The old place refers to the small garden of the fifth room.
Since Zhou Shaojin threatened Cheng Yi last time, Cheng Yi hadn't met up with Cheng Nuo and the others for some time. Hearing this, he couldn't help but beam with joy, and whispered to Cheng Nuo for a while before sending Cheng Nuo out.
Over there, Cheng Wen was already kneeling in the yard of Chunzexuan.
The early summer sun shining on the bluestone slabs is not as scorching as the July sun, but it should not be underestimated. Moreover, Cheng Wen has been living a life of luxury for so many years. If he were to be suddenly subjected to such torture, it would be terrible if he were to become exhausted and fall ill.
Mrs. Wen was extremely anxious and regretted reporting the case to Cheng Xu.
Cheng Wen was already glaring at Madam Wen, sneering, "What were you doing earlier? You're pretending to be nice now! From now on, I won't bother you with my affairs! The sun is strong this afternoon, Madam Wen, you should go back to your room and rest! If you get sick from the sun, I won't be able to take responsibility!"
Mrs. Wen was so angry at the sarcastic remarks that she stood there wiping her tears.
After receiving the letter, Jiang came over and persuaded Mrs. Wen to return to the fifth room.
Cheng Ji sat in front of the drawing table by the window in Zhou Shaojin's room. The thick old locust tree blocked the sunlight outside, filling the room with rich green.
She drank a mouthful of mung bean soup, sighed comfortably, and said with a smile: "Aunt Jing from the eldest house is still very capable. She said she had to serve Mrs. Guo lunch and ignored this matter. Aunt Yi from the second house had to take care of her pregnant daughter-in-law. Only my mother ran over stupidly. Now she is entangled by Aunt Wen. I don't know when she can get away."
The previous summer clothes have been made, and Zhou Shaojin is making an autumn headband for Grandma Guan.
She listened, looked up and smiled, then lowered her head to sew.
Cheng Ji was very dissatisfied and said, "I have finally come here, and you are just sitting here doing needlework. You don't look like the master at all." As she said that, she was about to snatch the forehead scarf from Zhou Shaojin's hand.
Zhou Shaojin raised his hand, dodged Cheng Ji, and said, "This is not a good thing, what do you want me to say?"
Cheng Ji was speechless, then pouted and said, "Anyway, I think what Uncle Wen did was wrong. Instead of arguing with him like this, Aunt Wen might as well just divorce him. That way, she won't have to see him anymore and won't be bothered by him..."
Divorce
That requires a strong mother-in-law!
Zhou Shaojin was a little dazed.
If Cheng Ji had not been in trouble, she would have the confidence to say such things because she had parents who loved her and a brother who supported her.
Zhou Shaojin felt a little uncomfortable.
She remembered the letter that Cheng Ji asked Cuihuan to give her.
They are all victims.
I hope their fate will change in this life.
Zhou Shaojin lowered his head and continued to sew the forehead scarf for Old Lady Guan.
Cheng Ji couldn't sit still, so he said a few words to Zhou Shaojin and went to look for Jiang.
Zhou Shaojin sneered.
Going to look for Jiang was fake, but going to the fifth room to watch the fun was real, right
In the next few days, everyone in Jiuru Lane was talking about this incident.
Cheng Wen was sick, and Mrs. Wen cried like a tearful person, but Cheng Wen refused to let Mrs. Wen in. Mrs. Wen had no choice but to sleep on the Luohan bed in the hall at night. No one took care of the household affairs, and all decisions were made by Mrs. Wen's wet nurse.
There has been a lot of commotion in the fifth room.
Zhou Shaojin didn't want to say anything, so she started doing needlework after returning from Hanbi Mountain House. After finishing embroidering the old lady's forehead scarf, she began to make winter clothes for her father who was far away in Nanchang Prefecture. By the way, she decided to make a skirt for her stepmother Li as well.
In her previous life, after her elder sister got married, she started to discuss marriage with Cheng Lu. She looked weak, so they sent her to Baoding Prefecture, and then married her from Baoding Prefecture to Jinling. Her grandmother and aunt thought that this was a torment for her, not to mention that the Zhou family’s ancestral home was in Jinling, so they kept her in the Cheng family, preparing to get engaged after she had her coming-of-age ceremony... There was no way she could discuss marriage with Cheng Lu in this life, and when her elder sister got married, she would naturally have to go to Baoding. It was necessary for her to express her goodwill to her stepmother at this time.
After Pan Zhuo left, Pan Qing came to play with Zhou Shaojin.
She looked at Zhou Shaojin, who was as peaceful as a lake, with a trace of confusion in her eyes, and said, "You just sit at home every day and don't go anywhere?"
"I have things to do!" Especially during these troubled times, Zhou Shaojin decided to keep a certain distance from them.
Pan Qing suddenly realized, "Yes, your grandmother's birthday is coming soon, you have to prepare a birthday gift for her."
Zhou Shaojin didn't explain and lowered his head to sew clothes.
Pan Qing looked at the dark blue robe with purple auspicious cloud patterns and asked curiously, "Who did you make this for?"
"My father." Zhou Shaojin said without raising his head.
Pan Qing held it in his hand and looked at it.
Zhou Shaojin smiled and said, "Don't move, my needle will go astray."
Pan Qing smiled awkwardly, put down the cloth he had just cut, and said, "The moonlight outside is so beautiful, shall we go for a walk? I haven't had a good chat with you since I came back to Jinling this time!"
Zhou Shaojin smiled and said, "When a few people walk together, mosquitoes always like to bite me, so I don't go out at night. If you want to enjoy the moon, I'm afraid cousin Jia is still free now, you might as well invite her to go with you."
Pan Qing smiled and said, "You know she doesn't like me..." There was a hint of tentativeness in her tone.
Zhou Shaojin pretended not to hear and smiled, "She has that kind of temper. In fact, she has a good heart. Cousin Qing will know after spending some time with her."
Pan Qing didn't believe it. Zhou Shaojin and Cheng Ji had been together for so many years, and Cheng Ji was bossy, but Zhou Shaojin had no opinion of Cheng Ji. Her ladylike attitude of "see nothing and say nothing" made Pan Qing feel bored.
The second daughter of the Zhou family is a wooden beauty. She has been reading "Legends of Virtuous Women" and "Instructions for Women" since she was a child. Without her mother's private guidance, she took everything written in the books seriously and followed the rules. She is meaningless.
As if to confirm her guess, Zhou Shaojin answered every question she asked and ignored her for even a second.
Pan Qing was very disappointed. After saying a few words, he stood up and left.
The oil lamps were more or less eye-smoking, and Zhou Shaojin was determined to make his father's body stitches neat and well-fitting, so he had long been impatient with the tiny light. He was just acting like this to drive Pan Qing away, so as soon as Pan Qing left Wanxiangju, Zhou Shaojin asked Chunwan to put away her needlework, got up, rubbed his eyes and said, "Let's go to the yard to enjoy the moon. The lilies are in full bloom these two days. You can smell the fragrance when you wake up in the morning. It's a pity that they withered at dawn, otherwise it would be nice to wear a few of them in your hair."
Shi Xiang took a palm-leaf fan and went out with Zhou Shaojin, saying, "The jasmine flowers have bloomed beautifully these past two days. Can I pick some for the second young lady to wear?"
"Okay!" Zhou Shaojin said with a smile, "Pick more and hang them on the corner of the bed, or make them into bracelets. Give some to my sister, my grandmother, my aunt, and Si'er, and bring a few to Xiaotan..."
As they talked, they strolled along the path of Wanxiangju.
The palm-leaf fan in Shi Xiang's hand made a puffing sound, which was refreshing and cool, and Zhou Shaojin's mood improved.
A dark figure ran by on the path beside.
Zhou Shaojin and the others were shocked. Zhou Shaojin even thought of his encounter with Cheng Xu in the garden in his previous life, and his face turned pale with fear, and he couldn't help screaming.
Shi Xiang quickly hugged Zhou Shaojin and shouted towards the shadow: "Who is it? Come out quickly? Otherwise we will have to call for help."
The black shadow paused when he heard that, then turned around and walked over.
I went to pick up a lantern for the Spring Festival Gala.
He was about ten years old, skinny as a monkey, wearing a short brown shirt made of green fine cloth, and his face was full of agility.
It turned out to be Cheng Yi's personal servant Sanbao.
What is he doing in the inner courtyard at this time
After all, it was someone he was familiar with. Zhou Shaojin patted his chest and breathed a sigh of relief.
A night watchwoman was already coming over here with a lantern in her hand: "Second Miss, what happened?"
Sanbao looked pleadingly in his eyes and clasped his hands together towards Zhou Shaojin.
Zhou Shaojin wanted to help him, so he said loudly, "It's okay, it's okay. I just stepped on something soft, I didn't know what it was, and I got a big fright."
Two old women came over with smiles on their faces.
Sanbao quickly hid behind the willow tree nearby.
The two maids smiled and said, "I'm glad you're okay. You scared us."
Zhou Shaojin thanked the two maids and asked Shi Xiang to get some change for the two maids to drink with. "After you finish your shift, go and have some rest."
The two men refused and kept thanking her. After pushing and shoving Shi Xiang for a while, they took the silver, thanked her, and turned to go somewhere else.
Zhou Shaojin stood there with a stern face, waiting for Sanbao to explain.
Sanbao came out from behind the tree trembling, stammering for a long time without saying a complete word.
Zhou Shaojin raised his eyebrows, called out "Shixiang", and said, "Go and ask the two night watchwomen to come over."
“Second Miss, spare me!” San Bao knelt on the ground, “Second Miss, it was the Second Master. The Second Master lost money and asked me to go back to get it… I thought this place was closer, so I took a small path… I will never dare to do it again, never again!”
Zhou Shaojin was stunned when he heard this, and then he was so angry that he almost vomited blood. He said in a stern voice: "What did you say? Is the Second Master gambling? Who did he gamble with? Where did he gamble? How much silver did he lose? Who else knows about this?"
Seeing that every word she said was full of concern, San Bao's heartstrings relaxed and he spoke fluently: "They are all the sons of several old friends in the clan school, and then there are Master Nuo and Master Ju from the fifth room. They don't play big games, one hundred coins per game, in the pavilion in the small garden of the fifth room, surrounded by felt carpets, and there is no light outside. The second master didn't bring much silver today, and his luck was a bit bad. He lost about four or five taels of silver. He originally wanted to stop and play again tomorrow, but Master Ju didn't want to - he also lost, losing seven or eight taels of silver. The second master didn't want to offend him, so he asked me to come back to get the silver.
"Second Miss, you must keep this a secret for the Second Master. If the Master and the Madam knew about this, they would skin the Second Master alive, right?"
Zhou Shaojin almost couldn't catch his breath.
Cheng Yi turned his words into a deaf ear. Not only did he gamble, but he also gambled with Cheng Ju and others. It wasn't the first time that Sanbao sounded that way!
She twisted her handkerchief and spun around in circles. It took her a long time to calm down. She said to Sanbao, "Go and tell the Second Master that I have something to ask him. Tell him to stop playing and come to see me. I'll wait for him here."
※
My computer broke down last night. There was a software engineer in the group. I used my phone to surf the Internet, took a picture of the interface and sent it to her. She told me how to operate it and the computer returned to normal. This morning I took the computer to after-sales service and they told me that there was no problem with the computer... This friend is amazing...
※(To be continued)