Peasant Girl Bookseller

Chapter 68 Entering the Scholars' House
When Mai Xiang got off the carriage and stood in front of the University Scholars' Mansion in Beiyan'er Hutong, Mai Xiang took a deep breath and said to herself: "Don't be nervous, just treat yourself as a visit, it's not like you haven't been to the Forbidden City , It's not like you haven't been to Prince Gong's mansion before, can this Grand Scholars' mansion scare you?"

Seeing that Mai Xiang had been staring at the plaque on the gate, Nanny Li stretched out her hand to give her a hand, and said, "Girl, go in this way."

Mai Xiang followed Nanny Li into the small door next to her. After entering the door, there was a wide open space in front of her, with a width of about 80 meters and a length of four or five meters. Compared with this, Tong's house was nothing at all.

There seemed to be three side-by-side courtyards facing you. The three gates of the courtyard in the middle were open. Mai Xiang guessed that it was the main courtyard. Walking along the veranda, about five or sixty meters, passed the door, and then entered the inner courtyard. There are several scattered small courtyards in the courtyard. Madam Li led Mai Xiang to turn left and right, and entered a relatively small courtyard. yard.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, two maidservants aged [-] or [-] greeted him immediately. Nanny Li explained something. At this time, Xiaoqing came out of the room and said to Mai Xiang with a smile, "Ge Ge is going to eat at the old ancestor's place." Please be well, sister, come with me, let's wash up first."

Mai Xiang guessed that the other party thought she was dirty, but she was not angry. After coming here, she hadn't taken a good bath yet. Ye's family only had a small wooden basin, and Mai Xiang could only scrub. She was just about to meet the ancient boudoir lady luxury life.

"It should be, then I will trouble my sister." Mai Xiang said kindly.

Two maids led Mai Xiang into the clean room, where a large wooden bucket had been prepared, and what made Mai Xiang even more delighted was that there were indeed many rose petals floating in the wooden bucket.

Just as Mai Xiang took off her clothes, she stepped into the wooden barrel on the steps. A maid took a soap, and a maid opened Mai Xiang's hair and began to wash it. Rubbing his back, he closed his eyes and began to enjoy himself.

Not to mention, the two maids were very conscientious and washed Mai Xiang from hair to little toes. Mai Xiang noticed that they changed the water twice.

After taking a bath, the two maids brought out a full set of new clothes for Mai Xiang to change into, and then led Mai Xiang into Ge Ge's room.

Amu Xin was lying on the kang, playing with the kite in her hand, when she heard the sound of the bead curtain, she hurriedly sat up.

"Good morning." Mai Xiang came in and gave a salute.

Amu Xin looked at Mai Xiang's smooth skin after bathing, and said with a smile: "It looks better than before. It seems that these days are going well, and I can eat enough."

"Speaking of which, I should thank Gege. I met Gege on the first day I delivered the wall shoes at the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. Gege was the first to reward me. It is because of Gege's face that others followed suit. .” Mai Xiang was telling the truth.

"Really, so we are quite destined. In fact, I don't often go to the Temple of the Reclining Buddha."

After A Muxin finished speaking, Xiaoqing came in, and a maid came in behind with a food box.

"Just put it on the kang table, and I'll accompany you to eat a couple of bites." Amu Xin ordered.

Only then did Mai Xiang take a look at the room. It was estimated to be 30 meters long. At the bottom of the south wall was a large kang, a small mahogany kang table, and a few children on the half-old straw woven mat. At the end of the kang was a row of large boxes. Calligraphy and paintings, as well as a few tapestries, tables, chairs, wardrobes and Duobao Pavilion on the floor, do not seem to be comparable to the decorations described in "A Dream of Red Mansions".

When Mai Xiang looked at it, there were two sets of bowls and chopsticks and six dishes on the kang table. Mai Xiang saw that there were fish, meat and vegetables, but she was not polite. After tossing for a long time, she was already hungry, so she sat down.

When Amu Xin saw that Mai Xiang was so generous, she also became happy. Every time she asked Xiao Qing to eat something at the same table with her, Xiao Qing felt awkward for a long time.

How did Mai Xiang know this? She tasted a few mouthfuls of food, which was the best she had eaten since she came to ancient times, but the other party didn't speak, and there were maids standing on both sides, so Mai Xiang didn't dare to laugh.

After the meal, when the maids were all going down, Mai Xiang smiled and said, "Today I have my eyes full and my mouth full. In fact, the most pleasant thing is that someone waits for me to take a comfortable bath. It turns out that the rich people's life is rich." That's how it went."

Seeing Mai Xiang stretching her waist, Amuxin yawned, "Are you sleepy?"

Mai Xiang knew that the other party was not looking for her to eat and sleep, so she quickly said: "No, it's just too comfortable, I can't help but loosen my muscles and bones, try it if you don't believe me."

After Mai Xiang finished speaking, she noticed that Amuxin was wearing flowerpot shoes, and she bent down curiously to have a look, and said, "Aren't you tired from walking in these?"

"Why aren't you tired? But Mammy is very strict, so she has to wear it."

"Gege, what's the matter with you looking for me?" Mai Xiang was afraid that the other party would be embarrassed, so she took the initiative to ask.

"It's nothing. I just want to talk to you. I remember that your little mouth may have said it. Tell me something interesting."

Mai Xiang remembered that the old ladies in "Dream of Red Mansions" all liked to hear some rural customs outside, but she had only been here for a short time, so how could she know these things?

Mai Xiang was afraid of revealing her secrets, so she talked about her experience of earning money in the Reclining Buddha Temple, from wall shoes, flower baskets, ferrules to kites later.

"How do you know so much? Who told you those flower language? What about lucky pigs and lucky cats? Who did you learn from?"

When Mai Xiang didn't know how to answer, she heard the voices of two children.

"Elder Sister, Eldest Sister, is anyone here?"

As soon as the words fell, Addis and Abida came in.

Mai Xiang hurriedly got off the kang and stood up.

Adis looked at Mai Xiang, he was the same age as Mai Xiang, but taller than Mai Xiang, "Sister, is that her?"

"Yeah." After Amu Xin finished speaking, she introduced Mai Xiang.

"What novelty did you bring today?" Abida asked.

"I don't have anything to play at home, just a few straw animals, do you like them? Also, if you want something to play with, why don't I draw it for you and let's do it together." After Mai Xiang finished speaking, she looked for A maid next to her handed over the baggage she had brought with great winking.

Wu Fu made up a lot of small animals, but they were made up for the festival of the Dragon Boat Festival, and Mai Xiang brought them all.

"This one, I've seen this one on the street, it's not fun, I want a little chubby pig like Yongjian." Abida saw that he had seen all these before, and was not interested.

"Then how about this? Can you find a few goose egg shells? Egg shells are fine if you don't have goose egg shells. Remember that the egg shells should be complete. You need some silk thread and paint. I will teach you how to make some toys." OK?"

"Okay, okay." Abida was happy when he heard that, and the maid hurriedly went down to prepare things.

Mai Xiang doesn't know how to do needlework, but she practiced drawing on eggshells when she was learning stick figures. This should be considered a new toy for two ancient children, right?
"What do you want to teach us?" Abida was a little impatient while waiting.

"I'll teach you how to draw now, okay? I'll teach you how to draw animals." Mai Xiang felt that stick figures should be of interest to people of this age group.

After Mai Xiang finished speaking, she took out a charcoal pencil from her bag, and then took out a small stack of paper. In front of the child, she drew a special image of a fat pig with just a few strokes.

"That's right, I just want this toy, why isn't there one?" Abida asked, pointing at the pig.

"This one is sold, if you like it, I will make it up and send it to you next time."

After Mai Xiang finished speaking, she drew five more Fuwa, "Is this pretty?"

"Okay, I want this too."

While talking, the servant girl brought the things over. Mai Xiang held the eggshell in her left hand and the charcoal pencil in her right hand. With three taps, a smiling face, a crying face, and an angry face appeared.

"This is fun." Abida took the eggshell and went to play with it by himself.

"Young Master, you can draw by yourself, okay?" Seeing Addis eager to try, Mai Xiang gave him the charcoal pencil.

Addis was holding a charcoal pen. He had never held a hard pen before, and he was very uncomfortable. After drawing a few times, he felt that it was not ideal, so he returned the pen to Mai Xiang.

"Can I paint your face on the eggshell?" Mai Xiang has studied portrait painting, of course, there can only be half or six portraits on the eggshell, but this is enough to arouse the child's interest.

"Me? Okay, okay." Abida jumped up happily when he heard this.

With a charcoal pencil, Mai Xiang gestured to Abida first, and then began to smear on the eggshell. It took some time, but after the painting was finished, Abida couldn't put it down with the eggshell, and insisted on asking the maid to find it. I took a target mirror and looked at it for a long time.

"Draw one for my brother too." Abida said while dancing.

"Is it okay?" Mai Xiang asked Addis, she could see that this boy was a bit deep and precocious.

Seeing the other party nodding, Mai Xiang sat in front of him and drew an eggshell portrait as well.

"Brother, let's go, let's show Mamo and Erniang." Abida pulled Addis out the door, carefully carried several eggshells and left.

"I didn't expect you to have this ability?" Amuxin happily dismissed the two children after seeing Mai Xiang, knowing that Mai Xiang's earning money in the Reclining Buddha Temple was not only based on lip service, but also had some real talent. Practice.

"Gege, these are trivial tricks, they are not elegant." Mai Xiang smiled.

"I always feel that you don't look like a country boy. You seem to know a lot. How old are you this year?"

"Ten years old, Gege, it is said that the children of poor people should be in charge of the family early, and I am also forced. If I don't make money by myself, I will be sold by my family to be a maid. I don't want to be a maid, I can only think of it myself." There is a way."

"Why don't you want to be a servant girl? If you become my personal servant girl and say a crazy word that won't make you laugh, you will be better than ordinary girls, and it will save you all the hard work of being a little girl outside." Amu When Xin Jian talked about this topic, he simply wanted to ask for clarification.

"Of course I know this, but maidservants are not free. What they want to say and do must be approved by the master. By the way, Gege, who was the Madam Guan who accompanied Madam Li last time?" Mai Xiang saw Amu Xin kept ignoring the point, so she asked it out by herself.

(End of this chapter)