July is here, and the weather is supposed to get cooler, but in the past few days, the sun has become more and more intense. My feet feel hot even when I walk on the ground. People can't stop to admire the lush green leaves. The chirping of cicadas makes people who are already suffering from the heat even worse. Feeling upset and irritable.
The official residence of Jiujiang Mansion was originally cramped and cramped, but now that the scorching sun has not retreated for a long time, the room feels like a steamer.
The small courtyard in the corner of the official residence was in the west. There was only a basin of ice in the room, and a little girl was sleeping on the beauty's couch. She was only wearing a bellyband, exposing her white arms and legs.
Sitting next to the couch was a young woman. She was about eighteen or nineteen years old. She was very beautiful, slender, and frail. I felt pity for her. At this time, he was fanning the little girl with a look of distress on his face.
"Have you found the prickly heat powder yet? Look at Sister Shu's neck, the prickly heat has exploded."
The young woman who spoke was Xiao Fu. She was the wife of an official in Jiujiang Prefecture.
After a moment, two girls with buns came out from behind the screen. One looked more lively, while the other was much calmer. The two of them took out a packet of medicinal powder and handed it to Xiao Fu, and said more lively: "It's not an option to keep going like this." The servant heard that the four corners of the eldest lady's house were filled with ice basins, and Aunt Su relied on them. After giving birth to two brothers and a sister, we also needed four basins of ice. But we, like Aunt Ding, only have one basin of ice. How can one basin of ice be enough on such a hot day?"
"Danhong, you don't have to talk too much." Little Fu was also full of thoughts.
Seven years ago, news came that the eldest sister had died. The eldest sister and her brother-in-law had always had a deep love for each other, and the brother-in-law even wanted to resign from his job and stay at the funeral. Mrs. Liu saw that her son was so affectionate that she even gave up her official position. Because she accompanied her aunt to the Liu family to express condolences, her in-laws, Mrs. Liu, met her and knew that she had not been engaged yet and that she looked very similar to her eldest sister, so she asked to marry him. she.
That year, when she was about to have her hair cut off, she was treated coldly by her husband when she first got married. Later, the two gradually got to know each other, and her husband even stopped taking other concubines for her sake. She also gave birth to Lishu's extremely lovely daughter. .
Unexpectedly, at the banquet held by Li Shu to catch Zhou, the eldest sister came back from the dead and came back from other places.
Back then, when her husband Liu Chengxu was a Jinshi and the first magistrate of Shanyang County, Shanyang County was attacked by thieves. At this critical moment, he asked his close friends to escort his sister and two children out. He originally thought that he would die, but he never thought that the Shangguan at that time had the talent of Zhang Yi and Su Qin. He persuaded the thieves and nothing happened in Shanyang County. Instead, something happened to his sister, nieces and nephews who were sent out.
Later, my brother-in-law sent people to search for more than a month before they found a female corpse. She was wearing the same clothes as her sister when she went out of the city. Everyone thought that she would definitely die, and they organized the funeral vigorously. No one expected that her sister used a Li Dai Tao at that time. stiff.
When the eldest sister came back, she was in a very bad situation.
The husband felt guilty towards his eldest sister and gave her gifts at home, but every time he appeared in front of him, he was reminded of how unfaithful he had been.
Xiao Fu is also a strong person. Yesterday she was still deeply in love with her, but now she is acting like this. She could not appear in front of Liu Chengxu without appearing in front of him.
"Yes, madam, is it okay to continue like this? You are respectful to the eldest lady in everything, but how does she treat you? It doesn't matter that we adults suffer some grievances, but what about the third girl? The other girls are clear and refreshing. She is covered in prickly heat, she is still young, what about her future marriage?" Dan Qing, who had always been calm, also began to persuade her.
Little Mrs. Fu was stunned, yes, she doesn't think about herself, she also has to think about her daughter!
At present, Mr. Liu Chengxu has two wives and two concubines. His first wife, Mrs. Fu, has a son and an eldest daughter, Aunt Su has two sons and a daughter, and Aunt Ding also has a daughter.
In other words, there are now three sons and four daughters in the Liu family, and the age difference between the four daughters is not much different. How they are married to each other does not depend on how much their father likes them.
She gently applied medicated powder on the red prick on her daughter's neck with her hands, and secretly made the decision that she could no longer ignore her daughter's life for her own self-esteem.
It is ice now, but it will be dowry, marriage, and status in the future.
"Danhong, Danqing, open the money box for me tomorrow and ask Mama Du's boy to buy some incense tablets and plum powder for me. I want to make incense." Little Fu took a deep breath.
Danhong and Danqing are both a joy. At that time, my favorite was the fragrant powder made by my wife.
At this moment, the little girl lying on the bed opened her eyes. Her white and tender hands tightly grasped little Fu's hand. Seeing that her daughter had woken up, little Fu asked, "Baby is awake? Why are you sleeping every day these days?" Is it a nightmare to hold my mother's hand like this?"
Lishu burst into tears for some reason. She had thought about her mother for too long, so she always thought she was in a dream, probably drunk from the fine wine she brought back from Qi. However, she caught her mother several times in a row. The kiss's hand is warm.
"What's wrong? Are you feeling uncomfortable?" Little Fu blamed herself more and more.
"Mom, I woke up that day and saw you drawing babies, right?" Lishu always felt that she might not be dreaming. She seemed to have really returned to thirty years ago.
Mrs. Fu saw that she was articulate and knew that children crying sometimes might be having nightmares, so she felt relieved and just smiled and said: "Yeah, did you also have nightmares that day and insist on holding my mother's hand?" .”
At this moment, Li Shu looked around and realized whether she was really reborn or whether she had returned to the time when she was five years old.
She couldn't remember many things when she was a child, because her mother died when she was ten years old. After her death, she immediately got engaged to the Zheng family. She only remembered that when she asked Yuping and Yulan about her mother later, they both said This marriage, which was made by mistake, was a life of injustice. My mother was not liked by my father, and she died without a royal decree. Even if his son doesn't pass the imperial examination, he can't get a posthumous imperial edict.
The world only knows his wife Fu Chunhua, but no one knows Fu Qiujun.
Before she got married, she opened her mother's belongings and found only a box. Everything in the box was painted by her mother. Only then did she realize that her mother was good at painting and would set up an easel to draw her when she had nothing to do. From a toddler to The graceful and graceful painting of the little girl is so lifelike that it is clear that Mr. Fu's love for his daughter is evident.
Lishu raised her eyes and looked at little Fu. It was the first time she saw her mother's face in her memory. She never thought that little Fu was so beautiful, especially since there was no makeup on her face, which made her even more naturally beautiful.
"Mom, you're beautiful." Li Shu stood up and kissed little Fu on the face.
Little Fu was stunned for a moment, then smiled happily, while Li Shu looked around, and she probably knew where this was.
The Liu family is from the Jinghu Ding clan. Lishu's great-grandfather was the famous minister Liu Tianshi. He was the best in the world in terms of academic performance. He was very accomplished in weapons, water control and even medical skills. He was an official, crown prince, Taibao, minister of the Ministry of War, and censor of Zuodu, Duchayuan. Less security. His grandfather, Liu Dongye, was granted the title of Jinyiweizheng Qianhu due to his arrogance as a civil servant. In the 10th year of Tianxi's reign, he became a Jinshi in martial arts. He was also the commander-in-chief of Jinyiwei, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Guard, and the chief Tiqi. He was forced to become an official because of his involvement with an eunuch. He was named Zuo Dudu, Prince Taifu, and Commander of Jinyi Guards.
As for his uncle Liu Chengzong, he ranked first in the provincial martial arts examination in the eighth year of Tianxi's reign. His father was dismissed from office, and he was implicated and resigned.
His father was originally a top-ranking Jinshi. At that time, his father was still in Beijing, so he was naturally able to stay in Beijing. Later, because of his father, he asked to be sent abroad for several years, and now he is a promotion official in Jiujiang Prefecture.
Officials are required to bring a certain number of servants when they take office. Foreign officials below the fourth rank can bring twenty servants. Therefore, there were originally servants familiar to each house, but now they only bring two or three servants.
The reason why she remembers Jiujiang so clearly is because when she was six years old, she contracted chickenpox and almost lost her appearance. In particular, there was a very small pit between the eyebrows on her face, which was completely invisible to ordinary people. Only she knew it when she drew her eyebrows herself.
And the mother seemed to have been pregnant, because Danhong held her mother at the wake after her death and said: "If Mrs. Nian had given birth to that child, I would have had a brother at home to help her. But it happened that Sister Nian My son, you got chickenpox. My wife worked hard to take care of you for a long time, and she fell again when she went out, and the child was gone. Otherwise, there wouldn't be anyone who could even break the pot."
Thinking of this, Li Shu secretly made up her mind to protect her mother and not let her die a lonely ghost.
But seeing her five-year-old self wearing only a red bellyband because of the heat in the room, she shyly clamored to get dressed: "I want to get dressed."
Little Fu shook his head: "It's too hot. Look at you, it hurts from the prickly heat."
Lishu knew that she was precocious. She could speak at six months old and could recite Tang poetry and Song lyrics when she was more than one year old. Others thought she was extremely smart, but in fact it was all taught by little Fu.
That's why Li Shu was so talkative. Now that Little Fu didn't agree, she said, "That's because my mother raised her daughter to be plump, so the flesh on her neck piled up, and she got prickly heat."
"Little guy, who told you to be greedy? Pick up the peanuts one by one and use chopsticks better than adults." Little Fu likes to touch her daughter's arms, which are like lotus joints.
Other people's money was spent on dressing up, but little Fu spent all of it on food.
Just like now, she said to Dan Hong: "Today, I still asked them to bring over an extra mung bean and lily soup, and some braised pig ears. Sister Shu likes to eat them."
Danhong went to open the money box and muttered while taking the money: "The eldest lady wants to pay for the tailoring. She has enough. The kitchen dares to neglect, and the best is given to us. As for us, the portion is half less. The ice is half missing, and the servants are used to watching others order food, so they have to spend two hundred dollars every day to get something good."
"Okay, shut up. It's a good thing for the eldest lady to be frugal in spending. I'm still praising you. I'm still at the seventh rank. I need to take care of things. I also need to buy New Year's gifts at home. This is also for the good of this family." Fu Shi said.
Danhong immediately didn't dare to talk any more and hurried out.
But Li Shu heard something unusual, because after she became wise and followed her father in office, the eldest lady was sick and weak at that time. She was Aunt Ding's housekeeper, and she had never been so frugal in food and clothing.
Looking at Little Fu again, Little Fu was talking to Dan Qing: "Dan Hong is quick-tongued and straight-tempered. From now on, you can give orders to the kitchen. Don't let others hear me and think I'm complaining. That's not good."
"I know." Danqing said hurriedly.
Little Fu smiled again and said: "Don't worry, this kind of life will not last long. Sooner or later, I will not let Sister Shu be treated like this. I will make her the most noble and enviable girl in the Liu family."
This was a bit subversive of Lishu's imagination. She always thought that her mother was unhappy and would not fight for her, so she left in depression. Yes, if she was really depressed and had no power to fight back, how could she get engaged to Zheng Hao.
Zheng Hao's grandfather was a minister of the cabinet, his father was a minister of the Imperial Academy, the Zheng family in Xingyang was from a famous family for thousands of years, and Zheng Hao himself was a first-class literary talent. But at that time, he was ten years older than her. In terms of age, the eldest sister was obviously more suitable than her, but the marriage fell on her.
Could it be that little Fu's push was involved? Therefore, it may not be true that Yuping and Yulan, the maids around Fu, said that their mother was not favored.
