The early spring wind was still a little chilly.
Xiao Huan carried the basket and walked for a while. Suddenly, her eyes scanned the area and she quickly jumped to the side, avoiding a beggar's hand that was trying to pluck the leaves.
This street had never been so dirty. Garbage was piled up in front of the run-down house, dripping with smelly water. Cockroaches and rats were ready to scurry over at any time.
It was fine for the rich, but the houses of the run-down families were like flies' nests.
Xiao Huan's jump caused her to step on a lot of smelly mud and mud, splashing her skirt with the smell of urine.
Her heart ached for her skirt, and she counted the radishes and fresh cabbages in the basket — not a single leaf was missing. She heaved a sigh of relief and cursed, "Are your mother's dog eyes blind?! Where did this tactless bedding come from? This is Old Master Ji's vegetable basket! "
The stiff-eyed, bony beggar turned a deaf ear and continued to stretch out his hand.
Xiao Huan only scolded him a few times before he fell into the smelly water like a broken skeleton.
Xiao Huan was startled and felt very resentful. She hurriedly walked away with the vegetable basket.
In the stench of the street, besides the usual smelly feces and urine, there was now a new smell of rotting corpses.
Recently, there were often such foreign beggars wandering the streets. As they starved, they would puff and die.
The donkey cart used to carry these nameless corpses now made three trips a day instead of one trip every three days.
When she arrived at the red door in the backyard of the Ji Residence, she knocked on the newly fried copper ring. The old gatekeeper opened the door and asked, "What's wrong?"
Xiao Huan heaved a sigh of relief. "At least there are a few radishes. What's wrong with them? They can't eat good fish and meat, but fancy radishes and cabbages. "
The old gatekeeper shook his head. "How can we know what Old Master's honored guest likes?"
Xiao Huan had just walked through the door when she heard someone call out in a refined manner with a local accent. "Sir, may I ask if this is Master Huang's residence?"
The old gatekeeper's voice rang out. "Only our Old Master's residence has the surname Ji and can be said to have the style of a master … Walk forward, there is a stone lion squatting at the door and the Ji Residence plaque hanging on it. That is the main entrance. This is the side entrance, no guests are allowed to enter. "
Xiao Huan pursed her lips and walked in.
She put the food in the kitchen and asked the mute cook, "Didn't you eat?"
The kitchen maid shook her head and brought out the pot of white chicken meat. There was a layer of cold oil on it.
"If she doesn't want to eat, then you've worked hard all day. You can eat." Xiao Huan said.
The mute cook shook her head, took a step back, and put the chicken back. She sat at the side and washed the radishes.
Xiao Huan looked at the bowl of greasy chicken, but didn't say anything. Her heart ached and her eyes were filled with envy. She almost wanted to scold the kitchen maid: No wonder Dao Yi didn't grow fat even though he was a kitchen helper. How could he be so stupid? That picky Miss Lin doesn't want to eat it, but you can. If you eat it, doesn't that mean I can eat it too?
Carrying the pot of cooked radish stewed cabbage, Xiao Huan walked through the corridor, stepped over the branches full of flowers, and arrived in front of the screen window.
The screen window was half open, and there were shadows inside.
Xiao Huan called out "Miss Lin" a few times.
No one agreed.
Looking at this delicate guest who didn't eat and drink, she always looked like a weak scholar. Did something happen to her?
Xiao Huan quickly freed one hand and pushed the door open. She was so shocked that the pot of radish stewed cabbage fell to the ground with a "bang", scattering soup and water all over the floor.
Books and scrolls were scattered all over the room.
Miss Lin, who had been taken by surprise by them a few days ago, was sitting on the floor with a book in one hand and a picture in the other. Her hair was scattered, and her clothes and sleeves were all black. The pen was resting on her skirt, and the ink had stained her skirt, but she didn't notice it. She just sat there in a daze.
Hearing the sound of the bowl breaking, she raised her head and looked at Xiao Huan blankly. There was a little ink on her lips.
"White jade-colored tortoise!"
Xiao Huan blurted out. It didn't take long for her to realize that she had accidentally broken the bowl and insulted the master's guest. If it was in front of Miss Wu and the others …
She hurriedly knelt down, kowtowed hard, and looked at her with trepidation. "I have a stinky mouth, I spouted nonsense. Miss, please spare my life! Miss, please spare my life! "
Miss Lin sat on the ground, slightly stunned.
.....
Xiao Huan brought the broken bowl back to the kitchen.
The mute cook was still sitting there drowsily. As soon as the broken bowl was put down, she was awakened by the sound. When she saw the broken bowl, she babbled and gestured to Xiao Huan.
Xiao Huan ignored her and sat on the fire stool with her chin in her hand. "Hey, why do you think this Miss Lin is so strange?"
About a month ago, Lord Huang brought back a pair of uncle and nephew. They said they were guests in the house.
They said they were guests, but arranged for them to live in the side courtyard. There weren't many servants in the house, so they found a mute cook and transferred her, a second-class servant girl, over.
They said they didn't pay attention to it, but the few misses that the master doted on the most often listened to the master and madam's instructions and often came to the garden with Miss Lin to relieve their boredom.
Whenever the guests of the Lin family had the slightest headache or fever, they hurriedly ordered the servants to listen to their orders.
However, that Master Lin was not in the side courtyard on weekdays. Usually, only his niece, Miss Lin, was in the room, holding the window and writing rapidly.
This Miss Lin's nickname seemed to be Daiyu. She was born with a rare beauty, delicate and graceful, like an immortal flower in the fog. Her speech and behavior had a romantic attitude. She tirelessly read books every day and spoke eloquently. It was obvious that she was a talented woman.
It wasn't that Xiao Huan had never seen such a beauty before.
Although the few misses of the Ji family couldn't compare to Miss Lin in terms of appearance, they could still be considered dignified and beautiful. They were also well-educated and virtuous ladies.
However, Xiao Huan knew that Miss Lin was different from the other misses in the residence.
What was different?
She thought about it a lot. It seemed that she hadn't reached the root.
Miss Lin was sensitive and somewhat arrogant. There was always a strange look in her eyes. She wasn't an amiable person.
On the other hand, the Young Misses of Ji Manor were always gentle and soft. They never said anything that would cause others to dislike them.
However, Third Young Miss Ji had spilled tea on her skirt because of a stupid servant girl's mistake. When Third Young Miss Ji wanted to follow the rules and drag the servant girl away to be punished, Miss Lin would say, "Who doesn't make mistakes when they're young? Even a child's hand isn't steady. Good younger sister, when you were young, did you ever have a time when your hand wasn't steady and you had to insert needles into your finger? "
She joked with the Ji family's Third Miss. She cleverly stopped the nine year old girl from being beaten.
Miss Lin usually spoke and laughed without restraint. She didn't have the appearance of a virtuous lady. When she was serious, she looked like a virtuous lady from a scholarly family. In reality, Xiao Huan secretly thought that she was a bit crazy.
A girl who didn't write eight-part calligraphy or take scholarly examinations. She didn't know what to write every day.
Just like in the past, sometimes she seemed to have gone crazy. She didn't care about her sorry state and only cared about "writing, writing, writing". When she was happy writing, she would frown, laugh, sneer, and smile bitterly.
But just now, when Xiaohuan broke the bowl and the basin and blurted out the words' white jade ink seed bastard ', Miss Lin was only stunned for a moment. She touched the ink on her cheeks and clapped her hands, laughing loudly, "Good! I'm a tortoise! I'm a tortoise! "
As she spoke, this rare and beautiful young miss, who usually had a bit of arrogance, actually squatted down and helped Xiao Huan clean up the broken bowl. She smiled and asked Xiao Huan, "That white jade seed tortoise you mentioned, what does he look like?"
Xiao Huan hurriedly stopped her.
However, the sullenness in her heart that had been suppressed for an entire day suddenly disappeared. In an instant, this "Miss Lin" in front of her had some genuine gentleness under her eccentricity, making Xiao Huan's eyes moisten.
Xiao Huan thought as she warmed up the bowl of boiled chicken again.
The cook was stunned. She hurriedly gestured and asked Xiao Huan, "What are you doing?"
Xiao Huan said in a low voice, "You … don't worry. I … I'm warming it up for Miss Lin."
Xiao Huan then told her what Miss Lin had said.
Miss Lin knew that Xiao Huan and the others had specially gone out to buy these vegetables because she couldn't eat meat. She smiled and sighed, "Forget it! It's my fault. You don't have to pay attention to me in the future. My inability to eat is mostly my own mental illness. There's no need to trouble you to remake the vegetables and rice. You just have to leave some leftovers and warm them up. When I'm hungry, I'll naturally eat some. "
The cook didn't believe her. Xiao Huan had no choice but to promise that when she returned to her stomach, her stomach wouldn't bulge at all.
As soon as the cook let Xiao Huan go, she hurriedly gestured again, "The young masters and young ladies said that it's fine to warm it up. You really dare to let them eat these cold dishes? Be careful of punishment. "
Xiao Huan said, "I won't." She paused and added, "At least Miss Lin won't."
The cook looked at Xiao Huan in bewilderment as she left with the warmed chicken. She was puzzled, "Why did she treat Miss Lin like a different person after just a short while?"
When Xiao Huan left, she also thought, "How did I know that Miss Lin wouldn't be like the young ladies?"
Probably … Sigh, Xiao Huan secretly thought, "It's probably because Miss Lin isn't … isn't like the young ladies who are puppets with fixed expressions on their faces. She's a high and mighty statue. She, she's a little cute. She's actually a little like any of the pitiful and cute friends I used to know. "
As for what was cute about her, Xiao Huan couldn't tell. She felt that she must be a little crazy. She actually compared Miss Lin to her lowly friends.
But … in any case, in any case, they were just different.
When she passed through the corridor filled with flowers again, Xiao Huan heard someone talking outside.
"Did you hear that?"
"I heard it. Really …? "
"How would I dare to fool around with this kind of beheading? Alright, hurry up and go home to marry your daughter. After a while, you might not be able to get married. "
Through the flower branches hanging down from the corridor, Xiao Huan saw a few housekeeper wives in the mansion talking. Those housekeeper wives seemed to have caught a glimpse of Xiao Huan. They changed their words and said something else, "Who's in the front yard? It's so lively. "
"It's lively. First, that Master Lin came with a few friends. He said that he's a merchant. He's just a scholar. How could he have so many merchant friends? There are also a few who said that they're here to visit the old master. In fact, they're here to give gifts. "
"What's the name of the one who gave the gifts?"
"That old man's surname is Qi."
"Qi?" Could it be the person I heard when I returned to the mansion? Xiao Huan thought and went to Miss Lin's room.
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