Between the vast sea of ​​clouds

Except for the five children who were taken away by Chen Guanshi, the rest were assigned to the outer courtyard.They are looked after by a woman in charge every day, and a group of five sleep in a hut.During the day, learn to do things with some older servants—clean the yard, wash dishes, scrub utensils, wash clothes, or help with some simple rough chores.Children who have just entered the mansion can only do some of these things. After a year of doing it, they will gradually increase their ranks. Of course, this is entirely up to the wishes of the masters.

There are three grades of maids in the courtyard, corresponding to the three courtyards of outer, middle and inner.The girls who have just entered the mansion can only be regarded as rough maids without rank, and they are led by old servants, who are usually called aunts.Qingping followed an older aunt to trim the vegetation in the outer courtyard all day long. Because it is an outer courtyard, there are no delicate and precious flowers and plants, but for the sake of the neatness of the mansion, someone is needed to trim and take care of it.This aunt, surnamed Wang, used to take care of flowers and plants in the middle courtyard. Later, because of her age, she resigned to the outer courtyard to do some simple chores.She doesn't talk much on weekdays, which can be regarded as taciturn.But occasionally I would tell Qingping about the old affairs of the palace, and before going to bed at night, before the lights were turned off, the five girls would chatter about the news they got from other people today, and everyone exchanged what they saw during the day From what I heard, I also have a general understanding of this place.

At the beginning and end of the Taishi period, the world was in chaos, and rebel armies rose everywhere, and the first emperor was a member of the rebel army.Ten years later, the six realms will be unified and the name of the country will be established as the generation.Afterwards, the princes were enfeoffed, the meritorious ministers were rewarded, and countless officials were conferred with titles.Since then, King Chenliu has continued for six generations.

Her ancestors dawdled on the tip of the knife, but her descendants were not very willing. Although she was crowned king, it was only a title, not comparable to other dignitaries or generals, it could be said to be mediocre.The palaces of the princes in Kyoto are also relatively remote. There are many rich and powerful families in Kyoto, and they come and go quickly. It all depends on the holy will.Therefore, King Chen Liu, the second successor to the title, keenly realized that it was easier to make a living by studying than fighting and killing. Therefore, King Chen Liu handed over his soldiers and horses early in the morning, and avoided the subsequent catastrophe early.In the scientific examination in the first year after Gaozu succeeded to the throne, two Jinshi came out of the palace of Chenliu Palace. Afterwards, most of them married with Qingliu officials' families, trying to clean up the image of nouveau riche generals. Compared with other palaces that live in extravagance , he has strict constraints on his descendants, and he is dedicated to learning to avoid the appearance of dudes.Under the jurisdiction of the servants, to prevent the occurrence of evil servants overpowering the master.After four generations of forefathers worked diligently and conscientiously, they rose slowly when other famous families that founded the country gradually declined. In the imperial court, there were both Qingliu in-laws and veterans in the army, and things went smoothly. In the Wenqing period, the late emperors all praised him. Twice—one was to quell the rebellion of the Northwest feudal lords, and the other was to make great contributions to the control of floods in the south.By the time of this dynasty, Chenliu Palace had become a popular home of famous families.

The current King Chenliu has one monarch, four attendants, three daughters and four sons.Langjun Wei is the eldest son of the chief assistant of the dynasty, and has a daughter, and the rest are descendants of the servants.However, it was rumored in the mansion that King Chen Liu's favorite was a servant of Zhou.

"I heard that this week, the servants are very beautiful in the inner courtyard! Last time I saw the sisters who came out of the inner courtyard of the second lady, they were dressed better than the stewards outside!" Wang Ke was the one who spoke, a special A girl who loves to inquire.

Someone responded to her softly, "Ah, I remember, it was the day before yesterday, and I saw it too."

Qingping listened, and found that it was Zhou He who was answering, a girl who was usually timid.

Fangfo opened the chatter box, and the other four people discussed excitedly, laughing and laughing, and it was very lively.

"You say that Zhou Shijun is so favored, will the world's daughter also be the second lady in the future..." someone whispered.

Immediately, the other three people shouted nervously: "Ah! Keep your voice down, can you talk nonsense? My aunt heard it, but I will punish you!"

Regarding this point, Qingping believes that with Wei's status, the Zhou family will never surpass him. Even if he has a daughter, so what? Women are not allowed.If you want to deal with it, it depends on the mood of Chenghui Mansion.

Everyone chattered about it, the girls' words were naive, but serious and serious. Qingping laughed and joined the discussion, but was soon dismissed by everyone.Because she cuts flowers and grass every day, the aunt who works with her doesn't talk much, and she can't come up with any interesting topics. Just when everyone was chatting happily, suddenly someone knocked lightly outside the window. After the oil lamp was lit, everyone kept silent, like a duck that had been strangled.After a while, someone suddenly sighed, and said with infinite melancholy and envy: "When will we be like them?......"

Prince Chenliu's mansion is very large and needs a lot of servants. Qingping and the others are only one-tenth of the newly bought children. These children are divided into three yards, inner, outer and outer.In the outer courtyard, some aunts have more children, some have fewer, but they are not so many. There are also some aunts like Qingping, who don’t need so many people to do the work. Although aunts are easy, they have less money and less monthly salary. .Qingping suspected that in order to prevent any troubles from the purchased servants, he dispersed them, arranged what they did, so that they had no room for communication, and cultivated technical and pragmatic talents to serve the palace.

At least the group of them were assigned to sleep in one place, but they didn't work together.Boys are not like this, they all work in one place and live together.This is also easy to understand. In this era where women are superior to men and men are inferior, the identities of men and women have changed their heads, and the things they do are naturally different.She imagined the appearance of King Chenliu's courtiers in groups, and couldn't help shivering. The men walked awkwardly, with flowery hair, and smeared with makeup. They were simply challenging the limits of aesthetics.

The next day, Qingping went to trim the flowers and plants with Aunt Wang as usual, but she saw that Guanshi Chen who was bought into the mansion was also there, she walked over to salute, and said, "Hello, Guanshi Chen."

Chen Guanshi looked at her for a while, then said to Aunt Wang: "Well, she is a neat child."

He asked Qingping again: "It's been almost a year since you entered the mansion, are you almost ten years old?"

Hearing the words, Qing Ping lowered his head and said, "Return to the management, yes."

Chen Guanshi said to Aunt Wang: "Let her try it." Then he left.

Seeing her walking away, Aunt Wang gathered up the scissors on the ground. Qingping wanted to help her, but she gently pushed her away. Aunt Wang said: "You are a smart child, you shouldn't be with me, an old bastard. Time-consuming. I begged Steward Chen to take you to the inner courtyard to serve the eldest lady, you know what to do best."

Qingping stood blankly, Aunt Wang was a little amused when she saw this: "I told you that day about the slaves in the mansion getting away to redeem the contract of sale, you listened carefully. If you take good care of the eldest lady, it is not a bad idea to redeem yourself as soon as possible. What's so difficult." Fu shook his head again and said, "Could it be that you are so happy?"

Qingping is silent, she and Aunt Wang have only been together for a year, and she has indeed learned a lot during this year. She wanted to do things in a peaceful manner and slowly rise up in the outer court, but she never thought that she would leapfrog so soon Jump map to spawn monsters.She said: "Thank you aunt, but I don't know whether it is good or bad."

Aunt Wang was surprised, if ordinary people heard such good news, how could they be so hesitant, she asked: "Why, you don't want to?"

Qingping hesitated for a while, but still poured out what was in his heart.Aunt Wang laughed: "You...that's right, that's exactly how it is. When you go to the inner mansion, you have to be more careful. It's good that you are like this. You know how much you are, what you can do and what you can't do, The master will be watching. It's good to do as much work as you can..."

Qingping understood that this was the other party's good intentions, but since she didn't know that the eldest lady likes taboos, and didn't know the situation in the inner palace, did she just go in like this?

As if seeing what she was thinking, Aunt Wang smiled and said, "I won't let you serve the nobleman for no reason, you see—" Qingping looked in the direction of her finger, and a young man in blue came slowly and pointed at Wang. The aunt saluted: "Hello, Aunt Wang, Guanshi Chen called the servants to come and take this younger sister to Tinglanju."

Aunt Wang nodded and said: "Then it will trouble the manager, so hurry up." After saying that, she pushed Qingping and signaled her to leave.

Before Qingping left, he solemnly bowed to Aunt Wang, and the young man on the side covered his mouth and smiled lightly, and said, "Auntie is an old man in the house, she has a good eye, and she picks good children."

Qing Ping got up, Aunt Wang's eyes were filled with water, she pretended to be angry and said: "Let's go, let's go! Don't bother me, the old woman, clean!"

Seeing this, the young man turned and left, Qingping followed him around, bowing his head and memorizing the route casually, it was very tiring.After walking for a cup of tea, he came to a door, and the young man turned around and smiled at her: "My name is Mo Lan, I am five years older than you, and I follow Brother Li to serve the eldest lady. Those from the outer courtyard have to enter the inner courtyard." In this courtyard, I need to study with other big maids in this Ting Lanju for a few months."

Qing Ping said gratefully: "Thank you, brother Mo Lan, for your guidance."

Mo Lan nodded and said: "I was also favored by Aunt Wang when I entered the mansion in the early years. Now that she recommends you, I naturally want to help a little bit more. Since we have been together for a long time in the future, if you don't understand, please come and ask me." .”

Qingping nodded solemnly, and followed him all the way to a remote courtyard. Mo Lan knocked on the door, and the door opened. A girl in pink leaned out half of her body. They were dressed very similarly. Qingping couldn't help thinking, could it be that the inner palace Do both men and women wear uniforms to work?

Mo Lan bowed to her: "Sister Wu Yu, this is Qingping that Manager Chen asked me to bring."

Wu Yu said: "Understood, you can go. Qingping, come with me."

Qing Ping saluted Mo Lan, Mo Lan nodded and left, and she followed Wu Yu into the yard.

Wu Yu looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, with her jet-black hair tied behind her head and a thin silver hairpin pinned to it. She took Qingping to a room where there were already five girls, and when they heard someone coming, they put them down Standing in a row with the things in their hands, Wu Yu casually said to Qingping: "These are all maids who are going to be sent to the inner courtyard, and they are also learning things from me." She glanced at the four girls and said, "Hezhen, come here , move her somewhere."

The four bowed girls looked very similar both in stature and figure, one of them stepped forward after hearing the words, and said respectfully, "Yes, girl."

Wu Yu waved his hand and left.

Hezhen smiled at Qingping, her skin was fair, dotted with two pear dimples, she looked very playful and cute when she smiled, Qingping looked at her and somehow reminded her of her own sister, and watched her nimbly dragged out of the cabinet A quilt, said: "Are you the servant girl under Chen Guanshi?"

The four girls on one side all came to help and looked at Qingping curiously.

Qingping was looked at by them calmly, and replied to Hezhen: "Yes."

"Someone will bring your things later. The fourth cabinet in this room is empty, so you can put it there." He Zhen said.

Qing Ping said: "Well, then I would like to thank Sister He Zhen."

Hezhen smiled, and said to the other girls: "Look, there is always someone who has better eyesight than you, right?"

A girl with a mole on the corner of her mouth said unconvincedly, "Sister He Zhen said that, but did you dislike us?"

He Zhen smiled and said, "I didn't say that, Shizuka, isn't this what you mean?"

Hearing this name, Qingping couldn't help but glanced at the girl named Shizuka, Shizuka was puzzled: "What do you think I'm doing?"

Qingping: "......." Actually, I want to ask if Daxiong is there?

He Zhen let Shizuka play wild, and the other three girls were very quiet, hardly talking, but smiled at the side when Shizuka made troubles, with a sense of tolerance like an older sister looking at her younger sister.

"Jingxiang is only seven years old, and my younger sister is also so naughty when she is seven years old." A girl said to Qingping.

In the afternoon, everyone had lunch together, and after clearing the table, Wu Yu came. She sat on a chair next to the table, still in that indifferent manner.

"Qingping." She said, "You came late, and you haven't learned a lot. Hezhen, come and do what I taught you again."

He Zhen nodded and entered the room.

Qingping knew that she was the oldest among the six, and this one was only 13 years old.She was a little curious, but she didn't know what the servants of the young lady who served the noble family had to do.

He Zhentou took out a stack of paper, pen and ink.Spread it on the table, and asked Qingping: "Miss Wu Yu has taught you how to write these days, do you know how to read?"

Qingping really wanted to say yes, but considering his calligraphy skills, he shook his head honestly and said, "No."

Hezhen took the pen and wrote "one" squarely.

Qingping: "..."

He Zhen said: "This is 'one', do you remember?"

Qing Ping: "...Remember."

Hezhen wrote a few more words and asked Qingping: "Do you remember?"

Qingping nodded.

He Zhen: "..."

Shizuka on the side was not convinced: "Don't talk nonsense, and Sister Zhen asked you if you would recognize it and write it!"

Wu Yu suddenly said, "Give Qingping the pen."

Qingping held the pen and stood there in a daze. Wu Yu glanced at Shizuka. Shizuka took a step back in fright, still stubbornly refusing to bow her head.

Speaking of writing, it feels like a lifetime ago.For Qingping, it was indeed something that happened in her previous life. She held the pen, and under the gaze of the people around her, she seemed to have regained the feeling of being stared at by the teacher in the calligraphy class. She shook her hand and wrote a crooked "one" .

When she finished writing the rest of the words, the pen was placed beside the inkstone, but her hands were still shaking. She understood that this was because she hadn't held the pen for a long time.

Wu Yu turned over the last few pages of the stack of paper and said to Qingping, "Watch me write it again, and then you write it again." Before Qingping nodded, she took the pen and started to write, just as she said, Each character was written only once, and Qingping found that what she wrote was a poem with twenty characters.After Wu Yu finished writing, Qingping took over the pen, shook his hands on the newly turned blank page, and wrote again what Wu Yu had just written. Although the words were horrible, the structure of the characters was correct.

"You can't read?" Wu Yu asked.

"Ms. Hui, I don't know." Qingping replied.

Wu Yu nodded, and said to the remaining five: "Come and write what I taught you last time."

Seeing Jingxiang standing there in a daze, Wu Yu said: "I don't expect you to get fame when I teach you how to write, but the ladies in the inner courtyard are just studying, and the eldest lady is often praised by the master. I don’t know big characters, I’m afraid the eldest lady will not like it. I’ll only teach you for a few days, it’s your own talent whether you remember it or not.”

Shizuka remembered that every time Wu Yu came, she didn't take her seriously, and today's words were just for herself.Thinking of his mother's instructions again, he gritted his teeth and stepped forward to write a few words that Wu Yu taught a few days ago, and he couldn't write the rest after thinking hard.Judging by the handwriting she wrote, it seems to be no different from someone like Qingping who scratched the pen on the first day.She also understood it herself, she was ashamed and angry, her face was flushed, and she stood aside angrily.Wu Yu then wrote down the twenty characters to be learned today on a piece of paper, and taught them to recognize them one by one. Shizuka blushed and said nothing. If it was normal, she would definitely gossip while Wu Yu was teaching characters. To express her dissatisfaction with Wu Yu.