That day, Aunt Sun mysteriously called her and Chunye to the small kitchen.
It turned out that Aunt Su had brought her a box of chilled plums, which are not commonly seen these days.
Even Wang Yan's father, who was in charge of buying fruits and vegetables, couldn't get them because they weren't in season. Fortunately, Aunt Su had stored a lot of plums in the ice cellar during the summer.
I put them in when they were green plums, and they've been stored there ever since.
To be honest, Aunt Su is really good at handling things. She didn't take any of the gold ingots that the old lady gave her at the last birthday banquet, and gave them all to Aunt Sun.
Afterwards, many noble families came to inquire about the recipe for this longevity cake, and they were rewarded with many purses, almost all of which contained small gold ingots, and the lowest-quality ones were two-ounce silver ingots.
Aunt Su also shared half of her share; she was truly honest.
They only asked if they could use vegetable dye to make noodles. Grandma Sun and Wang Yan readily agreed.
Then she used the vegetable dye to make colorful noodles and steamed buns, which became incredibly popular. The craze hasn't died down yet, and even the first wife orders a bowl of colorful noodles every day.
However, Aunt Sun refused the subsequent rewards. But Aunt Su would occasionally send over some fresh food from the kitchen.
Peel the plums clean, remove the pit, and hollow out the center.
Then boil a pot of water with white plums and licorice root. After the water boils for 15 minutes, blanch the peeled plums.
Then take out the plums and let them dry. Take an appropriate amount of pine nuts and olive kernels and stir-fry them until fragrant.
Then crush the pine nuts in gauze into powder, stuff them into pitted plums, and steam for 15 minutes.
After cooking, drizzle with honey and a touch of dried osmanthus flowers. The result is a rich, sweet and sour flavor that is far superior to eating plums on their own.
There were only five or six people in total, and each person shared one and a half pieces of fruit, eating two bites of each.
Wang Yan and Chunye filled four more thermos flasks, carrying two on each side, and walked back to the back room into the cool breeze.
The weather gradually turned cold again, and Chunxi and Wang Yan were the only two people in the house who were alright.
One of them sat in the tea room all day long, getting warm all over, while the other usually stayed with Granny Hua to keep warm.
Chunyu and Chunye now have to soak their feet before they can sleep, and they spend the entire night cuddling with a hot water bottle. They don't want to waste a single drop of water from the hot water bottle.
So the water for their foot baths was shared between Wang Yan and Chunxi. Chunxi usually didn't come back, so the water from her hot water bottle was divided among the group.
Wang Yan likes to add water to the hot water bottle while soaking her feet, so after soaking her feet, there's only half left in the hot water bottle.
But strangely enough, because it was warm all day, I didn't feel as cold as the other two people when I went back to my room at night.
Seeing them shivering from the cold, Wang Yan took out the two pairs of gloves that Aunt Wang had prepared for her when she swept the floor last year, and gave one pair to each of them.
Spring Rain no longer needs to do laundry or sweep the floor.
She took on the job of delivering flowers. It wasn't tiring, but it was cold along the way, and the flowers were delicate, so she could only carry them one pot at a time.
Just the day before yesterday, she spent two hours traveling back and forth to move a few pots of daffodils.
My hands almost froze off, but wearing gloves made a big difference. The next day when I went to work, my hands were not cold at all, and they even felt warm.
She didn't bring the ones she made last year, but she'll bring them over when she goes home this time. She's also going to make two more pairs this year to alternate wearing.
Several people were discussing the style of gloves. Wang Yan recommended the flip-top type gloves to her, so that it wouldn't be a problem when moving or placing flower pots.
Suddenly, I heard a shrill scream outside. Braving the cold wind, I ran out to see what was happening and found that Zhiju had fallen down.
Ever since she neglected her duty by not leaving anyone to watch over Granny Hua's room before leaving, she came back and falsely accused others of stealing.
Sister Qingqian was transferred away, and Zhixue and Zhihan came back to take care of everything in Granny Hua's room.
This angered Zhihan, who had already started learning other things with Zhiliu and Zhixu, but was pushed back again.
Ke Zhiju was too reckless and impulsive, so from then on she was never allowed to do anything useful except embroider handkerchiefs and purses for the lady in the house, or embroider and make clothes.
Now that it's winter, the madam sometimes delivers things to the various courtyards, but no one wants to go, so Zhiju finally stepped forward.
Who would have thought that things would turn out so badly today? The goods were delivered safely, and I even received a reward.
When she got back, she twisted her ankle and cried out in pain. Luckily, someone heard her and rushed over to help her into the house.
Zhiju sat on the bed, trembling all over, afraid that her wife would kick her out to recuperate because she had twisted her ankle.
Three to five days is fine, but if she really takes a break for a month or two, there will be no place for her in the courtyard when she comes back.
Feeling anxious, I waited for the family physician's wife to come and examine me. "It's nothing serious. No bones or tendons are injured. Just apply some medicated oil, rub it in, and I'll be fine in a couple of days."
After hearing the diagnosis from the physician's wife, Zhiju was overjoyed and cried tears of relief. Thank goodness!
Even if they don't get along normally, if she sprains her ankle, everyone will always go and see her.
Chunxi and the others linked arms and went in a row to deliver a bottle of medicinal oil to Zhiju's house.
After exchanging only a few words, everyone eagerly headed back. Suddenly, Chunyu almost slipped and fell.
Fortunately, the four of them were walking arm in arm, and she had people supporting her on both sides, which prevented her from suffering the same fate as Zhiju.
Chunxi, being observant, stepped forward to take a look and frowned. "Come and see, someone has spilled water on this ground."
Wang Yan and the others quickly stepped forward to observe, and then they looked at each other for a while.
The weather is cold now. Although it's not yet the time when water will freeze instantly in the air, a thin layer of ice will form on the ground if you pour a layer of water on it.
It snowed a couple of days ago, but the road was swept clean in the middle, and people were constantly wiping it with rags or mops all day long.
No one doubted this, but Chunxi squatted down to look and discovered that someone had deliberately poured a layer of water on it.
The rain fell directly on the side of the room where Zhiju entered. "Should we go in and tell her? Maybe someone's watching her?"
Chunxi snorted and looked at Wang Yan disapprovingly.
"Please don't! If you go in and say something, that person might insist that you spilled the water. You'd be so wronged then."
Wang Yan thought that, given Zhiju's appearance, she might really do that.
But they couldn't just stay silent. The group kicked the shattered ice aside. "Why don't we go tell Zhiliu, or tell Sister Qingping?"
"Tell Sister Qingping that Zhiliu likes to investigate in front of others. If there's a misunderstanding, it will be our fault."
The group thought it made sense. After hearing the story, Qingping and Qingmei came back to the scene to take a look. "It's alright, you can go back now. Don't spread this around. I'll take another look."
Chunxi had some vague guesses in her heart. Chunlan had been troubled by not being able to get promoted. Most of the senior maids were released at eighteen, and then it would take another three to five years.
But if we wait five years, and a few people are selected from the second class to make room for others, Chunlan will be fifteen years old. At most, she can stay in the second class for two more years.
Forget about getting first place; Chunlan couldn't accept that, but no one was willing to make room for her.
However, these were all just Chunxi's guesses and shouldn't be taken seriously. Chunxi shook her head and went back to rest with her roommate.
It's so cold. I wonder when we'll get this year's charcoal.
The truth has been revealed.
Chunlan was under the care of Granny Hua, so she didn't dare to cause trouble. Although Chuncui didn't bring Zhiju out last time, she was still quite frightened.
What if, like Zhiju, you try to frame Chunxi and the others, only to be beaten back by them instead?
Most importantly, Chunxi is now very vigilant and can't be easily found to make a mistake.
Now she avoids Chunxi and the others whenever she sees them. Before, she used to go out of her way to glare at them.
Chunlan had a huge craving for vegetables, and when she saw the maids secretly checking things out, she was immediately terrified and dared not have any other wicked thoughts!
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