The Red Mansions

Chapter 23 Home Cooking

In the morning, Jia Baoyu didn't go to school again.

Qingwen accidentally broke a cup, and Jia Baoyu choked on her after saying a few words to her.

After being sullen for a while, Jia Baoyu took a deep breath, thinking that he could eat Jia Yun's meal at noon, and felt a lot better.

As soon as he came back to his senses, he saw Xiren leaning on the window sill, staring at the scenery outside in a daze, his face was bright red and he looked shy.

Jia Baoyu's eyes widened, shining brightly.

He had never realized that Xiren was so good-looking, and he couldn't help but be fascinated by it.

After being lectured by Jia Baoyu, Qingwen in the outside room became more and more angry. After a while, she finally couldn't bear it, threw her needle and thread into the basket, and ran into the room to find Jia Baoyu's theory again.

Swiping to the door, Qingwen froze suddenly before her feet landed.

I saw that both of them were in a daze, the difference was that Xiren was looking out the window, while Jia Baoyu was looking at Xiren.

Qingwen took back her steps, stepped back lightly, and then came to the corridor with a puzzled face.

"The two of them, is there something wrong?" Qingwen asked suspiciously.

According to the unwritten rules in Jia's mansion, before the young masters are underage, they must first prepare two room maids in the room, but now there are two girls who are ready to serve Jia Baoyu. .

As for Qingwen and the other maidservants, although they are considered close to Jia Baoyu, they each have their own division of labor.

For example, Qingwen, her main task is to do needlework, and she does not wait on her personally.

Therefore, when Qingwen saw the two of them in a daze just now, the first thing she thought of was that something indescribable happened between them.

"I asked why sister Xiren is always in a daze recently. It turns out that the dream is about to come true." The more Qingwen thought about it, the more she felt that she had guessed right.

Just as she was thinking about something, suddenly the sound of footsteps came from behind her, Qingwen woke up with a start, and when she looked back, she saw the charming Zheng Lihua running back from the outside crying with the rain.

Qingwen was about to go up to take care of her, but Meiren didn't even look at her, and rushed into the room directly, taking out her clothes savings.

The maids in the corridor were also curious about what happened.

Qianxue, Sheyue, and Qiuwen gathered around Qingwen, Qianxue tapped Qingwen's arm with one finger, raised her head into the room, and asked in a low voice, "What's the matter?"

Qingwen shook her head, expressing that she didn't know, she was still at a loss!

Seeing doubts on everyone's faces, Qiuwen gritted her teeth and said, "I'd better go in and ask, something must have happened!"

As he said, he was about to enter the house, when Jia Baoyu and Xiren who were inside also came out when they heard the movement.

Seeing that Meiren was sobbing and packing up his things, Xiren stepped forward and asked concerned: "My dear sister, what's wrong?"

The charming girl stopped moving, did not reply, and then continued to arrange her clothes.

"Oh, you are talking, I am so anxious!" Xiren said anxiously.

After Meiren packed her clothes, she took a deep breath, wiped away the tears from her face, her eyes were red, she glanced at Jia Baoyu, and said to Xiren, "It's not because of him, it's my fault in the end!"

Xiren frowned, glanced at Jia Baoyu, and asked doubtfully, "Second Master Bao? What has something to do with him?"

The charming woman sniffed and pursed her lips and said: "Qingwen scolded the second master earlier, I couldn't see it, so I ran to tell my wife, and it happened that Nanny Lai was talking about things with the wife, and she was talking about me to provoke right and wrong. "

"My wife believed her or not, and punished me to kneel for half an hour. I thought that was the end of the matter, but I didn't expect... woo woo... I don't know what Nanny Lai said later, but my wife actually wanted to kick me out of the house." , woo woo..."

Meiren cried as she spoke, feeling extremely wronged.

She was sold to Jia's mansion when she was very young, and she was served by Jia's mother at first, and then she and Xiren were arranged to serve Jia Baoyu personally, needless to say she was sincere.

Unexpectedly, because of Qingwen's sharp teeth and sharp mouth, she has no distinction of superiority and inferiority in front of Jia Baoyu. Doomsday.

Jia Baoyu on the side was stunned after hearing what the charming woman said, and remained silent.

Xiren glanced at Jia Baoyu and then at Meiren, not knowing what to do about it.

After all, it was Mrs. Wang's decision to drive away the charming woman, and with Nanny Lai's support, it was not that simple to keep her charming.

All the maids outside were also silent after hearing this, not to mention Qingwen, it's pretty good that she didn't point at the charming woman and curse at her.

Just when everyone was at a loss, Jin Chuan, the maid beside Mrs. Wang, came over.

Jin Chuan greeted everyone first, then took the Zhang deed and 20 taels of silver and handed it to Meiren, with a blank expression on his face:

"My wife said, I will return the body deed to you, and I will give you 20 taels of silver to settle down. Don't complain in your heart. Take your personal belongings and leave Jia's mansion now."

"Aww..." As soon as Jin Chuan said the words, the charming mood finally broke down, and she burst into tears, but she didn't dare to delay, holding her salute while crying, and walked out in a daze.

Seeing that she ignored him, Jin Chuan took a few steps forward and stuffed the silver and body deed into the charming bag, and then stopped.

Xiren frowned, pursed his lips and pondered for a moment, then turned around and walked to a cabinet in the room, took out ten taels of silver from it, thought for a while, and added another ten taels.

20 taels of silver is equivalent to her monthly bill for more than a year, but now seeing her sister who has lived with her for many years in distress, she is also uncomfortable. There are not many places to help, so she can only take some silver to express her affection.

After closing the cabinet door, Xiren trotted to catch up with Charm, took her hand and said, "My dear sister, take this money with you, it will be needed when you go out."

The charming woman whimpered and took the silver given by Xiren in her hand, biting her lips hard with her teeth, the corners of her mouth were bleeding.

She looked deeply at Xi Ren with a worried face, took a few steps back, bowed to salute, then turned around suddenly, and ran out quickly.

Since then, Jia Baoyu's courtyard has lost a maid named Charming.

Xiren turned around, looked at the big and small people in the courtyard, and thought: "How many people will stay in the courtyard in the end?"

As a maid, you can't help yourself in many things. It's okay for the master to beat and scold you, and it's not uncommon to lose your life in a muddle.

Everyone has seen a lot, and they are all numb. It seems that it is a normal thing for someone to be kicked out of Jia's house, because every year, maidservants disappear unknowingly.

……

After Jia Yun sold the buns, on the way home, she pondered as she walked.

Hearing the news about Xiren earlier, it is impossible to say that he has no ideas, and it is one aspect of being a chef in Jia's mansion that there is a lot of oil and water in it.

The key is that he went to Jia's mansion to do business. If he wants to open a shop or something in the future, he can still pretend to be a tiger and take advantage of Jia's power, so this matter still needs to be taken seriously.

As for what to cook for Jia Baoyu, he had already thought about it and cooked home-cooked dishes.

Five dishes and one soup are big plate chicken, mapo tofu, braised whole fish, twice-cooked pork, stir-fried seasonal vegetables and stewed mutton soup.

They were all home-cooked dishes, and Jia Yun felt that they were about the same. Anyway, they just cooked a few for them to taste. I guess Jia's mother thought so too, so when she ordered Jia Baoyu to bring the letter, she didn't mention cooking too many dishes.

After arriving at a place where no one was around, Jia Yun took some chicken, fish, tofu, pork belly, green vegetables, and mutton out of the space and put them on a small cart.

After thinking about it, he put all these ingredients into the steamer except the mutton, so as not to let the workers in the yard see and misunderstand.

I took more mutton, and the workers ate mutton rib soup at noon, and then steamed a basket of white flour steamed buns, which should be comfortable to eat.

After the things were put away, Jia Yun pushed the cart home.

The small courtyard was as busy as ever. As soon as Jia Yun came back, people greeted him. These days they ate here every day, and there was no one who did not say good things about Jia Yun's cooking skills.

After pushing the cart into the house and putting it away, Jia Yun took the washbasin to the well to clean it, then made a pot of tea and sat under the eaves to drink while watching the workers busy.

Because of the large number of people and only a few rooms, the roof of Lao Geng's house has been completely renovated in a few days.

After Lao Geng's house has been refurbished, Jia Yun and the others will move it there first, and then renovate their own.

Now the broken wooden beams on the roof of Lao Geng’s house have been replaced with new ones, and half of the tiles have been replaced and re-covered.

The original doors and windows have also been dismantled, and the door frames and window frames have also been installed. It is only necessary to wait for the door and window leaves to be ready, then take them over and install them.

Now the workers are plastering the walls with lime, which is estimated to take two days.

After that, the ground should be compacted and leveled, then a layer of sand should be laid, and finally square, palm-thick stone slabs should be laid.

Stone slabs can be paved not only in the house, but also in the yard. If it rains in the future, you will not be afraid of stepping on the mud.

(End of this chapter)