Flowery Hair: A Maidservant

Chapter 66 Huanyun's Background

From Dingxiang's narration, Mengshu glimpsed the ups and downs of Huanyun's life over the past twenty years.

She was born into a moderately wealthy family in Jiangning, and her life was very smooth until she was twelve years old. Huanyun's father was a well-known child prodigy in Jiangning when he was young. He passed the imperial examination at the age of seventeen, but failed the examination repeatedly afterward. It was not until he was middle-aged that he completely gave up his idea of ​​taking the imperial examination and entering officialdom.

Huanyun was raised by her parents from a young age. Her father personally taught her music when she was three, and her mother taught her music, calligraphy, painting, and chess. This nurtured her to be elegant and graceful, like a fairy in the clouds.

In the Great Zhou Dynasty, those who passed the imperial examinations could be recommended for official positions, and most of them started as low-ranking officials. For example, Song, the county magistrate of Jinan County, was a candidate who passed the imperial examinations in the eleventh year of the Qianyuan era.

However, Huanyun's father was unwilling to spend his life as a mediocre minor official. Twelve years ago, he moved his entire family to the capital and, through his mentor's connections, entered the Qingguo Duke's mansion as a strategist. Becoming a strategist was an excellent way out for ambitious scholars who had failed the imperial examinations.

Unfortunately, fate intervened. In the thirty-eighth year of the Qian Yuan era, the Qingguo Duke's Mansion was embroiled in the court's struggle over the succession of the heir. The old emperor, in his later years, became senile and his temperament changed drastically. In less than a year, the Qingguo Duke's Mansion collapsed, and all his retainers and advisors were implicated and imprisoned.

Huanyun's family had no foundation to begin with, and struggling in the whirlpool was futile. Fortunately, the Qingguo case only affected her father. Her mother hurriedly took her back to Jiangning, where she died of depression on the boat.

At that time, Huanyun was already engaged to the son of one of her father's classmates. However, Huanyun did not dare to gamble with her future life. It was just a marriage agreement made in childhood. After the Qingguo case, scholars all over the world were afraid of having any connection with the Qingguo Duke's mansion, even if that connection was just with a nameless strategist.

She returned to Jiangning with her father's memorial tablet and her mother's body, but the old home where she had lived for twelve years had changed beyond recognition in just one year.

Left with no other choice, Huanyun wrote a letter to her fiancé's family, but what she received in return was the returned marriage certificate and a document announcing the dissolution of the engagement.

While parents are alive, there is still a way home; when parents are gone, the young girl is bullied by her own clan. On a blood-red sunset, thirteen-year-old Huanyun was tied up and sold to the Chunfeng Tower in Lin'an by her second uncle.

How to negotiate with the madam of Chunfeng Tower to become a courtesan who only performs for money is the game between Huanyun and Chunfeng Tower. This continued until she stayed at Chunfeng Tower for three years, when she met Zhou Bai, a down-on-his-luck peddler, outside the painted boat.

Zhou Bai possessed an innate temperament. He disliked poetry and literature from a young age, but loved reading historical records. He was born with an elegant and graceful appearance, and his actions were refined, elegant, and natural. Even when he worked as a peddler on a pleasure boat, he was the most dazzling person in the crowd.

Seventeen-year-old Zhou Bai and sixteen-year-old Huan Yun, one a dashing young man and the other a graceful washerwoman, met through their eyes and instantly connected.

For more than ten days in a row, all the remaining silver in Zhou Bai's hands went into Chunfeng Tower.

Unfortunately, the red thread of fate tied by the Old Man of the Moon was knotted, and their destiny arrived at an inopportune time, leaving both of them in dire straits. The madam of Chunfeng Tower looked at the peddler with disdain and demanded two thousand taels of silver for his redemption, while Zhou Bai at that time couldn't even come up with twenty taels.

"In less than four years, the price rose from two thousand taels to three thousand taels!"

As Meng Shu entered Yunyi Courtyard, her thoughts drifted away from the images in her mind, and a sense of powerlessness arose within her.

She took the box out from under the bed. Without even looking, she knew her own financial situation; even if she sold all her jewelry and valuables, she would only get a little over a hundred taels at most. Meng Shu took the items out of the basket and placed them on the bed.

There were four kinds of pastries, several medicine bottles containing pills in a cloth bag, a piece of fine cotton cloth, two pairs of embroidered shoes, and a purse under the cotton cloth containing ten taels of silver and ten small silver coins, probably for his own use.

Working as a courtesan at Chunfeng Tower only earns two taels of silver a month. The tips from the customers are all collected by the madams. This ten taels of silver is already five months' worth of Huanyun's monthly salary.

"Uncle, we owe Sister Huanyun so much..."

Meng Shu was moved by Huan Yun's thoughtfulness and affection for her, as well as her deep love for her uncle. She realized that she herself would never have been able to do the same.

Meng Shu would never allow herself to indulge in romantic love.

In the afternoon, the second young lady was going to Yun Gui Courtyard to learn how to manage the household affairs from Madam Yun. Before leaving, she instructed Meng Shu to make some winter clothes for her brother, and only took Meng Zhu and Rui Zhu with her to serve her.

After Green Willow was sent away, there was a temporary vacancy for a second-class maid in Yunyi Courtyard, and there was also a vacancy for a first-class head maid. In fact, Meng Shumeng, Zhu Ruizhu and the other two could not be considered first-class, but were just called that. They would officially become first-class maids when the second young lady came of age.

The second young lady once mentioned, "According to the old lady's wishes, the winter melon will be placed in our courtyard, and the empty space left by the green willow can be filled by her later."

Meng Shu was doing needlework under the eaves, occasionally glancing at the maids sweeping the courtyard. They each had their own thoughts; the maids were eyeing the second-class positions, and the second-class maids were eyeing the first-class position that was still available. Everyone wanted to be first.

Actually, it was extremely difficult to be able to serve the Second Miss. Mengzhu had been serving her since she was a child because she was the niece of her wet nurse, Qin Mama. They were all born servants. Some of Mengzhu's family members worked in the front yard, while others were managers in the shop. In the Second Miss's heart, they also had a bond of growing up together. In the heart of the old lady, Madam Yun, Mengzhu was also the person she trusted most to be by the Second Miss's side.

Although Ruizhu was not born into the household, she was rescued by Madam Yun on her way back to the capital to visit her family many years ago. Every time Ruizhu mentioned her, she was moved. In short, both of them had a deep connection with the two mistresses of the mansion.

As for herself, Meng Shu rubbed the needle on her scalp, knowing full well that she was a candidate chosen by Zheng Dongjia for her master.

Therefore, in Meng Shu's view, none of the maids in Yunyi Courtyard have a way to be promoted to first-class. They have to have either a good background or good opportunities, right? The first-class maids who are added in the future will most likely be selected like herself, rather than simply being picked from the courtyard.

But whether this blessing is good or bad is hard to say.

While Meng Shu was sighing, Madam Yun was also having a private conversation with the Second Miss in Yun Gui Courtyard.

"How have you been seeing Meng Shu all this time?"

The second young lady flipped through the account books. "Very good."

Madam Yun waited for her to continue, but to her surprise, there was no further explanation. She patiently asked again. Only then did the second young lady put down the account book and say, "Is Mother testing her recently? Is she planning to use her as part of my dowry?"