Chapter 15 Chapter 15 Palace Maid Fifteen Days
Before Shanhu's hand injury was completely healed, Shen Qingqing frequently served Du Baolin closely without any excuse, but she did not take Shanhu's position beside Du Baolin. She still had some sense of propriety and did not want to fight with Shanhu.
Shanhu's attitude was quite intriguing. She was the most loyal person in the past, but her contact with Du Baolin was reduced without a sound. Although she noticed it, she looked relieved. She even put on the red jade earrings given by Du Baolin, as if she had returned to her role as a chief maid in Zhiyun Palace.
Shanhu reminded Shen Qingqing: "The master's favorite is this white jade bottle. Put it on this shelf and enjoy it every day. You need to wipe it every day. Don't let it break or get dusty."
Shen Qingqing looked up, took note of it in her mind, and said yes.
Shanhu was very satisfied with Shen Qingqing's respectful attitude. She took advantage of Du Baolin's nap to assign some unimportant but troublesome matters to her.
Shen Qingqing accepted all the offers silently.
The teaching did not stop until Du Baolin woke up from his nap.
Shanhu naturally winked at Shen Qingqing, and Shen Qingqing lowered her head and went in to serve Du Baolin. Then Shanhu came in.
Shen Qingqing reached out and helped Du Baolin sit up. Du Baolin was still half asleep, with messy hair on the sides of his ears stuck to his fair cheeks, giving her a brief sense of innocence as a beautiful woman. She put her hand on Shen Qingqing's and subconsciously exerted force.
Shen Qingqing asked blankly: "Master?"
Du Baolin came back to his senses, saw the owner of the hands, and let go a little later. His eyes fell on Shen Qingqing's hands with faint red marks: "Why is it you?"
Then she saw the coral nearby.
Shanhu stepped forward and took Du Baolin's hand, and said coaxingly: "Since Shen Qing is quite well-behaved, I will let her help the master to get up."
Du Baolin didn't use much force. He had just woken up and his strength had not yet fully recovered, so his hands were soft and boneless, so Shen Qingqing's hands were just a little red.
But there will only be a second time if there is a first time.
Shen Qingqing smiled softly and shyly at Du Baolin, looking quite gentle and gullible.
Du Baolin accepted Shanhu's explanation, thinking to himself that there were indeed not many people around her who could be used. If Shanhu was always busy, she would have no energy to go out and do things for her. July was approaching, and she didn't have much time left for the Chinese Valentine's Day banquet.
Du Baolin then looked at Shen Qingqing carefully and murmured, "She is actually a beauty."
At the same time, he pinched it lightly.
[If it were in the past, I would never let her stay with me for long. Now that I am like this, she can’t plot anything. If I succeed in regaining my favor, I will just drive her away.]
Shen Qingqing is only thirteen or fourteen years old now, still a young girl, and does not pose an immediate threat to Du Baolin.
If she wanted everyone to be wary of her, she would have to get rid of Coral first.
In the palace, beauties are the most common.
Although Shen Qingqing loved dressing up in the past, after awakening her memory, she realized that the cosmetics of that dynasty contained excessive heavy metals and would easily damage the face after long-term use, so she stopped using them. Even if she did, she would only choose makeup powders made from natural raw materials.
At her age, she is still young and it is not easy for her to dress like an older woman, so she simply does not dress up.
Before she met Du Baolin, she had prepared for his judgments about her, such as whether he thought she was lazy before and whether he had bad intentions in approaching her now. However, she did not expect that Du Baolin would first notice her appearance. He probably had never looked at her straight in the eye before.
Shen Qingqing's movements became much faster.
Then that's great!
In the afternoon, Du Baolin needed to lock herself in the room to practice dancing. It was Shanhu who usually assisted her in practicing body flexibility. Shanhu naturally did not give in to this matter. She sent Shen Qingqing away and closed the door.
This is a secret between the master and servant.
Shen Qingqing returned to the house and took out her little notebook. Now that the plan above was no longer necessary, her best choice could only be the virtuous concubine.
She thought of Concubine Xian's every move in Yiqu Garden that day and began to analyze her.
From how Concubine Xian mingled with the people in her palace, to how Xuancao retained her lively and friendly personality despite being Concubine Xian's maid, to how Concubine Xian sensed something was wrong and decisively sent Xuancao, a member of the Siguozhai, to test the situation. Later, even though she understood the situation, she did not vent her anger on the palace people, and her emotional stability was enviable.
From the moment Concubine Xian said that it was not too late, Shen Qingqing understood that Concubine Xian had the means to restore order.
Moreover, Shen Qingqing thought that Concubine Xian's appearance was not inferior to Du Baolin's, and her natural gentleness even made it easier for her to win the favor of others.
Shen Qingqing drew five stars behind the moon that represented Concubine Xian, then took the small notebook to the tea-making place and burned it as material to ignite the fire.
Although this thing looks like scribbles and others can't understand it, it's still better to be cautious.
Estimating the time Du Baolin would be practicing, Shen Qingqing started to prepare tea after a while. She waited until Shanhu pushed open the door before she got up to serve tea to Du Baolin.
Du Baolin was sweating all over. He took the tea and drank it all in one gulp.
Without even raising his eyelids, he sipped his tea and said something ambiguous: "Siguozhai is short of staff. If there is any rumor outside, it will be easier to identify the person inside Siguozhai."
The fact that she was practicing dancing could not be hidden from her close servants. Du Baolin was not sure when Shen Qingqing would find out that she was practicing dancing in secret, so he could only give her more warnings.
Siguozhai is a remote place and few people come here, so Du Baolin is confident that she can keep it a secret well.
Shen Qingqing obeyed and said, "I understand."
There is no benefit for Shen Qingqing in spreading the news about Du Baolin, so she has no reason to do it.
Du Baolin put down the teacup and said, "Clean up, I want to take a bath." Naturally, she was instructing Shen Qingqing.
To be honest, it was the first time that Shen Qingqing helped Du Baolin bathe by herself. Before, she could only help Shanhu. But it was obvious that Shanhu now believed that she had the ability to bathe Du Baolin independently.
However, Du Baolin really became casual with her in this kind of intimate service. He disliked her clumsiness and decisively slapped her hand away, frowned, and scolded her.
Shen Qingqing immediately became at a loss and tried to comfort him softly. She was not upset or angry because of Du Baolin's behavior. Instead, she quickly finished the bath.
I got Du Baolin's intimate voice:
[Hmph~]
Shen Qingqing: “…”
Du Baolin is a real spoiled lady. She needs to be coaxed and treated like a pearl by others. The more she is treated like this, the worse her temper will be. Sometimes she will feel that she is out of line - after all, no lady would feel happy by inflicting harm to others. She has money, so she uses rewards to make up for it, and then becomes even more unscrupulous next time.
This causes Coral's mood to fluctuate.
Dancing practice is a very tiring thing, so when she has no place to vent her anger, she will make Coral bleed and then let Coral choose the reward herself.
If Coral appears wearing her jewelry, she will say, "You look beautiful in this."
At this time, there was an ignorant palace maid named Shen Qingqing around. Du Baolin first observed her and found that this person was quite indulgent towards her just like Huomao Shanhu - this was right, after all, she was the master.
Then she included Shen Qingqing in her range, and at first she pinched her as a joke, and then she increased her strength when she lost control of her emotions. At first, Shen Qingqing whispered that it hurt, forcing Du Baolin to let go, but after Du Baolin did it too many times, she just frowned and endured it.
The more Shen Qingqing showed this attitude, the more Du Baolin felt that Shen Qingqing did not dare to resist. At first, he spoke in a coquettish tone, but in the end, he stared at Shen Qingqing's painful expression as she bit her lips and endured it, and then he took action. He did not let go of the hairpin and Shen Qingqing's arm until he had vented his anger.
Shen Qingqing lowered her eyes and lowered her sleeves to cover the new wound on her arm.
At such times, Du Baolin would deliberately send Shanhu away. With Shanhu's previous experience as a lesson, she preferred to attack the arm covered by the sleeves. Since she couldn't see it, she would not feel ashamed of hurting the palace maid.
As July approached and the Chinese Valentine's Day banquet was approaching, Du Baolin became very nervous and his actions began to increase.
Shen Qingqing went to the pharmacy to get medicine for her injuries. The initial scars have healed, leaving only faint scars.
Therefore, Du Baolin felt more at ease with Shen Qingqing because she did not keep any evidence, and she did not care that the new injuries added to the old ones could not heal.
This is part of the plan.
To get into the palace of Concubine Xian and gain more bargaining chips, the strategy of self-torture is indispensable.
Otherwise, if she was transferred to the palace for no reason, it would be considered as betrayal to her master, and she would never be able to become the maid of the virtuous concubine and would not be able to gain the virtuous concubine's trust.
Shen Qingqing convinced herself this way, but when she applied the medicine at night, she still couldn't avoid the pain from the irritation of the powder.
Xiao Dingzi was right next to her, watching her apply the medicine. He remained silent every time, staring at the wound until Shen Qingqing lowered her sleeves.
There were fifteen cuts, fifteen of which were serious enough to leave bleeding marks, and countless other small cuts.
He should have taken advantage of this Qixi Banquet to plot against Du Baolin so that Shen Qingqing could leave, instead of doing this... But he had just been trained by Wang Jigui, so how could he have the means to plot against a concubine, even if Du Baolin was disliked.
Shen Qingqing packed up the medicine bottles and asked him, "Why have you been coming to my place every day these days? Fortunately, Baolin's mind is on the Qixi banquet tomorrow, otherwise he would have noticed something was wrong."
Xiao Dingzi: "Pepe is mine, and no one in Du Baolin will tip her off."
He looked at Shen Qingqing: "Shen Qing, give me some time, I will definitely let her die."
Both of them tacitly agreed not to say who this she was. Shen Qingqing glanced at him and saw something brewing in his eyes. Her mind went blank. She wanted to persuade him, but she didn't know where to start. After all, was she really so kind as not to blame Du Baolin?
She changed the subject: "When will I go find Xianfei's daylily? I always feel that Du Baolin will not be able to regain his favor at the Qixi Banquet tomorrow."
Although it had been several months since the death of the two palace maids, the emperor might not remember it, but the concubines in the harem remembered it, even more clearly. When Du Baolin performed a dance, anyone could put him in a worse situation in an instant if they mentioned it at all.
Killing a palace maid is a permanent stain on Du Baolin. Things happened too quickly and the emperor did not give her the opportunity to shift the blame to a senior palace maid like Daimao.
Xiao Dingzi said, "Tomorrow. Tomorrow is the Qixi Festival and there will be a banquet. The flow of people in the palace will be several times higher than usual. Du Baolin must seize this opportunity. You are injured, so she will not take you with her. When you go to Jingren Palace to find Concubine Xian, no one will notice you... Act pitiful, okay?"
In fact, once the injury was revealed, he looked miserable without any pretending, a real pitiful thing.
In addition, Du Baolin has a criminal record, which makes it easy for people to make the connection.
Shen Qingqing looked at him, pursed her lips, and tears gathered in her eyes. The big tears fell silently. The person in front of her seemed to be the person she trusted the most. She trusted him so much that all the grievances that had been suppressed for a long time suddenly came out.
Xiao Dingzi's heart tightened and he had difficulty breathing. He no longer knew what he was saying: "It must hurt a lot, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
Shen Qingqing wiped her tears and looked at him with sparkling eyes.
She was quite good at acting, especially since Du Baolin had trained her, and he loved to stare at her every time he hurt her, he was simply a pervert.
"It doesn't hurt, but the wound is very itchy and I can't help scratching it." I had told Dong'er not to scratch the wound, but when it happened to me, I knew what it meant to be scratched.
Shen Qingqing seemed to think of something interesting and smiled.
Xiao Dingzi silently imprinted her appearance deeply in his mind, and he would never let her get hurt again.
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