Chapter 30 Chapter 30 "You, stop."...
Qingyao and Yueshu didn't understand why Li Shuyao suddenly became excited.
After listening to Li Shuyao's explanation, they both showed a thoughtful expression. After a while, Qingyao suddenly said "Oh" in enlightenment, "So that's the reason!"
Yue Shu was still confused: "What's the reason?"
Qingyao took their hands and asked them to come closer to her. The three of them formed an irregular small circle. Then Qingyao lowered her voice and told them a story she had heard before.
The protagonist of the story is Qingyao's childhood neighbor.
To put it simply, that family raised a son and a daughter. For some reason, they doted on their daughter since she was a child and gave her everything she wanted. Even if their son cried and made a fuss, the couple ignored him.
However, as the two children grew older, the situation seemed to reverse. When it came to their daughter, the couple became particularly fond of bringing up past events, either talking about how expensive a dress they bought her when she was three, or how valuable the jewelry she had worn since she was a child was.
But when facing his son, all his words turned into praise, praising him for his calmness and magnanimity since he was a child, and saying that he would have a bright future and be able to carry the family burden alone.
Not only do the couple revolve around their son all day long, but their daughter is also required to work like a slave.
The reason she gave was very simple - only if her brother was successful and became a high-ranking official, he would be able to protect her from being bullied in her parents' home.
After hearing it so many times, the girl probably believed it. After getting married, she kept using money from her husband's family to support her own family.
Unfortunately, her brother's talent for studying was like a flash in the pan. He only passed the children's exam once and failed the provincial exam several times. However, he became increasingly arrogant and always felt that he would pass the exam next time.
What's even funnier is that his entire family believed his lies, including his married sister. Because she was caught embezzling money, her mother-in-law took over her family's management. So she took her clothes and jewelry and sold them. Later, she even took the key to the storeroom while her mother-in-law was taking a nap...
After being discovered, she refused to admit it, which made her mother-in-law so angry that she threatened to report her to the police. In the end, she was persuaded by her husband with great difficulty.
From that day on, she was locked in her own courtyard. Perhaps because she was away from her family, her mind gradually became clearer. Thanks to her husband's unremitting efforts, she lived a peaceful life for a long time.
Until she found out that she was three months pregnant, her family bribed the gatekeeper to come into the courtyard to find her, and instigated her to use the child in her womb to continue asking for money from her in-laws.
"And she believed it?" Li Shuyao was a little surprised when she heard this.
Qingyao nodded with a heavy face and said, "Yes, it happened that the provincial examination was about to begin. Her mother lied to her, saying that she could buy the provincial examination questions for 500 taels. As long as she passed the provincial examination, the imperial examination would be easy for her brother."
“…”
Li Shuyao and Yueshu didn't want to say anything.
If I can’t pass the provincial examination, how can I pass the metropolitan examination?
Li Shuyao herself didn't dare to have such a dream.
Yue Shu thought even more deeply, and after thinking about what Li Shuyao had said before, she asked Qing Yao with a trembling voice, "Later, that girl died, didn't she?"
Qingyao looked at her with a surprised expression: "Have you heard about this too?"
Yue Shu shook her head and said, "I was just thinking that if that girl's fate wasn't tragic, you wouldn't have mentioned it so deliberately."
Seeing that Yueshu had revealed her thoughts, Qingyao didn't feel embarrassed at all.
Instead, he smiled at Yue Shu and said, "Yes! She threatened with poison, but the dosage wasn't tested correctly, and ended up with one dead and two dead. Her mother, who instigated it, was severely beaten by the officials and has been unable to walk since then. Her father, who personally purchased the poison and killed his own daughter, was thrown into prison and has not been released since."
"With no one in charge at home, and her brother being a loser, it wasn't long before he was tricked into losing several thousand taels of silver in a casino. First, his house was taken away, and later even his hands were chopped off by the casino staff!"
Qingyao finished telling the story of the family's ending in a very light tone.
Li Shuyao couldn't help but clap her hands and exclaimed "good".
Yue Shu shivered with fear, first covering her feet, then wrapping her arms around herself, hugging her weak and pitiful self, and curled up on the couch, shivering.
His originally confused mind suddenly became clear, and he no longer dared to think about how pitiful his younger brothers were.
She looked up at the two "little witches" in front of her who were still talking and smiling, and her heart felt heavy and envious.
Qingyao and Shuyao, both of them are so amazing...
*
Perhaps Qingyao's story was too horrifying, and Yueshu had a nightmare that night when she returned home.
Li Shuyao had a good night's sleep. When she woke up the next day, her apricot blossom eyes were still bright and her cheeks were rosy, as if she had secretly eaten something delicious before going to bed. She couldn't help but smile.
When she was on duty, Liang Jiugong secretly glanced at her several times, and couldn't figure out what great thing had happened to her.
They waited for another two days before news came from outside the palace about Guo Luoluo's family.
Qingyao immediately called Li Shuyao and Yueshu over and handed the letter she had just read to Li Shuyao. Li Shuyao pulled Yueshu to sit down at the table and read the letter to her in a clear voice.
When she came across a traditional Chinese character she didn't recognize, she would move closer to Qingyao, blushing and pointing. Qingyao would then whisper the pronunciation to her and explain what the character was and what it meant.
Her attitude is more patient and reliable than that of kindergarten teachers!
Li Shuyao gave Qingyao a big thumbs up in her heart and read the entire two pages of the letter with difficulty.
The facts were exactly as Qingyao had expected. When Yueshu's three younger brothers first arrived at her uncle's house, her uncle did not dare to do anything too much in private for the sake of his reputation among the clan members. No matter what they did, the couple would always ridicule them.
After a long time, the young woman, who already had self-respect, felt humiliated and started arguing with her uncle with her neck stiffened.
During the quarrel, he said something incoherently - his sister works in the Palace of Heavenly Purity. If she is valued by a master in the future, how much money will she need?
By then, his uncle's family will still have to rely on his sister for support. What's there to be proud of now?
Perhaps it was these words that awakened her uncle. He found two skinny little beggars in the outer city, ran to the side door of Shunzhen Gate and put on a show with Yueshu. After successfully taking away Yueshu's savings of several taels of silver, the family, having tasted the sweetness, no longer disliked these helpless children as before.
When Qingyao's cousins came to visit, her uncle was so scared that he trembled all over and shifted the blame to others. Sometimes he said it was his wife's idea, sometimes he said it was suggested by the elders of the clan. After a while, he started cursing and said that Yueshu's brothers were not good people either.
They knew that he was trying to trick their sister, but they still played along with them?
And over the past year or so, they knew that all the money in the family was their sister's hard-earned money, but they still took a lot of it.
Qingyao had a cousin who was quite attentive. Before going to the house, he split up into several groups. One group questioned Yueshu's uncle, the second group locked Yueshu's aunt, two children, and several servants in the house into two rooms, and the third group secretly checked the rooms of Yueshu's brothers and found that it was just as her uncle said.
Their room wasn't exactly luxurious, but it had everything they needed, and they even had the time to keep a few crickets and a parrot...
"So they are lying to you!" After reading the letter, Li Shuyao slammed the letter on the table indignantly.
Then he turned to look at Yue Shu, the angry expression on his face quickly changed, a hint of worry flashed across his dark eyes, and he stammered, "You, you know they are lying to you, so you can't cry anymore. It's not worth it."
"Our girls' tears are all..." She wanted to say pearls, but then she remembered that pearls in this era were exclusively owned by the royal family, and mentioning them would inevitably violate taboos. So she quickly changed the subject to, "The stars in the sky are so precious!"
What's this new and novel statement?
Yueshu was puzzled.
Qingyao suddenly became excited - she had played a lot with Li Shuyao recently, and her thinking had probably been assimilated a lot. She felt that whatever Li Shuyao said was very interesting.
With bright eyes, he came over and said to Li Shuyao, "What about you? Have you ever made the stars fall from the sky for anyone?"
Li Shuyao held her face in her hands and thought carefully, "Yes."
She said, "The last time I cried was because Mammy slapped me."
After he finished speaking, his eyes gradually became resentful, "If you cry again, it will be time for me to apologize to you."
Qingyao thought about it and felt that she couldn't take the blame, otherwise she would probably have to spend a lot of money on snacks and milk tea in the imperial kitchen in the next few months.
So he thought seriously for a moment, clenched his fists, and said, "No, weren't you also scared to the point of almost crying last time in Qin'an Hall?"
"But you also said it was almost, which means I didn't really cry at that time."
"What about when you were in the tea room? Weren't you bullied by others until you were on the verge of tears?"
"The key to crying without tears is 'without tears'. Without tears means there are no tears, so it's not like the stars fell from the sky."
Qingyao thought about it seriously again, "Is there no other time?"
Li Shuyao puffed out her chest proudly and said, "Of course not. I'm very strong, okay!"
Qingyao nodded calmly, "Okay, then, strong Li Xiaoyao, you have no more snacks for today."
Li Shuyao: Ah?
She suddenly widened her eyes, blinking her almond-shaped eyes, filled with disbelief.
Just to make her lose the stars in the sky, Qingyao was so cruel!
Then!
Don't blame her for not having ambition...
"Oh, Qingyao, I was wrong... I'm going to drop stars for you now." After saying that, he puffed up his cheeks and thought about all the sad events in his life over the past ten years with a pious and serious attitude.
As I thought about it, the sadness didn't come out.
Instead, she was attracted by the snacks in Qingyao's mouth, and tears almost flowed from her mouth.
*
Several people hid in Qingyao's room and discussed for more than half an hour. Finally, Yueshu made up her mind hesitantly to never care about others again and just take care of herself in the future.
So Qingyao wrote another letter to her cousins, asking them to convey Yueshu's intention to the shameless family outside the palace - they no longer wanted the silver they had given her, and just asked them not to come to her again in the future.
As for Yueshu's younger brothers, Qingyao wrote in the letter that when the Wan Liuha family encountered trouble, Yueshu was only fourteen or fifteen years old, still a weak girl, yet she was able to shoulder the heavy responsibility and take care of her three younger brothers alone, and it has been three or four years now.
It doesn't make sense that Yueshu, a girl, can do something that Changbao, the eldest of the three younger brothers and now fifteen years old, can't do.
If he really can't do it, it's probably because he is useless.
In short, it means that Yueshu has no obligation to support her uncle's family. The money she paid in the past was only to repay their family for taking care of her younger brothers. Now that her younger brothers have grown up, it is time for them to start their own business. If they are more responsible, they will have to rely on themselves in the future.
And if you really can't rely on yourself, you can still get the pension money issued by the court every month.
She, Wan Liuha Yueshu, owed them nothing in any way.
From now on, the bridge will be the bridge and the road will be the road.
"That's right!"
Seeing Qingyao finish writing the letter and then calling a palace maid to take the letter away, Li Shuyao finally breathed a sigh of relief in an exaggerated manner.
He turned around and took Yueshu's hand again, and discussed with her how to spend this month's salary.
"The first thing I need to do is buy you two new sets of clothes. You haven't worn new clothes in a long time... Oh no, two sets are not enough. It's already June and July. After the Mid-Autumn Festival in August and the Double Ninth Festival in September, it will soon be winter. You can't suffer like last year."
"Winter clothes, capes, cotton shoes, scarves, gloves, etc. all need to be prepared in advance."
"I have to buy some hand warmers, otherwise my fingers will freeze like carrots when I go out."
Li Shuyao was talking here, Yueshu was sitting nearby listening attentively. Qingyao, who had finished writing a letter, walked back slowly. When she heard her little calculations, she said without thinking, "I just happen to have a few pieces of unused cloth here, both dark green and light green. You can take them later and either make something yourself, or spend some money to hire an apprentice embroiderer in the embroidery room to make it for you."
Li Shuyao nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, you are good at embroidery, and you can make it for yourself. You can make it into any shape you want."
Yueshu listened very carefully, her pretty face tense. Every time Li Shuyao said something, she nodded heavily and said "I understand". Every time Qingyao added something, she also nodded and said "Okay, I will."
Li Shuyao and Qingyao were instantly delighted, and they became even more excited when they talked about it.
Finally, when they left Qingyao's place, Li Shuyao and Yueshu were holding countless objects in their hands. Even the collars and sleeves on the chests were not spared. Lingluo took advantage of the opportunity to stuff a lot of things into them.
Li Shuyao's items were mostly food, while Yue Shu's items were mostly practical items.
After returning to his residence, Li Shuyao rummaged around for a long time, and finally looked at the dazzling array of things on the table, and suddenly fell into deep thought.
Yueshu is a poor person now, and Qingyao uses her own things to subsidize her, partly out of sisterly love, and partly because she sees that Yueshu is so miserable.
But what about her? She wasn't poor, so why did Qingyao force so many things on her?
And...is she considered to be kept by Qingyao now?
hey-hey!
*
Perhaps because she had been worried about Yueshu's condition these days, Li Shuyao forgot about her own affairs for a while.
When she remembered it again later, several days had passed since the monthly salary was paid out. The Ministry of Internal Affairs had sorted out the data and saved the files. She no longer had a suitable opportunity to ask why two taels of silver were deducted from her monthly salary for no reason.
She was so angry that she even ate half a bowl less of rice that day.
Yueshu saw that she was not in a good state, walked over and asked her in a low voice what was wrong?
Li Shuyao angrily and helplessly recounted the whole story.
Knowing that Li Shuyao had delayed going to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to reason with her because of her affairs, Yue Shu felt very guilty and said, "How about I give you these two taels of silver?"
"No, that's different." Li Shuyao replied with a breath of anger.
Yue Shu immediately became puzzled, "Why is it different?" Isn't it both two taels of silver?
Li Shuyao glanced at her dimly. How could the money of capitalists be the same as the money of workers?
However, she couldn't explain the reasoning behind this to Yueshu in detail. She could only tilt her head and think about it, then said to Yueshu, "In short, it's different. Oh, Yueshu, don't worry about it. I'll ask Nanny Lin when the monthly salary is distributed next month."
"Please keep your monthly salary safe. You will need it many times in the future."
"But..." Yueshu still seemed hesitant.
Li Shuyao could only clench her chopsticks tightly and put on a serious look on her pretty face.
"Yue Shu, be good and listen to me, okay?"
Yue Shu: “…”
She nodded with an indescribable expression and never mentioned the matter again.
She just silently made up her mind that if Shu Yao didn't get the money back next month, she would... sneak into Shu Yao's room and put the money into the cabinet where she hid her food.
This way, with delicious food in front of her, she shouldn't be so angry!
…
Life in the tea room returned to normal.
Because fresh tea leaves were delivered to the emperor from all over the country during this period, Li Shuyao interacted more frequently with the imperial tea room. She would go there almost every two or three days to get new tea leaves.
That day she had just returned from the imperial tea room. She poured the newly received tea into a special jar, sealed it, put a label on it, and put it back on the treasure shelf.
He made a new record in the tea book, then slowly walked out of the tea room and went to his own room.
After entering July, the weather was getting hotter and hotter. Li Shuyao only took a walk outside, and her clothes were almost wet with sweat. A few strands of hair on her temples stuck to her cheeks, making her very uncomfortable. She wished she could go back to her room immediately.
She walked without stopping. After returning to the house, she took a shower and changed into dry clothes. Then she lazily lay down on the rocking chair Qingyao had brought her. Looking at the golden sunlight spreading across the courtyard, she suddenly thought of Egg Waffles...
The egg waffles are shaped like honeycombs. When they are still in the pot, the aroma can be smelled hundreds of meters away. After they are taken out of the pot, the skin is golden and crispy, and the inside is dense. When you take a bite, your mouth is filled with the mixed aroma of eggs and milk.
It is best eaten while hot; if it gets cold it loses its unique taste.
You can also roll it up and put a few scoops of ice cream in the middle...
hiss.
As Li Shuyao was thinking, she felt her lips were a little dry for some reason, so she stuck out her tongue and licked them.
After licking it, I felt that I was too disappointing. I didn’t want to eat any precious delicacies, but instead wanted to taste the street food.
But...it smells really good.
She even wanted to eat roasted sweet potatoes.
At this time, Yueshu and several palace maids came back from outside. She was pushed to the middle of the crowd, with a polite smile on her face and a slow and unhurried tone of voice.
The palace maids around her mostly had flattering smiles on their faces, and their voices sounded noisy. When they entered the yard, they saw that Li Shuyao's door was wide open. She was sitting in a rocking chair in the middle of the room in a daze. They looked at each other, left Yueshu and walked towards Li Shuyao.
When Li Shuyao came to her senses, the person surrounded had become her.
Only those few people still had some sense and did not dare to enter the house without her permission. They just stood outside the threshold, blocking the sunlight in the yard, and said something with a smile on their faces.
Li Shuyao was initially immersed in her own fantasy and did not hear clearly what they said. After a while, she came to her senses and just heard what they were talking about Nanny Liang.
"Madam Liang? Is she the new nanny in the Palace of Heavenly Purity?" Li Shuyao asked curiously.
When the palace maid heard her response, her eyes lit up. She walked into the room in two or three steps, surrounded Li Shuyao, and half-knelt on her knees. Judging from her posture, it seemed that she wanted to massage Li Shuyao's shoulders and back.
Li Shuyao felt uncomfortable being surrounded, so she stood up, put on her shoes, and stood up from the rocking chair.
Yueshu had already returned to her room, probably to take a bath. Li Shuyao had no way to question her, so she could only pin her hopes on a few palace maids.
In order to please her, the palace maids quickly revealed everything clearly, like pouring beans from a bamboo tube.
This Madam Liang was originally an old lady in the Cining Palace. She had served three emperors. Because she was highly respected in the palace and favored by the Empress Dowager, she usually either lived at home in her old age or went to the palace to accompany the Empress Dowager and talk.
She herself did not do any of the hard work of serving others, and even easy tasks like training palace maids would not fall on her.
Normally, she only needed to chat with the Empress Dowager. Even if an ordinary lady from the royal family entered the palace, she probably would not have received such favor and treatment as she did.
Such a huge Buddha was invited back to the Qianqing Palace by the emperor. This made the palace servants secretly wonder whether the situation in the Qianqing Palace was going to change.
"It shouldn't change." Li Shuyao frowned, she couldn't explain it herself.
Because there is no such part in the original plot, but the name Liang Ma Ma sounds a little familiar...
In which plot did it appear?
Li Shuyao thought for a long time but couldn't figure it out. Seeing Yueshu had changed her clothes and came to find her, she waved her hand casually and let the palace maids go about their own business.
…
The incident with Nanny Liang did not leave any ripples in the hearts of Li Shuyao and Yueshu.
This was probably because both of them were very carefree and thought that even if the sky fell in the Qianqing Palace, there would probably be Eunuch Liang and the four maids to hold it up. How could it be the turn of these two little palace maids to speak?
So they turned around and began to happily hold hands again, discussing the plan of "hibernating together" in a few months!
*
Two days later, news came from the harem that the eldest prince had moved into the prince's residence and was living alone.
When Concubine Nara heard the news, she cried until her eyes turned red and she almost fainted.
Li Shuyao was somewhat puzzled and leaned in to ask Yue Shu, "Didn't the palace have a rule long ago? I think Concubine Nara should have been mentally prepared, so why is she crying so sadly?"
This part of the plot is consistent with the original novel - the eldest prince was almost poisoned. After Concubine Nara found out, instead of taking precautions in advance, she used her own son's life as a bargaining chip and designed to expose the person behind the poison to the public.
Although nothing happened to the eldest prince, the emperor always felt uncomfortable when he thought about it. He always felt that hidden beneath the kind appearance of Concubine Nala was a deeper thought.
This is why the idea of separating the eldest prince from Concubine Nara came up early, so that he would not be instilled with any wrong ideas by Concubine Nara during his growth process, which would cause disaster in the future.
Yue Shu shook her head. She didn't understand the struggles in the harem. After thinking for a while, she guessed, "Perhaps the emperor's order came too suddenly?"
Li Shuyao was thoughtful. It seemed to be true, but she always felt that something was not right.
I thought about it for a long time but couldn't figure it out.
Yue Shu then asked her again, "Do you still want to go to the Imperial Kitchen Tea Room?"
Li Shuyao nodded absentmindedly and pointed far ahead, "I'll turn there later. Yueshu, you go back first."
"Okay, then I'll go back and prepare hot water for you to bathe."
"Okay, okay, thank you Yueshu, you are the best!" Li Shuyao agreed with a smile.
The two parted at the corner.
After receiving tea from the Imperial Kitchen Tea House, Li Shuyao was walking towards the tea room when she heard a childish yet inexplicably powerful voice behind her, "You, stop."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
