Second Master's words and asked him in despair, "So, what do you want to talk to me about?"

According to the old lady's character, if she heard them say they had no money, she would give them some subsidies for the sake of face. For the sake of the Jia family's face, the old lady would even mobilize the old relatives to give them some subsidies, and Jia She, the eldest wife, would naturally not be left out.

But today's Lady Jia is no longer the Lady Jia who was blinded by vanity in her previous life. Now Lady Jia is deeply aware that in the end, only the dowries of the female members of the Jia family will be preserved.

In this case, the money naturally cannot be spent. In order to save money, the garden for the visit of the mother must even be streamlined.

"Since you have no money, why bother to compete with the other two imperial concubines and insist on building a large garden? It would be better to simplify the garden for the imperial visit. As long as it does not lose etiquette, it will be fine."

As soon as Grandmother Jia said this, the Second Lady and Jia Zheng immediately disagreed. Not to mention that they wanted to enrich themselves and take some private property from it, Jia Yuanchun had wasted many years in the palace, and now that she had finally come to the end of her hardship, she naturally could not be treated casually.

"Madam, how can this be simplified? If you tell others about it, people will laugh at you. Your Majesty has suffered so much in the palace for so many years and finally got the title of Consort. Wouldn't it make Your Majesty feel cold if you treat her like this?"

Jia Zheng silently watched the Second Wife trying to persuade Lady Jia by playing the victim. Seeing that Lady Jia was unmoved, he soon realized that it might be impossible to get money from her, so he might as well go to the eldest brother first.

"Old lady, why don't you ask my eldest brother and his family? After all, my eldest brother is the true heir to the title of this family."

The old lady did not comment. The eldest master Jia She and the eldest mistress Xing, as well as Jia Lian and Wang Xifeng and his wife, were also called over. When they heard why the second wife called them over, everyone in the first wife had different reactions.

They were naturally reluctant at first, but after listening to the second wife's persuasion, they were soon shaken. Jia She was even more moved by Jia Zheng's words that once Jia Yuanchun gave birth to an heir to the throne, the title of the eldest wife might be promoted back.

"No matter what, Yuanchun is the eldest granddaughter of our Rongguo Mansion and my niece. Since this is for Yuanchun's visit to her parents, we really can't save this money."

"How about this, according to etiquette, 70% of the entire public treasury belongs to the eldest wife, so I won't bother with the money that was given out before. I'll give you another 30,000 taels."

When Lady Jia saw Jia She's painful expression as he gave her the money, she felt a deep chill enveloping herself.

The royal family's methods were truly powerful. With just an imperial decree to visit the emperor, the Rongguo Mansion was completely emptied. The key point was that the people who were emptied were full of pride and had no idea what was happening.

The Rongguo Mansion really cannot escape this disaster!