Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 1238 Postscript 94 · Girls in the Deep House

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

The princess was pregnant and sleepy and did not get up early. Several maids competed for the job of sending the prince consort out.

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

This position was definitely not available. The maids competed for the position of following behind to get things.

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

Xiren had just arrived and was not qualified to interfere.

She was washing in the yard when she suddenly heard a recitation next to her, and the content of the recitation was a little unclear.

Last night, I felt that Daiyu was quite easy to talk to, so Xiren couldn't help asking, "What is Sister Daiyu reciting?"

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

"Sister Daiyu is amazing!" Xiren flattered her.

Daiyu was quite impressed and smiled, "I have 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 superficial things."

Baochai had finished washing up and yawned, saying, "I feel sleepy when I hear her reciting these, just like a Taoist priest reading a heavenly book."

Just then, a maid shouted outside the courtyard, "Xiren, follow me!"

Xiren hurriedly ran out, flattering in various ways, and found out that the maid was called "Yucai". She was personally selected from many palace maids by Zhu Tangxi 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, there were only two fan-bearing maids.

After getting married, there were six fan-bearers.

Yucai and Jinhua had long stopped fanning, and they usually had other jobs.

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

Shusu nodded: "I will tell her the general rules, and you can slowly teach the rest, and she will follow you in the future."

Yucai bowed and said: "Yes."

Shusu called Xiren to her side, mainly talking about where she could not go, where she needed to apply in advance, and the various positions and ranks of the maids.

After saying this, Shusu left.

"Come with me, I will take you around to get familiar with it." Yucai said.

Xiren followed Yucai around and carefully memorized various restricted areas. Those areas could not be run around, and permission was required to enter.

After walking for a while, Yucai said, "The princess's house is very big and you can't remember it clearly when you first come, 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 took her to a small building: "This is the incense building. From now on, you will follow me to make perfume here."

There were two maids in the incense building, who were called by Yucai to introduce.

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

"I've written it down."

Xiren has understood her position. She belongs to the princess's perfume maid. In the next few years, it is estimated that she can only do odd jobs in the incense building and improve her perfume making skills.

It's not completely hidden.

Like the tea ceremony, the art of incense is quite popular among scholars and often mix spices themselves.

The maid who mixes perfume often meets the master.

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

But now the princess is pregnant, and she will not come to the incense tower again before giving birth.

It is very likely that Xiren will not see the princess and the prince consort for the whole year.

"Cherry, take her down."

"Yes."

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

After that, Cherry ran away.

Xiren stood alone in the spice storage room in a daze, a little confused and a little scared. All her emotions came from the unknown future.

But she adjusted quickly.

Compared with her childhood experience, what is the experience of the past two days?

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

Don't ask about her background. If you ask, you will know that she was born in a wealthy family, her family was broken up and she was extremely miserable, and she was brought to the Ming Dynasty by boat.

In fact, Xiren remembered where her home was.

The city was called Gorgan, located in the southeast of the Caspian Sea.

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

Later, the Sassanid Persians seized this place and built a long wall in Gorgan to prevent the invasion of the northern steppe barbarians.

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

The Sassanid Persians were destroyed, and the Persian princes all defected to the Tang Dynasty. The Karen family continued to resist the Arabs and established a Masmuhan Dynasty (a local Persian government that believed in Zoroastrianism and Nestorianism).

But they really couldn't withstand the attack of the Arabs.

Since we can't beat them, then join them.

After King Masmuhan was defeated and captured, he married his two daughters to the monarch of the Abbasid Dynasty. Afterwards, the Karen family continued to rule those territories as relatives.

When the Seljuks came, the Karen family also resisted with all their strength. If they couldn't beat them, they had to join them.

A few decades ago, the Kingdom of Dayuan came.

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

After the Kingdom of Dayuan was forced to withdraw its troops, the Karen family contacted Sultan Zengi and other lords, asking everyone to help them build fortresses and even repair the remaining Sassanid Persian ancient Great Wall in the area.

If they didn't help, they would surrender!

The layers of fortifications in the mountains made it difficult for artillery to exert their power, and the Dayuan army attacked again and again without success.

After decades of fighting, the Karen family also had firearms, and the king of Dayuan didn't want to attack again.

The Kingdom of Dayuan could only change its strategy.

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

Finally, the livelihood of the defenders collapsed.

Relying on the aid of the Sultan and other lords, the Gorgan garrison could barely eat enough, but the morale was declining year by year.

When Xiren was seven years old, the Karen family had an internal conflict, and her uncle defected to the Dayuan Kingdom.

The Dayuan army took the opportunity to kill and conquered the Gorgan Fortress in one fell swoop.

Xiren's mother didn't care about her at all, and fled with only one brother and one younger brother. She 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 and was caught.

I don't know what the end of that maid was.

Xiren was sold to Dayuan merchants, and went along the Silk Road with the goods, and resold to Ming merchants in Gaochang. Then she was sold to Lanzhou, and finally came to Luoyang.

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

This book has been updated recently in ##六@@九@@书@@吧!! Update!

No worries about food and clothing, a stable life.

Although the maids here are cold to her, it is 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 abnormal, and she would beat, scold and humiliate her at will. Many times, because she was not familiar with Chinese, it was difficult for her to understand what the old prostitute was saying, and she would be beaten again if she was a little slow.

Her tears had long dried up, and she gradually learned to observe words and expressions and how to please everyone.

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

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

Those people of 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 got the idea and tried to take the initiative to tease her, rubbing against a man for the first time in her life.

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

Xiren admitted her mistake, but she didn't care in her heart.

She thought it was very interesting, especially that the prince consort kept avoiding her, making it seem like she was taking advantage of him.

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

She studied until noon, and Yingtao called her to eat.

"You stayed in there all morning?" Yingtao asked.

Xiren nodded and said, "Yes."

Yingtao smiled and said, "You are really stupid. There are all spices in there. Although they are all stored well, the smell will inevitably escape, and the fragrance in the air will be mixed. If you stay in there for a long time, your sense of smell will be affected."

"Then what should I do?" Xiren asked.

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

Xiren asked, "Can I take it out?"

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

"Thank you, sister Cherry, for reminding me." Xiren carefully observed Cherry's expression and felt that this sister was not lying.

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

Cherry is a good person, and you can get close to her more.

Daiyu is cold on the outside but warm on the inside, and Baochai is innocent, and they can all be approached.

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

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

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

Xiren hurriedly thanked her for her teachings, which are all survival rules.

Xie Laoliu naturally didn't know this. He thought the maids in the house were united and friendly, and lived in harmony. Good sisters must be simple and kind, and live happily together.

"Hey, do you know? The brother of the young master is here."

"Where is he?"

"He lives in the guest room in the front yard. His Highness went to the reception room to meet him in person, talked for a while, and arranged for him to take a hot water bath."

"Will the young master come back early?"

"It's not your turn to serve him when he comes back."

"Hehe, the young master looked at me yesterday."

"What's the use of looking at me? Alas, I plan to leave anyway."

"Where to go?"

"Mr. You, the accountant of the cement factory, his son Erlang is looking for a matchmaker. I have seen him several times before. Erlang You is quite good-looking and honest."

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

"That's him."

"Let alone other things, just looking at his appearance, he is far inferior to you."

"Your son is the god of literature, no matter how good-looking he is, how can we dream of him? You are not young anymore, you should think about the future."

"Anyway, I won't leave. Maybe one day you will..."

"Just dream slowly."

Xiren pricked up her ears to listen, and thought of the Prince Consort Xie again, and made up her mind to work harder to learn perfume making.

Only when you have the ability can you stand out. You also have to guard against the calculations of people around you. This is the survival rule she learned in Lanruoyuan.

If I become the Prince Consort's woman one day...

Ah, I feel excited just thinking about it!