Yi Ning went to her third brother's new courtyard for a stroll. His new residence was indeed quite impressive. It had two courtyards, and in the middle was a small pond with water lilies. At that moment, the pale yellow water lilies, the size of bowls, were in bloom. Nearby, there were rockeries and vines growing.
It’s a pity that the loquat tree was not moved here.
There were several maids in blue and green bodices standing in the room with their hands hanging down. When they saw her, they bowed respectfully and called her "Seventh Miss".
Yi Ning just learned from the old woman that Luo Shenyuan was not in the yard. He followed Luo Chengzhang to visit Inspector Song.
Yining told them not to bother her and she just looked around the yard.
She had originally brought a few boxes of honey cakes to Luo Shenyuan to celebrate his housewarming, but since the owner was away, she put the things in Luo Shenyuan's study. When she came out, she saw two maids coming over.
One of the girls wore a lake green jacket and a white moon-lit skirt, looking very pitiful, while the other wore a white jacket with a red tassel, looking more delicate than a crabapple flower.
When the two saw that it was the seventh young lady, who was favored by the old lady in the mansion, they bowed quickly to greet her.
Yi Ning looked at their pretty faces and thought that these were the maids that Chen had given to Luo Shenyuan, so she asked, "Are you taking care of Third Brother's daily life now?"
The woman in the lake green jacket replied softly, "According to Miss Seven, we servants are serving in the study. The Third Young Master's daily life is still being taken care of by the nanny."
Although she doesn't take care of his daily life, it's still quite enjoyable for my third brother to have someone to accompany him while he's studying.
Yi Ning thought to herself that she noticed this girl was actually imitating Aunt Qiao, even her clothes and appearance were quite similar. Thinking that this style might be popular now, Yi Ning didn't pay much attention to it, put down her things and went to Lin Hairu's place.
Lin Hairu asked her to pick up the icy jadeite bracelet she'd promised her. Yining knew that with Lin Hairu's personality, those things would just sit there gathering dust. For Lin Hairu, jade bracelets were fragile and unattractive, and no matter how valuable they were, she couldn't appreciate them. So, she simply gave them all to Yining.
Yining was very excited after hearing this. Lin Hairu has a lot of good things!
She was still young, and although the old lady and Lin Hairu often gave her gifts, she had Xuezhi count them last time. There were over a dozen things like longevity lock necklaces, but not many of them were particularly valuable. She had at least four or five thousand taels of silver. When Yi Ning got married in her previous life, her grandmother gave her eighty dan of dowry, but she herself was struggling, only managing to scrape together jewelry worth a little over a thousand taels.
Since Lin Hairu didn't want it anyway, she kept it for herself and would use it as a small piggy bank in the future.
Yi Ning had her own plan in mind, so when she went to see Lin Hairu, she brought a box of honey cakes as a gift for her, even though Lin Hairu might not like them either.
Lin Hairu was delighted to see Yining approach, and she had a maid bring her the chilled watermelon she had prepared earlier. She directed the maid to rummage through the storeroom, getting covered in dust and dirt, and finally uncovered dozens of jade bracelets for Yining. Without caring about their quality, she waved her hand and told Yining to take them all home.
While Lin Hairu was drinking tea and taking a break, Yining opened them one by one and read them.
Inside were a pair of icy jade bracelets, their water color exquisite, truly top-grade. There was also a piece of mutton-fat white jade, warm to the touch and flawless, even more priceless than the jade bracelets. While these two were the most valuable, the others were also exceptional.
Yi Ning was amazed and couldn't help but feel curious about Lin Hairu's family background: "Mom, what exactly does your family do?"
Lin Hairu said nonchalantly, "It's nothing, but my grandfather was in the salt trade, and later in Suzhou, he ran a silk business... Now my eldest brother, your uncle, has kept a low profile. After all, there's no high-ranking official in our family, so it's better not to be too ostentatious. When our family was prosperous, half of the shops in Suzhou were owned by the Lin family, and 30% of the farms outside the city belonged to us."
After hearing this, Yining was almost scared by Lin Hairu.
She knew her stepmother was rich, but she didn't expect Lin Hairu to have such a prominent background!
She was the daughter of the Lin family in Suzhou in the future.
The Suzhou Lin family had been merchants for generations, becoming incredibly wealthy. Despite the strict hierarchy of scholar-farmer, artisan, and merchant classes, the Lin family produced a man whose business prowess ultimately earned him a government position. He later rose to the rank of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, a truly remarkable figure. She still remembered this man's name... Lin Mao!
She held Lin Hairu's hand and asked her, "Mother, is there a person named Lin Mao in your family?"
Lin Hairu nodded, a little puzzled. "You know Mao Ge'er too? He's your uncle's youngest son, and he's spoiled beyond measure. He spends all day riding horses and hunting birds, giving your aunt a headache. I scold him endlessly, and when I hit him, he just smiles and doesn't take it seriously. Your aunt almost doesn't want to care about him anymore."
Yining was a little dumbfounded after hearing this. Is this the upright and resourceful Lord Lin Maolin who forced civil and military officials to donate hundreds of thousands of silver coins for disaster relief?
She still remembered that Lin Mao and Luo Shenyuan had a very good relationship, and that he was almost Luo Shenyuan's only close friend. It turned out that there was indeed this connection.
Lin Hairu continued, "...I asked him to study, but he didn't study hard. I asked him to learn business, but he refused. Last time, your aunt was so angry with him that she said she would throw him to Baoding and raise him for me."
Yining found it a little unbelievable. Why did important people always have unusual childhoods?
She thought carefully about whether she had remembered it wrongly.
She was shattered as a jade hairpin in the fourteenth year of Zhide, but that was twenty years later. It was now the eighth year of Chengping, and Lu Jiaxue had just become the Lu Commander, only twenty-eight years old. Luo Shenyuan was sixteen, so this Lord Lin should be around the same age.
When Yining asked about Lin Mao's age, Lin Hairu only said that he was about fourteen or fifteen years old, and could not tell exactly how old he was.
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