maidservant

Chapter 4: The Third Concubine Discovers Something, The Fifth Concubine Brings Silver into the House

For example, Gan Tang was waiting in the side room holding a heater when he heard the Third Aunt sneer and say, "That string of Buddhist beads should be placed in the ancestral hall. Why use it to pollute my eyes?"

Gan Tang didn't understand, but she knew there were some things she couldn't know, so she just listened and didn't ask any more questions.

It wasn't until many years later that Gan Tang finally figured out everything from the fragments he had heard.

On the night of the house search, Gan Tang carefully pondered over the events of the past few years in the mansion before he figured out the whole thing.

The cold wind of December blew snowflakes against the window frames. A few people had been missing from the mansion recently; no one knew where they had gone. Several of the servants were missing, and even Old Zhang, who had often delivered charcoal, was gone.

Sister Gan Sui is also missing.

On the day Gan Sui's sister left, she hid in the side room and heard Madam Zhou sigh: "Giving it to a drunkard is like asking for death."

Slave maids had no say in whether they would follow their masters or be assigned to someone else.

"It would be great if I could gain face in front of my master, and then collect enough money to redeem myself and become free." Gan Tang thought silently in his heart, and this idea was gradually taking root.

Miss Yu has been going to the warm room all the time recently. The gilded incense burner in the Third Aunt's room has been replaced with a brass one, and the incense has also become much weaker. Since the incident with the young master, it seems that the master is not as good to the Third Aunt as before.

At the time of Shen on New Year's Eve, Gan Tang tied a pink cloak on Miss Yu.

The bronze mirror reflected the velvet flower in her new hairpin, which was made by removing the buttons from her old clothes.

The family banquet was held in Zhaixing Tower, and the kingfisher hairpins on the second concubine's temples were so swaying that they dazzled people.

The second concubine was the lady's distant cousin. The lady became ill when she gave birth to the eldest daughter. The imperial physician said that there was no hope of having children in the future, so the lady's family, the Su family in Yangzhou, sent the second concubine as her husband. A year later, she gave birth to a little boy.

Although Young Master Yan Lie was a concubine's son, he was doted on by both his wife and the second concubine.

At the dinner table, he ignored the rules and behaved casually.

Gan Tang prayed that he would not conflict with Miss Yu.

"Protect Miss Yu," she said silently in her heart.

Gan Tang was kneeling behind Miss Yu's seat serving the dishes when he saw Miss Yan Zhen's jade bracelet slipping to her wrist bone. Miss Yu also had one of the same quality, so they looked like a pair. The master had indeed been very good to both the Third Aunt and Miss Yu before.

Master Yan Lie suddenly knocked his silver chopsticks against the edge of Miss Yu's bowl: "Why doesn't the little mute eat the shrimp balls?"

"I'll peel the shells for you." Gan Tang carefully protected Miss Yu.

When the fireworks at the hour of Xu illuminated the veranda, something unexpected happened.

Yan Lie snatched the fire starter from the servant's hand and threw a string of firecrackers at Miss Yu's brocade cloak.

When Gan Tang rushed over, he smelled a burning smell. The velvet flower on her left temple had burned to ashes, and firecracker fragments had embedded themselves in the wound that had cracked from last year's frostbite.

Amid the exclamations of the whole room, she heard the Second Aunt's sweet laugh: "Lie'er is lively and adds some festive cheer."

There were only two sheep-horn lanterns left on the return trip. Miss Yu handed the hand warmer to Gan Tang and asked, "Gan Tang, are your eyes still hurting?"

Gan Tang shook her head. The kind young master had always been very kind to her.

The candles in Third Aunt's room burned until the fifth watch. As Gan Tang squatted in the side room drying clothes, he heard Madam Zhou sobbing softly, "That drunkard was actually Second Aunt's maid's cousin. Poor, flower-like creature, how could he die? She'd only been married for a short time! What a wicked heart!"

The days passed by in a hurry, and I didn't feel as peaceful as when I first came to the hospital.

Suddenly, a figure appeared on the window paper. She hurriedly hid the earthenware jar she had been saving money in among the stove ash. Inside lay the silver melon seeds she had received as a New Year's Eve reward, wrapped three times in red paper. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the day for hanging lanterns, Gan Tang received half a bolt of plain brocade from the storehouse.

The maid in charge stuffed a handful of extra copper coins into the bag and said, "The leftovers from the prayer flags used by the masters for religious ceremonies are enough for you to make a shirt."

She touched the dark lotus pattern on the cloth and remembered that Gan Sui had embroidered the same pattern and said she wanted to keep it as a dowry.

The rain before the Waking of Insects came suddenly, and Gan Tang ran across the corridor holding the scriptures that were drying.

Young Master Yan Lie's wild laughter mingled with the maid's sobs, and she turned and retreated into the bamboo forest. To live well, she always had to be more cautious. She sympathized with the other two maids assigned to Young Master Yan Lie, but she had to protect herself first.

The snow on the 16th day of the first lunar month had not yet melted when Fourth Aunt's sedan chair was carried in from the side door.

Gan Tang hid behind the window of the ear room and saw that the new concubine had a plain silver hairpin in her hair and her skirt was embroidered with orchid patterns - a pattern only used by scholars.

Miss Yu pulled her sleeve: "Sister Tang, will this aunt bring me some candy?"

The fourth concubine's courtyard is called Lanxin Pavilion, which is closest to the master's study.

Gan Tang often saw her leaning against the porch pillar reading, the pair of jade bracelets on her wrists making crisp sounds as they touched the pages.

However, the incense in Third Aunt's room became weaker and weaker, and the monthly salary of Yushuyuan also decreased by 30%.

Fortunately, the master would come to test Miss Yu's homework every month, so the servants didn't dare to go too far.

On the day of the Spring Equinox, Gan Tang accompanied Miss Yu to the Li family private school.

There are many young men and women in their family, and many of them are the same age as Miss Yu.

Miss Yu's seat was behind Yan Zhen and Yan Lie's seats. In the front were the eldest son Li Song, the second son Li Bai, and the third lady Li Meng of the Imperial Censor Li Yin.

Li Song, this pine-like gentleman, stared at Gan Tang the first time they met and even offered her some fruit. Gan Tang also liked talking to this gentleman, and he never treated these tutors as anything to order around.

Li Meng was wearing a brand new lilac-colored skirt and a gold bracelet on her wrist, and was chatting and laughing with Yan Zhen.

Miss Yu's seat was in the back row. On the desk was a book bag that Gan Tang had sewn overnight. The stitches were fine and the embroidery had a half-opened magnolia on it.

"Did you embroider this for your young lady?" Li Mei suddenly leaned forward, her fingertips tracing the pattern on the book bag. Gan Tang lowered her head in response, noticing ink stains on the hem of her skirt, where Yan Lie had overturned the inkstone during their argument. It seemed that Young Lady Li was a straightforward, unconcerned woman, unlike most aristocratic women.

That day, after private school, Li Song walked over, watched them playing, and said, "Father brought a few ponies today. If you feel bored, you can ask the servants to take them for a few laps."

No one could have imagined at that time that the horse riding that Gan Tang accidentally learned out of curiosity would actually save her life when she grew up.

Three years passed between the pages of the book, and Gan Tang's needlework became better and better.

Li Meng saw the purse she embroidered for Miss Yu and insisted on taking one.

The maid in Fourth Aunt's room secretly came to her to help with housework and praised her: "Our aunt said that your craftsmanship is better than those in the embroidery workshop." Then she handed her some change as a reward.

Gan Tang counted the reward money and remembered that Gan Sui once said that he could redeem himself if he saved up twenty taels of silver.

I thought the Fourth Concubine was the last one, but after only three years of being favored, the Fifth Concubine came into the family.

On the day the Fifth Concubine entered the family home, Gan Tang heard Madam Zhou sigh in the side room, "She's the concubine of a salt merchant, and her dowry is a whopping fifty loads of leather."

(End of this chapter)