In the northeast corner of the entire Lin Mansion, every day to ask the old lady to say goodbye, she has to get up for a cup of tea earlier than the sisters.

This is a small courtyard with two entrances, a few green bricks in the courtyard are cracked, and the bricks are thrown somewhere, and the green bricks that have been polished smooth by the soles of the shoes have left a few ugly scars, and the water is in a depression on rainy days.

Since the old lady and her wife had given her three second-class maidens and a rough mother-in-law, they had nothing to do on weekdays, so they nestled in the stove room and knocked their teeth, and now when they entered the courtyard, they heard the sound of giggling.

Rong Jin entered the house, went to the right side, the house was simply furnished, the half-new and not old frame bed, a single-warped head curly grass pattern open-carved concubine collapsed, now in autumn, it was spread on the Rong carpet, and there were two half-old rosewood eight-treasure cabinets against the wall and a three-screen mirror table with a yellow pear open-carved phoenix wearing peony.

Rong Jin had never seen any rare things when he was raised in Xujia Lane, but after returning to the Lin Mansion, he was taught to recognize many good things, and only then did he know how expensive this rosewood cabinet was. At that time, I thought that they still valued her a little, otherwise how could a pair of utensils be so precious, but later I learned that there were no incomplete things in this house, and these things she used were all picked by others.

Rong Jin sat on the chaise longue, holding a mahogany table in one hand, blaming himself for being reckless. If you offend a person in this big mansion, people can turn around and put you together, and the people in the house are complicated, and it is not easy to find out, for example, when she returned to the house, she suffered a few dark losses.

Que'er found a small jade-colored porcelain bottle from the small drawer under the mirror table, came back and squatted beside Rong Jin, picked up her right foot, lifted the white silk flower pants, and Rong Jin's round and well-proportioned calf was exposed.

She likes to bow since she was a child, and she is used to running and jumping with the finches in the yard, the meat on her legs and stomach is very firm, the skin and flesh are white and fine, delicate and warm like the hot spring jade under the water, which is simply lovely.

It's just that......

There was a dazzling red mark on the calf, and the finch was on fire again.

"Miss," Que'er said angrily while applying medicine: "This Mother Meng is also ruthless, you see, it has become like this, fortunately now that it is autumn, if it is a hot day, I am afraid it will suppurate!" Miss, don't you endure it any longer, just like Fang just reprimanded Na Bixi, didn't she dare to reply half a word? ”

Rong Jin pulled down his pants and retracted his legs, pulled Qi'er to his side and sat down, and said solemnly: "Qi'er, don't say such things in the future!" After that, she touched her eyes and said abruptly: "Just now I am impulsive, I will punish Na Bixi, alas, my eyelids are jumping, and I always feel that something will happen." ”

Que'er stroked Rong Jin's hand, looked at Rong Jin earnestly and said, "Miss, if you want the slave to say, it's better to go out of the house and go back to Xujia Lane!" ”

Rong Jin's eyes flashed, but for a moment they fell silent, "What about going back to Xujia Lane, it's not unpopular?" ”

Rong Jin was adopted by a distant relative of the Lin family, a family surnamed Xu, who was in the fat powder business, and adopted Rong Jin because the Lin family's annual 100 taels of silver and New Year's gifts were worth their hard work for a year.

But the Xu family also has a daughter of their own, and their relatives are different, and they have never cared about Rong Jin, they just don't let her freeze hungry.

Rong Jin has seen a lot of white eyes since he was a child, and he is naturally more sophisticated than others. When she first returned to the Lin Mansion, she didn't understand anything on a rampage, but after learning the rules for two months, and secretly observing the behavior of these people in the mansion, she gradually understood.

The Lin family is a stage, acting is a woman's natural ability, and observing words and emotions is a woman's second ability. Rong Jin opened his mind after watching it a few times, and naturally he could read all kinds of deep meanings from the words and deeds of others and even a look, and sometimes even learned from himself.

A strange smile appeared on the corner of her mouth, and she gradually looked at the finch, and her expression became open-minded again, "It's the same everywhere, and you can enjoy the bitterness!" ”

Que'er looked at her young lady's still fleshy and childish little face, Miss Xindao is only a fourteen-year-old girl, but her mind is heavier than that of adults, it is clear that she is from young lady's background, but there is no place for her in this house.

Looking at it, the finch remembered her experience since she was a child, and her eyes gradually turned red.

Rong Jin was stunned, and patted her back with a smile and said, "Finch, you ...... What are you crying about? I didn't cry when this bamboo stick was pumped on me, but you started crying? ”

In fact, Que'er is a year older than Rong Jin, and her skeleton is also bigger, when Rong Jin looks up at her and comforts her softly, it is like a little sister coaxing a big sister, which is very funny.

Que'er raised her sleeve and wiped her eyes, and said: "The slave is just unhappy for the young lady, although the young lady was not very close to people before, but she has a lively temperament, but now, how aggrieved she is!" ”

"Don't worry, just endure the little things, when it comes to important things, hum, your young lady and I are not vegetarians!" Rong Jin patted her chest and tried to squeeze her eyebrows, trying to make an annoyed look with her eyebrows upside down.

When the finch saw the misplaced facial features, she couldn't help but burst into laughter, but when she smiled, she laughed out of her tears.

Seeing that she was better, Rong Jin hurriedly changed the topic while the iron was hot: "Didn't you just want to kick the shuttlecock?" Your young lady is poor, but she has craftsmanship, you go to the kitchen to get some feathers, it is best to have pheasant feathers, if you don't use a rooster, you have to pick the long and good-looking one, and we will make our own shuttlecock later. ”

When the finch heard this, her eyes lit up, and she immediately ran out on an errand.

Looking at the figure of the finch moving away, Rong Jin's heart warmed.

In this world, she only has two people to love, one is her own mother, fourteen years of separation between mother and daughter, when she returned home, she only saw a coffin, she cried, for the absurdity of this world. There is also a finch, although she is a slave, she is the only person in this world who will shed tears for her encounter, will feel sorry for her like a sister, and really devotes herself to her.

The finch ran to the kitchen with a smoke, and now it was noon, and the stove was preparing lunch, and everyone was too busy to touch the ground.

The finch was not easy to disturb, so I walked around by myself and did not see any pheasant feathers, so I caught a cook who was choosing a dish and asked, and the cook pointed to a bamboo basket covered with a black cloth in the basket. The finch walked over, took down the pressed stone, lifted the black cloth and rummaged through.

And Bixi was standing in front of the stove with her hands on her chest and watching this scene coldly.

Just now, after she was punished for standing for an hour, she was called by her aunt Zhang's mother. Zhang's mother is an old man who needs to be used by his wife's side, and she just passed by to see Bi Xi puffing up, afraid that she would bump into the uncle when she went back to serve, so she ordered her to come to the stove room and watched the heat of the decoction.

"What are you looking at?" A woman with a disc face and small eyes, dressed in a gray-brown Fuwen robe, tapped Bixi's shoulder with a fan.

Bixi suddenly came back to her senses, looking at the pot of secret medicine on the small stove that she was going to send to his wife, and before the heat even came out, she sighed and said, "Auntie, don't you scare me?" ”

"Boil the medicine, boil the medicine, watch that little girl do what?"

"That," Bi Xi Nunu said, "It's the fourth lady who is waiting by her side, and she is showing off her martial arts!" ”

Mother Zhang followed the look, and saw a finch in a grass-green Luo skirt bending down, not afraid of being dirty and churning in the basket. A few pure white light feathers floated up and stained one on her shoulder, a little embarrassed.

Mother Zhang's eyes stayed on the finch for a moment, then looked up and down, and finally turned her eyes away in disgust.

"Fourth Miss is like that, I'm really embarrassed to put on the master's score, even the one who wears green dares to stare at me, auntie, I'm from your subordinates, you have to give me this breath!" Bixi tugged at Zhang's mother's cuffs and shook them coquettishly.

Mother Zhang put down the pu fan and glanced at her holding her hand, "I'm not an old man, I'm here to be coquettish, it's useless!" ”

Bixi blushed, immediately let go of her hand, and hung her head and didn't dare to speak.

But Zhang's mother stretched out her Fuwen robe, and said "Take a good look at the medicine," and walked towards the bird.

The cooks under the stove were so busy that they naturally didn't pay attention to the two, but Cuizhu, who was serving the eldest lady, saw all this in her eyes.

The finch rummaged for a long time, but there was no rooster feather, only snow-white or gray-yellow fluttering hen feathers, and she shook her head and sighed.

"Looking for what?" A voice came from behind him.

The finch was startled, and when she looked back, she saw a magnificent old mother, with a low bun on her head, and a blue sky hairpin with a silver hairpin, flanked by burnt blue and silver sideburns, which did not look like a cook, so she hurriedly squatted down and saluted, and replied: "Miss told the slave maid to find some rooster feathers to make shuttlecocks." ”

Mother Zhang bowed slightly, thinking about it, she smiled and said: "Since you want to make shuttlecock, ordinary rooster feathers are not good-looking, so you naturally have to use pheasant feathers, which courtyard are you in?" ”

"The slave and maid are from the Plum Temple."

"It turned out to be the fourth lady's side, I just saw that there are a lot of pheasant feathers there, you go pick and choose," Zhang's mother said softly, pointing to the small room next to the stove room.

This is used to stack the ingredients, and the cook went in to get a dustpan of ginger and forgot to lock the door.

Que Er didn't realize that there was him, and said gratefully: "Thank you for your mother's guidance," and then went in happily.

A few days ago, Uncle Lin Zhengze went out hunting with several nephews of the Lang family and hunted a pheasant, which was very thin and weak, but its feathers were colorful.

Lin Rongqing is now obsessed with kicking shuttlecocks, and when he sees this feather, he likes it very much, and tells the kitchen to stay and make shuttlecocks for her, but now he can't.

After lunch, when the maid presented the remaining pheasant feathers to Moyuntang, Miss Lin Rongqing rummaged for a while, and saw that there were only a few ordinary feathers left, so she pulled down her face, and the thin pink porcelain cup hit the table hard, and asked: "Where are the best ones, let each of you give a share?" ”

The maids were stupid and didn't dare to speak, and finally the big girl knew that the stove was sent to the house, so she asked the mother who was playing with the pheasant, but she didn't ask why, and finally Zhang's mother mentioned a few words, and someone remembered that the finches in the plum courtyard came to look for pheasant feathers.