In the whole "Red Chamber", it should be difficult to find a woman who can work harder than Wang Xifeng, in addition to taking care of the internal house affairs for the Rong Guo Mansion, she also helped to assist the Ning Guo Mansion, and later she was a noble lady in the courtyard of the deep house, and she would be tired and sick.
Because of Cao Xueqin's "Smart and Tired", many people think that the reason why Wang Xifeng lives so tired is only because she has a strong heart to "calculate the organs", but is it really just like this?
I'm afraid not. Someone once said that what forces a person to work hard is often not his desire for things, but his fear of some things. When you have a desire for something, you may work hard but it is difficult to fight, but if you are afraid of one thing, then you can often "go beyond the level".
The reason why Wang Xifeng is so desperate is actually because of the fear in her heart, and there is more than one thing she is afraid of.
First of all, there are two more peculiar places in the Rongguo Mansion where she is located.
First, although Rong Guofu is still a rich and noble family on the surface, he does not know how to save money. But in fact, the entire Jia family is already a false prosperity. This big family has almost no serious income, and the income of the farm every year is only a few thousand taels of silver.
To maintain the expenses of such a large number of people, if there is no one who understands the economy, it is estimated that problems will begin to occur long ago. Some experts even deduced that there was already a problem in Jia Fu at that time, if it were not for Lin Daiyu's family background, Jia Fu might have been timid when he entertained Jia Yuanchun to return to the province.
Later, Wang Xifeng's father-in-law, Jia Pardon, because he could not repay the silver of others, actually gave his daughter Jia Yingchun to others to pay off the debt. And the silver he owed at that time was only a few thousand taels, and a large Jia Fu could be reduced to "selling" his girlfriend for a few thousand taels of silver.
From this, we can see how embarrassed the Jia family was at that time, how difficult it was for Wang Xifeng to maintain such a mess, and she herself was a strong one, so she could only desperately think of a way, but this was not the root of her desperation.
People familiar with this book know that the title of Rong Guofu was passed to Jia Yu, the eldest son of Jia Mu, but the family property of Rong Guo Fu was passed on to the second son Jia Zheng, and Wang Xifeng's husband Jia Lian was not Jia Zheng's son, but Jia Yu's son.
Then the question arises, the family business of Rong Guofu belongs to jia zheng's family, how can your daughter-in-law of jia zheng's family take care of the affairs of jia zheng's family?
Some people may say that this is because Jia Zheng's wife, Lady Wang, is the elder of Wang Xifeng's own clan, so in the case that Lady Wang has no daughter-in-law, Wang Xifeng, a woman with strong ability, has a reason to help. That is to say, the reason why Wang Xifeng was able to be a "big housekeeper" in Rong Guo Mansion was not that she deserved it, but that she got it because of her help.
That is to say, after Jia Baoyu grows up and marries his relatives, the family property of Rong Guofu will be passed on to Jia Baoyu, and at that time, the person in charge of Rong Guofu should be Jia Baoyu's wife, and then Wang Xifeng will inevitably have to hand over power, after all, you are here to help, if you don't let go of it at that time, then it is completely impossible to say.
And if Wang Xifeng didn't care about the big industry of Rong Guofu, what could she take care of? Jia Yu was originally a scrooge who did not do his job, and his East Cross Courtyard was not large, so what could Wang Xifeng have to manage when he returned to his "own home"?
Some people may see this and ask, why do you have to take care of something? Isn't it okay to be a reclusive lady in the middle of nowhere?
If Wang Xifeng is a weak and deceitful woman like "Ermutou", then this choice is not impossible. But Wang Xifeng is not an ordinary person, she herself comes from a large family, and she knows a lot about the fly camp dogs in the courtyard of the deep house. There are some things that you can't lie flat if you want to "lie flat", Aunt Zhao is so unpopular, and people know how to toss and turn twice for their own interests.
How could someone as strong as Wang Xifeng be appointed like Jia Yingchun? In ancient times, if a married woman wants to live a backbone, one of the more important ones is that you have money in your hands, if you don't have money, you don't dare to speak loudly, and how can you manage your husband.
Wang Xifeng's man, Jia Lian, is a clumsy disciple who does not learn any skills, and the reason why he is more wary of Wang Xifeng is not because Wang Xifeng has money in his hands. Wang Xifeng is in a deep boudoir, and she is also a daughter who marries out, where she gets so much money, is not it by giving the Jia family a "big housekeeper"?
If she can't be a "big housekeeper", then where can she get so much money, you must know that her monthly routine is less than 10 taels of silver, if she relies on this "dead wage". She may not even be able to take care of herself. If she didn't have so much money, Jia Lian would still care about her attitude, it wasn't that not a "fragrant stink" to take home, and why even Ping'er, a room-to-house girl, could only see and couldn't eat.
In addition to the fear of money, Wang Xifeng has a more worrying thing, that is, she has not been able to give birth to a son. As we all know, in ancient times, there was a great emphasis on heirs. In addition to the reason for the inheritance of blood, there is actually the problem of family property inheritance, in short, no heirs was a very serious problem in ancient times.
Jia Lian had stolen fish many times, and Wang Xifeng, because of his dissatisfaction, once made trouble in front of Jia Mu, but Jia Mu did not care about Jia Lian's affairs. Sometimes not criticizing is equivalent to acquiescence, and Wang Xifeng's mood at this time can be imagined. Li Feng was Jia Zheng's eldest daughter-in-law, and according to the reason, she should support the big things and small affairs of the Rong Guo Mansion, but the people did not go forward at all.
Why? Because people have sons, people can be expensive on mothers, and as long as people take good care of their sons, everything will be fine.
And Wang Xifeng couldn't do it, and she had a child, still a daughter. As a result, Jia Lianming not only had Second Sister You, Jia Yu also gave his son an autumn tong. If Wang Xifeng did nothing more, then her position as a hostess could be in jeopardy, you must know that in ancient times, there were no heirs, but she committed the "seven outs".
Although Wang Xifeng has the big backer of the Wang family behind her, don't you forget that Madame Wang is also a member of the Wang family, and the family property of rongguo mansion is also left to her son, and when Jia Baoyu has a wife, Madame Wang will still take care of Wang Xifeng's "idle affairs"?
Wang Xifeng has always had the root of her fear because she has never had children. What if there is no heir, then you can only find a way to get money, so that Jia Lian can't do without him, so how can you get money? Then you must become the "great steward" of the Rong Guo Mansion, so how can you become the "great steward"? You have to be desperate, you have to be strong, and even you have to "get away with it."
It can be seen that behind Wang Xifeng's strength, it is actually not her desire for power and wealth, but her fear of her future.