After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 528 Confused
Haitang never expected that Ma Shangyi would be alarmed by just writing a letter to ask Zhou Xuejun for information.

She suddenly took a little girl with her and took a carriage to Jin's house. She visited the house Jin Jiashu prepared for her, including the one he prepared for Guard Lin. She told Jin Jiashu very kindly that she was very satisfied with the house, and Guard Lin must be too, so that he no longer had to worry about decorating the house. She said that she knew he had good intentions and was very grateful for his kindness, but there was really no need for him to expend energy on these trivial matters. He should instead focus on studying and strive to achieve success in his studies as soon as possible...

Jin Jiashu was a little confused at the time, but he still showed her around the house politely.

Unexpectedly, after Ma Shangyi completed a circle, someone invited Haijiao to come over. She also said a lot of compliments and asked him to take some small gifts home.

When Hai Jiao returned home, the expression on his face was equally confused.

He took the gift given by Ma Shangyi to his grandmother Ma, claiming that it was a meeting gift from Ma Shangyi to the new neighbors. Ma was quite pleasantly surprised and said hurriedly: "These are all high-quality Jiangnan materials, which cannot be easily bought in Chang'an City. Ma Shangyi is so generous, I don't know how to return the gift... ..." Then he started to worry about the gift list in return, and sent people to find out about the neighbors to see if every neighbor had received a greeting gift, and what kind of gift they were.
Seeing his grandmother busy at work, Hai Jiao quickly resigned and went straight to the backyard, where he found his younger sister Haitang who was practicing calligraphy and told her what had happened.

Haitang was stunned: "Did Miss Zhou Xuejun tell her this? Did Ma Shangyi say it herself?"

Hai Jiao sighed: "Although Ma Shangyi didn't say it personally, the little girl named Chun Yu beside her told Aunt Lu privately, and it was Aunt Lu who told Xiao Jin and me."

Haitang frowned: "I asked Zhou Xuejun for information, but I didn't expect her to tell me anything. She has been injured for so long, and now her leg is getting better. She is busy with rehabilitation recently, so she doesn't have much time to visit. But she has a close relationship with Zhou Huajun and Wu Qiong. Zhou Huajun often stays with Mrs. Zhenguo, and Wu Qiong has lived in Cining Palace for several years. She should be quite familiar with Ma Shangyi. Both of them may provide useful information. News. I hope Zhou Xuejun can help me find them to inquire. With her usual behavior, it is impossible for her to ask Ma Shangyi directly? "

Hai Jiao felt that this matter was not impossible: "How old is Miss Xuejun? She may not know so many twists and turns. Children think simply. If you ask her about something, she may feel that she must help. Isn’t it safer for you to ask anyone than yourself?”

Haitang didn't quite believe that Zhou Xuejun could do such a thing. Although she is a child, she is very smart. Children two or three years older than her may not think as carefully as she does. Haitang has been corresponding with her for more than half a year and still has quite confidence in her. Maybe there was some mistake here that led Ma Shangyi here. However, this was not a big deal. Haitang asked herself that there was no taboo in her behavior. Even if she met Ma Shangyi in person, she would not be afraid of her.

So Haitang put aside the matter and asked her brother directly: "These are all trivial matters. What matters is what she said? Has she seen the house that Brother Jin decorated for her and Guard Lin? Are you satisfied?"

"She said it was very good, and she also praised Xiaojin and I for their hard work." Hai Jiao replied, "Even the style of the windows, she said it would be simple and generous, and she had no requirements. Xiaojin insisted on asking her to name a style that she liked. Come, she chose the simplest grilled window, saying that the windows of the house she lived in the palace had this style, and she was used to it, so just follow it." At this point, he paused and said, "It's just that. One thing, she said, the window builder must be a good one, and the gratings on the windows must be straight and horizontal, not crooked, which would make people look uncomfortable.”

Haitang was secretly wondering why the lower room where the people of Cining Palace lived had not been renovated for decades, and the windows were still the same old style, when she heard these words from behind Haijiao. She was a little curious: "If you open a window normally, the window lattice will naturally be horizontal and vertical. Who would deliberately make it crooked? Unless it is to deliberately make the window lattice into various patterns. Ma Shangyi has decided to make a grille "The windows are paned, why do you need to specifically tell me this?" Hai Jiao said with a smile: "She said that the house she lived in before had only one big window, and the grille on it was crooked, and she could see people coming in and out every day. It made her feel uncomfortable. She originally wanted to ask someone to repair it, but unfortunately it never happened. The eunuch in charge of repairing the doors and windows in the palace seemed to be from Concubine Sun, and he never listened to the orders of Cining Palace.

"Some small things can be handled by the eunuchs in Cining Palace by themselves. But this window is a big one. To straighten the crooked window lattice, you have to take it down and reinstall it." Ma Shangyi didn't want to cause trouble to the Queen Mother, so she endured it for many years. Now that she has left the palace, the window lattice is still crooked, but Ma Shangyi no longer needs to look at it and feel uncomfortable. But now that she is moving into a new home, she certainly doesn’t want to have any problems with her new home’s window lattice.”

Haitang listened and counted the time.

Ma Shangyi was Empress Dowager Zhou's maid. When she moved into Cining Palace with Empress Dowager Zhou, Emperor Deguang had just succeeded to the throne. Soon after, he favored Concubine Sun and was dissatisfied with Empress Wu's natal family and the Zhou family. The Empress Dowager Zhou was not his biological mother, and the ownership of the throne had been decided, so it was not surprising that her treatment in front of the emperor had declined. Since the eunuch in charge of the door and window repair work was Concubine Sun, it is understandable that Ma Shangyi, for the sake of Queen Mother Zhou, did not want to offend Concubine Sun and conflict with the emperor over such a trivial matter as repairing windows at this time.

After all, it was just a window in the house where the female official next to Queen Mother Zhou lived. It was not broken, but the window lattice was a little crooked. Apart from the fact that the person involved looked uncomfortable, it was actually not a big deal, and it wasn't worth getting into a conflict with the emperor's favorite concubine just because of it.

When something happened to Empress Wu, Cining Palace took in the Seventh Prince, Liuhua, and Xu Gongren who escaped from Kunning Palace, and then took Mrs. Gui, her daughter, and Wu Ke from outside the palace. It was even more inconvenient for Sun to leave. The concubine's men entered the Cining Palace.

Today, the existence of the Seventh Prince seems to be still a secret. The Queen Mother refused to allow outsiders to enter Cining Palace for fear that Concubine Sun's people would discover the secret, so Ma Shangyi had no choice but to continue to endure the crooked window lattice until she left the palace.

If Ma Shangyi had obsessive-compulsive disorder, she would have to look at that window every day and endure it for decades. Haitang felt bad for her just thinking about it, thinking that this new family would not let her old grandma suffer anymore.

So she said to Hai Jiao: "Since Ma Shangyi has chosen the style, let Brother Jin tell the craftsmen and just follow them. As long as Ma Shangyi likes it, these are just trivial matters. The key is still Ma Shangyi How will Shangyi and Guard Lin arrange their daily life after they move in? Since Ma Shangyi has come here in person, has she mentioned how she will arrange her future food and clothing expenses? What if Brother Jin has to support them? How to settle the account?"

"We don't need to worry about this matter." Hai Jiao replied, "Old grandma has her own savings. The queen mother also rewarded her with money when she left the palace. The emperor and Concubine Xu Xian also subsidized her a lot of money. Besides, there is also Duke Zhen Guo. As for the government, the Ma family will not ask outsiders to support their old aunt. As for Guard Lin, although he is resigning, he will still receive the guard salary every month, but it is just a temporary payment from the Shaanxi Dusi. I won’t let Xiao Jin pay out of his own pocket.”

He paused for a moment: "It's just that the old mama had heard about stained glass windows somewhere, and she asked us where we knew that there were people in central or southern Beijing who used clam shells or sheep's horn glue to inlay their windows. She was so surprised. I broke out in a cold sweat..."

(End of this chapter)