After the Winter Clothes Festival, the weather in Yanjing became colder day by day.

It was a gloomy day, and in the afternoon it began to rain again.

The courtyard is covered with green bricks, and there are a few shallow puddles. The vines under the canopy are yellow and littered. On the side, there is a four-season begonia, regardless of the wind and rain, it is still full of verdant greenery, and after being washed by rain, the branches and leaves are more and more oily and green.

The courtyard faces south is a bright and two dark three rooms, with white walls and blue tiles, and is very exquisitely built. There is a small transept on each side of the east and west sides of the room, and there is a winding verandah outside the transept, until under the wall in the southeast corner, there is a moon cave door.

Under the dripping eaves outside the door of the moon cave, there is a small plaque hanging, the penmanship of the hairpin flower is small, and the book "Chuntang Ju" is three words.

Someone held an oil-paper umbrella, came in from outside the moon cave door, stood on the door and collected the umbrella, turned right and came along the verandah.

Juxiang was already waiting outside the door, and when she saw the person who came, she couldn't help laughing and said: "It doesn't matter which little maid is sent to send it, why did Aunt Zhu send it in person?" It's windy and rainy, and it's cold. ”

"It's just that there's nothing going on in the small kitchen at this time, I want to come out for a walk," Zhu smiled and shook off the rain on the oil-paper umbrella in his hand, "Miss Biao is feeling better today?" ”

"Well, it's better than yesterday," Juxiang steadily took the Zhu lacquer painting food box handed over by Zhu, "It's just a trouble in the small kitchen, Miss Biao is sick these days, and there is always no time for the meal." ”

"What did the girl say," Zhu smiled and waved her hand, "The eldest lady ordered early in the morning, Miss Biao's food in her illness does not have to follow the rules of the time, she must eat it at any time, and she will bring it at any time." We don't think it's troublesome, we just hope that Miss Biao's body will be safe as soon as possible. ”

Juxiang said: "Aunt Lao is worried, it was Miss Cousin who got up from a nap and said that she was a little hungry and wanted to eat shrimp wontons, so she sent someone to pass the rice, so it can be seen that this disease is not about to get better?" ”

"That's good, that's good," Zhu couldn't help nodding, "I heard that the shrimp wonton was asked for by my cousin herself, and I deliberately stared at the cook to do it carefully, and the shrimp is also the fresh and jumping river shrimp I bought this morning, and it is clean." ”

"The eldest lady has always been the most proper in managing the affairs of the small kitchen," Juxiang said this with a smile, and suddenly there were two coughs from the curtain behind her, but she ignored it, as if she didn't hear it, and still said to Zhu, "Miss Biao also told the eldest lady yesterday that the food in the small kitchen is well done, which suits her appetite." ”

"Don't you dare to be the praise of the lady and the girl, aren't we in charge just to serve the master well?" Zhu smiled heartily when he heard this, and the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes were full of joy.

Juxiang nodded, and was about to answer again, when two more coughs came from the curtain behind him.

Juxiang couldn't help but shrug her shoulders and smile.

Zhu Shi only came to his senses at this time, and said with a busy smile: "Look at my memory, the second lady also sent someone to tell me before lunch, I want a ginseng and black chicken soup in the afternoon, and I should go back and let people prepare it - the girl go in and wait for Miss Biao to eat, the shrimp wonton has been soaked in the soup for a long time, but it is not new." ”

"Hey, auntie, go slowly." Juxiang turned around as she spoke, and the little maid Ying'er opened the curtain.

Before the words fell, Zhu saw that Juxiang had already entered with a food box.

*

In the hall, Yuxiang looked at Juxiang impatiently.

"Miss Cousin is still hungry, you have the heart to talk to that Mrs. Zhu outside, she is used to catching tricks and selling well, what do you care about her?"

Juxiang pursed her lips and said with a smile: "How could I not know that she personally delivered the food, but just to please Miss Biao?" It's just that I'm just in a panic and making fun of her. ”

Yuzu snorted with a straight face.

Juxiang said again: "Now Miss Biao's body is not very good, and Mrs. Zhu is in charge of the small kitchen, and she always has to cause her some trouble, so it doesn't hurt to say a few nice words to her." ”

"What's the trouble?" Yuxiang disagreed, "There is a big lady who spoke, even if she borrowed a few guts, she didn't dare to neglect Miss Biao's meal." ”

The two maids spoke, coming to the inner room.

The big kang near the window in the middle is spread with an inch-thick woven wool blanket, and in the middle is a small kang table with four corners of Nanmu carved flowers, and a small stone narcissus is placed on the table, and there are towels, incense pendants and other things on the side.

The house is burning the ground dragon, the house is full of warmth like spring, the narcissus is holding the flower buds, after the warmth of the baking, the quiet fragrance is overflowing.

Lu Jiayue hugged a begonia red fine brocade silk quilt, leaned on a plain satin pillow and curled up on the kang, and was slowly drinking a glass of warm white water.

Because he was sick, he took medicine every day, and the doctor instructed him not to drink tea, for fear of brewing the medicine.

"Miss, here comes the meal." The big girl on her side, Xin Zhu, took the food box from Juxiang's hand.

Lu Jiayue nodded slightly.

Juxiang and Yuxiang immediately quickly put away the things on the kang table, and Xin Zhu laid out the meals in the food box one by one.

Stir-fried shredded chicken with mushrooms and cabbage, small cucumber with oil and vinegar, steamed eggs with glutinous rice flour, roasted fish balls with sour bamboo shoots and ham, a large bowl of red dates and millet porridge, a plate of browned scallion shortbread, and a bowl of hot shrimp wontons.

The dishes are bright and fragrant, which arouses some appetite.

Xin Zhu was slightly puzzled: "Is there still a cucumber at this time?" ”

"It's simmered in the fire cave, and the farmers in the West Mountains outside the city are serving this," Yuxiang said with a smile, "This cucumber is not worth anything in the summer, if it is cold today, the small cucumber that grows three inches can be sold for one or two silver a catty, and it is not easy to buy it with silver, and everyone outside laughs that this cucumber should be called golden gourd now." ”

When Xin Zhu heard this, he secretly smacked his tongue, not because of the high price of this cucumber, but because he admired the craftsmanship of those farmers outside Yanjing City.

Lu Jiayue only looked at the bowl of shrimp wontons, silently distracted.

Listening to the maids around her, she has been sick for several days.

At first, it was just a fever, and the whole person burned dizzily, and the water and rice did not enter, so he relied on decoction to continue his life. It wasn't until three days ago that the fever suddenly subsided, and the person gradually woke up.

The people of the Qu family gossip, some say that the eldest lady prays to God and Buddha every day, eats vegetarian food, and sincerely asks God to have mercy on her. Some say that it is the medical skills of Doctor Cheng of the Tai Hospital, who rejuvenated her and cured her illness.

But only she knows that there is any mercy from God, and she can wake up so quickly just because she has returned to her previous life.

In her previous life, it was this season, at the age of thirteen, she first arrived at the Qu family.

Father Lu Mian was promoted and served as the political envoy of Yunguibu, saying that Yungui is a remote place with miasma, she is young and frail, and she is afraid of disasters, so it is not appropriate to take her around. So before she went to work, she was left in the Qu family and taken care of by her aunt.

Aunt Meng is her mother's eldest sister, but also the eldest lady of the Qu family, gentle and virtuous, since she came to Meng's side, Meng really treated her like her own daughter, considerate care, meticulous.

But she has never left her father since she lost her mother at the age of six.

The night her father left Beijing, she curled up in the bed and cried all night.

Because of this, he has a reputation for being cowardly and cowardly, and crying willfully.

Xu was because she missed her father too much, and because she had just arrived in Yanjing, she was not accustomed to the water and soil, and within a few days, she fell ill and lingered on the sick bed for more than a month.

Later, she lived in Qu's house for three years, during which her father returned to Yanjing once to report to the saint. In the third year, news came from the DPRK that his father was about to be promoted and returned to Beijing to serve in the Sixth Ministry.

So she looked forward to reuniting with her father day and night. But who knew that the Son of Heaven died suddenly, Yanjing was in turmoil, and after a catastrophe, as soon as the new emperor Fu ascended the throne, he actually cured the Qu family for the great crime of rebellion, except for the Qu family's second room survived, it can be said that the whole family was punished.

His father, Lu Mian, was dismissed from his official position by the imperial court on charges of corruption and dereliction of duty, and was escorted back to Beijing to be tried by the Criminal Department, but a few days later, he died in the prison of the Criminal Department for no reason.

Everything came too quickly, too suddenly, like a thunderclap on the ground.

She didn't even have time to collect her father's corpse, so she was convicted of being the daughter of a criminal minister and punished to the priest of the church.