The Concubine's Survival Manual

Chapter 161

Seventh Lady frowned slightly.

Qiqiao is very familiar with her, since Zhaoming entered Yuyuxuan in 24 years, she has served by her side for three or four years.

Although this girl is a bit frivolous, she always seizes the opportunity to sell herself in front of her, but she is by no means a fool... she acts with discretion, and has not caused any trouble for Seventh Lady in the past four years.

If it was said that she would get carried away and jump up when she saw a man, Qin Niangzi would be the first to not believe it: if she had such a mind, she would have already shown her clues in front of Brother Jiu.

She sighed softly.

If Qi Qiao is innocent, then the person who is not innocent seems to be Xu Fengjia.

"Tell me about it." She said softly, "Don't be afraid, it will kill you."

Qi Qiao's shoulders trembled, and the tears rolled down even more. After a long time, she squinted her tears and raised her head in despair to look at Qiniangzi—she had followed Qiniangzi for many years, how could she not understand the subtext in Qiniangzi's words.Otherwise, there are so many Seven Lady that people can't die.

"Girl," she called out the old title of Seven Lady, took a sharp breath, and stopped the trembling all over her body. "Qi Qiao is not a fool who has been blinded by lard, but now he jumped into the Yellow River, and he can't get rid of it no matter what—"

Seventh Lady immediately showed impatience, "Just say it!"

As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she also recognized that her tone was rare and sharp.

She couldn't help laughing at herself again, calmed her breath and comforted Qiqiao, "You have been with me for four years, and I still don't know you? Don't be afraid, as long as your heart is true, I will believe you!"

Only then did Qi Qiao calm down, and took a few deep breaths to calm down the last trembling.Only a little fear remained in those big watery eyes.

"Last night, the slaves were on duty outside." She began to narrate in a soft voice. "Because... because the son and the young lady are together, sometimes in the middle of the night he needs water to wash up. Those of us who are servants can't go to sleep until there is no movement at four o'clock."

Because Xu Fengjia loves quietness, the maids from last night slept on the small kang in the Xici room. There are small doors in the two rooms, so ordinary movements cannot pass through, but as long as they raise their voices, the maids can hear them.Lady Seven also knew this.

"The young lady also knows that I usually sleep too much. This morning I waited for the two masters to get up. I didn't stay in the main room. Instead, I greeted Sister Shangyuan and entered our own room in the south room. Go to take a nap at the house. Since my wife is not at home all morning, I am lazy and free..." Qi Qiao lowered her head, and tears filled her eyes again. "I didn't expect to sleep for hours after this sleep, and it was noon as soon as I opened my eyes. Sister Lixia was with the young lady, and only sister Shangyuan could do things in the room, so I hurried into the main room, thinking that I had to Help pass the meal and tidy up the house, so as not to push things to others and complain among the sisters."

"Sister Shangyuan and I had a face-to-face meeting before leaving the house for the East Wing. Thinking that the young lady hadn't come back yet, and it was almost time, I brought a pot of hot water to prepare for the third room in the west. When the young lady comes back, you can wash your hands and face immediately... All the way into the house, there was no one in the cold. I met Yufen who came out of the small kitchen and was peeling an orange in her hand. When she saw me, she smiled and said, "Who made me Did you come to fetch water?" I wondered, and said, "I did it myself."

"Yufen said, 'My good sister, I didn't expect you to be so courageous. I wish I could be like you.' Then I went back to the house by myself. I heard that this was wrong, but I didn't think about it, so I carried water into the room. After entering Xisanjian, when I opened the door and entered... Shizi just came out after rushing, and was about to wipe himself."

Seventh Lady breathed a sigh of relief.

If the matter is the same as what Qi Qiao said, it is just a misunderstanding.Xu Fengjia himself also has a clean room in West Fifth Room, and rarely takes a bath in West Third Room, and he doesn't want to be waited on by others, so it's an unfortunate coincidence that he is so courteous and self-defeating.

Qi Qiao bit her lip, but didn't go on talking, but looked at Li Xia with her eyes.Seeing her acting like this, Qin Niangzi felt a sense of hypocrisy in her heart.

wrong.

With Qiqiao's temperament, no matter how frivolous he is, he won't run out blushing as soon as he sees the host's body.After all, which maid in a married man's house is not used to seeing a man's body?Besides, it was just a misunderstanding. What was she doing in such a panic?
She turned her questioning eyes to Li Xia.

Li Xia looked serious, pressed Qi Qiao's shoulders with both hands, and said in a low voice, "You said it, with the young lady's insight, I won't wrong you!"

Qi Qiao's complexion changed several times, and finally he burst into tears. He knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Qin Niangzi a few times. Big blood bubbles swelled on his forehead. Then he hugged Qin Niangzi's knees and narrated, "I was scared at that time. I had to let go of a pot of water, but Shi Ziye had sharp eyes and quick hands, and held the handle of the pot to prevent the hot water from splashing out... Shi Ziye came in a hurry, and he didn't have any clothes on, so he directly pressed his hand on my hand. I I was so frightened that I couldn't move, so the prince asked me, "Why are you so careless?" He put the kettle on the shelf, pinched the face of the servant, and said, "I didn't expect your master to take a fancy to it." If you are the housekeeper, I will still be Yufen and Yufang, and I am ready to show my face-but it is not your business right now, you go out, it is not time to hire you'... I don’t know right away What to say, Shizi became a little impatient and said, "Aren't you going out yet?", Qi Qiao panicked...for a while...for a while...girl! girl! The girl must be clearly aware, begging for a clever way to be wronged!"

Before the words were over, she couldn't bear it any longer, and burst into tears.

There seemed to be an invisible heavy object in the room, which made people unable to breathe.

Qiniangzi sat like a clay sculpture for a long time before she came back to her senses and sneered slowly a few times.

"Get up." She whispered to Qiqiao, seeing that Qiqiao was a little confused from crying, she simply patted her delicate cheek lightly. "stand up."

Qi Qiao stood up timidly, and looked at Qin Niangzi with fear on her face, and Li Xia behind her all had a solemn and mournful face.

Qin Niangzi seemed to have eaten a glass of ice-cold snow-soaked plum soup, and was so choked that she couldn't even breathe. It took a long time before she spoke slowly.

"Qiqiao, tell the truth." She stared at the terrified maid, "Did you lie to me? Was what you said just now true?"

Qi Qiao just nodded desperately, the emotion on his face was worthy of the words "sincere and sincere".

Seventh Lady breathed a sigh of relief, and said slowly, "If you have a false sentence..."

She didn't finish the sentence before she stopped.

How could Qiqiao have any motive to lie to her?She is his dowry maid, life and death are only in his own mind, and this question can be found out by just asking the person concerned.What did she lie to herself?
Of course, she also has reasons to be afraid. Although this misunderstanding is not big, it is not small. If Xu Fengjia proposes to hire Qiqiao in the future, think about what happened today... I am afraid that Qiqiao will die soon.A disobedient Tong Fang has the shortest life in a rich family.

Although Qiqiao may not be unintentional about Tongfang's location, she is also a smart person. She said that she "jumped into the Yellow River and can't clean it up", probably because she was afraid that she would trust Xu Fengjia more than her.How many women are good at deceiving themselves and others emotionally, even if they are usually good at calculating. If it is the character of the fourth young lady or the fifth lady, whether it is reasonable or not, they will have to hit three hundred boards first.Qi Qiao's future was ruined like this.

She closed her eyes tightly at once, and told herself over and over again in her heart: Why did you get hurt?Isn't that what you should expect?
Daqin is not modern in the first place, and it is almost a joke in a high-ranking family to talk about it from one end to the other.The concubine of the Great Qin Dynasty does not go to bed when she is over [-] years old. This restriction can be relaxed in rich families, but she is also over [-] years old, so she seldom does things with the male master.

A man is still young at the age of 40, how could he not serve the generation of pillows?Not to mention that when the mistress is always pregnant, she can prepare one or two couples in advance to marry her as a dowry, so as to avoid being spoiled by the couples prepared by her in-laws... These things are commonplace for Seventh Lady.

Xu Fengjia grew up in such an environment, how could he understand single-mindedness?Any high-ranking son of Daqin has an extremely long distance from the word Zhuanyi.Since he misunderstood Qiqiao as a room for himself, a few words of teasing were also part of the question.He is willing to restrain himself, not to accept Qiqiao immediately, because he misses Qin Niangzi very much.

Doesn't she understand?Isn't it because of this reason that she has been unwilling to surrender to Xu Fengjia?In the face of his request, did she just blindly refuse and escape?

That being the case, why is she sad now?Didn't you expect that...

Seventh Lady sighed slowly.

Expected a long time ago, and finally have to face, after all, are two completely different things.

At this moment, she really wished that she was a partial listener and partial believer, and would rather believe that Qi Qiao's delusional attempt to climb the dragon and the phoenix would fail, and she made up these words to cover up her faults.It's a pity that her logic is clear after all, and she recalled Qi Qiao's confession over and over again in her heart, but she couldn't find a single flaw.

"You go down first." She told Qi Qiao. "Don't show up in front of Shizi these days."

Seeing that the fear on the big girl's face has not subsided, Qin Niangzi promised again wearily, "Don't worry, as long as what you tell is the truth, nothing will happen!"

Li Xia urged in a low voice, and led Qi Qiao out of the house.

Not long after, Shang Yuan came in with a message of dinner, Qin Niangzi picked the rice grains in the bowl, took a few mouthfuls, and then put down the bowl and chopsticks again.

She flipped through the collection of "Biography of Jin Yu's Children" under the lamp, looked at "Biography of Children" Yingying smiled and said, "Then Liu Er is also a virtuous person, what does it mean that the old lady is put in Master Sun's room?" , I understand very well in my heart. I suppressed her for three years, just to test her temper, and I really did my best to serve her, and I couldn't find any faults. Now that I have a baby, Liu Er's early days have come, but Still circling around me - that's the smart guy."

The more she read, the more annoying she was, and she closed the book in one go.Open the bookcase and throw it into the corner of the cabinet.

After taking a few deep breaths, he calmed down and started to think about it.

#
Xu Fengjia returned to Mingde Hall very late that night.

As soon as he entered the house, he was like a whirlwind, undressing as he walked, calling for hot water to be prepared, and after entering the clean room, he came out again, his body was already fragrant, but his complexion was still very gloomy.

"What?" Seventh Lady was woken up by him, she rubbed her eyes in a daze and sat up and asked, "It's something in the palace——"

Xu Fengjia snorted, sat down on the edge of the bed, lowered his head and rubbed his face, and then replied in a low voice, "The emperor still doesn't give up! He insisted that we allocate [-] soldiers and horses to find it in Nanyang!"

Seventh Lady's drowsiness dissipated immediately.

Going to Nanyang and allocating [-] troops to Nanyang to find someone are two completely different concepts.

When the Sanbao eunuchs of the previous dynasty went to Nanyang, they brought a total of 2 sailors, coolies, merchants and soldiers, and took a fixed route to India. The business was done, and the little king invited him. Also go back home.That's it, the cost of going to Nanyang several times is still a staggering figure.

Soldiers alone would have to send [-] people out to search aimlessly for a needle in a haystack in the Nanyang waters. How much this would cost, Qin Niangzi felt dizzy thinking about it.

Not to mention the slim success rate...

"I and Feng Zixiu, even the eunuch, Mr. Jiao Ge, and brother-in-law Sun talked so much. We were locked in the Huagai Palace for a long time, but the emperor just refused to let go!" Xu Fengjia's face was irritated. "Not to mention anything else, when the [-] elite soldiers are sent out, our Guangdong frontier defense is immediately empty. It is not so easy to repair the east wall to make up for the west wall. The Beirong will definitely not stop for more than ten years... It's all about it , he still refuses to stop!"

He slapped the edge of the bed violently, roared irritably, turned over and lay down, and said angrily, "Stop talking, stop talking, sleep!"

Sure enough, it didn't take long before there was a slight snoring sound.

Qin Niangzi looked at his side face, sighed silently, had no choice but to blow out the candle, and lay down again to cultivate sleepiness.

In the next few days, Xu Fengjia was very busy, either the Yang family invited him for something, or the Sun family invited him to speak, and some of the important ministers around the emperor also frequently invited him in private, and when he finally came back, Duke Ping called him to talk.Qin Niangzi also followed Mrs. Fifth Young Master as a housekeeper to a critical juncture. Except for a short period of time before going to bed, the two couples rarely had a chance to talk.

In mid-February, Xu Fengjia returned home early on a rare occasion, and went to Leshan Residence in the evening to greet Mrs. Tai.

Even Qin Niangzi was surprised: she sat in the Leshan residence all day, and didn't know that Xu Fengjia had returned to the house.

When Mrs. Tai saw her grandson, she always expressed her concern and said a few words to him. Xu Fengjia listened with a smile, and then went back to Mrs. Tai, "A few good friends want to meet the bride, and it is indeed time to say it. Shanheng's passing is almost full." I haven’t taken them out to see each other for half a year. I thought, it’s better to hit the sun than to choose a date. For three days, Xiao’s family held a funeral at Guangfu Temple and asked us to go to relax together. I think I’ll take Shanheng out for a day.”

It is a custom in the capital that the bride visits the house to meet her husband's close friends.It's just that Xu Fengjia's contacts are either rich or noble, and most of her good friends are first-class relatives of the emperor. It is not easy to get together, so no one mentions this matter.Now of course Mrs. Tai would not stay in trouble, she nodded her head happily, and told Seventh Lady to dress up well, then let everyone go to Qingpingyuan to pay her respects, Mrs. Xu naturally said nothing.

After returning to Mingde Hall, Seventh Lady chatted with Xu Fengjia while taking off her robe, "Why did you suddenly take me out to relax? Think you are busy recently!"

Xu Fengjia then ordered in a deep voice, "Go down!" The maidservants scattered in a fright, and then he frowned and told Seventh Lady, "We will come out from Guangfu Temple in three days and go to Feng's house in Anfufang for dinner. It's a sign that Mrs. Feng misses her niece, and even Uncle Shi may come over. He is sensitive, and it's not easy to get in touch with us blatantly. Picking you up is just a cover—it also happens to let you talk to your aunt !"

Qin Niangzi was stunned for a moment, seeing that Xu Fengjia's expression was determined, and she didn't seem to have any intention of discussing it, so she lowered her eyebrows in response.I know that this time the emperor's decision to send troops to Nanyang may not get the support of his subordinates.

(End of this chapter)