maidservant

Chapter 9: The monthly salary in the mansion is less, Yan Lie tells his worries
She suddenly fell silent and saw Fourth Aunt walking through the corridor carrying the account book, her silver bracelet making a crisp sound as it hit the blue bricks.

Gan Tang touched the patch on her cuff, remembering the dense scarlet writing she'd seen on the account book the day before, when she'd gone to the warehouse to get some fabric. Miss Yu suddenly tugged at her sleeve: "Gan Tang, my monthly allowance has been reduced, too." The golden bell on her wrist tangled in Gan Tang's belt, making a tinny sound.

"Let's wait a little longer." Gan Ju wrung out her clothes, and water droplets splashed on the stone steps. "Just wait until the end of the year when the money from the farm is paid." She lowered her voice, "I heard that the rent from Dongzhuang has not been paid for three months."

That night, Gan Tang opened his piggy bank in the side room. He was still two taels short of the twenty taels of silver, and the verdigris stain on the copper coins was becoming increasingly glaring.

She knew that the Shangshu Mansion might be on the verge of collapse, and she didn't dare to gamble. She had to redeem herself and leave before anything happened.

On this day, the charcoal fire in the incense burner in Third Aunt's room was extinguished, and a withered lotus branch was stuck in the white porcelain vase on the desk.

Gan Tang was grinding ink behind the screen when he saw Third Aunt's nails, stained with marigold juice, scratching deep red marks on Miss Yu's birthday card.

"Your father is busy with his official duties and cannot be free." The third concubine suddenly broke the pen, and the ink splashed on the faded scarlet gauze curtain. "No one in the family can make the decision for you." She grabbed Miss Yu's birthday card. Miss Yu would be coming of age after the New Year.

Miss Yu called out, "Mother..."

Gan Tang caught a glimpse of the white hair behind Third Aunt's ear. Time flies, leaving people behind. Cherries turn red and banana leaves turn green. Third Aunt's stunning beauty still couldn't withstand the test of time.

A burning smell wafted in from outside the window; it was the servant girl burning dry leaves.

"I have reached the age of marriage but have not yet met my husband's family." The Third Aunt suddenly coughed violently, and her handkerchief was stained dark red. She immediately put it away for fear that Miss Yu would see it.

"Someone died in the mansion, and the monthly salary was withheld." Her skinny hand grasped Miss Yu's wrist. "The other day, the servant at the west corner gate beat the groom to death, and the blood was splattered on your favorite swing."

Gan Tang recalled the sobbing sounds by the well that night, when Third Aunt was worried about Miss Yu's future.

Miss Yu suddenly trembled, and the golden bell touched the jade paperweight: "Will there be peace after getting married?"

On the way back to the courtyard, Miss Yu counted her steps on the dead leaves. At the seventy-ninth step, she suddenly stopped in front of the blood-stained swing. "When I was five years old, Yan Lie pushed me off." Gan Tang felt the old scar on her palm. "My eldest sister said that concubines should give way to their brothers."

When the rain suddenly fell at night, Gan Tang was counting her halved monthly wages in the ear room. She missed her sister. Every time she thought of her sister, she didn't dare to think about it anymore. Panic arose in her heart. The life in the slave post was too painful.

Speaking of Master Yan Lie, Gan Tang also had a bad impression of him. He was naughty and unruly when he was young.

After the death of the Second Concubine, he became much more restrained, but he still had a cold face all day long and was not nice to the servants.

It was New Year's Eve again. Everyone had a simple New Year's Eve dinner and went back to their homes to rest.

Until the Lantern Festival, there was no sense of joy of the Spring Festival in the mansion, and the Lantern Festival family dinner was also dull. Miss Yu did drink some wine, and Gan Tang helped her to sleep.

The waning moon of the Lantern Festival hung on the dead branches. Gan Tang got up at night and walked towards the ear room on the broken snow in the yard.

The branches of the newly planted plum tree in the yard were broken by the snow, and icicles formed on the broken ends, which looked very much like the secret-colored porcelain vase that he had smashed that year.

"who?"

A sudden, cold shout echoed from behind the rockery, startling the sparrows napping under the eaves. Gan Tang hurriedly looked down and saw a pair of wine-stained black boots. Yan Lie leaned against the bluestone, holding a mutton-fat jade wine jug engraved with the Big Dipper, its spout still stained with blood. "Young Master, are you well?" Gan Tang bowed, catching a glimpse of the soft sword at his waist. The black jade on its scabbard was missing a single piece. A rich pear blossom white, mingled with the scent of blood, assaulted his face.

"Get lost!" Yan Lie threw the wine glass, sending the broken pieces flying onto Gan Tang's skirt. "You're all bad people!" He suddenly grabbed Gan Tang's wrist with enough force to break bones. "Do you know how my mother died?"

Gan Tang gasped in pain, but he saw the old wound on his wrist - left by sword practice in the past, now covered with fresh blood scabs.

Moonlight filtered through the plum branches, casting mottled shadows on his face: "The medicine the Su family sent is said to be for calming the nerves and soothing his mother." The smell of alcohol sprayed on his ears, mixed with a faint scent of bitter apricots.

"The eldest young master is drunk." Gan Tang touched the silver needle in her sleeve pocket, which was the one that the third concubine taught her to use for self-defense.

Just as he was about to raise his hand, Yan Lie suddenly collapsed to the ground, his dark brocade robe spread out, revealing a hideous burn scar on his chest - shaped like the Big Dipper.

After the night watch drum had been struck three times, Gan Tang half-carried and half-dragged the person towards the east courtyard.

As Gan Tang helped Yan Lie across the threshold, the soft sword at his waist slipped off. Moonlight filtered in, illuminating their faces: one flushed from drunkenness, the other pale.

"Don't go." Yan Lie suddenly grabbed her wrist with such force that he could crush her bones.

Gan Tang felt the silver needle in her sleeve pocket and remembered the advice her Third Aunt had given her when she was teaching her self-defense: "Aim at the tiger's mouth." The moment the needle sank into his flesh, Yan Lie groaned and collapsed to the ground. Blood oozed from the old wound on his wrist, glowing dark red in the moonlight.

"If you leave me alone..." Yan Lie opened his clothes, revealing his chest.
"I will let everyone in the mansion know that you came into my room in the middle of the night and offered yourself to me."

His voice was hoarse and smelled of alcohol. "Just like that swordsman from the Su family back then."

Gan Tang froze in place. Yan Lie suddenly laughed, grabbed the wine jug and took a sip, then said again: "This is the medicine sent by the Su family. Damn it." The wine dripped down his chin, mixed with bitterness.

Yan Lie talked more and more, Madam, Master, Fifth Aunt...
"The eldest young master is drunk." Gan Tang grabbed the sobering soup, but his hands were shaking. The bowl touched Yan Lie's lips, and he turned his head away. The soup splashed onto his dark brocade robe, leaving dark stains.

Yan Lie suddenly pulled her into his arms, so hard that one could hear his ribs cracking. "Why are you ignoring me? You..."

Gan Tang struggled backwards, splashing the hangover soup onto Yan Lie's face. The soup slid down his Adam's apple, soaking his shirt and extinguishing the flames on his belt.

The room fell into a dead silence, with only the ticking of the clock. Yan Lie released his hand and slumped down in the armchair. "Go away!" He ripped off the jade pendant from his waist and threw it on the ground. "This is for you, thank you for tonight. Don't mention it to anyone else."

The jade pendant is engraved with the pattern of the Big Dipper, which echoes the black jade on the scabbard. It must be worth a lot of silver. I will exchange it at the pawnshop someday, Gan Tang thought.

Gan Tang retreated to the door, bowed, and then turned and ran back. She had guessed why the Madam had hanged herself, why Nanny Zhou had perished in the fire, why the Fifth Concubine had gone mad, and why the Third Concubine had lost her young master.
But after listening to Yan Lie's story one by one, she was still frightened and turned pale.

Gan Tang couldn't sleep that night. For the first time, she thought about the right of survival of women in the harem.

In the backyard of the deep mansion, the fate of women is like catkins floating in the wind, and they have no control over it.

(End of this chapter)