Those servant girls raised their heads but their eyes were dodgy as they didn"t dare to look directly at Bai Luochu.
When Bai Luochuo looked at the girls in front of her, she suddenly understood the wonderful feeling when the emperor selected his concubines. The thoughts in her mind were moving in the wrong direction until she saw a pair of eyes looking straight at her. She then raised her hand to point at the owner of the pair of eyes. "What is your name?"
Bai Luochu"s tone had the imposing manner of the evil dao witch. She treated this as a test and wanted to see if the servant girl was truly as bold as she thought.
The servant girl bowed respectfully and said, "In response to Young Lady"s question, this servant"s name is Cai Ling. I am new here." Her expression didn"t change in the slightest and Bai Luochu"s evaluation of her went up a notch.
This servant girl truly has some guts.
When Ying Lan saw that his mistress was rather satisfied with the servant girl, he hastily introduced them. "She is indeed the wittiest one among this group and her movement skill is pretty decent. If Mistress thinks that she will be useful, please pick her."
"Are you willing to follow me and be my personal attendant? However, I need to warn you that your life won"t be as comfortable by my side compared to being here at the Remote Paddy Inn. Your life might be at risk." Bai Luochu asked. Even if she was the one choosing the attendant, she still wanted to consider her attendant"s opinion. She couldn"t possibly coerce the other side as Ying Lan wasn"t a human trafficker and neither was she a slave owner.
That servant girl pondered seriously for a moment and firmly replied to Bai Luochu, "This servant is originally an orphan and only wants a place to stay. It is Cai Ling"s blessings to be able to receive Mistress" recognition. Cai Ling is willing to serve Mistress as a loyal attendant."
When Bai Luochu heard Cai Ling"s response, she looked at Ying Lan and the latter immediately understood her intentions. He then instructed, "Since you are willing to follow Mistress, I will not force you to stay. Follow the Young Lady back to her residence."
That servant girl knelt on the ground and kowtowed as thanks to Ying Lan before following behind Bai Luochu. The two of them made their way back to the general"s residence.
"After entering the residence, I will not immediately allow you to follow by my side. I will ask the housekeeper to announce to the other servants that you have been bought from a human trafficker today. You will think of ways to blend in with the servant girls in the residence. It"s best for you to familiarise yourself with them. You will be a.s.signed to be a caretaker of the yard and I will find an opportunity to promote you. It will serve as a notion that I am a pragmatic person and others will remain hopeful. However, you will have to endure some hards.h.i.+ps in the beginning." When Bai Luochu and Cai Ling were on the road, she informed Cai Ling on the plan going forward.
Cai Ling listened to Bai Luochu"s orders and she wasn"t doubtful at all. "This servant understands. Mistress wants to establish your position and will naturally need to carry out some moves in the dark. As this servant is already doing the same thing in the Remote Paddy Inn, it won"t be too difficult to adapt to life in the general"s residence. If this servant be of some a.s.sistance, it would be my honor."
Bai Luochu was rather surprised at the servant girl"s patient and humble personality. She immediately held Cai Ling in a higher regard.
The Remote Paddy Inn was a certain distance away from the general"s residence, but perhaps because Bai Luochu was anxious to find out the truth of the matter, wind started to gather beneath her feet due to her speed. Cai Ling who was following behind had worked up a thin layer of sweat.
The moment the gate of the general"s residence appeared in their sights, they caught sight of a figure standing beside it. Bai Luochu guessed that it should be Uncle Liang who was waiting for her safe return.
"Young Lady, you are finally here! This old servant thought that you weren"t coming back." Uncle Liang was very happy to see Bai Luochu rus.h.i.+ng over.
"Uncle Liang, this is my home. How can I possibly not return?"
That"s right, how could she not come back? The general"s residence housed the secret of why Luo Chu perished in the b.e.s.t.i.a.l Battle Arena. If she didn"t come, how was she going to bring the matter to light? Furthermore, the general"s residence belonged to Luo Chu and had been occupied by nasty sc.u.mbags. Now that Bai Luochu was occupying Luo Chu"s body, she had to take the residence back.
Uncle Liang reached out to take the bundled up cloth from Bai Luochu"s hand. He finally noticed someone following behind Bai Luochu as he asked, "Young Lady, who is this?"
Bai Luochu smiled and said, "This is a servant girl that I brought back. Arrange for her to be a servant in my courtyard first. I will carry out the proper arrangements in the future. Uncle Liang, you only need to tell others that she was bought from a human trafficker."
Uncle Liang understood that Bai Luochu had her own plans and didn"t ask anymore. He nodded as an indication that he knew what to do and brought Bai Luochu back to her room.
There was almost no difference to the room compared to the day before. The only difference was the new quilt and when she leaned closer to smell it, the fresh scent of the scorching sun filled her nose. It seemed like Uncle Liang got someone to sun her quilt.
"Everyone come out! Come and pay your respects to your Young Lady." Uncle Liang yelled at the side room of the courtyard.
Even after a long time, no one came out and it became rather awkward.
Uncle Liang smiled at Bai Luochu and apologized, "Young Lady, please don"t get angry. These people were hired recently. This old servant will teach them a lesson right now."
"It is not necessary." Were they being insensible? It was obvious that they treated her uncle and his family as the true masters. They didn"t even put the First Young Lady in their eyes. They wanted to show her that she wasn"t able to control them with her status. Since this was the case, they shouldn"t blame her for being ruthless.
"Uncle Liang, how do all these servant girls look like?" Bai Luochu pretended not to mind and asked.
"This…" Uncle Liang couldn"t understand the reason behind Bai Luochu"s abrupt question but he forced himself to reply, "This old servant was afraid that you might not be happy if they were ugly. Even though the servants I transferred over might not be beauties, they look rather delicate and their appearance is pa.s.sable."
"Oh? Such a pity that all of them are deaf. Since that is the case, Uncle Liang, go and look for the human trafficker and sell them away. Tell them to take the delicate looking ones and sell them to the brothels." Bai Luochu sounded indifferent and she didn"t seem like she was trading slaves. It seemed like she was dealing with cabbages by the side of the street.
The moment Bai Luochu"s words left her mouth, a commotion broke out in the side room. Sounds of basins dropping and teacups shattering could be heard. It was clear that those people were fl.u.s.tered.
These rather good looking servant girls originally wanted to climb into the bed of her uncle in order to marry into n.o.bility. They didn"t realize that their plans were shattered the moment Bai Luochu returned. They had a thought that since the First Young Lady had been gone for a long time, she was merely a pushover. They wanted to put on an initial show of strength in order to a.s.sert their dominance.
It was too bad that Bai Luochu"s soul was the one occupying their First Young Lady"s body. Had it not been for the consideration for the reputation of the general"s residence, Bai Luochu would have executed all of them.
In less than ten minutes, the servants in the side room made their way out in a single file. They stood quietly in the courtyard with a head full of dishevelled hair. It was obvious that all of them rushed out without any preparation.