Here, the two of them were chatting enthusiastically, but without realizing it, the topic gradually strayed from buying the mansion.
They weren't in a hurry, but someone else was extremely anxious!
On the other side, in the main courtyard of the eldest branch.
After hearing the young maid's report, the Eldest Young Mistress, Guan Xiunian, calmly gave her a tip and sent her out. However, her younger brother from her maiden family could no longer hold back.
He stood up and said impatiently, "Didn't they say they were going to discuss buying the mansion? Why is Uncle Jin talking about random things with that Su Ning? And my brother-in-law isn't even helping to say a word..."
"Enough!"
With a bang, Guan Xiunian's delicate eyebrows shot up. She slammed her teacup onto the table and glared fiercely at her brother.
She said quite bluntly:
"You're even dragging your brother-in-law into this. Bah! Is this how you act when you're begging someone for help? If people didn't know better, they'd think the Jin family was the one desperate to sell the mansion to save their lives!"
"I... I was just anxious for a moment."
Guan Xiunian's eldest younger brother looked embarrassed and lowered his head.
It was no wonder he was so meek.
His sister was the eldest legitimate daughter of the first wife. She was raised like a boy since childhood and had a fiery temper. Everyone in the family respected her, and even after getting married, her word was law in her maiden home.
Besides, the family was genuinely in desperate need of money.
A generous buyer who could afford the price like Su Ning was hard to come by even in a few years.
For all these reasons.
The Guan family brother dared not offend his sister even more.
"I'll spare you this time. If you spout nonsense again, be careful I don't drive you out with a big stick."
Guan Xiunian gave him another warning and let it go. After all, selling the mansion was the most important thing, and she was anxious too.
But she didn't show it. Instead, her tone was relaxed:
"What kind of person is Sister Su? She threw away hundreds of thousands of silver dollars just to hold a funeral. You guys value the family mansion so much, but to her, it might be as simple as buying groceries, something she could decide on a whim."
"She came to the Jin family mainly to catch up. As for buying the mansion, mentioning it in passing is enough. Saying too much would only make us lose our dignity."
The more she spoke, the more confident she became, her tone firm.
This firmness also infected the Guan brother. He breathed a sigh of relief, slumped back into his chair, and complained:
"It's not that I don't respect my elders, but Ama was just too ridiculous. Just because someone used the name of an old friend, he was coaxed into investing all our family assets, and now he's lost everything."
"We even have to sell the old mansion. Sigh."
Hearing this, Guan Xiunian also felt resentful. Her maiden family was down and out, and they had to come begging her husband's family to act as a middleman to sell the old mansion. She was the one losing the most face!
She no longer expected her family to help her with anything; as long as they didn't drag her down, it would be fine.
"At the end of the day, it's also because you guys are useless."
Guan Xiunian needed to vent the anger in her heart. Since she couldn't criticize Ama, she pointed at her brother and scolded him indirectly:
"None of you are young anymore, yet you can't do any proper work. All you know is how to live off the family's savings. When the savings are gone one day, let's see how you survive."
"Just look at the Su family, Sister Su's father."
"What was his situation back then? He dared to cross the ocean with nothing. Even in a foreign country where he didn't know anyone, he managed to build such a huge business. That is a truly capable person."
She also wished she had a father like that. Among all the women in Beiping, who would dare say they didn't envy Su Ning?
Her biological father left her so much inheritance.
Oh, wait, no.
Su Ning was an only child. Her father only had this one daughter.
That's why foreign new ideas are good. If it were the old traditional concepts around here, a daughter wouldn't be able to inherit the family business. They would desperately take concubines just to produce a son.
If they really couldn't have one, they would adopt an heir.
In short, the inheritance would never fall into the hands of a daughter!
Feeling bitter in her heart, Guan Xiunian didn't want to say anything more. She waved her hand: "I'm a married daughter now. You guys look out for yourselves from now on."
Seeing her eldest younger brother's subservient manner, she knew he had heard her but didn't take it to heart.
She couldn't be bothered to care and mentioned casually:
"Right, I heard Jixing is making a fuss about getting married. What is that girl's background? With the family in this situation, how do we have the time to hold a wedding? He's really messing around!"
Jixing was her youngest brother.
He was also a university student.
Guan Xiunian usually thought highly of him, believing that Guan Jixing was the one in the family with the most potential. She didn't expect that when push came to shove, he only thought about his little romances.
Actions reveal a person's true colors—he was also a disappointment.
"He has to get married now." The Guan family brother had a weird expression and patted his stomach:
"That girl has a bun in the oven."
Seeing his sister's eyes widen, he secretly rejoiced, knowing that their eldest sister wouldn't give their youngest brother and his girlfriend a good look anymore.
It wasn't his fault for tripping him up.
The youngest brother, relying on the fact that he went to university, always looked down on his other brothers.
He even called them parasites of the family behind their backs.
Bah! They all ate and drank from the family.
Guan Jixing spent much more money than he did. He hadn't even achieved anything in his career yet, and he was already looking down on his brothers?
And that girlfriend of his was of the same ilk.
The Guan family brother remembered his wife saying that when this person came to their house, she acted very aloof and spoke unpleasantly. She said that she and Jixing were in a free love relationship and had true love.
Her words implied pity for the other daughters-in-law of the Guan family, saying they were in traditional marriages without the nourishment of love, and their lives must be as dull as a dry well...
Anyway, it left his wife utterly dumbfounded.
She complained to him about it for half a day.
He was also curious. What on earth was this "love" thing that could make people sleep together before marriage, get pregnant, and still act so high and mighty?
…………
In the parlor, cups of tea were refilled one after another.
Su Ning and Jin Feng, despite being more than two dozen years apart in age and having nothing in common, were chatting animatedly.
Perhaps when people need something from each other, they get along exceptionally well.
At this moment, Jin Feng was talking about the situation in Beiping, speaking with the grandeur of someone surveying the whole country:
He had the exact posture of those middle-aged colleagues bragging at the dinner table in Su Ning's past life:
"...There was just a battle in the Lianghu area earlier this year. The one in Nanjing won, and his momentum surged, thinking about unification. How could the local warlords accept that?"
"They fought battle after battle. Although it hasn't affected Beiping yet, it's only a matter of time. If you ask me, the South shouldn't push so hard. They should take it slow..."
Su Ning nodded and hummed in agreement from time to time.
She also cooperatively added phrases like—
"Is that so?" "What should be done then?" "What you say is absolutely right, Uncle."
Jin Feng firmly believed that the Su family's niece was his confidante!
"Sigh, I can only say these things in front of you, niece. Otherwise, if the authorities heard me, they might accuse me of the crime of recklessly discussing state affairs."
He shook his head as he spoke, looking very concerned for the country and its people:
"In prosperity, the people suffer; in ruin, the people suffer. If a great war really breaks out, people like us might still have a chance to survive, but what will the ordinary folks at the bottom do?"
"A chaotic era is approaching. Who can remain unscathed?"
Su Ning also sighed along with him, but there was a trace of indifference in her eyes.
She didn't cause the chaotic times, nor did she have the power to stop them. At most, she could protect herself and perhaps shelter one or two others.
And besides, chaotic times were also her opportunity.
"Never mind, let's just enjoy peace for as long as we can."
Jin Feng stopped there and brought up the newly arrived mayor:
"This Mayor Chen was just sent from the South. Many people are waiting to trip him up. I heard the government hasn't paid salaries for nearly half a year, and some people are preparing to hold a petition march."
"This is quite a massive headache!"
"To dare come to Peiping at a time like this, he must be no ordinary man. Perhaps Mayor Chen already has a plan."
Hearing this response, Su Ning's mind stirred.
There seemed to be a Mayor Chen in the original novel as well. He did not have a large role in the plot and served mostly as a background character, but she vaguely remembered him being quite powerful and influential.
In that case, couldn't she invest in him?
The sky had already grown dark. Su Ning finished the tea in her cup and prepared to take her leave, bringing up the matter of buying the house:
"...I naturally trust Uncle Jin's recommendation. Let's tentatively settle this matter. I just need to find some time to go over and take a look at the property."
As long as it was more or less what she expected, it would be fine.
She was not afraid of spending extra money—in fact, that would actually be helping her.
This attitude led the Jin father and son to mistakenly believe she was doing it out of respect for them. Their hearts felt incredibly warmed, thinking Su Ning was very considerate.
They immediately guaranteed that they would handle the matter perfectly.
Jin Man was even more direct, stating that he knew exactly what the seller's bottom line was. He absolutely would not let his sister Su Ning suffer the slightest loss, or else he would offer his own head in apology.
Su Ning...
That really would not be necessary.
On her way out, she politely declined the Jin father and son's offer to see her out; all the back-and-forth escorting was quite tedious.
After walking a short distance, she unintentionally glanced back.
She saw that in the drawing room, there was now a slender, luxuriously dressed young married woman. She had her head tilted up, speaking intimately with Jin Man, a small mole on the tip of her nose looking rather playful.
Her footsteps suddenly halted.
The radar in her mind regarding the plot's characters began to blare wildly, quickly locating the relevant descriptions in the original novel and pinpointing the exact scene of this character's introduction.
Su Ning immediately knew this woman's identity.
It seemed she had made the right choice in visiting the Jin residence today.
Yes, the harvest was quite bountiful.
