Red Mansion Jia Lan: Do you want to run away tonight to visit your relatives? Chapter 84: Qingwen, who holds the key, takes power and gets the good news of a bumper rice harvest
Chapter 84: Qingwen, who holds the key, takes power and gets the good news of a bumper rice harvest
But when Jia Lan returned to the small courtyard, the senior official greeted him with a smile. It was obvious that Qingwen was stunned immediately after seeing her.
Qingwen's eyebrows and eyes that resembled Daiyu's were constantly sizing up Ling Guan. During the confrontation between the two women, there seemed to be a sense of jealousy in the air.
Jialan laughed: "You two look like love rivals, you are so jealous."
As soon as he finished speaking, he received blank looks from both of them.
Qingwen said angrily: "Brother Lan, you are talking nonsense again! The girls next to you are listening. Madam is right, you really deserve a beating!"
However, Jia Lan's interruption immediately dispersed the vague feeling of rejection between Qingwen and Ling Guan. The two held hands, talked and laughed, and were very harmonious.
When the two had finished chatting, Jia Lan led Qingwen around the yard, told her some important matters, handed her the housekeeper's key for safekeeping, and then went straight out to the academy.
Seeing that Qingwen was willing to come, Jia Lan was also very happy. After all, there was a lack of someone in this small courtyard who could catch the boss. The senior official was too young and could not even take care of himself. He took two little girls with him.
It’s already hard enough, it’s better for Qingwen to take care of it.
Qingwen held the wooden box containing the key and was speechless for a moment. She felt that the small wooden box was heavy.
The senior officer on the side took a long breath: "It's great that Sister Qingwen took over the key. I can't eat well guarding this box these days, and no one is safe, for fear of something going wrong..."
After Qingwen heard this, her hand holding the wooden box tightened, remembering Jia Lan's words just now.
"I have nothing to use in this yard. You can take care of your daily expenses. If you want more than 30 taels, come and ask me."
Looking at Jia Lan's figure walking further and further outside the door, Qingwen's mood was very complicated. On the one hand, she was moved by Jia Lan's unconditional trust. On the other hand, she didn't say it on the surface, but Qingwen knew her feelings for Baoyu...
…
Jia Lan also understands Qingwen's complicated mood, but as the beneficiary of this matter, it is not convenient for him to speak out and he has no time to take care of both.
Entering May, the atmosphere in the academy has become tense, especially for the students in the above dormitory.
Jia Lan also studied day and night. Even Qingwen was as surprised as Ling Guan was when she saw it, and at the same time she also had some faint admiration for Jia Lan.
During these days, Baoyu had not inquired about Qingwen's whereabouts. He had also gone to Beizhuang on horseback to look for her. He was even more delighted when he learned that Qingwen was in the Jialan courtyard in Guancheng.
Thinking that Qingwen had not entered that dirty place in Beizhuang after all, Baoyu immediately returned to the capital and wanted to go to Jia Mu to beg for Qingwen's return.
Unexpectedly, Baoyu, who was full of confidence, actually hit a wall with Jia Mu.
It turns out that Li Wan had already told Jia Mu and Mrs. Wang to ask Qingwen to take care of Jia Lan's daily life.
Li Wan, who never made a request at the beginning, rarely raised it this time, and the two of them had nothing to do with it.
In fact, Mrs. Wang just wanted to send Qingwen away from Baoyu Courtyard, so naturally she would not offend Li Wan.
"Baoyu, Lan'er's rural examination is about to start. She really needs someone to take care of her. As an elder, you should be more considerate and give Qingwen to Lan'er.
Don't bother Lan'er either. Now is the critical moment. If you delay anything and I get angry, I may not be able to protect you."
Mother Jia's calm tone made Baoyu immediately confused. Is this the same ancestor who was always obedient to him?
Naturally, he heard the intransigence in Jia's mother's tone, and with the sharp sword hanging over Jia Zheng's head, Baoyu, who was afraid of trouble, could only leave Jia's mother's house in despair.
Looking deeply at Baoyu's back, Jia Mu sighed and said to the mandarin duck beside her: "I used to look at this girl Qingwen very well, but this time she suffered an unreasonable disaster, but I looked at Baoyu's love for this girl.
There are indeed some unusual thoughts, so it seems that what my wife did is not too wrong.
Baoyu will reach the age of discussing marriage in a few years, and it's time to clean up the house. Lan'er has a good saying, people like Li Gui must not stay with Baoyu!"
Yuanyang gently massaged Jia Mu and comforted her softly: "Don't be angry, old lady."
Jia Mu turned her head to look at Yuanyang and chuckled: "In this inner house, Xi Ren's girl is very good at taking care of it. She is enough, and there is no need to keep the rest... I'll wait for you later."
If you go over there, I’ll feel relieved about that old lady.”
Yuanyang understood what he heard and immediately blushed: "Ancestor, you live a long life, I will always serve you and I will not go anywhere!"
Jia Mu looked at the mandarin duck lovingly: "Silly girl, how can anyone live a long life? Now that even Lan'er is old enough to take the imperial examination, the old woman should make some plans early..."
Jia Lan in the academy didn't know what was going on in Rongguo Mansion. He became even busier after July.
However, what surprised Qingwen, Lingguan and others on this day was that Jia Lan did not read a book, but laughed hard while reading a letter in the study.
"Why is Brother Lan acting so weird today? He keeps laughing while holding a letter?" Qingwen asked curiously.
Jia Lan raised the letter in his hand and couldn't help laughing: "What great news! Ling Guan, please call Qin Shi and Ban'er to get some side dishes at Yunlai Inn. I want to have a good meal tonight."
Celebrate.”
Before long, a sumptuous meal was ready.
Qingwen gave Jia Lan a bowl and served the food: "Brother Lan, you don't need to hold back anymore now, right?"
Jia Lan took a delicious bite of the roasted pork skin, and the lard oozed out from the corners of his mouth. Qingwen quickly raised her sleeves to wipe his mouth, but Jia Lan ducked her head and wiped it with her hand. "Don't bother, it's a nice-looking dress, but it won't be easy to wash if it's stained with grease."
Jia Lan's words warmed Qingwen's heart. She didn't urge him to speak, and just asked him to eat slowly.
After eating a few more bites of food, Jia Lan revealed the reason why he was so happy today.
It turns out that this year’s rice harvest was bumper, and both Beizhuang and Daoxiang Village had bumper harvests.
Why is Jia Lan so happy about this year's harvest? It's all because this year's trial planting is the famous rouge rice in the original novel.
This is a kind of red rice, which is called Oden Rouge Rice because of its plump taste, fragrant smell, reddish color, and long grains. When cooked, it turns red like rouge. It is "reddish in color with long grains, fragrant and plump taste".
It is recorded in the original work that among the annual tribute sent by Wu Jinxiao to the Ningguo Mansion, there were one thousand shi of regular rice, but only two shi of Yutian Rouge rice.
This shows the preciousness of rouge rice.
Later, when the Jia family declined, even this kind of rouge rice was no longer enough, and the owners could only eat white japonica rice eaten by big girls like Yuanyang.
Jia Lan had his first bumper harvest since Beizhuang last year, and after storing some grain in the warehouse, he had the confidence to start trying to improve and introduce this kind of rouge rice.
Grain seeds are easy to find. After all, this rouge rice is also grown in Zhuangzi in Liaodong, Jia Mansion. Taking Jia Qiang to visit the village, Jia Lan asked Master Zhao who was accompanying him to pay attention to it and sent a lot of seeds to be preserved by Haosheng, an old farmer in Beizhuang.
Later, one hundred acres of paddy fields were allocated for planting in Beizhuang.
Because experienced farmers from Liaodong Village were invited to communicate in advance, the introduction was a great success. We received about three and a half stones of rouge rice per mu. Although there was still a loss of threshing afterwards, we could not escape the loss of two stones per mu.
It fell.
The price of rice has been rising in recent years. In places like Jinling and other places, 100 meters of high-quality rice sells for one, two, two, three yuan per stone. This rouge rice is even more expensive and has no market. It can be sold for four or five liang per stone.
Two hundred stones of rouge rice can be sold for a thousand taels.
If one thousand acres of paddy fields in Beizhuang were planted with rouge rice, wouldn't it be possible to earn ten thousand taels a year?