Walking into the Red Mansion starts from the maid

As soon as Mingyan left, Xiaohong let out a long sigh and sighed: "It's okay to leave. Baoyu has been sleeping these days, and the little one underneath has almost turned upside down!"

"Turn it over, let's live our lives well." Yunzhu didn't take it seriously. The people below asked Mrs. Wang to change them one after another. There used to be some humaneness, but now they are all masters who recognize money but not people. Far away It's too late, how can you have time to break it up?

Nowadays, Baoyu's courtyard is one of the best places in the Jia family. The young maids are all eager to come to Yihong courtyard. The few maids sent by the old lady have almost formed a monopoly. Lianyun Most of the work of making tea was taken away from Zhu.

Originally, he wanted to compete with Qixie and the others, but ever since Mrs. Wang became the housekeeper, Yunzhu always felt that this lady was confused, anticlimactic, and her behavior was even more unpredictable.

She also wanted to take the lead as the wife of the house, but felt that she could not live up to the Buddha, so she was very coy.

At that time, the maids in the Grand View Garden were searched, and there were already many people who were dissatisfied. However, the matter was not followed up. Not to mention what the servants who were involved felt, even Yunzhu himself was a little worried about the long nights and dreams.

In addition, Baoyu's discipline was sometimes loose and tight. He first kicked out girls like Qingwen and Xiren, who were either beautiful or really restless, and then studied for a few days. Now he is sending the old lady to serve him. The female servant turned a blind eye and got up.

It's like schizophrenia, who isn't scared underneath?
It's good that Yunzhu was mentally prepared in advance.It's hard for others to say, even Xiao Hong, right now, is bent on working as an errand in the Rongguo Mansion. It would be better to get more senior qualifications in the future, and use the face of her parents to get a job as a lady in charge, what else can she do? All strong.

"You can sit still, but I can't. As soon as I heard that Taoist Ma had hanged himself because the second mistress had sent someone to look after her, my hands and feet got cold!" Xiao Hong picked up a shell bead of the right size. , telling Yunzhu the secrets of the house one by one as if chatting.

Yunzhu stood up and looked around before squatting down and continuing to bury the beads.She thought to herself, what the hell, Ma Daopo defrauded Wang Xifeng of a hundred taels of gold and only asked her to hang herself with a belt. According to Sister Feng's habitual urine, it was considered a great kindness.

"Where did you hear all this? Are you serious?" Seeing Xiaohong's seriousness, Yunzhu raised her eyebrows and asked doubtfully, but there was no news about these things.

"Can that be fake?" Seeing Yunzhu's confusion, Xiaohong handed over a pair of bamboo tweezers and said harmoniously: "My mother said that all the ladies know that right now my wife and the second grandma are not at odds with each other. It won’t be long before word spreads.”

"No wonder."

"No wonder what?"

Yunzhu thought for a while and said in a hesitant tone: "You don't know, last month Baoyu sent me to deliver drinks to my wife. My wife was very angry that day. She was saying that the second grandma was like a Buddha. She was like a Buddha every day. Spending money like water and not caring about anything makes her tired..."

"If I'm not happy, I'll spend money like water!" When talking about spending money, Xiaohong gets excited.

But who doesn’t love spending money?Yunzhu echoed: "Me too!"

Laughing and laughing, the two began to dream again, dreaming about how to spend money to be happy.

He was talking happily, but in his heart he couldn't help but think, aren't these things connected together? Ma Daopo defrauded people of money and harmed people. The matter of harming people has not yet been found out, but the deception of money is a certainty.

Wang Xifeng couldn't help but sent someone to deal with Taoist Ma.

And because Ma Daopo was Baoyu's godmother, Mrs. Wang thought that Sister Feng had gone too far, so she wanted to show her power and take out the curse.Who would have known that she was not good enough to make Aunt Zhao play around, and also alienated her aunt and nephew. This is probably why Mrs. Wang is so busy these days.

So, isn't Aunt Zhao's ginseng a scam? She just came to see the joke?

This behavior is like a criminal deliberately returning to the scene of an assassination for nostalgia. It's a psychopath!

Then how does Aunt Zhao explain her hostility to her?

"I can't say anymore, I want to spend money." Xiaohong handed over the last handful of beads ground from shells and asked, "There's been a lot less lately. Sister Qi said we can go home at any time. Why don't you come to my house to rest today?"

She pushed Penny, and the two of them placed the clam with the pearl embryos in the bamboo cage, and carefully pushed it along the rope in the water to the center of the water.

Thinking of the smiles of Lin Zhixiao and his wife, Yunzhu said: "Okay, Mrs. Song also said she left two pig's trotters for me this morning. Let's go back and make trotters to eat."

"What is the hoof flower?" Xiaohong asked.

Aristocratic families rarely touch these things. If they can't even eat bear's paws, how can they look at pig's feet?Even the people below look down on these 'filthy' things.

"It's delicious." Yunzhu pursed her lips and smiled. After washing her hands with soap, she went to the garden carrying the small bamboo basket.There is a bamboo forest on the west side of Xiaoxiang Pavilion, which is one of the few pieces of land in Yunzhu Circle. It is very popular here.

Just because the bamboo forest is full of bamboos and a few paths, which are now turning red one after another, attracting servants from the yards on both sides to check in from time to time.

At this moment, several idle little maids were having fun in the bamboo forest. Seeing Yunzhu coming with a bamboo basket, Fang Guan hurriedly stepped forward, helped Yunzhu take the basket and said, "Master, today There are also bamboo shoots, so tender!”

"Then let's make red oil bamboo shoots again!" Yunzhu cheered, and the little girls also became happy, chattering around Yunzhu, and packed wild fruits into her bamboo basket.

Seeing the little maids who were about the same age as herself happy, Yunzhu was also happy.I hurriedly took out all the remaining cloud cakes in the space, picked a lotus leaf to make a tray, and had another nondescript afternoon tea with the wild fruits on the ground.

She distributed the cloud cake to the children, and took a handful of fennel fruit herself. She looked at the bright red crystal clear fruit without washing it carefully. She took three or five bites, and the sweet juice splashed in her mouth.

It's juicy and would be great for making jam.

Nowadays, the ingredients produced in the yard are given priority to the small kitchen in the Grand View Garden, and then are collected by dedicated personnel and sold outside. However, the weather is getting hotter day by day, and the bamboo shoots are growing like chicken blood, making it impossible to eat. .

It can't be sold anymore.

"Master, the red oil shredded bamboo shoots you made are so delicious, I can't get enough of them." Fangguan was chewing the cloud slice cake and pulled out a big pile of bamboo shoot tips from the grass. Yunzhu's eyes widened when he saw it. When it was round, he found a dagger from his arms and started to peel the bamboo shoots.

Fangguan pushed the tender and shiny yellow bamboo shoots in front of Yunzhu and said, "It's my fault. My godmother saw it when I was eating. She took a bite of the bamboo shoots and felt they were delicious..."

She sighed loudly.

"It's easy to make. Let's make more this time and save it for eating!" Yunzhu said carelessly. She made a can of bamboo shoots by herself. Someone helped her with the spoons and even the fire. In this way, she could still sell a can for ten or eighty cents. .

No matter how small the mosquito legs are, they are still meat.

"Hehe, I know Master loves me." As he said that, the remaining maids looked at Yunzhu. Obviously, the nuns would not easily do it to the maids to feed them without giving up the oil and salt.

Nowadays, with just a little effort, one can easily buy a month's worth of side dishes with only ten cents.Both parties were happy with the deal.

……

"Sister Xiren, sister Xiren..."

Xiren drank the medicine and was sleeping drowsily when he heard a noise in his ears. He opened his eyes slightly and saw the sweaty forehead of the little girl. He thought to himself, had he given her the coldness?
So in a rare moment of mercy, he said, "You should go back to the girl as soon as possible. If you are also sick, there is no medicine here."

"No, sister Xiren, your family is going to eat people!" The little girl was panic-stricken, and she said nonchalantly that Hua Zifang was sharpening a knife and wanted to send people away.

The little girl doesn't understand what sending away means, but sharpening a knife and sending away means cannibalism in the child's eyes.After all, she was sold by her mother because her uncle wanted to eat people!
There were many refugees gathered outside the city, and the nobles in the capital were running porridge shops from time to time to show their kindness, but they had never heard of the tragedy of cannibalism.Since his home was in the city again, Xiren didn't take it seriously and told him again: "You will go back tomorrow and tell the girl that I will go back to serve her when I am well. Go to sleep."

Xiren turned her back and heard the little girl snoring slightly. She curled up into a ball unconsciously, and the strong congestion in her nasal cavity made it impossible to fall asleep again.

She was thinking about the money she had on her. She couldn't stay in the Hua family any longer.

I don’t know what kind of husband Miss Shi Da will have in the future. Will she become a dowry girl?
But then I thought about it, I still have the old lady's bond, so the old lady shouldn't give a maid as a dowry to her grandnephew.

If the old lady thinks of herself one day, will she take her back?
It's okay not to serve Baoyu. How dare she have so much greed now? She took off that coat just to live a stable life.

When people are sick, it is easy to have random thoughts. Xiren was half asleep and half awake thinking about what kind of clothes she would wear if the old lady took her back, how she would thank her, and other various issues, when she heard the door latch click twice.

The window lattice of Hua's house was covered with hemp paper, and the edges of the thick black paper were stained with yellow mud. It was impossible to see anything clearly at night.Now when I pushed the door open, I felt the moonlight pouring out like water, and then a tall figure came in.

Xiren took a closer look and couldn't help but sneer.

"Hey, why aren't you talking when you're awake? You scared me!" Hua Zifang's stooped waist suddenly stood up straight and said confidently, "Do you want some water? I'll pour it for you."

As he said that, he picked up the empty pot on the table, but he turned the bottom of the pot up and couldn't pour out a drop of water.

"This Liu Cui! You're such a loser. He won't even give my sister a drink. He's going to have a break tomorrow."

Hua Zifang spat, sat down on the wooden stool with a straight face, and began to pick her teeth as if to hide her embarrassment. After a while, no one answered her, and then she couldn't help but ask: "Sister, I won't hide anything from you. , Now you have also seen the situation at home. Since you left the Jia family, it has plummeted. That is..."

The most glorious period of the Hua family was when Xiren had established a foothold in Jiangyunxuan. Jia Baoyu was a serious noble son. He never paid attention to such mundane things as money and rewarded his servants as he pleased.

And because of their trust in themselves, most of the purchases in Jiangyunxuan followed Hua Zifang's way, and the amount of money they passed through ranged from [-] to [-]. The accounts were passed through the hands of the brother and sister like running water, and that was all. If you scrape off [-]%, that is a huge wealth that many people will not be able to earn in a few lifetimes.

But now, the Hua family still lives in such a dilapidated courtyard without even a decent set of furniture. What are her father and brother, who she thought were her hope and supporter, doing?Where's the money?

"Where did the money go?" Xi Ren blurted out the question in his chest, but what he got in exchange was a more harsh question.

"You still have the nerve to ask about money. When you were with the young master of the Jia family, I would get 30 taels and 50 taels every now and then. You spent all of it and you still ask me for money? I thought with good intentions, our family will take care of it first. You, I hope you can establish a firm foothold in the house as soon as possible, so that we can support our family, and the whole family can have a head start. I didn't expect that I woke up from the dream so quickly..." Hua Zifang rake down, every word is like a knife.

Listening to these unfeeling words, Xi Ren's face was filled with tears in the darkness. The bright moon just disappeared into the clouds, and the world between heaven and earth suddenly became as gray as her state of mind.

Xiren asked himself, even though he was sold back then, he never resented his family.

We were really poor at that time. A quilt was as hard and cold as iron. The family huddled together and figured out where to earn food tomorrow.

Everyone could only eat two cents full, and when they were too hungry to sleep at night, mother would get everyone up, boil a pot of hot water, and stir the salt particles in the water, which was a delicious food to satisfy hunger.

When did the family change?When Liu Cui said this, it could be said that her sister-in-law had been grudges for a long time.

But her father and brother.

Looking back on that day, it was she who shamelessly begged Baoyu to leave some trivial matters to Hua Zifang. Although it was not as leisurely and dignified as working as an errand in the house, the benefits were real.

For a family like that to hand over part of the purchasing business in the young master's yard to an outsider, how much effort did it cost her?What's the pull? Could it be that if she can't become Baoyu's aunt, the Hua family will have no hope at all?
After all, it's just that now they can't get any benefits out of her, so they start to think that she is dragging them down.

Her years of planning and planning now seem to be ridiculous.

Xi was very thirsty and broke out in a cold sweat. His mouth opened and closed and he couldn't make any sound, but his mind was awake.

"Well, one day, you will know that I am doing this for your own good." Hua Zifang sighed, and then said: "You must not have much money to serve the lady now. I will use your spare money." Use it first, and then I’ll share it with you for your dowry after I make some money.”

After saying that, he stood up and opened the cabinet, turned over Xiren's clothes, and even searched through the purse that was intended for the little girl in his sleeves.

Since serving Shi Xiangyun, Xiren has no fixed place to live, and all his wealth has been exchanged for gold to carry around with him. Now that the beggar Hua Zifang has been cut off, she is no different from the beggar on the street.

She hid herself in the quilt and cried. No one came to comfort her for a long time. She felt so despaired that she simply got up and walked out of the yard through the back door.

In the dark, there is the sound of wind and water nearby, and the barking of dogs and the crow of chickens in the distance.As I was walking leisurely, I felt a chill on my face. It turned out to be raining.

Where is her shelter from the rain?

Xiren smiled brightly and ran staggeringly in the rain. While crying, he tied up the bun on his head, took out the silver hairpin given by Baoyu from his arms, and smashed it into the grass with a clatter.

Unfortunately, his whole body was weak, and soon he felt like he was out of his body. Suddenly, he saw his mother looming in front of him. Xiren rushed forward and said: "Mother, mother, wait for me."

"What the hell, mother, open your dog eyes and see clearly, I am your grandma Qingwen!"

"She passed out."