Aoyama

Chapter 205 Xiaoman
It was the hour of Yin, before daybreak.

Before the cocks crowed, the maids in Qunfang Garden had already gone out chattering and laughing.

The Chen Mansion was an official residence. The master Chen Liqin had to go to the yamen before dawn at 1 a.m., so the maids had to get up earlier to boil water, sweep the floor, and cook.

Hearing the maids' movements, Chen Ji raised his eyelids slightly, turned over and continued to sleep.

As he turned over, the dark cloud on his chest fell away. It silently climbed back onto Chen Ji's body, put its hands in its pockets, and closed its eyes again, as if it was used to it.

The silver charcoal in the charcoal basin has burned into white, leaving only the lukewarm heat that slowly dissipates, quietly.

"Dong dong dong."

There was a knock on the door.

Chen Ji sat up helplessly and shouted, "Who is it?"

Then he muttered quietly: "Why is the Chen Mansion so troublesome? Someone stays up late at night and kneels at the door, and someone stays up early in the morning and knocks on the door. Are they working together to keep the eagle awake?"

I heard a clear voice coming from outside the door: "Sir, open the door. It's me, Xiaoman."

Chen Ji was stunned for a moment. Who is Xiaoman?

He put on his clothes and stood up to open the door. The door opened with a creak, and he saw a little girl standing outside. She had a round face and delicate features, and when she smiled, two small fangs were exposed. She looked about sixteen or seventeen years old.

Xiaoman was holding a copper basin in her hand with a white towel draped over the edge of the basin. White mist was rising from the hot water in the basin.

Chen Ji stood at the threshold and asked in confusion: "I said yesterday that Mingquan Garden does not need servants and maids."

Xiaoman's eyes widened: "Master, I finally asked the master to agree to let me come back to serve you, and now you don't want me anymore?"

Chen Ji was shocked, but he looked at Xiaoman calmly.

The girl in front of him turned out to be his former maid... so he couldn't let her stay.

Xiaoman was about to go in with the basin of water, but Chen Ji took a step to the left and blocked the door: "You don't have to serve me anymore, go back."

Xiaoman stopped and begged, "Sir, please be kind and let me continue to serve you. If I am promoted to the next level of maid, my monthly salary will increase by 300 wen."

Chen Ji thought for a moment and said, "I'll give you three taels of silver, and you can go back."

Hearing this, Xiaoman stubbornly held the basin of water and lowered her head to rush in. Just as the basin was about to hit Chen Ji, Chen Ji dodged and moved away.

Xiaoman's mouth corners curled up slightly, and a cunning look flashed in her eyes.

She walked into the house with a basin of water in her hand: "Young Master, wash your face quickly. You still have to go and pay your respects to the Master and the Madam later."

Chen Ji frowned. There were too many rules in the Chen Mansion.

Xiaoman placed the copper basin on the wooden shelf and turned around to tidy up the bed. The little girl worked very efficiently and folded the quilt neatly in a few seconds and put it into the wooden cabinet beside her.

At this moment, she saw the dark cloud lying on the window frame and exclaimed in surprise, "Ah, Li Nu!"

Xiaoman came over and tried to pick up Wuyun, but Wuyun curled up his claws in disgust and slapped her on the back of her hand.

"It hurts!" Xiao Man withdrew her hand in pain, but she was not angry. She turned to look at Chen Ji and said, "Sir, didn't you dislike the raccoon before? Why did you change your mind? I wanted to adopt one in the yard before, but you didn't allow it."

Chen Ji had a headache and could only cover it up by saying, "I like it now."

He wondered in his heart what reason he should have to send this maid away. She knew him very well and would find out sooner or later if he kept her around.

Before he could think of a good reason, Xiaoman turned around and looked at the ground: "Hey, silver charcoal... the mansion is finally willing to provide you with silver charcoal?"

Chen Ji hummed and said, "Brother Wen Zong sent it."

Xiao Man suddenly sighed, "When we were still in the capital, the housekeeper deliberately did something bad and sent cheap bamboo charcoal to our house. We were so smoked that we couldn't open our eyes. I ran to him in anger and had a big fight with him. Later, you were sent to the hospital, and I was demoted to a third-class maid. He has made things difficult for me in the past two years..."

At this point, the slightly immature girl warned in a mature tone: "Sir, you finally returned home, you can no longer let others bully you like before."

Chen Ji's heart moved. Xiao Man was considered an "old man" in the Chen Mansion. He found a chair and sat down and asked casually, "Do you want to go back to Beijing with me?"

Xiao Man smiled and said, "Have you forgotten that I said I don't want to go back to Beijing? I want to stay in Luocheng so that I don't have to go back to the Chen family mansion and have to face the second wife's face every day. But if you want to go back, I have to follow you and serve you."

Chen Ji calculated the time. Xiaoman had been with him for three years, and two of those years should have been spent in the Chen family mansion in Beijing.

He thought for a moment and asked, "Do you still remember Chen Yu?"

Xiaoman blinked: "Chen Yu? Of course I remember. When we were in the Chen family mansion, he was the only one who interacted with you."

Chen Ji thought to himself, it’s bad!
Previously, Bai Long asked me whether I was familiar with Chen Yu, and I said "no"!
The Imperial Household Department has spies throughout the court and the country, so Bai Long must know the truth. At that time, the other party looked at him deeply but did not say it out loud... How can he explain this?
But the question is, since Chen Yu is so familiar with me, why didn't he write a single letter? Could it be that Liang had withheld it?
At this time, Xiaoman took out a broom from the corner of the room and started sweeping the floor silently.

Chen Ji looked at her back and said, "I've been in Luocheng for two years, and I almost forgot what Chen Yu looks like."

Xiao Man smiled and said, "Sir, how could you even forget what Chen Yu looks like? He is so handsome, and it is rare to see such a handsome guy in the capital... Well, he is still not as good as you, Sir."

Chen Ji said helplessly: "There's no need to flatter me. I know what I look like."

Xiaoman breathed a sigh of relief: "I'm glad you know."

Chen Ji: "..."

Xiaoman quickly added: "You're not bad either, just slightly inferior to Chen Yu." Chen Ji thought that 'he' and Xiaoman must have had a very good master-servant relationship, so Xiaoman could speak so recklessly.

However, one of the main purposes of Bai Long asking him to lurk in the Chen family was to get him close to Chen Yu. However, Chen Ji had no impression of Chen Yu and didn't know where to start.

Chen Ji thought for a moment and said, "You can stay with me from now on, but you don't have to serve me. Just take care of yourself. I have hands and feet and can take care of myself."

Xiaoman responded while sweeping the floor: "That won't do. A maid should do her job. It's her duty to work for the monthly salary."

Chen Ji sat on a chair, tapping his fingers lightly on the tea table beside him.

He considered and tried to feel out his former living conditions in the Chen Mansion: "By the way, where are the things I left in the mansion during my two years away?"

Xiaoman's face tightened: "I didn't take it!"

Chen Ji didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "I was asking where all those things were packed up and thrown away?"

Xiaoman recalled and explained, "Some of it was thrown away by the housekeeper, and some of it was taken away by Nanny Li."

Chen Ji was alert in his heart. His interpersonal relationships in the Chen Mansion were not simple. As far as he knew, there were already two maids and nannies who had served him.

He asked cautiously, "Madame Li...are you okay?"

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Xiaoman said dejectedly, "Not very good. She suddenly started to have hysterics last year, and she kept saying that my aunt died in an unclear way and that it must have been murdered by a villain."

Chen Ji’s fingers stopped tapping on the tea table.

It took him a while to realize that the 'aunt' Xiaoman was talking about was his biological mother in this world.

Xiaoman whispered, "Madame Li said that when she went home to visit her relatives, she went to burn incense in front of the aunt's grave. The aunt's grave was washed away by rocks, revealing the coffin, but there was no one in the coffin. She came back to report the news, and the master comforted her and said that he would send someone to check. But the servant who was sent came back and said that the aunt's grave was fine, and that Madame Li had found the wrong place. Later, no one believed what Madame Li said, and she gradually became hysterical."

Chen Ji's pupils shrank slightly: "Where is Madam Li?"

Xiao Man replied, "Madam despised her and thought she was crazy. She was going to sell her off, but Master thought of her as your wet nurse and sent her to a farm in the suburbs."

Chen Ji was shocked and confused. Could it be that Nanny Li had been silenced by the Chen family?

In addition, is his biological mother alive or dead?
If he was already dead, why did the Chen family bury him with an empty coffin? If he was still alive, why did he leave without saying goodbye?

Where are you hiding now?
Chen Ji asked calmly, "Which farm was Li Ma sent to?"

Xiaoman shook her head: "I don't know."

He looked at Xiaoman and felt that he really needed to keep this maid. Everything she said inadvertently was extremely important to him.

At this time, the crowing of cocks finally sounded from the Chen Mansion.

It's time.

Xiaoman looked at the sky outside the window and urged, "Young Master, wipe your face quickly. It's time to go and greet the Madam. If you break the rules, people will find fault with you. But you should run quickly after greeting her, otherwise she will keep you and use you like a beast of burden again."

As she spoke, she threw the white handkerchief into the copper basin, wrung it dry, and handed it to Chen Ji.

Chen Ji wiped his face, turned around and walked out of the yard.

Xiaoman stood by the door, tiptoed to secretly look at Chen Ji's back, and after making sure that the other party had gone far away, she quickly retracted her head and started searching the house.

She lifted up the pillows and the mattress, and even looked under the bed.

Xiaoman refused to give up.

She moved a chair and placed it on the table. She climbed to the top quietly, stood on tiptoe and looked towards the beam, but there was nothing there.

Xiaoman put the chair back in place, and her petite figure paced back and forth in the room, muttering to herself in a low voice: "Strange, where did the young master hide the silver? Did he change it into Buddhist coins and carry it with him? I don't see any Buddhist coins on his wrist."

Wuyun lay on the window frame and looked at her silently. Xiaoman turned her head and saw Wuyun's eyes. She suddenly felt inexplicable. She always felt that there was sarcasm in the eyes of this cat slave.

Xiaoman thought she had seen it wrong. She wiped her eyes and looked again, but Wuyun's eyes had become clear again and he was still looking at her.

She said with a guilty conscience, "Why are you looking at me? I... I'm just worried that the young master's money has been cheated away again. I don't want to steal anything! The money and property left by my aunt were all taken away by the lady. I have to keep a close eye on him this time, otherwise how can he buy my dowry? No, why am I talking to a cat slave about this!"

Xiaoman started walking around the house again.

She came to the table and stared at the cucumber with holes in the plate with salivating eyes: "Young Master has always been forgetful, so it should be okay if one is missing, right?"

Xiaoman secretly looked outside the door, made sure that there was no one around, then picked one and took a bite.

She looked up at the beams and chewed slowly. After a while, she muttered, "It's not that delicious. And it's so expensive. What a rip-off."

Xiaoman ate two bites of the cucumber and then stared at the candied plums on the table.

Xiaoman picked up one and pretended to hand it to Wuyun: "Do you want to eat it?"

dark clouds:"……"

Xiaoman smiled and said, "If you don't eat it, I will."

After saying that, she stuffed the plums into her mouth, picked up a few more and stuffed her mouth full, then picked up the broom and went back to sweeping the floor.

(End of this chapter)