The Liu family has a north courtyard
The lights in the room flickered, and the soft smoke curtain was filled with mist.
As usual, Yulan stood at the door holding a wooden basin. She grew up in a brothel and was sold to the Liu family by her mother, who was a brothel girl, when she was nine years old. Pretending to be deaf and dumb was what she was best at.
The one who was having a good time inside was Concubine Yun from the Liu family. She had once been a singer in the opera troupe and was considered a star in her time. When Master Liu heard her perform "A Dream in the Garden," he immediately paid her a high price to marry her off. He didn't even have a sedan chair; he just carried her through the side door, covered with a veil.
Mrs. Qin was so angry about this that she even arranged for the courtyard to be in the most remote place. From the main hall, one had to turn through seven or eight small courtyards.
Originally, Mr. Liu wanted to try something new and didn't mind the remoteness, but after a while, it became unpopular.
At first, Concubine Yun still had some tricks up her sleeve: she would sing, practice her voice, and even put on a play with the master. In short, the master would just look at her when she came over. But now, even if she tried her best, it wouldn't work. She didn't have a child to begin with, so she was even more daring.
The rustling of men and women in the room grew fainter, and soon Yulan was called in to help Yun's wife change her clothes. She held the water, her head lowered, not daring to raise her eyelids. But she couldn't help it when the man's large, rough hand suddenly touched her exposed wrist. Water spilled all over the floor, and then another loud slap hit her face.
"You little bitch, you're just a brothel girl who's good at picking up guys. Tomorrow I'm going to chop off your chicken feet! Get out of here!"
He was slapped by his master and moved to the North Courtyard early the next morning.
The North Courtyard is more remote and colder than the West Courtyard. It is already March, but as soon as I walked into the yard, the chill from the bluestone slabs on the ground penetrated my feet through my shoes and socks to the top of my head.
Butler Liu sent her to the gate of the courtyard and did not go in. He pointed with his finger to let her go in by herself.
The front hall of the Liu family mansion is the master's place, the east courtyard is where the lady and the young masters and young ladies of the mansion live, the west courtyard is where the concubines and servants live, and only the north courtyard was expanded at the back and is where the master's shameful illegitimate son lives.
Everyone called him the Second Young Master, but privately called him the Little Bastard. He was the child of Master Liu's misdeeds in Yangzhou. It was said that he had a green face and fangs, a perverse and cruel temper, and rarely ventured out. Over time, the place became increasingly desolate and eerie.
Yulan stepped into the overgrown yard. All around was silence, the only sound being the crisp snapping of dry branches on the ground, like the snapping of bones by a stray dog. A round head loomed from the dry grass.
"Who is it?" Yulan thought it was a wild dog at first and was scared. When she saw it was a human head, she felt relieved and asked.
Turning around, he saw a fat man named Bao Fu, the second young master's servant. The entire North Courtyard was under his charge, and he was the only one in charge.
"Yulan is the maid assigned by Butler Liu today. From now on, she will serve the Second Young Master in the North Courtyard. Please say hello to Brother Fu." Yulan greeted with a smile.
The maids from other courtyards would take a detour when they saw him, but Yulan was the first to smile at him. The March sunlight gently fell on her body and face, making her small oval face look like a fuzzy peach. The desolate courtyard seemed to be blooming with unique flowers.
Bao Fu used his feet to push aside the weeds and began to introduce Yulan to the North Courtyard. Actually, there wasn't much to introduce. It was just one courtyard, three or four side rooms, and he circled the area seven or eight times before finally leading them to the main courtyard.
That is the residence of Mr. Liu II.
Yulan suddenly felt her throat dry and itchy and she coughed lightly a few times. It would be a lie to say she wasn't nervous given the terrible rumors outside, but she seemed to have a vague sense of sympathy in her heart, and suddenly she felt a little bit of expectation and pity.
Perhaps they were all born to prostitutes, perhaps she was the illegitimate daughter of some playboy. If her mother had had the courage to take her to those wealthy mansions, wouldn't she have been inferior? Even in a desolate place like the North Courtyard, at least she was a master.
She didn't dare dwell on it, fearing that if she thought too much, her greed would become insatiable and she wouldn't be able to live like this. At least her mother hadn't let her grow up in that filthy place, and she hadn't made the same mistake she had.
The door was opened by Bao Fu, and a cool breeze mixed with a strange fishy smell emanated from the room. Bao Fu led the way and said to the second young master, who was nowhere to be seen, "Thanks to the master and his wife for their concern, I have added a maid to take care of the second young master today."
“…” No one responded.
Yulan then said, "Second Master, I am Yulan, the new maid who arrived today. I would like to greet you. If you need me in the future, please feel free to ask for my help."
“…” Still no one responded.
Yulan thought that he was indeed as eccentric and aloof as the rumors said. Maybe he really had a green face and fangs, otherwise why was he so rarely seen?
She stood there motionless, seeing Bao Fu's face full of confusion, his round body flexibly leaning in, not knowing what he was looking at. Suddenly he screamed, "The Second Young Master has committed suicide!"
She lowered her head and took a closer look. She saw a winding path of blood on the ground, soaking her shoes and socks. The source was a pair of pale and withered hands hanging by the bed, with fresh blood oozing out.
When Yulan was a child, she saw a woman trying to commit suicide in a brothel. The blood was splattered three feet high, and the beams of the house were dyed red. If the blood had not dripped onto her face, which was warm and had a fishy smell, how could the young girl have imagined that it was the despair that burst out from a living being?
The black haze enveloped Magnolia like blood rain dripping from the beams of the house. The bright red blood wrapped around her legs like a poisonous snake, strangling her neck and suffocating her. The past was like a nightmare that lingered in her heart all the time.
“Alive.”
This is the belief that keeps me tossing and turning on countless nights.
"I have to stay alive no matter what."
In the darkness, the blood rain pressed on her forehead again and again. She ran in nightmares countless times. She opened her mouth to shout out the man's name, but she couldn't shout it out.
Finally, a ray of dazzling sunlight parted the dark and red scene, caressing her forehead with warmth. "Is that her mother?" she whispered softly.
"It's me, your Brother Fu." Before Bao Fu's chubby hands even touched her hair, the greasy, disgusting touch suddenly woke Yulan from her dream.
"You faint when you see blood, and you keep your eyes closed for three days." He said to himself, stroking a food box in his hand.
Yulan looked at the food box thoughtfully, and casually smoothed her collar and asked, "Have you been taking care of me these days?"
"Don't get me wrong, there are differences between men and women. I'm looking for Aunt Qingfang from the Madam's Courtyard." For some reason, he felt a little aggrieved and angry when he said it. He put down the lunch box and left.
When she heard it was Aunt Qingfang, Yulan breathed a sigh of relief and quietly thanked her towards the open door.
She fainted for three days at the sight of blood, and so did the Second Young Master. The doctor said they were a little weak, but their lives were safe. However, they had cut a meridian in their left hand, leaving them crippled. Master Liu feigned concern for them for a few days, but then he was no longer in one of the concubine's rooms.
Sometimes, Yulan envied these gentlemen. They were so heartless, seemingly unaffected by anything, yet they loved to weep bitterly in front of the girls, describing their hardships and difficulties, pretending to be harmless and pitiful. They coaxed the women's hearts into a pool of spring water, willingly pouring out their hearts and souls, but these gentlemen were heartless to begin with, so naturally they didn't recognize their own hearts, livers, spleens, and lungs. In the end, they would take advantage of these soft-hearted women and then go on to find new pleasures.
Sometimes she wondered if her father, whom she had never met, was as romantic and cheerful as Master Liu, and had coaxed her soft-hearted mother into repeating his name until her death.
Indeed, upon meeting the Second Young Master Liu, she began to understand her mother a little better. His plain, thin face rested quietly against the rosewood bed frame, lifeless yet radiant with a melancholy, otherworldly aura. Aside from his sparse eyebrows, he resembled nothing of Master Liu. Yulan recalled the frail scholar with a "feminine appearance" described by Mr. Zhang, the erotic writer. This was probably what he looked like.
Yulan was superficial. The Second Young Master was handsome, so she didn't want such a handsome man to fade away in the gloomy room. She would take good care of him, raising him to be plump and healthy. She opened the window to let in the light. The spring scenery outside was dazzlingly bright, a tiny glimmer of light forcing its way open Liu Er's eyes. Suddenly, a tiny bit of light shone in his dead eyes.
The black pupils were no longer silent, instead reflecting a small, jumping figure that fluttered around before his eyes like an energetic cricket. Liu Er turned over and didn't want to look; he just thought it was noisy.
But Liu Er couldn't ignore Yulan's presence. The little girl had just finished cleaning the room and came in to change his dressing. After that, she brought him a meal from the small kitchen.
Although Liu Er was annoyed, he didn't have the energy to get angry. Although the little girl was noisy, she was well-mannered and always smiling. He couldn't say anything to blame her. He just called her "worm" in his heart.
Giving her this name in his mind seemed to allow him to accept her interruption with peace of mind.
The north courtyard, long silent and abandoned, finally came alive with a magnolia blossom. Taking advantage of the spring weather, the magnolia spruced up the backyard.
Bao Fu picked up a broken magnolia bud and secretly inserted it into Yulan's hair as a hairpin. He thought the shy young woman, about to bloom, would be a perfect match for the magnolia. However, he overestimated his agility and was caught red-handed by Yulan.
"Brother Fu, you have good taste! I was just thinking of picking a branch to put in a vase!" As she said that, Yulan took the branch and put it into the slender white jade vase. The height was just right and it looked very elegant.
"As long as you like it." As soon as Bao Fu finished speaking, Yulan placed the white jade bottle on the second young master's windowsill. She said with a smile: "Second young master has been bedridden for a long time, don't miss the spring scenery."
Liu Er raised his eyelids and then lowered them to look at the book in his hand. There was a cricket painted in the corner of the book.
What young girl in her prime would enjoy being compared to a cricket? He raised the corner of his lips in thought, folding up the corner of the cricket. He always concealed his thoughts, and the same was true of this folded cricket.
Outside the window, the spring scenery is charming: flowers, trees, insects chirping, and a little girl opening the window to let him see the spring scenery in the garden. Some lives, in the corner of the yard, are quietly undergoing a qualitative change.
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