Chapter 98 Chapter 98 Update.
After breakfast that day, a little maid working for the housekeeper went to the servants' quarters to ask Ji Xu to go to the storehouse to collect his share.
"What is a share?"
Ji Feng asked as he splashed the dishwater.
"The share is what you are entitled to. In the past, in addition to the monthly salary, the Hu chef could also get ten catties of firewood, two catties of meat, ten eggs, three ounces of soapberry, and two sets of clothes for spring and winter.
Your sister has the same amount. If she can stay for a long time, the housekeeper will make her some summer clothes next month, which will be better than what I have on."
The little girl lifted the corner of her clothes, which were made of coarse cloth.
Ji Xu was hired from outside, with a monthly salary of one or two taels, which made her comparable to the second-class maids in the Second Master's courtyard. However, she was exposed to smoke and fire all day long, and was not as respectable as the maids in the inner courtyard.
I won’t be able to see my master for another ten days or half a month, so the rewards will naturally not be as much as those in the inner courtyard.
However, this dress is still made of fine cloth according to the custom.
"Fine cloth? No wonder they say the county magistrate is so impressive that he even makes fine cloth clothes for them. I heard there are nearly a hundred people in this mansion. How much money must it cost?"
Ji Fengyue felt that it was right to come to the County Magistrate's Mansion.
The little girl said, "That's nothing. The older maids in the Second Master's courtyard wear gold hairpins on their heads. The Second Master is very generous to everyone. He even gives the Yue cloth from Kuaiji to people. You will understand after you have worked here for a while."
Ji Feng was stunned when she heard this. Of course she had heard of the fame of Kuaiji Yue cloth. Purple flower, pure white, Yuan color, blue and white, eggplant flower, checkered, and twill patterns were not available in her area. She had only seen them in person when she came to Wu County. They were truly precious.
Ji Xu took back the shares in the amount, exchanged the firewood for change, and the meat was two pounds of pork, fat and lean, and he made braised pork in the small kitchen for lunch.
No matter how much firewood, salt, oil and sauce were used, some money would be put into the public purse.
The servants who usually had to boil water and cook had to pay her for using the things in the small kitchen, and she would not write IOUs.
When I first took over this small kitchen, the accounts of the kitchen and the warehouse did not match. The kitchen actually owed the warehouse ten taels of silver. This was because the kitchen was short of money before the end of each month, and they would buy firewood and rice on credit from the warehouse, which accumulated into a debt.
Even the signatures of the previous kitchen managers are still there, so they cannot deny it.
This debt can only be paid off slowly by saving money in the future, so every piece of firewood or grain of salt you use will have to be added to the public account.
The soapberries arrived just in time. In the afternoon, the two buckets of water that Ji Xu had dried in the yard had become warm, and he could wash his hair with the soapberries.
Ji Xu turned a bucket upside down and placed a basin on the bucket. He asked his sisters to lower their heads towards the basin one by one and washed their hair.
I also combed and washed my hair and twisted it under the shade of a tree.
There was still half a bucket of water left. Xiaoyao had come to play with Jizhu before. He was squatting beside her watching her wash her hair. After squatting for a while, he was called away to move things. He just came back now.
Ji Xu called her, "Come here, I will comb your hair too."
Her hair looked like a bunch of weeds. Mrs. Xiao had seen lice crawling on her forehead when she first went there. She didn't know how long it had been since she had washed it.
Ji Xu actually pulled out three or four cockleburs that were tangled in her hair, cut off some lumps that were impossible to comb out, and then used an egg white before he could comb her hair.
There were many small blood scabs on his scalp, some caused by lice bites and some caused by scratching himself. Ji Xu avoided the wounds and combed them three or four times with a fine comb, killing many lice.
Feng and Zhu were searching around her head. Feng said, "It seems like it's gone."
Ji Xu broke open the soap pods, made some foam and used it to wash her clean.
Ji Feng asked, "Where's your share? The big slave in the pigsty took your share and didn't even wash your hair. All day long she just asked you to do some work. Look how dirty it is."
"Where did you get such a big bowl of bean paste?"
Just then, the big slave who was in charge of the pigsty returned to the servants' quarters and saw Ji Feng pouring shampoo water under the tree, and asked.
"Interesting! I heard you took the pig's share. How come her head is so dirty? Where's her monthly firewood and soapberry? You have the nerve to steal other people's things!"
Ji Feng pointed at her and asked her to hand over the things.
"I'm just keeping it for her."
The big slave came into the house shyly, holding a handful of soapberry and five firewood coins.
"She just arrived, that's all."
Ji Feng snatched it away and gave it back to Xiaoyao.
Xiaoyao had just washed his hair, and Ji Xu wrapped his hair with a towel and wiped it. He took his things and played with Ji Zhu in the yard for a while, and his hair was dry.
When he left, he raised his hand in front of Ji Xu, still holding the soapberry and the money.
"Give it to me?" Ji Xu said.
Her face had just been washed, and she was so thin that her eyes looked round. She nodded, made an eating gesture, grabbed the air with both hands above her head, patted her chest, and held the thing in front of her again.
Ji Xu was confused, and Ji Feng also said, "What is this little mute doing?"
"She said that her sister gave her food and washed her hair, and she wanted to thank her and give this thing to her."
Ji Zhu said from the side, and Xiao Yao nodded vigorously after hearing it, as if to say that this was what he meant.
Ji Xu thought about it. She was so young and had no one to rely on in the mansion. If she brought this thing back to the house, someone might steal it. So she said:
"Then I'll keep it for you. We'll ask you to wash our hair next time."
Then he called her and said, "Come here tomorrow morning and I will comb your hair."
Xiaoyao nodded in agreement and skipped away.
As the sun went down further, Qingnu came to the servants' quarters with a beaming face, accompanied by a little maid, who was holding something and shouting all the way:
"Xu Nu, Xu Nu."
This caused Manager Zou from the kitchen opposite to look at him curiously.
Qingnu was holding a piece of fine cloth, which was obviously woven by a fine craftsman. She said to Jixu:
"There were twenty fruit tables, and mine was the only one with a net. The Second Master stopped in front of my table and looked at it for a long time, saying that I was more ingenious than others and rewarded me with quite a few things.
I heard that this piece of eggplant-flowered Yue cloth came from your hometown of Kuaiji, so I brought it to you. You have fair skin, so it can be made into clothes for you."
Qingnu had just had a great time in the courtyard and shared some with her close sisters. Although this eggplant flower cloth was nice, it did not suit her skin tone, so she gave it to Jixu.
"And two bowls of ice cream, which is the best way to cool down in the summer."
When it was served, I saw the crushed ice clinking in the milky white yogurt, with almonds and chopped walnuts on top, which made my mouth water just by looking at it in the dog days of summer.
"Oh my God, there's still ice on this hot summer day!"
Ji Feng was surprised when he saw it.
Qingnu was very pleased with this tone and raised his head and said:
"There's an ice cellar in the mansion, so it can store ice without melting. This amount of food is only used for a small amount. In Second Master's room, an ice jar can use up a hundred liters of ice a day. The cool air inside is very comfortable."
In fact, she had only heard from the first-class maids that a third-class maid like her who only watered the flowers and grass was not qualified to enter the master's house, but she loved to hear Ji Feng's exclamations.
Manager Zou kept looking over here, and Ji Xu invited her into the house to talk, while he divided the ice cream into small bowls.
The two sisters gathered around the wooden table, and Jizhu touched the rim of the bowl.
"It's really cold."
He put his cold hand on Ji Feng's cheek and said, "Second sister, are you feeling comfortable?"
“It’s so comfortable.”
Ji Feng was also very curious about it. She took a sip from the edge of the bowl. It was sweet and cool, with a frankincense. It was so delicious that her eyes sparkled.
Ji Xu held it up and asked Qingnu to eat it too, but Qingnu said that she had already eaten it before and didn't want any. The little girl who came with her got a small bowl, sat on the doorstep, and ate with relish.
Ji Xu said, "Who would dare to think of eating ice in the hottest days of summer? Only the county governor's mansion has such a good master. Who would be so careless as to become a runaway slave?"
The last sigh made Qingnu feel strange, and he asked, "What escaped slave?"
Ji Xu said that he had seen a notice in the county magistrate's office to capture runaway slaves.
"I think his name is... Ye, and he was tortured and taken in by the county magistrate."
"Is he from your outer courtyard?" Qingnu sat down and chatted.
Ji Xu said, "I've never heard of the outer courtyard, so it must be from the inner courtyard."
Qing Nu said with certainty, "Impossible, there is no such person in the inner courtyard. You said he was tortured with the nose, so it is impossible for me not to know about such a conspicuous person."
"That's strange. I saw it clearly. Could the government notice be wrong?"
Qing Nu said, "If there is anyone in the inner courtyard that I don't know about, then the only one left is the Alchemy Building."
Alchemy requires a lot of attention to the temperature of the fire, which is not only affected by weather such as rain or sunshine, but also the yin and yang energy in the body of the person burning the furnace, which is also related to the quality of the pill. Therefore, it is a forbidden area in the mansion, and only those who are selected to serve in the building can enter and exit.
"But it's a wonderful place, with so many girls and boys looking at it. It's impossible for you to become a runaway slave. You must have seen it wrong, and mistook the Prince's Mansion or the Li Mansion for the County Magistrate's Mansion."
Qingnu chatted here for a while, and when she left, she saw Manager Zou pulling her unhappy daughter into the house, and her back couldn't help but straighten up.
When she got home, she picked out two pieces of fine jewelry and a cup of iced lychees to give to Mrs. Lai as a gift.
Mrs. Lai just came back from outside. Qingnu peeled the lychee kernels and put them into her mouth. She massaged her shoulders and legs considerately and said how glorious she was today.
However, he did not mention that this case was Ji Xu's idea. Thinking of this person, he asked:
"Foster mother, is there a runaway slave named Ye in the Alchemy Building?"
Because the Second Master was obsessed with the art of cultivating immortality through the use of elixirs, he was almost mad. The servants in the Alchemy Building who did a good job and won the Second Master's favor were released from prison, married off, and given land. Most of the servants did not want to leave the house, so there was always a vacant position inside. Qingnu was looking forward to entering the Alchemy Building so that she could accompany the Second Master often.
Therefore, he wished there were runaway slaves so that he could fill the vacancy.
Mrs. Lai opened her triangular eyes and asked, "Who told you to inquire about such things?"
Qing Nu felt something was wrong and quickly fell to the ground, saying, "I heard the little girls say there was such a notice outside. I was curious for a moment and said something."
"The slaves in the Alchemy Building have food, clothing and other expenses equivalent to those of half their masters. How could any of them become runaway slaves? After all, they can't enter the building, so they are just talking nonsense." Madam Lai closed her eyes again and said.
"That's what I said." Qingnu asked again, "Stepmother, when can I enter the building..."
Mrs. Lai just asked her to wait.
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