After nightfall that day.

The lights were dimmed everywhere in the Grand View Garden, but the three connected large living rooms in Qiu Shuangzhai were as bright as day.

From Baochai down, Daiyu, Tanchun, Xiangyun, and Baoqin were all sitting or leaning in one place or another, all with tired faces and no interest in talking.

Knowing that Jiao Shun broke into the palace last night and this morning brought down the entire etiquette department with great power, all the girls gathered together to discuss what had happened and what had happened. .

In the past, the person who could make all the girls in the Grand View Garden worried about him would be Jia Baoyu.

However, the frequency with which Jiao Shun has been mentioned recently seems to have the tendency of overtaking others around the corner. Especially in recent days, the essay project has made great progress. While the girls are overjoyed, they also admire Jiao Shun's resourcefulness extremely.

In particular, all his thoughts are aimed at redressing the injustices of girls. In the eyes of girls, he is much better than those who fight for fame and wealth all day long!

Coupled with the sense of accomplishment brought by participating in the whole process...

The girls' affection for Jiao Shun is rising visibly to the naked eye!

Therefore, when they heard that Jiao Shun was showing great power in the court again, although everyone did not know what was going on, they instinctively felt proud and honored him. They talked lively all afternoon and did not feel bored at all.

However, as time went by, the girls kept sending people to the Jiao family to inquire about it, but Jiao Shun never came back from the palace. The girls couldn't help but become suspicious, fearing that something might happen to Jiao Shun in the palace—— Otherwise, how could it happen that the ministers were allowed to stay overnight in the palace for two consecutive days?

Everyone was talking about it until halfway through the second update, but now it has gradually disappeared.

But even so, everyone didn't want to disperse for a long time.

"Second Master is finally back, come in quickly, the girls are waiting for you!"

At this time, suddenly hearing a greeting from the waiter outside, Shi Xiangyun, Xue Baoqin, and Jia Tanchun jumped up at the same time and went out to greet him.

When he saw Jia Baoyu coming in through the curtain, he asked in unison: "Brother Jiao is back?!"

"I'm back, I'm back!"

As Jia Baoyu spoke, he quickly went to the table and poured himself a drink. Then he continued under the repeated urging of everyone: "It is dangerous to say that while we are inciting public opinion, someone secretly takes advantage of the organization to trap Brother Jiao, and also Fortunately, some censor rebelled against the enemy and told Brother Jiao about the matter in advance. Brother Jiao made the right decision and went to the palace overnight to meet the Holy Spirit. Only then did he turn the corner and overthrow the entire army of the Ministry of Rites!"

Everyone was paying attention to this matter, but now they heard that it was related to the incitement of public opinion by themselves and others, so they hurriedly asked about it.

Jia Baoyu wanted to drink tea to moisten his throat, but Baoqin snatched it from his hand. He had no choice but to repeat Jiao Shun's words.

He had just been in a hurry to come back to report the news, and he had not asked carefully at first, so now his remark was inevitably unclear.

But it can still be explained in general.

I heard that in order to frame Jiao Shun, the minister Zhang did not hesitate to use Emperor Sejong's weapon to usurp power. Tanchunzhi was so frightened that he swatted his chest repeatedly, and sisters Baochai and Baoqin also changed their minds.

However, Lin Daiyu and Shi Xiangyun had never paid attention to these royal secrets. After asking Tanchun and Baoqin, they suddenly realized it belatedly.

"This is truly a blessing from God!"

Shi Xiangyun couldn't help but clasped his hands and said, "If it hadn't been for the censor who suddenly abandoned the dark side and turned to the bright side, it would be hard to explain... Sure enough, good people will be rewarded!"

Xue Baoqin was filled with guilt. Originally, she was touched by how Jiao Shun tried so hard to avenge herself, but now that she heard that he was almost killed by an adulterer because of his own affairs, her heart was even more throbbing.

Just when she didn't know what to say, Baochai reached out and pinched Xiangyun's face. He said with a smile: "I don't burn incense on weekdays, but now I'm holding the Buddha's feet. I'm not afraid that the Buddha will laugh at you."

As he said that, he stretched himself out without caring about his appearance, and said: "Since Brother Jiao is back, let's all disperse and go back to our homes to have a good rest. I'm afraid there will be many programs on the Double Ninth Festival tomorrow.

"

Jia Baoyu withdrew his gaze from her chest and glanced at Daiyu secretly from the corner of his eye. He unconsciously felt that something was lost but something was gained.

When Xue Baoqin heard her cousin mention the Double Ninth Festival, she couldn't help but ask: "Brother Jiao will be here tomorrow, right?"

After asking, he added a superfluous sentence: "I just want to thank him in person!"

These words don't mean much at first, but in the ears of caring people, they have profound meaning.

Xue Baochai shook his head: "We have nothing to say about this. Maybe the Jiao family has other arrangements."

Bao Qin was a little disappointed and muttered a few words. Seeing that the sisters were getting up to leave, he had no choice but to follow them back to Xiaoxiang Pavilion.

She originally planned to go back to her room, but Lin Daiyu pulled her to the main room's bedroom and stuffed something into her hand without any explanation.

Xue Baoqin took a closer look and found that it was the sachet that he had given to Lin Daiyu a while ago, asking her to give it to Jiao Shun after she left. For this reason, Daiyu even made a special trip to help her get Jiao Shun's manuscript as a souvenir.

.

"Sister, what is this?"

"Since you want to thank him in person, why don't you just say it with empty words?"

"this……"

Xue Baoqin originally thought that it would be best to part ways and forget about each other forever, but now his heart is throbbing, and he is instigated by Lin Daiyu again, but he can't help but have the urge to express his displeasure.

Brother Jiao was almost framed for his own sake and was involved in the taboos of the Sejong Dynasty. If he didn't even have the courage to express his feelings, how could he deserve his kindness?

Thinking like this, I unconsciously pressed the sachet to my heart and walked around in a daze.

But unexpectedly, there was another crispy little hand on my heart.

"ah!"

Baoqin exclaimed, blushed and took half a step back, saying angrily: "What kind of monster is sister making?"

Lin Daiyu was amazed: "You are one year younger than me, unexpectedly..."

As he spoke, he pursed his lips and hesitated for a moment, then suddenly came forward and whispered something in Bao Qin's ear.

Bao Qin opened her beautiful eyes in surprise, then covered her mouth and said with a smile: "Sister, a fairy who doesn't eat fireworks, didn't expect that she also cares about this?"

"Do you have any idea? If not, you know how to make fun of people!"

Lin Daiyu became angry and turned her back to hide the embarrassment on her face.

Earlier in Qiu Shuangzhai, when Xue Baochai was stretching, she had seen Jia Baoyu's expressions and movements. Although she had endured it and never had an attack, she could not forget it in her heart.

As I thought about it carefully on the road, I was shocked to realize that I was far behind.

Needless to say, Xue Baochai, Yingchun and Xiangyun are both of the same flesh and blood, and Tanchun has been catching up recently. After all, only Xichun, the youngest, has not shown up.

At this time, Baoqin hugged Daiyu from behind and said with a smile: "I have heard of a folk remedy, which is..."

As he spoke, he also leaned into Daiyu's ear and whispered.

After hearing this, Lin Daiyu's already flushed face became even hotter. She pushed Bao Qin with her shoulder and said angrily: "Thank you for having the nerve to say it! Besides, the third sister has been growing hair so fast recently. Could it be that she was...

…Bah~ I’m embarrassed to say it!”

…………

Not to mention how they laugh and joke among themselves.

But he said that on the Double Ninth Festival, Jiao Shun originally wanted to stay at home with his parents and concubines to have a happy reunion, but he did not want Jia Lian to come to invite him in person. He also said that it was Jia Zheng's wish to invite Jiao Shun to the Grand View Garden for a banquet.

At first, Jiao Shun thought he had heard wrongly. Could it be that he still had no idea how much Jia Zheng had been rejecting him recently?

But when he arrived in the garden, Jia Zheng actually took the initiative to greet him. After a long time, he took him and talked about some family matters, and then asked him about yesterday's events in a roundabout way.

When Jiao Shun was promoted to engineering school, Jia Zheng was filled with jealousy and became more and more alienated from Jiao Shun.

But now that I heard that he single-handedly brought down the three officials of the Ministry of Rites, I immediately felt like a lion could not compete with him. Although I was still unhappy, I felt that it was best not to offend him.

.

Therefore, today I have specially adopted the posture of 'making peace between generals and prime ministers', hoping to restore the relationship between the two parties.

However, although he wanted to ease the relationship, the prejudice in his heart could not be easily reversed, so what he showed was the embarrassment of wanting to be friendly but unable to let go of his body.

He was awkward, and Jiao Shun was even more awkward.

After all, when I saw Jia Zheng's old face, I couldn't help but think of what happened in the woodshed that day.

They all say that people are good at being ridiculed, but they never thought that someone like him, who has been causing trouble for many years, would one day be ridiculed!

In fact, he does not object to women taking the initiative, but it is a gesture of initiative, not a strong control.

"Good nephew?"

Jiao Shun couldn't help but secretly grit his teeth. Jia Zheng, who was opposite him, immediately noticed his absent-mindedness. He tried hard to hold back his face, but his attitude was obviously a little colder.

"Uncle Shi, don't blame me."

Seeing this, Jiao Shun hurriedly said perfunctorily: "I came back from the palace at midnight last night and took care of two more family matters, so I didn't go to bed until late at night. It's inevitable that I'm a little nervous."

"I see."

Jia Zheng nodded slightly, not believing it at all, but said: "My dear nephew, I will have a few more drinks later and take a good rest."

Loosen quickly, most of the time it is necessary to relax quickly.

Every time there is a big event in the Rongguo Mansion, whether it is active or passive, someone has to relax and unwind - but now there are more and more women prostrating themselves under him, and there is a vague feeling of being unable to move away.

It's okay to be a little bit, they all know each other well.

Some of them are not easy to let each other know, which makes it difficult to coordinate.

At this time, he suddenly saw Jia Baoyu's personal servant poking his head outside. When Jia Zheng saw it, he couldn't help but shouted in a deep voice: "You unruly thing, what are you doing hiding your head and showing your tail?! Why don't you come in and answer!"

Seeing that he was caught, the boy had no choice but to report truthfully recently: "Second Master Bao and the two young masters of the Xue family have been waiting at the Champs Elysees for a long time, so I specially sent the young man here to inquire about when it would be convenient for Mr. Jiao to come there.

.”

"Hmph~"

Jia Zheng snorted coldly, waved his hand and said, "You go back and tell him that I will test his essay later, just let him wait with peace of mind!"

The boy went away with a sad face.

Jia Zheng hesitated for a moment and suddenly asked: "I heard that General Manager Lai wants to use your connections to find an official position for his son. What do you think of this?"

He mentioned this not to stand up for Lai, but because he saw that Jiao Shun was absent-minded, he wanted to use this opportunity to test Jiao Shun's current attitude towards Rongguo Mansion and himself.

"Is this..."

Because Jiao Shun was busy making trouble for Mei Hanlin recently, he didn't pay attention to this matter for a while. Now that Jia Zheng took the initiative to mention it, he immediately jumped up and said: "I should have asked Uncle Shi to give me instructions, so my nephew will do it as ordered -

—It’s just a coincidence that during the past two days, I was discussing with the emperor in the palace the preparations for the establishment of an engineering school, and I just had a rare opportunity to advance into it.”

"oh?"

Jia Zheng listened to the words in front of him, and unconsciously stroked his beard and nodded. He also heard that there was a rare step to enter the body, and subconsciously asked: "But I don't know what the step to enter the body is?"

"Uncle Shi must have heard that the Ministry of Accounts has always refused to allocate the funds needed to build the engineering school. The emperor's repeated orders have not been effective, so he thought of simply abandoning the Ministry of Accounts and raising funds on his own."

"Self-funded?"

Jia Zheng frowned when he heard this: "You mean donating money?"

"good."

Jiao Shun said: "When the yamen next door want to raise funds from the public, they either force them to allocate money, or they make loud noises and make little rain. But engineering and science are different. They are inseparable from industry and commerce. What's more, the imperial businessmen are now asking for donations."

Send the children in, now all we need is someone to pierce the window paper."

"Do you want the Lai family to take the lead?"

Jia Zheng's brows furrowed even more tightly: "His family is afraid that they may not dare to be in such limelight."

Jiao Shun cupped his hands slightly: "So I need Uncle Shi to nod."

After a pause, he added: "But since I have done this, Manager Lai's family will probably be better off than mine in the future. Otherwise, I don't know what kind of rumors will come out outside."

"Let the Lai family deregister?"

After hearing this, Jia Zheng's frown suddenly relaxed a lot.

In fact, he was dissatisfied with the Lai family's control of the family, especially the matter of secretly investigating the master a while ago. Unless the old lady had spoken, he might not be willing to turn the matter into a minor matter.

Now it is the Lai family who has taken the initiative to seek an official position. For this reason, resigning from the family can be regarded as a favor to seek benevolence, and the old lady should not be able to find fault.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that he had done it right.

only……

"Even if the Lai family is willing to come forward, the expenses for engineering studies are definitely not a small amount. How much are you prepared to ask him to donate?"

"not much."

Hearing this, Jiao Shun slowly stretched out three fingers.

"Three thousand taels?"

Jia Zheng was confused: "What can you do with such a small amount of money?"

Jiao Shun shook his head and corrected: "It's thirty thousand taels."

"Thirty thousand taels?"

Jia Zheng was taken aback, and immediately waved his hands: "His family has just built a garden. Although it is far inferior to this provincial residence, I am afraid that it has already added all the money he has saved over several lifetimes. You let him go out for three years?"

Even if I sell the house at a discount, I may not even be able to get it together."

"Ha ha!"

Jiao Shun laughed and said disapprovingly: "Uncle Shi is probably looking down on his family. How about you leave this matter to your nephew and see if he can take it out?"

After hearing this, Jia Zheng's face became increasingly suspicious. The Rongguo Mansion had already incurred a huge debt for building this Provincial Courtyard. How could this mean that the Lai family still had enough money to spare?
Chapter completed!