Deep Palace past events

The Imperial Dining Room is located in the center of the imperial palace. From the cleaning office to the Imperial Dining Room, it takes nearly two sticks of incense.When the two first entered the palace, they both had the feeling that Grandma Liu had entered the Grand View Garden.In the past two days, due to too many troubles and heavy rain, I haven't had the opportunity and mood to wander around.Now that I am finally temporarily free, although I can only enjoy a moment of leisure, there is also a sense of excitement like a fish in water.

God seems to be very considerate of them. Although the rain has not stopped, it is already light rain.So they were not in a hurry to rush to the imperial dining room, like two wanderers visiting the palace, strolling in the rain and fog, only caring about the scenery along the way, regardless of the rain hitting their faces.

When they passed a large half-man-made and half-natural pool surrounded by miscellaneous trees on the road, the two of them couldn't help feeling delighted and amazed when they saw that the pool was very large, the forest was deserted, and the pond melted.

Walking for a while, I saw a clear mountain water, as transparent as jade, flowing down along a slope with twists and turns, and the fine waves hit the steep boulders along the way. The girl's laughter is like a kind of wonderful music.

After the two stopped and watched for a while, they reluctantly moved on.

After a while, natural landscapes will be rare, but artificial scenery such as pavilions and rockeries will become more.The flowers and trees are scattered, the corridors are tortuous, the buildings are magnificent, and the houses are rich...

Both of them came from the backcountry. How have they ever seen such a fairyland on earth, the land of emperors?Almost everywhere I go, I am stunned, and I always have to sigh for a long time before moving forward.

Stopping and walking like this, it took them nearly four sticks of incense to walk the road that could have been reached with two sticks of incense.

After arriving at the imperial dining room, the two first went to meet the chief eunuch Sun Jiyi.

Naturally, Sun Jia knew that they were coming, so he didn't ask any further questions, but he looked at the two with strange eyes, which made Yang Fan and the two more convinced that the Ministry of Internal Affairs must have some deep meaning in arranging them here.

Because it was almost noon at this time, the eunuchs and maids in the imperial dining room were busy preparing the noon meal for the master, and Sun Jiaji was worried that his subordinates were not careful enough, so he didn't have time to talk to them.After asking a few words casually, he called a young eunuch named Luo Liang and took them to tidy up the wing room that had been vacated for them.

After Luo Liang took the house key from Sun Jia, he said "please follow me" to the two of them, and then walked out of the courtyard with his head down.

The two of them walked out of the gate of the imperial dining room, walked around a wall, and arrived in front of a row of quiet trees behind the imperial dining room.The residence here is similar to that of eunuchs and maids in other parts of the palace, with red windows and green doors.It's just that this row of old houses is surrounded by miscellaneous trees on three sides, so the light is a little dark.

When Luo Liang reached the front of this row of old houses, he didn't stop, but continued to walk in front of the deep place.

Seeing that the locks on several doors in the middle of this row of houses had rusted, Zhang Xiaomao felt a little strange, and couldn't help asking: "Excuse me, are there no people living in these houses?"

Luo Liang said: "Where is there no one living? Only a few rooms are temporarily vacant."

Zhang Xiaomao asked again: "Excuse me, do you know Gao Zhaohui who is newly assigned here? He came to the palace with us."

"This time there are six new eunuchs assigned to the imperial dining room. I have seen them all, but I still can't remember their names."

"Oh."

While talking, Luo Liang had already walked to the door of the innermost room, and Luo Liang handed the key to Zhang Xiaomao: "This is the house you live in, because it has not been lived in for a few months, there may be some dust, you clean it yourself, You can live there."

After finishing speaking, regardless of whether the two of them had any problems, they bowed their heads and walked away quickly.

I don't know if it's because this house has been unoccupied for a long time, or the row of tile-roofed houses is a bit dilapidated. In short, Zhang Xiaomao used the key to open the brass lock on the door. Make a hoarse and ugly sound of "crack".Just like an old woman who has been lonely for a long time in the deep mountains suddenly sees a rare guest coming, and wants to get up to greet the guest, but finds that her body bones are no longer in control, it is difficult to move, and she can only babble in her throat sound.

After the door opened, the first thing they saw was a bead curtain made of dozens of small wooden beads hanging on the door.

Because of the vibration, the beads are colliding with each other, making a series of fine and pleasant sounds.

Behind the bead curtain, there was darkness and a thick damp atmosphere.

After their eyes adjusted to the light in the room, the two stretched out a hand at the same time, lifted up one beaded curtain and peeped in.

I saw that the room was about two feet square, and there were two small wooden beds arranged side by side on the east and west walls.Because no one has lived in it for a long time, the pillows and quilts on the two beds have been removed long ago, and there is only a straw mat on the bed.In the middle of the two small wooden beds, facing the window on the right side of the door, there is another square wooden window about two feet long and wide.

Zhang Xiaomao said: "It's so humid in the room, why are the windows on both sides tightly closed." As he said, he walked over and unbolted the window between the two beds, and pushed the two windows open.

But as soon as the window was opened halfway, he fled out of the house in shock, spat on the ground, and frantically slapped the dust on the new clothes and hats.

It turned out that the dust on the window lattice was as thick as a finger, but he didn't notice it because of the dim light in the room.

Yang Fan laughed and said, "Who told you to be careless." Walked behind him, helped him pat the dust on his back a few times, and then went to open the window by the door by himself.Because of the lessons learned from the past, he was not as reckless as Zhang Xiaomao. He raised his left hand to cover the red hat on his head in advance, then carefully stretched out his right hand to push the window open, and before the dust on the window lattice fell, fled outside the house.

The two stood outside the door under the shade of a tree for a while, Zhang Xiaomao said: "Come on, let's find two brooms."

So the two returned to the imperial dining room and asked Sun Jia for two brooms, two rags, and a wooden basin for fetching water.

As soon as they came back, they were surprised to see Gao Zhaohui standing at the door waiting for them.

The three looked at each other and smiled, Zhang Xiaomao said: "Where did you go just now? We went to the imperial dining room twice, but we didn't see you."

"I was sent to the Charcoal Fire Department to move firewood just now, and I talked to Peng Xiaowan for a long time. I heard the news that you were assigned here as soon as I came back, so I came to visit you."

The three of them were not particularly close when they were on the boat before, but since they all entered the palace for the first time and were not familiar with others, they naturally felt close to each other.It is even more joyful to be assigned to work in the same place now.

They stood outside the door under the shade of a tree and talked affectionately for a while before returning to the hut. After Gao Zhaohui helped clean for a while, he was called away by an eunuch.

Yang Fan and Zhang Xiaomao worked together for another hour, and the house was finally ready for occupants.

Both of them were sweating profusely and dusty, but they didn't have the energy to fetch water, so they sat down on the edge of the bed to rest.

After sitting quietly for a while, Zhang Xiaomao said: "Should we go to the imperial dining room and ask the chief eunuch to see what work is arranged for us, besides, we haven't had lunch yet..."

Although Yang Fan didn't care about what kind of work he would be assigned, he also felt hungry, so the two cheered up and went to the well behind the house to fetch two basins of clean water. After washing their faces and hands, they changed into a new set. Clothes, come back to the imperial dining room.

Sun Jia called them into his hut, and said, "You just entered the palace and don't know anything, so you are in charge of this matter temporarily." He took out a piece of yellow paper with small characters written on it from his sleeve Come on, "Originally, someone else did this. I thought he was more careful, so I entrusted this important task to him, but this month, I somehow made mistakes and made mistakes, which caused me to be implicated!"

After coughing, he suddenly asked, "Do you know how to read?"

Zhang Xiaomao said: "I can't read, but Yang Fan can."

Sun Jia nodded, "It's enough for one person to be able to read and write. You can do this job even if you can't read and write—as long as you have a good memory and are careful. But it's better to be able to read and write, so that you can check this list by yourself at any time. Let me tell you , this is the queen's duty, so don't be careless at all."

He handed the yellow paper full of small characters to Yang Fan's hand, and said, "Since you can read, read it to me and listen to it."

Yang Fan took the paper and read carefully:

"Example for the queen: 28 catties of meat (pork knuckle), one bite of pig, one sheep, two chickens and ducks; two liters of new fine rice, one liter of yellow and old rice (purple rice) and five liters, three liters of glutinous rice, and round-grained rice Three catties of noodles, fifteen catties of white flour, one catty of buckwheat noodles, one catty of wheat flour, three folds of peas, five spoons of sesame seeds; Two, two liang of pine nuts; 12 eggs, four liang of wolfberry, eight liang of dried dates; three catties and ten taels of sesame oil; Twenty taels, five taels of vinegar; fifteen catties of fresh vegetables..."

In addition to these, there are delicacies from mountains and seas such as bird's nest, shark's fin, and white fungus. There are so many types and details that it is difficult to describe them all.

After listening to him finish reading verbatim, Sun Jia nodded in satisfaction, "Very good. The future work of the two of you is to deliver to the queen according to the amount on this list."

After explaining some things you should know and what you need to pay attention to, he said: "Okay, you go."

After going out, Zhang Xiaomao sighed in a low voice: "My God, how much does the queen eat in January?"

Yang Fan smiled wryly: "Hush your voice, let others hear you, be careful of your life!"