concubines are respected

Chapter 31 Secret
That night, the eldest lady slept extremely unsteadily, for some reason, she always felt ominous about Mr. Zhou's upcoming visit.

At that time, small footsteps sounded in Yulan Garden. The maids and women who got up early were busy with their work. Mama Hu's slight footsteps came from outside the door. The lady no longer had the mood to sleep, and she called out in a deep voice, "Mama Hu , come in and talk."

"The eldest lady is awake, it's still early, you can rest for a while." Hu's mother gently pushed open the door and said in a low voice.

"No need, Mama Hu, come and talk with me." The eldest lady's long hair was casually scattered on her shoulders, she was leaning on the couch in a white obscene dress, her face was full of depression.

Seeing that the lady's complexion was different, Mother Hu thought that the master must have something on her mind, and immediately came to the bed, and raised her hand to straighten the soft pillow behind the lady's back, so that she could lean on it more comfortably, while slowing down her voice He said, "Madam has something on her mind, why don't you tell this old slave, maybe it can relieve your worries."

"Yesterday in the old lady's room, you also heard the news that Mr. Zhou will come to visit today. Can you tell me what he will come to the house to talk about?" Last night, the lady did not rest well, her eyelids were slightly swollen, and her expression was serious. Said to Hu's mother.

"Here. Didn't Mother Yue say that Mr. Zhou came here to return the old master's copywriting?" Mother Hu didn't understand why the eldest lady could not sleep all night because of this matter.

"Here is the problem. If the document is related to the yamen, Mr. Zhou can handle it by himself. There is no reason to come to the mansion to meet the old lady. According to Yue's mother yesterday, the document seems to be related to the mansion. I thought about it last night. After one night, could it be that the thing that happened back then was not clean enough?" The lady's eyes were full of uneasiness, although she was in her own room, her voice was lowered a lot.

"What happened back then." Hu's mother thought carefully, and suddenly seemed to remember something, and said with a slightly flustered expression, "Impossible, Master Li and this old slave are from the same town, and he also received a lot of benefits back then. Won't you work hard for you?"

"But don't forget, Mr. Li has been doing errands with the master for more than ten years. If we hadn't seized him to embezzle public funds to support Yao Jie, he would not have done things for us." The eldest lady looked very serious. , the more I thought about it, the more I felt something was wrong, "Besides, even though he retired from his hometown last year, you went back to visit relatives in your hometown, didn't you say that you didn't see him in your hometown? Go elsewhere!"

"No way." Although Mother Hu said so, her tone was full of uncertainty.

"No, this matter is inappropriate, you can go to the yamen later and find a way to find out what Master Zhou said." The eldest lady couldn't sit still any longer, lifted the brocade quilt, rolled over and got ready to change clothes.

"Hey, I'll go and have a look after I wait for you to wash up." Mama Hu took off the light orange gown hanging by the bed and shook, and was about to put it on for the eldest lady.

"Oh, let Xilian do these things, you go and come back quickly." The eldest lady snatched the gown from Mama Hu impatiently, and said anxiously, "If you can prevent Master Zhou from coming, you can personally It is even better to get back the file, in short, everything is adaptable!"

Seeing that the eldest lady was in such a hurry, Mother Hu didn't dare to delay any longer, and hurriedly walked out of the room in response.

雀苑

On the writing table by the window, Suxian unfolded the rice paper in front of her, and was about to copy the scriptures for the old lady, but she didn't care to write with the Langhao pen soaked in ink, and looked through the window lattice into the courtyard in a daze with her nimble eyes.

"Second Miss, what are you in a daze for?" Cui Ya called suddenly from her side.

Suxian was startled, her arms trembled slightly, the ink from the Langhao pen dripped onto the white rice paper, and the bean-sized black stains quickly spread, "Hey, you scared me so much!" Suxian stared at Cui with a slight resentment. With a glance, he casually put the Langhao brush on the mountain-shaped celadon pen holder, picked up the ink-stained rice paper and said regretfully, "It's a pity that the good rice paper, this is the good rice paper that grandma brought back from the capital. It’s Jin Gui’s book, and it’s completely ruined by your bluffing.”

"Hehe, I know I'm wrong." Cui Ya stepped forward with a nonchalant smile, and carefully helped Suxian to sit down at the round table, "Second Miss, come and taste the fresh lotus seed porridge that I specially cooked for you. "Cuiya moved the green and refreshing porridge boiled on the round table towards Suxian, and picked up a small spoon to stir the porridge, and continued, "This lotus seed is the lotus seed that my servant went to Bixi early in the morning. Picked by the lotus pond, it is tender and fragrant, so the servant even stepped into the mud and made a foot of mud."

Cuiya picked up the corner of the skirt that was slightly stained with mud, revealing light blue embroidered shoes. Although the mud on the edge of the shoe had dried and the excess mud stains were almost cleaned up, it was not difficult to see the light gray mud on the edge of the shoe. Stains.

Suxian smiled lightly, and said to Cuiya, "In the future, you must never go to that green lotus pond to pick lotus seeds. Stepping on the mud is a trivial matter, but if you fall into the pond, it will be serious."

"Second miss, don't worry, servants will be careful, just now I was startled by Madam Hu in the eldest lady's room, so I accidentally stepped on some mud." Seeing that Suxian was worried, Cui Ya quickly explained.

"Mother Hu? What is she doing in the front yard instead of serving the lady in Yulan Garden this early in the morning?" Suxian was sipping porridge, when she put down the bowl and frowned, she asked.

"Mother Hu is not going to the front yard, she is just passing by, and seeing her movements, she thinks she has something urgent to leave the house." Cui Ya tilted her head and said, at the same time lowering her head and said seriously, "I heard her talking to me in the front yard. Xi Lian from Shui told her to go quickly and wait for the eldest lady to wash, she will go to the yamen and come back soon."

"Yamen?" Suxian was slightly startled, and asked urgently, "Why, is Mama Hu going to the Yamen?"

"Well, this servant listened really well, Mama Hu did tell Xilian like that." Cuiya responded, and then murmured to herself, "I don't know why Mama Hu is in such a hurry to go?"

Suxian thought for a long time, then said in a deep voice, "Mother Hu's visit may have something to do with Mr. Zhou's visit to the mansion today."

Cuiya looked at Suxian puzzled, waiting for Suxian to continue speaking.

"Yesterday in grandma's room, the eldest lady heard a post from Mrs. Zhou, saying that there were old documents for grandmother. At that time, I noticed that the eldest lady's face was a little strange. Could it be that she has done something wrong?" Su Xian whispered to herself, and at the same time recalled in her mind the way the eldest lady looked at her at that time, and even vaguely realized that this matter seemed to be related to herself.

At this time, Xiangcao opened the curtain from the door and entered the room. She thought she heard the conversation between Suxian and Suxian from outside the room, and then said, "If the second lady is worried, I will go and see the big lady." If the medicine sold in Madam's gourd is just our carelessness, there is nothing else to do, so that's all. If Da Furen really has something to hide, Second Miss must guard against it."

Suxian thought for a while, what Xiangcao said is correct, the lady has dealt with her several times, openly or secretly, and her harmful intentions have already been clearly revealed.Now that she has noticed that she has changed, it is always good to be prepared, "Well, you can go and have a look, and don't let Madam Hu find out."

Vanilla nodded cautiously, turned around and walked out of the room.

An hour later, Mother Hu finally returned to Yulan Garden.

"Mother Hu, how is the matter going?" The eldest lady was troubled, she ate the meal hastily, sat in the room waiting anxiously, and when she saw Mother Hu finally returned, she immediately asked urgently.

"Don't worry, ma'am, although Master Zhou sent a post the day before yesterday to come to the mansion in person, but he has just taken over the affairs of the yamen, and he is so busy that he hardly touches the ground. When he saw me handing in your post, Master Zhou fell in love with you." , handed the document to the old slave, and apologized again and again, saying that she couldn’t get away, and originally planned to send someone to deliver it to the door in person, since the old slave has gone, it’s a good time.” Then, Mother Hu put the paper in her hand. Passed a stack of papers to the eldest lady, raised her hand to wipe the sweat stains, and continued, "Madam, you are really good at predicting things. In addition to some pens and inks of the master, this stack of papers also contains the words from the past. What you asked Master Li to handle, I never imagined that Master Li would be obedient to you, Mrs. Madam."

"Hmph! Master Li is an old fox, he must have a grudge against the fact that we used him as an excuse to threaten him back then. He did this on purpose to make me unhappy!" The lady said bitterly, and at the same time hurried I flicked through the files brought back by Hu's mother, trying to find what I wanted.

"No? There is no such thing in this stack of papers." The eldest lady murmured suspiciously, "Mother Hu, did you see clearly when Master Zhou handed it to you?"

"The old slave saw the truth. The thing was packed in a khaki envelope. The old slave deliberately opened it and looked at it after leaving the yamen for safety." Seeing that the lady couldn't find the item, Hu's mother said, I was also a little anxious, and hurried forward to search back and forth in a hurry, but I couldn't find the khaki envelope, "What's the matter, is it the devil?"

Mother Hu broke out in a cold sweat. She didn't care about talking to the eldest lady, and rushed to the door to search along the road. Just a few steps out of Yulan Garden, she saw a khaki envelope lying quietly beside the grass beside the stone path. , what is it if it is not that thing?
"Oh, blessed by the Bodhisattva, I finally found it. If there is a mistake, how can this old slave take care of it?" Mama Hu picked up the envelope and kept wiping the bean-sized sweat stains on her face. The beads slid down like rain.

"Mother Hu, the old lady is worried about the health of the master recently, and she always suffers from insomnia, so she specially asked me to ask the old lady for some tranquilizing incense." Just as Mother Hu was about to return to Yulan Garden, Mother Yue strode up to meet her while speaking.

"Oh. I'll go back to Da Furen right now, and I'll personally send Anshenxiang to Fushouxuan later." Mother Hu was startled, and quickly stuffed the envelope into her bosom, and replied to Mother Yue with a smirk.

"It doesn't matter, it's already here, it's better to take it back in person, so as not to return empty-handed, and end up with the reputation of being incompetent." Mother Yue didn't care about Mama Hu's movement of hiding the envelope, and walked forward to her side by side with a smile. OK, go to Magnolia Garden.

Seeing Mama Hu's return, the eldest lady hurriedly asked, "Did you find it?" As soon as she opened her mouth, she saw that Madam Hu was walking with Mother Yue, and the lady immediately fell silent and said nothing.

Mother Hu responded with eyes, nodded slightly, and then raised her hand seemingly unintentionally, but actually patted the envelope through the clothes on purpose, and the lady's expression immediately relaxed.

"Madam, Yue Mama came here specially to ask for the incense of tranquilizers. Madam has been thinking about Master recently, so she is not resting well." Mama Hu said calmly to Madam Hu.

"Xilian, hurry up and get the tranquilizing incense from the room." The eldest lady raised her voice and instructed Xilian, Xilian quickly took out a box of Jingjing incense from the back room and handed it to Mother Yue.

Mother Yue took An Shenxiang and thanked her, but she looked at the scattered papers on the table, her eyes were full of doubts.

Seeing this, the eldest lady immediately said to Mother-in-law with a smile all over her face, "I was just about to go to the old lady's room to answer. Just now, Lord Zhou sent someone to deliver the master's old documents, and said that he was really busy and couldn't get away. I will come to the old lady some other day to ask for the crime of breaking the appointment. The concierge was worried about disturbing the old lady's rest, so he led him to the Magnolia Garden." Then, the eldest lady sorted out the papers in front of her and said, "Hey , this is the document sent by Mr. Zhou, and he is planning to send it to the old lady himself."

"Hehe, the eldest lady is thoughtful, but the old lady got up early. Since the eldest lady is going to Fushouxuan, the old slave will go with the eldest lady." Yue Mama heard the words, and moved the text on the round table quickly. After finishing the volume, I respectfully blessed the lady, "Please, lady."

The eldest lady met Hu's mother's eyes with a calm demeanor, and walked out of the room. Now that the envelope is in Hu's mother's arms, she naturally doesn't have to worry. .

(End of this chapter)