Chapter 32: First Visit to the East Palace

Chapter 32: First Visit to the East Palace

Su Qing followed everyone and got off the carriage at the back door of the Marquis' Mansion. They walked in through the corner door and walked for a long time before finally standing in front of a black-painted gray-tiled door with hanging flowers. A pear wood plaque with "Qinyuan" written on it was hung just above the door. Presumably this was the residence of the Fourth Miss Meng Qi.

They got off the carriage at the back door and did not see what the front door of the Huainan Marquis's mansion looked like, but just looking at where the fourth young lady lived, it was enough to see how big the mansion was. Several maids wearing bright blue silk shirts and official green vests were pushing carts, carrying the things that had just been unloaded from the carriage at the back door into the yard.

Jiaohong walked out of the hanging flower gate, followed by a clean and pretty little girl. "Everyone is tired today, so you don't have to go into the yard to serve." After saying that, she turned back to the little girl beside her and said, "I'll have to trouble you here, sister. There are two newcomers. I told you in advance, please help me settle them down, and come to the main room to find me later."

"Sister Jiaohong, please go first. I'll take over here." Seeing Jiaohong entering the hanging flower gate again, the little girl slowly approached them.

"Thank you for your hard work, everyone. I just heard Sister Jiaohong's instructions. Just take your things back to the house first, and then go to Mama Liu later to wait for arrangements." The maids and old women who had gone to the west house to serve responded and went into the courtyard at the back.

"Hello, sisters. I am the second-class maidservant of the Fourth Young Lady. My name is Jiao Xing. From now on, we will serve together. Come, I will take you to rest first."

Su Qing and Wanxiang hurriedly saluted Jiao Xing, then followed Jiao Xing into the yard, looking at the "Qinyuan" where Meng Qi lived as they walked.

Su Qing analyzed the garden in front of him from his limited novel. Facing him was a main house with five rooms and side rooms, and on both sides were three side rooms with side rooms, connected by a corridor. The green bricks divided the courtyard into a field shape, and in each of the "口" characters there was a large water tank that could only be held by two or three people with their arms outstretched. From a distance, it looked like there were lotus flowers in it. Su Qing knew that this was used by ancient people to store water for firefighting.

Jiao Xing led them into the west wing, the door was open, a room of three, not too big or too small, with an open hall in the middle and two rooms on either side separated by dark red soft partitions, white stone floor, and milky white walls. There was only a black lacquered square table in front, and a black lacquered armchair on each side.

After a few people entered the house, a maid came out from the room on the left and said to Jiao Xing, "I haven't seen you for more than a month. Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine. It's just that you two following Miss Four to the West Residence made things much easier for us. Yuan Dong, what are you doing?"

Su Qing had met this girl named Yuan Dong twice. She was a third-class maid who accompanied Meng Qi to the west house this time.

In addition to the wet nurse Liu and another mother who was sold because of an injury, Meng Qi also had two older maids, Jiao Hong and Jiao Feng who was sold away. There were also two second-class maids, one of whom was Jiao Xing in front of her, and the other did not go to the West House, and Su Qing did not recognize her. The only third-class maid went with this one named Yuan Dong, and I heard that there were two more, but I didn't know their names. So thinking like this, there should be four third-class maids around Meng Qi, and this time Wan Xiang made up for the vacancy.

"I'll go see if there's anything I can do to help Sister Jiaohong. After all, Sister Jiaohong and I sealed the boxes that belonged to the Fourth Miss."

Jiao Xing smiled and said, "You are still very thoughtful. Then go and see if you are needed."

Jiao Xing brought Su Qing and Wanxiang into the room on the left, where they saw three beds placed side by side on the right side of the room, and a single bed facing the door. Next to the door was a treasure cabinet shelf with four cabinets underneath. There was a long table under the left window with several bronze mirrors, rouge and powder on it.

Jiao Xing turned around and smiled, "Who among you is called Wan Xiang?"

Wanxiang quickly stepped forward, bowed and said with a smile, "Sister, my name is Wanxiang."

"Well, you will live in this room from now on." He pointed to the two beds in the inner part and said, "Please choose one. There are curtains in the closet. You can hang them up later. Besides Yuandong, Yuanyue also lives in this room. You are all third-class. Yuanyue is now serving in the fourth lady's room with Sister Jiaolian. I will introduce her to you later."

Wanxiang quickly agreed, and Jiaoxing continued, "Sister Jiaolian and I live across the street. We are all busy now, so you can take a rest first. The left side room outside the door is for washing and brushing teeth, and the right side is for the tea room. There is no rush for these, you can slowly get familiar with them later. If you need anything, you can go to the back room to find treasures and become a family."

"Thank you, sister Jiao Xing. Thank you for your concern." Wan Xiang stepped forward and took Jiao Xing's hand enthusiastically, saying, "Qing'er and I have been here for a long time, so sister Jiao Xing has given us a lot to talk about. In the future, we sisters will need more advice from sister Jiao Xing..."

Su Qing looked at Wanxiang who was talking nonstop to her sisters, but she didn't respond. She just let her do what she wanted and watched them talk with a smile on her face, looking like a well-behaved and obedient person who had just arrived.

Jiao Xing seemed to have a good personality and a good temper. She said gently, "We are family, so there is no need to be polite. When we work together in the future, we will just serve the Fourth Miss well and that will be our duty." After that, she looked at Su Qing again, "Are you Su Qing?"

"Hello, Sister Jiao Xing." Su Qing stopped talking after answering and just looked at her with a smile.

"You live in the back room, come with me."

Seeing Jiao Xing leading Su Qing out of the house, Wan Xiang heaved a sigh of relief. She was a third-class maid. Although it was only one rank higher, many people were stuck there and worked as maids for their whole lives. She herself couldn't explain where her hostility towards Su Qing came from. When she heard that she was also transferred to the fourth young lady, Wan Xiang was really upset for a few days. Later, when she knew that she was just a maid of a lower rank, she felt better. Maybe this was just a different aura from nature.

Here, Su Qing followed Jiao Xing, knowing that she was just a storyteller. She didn't have to do anything when she was in the West House, but it was different when she came back. Besides telling stories, she would definitely be assigned other tasks. As a maid without rank, she was not qualified to live in a dormitory like the one just now. She just didn't know what the back room was like.

Entering through the pearwood door on the left side of the main house, you will see a row of houses that are much shorter than the main house in front. Turning to the right, there are three houses. An old woman is squatting in front of the stove at the door, boiling water.

"There's a new person coming to the Baocheng family."

The old woman straightened up and wiped her face, but ended up smearing the dust on her hands all over her face, leaving two black streaks, which made Jiao Xing burst out laughing.

"It's Miss Jiao Xing. I'm boiling some water."

"Isn't there a fire in the kitchenette?"

"It's cooking. Since many people came back today, I thought of putting up another pot so that everyone can wash and cook it carefully later." The old woman smiled at Jiao Xing with a naive look.

"This is Su Qing. She will live in the back room from now on. As for what errand she will do, please listen to Sister Jiaohong's arrangements later. You should take care of her first. I have work ahead, so I will go back first."

"Okay, you go and do your work, I'll take care of this." Bao Chengjia nodded and ran to Jiao Xing diligently to open the pear wood door.