Rong Qingqing fiddled with the abacus for a few moments and continued, "You haven't worked for five days a month. Based on your current salary, I'll give you eight coins a day more. Five days would be about forty coins deducted. Plus your room and board in the mansion, I'll give you ten coins. Not much, right? That's fifty coins in total."

"And this is actually an underestimation. Your original monthly salary was 250 coins. After deducting 50 coins for your five days of strike and food and lodging expenses, you only received 200 coins. Do you think there's anything wrong with the wages you've received?"

The maidservant's face turned deathly pale. Clutching the two hundred coins in her hand, she stammered, unable to utter a word.

The other servants waiting behind, upon hearing these words, all turned pale and couldn't help but panic.

Rong Qingqing's gaze swept over everyone. "The Marquis's mansion invited you to work, not to eat and drink for free. What have you been doing these past few days? You haven't done a single thing, yet you've been eating and living in the Marquis's mansion for free."

I've also inquired about it. The salaries offered by our Marquis's residence have always been generous, more than double those of other residences. Even if the Marquis orders a 50% reduction in salaries, your salaries will still be substantial and will not be lower than those of other residences.

The old Marquis was kind and generous, giving you generous salaries. However, after his passing, you became lazy and did nothing for five consecutive days, yet you ate and lived in the Marquis's mansion for free. Who are you to the Marquis's mansion? Where do you place the Marquis's mansion?

"You were hired by the Marquis's mansion to work, but since you refuse to do so, the Marquis's mansion can't afford to keep you around for nothing. What's the point of keeping you here? After you collect your salary for this month, pack your things and leave as soon as possible. The Marquis's mansion can't afford to support people like you."

Upon hearing this, the servants fell silent, speechless, and deeply reflected on whether they had done something wrong these past few days.

The Marquis's mansion actually wants to kick them out?

Many people became frightened.

But since they were indeed the ones who did nothing first, there was no way to refute them, because they were in the wrong.

The entire courtyard was quiet; no one dared to utter a sound.

After a long while, a servant finally couldn't help but speak up: "Madam, please understand, we didn't mean to shirk our duties. We only did it because we heard that the Marquis's mansion wouldn't pay wages..." When the servant met Rong Qingqing's gaze, his voice grew softer and softer until it disappeared.

Rong Qingqing smiled and said, "When did the Marquis's Mansion ever make a written rule that servants would not be paid? You believed the rumors without verifying them and went on strike. Where does this place the Marquis's Mansion? Does this mean that you can abandon the Marquis's Mansion at will after hearing other rumors in the future?"

"The Marquis's mansion hired you to work, but in what you've done, where is there any sense of responsibility befitting servants? Since that's the case, the Marquis's mansion will let you find better jobs elsewhere." Having said this, he stopped talking and continued distributing monthly wages to the servants listed in the register, one by one.

The register not only recorded the names of all the servants in the household, but also their job titles, monthly salaries, and even their homes and ages, making it very convenient and easy to use.

Naturally, their monthly salaries differ depending on their job duties.

In fact, Rong Qingqing did do something these past few days.

She inquired about the currency and prices of goods in the Great Liang Dynasty, as well as the salaries of servants in various prefectures, and then compared them.

They discovered that Xie Jingrun wasn't so harsh after all. Although he halved his monthly salary, it was based on the current market rate.

At first, she thought Xie Jingrun was a ruthless exploiter who wanted to exploit the working class.

But after inquiring, she realized it wasn't what she thought.