A word at the end of the year is like a drum in the evening and a bell in the morning, shocking and awakening.

  But knowing is knowing.

  Chao Sheng's situation is different from that of Sui Mu. Sui Mu was a maid brought into the palace by Chen Fei, so she could leave when she turned 25, but Chao Sheng is a palace maid...

  At the end of the year, she wasn't unaware. If there were other options at first, she wouldn't have entered the palace. If she hadn't entered the palace, she would probably have starved to death long ago. Even if she had known early on that the ending for palace people was so miserable, she still couldn't avoid entering.

  Consort Chen not only regained favor, but also became unstoppable. Within a month, the Emperor visited Yunxia Palace three times and summoned Consort Chen to accompany him on duty about six or seven times. For a time, Yunxia Palace was bustling again. Xu Cairen and Liu Cairen, who were usually not very enthusiastic, hurried to present their respects to Consort Chen, each one speaking eloquently, it's hard to describe how well they spoke.

  It's no wonder people describe it as "starry-eyed" - you're so dizzy from talking that the stars in front of your eyes are swirling around, isn't that just what it looks like?

  The reason why Chen Fei regained favor, Cai Sheng did not understand, perhaps Chen Fei herself did not understand either.

  But everyone understands the benefits of being favored.

  Let's not talk about anything else, just their daily drinks. In the past, it was just plain water, occasionally scooping out some tea leaves from a teapot to make a quick brew. Now it's different, they have large buckets of brewed and cooled herbal tea, with ingredients like honeysuckle, chrysanthemum, lilyturf, licorice root, and monk fruit... etc., and supposedly even ice sugar was added, making it cool and sweet. On the first day, everyone was hesitant to drink it openly, but by the second and third days, they were fighting over it.

  As for what I want to say... this tea tastes like the Banlangen granules I drank when I had a cold in my past life. If I were to say it's very good, that wouldn't necessarily be true either.

  Tide still thinks plain water quenches thirst better.

  She combed Chen Fei's hair more and more often, and Chen Fei seemed to think that on the day of her birthday, it was Chaosheng who combed her hair. Then, on that day, the emperor who had not thought of her for several years suddenly came. It seemed like this good luck came from having a new hairstyle. From then on, Qingjing stepped aside, and Chen Fei became more and more accustomed to letting Chaosheng comb her hair.

  So Chaosheng also has to keep learning, just relying on her old skills is not enough, what she learned before is no longer useful now, Suemou will teach her some, actually the best at braiding hair is Qingjing, but Chaosheng thought about it and still didn't follow her to ask for trouble.

  Xiang Xun is very smart in everything she does, but when it comes to learning characters, she's not that bright. The number of characters in the booklet isn't that many, but by mid-summer, she still hasn't learned half of them.

  That book is now in Chao's hands.

  Because two more people moved into the house where Huan Xun lived, it was not very convenient to learn characters or hide things. So although Huan Xun was reluctant, she still entrusted the booklet to Chao Sheng for safekeeping. The two of them also changed their study location to outside, by the pool there were bluestones, they dipped in water and wrote on the stones, or at the eastern wall's bamboo thicket, writing on the sandy ground.

  "This character is Xi."

  Han Xun's expression was somewhat worried: "This..."

  The strokes of this character are a bit too many, and whether it's written with ink or sand, it can't be written very clearly.

  "Let's put this aside for now and learn something else."

  "Don't worry, write bigger."

  There is indeed a strong and unyielding spirit.

  Of course, this is not a bad thing, if you want to learn something well, without this stubbornness, it's probably not going to work.

  However, she also has some quirks in other aspects of her life.

  For example, Chao Sheng had advised her in private to keep a distance from Wang Mei, but Han Xun refused to listen and instead turned around to advise him, saying that Wang Mei was very kind to people, which made Chao Sheng lose his temper.

  Two people bumped their heads together and crouched there, crouching until their legs were numb, but Xiangyun still couldn't learn that character.

  When she was alone and had nothing to do, Chao Sheng would also practice writing with that booklet. Her handwriting was crooked and not good-looking at all. There was no way around it, as for so many years before, she used a hard pen, but this time suddenly changed to a soft pen, if the force was slightly stronger, it would draw a thick stroke, and if the hand was slightly unstable, it would draw a wavy line, really can't be too light or too heavy. So, learning to write is not difficult, what's difficult is writing well.

  It's probably because of this that well-written brush calligraphy can become a form of art, which is something that hard-tip pen calligraphy can't compare to.

  Being a palace maid requires not only skills but also physical strength.

  As July arrives, the weather gets hotter and people get easily tired. As a servant, one's age is evident here, and physical strength can't keep up. Thinking about it, when the master doesn't get up, you have to; when the master sleeps, sometimes you still can't sleep; at night, if there's a summons, you have to jump up immediately to attend to them. When the master sits, you stand; when the master eats, you watch; when the master has nothing in their hands, you carry things on your shoulders or hold them with both hands...

  No wonder so many beautiful palace maids are thinking of betraying their masters.

  Not only can I get rid of the endless hard labor as a palace maid, but also avoid ending up in some godforsaken place like Beixiang or Gongren Street in the future.

  But being the master also has its own troubles. Chen Fei even said once while watching Cai Sheng and Bai Suzhen threading needles on New Year's Eve, "Sometimes I really envy you two, living a simple life."

  Cháo shēng chà diǎn er dàn chū yī kǒu xuè lái, yìng shēng shēng yān xià qù.

  Translation: Chao Sheng almost choked out a mouthful of blood and swallowed it hard.

  Let Chen Fei experience the life of a palace maid? She's been spoiled since birth and only knows her own surname!

  To be fair, Chen Fei is already a good master. At least, Cai Sheng has never seen her scolding or beating the palace maids and eunuchs, whether she was feeling down and depressed or now that she's in high spirits, she still treats the people around her with great tolerance.

  But she was also kind and the mistress. Chao Sheng and the others were still slaves, working hard from dawn to dusk, exhausted to death, struggling through one day after another.

  So at the end of the year, I have to leave the palace.

  She was very loyal to Chen Fei, but she also wanted to live her own life. Although 25 years old is a bit older and it's not easy to find a good family, she still wants to leave.

  The weather has been scorching for several days in a row, and it's impossible to stand outside. The bluestone floor is being scorched, the flowers, grass, and leaves are all wilted and drooping down. Even the fish tanks in the courtyard have been covered with straw mats.

  That day, two people fainted from heatstroke, one of whom was Qingjing.

  Qingjing is usually ill-tempered and has poor relationships with others. Now that she's lying down, surprisingly no one is willing to take care of her, not even giving her a second glance. Since the incident where Qingjing didn't give Wangmei a good look after her first haircut in Chaocheng, Wangmei hasn't been given a good look by Qingjing either. As for Hualiang, on the surface she seems to be self-sufficient and has many tasks to attend to.

  At the end of the year, Chao Sheng passed by the door of the house where Qing Jing lived. The door was half-closed, and inside, there was only Qing Jing, a frail person lying down. The small room was stuffy and hot, with an unpleasant smell - it was unclear whether it was due to vomiting that hadn't been cleaned up properly.

  As the year drew to a close, he shook his head and walked away. Turning back to Chao Sheng, he said: "I have one more pill that clears heat and dispels summer at my place. You can take it back to her later. Alas, she was so spirited all the time, what's the point? Now that she's ill, her miserable state is revealed."

  ＋＋＋＋＋＋＋＋

  The air conditioner might have been too low last night... I woke up with a bit of a headache today.

  This chapter is a bit short, sorry~~~