At the end of the Ninth Year of Ningwu, seeing that the end of the year was approaching, another incident happened—the Empress Dowager Xie passed away. It was rumored that Empress Dowager Xie was under house arrest in the Taichen Palace, and soon fell ill. The imperial physicians took turns to diagnose and treat her, but she still couldn't get over it.
"... But, I heard rumors that the Queen Mother didn't die of illness, but was starved to death." A few maids said, "After Xie's family was convicted, the Queen Mother didn't say a word to Jinshang again. Started to go on a hunger strike. As a result, now that I am on the true way, my mother starved for food for self-cultivation. You should follow her will and order the palace people to give you only one bite a day. The queen mother just starved to death like this—"
"Cough." As soon as Zhang Yuan came, the servants hurriedly fell silent. He pointed up at the red lantern hanging on the beam and said, "Be quick with your hands and feet, these things will be dismantled soon."
The Queen Mother passed away, and the whole country mourned. The people should also wear plain clothes during this hundred days, and it is forbidden to have sex with prostitutes, marry, celebrate birthdays and other happy events. If this is the case, the first year of the year will naturally be impossible.
After the incident in Xie's family, the Xu residence became much quieter. Previously, people came to visit every day, it was an ordinary day, and the gift givers never stopped. Today, compared with before, the front hall is empty. It was also heard that after Xie's party was purged in the court, Xu Shangshu was isolated, and the students under his sect were transferred or dismissed from office one after another. Earlier, the concierge also said that King Rui's sedan chair was supposed to pass by the gate of Xu's mansion, but it changed its way temporarily, and would rather make a big detour than enter the alley, lest people who are interested would mistakenly think that he was coming to the door.
Seeing that the general situation was over, Xu Shangshu simply closed the door to thank the guests, and he did not talk too much in the court as before, he only abided by his own responsibilities and was cautious in every step. Half a month ago, I heard that the yamen sent people to seal up several shops of the Xu family. Because of this, Jiang and the master had a dispute.
The master pointed to Jiang Shi and said, "Huayang, Huayang, you really have the guts of a bear—you know that you are running private salt, and if you are tracked down, you will be ransacked all over the house!"
In the room, Jiang's sobbing voice came out: "I don't know how I am, the master has never been a housekeeper, so I don't know how much money it costs for hundreds of mouths in the entire Xu Mansion in one month!"
"you… !"
The master waved his sleeves and let out a long sigh.
Later, I didn't know how to settle the matter, but those shops were closed, and now the Xu family's property is only a restaurant in Beijing and a few Zhuangzi outside.
After Mrs. Xie passed away, the power of housekeeping was returned to Dafang. Mrs. Yu was born in a general family and was always frugal and stingy. Now that she is in charge of the affairs of the rear house, she has greatly reduced the expenses of each house on the grounds that the household expenses are too high. She had long been displeased with Xie's extravagance and extravagance, so she said to Zhang Yuan: "There are only so many masters in the mansion, so how can we need so many people to serve them? Why don't we give up all the pretense things."
As a result, more than half of the servants in Xu's mansion were sold or dismissed. In the past, there were more than a dozen servants sent by the owners of each house, but now there are less than two or three left.
At the back door of Xu's mansion, Biyu sniffled from crying. Among the big maids who were sold, she was also one of them. Although she has a reckless temper, she is pure and innocent. I have always regarded her as a younger sister. It's just that in today's inner house, the Yu family is the biggest, and no one dares to disobey her, and I couldn't keep Biyu either.
I have been locked in the back house all the time, without any belongings, and I only gave her some personal money. Biyu was startled, shook her head and said, "Slaves, slaves, you can't accept—"
"You take it, it's not much money." I told her, "When I go back to my hometown, I will find a good man to marry, and the money will be used as a dowry for you."
Only then did Biyu accept the silver ticket, and she bowed to me, and after a few steps, she hurriedly turned back and said, "Young Master, can this servant comb your hair again?"
As soon as I nodded, she found a wooden grate from her cloth bag. She walked up to me and grabbed the end of my hair: "In the old house of the servant girl, when combing someone's hair, they would say three auspicious words."
She combed it and said, "One comb is rich and noble."
Comb again: "Second comb is free from disease and disaster."
For the last time, she choked up and said: "Three combs live a long life..."
She knelt down and kowtowed to me. I quickly helped her up, and Biyu said with tears, "I will not be able to serve you in the future, young master, you must take care of yourself."
After that, Biyu got into the bullock cart together with those servants who had left. Looking at that alley, I suddenly felt that maybe this is a good thing. After leaving this capital city, the sky and the earth outside are vast, no matter what, it is much better than staying in this mansion for the rest of your life...
"Young Master," Bi Luo came over, she narrowed her eyes, and said softly, "Your servant... will never leave."
I nodded and said, "Go in."
After that day, Bi Luo was the only person serving me. She has a calm personality, and is not as lively as Biyu, and it became much quieter around me all of a sudden. But she has always been devoted to me, and now there are not many people in the mansion who can command her, and I am not a rich man, so I can do most things by myself.
At the end of the month, I moved to Dafang.
Xu Changfeng became the Grand Commander. In addition to being in charge of the Fusi of Nanbei Town and the Twelve Yamen of the Imperial Guard, he was also the Colonel of the Overseer. He has been stationed in the barracks every day for a while. Now he doesn't hear anything about court affairs, and he is all focused on military affairs. In the ten days and a half months since I came to Dafang, I have never seen him come back.
Bi Luo came in to collect lunch, and saw that I had barely touched my chopsticks, so she asked, "Is it because the cooking in the kitchen is not to your liking?" In order to reduce the cost, Mrs. Yu used to have four dishes and one soup for her master's meal, but now it has been reduced to two. I shook my head and said, "No, I just don't have much appetite."
Recently, I often have nightmares at night, and I don't eat much during the day. Bi Luo said: "Why don't you send the slave to the doctor to have a look?"
"I'm fine, don't bother others." My body has always been strong, but my appetite is not good, so naturally I don't take it seriously.
Biyu stopped persuading me, and went down to work after collecting the things.
I got up and went to the yard. Jun'er should still be studying now, so I didn't bother her, lest she see me and be mischievous again. Now, winter is coming to an end, and seeing spring is approaching, this courtyard seems to be bleak and cold like a day for ten years. As I passed the path, I suddenly heard a few cats meowing.
I looked around, then looked up following the sound, and saw a white and fluffy cat on a tree in front of me.
This big cat was raised by Jun'er, and I raised my head and called it a few times: "Yiyi, Yiyi, here." The cat was also quite spiritual, and it meowed a few times at me.
"Come down." I whispered to it, "What's the matter, can't it come down?"
I don't know how it ran out and how it got on the tree. I saw it lingering on the top of the tree, as if it couldn't get down.
I looked around, but I saw no one around, and it was deserted. I looked at the dwarf tree in front of me again, and thought that it was not very tall.
"Yiyi, wait a minute—" I coaxed it softly, "I'll go up right now."
After all, I was raised in front of a man. I used to climb taller trees than this at home. I rolled up my sleeves and tried to climb up the tree trunk. Yiyi was circling on the thick branch, and after a lot of effort, I got to the top and waved to it: "Come, come here."
"Meow." The cat meowed.
"Come here, come—" I called a few times, and the big white cat crawled over slowly, and I immediately opened my hand and caught it, "You are so good." I hugged it with one hand , when I was about to come down, suddenly a bird flew by, the cat in my hand was frightened, screamed, and struggled hard in my arms. Fall back.
"Ah..." I fell to the ground and cried out in pain. As soon as the white cat landed, it jumped into the grass and disappeared.
I turned over with difficulty, trying to get up, but found that I couldn't use the strength. "Ah..." I felt a throbbing pain in my lower abdomen, and a cold sweat broke out on my forehead.
"Come on, come on..." I moved my body with my elbows and crawled forward, faintly feeling heat flowing down my thighs. Trembling, I lowered my head to look, and saw a blood red gradually bleed on the white silk trousers.