The Red Mansion Big Liar

He saw Wang Xifeng's pretty face flushed and her face looking at him eagerly.

Ping'er secretly wondered what was going on... Could something weird be going to happen again?

However, there is a difference between master and servant, so she could only follow Wang Xifeng's instructions, so she changed her clothes and put on her hair bun.

Then he turned around a few more times according to Wang Xifeng's instructions.

"Okay, take off the pearl bun now!" Wang Xifeng commented as she watched Ping'er put on her clothes, "Although they don't fit her well, she looks pretty good in them."

"How can I compare to you, madam?" Ping'er said modestly as she took off her hair and put it away. "My legs are not as straight and slender as yours, and my waist is not as slender as yours. How can I dress like you?"

Although Ping'er was modest, Wang Xifeng was quite satisfied. She walked around her, looked at her carefully and said, "This is enough."

"Ah?" Ping'er looked at Wang Xifeng in confusion.

Wang Xifeng smiled as she helped Ping'er take off her clothes and hung them on the hanger. She said with a half-smile, "Put on my clothes, and you will be the Second Madam tonight."

Ping Erh saw this and secretly complained that he was tossing himself up at night and that nothing good was going to happen. She begged for mercy, saying, "I have something important to do tomorrow. Madam, please forgive me!"

"What do you mean by slave or not? I told you that you are my second wife, so you have to call me uncle even if you beg for mercy!"

"Master..."

Why not Second Master?

Ping'er was secretly shocked. She thought her grandmother had gone too far. However, the omission in her words at this moment made it seem like she was accusing Wang Xifeng of having an affair.

However, fortunately, the master of this mansion, Jia Zhu, died long ago, otherwise, not only would others hear it, but even she herself would have doubted her intentions.

Thinking of this, she felt vaguely that with Wang Xifeng's personality, she should not be so rash. Could it be that she was deliberately testing her like before... Would she call out Second Master?

So, he dared not say anything and could only accompany Wang Xifeng in the play.

……

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 32 Gossip

Although she tossed and turned for most of the night, Wang Xifeng's biological clock was not disrupted.

The next day, she got up early in the morning, washed and combed her hair, then sat in front of the dressing table and began to put on makeup in front of the bronze mirror.

Ping'er also took the opportunity to come behind her and help comb her hair.

After fiddling with it for half an hour, she finally got the bun done, and then she inserted the five-phoenix hairpin with pearls on it.

Afterwards, with Ping'er's help, she put on the clothes she had taken out last night, tied the bean green palace belt, put on the double-balanced rose pendant, and put on the necklace.

He spread his arms and turned around, then nodded with satisfaction.

Ping Er saw that she was dressed in brilliant embroidery, radiant with beauty, like a goddess, and reminded her, "Second Master is not at home, isn't it a bit too eye-catching for Madam to dress like this?"

"Pah!" Wang Xifeng spat, "How I dress depends on whether he's at home or not."

"This is not what I mean..."

Seeing Ping'er bow her head and admit her fault, Wang Xifeng realized that she had gone too far, so she stopped nagging and explained, "It's rare that the old lady is happy and in the mood to go outing to the garden. He's just not at home, not dead. If I dress as plainly as my eldest sister-in-law, wouldn't I annoy the old lady?"

Grandmother Jia really liked the glamour and bustle, so Ping'er didn't doubt her explanation.

After breakfast, the two of them rushed to the three-room building to arrange the travel vehicle and all necessary items. After everything was ready, they went to Lady Jia's courtyard to report.

……

Not to mention that the whole family in Rongguo Mansion was busy setting off, but in Ningguo Mansion, Zhang Yunyi did not get up early like before.

He had just finished washing up. Thanks to Youshi's help, he already knew last night that Lady Jia would come to visit the garden today, so he took some time off.

Anyone who has read A Dream of Red Mansions knows that Lady Jia is obsessed with looks, and all the maids around her are outstanding. Xiren and Qingwen beside Jia Baoyu, and Zijuan beside Lin Daiyu are all from her room.

He couldn't help but want to try and see if he could get some benefits.

Although his relationship with Lady Jia is not as close as the other two, after more than a month, he is no longer the unknown mascot during the New Year.

After more than half a month of busy work, sugar has gone into production. Although glass-related work has not yet started, it was because he deliberately delayed it.

Kubuqi Salt Lake is located in the north. Although caravans can reach it for trade, he has no trusted people at his disposal.

It's not that he hadn't thought about selecting people from the Ning Mansion, but given Jia Zhen's temperament, if he really used someone from the Ning Mansion, he would definitely do something behind his back and enrich himself.

He didn't mind giving Jia Zhen some benefits, but he had to distinguish the priorities. Taking the initiative to find someone from Ning Mansion would not only fail to make him grateful, but would easily breed greed.

Soda ash accounts for 10% to 20% of the raw materials of glass. The profit must be considerable, so we need to be cautious.

"Master, do you want to do morning exercises now?"

Ruizhu originally thought that he got up late today and was probably trying to be lazy. Just as she was about to put breakfast on the table, she saw Zhang Yunyi walking out of the building and hurriedly chased after him.

"Come back and eat." Zhang Yunyi waved his hand while jogging.

Baozhu, who was standing opposite, heard the noise and slid out of Tianxiang Tower. She asked curiously, "Master, do you do this every day?"

"Not only that! We also have night runs at night!"

Without waiting for Ruizhu to answer, several little girls beside the ear room laughed.

"It's strange, ever since I started running at night, the wild cat has stopped barking."

"That's right! I was afraid to go out in the dark at night, but now that he's gone, we don't have to chase him out again."

Baozhu ignored their gossip, grabbed Ruizhu's hand, entered the Dengxian Pavilion, and said meaningfully: "Master seems to have gotten up a little late today!"

"Well! He said he wasn't going to the government office today."

Baozhu looked Ruizhu up and down, lowered her voice, and asked cryptically, "Did the master call you into the room to serve him last night?"

"Ah?" Ruizhu was startled for a moment, then she came to her senses, her cheeks flushed as she said, "Sir, I am a humble gentleman, this is absolutely not the case, please don't talk nonsense."

"Why are you shy? We were asked to follow Master just to serve in the room?" Baozhu said disapprovingly, "Besides, grandma also said that although Master understands your difficulties, you can't just take care of yourself and ask me to remind you when I have time!"

She was not completely talking nonsense. Zhang Yunyi got up late today, and Baozhu suspected that he had overworked last night, so she volunteered to come and inquire about the situation.

However, Qin Keqing had no idea how to respond to such a thing and could only remain silent. Baozhu simply assumed that she acquiesced.

"How is this possible?" Ruizhu was a little unconvinced. "After all, we are the ones who have served grandma. If it was the master's order, it would be fine, but why would grandma..."

"Why would I lie to you?" Seeing Ruizhu didn't believe her, Baozhu swore, "Grandma also said that it is the most difficult to keep a secret in bed. Other things are fine, but if Master knew about that, she would have no face to live."

"Grandma, don't you believe me? I...why would I tell you all those private things about grandma? I'm going to go find grandma right now. If she doesn't believe me, I'll die to prove my innocence..."

As she was about to leave, Baozhu grabbed her and said, "Don't you think about why grandma didn't tell you herself, but asked me to tell you? If you go to her now, won't it make her even more embarrassed? Grandma is also grateful, and she doesn't want you to help her, and then have to avoid suspicion and suffer."

She became more and more excited as she spoke, and said angrily: "Besides, Master is a relative of the mansion, and there is a layer of distance between him and Grandma. There are some things that Grandma cannot speak directly to. We, as servants, should consider it more and cannot always wait for orders."

"It's my fault for not letting you come."

These words were well-reasoned and Ruizhu couldn't help but feel ashamed. She said weakly, "Then...then according to you, how can I help grandma?"

Hearing Ruizhu lamenting that she was not chosen, Baozhu could not help but feel a little disappointed, but thinking of Qin Keqing's promise, she quickly pulled herself together and offered a plan: "Now you are the only one serving in the master's room, you must seize this opportunity. If you can climb into the master's bed, who will dare to treat you as a maid in the future? Even if the master is not at home, grandma will not lose her support."

"Climb...climb onto my bed..."

Ruizhu glanced at Baozhu with a guilty look on her face. Just by hearing these words, she felt her face blushing and her heart beating fast, but she didn't know how Baozhu could say them out loud.

However, Baozhu's words also reminded her that Zhang Yunyi had been leaving early and coming back late recently, which was indeed not very safe.

If I have a social event one day and Jia Zhen catches me, I will regret it forever.

However, although she had made up her mind, she was still a little worried and hesitated, "I don't know if the master locks the door when he goes to bed at night."

"Alas!" Baozhu shook her head and said, "Even if you haven't tried those methods of seducing the master, haven't you seen enough of them in the courtyard before? Can't you just learn from them?"

……

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 33: Hearing the news

When Zhang Yunyi came back from morning exercise, he did not see Baozhu. Only Ruizhu was there, sitting on the bed beside the table with her head down, in a daze.

Seeing that she didn't react when he entered the room, he asked, "What's wrong?"

Ruizhu raised her head when she heard the voice and said in a panic, "I will bring breakfast to you right away."

Seeing her red cheeks, Zhang Yunyi asked with concern, "What's wrong? Do you have a fever?"

As he spoke, he reached out his hand to Ruizhu's forehead and pressed it gently.

Ruizhu had been in the house for about half a month, so even if she had taken over the room, Qin Keqing would not have been in a hurry.

No matter who you are, you can't make yourself suffer. Besides, if you keep putting it off like this, what if rumors spread that you are in poor health? Wouldn't that be a joke?

He originally wanted to take this opportunity to have some physical contact so as to proceed step by step, but when he touched Ruizhu's forehead, he could clearly feel her slight trembling.

He immediately let go and said, "If you are sick, just take a rest."

If Ruizhu didn't shy away from his contact, he would have followed the steps and progressed step by step. But now that he sensed the trembling, he had to put the plan on hold temporarily.

Since he wants to establish himself as a gentleman, he can't force it. After all, Ruizhu and Qin Keqing have been friends for many years, and who knows if they will gossip about each other in private.

As someone who has been through this, he knows that sometimes women are more open than men when it comes to telling dirty jokes.

He is not afraid of comparison in height, thickness and shape. Even with Jia Rong's cowardly appearance, how could he be taller and stronger than him?

He even secretly hoped that Ruizhu could gossip with Qin Keqing.

Of course, that’s all.

Ruizhu had no idea that she would miss the opportunity because of her trembling. She was just thinking about Baozhu's words and was upset. She was a little flustered by Zhang Yunyi's touch and quickly covered up, "I just tried the master's method just now..."

She didn't know how to express it, so she could only squat slightly.

"Well! Practicing this is good for your body. You should practice more in the future."

Squats not only shape the body, but also have many unexpected benefits. Zhang Yunyi naturally would not stop it.

Because the maids all wore the same clothes, they were not like Youshi and Qin Keqing, who wore narrow jackets with waists.

However, just from the slight squatting just now, he could see that Ruizhu had great potential, so he gave her these instructions.

As the saying goes, fat and thin are both interesting. If Lin Daiyu could be as pretty as Youshi, she would not be beautiful. But Baochai...

While eating the food brought by Ruizhu, he thought to himself that Lin Daiyu should be in Yangzhou by now, and he didn't know whether he could see Baochai today.

Just when I was thinking about something, I saw Yindie walk in.

"Uncle! Our uncle said that there are guests at home, and he would like you to go to the front yard to keep them company!"

Before Zhang Yun逸 came, the Ning Mansion called Jia Zhen "Master". Because he had not married and was of the same generation as Jia Zhen, now they can only add a prefix before the title of "Master" to distinguish him from others.

"Front yard?" Zhang Yunyi frowned and asked, "Who's here?"

"Today, the old lady from the West Mansion came to visit the garden, and Master Xue from the concubine's family also came with her. He has always been very close to our master."

Close?

Birds of a feather flock together, right?

If Jia Zhen hadn't mentioned it, he would have been happy to stay in the garden, but now he had no choice but to go there.

He had thought that since Xue Ke entered Rong Mansion, he would not avoid the female members of the family. If he stayed in the garden, he would probably be able to meet those beautiful ladies. However, he did not expect that Jia Zhen would actually ask him to accompany Xue Pan. This was a bit of a miscalculation.

In fact, given his status, he could not be considered a stranger. He was just invited by Yin Die to go to the garden with Lady Jia, but it was not appropriate for him to stay there intentionally.

When he arrived at the front hall, he didn't see Jia Zhen, only Jia Rong and a fat, big-eared fool.

Jia Rong hurriedly nodded and bowed, stepping forward and saying, "Uncle Yi, please come in! The master has gone to fetch the old lady, and will be here in a moment. This is Uncle Xue."

Ever since he saw Wang Xifeng coming, he didn't dare to have any bad thoughts towards Zhang Yun逸. However, he had flattered Youshi in front of Jia Zhen last time, and he was afraid that he would bear a grudge against him, so he flattered him as much as possible whenever he got the chance.

Although Zhang Yunyi had only been in the mansion for two months, he had Youshi as his accomplice. People could not keep secrets in bed, and he was deliberately trying to get... information, so Youshi had already revealed everything.

Therefore, he remained calm in the face of his nephew's flattery.

"Brother Yi, please take a seat! Brother Zhen is really something. Since we have this relative, he should have introduced us to each other earlier."

Although Xue Pan is a bit rough, he is not the kind of person who would gossip about everything. And since he has Aunt Xue's instructions, he naturally won't act rashly.

Zhang Yunyi nodded slightly and looked at Xue Pan. Although he was fat and had big ears, he did not look ugly. After all, he had a sister like Xue Baochai. Even if the gap between them was huge, he still had some foundation.

He bowed to Xue Pan and said, "Brother Xue, you're welcome!"

Jia Rong hurried forward and pulled out a chair, wiped it with his sleeve, and said flatteringly, "Uncle Yi, please take a seat."