Outside Rongguo Mansion, a chaotic scene unfolded as a large crowd of scholars, self-proclaimed champions of righteousness, gathered spontaneously to condemn the Jia Clan for their lack of virtue. Amidst the crowd, Jia Lian used his sleeve to shield his face, panic still gripping him as he hurried away from this dangerous place. He moved with swift strides, terrified that an acquaintance might recognize him at any moment.
"We can't go back to Rongguo Mansion. I must take this chance to go south and seek refuge with the Zhen family. I have to find a way to carve out a path to survival."
Images of heavy shackles flashed continuously through Jia Lian's mind, followed by the agonizing mental agony of watching helplessly as government soldiers looted the family's wealth like bandits.
Inside Rongguo Mansion, a dead silence hung in the air. Without a doubt, those final frames shown on the Celestial Screen struck like sharp, merciless swords straight into everyone's heart. The horrifying scenes of Jia Zheng, Jia She, and Jia Lian placed in chains—with not a single member of the Jia family spared, and hundreds of masters and servants filing out of Rongguo Mansion only to be marched off to prison—lingered relentlessly in everyone's minds.
Dowager Jia clutched her chest, trembling uncontrollably, gasping for breath as overwhelming grief filled her lungs. She had always assumed that the clan's decline stemmed merely from exhausted finances, crushing debts, and unbearable burdens, believing that at least a breath of life remained in the household. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined they would face the catastrophe of a raid and confiscation by the state.
Before she could catch her breath, Dowager Jia almost bowed out of the story decades ahead of schedule.
"No, no! None of this is real! It's not true!"
"Old Ancestor, all of this is fake! Tell me it's all fake, right?"
"I won't! I won't! Sob, sob... I won't go to prison, I won't..."
Unable to bear the devastating blow of his family's destruction, Jia Baoyu lost his mind. Like a wounded little bird, he frantically forced his way through the crowd of weeping female relatives and buried himself straight into Dowager Jia's arms, seeking the Old Ancestor's protection.
If the men were reduced to this, the female members of the Jia Clan fared even worse. Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, and others who were living under another's roof could no longer maintain their composure. With the Jia Clan raided and wiped out, could they possibly escape unscathed? Obviously not. Even if they avoided direct implication, once stripped of Rongguo Mansion's powerful protection, how could mere women possibly find a good end in such a man-eat-man society?
A thousand worries weighed on them, leaving them bewildered and utterly helpless, their hearts choked with a bitter, oppressive gloom.
"Why has it come to this? Why..."
Wang Xifeng could barely stand. To die of illness in prison, wrapped in a tattered reed mat and dragged out into a world of endless snow—was this truly the tragic end that awaited her, Wang Xifeng? Did cause and effect truly exist in this human world?
Perhaps linked by a mother's intuition, baby Qiaojie, who had not yet been given a formal name, was crying fiercely and screaming for her mother. A maid had no choice but to carry her over to find Wang Xifeng.
"My precious girl, my eldest daughter! It's Mother's fault—Mother's sins have ruined you!"
Clutching her daughter, Wang Xifeng could not hold back her tears. The thought of her child being sold by her own scoundrel of an uncle to be trained as a singing girl tore at her heart like a knife. Grief surged upward, overwhelming her senses until she swayed on her feet.
"Milady, you must take care of your health, Milady!"
Hearing Granny Liu's soothing words by her ear, Wang Xifeng took a long time to pull herself together. She tightly grasped Granny Liu's hand, tears bursting forth once again.
"Milady, don't cry, don't cry. You and little Qiaojie will surely turn misfortune into blessing."
"Whenever you hit a rough patch, it's bound to clear up and turn auspicious. It all stems from Qiaojie's very name—everything will be fine, Milady."
Suddenly, Wang Xifeng dropped to her knees. Granny Liu, startled, rushed forward to pull her up, but try as she might, she could not budge her. In the end, Granny Liu could only kneel down beside her.
"Granny, I have wronged you. I, Wang Xifeng, have wronged you."
"If not for your timely help in the snow, rescuing my little Qiaojie from the fiery pit, I, Wang Xifeng, could never close my eyes in peace even in death."
For a time, panic and terror gripped Rongguo Mansion. Not only pampered masters like Wang Xifeng and Jia Baoyu, but even the lowliest servants of the Jia Clan were not spared. The Celestial Screen had revealed their ultimate fate as well: hundreds of slaves were dragged off alongside their masters and locked inside the Prison Temple. The gloomy, eerie cells were crammed with members of the Jia household, every one of them clinging desperately to the cell bars, awaiting the judgment of fate.
Steward Lin Zhixiao wept tears of old age. With sharp eyes, he caught a glimpse in those few short seconds of video showing the servants of the Jia Clan being publicly auctioned off in the street—and among them was none of himself.
***
Inside the Imperial Palace, the reigning Emperor's face was livid. He could not understand why the Celestial Screen had singled out his Rongguo Mansion for prophecy. The Four Kings and Eight Dukes of the court, along with those veteran families of founding heroes, had once been awe-inspiring presences who wielded immense power and whose influence permeated the entire court. More importantly, the majority of these people took their orders from the Retired Emperor, a fact that forced the reigning Emperor to take them very seriously.
"The noble consort's family? It seems Rongguo Mansion's heart was never truly with Us!"
The Emperor had married Jia Yuanchun as a noble consort precisely to win over Rongguo Mansion. Yet judging from the fate foretold on the Celestial Screen—where Rongguo Mansion would ultimately be raided and confiscated—the Jia family's loyalty remained entirely with the Retired Emperor.
Hmph. Choose the wrong side, and you are bound to pay a heavy price.
The video on the Celestial Screen finished playing, and the comment section popped up next:
[I used to think Granny Liu was so poor, but now that I think about it, even at her poorest she could still walk right into Rongguo Mansion. Even if it was through the most distant of relations, those were genuine imperial relatives! And what's even crazier, they actually treated her like an honored guest. Meanwhile, look at me—even after pulling eighteen connections, I still don't even know the mayor. Sob.]
[You truly cannot imagine the sheer extravagance of Rongguo Mansion unless you've witnessed something similar. Let me give you an example with my mom. Back in the day, my mom had a classmate in the same village who later struck it rich and became a factory boss in the city. That year, they organized a class reunion. My mom didn't want to go at first since she hadn't seen the person in decades and couldn't even remember what they looked like, but a few other classmates dragged her along anyway. When they came back, the gift the boss gave out was one of Huawei's flagship phones from that year. Counting everyone who attended the reunion, just the phones spent on gifts cost over a hundred thousand, not even counting the banquet and transportation. And that's just a local boss, a nouveau riche level. I can't even imagine top-tier nobility like the Jia Clan—Granny Liu went there once and instantly leaped from poverty straight into the middle class.]
[It's like visiting your relatives three times, and the parting gifts they give you are worth enough when sold to buy several properties in a third- or fourth-tier city and become a landlord. You tell me what kind of life that is.]
[Granny Liu is a crafty old-timer with some worldly smoothness, but deep down she's simple, kind, grateful, and quick to help others in need. Compared to that old fox Jia Yucun, the contrast is just too stark. I hope I can have a friend like Granny Liu!]
[To live in this world, you have to let go of your pride to truly survive. Granny Liu's wisdom is definitely worth us young people learning from.]
[The ending of Dream of the Red Chamber is just too heartbreaking.]
[By the way, exactly what crime did the Jia Clan commit? Was the Emperor losing sleep until he had their house raided?]
This comment quickly caught everyone's attention. While commoners viewed it merely as a good show, powerful noble families treated it as a negative example. The once flourishing and immensely wealthy Jia Clan had ended up in such a miserable state—their household destroyed, their clan exterminated. The reasons behind it were truly thought-provoking.
"Could it be that the Consort fell out of favor in the palace?"
The words slipped out, an answer that clearly matched what everyone was thinking. Rongguo Mansion had soared to new heights of power and glory once again precisely because Jia Yuanchun had been made a noble consort.
However, Dowager Jia disagreed.
"Not so. Even before Yuanchun was made a noble consort, our Rongguo Mansion already enjoyed boundless wealth and honor."
"Let us keep watching. The immortals of the heavens span past and present; they will surely know why our Rongguo Mansion met the fate of having our clan exterminated and our home confiscated."
[The downfall of the Jia Clan was entirely predictable. Building the Grand View Garden hollowed out their finances, and the Jia family lived lives of extravagant waste. As the old saying goes: 'Success comes from diligence, failure from luxury.']
[It's just that their descendants were good for nothing. Their moral character couldn't uphold the foundations laid by their ancestors, and they only knew how to lie on their ancestors' achievements and enjoy themselves. As the proverb says, wealth rarely lasts three generations.]
[Just look at the descendants of the Jia family, living lives of utter luxury, eating fine food and wearing silks, yet every day they lacked ambition, sinking into alcohol, women, wealth, and anger. Could a family like that possibly last?]
[The Dukes of Rong and Ning: If we had known our descendants would turn out to be a bunch of beasts, the two of us brothers would have been better off dying on the battlefield right then and there [facepalm].]
[And there were external factors, too. As imperial relatives, they bent the law, abused their power to bully others, maintained too close a private friendship with Prince Bei Jing, and opposed Prince Zhongshun. Did they ever stop to think who Prince Zhongshun's 'loyalty and obedience' meant he belonged to?]
[The Jia Clan simply courted their own destruction. The Emperor married Jia Yuanchun as his noble consort to clearly signal his intent to win over Rongguo Mansion, yet these fools still shamelessly kept up ambiguous ties with the Retired Emperor. Once the Dowager Consort died, followed closely by Jia Yuanchun and Wang Ziteng, when you've lost all your backers, if they don't clean house, who will?]
[New emperor, new courtiers. The Four Kings, Eight Dukes, and Twelve Marquises—these old nobles grew worse with each generation. They controlled massive resources while doing absolutely nothing. The Emperor had long since found them an eyesore and was looking for any excuse to deal with them.]