The Lady of the Farm in the Red Mansion

On the second day, Xiuyan hurriedly moved out of the garden and returned home without saying hello.

At that time, Mrs. Hu was washing radishes in the yard. Xing Xiuyu was wearing a green and blue cloth and was not old. She sat on a stool beside her and gnawed half a radish. Mrs. Hu smiled at him while washing.

Although life is hard, Xiuyan can see that with her younger brother by her side, her mother is happy at the moment, and she can't wait to join their happiness, so she called out "Mom!" with enthusiasm.

Xiuyan thought that her mother would hug her excitedly, but she didn't expect her mother to hear this familiar voice, not surprise but frightened, she stood up tremblingly, wiped her hands on the skirt cloth, and turned around slowly Come, eyes full of surprise: "Girl, why are you back?"

Her eyes flicked over Xiuyan's bundle, and an ominous premonition swept over her immediately, she only felt her legs go weak, and she sat down on the ground.

"Mom!" Xiuyan dropped her burden and stepped forward to support her.

Mrs. Hu waved her hand to signal Xiuyan not to pull her. At this moment, she just wanted to sit on the ground and smiled wryly, "It's really a waste of time to fetch water from a bamboo basket!"

"Mom!" Xiuyan stepped forward to pull her again.

Hu looked at Xiuyan with red eye circles and complained: "Girl, why can't you fight for yourself!"

Knowing that her mother was talking about Baoyu again, Xiuyan pulled her up and walked into the house, saying: "Mother, you are outside, how can you know the situation in the garden? Even Miss Bao has a big family and a big business. All those backed by the second wife are out, and Miss Lin's future is also uncertain, but because she has nowhere to go, she has to stay in the garden. You say that I, a country girl with no power and no power, can benefit from staying there any longer! "

Mrs. Hu patted her clothes and sat down on the rattan chair, half-believing: "I only heard that you made the old lady unhappy, and I thought that the old lady hadn't kicked you out of the garden, so things might turn around. Miss Lin and Mrs. What happened to Miss Bao?"

"I can't say a word or two clearly, anyway, my daughter has come out!"

"The old lady drove you out?"

"It's my daughter who wants to come out!"

"You," Mrs. Hu rolled her eyes angrily when she heard this, panting heavily.

"Mom, what's wrong with you?" Xiuyan stepped forward to rub her chest.

Hu knocked off her hand and said: "You unfilial daughter, you have good food and good living inside, and they give you two taels of silver every month, even if the old lady teaches you, you should bear it, you are angry It’s big, I ran back when I didn’t like it! Now it’s fine, the monthly money is gone, and you have another mouthful, your father is a dead man who can breathe, he doesn’t earn a penny, and he still needs to be waited on, I’m a woman Family, being both father and mother, you can barely support your younger brother with your life, if you don’t help the family, do you still expect me to support you?”

Hu's head-to-head phone call was like a pot of ice water that extinguished Xiuyan's excitement when she first came home. She didn't expect that this family didn't welcome her at all. The more sad I thought about it, the tears rolled in my eyes, but they couldn't flow down.

"Sister!" Xing Xiuyu came to pull her.

Xiuyan bit her lip, patted Xing Xiuyu's head, forced out an ugly smile, but her throat was choked up uncomfortably, Xiuyan swallowed hard, stretched her neck, and said resolutely: "Mom, don't worry , I will not let you support me, I will go out and find something to do by myself!"

"What can you do as a girl?" Hu Shi was dubious!

"I can do needlework, no matter how bad it is, I'll sell myself to be a maid for a rich family!" Xiuyan forced herself to smile.

Hearing this, Mrs. Hu sneered and said: "You are so talented, I have worked so hard to send you into that garden. It is not good to be a good lady, but I would rather be a maid! Do you think that a maid is so easy to be? Coming and going, tired like a dog, no personality, no dignity!"

"Mom, who did you hear that from? You don't see those big maids in the garden where I live. They are all so beautiful. They are not as pitiful as Mom said!" Xiuyan didn't want to make trouble with her family. Hexie, after all, she really thinks too little about her family for herself, but Brother Mu is really too important to her, she can't care so much!

Hu's anger also calmed down a lot. She climbed up from the chair, went to the sewing basket, picked up a mess of thread and handed it to Xiuyan. She took the end of the thread and wound it around her index finger, complaining as she went: " No matter how beautiful you are, you are still a slave! I don’t understand you. In that mansion, everything is not good. You are also a half-master. You don’t have to worry about food and housing. At least there are two maids and a nanny to serve you. With two or two months of money, even if you made the old lady unhappy, they didn't kick you out! You have a chance every day you live in it, and you don't want to make the old lady happy again, but yourself Come out, come out, that's all, you actually want to be a servant girl, you really live more and more prosperously, how much money does the servant girl have in a month, don't you know if you look at me? The big maidservants around the old matriarch It's only one tael of silver, and even Qing Wen, who is next to Master Bao, used to be very popular, and only a penny a month, and the rest of the little maids are five hundred or two hundred, and they are still such a big family. What do you say is enough, can it be compared with your two taels of silver in January?"

Xiuyan put the thread on, and said: "Mom, I've already come out, those things are nothing but fantasy, and it's useless to talk about it, my daughter will go to be a servant girl tomorrow, and if she has a hundred cash, she will subsidize the family with a hundred cash. Two hundred Wen will be subsidized for two hundred Wen, in short, I will not let my mother support me!"

Mrs. Hu thought for a while and said: "That's all I can do, but with our girl's appearance, maybe one day if the master takes a fancy to her, she will be able to make a fortune!" Thinking of this, a smile appeared on Mrs. Hu's face again.

"Mom, why do you always think about these things?" Xiuyan threw away the thread, picked up the bundle, and ran to her room to close it.

He threw himself on the bed, only feeling that his cheeks were flushed, and that he would see brother Mu soon, this kind of excitement couldn't be suppressed no matter what.

On the second day, Xiuyan woke up early. There were a few drops of rain in the sky, and the air was slightly cool in late autumn. Putting on a bamboo hat, he put on his father's large linen cloak and hurried towards Beicheng.

The northern city is different from the southern city. The southern city is populated by princes and nobles, while the northern city is where the capital officials live. Compared with the prosperity and peace of the southern city, the northern city is more crowded and fierce.

Walking on the streets of Nancheng, what you see is young masters watching flowers, fighting jocks and walking dogs, while in Beicheng, they are more open-minded and fast-tracking. Even in such a rainy day, the streets are still shuttling non-stop.

Rows of officials are dazzling. On this side, there are cabinet bachelors, on the other side, the Hanlin Academy's head bachelors, on this side, the left and right inspectors of the Inspectorate, the clan's mansion, and the Tongzheng envoy. Next to it are Dali Temple Minister, Zhan Shifu Zhan Shi, and Taichang Temple Minister, and then there are the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Punishment, the Ministry of Households, and the Minister's Mansion of each ministry. Fu, Shaobao Mansion, Xiuyan felt that her eyeballs were about to burst, but they couldn't find Brother Mu's Shangshu Mansion.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up, and she saw the word "Shangshu" written on the opposite door plaque. She ran over excitedly, only to find that the word "Shangshu" was in this row, but the Ministry of Industry was added in front of it. The Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Punishment, the Ministry of Household Affairs, Xiuyan didn't know which Minister Mu brother was, Xiuyan scratched the back of her head, feeling that her brain was not enough.