Red Mansion and Crimson Pearl

Chapter 294 When the fake is true, the truth is also false

Two more days passed.

A few lines of a song that had been circulating in Yingtian Prefecture for more than a decade suddenly became popular again:

"Jia is not fake, white jade is used for the hall and gold is used for the horse;

"The Afang Palace, three hundred li in area, could not accommodate even one historian from Jinling.

"The East Sea lacks a white jade bed, so the Dragon King comes to ask for the King of Jinling;

“In a good year, there is heavy snow (Xue), pearls are like dirt and gold is like iron;

"In the forest of meat, the pool of wine, and the bag of heaven and earth, being a man in Jiangnan must be serious (Zhen)!"

People on the street found it strange. Firstly, the song originally had four lines, but suddenly there was one more line. Secondly, the song had been popular for several years, and people were too lazy to sing it anymore, so why did it become popular again?

Someone then explained surreptitiously that the Jia family had robbed their relatives of their money, and that since they failed to get the money from their son-in-law, the Lin family, they bullied the Lin family's daughter. The Empress Dowager administered justice, and as a result, we have the current Princess Zhaoqing.

It is also said that the Wang family made their money from the maritime taxes collected by the imperial court when they were in charge of maritime affairs; and that they are still so wealthy now because they are in charge of the nine frontiers, and therefore plunder the military pay.

Besides, the Shi family became rich in the past because they had accumulated a lot of land. Now their descendants are unfilial and have sold all the land. Not only are they poor, but they are also fighting among themselves.

The little girl who was left behind in the eldest son's family was like someone with a stepmother. She didn't have enough food to eat or warm clothes to wear, and she almost went blind from working so hard every day.

The Xue family tried to curry favor with the Jia family and the Wang family, but when they became poor and had no one left to curry favor with, they began to plan for their children's marriages.

The most powerful one is the Zhen family, which is richer than the other four families combined! In the past, anyone who wanted to gain a foothold in Jiangnan had to come to the Zhen family to worship! Anyone who offended this family would be killed without a burial place!

The Zhen family was in a fierce internal struggle between the legitimate and illegitimate children. The eldest illegitimate daughter died suddenly; the third illegitimate daughter married an insignificant doctor of the Ministry of Rites in the capital, and she has not made any progress in recent years; the youngest illegitimate daughter married Governor Ding, who was just a poor scholar with no background.

The third illegitimate son died young, the fourth illegitimate son died young, and the youngest illegitimate son, the eldest illegitimate daughter's brother, disappeared on the night the eldest illegitimate daughter died suddenly - who knows if he died or escaped? !

Now the Zhen family is extremely jealous of their young son-in-law's good life, and they are thinking about exploiting him every day, and so on.

No matter how funny the jokes about the wealthy families in the distant capital are, they are not as exciting as the scandals of the rich people around you!

These half-true and half-false rumors spread throughout the entire Jinling City in just a day or two!

As for how Jia Rong from the Jia family died? Who cares to know?!

No one knew where the rumor started, but as it spread, someone suddenly asked, "Doesn't the Jia family hate Princess Zhaoqing to death?"

Someone came to his senses and slapped his thigh, "That's right! Princess Zhaoqing's biological father, Mr. Lin, the Salt Tax Officer, doesn't give face to the Zhen family, right?

"He later died in office, leaving behind his wife and children. He only had a little girl, who was quickly sent to the Jia family in the capital."

Someone else was busy showing off that he also knew: "Later, when Princess Lin came back to attend the funeral, the Jia family wanted to rob the Lin family of their money, but Princess Lin was smart, so they didn't get it!"

"Oh oh oh!" Someone suddenly realized, "Otherwise why does the Jia family dislike his third daughter, oh no, they dislike Princess Yimin!

"This Yimin County Lady always supports Princess Lin instead of her relatives!"

After a while, everyone's discussions and imaginations helped to piece together the truth.

The rumors in the city gradually changed direction.

Immediately afterwards, before the Northern King started to control the flood, he took a lot of donations from the homes of the princes in the capital, and also took silver from the imperial treasury.

As a result, when they came to the south of the Yangtze River, they lived an extremely extravagant life and only spent half of the money on the people and flood relief, and the rest was taken by themselves.

Such news exploded and swept across the entire Jinling city overnight!

Not only that, it even included details about how Prince Beijing wanted to take the orphan of a meritorious official as his concubine in the capital and even sought the Emperor's decree to grant the marriage. These details were actually revealed!

People in the whole city were excitedly discussing this romantic news!

After only half a day of spreading, even the number of women in the backyard of Prince Beijing's residence in the capital city had appeared in full force!

"It is said that the King of the North has one principal wife, one concubine, seventeen concubines with names on the list, twenty-eight concubines without names, and sixty-six women of all kinds, including those who sing songs, serve at gambling games, and drink and play games!"

Aunt Meng's eyes widened. She sat beside the empress dowager and gestured, "Looking at the looks of the storyteller and the audience, I'm afraid they all believe it!"

The Queen Mother counted on her fingers and nodded: "I'm afraid this number is about right."

Aunt Meng looked out from behind at the two young ladies who were whispering to each other, and said to the Queen Mother with a worried look on her face:

"If the princess and the county master heard these nonsense, wouldn't they be so angry that they die?"

The Queen Mother looked at her like she was a fool: "Who do you think spread these nonsense?!"

The camp also received the news.

Just as the Supreme was feeling unhappy, a report came in from outside: "Zhen Xun, the president of Ti-Ren Yuan and the imperial envoy of Jinling Province, requests an audience!"

Tai Shang frowned: "What is he doing here?"

Dai Quan couldn't hold back and burst out laughing.

The Supreme glared at him.

Dai Quan knelt down hurriedly, but still couldn't help laughing: "I think this rumor is 70% to 80% true, the Zhen family is anxious, and they hurried over to apologize or file a complaint!"

The Supreme Emperor sighed and waved his hand to tell the outsider, "Tell him to go home and be quiet, don't cause any trouble for me!"

Zhen Xun walked away unhappily, looking back every three steps.

The Supreme was sulking in the tent.

Outside, Feng Tang and Ding Mingyi laughed out loud, gloating over the other's misfortune.

When Dai Quan heard the two men laughing so wildly and saw that Tai Shang's face was almost as black as the bottom of a pot, he hurried out to stop them.

Unexpectedly, the Supreme did not let him go. Instead, he took the last piece of rumor and asked him in a low voice, "How much of this do you think is true?"

Dai Quan took one look and was immediately shocked.

This last picture is a strange thing that just happened this afternoon. It is a storytelling. It pieced together all the stories of emperors' uncles, relatives, and important ministers who usurped the throne in all dynasties and turned it into a completely made-up story.

But the emperor's uncle was just as greedy for the credit as the emperor had hoped. He took all the credit for other people's achievements and even made up bad things about the emperor among the people, saying that he was licentious and immoral, and that he was cowardly and incompetent.

Dai Quan sighed softly and whispered, "Although this may not be the work of Princess Zhaoqing, it must be someone who knows the inside story who came to advise.

"This story is not just for fun, it's written for you! It's exactly the same as the rumors circulating on the coast!"

The Supreme Emperor nodded slightly and said in a deep voice: "In the past two years, I heard that Prince Yu was really domineering and the emperor was constrained by him in many ways.

"He who used to be so distant from the royal family and hated the four princes, actually began to employ the Northern Prince and listen to the recommendations of the Zhongshun Prince in order to avoid the officials of the Prince Yu faction..."

The Supreme Lord was confused, "Am I being too harsh on my son?"