The winter of the seventeenth year of Chengqian came earlier than in previous years.
Just a few days after the Double Ninth Festival, several northern states and counties ushered in the first heavy snow of this winter.
The day before was still fresh and the sky was high, but just after noon on this day, the sky was suddenly covered by a rolling curtain of gray and orange. After a brief foreshadowing, the dense snowflakes could not wait to sweep the whole world.
In just one night, all the areas north of Yanzhou have changed their clothes, and they are all covered in silver.
In the wing where the ground dragon was burned, Ren Yaoqi was lying on the hot kang with her eyes closed, and the quilt on her was a little heavy.
Her forehead and neck had been soaked with a layer of fine sweat beads, her cheeks were also burned crimson by the heat on the kang, and her breath was filled with the smell of menthol.
Across the thick cotton curtains in the inner room, there were whispered conversations between the two maids.
"You look so beautiful, it doesn't look like you drew it yourself, where did you get it from?"
"This is what I asked from Sister Kumquat, who is next to Aunt Fang. I heard that it is the latest fashion in the southern capital of Kyoto, and it doesn't even exist in Yunyang City."
"Sister Kumquat? How could you ask for something from her?"
"Hee hee, I said it was for the fifth lady to embroider the vamp, would she dare to give it?"
"You treacherous girl, be careful that Fifth Young Lady knows and asks Concubine Fang to pull you out to be a servant!"
"Okay, you bad hoof... I won't tear up your rotten mouth."
Across the curtain was the sound of two maids chasing and beating around the table. The tea set on the table slammed, and the sound fell silent, but after a while, the commotion started again. People, the noise is much smaller.
At this moment, a stern rebuke suddenly interjected: "What are you doing!" It was the voice of an older woman.
It was suddenly quiet outside.
"Mother Zhu atones, slave..." The two little maids hurriedly defended.
Madam Zhu interrupted impatiently, "Is Miss awake?"
Her voice was not deliberately lowered, and she was a little anxious. Even though she asked, her footsteps came towards the inner room without pausing.
"I just took the medicine and took a break. I must be sleeping soundly at the moment." A maid hurriedly replied, and quickly followed, as if she wanted to help the mammy open the curtain of the inner room.
"You go out and guard, don't let anyone come in." Mother Zhu stopped the maid's movements.
"Yes." The two maids paused for a while, then quickly backed out.
Ren Yaoqi lay there with his eyes closed and did not move, as if he had fallen asleep.
The cotton curtain that separated the inner room from the bright room was lifted, the sultry air in the inner room was stirred, and the wind slightly cooler than the inner room flowed in.
"Miss? Wake up, miss, miss..."
The man hurried to the edge of the kang, and after shouting a few times, seeing that Ren Yaoqi was not moving, he reached out and nudged her arm through the quilt.
Ren Yaoqi finally opened his eyes, but his eyes were a little sleepy.
"Mother Zhu?" Her voice was a little dry, she lay on the hot kang for a long time, and needed some tea from time to time.
"Hey, it's a slave, do you want to drink water, Miss?" A smile appeared on Zhu Ma's round face, but there was an anxious look in her eyes.
Ren Yaoqi nodded.
Mammy Zhu immediately walked over to the long and short table in the inner room against the north wall where a set of pastel teapots were placed, poured a cup of tea and came back.
She put the tea Gu on the kang table, and then helped Ren Yaoqi to sit up, propped up her back with one hand, and brought the tea to her lips with the other to feed her.
It's just that she leaned a little anxiously, Ren Yaoqi tilted her head, the water in the tea gu dripped onto the quilt she was covering, and the pine green satin surface was immediately wet.
"cough cough..."
Madam Zhu hurriedly put down the tea gu and patted her back: "Miss, are you alright?"
Ren Yaoqi was completely awake, she pushed away Zhu Mama's hand and gave her a sideways glance: "The water is cold..."
Madam Zhu hurriedly smiled and said, "Yo, it must be those two maids on duty who were playing tricks and being lazy and forgot to change the hot tea. The old slave will teach them a lesson later."
As she said that, Madam Zhu took a jacket that was placed next to it and put it on Ren Yaoqi's shoulders, while saying, "Miss, my aunt received news just now that the third wife and the third lady are on their way back to the house. Although the heavy snow came suddenly, several roads outside the city were blocked overnight, but with the cavalry guards from the Yanbei Palace to open the way, the carriage can advance to the city by this evening at the latest."
Ren Yaoqi paused: "Mother and third sister are back?"
She lowered her eyes, making it difficult to see the emotions in her eyes, but her fingers on the collar couldn't help but tremble.
Madam Zhu's tone finally did not hide her anxiety: "Yeah, I heard that the old princess of Yanbei Palace was escorted back by the bicycle frame. They set off from Zhuangzi yesterday morning, and the house only received news this morning. Miss, What can we do now?"
Ren Yaoqi blinked quickly to hide the water light in her eyes. She took off the jacket she was wearing and wanted to wear it on her body. Mammy Zhu immediately came up to help, while still in Ren Yaoqi's ear. Bian said: "I don't know what means the third lady used to persuade the old princess of Yanbei. Fifth lady, when the third lady comes back, where can you find a place in this Ziwei courtyard?"
Hearing this, Ren Yaoqi glanced lightly at Mammy Zhu who was hurriedly buttoning her buttons with her head down, but she couldn't help but sneer in her heart. There were indeed many ghosts and ghosts in the Ren family more than ten years ago.
For the past two days, she watched with cold eyes, wanting to take a serious look at the filth behind these thick and colorful paintings.
Madam Zhu didn't notice Ren Yaoqi's strangeness, she helped her button up the button, raised her head and said, "The old lady has always liked the third lady more than you, and the third lady depends on her in everything, and things in our yard. She has the final say, no matter how big or small, but she doesn't like you, and makes things difficult for you, so that the third wife will also not take your daughter to heart, and only believe in her bewitching..."
Speaking of which, Zhu Mammy glanced at Ren Yaoqi quietly. To her surprise, Ren Yaoqi was just leaning on the back of Fang Shengwen, the red bottom of the kang head, and quietly watching her, with clear eyes as good as above. Glass, quiet and clear.
Ren Yaoqi remembered that the third sister Ren Yaohua was in the autumn of the 16th year of Chengqian because she pushed the sixth brother Ren Yihong into the lotus pond, and was punished by the old lady to go to Zhuangzi to reflect.
Their mother, the third wife of the Ren family, went to the old lady to intercede and was turned away from the hospital. In the end, she accompanied the third sister to Zhuangzi, and the nine-year-old she was left in the Ren family.
The mother, Mrs. Li, is a timid and cowardly woman.
Li's cowardice is not only due to her experience of being displaced in her childhood.
She married into the Ren family in the forty-seventh year of Qinglong. She had nothing for the first two years. In the third year, she gave birth to a daughter but died within 100 days. In the fifth year, she gave birth to another daughter.
At this time, the old lady of the Ren family was already very dissatisfied with Mrs. Li, but fortunately Mrs. Li was pregnant again in the second year after giving birth to her next daughter.
It's a pity that Li's family has no children, and the third child is still a daughter. This is Ren Yaoqi, the fifth miss of the Ren family.
As a result, the old lady of the Ren family was completely cold to the Li family, and three days after Ren Yaoqi was born, she took the lead in accepting a concubine of her mother's sister as a concubine for the third master of the Ren family.
The concubine Fang Shi was pregnant within half a year of entering the house. She gave birth to a pair of twins in ten months of pregnancy, establishing her status in the Ren family.
And Ren Yaoqi's birth not only put his mother's position in the Ren family in jeopardy, but also an existence that his grandmother hated.
Since the first time Li was pregnant with Ren Yao, Mrs. Ren had been full of hope for her child. She was able to find an eminent monk for fortune-telling, an experienced midwife to feel the baby, and even a wizard for divination. Those people agreed that the baby was a boy, so the old lady Ren also firmly believed in her daughter-in-law. The third child is pregnant with a son.
So after Ren Yaoqi was born, the old lady Ren decided that the newly born granddaughter was a demon, squeezed her original grandson's position away, and didn't like her anymore.
On the other hand, the third young lady Ren Yaohua, who was also from the Li family, was treated differently by the old lady because she looked like the old lady Ren when she was young, and she was smart and intelligent.
"Fifth Miss?" Seeing Ren Yaoqi staring at her and not speaking, Zhu mama thought she was sleepy, so she tried to push Ren Yaoqi gently, thinking whether she should pour another glass of cold water.
Ren Yaoqi glanced at Mammy Zhu's hand on his arm.
Madam Zhu froze, she raised her hand to caress her temples, and smiled, "Miss, Aunt Fang said that your illness has improved a lot, and she used the original prescription to worry that the medicine would be too effective. It's strong, and I said that I'll ask the doctor to come into the house later to give you a pulse again."
Ren Yaoqi made a sound of "um" and did not object.
Madam Zhu was muttering to herself in her heart, why did Fifth Young Lady look a little different these two days? It's just a ten-year-old child, but the look in those quiet eyes occasionally makes people feel panic
Most of Ren Yaoqi has no impression of these wives and maids around him. Because they didn't wait long by her side, they would be sent out soon after.
She still remembers this Madam Zhu. In her impression back then, Madam Zhu seemed to be a very kind and caring woman who would give her advice and be regarded as her confidant.
She remembered that she even had a quarrel with her third sister, Ren Yaohua, over this Mammy Zhu, and almost got into a fight in the end.
But judging from her current experience, she doesn't feel that this Madam Zhu has any merit.
She was not attentive enough to serve her, and she neglected to discipline the maids in her yard. Her words seemed to be all for her master, but in fact, she was breaking the relationship between her and Ren Yaohua everywhere.
Ren Yaohua is domineering and strong, but she was stubborn and willful when she was young. Under the instigation and provocation of such two people, how can Ziweiyuan find peace
This time, she will never allow those people to use the quarrel between their sisters to make a fuss and plot against them.
father... mother...
Ren Yaoqi murmured in his heart, in this life, you must live a hundred years.