This was the second month since Zhang Yuyan transmigrated to this era.
This time, she became the granddaughter of a local official in Guilin. She was born five months ago.
She was very satisfied with her family in this life. Although her grandfather was only a government official, his family not only had a long history of wealth, but also had deep connections with the imperial court and the local government.
For example, this home, the manor where she lived now.
This manor faced Li River to the east and a mountain slope to the west. The buildings surrounded the mountain stronghold, which held up the courtyards. Looking from the mountain peak, one could only see clusters of high-rise buildings.
This manor had a total of 33 courtyards, with a construction area of about 60,000 square meters. There were more than 700 buildings and kilns. There were only about 20 people living in the Family Zhang.
Sometimes, when she was carried by the head maidservant and walked around the house to digest her food, she couldn't help but size up:
The beams, rafters, and pillars of these buildings were mostly made of precious wood. The tall beams were thick and strong, and the paint was bright and colorful.
Under the eaves and on the pillars, there were all kinds of exquisite carvings of exotic flowers and plants, two dragons playing with a pearl, lions rolling around, and so on. The doorways, steps, and pillars below were all carved with fine limestone. There were stories of people, flowers, birds, insects, and fish engraved on them. Each of them was exquisite, as if they were alive.
The masters and young masters of the Family Zhang had to ride horses from the top of the stronghold to the bottom of the stronghold, which was a few hundred steps away. The young ladies and madams of the Family Zhang had to ask their maidservants to carry them in small sedans from the front courtyard to the back courtyard.
Not to mention the other riches. Ointment dripped and brocade turned to dust.
Even the soap used to wash the baby's diapers was thrown away after only one use. It was never used a second time.
In her previous life, Zhang Yuyan, who was a fan of 'Dream of the Red Chamber' and a fan of inner fighting, sometimes faintly felt proud. She thought: Although it's a local, it's a far cry from the Jia Family's level of nobility. But it's not bad, right?
However, no matter how satisfied she was, she couldn't help but feel a little bad.
First, her brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunts were a little too many. She was afraid that in the future, when she acted in an inner fighting drama, it would be very difficult for her.
Secondly, she also had Sanjie, who was suspected to be a transmigrator.
Third, which was also the most realistic thing, was that her nanny was a little too disobedient.
Her grandfather, Minister Zhang, was rich and wealthy, but he was still a stingy rooster. He had an iron abacus for everything.
He even had to fork out more money to hire a wet nurse. He refused to do anything.
He took a look and saw that there was a family with the surname Huang. His entire family was working for his family. They were all honest people. It just so happens that it's my birthday, so my family will 'show some kindness' to the workers and servants. The daughter-in-law of the Huang family who had just given birth to a son came to visit her husband. She was also an honest person. Her son was about the same age as Zhang Yuyan.
After thinking about it for a while, he fabricated a story about the Huang Family working for a long time, breaking tools, and owing debts. How could a poor wretch like the Huang Family take out such a sum of money?
Thus, Squire Zhang pulled Big Sister Huang over to be his granddaughter's free nanny.
From then on, Zhang Yuyan had suffered enough.
This Big Sister Huang's entire body reeked of mud that couldn't be washed clean. Even after rubbing and scrubbing, she was still dark and skinny. When drinking her milk, Zhang Yuyan felt that there was a smell of mud.
She was absent-minded all day long. Sometimes, when she was feeding her milk, tears would suddenly flow down her face. Even the milk in her mouth would become bitter and salty.
The most abominable thing was that she didn't care about her master.
As a baby, Zhang Yuyan still couldn't control her own excretion. Especially because Zhang Yuyan was a well-nourished baby, she was a fat baby and had the most feces and urine.
Sometimes, when she dirtied the diaper, this Wet Nurse Huang only cared about crying. It took a while for her to react and change the diaper while crying.
The most abominable thing was that Wet Nurse Huang would sometimes secretly leave Zhang Yuyan, her little master, behind and go somewhere else. Once, Wet Nurse Huang came back a few hours late, causing Zhang Yuyan to be hungry for a few hours. However, when she was breastfeeding, the milk was much thinner.
Later, Zhang Yuyan heard from a few maids in private that Wet Nurse Huang had brought in her own child.
The reason why the milk was thinner was that she was secretly feeding the child.
Zhang Yuyan remembered the drama she had read: The evil wet nurse treats the young lady coldly, and the brother bullies the master. Was this drama going to happen to her?
But this year, she was a baby who was less than one year old. How could she fight with such an unscrupulous servant?
When Zhang Yuyan was still worried about this matter, her mother had already found out about it. Her mother was the eldest daughter of the Xu family. How could such a shrewd person tolerate such a thing?
After a while, Wet Nurse Huang stopped sneaking out. Her eyes were dull and she seemed to have no spirit at all. Her face was extremely haggard and she often cried at night.
A few days later, she heard that something inauspicious had happened in the mansion. Zhang Yuyan vaguely heard a few maids say that they were going to dismiss Wet Nurse Huang.
On the night of the dismissal, it was raining heavily and the maids fell asleep.
Zhang Yuyan woke up in the middle of the night and found herself in Wet Nurse Huang's arms. Wet Nurse Huang's face, which was full of weathered wrinkles, reflected a terrible look like a storm.
Lightning flashed, and there was also lightning in Wet Nurse Huang's eyes.
Zhang Yuyan instinctively felt that something was wrong. She was crying in fear while blaming her father in her heart. He shouldn't have used such an unruly servant just because he wanted to take advantage of her.
Wet Nurse Huang was crazy. When she heard her crying, she didn't try to hide it. She just murmured, "You cry, you cry. Only you can cry."
She held Zhang Yuyan and rushed into the rain. The rain made Zhang Yuyan unable to open her eyes. She couldn't even cry. When she rushed to the pond in the yard, the rain was beating the duckweed in the pond.
Wet Nurse Huang was by the pond, holding up Zhang Yuyan's swaddling clothes.
Oh my god! This kind of unruly servant actually wanted to murder for money! Zhang Yuyan howled in her heart.
But Wet Nurse Huang didn't move for a long time.
She raised Zhang Yuyan several times and put her down several times.
For a long time, in the wind and rain, she stared at the little baby in her hand and the gorgeous golden thread on the baby's swaddling clothes. Then she stared at the baby's childish face.
In the end, Wet Nurse Huang slowly put the baby on the edge of the pond. In the bleak wind and rain, beside the little baby, by the pond, he began to hum an obscure folk song.
Two lines of tears flowed down her dark and weather-beaten face.
Family Zhang's people had already caught up with her.
From then on, Zhang Yuyan never saw Nanny Huang again.
She only heard that she tried to murder the master and was beaten to death by Madam Zhang.
Zhang Yuyan didn't know what happened. She only snorted in her heart and thought, "Serves her right! This kind of unruly servant who tried to murder the master deserved to be killed! "
Probably, in the whole Family Zhang, only Poor Nurse Huang cried for a few nights because of Wet Nurse Huang's death.
Poor Nurse Huang's original name wasn't Poor Nurse Huang. She didn't have a name. When she was very young, her mother owed a lot of money because she was sick. In order not to drag the family down, she jumped into the river and died.
Her father was seriously ill and couldn't plow the land. Seeing that he was about to die, he also owed the Family Zhang a lot of money. When she was six years old, her father sold her to the Zhang Family to be a servant girl at the lowest rung of society.
When she entered the Family Zhang, the Family Zhang's housekeeper gave her a name, Little Peach.
Because she was thin and small, she was so skinny and skinny from hunger. The other older girls all called her Poor Nurse Huang. After a long time, even the housekeeper called her Poor Nurse Huang.
Except for the youngest daughter of the Family Zhang, she was only five months old this year. As for the other young masters and young ladies, the youngest was about ten years old.
Poor Nurse Huang was six years old and was just a little taller than the stool.
Every day when the rooster crowed, the little girl would get up and fetch water for the young masters and young ladies to wash their faces and brush their teeth. When the young masters and young ladies got up, she would tiptoe to lift the dung bucket, pour the dung bucket, brush the dung bucket, wipe the table, sweep the floor, serve tea, and deliver food.
In the winter when Poor Nurse Huang was eight years old, it actually snowed in Guilin.
It was so cold that Poor Nurse Huang had been mending clothes until midnight. She was only eight years old and couldn't endure the cold and sleepiness. She woke up late.
When she was so scared that she hurried over, the young lady's dung bucket hadn't been brought out and the young lady's water for washing her face hadn't been boiled yet.
The fifteen-year-old third daughter of the Family Zhang looked at Poor Nurse Huang kneeling on the ground. She sighed, "You're only eight years old and you only know how to be lazy. If we don't punish you, the servants will take advantage of their age and try to be crafty. What should we do? Many families have lost their businesses like this. "
Poor Nurse Huang was still young. Therefore, she only received ten beatings with a stick and three slaps.
Poor Nurse Huang's back was swollen and her face was red. When she carried the dung bucket out, she passed by the pavilion in the courtyard. Because Guilin rarely had snow. A few literate and elegant young ladies were in the pavilion, reciting poems with great interest. It was said that they were celebrating the birthday of one of the young ladies.
The madams who doted on them specially sent a few pots of good wine to warm them up.
Poor Nurse Huang's legs were still weak because of the beating. When she walked here, she didn't hold the dung bucket firmly and it fell to the ground.
When the young ladies saw the yellow and white things and smelled the stench, they all screamed in alarm.
The assistant maidservants at the side received orders from the young ladies and quickly came over to chase Poor Nurse Huang away.
Poor Nurse Huang was slapped again because she disturbed the young ladies' mood. She fell into the snow. Her thin clothes were soaked by the snow.
In the end, the young ladies couldn't stand the stench and quickly left.
Poor Nurse Huang was punished to kneel in the snow and clean up the dung bucket. She fell ill after washing the bucket with the snow water. In the middle of the night, she had a high fever.
A rough servant like her didn't have much savings and didn't have a place to see a doctor. She could only rely on herself.
Poor Nurse Huang thought that she was probably going to die. She used the last of her strength and walked out of the room in a daze. She lay on the ground and looked at the bright moon and the snow.
The moonlight was especially bright that night. It reflected the white snow on the ground and illuminated the world.
Poor Nurse Huang actually liked the snow.
She couldn't read or recognize the date. She only remembered that her father had once told her that her mother gave birth to her on a snowy night. So from then on, Poor Nurse Huang regarded all the snowy days as the day she was born.
Today, is the day I was born.
She felt as if she was floating between heaven and earth along with the moonlight.
The little girl asked the moon in the sky, "Do you know where my mother is?"
The bright moon didn't answer the poor people in the world.
The little girl asked the snow on the ground, "Do you know where my father is?"
The white snow ignored the little orphan girl in the mortal world.
Poor Nurse Huang finally fainted in the snow.
The last person to save her from the snow was the new fifth young lady's wet nurse, surnamed Huang.
Poor Nurse Huang secretly thought that Wet Nurse Huang was her mother and always secretly looked at her.
Although Wet Nurse Huang was old, she was only in her twenties. Sometimes, when she saw Poor Nurse Huang secretly looking at her, she felt very embarrassed and would secretly give Poor Nurse Huang a few pancakes.
Slowly, the pitiful little girl realized that Nanny Huang had brought a child in.
Her son was only five months old. She hid her son in her room and sometimes sneaked out to see him and feed him.
But how could one person's milk be enough for two children?
Finally, one day, the masters called the Family Zhang found out.
Madam Xu scolded Wet Nurse Huang, "Is that stinky brat of yours worth drinking milk? If my child starves, your brat will pay with his life! "
From then on, Wet Nurse Huang's son often cried out of hunger.
The sallow and emaciated baby became even thinner.
Fortunately, Poor Nurse Huang often took some of her own rations and mashed them to feed the child, so the child didn't starve to death.
Poor Nurse Huang was only eight years old and had to be ordered around by the masters, madams, and young ladies everywhere. How could she have the time and ability to take care of a baby?
She didn't even have much rations.
The Family Zhang wouldn't ask the maids and servants around them to take care of the child brought by a foreign wet nurse.
When Wet Nurse Huang finally got the opportunity to sneak back, she often saw her child, Dalang, lying in a pile of feces and urine, crying loudly.
After a long time, Dalang developed a skin disease.
Therefore, the people in the Family Zhang called the poor child brought in by Wet Nurse Huang a "mangy dog".
Madam Xu didn't let Wet Nurse Huang go back to see the child, for fear that Fifth Miss would also get sick.
Finally, one day, Poor Nurse Huang finished a whole day's work, and Wet Nurse Huang finally coaxed Fifth Miss to sleep. When they went to see Dalang together, they found that he was missing, so they groped all the way in the dark to look for him.
Wet Nurse Huang actually had a little night blindness. In the dark, she was afraid of startling the young ladies and young masters, so she groped all the way. She lowered her voice and called out in a low and long voice, "Dalang … Dalang …"
Her low voice echoed in the long and dark corridor of the Family Zhang.
In the end, they found Dalang in a pool.
At that time, the moonlight shone on the pool, making it ripple. Dalang had already drunk enough water and was floating on the pool's surface.
Poor Nurse Huang was so scared that she almost fainted. However, Wet Nurse Huang didn't cry. After a long time, she murmured, "Poor Nurse Huang, look, Dalang is even fairer and fatter than Fifth Miss, isn't he?"
Poor Nurse Huang didn't answer. Because she had already fainted from fright.
Later, Wet Nurse Huang also disappeared.
Poor Nurse Huang vaguely heard other servants say that Dalang was always crying because he was hungry and uncomfortable. A baby's cry was the sharpest and most penetrating.
One night, some madam, young master, or young lady finally couldn't bear it anymore. Impatient, they ordered someone to throw Dalang far away by a pond far away from the back residence.
As a result, a passing servant didn't pay attention and kicked the baby.
Dalang rolled into the pond and drowned.
After such a thing happened, Wet Nurse Huang naturally couldn't stay.
Madam Xu and Zhang Yuyan finally found a new wet nurse that they were more satisfied with.
Squire Zhang was so angry that she muttered for a long time, saying that it was a waste of her grandchildren and that such a free wet nurse was thrown away in vain.
Poor Nurse Huang didn't know the details. Ever since she saw Dalang die that day, she had been muddle-headed.
Until one day, when she went to work, she heard the third young lady say with a sigh,
"I heard that Wet Nurse Huang's family was taken in by my family. Grandfather even took in a peasant woman like Wet Nurse Huang to be my younger sister's wet nurse. Wet Nurse Huang repaid such kindness with enmity. Because of an accident with her child, she wanted to take revenge on my family. She had evil intentions. As for her husband, when he heard that his wife had done such a shameful thing, not only did he not feel ashamed, he even clamored for revenge. Really … "
Another young lady on the side laughed and said, "Older Sister Sanjie, you're so kind. If you ask me, this kind of vulgar person who repaid kindness with enmity is full of evil. Poor people are treacherous. "
At this time, Squire Zhang, who was in the front hall, was also angrily slamming the table, "How crafty! Liu Sanjie, how dare she instigate the villagers to resist the rent? How dare she! "
As he spoke, his beard trembled with anger. He asked a scholar on the side, "And that silly girl who helped Liu Sanjie write the notice, who is she? These days, even stinky girls want to overturn the heavens? "
Just as they were talking about business, a steward came in and reported, "Master, a little girl ran away from the residence."
"What girl?"
"It seems to be a servant who does rough work. She's called 'little poor' or something."
Squire Zhang waved his hand, "What little poor or cute? My head hurts when I hear those stinky girls. Just tell a few people to go out and chase after her. This old man is talking about business. Don't come in and disturb me. "
The steward obeyed and left.
Squire Zhang then turned to the scholar and said, "I'll have to trouble Private Advisor Xu to go back and tell Lord Gui."
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