Chapter 238: The New Master

Fortunately or unfortunately, her looks weren’t what the Chiefs were looking for. Although she excelled in academic subjects, her short stature and the effects of her childhood foot-binding resulted in extremely poor scores in physical education and dance training. In the end, her overall rating was a rock-bottom E.

After graduating from the maid school, as her peers with the highest scores were chosen one by one by the Chiefs, she too began to feel anxious.

This anxiety reached its peak when a female Chief appeared, accompanied by another male Chief.

The male Chief selected four of her companions, nodded to the female Chief, and went outside. The female Chief walked up with a sweet smile, but the words she spoke sent a chill down Sun Shangxiang’s spine.

“Alright, let’s get the unpleasantries out of the way. In my house, we don’t do that whole ‘sisters’ thing, and the Master won’t be formally taking you as concubines. As long as you follow the house rules, I will never mistreat you. If you have children, you will of course be allowed to give birth and raise them in peace. But if anyone gets any ideas they shouldn’t have…”

The female Chief slowed her speech, but everyone understood the unspoken threat.

Seeing one of the maids trembling like a leaf, the female Chief gave her an extra long look before turning to lead the four girls away.

“Ling’er is probably in for a rough time. The main wife of that Chief’s household is not to be trifled with.”

As soon as they left, a group of girls huddled together, whispering.

“Forget her, what about Yueru! She dreams of her own child becoming a Chief…”

Who knows how those girls are doing now? After class, Sun Shangxiang returned to the dormitory, bathed, and changed into clean clothes. The welts on her skin stung. She applied medicinal oil, tears dripping down one by one.

Could there be anything more miserable in the world? She had once thought being a concubine was a lowly fate, and now, she couldn’t even become one if she wanted to.

Her roommates sat together, discussing one of the eternal topics of the maid school: “How to fight the main wife?”

Sun Shangxiang glanced at them, then walked to the window and stood there, gazing out.

Nothing of the outside world could be seen from the high walls of the courtyard. However, they were often taken out for “internships” and “tours” to witness the glorious greatness of the Commonwealth’s rule.

She couldn’t deny that Lingao surpassed all her imaginings of paradise. In the present moment, without considering the future, even just rolling around in a soft cotton quilt was a form of happiness.

But it was this very paradise that was the source of their misfortune.

Anyone from the hellish landscape of Shandong, once they set foot in Lingao, would never want to leave. The same large ships would bring more women willing to serve as maids, until the Australian masters themselves ran out of energy.

The Australian masters had too many choices, but she had none.

She had considered buying her freedom, but after a month, she abandoned the idea. Three meals a day, plus occasional nourishing soups, and days filled with either studying or various skill classes… she truly didn’t have the courage to calculate how much silver the Chiefs spent on them before graduation.

She had heard of the “Yangzhou slender horses,” and knew that such girls were ultimately sold for over a thousand taels of silver.

A thousand taels, to her, was a sum only an emperor could produce. Even when her father was alive and an official, it took him several months of effort just to prepare a gift of twelve taels of silver for his superior.

And even if, by some miracle, she did manage to raise that money, besides the Australian masters, who would dare to marry a self-redeemed “Australian maid” as a proper wife? Wouldn’t that be a slap in the face to the Chiefs?

If she had to be a concubine either way, she would rather be a concubine to an Australian master.

With a sigh, Sun Shangxiang turned and joined her roommates, sharing with them stories of several vicious main wives she remembered. The group huddled together, plotting how to “fight the main wife.”

However, before she could finish devising her “Thirty-Six Stratagems for Fighting the Main Wife,” she was summoned by the “teaching assistant.”

“Congratulations, Sun Shangxiang!” the assistant said, her tone a mixture of sourness and schadenfreude. “A Chief has chosen you.”

In that instant, even without having seen the Chief, Sun Shangxiang felt a sense of relief.

It was the same fate either way, a single stroke of the blade. As terrifying as the main wives might be, at least they weren’t beasts in human skin.

She soon learned that there was no main wife for her to fight. The one who had chosen her was a single “female Chief.”

She changed into the official life secretary uniform: a black dress with a white, ruffled apron over it, white socks, and black cloth shoes. Her hair was tied back with a ribbon. She didn’t know why the Chiefs, who were said to be as rich as nations, liked such plain and dull attire. Back home, she at least had nice silk clothes to wear on holidays and a few hairpins and ornaments to adorn herself.

The rattan suitcase was provided by the school, and inside were her personal clothes—also provided by the school. She had nothing but the clothes on her back.

She followed the clerk from the General Office who had come to collect her, taking a carriage, then a train, and finally arriving at Bairen City, entering the heavily guarded transmigrator residential area.

The journey was a series of stops and starts for identity checks. The suitcase grew heavier, and her steps began to falter.

However, the transmigrators’ residential area surprised her. The Chiefs lived here? In these pigeon-coop-like buildings?!

No matter how great her doubts, she could only remain silent. This was the first rule the maid school had taught them.

She followed the clerk into one of the buildings, climbed a dark staircase, and stopped in front of a door. The clerk raised his hand and knocked.

“Who is it?”

“Reporting to the Chief, the life secretary has arrived.”

“Come in.”

Sun Shangxiang was startled the moment she entered the room: she had never seen so many books.

Of course, she knew the Chiefs had a place called the “library,” where books were said to be piled from floor to ceiling, filling many rooms. While this room was not so exaggerated, an entire wall was still covered in books.

The Chief’s desk was a disaster zone, a small mountain of books. Several books teetered precariously, but the Chief paid them no mind, casually tossing the book in her hand onto the top of the pile. She then walked to the bookshelf, pulled out several more books, and flipped through them quickly.

Sun Shangxiang was simply stunned.

She had been intimidated by the tiled washroom before, but that fear was followed by envy. But in this era where books were severely scarce, where even copying a book required connections, to treat books so casually was, to Sun Shangxiang, outrageous.

Those are books! Books!

Seeing the Chief casually stack the books to the side and return to her seat with the rest, the clerk finally found an opportunity to speak.

“Chief, your secretary has arrived.”

“Leave her here. You can go back now. Thank you for your trouble.”

After the clerk left, Sun Shangxiang nervously clutched her bag, waiting for the Chief’s next command.

“Get me a bottle of Kombucha.”

Sun Shangxiang immediately put down her bag, found a small refrigerator in the corner of the room, opened a can of Kombucha, and brought it to the Chief.

The female Chief didn’t even glance at her. She took the Kombucha, gulped down a few mouthfuls, and continued writing furiously. Sun Shangxiang tactfully took two steps back and waited by the side, as she had been taught.

Waiting was naturally boring, and the smell of paper was an intoxicating perfume to Sun Shangxiang.

Therefore, without much struggle, Sun Shangxiang began to tiptoe around, tidying up the books scattered near the bookshelf. From the Chief’s actions, it was clear she didn’t need these books at the moment.

Picking up a few books, Sun Shangxiang noticed that each one had a small paper strip on the spine with an Arabic numeral written on it. She studied the books on the shelf for a moment, then began to put the scattered books back in order.

When Sun Shangxiang had finished organizing one shelf and was clapping her hands in satisfaction, ready to continue, she turned to find the Chief had stopped writing at some point and was sipping her Kombucha, watching her with interest.

Sun Shangxiang froze instantly. She even had the urge to kneel and kowtow in apology, as she would have in the past.

But the Chiefs didn’t like that.

Gritting her teeth, she stammered in her non-standard Mandarin:

“Chief… please inspect… I may have put them in the wrong place… please…”

The female Chief stood up, her ponytail swinging as she strode over. She bent down to scan the numbers on the paper strips.

“Next time, it would be even better if you organized the bookshelf as well. What’s your name?”

Seeing the Chief adjusting the books herself, Sun Shangxiang quickly replied:

“Sun Shangxiang. ‘Shang’ as in…”

“Not the maid school name. Your real name.”

The female Chief stopped what she was doing and turned to look Sun Shangxiang directly in the eye.

“I’m not going to tell you to forget everything you learned at the maid school. Although I personally have some reservations about those classes, the fact that you are standing here means they are already a part of you, and I have no right to negate that.”

She sighed, which only confused Sun Shangxiang further.

“Chief?”

“What I mean is, if your surname was changed or something, and you want to restore your original name, just tell me. Although a name is just a label, I don’t like how those otaku casually stuff good girls into their fantasies—this isn’t some RPG where you can just pick up a few female companions and use cheat codes to win. This is the real world.”

Sun Shangxiang was certain that although she understood each word the Chief said individually, when put together, they were like a heavenly scripture.

But generally, it probably meant the Chief didn’t like the name.

“Please grant me a name, Chief.”

“Sigh, that’s not what I mean either…”

The female Chief smiled wryly and went to the refrigerator herself, taking out two bottles of Kvass. She used a corkscrew to pull out the wooden stoppers.

“Do you know who Sun Shangxiang was?”

Sun Shangxiang took the bottle of Kvass the Chief handed her with some trepidation and shook her head at the question.

“She was the sister of the ruler of the state of Wu in the Three Kingdoms period. For the alliance between Wu and Shu, she was married to Lord Xuande as his second wife. However, she ‘was always guarded by more than a hundred sword-wielding handmaidens.’ I imagine Lord Xuande’s expression during their meetings must have been quite something.”