Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1238 Epilogue : The Daughters in the Deep Courtyard

The prince consort went out again. I heard that he was going to do some experiment.

The princess was pregnant and sleepy and didn't get up early, so several maids competed for the job of sending the prince consort out.

The one following the prince consort is naturally Qingluan or Zifeng.

This position is definitely not available for grabbing, the maids are competing for the position of following behind to get things.

For example, the princess asked the cook to make some cakes and take them to distribute to the chemists in the experimental group, which would make the prince consort more face among his colleagues.

Xiren just arrived and has no right to get involved.

She was washing in the yard when she suddenly heard someone reciting beside her, but she couldn't understand what was being said.

Last night, Daiyu seemed quite easy to talk to, so Xiren couldn't help but ask, "What is Sister Daiyu reciting?"

Daiyu said, "The names, appearances, properties, and usage, storage, cleaning, and management methods of various chemicals. I will recite some of them every day. When you are free, take me to touch the real things."

"Sister Daiyu is so awesome!" Xiren quickly flattered her.

Daiyu was quite impressed and smiled, "I have already mastered the management and use of experimental equipment. I have also mastered more than 20 methods of managing and using chemicals, but these are the most basic things."

Baochai had already finished washing and combing her hair. She yawned and said, "When I heard her reciting these words, I felt as sleepy as a Taoist priest reading a heavenly book."

At this moment, a maid shouted outside the courtyard: "Xiren, follow me!"

Xiren hurried out, flattering and asking for advice, she found out that the maid was called "Yucai". She was selected by Zhu Tangxi herself from among many palace maids when she just came of age and was awarded the title of princess.

There were several maids in the same batch, each holding different positions.

The maid paired with "Yucai" is called "Jinhua". They are all the princess's fan-bearers - carrying large fans as ceremonial guards.

When the unmarried princess lived in the palace, she had only two maids who fanned her.

After she got married, the number of people holding the fan increased to six.

Yucai and Jinhua have not held fans for a long time, as they usually have other jobs.

"Sister Shusu, the person has been brought here." Yucai said.

Shu Su nodded: "I'll tell her the general rules, and you can slowly teach her the rest. She will follow you from now on."

Yucai bowed and said, "Yes."

Shu Su called Xiren over and mainly talked about where she could not go, where she needed to apply in advance to go, and the various positions and ranks of maids.

After saying this, Shu Su left.

"Come with me, I'll take you around to familiarize yourself with the place." Yucai said.

Xiren followed Yucai around and carefully memorized the various restricted areas. You can't run around in those areas and you must get permission to enter.

After walking for a while, Yucai said, "The Princess's House is very big and you may not remember it clearly since you just arrived, but it can be roughly divided into the inner courtyard and the outer courtyard. There are many guards and male servants in the outer courtyard. Don't run there without orders."

"Yes!" Xiren replied.

Yucai brought her to a small building and said, "This is the incense building. From now on, you will follow me to make perfume here."

There were two maids in the incense tower, and Yucai called them over to introduce them.

Yucai threw her a copy of the "Incense Book": "Take it and read it slowly. First, you need to recognize the various spices. After you memorize all the spices, I will teach you how to make perfume. These are just incense techniques. If you want to appreciate the art of incense, you must improve your knowledge and realm. For example, Lu Shanyin's (Lu You) "Fenxiang Fu", you can read this kind of article when you have nothing to do."

"I've made note of that."

Xiren has understood her position. She is the perfumer's maid in the princess's house. In the next few years, she can only do odd jobs in the perfume house and improve her perfume making skills.

It’s not completely hidden.

The art of incense, like the art of tea, is quite popular among literati and scholars, who often mix the spices themselves.

Perfumer maid, often meets with her master.

Prince Consort Xie was not interested in this thing. He only occasionally followed the princess to the incense tower and sat beside her to watch her mix perfume with her bare hands.

But now the princess is pregnant, and she will not come to Xianglou again until she gives birth to the child.

It is very likely that Xiren will not be able to see the princess and her husband for the entire next year.

"Cherry, take her down."

"Yes."

A maid named Cherry took Xiren to the spice storage room: "Here are all common spices. You can learn slowly from the "Incense Book". Remember the appearance, taste and nature of each spice."

After saying that, Cherry also ran away.

Xiren stood alone in the spice storage room in a daze, feeling a little confused and a little scared. All these emotions came from the uncertainty of the future.

But she adjusted quickly.

Compared to what happened in childhood, what are the experiences of the past two days?

The answers she gave to Xie Yan's questions that day were all fixed answers taught in Lanruoyuan.

Don't ask about my background. If you ask, I'll tell you that I was born into a wealthy family, that my family was broken up and miserable, and that I was brought to the Ming Dynasty by boat.

In fact, Xiren remembered where her home was.

The city is called Gorgan, and it is located southeast of the Caspian Sea.

There are silver mines nearby, and a mint was built there hundreds of years ago. It was once the capital of Hyrcania and had a large population of Greeks and Jews.

Later, when the Sassanid Empire captured this place, they built a long wall in Gorgan to guard against invasions by barbarians from the northern grasslands.

Xiren came from the Karen family, one of the seven major families in Persia.

The Sassanid Empire was destroyed, and the Persian princes all defected to the Tang Dynasty. The Karun family continued to resist the Arabs and established a Masmuhan Dynasty (a local Persian regime that believed in Zoroastrianism and Nestorianism).

But they couldn't withstand the Arab attack.

Since you can't beat them, just join them.

After King Masmuhan was defeated and captured, he married his two daughters to the Abbasid monarchs. Subsequently, the Karen family continued to rule those territories as in-laws.

When the Seljuks came, the Karen family resisted with all their might, but when they couldn't defeat them, they had no choice but to join them.

Decades ago, the Kingdom of Dayuan came to attack.

Just when the Karen family was preparing to surrender, a rebellion broke out in the rear of Dayuan, which was the time when the Tianzhu Kingdom was separated.

After Dayuan was forced to withdraw its troops, the Karen family contacted Zengi Sultan and other lords, asking them to contribute manpower and resources to help them build a fortress and even repair the remaining ancient Sassanid Persian Great Wall in the area.

If they don't help, they will surrender!
The layers of fortifications in the mountains made it difficult for artillery to exert its power, and the Dayuan army attacked again and again without success. After decades of fighting, the Karen family also possessed firearms, and the king of Dayuan did not want to attack again.

The Kingdom of Dayuan had no choice but to change its strategy.

A hundred miles away from the Gorgan Fortress, a castle was built at the mouth of the river where it flowed into the Caspian Sea. The Dayuan army would leave the castle from time to time to plunder, especially during the wheat harvest season.

Finally, the livelihood of the defending side was destroyed.

Relying on the aid from the Sultan and other lords, the Gorgan defenders could barely get enough food, but their morale was declining year by year.

When Xiren was seven years old, internal strife broke out in the Karen family and her uncle defected to the Kingdom of Dayuan.

The Dayuan army took advantage of the opportunity and captured the Gorgan Fortress in one fell swoop.

Xiren's mother didn't care about her at all, and fled with only her brother and younger brother. She herself was taken away by a maid and hid in the mountains for three days. She couldn't stand the hunger and went out of the mountains with the maid to find food but was caught.

I don’t know what happened to that maid.

Xiren was sold to merchants from Dayuan, and traveled along the Silk Road with the goods, and was resold to Ming merchants in Gaochang. She was then sold to Lanzhou, and finally to Luoyang.

Being a maid in the princess's house is already very good.

No worries about food and clothing, and a stable life.

Although the maids here were cold to her, it was better than in Lanruoyuan.

When she first arrived at Lanruoyuan, she was thrown to an old prostitute for training.

The old prostitute seemed to be mentally ill and would beat, scold and humiliate her at will. Many times, she was not familiar with Chinese and had a hard time understanding what the old prostitute was saying. If she was a little slow, she would be beaten several times.

Her tears had long dried up, and she gradually learned to read people's expressions and how to please everyone.

She learned to read and write, and to sing and dance. She gradually stood out and was arranged to be a maid beside Zhao Jingjing.

At the beginning, I was also doing odd jobs. A month ago, I started to meet guests, helping to pour wine and so on, and learning how to communicate with guests.

The people led by Prince Consort Xie were the twelfth group of guests she met.

She thought the prince consort was handsome and didn't touch her, so he must be a modest gentleman. So she started to think about it and tried to take the initiative to tease him, rubbing against a man for the first time in her life.

Afterwards, she was severely criticized by Zhao Jingjing, who said that this behavior was too despicable and that courtesans must be reserved and should never touch men if they could.

Xiren admitted her mistake verbally but didn't take it seriously in her heart.

She thought it was very interesting, especially the fact that the Prince Consort kept dodging her, making it seem as if she was taking advantage of him.

Xiren opened the "Perfume Book" and began to look for the first spice.

She studied until noon, when Cherry called her to eat.

"You been in there all morning?" Cherry asked.

Xiren nodded and said, "Yes."

Cherry laughed and said, "You're such an idiot. It's full of spices. Even though they're all stored well, the smell is bound to escape, and the fragrance in the air is mixed. If you stay in there for a long time, your sense of smell will be affected."

"What should we do then?" Xiren asked.

Cherry said, "Take out a little bit, go outside and slowly observe and smell it."

Xiren asked, "Can I take it out?"

Cherry said, "That room is full of ordinary spices. It's fine as long as you don't take too much. But you must report it afterwards, and you are not allowed to take the spices out of the incense building."

"Thank you Sister Cherry for the reminder." Xiren carefully observed Cherry's expression and felt that this sister was not lying.

She is good at observing people's words and expressions and has her own understanding of judging people.

Cherry is a good person and you can get closer to her.

Daiyu appears cold on the outside but is warm-hearted on the inside, while Baochai is innocent and simple-minded, and both are approachable.

There is a special dining hall for maids in the inner courtyard of the princess's house.

When Xiren and Yingtao came to eat, there were already more than a dozen people sitting inside.

Yingtao said, "Don't sit at the two empty tables at the back. They are reserved for the senior maids in the inner courtyard. They are serving His Highness right now, and it will be a while before they take turns to eat."

Xiren quickly thanked him for the teachings, which were all rules of survival.

Xie Laoliu naturally didn't know this. He thought the maids in the house were all united and friendly, and lived in harmony. The good sisters must be pure and kind, and they all lived happily together.

"Hey, did you know? Langjun's brother is here."

"where?"

"I stayed in the guest room in the front yard. His Highness personally went to the reception room to meet me, talked for a while, and arranged for me to take a bath with hot water."

"Sir, aren't you going to come back early?"

"It won't be your turn to serve me when I come back."

"Hehe, my dear, you looked at me yesterday."

"What's the point of taking a look? Well, I'm going to leave anyway."

"Where to go?"

"Mr. You, the accountant of the cement factory, his son Erlang is looking for a matchmaker. I have met him a few times before. You Erlang is quite handsome and a relatively honest person."

"Is it You Erlang who works under Qin Zhuangtou?"

"it's him."

"Let alone other things, just looking at her appearance, she is far inferior to my husband."

"My dear, you are the god of literature and arts. No matter how handsome you are, we can never dream of you. You are not young anymore. You should think about your future."

"Anyway, I won't leave. Maybe one day my dear..."

"Just dream slowly."

Xiren pricked up her ears and listened, and thought of Prince Consort Xie again. She made up her mind to work harder to learn how to make perfume.

Only if you have the ability can you stand out. You also have to be on guard against the schemes of those around you. This is the survival rule she learned in Lanruoyuan.

If I become a prince consort’s woman someday…

Ah, I get excited just thinking about it!

(End of this chapter)