Reborn Concubine Queen

Chapter 18
When Shi Yiqing left the Chunhui Hall, turned back to the Ningxie Hall, and saw Mother Xu standing anxiously at the gate of the courtyard from a distance. Are you in such a hurry?"

Seeing Shi Yiqing appearing in front of her safe and sound, Madam Xu calmed down and said, "I just saw that it was getting late and you haven't come back, so I was a little anxious. But have you eaten? Do you want to go to the kitchen to cook?" Some food for you?"

Shi Yiqing is just a concubine lady, her status is low and she is not welcomed by others, she can't have her own small kitchen to cook like Shi Xuanxin, and can only eat meals from the public house.Hearing this, Shi Yiqing hooked Mammy Xu's arm and said, "It's just past noon, I'm afraid the cook is eating, so she doesn't have time to cook for us. Besides, I came back full after eating at grandma's." Yes, how can it be so easy to be hungry."

Jianliu and Yinxiu, who were busy with their work in the yard, saw Shi Yiqing come back, and hurriedly greeted her into the house, waited on her to wash her cheeks, put on her old clothes, and busily tossed about.

Shi Yiqing took the handkerchief Yinxiu handed over and wiped her palms carefully, raising her eyebrows and noticing her red and swollen eyes the size of peach pits, she lowered her eyes and pretended not to see them, and walked to the desk in front of the room to practice calligraphy.

The fragrance of ink mixed with tranquilizing spices spread throughout the room. When Shi Yiqing was so tired that his head was sweating and stopped the tip of his pen, he looked up and realized that the bright red sun in the distance had already fallen dangerously to the west.

Jianliu, who was going to the kitchen to pick up dinner, only brought a small white lotus porcelain cup over, and said with restraint, "Miss, this was brought from the kitchen, and it was said that the lord invited guests here today." , so there is no time to busy our dinner, let you use this bowl of chicken soup first."

Shi Yiqing laughed in surprise: "What does it have to do with our mansion that the grand master invited guests? Didn't we divide the courtyard early in the morning and build another kitchen?"

Jian Liu said awkwardly: "They said that the master's cooks are not enough, so they borrowed the kitchen in our business, so they can't be busy."

Shi Yiqing threw a pen, stretched his waist and said with a nonchalant smile: "Forget it, I'm not particularly hungry right now, so let me fill it with some chicken soup first, and then you can get some food later."

Hearing this, Jianliu opened his mouth hesitantly, swallowed the words that came to his lips after hesitating for a while, lifted the lid with an ugly face, and looked at the chicken soup that was obviously mixed with water, his eyes were reddened by aggrieved.

Shi Yiqing straightened his clothes, walked slowly to the table and sat down, looked at the four muscles that could be seen at a glance, pulled them with chopsticks, and carefully identified which parts of the chicken they were, and leaned on his arms to bear the pain. He couldn't help but sneered.

After all, the Shi family is also a well-known family in the capital. The officials and eunuchs have strict rules and regulations. Even the children of concubines must be treated equally, at least in terms of face. From the decoration, it can be seen that the third wife, Mrs. Yang, has also done her best, and has never been mean in the slightest.At least that's what it looks like.It's just that the visible and tangible valuables in front of me are all registered and stored in the warehouse. If there is any damage or loss, they will be compensated according to the price.

Now the third wife, Mrs. Yang, has done a lot of work in front of everyone. On the surface, she gave her the cloak with added grace, but let’s not say that Yang’s already has more warning elements in it, let’s say that now It is still early autumn and the weather is still hot, how can it be used now?And there are only a few pieces of clothes that I can wear to meet people, and they were given to her by the ladies and ladies of the Shi family in Linxian County who seemed friendly but were actually gifted to her with pity. Ordinary third-class rough envoy maids are probably dressed more noblely than her.

I remember that in the previous life, Yang Shi had never done such an excessive behavior, at least in front of everyone, she was still a dignified and graceful aunt.Presumably it was not only because of the fact that she pushed Shi Xuanxin into the water in the morning, but also because she ran in front of the old lady Meng at noon, which completely annoyed the seemingly dignified and tolerant third lady.

Jianliu, who was standing by and waited on, jumped angrily and yelled: "Those people did it on purpose. I can't argue with them, but I can't talk to them. They also said that other ladies are like this, but Miss Si, you insist on They were picky about this and that, and they also said... they also said that other ladies and ladies wanted to eat and drink, and they paid for the kitchen themselves. If the lady wants to eat well, you can follow suit Do it like them."

Holding a porcelain spoon, Shi Yiqing shook his head with a smile, and said in a cold voice, "Subsidy? I'm a girl who just came back from a concubine. I'm so poor that I don't even have a decent dress. How can I have the money to subsidize the kitchen? What delicacies do I eat?"

Jian Liu secretly wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, and said angrily: "These servants are dogs who look down on others, and they all stepped on us when they saw that we were not favored."

Shi Yiqing took a sip of the chicken soup lightly, turned his eyes to look at the red eye sockets, raised his eyebrows slightly and said: "People in the mansion are like this. You and I don't have to be so unconvinced. Since I dare Returning to the mansion, this kind of thing can be expected a long time ago. Forget it, this chicken soup has no taste at all, and it tastes as weak as water, so it's better not to drink it."

Jianliu poured a glass of water from a white porcelain pot and waited for Shi Yiqing to rinse his mouth. Seeing that Shi Yiqing got up and went to the desk to practice calligraphy, he said distressedly, "Miss, we don't take the female champion exam. Why are you practicing this?"

Shi Yiqing raised the pen and hung his wrist to find a blank space on the densely packed rice paper, wrote the word "forbearance" in one go, pointed to it and asked, "Do you recognize this character?"

Jianliu held the candle and leaned over to have a closer look, shook his head, and said shyly: "I haven't studied for a few years, so I really don't know this word."

Shi Yiqing pointed with the end of the brush and said, "This is forbearance, forbearance forbearance. There is a knife on the top of the word Xin, do you know what this means?"

Jianliu nodded intelligently, lowered his eyelashes, pointed at the words on the rice paper and said to himself: "Xin has a knife on the head, so it is a word for ninja. Miss, I understand what you mean." After finishing speaking , looking sideways at Shi Yiqing with a bright smile, he put the candle in his hand on the corner of the desk, took the chicken soup mixed with water, and left the room briskly, walking around the corridor.

Shi Yiqing shook his head and laughed: "Reckless, I don't know if I really want to understand it, or if I understand it halfway."

Madam Xu walked in at the door, leaned over to the desk and said softly, "Miss, I asked the mother and girls who found Yinxiu before, and they all said that they didn't know what happened."

Shi Yiqing paused, and lost a good word in an instant: "Where is Yinxiu now?"

"I asked her to prepare spices to soothe the nerves."

Shi Yiqing plunged the nib into the clear water, and said slowly: "Arrange her to be on duty tonight, and ask Jianliu to watch the door carefully to see who dares to peep at my door."

Nanny Xu complied, walked quickly to the yard and called Bai Zhi and two second-class maids to come in and wait on Shi Yiqing to change his clothes, then personally took the spices that Yinxiu had obtained and lit them in the gilded animal-shaped incense burner, according to the Shi Yiqing put a candle beside the carved and lacquered bed, and then backed out.

Shi Yiqing sat in front of the bronze mirror and combed the ends of his hair. Through the blurred mirror, he looked at Yinxiu who was making the bedding behind him, and said unhurriedly, "Yinxiu, do you regret coming to the capital with me?"

Because of the condensed fingers of trimming the bedding, he straightened up in a panic and stood by the gums, with his head hanging down and retreated timidly, completely different from the lively, cheerful and active appearance a few days ago.

Such a contrast made Shi Yiqing frowned subconsciously, turned to look at Yinxiu, and asked suspiciously: "Did someone make things difficult for you this morning? If that's the case, you can tell me, and I will make the decision for you." , isn't it?"

Yinxiu raised his flustered eyes to look at Shi Yiqing, then quickly lowered his eyes, shaking his head uneasily, his hands were unconsciously tangled with the corners of his clothes, still refusing to speak.

Shi Yiqing rubbed the center of her brows impatiently, but just the second day after returning home, a series of events made her exhausted, and now at night, this impatience has been magnified several times: "Yinxiu, you have to understand, You and I have already been chained together. Although it is a master-servant relationship, one is prosperous and the other is damaged. I know that you saw something you shouldn't see at Shi's house this morning, and experienced things that cannot be said. But you have to understand, no matter how you look at me, in the eyes of outsiders, I am your master, you should treat me faithfully, and you are my confidant, who I can entrust with important tasks and know all my secrets. Yinxiu, I didn't say these words to threaten you, but just to make you understand that if you don't even trust me, it's impossible for you to live safely in Shi's house, do you understand what I mean?"

Hearing this, Yinxiu's flustered expression finally collapsed, watching Shi Yiqing subconsciously take a step forward, kneeling abruptly on the ground, and screaming in a low voice: "Miss, miss, you must save me, miss, If you don't save me, I will definitely die without a place to bury me!"

Shi Yiqing frowned and pulled Yinxiu to stand up, and hurriedly asked: "Where did you start talking about this? Tell me quickly, tell me the truth, and don't hide anything!"

Yinxiu collapsed to the point of tears, covered his face and stammered, "This morning, I was called by my mother to look for you, but I was not familiar with the road here, lost my way, and went to an old yard .At first I didn’t think about breaking in, but when I heard a voice coming from inside, I broke in out of curiosity. I didn’t expect... I didn’t expect..."

"Didn't think of anything?"

With trembling shoulders, Yinxiu said anxiously: "I didn't expect, I didn't expect that I saw two people, naked and hidden inside. I was shocked and wanted to escape, but I accidentally knocked over something in the yard and made a noise. The people inside were shocked. I panicked and wanted to rush out of the yard, but I never wanted to be grabbed and dragged in. Before I could yell out in shock, the man covered my mouth. If it wasn't for Mother Xu I sent Mother Xue and a few maids to call my name loudly, startled the man, and let him run away, only afraid of me, only afraid of me..." At this point, Yin Xiuben's pale cheeks completely lost all blood .

Shi Yiqing didn't expect this kind of thing to happen, so he hurriedly asked in shock: "Can you see what those two people look like?"

Yinxiu covered his face to stabilize his emotions, carefully wiped the tears on his cheeks, and said slowly: "I just vaguely saw the man's appearance, and then the man ran away, and I touched a jade hairpin in a panic. Yelled loudly, straightened his clothes and went out of the yard, pretending nothing happened."

"Jade hairpin? What kind of jade hairpin?"

Shi Yiqing took the jade hairpin from Yinxiu, looked at it carefully beside the candle, and said in thought: "The white jade on the hairpin can be regarded as the top grade of jade, but the carving is a bit clumsy. Miss will feel shabby wearing it." As she spoke, she turned the hairpin in front of the candle, and vaguely saw a small "Yu" character on the place where the jade was connected, so she put the hairpin away thoughtfully.

(End of this chapter)