The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 35
The housekeeper, Lai Da, was very kind. On the first day of the new year, he sent someone to set up the stove for boiling water. He also thoughtfully presented three hundred catties of chopped dry firewood, which were neatly stacked in a corner of the yard.

Obviously, the spillover effect of Jia Huan's winning the lottery last night began to show.In Jia's mansion, Jia's mother is a weathervane, and the people below act according to her preferences, and Lai Nature is no exception. Seeing that Jia Huan, a concubine, is favored by Jia's mother, Lai Da has no choice but to let go of the previous grievances and take the initiative to show goodwill to Jia Huan and repair their relationship.

It can be seen from this that Lai Da is really good at being a man, and he is also very tolerant. No wonder he can be a slave to that extent. There is no shortage of servants in luxury houses. He even donated a county magistrate to his son Lai Shangrong.

Of course, Jia Huan would not be fooled by Lai Da's overtures. He is familiar with "Dream of Red Mansions" and he knows what kind of person Lai Da is. The Lai brothers are essentially blood-sucking insects that live on Jia's house.

Closer to home, after the stove was built, Jia Huan could finally take a hot bath comfortably in the morning, but there was one thing that made Jia Huan a little disturbed, that is, the 100 taels of silver was not delivered until the third day of the Lunar New Year. It was 100 taels, which was equivalent to 10 yuan.Or are Mrs. Wang and Wang Xifeng obstructing it?
In the evening, when Jia Huan and Hong Ling were preparing to have dinner, a woman said outside, "Miss Yuanyang is here."

Jia Huan's heart was moved when he heard the words, and he quickly put down his chopsticks and stood up. Yuanyang is Jia Mu's personal daughter, equivalent to the secretary of the big leader, so naturally he can't be neglected, but Hongling has already greeted her first, and she led Yuanyang and Pinger in after a little leaning.

Jia Huan was startled for a moment, then smiled and said, "What wind brought the two sisters here together?"

Yuanyang is about fifteen or sixteen years old, with a bee waist and shoulders, a duck egg face, black hair, a tall and straight nose, and a few freckles on both cheeks. Although she is not as pretty and sweet as Pinger, she is also very handsome. She smiled and said: "Of course it is the wind blown by the God of Wealth. Hey, this is 100 taels of silver. Do you want to weigh it?"

Yuanyang said and handed over a heavy cloth bag, Jia Huan stretched out his hand to take it, handed it to Hongling without even checking it, and said with a smile: "No need, I can trust Sister Yuanyang."

There was a trace of strangeness in Yuanyang's eyes, and he said with a smile: "Third Master's words made the servant girl both happy and troubled. Let's test it in front of everyone. After all, it is not a small number. This way, everyone will be clear, and the servant girl will be able to report to the old lady when she goes back."

Jia Huan laughed and said: "Sister Yuanyang is really safe in her work, no wonder the old lady is so dependent, Hongling, let's have a test."

Hong Ling then opened the purse and took out ten ingots of silver from it, exactly one ingot of ten taels of snowflake silver, nodded and said, "That's right, it's 100 taels of silver."

Yuanyang smiled and said, "That's good, then my first mission is complete."

Hong Ling's heart moved, and she asked with a smile: "Could it be that you still have a second mission?"

Yuanyang smiled and said: "That's right, I not only gave money to Third Master Huan today, but also others to Third Master Huan. Third Master Huan got both money and money during the Chinese New Year. How can you thank me?" After speaking, she pulled Ping'er and pushed forward.

Ping'er's pretty face was flushed red, she slapped the mandarin duck and said: "You little hoof can't speak well, you have to make fun of him."

Hong Ling covered her small mouth and exclaimed in surprise: "No...wouldn't it be, the old lady asked Ping'er to serve the third master?"

Ping'er's sweet and pretty face turned even redder, as if on fire, she nodded coyly and said: "Ping'er is a foolish person, not as good at serving people as Hongling, please take care of me in the future, if there is something wrong with the servant girl, please forgive me, Rong Ping'er has a chance to correct."

Jia Huan couldn't help being surprised and delighted when he heard the words. In fact, when he saw Ping'er coming in with a burden on his back just now, he had a vague guess in his heart, but he didn't dare to think about it. After all, Ping'er was Wang Xifeng's dowry maid, and according to the rules, she was to be Jia Lian's concubine, but now she was actually sent to serve him.

When I first read "A Dream of Red Mansions", Jia Huan liked Qiao Pinger very much, not only because of her outstanding appearance, but also because she is kind, fair, clever and virtuous. This is indeed a sage!

Jia Huan just wanted to take revenge on Wang Xifeng, and he never dreamed that after the scandal between Jia Lian and Bao Erhan's wife broke out, Ping'er would become his maid. It was a surprise, and he smiled and said, "Sister Ping'er is serious, please take care of me in the future."

Yuanyang clapped her hands and said with a smile: "Okay, people and wealth have been delivered, I have to go back and report to the old lady."

Jia Huan hurriedly said, "Sister Yuanyang will leave after eating!"

"No, I won't hinder your master and servant from having a conversation together." After Yuanyang finished speaking, she went out of the house.

Jia Huan quickly asked Hong Ling to take five qian qian to give to Yuanyang as errand money, the latter said with a smile: "In the past, the servant girl would definitely not have accepted it, but this time since the third master Huan won the prize, and it's a Chinese New Year celebration, the maidservant should have the audacity to be lucky, thank the third master."

Yuanyang happily collected the money, and left with the two accompanying women who held the lamps.

As soon as the mandarin duck left, Ping'er suddenly felt uncomfortable, neither standing nor sitting with the burden on his back.Jia Huan smiled and said, "Sister Ping'er, don't be restrained. This will be your home from now on. Sister Hongling, you can take Sister Ping'er down first to settle down."

Hong Ling took the burden from Ping'er, and said with a smile, "Ping'er, come with me."

Ping'er's heart warmed, he saluted Jia Huanfu and followed Hongling down to resettle.

Hong Ling put Ping'er's bundle on her bedside and said: "I've wronged you to squeeze with me temporarily for a few days, and I'll be leaving the house in a few days, then you can tidy up and clean it yourself, and this will be your bed from now on, as well as those boxes and things for dressing up. If you don't mind, I'll keep them for you."

Hong Ling was also careful, seeing that Ping'er was only carrying a bundle, she probably had nothing but a few sets of change of clothes, after all, she had served Second Mistress Lian for a few years, and she didn't expect to end up in such a situation, it was pitiful!

Ping'er said gratefully: "We are all girls who serve others, what is there to dislike, thank you, by the way, it is a good day for that day?"

Hong Ling blushed slightly and said: "The eighth day, so I will be leaving the house on the sixth day."

Ping'er was surprised and said, "In such a hurry?"

Hong Ling said embarrassingly: "Over there, I asked someone to check the horoscope, saying that the eighth day of the lunar new year happens to be an auspicious day. If you miss it, you will have to wait until the end of the year to find a suitable day."

Ping'er suddenly said: "So that's how it is. Is the Second Grandma... on top?"

Hong Ling nodded and said: "I have informed Lian's second grandma and wife, and they agreed, and returned the original contract of sale, and sealed a congratulatory gift of ten taels of silver."

"Then congratulations to sister Hongling." Ping'er felt a little envious. At least Hongling had family members to redeem her body and arrange a marriage for her. As for herself, she had no father, mother, brothers or sisters, and she was a lonely soul with no one to rely on after leaving Jia's mansion.

Hong Ling took a look at Ping'er, took her hand and sat down on the edge of the bed and said softly: "Ping'er, we don't usually play together, and there are some things that shouldn't be said, but I'm going to go out in a few days, but I have a few words of my own to tell you, so that I can get out of my mouth and into your ears."

"Say it!" Ping'er said solemnly.

Hong Ling nodded: "Since you have decided to leave there, don't think too much about it. Staying here with peace of mind and serving our master well is better than anything else. In the past, our master was really difficult to serve, but now it is very easy, and he can basically take care of himself, except that he can't comb his hair."

Ping'er was surprised and said: "Then take a bath, wake up at night... don't you need these?"

Hong Ling nodded and said: "These things are all solved by the third master himself, and he sleeps very peacefully at night, basically sleeping until dawn, so I don't have to worry about it at all."

"Oh, that's really easy." Ping'er said with a light breath.

Hong Ling smiled wryly and said: "It's just too easy, and sometimes I feel that I don't have anything to do. I hope that the third master can be lazy."

Ping'er couldn't help laughing and said: "It seems that you are not very happy to leave the mansion."

Hong Ling's face was slightly hot, and she said sadly: "As the saying goes, if you build a long shed for thousands of miles, who can keep it for a lifetime, I'm done this year, even if I don't leave the mansion, in two years, I will just be assigned to a servant in the mansion as my wife."

Ping'er was silent when she heard the words, this is the fate of these girls, to dedicate the best part of their youth to their master, if the fate is good, turn over and become a concubine;

Seeing that Ping'er was depressed, Hong Ling went to her ear and whispered a few words with a smile. The latter blushed on the spot and said angrily, "What nonsense are you talking about? I dare you to be a bad hoof."

Hong Ling covered her mouth and said with a smile: "Don't be annoyed, I was just joking, let's go, let's go eat."

…………

On the other side, Jia Lian was so angry that he didn't even eat dinner. He glared at Wang Xifeng and asked, "Why do you want to give Ping'er to Huan Laosan?"

Wang Xifeng frowned and said: "This is the idea of ​​sister-in-law Zhu, the wife and the old lady have agreed, what can I do?"

Jia Lian said angrily: "Where is your usual eloquence? How come you can't do it in this matter? You just want to send Ping'er away so that I can't touch it."

Wang Xifeng raised her eyebrows and said, "What are you talking about? I went to invite Ping'er in person that day, and he refused to come back. Since you are so rare about Ping'er, why didn't you ask about it these days? Now you are blaming me. What's the reason? If you have the ability, you can go and invite Ping'er back now, and even give her the place I was originally assigned to. I will serve you with tea and water in the future!"

Jia Lian was so swallowed up that he couldn't speak. In terms of bickering, how could he be Wang Xifeng's opponent, so he had no choice but to slam the door and leave angrily.

(End of this chapter)