"What does the expansion of the house have to do with us, the girls and mothers-in-law? they called us all to listen to a lesson but didn't send us any errands, we didn't say anything about the delay, the things that the mothers explained couldn't be done, and Miss Hui blamed it again, and we were the ones who suffered and suffered!"

"Okay, okay, Xia Lan, don't talk about it, beware of Miss Jianyu's listening to it and a lesson"

This person complained that one person persuaded the two second-class girls beside Jing Yanyan, the second lady of the Jing family, and the two were talking about going to the flower courtyard for a while to listen to the teachings of Mother Zhou next to the eldest lady.

"Hmph! If you don't want to go to other courtyards, why are we cheaper than her? It's not that we are people who serve by the master's side like us, in the final analysis, we are just favored by the eldest young master, and even my wife has turned a blind eye! She has not gone to the courtyards large and small!"

Zijuan put away the feather duster that was sweeping the dust, slapped Xia Lan with an empty slap, and scolded softly: "Bah, bah, bah! Don't talk nonsense! We are different from her, she is a general room waiting for the young master, only one level lower than the aunt, but she is a few heads higher than our second-class girl, don't let others listen to the wall root and damage the face of the second miss!"

The pink-faced woman pursed her lips, still pouting and complaining, but there were no more insinuations in her words, and she walked out of the main hall with Zijuan.

The courtyard of the second lady of the Jing family, Jing Yanyan, is not very far from this flower courtyard, only a cup of tea, after a tortuous hand-copying verandah, through Jing Shilang's academy, through several stone arches out of the carved hanging flower door with the "descendants of all generations" plaque, walk for a short time on the cross road, out of the moon gate, is the flower garden.

Xia Lan saw that the people were almost coming, so she secretly poked the purple juan beside her, and said, "Fortunately, my sister reminded me to keep my mouth shut, otherwise this would really break the face of the young lady!"

The cuckoo shook his head helplessly with a smile, and was about to say something, when a neutral voice in front of him silenced a group of men and servants, this person was the mother Zhou who was in charge of the affairs next to the eldest lady, this slightly strong woman was not only famous for her reputation like a bell, but also in housekeeping, and had to be convincing, if she was completely unaware, she was afraid that she would mistake the wife of a foreign family.

"Cai'er! Start counting the number of people! Which courtyard and which room, who arrived and who didn't, all remember clearly!"

The little boy standing in front of Zhou's mother took the roster and began to roll call, at this time it was already waning, and the courtyard was full of purple and red faded from its original beauty, and turned into a shy cloud of fire in the afterglow of the setting sun.

"Mom, it's done, it's not bad!" the child's crisp voice broke the harmonious silence.

Mother Zhou nodded, and said with a straight face: "It was the time to disperse, and everyone should have been sent to rest for a while." But everyone also knows that the master invited by the old lady will come to the house to plan the drawings, and the construction will start next month, and our five-in-three-gatehouse mansion will be transformed into a seven-in-five-gatehouse! If you don't explain how powerful it is before it is built, you will accidentally break into the old lady's silver in the other day, and it will be a troublesome matter to damage yourself, and it will be your own well-being that suffers! Moreover, if you lead the master to the wrong place and collide with the nobles, you will only be good-looking!

After saying that, he cleared his throat, and a pair of bright eyes swept back and forth around the servant women with their heads and eyebrows lowered, nodded with random satisfaction, and continued: "The men in the outer courtyard are two and one and five, half and half, and take turns to help carry the wood every day and do some rough work of lacquer repair; Do you remember everything?"

After Zhou's mother finished speaking, an obedient promise came from the bottom in unison, and she nodded, "Let's go back to the yard each!"

After speaking, he turned around and went against the crowd of girls, entered the Xiaoyue Gate on the side, and entered the small garden, in the middle of the garden sat a graceful and luxurious woman, Zhou's mother owed, and said respectfully to the woman who was enjoying the moon with genuine tea: "Madam, I have everything you tell the maids and servants." ”

"Well, I heard it all. ”

This flower courtyard is only separated by a wall from the small garden, and this week's mother's voice is deafening, Shi Yunlan listened to it word for word, she was very pleased to have Zhou's mother around her, a shrewd and capable person, which saved her a lot of trouble, but Zhou's mother was getting older, and she sighed when she thought of this: "Mom, if it weren't for my poor health now, why would I suffer for you? This year, I should have let you go to Zhuangzi to reunite with Uncle Zhong and enjoy the blessings of your children and grandchildren." ”

"Mrs." Zhou's mother watched Shi Yunlan grow up when she was a child, and then made her dowry, and her natural feelings are no better than others, Zhou's mother couldn't help but be moved by these words, "Mrs., don't say such unlucky words, serving by your side is the greatest blessing, the day before yesterday the doctor said that Mrs. is just infected with the cold, should not be overworked, and it will be good to use medicine for a few days" Speaking of this, Zhou's mother took the cloak in the hand of the eldest girl Agate, and said softly: "Mrs., the weather has changed this evening, and the wind is afraid that it will be a bad thing, let's go into the house"

The night slowly fell, Shi Yunlan nodded, tiredness crept up her eyebrows in the dim and unknown light, she reached out and put on her cloak, suddenly seemed to remember something, raised her eyes and asked, "Is the eldest young master back?"

"When the duty was just gone, Da Zhen and the slave maid said that after the eldest young master returned, he went to the academy, and it seemed that he had eaten a few more glasses of wine, and at this time Xiao Zhen and Miss Yu were waiting. ”

Hearing this, Shi Yunlan's eyes couldn't help but pass a trace of light, fleeting, and then tired and crawling full of well-maintained jade face, she nodded, a trace of melancholy crossed her heart, "That's it"

——————————

College.

After drinking the sobering soup for about an hour, Jing Shilang spread out on the Taishi chair, although his cheeks were still flushed, but a pair of phoenix eyes in the darkness that looked like torches indicated that his brain was already very sober and calm.

Jing Shilang looked deeply at the barren darkness, his eyes flashed with imperceptible starlight, and he thought to himself: "Is it okay that you are in the country where the sun does not set?"

Forget about me

These three words flashed through his mind, and he only felt a flash of white light flashing in front of him, "Who is it?" he raised his eyebrows, got up alertly, and turned on the electric light on the table.

In front of her was a woman with a slightly frightened expression, and when she saw Jing Shilang clearly, she immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"Young master, it's me Xiao Zhen, you can scare me to death" Xiao Zhen sighed, "I see that your lights are not on, and the windows on all four sides are not closed, I am afraid that if you fall asleep by being drunk, if the wind blows again at night, you will have gout tomorrow morning." I made you a pot of tea, you"

"Alright, put it here!" he waved his hand, "You guys go to bed first, you don't have to wait for me to change your clothes!"

Xiao Zhen answered, put down the teacup, and quietly retreated.

Jing Shilang stared at the halo on the blue and white porcelain lamp of the electric lamp, and he was stunned, as if he had thought of something, he got up and stumbled open the dark compartment and took out a letter.

He drank the cup of tea and cleared his throat, but he did not take his eyes off the letter, he moved his Adam's apple, and opened the letter without hesitation.

Jingtai Commerce's business has been involved overseas many years ago, this time Yan Jiujiu went to arrange for a cadre to take care of the business in the country where the sun never sets to protect her secretly, this routine monthly letter only a few words to describe Yan Jiujiu's daily life overseas.

He read quietly, the corners of his lips slightly hooked to reveal the pleasure in his heart.

Suddenly, his gaze was tightly grasped by the last line of the letter, the soft corners of his eyes turned sharp, the inky black thick eyebrow sword slanted into the sideburns, the strength in his hand suddenly tightened, and the weak letter paper crushed into a ball in his hand.

He said, "Far Mountain, find out who this O'Henry is!"

The thunderous sound was only exchanged for a silence, Jing Shilang shook his head, the green tendons floating on his forehead gradually calmed down in a rough sigh, the distant mountains and the girls had already been rejected by him, he accepted the letter and put it in the dark grid, turned off the light and slammed the door.

Because Jing Shilang rejected a group of servants, at this time there was only a faint light gauze lamp in the square bedroom.

Spirits are greedy for cups, even if they wake up and their brains are sober, they can't escape the paralysis of their limbs.

Jing Shilang stumbled all the way into the main room, and before he could see it clearly, only an inexplicable dark fragrance came to his face, and the aroma hit people. Between the differences in enlightenment, a woman sat on the east shelf bed, and through the light gauze tent, the delicate skin of the woman with a crimson belly pocket could be seen.

"Master is back?" the woman stretched her arms, lifted half of the tent, and whispered softly.

Jing Shilang fixed his eyes and said, "Why are you here?"

She bowed her head, lowered her eyebrows, and was charming, "Lou Wei just did her own thing, the master has all the opportunities during the day, and let the lady have a comfortable and warm place to sleep at night." ”

Jing Shilang looked at the half-hidden woman in front of him, his eyes swept over, and he said coldly: "Get dressed and go back, from now on, you can only serve in the study in the morning and have a good night's rest." As he spoke, he stroked his sleeves and entered the blue yarn cupboard in the second room, calling the girl who was keeping vigil in the ear room as he walked, "Dazhen, wait for the girl to change her clothes." ”

"Master" half-leaning on the bed half-makeup beauty looked at the person in her heart and was unmoved, her beautiful face like the autumn moon turned bleak, and the sourness in her heart turned into a little cicada dew, and she let out a low cry.