Leading them was a lady Xu.

Ah Fu didn't know if she had ever been married, it didn't look like she had been married, but she was called Mrs. - later Ah Fu learned that Mrs. was just a title for female officials in the palace, in fact, Mrs. Xu's surname was Xu, and she did not marry.

The place where they stayed, I don't know if it could be considered the palace, was on the northwest edge of the palace. This piece also belongs to the imperial city, but this piece of old house is inhabited by little girls like them who have just been recruited.

They still live in Tongpu, a total of more than a dozen of them live in one room, Ah Fu suddenly thought, those girls who were concentrated in another place because of their good embroidery work, the number of them is much more than their side, do they all live together?

When they arrived at the new place, the little girls were afraid, and they did not make a sound when they ate, and they ate quickly. When it gets dark, I don't dare to go alone when I go to relieve my hands, but I want to call my companions together. Ah Fu looked left and right, and the girls in this room were all younger than her.

Ah Fu is fourteen and a half years old, and he is fifteen years old, but the name on the book should be Ah Xi, and Ah Xi is thirteen, and he is fifteen years old.

Looking at the other girls in the room, almost all of them were around ten years old, and Ah Fu was several years older than others, so he didn't show it at all.

"Well, what's your name?"

In the morning, the girl who asked if the crops were crops. He had an expression of wanting to talk to someone, but he was a little cautious and afraid.

"My surname is Zhu, well, my family calls me Ah Fu."

"My name is Jiang Xing." She sat down next to Ah Fu: "When my mother was pregnant with me, she suddenly wanted to eat apricots, and after eating two, she gave birth to me, so I was called Xing'er." ”

Ah Fu wants to laugh, this girl can really say whatever she wants. There were so many little girls together in the morning, and she was the only one who dared to ask out loud.

"I don't know where those older sisters live than us, but we also have a sister osmanthus in the same village, who is three years older than me. When I came out, my mother was still crying and saying that she should take care of me more, but who wants to be in the same place at all. ”

She raised her face: "I heard that when you are on an errand in the palace, you can eat well and dress well...... However, will it be beaten? ”

Ah Fu smiled bitterly.

No one can say this well.

Ah Fu remembered that although she was a servant girl for her master, she really never received a finger of beating. The master treats people coldly, but he has never beaten or scolded anyone. There was an old man on the hill who was guarding the door, behind his ears. There are also two old mothers, a total of that simple, and then the two old mothers almost burned the house, and were driven away by the master, and replaced by a sister-in-law Han who didn't speak all day, but she had a lot of strength, chopping wood, burning fire, and washing clothes, and Ah Fu did some work in the house.

"Go to bed early, you heard it, you have to wake up early tomorrow."

The weather is the season when it is warm and cold, and the morning is the coldest time, and I get up and my hands and feet are cold. The dress was thin, but no one dared to ask if they could wear another jacket. The big wooden basin was soaked in a rag, they pulled up their skirts to work, and wiped the inside and outside of the house transparent and bright, Jiang Xing'er probably felt that there was only one acquaintance like Ah Fu, and the two of them next to her wiped the floor together, and later wiped the pillars. A hungry rumbling in my stomach. Finally finished, each person has a bowl of thin porridge and two steamed buns, the steamed buns are cold and hard, Ah Fu broke the steamed buns and soaked them in a porridge bowl to eat, which can be warmer and softer. The ginger apricots next to him are like this, and they are also soaked and eaten.

After eating, they began to recite the palace rules, and the people above read a sentence, and they followed the recitation, and the palace rules were actually not long. But it's very awkward, Ah Fu tries hard to remember. They went out through the courtyard together and pulled weeds in a small garden.

No one stared at them when pulling weeds, everyone faced the loess with their backs to the sky, and their hands and feet were quite nimble.

When Jiang Xing's hand was about to pick up a clump of thin leaves, Ah Fu hurriedly stopped her.

"What's wrong?"

"It's bluegrass."

"Bluegrass is not grass?"

Ah Fu thought, Jiang Xing had probably never made flowers and plants before.

"It's called an orchid."

"Oh." Jiang Xing'er said far away: "I haven't seen such a leaf before." Do you grow flowers? ”

Ah Fu thought, my family doesn't grow it, but to explain it, I have to say a lot of things.

So she mumbled.

The sun is shining warmly here, and some flowers have already grown buds, Ah Fu thought, if you just deal with flowers and plants like this, when you are ten or twenty years old, it is not bad to go out again.

But just as she was thinking this, a shrill scream suddenly rang out.

Everyone was startled, Jiang Xing'er was squatting there and turning over the soil, and sat in the mud with a frightened buttocks.

In fact, the voice should be far away, but it was too miserable, Ah Fu felt that the sound was like a knife, straight through the ears and eyes, and there was no place on his body that was not uncomfortable.

The hairs on Ah Fu's whole body stood up, Jiang Xing'er hugged her shoulders and trembled, and the people next to her were all frightened.

It's not that he hadn't heard the shouting and screaming before, but, Ah Fu thought, hearing that the woman next door gave birth to a child and stepped into the ghost gate, the scream was not so miserable.

Mrs. Xu walked over with another woman, who was wearing a crow-blue palace dress, combing her hair, applying powder to her face, and painting her eyebrows, and she was even more serious than Mrs. Xu. She didn't say anything, just glanced at the little girls, and hurried away again. Mrs. Xu gathered Ah Fu and the others together, and the weeds were pulled, and they returned to the small courtyard.

No one said it was forbidden, but no one did mention it.

The second meal of the day is steamed rice mixed with beans and pickled vegetables. Ah Fu couldn't eat a little, although he was very tired and hungry.

The palms of the pulled grass hurt hotly.

Ah Fu wanted to talk, but he didn't know who to talk to.

Moreover, no one else says it.

Ah Fu had a nightmare, and the scenes in the dream couldn't remember clearly, one after another, so that she couldn't sleep well, and suddenly heard a loud cry, and Ah Fu woke up suddenly.

It's not a dream sound, it's someone crying.

The girl who slept inside her sat next to the pillow and covered her face. The moonlight shone in through the window, and the room was not too dark.

"What's wrong with you?" As soon as he woke up, Ah Fu's voice was a little hoarse.

She was startled, wiping her face and vaguely explaining something.

Ah Fu didn't hear what she said, but he understood what she meant.

She was wetting the bed and didn't know what to do.

Ah Fu thought about it and asked her to take down the mattress, take the mattress outside the house to dry, and wash the mattress.

The child was about 10 years old, and Ah Fu helped her find a basin from the back of the house, scooped the water in the jar and washed it together, trying not to make too much noise, wring out the water, and then drying it. The rope was still hung with the rags they used during the day.

"I, I didn't ...... before" She wanted to explain, but Ah Fu only said: "Go to sleep, you and I will build a quilt, and we have to get up early tomorrow." ”

"My name is Hong Shuxiu." She said.

Ah Fu also said her name, she blushed and said, "Sister Ah Fu, you ...... Don't tell anyone. ”

"Hmm."

Maybe it's scared during the day, or maybe you're not used to it in a new place, or maybe the pickles at dinner dry up your mouth and you drink plenty of water.

Ah Fu remembered that the moon was reflected in the wooden basin that day, broken and silvery.

After two days, Mrs. Xu began to ask them to recite the palace rules, and if they couldn't recite them, they would be beaten, and they didn't have dinner yet.

Ah Fu carried it out, but Jiang Xing'er and Hong Shuxiu were both beaten.

Ah Fu thought, this is because after all, he is a few years older, he can understand what the palace rules mean, and he has also written and read books when he was with the master, so it is not difficult to memorize it. But for Mei Xing'er and Hong Shuxiu, it is probably much more difficult.

In addition to Ah Fu, there was another girl who all came out, and only the two of them sat there at night and ate.

I don't know why, but the meal was a little richer, with beans and millet mixed in the rice, stewed radish, and a bowl of soup.

The girl looked up and smiled at her, and whispered, "Your name is Ah Fu, isn't it?" I hear people call you that. My name is Hui Zhen, Chen Hui Zhen. ”

She has very fair skin, watery eyes, and although her appearance is not particularly beautiful, she is very quiet, especially when she laughs.

She said: "My family has been planting flowers and raising flowers, and my father and mother originally thought that I entered the palace to serve the nobles, but I didn't think that I would still serve the flowers and plants." By the way, what do you do at home? ”

Ah Fu swallowed a mouthful of rice: "Sell pickles." ”

"Ah, then you didn't go with the cook?"

Actually, pickles...... Ah Fu really doesn't like it.

Because I always eat pickles for a long time, it is still the worst pickled, the kind that is not easy to sell.

Salty and bitter.

After a little and a half months, something happened.

Several girls were infected with lice on their heads, and they couldn't tell who passed them on to whom, and after Mrs. Xu found out, her face was very ugly. That night, they had their hair cut and wash their hair with a bitter and smelly concoction.

A girl surnamed Hu suddenly screamed loudly when the old palace man raised the scissors, pushed the person away and ran out.

The house was in chaos all of a sudden, and in the panic, I didn't know where it was, and the back of Ah Fu's hand was broken. The ground was uncleaned, trampled and the hair was cut in a mess.

Some chased them out, others stayed in the house, looking at each other.

In the end, the girl didn't come back. Don't know where she went, probably sent home? Or, send it somewhere else?

The hair of the others was cut, Ah Fu's hair was cut to the lower edge of the ear, and Chen Huizhen held the silk rope that tied her hair and wept silently there.

Ah Fu only comforted her: "It will be longer." ”

Ah Fu is not so fond of beauty. Although I have heard at home that some people cut their hair short or shaved in order to cure lice and head leprosy, I didn't expect it to fall on me.

"I obviously didn't get dyed ......" She is still aggrieved, she cherishes her appearance, and her hair is usually combed very neatly.

"Hey, you say, that Hu family girl, where did she go?"

Ah Fu shook his head.

Such monotonous days passed day by day, and the weather gradually became hotter. In addition to Mrs. Xu, who was in charge of discipline, they also met a Mrs. Lin, who taught them to dress, comb their hair, salute, and walk...... Teach many things.

It is the right of nobles to walk with their heads held high and stride in the palace, and they must walk with their eyes drooping, not looking around, their steps should be light, and their skirts should not be raised......

They also went to other places to clean and pull weeds in other gardens. The nobles have never seen them, only the palace people who are older than them, and the eunuchs.

Chen Huizhen wondered, and lay down at night and said, "Why haven't you seen a nobleman?" ”

Hong Shuxiu whispered: "Nobleman...... What does it look like? ”

For fear of going wrong again, she didn't dare to drink water at night, no matter how thirsty she was.

Jiang Xing'er also interjected: "Noble, you must be good-looking." There is a Wang Shan's family in the east of our village, and the daughter-in-law she married is handsome and well-dressed. ”

Chen Huizhen smiled, with a little disapproval: "The daughter-in-law of the village, where can you go?"

Ah Fu listened very carefully.

The life in front of me is quite stable. But this stability can be lost at any time.

————

The life in front of me is relatively flat. Well.....