After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the wind in the village outside Yanjing became cooler.

Through the small window lattice, you can still see the geese returning south during the day, but at night, there are only a few scattered stars decorating the window.

Occasionally, there are fireflies lingering outside with broken lights, or crickets chirp twice intermittently, and they are also a little listless.

Even more listless than the crickets was the maidservant Achi who was standing with the lamp in hand. She sighed again while guarding the candlelight.

The woman sitting in front of the window holding a grindstone suddenly laughed:

"The cricket outside is cackling too weakly to find a mate. Where does your sadness come from?"

Ah Chi wanted to sigh again, but he held it back halfway: "Girl, I heard someone from the house said that my uncle is coming back."

Looking left and right, Ah Chi walked to the window and closed it. Then he looked at the other maid guarding the outside and said:

"Go and boil some water to scrub the second young lady."

Seeing the others leaving, Ah Chi turned around and saw his girl still in front of the window with a happy expression, picking up water with her hands and continuing to grind the green paste, and couldn't help but sigh again:

"My girl, it's not that Achi wants to talk too much. The Xie family didn't even mention the Mid-Autumn Festival for you to go back. This time when my uncle comes back, I'm afraid he will bring that Miss Feng back."

After saying a few words, Achi almost shed tears of grievance for his girl. Her girl was Shen Shiqing, the only daughter of the late bachelor Shen Shao. She was held in the palm of her family like a jewel since she was a child. After careful calculation,

If the master had not passed away suddenly, the wife was ill, the uncle was unreliable, and the uncle was in a foreign country, she would not have settled the marriage with Xie Feng'an, the second young master of the Xie family, before her hair was born, and rushed to the master's 100 days to bear the warm filial piety.

Married in hastily.

Who would have thought that Uncle Ning An spoke nicely, saying that she would treat her girl as his own if she could get the master's care, and that the old man and his wife would rest in peace in heaven, but in fact, he was just trying to get a good reputation.

As soon as the girl got married, her parents paid double filial piety to her. She didn't even see her uncle twice until she was born. She stayed with the girl in the deep house of Ning'an Bo Mansion for seven years from the age of fifteen to twenty-two.

, watching the girl grow up in stature, the childishness in her brows fading away, and watching the girl live indifferently like a nun day by day. In contrast, Xie Feng'an took in concubines in one house after another in the name of his children.

Seeing that she sleeps alone on the bed every day, there are already five or six sons and daughters outside the yard who care for her!

The dignified Ning'an family is known as a heirloom of poems and books. How can it be that the wife of the principal wife is left unused? What kind of family is this? Which family's poems and books are from it?

Even if all these things were barely bearable, Miss Feng suddenly appeared in Jinyang this year. After careful inquiry, she found out that Xie Fengan and his aunt's cousin Feng were childhood sweethearts in their early years, and both families were getting engaged.

Suddenly, Ning Anbo asked him to marry the daughter of their Shen family.

Miss Feng was married to a fifth-grade military attache. Last year, the military attache was dismissed because of poor defense. He left within a few months. Miss Feng became a widow, but she also stole the heart of Uncle Xie. She

In the past, I only thought that there was some resemblance between the eyebrows of those concubines, but it turned out that they looked like Miss Feng.

The young lady of her family originally lived well in the house. Although she rarely exchanged a few words with the second young master of the Xie family, she never missed seeing her mother-in-law in the morning and dusk. Mrs. Xie's wife usually scolded her son for not being considerate of his daughter-in-law.

, when something happened between her son and her sister's daughter, the first thing the normally well-behaved, quiet and stuffy lady did was to ask her young lady to claim she was sick and avoid the village, not even celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Let the lady go back.

After all this calculation, the Xie family actually deceived their own girl into becoming a widow!

"I have no virtue, my son is shameless, and I have wasted this girl's life!" Angry in his heart, Achi cursed.

Shen Shiqing sat in front of the window, quietly watching the blue stone powder being ground finer and finer on her terrazzo plate, while using her hand to draw circles steadily with a clay pestle.

She wore a silver-red short coat and a white horse-faced skirt with folded flowers. She had no decorations except a white jade bead hairpin with a silver pole on her head. Sitting there, she looked like a demure and elegant lady. picture.

The bright blue gradually spread out in front of her, as if it was a clear blue borrowed from the autumn sky.

"If you have time to get angry, why don't you go get the jar and bleach the color again. Huiyifang's color is really not clean, so I have to soak the glue and grind it again. I'll wait until the green color dries again tomorrow and mix it again. Just put the glue in and it’s ready to use.”

Ah Chi wanted to say something else, but he still went to get the large fine porcelain vat. When he walked outside, he saw the little maid just coming in with water. She wiped her eyes while avoiding others, and returned to the inner room after a while.

Shen Shiqing stood up and carefully poured the azure she had grinded all night into the urn, then poured in clean water, stirred it a few times, and the water became turbid. She poured out the slightly white and black water, leaving only The bright blue at the bottom of the urn is the most eye-catching top blue among the azurite colors. As for the turbidity suspended in the water, it is the second and third blues.

He looked at the light carefully and nodded with satisfaction.

"In the future, when buying paints, I'd better go to Lengya Zhai and check out their azurite. The cinnabar is comfortable to use and we don't need to clean it up again."

Achi's eyes turned red again.

Everyone in Ning'an's house knew that the Second Young Madam was a fairy-like figure, with a clean eyes and no knowledge of public affairs. She only thought about reciting poems and painting every day, just like a lamp hanging high on the eaves.

She had also heard the gossip spread by people in the house. How could a girl as delicate as hers know about the harmony between husband and wife? It is no wonder that the second young master refused to even enter the gate of Jianjia Courtyard.

Is it possible that the daughter of a bachelor and the second young lady of Ning'an House still wants to follow Hu Meizi's trick of winning over men?

But now, I'm afraid the situation is beyond our control.

She has been sent to Zhuangzi from the mansion. If she goes down further and lets the Feng family daughter enter the house, I am afraid that there will be no place for the girl to stand in the uncle's mansion.

After cleaning her hands and face, Shen Shiqing sat on a desk, drank water and rinsed her mouth, and saw Achi kneeling carefully in front of her.

"Girl, why don't we go back to the uncle's house to find Mrs. Xie's wife? You can tell me that if you want the Feng family's cousin to come in and take her into the house as a concubine, it will be better than now... I think my uncle is too. It’s not about long-term success. We can naturally discuss the matter after he is indifferent to Miss Feng. The so-called reputation is not justified, but as long as you are willing to take a step back and firmly hold on to the title, the rest can naturally be discussed in the long term. "

"It's gone?" Shen Shiqing lowered his eyes to look at her, and his tone was soft, as clear as a cold spring, "So what if it's gone? He will always have a new person when his love is strong, and I will have someone lift him up when the time comes. Lifting her in? It sounds good, she is a very good dentist."

Holding his girl's legs, Achi kept saying, "Girl, please don't get angry."

"Why am I angry with you? I know you are doing it for my own good. You, Chuiyun, Tunan, and Peifeng accompanied me to marry into the Ning'an Mansion. Naturally, they planned everything for me, but I Shen Shi Qing doesn't want to live a life of flattering and looking at a man's face rather than fighting for favor. If she didn't agree in the past, she will certainly not agree in the future."

Shen Shiqing's face was pale, and she raised her hand to tuck a strand of hair from her forehead behind her ear.

"The Xie family married me, the orphan of the Shen family, and even if they divorced me, they would not dare to mistreat me openly even for the sake of reputation. This is enough."

Shen Shiqing was born extremely white, with long and black eyebrows, and deep-colored eyes. She always looked at people with a sense of tranquility, as if she was hiding countless shallow sorrows and hatreds that she could not express.

The lamp shadow trembled slightly, and she comforted softly: "Achi, I'm not doing so bad for the time being."

Achi sobbed silently: "What's wrong? The servants of the Xie family are also arrogant people. Miss, you haven't returned home for a long time. They all don't look good. In fact, no one is even willing to do the night watch." Tunan and Peifeng also need to lead people to patrol the night. This is only a month away. As time goes by, I am afraid that I will wrong the girl even more. If I had known this, I might as well have recognized the son born by Aunt An..."

Shen Shiqing patted her shoulder and stopped her from talking any more.

So what in the beginning? People live in the present and cannot look back.

"Achi, how about I also arrange a marriage for you."

The maid kneeling at her feet almost rubbed her skirt: "Girl?"

"When Chuiyun got married, her husband-in-law, He Changxuan, was still white, and now she is also called the Lady of Juren. She was born in the Year of the Rat and is four years older than you. You can't delay your affairs."

Shen Shiqing didn't just do it on the spur of the moment. Xie Fengan went to Jinyang to stay for a few months on the pretext of studying abroad. The Xie family's wife suddenly changed her attitude. Something must have happened. After the border victory last year, Miss Feng's father was promoted to the third rank of Guangwu Guards Commander. How could he be willing to let his daughter become a concubine? But he didn’t rush Xie Feng’an back to Yanjing early. I’m afraid there was something unspeakable... For example, the girl from the Feng family was pregnant, but she was pregnant but she was not in a hurry to enter Ning’an. In the uncle's house, the Feng family is deliberately trying to force the Xie family to offer the position of the second young lady.

And what about her? She joined the Xie family at the age of fifteen, and for the past seven years, just "having nothing to do" can leave her speechless.

While she is still in the position of the second young lady of Ning'an House, her maid can still get married safely. When she really becomes the "concubine" trapped in this village, her maid may have to marry with glory. Difficult.

Seeing her looking at him intently, tears finally rolled down Achi's eyes:

"My girl, please take more care of yourself!"

In the afternoon of the second day, just as the red hair was mixed with oil and glue, someone came to Ning'an's house.

It's a car full of strong women.

"Second Young Madam, the old lady has been feeling unwell these past few days, and she dreamed of the old uncle again at night. The lady said that the female family members of the house should copy scriptures and offer them to the Buddha to pray for the old lady."

Seeing that these people actually brought dozens of scriptures for their girls to copy, the maids around Shen Shiqing turned pale.

Shen Shiqing's expression remained unchanged as she listened to the steward say: "Second Young Madam, Madam also said that in order to let the Bodhisattva know your sincerity, please kneel down in the ancestral hall to read and copy this sutra."

This time, Shen Shiqing didn't speak.

Several women stood in a row to "invite her" to the Buddhist hall. Several maids rushed to stop them, but she stopped them with her eyes.

There is only one futon and an incense table in the Buddhist hall, with a bronze Buddha statue placed on it.

Shen Shiqing lay on the ground, her body seemed to have been soaked with coldness.

The women who were guarding her were hiding somewhere. She slowly raised her head and saw the ashes of the incense falling from the incense table, and it had burned out again.

Outside the window, there are a few insects chirping and a distant star.

She stared blankly for a moment, then raised her hand and pulled out the hairpin from her head. The jade beads on the hairpin were round and bright, as if another full moon was held in her palm.

The hairpin pole is uneven and has several words engraved on it.

——"Such kindness is the most important thing".

These four words were not only engraved on the hairpin, but also engraved in her heart.

"The most important thing is to be kind and kind. I have followed this path to this point, but I suddenly realized that there is no way to escape."

She retreated from Ning'an's residence to Zhuangzi, and now she retreats to this Buddhist hall. The world is so big that she has nowhere to retreat.

With a sad smile, she pointed the tip of the hairpin at her shoulder and pricked it in hard.

Newbie, new work, please give me your advice.
Chapter completed!