Chapter 114 Chapter 114 Update.
In the middle of the night, when everyone in the servants' courtyard was fast asleep, Manager Zou sneaked into Chef Hu's room.
She guessed that Ji Xu had some money serving the Second Master.
Take the piece of Xiangyi brocade she had obtained before, for example. She never made new clothes with it, and she never found the material in the box that day. She must have sold it for money. Such good material was worth at least fifty taels of silver.
So he picked up a copper lantern and looked around, knocking on the brick kang, moving away loose bricks everywhere, and even checking the rat holes.
"Where did the little hoof hide the money?"
She couldn't find the money, so she set her sights on Feng and Zhu. After they recovered for a while, she would give them steamed buns.
You know, the cook in the small kitchen was replaced by hers, and at her instruction, no food was left for the two little ones. They came late after washing the urinal by the water, so they could only scrape some rice grains and eat some leftovers.
Ji Feng saw that the steamed bun had just been taken out of the steaming steamer and was clean. She broke it into half and gave it to her sister, who then ate it. She rolled her eyes at the old bitch and wondered what she was planning.
"Is the steamed bun I made delicious?"
Manager Zou looked at them and said with a smile that he felt disgusted by their smell and just let them stand outside to eat.
Jizhu said silently in her heart: It’s not as delicious as the one my sister cooks.
I miss my sister so much that my nose feels sore. The steamed bun tastes salty too.
"Look, you're so happy eating a steamed bun that you even cried. Alas, you have no relatives or friends in the mansion, and you're so young. Why don't you become my goddaughter? Then others won't dare to bully you."
He took out a bunch of money from his pocket and waved it in front of them.
"Look, this is your monthly allowance. I got it back for you."
Ji Feng reached out to take it, but she took it back and said kindly:
"I'll keep it for you. When you grow up and want to leave home and get married, I'll give it to you as a dowry. As for the money your sister has been saving, leave it all with me. Don't let those heartless maids take it away."
Ji Feng pointed at her and said, "Old bitch, you're cheating us out of our monthly allowance and yet you're still saying it nicely. What goddaughter? Pah! Everyone with a bad conscience in the world has to call you boss!"
Seeing that she was difficult to coax, Manager Zou became so angry that his face turned ugly. He wanted to snatch the steamed bun back, but Ji Feng quickly stuffed it all into her mouth and swallowed it in front of him.
She took off her shoes again and wanted to hit her, but Ji Feng pulled her sister and ran away like a loach.
"Little bastard! Hey!"
Manager Zou tried hard to catch the opponent but missed, and instead tripped himself and fell to the ground.
The little girls around her burst into laughter. She became more and more angry and wanted to beat and kill them, so she kept chasing Fengzhu and the other two.
"Murder! Manager Zou is going to kill someone!"
They ran out of the servants' yard, and Ji Feng shouted for help all the way.
The fat on Manager Zou's face was covered with sweat, and she could never catch up. Instead, people pointed at her and laughed at her, saying that she was disrespectful to the elderly and bullying children. She spat at the back of the figure and went back unwillingly.
"Oh no, Feng, come up quickly."
One day, the two sisters were washing a urine bucket by the river. There was a pile of copper coins next to them. When the sun shone on them, the stench was so strong that everyone took a detour.
There was no one else here. Ying was lying on the shore, covering her nose with a handkerchief, and waving to them.
The Second Master had gone, and she, Yu, and He were all transferred back to the Master's courtyard to serve. Naturally, their new place wasn't as glorious as before, so she said to Feng who had just come up:
"You two should leave this place quickly. I heard from He that her mother, Manager Zou, has persuaded Madam Qu to force you to sell yourselves to this mansion as slaves."
"My sister and I don't want to be slaves. What does she want? Does she want to kill us?"
Ji Feng glanced at her sister who was still squatting by the water washing behind her and said.
Xing said, "Why kill you? Forcing good people into slavery is something the county magistrate doesn't want to do. If they force you to sell your bodies, I'm sure Manager Zou will embezzle the money you earned. Where can you go to complain to her? The master is busy now and doesn't care about these things. All the internal affairs of the mansion are handled by Madam Qu."
After all, she is much older and knows more.
"I am a slave, and I am working in the county magistrate's office, where I have better food and clothing than the poorer families. I often miss my hometown at night, but there is really no one left in my family, they are all dead. Otherwise, who would give up being a registered citizen and serve others?
Think carefully about it. If you really have nowhere else to go, then just sell yourself here. But you have offended Manager Zou, a woman with a heart smaller than a needle..."
Xing said this and left. She had to go back to the yard to look after the tea stove and couldn't be away from anyone for long.
"Second sister, aren't you going to clean those urine buckets?"
Jizhu was led ashore by her and asked why the old woman in charge didn't give them breakfast before they finished washing.
"We don't care about these things anymore. We can't stay here anymore."
Ji Feng was busy pulling her along, and she didn't realize that her sister had died in the river. When her sister was a child in Wu, she was an excellent swimmer.
Ji Feng especially remembered that after her elder sister entered the alchemy building, she whispered to her that there was hope of saving her mother. Before accompanying the second master out of the mansion to go hunting in Yan State, she also told him that he didn't know that there was a dog hole in the mansion, as if she had a vague premonition that she would not be able to come back.
Ji Feng believed that her elder sister might still be alive. She stayed here even after washing the urine bucket because she wanted to guard the silver and money underground. Moreover, the three sisters had agreed that if they got separated one day, they would wait there for their elder sister to find them.
"That old immortal wants to harm us, so we have to leave this place first."
"You didn't wash the tiger in the river, but came back to be lazy. If you can't finish washing it, I'll make you suffer!"
The person who spoke was an old woman who did the same dirty and tiring job. She used to be a brusher of copper buckets and was always looked down upon. But ever since Fengzhu and the others had sent her to wash the urine buckets, she had relied on her seniority and claimed to be in charge. She had left the brushes to her sisters to clean, and she would chat with others under a big tree.
Seeing Fengzhu and the other two walking by, he pointed at them and nagged at them.
"Look at this big sun, it's good to drink some water!"
"Look, it's this Feng who's the best at talking back. The hired ones outside aren't honest. No wonder Manager Zou doesn't like her."
The old woman chatted with the old servant next to her until Fengzhu and the other two walked away.
It was noon and there were not many people in the servants' courtyard. Ji Feng went in and packed her bag, leaving the bedding untouched. She only packed her clothes, shoes and socks and hid them in the hole for heating the kang.
Now that spring has begun and the weather is getting warmer, the kang is no longer heated.
As for the monthly allowance they received when my elder sister was alive, when it reached a thousand coins, my elder sister had already exchanged it for silver in the storehouse and buried it all under the doorpost of Hu Chef's house. In addition, there was the twenty taels of travel money for coming to Youzhou, the fifty taels of money from selling embroidery and brocade, and the rewards and monthly allowance my elder sister received, the total amount was seventy-five taels.
There was no place to move, so I just packed up the sixty months' salary I had earned recently and tucked it in the innermost part of my bag.
With empty hands, he pretended to go to the corner gate and told the gatekeeper that he wanted to buy some candy.
The servant, perhaps having received a signal, drove them back, saying:
"Before leaving, please report to Madam Qu first."
It's not like when Ji Xu was around, when he would run around to buy things like a lackey.
Feng and Zhu then returned to the riverside, and when it was late at night and everyone was asleep, they slipped out through a dog hole.
In the afternoon, the kitchen distributed dinner to the servants early. After Xiaoyao finished feeding the pigs, he came to see them secretly with the big pig slave on his back and brought them some wheat crumbs.
She had just gotten this little one, and she kept it hidden in her arms all the way, making gestures that Ji Zhu could understand and saying:
There was nothing left to eat in the kitchenette.
Later, I helped them clean the urine bucket. After that, the sun had set and the afterglow shone bright yellow on the river. They sat on the shore and shared the wheat crumbs to eat.
Ji Zhu stroked Xiaoyao's fluffy head with her hand, feeling a little reluctant.
"Xiaoyao, let me comb your hair, okay?"
"This is unbelievable, this is unbelievable!"
In the middle of the night, the big pig slave got up in a daze and came back to urinate. He started yelling at the three empty bunks inside.
"The pig is gone! Feng and Zhu kidnapped the pig and ran away!"
She called the youngest child "Zi". Ji Feng had once accused her of embezzling Zi's money, which made her feel uncomfortable. Now she did not allow Zi to interact with her sisters, and she still withheld Zi's monthly allowance.
The lights were on in the lower courtyard. The head steward, Zou, wanted to force the two of them into slavery. He was trying to control them. He questioned the people in this room.
"Those two have abducted the pig from this mansion. If anyone knows about this, please tell Madam Qu before she gets angry!"
He specifically asked Que and Granny Sun, "You two were always close to them. Now they've slipped away, and you had no idea?"
Both Que and Grandma Sun said they didn't know.
"They stay by the river all day long, and we seldom see them. The old widow wants them to wash the tiger eggs that she needs to wash herself. Maybe she is afraid to come back because she hasn't finished washing the tiger eggs yet?" Que said.
Grandma Sun also said: "Yes, yes..."
The big pig slave snorted and said, "I was half asleep when I heard a dog barking in the east pen."
Manager Zou immediately led his men to chase after them. These two people were worth two taels of silver, and they had some silver hidden somewhere, so they would never let them go like this.
She sent someone to report to Madam Qu that the two of them had kidnapped a young slave from the mansion and escaped, and Madam Qu ordered her to bring them back.
Here, Feng, Zhu and Xiaoyao each carried a bag on their backs and did not dare to light a lamp. They just ran eastward desperately under the dim moonlight.
In the corner of the east wall, there was a dog hole overgrown with weeds, which was more than a foot wide. This dog hole was discovered when the elder sister took them to clean the yard. It was no longer used and was blocked with some broken bricks.
At this moment, Ji Feng hurriedly kicked the bricks at the entrance of the hole. Fortunately, they were not poured, so they loosened after a few kicks.
“Someone’s coming!”
Jizhu pointed at the torches that were lit in the distance, which were getting closer and closer.
Ji Fengqing walked out of the cave, took off the three people's bags and stuffed them out, and then let Xiaoyao crawl out through the dog hole.
Manager Zou's group was getting closer and closer, and they could be seen in the light of the fire.
"There they are! Don't let them get away!"
"There! Get them!"
"Xiaozhu, hurry!"
Xiaozhu was small and wore thin clothes in spring, so she managed to get out flexibly.
However, Ji Feng was already ten years old after the New Year, and her skeleton had grown a lot. The entrance to the cave was only about a foot wide, trapping her.
"Hey!"
She drilled hard, watching the fire from the other end getting closer and closer, and the shouting was almost in her ears.
"Second sister, hurry up!"
Ji Zhu and Xiao Yao were trying their best to pull her out from outside, their faces flushed red. Ji Feng also kicked and exerted force, and finally twisted her upper body out.
Manager Zou grabbed one of her feet. She sat on the ground and kicked him in the face, finally breaking free.
Manager Zou only had one stinky shoe in her hand, and she was fat and broad, so even the thinnest maid here, who was an adult woman after all, couldn't get out and was stuck and unable to move.
Manager Zou pulled her away and ordered:
"Open the corner door and chase them out!"
She was on her way to the corner gate facing the street. When she turned a corner, a panicked boy bumped into her. She rubbed her face in pain and said,
"Who is blind!"
"It's the guy at the door." said the person next to him who recognized him.
The boy ran away with his head in his hands, shouting:
"This is terrible! There are a lot of soldiers outside! I don't know what kind of clothes they are wearing, and they are about to break down the door and come in! Go and report to the master!"
Manager Zou slapped the boy in the face and said, "Why are you so flustered? This is the prefectural governor's office. How could you possibly cause such a scene?"
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