Rongguo Mansion.
Autumn had arrived, the weather had turned cold, and rain poured down.
Rain battered the pavilion with a relentless clatter, running down its upturned eaves into the open drains. Jia Huan stood beneath an umbrella, his mood as heavy as the sky.
He had actually transmigrated into Jia Huan, the universally despised son of a concubine in Dream of the Red Chamber. Madam Wang suppressed him every day, the girls mocked him, and even his own elder sister Tanchun wanted nothing to do with him.
"I'm going to make something of myself!"
Jia Huan had made up his mind. He had no desire to spend his life achieving nothing, watching other people's faces to see how he should behave.
"Brother Huan, have you gotten into trouble again?"
A shrill voice reached him before its owner appeared.
Jia Huan folded his umbrella and went to meet her. Passing through three successive courtyards, he saw a graceful young married woman in a finely pleated scarlet silk skirt, her hair glittering with pearls and jade, regarding him sidelong with her phoenix eyes.
She had a voluptuous figure, exquisite features, and snow-white skin. Her beauty defied description. She was none other than Wang Xifeng, one of the Twelve Golden Hairpins.
"Greetings, sister-in-law." Jia Huan bowed.
"Oh!" Wang Xifeng glared at him and sneered. "A vulgar, tasteless thing like you has learned to put on scholarly airs? You must have landed yourself in quite a mess. Out with it!"
"I came to borrow money from you."
"How much?"
"Eight hundred."
"Pah!" Wang Xifeng spat, then launched into another lecture:
"You call yourself a man, yet eight hundred copper coins have you stumped? How can you even bring yourself to ask? Ping'er, give him a tael of silver."
At her words, a lovely maid emerged from a side room, holding a string of coins.
Jia Huan fell silent for a moment, then said quietly:
"Eight hundred taels."
"What?!"
Wang Xifeng sprang to her feet, her expression changing drastically.
"Do you think I run a silver shop?"
Then she hurried over and asked, her face full of worry:
"Did you run someone down on horseback outside and need money to settle it?"
Ping'er, standing beside her, was startled too.
"No." Jia Huan hurriedly denied it and pleaded, "Please lend it to me, sister-in-law."
His mother, Concubine Zhao, received a monthly allowance of only one tael. There was no way she could produce such an enormous sum.
Wang Xifeng had always treated him well. Though she often scolded him, it was out of frustration that iron would not become steel. After all, his predecessor really had been a worthless rascal. Whenever trouble arose, she protected him when she ought to, and Sister-in-law Feng was wealthy, with plenty of money to spare.
"No." Wang Xifeng turned her face away. "You never learn anything worthwhile, just spend your days running wild outside. You rotten fool-you must have gotten addicted to gambling."
Jia Huan's heart burned with anxiety.
As a transmigrator, finding a way to earn eight hundred taels really would not have been difficult, but once today passed, he would miss this golden opportunity.
He had uncovered a piece of secret information: a company commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was selling an official post. For a mere rank-and-file position in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the man dared demand eight hundred taels of silver.
An ordinary household spent no more than three taels of silver a year, while a poor, hard-pressed family might spend less than one.
But Jia Huan was determined to get it!
Every transmigrator needed a golden finger, and he was no exception. His granted rewards whenever he participated in apprehending sinners. The greater his involvement and the heavier their sins, the richer the rewards.
In this life, he would change his fate with his fists, soar straight into the heavens, and crush everything in his path!
And the Embroidered Uniform Guard was the perfect place.
"Have you gone mute?" Wang Xifeng stared at him.
Brother Huan seemed to have changed. His eyes no longer held cowardice and inferiority, but a gleam of confidence. Even his posture was straight and upright, without a trace of his old cringing manner.
Jia Huan said with earnest sincerity:
"My kind sister-in-law, please help me this once. Everyone in this estate despises me-even the dogs. Some insolent maids dare climb onto my head and throw their weight around. Only you ever speak up for me. When I make something of myself, I'll keep you safe for the rest of your life. No one under heaven will dare bully you."
"Oh, my." Wang Xifeng's red lips curved. "What a ridiculous thing to say. Would I ever need a rotten fellow like you to protect me?"
Still, those words warmed her heart.
Had Brother Huan washed his heart clean and turned over a new leaf? He had even learned to speak so persuasively.
Ping'er's large eyes rolled curiously as she studied Young Master Huan. She had heard he had been gravely ill the other day. It seemed misfortune had brought a blessing and knocked some sense into him.
Shrewd and intelligent, Wang Xifeng knew Jia Huan must have come about something important. She put on a stern expression.
"Tell me the truth, and I'll consider it. Give me even half a word of falsehood, and get out at once."
Jia Huan concealed nothing and answered truthfully.
Wang Xifeng flew into a rage the moment she heard him. Pointing at him, she scolded:
"You're only seventeen! What business do you have taking such a post? Our Jia family is a noble house that dines from bronze vessels, proud of its upright reputation. Yet you want to enter a lowly trade that will disgrace us! Who in the capital doesn't curse the Embroidered Uniform Guard behind its back? This is absurd!"
Jia Huan immediately argued back:
"I'm a concubine's son. Even if I were full of learning and excelled in my studies, do you think I could sit the imperial examinations? Certain people would surely sabotage me behind my back. I doubt I could even get into the examination hall. I have to find some kind of work. Or would you rather I loafed around, fighting cocks and racing dogs?"
"The Embroidered Uniform Guard is the emperor's personal force. It monitors every official and gets information quickly. If so much as a breeze stirs the grass in the capital, I could tell you about it."
"Insolence! What do you mean by 'certain people'?" Wang Xifeng looked displeased, but she knew perfectly well that Jia Huan taking the examinations would violate the propriety governing legitimate and concubine-born sons. Even Baoyu did not devote himself to his studies.
"You'd be a mere underling, yet you dream of obtaining news from the imperial court? All you'd hear all day would be petty trifles, like this fellow quarreling with that one. A waste of silver!"
After a brief silence, Wang Xifeng regarded him sidelong with her beautiful phoenix eyes.
"But since you want to better yourself, Brother Huan, I'll help you this once. If you dare turn around and gamble with this money, you'd have no shame showing your face before me again. I'll slap you for certain, then kick those rotten guts of yours to pieces!"
"Young mistress." Ping'er hesitated. Eight hundred taels was an enormous sum, and it would come from her mistress's dowry money.
"It's all right." Wang Xifeng rose and walked gracefully toward the heated inner chamber, speaking as she went.
"Eight hundred taels to teach Brother Huan to strive for something is worth it. If he's deliberately deceiving me, I won't say another word in his defense. Whether he's a spineless fool or gets mocked by the maids will be no concern of mine."
A short while later, she brought out eight banknotes.
Jia Huan accepted them and thanked her from the bottom of his heart.
"Sister-in-law, you've brought charcoal in the snow. I, Jia Huan, will never forget it."
"Go, go, go!" Wang Xifeng waved him away. "As if I could expect you to amount to much. Stop being an eyesore."
"Then I'll take my leave." Jia Huan walked slowly away.
"Brother Huan has become a completely different person!" Wang Xifeng took a small sip of tea. "At least he knows to repay kindness. He knows I treat him well and keeps it all in his heart."
Taibai Tower, in the capital.
Jia Huan sat by a window. Since he had come to this world, he certainly could not remain a nameless nobody. He had to rise above the crowd!
"Hundred-Household Officer Ge is here." A heavily bearded man looked toward the street. He was the intermediary.
A moment later, the middle-aged man known as Hundred-Household Officer Ge approached Jia Huan, his expression stern and unsmiling.
Jia Huan did not immediately take out the banknotes. Instead, he handed over a sheet of paper bearing his personal details.
A concubine-born son of the Rongguo Mansion who had never left the capital since childhood—his background could not have been more spotless!
"Sorry for the trouble, Lord Ge." Jia Huan handed him the banknotes.
Hundred-Household Officer Ge gave them a cursory glance and slipped them into his sleeve without a change of expression, then said approvingly:
"To think you already know to serve the court and root out villains at such a young age. How could our Great Qian fail to prosper?"
"Come with me to the office to register and collect your badge. From this day onward, you too belong to the emperor's personal force!"
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