Chapter 1287: What Kind of Chance

"Hmm, not bad!" Baifeng nodded.

"To be able to recognize characters to this extent under such circumstances, one could say you are very clever; even within the entire scope of Huaxia, you are quite an impressive person."

Huang thought his fate was about to change, so he looked up joyfully: "King! I, I am very clever, could you give me a chance? I will definitely work even harder, King!"

Baifeng raised an eyebrow: "A chance? What kind of chance?"

"You know how to read and you read books, but you haven't carefully looked at the books you ought to be looking at. Didn't I just let you take a look? The fate of a Slave who reads and knows characters—have you not seen it clearly yet?"

Huang said with a sobbing tone: "King! I was not supposed to be a Slave; it was the mistake of my clansmen! It has nothing to do with me! I beg you to give me a chance! King!"

"If I were to give you a chance, wouldn't all the other Slaves learn just like you? These servants by my side, I fear they are not necessarily less clever than you, but they know what they should do and what they should not do. For so many years, they haven't learned a single extra character they shouldn't know."

"Why do you think you can be the exception? You are clever, but your conduct is lacking, so I will not give you a chance."

Chunfeng breathed a sigh of relief; only with the King handling it this way did he feel at ease in his heart. Otherwise, it would be hard for him to imagine—if the King had really given this Huang a chance, then all the many servants in Huaxia would surely go mad, and they would absolutely go to any lengths to learn how to read.

Moreover, there is actually a slight difference between a servant and a Slave. Although their status is exactly the same, because the nature of their work is different, the restrictions on servants are exceptionally severe.

No one cares if a Slave knows how to read; a Slave participating in politics or policy discussion is also completely empty talk, because a Slave has no qualifications to touch the level of politics.

As for them learning characters, it is also in preparation for changing their status in the future; after all, Slaves have their own opportunities for promotion.

But servants are different. They come into contact with too many secrets. They serve Nobles and Advanced officials. Every document in the study is very important, perhaps even confidential. If a literate servant were to see it and leak it, it could cause irreparable losses.

(Some instances of the word "Slave" in the previous chapter have been corrected to "servant".)

Within this, there is actually an initial choice of fate: when new Slaves arrive in Huaxia, they gradually learn about Huaxia's Slave policies during their training.

If you want to raise your status, dress better than other Slaves, eat well, and live well, then perform well and strive to become a servant; you can obtain what you want.

But the price is that there are more restrictions on you, and there are fewer opportunities to obtain freedom, because you are someone who serves others every day. It is difficult to have a chance to gain freedom; you can only wait for your children to gain freedom.

As for an ordinary Slave, they must certainly go do hard and tiring labor, or even work like mining that might cost them their lives. But correspondingly, there are not as many restrictions on them; as long as you work hard, that is fine. It is just that after a day of high-intensity labor, they have no energy left to learn.

Not to mention that Huaxia does not restrict them; even if classes and courses were opened for them, it is not certain anyone would go. Except for a very few individuals with great ambition, others have become accustomed to it and accepted their fate, striving for the few opportunities they can actually fight for.

For example, winning awards in the Skill Competition or the Sports Meet. Those without that ability just wait for Heaven-sent luck to pick up a good treasure; then they can obtain their freedom. If one makes a particularly large contribution to Huaxia, they can even achieve several jumps in status.

Such opportunities are not once-in-a-century; Huaxia already has quite a few such cases, so more Slaves are just waiting for great luck to fall from Heaven.

Perhaps when they first arrived in Huaxia, their understanding of the policies was not thorough enough. Only after they slowly became familiar with their posts and understood more did they realize they had made the wrong choice. By the time they realized this was not the life they wanted, there was no longer any chance.

For example, Huang. Huang would actually have preferred to be an ordinary Slave; this way he would not be restricted from learning and could have more opportunities. But at the time, he only thought that by performing the best, he could serve the people with the highest status, and if he performed well enough, he could even serve the King of Huaxia like teachers such as Chunfeng.

In Huang's view, this was a meteoric rise, and the living conditions were even better. As a result, he discovered that the level he could come into contact with was broader, and it seemed there were many opportunities to gain merit, but the restrictions were too great; it was very difficult for him.

So he could only resign himself to his fate, "when you arrive, settle in," and try to learn in his current status. It is just that he did not expect that before his plan could be realized, he would be caught by Baifeng, called here, and prepared to have his life taken.

He didn't even know how he had been exposed. Is Baifeng really like what everyone says, that he is actually a god and knows everything?

Baifeng was unwilling to give him a chance, which meant he was to die. Huang's strength had completely vanished, his hope was shattered, and he slumped onto the ground, his eyes filled with the gray of death.

Chunfeng was already prepared to call someone to drag Huang out, and then he would look for wood ash to cover the urine and clean up the urine stains. Oh, it would be best to light some Incense to cover the smell; he must not let the King be offended by the stench.

But he did not expect Baifeng to suddenly say again: "I will not give you any chance, but, you are so clever and a literate Slave; it is a bit of a pity to just kill you."

"I will give you a way to stay alive; do you want it or not?"

Chunfeng's heart sank again, but he could not sway his master's opinion.