[Red Mansions] The big maid struggles daily

On that day, because of the new funeral of the imperial concubine, Jia's mother was depressed and fell ill for two sessions.Jia Amnesty and Jia Zheng served in front of the bed, and they all looked like dutiful sons.Jia Zhen and Youshi of Ningfu also came to visit every day, offering some fresh food to coax Jia Mu to enter.Mother Jia was relieved that the illness was gradually cured, so she ordered two tables of plain seats to be cured, and the family closed the door. Everyone discusses once, the family has lost its mother and has no promising children, what will be the way out in the future.

Rongxi hall is divided into inside and outside. On the outside are Jia She, Jia Zheng, Jia Zhen, Jia Lian, Jia Rong, and Jia Lan. Inside are Jia Mu, the two wives of Xing Wang, Youshi, Fengjie, Li Wan and Xiangyun.There is another Jia Baoyu, who was still outside with his father, brother and nephew before, but when Jia's mother saw him lazy for many days, she was afraid that he would be angry with his father again, so she hurriedly called him in, still hugging her dearly. inside.Xiangyun is no longer the coquettish guest she used to be. Now, as the second grandmother of Bao, she can only stand and serve her mother-in-law and mother-in-law. Seeing Baoyu like that, she purses her lips and is anxious: he doesn't discuss with the master about such important matters related to the clan. , What is the reason for coming to the women's family instead?Such a grown-up person, still acting like a coquettish fool, can he not worry about it all his life and just teach others to pamper him?

Li Wan was very happy. Jia Lan was called to sit next to her by the master. Even if she couldn't speak, she could be regarded as a serious participant in the clan affairs. It can be seen that the master valued the eldest grandson very much.

Mother Jia drank a glass of vegetarian wine, looked at her daughter-in-law and granddaughter-in-law, and couldn't help sighing: "Thinking about how lively it was a few years ago when all the girls were together, there was not enough room for a room. Today, it seems that there are too few people in our family. It’s so boring to call me.”

Mrs. Wang discussed with You Shi, and she wanted to call some more people. Jia Mu said, "Although they are relatives, they don't come to our house very often. If they are called in at first, I'm afraid they won't dare to speak, which is even more boring." Yes. Now that the screens have been removed, we don’t need to pay attention to the rules of the whole family and the rules of those rotten Confucians today, and let’s just talk together.”

The sixteen thick nanmu screens were carried down by women and servants, and Jia Mu sat in the middle of it, with the men sitting on the lower left and the female relatives sitting on the lower right.

But Jia Lian was not worried, he still had an errand, because the imperial concubine passed away, and even Sister Feng had to come back, so he had to sue the official and got a month's leave.A few days ago, I was supposed to go back to the government office to answer Mao, but the old lady said she was sick, so she kept her children and grandchildren from leaving her eyes.Jia Lian had to ask his colleagues to ask for a few more days, saying "harmful belly calendar". Fortunately, he was quite liked by the Shangguan, so he got another five days.Finally the old lady got well, and when she made this table again, Jia Lian's heart was no longer in the Rong Mansion, and he felt that this was a failure of wasted days, so when others were talking, he just lowered his eyes and listened, without making a sound.

For some reason, Sister Feng felt terrified all the time today. When she went to set up food and drink outside the hall, she stretched out her hand and pulled Feng'er aside, and hurriedly told her, "Run faster, go home and call your sister Ping'er up, you two follow me. Xing'er and Caiming will serve behind your second master, send Long'er and Qing'er out, sit down in the teahouse and tavern outside the mansion, and watch for some movement, I'm afraid it's not good."

Feng'er is also her confidant girl, her face turned pale when she heard this, and hurriedly said: "What do you say, grandma? The second master also said yesterday that although the house is getting more and more down, it's better to be down and down, I'm afraid you can Safely dodged the storm. This..."

Sister Feng hurriedly said: "My heart is beating so hard right now, I'd rather believe it, and when things come to an end, we'll still be on guard. If there's a false alarm, it's just a rehearsal once we add up the days. You go!"

If Sister Feng doesn't mention it, others will not know: she has experienced several strange things in the past.The time when Jia Lian burned the demon mirror, she had the words of selfish retribution; Rong's daughter-in-law Qin had a dream before her death, and although she was scared to death, she began to plan for her own house since then; she dreamed of a tree last year. The extremely luxuriant Osmanthus osmanthus was later conceived by Zhu Xiu's mother; during the pregnancy, she worked tirelessly to plan for her younger sisters, and she gave birth to her brother safely... One by one, Sister Feng thought of it by chance, and felt strange, she always had the feeling that the roads she had walked these years were actually stolen—if she followed her temperament in the boudoir, she would definitely not want to hide her strength and bide her time like this, but would like to show off her beauty.

Feng'er hurried out through the back corner door, and went to tell Ping'er in a hurry.Ping'er panicked for a moment, and immediately forced himself to calm down, took out the silver box, gave each of the six people a handful of silver dimes, and gave Long'er and Qing'er an extra ten taels, ordering them to get out quickly.

He closed the door again and changed clothes with Feng'er. Both of their jackets were interlayered, and they hid two thin silver notes.The hard insoles were pulled out from the thick-soled shoes, and a dozen or so square silver coins were stuffed inside. The soles of these shoes were inlaid with boxwood, and they were originally worn by girls in rainy seasons.Feng'er stuffed the hard insoles back, put another pair of cloth ones on, put the shoes on her feet, and walked two steps: "If you don't hurt your feet, you just feel heavy and flustered."

Ping'er didn't care about it, took off the jewelry from the two people's heads and hands, threw them back into the makeup box, and replaced them with inconspicuous but sincere silver hairpins and silver bracelets.After tidying up, he led Feng'er out.Feng'er looked at the shrimp beard bracelets, golden silk peach hairpins, golden silk hairpins, etc. in the dressing box, and couldn't bear to let go, so he quickly grabbed Ping'er's hand and said, "Aren't we going to hide these?"

Ping'er spat: "I'm being petty again! What did the second master and grandma say? Let's hide the softness and pretend that who can't see the clues?" Then pushed Feng'er: "Grandma is waiting, let's go quickly. Don't you I can't take my eyes off, if nothing happens, I'll give you my set of golden box hair and hair, and give it to you as a dowry when you get married!"

Feng'er blushed and spat, and ran out to wait for Ping'er.Ping'er locked the door with a big copper lock, and looked around the room when the door was closed, feeling sorry: the decorations in this room, as well as scattered gold and silver jewelry, silk and satin, and silver boxes and money boxes, are all counted. It takes five or six thousand silver to buy it, but I don't know who will be cheaper.

It's just that the second master reminded me, don't spoil the big things because of small profits. With the accumulation of the second master and grandma over the years, if this room is empty like a snow cave, it will really attract people's suspicion.

"Why did you come up here?" Xiang Yunzheng ordered his wife to quickly bring two pots of boiling water up so that the old lady and the master could drink tea.Seeing Ping'er come in, he hurriedly asked with a smile.

Ping'er said with a smile: "Our grandma is still weak, I just don't worry, she can't sit still at home, so let's come up and take care of her."

After saying that, he went to Sister Feng's side. Xiangyun watched her take over all the trivial matters with cold eyes. After busy work, her master could rest on the porch.Comparing the two sides, I was alone, thinking in my heart, if Baoyu doesn't do anything, the girls in the house will become more and more mischievous, and I have to come forward to subdue them. After a few more times, those tricky girls will not hate me deeply.Otherwise, if Cui Ling and She Yue were promoted, they would become the housekeepers, and they would surely stand out. With this arrangement, everyone would temporarily relieve their hatred in the past.If you can get two arms, you can also ask her to serve you with two arms like Sister Feng.

Seeing Ping'er's two makeups, Sister Feng felt satisfied, and was afraid that they would look too dull compared with the daughter-in-law and maids here wearing gold and silver, so she hurriedly wiped her eyes and said: "You are very good, you are all dressed up plainly. It can also be regarded as our heart for the empress."

Xiangyun heard it from afar, felt uncomfortable, and touched the golden phoenix with pearls and red treasures on his head, and the four gold and jade bracelets jingling on his wrists.Seeing that Sister Feng's master and servant are all made of plain silver jewelry, they have a sister-in-law in the first room. As a sister-in-law, I really shouldn't.I had no choice but to go back to the room, and hurriedly changed some silver ornaments and white jade heads.

Cuilu was looking at the room, and when she saw Xiangyun coming back, she hurriedly pulled her back, and said in a low voice, "Grandma liked the pair of folded silk lantern earrings very much before, but Si'er, I don't know what the girl said to the second master this morning, and the second master asked me to open it." Give the box to the girl. I just said that I want to go back to Grandma Ming, and the second master was annoyed. I didn't dare to disobey, so I had to give it to her. Si'er's Hu Meizi is now wearing it to show off."

Xiangyun was upset, and he couldn't blame Cuilu, so he said: "Go outside, I'll put away the dressing box, and if the second master asks you again, he will just tell you that he doesn't know, so ask him to tell me. My mother passed away, We used to have gong clothes, so we shouldn’t be wearing them, I’ll put them away and take them out when I use them later. You also go back to the house and change the hairpins of your clothes into plain ones.”

Xiangyun remembered that there was indeed a secret compartment on the antique shelf in this room, and hid all the precious jewelry, the treasures she had saved over the years, and the two thousand silver notes given by Jia Mu, into the secret compartment, leaving only the Some ordinary things are in the vanity case.Said to himself: "Even if there is someone who knows the hidden compartment and dares to take the things inside, it's a thief who stole it, and it's easy to throw it out."

Cui Hui was so angry that she went back to her room and changed into her clothes.After sitting still for a while, I also got angry and picked up all the things, tied them up with black cloth, piled chairs on the table, and embroidered stools on the chairs, and threw the small bundle on the beam.Just came down with trembling legs, regretted it in my heart, it's just that the beam was so high, I could still do something in a fit of anger, but now I trembled just by looking at it, I don't even think about taking it down by myself.I couldn't help crying again, thinking about asking the servant of the second door to help take it down tomorrow.

Returning to the hall for a while, Jia Zheng saw that the three daughters-in-law of the younger generation in the house were all dressed plainly, and nodded secretly, feeling that they had intentions.Youshi's attire today is not out of the ordinary, although it is not a silver ornament, he only tied up his hair with a gold hairpin the thickness of a pinky finger, and a few velvet flowers, and there is no such decoration as red jewel and green jadeite.

Jia Zheng saw Baoyu who was still wearing a purple gold crown and a bamboo green robe, and his red trousers were exposed like blood spots when he moved. He gritted his teeth angrily.

It was still early at this time. Li Wan, Sister Feng and Xiangyun Zhang Luo once again came to the hall to wait on Jia Mu and so on. Everyone sat down to drink tea and talk.

Jia Muyin said: "Although the empress has gone, the princess has been left behind. The hearts of our family must not be scattered! A few days ago, we sent someone to pick up a few girls. The second girl and the fourth girl were sick, and the third girl was with her son-in-law again." I went to the south to see that my son-in-law and aunt had gone, and none of them could come back. My heart was cut like a knife. Especially when their eldest sister went away, I missed these granddaughters even more. Lian'er will still go to Deng's house to pick up your second son tomorrow. Sister, Sister Feng will pick her up from Si Yatou and Lin Yatou. My old annoyance is healed, and if they are healthy, they will definitely be healed. You go separately to pick them up, and you must bring them back for me. I Only when I see my granddaughter will I be happy, otherwise I will not follow her!"

Jia Lian lowered his head, impatient, but still had to deal with it.

Mother Jia looked at Sister Feng again. Sister Feng had a yellow face and was out of breath when she was standing. She was about to speak when Mother Jia frowned and said, "Girl Feng is too weak. I can't count on you when I use you." Go, Yun'er, you grew up with your elder sister Lin and fourth younger sister, they will definitely like you when they see you."

Jia She was fiddling with the teacup in boredom. Hearing the words, he interjected, "What's the second girl? That's the eldest girl of our long house. It was the second younger brother's idea. Everyone in the house knew about it, and the old lady changed her mind. stop."

Jiamu knew that the eldest son was a bastard and often muttered partial words behind his back, but at this time he ignored him and only told Xiangyun.

After two rounds of tea, Mother Jia was about to say that she would like to visit Princess Fuyou, when she suddenly heard the chaos outside, and there seemed to be many voices, as well as screams and cries.Unavoidably offended, he ordered Jia Lian to watch and kick out anyone who dared to make trouble.

Before Jia Lian went out, the family members of Lai Datong's second door had already scrambled into the hall, shouting in panic, "It's not good! The officer of Jinyi Mansion broke in with an unknown number of conscripts, ladies and gentlemen. Get out of here quickly! Those in boots and hats are coming in to search property!"

All the people in the hall were astonished with astonishment. Mother Jia and other female relatives had not finished listening, their eyes were wide open, and they were so frightened that they burst into tears.A room full of people is like headless flies, no one cares about anyone else, just don't know where to hit.Sister Feng and Ping'er had long expected this day in their hearts, and although they were terrified, they still had a clear idea, Ping'er and Feng'er sandwiched Sister Feng, staggered to hide in the small room next to the hall where the servants were waiting for orders.Passing by Shi Xiangyun who was stupefied with fright, Sister Feng felt a little guilty because she had her own reasons for marrying Baoyu hastily, so she pulled her at this moment, and Shi Xiangyun also hid in the side room with the three of them in a daze.

The servants in Jinyi Mansion were very fierce and ruthless, so Sister Feng and the three escaped in, and they broke through Jia's family and entered the hall.The family members of the family who passed by were tied up with ropes, including men and women.

Seeing the ferocious appearance, Jia Mu and Mrs. Wang rolled their eyes and passed out.The waitresses pulled this one, lifted that one, crying loudly.Fortunately, the king of Beijing County had already caught up, stood outside, and ordered the officer to say: "Stand up and wait for me. Please stay away from the family members, and then seal the room. It will not be too late to search separately."

But the official of the Jinyi Mansion didn't buy it, and said with a smile: "The sinners are divided into men and women! They are all tied up and circled in this room, so it is convenient for us to check."

The king of Beijing County said angrily: "Although the decree removed Jia Amnesty, Jia Zheng, Jia Zhen and other world positions, it did not deprive the old matriarch of the imperial order, and you dare to disrespect the super-grade imperial lady!"

The officer cupped his hands and said: "Since the lord said so, the edict is different. Tell these edicts to avoid there quickly, and the rest should be locked up!" As he spoke, he pointed to a small room. It's the room where Sister Feng hid.

Mrs. Xing and Mrs. You couldn't care less about the place that was originally used by the servants, so they ran there in a hurry. The mandarin ducks and amber supported Jia's mother, Caiyun and Caixia half supported and half lifted Mrs. Wang, gritted their teeth and held on. Go there too.The officer glanced at it twice, but did not stop him.

Li Wan pulled Jia Lan, covered his face with one hand, passed Yuanyang and the others, and tried to get in, but was grabbed by Fan Yan.Li Wan was frightened to death, but Jia Zheng was kneeling on the ground at this time, so shocked by the accident that he couldn't care less about his eldest daughter-in-law and eldest grandson.Jia Amnesty and Jia Zhen were also soft on the ground, but Jia Lian still had some sense, and hurriedly cupped his hands and replied, "This is the wife of the criminal official's cousin, and she is a chaste woman. Please be lenient."

The officer looked at Jia Lian for a while, and suddenly said: "What kind of chastity woman! There is no chastity archway in this dynasty! Besides, if you say a chastity woman is a chastity woman, even if she is a widow, I don't think she is worthy of the word chastity woman! When we came in , a room full of men and women, old and young, are sitting together, which family's chaste women eat, drink and talk with uncles and uncles!"

Glancing at Li Wan, who was being carried by the guard, he said with disdain: "What's more, everyone in your mansion knows about it. What kind of garden did you have before? The man went in to live, and your widowed sister-in-law also lived in a mansion. Tell me, this is the principle of chaste women? I'm sorry!"

This made Li Wan feel ashamed and indignant, and made King Jing of Beijing and Jia Lian speechless.

The servants under the officer nodded, knelt down and said, "There are still two prisoners who are not here."

When Jia Lian heard about it, his anxious face changed, and he regretted that he should speak up for Sister-in-law Zhu. This time he was going to kill Brother Feng, and he was unwilling to die.

He was so busy walking over on his knees that he would rather give up his life to stop Fan Yan.

After being kicked twice, the officer said: "That's all! These women are trivial matters, first copy and check the big ones. You lead your own people, and ask the servants of his house to lead the way, and copy them all in detail! Regardless of our people It’s still Wucheng soldiers. When I come out, I have to take off my clothes and boots for inspection. If anyone dares to be greedy for money, they will be served with military sticks! Unless you eat it in your stomach, you will be discovered by me. Just a military stick is not enough , always go to Jinyi Mansion prison to enjoy a few days..."

After the officer finished speaking in a strange manner, the soldiers both inside and outside dared not show their anger, and they all agreed.

The guard who grabbed Li Wan stretched out his hand and pushed Li Wan violently, pushing her to the door of the small room. The other palm with the size of a cattail fan had snatched Jia Lan like a little chicken. Jane throws it out here.

Jia's amnesty and Jia Zheng's useless, Jia Lian was just trying to stop the soldiers, and he couldn't save him from a distance. Jia Lan was about to fall heavily to the ground.Jia Rong gritted her teeth and boldly rushed forward to hug Jia Lan and rolled, hitting the nanmu chair with a bang before stopping.

Li Wan spat out a mouthful of blood in fright, lying in front of the curtain, unable to move.Inside, Yuanyang and Amber, with tears streaming down their faces and shaking their hands, fell on the ground and stretched out their hands to drag her in desperately.

King Bei Jing came into the hall at this time, glared at the officer, and sat down in the middle, the officer cupped his hands, and sat down first with a strong horse.

After waiting for a while, the courtyard of Rongxi Hall was already full of boxes and belongings, and each team ransacked the house with a clerk who registered the objects, and there were two accountants in the courtyard.

The official of the Jinyi Mansion called a general registration official to come in and asked, "How is it?"

The secretary frowned and said, "Although it looks like a lot, it's empty. Especially Jia Zheng's house is even less than his nephew Jia Lian's house."

Prince Beijing said: "The government is clean and honest."

The officer shook his head and said: "That's not the case. There are countless calligraphy and painting antiques in Jia Zheng's study, which are worth tens of thousands of gold. However, he lives in the main courtyard, which is too clean. I heard that the Jia Wang family has been in charge of his mansion for many years. , don’t you have any personal wealth! Not even a dowry? It’s a miracle.”

"At that time, Jia Lian was a seventh-rank official in the Shuntian Mansion, and his family had seven or eight thousand dollars in wealth. Jia Zheng's wife and Jia Lian's wife are actually aunts and nephews. How can they be inferior to the younger generation?"

King Beijing sighed and ordered Jia Zheng to come forward for questioning.

The officer asked: "You just heard about the confiscated property in your room, do you have anything to say?"

Jia Zhengdao: "The prisoner doesn't take care of housework. I don't know about it. A few years ago, the prisoner's nephew was the housekeeper. You have to ask the prisoner's nephew to find out."

Jia Lian couldn't believe it and just looked at Jia Zheng.

The official of the Jinyi Mansion sneered, "It is true that you and Jia Amnesty have not separated, but the things in this house are not owned by each family. Do you still need to ask your nephew? I advise you to tell the truth!"

Jia Zheng was in a cold sweat, and said in a low voice, "I really don't know. The property of the prisoner's father and grandfather has not been divided, but the things in the house where each person lives are his own. The population of the prisoner's second room is larger, and in the past they often brought in the concubine and empress. , therefore, the family wealth is not rich."

The King of Beijing County said: "This statement is reasonable."

I just listened to the joyful report from the guards outside: "A secret room was dug out in the basement of the side room of the main house where Jia Wang, the wife of the prisoner Jia Zheng, lived. In addition, six large boxes of Jiangnan Zhen's belongings were confiscated, which belonged to the private possession of the stolen goods of the Zhen family. There are countless gold and silver treasures. The total value is hundreds of thousands of silver. The lower officials dare not move without authorization. Please send another register to check the records!"