sjar Chapter 950 Sister Xiuyan and Master Miaoyu
Chapter 950 Sister Xiuyan and Master Miaoyu
The next morning, not only did the master and servant Wang Xifeng and Ping'er get up late, but even Yingchun, Xiu Ju, Yuanyang and others next door were unable to get up early.
Lu Cheng took out some top-quality medicinal herbs and ingredients from the storage space, stewed a pot of nourishing old hen soup, and asked Xiangling to send it to Wang Xifeng's room.
It was not until noon that the girls walked out of the cabin and went to the deck to enjoy the scenery and bask in the sun.
Since it was winter and the wind was blowing from the north, the sailboat was sailing south with the wind and the speed was not slow.
Towards evening, two more boats appeared on the river ahead, moving slowly with their sails lowered.
After the two ships approached to a certain distance, Lu Cheng waved his hand, and the messenger on the ship immediately signaled the other ship with a flag. The other ship quickly responded and began to raise its sails.
Soon, the two boats approached each other. Daiyu and others, who were enjoying the breeze on the deck, also saw the people on the opposite boat clearly: "It's Sister Bao."
Xue Baochai, who was on the opposite side, also saw the people on this boat and waved to them hurriedly.
Afterwards, the two ships approached each other, and the sailors put wooden boards between the two ships. Daiyu jumped directly to the opposite ship in three or two steps and helped Xue Baochai to come here.
After meeting up with the other girls, Xue Baochai was also very happy: "You are finally here. I have been waiting for you these days."
"We have many people, but we can't be as comfortable as Sister Bao."
"It's a pity that sister Tanchun is still missing."
When they were in Jia's mansion, Daiyu, Baochai, Xiangyun, Yingchun, Tanchun, and Xichun, six girls, were of similar age and unmarried, so they would always get together to play. After many years of getting along, they were already like real sisters.
Daiyu, Baochai and Xiangyun are not from the Jia family, and Yingchun and Xichun are both unknown. Tanchun, a heroic and decisive girl, becomes the leader of the girls and even organizes and establishes a Begonia Poetry Society.
Now that Tanchun is gone, all the girls can’t help but feel a little regretful.
It was already late at night and the temperature was gradually dropping, so everyone returned to the cabin to chat.
Lu Cheng went to see Ping'er, whose green melon had just been broken, and chatted with Wang Xifeng and her servant for a while before returning to his own room.
At this moment, a loud eagle cry suddenly came from outside, and Lu Cheng immediately came to the deck. He saw an eagle circling in the sky and then landing on the side of the ship in front of Lu Cheng.
Lu Cheng untied a bamboo tube from the eagle's leg, took out the information inside, and read it: "Submitted by Xuanwu Hall Inner Disciple No. 312: Three days ago, a rebellion broke out in Runing Prefecture, endangering Nanyang Prefecture. Xuanwu Hall has arranged for guidance..."
After reading the information, Lu Cheng thought for a moment, then returned to the house, took out pen, ink, paper and inkstone, wrote a letter by hand, put it in an envelope, and signed on the envelope: From my dear teacher, Lu Cheng.
Afterwards, Lu Cheng wrote another order and passed it to the people of Nanyang Xuanwu Hall.
After finishing all this, Lu Cheng went straight to Daiyu's room and called Daiyu out alone: "Junior sister, we are not going to Nanyang, we will go directly to Jinling."
"Then my father..."
"I have arranged for someone to pick up the teacher and bring him to Jinling to join us."
"Well, just make the arrangements, brother. Did something happen over there?"
"Don't worry, it's just a little thing."
At present, the Suzaku Army and the Azure Dragon Army have occupied Hangzhou Prefecture and Huzhou Prefecture, and are marching towards Nanjing.
By the time Lu Cheng and his men arrived at Jinling City, the Vermillion Bird and Azure Dragon flags should have been hoisted there.
Five days passed in a blink of an eye. While Lu Cheng was accompanying the women on the boat, he was also receiving and processing the information collected from various places.
At this time, Lin Ruhai in Nanyang had also received Lu Cheng's handwritten letter, and rushed to Jinling under the escort of a group of people.
It was another rare good day, in the afternoon, and the girls were either resting in their respective rooms or gathering in twos and threes, talking and drinking tea.
Lu Cheng had just finished processing a few pieces of intelligence and walked out of the cabin to stretch his hands and feet. He saw Xing Xiuyan and Miaoyu standing in the corner in front of him talking. Lu Cheng hesitated for a moment and walked towards the two women.
Speaking of which, all the women on this ship have more or less some relationship with Lu Cheng, or have been cared for by Lu Cheng and have developed a good impression of Lu Cheng, which is why they are willing to follow him south.
Only Xing Xiuyun and Miaoyu got on the pirate ship without knowing it.
Although Daiyu and Baochai had a good relationship with the two of them, the time they spent together was too short.
Thinking about the future, both women were a little confused and could only hold on to each other for warmth.
Hearing the footsteps coming from behind, the two girls turned back and saw Lu Cheng walking towards them. Xing Xiuyan quickly bowed and said, "Mr. Lu."
Lu Cheng nodded slightly: "Miss Xing is fine. Master Miaoyu is fine."
Miaoyu was once again addressed as "Master" by Lu Cheng. Although she still disliked this title, she did not argue: "Mr. Lu."
"Miss Xing, are you used to the food and accommodation on the boat these days?"
"Thank you for your concern, Mr. Lu. Everything is fine."
When she was in Jia's house, Xing Xiuyan received her monthly allowance from her aunt, Mrs. Xing, which was also two taels of silver each month. However, she had to take out one tael of the two taels to support her parents at home.
The Xing family was originally poor, and Xing Xiuyan's parents were not ambitious. In the words of the original novel, they were "drunkards", otherwise they would not have fallen to the point of going to Beijing to live with their relatives. Sending their daughter Xing Xiuyan to the Jia Mansion was also to allow her to marry into a wealthy family and earn a high betrothal gift.
Even so, Xing Xiuyan did not complain at all, and still did her duty and respected herself.
In the original novel, Xing Xiuyan was arranged to live with Yingchun. Because Yingchun couldn't even take care of herself, Xing Xiuyan had to follow and be oppressed by the evil slaves. She even had to pawn her only winter cotton-padded clothes and spend money to manage those slaves to make a living. Perhaps it was for this reason that Xing Xiuyan was willing to follow them south and wanted to say goodbye to the past.
As for Miaoyu, she was more or less easy-going. Besides, there was no one in the Jia Mansion who wanted to stay, so they all went south together.
"If you are short or missing something, you can tell Daiyu or me."
"Thank you for your concern, Mr. Lu."
"There's no need to be so distant. If you want, you can call me Brother Cheng like Yingchun and Baochai do."
Xing Xiuyan looked up at Lu Cheng, and seeing his sincere expression, she felt a little warm in her heart: "Hmm~"
Miaoyu gave Lu Cheng a cold look, always feeling that the other party had ulterior motives.
Everyone was on the boat these days and the space was limited. They saw each other everywhere. Miaoyu and Xing Xiuyun couldn't help but notice that the relationship between the women on the boat and Lu Cheng was unusual.
Daiyu is needless to say, she is Lu Cheng's fiancée who has been engaged for a long time. Xiangling and Qingwen are both concubines. Zhou Wan'er is the same, a concubine who has not yet married into the family.
The rest of Baochai, Yingchun, Xiangyun, etc., all looked at Lu Cheng with affection. It was because Xichun was still young and not sensitive to knowledge about men and women.
And there is Wang Xifeng, who is obviously a widow of the Jia family, but she followed Lu Cheng south. The way the master and servant looked at Lu Cheng was as if they were still connected.
Thinking of this, Miaoyu felt even more awkward, as if she and Xing Xiuyun were the only outsiders.
But when she turned around and saw Xing Xiuyan's slightly blushing face, Miaoyu felt even more uneasy. Could it be that this good sister also wanted to...
"Xiu Yan, it's windy outside, why don't we go back first."
Lu Cheng skipped Miaoyu and looked Xing Xiuyan up and down. "I was careless. Sister Xiuyan's clothes are a little thin. Wait a minute. I have a new cloak. I'll bring one to you."
After saying that, Lu Cheng didn't wait for Xing Xiuyan's consent, and walked straight back into the house, took out a big red gorilla felt that a woman wore from the storage space, and took it out.
Lu Cheng has many women around him, and he has prepared some clothes for all four seasons and various head ornaments and jewelry for women to wear, just in case of emergency.
Xing Xiuyan on the deck was flattered when she saw Lu Cheng really bring back a brand new red gorilla felt: "Brother Lu... Cheng, this is quite expensive. No reward without merit..."
She only has one ordinary winter cotton-padded jacket, which she usually doesn't want to wear. How could she have worn such nice clothes?
"No matter how expensive the clothes are, they are only for keeping people warm. Sister Xiuyan, try them on and see if they fit you. If they don't fit, I'll go back and change them."
"This..." Xing Xiuyan hesitated for a moment, but still reached out to take it and put it on. She immediately felt the softness and comfort of the cloak, and the cold wind that could blow through the clothes was directly blocked out.
"It looks suitable. I'll give it to Sister Xiuyan."
The bright red gorilla felt has appeared many times in the Dream of the Red Chamber. When enjoying the snow in winter, Ping'er saw that Xing Xiuyan was wearing thin clothes, so she gave her a bright red gorilla felt: "It snowed so heavily yesterday, and everyone had something, either gorilla felt or feather satin and feather gauze, more than ten bright red clothes, which looked very neat against the heavy snow. Only she was wearing that old felt cloak, which made her look even more hunched and pitiful. Now give this one to her."
This big red gorilla felt is made of the finest Western woolen cloth, and one foot costs more than one or two taels of silver. The whole piece of clothing is made of sufficient material, and is thick and warm. The cost of the materials inside and outside alone is dozens of taels of silver.
Of course, this cloak is still far inferior to the white fox fur crane cloak that Daiyu is wearing. That crane cloak requires at least three pieces of precious white fox fur, and the cost price is more than three thousand taels.
(The list of rewards Zhang Shouqing, the eunuch in the Qing Palace, received at the emperor's wedding was as follows: 20 taels of silver, one blue and white fox skin, one white fox skin, a total of 1420 taels of silver. The white fox skin was more expensive and accounted for a larger proportion, costing more than taels.)
Miaoyu, who was standing by, was born into a family of officials. Her tea-drinking utensils were all expensive and famous brands, so she naturally had no shortage of good clothes. However, when she saw Lu Cheng just casually giving a cloak to her good sister, she felt a little jealous: Can't you see that I'm here too? He didn't even say a word to me...
At this moment, Lu Cheng seemed to have noticed something and turned to look at Miaoyu: "The clothes on Master are not bad, so you don't need me to give you one, right?"
"No need." Although she really didn't need it, the way the other party said it seemed that he didn't intend to give it to her, right?