Chapter 261: Sun Shangxiang's Internship

“In terms of classical Chinese skills, I am indeed not qualified to question your level of classical Chinese, but obviously you don’t understand the law either,” Ji Xin said faintly. “To be honest, before I checked the books, I really didn’t expect that the Great Ming Code, which represents the interests of the reactionary landlord class, would not be completely one-sided in protecting the good people and discriminating against the slaves. Compared to the good people, the slaves are ‘inferior people,’ not ‘objects,’ let alone a dog or a horse.

To the master, the slave is not entirely an ‘object.’ A master who kills a slave without reason will be caned sixty times and imprisoned for one year. Although it is only a one-year sentence, it is still a criminal responsibility. A person will obviously not be sentenced for smashing his own television. Objectively speaking, the slaves of the Ming Dynasty still enjoyed a little bit of human rights more than you imagined.”

“Are you sure you’ve really read the Great Ming Code?” Cheng Yongxin had regained her composure and said with feigned indifference.

Ji Xin smiled slightly and did not answer her question: “As for the few transmigrators in Sanya who went on a killing spree, their actions were government actions, not personal murders. If this is also to be hanged on a telephone pole, then the people in the strong-arm departments such as the courts, police stations, and the army will all have to be hanged on telephone poles. Of course, perhaps there are indeed many people in Hong Kong and Taiwan who think so.

“Let’s go back to the Yang Jihong case. According to the modern concept of law of the Arbitration Tribunal, unintentional homicide is generally not punishable by death. According to the Great Ming Code, it is a life for a life. Whether a maid beats and kills a slave, or a commoner beats and kills another’s slave, the punishment is strangulation. So I think it’s better not to refer to the Great Ming Code.”

After speaking, he stood up and dusted off his clothes: “If you have nothing else, I’ll take my leave. Thank you for the black tea.”

“Crack,” as Ji Xin’s footsteps faded away, the sound of a teacup shattering came from the exquisite small courtyard.

Today was Sun Shangxiang’s first day of internship at the Lingao Times. She woke up early and took care of all the housework at home.

These days, because Cheng Yongxin was mostly out and only came back at night to sleep, there was no need to cook, and the amount of cleaning and laundry work was also reduced. She was only told to go out more after finishing the housework and get to know the maids of other families, to “make friends.” Sun Shangxiang was happy to be free and leisurely wandered around the transmigrator residential area and the Farm Café, where the maids often went, and got to know many maids.

“I have to say goodbye to such a leisurely life,” Sun Shangxiang said to herself in the mirror, imitating Cheng Yuanlao’s sentence style.

In the full-length mirror, Sun Shangxiang was wearing a modified Hanfu. This was designed by her master. Sun Shangxiang was very skillful. She had systematically learned modern tailoring and sewing techniques at the maid school and could make clothes very concretely according to the effect drawings.

The modified Hanfu she was wearing was modified according to the basic style of a chest-high ruqun with half-sleeves. The so-called modification was some changes made according to the concept of modern clothing, including shrinking the cuffs, shortening the skirt, and making the clothes more slim-fitting. As for the effect of wearing it, a young girl like a life secretary would definitely not look bad, not to mention that the silk and satin fabrics used to make these clothes were either selected from the spoils warehouse or were medium-to-high-end products sent from the Hangzhou station for the special use of the General Office.

Sun Shangxiang liked this dress very much, especially the fabric used. Although she could barely be considered the daughter of an official family, Jiaodong had always been poor, and her father was a small hereditary official. The women in her family basically wore coarse cloth woven by local farmers for daily use. Even a piece of Songjiang fine cloth was rare, let alone various silks and satins. The “red skirt” that her mother had always been thinking about, which the legal wife wore, was also made of cheaply dyed Shandong tussah silk. She would take it out to wear on holidays and then have to put it away quickly.

It was just that she was still not used to her calves, which were exposed outside the skirt in knee-high socks. No matter what the transmigrators said, she felt it was too “revealing.” Of course, she would not dare to say this out loud, because some of her lady Cheng Yuanlao’s skirts were much shorter than hers. As for her own pair of “liberated feet” that had been bound, they were also particularly ugly when exposed outside the skirt: originally, a maiden in her boudoir should not show her feet when she walked. Now, not only did she have to show them, but she also couldn’t wear three-inch bow shoes. A pair of black cloth shoes with buckles exposed her deformed feet that had been bound and then released.

“What transmigrators, they’re just a bunch of barbarians,” looking at her ugly feet and her calves exposed under the “shameless” short skirt, Sun Shangxiang blurted out.

Immediately, she was frightened by herself. Was she courting death? How could she have blurted out this thought?

Although she knew she was alone in the room, she still looked around guiltily. The room was quiet. The sun shone in from the open window, and the room was bright. The curtains fluttered slightly in the breeze. It was a peaceful scene.

Sun Shangxiang touched her chest and let out a guilty breath.

She touched her bun and hair accessories: two butterfly bows tied with ribbons on her double buns. Her bangs were also neatly combed. She took out a delicate leather wallet from her thick cotton shoulder bag—Chief Cheng had recently given it to her. She checked the contents of the wallet: the teahouse’s consumption secondary card, the Delong transmigrator credit card secondary card, a few hundred yuan in circulation coupons, her ID card, special pass… and a business card of Cheng Yongxin. This kind of business card was not the kind that was casually distributed everywhere in the old time and space, but something similar to the name cards used by the gentry of the Ming Dynasty.

After checking all this, Sun Shangxiang went out: today she was going to buy some things for herself according to the Chief’s instructions, to prepare for her “apprenticeship” to that yellow-haired foreign woman.

Speaking of which, if it weren’t for the Chief’s order, she wouldn’t want to learn anything from this foreign woman. She had a strong and strange fragrance that even the Chief disliked. She spoke with a surprisingly loud voice, always had an exaggerated expression on her face, and would wave her arms from time to time. She was as strange as could be.

She had observed her coldly on a daily basis and knew that although her master valued this foreign woman very much, frequently had meals, tea, and chats with her, and sometimes even let her stay overnight, she did not really like her, although she was very polite and even sometimes affectionate to her.

As for being an apprentice, she would rather be an apprentice to the Chief Ji who had visited yesterday. Although he was simply dressed, he had a scholarly appearance and a righteous temperament. When he spoke, he was logical and had the air of a scholar-official. Sun Shangxiang had never seen anyone who could render her usually glib master speechless, and even make her so angry that she smashed a fine porcelain teacup—although she did not understand the content of their conversation.

The activities in the transmigrator residential area began at dawn. At this time, most of the maids had already gone out to shop. In the open space downstairs, only a few maids were walking their babies. The oldest of these second-generation transmigrators were already toddlers, while the younger ones could only drool and look at this new world.

Some maids still retained their old habits, wearing cotton aprons, putting their children in rattan cradles, and sitting on the side to pick vegetables and shell beans.

Sun Shangxiang was very disdainful of this behavior. Although her family was not well-off when she was at home, and the women in her family sometimes had to show their faces, it was absolutely impossible for them to wander the streets with their children, let alone do housework.

Miss Cheng was right: most of the chiefs and maids were from the lower class and did not know the etiquette and enjoyment of the wealthy. They were clearly as rich as a country, but they did not build a single mansion. They lived in birdcage-like buildings, and each family’s space was much smaller than her family’s, which was a small hereditary military official’s.

Today, Sun Shangxiang was going to the Cooperative Store No. 43. This was one of a series of special supply stores set up by the General Office for the transmigrators: the Cooperative General Store No. 43 in Dongmen City specialized in daily necessities; the fresh food special supply store at the Nanhai Experimental Farm supplied grain, vegetables, fruits, poultry, eggs, meat, and aquatic products; the General Office’s special supply food store at the Farm Café supplied various processed non-staple foods; and seafood was supplied by the seafood processing factory’s retail department according to orders.

These special supply stores used credit cards specially issued by Delong Bank for the transmigrators. To facilitate the shopping of the maids who were in charge of the household, a limited-amount secondary card authorized and signed by the transmigrator was also issued.

Sun Shangxiang left the residential area and took a public carriage to Dongmen City. The streets in the morning were already bustling: workers going to work in various places flowed in from all the streets like a tide.

The shops in Dongmen City had all opened for business. Even earlier than the shops were the breakfast vendors with business licenses. The aroma of various foods mixed with the steam from the pots filled the air.

Even on a street like Dongmen City, which was dominated by naturalized citizens, Sun Shangxiang’s attire was very eye-catching. Many eyes immediately turned to her, mixed with various kinds of envy, jealousy, and hatred. Both naturalized citizens and natives knew that besides the promising female students at Fangcaodi, only the maids serving the transmigrators could wear these clothes.

Sun Shangxiang was secretly pleased and deliberately slowed down her pace to fully enjoy the feeling of being the center of attention. Although she knew in her heart that attracting attention with such “strange clothes and showing her face” was suspected of “attracting bees and butterflies” and was not the behavior of a virtuous and quiet lady, she still felt very pleased.

She left the main road and entered a side road. There were much fewer people here. When she reached the end of the side road, there were very few people. At one end of the side road stood a small shop with only one storefront. Although the storefront was small, it was a three-story building. On the storefront hung an inconspicuous sign that read Cooperative Supply Department No. 43. And the house number here was also forty-three.

A bamboo curtain for sunshade hung on the storefront, and nothing could be seen from the street. Sun Shangxiang lifted the bamboo curtain and walked in.