good season

Chapter 36 The Dong Family's Daughter

In fact, even if he changed to a high bed with a soft pillow, Xiao Zhen still couldn't sleep all night.

In his previous life, from the time he heard the tragic news of his parents' death until his death, he had not slept well for a full twenty years.

And in this life, perhaps it was a habit formed in the previous life. Since the day he woke up in Shiji Mountain, he could not sleep at night. As long as he closed his eyes, he saw the flashing of swords and the river of blood.

He woke up from his dreams again and again, and then kept his eyes open until dawn.

On the contrary, Zhao Shiqing has always had a good sleep since childhood and can fall asleep as soon as his head touches the pillow.

However, she seldom dreams, and when she does, her daytime experiences are extended into her dreams.

For example, during the day, her master made pork knuckle stewed with chestnuts, but she only ate the pork knuckle and not the chestnuts, so her master scolded her. So at night she dreamed of peeling chestnuts, and she would not wake up until she went crazy peeling them.

For example, tonight, she was sent by the head maid Juying to the kitchen to get meals for the maids. She saw a little girl in the kitchen. The girl had dark eyes and a pair of dimples when she smiled. Her dress obviously did not show that she was a maid in the princess's mansion. After asking, she found out that she was the daughter of the boss.

Zhao Shiqing had heard from Ling Bo before that the inn had been vacated. Not only had the guests staying there been sent away, but even the cooks and waiters had been given holidays.

The Princess and Prince Consort Xiao brought their own ingredients for their meals, even the drinking water, but this was not the case for the others, as they used ingredients from the inn.

Although the inn was vacated, they couldn't send everyone away, otherwise they would have to look for the firewood. The owner was careful to please them and called his wife, daughter-in-law and daughter to help.

Zhao Shiqing saw that the little girl was cute, so she looked at her a few more times. As a result, that night, she dreamed that the little girl and her parents and sister were all strangled to death, and even the Jixiang Inn was burned to rubble.

Zhao Shiqing woke up from her dream with a start. When she woke up, it was already dawn and Ling Bo and four other fake maids were packing their luggage.

She quickly stood up and asked, "Is there anyone dead in the inn?"

Ling Bo was surprised and said quickly: "No, if someone died it would definitely not be so quiet."

"Qingping, go and see if the boss and his wife and children are still alive?" Zhao Shiqing said.

Qingping was one of the guards who came this time. She and three other female guards, together with Zhao Shiqing and his servant, disguised themselves as maids in the princess's mansion.

Qingping didn't understand, but she didn't ask any more questions and just walked out.

Zhao Shiqing looked at the pillow. She didn't know where the heartless Xiao Yao had gone and didn't even sleep with her.

"Where's the little demon?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a cat's meow and the little demon jumped in from the open window.

Zhao Shiqing saw that it was covered in oil smoke and had a spider web on its head. It looked very miserable, so he asked, "Did you go to dig a hole in the kang? Why is it so dirty?"

Xiao Yao: [The cat is not clean anymore. The cat has been teased. That cheap cat is so cheap! ]

Zhao Shiqing laughed: "You deserve it. Who told you not to sleep with me?"

The little demon gave her a resentful look and sat on the windowsill to dress up.

Lingbo was used to it and used a wet towel to wipe the little demon. The other three maids didn't think much about it, but just thought it was interesting that the second young lady really treated this cat as a human. After they cleaned up, Qingping came back: "The Dong family and their two daughters are all alive and well."

Zhao Shiqing felt relieved. She shook her head, thinking it was really strange. Why did she have such a strange dream out of the blue?

However, she quickly put the incident behind her.

Princess Jiayi slept until noon and had just finished her breakfast when visiting cards from officials' wives came in one after another. In addition to the visiting cards, there were also Chengyi.

The gifts of courtesy were varied, ranging from direct banknotes to antiques, calligraphy and paintings, exotic flowers and plants, and even a snow-white lion dog.

Nanny Bai only accepted the lion dog and politely declined all the others. She even gave each family a collection of poems written by the retired emperor.

When Princess Jiayi left the capital this time, she took more than a hundred volumes of this collection of poems with her.

Although Cheng Yi did not give it away, he received a collection of poems. The officials were still very surprised. They put the collection on display and the whole family knelt down three times and kowtowed nine times in front of it.

The group dawdled until almost noon before setting off.

For the next two days, the princess and her entourage did not stay in the inn, but rested in the official post station. The team walked at a leisurely pace and had no trouble along the way. Zhao Shiqing traveled during the day and slept at night. Occasionally, she was ordered by the maids to do some small chores within her ability, and she did it quite well.

In a blink of an eye, a few days passed and the journey was already halfway completed. On this day, we arrived in Hancheng, which was a direct-controlled prefecture and was directly governed by the imperial court.

During the journey, every time they passed a city, the princess had to meet with the officials' families. She was already impatient. Her pregnancy reaction was more serious than when she was at Wisteria Villa. She could not stand any strange smell, especially the smell of hair oil. The maids no longer dared to comb their hair with hair oil, but the officials' families were unaware of this. In addition, the weather was getting hotter and hotter, so the smell of hair oil often wafted in before people even entered the house. The princess had to endure it very hard every time to avoid losing her manners in public.

Therefore, when passing through Hancheng today, Princess Jiayi ordered not to enter the city, but to stay at the Baishiwan official post house, 50 miles away from Hancheng.

The officials of Hancheng had just seen off Zhao Chen and Eunuch Peng who were passing by here yesterday, and they were waiting here early this morning to welcome the eldest princess.

After waiting for two hours, they still didn't see any sign of them, so they asked someone to inquire, and only then did they learn that the princess and her entourage had changed their route, bypassing Hancheng and heading directly to the Baishiwan official post station.

The prefect of Hancheng is named Lang. He was transferred here last year. The prefects of other places are of the junior fifth rank, but the prefect of Hancheng is of the regular fifth rank. Therefore, no one in Hancheng has ever been able to serve as prefect for two full terms. Most of them just serve here for a short period of time and then get promoted.

In other words, those who could come to Hancheng to serve as prefects all had backgrounds.

Standing behind Magistrate Lang is the Prime Minister Feng Ke!

Feng Ke is not only the head of the civil servants, but also the father-in-law of the third prince.

Emperor Yongjia had nine princes. Although a crown prince had been appointed, born to Empress Yuan, he was mediocre in talent and his mother died early. Not only did he not have the support of his maternal family, he was also not favored by Emperor Yongjia. The third prince was just the opposite. His biological mother was Emperor Yongjia's favorite concubine, Concubine Qiao. He was smart and clever since he was a child and was deeply loved by his father. He just got married last month and married Feng Jiahe, the youngest daughter of Feng Ke.

Feng Jiahe was known as the pearl of Beijing. The two of them were a perfect match, the envy of others.

Having said that, Mrs. Lang was even more disappointed than Magistrate Lang that he did not receive Princess Jiayi.

Lang Zhizhou had one son and one daughter. The eldest daughter, Lang Yuyu, was beautiful and graceful, and was the most beautiful woman in Hancheng.

When Feng Jiahe married the third prince as his concubine, Governor Lang began to have ideas about her. He had seen Feng Jiahe when he was in the capital. Feng Jiahe was indeed a beauty, but his own daughter was no less beautiful than her.

(End of this chapter)