Even though she was sent down to the farm, the Fourth Aunt was not qualified to live in the upper house, but was placed in a side room in the backyard. When Xie Nanjia followed Hu Sanmu and Liu Pozi into the house, she saw the Fourth Aunt sitting in an armchair with a haggard face.
In the past, the Fourth Aunt was the most glorious person in the mansion. Xie Nanjia often saw her in Qin's and the old lady's room. At that time, she was gorgeous and charming, unlike now, when she wore simple clothes and didn't even have a decent hairpin on her head. She did put on makeup on her face, but it couldn't hide her dark circles under her eyes.
When Xie Nanjia saw her, he was overwhelmed with mixed emotions, and his emotions were even more intense than when he saw Zhao Jingyu, because she was the living memory of the backyard of the marquis' mansion, and compared to Zhao Jingyu, Xie Nanjia could get the information he wanted from her.
Xie Nanjia felt as if she had met an old friend in a foreign land, and couldn't help feeling a lump in her throat.
"Fourth Aunt, this is Xiu'er. Do you like it?" Hu Sanmu asked from the side.
Xie Nanjia came back to her senses and felt the gaze of Fourth Aunt.
"Xiu'er, I seem to have heard this name somewhere before." The fourth concubine said, her voice as sweet as a yellow oriole.
It is said that before she entered the Marquis's Mansion, she was a singer in a brothel, and it was with her voice that she charmed the Marquis.
Hu Sanmu was wondering why the Fourth Aunt and the Second Young Master both said in their first sentence that they seemed to have heard of Xiu'er's name somewhere. After all, the Second Young Master knew Xiu'er before, so where did the Fourth Aunt hear her name
Few people in the mansion knew Xie Nanjia's nickname. She was not sure whether Fourth Aunt had heard of it, so she did not answer. She just bowed and said, "Greetings to Fourth Aunt."
"Well, raise your head." said the Fourth Aunt.
Xie Nanjia straightened up and raised his head, but his eyelids were still drooped, and his hands were folded neatly in front of him.
On the way here, she asked Hu Sanmu, and he knew that the reason why Fourth Aunt looked down on Chunfang and Hongxing was because she thought they were restless and unruly.
"Hmm." Fourth Aunt hummed again, "She's quite well behaved, but she's too ugly."
Women are naturally hostile to women who are prettier than themselves, but she didn't want to admit that she was not as pretty as others, so she said that Xie Nanjia was an eyesore.
Hu Sanmu was almost worried to death. First, the second young master came and he only looked for girls with good looks. Now, when a concubine came, he thought those with good looks were annoying. The people in the marquis' mansion were really difficult to serve.
"Fourth Aunt, please forgive me for being blunt. You are such a beauty, a vulgar maid is not worthy of you. Although Xiu'er cannot match your grace, at least she is decent looking. She served the Second Young Master for a few days before, so she knows the rules and is smart. Letting her serve you food and drink will not ruin your appetite."
Xie Nanjia: “…”
The fourth aunt chuckled: "You dog, you can actually spit out ivory from your mouth. Well, let her stay."
Xie Nanjia and Hu Sanmu both breathed a sigh of relief.
After Hu Sanmu left, the fourth concubine asked Xie Nanjia: "Since you were chosen by the second master, you must have something extraordinary. What is it?"
"My dear Fourth Aunt, I just know a little bit about massage and can cook some meals," Xie Nanjia replied.
"Oh, I'm feeling uncomfortable all over. Come here and give me a massage." said the Fourth Aunt.
"Yes." Xie Nanjia walked behind her and massaged her shoulders gently, with a hint of sarcasm in her lips. After eighteen years of having everything provided for her, she never expected that one day she would become a maid.
The fourth concubine felt comfortable, hummed softly, and said, "Your technique is not bad. When you pinch me like this, I think of my poor girl Qinghong, who was sold to some dirty bastard who is worse than pigs and dogs."
Xie Nanjia didn't expect that she would mention the Marquis' Mansion right away. She immediately perked up and carefully started the conversation: "Fourth Aunt is really kind-hearted. She is in trouble, but she still worries about the servants. I am so lucky to be your maid."
The fourth concubine sighed, "What's the use of being kind? As the saying goes, a kind person is often bullied and a kind horse is often ridden. As a person, the most important thing is to have a kind heart. It's a pity that I realized it too late."
"It's not too late." Xie Nanjia comforted, "Fourth Aunt is so beautiful, I'm sure the Marquis will come to pick you up soon."
"That's easy to say." Fourth Aunt smiled bitterly, "My crime is special. I'm afraid the Marquis won't come to pick me up in the next six months. Before the storm is over, someone with ulterior motives will find him another beauty to replace me. With a new one, who will care about the old one? As time goes by, I will become old and ugly here. How can I turn things around?"
Xie Nanjia also sighed with her: "I wonder what crime did Auntie commit?"
"I am a concubine, what could I have done wrong? They put those charges on me." The fourth concubine gritted her teeth and said, "They said I wore red and green and drank and had fun during the funeral of the prince's wife. I did not do any of these, but who would believe it?"
Hearing her mention himself, Xie Nanjia unconsciously increased the strength of his grip.
The fourth aunt cried out in anger and pushed her away: "Fool, you want to harm me too? Get out of here!"
Xie Nanjia's eyes flashed, and she almost blurted out "how outrageous". Fortunately, she reacted in time, suppressed her anger, and quietly walked out of the door.
The two old women were still talking under the shade of the tree. Xie Nanjia pretended to be aggrieved, walked over, sat down next to them, and said nothing.
The old woman surnamed Ma rolled her eyes at her and asked, "Why, were you driven out by the master?"
Without waiting for Xie Nanjia to respond, Mrs. Liu interrupted and sneered, "She is not a master at all. She is just a servant who is slightly stronger than us. The maids and servants in the mansion are more important than her."
"That's not what I meant." Ma Po said, "No matter how powerful the maids and servants are, they can still be sold at will. This time, because of the incident with the Crown Prince's wife, more than half of the servants in the backyard were beaten, killed and sold. The concubines have no status anymore, so no one dares to touch them easily."
Xie Nanjia sat there quietly, as if immersed in her own grievances, indifferent to everything else.
The two maids didn't take her seriously. They kept on talking about the recent mess in the mansion, talking about how the prince's wife's wet nurse committed suicide to protest for her injustice, and they also ridiculed her for overestimating her own abilities and being really stubborn.
When Xie Nanjia heard that her wet nurse had crashed into her grave, she felt as if someone had stabbed her in the heart. She felt so painful that she almost cried. She quickly got up and left.
After she left, Mrs. Liu curled her lips and said, "The country girl is ignorant and can't stand the slightest grievance."
Ma Pozi said, "The maids are different from each other. If you ask me, the smartest one is Lvliu, who is by the side of the prince's wife. As soon as her master died, she immediately climbed into the prince's bed. So many people were sold, but she was safe and sound."
(End of this chapter)