The maid's road to success

The weather was getting a little cold when An Zizhong and his group of people returned to Gongzhou. Most of the scholars were picked up by their families when they arrived at the city gate. An Wenniang also brought An Huang and prepared some food to wait at the gate. Seeing a group of people getting darker and thinner, and walking tiredly to their carriages to rest, An Wenniang regretted not renting a carriage.

An Zizhong and two others were walking at the back, followed by four children of different sizes. An Wenniang took An Zizhong aside and examined him carefully. She saw that he was just a little thinner, a lot tanned, and had some small wounds on his hands, but everything else was fine. She felt relieved and quickly handed him a bowl of shredded chicken porridge in a bamboo tube and asked him to drink it.

"These are the children I brought back from the southwest. From now on, we will ask them to go out with us, just like An Lan and the others."

An Wenniang nodded. She only knew how to serve people and didn't know much. But since the young master brought them back, he must have his own reasons. She just had to listen to the young master and settle these people well.

An Zizhong had to accompany the teachers back to the academy first, so An Wenniang took the four children and An Lan and An Huang back to her own courtyard. The family had already prepared the food. An Zizhong probably wanted to eat in the academy, so the others didn't wait for him and sat in the main hall to eat together.

"Miss, the luggage you prepared for us this time was a great help. When we first arrived in the southwest, our purses were stolen in an inn. We were starving and cold. Fortunately, the gold leaves you hid in your clothes were exchanged for more than 100 taels of silver so that we didn't starve to death. There are many mosquitoes and miasma in the southwest, and the wooden hairpin and detoxification powder you gave us also played a big role. You don't know that the young master of the Hua family carried his purse with him everywhere, which attracted many wasps. He stung his face and cried so much that he wanted to write a suicide note. But we were in the mountains, where could we find a pharmacy? It was only after you gave him the medicine you hid in the pen tube that he stopped eating."

"We were blocked from coming down the mountain by heavy rain, but we managed to survive for two days by digging up some wild vegetables and cooking the dried meat prepared by the young lady. Oh, by the way, these four little guys were rescued by the young master in the mine. The young lady gave them names, and the young master called them Ada, Aer, and the little girl cried for several days and refused to agree."

An Lan talked a lot about their study tour while eating. An Wen's mother looked at the four children who were wolfing down their food. The oldest was only slightly younger than her and the youngest was only about four or five years old. She asked them gently.

"What were your names before?"

The oldest boy shook his head, put down his chopsticks and answered respectfully.

"We have no home, so just give us a name, young lady."

An Wen's mother could see that these children actually remembered their names, but unfortunately they didn't want to mention them, so she didn't force them to say it.

"My brother and I have the surname An, so you can follow ours and call yourself An Qing, Anyun, An Rui, or Anyan, how about that?"

Several children nodded obediently, especially the two girls. Seeing that they finally had nice names and no longer had to be called Er and San, they even smiled faintly, which looked very nice.

After dinner, An Wen Niang asked An Huang to go out and buy some daily necessities and clothes for the few people. An Qingnian was already twelve years old and still a boy, so he lived with An Huang in the front yard. An Yun and An Rui were girls, so naturally they lived with An Wen Niang in the backyard. An Nian was only four years old and didn't know the difference between boys and girls, so she lived in the backyard. There were only An Wen Niang, An Huang, and a woman who cooked and washed clothes in the backyard. No one could take care of a four-year-old child, so An Yun and An Rui had to take care of themselves.

After discussing with An Huang to give them the largest wing on the west side, An Qing had not left yet. She was helping her younger brother and sister-in-law clean up the room. She saw An Wen's mother bringing in a bunch of toys, including little bamboo horses, cloth tigers, and bamboo dragonflies. Her eyes became red and she lowered her head, not daring to let others see.

The four brothers and sisters were originally the pampered sons of aristocratic families. The Yuan family in Kyoto had royal doctors for generations, specializing in treating royal relatives. Unfortunately, the hateful bitch Queen poisoned the medicine prescribed by his grandfather for the late emperor, killing him and making their family bear the crime of murdering the late emperor.

The adult men in the clan were all torn into pieces by five horses, and the women were sent to the Jiaofangsi. He used his family secretary to turn his sisters into men, and they were taken to the southwest to do hard labor.

After working in the mine for half a month, several people's bodies were covered with scars of varying sizes. The fourth brother was dying, and the secret medicine in his hand was about to be used up. In order to prevent his sisters from being exposed, he was about to take his brothers and sisters to commit suicide by taking poison. Then he met the man who should have died in Kyoto long ago. He didn't know how this man survived, nor did he know why he became the most popular scholar, but he knew that this would be the final redemption for the four brothers and sisters.

He risked his life by rushing towards the man and yelling for help. The murderous intent that flashed in the man's eyes frightened him, but looking at his brother and sister-in-law who were being stepped on and the thugs who were about to catch up with them, he desperately rushed to the man and spoke in a voice that only two of them could hear.

"I have the Yuan family's ancestral medical books and prescriptions."

The man really took action at the last moment, using ten gold leaves to exchange for the four siblings, but from now on, there were no more Yuan brothers and sisters in the world. On the way, the man did not completely relax, always ready to kill them, but he found some herbs and prepared an antidote, and let the second sister use it in front of him to restore her daughter's body, and then he decided to keep a few people.

From his observations along the way, An Qing knew that this man was probably hiding his identity. Everyone called him Brother Zi Zhong, but neither his given name nor his courtesy name had been these two characters before.

An Zizhong roughly told him what he wanted. Although it couldn't completely change him into another look, there was a medicine in the Yuan family's medical book that could change a person's appearance in a short period of time. However, it was impossible to have two different faces, but they would still be somewhat similar. For example, the eyebrows would become thicker, the eyes would become smaller, the skin would become darker, and the flesh on the face would increase or decrease depending on the medicine. There was also a medicine that could change the voice.

The other party asked him to make the medicine within three months. He would take a small amount during the winter when the academy was on vacation. An Qing already had a rough idea of ​​what it would be like. It just needed continuous research and improvement.

Grandfather often said that he and his second sister were the best children in the family, and they were the most talented in medicine. Even his father was not in his eyes. He was forced by his grandfather to memorize all the medical books since he was a child. The ancestral medical book of the Yuan family was firmly remembered by the head of the family. Once the successor was found, he would be taught to recite. Even his father only knew a small part of it. The second sister was born to like studying poisons. After being beaten by grandfather many times, she stopped studying. An Zizhong promised them that he would search for more medical books and poison classics to help them study, but they had to work for him all the time.

An Qing agreed. Now he and An Zizhong had the same enemies and goals, but he felt a little strange when looking at An Wenniang's figure. According to the temperament of the man sitting on the dragon throne now, it was the greatest ability of the Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion to let this gentleman escape alone. Weren't those female relatives exiled to the southwest?

Where did this young lady come from? Although the Yuan family has always been a medical family in Kyoto, they are still children. Naturally, they don’t know Wen Niang, the little maid in the former Fushou Hall. They just think that it might be a tool used by An Zizhong to conceal his true identity.

After An Wenniang had settled several people, she heard a message from An Lan, asking her to send five hundred taels of silver to Li Changan to register the four children, noting that An Qing was a slave and the other three were good citizens.

As soon as An Wenniang heard this, she knew that An Qing was the person that An Zizhong really wanted to use. He also wanted to control a few people so that they would not have second thoughts. The lives of slaves belonged to their masters. They would not have to bear any consequences even if they were beaten to death. Once a slave betrayed his master or ran away, he would be beheaded if caught. But why did he let the other three become good citizens?

An Wenniang stared at An Qing, watching his actions, and made a guess that maybe An Qing had his own ability, enough to negotiate terms with An Zizhong, and protecting his younger siblings was his condition.

An Wen Niang couldn't help but sigh. Although the current world has strict household registration management, the officials below can still take money to manipulate the household registration, just like An Wen Niang spent five hundred taels to register An Zizhong's household registration in Linjing, and after returning, she spent more money to register the household registration in Lin County.

An Wenniang and An Zizhong are real people, so they can just find a legitimate reason and spend less money to have the status of good citizens. However, the identities of these four children are obviously shameful, and they dare not even reveal their real names, which will take a lot of effort and money.

Fortunately, Li Changan's uncle is the prefect of Gongzhou. As long as he finds a clerk to replace the missing children in the charity with the identities of the four people and adopt them as children of An Wenniang and others, and donates some money to the charity, the operation can be done.

After successfully handing over the household registration documents of the three people to An Qing, he felt relieved to live in the front yard. An Wenniang's only goal was to take care of An Zizhong. She didn't care about anything else. She just thought that there were a few more people like An Huang in the yard. She gave them monthly wages, bought them clothes, and just swept the yard and tidied the house every day.

An Yun observed An Wen Niang for half a month before he mustered up the courage to walk up to her and speak.

"Miss, my brother is a good doctor. I work with the young master. I also know some basic medical knowledge and can help you take care of your body. From your face and behavior, I think you must have worked hard in your childhood and have accumulated cold in your body. You are not in good health. I am confident that I can help you take care of your body."

An Wenniang put down her needlework and looked at An Yun curiously. Aren't women not allowed to study medicine? How could she?

"Do you know medical skills?"

An Yun nodded and said in a crying voice as if she had thought of something.

"My family said that although girls are not allowed to study medicine, they should learn some, not for anything else, but just to have someone to rely on when they get married in the future."

An Wen's mother nodded. Her former family was quite sensible and far-sighted. However, An Yun must have wanted something by coming to her so rashly.

"what do you want?"

An Yun raised his head and understood in a moment. After all, she was the master's sister, how could she be so stupid?

"My sister and I are girls, so we don't need to know too much. But my younger brother is a boy, and he will have to marry and have children on his own in the future. My eldest brother told me not to get involved in medicine, but to grow up safely and continue the family line. He has no talent for medicine, so I would like to ask Miss to let him learn a skill that can help him make a living."

The eldest brother used his own future and medical knowledge in exchange for the three of them to grow up safely and have their own children. She didn't want to do that. She could also sacrifice herself to work for her master and avenge her family, but her younger siblings must grow up healthy and live a good life.

An Wen's mother nodded and agreed. When she was handling the household registration documents for the three children, she knew that she would let them become ordinary people when they grew up, and those who should get married should get married.

But she was born a maid after all, and she never thought that a child of only four years old would have to start enlightenment. Thinking about the current situation, sending him to a school for young children's enlightenment is obviously not realistic. An Nian is too young to be picked up and dropped off by a special person. An Yun is only a ten-year-old child, still young, and he has to go to school by himself. The master has to send the servants to and from school.

"You and An Rui should learn to read. Teach An Nian first. When you have learned a little, let San Xi in the front yard be your servant. He can learn some serious knowledge. When he grows up, send him to school."

An Yun thought he could ask An Wen's mother to let An Nian learn carpentry and accounting, but he didn't expect An Wen's mother to just let him study in the future?

"There is work to do at home, we are just servants."

An Wenniang herself was born a maid, and was lucky enough to meet her ancestors who always pampered her. She was better off than the girls from small families, so naturally she wanted to treat the people around her well.

"We have a small family and a small house, so we don't have that much work to do. You are not servants, but family members like An Huang and his siblings."

With red eyes, An Yun rushed into her room and pulled her brother and sister-in-law out to kowtow to An Wen's mother.