Fu Xinci didn't expect that the gifts brought by Steward Lin and his wife would be so abundant.
Looking at the three large bundles, she had to trouble her cheap father and Qi He to help her move them back.
In the west room, her three elder cousins were still helping her make quilts.
Fu Xinci only showed her face, smiled at her cousins, and returned to the east room. She asked Han Xue to help her unpack the three bundles one by one, wanting to see what was inside.
Only after she finished did she have to admit that the Lin family had sent a wide variety of things.
From food to daily necessities, from clothing to accessories, to toys, everything was there.
Thinking that her parents had only stayed in Jincheng for about a day, and the Lin family couple had prepared so many things for her, she felt that the Lin couple's love for their daughter must have been transformed into gratitude, which was why they had so meticulously prepared these gifts.
Fu Xinci casually picked up a box of palace flowers, all made of thin gauze, and very beautiful.
There was also a box of hair accessories, including pearl flowers, hair clips, and small hairpins, which were likely things that girls of this era would like.
There were also several bolts of brightly colored fabric. Besides two bolts of fine cotton cloth that she recognized, she really couldn't distinguish the others, such as brocade and silk.
Han Xue had been following her mistress, helping her with tasks. Hearing her mistress instruct her to sort these items, she complied.
Looking at the several boxes of pastries stacked on the kang table, Fu Xinci opened two boxes, divided half of them, put them on two plates, and sent them to the west room.
For the past two days, the three sisters had been eating pastries daily, and their moods had changed from their usual selves.
Seeing that Xinci brought pastries in again, Meng Yu Su secretly nudged Meng Yu Yan. As the eldest sister in the room at that moment, Meng Yu Yan was given a difficult task by her two younger sisters.
"Little sister Xinci, can we..."
Before she could finish, Fu Xinci nodded in agreement.
"Little sister Xinci knows what we're going to say?" Meng Yu Su asked curiously.
Fu Xinci did not answer directly. She lifted the curtain and pointed to the two boxes of pastries on the Eight Immortals table in the main hall, instructing, "Sisters, please eat the pastries on the plates, and take the rest in the boxes back to the old lady and Second Aunt."
Meng Yu Yan: ...
Meng Yu Wu: ...
Meng Yu Su: ...
The three sisters exchanged a silent glance. It seemed Little Sister Xinci knew everything.
Fu Xinci said nothing more and quietly let go of the curtain and withdrew.
Han Xue silently observed all of this and secretly felt fortunate that she had found a good mistress. Not only was her mistress kind-hearted, but she was also extremely perceptive.
Fu Xinci: Only you would praise me like this. I'm almost embarrassed.
...
With one more person in the household, not much changed, except that when it was time to sleep at night, Han Xue insisted on sleeping on the floor in the room, which almost angered Fu Xinci.
Everything else could be discussed, but on this matter, Fu Xinci truly could not accept it.
Regardless of whether she had secrets or not, she could not tolerate one person sleeping on the kang while a living person slept on the floor.
Even though the room had underfloor heating, she still couldn't accept it.
After much persuasion, Fu Xinci used all her might, her mouth dry, before she managed to convince Han Xue to move her "battlefield" to the main hall.
Outside the east room door, on the clean bluestone floor, Ke Er helped to find a new mat, and Fu Xinci found a piece of felt.
She then laid a new sheet and new bedding on top. When Fu Xinci felt it was satisfactory, she took Ke Er back to the east room.
After blowing out the oil lamp, Han Xue lay in the warm quilt, her eyes reddening.
Since she could remember, this was the first time she had slept on new, clean bedding.
In the Lin mansion, as the lowest-ranking maid, the bedding they were given were used ones from higher-ranking servants, chosen from what other servants had left behind.
Unlike now, where everything she lay on and covered herself with, from the inside out, was new.
In the darkness, Han Xue gently turned over. Hearing no sound from the east room, she smelled her own scent on the quilt and slowly fell asleep.
In the east room, after finally waiting for Ke Er to fall asleep, Fu Xinci quietly went to the washroom.
Feeling her way in the dark, she grumbled inwardly, "When will this kind of life end?"
Coincidentally, as the red light on the vending machine lit up, her friends in Longcheng also had many things they wanted to tell her.
Xiao Ai: "I really can't hold it in anymore, I'll go first."
Friends: We won't fight with you, we're self-aware.
Even if they tried, they couldn't compete with her. Their speaking speed wasn't as fast as Xiao Ai's, and the same went for writing.
Fu Xinci first traded several boxes of pastries to her friends, and also specifically told them the origin of these pastries.
Xiao Ai, who was initially full of anger, almost burst out laughing when she saw the note tied to the pastry box.
"Pfft, hahahaha."
"Xiao Ai?"
Seeing Xiao Ai laughing so hard, the remaining friends were a bit dumbfounded.
Yang Xin Jie reacted the fastest, quickly nudging Xiao Ai's arm. "Hey, hey, Xiao Ai, what's wrong? Why are you laughing so loudly? Look, everyone in the trading hall is looking at you."
"Yeah, laughing makes me feel a chill all over," Pang Dun'er said exaggeratedly, hugging his shoulders with both arms.
"...Haha, you guys look at what Xinci wrote on the note, where these pastries came from."
With food involved, Pang Dun'er's hand was the quickest. After he clearly read the words on Xinci's note, he also laughed.
"Hahaha, you guys say: If we eat these pastries, will we also question the whole world?"
After Pang Dun'er finished speaking, he wanted to try. But he was stopped by Xu Ru Yi, "Let's wait until we get back and eat them together."
"Why wait until we get back? I'll try them for you first. If my accent changes, you guys shouldn't eat them."
"Even if it changes, we'll still eat them. We can't let you have all the fun," Xu Jia Can snatched the pastry box and hugged it to himself.
"Sigh!" Pang Dun'er deflated, his chubby face looking aggrieved, as if he were a little cabbage struggling to survive under a stepmother.
Xiao Ai stopped laughing and felt much better. She turned to her friends and said, "Xinci still understands us. Knowing we're in a bad mood, she's trying to cheer us up."
Captain: "When did Xinci become an immortal? Why don't we ask her for a fortune telling? To see the future and prospects of Longcheng."
"Aren't you afraid of annoying Xinci and having her ignore us for a few days?"
"Mmm~" The captain was the first to shut up.
Yang Xin Jie: He just needs to be taught a lesson.
"Let's get back to business. I still need to tell Xinci about the recent events in our Longcheng."
"Xiao Ai, no need to stretch it out. Just talk about yesterday and today. If you talk too much, I'm afraid Xinci won't remember."
"Mmm, I've already written it. I wrote a lot," Xiao Ai's expression darkened again as she thought about what had happened in Longcheng these past two days.