[Me, known as Granny Liu, once a gifted girl in the village, in my youth I too was fond of flowers, beauty, and romance.]
[This is my grandson, Ban'er, the future husband of Qiaoer from the Rongguo Mansion.]
...
[How did I lift myself out of poverty and achieve prosperity? What virtues do I possess that are worth learning for people today?]
[Everyone before the screen, come with me as we step into this magnificent and flourishing Rongguo painting that has reached its final path.]
In the Rongguo Mansion,
Granny Liu's body gave a start.
She felt no excitement whatsoever that she and her grandson could appear as celestial beings in the sky;
instead,
her back was drenched in cold sweat,
and out of sheer terror,
she knelt on the ground, trembling uncontrollably.
"Sister Qiao? Who is Sister Qiao?"
"Who else could it be? Didn't you see who appeared in the celestial phenomenon?"
"It's the Second Mistress, and she's even holding... could it be..."
A maid's mouth was covered just in time by someone nearby,
yet their whispering
had already slipped unhindered into the ears of Wang Xifeng and the others.
Wang Xifeng staggered,
almost collapsing to the ground,
and it was only quick-thinking Ping'er who rushed to steady her.
"Granny Liu, I have always treated you well. Why must you humiliate my eldest daughter?"
Wang Xifeng clutched her heart and wept,
firstly heartbroken that her daughter, born of noble lineage, should be deemed fit for nothing more than a country bumpkin's wife;
and secondly because, although she had used the old woman to amuse the matriarch, she had always treated her with genuine consideration and kindness.
Otherwise, she would never have given her twenty taels of pristine silver upon their very first meeting.
"Second Mistress Lian, this old woman wouldn't dare, I truly wouldn't! I have always looked upon you as a living Bodhisattva and thanked you from the bottom of my heart."
"Ban'er is not a fortunate person, he won't do it, he truly won't! Every day when I go back, I will burn high incense and pray to the Bodhisattva to bless you all with a hundred years of life."
"Old Madam, this old woman would never dare commit such an ungrateful act."
Granny Liu was so anxious she was on the verge of tears.
Things she would never have dared to dream of in her wildest dreams
had been foretold by the heavens above.
She dared not defy the heavens,
and even less did she dare to oppose the members of the Jia Clan at this moment.
Faced with Granny Liu's explanation,
Wang Xifeng wore a stony expression,
her gaze as cold as murder.
Had it not been for the presence of Dowager Jia,
she would have long since ordered her servants to drive Granny Liu and that vexatious Ban'er out of the Rongguo Mansion,
and even hacked the fruits and vegetables they brought as gifts to pieces before throwing them out.
Dowager Jia remained seemingly deaf to it all,
her eyes dazed as she stared at the lines of text above,
muttering to herself:
"Magnificent and flourishing, yet reaching its final path..."
Has my Jia Clan truly come to that pass?
Is this a warning from the heavens to my Rongguo Mansion?
No, perhaps there is still room for redemption.
To untie the bell, one musters the person who tied it;
since the heavens have made Granny Liu appear within the celestial screen,
there must surely be a reason for it.
"Old kinswoman, do not be afraid. I believe you; quickly rise to your feet."
With Dowager Jia having spoken,
Wang Xifeng, however aggrieved she felt in her heart,
had to obediently swallow it and bear it.
Filled with awe and trepidation, Granny Liu only dared to rise from the ground after Dowager Jia's repeated reassurances.
Faced with Wang Xifeng's cold glare, Granny Liu felt far from at ease, a wave of guilt washing over her.
Lin Daiyu furrowed her brows slightly. "Loyal and righteous to a fault; so that means Mother Locust is not a bad person, and as for the end of the Rongguo Mansion..."
Having likewise noticed the key phrases,
Lin Daiyu could not help but begin to worry about the future of the Rongguo Mansion.
If disaster were truly to befall the mansion,
what would become of this vast household of people, high and low?
Raising her eyes to look at Jia Baoyu,
she found him still wearing that carefree, oblivious expression,
and Sister Lin could only cry out in silent distress.
As the celestial screen continued to play,
[When Granny Liu first entered the Rongguo Mansion, she received twenty taels of silver from Wang Xifeng, the Second Mistress of the household, which immediately relieved her family's urgent crisis.]
[Driven by gratitude, or perhaps wanting once more to beg for handouts, she brought the fruits and vegetables grown in her fields and entered the city for a second time. During this second visit to the Rongguo Mansion, Granny Liu used her genuine wit and grit to win a moment of glory that illuminated the entire household—a true 'highlight reel'.]
Outside the Rongguo Mansion,
the common folk had received no grain bestowed by the heavens,
yet they were treated to a free spectacle of a poor relative begging for handouts at a noble marquis's estate.
When they saw elderly Granny Liu
bowing humbly before the young and deeply alluring Wang Xifeng,
a group of scholars pointed up at the celestial screen with righteous indignation:
"A dignified noble estate, yet they let a woman manage the household, and treat a relative and elder thus! Truly treating ritual and shame as mere nothingness!"
"That old crone is truly shameless, lowering herself to bow to a younger maiden simply to beg for charity. Vulgar, utterly vulgar!"
"A country bumpkin, what could she possibly know of 'wealth cannot sway, poverty cannot shift'? Truly an eyesore, utterly an eyesore!"
In this society where men preyed upon men,
while there were certainly those who talked glibly without feeling the pain,
there were far more ordinary folk like Granny Liu, who struggled just to put food on the table.
They could deeply resonate with Granny Liu's actions;
if dignity and pride could trade for silver and a bite to eat for their entire family,
they would gladly kneel and kowtow every single day.
The celestial screen continued to play,
showing Granny Liu's unseemly behavior while touring the Grand View Garden,
along with the extravagant lifestyle of the Rongguo Mansion—
all laid bare before everyone's eyes.
The scholars who had just been filled with righteous indignation
now boiled over with anger, rising in revolt to denounce the Rongguo Mansion:
"Rites and music have collapsed! Our dynasty governs the realm through filial piety, yet such wicked women who mock their elders are truly devoid of virtue!"
"Extravagant and dissolute! How many of our dynasty's common folk go hungry, yet a single egg costs a tael of silver—heaven strike them, how many lives could a single meal like this save!"
" Utterly ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth! I know where the Rongguo Mansion is. Everyone, follow me to speak on behalf of the heavens and denounce the Rongguo Mansion!"
Upon seeing this, the powerful and wealthy elite
saw nothing wrong with it at all.
When poor relatives came knocking, one simply ignored them and had the servants chase them away;
as for those who grew greedy and desperate, some even had their limbs broken with clubs.
Yet, watching the growing throng of scholars
and the increasingly fierce tide of condemnation,
they kept their eyes averted and their ears closed,
maintaining the stance of bystanders—
holding themselves aloof from troubles that did not concern them.
Even among the households that usually maintained close ties with the Rongguo Mansion,
some commoners were incited by public opinion
to join the ranks of those denouncing the mansion,
though more chose to give it a wide berth.
That place was the Rongguo Mansion, after all,
and those who lived within were imperial relatives.
Did they really think ordinary commoners could afford to cross anyone there?
Besides,
the ways of the Rongguo Mansion were hardly the objects of public wrath and heavenly grievance that others claimed.
Didn't Granny Liu herself say
that there was no need to feel pity for her?
She was eating and drinking well in an imperial relative's garden, surrounded by fragrant chambers,
and the household bore her no ill will; whatever teasing occurred was merely the mischievous prank of young children.
"A bunch of people with too much time on their hands, meddling in things that don't concern them!"
"I think the Rongguo Mansion is simply wonderful. Look at Granny Liu when she left, carrying a cart full of return gifts."
"Fruits and vegetables upon arrival, silks and satins upon departure—I wish I had such a distant imperial relative."
"My family actually has one. When we couldn't even put food on the table two years ago, we went to knock on their door, and guess what? We couldn't even catch a glimpse of a face before being driven away by the servants outside."
As the crowd murmured amongst themselves,
the content playing on the screen took a sharp turn:
[Later, I heard in the countryside that the Jia family had fallen upon hard times. While everyone else kicked the Rongguo Mansion while it was down and steered as far clear as possible, I could not do so. I am someone who received profound grace from the Rongguo Mansion; though I, Granny Liu, am merely a country woman, I still know a thing or two about how to conduct oneself. Since they acknowledged me as a poor relative, then we are family for life.]
[Alibaba's walls have crumbled, and under a shattered nest, no egg remains intact. Aside from exhausting everything I possess to protect Sister Qiaoer, I truly could do nothing more.]
[A thousand reds in a single cave, ten thousand beauties weeping together; pages full of absurd words, a handful of bitter tears.]