204. Grain Full

It was the hour of Yin, before dawn.

Before the cocks crowed, the maids in Qunfang Garden had already come out chattering and laughing.

The Chen Mansion was an official residence. The master, Chen Liqin, had to go to the yamen before dawn at the hour of Mao, so the maids had to get up earlier to boil water, sweep the floor, and cook.

Hearing the maids' movements, Chen Ji raised his eyelids slightly, turned over and continued to sleep.

As he turned over, the dark cloud on his chest fell away. It silently climbed back onto Chen Ji, folded its hands, and closed its eyes.

The silver charcoal in the charcoal basin has burned into white, leaving only the lukewarm heat that slowly dissipates quietly.

"Knock, knock, knock."

There was a knock on the door.

Chen Ji sat up, feeling somewhat helpless: "Who is it?"

Then he muttered quietly, "Why is the Chen Mansion so troublesome? Someone stays up late at night kneeling at the door, and someone stays up early in the morning knocking on the door. They're working together to keep the eagle awake."

I heard a clear voice coming from outside the door: "Sir, open the door. It's me, Xiaoman."

Chen Ji was stunned for a moment. Who is Xiaoman?

He put on his clothes and stood up to open the door. The door creaked open and he saw a little girl standing outside. She had a round face and delicate features. When she smiled, two small fangs were exposed. She looked about sixteen or seventeen years old.

Xiaoman was holding a copper basin in her hand with a white towel draped over the edge of the basin. White mist was rising from the hot water in the basin.

Chen Ji stood at the threshold and asked doubtfully, "I said yesterday that Mingquan Garden doesn't need servants or maids."

Xiaoman's eyes widened. "Master, I finally asked the master to agree to let me come back to serve you. I served you for three years, and now you don't want me anymore?"

Chen Ji looked at Xiaoman calmly.

The girl in front of me turned out to be my former maid... so I couldn't let her stay.

When he was at the Taiping Medical Clinic, it was his master and Li Qingniao who smuggled him down from the forty-ninth heaven, so it didn't matter even if he behaved differently from before.

However, this is the Chen Mansion. If someone finds out, something might go wrong.

Xiaoman was about to go in with the basin of water, but Chen Ji took a step to the left and blocked the door: "You don't have to serve me anymore, go back."

Xiaoman stopped and begged, "Sir, please be kind enough to let me continue to serve you. If I am promoted to the next level of maidservant, my monthly salary will increase by 300 wen."

Chen Ji thought for a moment and said, "I'll give you three taels of silver, and you can go back."

Hearing this, Xiaoman stubbornly held the basin of water and headed in. Just as the basin was about to hit Chen Ji, Chen Ji dodged.

Xiaoman's mouth corners curled up slightly, and a cunning look flashed in his eyes.

She walked into the house carrying a basin of water: "Young Master, wash your face quickly. You have to go and greet the Master and the Madam later."

Chen Ji frowned. There were too many rules in the Chen Mansion.

Xiaoman placed the copper basin on the wooden shelf and turned around to make the bed. The little girl worked very efficiently, folding the quilt neatly in a few seconds and carrying it into the wooden cabinet nearby.

At this moment, she saw the dark cloud lying on the window frame and exclaimed in surprise, "Ah, raccoon slave!"

Xiaoman went over to pick up Wuyun, but Wuyun curled up his claws in disgust and slapped her on the back of her hand.

"It hurts!" Xiaoman withdrew her hand in pain, but she was not angry. She turned to look at Chen Ji and said, "Master, didn't you dislike the raccoon before? Why did you change your mind? I wanted to adopt one in the yard before, but you didn't allow it."

Chen Ji felt a bit of a headache and could only hide it by saying, "I like her now. People always change in two years."

He wondered in his heart what reason he should have to send this maid away. She knew him very well, and if he kept her around, she would find out sooner or later.

Before he could think of a good reason, Xiaoman turned his head and looked at the ground: "Hey, silver charcoal... the mansion is finally willing to provide you with it.

Silver charcoal?"

Chen Ji hummed, "Brother Wen Zong sent it."

Xiaoman suddenly sighed, "Back when we were still in the capital, the housekeeper deliberately played tricks on us and sent us some cheap bamboo charcoal. We huddled around the charcoal basin and were so smoked we couldn't open our eyes. I went and had a huge argument with him, and then you were sent to the clinic, and I was demoted to a third-class maid. He's been giving us a lot of trouble these past two years..."

At this point, the somewhat childish girl warned in a mature tone: "Sir, you finally returned home with great difficulty. You can no longer allow yourself to be bullied like before."

Chen Ji had an idea. Xiaoman was considered an "old man" in the Chen family. If he kept him, he might be able to learn about the situation of the Chen family in Beijing through him.

He found a chair and sat down, then asked casually, "Do you want to go back to Beijing with me?"

Xiao Man smiled and said, "Have you forgotten? I said I don't want to go back to Beijing. I want to stay in Luocheng so I don't have to go back to the Chen family mansion and have to face the second wife's face every day. But if you want to go back, I have to follow you and serve you."

Chen Ji calculated the time. Xiaoman had been with 'him' for three years, and two of those years should have been spent in the Chen family mansion in Beijing.

He thought for a moment and asked, "Do you still remember Chen Yu?"

Xiaoman blinked. "Chen Yu? Of course I remember when we were in the Chen family mansion, he was the only one you interacted with."

Chen Ji was shocked, it’s bad!

Previously, Bai Long asked himself whether he and Chen Yu were familiar with each other, and he said "no".

The Imperial Household Department has spies throughout the court and the country, so they must know the truth. At that time, Bai Long looked at him deeply but did not say it out loud... How can he explain it back?

But the question is, if Chen Yu is so familiar with me, why has he never written a letter to me? Could it be that Liang has withheld it?

At this time, Xiaoman took out a broom from the corner of the room and started sweeping the floor silently.

Chen Ji looked at her back and said, "I've been in Luocheng for two years, and I almost forgot what Chen Yu looks like."

Xiaoman laughed and said, "Sir, how could you even forget what Chen Yu looks like? He's so handsome, rare in the capital... well, he's still not as good as you."

Chen Ji said helplessly: "There's no need to flatter me. I know what I look like."

Xiaoman breathed a sigh of relief: "I'm glad you know."

Chen Ji: “…”

Xiaoman quickly added, "You're not bad either, just a little inferior to Chen Yu."

Chen Ji thought that he and Xiaoman must have had a very good master-servant relationship, so Xiaoman could speak so recklessly.

However, one of the main reasons why Bai Long asked him to lurk in the Chen family was to get him close to Chen Yu. However, Chen Ji had no impression of Chen Yu and didn't know where to start.

Chen Ji thought for a moment and said, "You can stay with me from now on, but you don't have to serve me. Just take care of yourself. I have hands and feet, and I can take care of myself."

Xiaoman responded while sweeping the floor: "That won't do. A maid should do her job. It's her duty to work for her monthly salary."

Chen Ji sat on the chair, tapping his fingers lightly on the tea table beside him. After pondering for a moment, he asked, "By the way, where are the things I left at home in the past two years since I left?"

Xiaoman's face tightened: "I didn't take it!"

Chen Ji was at a loss for words. What kind of reaction was this?

He asked, "I'm asking where all those things were taken. Were they thrown away?"

Xiaoman said, "Some were thrown away by the housekeeper, and some were taken away by Nanny Li."

Chen Ji was confused. Who was Nanny Li, and why were his interpersonal relationships in the Chen Mansion so complicated?

He asked cautiously, "Madame Li...are you okay?"

Xiaoman said dejectedly, "Not very good. She suddenly started having hysterics last year, always saying that my aunt died in an unclear manner and that it must have been murdered by a villain."

Chen Jiqiao

The fingers on the tea table stopped.

It took him a while to realize that the 'aunt' Xiaoman was talking about was his biological mother in this world.

Xiaoman whispered, "Madame Li said that when she went home to visit her family, she went to burn incense at the aunt's grave, but the aunt's gravesite was washed away by rocks, revealing the coffin, but there was no one inside. She came back to report the news, and the master comforted her, saying that he would send someone to check. But the servant who was sent came back and said that the aunt's grave was fine and that Madame Li had found the wrong place. Later, no one believed what Madame Li said, and she gradually became hysterical."

Chen Ji's pupils shrank slightly: "Where is Madam Li?"

Xiaoman replied, "Madam despised her and thought she was crazy. She was planning to sell her off, but Master, remembering she was your wet nurse, sent her to a farm in the suburbs."

Chen Ji was shocked and confused. Could it be that Nanny Li had been killed by the Chen family?

In addition, is his biological mother alive or dead?

If he was already dead, why did the Chen family bury him with an empty coffin? If he was still alive, why did he leave without saying goodbye?

Where is he hiding now?

Chen Ji asked calmly, "Which farm was Nanny Li sent to?"

Xiaoman shook her head: "I don't know."

He looked at Xiaoman and felt that he really needed to keep this maid. Everything she said casually was extremely important to him.

At this time, the crowing of chickens finally rang out from the Chen Mansion.

It’s the hour of Mao.

Xiaoman looked at the sky outside the window and urged, "Young Master, please wipe your face quickly. It's time to go and greet the Master and the Madam. If you break the rules, someone will find fault with you."

As she spoke, she threw the white handkerchief into the copper basin, wrung it dry and handed it to Chen Ji.

Chen Ji wiped his face, turned around and walked out of the yard.

Xiaoman stood by the door, tiptoed to secretly look at Chen Ji's back, and after making sure that the other party had gone far away, she quickly retracted her head and began to search the house.

She lifted up the pillow, then the mattress, and even looked under the bed.

Xiaoman didn't give up. She moved a chair and put it on the table. She climbed to the top quietly and stood on tiptoe to look at the beam, but there was nothing there.

Xiaoman put the chair back in place, her petite figure pacing around the room, muttering to herself, "Strange, where did the young master hide the silver? Could it be that he changed it into Buddhist coins and carried it with him? I don't see any Buddhist coins on his wrist."

Wuyun lay on the window frame and looked at her silently. Xiaoman turned her head and saw Wuyun's eyes. She suddenly felt inexplicable. She always felt that there was sarcasm in the eyes of this cat slave.

Xiaoman thought she had seen it wrong. She wiped her eyes and looked again, but Wuyun's eyes had become clear again and he was still looking at her.

She said with a guilty conscience, "What are you looking at me for? I... I'm just worried that the young master's money has been swindled away again. I don't want to steal anything! The money and property left by my concubine were all taken away by the lady. I have to keep a close eye on it this time, otherwise how will he buy my dowry? No, why am I telling this to a cat slave?"

Xiaoman started walking around the house again.

She came to the table and stared at the cucumber with holes in the plate with salivating eyes. "Young Master, you never remember things. It should be okay if one is missing, right?"

Xiaoman secretly looked outside the door, and after making sure that no one was around, she pinched one and took a bite.

She looked up at the beams and chewed slowly. After a while, she muttered, "It's not that delicious and it's so expensive. What a rip-off."

Xiaoman ate two bites of the cucumber and then stared at the candied plums on the table.

Xiaoman picked up one and pretended to hand it to Wuyun: "Do you want to eat it?"

dark clouds:"……"

Xiaoman smiled and said, "If you don't eat it, I will."

After saying that, she stuffed the plums into her mouth, picked up a few more and stuffed her mouth full, then picked up the broom and went back to sweeping the floor.