Chapter 14
In the women's prison, there was a trench dug in the corner of the inner wall near the only iron window, which was a place for them to go to the toilet.
In this corner, opposite the place where the wooden fence used to be, a wooden board the size of a small door was erected to provide some cover.
Later, Gu Ran tied one side of the straw mat he had woven, and when using it, he tied the other side to cover it up to create a completely private space.
Today the kitchen made an exception and provided hot water for them to bathe, so Gu Ran did the same thing and took down the straw mat that was tied up. This freed up more space and made room for the bathtub.
The hot water was brought over by Uncle Mai and Mai Dong from the Mai family.
Originally, the officials were going to assign prisoners to deliver water to the women's prison, but since they had their own female relatives present, they volunteered to do it, thus blocking other prisoners who wanted to take advantage with bad intentions.
In order to reassure the people in the prison, Aunt Mai asked Gu Ran and Pei Liuniang to wash first.
So Gu Ran is the first, Pei Liuniang is the second, Mai Xiang is the third, and Aunt Mai is the last.
After Gu Ran finished bathing first, he found that Pei Liuniang's bedding had been moved from the corner near the front fence to next to his seat. He sat down and was stunned for a while, then began to rub his feet.
The blood circulation is difficult due to excessive cold, and you need to rub your toes with your hands to warm them up to avoid frostbite.
"Sister Gu, why did Pei Liuniang suddenly move to your seat?"
"Because it's too cold at night and you can't stand it?"
Gu Ran said this, but in his mind: No way, he probably wants to move in to monitor me and see if I really keep my mouth shut.
But she didn't dare to say it directly and could only take advantage of the situation.
"Then she didn't have to choose a location so close to us, did she?" Aunt Mai also noticed Pei Liuniang's unusual behavior. "When we went to look for firewood today, you and she carried the tree trunk back together, right? How could you become so close in such a short time?"
How could Gu Ran explain it? He couldn't tell the truth to Aunt Mai Xiang, so he forced a smile and said, "Ah, actually, Liu Niang is also a poor person."
"She's pitiful?" Aunt Mai couldn't believe what Gu Ran said. "She deserves to be pitiful. It's better to say we're pitiful than to say she's pitiful!"
"We are all pitiful. We are all pitiful people." Gu Ran didn't want to dwell on this topic, but thinking that Pei Liuniang might pester him openly in the future, he could only explain to them.
"Aunt Mai, think about it. She lost her parents at such a young age, and even though she knew it was her elders who caused her death, she had no choice but to endure it. She was bullied for so many years in the Pei Mansion, and yet she was obsessed with revenge for her parents. Isn't that pitiful?"
"Hey!" Aunt Mai slapped her knee, a look of shock on her face: "You're giving her sympathy?"
"It's just like your husband killing someone for you, isn't it?"
When the topic came to her husband, Aunt Mai looked unhappy: "How can it be the same? It's not what my man wants."
Noticing Aunt Mai's displeasure, Gu Ran stopped talking and asked, "Today is New Year's Eve. Let's not talk about these things. Let's talk about something happy. I heard that the kitchen will give us a bowl of mutton bone soup tonight. I wonder if it tastes good?"
"Even if it tastes good, we can't drink it. Have you forgotten that the officer asked us to change clothes and serve the officials?" Mai Xiang interjected.
Gu Ran almost forgot about this.
"Why change clothes? I don't have any other clothes to change into, so I only have this one." Gu Ran said, hugging the outer dress with the big word "prisoner" written on it tightly. "If they dislike it, then don't arrange for me to appear at the banquet."
As she said this, Pei Liuniang finished washing up, lifted the straw curtain and came out.
Everyone fell silent immediately. Aunt Mai asked Mai Xiang to go find some clean clothes, then ran to the front of the cell and yelled outside, asking the guard to go next door and ask her husband and son to help change and fetch water.
Gu Ran looked at Pei Liuniang, who was covered in steam, and sat down next to him. He asked, "Why did you move here?"
"You're so smart, how could you not have guessed the reason?" Pei Liuniang wiped her washed black hair with a handkerchief and smiled at Gu Ran. "I'll stay close to you and monitor you to see if you can keep your mouth shut."
It was cold these days and there was no fire to keep warm. Even Gu Ran didn't dare to wash his hair easily, for fear that the cold would penetrate into his head and he would get sick from the cold. Unexpectedly, Pei Liuniang was not afraid at all.
Hearing her say so bluntly that she came here to monitor him, Gu Ran was speechless for a moment.
Pei Liuniang remained silent after saying this, lowered her head and slowly wiped her hair, her nose twitching slightly, her eyes fell on the fire basket, and then quickly moved away.
After the Mai mother and daughter finished washing up, they sat in the prison for a while. When it was completely dark, the officers came in with the guards: "All four of you, come out. It's time to work."
Gu Ran knew that they were going to entertain the officials at the New Year's Eve banquet, so he slowly crawled to the fire basket, took the half-dried cotton shoes, and put them on.
When she followed Aunt Mai and her daughter out, the officer stopped her and asked, "What are you wearing?"
"Prison uniform!"
"Didn't I know it was a prison uniform? Didn't I tell you to dress properly before serving the adults? Why are you wearing prison uniform?"
"Sir, this is the only prisoner's uniform I have to keep me warm. I don't have any other clothes."
Seeing that the officer was annoyed, Gu Ran remained calm and said, "If you're wearing prison clothes, you can't go to the banquet. Can you allow me not to go?"
"You don't have to go, but first get ten slaps on the back."
Gu Ran was startled, then quickly took off the outer prison uniform and put it on inside out. "Is this okay?"
Seeing that there was no "prisoner" on the clothes, the officer nodded reluctantly: "Okay, I won't bother with you this time. Come out."
After Gu Ran walked out of the prison, he felt tiny snowflakes like catkins floating in the night sky.
It's snowing again.
As they were following the officials to the east wing where the banquet was set up, they heard officials hurriedly passing by. Gu Ran heard them whisper, "Master Feng hasn't returned yet?"
"No, I'm afraid something has happened. Let's go find Master Li."
Gu Ran couldn't help but look back at Pei Liuniang, who happened to be looking at her. The two exchanged a knowing glance and turned away.
Up to this point, they had not yet found Adjutant Feng's body, which meant that he was still lying in the woods at the bottom of the slope.
Today is New Year's Eve, it's already night and it's snowing. I'm afraid they won't send anyone out to look for her for the time being.
That's perfect.
It's snowing now. By tomorrow, all the clues will be covered up. Then no one will suspect Pei Liuniang, and he will be safe.
"You're here, that's perfect. Come over here. Tonight, you will be responsible for serving food and wine to the adults. When the food arrives, remember to pass it to each table. If any adult runs out of wine, remember to refill it."
"Do your best and behave well, and I'll give you a portion of the extra meat and vegetables tonight."
Those who attended the banquet were all the officials who stayed at the post station to release the prisoners. As for the postmen, Liu Yichang had returned to his village early to rest and celebrate the New Year. The person in charge of the post station now was Tao Zhubu.
Tao Zhubu left a postman to guard the door and asked all the remaining postmen to attend, but there were not many, only about six.
There were only two tables for the feast, and the dishes were plentiful. Each table had a roast chicken, a plate of stewed meat, a bowl of bean sprouts and tofu, a serving of hot and sour cabbage, and a pot of mutton bone soup. It was quite lively.
Gu Ran, who was in charge of serving dishes and wine, was drooling at the sight.
These officials and postmen did not choose to take a day off and go home for the New Year due to their duties. After a year of hard work, they took the opportunity to relax. There was laughter and joy at the banquet, and it was very lively.
The only discord was at the table of officials. When Li Jieguan heard that the banquet had lasted so long and his deputy Feng Ye had not yet arrived, his face looked very ugly. He wanted to send someone to look for him, but he looked at the gloomy sky and the snow that was falling heavier and heavier. He turned around to look at his colleagues who were eating and drinking heartily, suppressed his anger and anxiety, and sat down again.
Gu Ran and Pei Liuniang were both in charge of serving the officials' table. As they were serving wine and food, they heard Li Jie, the official, scolding his subordinates: "That's ridiculous! If you were taking the prisoners out to look for firewood and didn't see anyone, you should have reported it."
"We, we thought Mr. Feng had gone into the woods to look for wild game or something, to provide a snack for tonight!"
"Where can he find wild animals to hunt in this icy and snowy weather? He's leaving his post while on duty. Feng Duojin is getting bolder and bolder. What if he loses his life?"
"Master Li, Master Feng has always been capable and won't easily get into trouble."
"That's right. Master Feng and I have walked this route several times and haven't encountered any accidents. Maybe Master Feng saw that the snow was too heavy and it was difficult to walk, so he temporarily stayed outside. Didn't we camp out in the snowy mountains a few days ago?"
"That's right, it's New Year's Eve, let's not talk about Master Feng, let's have a happy time, Master Li, I offer you a toast."
"I also wish Master Li happiness and well-being in the coming year!"
Watching the officials raise their glasses to celebrate, Gu Ran stepped aside and glanced at Pei Liuniang who was sitting across the table.
Pei Liuniang seemed to notice it, glanced at her and nodded slightly.
This New Year's Eve dinner lasted for more than an hour. When the table was finally cleared and Gu Ran and others helped move the leftovers to the kitchen, the female prisoners who helped were able to have their own dinner.
Although the food served was plentiful, since they were all men with big appetites, there were not many leftovers for them. Even the mutton bone soup, which was said to be very drinkable, was not specially reserved for them by the people in the kitchen, so there were only less than two bowls left in the pot.
Fortunately, there are still plenty of whole grain rice.
Everyone was so hungry that they didn't care about etiquette. They drank half a bowl of warm mutton bone soup each, and then finished the New Year's Eve dinner with minced meat and vegetable juice and mixed grain rice.
After returning to the prison, Aunt Mai complained with dissatisfaction: "We did all the work, and they said they would save the food for us, but in the end there was not a single decent dish left."
It's really uncomfortable to watch others enjoy delicious food while it's your turn and not even a whole piece of meat.
"Mom, this is the first time I've eaten roast chicken. It's delicious." Mai Xiang was not as angry as her own mother, and said happily.
Just now when we were eating, we finally saw a chicken butt on the stove that someone accidentally dropped into the tofu sprouts while picking up some food. Aunt Mai found it and gave it to Mai Xiang.
That was the only piece of meat they saw.
Aunt Mai looked at her daughter's extremely thin face and hugged her daughter with a sad heart: "Xiangxiang, it's all because of your parents' failures!" Not only did they not let their children eat meat, but they also made them prisoners.
"Mother!"
"When we get to Minzhou, Dad and Mom will work hard to earn money and buy meat for Xiangxiang."
"Okay, mother!"
Gu Ran sat on the bedding, feeling aggrieved.
I didn't expect that my first New Year's Eve dinner in the Great Sheng Dynasty would be to eat other people's leftovers. This kind of terrible treatment has never happened before, whether in my first or second life.
Just when she was feeling uncomfortable, someone tapped her shoulder. Gu Ran turned around and saw Pei Liuniang sitting next to her. She came over and whispered in her ear, "Accomplice, should we make a confession together?"
The voice was still cold and thin, like the wind on a snowy night outside, blowing into her ears, making people feel a chill in their hearts.
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