These mothers-in-law saw a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl standing there, dressed not luxuriously and plainly, but she was generous and not a little squeamish, but like a little daughter of an ordinary family, showing some kindness. One of them smiled boldly: "Say something offensive, the third girl looks very amiable, we are here to find some work, how can we not listen?" ”

The rest of the crowd also agreed: "Exactly, exactly." ”

Zhen Shumu sent Shen away, only then turned around and smiled and said: "Mothers, we are doing some hard work, if there are expensive clothes, jewelry and gold are torn and torn, take them off as soon as possible and put them in the housekeeper's place, some of the clothes in our house are for rough work, don't break the clothes for a little money." ”

The women waved their hands and said, "We are here to work, and there is a reason to wear those things." ”

Zhenshu said: "If this is the case, then you will come with me." ”

The three-entry courtyard behind Zhong's easy-going residence has only been slightly repaired in previous years, except for a few days when she was sixty years old, when she was 60 years old, she had not lived in it for six years. Although the houses are empty, there are swarms of rats, snakes and ants, bats hanging upside down, and geckos climbing the walls, which is a very desolate situation. During these ten days, these mothers-in-law not only had to dig rat holes and chase away bats, but also pulled vines and weeds, which was equivalent to repairing the entire yard.

Zhenshu has been accustomed to these rough jobs since he was a child, a coarse cloth coat and a hood, a handkerchief wrapped his hair, and everything is rushed to the front. Dig the snake's nest with your own hands, paste the rat hole with your own hands, set up a ladder to clamp bats from the beam, and sheath the beam.

There seems to be endless old dust in this year-old house, which is swept by sprinkling water today, and coming in again tomorrow, and there is a thick layer of old soil on the green brick floor. Although it was only newly painted during the Chinese New Year, the paint marks showed the mottling of the old days, and each layer of lines was traces of time, indicating the decay of the Song Mansion over the years.

When the yard is cleaned, it is necessary to dry the accumulated bedding taken out of the warehouse, remove the cotton in the bedding, pat it loose, dry, shake the insects, wash the quilt cover, wash the curtains and other coverings.

Fortunately, the weather is competitive, the sun is shining for several days, Zhenshu and a group of mothers-in-law walk through one courtyard after another, in the middle of the cotton piled up like white clouds in the big basket, in the middle of the colorful curtains, the nose and throat are all cotton sent by the spring breeze.

Zhenshu stretched his arms and shook off a quilt with a mother-in-law, and suddenly he was pinched by someone on his waist, which was sore and itchy. She shook her head and said, "Who is it, is it going to die?" ”

"Third sister, why are you working so hard, even if you rush to pour the night incense at the moment, the ancestors are disgusted with you, and they will never look at you more." Zhenxiu wore a phoenix tail skirt today, Xu was given to her by Zhenyu, and her waist was tightened, and a deep groove was made.

Zhenshu handed the quilt into the hands of his mother-in-law, turned around and cleared his throat and whispered: "I also wonder why I have worked hard here for a few days, and there is no movement from the ancestors. You are the ancestor who is used to pleasing people, teach me something! ”

She pointed to the upper ear room and smiled, "Let's go there and talk about it." ”

Zhenxiu didn't doubt it, twisted her waist and said, "You should have come to beg me a long time ago, but you are arrogant and unwilling to condescend." ”

Saying that, the two entered the ear room one after the other, and as soon as Zhenshu entered the door, he closed the door and lowered the sheath. Seeing that the walls of this room were empty, the walls were still adobe, and there was no place to sit, Zhenxiu frowned and turned around to go out, but when he turned around, he met Zhenshu and punched him on the bridge of his nose. After she ate this punch, she suddenly felt that the blood in her whole body rushed to her nose, so sore and painful, that she couldn't even open her eyes, let alone see where Zhenshu was.

"Hmm......" Zhenshu saw that Zhenxiu was about to shout, grabbed her neck and smashed a tablecloth that had just come with her into her open mouth, and then rode to Zhenxiu's neck, slapped her face a few times with a bow left and right, pulled her collar and said, "Do you want to be shameless?" What benefits did Zhenyu give you, and you dared to send your big sister to Dou Keming? ”

Zhenxiu coaxed Zhenyuan for Zhenyu, and because she was afraid that Su and Zhenshu would make trouble for her, she hid in Shanyuan Academy for several days and did not dare to come out. But in the past few days, Su Shi took Zhen Yi to visit the Yinlou embroidery workshop, Zhen Yuan closed her door again, the only Zhen Shu, because of the courage to do rough work at home, the servants of the house, both large and small, men and women are admiring.

Everyone has curiosity and strangeness, and it is a natural example for a rough servant to dig out mice and catch bats, and a delicate little girl will do this, which has become a skill, and if this little girl does it well and spicy, it will make people look at it differently.

Even the Zhong family has to listen to Mother Lu and Mother Miao learn a few times a day how to dig out mice and catch bats.

Zhenxiu thought that the Zhong family had sent the second room last time, but she had not been sent down, presumably at the birthday banquet, when the Zhong family wanted to introduce their granddaughter to the nobles of various provinces, they would only bring themselves and Zhenyu, if so, she would be able to get rid of Zhenshu and Zhenyuan. Who knew that Zhenshu had only been doing spicy work for a few days, and he happened to win Zhong's admiration by mistake.

She was anxious, so she wanted to go to the backyard to tease Zhenshu, ask Zhenyu to catch her and find her wrong, and then make Zhong tired of her.

Zhenshu sneered in her heart, she had the matter of Guangji Temple in her heart for a long time, just because Zhenxiu always followed Zhenyu into the same place that it was not easy to treat her, who knew that she would take the initiative to come to the door today.

She saw that Zhenxiu was still the same itchy skin after the pain, so she simply beat it again, and then let go of Zhenxiu's arm and said, "I don't beat you for evil, only for you to be stupid." You always think that the beauty of the big sister steals the limelight from you, so that you can't be looked down upon by men, and use all your crooked thoughts on your own sisters. Do you know that there are more beautiful women than you outside, do you meet one and hurt one, if so, the world is so big, you can do it? ”

Zhenxiu has been beaten by Zhenshu since she was a child, and she has been trained by her many times, so she only listened coldly, and knew in her heart that Zhenshu didn't dare to do anything to her, as long as she passed the hours and overwhelmed Zhenshu's anger, Zhenshu naturally wanted to let her go back. He didn't struggle, just lay on his back on the ground, letting Zhenshu kick the wall and pound the ground beside him, just looking at her coldly.

After a long time like this, Zhenshu pushed the door and went out, still going out into the courtyard to do the rough work.

Zhenxiu turned over and got up, cut her messy hair and wiped the snot and tears that came out of her face just now, and looked down to see that the phoenix tail skirt was full of dust, painful and hateful, but she couldn't bear Zhenshuhe, so she could only quietly go out of the house, and slipped away while no one was paying attention to the wall.

When the covers were finished, Shen purchased oiled paper from the outside, and the clean adobe walls torn off the four walls were all clean and tidy with oiled paper, and then they had to enter the furniture into each room. Because this furniture is a large piece of wolf things, Shen deliberately took half a day of effort, asked the women in the inner courtyard to pack up a lot of personal belongings, and asked the housekeeper to personally bring a dozen or so strong family members and small servants to open the warehouse to carry the furniture.

When the furniture is placed, Zhenshu takes these mothers-in-law to spread out the bedding that has been dried to the houses, and then opens the library to take all kinds of small ornaments and put them on.

Because it was the fifteenth day of May and the birthday banquet was only one day away, the Zhong family specially brought the Shen family, the Su family, and the Sanfang Lu family, who had just arrived from other places, to inspect the backyard of Sijin. Miao's mother and Lu's mother have been talking about Zhenshu as a strange thing all day long, and Zhong has already heard it well, and now seeing Zhenshu with a group of mothers-in-law is just nine days of hard work, and if the long-decayed Sijin courtyard is sorted out, I can't help but admire it.

It's just her praise, but it's just like Zhenshu is a plaything, and it's just a hot look. I still hate the second room in my heart, but I don't show it on my face.

On this day and night, after calculating the wages for the hired mothers-in-law and sending them away, Shen prepared a table of thin wine and side dishes, wanting to have a drink with Zhenshu. The two sat down on the big kang near the window in the main room of the casual house, and Zhenshu saw that there was still no man angry in the room, so he asked, "Why hasn't the fourth uncle come back yet?" ”

Shen frowned and shook his head: "He came back early, but he was busy outside, so he just rested outside." ”

Seeing that her face was sad, Zhenshu didn't want to ask deeply, so he only took the small cup and sipped the sweet wine, and moved a few bites of side dishes.

Shen suddenly smiled and said: "You have been busy in the easy-going house these days, I often take the time to look, and I see you jumping up and down with a pair of heavenly feet, indescribably refreshing and happy, I am really envious." ”

Zhenshu put away his feet and said with a smile: "I am also greedy for this cool pain, so I beat it to death and didn't bind my feet." ”

Shen said: "A woman like you shouldn't be detained in the boudoir, that is to kill you." ”

Zhenshu said: "Isn't it? The world is wide and the earth is wide, why do women have to be confined to the boudoir for this life? ”

Shen Shi was silent for a while, and suddenly called Banlan Dao in a soft voice: "You bring the set of clothes I prepared the day before yesterday." ”

Banlan responded outside, and Banlan sent in a burden. Shen took it and opened it, took out a long shirt embroidered with white fresh roots, and a lilac-colored one-piece waist-length skirt, with a dark purple forbidden palace silk, and then took out a lotus-style big cloud shoulder and spread it on the short jacket on the kang, and asked Zhenshu: "Do you think it's beautiful?" ”

Zhen Shu saw that the white fresh root embroidered cuijing powder, the embroidery was distinct, and he couldn't help but gently stroke it with his hand: "This embroidery is really good, as if a living flower is printed on it." ”

Shen Shifu folded it up again, and pushed the burden to Zhenshu and said: "I cut it according to the length of the gown you put on Zhenyuan before, it must be suitable for your size, and you don't need to try it, when you come to the banquet the day after tomorrow, you will wear this dress to face the guests, okay?" ”

Zhen Shu thought that this was the clothes that the Shen family was going to wear the day after tomorrow, but she was going to give it to herself in that issue, so she hurriedly waved her hand and said: "I had a big disaster before, and my grandmother will not let me face me the day after tomorrow, for fear of disappointing the kindness of the fourth uncle." ”

Shen insisted on sending it to her arms, and then said: "I didn't help you in the temple before, and I didn't speak for you in front of my ancestors, and you still tried your best to help me, how can I not run for you?" Don't worry, the day after tomorrow my ancestors will call you a guest, but you can't tell anyone that you took it from me. The ancestors don't like the concubines and daughters-in-law to get too close, and I can't help you too much. ”

These days, how can Zhenshu not see the difficulties of the Shen family. immediately took the burden and said, "Thank you so much to the fourth uncle." It's just that I have a dark complexion, and I can't afford this dress in Taicun, for fear of making people laugh. ”

Shen pursed his lips and smiled, reached out and took the bronze mirror on the kang cabinet and handed it to Zhenshu: "Can you see, are you still black?" ”

Zhenshu has never looked in the mirror, but this time he looked at himself in the bronze mirror under the lamp, and saw a beautiful woman with thick eyebrows and big eyes and a sharp nose, and he still couldn't be confident, and looked at Shen Shi in disbelief and said: "I look good in your mirror." ”

Shen Shi took the bronze mirror and said: "The water color of the capital nourishes people's skin, and the women in Beijing will have white and tender skin. Although I don't have the ability to do it, I still have a very good eye for matching clothes, you put away the clothes first, and wear them the day after tomorrow, I guarantee that you will be a beautiful woman. ”

Zhenshu has never been praised like this since he was a child. After drinking a few glasses of wine with her, she was dizzy at this time, and she looked at herself for a long time, and she had a different kind of expectation for that set of clothes, as if she could really become beautiful when she wore it, and she would be happy because of her beauty, and she had an irrepressible excitement in her throat, and secretly pinched the clothes in her arms.