swear not to be concubine

Chapter 1

It was August, but there was a heavy snowfall here in Beidi, and long and short icicles hung from the eaves.

Jian Yan was sitting in a willow armchair by the window in the Nuan Pavilion, holding a small canvas in her hand, with her head down, embroidering a cluster of orchids on the plain white silk.

Bai Wei pushed open the plywood door curtain woven with blue and dark flowers and bamboo leaves, came in, bowed to her, and then called out: "Miss."

Jian Yan didn't raise her head, her slender and white fingers were still moving slowly on the silk, her movements were skillful and graceful.But she was asking, "What's going on in the front yard?"

It gets dark early in winter, and although it's only the last hour, the sky is already dark.

There was no light in the warm pavilion, so Bai Wei walked to the side table at this time, reached for the fire pocket placed aside, blew vigorously, and lit the candle placed on the lotus foot candlestick.

Suddenly, a warm halo lit up in the room.

"Go back, girl," Bai Wei replied, "just now when I went to the main hall of the front yard, I heard Shen's mother instructing the kitchen to serve the scripture noodles for those eminent monks. I'm afraid we will start eating the scripture noodles after eating the scripture noodles." Do something."

Jian Yan raised her head upon hearing this.

She is now 14 years old and has a standard oval face.Willow leaf eyebrows, almond eyes, skin better than snow.Although she is young, she is already beautiful.

"Did the mother and elder brother go?"

Bai Wei replied: "The wife and the young master haven't gone yet. But on the way back, I saw the little maid Shan Huan next to the wife going to the kitchen to order food. I think the wife and the young master will go after dinner." In the front yard."

Jian Yan nodded, and casually put aside the embroidery stretcher embroidered with half of the orchids, and said in her mouth: "Then we have to hurry up. You send a little maid to the kitchen to look around. How long has it been since you’ve been gone?”

Bai Wei agreed, turned around and closed the curtain, and Jian Yan heard her softly calling the little maid Si Yue, telling her to hurry to the kitchen and look around.

Si Yue agreed clearly, but soon after, Jian Yan heard Si Yue's voice again, saying that she saw Miss Cui Liu come back from a distance.

After a while, the door curtain was pushed open, and Bai Wei and Cui Liu walked in, followed by Si Yue, who was holding a food box carved with rosewood and vermilion lacquer in her hand.

Bai Wei is the second-class maid beside Jian Yan. She is 16 years old now, with a long face, delicate features, and calm and meticulous workmanship.Cui Liu is the first-class maid beside her, she is also 16 years old now, she has a melon-shaped face, beautiful eyebrows, beautiful eyes, and she looks good.And it is precisely because of this good looks that Cui Liu looks down on other maids, always wanting to use her good looks to earn herself a better future.

Bai Wei entered the Nuan Pavilion, immediately took the food box in Si Yue's hand and put it on the square table in front of the window, then quickly took out all the food inside in an orderly manner.He took out another pair of ivory chopsticks, placed them on the ivory chopstick rest, and carefully aligned the tips of the chopsticks before giving up.

On the other hand, Cui Liu said angrily to Jian Yan: "Girl, you don't know, you can almost piss me off. I was the first one to go, and I was waiting for the girl's meal in the kitchen early in the morning, behind my wife. But when Mama He saw Shan Shan, she rushed to ask if she was here to get the food for the wife and the young master? Then she left the food for the girl and went to the wife and master The young master made it. I said at the time, seeing that the girl’s meal should be served, Mama He, you can simply prepare the girl’s meal, and it’s not too late to cook the wife’s and the young master’s meal. Don’t argue for a while Who knows that Coral, because she is serving by his wife's side, immediately retorted, saying what, since it's not a matter of time, then you might as well wait here. Who in this house doesn't know that the girl eats less every meal, even if she eats less, it doesn't matter. I was so angry at the time, it was almost impossible to fight this coral."

Jian Yan slightly frowned a pair of willow-leaf eyebrows.

This Cui Liu is a person who doesn't know how to hide her temper and is impulsive, if she is kept by her side, if she doesn't keep it, one day she will get into trouble.

"Elderly and young are orderly. Mother He should be close to the meals of her mother and brother. As for Shan Shan, she is the person who serves her mother after all. Next time you see her, you'd better be more polite."

Cui Liu was stunned, feeling a little disapproving of Jian Yan's words in her heart.

She is the first-class maid by Jian Yan's side. Even though the coral is served by the wife's side, in the end, she is just a poor little maid, and she is younger than her, so why should she let her go?
She wanted to say something more, but Bai Wei said in a timely manner: "Girl, please have dinner."

Jian Yan hummed, and reached out to pick up the ivory chopsticks on the table.

It's just a dish of bean sprouts soaked in vinegar, a dish of ten-spice tempeh, and a dish of melon.Even the tea white fine porcelain bowl is not filled with white rice, but just a bowl of thin white rice porridge that can be seen in the silhouette.

It's really hard to swallow.But Jian Yan's three meals a day were given to the kitchen by Mrs. Jian in advance, and she could not resist at all.

It's just that no matter how difficult it is to swallow, it must be eaten. If you don't eat it at night, you will be really hungry.She was really scared of the feeling of being hungry and staring open until dawn.

She had just drank half a bowl of white rice porridge, and ate a few chopsticks of sprouts and melons, when the curtain over there was suddenly beaten up.

Jian Yan looked up, and saw that it was a woman in her forties, wearing an aloes-colored cloud-patterned jacket and skirt, and a silver-headed lotus-petal hairpin on her head.

Jian Yan put the ivory chopsticks in her hand on the chopstick rest, and with a slight smile on her face, she called out to Mother Zhao.Bai Wei, Cui Liu, and Si Yue hurriedly bowed and saluted, and then called Mother Zhao.

Mother Zhao used to serve Mrs. Jane, but since Jian Yan was seven years old, she was assigned to take care of all the affairs in her yard, and she still reported to Mrs. Jane from time to time. Yan's movements.

Zhao's mother gave birth to a big white face, with some pockmarks on both sides of the nose.At a rough glance, it looks like a sesame seed cake, which is very joyful.It's just that her eyebrows are thick and flat, which makes her face look very bad.

At this time, she walked into the warm pavilion by herself, facing Jian Yan's smiling address and Bai Wei's salute, she just hummed lightly, then glanced at the table in front of Jian Yan, and then He opened his mouth and said: "If you eat too much for dinner, you will get fat easily. The girl should eat less. Seeing that the girl has already eaten half a bowl of porridge, this meal should be withdrawn."

Jian Yan tightly clenched the hand in her sleeve, but the slight smile on her face was still intact.She glanced at Cui Liu and Si Yue, and said with a smile: "Since Mother Zhao said so, then Cui Liu, Si Yue, you all come over and pack up all the food."

Cui Liu agreed, and actually came forward to collect the food.April stood there without moving.

Bai Wei is clever, so she turned around and smiled at Zhao's mother, "Mom, the small things like cleaning up the meals are naturally done by Si Yue's little maids. You don't have to stand here and watch. When I come out Put a few sweet potatoes in the brazier in the house, which should be cooked. Mama Zhao, don't you want to have one in such a cold day?"

Thinking of hot and fragrant sweet potatoes, Mother Zhao naturally thought of it.And she felt that what Bai Wei said was right, it was just such trivial matters as packing the meals, it was really not her turn to watch from the sidelines.

And Bai Wei had already grabbed her sleeve at this time, and said with a smile: "Mother Zhao is just thinking about it here and there, is it possible that you are still afraid that I will poison you in the sweet potato? Come with me. Then I'm afraid those sweet potatoes should be burnt later."

When Mother Zhao heard this, she simply followed Bai Wei.

And here, as soon as Mother Zhao and Bai Wei went out, Si Yue hurriedly stepped forward and said to Jian Yan: "Miss, eat some more porridge, I'll go to the porch to watch the wind. If someone comes, I will shout Cough twice."

Jian Yan nodded, thinking that April is a very smart person.

When Cui Liu here heard what Si Yue said, she understood in her heart, and hurriedly took out the few dishes that had been received in the food box, and said in her mouth: "Miss, hurry up while Mama Zhao is away. Let's eat some more."

It's just that in her heart she still somewhat blames Si Yue for being a sweetheart in front of Jian Yan, which makes it seem like she doesn't know how to read words and expressions.But she changed her mind and thought again, Si Yue is just a little maid in the end, so could it be possible to go past a maid like her?

With such cares in his heart, the action of holding the dish in his hand still didn't stop.

At this moment, Jian Yan's voice could be heard faintly: "Forget it, just take out that plate of melons."

She doesn't like fermented soybeans, and the sprouts soaked in vinegar are sour, so she only eats half or six cents full every meal, so if she knows how to eat vinegar, won't she make her even hungrier?
With that plate of melons, Jian Yan finished a bowl of porridge.Only then did Cui Liu start to clean up the food on the table.At this time, Bai Wei also came over, and replied with a smile: "Mother Zhao ate a roasted sweet potato, and I coaxed her a few more words, and now she is busy going to the wife's place to serve her. The girl has had a good meal." ? If it’s all right, we should also go to the front yard.”

Jian Yan nodded, and Bai Wei took an azurite mink cloak and put it on for her, and took a small water-milled red copper hand stove that was warmed by charcoal inside, and held it in her hand. The curtain was drawn in the past.

Jian Yan lowered her head and walked out from the Nuan Pavilion.

In front of the Nuan Pavilion is her living room, and a thick plywood curtain hangs over the door to keep out the wind and snow outside.Si Yue was standing by the door at this time, reached out and knocked on the curtain at the door of the living room, and stood waiting for her at the door.

Jian Yan lowered her head and walked through the door curtain, and Si Yue immediately held a lantern covered with white cotton paper in her hand to light the way ahead.

The snow was so strong and the wind was so strong that the light of the half candle in the lantern could not be shaken.The lanterns hanging under the corridor above were also creaking and creaking non-stop, and the candlelight in a few lanterns was actually blown out by the wind.But fortunately, there was already a thick layer of snow on the ground, and the light of the snow was so faint that the near and far could be seen dimly.

Jian Yan wrapped her cloak tightly around her body, holding a small warm stove in her hand, and walked slowly all the way to the main hall in the front yard.

There are white curtains and white cloth balls hanging everywhere in the hall, and in the middle of the black lacquered rosewood table is a spiritual tablet, which is written on the spiritual position of the elder Yongchang who was taboo by Jian Gong.

This spiritual card is dedicated to her father.But in fact, if it is serious, Jian Yongchang is not her biological father, no matter in the previous life or in this life.

(End of this chapter)