In the morning, Yu Xiaoxiu washed up and dressed. When breakfast was served on the table, Yu Shu still hadn't gotten up. He thought that she was lazy again, so he put down the bowl and chopsticks, walked over and kicked the bed leg, and shouted angrily,
"Get up, don't sleep, get up quickly."
Behind the curtain, Yu Shu turned over, hugged the pillow, and continued to sleep.
Yu Xiaoxiu frowned, reached out to grab the corner of her quilt, and pulled it out.
"Get up!"
The early spring morning was still cold. Without the quilt and wearing only a shirt, Yu Shu was awakened by the cold. She opened her eyes, looked at the figure outside the bed curtain, and murmured. She slowly got up, stretched, rubbed her arms, and said,
"Xiaoxiu, go get me a clean set of clothes."
Last night, she had to crawl out of the small forest. Because of that pair of wild mandarin ducks, she couldn't even complete her official business. She returned to her room in the middle of the night. Afraid that she would wake Yu Xiaoxiu, she took off her dirty clothes and fell asleep.
Yu Xiaoxiu threw the quilt back on her bed, went to the wardrobe, and found a clean dress for her, and threw it to her.
"Hurry up and get dressed. You can sleep however you want after breakfast."
Yu Shu put on her blouse while fighting against her drowsiness. She finally understood what he was talking about and said in a daze,
"Aren't you going to the study room?"
Yu Xiaoxiu snorted, picked up the dirty clothes she had put at the end of the bed, and said,
"You slept too much. Today is the 17th of February, the death anniversary of Lady Ningzhen. The whole world will stop for this day. You can't learn or calculate, so why do you have classes?"
"Oh, look at my memory." Yu Shu patted her head and was secretly speechless. She just knew that there was such a saying.
There was no need to go to school. After eating, Yu Shu thought about washing the dirty clothes from last night and putting them in the wooden basin to carry them out. As soon as she went out, she was robbed by Aunt Liu.
"Young Master and Young Mistress, go and play. This servant has nothing to do today, so I'll wash all the things that need to be washed."
Although Aunt Liu is a servant brought by Aunt Cui, she is now a servant of the Ji family. Yu Shu and Yu Xiaoxiu are not the young master and miss of the Ji family. Strictly speaking, they can't order her around at all. Usually, Aunt Liu is busy in the kitchen. Yu Xiaoxiu does the laundry and the quilt himself. Occasionally, when she is free, she will not ask the siblings to do it.
Yu Shu scratched her neck and reached out to scratch her back through her clothes. Her other hand held onto Aunt Liu.
"Aunt Liu, is there hot water at the back of the house?"
"Yes, Miss, do you want some water?"
"No," Yu Shu turned her head and glanced at Yu Xiaoxiu who was reading in the room. She whispered to her, "I want to wipe my body. Last night, I dreamed and sweated all over."
She has been here for many days and has only washed her hair once. Knowing that boiling water will waste firewood, she doesn't dare to ask for a bath. But last night, she lay on the grass for half a day. After a night, her body is sticky and itchy. She can't take a bath. Let her wipe her body.
Aunt Liu saw her scratching hard and listened to her request. Her expression was a little strange. She looked at her a few times, put down the dirty clothes, and pulled her to her room.
Aunt Liu lived alone and lived in a single room. The room was half the size of Yu Shu and Yu Xiaoxiu. She took Yu Shu into the room and pressed her to sit on her bed.
"Miss, you want to take a bath. Please sit here. This servant will go get water and change clothes for you inside."
Aunt Liu ran out. After a while, she came back with a large wooden tub half the height of a person. When Yu Shu saw the tub, her eyes lit up. She saw that someone in the yard used this big tub to wash clothes. She didn't think that it could be used as a bathtub.
Putting the tub down in the corner of the room, Aunt Liu ran out to get water. A bucket of hot water was poured into the wooden tub. White steam came out, which made Yu Shu's heart itch.
Seeing Aunt Liu bustling about, she felt bad and stood up to help. However, Aunt Liu smiled and refused, "Aunt Liu, I'm sorry.
"Miss, you are sensible now. In the past, when you wanted to take a bath, you cried and asked this servant to go to Aunt Liu's place to get a bathtub for you. This servant didn't listen to her advice and was scolded by Aunt Liu. In fact, you are still small. This tub is enough. You can sit here and wait. This servant will go get a bucket of cold water."
Yu Shu watched Aunt Liu run out with the empty tub. She felt bad in her heart. Compared with Aunt Liu's careful care, Aunt Cui's indifference to her own children was really chilling. She, a fake, felt bad, let alone the original Yu Xiaoxiu.
***
She took a bath in a wooden tub used for washing clothes. There was no shampoo, no bath liquid, and she couldn't even stretch her legs. However, Yu Shu felt unprecedentedly happy.
She changed into clean clothes from inside to outside and wrapped her wet hair with a cloth. She and Aunt Liu worked together to carry the wooden basin to the yard and watered the trees against the wall. Then, she hung the clothes that Aunt Liu washed on the clothesline and shook them.
After doing these, Yu Shu returned to the room refreshed. Seeing Yu Xiaoxiu still holding a book and reading, she went over and knelt on the bench. She stretched her arm under the tip of his nose and said with a smile,
"Smell it. Is it fragrant?"
Yu Xiaoxiu pushed her hand away and said without raising his head, "If you have nothing to do, go to sleep. Don't bother me."
Yu Shu stopped teasing him. After sitting down, she took off the cloth on her head, tilted her head, and said while drying her hair,
"If you read like this for a long time, your eyes will be damaged. When that time comes, you won't be able to see the words clearly even if you lie on the paper. Don't read anymore. Go to the yard and stand for a while."
Yu Xiaoxiu snorted and didn't move.
"Yu Xiaoxiu," Yu Shu threw the towel on the table, folded her hands in front of her chest, and said with a straight face, "No matter what, I am your sister. Don't listen to me talking to you. Who taught you to be so rude?"
"Pa," Yu Xiaoxiu put the book upside down on the table and went out with a stern face.
Yu Shu had achieved her goal. She raised her eyebrows proudly, grabbed the towel, and went back to the bed. She crossed her legs and took out the note that Cao Zixin gave her yesterday from under the pillow. She began to review in a low voice,
"Cloth Head Paper, Cold Gold Paper, Clear Heart Paper, Rattan Paper, Hemp Paper …"
She didn't sleep well last night. After reading for a while, she felt sleepy and was wandering in and out of her dreams. Suddenly, she heard a noise outside the yard. She rubbed her eyes and sat up. She saw that at the door, Aunt Liu was holding the door frame with both hands, blocking two men who looked like servants and not letting them in. Yu Xiaoxiu was standing behind her in a daze. The two sides were arguing.
"What happened? Why do you want to drive our young master and miss out out? Tell us first."
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