In the Bamboo Branch Garden, Xia Mengning sat on the couch and Jiu'er painted embroidery patterns on their heads, Zhu Lian lifted the door curtain and walked in with a smile: "Miss, the housekeeper has sent some freshly bloomed bauhinia flowers, but they are beautiful, you can come out and take a look." ”

Xia Mengning was moved by Zhulian's words, and went out of the house with Jiu'er, and there was a row of bauhinia flowers in the garden, dark purple and light purple complemented each other, which was very good-looking.

Xia Mengning smiled and said, "It's really the season of spring flowers, this bauhinia bloom is extremely beautiful." ”

Jiu'er nodded and said with a smile: "Yes, Miss, the slave maid looks better at this redbud than in previous years." ”

Xia Mengning smiled, walked over and reached out to touch the small purple petals, and said: "Before Zhang Qingyu, first make purple gold sand, this is the poem that the ancients loved Bauhinia." ”

Jiu'er blinked her eyes and said, "Miss's exit is a chapter, the slave and maid can't understand, the slave and maid can only look, and the beautiful flower slave and maid will be happy." ”

Xia Mengning smiled, stretched out her hand and tapped Jiu'er's forehead, and said: "This bauhinia flower is extraordinary, elegant and pleasant, not grandiose, not shabby and ordinary, I love her delicacy and elegance the most, sometimes I think about being a person." ”

Jiu'er stood aside and listened, and said, "This little flower can see so many philosophies, Miss is really amazing." ”

Xia Mengning squatted down, sniffed on the bauhinia flower, pursed her lips and smiled: "It's so fragrant." ”

Not far away, a girl in a maid's suit was looking down to pick up something, Xia Mengning saw it, a little puzzled, Jiu'er saw it, and hurriedly shouted: "Hey, who is there?" ”

The girl raised her head, saw Xia Mengning's master and servant, hurriedly walked in front of the two of them in a few steps, and bent down to make a blessing, "Slave and maid, I've seen the third lady." ”

Xia Mengning smiled, "You are the girl who looked for the bag last time, I still remember you." ”

Liushuang hurriedly lowered her head, "It's a slave, thank you for your concern." ”

Xia Mengning looked at the bag she was holding tightly in her hand and said, "What are you picking up with the cloth bag?" ”

When Liushuang heard this, her face turned a little red, and she hesitated for a while before kneeling down and said, "Miss forgive your sins, Miss forgive your sins." ”

Xia Mengning said: "It's okay, just say anything." ”

Liushuang raised her head and glanced at Xia Mengning timidly, and said, "The slave maid saw that the petals of this bauhinia flower fell all over the ground, and thought that she wanted to pick them up and dry them so that she could make pillows for the slave maid's mother." ”

When Jiu'er heard this, she wondered: "Can bauhinia petals still be used as pillows?" ”

Xia Mengning smiled, walked a few steps forward to stop in front of the bauhinia, took a petal and put it in the palm of his hand, and said: "Do you know, bauhinia flowers are not only for viewing and fun, these petals can also be used in medicine, with the effect of clearing heat and cooling blood, detoxifying wind, and putting this dried bauhinia flower into the pillow can calm the nerves and treat rheumatism." ”

Jiu'er listened carefully, and after Xia Mengning finished speaking, she smiled at Liushuang: "It's hard for you to be a filial person, it's a pity that the petals in this yard are thrown away, so you can pick them up." ”

Liushuang listened, hurriedly thanked her, picked up the petals everywhere with a cloth bag, Jiu'er looked at the back, and said with a smile: "Miss, the slave doesn't seem to be talking to her heart when she looks at this girl." ”

Xia Mengning nodded, and when she saw that Liushuang was walking away, she smiled and said, "You can see it, it means that there is progress." ”

The two went back to the house, Jiu'er came up with hot tea, Xia Mengning looked at the garden through the window screen, and saw that Liushuang was still bending over to collect petals, and couldn't help but smile, "Our bamboo branch garden is always remembered, which makes me unguardable." ”

Jiu'er hurriedly said: "Miss, if you don't want to, you will drive her out, and it is not good for the slaves and maids to look at her, her name is very charming, and she is not a good person." ”

Xia Mengning nodded, and asked again: "I tested you, why do you think she is not good?" ”

Jiu'er smiled, "This girl is pretending to be at first glance, when is it not good to pick it up, but when we go out, I picked it up, and I said that it was to make a pillow for my own mother, if it was an ordinary girl, where would I dare to say that it was so full?" Besides, even if what she said was true, the slave maid felt bad, after all, this person came to others and said how pitiful he was and how he was filial, it must be fake, at least, the slave and maid couldn't do it. ”

Xia Mengning nodded approvingly, "When did this frost enter our garden?" ”

Jiu'er blinked and thought for a while, "Slave remember...... It seems to have been in our house last month. ”

Xia Mengning smiled, "Look, we were remembered early." ”

Jiu'er hurriedly said: "Miss, if you don't like her, let's find an excuse to get her out, so as to save you trouble." ”

Xia Mengning took a sip of tea, shook her head and said: "Then how can it be done, this person has gone to great lengths to dig a pit for us, just waiting for us to jump, let's not observe it well, how can we be worthy of their intentions?" ”

As she spoke, Xia Mengning beckoned to Jiu'er and whispered a few words softly in Jiu'er's ear.

At night, Xia Mengning had dinner in Mei Fangyuan, and then she and Jiu'er were about to go back to Zhuzhiyuan to sleep, when the two were passing through the garden, Xia Mengning hurriedly reached out to her lips and signaled Jiu'er to silence.

The two stood in place, seeing that there seemed to be something in the grass, shaking irregularly, Jiu'er looked at Xia Mengning, not knowing what to do, Xia Mengning shook his head, took Jiu'er's hand and walked forward, hiding behind a big tree next to the grass.

The breeze in the night was mild and moist, blowing on people's faces like a mother's warm and soft big hands, Jiu'er and Xia Mengning stood behind the big tree, just when Jiu'er was about to fall asleep, the grass moved, and then, the two of them walked out of the grass.

Xia Mengning's eyes narrowed, this person turned out to be Cai Wei, what was she doing here, and who was that man?

At this moment, she saw Cai Wei reach out and tie the button around her neck, and her little hand touched the man's chest, "Chen Lang, why don't we run away?" ”

This Chen Lang is the man who helped Cai Wei in Yihan Garden that day, and he is a nurse in the Prime Minister's Mansion.

The man was stunned for a moment, touched Cai Wei's face distressedly and said, "Cai Wei, I also want to take you away, but where can we go if we leave?" ”

Cai Wei lowered her head and bit her lip, suddenly raised her head and said, "Chen Lang, I'll go find Yinzi, will you wait for me?" ”

The two talked again, and then they reluctantly separated, and after the two left, Xia Mengning and Jiu'er walked out from behind the big tree, and Jiu'er said: "Miss, it seems that this Caiwei is stealing people behind the back of the eldest young master, should we go and tell the truth?" ”

Xia Mengning smiled, the night breeze blew her hair, and her jade-like face was a clear color, "If Xia Zhihan knows it so easily, wouldn't it be boring, let's take the opportunity to design it, so as to give Xia Zhihan a 'surprise'." ”

Saying that, Xia Mengning said, "Go back." ”

The next day, when Xia Mengning finished lunch, she rewarded the unused Eight Treasures Treasure Duck to Liushuang.

Liushuang is eating with everyone in the house, and the next people eat in the designated room, except for the personal girl next to the master, the rest of the girls eat together.

This rice is also a big pot of rice made by the kitchen, in addition to Jiu'er and Zhulian in Zhuzhiyuan, the rest have two girls who sprinkle and sweep and two girls who do sundries, and there are two errand boys, Zhulian and Jiu'er have to serve Xia Mengning to eat on weekdays, and when it comes to meals, only these six people eat together.

Today's meals are still one meat and one vegetable, but there are two plates each, and there are two large bowls of laver egg flower lean meat soup, and the staple food is rice or steamed buns.

When it was time to eat at noon, a few people walked to the house and sat down to eat, and Liushuang was serving herself a bowl of rice, when she saw that the curtain of the house was lifted, and Jiu'er walked in with a food box.

The people who eat here are all the descendants of Zhuzhiyuan, and Jiu'er is Xia Mengning's personal girl, so she is naturally more respected.

When everyone saw Jiu'er, they all hurriedly stood up and put down the dishes and chopsticks, Jiu'er smiled and said, "You don't have to be nervous, I'm just under the orders of the young lady, and I'm here to add food to everyone today." ”

Everyone's faces were full of joy, but Liushuang stood lightly at the other end of the table, although his face was happy, but the joy never reached the bottom of his eyes.

Jiu'er looked at it quietly, opened the food box and brought out a sauce stewed quail from it, the color on the quail was eye-catching, everyone swallowed saliva unconsciously, Jiu'er smiled, and brought a Sichuan sauce duck palm from the food box, and said: "The third lady said, everyone has been tired recently, so I paid out of my own pocket to let the kitchen make these dishes, everyone eat a little." ”

Everyone was very happy, after all, these dishes were not something they could afford, and each plate would cost a few taels of silver, but now that Jiu'er was still here, everyone didn't dare to make a mistake, just watched, and didn't take chopsticks.

Jiu'er smiled and said, "Miss appreciates Liushuang very much, saying that she is diligent and clever, so she specially rewarded Miss Liushuang with a duck with eight treasures." ”

As he spoke, he took a plate of duck out of the food box and handed it to Liushuang.

Several subordinates all looked at Liushuang, and Liushuang really had a smile now, and thanked Jiu'er with a thousand thanks, and took the dish in the envious eyes of everyone.

Jiu'er smiled: "I'm afraid that if I'm here, you won't be able to eat to your heart's content, so okay, I'll go first." ”

Everyone stood up again, sent Jiu'er with their eyes, and saw Jiu'er walk out of the house, so they sat down.

Liushuang sat at the back, happily eating the duck in front of her, and the rest of the people looked at her, all jealous and disdainful.

A girl in a green maid's suit said: "Oh, Sister Liushuang is silent on weekdays, this is really amazing, she quietly flattered Miss, and even rewarded a dish." ”

The girl who spoke was called Liuyan, and the other two girls were all in the Xiangfu with Liushuang, and this name was also given by the beautiful son of the mother-in-law, saying that it sounded unclichéd, like a name with connotation.

Liushuang didn't care about Liuyan's words, just ate by himself, Liuru and Liucui were honest people, and they didn't make a sound when they saw this, they just lowered their heads and ate the dishes in front of them, Liushuang finished eating a bowl of rice, sandwiched the two duck legs into Liuru and Liucui's bowls respectively, and said with a smile: "I can't eat it alone, you can eat it too." ”

Liuru and Liucui both thanked them, but Liuyan looked indignant, pulled the stewed quail into his bowl at once, and said, "You are blessed to eat duck legs, but we don't have this blessing." ”