Fast forward to the third day of September, the day when Prince Tengfa was mourned and buried.

Early that morning, Jiao rushed to the Taiwei Mansion alone from Taohua Lane.

In fact, Laiwang and Xu were originally planning to come to see their old master off. After all, they grew up in the royal family, and their affection for Taiwei's Mansion was much greater than that of Rongguo Mansion.

It's just that when they came to express their condolences a while ago, they always felt that the atmosphere was neither awkward nor embarrassing, especially when they met their old friends, the way they deliberately tried to please and flatter them made Lai Wang and Xu feel uncomfortable.

Therefore, after returning home, he changed his mind and never mentioned the funeral in person. He only asked his son to help bring a memorial ceremony.

It was almost as expected. Even on the day of the funeral, there were still not many relatives and friends who came over. At least when Jiao Shun arrived, most of the greeters in front of the door were still idle.

Although there have been a lot of negative rumors about him recently, Jiao Shun is undoubtedly one of the most distinguished guests at this funeral, so as soon as he got off the car, seven or eight people came up to him with laughter, and two others hurriedly ran in

The house is full of information.

Not long after, Wang Ren, Jia Lian and Jia Baoyu came out to greet them.

Wang Ren looked sad, and even sighed when he saw Jiao Shun.

He originally pointed to Concubine Xian De and Jiao Shun to lend a helping hand in order to completely free himself from his father's trap.

As a result, first he learned the truth about his cousin's participation in politics from his aunt, and then Jiao Shun fell into the scandal of falling out of favor. Naturally, all his expectations were in vain.

Jia Lian, on the other hand, had a face full of joy. When he met Jiao, he joked: "Brother Shun, I heard that during the court meeting on the first day of the new year, you were listless and confused in the main hall of Qianqing Palace, and you were almost impeached for your misconduct in front of me. I don't know why.

real?"

Jiao Shun spread his hands and said helplessly: "My little brother is indeed a little energetic that day, but it won't be said to be unbecoming before you, right?"

Jia Lian's smile became more and more difficult to hide, and he thought that Jiao Shun must have been so badly beaten that he made a fool of himself at the court meeting.

Ever since Wang Xifeng openly cheated on his wife, he had been swallowing his anger for so many days, and now he had finally taken revenge. Although this arrow was not from his Second Master Lian, as long as he could see Jiao Shun, this little slave, being defeated,

Why should we care whether we avenged ourselves personally?

Jia Baoyu shook his head and said: "Things in officialdom really change at a moment's notice. It is said that being with a king is like being with a tiger."

After a pause, he said sincerely: "I can't do anything to help my brother. I happened to copy a copy of the Lengyan Sutra recently. I'll have someone deliver it to my brother's house tomorrow. I think it's just to pray for him to eliminate misfortune."

Seeing that these three people were either feeling sorry for themselves, or gloating about their misfortune, or full of sympathy, but they all agreed that their own decline was obvious, Jiao Shun felt confused for a moment.

The reason why he was in low spirits that day was entirely due to the fact that Aunt Xue used a secret code to invite him to a private meeting at his home the night before.

Aunt Xue also heard about it, so she hurriedly came to him to comfort him.

She was already very attentive, and Jiao Shun was always a master of pushing the limits, so he coaxed her to vent out in the yard on the pretext of being under too much pressure.

Later, the two slept together in the small courtyard, and they didn't go to bed until late at night. They said goodbye early in the morning and had a little encore. This caused him to be out of state during the whole meeting, and as a result, it was reported that he

There are rumors that he was forced by the New Confucianism to have trouble sleeping day and night and became haggard.

However, what the outside world didn't know was that after the meeting, the emperor summoned Jiao Shun alone and assured him repeatedly that the introduction of the New Confucian school was just to unite all forces that could be united, and by the way, let them share the firepower for Gong Xue.

As for making excuses, it is completely nonsense to replace him with the work and study offering wine. From now on, the work and study must be left to him to lead, so that the emperor can rest assured.

What else could Jiao Shun say after hearing this?

Naturally, I can only burst into tears of gratitude, and promise to cooperate sincerely with the New Confucians to contribute to the emperor's grand cause. Anyway, no matter how sincere each other is, this time it is definitely worthy of the title of "the king and his ministers get along well" on the surface. Character.

But there was no need for him to explain these things to Wang Ren.

So I casually made a fuss and got over it, and then accompanied by three people, I went to the mourning hall to burn incense.

Originally, they were similar in age, so after the incense was finished, it seemed that it was Jia Lian, and Baoyu accompanied him. However, Jia Zheng was worried that Jia Lian would get carried away, so he left Jiao Shun by his side to talk around.

After a while, Wang Ziteng's wife also brought her daughter out to greet her. As soon as they met, Jiao noticed that Wang Ziteng's wife had a look of anger on her face, and Wang Xining's eyes were red and swollen. It was obvious that she had just cried.

It would have been perfectly normal for her father to shed tears on the day of his funeral, but there was something strange about the angry look on Wang Ziteng's wife's face.

So when Li Wan and Tan Chun helped the mother and daughter back to the inner room, Jiao asked in a roundabout way.

"Alas~"

Jia Zheng sighed and said helplessly: "Actually, at the beginning of the year, the Wang family had already exchanged horoscopes with the Baoning Houfu, and even the engagement date had been chosen, but... the Baoning Houfu never mentioned it again. Regarding this matter, I simply sent the second girl’s posthumous invitation back yesterday under the pretext of delivering a memorial ceremony.”

[Note: The fact that Wang Ziteng married his daughter to the son of Marquis Baoning was clearly mentioned in Chapter 70 of the original book. One version said that he married his niece, but most of them said he married his daughter. Unless the character Wang Xining was My whole work is original, so it would be too unfair.】

When Jiao Shun heard that the engagement was broken off again, he couldn't help but shake his head and lamented the deterioration of the world - counting on his fingers, he had witnessed three divorces in just one or two years.

By the way...

I haven't seen Bao Qin for a while recently.

Just as he was thinking about something, Wang Ren welcomed Jia Rong in again.

While Jia Rong insisted that her father was unwell, so she could only represent Ningguo Mansion with full authority, she couldn't help but glance at Jiao Shun secretly.

Recently, he heard the news that Jiao Shun had fallen out of favor, and he felt sad and happy at the same time. Once Jiao Shun was no longer behind the happy news, Brother Xiong would not have anything to worry about. Moreover, his stepmother You Shi was also worried. Maybe there is no chance to get a piece of the pie - since having a son, Youshi has become more and more lively and nourished. She used to be only 70-80% beautiful, but now she has 100% charm. It is no wonder that Jia Rong has evil intentions.

But without Jiao Shun as a backer, it would be difficult for the Ningguo Mansion to make a fortune quietly.

Especially since I had just placed a 'heavy bet' on him, and now it has not yielded results. I have to lose everything first, but how can anyone be happy?

So after the condolence process was completed, Jia Rong couldn't wait to squeeze in beside Jiao Shun. She tried her best to smile and said, "My nephew has seen my uncle. I wonder if he is okay recently?"

Jiao Shun had already seen what he was thinking. He lowered his voice and said with a smile: "Thanks to you, I can eat and sleep. As for how you eat and sleep, you don't need to ask me. You can ask your wife when you get back."

after all."

Jia Rong felt embarrassed when he heard him teasing her.

In fact, in the past, he could have done it in vain, since he was such a shameless master anyway.

But the problem is that the current Jiao Shun seems to be no longer the same Jiao Shun he used to be. If he is allowed to do what he wants, he will always feel that he is losing money.

"Uncle is joking, joking."

In the end, he could only reply sarcastically, and then cursed in his heart that Jiao Shun would never recover. By then, he would not only be the You family, but also the Second Sister You and the Third Sister You.

Thinking about it this way, he felt more and more that Jiao Shun would be better off completely losing power.

The words are divided into two parts.

The men gathered in the mourning hall to talk, and the women gathered in small groups in the side hall and whispered to each other.

But Xue Baochai originally thought that after his uncle had finished paying his funeral, he would let his mother recover for two days, and then ask her to go to the Jiao family to inquire about the news.

But now that he saw Jiao Shun in the front hall, he couldn't hold himself back, so he secretly and openly encouraged Tanchun to ask for more information.

However, Tanchun reasoned that he had absolute confidence in Jiao Shun. Even if he didn't ask, he knew that the rumors outside could not be believed. In fact, he had already contacted Jiao Shun and waited until the fifth day of September to send Yingchun to the temple.

It's not too late to lie down and get to the bottom of it.

Tan Chun hit a soft spot here, and Xue Baochai was worried that showing too much attention would cause misunderstandings from others, so she had to suppress the matter for the time being.

At this moment, Jia Baoyu walked in with his eyes straightened and muttering something in his mouth. He saw several elders in the room who didn't know how to salute.

Seeing this, Xue Baochai thought that he had been fascinated by some Buddhist and Zen principles, and stepped forward to persuade him to give a few words. However, he was getting married next month, so logically, the two of them should avoid it.

So I had no choice but to turn my attention to Mrs. Wang.

When Mrs. Wang saw her son acting like this in front of everyone, she felt a little embarrassed on her face, so she scolded her in a deep voice: "You kid, no matter how sad you are for your uncle, you still..."

Unexpectedly, before the mending was completed, Jia Baoyu, who had just sat down, suddenly jumped up again. First, he grabbed Tanchun who was closest to him, sniffed her like a puppy, then shook his head and let Tanchun go.

Walked towards Baochai.

"You, what do you do?"

Xue Baochai took two steps back in embarrassment, only to see Jia Baoyu flap his hands in front of him a few times, then shook his head again and murmured: "It's not Sister Bao, then this smell..."

"Why is your child so hysterical?"

Mrs. Wang was completely annoyed this time. She didn't care to cover up for her son anymore. She stood up and angrily shouted: "In front of your aunt and sister, how dare you..."

"I see!"

However, before she could finish speaking, Jia Baoyu roared excitedly, which shocked everyone. However, they saw him get into his fist and excitedly said: "It smells like Sister Lin. Although there are some changes, it should be

It’s just the taste of Sister Lin! Sister Lin, Sister Lin!”

As he spoke, he rushed out yelling.

Everyone looked at each other at a loss, and finally Tanchun was the first to say: "Quickly stop the second brother, don't let him disturb the mourning hall!"

Everyone woke up as if from a dream, and quickly chased him out.

When they got outside, they saw Jia Baoyu running towards the front yard like crazy. Mrs. Wang didn't care about her decency and chased her while shouting. With great difficulty, someone stopped Jia Baoyu in the hallway between the two doors.

When everyone came up to him panting, he was still shouting "Sister Lin, Sister Lin".

Mrs. Wang looked at the expressions of Aunt Xue and Baochai next to her, gritted her teeth, stepped forward and slapped her face with her hands, and cursed: "Evil! You are so crazy that this happened for no reason. How can there be Sister Lin here?!"

Baoyu covered her cheek and was stunned for a while, then said weakly: "I, I did smell the smell of Sister Lin just now. Although, although it is not the same as before, it should be the smell of Sister Lin!"

Seeing that he was still talking about "Sister Lin", Mrs. Wang was furious and raised her hand to greet him again, but was stopped by Wang Ziteng's wife.

Wang Ziteng's wife coaxed a child and said to Baoyu: "Baoyu, are you mistaken? I heard that Miss Lin has returned to her hometown in Suzhou. How can the smell of her body appear in our house?"

"this……"

After this reminder, Jia Baoyu finally calmed down, but then he raised an objection: "But it has been so long, and there is still no news from Suzhou. Maybe Sister Lin has not left at all, and

Or, or her, her..."
To be continued...