At Yin time, it was still dark.

Before the rooster crows, the maids in Qunfang Garden are already chatting and laughing as they go out.

The Chen Mansion is the lintel of an official family. Master Chen Liqin has to go to the Yamen at dawn, so the maids can only get up earlier to boil water, sweep, and cook.

Hearing the maids' movements, Chen Ji raised his eyelids slightly, turned over and continued to sleep.

As soon as he turned over, the dark cloud lying on his chest fell. It silently crawled back to Chen Ji, put his hands in his hands and closed his eyes.

The silver charcoal in the charcoal basin has burned white, leaving only the warm heat slowly dissipating quietly.

"Dong dong dong."

There was a knock on the door.

Chen Ji sat up, a little helpless: "Who is it?"

Then he whispered in a low voice: "Why is the Chen Mansion so troublesome? Some people stay up late at night and kneel at the door. Some people stay up early in the morning and knock on the door. Are they working together to make the eagle suffer?"

I heard a clear voice coming from outside the door: "Master, open the door, it's me, Xiaoman."

Chen Ji was startled for a moment, who is Xiaoman?

He put on his clothes and got up and went to open the door. The door opened with a creak, and he saw a little girl standing outside the door. She had a round face and delicate features. When she smiled, she showed two small tiger teeth. She looked like she was sixteen or seventeen years old.

Xiaoman held a copper basin in his hand, with a white handkerchief hanging on the side of the basin. The hot water in the basin was emitting white mist.

Chen Ji stood on the threshold and said doubtfully: "As I said yesterday, Mingquan Garden does not need servants and maids."

Xiao Man's eyes widened: "Master, I finally asked the master to agree to come back to serve you. I have served you for three years, and you don't want me now?"

Chen Ji looked at Xiao Man calmly.

The girl in front of me turned out to be my former maid... Then I couldn't keep her.

When he was at Taiping Medical Center, it was his master and Li Qingniao who smuggled him down from the forty-ninth heaven, so it doesn't matter even if his behavior is different from before.

However, this is the Chen Mansion, and if anyone finds out the clues, trouble may arise.

Xiao Man was holding the basin and was about to go in, but Chen Ji moved a step to the left and blocked the door: "You don't have to serve me anymore, go back."

Xiao Man stopped and begged: "Master, please show your kindness and let me continue to serve you. If I am promoted to a first-class maid, I can get an increase of 300 yuan in silver."

Chen Ji thought for a moment: "I'll give you three taels of silver, and you can go back."

When Xiaoman heard this, he stubbornly rushed inside with the basin in his hands. When he saw that the basin was about to hit Chen Ji, Chen Ji dodged and got out of the way.

The corners of Xiaoman's mouth raised slightly, and a sly look flashed in his eyes.

She carried the basin and walked into the house: "Master, wash your face quickly. You have to go and say hello to the master and his wife later."

Chen Ji frowned, the Chen family had too many rules.

Xiaoman placed the copper basin on the wooden shelf and turned around to clean the bed. The little girl worked very quickly. She folded the quilt neatly in a few seconds and carried it into the wooden cabinet beside it.

At this time, she saw dark clouds lying on the window lattice, and said in surprise: "Ah, raccoon slave!"

Xiao Man leaned over to hug Wu Yun, but Wu Yun balled up his paws in disgust, and slapped the back of her hand with a bang.

"It hurts!" Xiao Man stopped his hand in pain, but was not angry. He turned to look at Chen Ji: "Master, didn't you dislike the raccoon slave before? Why did you change your mind? I used to want to adopt one in the yard, why don't you still do it?

Not allowed."

Chen Ji had a headache, so he could only cover it up and said: "I like it now. People will always change in two years."

He was thinking in his mind as to why he should send this maid away. The girl was very familiar with him, and sooner or later she would find clues if she stayed with him.

Before he could think of a reason, Xiao Man turned to look at the ground: "Hey, silver charcoal... Is your house finally willing to provide you with silver charcoal?"

Chen Ji hummed: "Brother Wenzong sent it."

Xiao Man suddenly said with emotion: "Back then, when we were still in the capital, the housekeeper deliberately caused trouble and sent cheap bamboo charcoal to our house. We were smoked around the charcoal pot until we couldn't open our eyes. I ran to have a big quarrel with him.

You were sent to the hospital, and I was demoted to a third-class maid. He has worn a lot of shoes in the past two years..."

At this point, the slightly immature little girl warned in an old-fashioned tone: "Master, you finally returned to the house with great difficulty. You can no longer let others bully you like before."

Chen Ji's heart moved. Xiao Man could be regarded as an "old man" in the Chen family. If he kept it for himself, he might be able to understand the situation of the Chen family in Beijing.

He found a chair and sat down, and asked casually: "Do you want to go back to Beijing with me?"

Xiaoman smiled and said, "Have you forgotten? I said I don't want to go back to Beijing. I want to stay in Luo City so that I don't have to go back to the Chen family mansion to see the second room's face every day. But you are going back, and I have to take care of you."

Chen Ji calculated the time and found that Xiao Man should have been at the Chen family mansion in Beijing for two of the three years he had been with him.

He thought for a moment and asked, "Do you remember Chen Yu?"

Xiaoman blinked: "Chen Yu? Of course I remember that when we were at the Chen family mansion, he was the only one who interacted with you."

Chen Ji was shocked, it was broken!

Earlier, Bai Long asked himself if he and Chen Yu were familiar, and he said "not familiar".

The Director of Ceremonies had eyes all over the government and the public, so he must have known the truth. At that time, Bai Long took a deep look at himself but did not say anything... How to get back to him?

But the question is, since Chen Yu is familiar with me, why has he never written a letter? Could it be that he was detained by Liang?

At this time, Xiao Man took out the broom from the corner of the room and silently swept the floor.

Chen Ji looked at her back and said, "I have almost forgotten what Chen Yu looks like after two years in Luo City."

Xiao Man smiled and said: "How come you can forget the appearance of Chen Yu, Master? He is so handsome, which is rare in the capital... Well, he is still worse than you, Master."

Chen Ji was helpless: "There's no need to flatter me, you know what I look like."

Xiaoman breathed a sigh of relief: "As long as you know it."

Chen Ji: "..."

Xiao Man quickly added: "You are not bad either, but you are a little inferior to Chen Yu."

Chen Ji thought that the relationship between 'himself' and Xiao Man's former master and servant must have been very good, so Xiao Man could speak without restraint.

However, one of the main purposes of Bai Long asking him to lurk in the Chen family was to get him close to Chen Yu, but Chen Ji had no impression of Chen Yu and didn't know where to start.

Chen Ji thought for a moment: "You can stay with me from now on, but you don't have to serve me. Just take care of yourself. I have hands and feet and can take care of myself."

Xiao Man responded while sweeping the floor: "That's not okay. The maid has to do the maid's work. It's her duty to work with the moon silver."

Chen Ji sat on the chair, tapping the tea table beside him with his fingers. After thinking for a moment, he asked: "By the way, where are the things I left at home in the past two years since I left?"

Xiaoman's face tightened: "I didn't take it!"

Chen Ji couldn't laugh or cry. What was his reaction?

He asked: "I was asking where all those things were packed away and were they thrown away?"

Xiaoman said: "Part of it was thrown away by the housekeeper, and part of it was taken away by Grandma Li."

Chen Ji was confused. Who was Grandma Li? His interpersonal relationship in the Chen family was so complicated.

He asked cautiously: "Aunt Li...are you okay?"

Xiaoman said in frustration: "It's not good. She suddenly started to suffer from hysteria last year, and she always said that my aunt died inexplicably that year, and she must have been killed by a villain."

Chen Ji stopped tapping his fingers on the tea table.

It took him a while to react before he realized that the 'aunt' Xiao Man mentioned was his biological mother in this world.

Xiaoman whispered: "Mother Li said that when she went home to visit relatives, she went to burn incense in front of her aunt's grave. The aunt's grave was washed away by rocks, exposing the coffin, but there was no one in the coffin. She came back to report, sir.

He comforted her and said that he would send someone to check. But the boy who was sent came back and said that my aunt's tomb was fine, but that Nanny Li had found the wrong place. Later, no one believed what Nanny Li said, and she gradually became hysterical."

Chen Ji's pupils narrowed: "Where is Grandma Li?"

Xiao Man replied: "Madam disliked her and was crazy, so she planned to sell her. However, the master thought that she was your wet nurse, so he sent someone to send her to a farm in the countryside."

Chen Ji was shocked and confused, could Grandma Li have been silenced by the Chen family?

In addition, is my biological mother alive or dead?

If he was dead, why would the Chen family bury him in an empty coffin? If he was still alive, why did the other party abandon him and leave without saying goodbye?

Where are you hiding now?

Chen Ji calmly asked: "Where was Grandma Li sent to the farm?"

Xiaoman shook his head: "I don't know."

He looked at Xiao Man and realized that it was really necessary for him to keep this maid. Everything she said inadvertently was extremely important to him.

At this time, the cockcrow of Chen Mansion finally sounded.

It's time.

Xiaoman looked at the sky outside the window and urged: "Sir, please wipe your face quickly. It's time to go greet the master and his wife. If you break the rules, someone will find fault with you."

With that said, she poured the white handkerchief into the copper basin, wring it out and handed it to Chen Ji.

Chen Ji wiped his face, turned around and walked out of the yard.

Xiaoman stood by the door, tiptoeing and secretly looking at Chen Yi's back to make sure that he was far away, then he quickly retracted his head and started rummaging around the house.

She lifted up the pillow and then the mattress, not even leaving the bottom of the bed.
To be continued...