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

Chapter 755 Small talk
Haitang's room consists of two rooms, the stove is in the outer room and the kang is in the inner room, and the inner and outer rooms are separated by a treasure box.

Haitang now uses the outer room as a study and a small reception room. She has placed a large desk and chairs by the window. Behind the chairs are two large bookshelves. There is also a storage cabinet and a sundries rack on the outside. Her weapons and horse gear are placed on the racks, close to the door for easy access. When the weather is not cold, if a close friend comes to visit, she does not need to go into the inner room to get on the kang. She sits by the desk and chats with them. At one end of the desk is a long-necked white porcelain plum vase, in which is inserted a branch of red plum blossoms sent by Jin Jiashu. It is about to wither, but the color is still beautiful. Against the background of the closed paper window, it looks like a painting.

The inner room was the bedroom, with a big kang and a tall wardrobe. The kang was not big, it was more than enough for two people to sleep side by side, but it would be very crowded for three people. Haitang was not used to such a crowded place, so one of the two new girls who moved in with their bedding had to sleep on the floor.

Without waiting for Xiangcao to speak, Cuiguo tactfully spread her bedding next to the kang and said, "I'll sleep on the floor. It's so close to the kang and it's quite warm at night. I also sleep on the floor at home. I may not be used to it if I move to the kang!"

She had been a maid since she was a child, so she didn't feel wronged. But Xiangcao felt that she owed her a favor, so she took the initiative to do more work in return. She rushed to light the fire and boil water on the stove, wash and rinse, and even filled an extra hot water bottle and stuffed it into Cuiguo's mouth to prevent her from feeling cold at night. Cuiguo happily took it.

As a maid, she was already familiar with this job and did not find it hard. She was just afraid that the maid in the same room would be scheming and calculating, and she, an honest person, would be easily hurt if she was not careful. But if the maid in the same room was reasonable and knew how to behave, she would be happy to get along with her and would not quarrel with her for every little thing. That would only make the master unhappy, and even if she won the quarrel, there would be no good result. She had learned this lesson a long time ago.

The two maids were in harmony and settled down without Haitang's help. Seeing this, Haitang didn't say much, but just instructed Xiangcao to spread out the bed and told her about her living habits, so that she wouldn't be ignorant and accidentally break taboos later.

There was nothing to do on a winter night, and the kang was warm, so Haitang didn't light a lamp to read, and went to bed early. However, because she went to bed earlier than usual, she didn't feel sleepy at this moment. Seeing that the two girls were still energetic, she simply pulled them to chat.

Xiangcao and Cuiguo both came from the capital. Xiangcao had been in Chang'an with her parents for more than a year, so the news she knew about the capital was probably lagging behind. But Cuiguo had only been in Chang'an with the young master of her former master's family for about three months, so she should be quite familiar with what happened in the capital in the first half of this year. Haitang asked her about the prices in the capital, the price of a house, and the daily necessities. As a maid of the imperial merchant family, she should have heard about the important events of the court, right?
However, Xiangcao could also provide some information about prices in the villages and towns outside the capital, or the prices outside the capital. Even if the news was delayed, it was generally available. However, although Cuiguo was once a maid of the imperial merchant family, she lived in the inner house for a long time and had very limited knowledge of the outside world. Unless her parents mentioned it in private conversations, or the master she served mentioned it in private, she knew nothing about the major events of the court. She knew more about the business situation of her former master, the imperial merchant Luo family.

According to her, the Luo family was very wealthy and powerful more than ten years ago, and the backers were powerful. That was why her parents joined the Luo family as servants, because they wanted the servants of his family to have no worries about food and clothing and not have to worry about their livelihood.

However, the Luo family's fortunes have been declining in recent years and they are no longer as prosperous as they once were.

When Cuiguo first entered the inner house to serve the young master, she was just a maid who cleaned the house, with a monthly salary of 300 yuan, and occasional rewards. Later, she entered the house as a third-class maid, and her monthly salary increased to 500 yuan. Above her were first- and second-class maids, with a monthly salary of one tael of silver and half a tael of silver, and a second-class maid a thousand coins. Their food and clothing were a hundred times better than those of the little maids, and they could eat and drink with their master, and occasionally get good things from their master. After three years, as long as they did not make any mistakes, their wealth and private property would be very considerable.

When Cuiguo first entered the courtyard, she recognized a maid of the first rank. When she was promoted to the third rank, she was old enough and asked for grace to be released from the mansion to marry. The clothes, jewelry and private money she brought with her amounted to at least five or six hundred silver coins. Her parents did not deduct any of it and gave it to her directly as a dowry, which was more generous than the money of a daughter of a wealthy family outside. She married the son of a wealthy merchant family. After marriage, she would return to the Luo family every New Year to pay respects to her old master. She was very respectable and glorious. However, in recent years, the maids of the Luo family have not been so lucky. Most people either have not been able to get grace to leave the mansion to marry, or they cannot take so much property with them when they leave the mansion. Unless they are the most beloved maids of the wives and grandmothers, they will encounter some minor or major problems and be directly married to a boy or even driven out of the mansion. Naturally, all their things are left behind. It is a favor from the master to be able to take a few sets of clothes and bedding with them so that they don’t have to go out naked.

Although the maids' monthly wages were not reduced, they were not paid on time every month like before. They were always delayed for some time. If they were lucky, they would be delayed by ten days or half a month. If they were unlucky, they might not get their money until two months later. Cuiguo heard other maids talking about it privately. They said that the mistress of the house secretly took everyone's monthly wages and lent them out at high interest, making profits to enrich her own pockets. Some people also complained to several wives, but the wives did not make any move and let the mistress continue to do what she wanted. Cuiguo herself could not explain why.

Furthermore, the young master that Cuiguo had served, his biological mother was a very favored concubine, who had many clothes and jewelry given by the master of the house, and had several new clothes for each season. But in recent years, this concubine often complained privately, saying that the wives and grandmothers in charge were stingy, and the clothes and jewelry that should have been distributed to her were not as good as before, and even the food was much worse. In order to make a new set of clothes to please the master of the house, she had to secretly pawn her private jewelry outside...

As the young master wanted to interfere in the family business, he had asked someone to inquire about the situation in the shop. Cuiguo occasionally followed him to serve tea and heard a few words. It seemed that a powerful business was competing with the Luo family shop for business, forcing the Luo family shop to give in repeatedly and suffer losses several times. But the backer behind the business was too powerful. Even Jishengtang had to give in to him. What could the Luo family do? They could only blame themselves for their bad luck.

Business was not going well, and the money earned was less, so the Luo family's food, clothing and daily expenses naturally had to be reduced. The head of the Luo family originally wanted to come to Chang'an to develop new business, and the young master volunteered to come to open up wasteland, but was deceived and lost a large sum of money, which made the head of the Luo family's new plan unable to continue. This is why he was furious, ignoring the concubine's pleading, and insisted on punishing his beloved son, and even sold all the people around him.

Jishengtang?
Haitang heard a familiar name: "Jishengtang? Is your former employer familiar with his family? I heard that his family is backed by the Zhang family in the capital, who once had a queen mother and an imperial concubine."

When Haitang was still a maid in the palace, she had heard of the name of Jishengtang, which was owned by the family of Empress Zhang of Emperor Yongchang. The Zhang family had produced empresses for three generations in a row, so it was no wonder that the family business was also prosperous.

Cuiguo replied, "The owner of Jishengtang is a cousin of the master of Luodong family. Luodong family initially relied on his family to build their business. During every New Year, Luodong family would go to pay respects to the master, and then visit Jishengtang!"

Haitang suddenly realized.

It turns out that the former owner of Cuiguo, the royal merchant Luo family, is actually backed by the Zhang family! What a coincidence!

(End of this chapter)