The Maid's Strategy in the Red Chamber

that's it

The small box was divided into two layers, the first thing that surprised Xueyan was the things on the top layer, which contained a pair of green jadeite floating flower bracelets and a pair of violet jadeite bracelets.The texture of the pair of floating flower bracelets is estimated to be as high as ice, and with the spicy green floating flowers, the price of the one before the crossing is almost over a million.Although Violet's bracelet is a little less watery, its color is a rare deep purple.It's a pity that the ancients valued jade, mostly referring to the Hetian jade series. Jadeite was not considered a precious object at this time. If it really had the price of later generations, it is estimated that Jiamu would not be willing to give it to herself.

But after thinking about it, this kind of bracelet was just looking at pictures on the Internet before, and now I am extremely lucky to have this kind of bracelet, in case I wear it back someday...

In addition to the bracelets, there are also some small items, such as lapis lazuli rings, turquoise collar buttons, jasper earrings, etc. There are about ten miscellaneous items, and there are also a pair of gold and silver lockets.

Remove the upper layer, and there are more things below, including a red gold silk dotted aster hairpin, a gilt flat hairpin, a red gold ruby ​​pendant bead hairpin, and a pair of red gold jade hairpins inlaid with red treasures. A silk bracelet and a pair of ruby ​​earrings.Seeing that the gemstones are of the same color and workmanship, these three pieces of ruby ​​inlaid jewelry should be a set.There aren't many things to look at, and the silk crafts don't use too much gold, but these are things that money can't buy before time travel.Especially the pair of silk bracelets, the gemstones on them are the size of lotus seeds, the color is clear and transparent, and they are definitely worth a lot now.

On the lower floor, if you just take out one of them, it can be used as a family treasure. Xueyan once again experienced the "luxury" of Jia's mansion. It is so generous to reward a maid. No wonder those little eunuchs in the original book just opened their mouths. A few hundred taels of silver.

Xueyan clicked her tongue for a while, then wrapped the silver and jewelry carefully and locked them in different boxes.

On the second day, Xueyan talked about it while combing Daiyu's hair, and Daiyu nodded: "I know about it, don't worry about what grandma gave you, just keep it, don't worry Me. It’s just that the people in this family also know that there are three feet of waves when there is no wind, so you should keep it quietly, and don’t let others know.”

That's exactly what Xueyan meant, so she told Daiyu when there was no one else, after hearing what she said, she thought that she was indeed a fairy of Jiangzhu, her mind was transparent, and she had thought through everything just by mentioning her .

Although it is not to be publicized, when Daiyu paid her respects, Xueyan followed her to kowtow to Mother Jia to thank her.Mother Jia asked her to be lifted up, praised her a few words, and then started talking about homework with Daiyu and the others.

Xueyan found a gap, took Yuanyang's hand and said, "Thank you, Sister Yuanyang. My sister has entrusted you with your blessing this time." Although the things were rewarded by Jia's mother, in her capacity, she would definitely not choose them herself. , Most of them assign mandarin ducks to do these things.Yuanyang must have picked the best thing for herself within the range of options available.

Yuanyang chuckled: "Since you asked me to thank you, you don't have to say such silly things."

There were so many people at the meeting, Xueyan didn't do much after all, but later found a space to give a purse embroidered by herself to Yuanyang, which also contained a pair of beaded earrings and a gold ring.Yuanyang declined for a while, but finally accepted it happily. She plays an important role in Jiamu's side, so naturally she is not short of such things, but Xueyan's hand-embroidered purse makes her very fond of it.

On this day, Jin Luo came again and brought some things over to appease Dai Yu.Because according to the time, the gift of the Lin family should have been delivered long ago, but now it is the end of the twelfth lunar month, and there is not even a letter, let alone Daiyu, even the servants of the old house of the Lin family are a little uneasy.

Jin Luo also brought a New Year's gift from the third grandma's house along the way, in addition to some eating toys and a pair of brightly colored azaleas.Dai Yusu likes things with aura, seeing this bright and eye-catching azalea flower really makes her smile a little bit more.It's just that there is still deep worry hidden in the depths of his eyes.

Fortunately, after Jin Luo left for a while, that boy Ji Liang rushed over: "The Lin family is here, and the car has already been unloaded at the gate."

Hearing this, Daiyu's eyes lit up.

This time, the Lin family not only brought generous gifts, but also a very important piece of good news. Aunt Qiuyue has successfully given birth to a little boy, and the mother and child are safe.

Xueyan originally thought that Daiyu would feel sad and uncomfortable when she heard the news, but she folded her hands together and murmured: "Thank God, I finally have a younger brother, and our Lin family has a queen." As she spoke, she shed tears again in a daze Lai said, "It would be great if Qiuyue conceived earlier, maybe my mother wouldn't have left." Jia's mother's illness was mostly heart disease, not only because she felt sorry for her youngest son's death, but also worried about her own future.In this age of "no offspring is the greatest", not being able to give birth to a healthy boy is the original sin for some women.

In the modern age that has been calling for "equality between men and women" for decades, countless families are torn apart because of the problem of having boys and girls, let alone this time and space.

At this moment, Xue Yan's heart suddenly felt a little heavier: even a prominent family background cannot escape the pressure of having a child, and it would be a shame to have a low status like her own.

What about the slaves?Forget it, there's no point in thinking too much right now, maybe I don't need to get married, and it would be nice to be an old mother when I get older.

Because of this incident, the annual gifts sent by the Lin family were [-]% more than usual. The steward who came to deliver the things meant that although there was a young master in my family, the eldest girl was still the eldest daughter of my family. It is unshakable by anyone.

In addition to the regular clothes and jewelry, the servant girls like Xueyan also got two extra monthly allowances.In addition to the one-month extra payment issued by Jia's mansion and the extra sling of money from Daiyu, Xueyan received a total of [-] slings of money and [-] Wen this month. The money bag that was about to bottom out was finally full again .

Xueyan looked at the purse dedicated to monthly bills, and frowned. She has two monthly bills each month, which adds up to [-] coins. It stands to reason that she doesn't buy much rouge and gouache, nor does she like to spend money on snacks, why? Can't save copper coins?So she silently took out a pen and paper and calculated. At the end of the calculation, Xue Yan couldn't help shaking her head and laughing. It turned out that all her money was spent on pen, ink, paper and buying books.

The last time I bought a box of twelve-color ink ingots, I spent two taels of money, two better lake pens for one hundred cash, and two wolf pens for eighty cash. Last month, I spent four hundred cash for a travel journal. There are 120 chapters in the monthly storybook... It turns out that most of her monthly routines are spent on this!

Fortunately, Xueyan has no family members, and the whole family is not hungry if they are full. If their parents are still in the hall, I guess they will not have spare money to buy these things...

Xueyan let out a long sigh, there is no other way, the entertainment activities here are really limited, although she is a maid, but the usual work is really quite easy, there is a lot of free time there.This is also thanks to the fact that there are many books in Daiyu that I can read at will. If I really have to spend money to buy books, I don’t know how much it will cost!

Two days later, Daiyu called Xueyan to her front: "The third aunt sent a lot of things to me last time, and I still forgot to return the gifts. You can choose a few things from the things that my father sent me this time." The third aunt sent it over and wished me an early New Year. She said that I was rude this time, and I should have gone to give the boxing gift earlier, but I fell behind again, so I told the third aunt not to blame me." Logically speaking, she was Junior, I should have delivered the things earlier, but the New Year's ceremony has already come...

Xueyan comforted: "The third wife has always been broad-minded, she will definitely understand your difficulties."

"Although this is the case, it can't always be like this. Next time, you should think of me for me anyway. But this time there is good news about my brother, which can make up for it." Daiyu smiled, and then added: "You The travel notes I bought back last time are quite interesting, much better than the ones that Ji Liangtao exchanged. I will let Madam Zheng give you a few taels of silver later, and you can go to the book store to pick up some good ones and come back."

Xueyan replied: "Let's leave this to the maidservant. The money is fine. A few books don't cost much money. The slaveservant is worthy of filial piety for such a small amount of money." Afterwards, the manager of the Lin family asked Madam Zheng to stuff her a purse. Inside was a silver ticket of 100 taels and a pair of gold ingots, said to reward her for taking good care of Qiuyue.It is estimated that Qiuyue spoke well for her in front of Lin Ruhai, otherwise there would not be such a heavy reward.It seems that this son is also very important to Lin Ruhai.Therefore, Xueyan really made a lot of money this twelfth lunar month.

Daiyu seemed to know about this too, so she didn't show any politeness to her, she just covered her mouth and said with a smile: "I know you have a lot of money recently, so let me ask you for a blessing."

Xueyan found Madam Zheng, and opened the storeroom to pick out a few bolts of silk and satin, boxes of Yangzhou snacks and dried fruits. Madam Zheng wanted to add a few decorations like vases, but Xueyan shook her head and said, "I'm looking at the third wife. Our house is shallow, so we don't need so many vases. But her young master Ming is studying, so it would be more practical to pick a few pens, inks, papers and inkstones."

Mother Zheng nodded and said, "What you're talking about is that it's really relatives, and there's no need for those silly things. It's because you little girls are smart. The older I get, the more useless I become."

Xueyan smiled and said: "Mama is not old, but there are too many chores in and out these two days. It is normal for Mama to be distracted and forget a little bit. If it were me, I wouldn't be able to do that. pile of things."

While talking and joking, the two picked out everything, besides the satin snacks, they added two boxes of high-quality Hui ink and two boxes of Hu pens.Xueyan spent another two taels of silver to get two dim sum boxes from the big kitchen.

Seeing her doing this, Mother Zheng smiled and said nothing, but Cui Liu, who was watching from the side, was a little puzzled: "Isn't there Jiangnan dim sum here? Why do you have to spend money to buy dim sum in the house? I think the big kitchen That's how it tasted…”