Chapter 237: Sun Shangxiang

Leaving the Farm Café, Cheng Yongxin felt it was her happiest day since D-Day. She had never felt so content and exhilarated. It seemed she was brimming with talent for “political struggle,” having so easily handled Panpan.

Panpan’s emotions were now fully aroused, making her Cheng Yongxin’s most reliable ally.

She naturally believed that conquering Panpan was equivalent to indirectly conquering Ding Ding. By gaining control of the “pillow talk,” she now had the ability to subtly influence Ding Ding.

“You still call yourselves ‘media people,’ yet you have no awareness of what that means. You don’t realize the power you hold, yet you’re content to be cogs in the great machine of the Commonwealth. Truly pathetic,” Cheng Yongxin thought to herself as she sat in the rickshaw, enjoying the cool night breeze on her face. “I will awaken you.”

She got off the rickshaw near Bairen City station and boarded the last train to Gaoshanling. The Great Library was located in a secret location in Gaoshanling.

She returned to the Great Library. On her desk was a letter from the General Office: a permit authorizing her to enter the maid school and purchase a maid directly.

“[Director Xiao’s][y001] efficiency is quite high,” she remarked, tossing the letter back onto the desk with a slight smile. “I might as well go pick out a pretty one tomorrow.”

The official name of the maid school was: “General Office Life Secretary Training Center.” The center was actually not far from the Fangcaodi Academy, but due to its strict security and heavy concealment, very few people knew of its existence. Its high walls were surrounded by dense bamboo groves and hedges, which no one could pass through without a knife or axe. Only a single, winding path led to the main gate.

There was no guard post at the gate, no nameplate, only a simple door number. Even the most experienced postman in Lingao wouldn’t know where this address was. All mail sent to and from here went through a post office box.

The gate remained closed all day. On the rare occasion a visitor arrived, after pulling the bell rope, a small window would open, and the visitor would be required to submit their pass and identification for inspection before being allowed entry.

In theory, transmigrators didn’t need to come here in person to select a maid. The General Office had detailed files on all “pending assignment” life secretaries available for review. These files not only recorded their entire family and personal history but also their performance at the school, scores in various subjects, and multiple half-body and full-body “life photos” to help the transmigrators make an accurate judgment under the most realistic conditions possible. However, if they had the time, the transmigrators still preferred to see the girls in person before making a decision.

However, visiting the maid school to select a girl required permission from the General Office. Without a permit, even transmigrators, except for those who held positions or concurrent posts at the school, were not allowed to enter. This was a special regulation put in place by the General Office to ensure equal rights among the transmigrators and to avoid disrupting the teaching and living order within the school.

“Sun Shangxiang! What’s with your leg bend?!” A harsh reprimand once again echoed through the dance studio. The dance teaching assistant was a “senior,” though not much older than them. But seniority was determined by who entered first, and besides, she was an official teacher. Her shout was enough to make even the uninvolved maid trainees tremble slightly.

Sun Shangxiang quickly adjusted her posture. The skin on her back tightened with the premonition of a beating.

Sure enough, the assistant was already striding over menacingly, her rattan cane coming down without mercy.

Waves of burning heat immediately spread across her back. She gritted her teeth, holding her pose without moving, tears welling up in her eyes.

Sun Shangxiang didn’t know why she was doing this, holding the barre in front of a giant mirror and performing one inexplicable movement after another on command. It wasn’t like opera, and it was too slow for dancing.

She had had her feet bound, and she always struggled with anything involving physical movement, suffering greatly for it. After every class, her body would be covered in dozens of new welts.

“A little more outward! Stand firm!” With the scolding, the rattan cane continuously struck her thighs and calves. No matter how wide she opened her eyes, she couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down.

At that moment, outside the glass window of the classroom, a pair of eyes was watching her.

“I’ll take this one,” Cheng Yongxin said. “Prepare her file for me.”

“Yes, Chief. I’ll prepare the handover documents right away.”

Sun Shangxiang carried her rattan case, a thin sheen of sweat on her back. Her bound feet had made it difficult to walk, and now, with her feet unbound, it was still not easy. And yet, the Chiefs forbade any woman from having bound feet, especially a so-called “life secretary.”

However, even though she still considered small feet beautiful, she had to admit that natural feet were a godsend when fleeing disaster, especially after she had suffered so much because of them. During the escape, women with small feet could only wait to be captured, raped, and killed. If she hadn’t been found in time by the militia sent by Master Lu, Sun Suyun, who had been abandoned by the fleeing crowd and was struggling by the roadside, would have long since fallen into the hands of the mutinous soldiers.

Sun Shangxiang’s original name was, of course, not Sun Shangxiang. Her father, Sun Huawu, was a kinsman of Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Deng-Lai. Though they were called kinsmen, her family had always lived in Shandong, and had no real connection to Sun Yuanhua, whose ancestral home was in Jiangnan. But at least they shared the surname Sun, which made it easier to claim a connection and receive some favor. Her father was a minor hereditary military official, holding a post in the Dengzhou garrison, but his prospects were limited without a patron.

Motivated by the desire to cling to a powerful figure, Sun Huawu had converted his whole family to Catholicism. This allowed Sun Shangxiang to learn to read and write. She was given the school name Sun Suyun.

Evidently, neither claiming kinship nor converting to a foreign religion had brought her family much benefit, because when Dengzhou fell, everything, along with Governor Sun, vanished into thin air.

Whether Governor Sun lived or died, she didn’t much care. But whether her father and her family lived or died was a constant weight on her mind. On the road, the family servants who were escorting them first stole their livestock and fled. She and her mother were forced to struggle on foot. Then, the crowd of refugees was attacked by mutinous soldiers. The clatter of hooves, the soldiers’ rough shouts, their triumphant laughter, and the refugees’ desperate screams were her only memories of the attack.

When she awoke from unconsciousness and crawled out from a pile of corpses, the snow-covered ground was littered with stripped bodies, some missing heads, others missing arms. Her family was nowhere to be seen.

A lone woman with bound feet, in such a war-torn, freezing place with snow a foot deep—she knew well what her fate would be. Not just mutinous soldiers and bandits, but even passing male refugees would take the opportunity to rape her. Seeing a cloud of dust rising in the distance, indicating another group of horsemen approaching, Sun Suyun thought of running into the woods to kill herself. Dragging her small feet, she tried to run, but in despair, she found she had only managed a few steps. As the dust cloud drew nearer, Sun Suyun fell into the snow, letting out a desperate scream…

Fortunately, the newcomers were Master Lu’s militia. She was able to get on a cart to Qimu Island for shelter, and from there, she ended up in Hainan.

Sun Suyun was not stupid. On the contrary, she was smarter than her older brother, on whom the family had pinned their hopes of inheriting a tiny official position. But no matter how smart, she was still just a fifteen-year-old girl with bound feet. She was no match for Master Lu’s sturdy servant women and was quickly bundled onto a large ship. In a daze, she arrived in Qiongzhou Prefecture.

In the dim cabin of the ship, the girls from the opera troupe around her whispered among themselves, discussing what would happen after they reached Qiongzhou. It was then that she vaguely understood that they had all been selected by the “Chiefs” of Qiongzhou to be sent as concubines. Although the girls’ words revealed a fear of the main wife, there was more excitement, fantasizing about a life of silk and satin, fine food and drink, or at the very least, enough white rice to eat every day. Sun Suyun avoided their gazes and shrank into a corner.

“Have they all gone stupid after one full meal… No matter how nice it sounds, we’re still just concubines, treated like cats and dogs, easily replaced…”

Her own mother had been the property of a convicted official. If Sun Huawu hadn’t redeemed her, and if she hadn’t used her pillow talk after giving birth to the eldest son to persuade him to divorce his childless first wife, she might never have had her feet bound, let alone arranged a good marriage. But even her mother, who had become the official wife, eventually suffered at the hands of a new, younger concubine as she aged and her looks faded.

“Niu Niu, mother will definitely see you married off in a red dress. Don’t be like your mother…” The memory of her mother’s sobs merged with her own. Mother, Niu Niu is useless. Niu Niu is going to be a concubine for the Australian masters—

In this daze, Sun Shangxiang, with tears in her eyes, lined up with a long queue of girls.

“Where are you from? What’s your surname?”

“Dengzhou, Shandong. Surname Sun.”

“Do you have a name?”

A name? Of course she had a name, but what was the point?

In the church, the priest had praised her greatly and named her Suyun, saying she would become a pure and devout noblewoman.

She didn’t want to tarnish that name.

“No. My baby name is Da Niu’er.”

Once she became someone’s maid, wouldn’t her master call her whatever they pleased? She might even have to avoid using certain characters in her name.

Why bother with the unpleasantness?

“Hmm, then you shall be called Sun Shangxiang.” Besides kowtowing in thanks, what other choice was there?

“Shangxiang thanks Master for the name.”

Sun Suyun died at sea; all that remained was the maid, Sun Shangxiang.

“Don’t kowtow, don’t kowtow! Alright, next!”

Then she was pushed into a shed, put in a cangue, and had her head shaved like she was becoming a nun.

The girl next to her screamed as if she were being strangled, but she simply burst into loud sobs.

—Niu Niu, don’t be like your mother.

Crying was one thing, but Sun Shangxiang didn’t dare to be lazy or slack off. Concubines were also ranked. If she performed well enough, she might, like the top courtesans in a brothel, have some power to choose.

Because of her considerable education, fair and delicate skin, and a reasonably well-developed figure—this inheritance unintentionally given to her by her family—she was selected as a maid trainee and sent here.

[y001]: /characters/y001 “Xiao Zishan”