Chapter 245: Best Friends

“Fangcaodi?” Su Wan was a little surprised. The Senate had invested a great deal of manpower and resources to solve the lower body problems of the male transmigrators. To directly transfer a life secretary trained at such a high cost to Fangcaodi? Wasn’t that a huge loss! Once she went to Fangcaodi, she would be a “female student” under the Education Committee, not a “female slave” controlled by the General Office. She would still be a “slave” of the Senate, but at least on paper, she would have more personal autonomy than a “bonded” life secretary.

“Tell me about it. I was also very surprised,” Mu Min said. “It cost so much to bring these life secretaries here, and they just let her leave? Would those men agree?”

“Do you know how many students we currently have in a ‘pending assignment’ state?” Dong Weiwei said with a bitter smile.

“I don’t know.”

“About three hundred. If we follow the rating document issued by the General Office, two-thirds of the students in the academy are now B-grade or above. There are almost no D or E grades.”

“So many!”

“High quality and sufficient quantity,” Dong Weiwei suddenly realized that describing female students this way had the suspicion of self-deprecating “objectification” of women. She paused for a moment before saying, “The students haven’t been able to be assigned for a long time.”

Since the first batch of life secretary students entered the school in 1630, there have been small batches of students entering the school irregularly every year, with each batch ranging from a dozen to two or three dozen. Although there were few life secretaries of B-grade or above, the transmigrators in a state of starvation were not picky, so there was basically no backlog. A small number of D and E-grade students who really couldn’t be assigned were transferred to the human resources department for redistribution, except for those who stayed at the school.

After the start of Operation Engine, the number of students surged. “Good seedlings” were sent from the quarantine camps in Shandong, Jeju, Taiwan, and Zhejiang, with each batch ranging from two or three dozen to nearly a hundred. Then there were maid students from Europe, Korea, and Vietnam. For this reason, the school’s scale was expanded. Fortunately, the General Office had fully estimated the ambitions of the transmigrators for their human museum plan and had made backups when enclosing the land. As for the teacher shortage caused by the expansion, it was filled by students from the previous batches who had not been assigned and had outstanding professional achievements.

The result of the large influx was a large backlog. The transmigrators’ interest in maids had greatly decreased, and limited living space and busy work further suppressed the demand for a second life secretary. The transmigrators’ time, energy, and physical strength were limited after all. After the initial “solving the problem of having or not having,” the result was that most transmigrators did not establish a harem as they had imagined.

In recent months, except for a very small number of S-grade maids and European female slaves who were still in short supply due to their scarcity, the school had a situation where students finished their studies but no one was interested in them. Even A-grade students could not be assigned.

To solve this problem, the General Office and the Education Committee stipulated that after completing six months of study, students would have an additional six months of “probationary” period. During this period, they would continue to receive various vocational training according to their abilities and be available for selection by the transmigrators at any time.

If no one was interested after six months, they would be handed over to the human resources department for assignment according to the content of their vocational training. Those with good grades would stay at the school to teach or be transferred to various vocational training classes at Fangcaodi. The rest would be assigned by the human resources department and would be separated from their status as maid students.

“In that case, it’s better not to be picked by these people. At least the prospects are not bad: the administrative department is short of people now, and doing anything is better than being a professional concubine.”

“The Executive Committee has finally done something humane.” Being the boss alone for a long time had made Dong Weiwei outspoken, which made Mu Min a little nervous. Fortunately, she did not elaborate on this issue. “But Lin Xiaoya’s case is a bit special.”

“How is it special?”

“According to the document, maid students who transfer to Fangcaodi all enter vocational training classes. Unless their basic course scores are particularly good, they can enter the normal class. But Lin Xiaoya entered the first year of Fangcaodi’s senior primary school.”

The students of the maid school were roughly required to reach the equivalent of junior primary school education before graduation. At this level, it was not a problem to enter senior primary school, but there was no provision for entering senior primary school in the placement documents.

“How is that possible? Since there is no such provision in the placement documents, who will pay for her tuition? Besides, the senior primary school department of Fangcaodi will not accept her.”

“A transmigrator’s recommendation is sufficient. And he also agreed to fully fund her tuition and living expenses.”

“So generous. Who recommended her?”

“Yang Xinwu, a transmigrator teacher at Fangcaodi.”

“So it was him.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Mu Min covered it up. The situation of Yang Xinwu being the main suspect was not yet something that could be said everywhere. “But unrelated transmigrators are not allowed to enter the school. How could he know Lin Xiaoya?”

“It’s not surprising, actually,” Dong Weiwei said. “His maid, Yang Jihong, was Lin Xiaoya’s roommate, and they were very good friends, best friends. I think it was probably Yang Jihong who helped. Their relationship was really good.”

Mu Min nodded. The interpersonal relationships surrounding the victim were completely connected. He opened Lin Xiaoya’s file. In the black and white photo taken with wet plate photography, Lin Xiaoya was not stunning. Her rating was C. According to Dong Weiwei, even A-grade maids at the maid school were having trouble being assigned, and C-grade maids were everywhere.

Her file was very brief, just like most maid students. The few thin pages only contained her place of origin, age, date of naturalization, academic transcript, physical examination report… and finally, a page of documents for transferring her school status. The seal of the maid school had already been stamped, and the space for the receiving party’s seal was still empty—forever empty.

“If transmigrators are allowed to recommend and sponsor like this, wouldn’t it be possible to bypass the procedures stipulated by the General Office and freely choose life secretaries?”

“Lin Xiaoya’s probationary period has expired. In theory, she is no longer a maid student,” Dong Weiwei said. “Besides, she is not a ‘bestseller,’ I’m sorry I have to describe her this way.”

“I see,” Mu Min said again. “Can I see Yang Jihong’s file?”

“No problem. The original copy of Yang Jihong’s file is in the General Office, but we have a copy here.” Dong Weiwei stood up, rummaged through the filing cabinet for a while, and pulled out a document.

Yang Jihong’s file was also unremarkable. Her rating was only D. She was two years older than Lin Xiaoya. She noticed that Yang Jihong’s enrollment time was earlier than Lin Xiaoya’s.

“That’s right. She was in the second batch. Although it was a bit late, she was still assigned. Lin Xiaoya was a few batches later, and she wasn’t assigned even after her probationary period was over. In terms of looks and grades, Lin Xiaoya was actually much better than Yang Jihong. Alas, it seems that beautiful women have a hard life.”

Mu Min was not interested in Dong Weiwei’s literary感慨. She realized that the relationship between Yang Jihong and Lin Xiaoya must be the breakthrough point for solving the case. As for what role Yang Xinwu played between these two women, it was hard to say.

It seemed unlikely that he was attracted to Lin Xiaoya’s beauty. Since A-grade maids could be chosen freely, there was no need for Transmigrator Yang to fixate on a C-grade maid. Unless this girl could satisfy some special need of his, making it so that he had to have her. Even so, he could have gone through the normal process and bought Lin Xiaoya directly, without having to go through the trouble of recommending and sponsoring her to enroll in school.

Logically speaking, Yang Xinwu’s recommendation showed that he himself was not very interested in Lin Xiaoya, and it was likely just at Yang Jihong’s request. The murder was likely a matter between Yang Jihong and Lin Xiaoya, and had little to do with Yang Xinwu.

The only thing that didn’t make sense was why Yang Xinwu would issue a pass for Lin Xiaoya to enter the transmigrator residential area. If this was also Yang Jihong’s request, then what was Yang Jihong’s purpose?

From a common sense perspective, even if they were best friends, it was unlikely that Yang Jihong would recommend a competitor for her master.

“Are their two’s relationship really that good?”

“I think so,” Dong Weiwei said. “If you’re not sure, I can ask a few students.”

“Thank you so much.”

Dong Weiwei rang the bell and gave a few instructions to her female secretary. She then asked, “Is there anything else I can help with? Don’t be polite! I also want to catch this murderer as soon as possible.”

“Can the students here usually go out? Is there a curfew?”

“Students are usually not allowed to go out. They can only go out as a group for social activities and study tours. However, for students like Lin Xiaoya who have passed their probationary period and are about to transfer or enter the assignment process, they can go out. They can ask for leave to go out three times a month, four hours each time. The curfew is until nine o’clock at night.”

“What about staying out overnight or being late?”

“Staying out overnight is one hundred lashes and three days of confinement in a dark room. If they were supposed to enter the normal class, they would be demoted to the human resources department for direct assignment. Being late or overstaying leave is ten to sixty lashes, depending on the length of time, and one day of confinement in a dark room. During confinement, only relief rations and clean water are given.”

“So strict.”

“There are no rules without standards. I have no objection to corporal punishment. But for what purpose is corporal punishment used, I reserve my opinion on that.”

Mu Min remembered that Dong Weiwei was a Ming Dynasty fan, and knew that she was not too resistant to these things. No wonder the Executive Committee chose her as the principal.

“Dong Weiwei found a few students who were relatively familiar with both Lin Xiaoya and Yang Jihong for me. However, they didn’t provide anything particularly useful. Yang Jihong was taciturn, while Lin Xiaoya was lively and active. Considering their backgrounds: the former was a farmer’s daughter, and the latter was from a poor urban family, such personalities are not surprising. It is said that Lin Xiaoya was a very thoughtful and smart girl, and usually had many clever ideas.”

Su Wan said, “Actually, such girls are more to the taste of those men.”

“Yes, it’s a pity that Lin Xiaoya can no longer prove her ability,” Mu Min said, her words filled with regret.