Chapter 36 The Dong Family's Daughter
In fact, even if he changed to a high bed with a soft pillow, Xiao Zhen still couldn't sleep all night.
In his previous life, from the time he heard the tragic news of his parents' death until his death, he had not slept a single good night's sleep for a full twenty years.
In this life, perhaps it was a habit formed in his previous life. Since the day he woke up in Shiji Mountain, he could not sleep at night. As long as he closed his eyes, he saw the flash of swords and the flow of blood.
He woke up from his dreams again and again, and then kept his eyes open until dawn.
On the contrary, Zhao Shiqing has always had a good sleep quality since childhood and can fall asleep as soon as his head touches the pillow.
However, she seldom dreams, and when she does, it is an extension of her daytime experiences into her dreams.
For example, during the day, her master made chestnut stewed pork trotter, but she only ate the pork trotter and not the chestnuts, so her master scolded her. So at night she dreamed of peeling chestnuts, and she would not wake up until she peeled them until she went crazy.
For example, tonight, she was sent by the head maid Juying to the kitchen to get food for the other maids. She saw a little girl in the kitchen. The girl had black eyes and a pair of dimples when she smiled. Her dress was obviously not that of a maid in the princess's mansion. After asking, she found out that she was the daughter of the landlord.
Zhao Shiqing had heard from Ling Bo before that the inn had been vacated. Not only had the guests staying there been sent away, but even the cooks and waiters had been given holiday.
The Princess and Prince Consort Xiao brought their own ingredients for their meals, even the drinking water, but the others did not, as their ingredients were all from the inn.
Although the inn was vacated, they couldn't send everyone away, otherwise they would have to find the firewood. The owner was careful to please everyone and called his wife, daughter-in-law and daughter to help.
Zhao Shiqing saw that the little girl was cute, so she looked at her a few more times. As a result, that night, she dreamed that the little girl and her parents and sister were all strangled to death, and even the Jixiang Inn was burned to rubble.
Zhao Shiqing woke up from her dream with a start. When she woke up, it was already dawn and Ling Bo and four other fake maids were packing their luggage.
She quickly stood up and asked, "Is there anyone dead in the inn?"
Ling Bo was surprised and said quickly: "No, if someone died, it would definitely not be so quiet."
"Qingping, go and see if the boss and his wife and children are still alive?" Zhao Shiqing said.
Qingping was one of the guards who came this time. She and three other female guards, together with Zhao Shiqing and his servant, disguised themselves as maids in the princess's mansion.
Qingping didn't understand what was going on, but she didn't ask any more questions and just slipped out.
Zhao Shiqing looked at the pillow. She didn't know where the heartless Xiao Yao had gone and didn't even sleep with her.
"Where's the little demon?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a cat's meow and the little demon jumped in from the open window.
Zhao Shiqing saw it was covered in cooking fumes, with a spiderweb halfway up its head. It looked quite disheveled, so she asked, "Did you go dig a hole in the kang? Why are you so dirty?"
Xiao Yao: [The cat is not clean anymore. The cat has been teased. That bitch cat is so bitchy! ]
Zhao Shiqing laughed heartily: "You deserve it. Who told you not to sleep with me?"
The little demon gave her a sad look and sat on the windowsill to dress up.
Lingbo was already used to it, so she used a wet towel to wipe the little demon. The other three maids didn't think much of it, but just thought it was funny that the second young lady really treated this cat like a human being.
After they had finished packing, Qingping returned: "The host couple and their two daughters are all alive and well."
Zhao Shiqing felt relieved. She shook her head and thought it was really strange. Why did she have such a strange dream out of the blue?
However, she quickly put the incident behind her.
Princess Jiayi slept until noon. Just after she had breakfast, visiting cards from officials' wives came to her one after another. In addition to the cards, there were also ceremonial gifts.
The gifts of courtesy were also varied, some were direct silver notes, some were antiques, calligraphy and paintings, exotic flowers and plants, and even a snow-white lion dog.
Nanny Bai only accepted the lion dog and politely declined all the others. She even gave each family a collection of poems written by the retired emperor.
When Princess Jiayi left the capital this time, she took with her more than a hundred volumes of this poetry collection alone.
Although Cheng Yi did not give it away, he received a collection of poems. The officials were still very surprised and put the collection on display, and the whole family knelt three times and kowtowed nine times in front of it.
The group dawdled until almost noon before setting off.
For the next two days, the princess and her entourage did not stay in the inn, but rested in the official post station. The team walked slowly and had no trouble along the way. Zhao Shiqing traveled during the day and slept at night. Occasionally, the maids asked her to do some small chores within her ability, and she did it quite well.
In a blink of an eye, a few days passed and the journey was halfway completed. On this day, we arrived in Hancheng, which was a Zhili Prefecture and was directly governed by the imperial court.
During the journey, every time they passed a city, the princess would meet with the officials' families. She had long been impatient. Her pregnancy reaction was more severe than when she was at Wisteria Villa. She could not stand any strange smell, especially the smell of hair oil. The maids no longer dared to use hair oil to comb their hair, but the officials' families were unaware of this. In addition, the weather was getting hotter and hotter, so the smell of hair oil would often waft in before anyone even entered the house. The princess had to endure it very hard every time to avoid losing her manners in public.
Therefore, when passing through Hancheng today, Princess Jiayi ordered not to enter the city, but to stay at the Baishiwan official post station, 50 miles away from Hancheng.
The officials of Hancheng had just seen off Zhao Chen and Eunuch Peng who were passing by here yesterday, and they were waiting here early this morning to welcome the eldest princess's carriage.
After waiting for two hours, they still didn't see them. They asked someone to inquire and found out that the princess and her entourage had changed their route, bypassing Hancheng and heading directly to the Baishiwan official post station.
The magistrate of Hancheng is surnamed Lang. He was transferred here last year. The magistrates of other places are of the fifth rank, but the magistrate of Hancheng is of the first fifth rank. Therefore, no one in Hancheng has ever been able to hold the position of magistrate for two full terms. Most of them were promoted after a short transition here.
In other words, those who could come to Hancheng to serve as prefects all had backgrounds.
Standing behind Lang Zhizhou is the prime minister of the current dynasty, Feng Ke!
Feng Ke was not only the head of the civil service, but also the father-in-law of the third prince.
Emperor Yongjia had nine princes. Although he had appointed a crown prince, who was born to Empress Yuan, he was mediocre in talent and his mother died early. Not only did he not have the support of his in-laws, he was also not favored by Emperor Yongjia. The third prince was just the opposite. His mother was Emperor Yongjia's favorite concubine, Concubine Qiao. He was smart and clever since he was a child and was deeply loved by his father. He just got married last month and married Feng Jiahe, the youngest daughter of Feng Ke.
Feng Jiahe is known as the Pearl of Beijing. The two of them are a perfect match, the envy of others.
Having said that, Mrs. Lang was even more disappointed than Magistrate Lang that he did not receive Princess Jiayi.
Lang Zhizhou had a son and a daughter. The eldest daughter, Lang Yuyu, was beautiful and graceful, and was the most beautiful woman in Hancheng.
When Feng Jiahe married the third prince as his concubine, Governor Lang became interested in her. He had seen Feng Jiahe when he was in the capital. Feng Jiahe was indeed a beauty, but his own daughter was no less beautiful than her.
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