Chapter 650

The soldier also quickly fell silent, and after Yulong wrote a hand order for him to take, he was about to leave, but then suddenly remembered something, turned back, and asked Yulong: "Crown Prince, does this need to be reported to the king, or should we let him come..."

Yulong waved his hand: "No need, I can handle such small matters myself, no need to trouble my father—can't have him deal with everything."

The soldier then immediately bowed and left with Xi, and the Ministry of Revenue staff resumed work.

The soldier again brought Xi, carrying the Crown Prince's hand order, arrived at the Ministry of Rites, handed Xi to Zhigui, passed the hand order to him, and considered his task complete; from then on, everything was handled by the Ministry of Rites.

Zhigui also knew a group of slaves had arrived; logically, this had nothing to do with the Ministry of Rites, but Baifeng had arranged for them—his own few slaves—to go together to teach this group of slaves, hoping to quickly transform them from a savage state to a civilized one, so Zhigui was still making plans at this time.

After the soldier delivered Xi and they had a brief exchange, it became clear that this slave was exactly the talent the Ministry of Rites urgently needed and must be well cared for.

Therefore, even though Xi's clothes were ragged and filthy, the Ministry of Rites staff showed no disgust, only displaying their enthusiastic side.

Upon seeing the hand order, they quickly brought out a set of clothes that looked suitable for Xi, but due to his build, they found a women's set that fit better—essentially what he wears daily, with no obvious gender distinction; otherwise, they would truly have struggled.

Then they took Xi to the bathing area of the Ministry of Revenue, arranged for slaves to heat water, guided him in using the bathing facilities, and after spending a long time, finally washed off the years of grime on his body.

Afterwards, the slaves guided Xi in putting on his clothes properly, tied up his hair, and his entire appearance and demeanor underwent a complete transformation—if thrown into a slave pile, likely no one would recognize him.

Even among the people of Huaxia, he appeared excessively thin and small, and Xi noticed this too—he had not seen a single frail person, whether laborers on the road or those sitting in these very luxurious, sturdy-looking houses using strange objects—all were remarkably robust; just drag one out, not to mention the Yanhu Tribe, even in the Jiangshui Tribe, they were all of the most robust type.

Xi was deeply struck, yet also felt he might truly be able to live a good life—well-fed and warm-clothed, no longer a problem; when he served as a shaman in the Jiangshui Tribe, he had never worn such fine clothes.

According to Yulong's arrangement, the Ministry of Rites assigned Xi a room—not a courtyard, for he was not yet qualified for that—but even this left Xi utterly shocked.

That day, Xi was not assigned work; instead, two slaves were arranged to teach him how to live in Huaxia: how to eat, how to use water, where the toilet is, what things in the room are and how to use them, what to pay attention to—everything was explained in detail, and they also warned him that these days were for observation; if he neglected these, he might very well be sent back to slave status, and then none of this would concern him anymore.

Immersed in joy, Xi immediately gathered his thoughts upon hearing this, then humbly asked them to repeat everything he had just been told; if he hadn't remembered, he would keep asking, fortunately the slaves, having been trained, knew how to control their tempers.

Other slaves will later receive similar instruction, mainly to teach them how to live in Huaxia—this is no easy task, given how disconnected the outside world is from Huaxia; they still defecate anywhere and don't wipe after, while Huaxia already has ceramic squat toilets, wealthy households have installed them with drainage pipes leading out, and though lacking flush toilets, a water bucket and ladle can solve the problem.

Even between commoners and nobles there is already a gap, let alone these wandering barbarians and the nobles they will someday serve; teaching them well allows Baifeng to sell them at a good price to those nobles, while also reducing many unnecessary troubles for Huaxia.

For now, Xi eats in the Ministry of Rites cafeteria; tomorrow onward, he will be arranged to eat at the music school cafeteria; his personal belongings have also been issued to him; after the slaves teaching him left, Xi confirmed no one was around, closed the door, and burst into tears holding those things extraordinarily precious to him.

Baifeng soon learned of this news and also saw what the Dragon Witch said; he merely smiled and paid no mind, for Yulong was right—not everything needs to be handled by oneself; a person who knows music is merely within the Ministry of Revenue's authority to permit, and Yulong's handling method had no issues whatsoever, including the observation period, which was entirely Yulong's own idea.

Meanwhile, other skilled slaves were also sent one by one to factories, but they certainly did not receive such good treatment—after all, those old masters treat apprentices with no pleasantries, scolding is routine, no scolding means no talent, which has nearly become a doctrine in the Ministry of Works; thus, when facing slaves they consider even worse than apprentices, their attitude becomes even worse.

Although the Ministry of Works staff also bathe, relatively speaking they are not so particular, after all, factory workers find it hard to stay clean—by day's end they are still grimy—so slaves are not required to bathe, but are directly assigned to hands-on work to see how their skills are.

The bamboo-weaving slaves saw the better-processed bamboo strips and the stacked, already-woven bamboo products, and also sighed at the fine craftsmanship.

However, a few people were not at all flustered; upon picking up the finished products and examining them closely, they knew exactly how to weave—their skills were sufficient, they had simply never seen these new objects and did not know their structure; now that they have a learning template, imitation poses no problem for them.

The workers also did not stop them; they did not care what the slaves were doing now, they did not monitor the process, only valued the result—no matter what technique they used, as long as they could produce a product, it was fine.

More than a dozen bamboo-weaving slaves, most of whom had only average skill, immediately began weaving what they already knew upon picking up the materials, for they believed, given their own level, this was the safest approach; only slaves sufficiently confident in themselves would imitate and weave these new Huaxia items.