Chapter 746: Why Do Love and Hatred Stick to the Body?

Love Shenjing, Qingyu Fang, Xia Prefecture.

An inner courtyard two-story exquisite building, with carved beams and painted rafters, and flying eaves, bright and magnificent.

The door was hung with large red woven gold tribute satin warm curtains, and inside was a purple sandalwood half-moon cave door, hanging with ginger-yellow gold-traced auspicious cloud curtains.

The furniture and utensils in the room were luxurious and exquisite, and the antiques and ornaments displayed everywhere were dazzling and shining.

Every object in the boudoir was not a vulgar product, reaching the extreme of magnificence and splendor, making people dazzled and admiring, but it lacked a sense of elegance and grace.

Xia Gu Niang was leaning on a lounge chair, wearing a light blue floral embroidered cross-collar jacket, a yellow-edged stand-collar jacket, and an ivory-colored embroidered horse-face skirt.

Beside the lounge chair was a purple copper fortune, prosperity, and longevity hollow incense burner, spitting out warm breath, baking the boudoir into a warm piece.

Xia Gu Niang's expression was a bit lazy, her figure was graceful, her beauty was tempting, and she was holding a book in her hand to read.

On the cover of the book were the words *Analects*, and on the tea table beside the chair were classics such as *Great Learning* and *Doctrine of the Mean*.

These were the foundational classics for scholars to study and take exams, and their appearance in this wealthy and luxurious daughter's boudoir was not very harmonious.

Coupled with Xia Gu Niang's arrogant and domineering temperament, reading these sage classics of guidance and self-cultivation seemed a bit absurd, strange, and ridiculous.

On the corridor outside the room, there were hurried footsteps, and Baochan pushed the door curtain in, panting.

Seeing her young lady reading, the words that had just reached her lips were swallowed back, hesitating whether to speak.

Ever since she provoked Baoyu and had a spring breeze in that half-mud room in the Jia family, she had been thinking about him ever since.

She had grown up in the inner chambers of the Xia family all her life and had never seen any outstanding men. At first sight of Baoyu's appearance, she naturally felt that he was rare in the world.

Not only was his status noble, his appearance handsome, his mouth sweet, he could make her heart itch and happy, and he could do things, making people feel so comfortable that they would die...

After returning from the Jia family that time, Baochan could not forget Baoyu for a day. After a lot of twists and turns, her young lady finally agreed to the marriage with Baoyu.

From the day the two were engaged, this little maid in the inner courtyard was full of longing and yearning for the future.

She always thought about marrying into the Jia family with her young lady, so she could steal some romantic pleasure from her young lady's side, and if she could have another soul-stirring time like in the half-mud room, she would die for it.

It was just that things were not that simple. Since the engagement, her young lady had become more and more obsessed.

Baoyu was her legitimate husband, but she never mentioned him, always turning the topic to Jia Cong. The young lady didn't even feel ashamed.

She was unconvinced in her heart, and when she mentioned Baoyu in front of her, her young lady didn't have a single good word.

She scolded him as a womanish piece of trash, and complained about his mournful, hypocritical look.

In short, there was not a single word that sounded good. Baochan listened to this daily and was angry, but she didn't dare to let out a fart.

Later, her young lady heard that Jia Cong had been conferred the title of Grade 5 Hanlin Academician, and she became even more obsessed, tossing and turning on the bed at night, unable to sleep.

She even often dreamed and shouted, which frightened Baochan, who was on night duty, not lightly.

Later, her young lady kept saying that Jia Cong was amazing, saying that a fifteen-year-old Hanlin Academician had never existed in ancient or modern times, and Jia Cong must be passed down for a hundred generations.

In short, she praised that boy as if he were in heaven and not on earth. Her young lady also asked people to buy the Four Books and Five Classics.

She said she wanted to ponder them carefully so she could gain some knowledge and see how Jia Cong learned such skills from these books.

In short, her young lady was becoming more and more obsessed now. Mentioning Jia Cong made her eyes shine, her face blush, and she was overjoyed, almost wetting her pants.

Once, her young lady also said that Baoyu was useless. He was a man of the same age as Jia Cong, but he couldn't even pass the scholar exam, and was a straw bag and a low-class piece of trash.

She also said that she had been to the Jia family several times and had never seen Jia Cong talk to Baoyu, so Jia Cong must look down on Baoyu, this straw bag.

But as long as Baoyu didn't have the ability to pass the provincial exam, even if he passed the scholar exam, he wouldn't be able to talk much in front of Jia Cong.

She also said that the Jia family's Lady was not only stupid enough to eat dirt, only knowing how to be jealous of Jia Cong, but also taught her son to be like this, not knowing how she was a mother.

Baochan didn't have much knowledge, but hearing these arrogant and wild words made her tremble in her heart. Her young lady's resentment was too great.

If she married into the Jia family in the future and said such wild words, the Jia family's inner chambers would be turned upside down.

And the meaning of her young lady's words was already very unkind. She wouldn't marry into the Jia family in the future and want to discipline Baoyu to pass the scholar exam, would she?

Others couldn't do such a topsy-turvy thing, but with her young lady's domineering temperament, she could really do it...

Baochan thought that her young lady was already so unhappy with Baoyu, and if she told her young lady about Baoyu making the maid pregnant, wouldn't her young lady go crazy?

Although Baochan was very angry that Baoyu made other maids pregnant, feeling that he was the heartless and unfaithful person in the opera.

She herself was also a maid, and if Baoyu wanted to get someone pregnant, he should have done it to her; why should it be the turn of that stray, loose woman with no background?

But she was also from a big family and knew that the young masters of wealthy families had three wives and four concubines and planted seeds everywhere, which was common.

Even if she accompanied her young lady over, she was just a maid accompanying her, so she had no qualifications to care about these things.

She only hoped that Baoyu would just be romantic with other maids, and as long as he still remembered her benefits, it wouldn't be in vain for her to serve him once...

Baochan was thinking wildly in her heart, whether to tell her young lady about Baoyu's ugly matter.

Xia Gu Niang saw her rushing into the room and frowned, "Look at you, rushing and rushing, a big girl without a stable look."

"I asked you to listen to the movement in the front hall, why are you back now? Has the Jia family been here, and did they say anything?"

Baochan felt a chill in her heart when she heard this. Her young lady knew that today was the day the Jia family delivered the betrothal gifts and specifically sent her to the front hall to explore the movement.

If she didn't say it now, her Lady would definitely tell her young lady about this in detail later, worrying that her young lady would suffer in the future.

By then, her young lady would know that she had intentionally concealed it. If her young lady was angry and beat her, it would just be flesh and blood pain, which didn't matter.

But if her young lady felt that she was disloyal and chose someone else as a maid to accompany her, not taking her into the Jia family, wouldn't she have been busy for nothing...

Baochan said tremblingly, "Young Lady, just now I heard Chen Pozi and Lady talking, it was about Baoyu."

"This matter is not pleasant to hear. Young Lady, don't be angry when you hear it, and don't say that I told you, otherwise Lady will beat me to death."

Xia Gu Niang frowned and said, "What are you stuttering about? That womanish piece of trash, what can he do?"

"If you are still selling suspense, I don't need Lady to beat you, I will clean you up first, speak quickly!"

Baochan said, "Chen Pozi heard news from outside, saying that Baoyu slept with the maid in the room, and now she is pregnant."

Xia Gu Niang sat up from the lounge chair, her face full of anger, "Are you telling the truth!"

Baochan shrank her head and replied, "This matter cannot be wrong. Chen Pozi is a shrewd person. If it wasn't true news, she wouldn't dare to talk nonsense in front of Lady."

Xia Gu Niang was furious and scolded, "I originally thought he was a womanish piece of trash, but I didn't expect him to be even more low-class than Xue the Big Fool."

"Knowing that I am about to enter the door, he made the maid pregnant at this time, clearly tearing the Xia family's face, wanting to give me a prestige, this low-class thing!"

Xia Gu Niang was burning with anger, picked up the three-legged jade tripod incense burner on the table, and smashed it hard on the ground, instantly smashing it into fragments all over the floor.

Baochan's face changed greatly when she saw it, and seeing her young lady running to the antique shelf again, wanting to take out antiques and ornaments to vent her anger, she hurriedly stepped forward to stop her desperately.

She said, "Young Lady, don't smash expensive things. Last time you smashed a room full of things, and thousands of taels of objects were gone."

"Lady scolded me for not serving you well, and you didn't know how to persuade her when you were in a big temper, so she fined me three months' salary."

"For these few months, Baochan didn't even have silver to buy rouge, and you laughed at me every day for being gray-headed and face-dirty."

"Lady also said that if you smash things again, she will sell me, this useless maid."

"Young Lady, don't smash it, save Baochan's life. These rare things you smash will all be your own family property in the future."

Hearing this, Xia Gu Niang hesitated for a moment. Baochan quickly brought a tea cup and tea tray from the table.

She said flatteringly, "Young Lady, you can smash this if you want to vent your anger, it's not worth much if it breaks."

Xia Gu Niang was full of anger and couldn't think carefully. She grabbed four tea cups and a teapot from the tea tray, and with a few *pitter-patter* sounds, smashed them all very crisply.

She gritted her teeth and said, "Baoyu, this broken piece of trash, I wish I could castrate him to vent my anger."

Baochan asked confusedly, "What is castrating him? Young Lady, do you want to beat Bao Er Ye Bao hard?"

Xia Gu Niang said gloomily, "Stupid girl, you don't have any knowledge. You know that Xia the Eunuch, our relative? He is a castrated dead eunuch. He can't marry a wife, can't raise children, and has no son to send him off. Baoyu, this broken piece of trash, should be as filthy as him."

Baochan's face turned pale when she heard this, "Young Lady, don't mess around. If Bao Er Ye Bao has no son to send him off, wouldn't you be the same? You are husband and wife with a formal status."

Xia Gu Niang was so angry that her face turned red, and she spat fiercely, scolding, "I was already disgusted with this useless piece of trash, do you think I really want to marry him?"

"Now that he has been dirtied by other women, I won't pay attention to him anymore."

"My clean body will not be left for him to touch. If he wants to raise children with me, unless he dies and reincarnates!"

Xia Gu Niang asked again: "Chen Pozi only heard about Baoyu's matter, did Cong Ge'er make any dirty things? He also has a fox-like maid beside him, so why didn't any movement spread?"

Baochan felt disgusted when she heard this and said, "Chen Pozi didn't mention Jia Cong. Maybe he is worse than Baoyu, but no wind has spread."

Xia Gu Niang was angry when she heard this and pinched Baochan's arm hard, making Baochan jump away like her hair was exploding.

Xia Gu Niang scolded, "You girl with no knowledge, what kind of person is Cong Ge'er? His reputation is much bigger than Baoyu's, and more people will pay attention to him."

"If he made a maid pregnant, this kind of thing would have spread long ago. Now that there is no wind, it means there is no such thing. He is much more decent than Baoyu!"

Baochan was unconvinced in her heart, thinking how her young lady could forget that when she met that maid in the Jia family's Rongqing Hall, she was prettier than her young lady.

Their old lady said it herself, that maid was a small concubine chosen by Jia Cong, and her young lady heard it with her own ears.

With such a pretty maid by his side, Jia Cong didn't sleep with her, unless he had a problem, it's just that he didn't have Baoyu's ability to make people pregnant...

Xia Gu Niang didn't know Baochan's tiger-wolf thoughts and just gritted her teeth and scolded, "Baoyu, this bastard, it's his virtue for eight lifetimes that I am willing to marry him."

"Now that we are not even married yet, he has torn my face like this. Now that the three letters and six rites are set, it's too late for me to break the engagement."

"Otherwise, the whole Love Shenjing will laugh at me, and no one will dare to want me again, and Jia Cong will definitely look down on me."

Xia Gu Niang said, pulling off the hairpins on her head and throwing them around, disheveled, and threw herself on the bed and cried loudly.

Baochan was anxious and at a loss, wanting to persuade her young lady, but didn't dare to step forward, fearing that she would become her young lady's punching bag and get a slap in the face.

But letting her young lady make such a scene and cry, if Lady heard the movement and knew that she was the one who caused the trouble by talking too much, I'm afraid a board beating would be inevitable.

She was feeling anxious when she vaguely heard her young lady muttering while sobbing: "You do the first day, I will do the fifteenth, thinking I am easy to bully!"

Great Zhou, Hanlin Academy Official Yamen.

After Jia Cong went to court today, he went to the Hanlin Academy to check in. He had been in the Hanlin Academy for several months and was already familiar with colleagues at all levels in the academy.

He often went to the official office of the Academy Rectifier Ge Hongzheng to walk around and chat with each other.

Although Jia Cong was listed in the Hanlin Academy, he only went through the process here, and his main responsibility was in the Ministry of Works' Firearm Division.

He also had an unknown task, which was to complete the construction of a thousand rear-loading firearms before the end of the year.

This kind of military secret matter, those in the court who knew it, were only a handful.

Although Ge Hongzheng was a Grade 5 official like Jia Cong, he was Jia Cong's formal superior in the Hanlin Academy.

Jia Cong knew that when he took the provincial exam that year, he was appreciated by Ge Hongzheng because of his article "The Wu Wu Ju Ren's Virtue is Not Strong" in the exam room.

Ge Hongzheng even recommended him to Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao, allowing him, who only had the merit of a scholar, to enter the Hanlin Academy as a Grade 7 official, which could be considered a great esteem.

Although this matter didn't come true in the end, the two had a source of incense, which was more tacit than ordinary people.

Whether out of respect for the forest of scholars or official etiquette, Jia Cong was very respectful to this superior after entering the Hanlin Academy.

Ge Hongzheng was a man of great knowledge, but he was broad-minded and had no sour rot.

He knew that Jia Cong was valued by the Emperor and often did some secret things. When the two met and chatted, they often told Jia Cong to do as he pleased.

Apart from the Academy Rectifier Ge Hongzheng, the official who had more contact with Jia Cong was the Grade 5 Academician Li Congmian.

This person appreciated the old poems Jia Cong made that year and often came to Jia Cong's office to sit and chat about poetry.

Li Congmian was elegant, learned, and polite, which made Jia Cong have a good impression. I heard that his ancestors were side branches of the royal family, which could be considered a branch of the Great Zhou Li family.

But Li Congmian's branch had been out of the five clothes two generations ago and had long since lost the halo of royal relatives. Now they were just swallows in front of the halls of the old Wang and Xie families.

Apart from these two, Jia Cong only had nodding acquaintances with other colleagues in the Hanlin Academy.

As for the top scholar Zhang Wenxu and the third-place Chen Qirui who entered the academy in the same year, they faded their golden list halo as soon as they entered the Hanlin Academy and soon became ordinary.

Because any Grade 6 official here could be a first-class scholar, the glory of the exam was already mediocre here.

Now they were guided by a Grade 7 reviewer, working on the most basic and trivial documents of the Hanlin, busy until their feet didn't touch the ground.

They were usually buried in documents, unlike Jia Cong who was so leisurely in the academy. Since entering the Hanlin Academy, the chances of the three meeting could be counted on one's fingers.

After Jia Cong left the Hanlin Academy, he didn't go to the firearm workshop in the suburbs immediately, but went to a shop in the east of the city.

Jia Cong had customized a Rubik's cube in this shop, and the shopkeeper was an Orosian from the Far East.

This person, without having seen a Rubik's cube, could make a complete and exquisite Rubik's cube according to Jia Cong's description and explanation, and was a rare and skillful craftsman.

But this time Jia Cong didn't come to customize a Rubik's cube, but took out the drawings he had drawn in the prefecture a few days ago and asked the shopkeeper to build it strictly according to the drawings.

As for what it was used for, he didn't reveal it to the shopkeeper first. It wasn't any taboo, he just didn't need to know.

He agreed with the shopkeeper to pick up the goods in ten days. If the size was not accurate, he would need to make fine adjustments.

After Jia Cong returned to the firearm workshop, he inspected the progress of the workshop as usual, and returned to his office to check the relevant drawings.

He asked the manager Qian Huai to take a newly built rear-loading firearm, and was dismantling and pondering it in the room, when he saw Qian Huai rushing in again.

He said, "Reporting to the Master, an internal servant from the palace has entered the workshop with a token, saying he is here to proclaim the Emperor's oral decree to the Master."

Jia Cong was slightly surprised when he heard this, and hurriedly got up and left the office, seeing that the visitor was his old acquaintance, Yuan Jing, a Grade 6 guard of the Ganyang Palace.

Yuan Jing's expression was solemn, saying, "I am here to proclaim the Emperor's oral decree, ordering Count Weiyuan Jia Cong to enter the Ganyang Palace immediately to discuss matters."

After Jia Cong kowtowed to receive the decree, he got up and asked, "Yuan Eunuch, I don't know what the Emperor is summoning me to the palace to discuss?"

Yuan Jing said, "It is inconvenient to talk here. The Emperor is in a hurry to see the Count, so I cannot delay. I will explain it to the Count on the way."

Jia Cong also knew that the workshop was crowded and noisy. Although most people could not leave the workshop before the end of the year, there were always some taboos about matters in the palace.

Yuan Jing was a close attendant beside the Emperor, so naturally he had to grasp the scale, which was also reasonable.

It was just that Jia Cong pondered for a moment, unable to think of why the Emperor summoned him to the palace in such a hurry, so he could only wait for Yuan Jing to explain on the way.

The two got on the palace carriage, and it took two quarters of an hour to reach the palace gate, then got off and entered the Wumen, passed through layers of palaces, and finally reached the Ganyang Palace.

After Jia Cong entered the hall, not only was Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao sitting behind the imperial desk, but the Minister of the Grand Court of Justice Wei Guanyao and the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard Xu Kun were also standing in the hall.

Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao asked, "Has Yuan Jing told you what I summoned you to discuss?"

Jia Cong said, "Yuan Eunuch has already told me. At present, the Great Zhou and the Remnant Mongols are confronting each other in the nine towns, and a great war is imminent."

"The Remnant Mongol mission of two thousand people entered the capital to seek peace. The Emperor is worried that the Mongols have evil intentions."

"Using the name of peace talks to delay time, mobilize troops, use spies to probe, and intend to do something wrong."

Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao said, "Eight years ago, Liang Chengzong defeated the Tuman tribe several times, making the Remnant Mongols not dare to easily go south for many years."

"The Great Zhou used tea and horse trade to communicate with the Remnant Mongols, and at the same time banned the sale of salt, iron, and military supplies to suppress the Remnant Mongol forces."

"But since the rise of Anda Khan, he is no longer satisfied with the food and clothing given by the tea and horse trade. He has been sharpening his weapons for many years and has long had the heart to invade the south."

"This time the Remnant Mongol mission entered the capital to seek peace, it is just a game of chess between the two sides. Even if I open the scale of border trade, it will not fill Anda Khan's stomach!"

"Now, eight hundred people of the Remnant Mongol mission have entered the city. I have ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Grand Court of Justice to mobilize manpower to secretly investigate their misconduct."

"It is just that there are many people and the clues are complicated. The Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Grand Court of Justice have been investigating for many days, but the harvest is not very significant."

"I know that you have been to Jinling several times, have the ability to investigate and handle cases, are capable in handling affairs, and often have unexpected moves. Today I summoned you to the hall, what advice do you have on this matter?" (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 747 =====