It was under such circumstances that Ou Mengmeng returned to Beijing, and it happened to coincide with Baoyu's birthday. However, Ou Mengmeng forgot about it, but Mrs. Wang did not forget. She was afraid that the child's birthday would be too overwhelming and she would not ask him to pick it up. Courtesy of the elders, but this time Mrs. Wang returned to Rong Mansion, looked at her house, and felt sad. Then they clamored to celebrate Baoyu's birthday.
Ou Mengmeng ignored her and took the sedan into the Hall of Honor. She got off the sedan and saw that she was very angry before. Now that she had removed the carvings, she felt a little calmer.
"Well done!" Ou Mengmeng didn't like the complicated decorations before. Now, it's a first-grade general's mansion. Although Jia She and them have no military merits, they have simplified the complexity. When they are demoted again in the future, they only need to change the plaques, and the other There is no need to change anything, which saves the boss the trouble. Also, if it is simple, it is easy to clean up, and the servants can save a lot of trouble. So originally, ten people were needed here, but now three are enough.
She turned around and slowly turned to Rongqing Hall. All the complicated floral decorations in Rongqing Hall were gone, and the interior looked much brighter. Ou Mengmeng nodded. This was something she mentioned specifically before going out. What kind of incense burner? All the silk-covered walls were gone. Let the sun shine indoors. For this reason, Jia She also specially added a few pieces of glass to the window. Bringing light into the room makes the dark lobby shine with some sunshine.
"Old lady, you must be tired! Didn't you say you have to patrol for a while, why are you back?" Jia She helped Ou Mengmeng sit down with a smile on his face.
"There's no hurry about the village tour. We walked around in the suburbs. Finally, these children can distinguish leeks from wheat seedlings!" The old lady smiled, but she didn't say anything. She was the one who started the village tour. Wait for it. When it got warm, she really took the children to a nearby village, but she just stayed there without asking any questions. Every day, she just let the children learn to ride horses, and she just watched the farming season, and sometimes I took the children on a spring outing outside the village. After playing like this, I headed back home. The village tour is over.
"That's fine, by the way, brother-in-law Lin has returned to Beijing. He is now the minister of Dali Temple and the emperor trusts him very much. Brother-in-law Lin came here specially to see you before, so he has already sent someone to inform you. I think he will come with the second brother later. We're back together." Jia She didn't understand my mother's thoughts and hurriedly picked up the important reports.
"I've received this letter." Ou Mengmeng took the tea from Jia Zhen. The female relatives settled in their respective places, including Jia She and Jia Zhen.
After not seeing each other for a few months, Jia She might have done something. At first glance, his body was empty of alcohol and sex. Now he feels stronger and his eyes are open. He no longer looks like a sixty or seventy-year-old old man. Jia Zhen still looked shrewd. Maybe someone took care of this period, and her face didn't have the same dandy air as before.
"The second wife received a letter from the Xue family, saying that they will come to Beijing soon. Now it is you who makes the decision in the house. What you originally wanted was to let them divide the property so that they could be trapped in Jiangnan, but that guy Wang Ziteng actually got people Entered Beijing. She seemed to have told the second wife that she wanted to come and stay."
"There is no land for them to live in. The sons on the East Road have all been allocated to two bedrooms, like Lixiangyuan, which used to be the place where their father retreated in his later years. The sons also took it out and merged it into the two-bedroom inner house. It was just allocated for Lange's mother and son to live alone. . In the front, the second brother lives with his wife and children. Brother Huan and He Baoyu also have their own separate place to avoid being led astray by their stupid mother. Where is there any room for others to live in? "
"Yes, well done. Brother Lan and his son can live in a more spacious place and be more open-minded." Ou Mengmeng nodded, feeling that it was not difficult to talk to smart people.
When the Xue family came to live in the house, what the Jia family could spare was the Lixiang Courtyard, which opened to the outside and could be integrated into a whole. Now the Lixiang Courtyard was classified as a two-bedroom inner house because it was given to Li Wan and his orphans and widows. The door has naturally been closed long ago. Can Aunt Xue still live in a two-bedroom house?
Thinking of this, Ou Mengmeng felt a little depressed. Aunt Xue wrote to Mrs. Wang with the intention of coming to stay. In the original work, she wanted to take advantage of the Jia family's influence and also wanted Jia Zheng to help manage Xue Pan. This time Xue Pan was sent to the northwest, and they were brought to Beijing by Wang Ziteng. They would not come to trouble the Jia family no matter what. But here's the problem. The way Wang Ziteng dealt with it this time made Aunt Xue very dissatisfied.
Without saying a word, she turned her son into hard labor and lost her most important asset. She was somewhat petty, feeling that Wang Ziteng looked down on her and that she was an orphan and a widowed mother who was easy to bully. She still remembered the money in her hand. money.
So after thinking about it, I wrote a letter to Mrs. Wang on the way. I thought that the old lady specially asked Lin Hai to help. If it weren't for him, I would have suffered a greater loss. So after thinking about it, I felt that the Jia family was more reliable. This made Ou Mengmeng I really feel a little depressed, why? I don’t want to take advantage of you, so you come to take advantage of me?
"On the west side of the road, the yard where Lian'er and the others lived before has been transferred to your side. In this way, Yuan'er and the Qin family can live more easily and quickly. After all, Lian'er and the others want to inherit the family business, so they will Let them live behind the Rongxi Hall. They rebuilt a courtyard and entered in a formal manner. The rules in the previous mansion were also looser, and all the male and female servants could go through the second door. The regulations have been rewritten, especially for your West Road courtyard, which has only one entrance and exit."
"If you do a good job, you can rezone the place where you live, and many things will be easier in the future. The layout of the Jia family will not change for at least ten years. Once the layout is done, and the rules are set, the biggest advantage is that it can save money. Previously, I asked the children to calculate the annual expenses of the house, and then calculate the income. The monthly money alone is over a thousand taels, and there are also various expenses. The annual expenditure is nearly 50,000 taels, and the eight Zhuangzi's annual income is 20,000 taels. Two, do the math, how can you make up for the remaining thirty thousand taels? The children are not married yet, and if we don’t save money at this time, it will be too late.”
Ou Mengmeng nodded. Don't underestimate the layout and path design of the house. Good home design can save labor costs as much as possible. What is the biggest expense in the entire Rong Mansion? It's a human expense. Such a big house requires so many people to manage it. Good circulation and reasonable arrangements can achieve twice the result with half the effort.
"Yes, speaking of money, my son would like to tell you about the clan school. My son and Brother Zhen took over the clan school, but they found that it would be better to disband the clan school and go to a private school on the street. Each person only earns ten taels of silver a year. , we sent the child there, it only cost about a hundred taels. It is much cheaper than getting one ourselves. They also have a teacher to teach them, and last year they said that a scholar passed the exam." Jia She sent Jia Rui to the opposite side on behalf of Confucianism. Only when the private school on the street found out about the fees of the nearby private school, he suddenly felt that he was at a big loss. If he had known earlier, he would have transferred the person to the private school across the street. For ten days a year, he would be a member of the clan, and he could still be an uncle. If he had nothing to do, he would go and have a look. Supervise learning and save a lot of money.
I was looking for information at work early in the morning, and I really got out of breath every time I moved!
(End of chapter)
