Chapter 26 Chapter 26 Two chapters merged into one

Shanjie came to the Zhou family from Jiangling. Even if she was sent away, her parents and relatives had to come to pick her up. However, her parents were in Jiangling, so Madam Chen had to take her back to recuperate for a few days before sending her out.

However, when she returned to the sewing room this time, no one treated her the same way as before. She wanted to say something, but when she opened her mouth, she could not say anything. The eldest lady asked Luying beside her to tell her that if she didn't say anything and kept her mouth shut, the Zhou family would just kick her out and she would have to find a way to make a living outside in the future, and the Zhou family would not know anything. But if she said anything, whether it was stealing or having an affair, and any of it was pinned on her and handed over to the government, her life would be ruined.

Looking at Jinniang again, she only talked to others and was not as close to her as before. And Qin Shuang'er, who was usually friendly with everyone, was now perfunctory to her, not to mention Fang Qiaolian.

The world is so fickle!

Of course Jinniang would not treat her the same as before. After Shanjie became successful, she ignored her old friends completely. Now she is afraid that the matter involves her own private affairs and no one would involve her.

Shan Jie had only been recuperating from her injuries here for less than two days before she was sent out early. When Madam Chen mentioned that Shu Embroidery Pavilion was short of staff at the end of the year, she just happened to introduce Shan Jie over there, thus getting rid of this hot potato.

Of course, the loss of Shanjie in the needlework room was of no consequence to Jiang. Normally, embroidery pieces were mostly figures, flowers, birds, insects and fish, with landscapes being extremely rare. Shanjie's leaving a year earlier saved Jiang twenty-four strings of cash, which was enough to buy a few maids in years of disaster.

Shanjie's departure did not cause any ripples in the sewing room. Jinniang made clothes for the old lady and sent them to her, and received a pair of golden hairpins for her, which was a pleasant surprise.

The winter solstice soon arrived. The winter solstice was known as the "Second Year" and was the most important festival for the people of Bianliang. Even officials had a day off, and Master Zhou could rest for seven days. Everyone in the Zhou family, from the master to the servants, began to change into new clothes. Jinniang also changed into new clothes. She wore a white silk jacket with lake blue raccoon sleeves, green cotton trousers underneath, and a gardenia yellow swirling skirt.

She even dressed up a little, not to mention Fang Qiao Lian. She had always worn the He Lou headgear when she came here before, but today she was dressed very splendidly, with a silver-red jacket with a bright blue folded skirt and a fashionable vase hairpin in her hair. She was really different from before.

Although the people working in the sewing room had a high monthly salary, her silver-red satin was not something that ordinary people could get. But Jinniang tried to know as little as possible about other people's private affairs. However, Shanjie was too involved and ended up being beaten and losing her job.

The kitchen was making wontons today, which were marinated quails as fillings. It was the first time for Jinniang to eat such fillings, and she found them quite delicious. She even drank up all the soup, and couldn't help shaking her head: "It's delicious."

"Again, it's obviously too salty." Qin Shuang'er doesn't like other people's inexperienced look.

Jinniang didn't mind what she said, she just smiled and said, "If the meat is not marinated, it will easily have the meaty taste, which I think is quite good."

Qin Shuang'er curled her lips secretly.

After they finished lunch, Madam Chen came over. The sewing room never rested no matter if it was windy or rainy outside. As expected, Madam Chen ordered, "Shuang'er, the fifth young master at Miao's place needs to make two winter coats. Cut eight inner garments and six pairs of open-crotch cotton trousers. These are urgent and need to be made now. Qiaolian, the second and third young ladies need to make two pairs of raccoon sleeves. As for Jinniang, the eldest young lady needs to make two pairs of 'wrong to the end' and six kinds of purses. The fourth young lady needs to make a warm hat and a long coat."

Jinniang wrote down her task and went to ask the eldest girl first. The so-called "wrong to the end" was the most fashionable shoes in Tokyo's boudoirs, to put it bluntly, they were color-blocked shoes.

The eldest daughter was easy to communicate with, and she wasn't the bossy type like the second daughter, so Jinniang tried her best to communicate well: "Use green silk for half of the fan and red silk for the other half. The red silk and emerald green complement each other and look very nice."

"Well, I believe in your judgment." The older girl smiled.

Jinniang continued to talk about the styles of purses. She decided on two round purses, two oval purses, one ingot-shaped purse, and one heart-shaped purse. After deciding on the purses, she chose the color. Even so, it took almost two hours. She was planning to go back to the fourth lady's place after dinner, but when she saw the fourth lady coming to the eldest lady's place, she hurried forward and said, "I was just about to go to your place, and you happened to come over."

The fourth girl took off her cloak and gave it to the maid, and just smiled: "You came to me to make clothes for me, right?"

"You really hit the nail on the head. Madam Chen told me to make you a long coat with a brocade pattern of floral patterns. I was just about to ask what kind of collar you want?" Jin Niang said.

The fourth girl seemed to respect her very much: "You are a needleworker, your vision must be better than mine, you decide for yourself."

It was rare for Jinniang to meet such an understanding Party A. She said happily, "Since you trust me, I will do it directly. If there is anything wrong that needs to be corrected, just call me."

The fourth girl nodded and Jinniang withdrew.

When the eldest girl saw Jinniang leave, she asked someone to bring two or three plates of cakes and served hot tea to the fourth girl: "It's so cold, why did you come here?"

Among the girls in the family, the second girl has a bad temper, and the third girl always likes to compete with her. But the eldest sister has an easy-going temper and is very tolerant. The fourth girl also likes to talk and play with her. Besides, she hopes that the eldest sister can live a long and healthy life. Because the book said that her eldest sister married the prime minister's youngest son as a daughter-in-law, and died not long after giving birth to a child. In order to take care of their grandson, the Zhou family married her as a concubine. As a result, her brother-in-law only missed his elder sister and found fault with her as a step-wife. In addition, Miao Xiaoniang's evil deeds were exposed, and almost no one in her natal family paid attention to her. Later, the fourth girl in the book died of depression several years after her marriage.

"Big sister, don't be in a hurry. I just came here to take a look. I always feel bored in the house." The fourth girl took a piece of dessert and put it in her mouth and smiled.

The eldest girl held her hand and said, "I heard that you are very tolerant and kind to your subordinates. This is good, but you must be sensible in everything, otherwise the subordinates will become wild."

Speaking of the fourth girl, she was also embarrassed, feeling that her kindness had been in vain. She grew up with the idea of ​​equality for all, so at the beginning she refused to let the servants in her room kowtow to her. She also felt that they should just regard themselves as leaders of modern society and not as masters. She even refused to let others call her servants in front of her.

But she didn't know if it was because she was too kind-hearted, her things disappeared inexplicably, the servants pretended to obey her but actually disobeyed her, and even began to look down on her as their master. She had no choice but to lose her temper, and these people were trembling with fear.

She didn't know if she had changed.

That is an idea. There is no need to be too nice to servants. If you respect them, they will think you are weak and incompetent.

Just like Miao Xiaoniang, if she didn't fight for favor, that favor would be taken away by others. Resources in ancient times were limited, and even eggs, rice, and cloth were not available to everyone, especially in a family with many children. Her mother had fought for her siblings with her bare hands. How could those high-ranking Tianlong people understand this?

**

After the winter solstice, Jinniang always felt that she had forgotten something. The moment she saw Miao Xiaoniang, she remembered. Yes, what she was going to remind Yanhong was that the eldest lady might be using her to fight Miao Xiaoniang.

But how to remind? After what happened to Sister Shan, small fry like them would never dare to say anything more.

Soon she thought of a plan and went to Yanhong's place. Yanhong was taking good care of her pregnancy. Seeing Jinniang coming over, she smiled and said, "Why are you here? I heard that your sewing room has been very busy recently."

"My sister and brother-in-law live in the north of Ma Xing Street. They brought me my mother's belongings some time ago. I was not at home when they got married, so I would like to ask you what gift I should give them? Because the relationship between us cousins ​​is really complicated." Jinniang deliberately whetted her appetite.

Yanhong has been on edge these days, and she loves to listen to gossip about other people's families: "What's complicated about your family?"

Jinniang also talked about her own family: "My grandparents gave birth to three sons in total. My uncle was a good student in his early years, and later worked as an accountant in a carriage and horse business. My father joined the army very early, and my uncle learned a craft. Originally, before the three brothers got married, they had a good relationship with each other, but after the daughters-in-law came into the family, my grandmother was stirring up trouble everywhere. For the sake of respecting the emperor, I shouldn't say this, but she was like this, stirring up discord so that the relationship between our three families was very bad. If a family was doing well, she would use another family to beat the other two. Anyway, the relationship was complicated. Now that my uncle and aunt have passed away, and my cousin is getting married, I can't just pretend I don't know."

She hoped to use her own family as an example to tell her about the things that were done to sow discord and suppress her, but Yanhong didn't seem to understand and just said, "That's easy. Send them a set of porcelain. They just got married, so they'll need plates, bowls and chopsticks."

After hearing her words, Jinniang seemed to have her Ren and Du meridians opened up: "You are right, I will go down and prepare now."

In fact, how could Yanhong not know her situation, but she has been put in a high position. The master in the harem doesn't care, Jiang is the mistress, and Jiang respects her. Doesn't she know how to appreciate it?

Jinniang usually doesn't get involved in these fights between wives and concubines. She just reminds them consciously. After all, she can't say too much. If there is no house fight at that time, wouldn't she be slandering the mistress, which is a more serious crime than Shanjie's.

However, she should also prepare a wedding gift for her cousin. Originally, she wanted to take half a day off to go out and buy it, but if she went out for personal matters, it would be difficult for her to have the dignity to ride in the mansion's carriage. If she went out alone, she was afraid that her money would be robbed or stolen by beggars.

But she secretly looked at her private vault and found gold, silver, jewelry and cloth given by ordinary masters. However, these were what she planned to use as her dowry in the future and could not be given away. Fortunately, she remembered that she had bought a lot of purses and other items last time in order to learn the patterns of Jinxiufang. Yes, she first chose a pair of bright purses, put eighteen copper coins in each, and asked Kuang Sanlang to spend two hundred coins to buy her a pair of wooden combs with flower and bird patterns. She then took out a penny of silver and asked Mrs. Hu to buy her a bottle of lamb wine and six boxes of snacks. She packed everything up, tied them with red silk, and paid twenty coins to ask Lan Xue's brother to help deliver them.

Jinniang felt that her gift was too generous. Even the Zhou sisters usually exchanged needlework with each other. If Rongniang was willing to interact with her, she could take the opportunity to go out in the future to see the job openings at Jinxiufang and Wenxiuyuan.

It is said that Feng Sheng and his wife Rong Niang rented a small courtyard in the capital. After Rong Niang's father passed away, her mother took out 35 strings of cash for the funeral. Later, when her mother was seriously ill, her second uncle refused to come to visit her, for fear that they would have to pay for it. After her mother passed away, she paid for the funeral expenses again, and she also paid for the dowry out of her own pocket. Even though others compensated her with 500 strings of cash that year, she only had 200 strings of cash left now, which was all her belongings.

She used her husband's monthly allowance to rent a house, make furniture, and buy household items. She finally settled down. She looked at the sky and went to the kitchen to cook fish soup. At this time, Feng Sheng came back and brought the gift from Jinniang to her.

"I didn't expect her to be so polite."

Rong Niang opened the package and looked through it. She found a pair of purses and a wooden comb. But she was naturally beautiful, so she didn't need to go to any famous store and used the most ordinary things. Therefore, she thought that the things Jinniang sent were ordinary and thought that a few boxes of pastries were quite good. After thinking about the return gift, she packed some facial cleansers and soap beans that her husband brought back from the clinic as a return gift for the Winter Solstice.

In fact, Jinniang had also bought facial cleansers from Zhao Taicheng's house, but when she saw the small porcelain bottle that Rongniang sent back, it seemed to be similar to the modern samples, which could be bought for just a few dozen coins, and there were also two packets of soap beans, so she handed them to Si'er.

Therefore, Rong Niang asked someone to ask Jin Niang to go to her house during the New Year this year, but Jin Niang did not go. Because the relationship was not good enough, the few of them just sat there and had an awkward chat, and she still owed someone a favor.

Of course, this is not the most important thing. She also needs to get bonus money during the Chinese New Year.

Of course, making money is more important than anything else when working outside, but the idea of ​​her going out was left unresolved.

After the winter solstice comes Laba Festival, and every household gives each other Laba porridge. The Laba porridge in the Northern Song Dynasty is a little different from that in later generations. The modern Laba porridge is made with red beans, red dates, lotus seeds and peanuts, but the Laba porridge at this time is made with walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, persimmons and chestnuts.

It's soft and sticky and tastes delicious.

After eating Laba porridge, Si'er was sewing shoe soles. Now she could help Jinniang, and Jinniang felt a lot more relaxed, so she was sewing Si Niang's collar.

The six purses for the eldest girl and two pairs of shoes with stitching on the bottom have been pasted, and the warm hat for the fourth girl is also made. Only the embroidery of magnolia flowers will take more time. The magnolia and crabapple she is embroidering now are modeled after the magnolia flowers depicted by Xu Xi of the Five Dynasties. Magnolia and crabapple represent wealth and prosperity.

Qin Shuang'er certainly didn't know that Jinniang was imitating a famous painting, and she secretly wondered why Jinniang, like them, learned her craft from Chen Niang. Her patterns were extremely exquisite, and now almost all the clothes of the eldest lady were bought by her. Yet everyone praised her for her speed and quality of work. Even the person who had once been scolded by the Second Miss seemed to secretly ask the First Lady to let Jinniang make clothes.

But she didn't have time to think too much. During the day, she had to build good relationships with the maids and girls in the Second Young Master's room, and stayed up alone at night to complete the embroidery. She didn't have much time to research new patterns.

Of course, she came to Zhou's house to be an embroiderer not with the intention of really developing a career in embroidery, and certainly would not put in the effort to delve into it.

However, for Jinniang, even though she came from a non-native background, she loved embroidery and regarded it as a hobby. She abandoned useless social activities and devoted herself to embroidery skills.

Look, the fourth young lady’s long coat was made without using any complicated techniques, and the brocade ladies were not very skilled, but everyone praised it for being beautiful.

Because it was the end of the year, the fourth girl was very generous in giving rewards, even comparable to the eldest girl. She rewarded herself with a hundred coins, a three-foot piece of cloth, and a small mother-of-pearl dressing box.

Of course, there are things Jinniang didn't know. After the fourth lady gave out the rewards, her confidant Danli said, "You don't have much in your private treasury, and Miao Xiaoniang's subsidies to you are also small. How could you give so much to the needlework room?"

"What's the big deal? They have worked so hard for this place, how can we feel at ease?" The fourth girl always felt that slaves in ancient times were already very pitiful. People came to work for you, didn't they just do it for money?

Little did Danli know that the fourth young lady's monthly salary was only two strings of coins, and the rewards from the elders at the end of the year added up to only twenty or thirty strings of coins. Those who served her had not received any rewards yet, and all of them were done as favors for the young lady, who was only doing it for her own reputation.

Jinniang didn't understand what was going on with the Fourth Young Lady. She did her work well, and respectable masters would usually reward her. For example, the two pairs of silks at the hands of the eldest young lady were both praised for their good work, so the eldest young lady rewarded her with a piece of top-quality Zhejiang silk, worth about three hundred and fifty coins, and a plate of snacks.

This time, Si'er helped to sew the soles for the eldest girl's shoes. Jinniang didn't want to cut the silk into pieces, so she simply gave her sixty cents and a plate of snacks.

It was probably because the dress that Jinniang made for the Fourth Young Lady was also very good. For Sister-in-law Jiang's birthday this year, she did not ask Madam Chen to make the dress as she had done in the past. Instead, she took the measurements and asked Jinniang to make it. However, Madam Chen was not idle either. Jiang asked her to make wedding clothes for Zhou Cunzhi and also to cut eight new sets of clothes. She was really too busy to handle it.

Of course, Jiang was also very good at dealing with people. She knew how hard the work in the needlework room was, so she specially sent a banquet over for the New Year. It was a pity that Fang Qiao Lian went to stay with her godmother Kuang Mama, and Qin Shuang'er went to stay with her godmother Lin Mama. Only Chen Niang, Jin Niang, and Si'er Xiaohe sat together, and it looked sparse.

People are easily affected by changes in the environment. Chen Niang asked Jin Niang with a smile: "Why don't you recognize a godmother? It will be convenient for you to do things when the time comes..."

"Seeing what you said, I will do my job well, share your worries, work hard for the remaining two years and then go home. It is enough to have your care on a daily basis, and I don't need a godmother." Jinniang does not like to be ambitious, and she does not have such big ambitions. Whatever she does, doing the task at hand well and uniting the people around her is more important than anything else.

Xiao He secretly envied Si Er and whispered, "Look how much Sister Jin Niang values ​​you. This New Year she gave you a purse and twenty coins as a reward, and also taught you how to embroider and make shoes. I still haven't learned how to embroider."

Although Jinniang was usually strict with Si'er, she really taught her and gave her money. Qin Shuang'er said nice things, but she didn't teach Xiaohe much. She gave her a lot of things, but never money, just snacks and fruits.

Si Er smiled and said, "That can't be helped."

In her mind, Sister Jinniang always spoke with a smile, taught her seriously, and was very generous to her. She really followed the right person. Indeed, Qin Shuang'er is a good person, but she still does it for herself, just like the Fourth Young Lady. The people in the Fourth Young Lady's room don't give much reward, but she is generous to people outside.

But Si'er also knew why the fourth lady was like this. Among the young ladies, the eldest and second ladies were subsidized by the eldest lady's wife. Although the third lady's wife was down and out, Mrs. Lu, like Yanhong, had helped the eldest lady to manage the household for more than ten years and had accumulated a lot of private property. Only the fourth lady's biological mother was from a poor family. She had no subsidy, but she didn't want to be looked down upon by the servants, so there was nothing she could do.

Si'er also told Jinniang these words. Jinniang looked at her distressed expression and smiled, "Si'er, we maids have a much harder life than our masters. It's not our turn to feel sorry for our masters. We just need to do our jobs well."

After Jinniang finished making the clothes that Jiang had asked her to do, she discovered that she had frostbite on the middle finger of her right hand. Fortunately, it was only a small spot, so she quickly soaked it in hot water at night and tried not to scratch it. Fortunately, Jiang gave her a lot of rewards, including a pair of iron soup bottles, twenty candles, a pound of Hunan mountain tea, and a bunch of chicken feather brushes.

An iron soup bottle is similar to a thermos, and costs about eight or nine hundred coins each. Twenty candles are worth about four strings of coins. A pound of Hunan mountain tea costs nine hundred and sixty coins. A chicken feather brush produced in Guangxi costs about three or four coins each. All of these are worth six or seven strings of coins. In the past, Jinniang also thought that money was the most important thing, but now she knows that many things can be directly bartered, so except for the chicken feather brush and iron soup bottle, she kept almost everything else.

With two iron soup bottles, the most convenient thing to do was to wash hair. She washed her hair that afternoon and helped Si'er wash his hair as well. The two of them took a leisurely rest aside.

Si'er suddenly said, "Sister Jinniang, you said last time that you wanted to go to Daxiangguo Temple again. I guess we can't get out now."

"Yes, it's very difficult. After the New Year, the second grandma is going to come home again. I'm afraid we will have to be busy in the sewing room." Jinniang shook her head.

Besides, she has some savings now and is unwilling to leave, for she is afraid that people will steal her things if she leaves.

They were not serving their masters personally, so how could they follow them out? Jinniang's plan to go out was temporarily delayed. However, there is always a way out. The second young master wanted to give a gift to his master's wife. He knew that his master's wife worshipped Buddha. He also learned from Cuixian that Jinniang was good at embroidering Buddhist scriptures, so he asked Jinniang to embroider the scriptures.

Jinniang wanted to go to Daxiangguo Temple to buy rubbings on the pretext of embroidering Buddhist scriptures. A rubbing cost no more than a hundred coins and they were all masterpieces by famous artists. The second young master agreed immediately and thought she was meticulous and serious.

Therefore, she successfully got the pair of cards to go out.