Maidservant (14)
Accompanying the maids required breaking their backs time and time again, and getting back up again and again. Mi couldn't imagine how these girls managed to stand up again and again. Few people could get up after each fall; most were discouraged and remained trapped in the mire.
“Those three girls,” Mi recalled their dirty little faces, “children will forget quickly, how can you guarantee they will always be obedient.”
“Mi, we don’t need the children to be obedient.” Anna looked at Mi, this adventurer was unbelievably naive. In the entire Sun City, maids were considered the most luxurious possessions, and it was something to boast about for a noblewoman to have two maids at the same time. Anna said softly, “We are just showing the children a different life, and they will earn that different life through their own abilities.”
Anna hired a carriage and invited Mi, "Let's go see David's farm." Mi, somewhat bewildered, followed Anna to a small village on the western outskirts. There were about ten families living there, each keeping a large, black dog. As soon as the carriage entered the village's main road, the black dogs began barking wildly. Soon, a group of more than ten men came out with wooden pitchforks. Seeing Anna, they bent down and sternly silenced the barking dogs. Some led the dogs back, while others waited by the roadside. One of the men asked, "It's not time to pick them up yet, why are you here so early?"
Anna pointed at Mi and said, "This is the Adventurer Lady; she wants to see the children." The men gathered in a group, discreetly observing Mi. She wore a black shirt and light black trousers—a woman who never wore skirts; in the entire Sun City, only adventurers didn't wear skirts. They nodded and quietly went to the side to discuss for a while. One of the men pulled Anna aside: "Shouldn't we call the boys over so the Lady can see them too?"
"Don't make a sound yet. I'll take the master around to see what's going on and wait for his instructions."
"Okay, should we prepare dinner?"
Anna hesitated for a moment and said, "Just prepare a normal diet."
"How about this?" the man suggested. "Let's kill a lamb."
“Hyde, you’d better not act on your own.” Anna’s expression suddenly changed, and she said seriously, “Do as I say.” Hyde was pulled away by the other men. Hyde curled his lip in disdain and muttered, “How did this woman find another sugar daddy? What bad luck.”
“Hyde, shut up. Our child still wants to be taken away by the adventurer,” one of them said, watching Anna’s retreating figure. “Look at that woman, she completely controls the adventurer. If she were to say a few good words for our child, we might just…”
"What are you thinking?" Hyde interrupted his daydream, shoving the man. "When have you ever seen her speak up for any child? I've never seen a more demanding or cold-hearted woman. No wonder she's never been able to get married."
The men around Hyde moved away from him, muttering, "I haven't finished my work yet," "I have other things to do," and "I'm leaving now," before leaving Hyde.
This is a small village covering about fifty acres, belonging to the David family of Sun City. The territory on the outskirts of Sun City is divided among several groups: some are granted to nobles, some are held by citizens of Sun City, and some are temporarily held by the Adventurers' Guild, who hire nearby villagers to cultivate the land. This land will be distributed to newly appointed nobles when the king bestows new titles.
Anna led Mi towards the fields on the estate, where a group of children were carrying buckets of manure, fertilizing the fields. Most of these children were little girls dressed in cloth clothes, their heads wrapped in turbans, surrounded by buzzing flies, and the stench was overwhelming. Mi thought of the refined life in David's little house in Sun City, and then looked at these little girls, waiting for Anna to speak.
“The girls in the David family must come to live on the farm for a year when they turn fifteen. They won’t do any strenuous work that would harm their bodies. But they will do all the dirty but not too strenuous work, such as fertilizing, catching insects, feeding the chickens, collecting eggs, cleaning the toilets, and collecting manure.” Anna looked at the girls in the fields: “I couldn’t stand catching insects under the sun and endlessly scattering manure, so I chose to go back to the city to become a maid.”
Although the girls were wearing headscarves, their faces were still smeared with the filthy juices of feces, and each of them wore an expression of disgust. The smell was too strong, and Mi felt nauseous. She took a few steps back: "Won't they resist?"
“No one can live without food and water. We are not nobles. Every maid must know how a seed grows into a seedling and eventually into an ear of wheat, how many people are needed to turn the millstone, and how many wheat kernels are needed to make a loaf of white bread.” Anna said with a wry smile, “We are not nobles born with stipends. Even if we own land, we have to cultivate it ourselves to grow crops. Bread and milk won’t fall from the sky.”
What's so special about this? Mi stared at the girls in the field, who, despite their anger, were still working meticulously in the fields: "Why are they so serious?"
Anna led Mi to a wheat field that was clearly of uneven quality: "Every year there is a field where they just sow the seeds and wait for God to reward them with a harvest. They know what the harvest will be like if they don't fertilize it properly."
Mi suddenly felt that the David family was a great educator; they possessed a wealth of teaching experience and practical skills, guiding these girls towards their predetermined destinies. She asked, "How many girls do you have in total?" There were at least several dozen in the David family's small building, and Mi had seen more than a dozen girls on the entire estate.
“The David family cherishes girls, but not all of these girls belong to the David family,” Anna smiled. “Some were secretly sent from noble estates, and others were abandoned at David’s farm because their families didn’t want to keep them.”
"Why is it that girls are abandoned everywhere?" Mi said with some disgust.
“Oh, Mi and the others sent the children here so that they could have a better life,” Anna said, shaking her head. “In noble estates, pretty girls are often sent to serve the lord, but at David Estate, they can be citizens.”
"Aren't they maids?"
“Accompanying a maid requires a lot of talent,” Anna said with a hint of a secret in her smile.
After thinking for a day, Mi nodded and said, "Indeed, speaking like that is not something ordinary people can do."
Anna arranged for Mi to have dinner at the farm: a stew of wild vegetables and black bread, so coarse it was hard to swallow. Mi watched as Anna ate the food without hesitation, praising the cook's skills and thanking the girls for their hard work. She seemed so genuine, and the little girl, who had worked all day, couldn't help but smile with pride.
That evening, Mi followed the delivery truck from David's Farm into the Sun Caravan. Only then did she realize how lively the area outside Sun City was at night. Different convoys, each carrying torches, carried fruits, vegetables, cattle, sheep, and even chickens, ducks, pigeons, and doves with their feet tied up, all packed in wicker baskets, chattering and bustling as they made their way to Sun City.
"What are these?" Mi had never seen such a large convoy of agricultural products.
“These are all vehicles selling vegetables to Sun City,” Anna tells you. “These vehicles aren’t allowed into Sun City during the day. They can only enter Sun City after 10 a.m. and must leave before 4 a.m.”
"Why?" Mi had never heard of such a bizarre rule before.
"Because we need to keep Sun City clean," Anna told Mi. "Sun City's cleaners start work at five o'clock, and they must ensure the streets are clean by the time the nobles leave."
Looking at the rotten vegetable leaves scattered along the road, the constant droppings from cows and sheep, and the even worse situation inside the chicken and duck pens, Mi wondered what genius had come up with this idea. She asked, "What about these roads outside the city?"
“That depends on who’s more diligent,” Anna said, pointing to a section of road in front of David’s farm. “That area is specifically managed by the girls from our farm.”
Back at David's house, Anna took Mi to see the three little girls they had brought home during the day. The three nannies were holding them as they slept on the warm, soft bed, softly singing lullabies. Mi turned to Anna and asked, "What's this? A slap followed by a treat?"
What are jujubes?
"It's a kind of sweet fruit, like sugar."
Anna shook her head: "We are teaching these children the power of comfort and companionship. If they want candy, they have to work for it themselves; they won't get candy just because they come back from punishment."
“The power of comfort and companionship.” Mi watched the nannies carefully adjusting the children's positions, making them more comfortable in their arms. She thought of Anna's embrace; these women's embraces had a magical quality. But looking at the nannies, their arms were loose, neither pressing down on the children nor too close to their skin, allowing them to feel their warmth. Mi hesitated for a moment: “Can they sleep like this?”
“That’s an essential skill for every maid. Maintaining the right distance—” Anna raised her arm slightly, pulling Mi into her arms: “…”
What does this mean?
“Once a person falls asleep, their arms and legs will completely relax. If you sleep alone, that’s fine, of course,” Anna said gently. “But we’re going to sleep with the mistress, so she has to receive the gentlest and most tender care. Each maid will treat the mistress like a baby, so that she can feel the greatest relaxation and the warmth of returning to her mother’s embrace.”
"A mother's embrace," Mi murmured. "Your embrace is warmer than a mother's. Can this be learned?"
“Of course, we learn how to hug from a young age.” Anna led Mi to the room of the teenage girls, who were either sleeping with a little girl in their arms or nestled in the arms of a nanny. Anna smiled and said, “Everyone in Sun City knows that no matter how soft and comfortable the bed is, it can’t compare to the hug of the women of the David family.”
Mi stared in disbelief. These women, through their own experiences, fully understood the needs of a human being. The setbacks they inflicted on the girls were cruel and ruthless, yet they were also the stark reality. Anna led Mi away: "These children will repeatedly visit the mill and the farm, encountering different people and lifestyles. A maidservant is a maidservant, not a pampered young lady unaware of human suffering."
“No, you suffered much more.” Mi looked at Anna, no wonder she was so insightful and gentle: “Some people never see fine clothes in their lives, they don’t feel resentful or distressed, everyone goes through this. You say not all of these girls will become maids, but how will those girls who can’t become maids and return to farm life soothe their resentment?”
“I have no resentment,” Anna shook her head. “You’ve seen Hualin’s fate. Although the income of a maid is high, it comes with higher risks. I’m already considered lucky. Some have to serve two masters at the same time. The David family has never lacked noble illegitimate children.”
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