The next day
"Qingyan, Qingyan, quickly add some charcoal to the brazier, it's freezing! You're getting lazier and lazier!"
Gao Pan'er was woken up by the cold early in the morning; her hands and feet were ice-cold, and the usually warm house was now like an ice cave.
Gao Pan'er was furious. Ever since the master left, Qingyan has become increasingly oblivious to everything!
Ten minutes passed, and there was still no response, even though Qingyan wasn't outside and had chores to do. Shouldn't there be a maid waiting outside to give a reply?
Gao Pan'er thought it was because of the cold weather that the maids had become lazy, so she put on her thick clothes and prepared to go find them and punish them by not letting them eat today! Let them go hungry for a couple of meals to teach them a lesson!
Upon opening the door, she saw that the path, which was usually cleared, was now covered by a thick layer of snow! Gao Pan'er stepped on the snow and slowly moved towards the outside of the yard.
As soon as she stepped out of the courtyard, she ran into the servants who had come looking for Gao Pan'er. They all looked flustered. Gao Pan'er looked at them and saw that they were all men, with no maids among them!
"Madam, Madam, something terrible has happened! All the maids in the manor have disappeared, and some of their families have also disappeared along with them!"
"We've searched the entire mansion, but we haven't found a trace of them."
"I went to their house and saw that all their clothes and belongings were gone, and the room was almost completely emptied, except for a bed board!"
...
Various sounds filled Gao Pan'er's ears, making her dizzy and disoriented.
"Stop!" Gao Pan'er shouted loudly, her face extremely ugly.
"Zhang Li, you tell me what happened." Gao Pan'er pointed to a familiar face in the crowd.
"Madam, it's like this. Zhao Xin is in charge of purchasing in the kitchen. He went out early this morning to buy groceries, and when he got to the back door, he saw that the door, which is usually closed, was wide open!"
"And Old Zhang, who was in charge of guarding the gate, couldn't be woken up even in the gatehouse."
"Zhao Xin then realized something was wrong, so he went to the servants' quarters and made a fuss, waking everyone up to see if a thief had come to steal something in the middle of the night. As it turned out, when everyone got up, they found that all the maids in the mansion, along with their families, had disappeared!"
"We searched the entire mansion, including their residences. The houses were completely empty, like they'd been ransacked. It turns out all the maids had run away!"
"We found a letter in the steward's room. It said that the young lady felt sorry for the maids. Since they were all women, helping them was also doing a good deed for the master. The indentures were returned to them. The steward felt he was getting old and went back to his hometown to retire!"
Zhang Li said indignantly, and handed the letter to Gao Pan'er.
The young lady is truly remarkable! She sells indentures to the maids but not to us men; we deserve to be forced to leave our homes!
Gao Pan'er quickly glanced through it and found that it was no different from what Zhang Li had said. She was so angry that she crumpled the letter into a ball!
That wretched old man!
Damn Mo Qian!
I knew she wouldn't leave peacefully, not as the youngest child! So that's what she was waiting for! Damn it!
"You can all go back now. Go about your business. I know about this. Stop crowding around." Gao Pan'er said, her face ashen, as she shooed the servants away.
The servants exchanged glances and slowly walked out.
On the other side, the beggars who heard the news also looked grim. They had thought they could find a wife, but now their hopes were dashed!
However, no matter how unhappy he was, he didn't show it. After all, he was new here and wanted to figure things out first!
In the middle of the night, in the servants' room,
"That young lady is truly despicable. She gave us all the indentures, but deliberately left us out," Zhang Li said viciously.
In this day and age, once you sign a contract of servitude, you're essentially the property of your master, and you can never leave! Unless your master has a kind heart!
Furthermore, they cannot run away, as the laws against servants escaping are extremely strict now. If caught, women will be forced into prostitution and men will become wives! And their families will also be implicated!
“Now that they’ve all run away, what are we going to do? I really don’t want to be controlled by others anymore, and I don’t want to suffer this humiliation!” one of the servants said.
"Let's think about it, guys. What do you think? Should we just go and snatch it? After all, even a slut like Aunt Gao can't resist."
“That works. Once we get the indenture, we can finally put our minds at ease!” Several servants agreed.
"That won't do. If those beggars hadn't entered the mansion, there would have been no problem. But now those beggars outnumber us and have a lot of influence."
Although our numbers are roughly the same as theirs, those beggars are ruthless characters who would risk their lives for food; how could we possibly compete?
One of the servants, who had been doing the accounting in the accounting room, suddenly spoke up, interrupting the others' agreement.
"What should we do? What are we going to do?"
"How about we bribe them and give them 20% of the money we get?" Everyone offered suggestions at once.
...
"No, that's unlikely to work. They can't bribe 20%, they'll want the whole thing, and they might suppress us first. In the end, we'll lose everything, all our efforts will be for nothing, and we'll be doing all the work for someone else!"
"In this way, we can come secretly and avoid direct confrontation with them. By avoiding a head-on clash, our chances of winning will be greatly increased."
“We’ll drug their food. By the time they wake up, we’ll have already taken their indentures, ransacked their place, and made our escape! Even if they want to chase us, they won’t be able to find us or our way around!” The accountant’s eyes flashed with ruthlessness.
"That's a good idea! The accountant is really quick-witted!" This suggestion was supported by everyone.
In the following days, the Mo family seemed to return to peace, and the servants went about their work as usual, as if the maids' escape had not caused the slightest ripple.
Only the occasional glimpse of shrewdness among the servants could offer a glimpse into his abilities.
The beggars, who were already aware of the crisis, also noticed the current tension at the Mo residence.
However, apart from the leader of the beggars, the others were also alert, but they didn't take it seriously. After all, they were all staying in the Mo residence, well-fed and warm, and didn't have to worry about freezing to death if they got up in the middle of the night.
I felt relieved and happily stayed at the Mo residence. The first day I arrived, eating was like a battle, but now I've calmed down and I'm not in such a rush when I eat!
The leader of the beggars was not as optimistic as the others, after all, he knew his own status.
Nobody wants a bunch of beggars to walk into their house and freeload off them!
Even if Gao Pan'er is kind and compassionate, it's hard to say what will happen!
Now I'm worried that Gao Pan'er will go back on her word and collude with the servants to do something underhanded!
After all, we beggars are outsiders, and we are not as controllable as those servants!
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