The Famous Detective of the Red Mansion

Chapter 394: Unworthy of Being Whipped and Punished in Various Ways

In fact, in recent days, because Jia Baoyu has made great progress, Jia Zheng has rarely scolded him. How could this long-standing inertia easily be dissipated?

Therefore, upon hearing that his father had called him to visit the Rongxi Hall, Jia Baoyu's baby face immediately collapsed.

With his collapsed face, he rushed outside, asking the woman who was passing the message, "I wonder who is the distinguished guest that father wanted me to accompany.”

Before the woman could reply, he couldn't help but speculate recklessly, "Isn't Jia Yucun from Xinglong Street here again?”

The woman hurriedly said, "This time it's not Magistrate Jia, but a strange face. I heard that he came to our house and directly asked to see you.”

“Strange face?”

Jia Baoyu was confused, but since he was asked to see him directly, it was impossible not to go.

So he turned back to the lotus root pavilion and apologized to Sun Shaozong and Yu Qian, saying, "Unfortunately, a guest suddenly came to the mansion and asked to see me. I'm afraid I'll have to temporarily excuse myself, so please forgive me.”

As he spoke, he urged Jia Lan to prepare for the school entrance examination and rushed to Rongxi Hall without hesitation.

As soon as Baoyu left, others only paid off, but it made Li Wan very anxious. As a widowed housewife, it was inconvenient to meet an outsider, so she specifically entrusted Jia Baoyu to take care of her son.

Who knew this Little Uncle was so unreliable?!

Thinking that her son was now isolated and without a serious elder to accompany him, she hurriedly turned around, hoping to stick on her beard and pretend to be a man, so that she could replace Baoyu outside.

Upon seeing this, Lin Daiyu quickly comforted her and said, "Don't panic, sister-in-law. Since the guest was attended by the Old Second Uncle, it’s definitely not a friend of Brother Bao. He should come back just by saying a few words.”

As she spoke, she instructed Zijuan, "Go out the back door and wait near the Rongxi Hall. If Brother Bao comes out, urge him to come back as soon as possible. So he won’t miss out on the important matter of Brother Lan's apprenticeship.”

Seeing Zijuan hurriedly leaving, Li Wan listened attentively for a while and found that although her son didn't answer very fluently outside, at least his words were quite appropriate, without any hint of panic. Her heart gradually breathed a sigh of relief.

Listening to Yu Qian's progress in the exam and some insightful questions, he suddenly fell silent.

Li Wan knew that it was a critical moment, and her heart was pounding wildly with panic. She couldn't help but grip half of her chest and was pinching hard with pain. Suddenly, she saw Zijuan go back and forth. She panicked outside and exclaimed, "Lady, Lady! Something big has happened; I don't know why the Old Second Uncle wanted to beat Second Brother Bao.”

Upon hearing this, the women in the water pavilion suddenly became uproarious. Apart from Li Wan, who else cared about Jia Lan?

They were all busy rushing out, asking questions with all their tongues.

It turned out that when Baoyu arrived at the Rongxi Hall, he saw a thin and tall fifth-grade official sitting at the top with his father accompanying him, his eyebrows cold and his eyes extremely disdainful.

Anyway, Jia Zheng was also the biological father of the Imperial Concubine, and he could barely call himself the ”father-in-law” of the Emperor. How could a mere fifth-grade official dare to be so rude in front of him?

Jia Baoyu was puzzled when he saw Jia Zheng jump up and scold fiercely, "Damn you servant! Why aren’t you studying at home? How can you do these lawless things again? Since Qi Guan is someone who was favored by Prince Zhongshun, how can you provoke him out without reason and not go home for six or seven days?”

It turned out that the thin fifth-grade official was not someone else, it was Zhou Mo, the chief historian of Prince Zhongshun's Residence.

After Jiang Yuhan returned to the residence that day, he argued with Prince Zhongshun, and in the end, he flew away without a trace for six or seven days.

Prince Zhongshun was furious and ordered Zhou Mo to do whatever it took to find Jiang Yuhan and bring him back to the residence for punishment.

Zhou Mo often sent people to spy on Jiang Yuhan's secret affairs, so he knew that he was closest to Jia Baoyu. Therefore, he received the Royal Decree and, without hesitation, found the Rongguo Mansion.

But when Jia Baoyu saw his father's fiery appearance, he immediately became weak in fright. Fortunately, he had gained courage recently, so he didn't cry out loud. He only repeatedly exclaimed, "Please be clear, Father, I just met Qi Guan by chance and didn't have much friendship. Recently, I have been busy at home with the poetry club, and we haven't seen each other for a long time. How can you say that I ”provoke” him?”

Seeing him pushing all the blame away before Jia Zheng could speak, Zhou Mo sneered and said, "Young Master, there's no need to hide it. You can either hide it at home or know its whereabouts. You can tell us now. We'll have less trouble and naturally appreciate your help.”

Jia Baoyu still said that he didn't know.

Zhou Mo sneered again and said, "If I don't have real evidence, how dare I find the mansion? It's just that I didn't want to say those shameless things in front of an old man, but now, I have no choice but to say it.”

As he spoke, his gaze fell on Jia Baoyu's waist, and he said, "Since we met by chance and didn't have many friendships, how did the red sweat scarf that the Prince rewarded the Qi Guan reach your waist?”

Jia Baoyu was struck by lightning at that time, and his soul was completely shattered. He secretly said to himself, Since he knows such a confidential matter, I probably can't hide anything else from him.

And Prince Zhongshun doted on Jiang Yuhan the most. He would never deal with Jiang Yuhan heavily because he hasn't returned for a few days. It was better to send away Lord Zhou first so that he wouldn't have to say anything else, let alone explain it to his father!

Thinking of this, Jia Baoyu hesitated and said, "Since Your Excellency even knows such secrets, how could you not know that Qi Guan had built a purple sandalwood castle twenty miles away from the city in the eastern suburbs, where he had his farmland and houses? Since he hadn't returned for many days, he might have lived in this purple sandalwood castle.”

After listening to this, Zhou Mo sneered several times before bowing to Jia Zheng and saying, "Since you have said so, I believe that Qi Guan must have been there. I shall take people to go look for it. If he is there, then it’s fine. However, if I don't find him, I'm afraid I will have to come to the mansion for advice again.”

As he spoke, he hurriedly left.

Jia Zheng was already furious when he heard that Baoyu had unknowingly provoked the forbidden domain of Prince Huaiyang. Now that he had heard that he was still shameless and had exchanged some red sweat scarf with others, his eyes were crooked and his mouth was tilted in anger.

He should know that since he went through the Heavenly Hound case, the most taboo thing he has been avoiding was this male affair!

Therefore, while escorting Zhou Mo out, he turned around and ordered Baoyu to stay in the hall.

Upon hearing his command, Baoyu guessed that the situation was ominous today. He was wandering around the hall like a hotpot ant when he suddenly saw Zijuan peeking around in the courtyard. Thus, he grabbed Zijuan's wrist like holding a treasure and repeatedly begged, "Sister, save me, Sister, save me! The Old Second Master wants to kill me.”

Without waiting to elaborate, Jia Zheng's bookboy walked in and inexplicably urged Baoyu to meet the Old Second Master in the front flower hall, fearing that he might dirty the plaque of Rongxi Hall.

Seeing Jia Baoyu as if about to go to the execution ground, slowly shifting out step by step, Zijuan naturally didn’t dare to neglect and rushed back to report as if she were busy flying.

When they heard that Baoyu asked for help, the ladies became a mess. Some said they would go to find Old Madam Wang to make decisions; others said they would ask Old Lady Jia to save him. But where could they make up their minds at the moment?

Finally, Xue Baochai stood up and unquestionably ordered, "According to Zijuan's description just now, Brother Bao may have caused some big trouble. At the moment, we can't care much about it. Tanchun and Xichun, you two go report to the aunt [Old Madam Wang]; Sister Lin and Sister Yun, let's go to the Old Lady's place.”

Everyone else agreed, but Lin Daiyu shook her head and said, "If we continue to delay finding help, I don't know how badly he will be beaten.”

As she spoke, she lifted the curtain and went to the outer room, giving Sun Shaozong a greeting. She said, "Brother Sun, you must have heard a lot of our discussions just now. Your Second Uncle usually praises you the most. Please go over and help persuade him first, so that he won't be beaten up.”

Great~

Originally, he just wanted to help his ”Cheap Son” find a good teacher, but unexpectedly, by chance, he bumped into the household matters of Rongguo Mansion. How could there be more miscellaneous things in Rongguo Mansion than on the stage?!

According to his original intention, Sun Shaozong really didn't want to get involved in the private affairs between Jia Zheng and his son. However, the pitiful greetings of Sister Lin forced him to go, which was not that he was cherishing such beauty begging. It was that there was no suitable reason to refuse.

So he had to pretend to agree with emotion and said sternly, "Don't worry, Lady Lin. Since it's Brother Bao who's in trouble, I, as an Older Brother, can't just sit back and ignore. I'll go over and see why this happened.”

He spoke of generosity, but in reality, he only said to ”take a look” without promising to manage it.

After speaking, Sun Shaozong hurriedly rushed out of the water pavilion and headed straight for Rongxi Hall.

Sun Shaozong hurried to the Rongxi Hall and heard Jia Zheng's roar from the flower hall on the west side. "After the storm last year, I thought you had made progress, but I didn't think you had really made ”progress.” It turned out to be your ability to cause trouble!"

“What kind of person is Prince Zhongshun? His favorite male entertainer, how dare you... How dare you…”

Tch!

Originally, he only thought about Liu Xianglian and Jiang Yuhan getting too close, but for a moment, he forgot about Jia Baoyu.

Moreover, compared to Liu Xianglian, the ambiguous relationship between Jia Baoyu and Jiang Yuhan truly touched the taboo of the royal family. Although Prince Zhongshun was not stingy in sharing beauty with others, he voluntarily rewarded it. If others were to spy on his forbidden territory without reason, how could he be willing to comply?

Now, using the excuse of Jiang Yuhan's mistake to find Baoyu, it was not considered unfair to him.

With this thought in mind, Sun Shaozong had already arrived at the entrance of the flower hall and looked inside. He saw Jia Zheng snatched over the water and fire stick as he saw that the two young servants were not hitting hard enough. Gritting his teeth, he hit Baoyu's buttocks heavily with a stick!

“Ah!”

Baoyu immediately let out a scream and cockfighting also raised his neck high.

Upon seeing this, Sun Shaozong took a step and wanted to go in and dissuade him.

But on second thought, he realized that Jia Baoyu also owed some lessons, and if he could take the opportunity to correct his sexual orientation, it would be a good thing.

Therefore, Sun Shaozong stopped and sat down to see Baoyu being beaten seven or eight times in a row.

The disciples of Jia Zheng in the room, seeing that he had been beaten hard, rushed forward to persuade him.

Jia Zheng, however, refused to listen. He kept scolding, "Ask him if his activities can be forgiven or not! It was always you who spoiled him and came here to persuade on behalf of him. Must he be spoiled to kill the king and father tomorrow so that you won't intercede for him?”

Upon hearing this, everyone knew that Jia Zheng was in a hurry, so they didn’t dare to persuade him anymore. Instead, they silently wanted to move and ask for help.

At this moment, Sun Shaozong saw that he had beaten Baoyu more than a dozen sticks, so he strode inside and reached out to protect him. He knowingly asked, "Uncle is lenient, but I don't know what great trouble Brother Bao has caused; how could you be so merciless?”

Those disciples were just paying off. After all, Sun Shaozong was a guest and a well-known official in the officialdom. Although Jia Zheng was full of anger, it was not easy to vent his anger on him.

He had to explain it in detail but was too shy to say it.

So Jia Zheng gritted his teeth and said, "Dear nephew, don't ask too much. I gave birth to this little beast, and even if I killed him today, it's none of your business.”

As he spoke, he lifted the water and fire stick and aimed it at Baoyu's head, smashing it down!