Ordinary clear day

Chapter 3 East Wing
Liu Xixi sighed in her heart, it seems that this family is quite complicated.The mother who appeared just now, she squinted her eyes and took a sneak peek. She was a young woman in her twenties.The father, who has not met yet, seems to be an ancient civil servant working in a yamen or something, ranking third among the brothers.This is an awkward ranking, usually the eldest and youngest receive more attention.The parents have a son and a daughter, and the little brother is four or five years older than himself, and he seems to treat his sister well.There were quite a few servants in the family, and all she saw were two maids and a wet nurse shared by the two siblings.There is also the concubine in the "East Chamber".

Ermo was dazed for a while, but when she woke up, it was already late.There was a burst of rice smell outside.She got up quickly, checked on Little Niuniu, and seeing that there was nothing wrong, she went to help in the kitchen.

Liu Xixi fell asleep in a daze, and when she woke up, it was already dark, and there were sounds of people walking back and forth outside the door, as well as the sound of cups and bowls colliding.After a while, Ermo came in with a bowl of rice porridge to feed the little girl.Liu Xixi was already hungry, so she ate more than half of the bowl. Ermo was very happy to see it, and gave her another sip of water. After collecting the bowls and chopsticks, she picked her up again and went out of the room.

Liu Xixi only felt that the surroundings were dim and dim, as if walking through a corridor, suddenly a bright light appeared in front of her, and then she entered a door, and a maid came in front of her, it was Xiaomei whom she had seen during the day.

Seeing that it was Ermo, Xiaomei asked, "Why are you here?" Ermo said, "Just now, little Niuniu ate half a bowl of rice porridge. It can be seen that it is good, so I brought it here to show the third grandma." The inner room listened, and said with a smile: "It's a coincidence, Brother Duan was clamoring to see his sister just now, so you hugged her here." The boy on the bed was even more happy. Although he was still sick, he hugged Ermo The younger sister stretched out her hand and called "sister, sister".Tong Shi then ordered Ermo to carry the child and put it beside the bed, and asked him to watch Xiao Niuniu carefully.

Brother Duan held his sister's little hand with his own little hand, shaking her to coax her.Liu Xixi only thought that this child was very ugly, although his face was pale and there were a few scars on his face, he was still very cute, so he couldn't help laughing.Brother Duan was even happier, he only held his sister's hand and shook it non-stop.

Mrs. Tong persuaded him: "I've only been awake for two hours, and I took medicine just now. Why don't you go to sleep so that the medicine can dissipate." My sister is here to accompany you, you two will sleep together, okay?" Brother Duan finally agreed.Ermo felt that something was wrong, so she persuaded Tong Shi, "It will be bad if you get sick. After all, Niu Niu is young, and it will be troublesome if she gets sick again." Tong felt sorry for her son, and only said that her son had recovered from the illness. It's okay, so Ermo had no choice but to give up.

Because Brother Duan insisted on watching his sister fall asleep before he fell asleep, but he was obviously sleepy, but he still held on. Liu Xixi couldn't bear it, so she closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep, so he fell asleep.Sitting on the edge of the bed, Tong Shi felt very satisfied looking at the pair of children.Turned off most of the lights in the house, leaving only one candle, and sent everyone out, sitting on the recliner outside by myself, closing my eyes and meditating.

Without realizing it, Liu Xixi also fell asleep.After an unknown amount of time, she heard low sobbing sounds from outside, and a male voice softly persuading her.She came to her senses, and without opening her eyes, she quietly listened to the people outside.

Outside, Zhang Bao, the male owner of the family, is comforting his wife Tong.Just now the husband and wife had a disagreement about how to deal with the concubine, and the wife cried because she couldn't handle him, which made him at a loss what to do.

Tong sobbed and said: "I know what you are thinking in your heart. You must be thinking that this time it was just an accident. It wasn't her doing it. I took the opportunity to deal with her. I think that's what she told you. But you don't want to I thought, Brother Duan and Xiao Niuniu are both my own, a piece of my body. When they encountered such a thing, I was frightened out of my wits, so I didn’t have the time to look for her for no reason. Besides, she would I was not the only one who saw this, but Ermo also saw it with her own eyes. She is an old man in the mansion, don’t you believe her? At that time, there were two Ashan and Ahai from Ha’s family, and they were nearby , because she heard Ermo yelling, she ran to the water to save people. You also go and ask them, was she the only one who was by the water at that time?"

Hearing what she said, Zhang Bao also hesitated.He had always doted on that concubine, and she had always been kind, courteous, gentle and considerate in front of him. He didn't quite believe it when he heard his wife mention it, but then he heard his concubine cry, saying that the child just stumbled and fell, She had intended to pull the child up with a branch, but was treated as a villain by the court, and she was very wronged.He just felt that his wife was making trouble, so he was a little impatient.But now, according to my wife, someone else saw it at the time, not to mention that the nanny is a trustworthy person who has served in the family for generations in Beijing. He only met the two boys, Ashan and Ahai, once or twice. There is no contact with the family.If they all come out to testify, it can be seen that the matter is eighty-nine percent true.Could it be that the concubine really cheated him with ill intentions?

Seeing that he hesitated, Tong suppressed the sourness in her heart, and continued: "I know you always thought that I deliberately suppressed her to embarrass her, so you didn't believe me, but because I was born with Brother Duan, I suffered from a serious illness when I was a child. It has been bad all the time. After giving birth to Xiaoniu Niu, she was bedridden for half a year. No one was waiting for you, and I was not happy, because she was waiting by your side since she was a child. , I made the decision to open her face for her, thinking that you have someone to serve, and I have many arms. In the past two years, I have never treated her badly, and the food and clothing are the same as mine. If I were that Rong Shameless, how could you let her serve you? I know that it is common for other women to torture concubines, but don’t you know if I am such a person?” After saying that, she lowered her head and wiped her tears.

Zhang Bao thought of the love between husband and wife when they were newly married, and how he had neglected her in recent years, so he felt ashamed, so he handed her a handkerchief to help her wipe her face.

Tong cried for a while, and then continued: "I meant it well, but I don't know that she is not a stable person. Although she looks virtuous in front of you, she always makes trouble behind her back. She often asks for this and that, and the family is very angry." Not so rich, how much money can you get as a small head in the yamen? It's just relying on family support. Because she is the proud person in front of you, I don't want to wrong her and make you look bad , I don’t make new clothes myself, I spend the money to buy clothes for her first, but she still thinks the material is not expensive enough. I don’t care about it either.”

Sure enough, Zhang Bao saw that his wife was wearing old clothes brought from Beijing a few years ago, and remembering that his concubine often had new clothes to wear, he felt that she was ignorant.

Tong continued: "Last time, she said that two relatives wanted to work as errands at home. You were annoyed when I didn't answer. But you didn't see those two people. They are both strong laborers in their twenties. Where can you find them?" When it comes time to do things, do you want her to be recruited by a woman's family without avoiding suspicion? Besides, I think they are all good-looking, and they are prone to accidents. She has been in our family since she was a child, and she has never heard of any relatives, so I don't agree I was careful not to cause trouble, but you just believed her." After saying that, she wiped away her tears.

Zhang Bao didn't know the reason for this, but the concubine said that there were two poor relatives who were old and pitiful, and wanted to help them and find an errand for them.He has always had a bodhisattva heart, and is well-known among his friends as a good old man, so he doesn't like his wife's lack of pity for the poor and the weak.If what the wife said is true, the origins of the two men are somewhat suspicious.What's more, when my concubine was in Beijing, she liked to joke with the servants at home.Once he became suspicious, he felt that the color of the hat on his head was not good-looking.

Tong said a lot of things before her husband's heart was shaken, and he quickly continued: "Since that day, she has been complaining in front of me all day long. You don't know how bad her words are when you are not at home. She also said that I I'm a sick child, I can't serve you, you just let me stay at home for the sake of your children, if you don't have a child, you will retire me early and help her grow up." After speaking, I was sobbing.

Zhang Bao was really furious when he heard this: "This is too much. You are the first wife of my Mingmei, and you are sick because you are tired of spreading branches and leaves for me. No matter how bad you are, I will not lift her up as a girl." She said This is just ignorance.”

Tong's anger added: "She has always been your heart, what else can I say? I just want to raise the two children well. Who knows that she is so vicious, and she kills the two children! She usually I never paid attention to Brother Duan and Xiao Niuniu, but I suddenly wanted to take them to play that day, I was worried, and Ermo and I followed behind quietly, but she actually pushed the children into the water and beat them with a long branch, Brother Duan was not allowed to come ashore. I saw that my feet were weak. Fortunately, Ermo was alert and called someone to save the child. I usually see you, I can bear what she wants to do to me, but this time she If you want to harm my flesh and blood, how can you tell me to let her go?"

Zhang Bao already believed it, he just felt that the tenderness of his concubine in the past was fake, but he was so vicious behind his back, that he couldn't even keep women's morals well.At this time, the son in the inner room just muttered a few words in his sleep. He walked into the inner room and looked at the pair of lovely children. Thinking that he almost lost them, he couldn't help feeling a little bit afraid.

He walked back to his wife, calmed her tears with gentle words, and said, "It's because I didn't notice on weekdays that you were wronged so much. I'm sorry for you. That woman almost killed our child, indeed I can't stay anymore. You can find someone to take her to the yamen, I will go and say hello, and I will not spare her."

Only then did Tong secretly heave a sigh of relief. Remembering that her husband had always loved that little bitch in the past, even though he agreed to get rid of her now, if he regretted it later, he would blame himself, so he said: "You really think so. In fact, I also Knowing that you love her dearly, after crying this time, I don't feel so uncomfortable, and nothing really happened to the child. If you really don't want her, just keep her at home, just don't let her out of the room, so that she can reflect on herself. As long as she is sincerely repentant, let her serve you."

Zhang Bao was displeased: "Could it be that I can't live without her? What a joke! Of course she will be punished for doing something wrong. Besides, both children were seriously ill, so how can it be said that nothing really happened. I have the final say on this matter, you Don't talk too much!" After saying that, he really went out and asked someone to follow him to the East Chamber.

Liu Xixi could only hear a woman crying outside, and several men sternly yelling at her to stop her, and then her father spoke angrily, saying that she was unruly and vicious, and wanted him to kill off his children and grandchildren. Can't be lighthearted.Then someone gagged her and sent her to the yamen in person.

The voice gradually faded away, and from the corner of Liu Xixi's eyes, she saw Mrs. Tong walking gently to the window, looking outside without saying a word, and gradually felt a coldness invade her body.

(End of this chapter)