Li Xiaoxiao felt that she had found herself a great job that came with food and lodging. She could eat her fill, stay warm, and even had a room to sleep in. She no longer had to worry about sneak attacks or mutations, and it seemed she could settle down here for a long time. She was immensely satisfied.
Although this world looked backward and primitive, it was still more than a hundred times better than the apocalypse, making it extremely suitable for someone as content to do nothing as she was.
There were no lamps here. Once it got dark, everyone went inside to rest. After eating her fill, Li Xiaoxiao lay down on the bed and wondered what time it was now. Seven o’clock?
She had never imagined that in her lifetime, she would be able to lie in bed and rest at seven o’clock. When she had been a miner in the apocalypse, she worked fourteen hours a day and could sleep for no more than four hours. Even then, she still could not gather enough crystals to hand over and had no choice but to go out hunting. That was how she had accidentally ended up here.
She squeezed her palm and slightly exerted force with her dantian. A familiar pain came from her chest. She sighed. The internal injury she had suffered in her battle with the silver wolf had been there for more than a month without showing any signs of recovery. If she kept dragging it out like this, she feared it would become a chronic condition. She had to find an opportunity to get rid of this hidden problem.
She had medicine for treating injuries on her, but she could not take it out right now. She did not know whether she could find medicine for injuries in this world. Once she got up tomorrow, she would ask Mama Mao.
With that thought, she closed her eyes and instantly fell asleep.
Without medicine for her injury, getting plenty of sleep was also a good way to recuperate.
The sky was still pitch-black when Li Xiaoxiao suddenly opened her eyes and heard Mama Mao knocking on the door outside.
She felt as though she had only just closed her eyes, yet it was already dawn?
She dragged herself out of bed and opened the door, only to find Mama Mao glaring at her. “You dare sleep in on your very first day on the job? Didn’t I tell you that you must get up at the fourth watch?”
Li Xiaoxiao’s head was still groggy. “But there’s no clock here. I don’t know what time it is.”
Mama Mao pointed at the water clock inside the room. “Isn’t there a water clock right there? Are you blind?”
Unfortunately, the room was pitch-black. They had not even lit an oil lamp, so she could not see a thing. Mama Mao had no time to lecture her anymore. “Hurry up and tie your hair back, then get to the kitchen and work. The water vats need to be filled. In a quarter of an hour, all the servants in the courtyard will be coming to draw water.”
Li Xiaoxiao gave an “oh,” hastily tied up her hair, and followed Mama Mao to the kitchen.
Two oil lamps were lit in the kitchen, and Mama Mao had already started the fire beneath the stove. She pointed at the two large vats behind her, then at a wooden bucket hanging to one side with a rope attached to it. “The well is behind the house. Go draw water right now.”
Li Xiaoxiao took the bucket and walked behind the kitchen. There was a stone-paved platform there, about thirty zhang long and twenty zhang wide, with a well in the middle. Rows of clothes-drying poles stood along the sides. This was where the servants of the inner courtyard washed their clothes.
Li Xiaoxiao lifted the cover of the well and tossed the bucket down. In an instant, she had hauled up a bucket filled to the brim with water. She carried it back to the kitchen and poured the water into a vat. When she looked inside, there was only a shallow layer of water.
She looked at the vat, then at the bucket in her hand. This was way too small. How many buckets would she have to draw to fill it?
She walked around the room looking for something. Seeing her wandering around after drawing only one bucket of water, Mama Mao could not help asking, “What are you looking for? This one vat can hold twenty buckets of water. You have to draw forty buckets to fill both vats, and you need to do it at least three times a day. Otherwise, there won’t be enough water.”
No wonder the kitchen had originally needed three people to keep up with everything. One person had to be assigned specifically to draw water for everyone in the rear courtyard. Often, someone would be drawing water while others were already taking it away. Usually, before the vats were even full, servants from all over would come and carry the water away. Whenever there was a major festival, the people waiting for water would form a long line. Nearly ten large vats of water were typically used up in a day, and the person drawing water had to constantly travel back and forth between the well and the kitchen. It was an extremely exhausting job.
That was why Mama Mao, after seeing that Li Xiaoxiao possessed strength far beyond that of an ordinary person, had insisted on having Madam buy her. With her around, the kitchen could be sure of supplying enough water for all the masters in the household.
Li Xiaoxiao said, “This bucket is too small. Running back and forth wastes time. Is there another smaller vat in here?”
“What do you need a smaller vat for?” Mama Mao asked. Even as she spoke, she had already walked to the other end of the cabinet and emptied out a vat that had been holding miscellaneous grains.
Li Xiaoxiao carried the bucket in one hand and the small vat in the other and headed toward the well.
Curious, Mama Mao followed behind her to see what she intended to do. She watched as Li Xiaoxiao first drew a bucket of water to wash the small vat clean. Then she poured five buckets of water into it until it was full. She squatted down, hoisted the entire vat onto her shoulder, and strode toward the kitchen as swiftly as the wind.
Mama Mao was stunned. Those five buckets of water had to weigh more than a hundred jin, yet Li Xiaoxiao had simply hoisted the vat and walked away with it.
She hurried after Li Xiaoxiao and watched as she poured all the water from the small vat into the large one, then nodded in satisfaction.
“This way, I only need to make eight trips to fill the vat.”
Mama Mao felt completely relieved. She no longer blamed Li Xiaoxiao for eating so much. These two large vats probably would not even take half an hour to fill, and she would no longer have to scrimp and save whenever she needed water.
She nodded in satisfaction. “Very good. You found a good solution. Hurry and fill the vats so you can have breakfast.”
At the mention of breakfast, Li Xiaoxiao’s eyes lit up. She immediately grabbed the vat and flew out the door.
Granny Qi arrived just in time to see Li Xiaoxiao carrying more than a hundred jin of water and pouring it all into the large vat. Without even pausing to catch her breath, Li Xiaoxiao turned around and headed back toward the well.
Granny Qi stared after her, mouth agape. “This… She’s really that strong?”
Mama Mao was beaming. “This is her sixth trip. Two more, and these two large vats will be full.”
Granny Qi smiled. “No wonder you insisted on keeping her. Looks like you found the right person.”
Mama Mao invited her inside. “Why did you come over yourself today? If you need anything, just send a maid over to fetch it.”
“As you get older, you need less sleep.” Granny Qi glanced toward Liu Zhi’s room. “Liu Zhi is at the age when she’s growing, so she needs more sleep. Let her sleep a little longer.”
Granny Qi was Madam Liu’s wet nurse. Her husband had passed away when she was around thirty, leaving behind a son and a daughter. Her daughter had married into a farming family on the outskirts of the capital, while her son and daughter-in-law had remained in the capital with their grandson to manage the farmland that the Meng family had allocated to the fourth branch. Her granddaughter, Liu Zhi, had followed her to Miyang County with Magistrate Meng.
She was the household stewardess, so she was naturally strict with the servants in her daily work. But Liu Zhi was ultimately her own granddaughter, so she looked after her a little more than others.
However, she would never use her position to give Liu Zhi any special advantages. Liu Zhi still had to properly carry out whatever duties she was assigned. If she could not finish them, Granny Qi would take over personally and never trouble maids from elsewhere. Because of this, she had a very strong reputation and authority throughout the household.
Mama Mao filled a large bowl to the brim with soy milk for her, then freshly cooked a bowl of small wontons filled with fresh meat. As the stewardess of the inner courtyard, Granny Qi’s meals were not much different from those of the masters. These provisions were all part of her allotted household allowance.
Granny Qi chatted idly with Mama Mao as she ate. Outside, maids from various places gradually arrived, all coming to fetch water. They witnessed Li Xiaoxiao carrying the large vat back and forth with their own eyes, and every one of them covered her mouth in astonishment.
“She can even carry such a huge bucket. She’s amazing.”
“I heard she used to work in the mines. She’s incredibly strong.”
“Exactly. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed she could carry more than a hundred jin of water with both hands!”
These past few days, Mama Mao had been the only one working in the kitchen, so she had no time to draw water. The maids from the various courtyards had to fetch water from the well themselves. The damp wooden buckets were heavy, and even drawing a single bucket took an enormous amount of effort. They still had to carry the water back to their courtyards to serve their masters as they washed and dressed. The maids had been complaining bitterly about it for quite some time. Now that Li Xiaoxiao had come to the kitchen and filled both large vats to the brim, they no longer had to wait in line. They could simply fill their buckets and carry the water back, saving themselves a tremendous amount of effort.
Thus, before dawn had even broken, word of the new kitchen maid who possessed extraordinary strength had already spread throughout the entire inner and outer courtyards.
Madam Liu heard about it as well. As Yingchun combed her hair, she asked, “Is it true? Does that girl really possess such incredible strength?”
Granny Qi replied, “It’s true. I saw it with my own eyes. Her arms are as thin as bamboo poles, yet she can lift a vat weighing nearly a hundred jin with a single heave. Mama Mao said that the two large vats in the kitchen normally require forty buckets of water to fill. She carries water in a vat and only needs eight trips to fill both large vats. She just eats a little more than others. She eats three times as much as an ordinary person. After finishing her meal, she went to chop wood in the rear courtyard of the kitchen. The woodshed is taller than a person, yet she can chop all the firewood in about two hours.”
Ever since Madam Liu had arrived in Miyang County, she had not encountered a single piece of good news. She had never expected that a kitchen maid she had casually recruited would turn out to possess such extraordinary strength, which instantly lifted her spirits. She grabbed a handful of money. “You need to eat to have the strength to work. If you can’t even eat your fill, how are you supposed to work? Yingchun, take this and reward her. Tell her I’m very pleased and that she should do her job well.”
Yingchun smiled and acknowledged the order, then took the money to reward Li Xiaoxiao.
Meanwhile, Meng Guanqi, who lived in the eastern side room, had just gotten up when he heard the news from A Sheng, the household’s little informant. He froze. “Born with extraordinary strength?”
A Sheng was eleven years old that year. He was tall and thin, with a very clever look about him. He nodded vigorously. “I didn’t see it myself, but they say Granny Qi saw it. A vat that big…” He stretched both hands apart to demonstrate. “She lifted it with one hand. The two large vats in the kitchen were filled in no time, and the older sisters who came to draw water didn’t have to wait in line. They all carried water back. There was as much as they wanted.”
Meng Guanqi smiled faintly, like spring flowers gently unfurling. “With strength like that, and knowing how mischievous you are, don’t go provoking her. If you anger her, she can lift a vat that big. Throwing you out would be even easier.”
A Sheng covered his butt and remembered how he had angered Yingchun from the Madam’s quarters the day before yesterday. She had shoved him, and he had lost his balance and fallen. His butt still hurt.
In his eyes, Sister Yingchun was already quite strong. She had been able to shove him a long way and make him fall. If it were the kitchen maid instead, would he be like that vat, easily lifted up by her and thrown straight outside?
Meng Guanqi put down the face cloth. “Has the side room beside the study in the outer courtyard been prepared? When can I move there?”
A Sheng looked miserable. “Young Master, do you really have to move out? Madam said it’s desolate there. Even though you live in the inner courtyard, everyone in the family is related by blood. There’s no need to be so particular.”
Meng Guanqi said nothing. He stood up. “Rules are rules. There is nothing to discuss. Pack up the things in my room. I’m moving out today. If Mother blames me, I’ll explain it to her personally.”
A Sheng could only sigh.
It seemed the rules ingrained in the young master’s bones had not been forgotten after all. This was no longer the original residence in the capital, where the inner and outer courtyards were clearly separated. There were only a few masters here, and there were less than half as many servants as before. The place was already quiet enough. If he insisted on moving out, wouldn’t it become even quieter?
But he knew Meng Guanqi’s temperament. The young master looked gentle and easygoing, but once he made up his mind, not even ten oxen could pull him back. So he rolled up the bedding, gathered the things in the room, and helped move everything to the side room beside the study.
…
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