Chapter 15: Service Hall

After arriving at the Medical Department, Hua Changxi prepared to enter through the main gate. The gatekeeper, upon learning she was there to report to the Miscellaneous Servants Hall, told her in a rather unpleasant tone that servants could not use the main gate and could only enter and exit the Medical Department through the side gate.

Hua Changxi paused, asked for the location of the side gate, and after taking a long detour to enter the Medical Department, she walked for half an hour before finally standing outside the Miscellaneous Servants Hall.

This time, Hua Changxi did not see Eunuch Jia. As soon as she entered the Miscellaneous Servants Hall, she was called over by the eunuch Little Luzi, who had seen her off yesterday.

Little Luzi paid her little attention and instead summoned a young woman in her twenties.

"Xiangru, this is a newly recruited servant. Place her wherever there's a shortage of hands."

Leng Xiangru sized up Hua Changxi, then told her to wait at the door.

Hua Changxi stood outside the door. Perhaps because of her cultivation, she found that her five senses had become much sharper, and the whispers from inside the room kept reaching her ears.

"Luzi-gonggong, this isn't the season for recruiting servants. What background does this one have?"

"Heh, what background? She just stumbled into helping my godfather with a small favor and had the nerve to ask for a position in the Miscellaneous Servants Hall."

"Doesn't that mean Hua Changxi has caught Eunuch Jia's eye?"

"Hehe, what nonsense are you talking? Is my godfather's eye so easily caught?"

"Yes, yes, yes, Xiangru misspoke. Eunuch Jia is someone from the palace; he's seen all kinds of big shots. How could he take a fancy to a little girl?"

"That Hua Changxi is skilled at handling medicinal herbs. In the future, if you're assigned to process difficult herbs, just use her. If she's useless, I wouldn't have given her to you."

"I knew that Luzi-gonggong has a soft spot for me."

"Mm, go ahead. We'll talk more tonight."

"How cheeky. Well then, I'll take the person away now."

Leng Xiangru came out of the room, still smiling, and seeing Hua Changxi standing properly without looking around, she smiled and said, "She's an obedient one. Come with me."

Hua Changxi showed no emotion on her face, but inside she was far from calm.

The tone of the two people in the room just now was too saccharine; it was obvious at once that their relationship was not ordinary.

"Du Ruo, come here a moment."

Leng Xiangru led Hua Changxi to a courtyard with a sign reading "Sixth Bureau" and beckoned a woman in her thirties over.

"Manager Leng."

Du Ruo was leading several subordinates in washing a batch of medicinal herbs. Hearing Leng Xiangru call her, she immediately dropped her work and came running over.

Leng Xiangru pointed at Hua Changxi and said, "This is a new servant. She'll be under you from now on. You're responsible for training her."

Du Ruo immediately agreed: "Rest assured, Manager Leng, I will train her well."

Leng Xiangru glanced around at the servants working in the courtyard, and seeing that no one was slacking off, she turned and left.

As soon as she left, the servants who had been hard at work a moment ago all couldn't help but size up Hua Changxi.

Hua Changxi was also secretly taking in everything in the courtyard.

The courtyard was the size of a football field, with over a hundred female servants inside. Behind each servant were at least two carts of medicinal herbs waiting to be washed.

"How old are you?"

Hua Changxi quickly withdrew her gaze and replied rapidly, "Thirteen."

Du Ruo took off her apron and asked as she did so, "From your accent, you're a local of the capital, right?"

Hua Changxi nodded. "Mm."

Du Ruo: "Can't your family make ends meet?"

Hua Changxi let out a puzzled "Ah."

Seeing this, Du Ruo looked strange. "If your family isn't struggling, then why would they let a young girl like you come out to be a servant?"

Hua Changxi said vaguely, "I want to learn medicine."

Du Ruo laughed. "Learn medicine? Then you've come to the wrong place. The Miscellaneous Servants Hall doesn't teach medicine. You should go to the Apprentice Hall or the Disciple Hall."

Hua Changxi: "...I couldn't get in."

Du Ruo fell silent, having probably sized up the situation of her new subordinate.

His family background was ordinary or slightly below average; otherwise, he wouldn't have thought of coming to the Chore Hall to study medicine.

Du Ruo noticed that the subordinates beside her kept glancing their way and couldn't help scolding: "What are you looking at? Don't you want to sleep tonight? Get to work quickly!"

After saying that, she looked at Hua Changxi and said, "Let's go, I'll take you to the Internal Affairs Office to pick up your things."

Hua Changxi quickly followed.

When the two walked out of the courtyard, some male menial laborers were pulling carts of medicinal herbs over.

Seeing this, Du Ruo's expression wasn't good: "Looks like we won't know when we'll be done tonight." As she spoke, she glanced at Hua Changxi.

"You're unlucky—you entered the Chore Hall at the wrong time. Every year, September and October are the busiest times for the Chore Hall."

"According to the rules, for the first three months after a newcomer joins the Chore Hall, cleaning and processing two hundred herbs a day counts as completing the task."

"But not in September and October; even if you're a newcomer, you have to clean and process five hundred herbs a day."

Hua Changxi tentatively asked, "What if you can't finish cleaning them?"

Du Ruo gave her a wry smile and said, "That won't happen, because if you don't finish cleaning them, you're not allowed to sleep."

After that, without caring about Hua Changxi's reaction, she continued walking and talking.

"People outside think the Medical Department is a government office, and that even working as a menial laborer here is a glorious thing."

"But a menial laborer is still a menial laborer, no different from other places—in fact, because the Medical Department uses such large quantities of medicinal herbs, the workload is even heavier than elsewhere."

"Whenever the Apprentice Hall or Disciple Hall has a recruitment notice, everyone in the capital keeps an eye on it. But when the Chore Hall recruits, anyone with even a bit of family background won't even glance at it."

Du Ruo turned back to look at Hua Changxi and asked with a smile, "Do you still want to join the Chore Hall now?"

Hua Changxi quickly expressed her resolve: "Of course. Supervisor Du, rest assured, I'll work hard in the Chore Hall."

Hearing this, Du Ruo raised her eyebrows, smiled, and continued walking out, starting to talk about other matters in the Chore Hall.

"The Chore Hall is overseen by Steward Jia, Steward Sun, and Steward Zhao, all of whom came from the palace. Each steward manages one bureau, and each bureau is divided into ten offices, with about a hundred people per office."

"We are in the Sixth Office of the Third Bureau, under Steward Jia's jurisdiction."

"The highest-ranking person in the Third Bureau is Steward Jia, followed by Steward Fu, Steward Lu, and Steward Shou. They are the major supervisors of the Third Bureau."

"Among the ten offices of the Third Bureau, the First, Second, and Third Offices are under Steward Fu; the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Offices are under Steward Lu; and the Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Offices are under Steward Shou."

"Each office has one assistant supervisor, and under the assistant supervisor, there are ten minor supervisors, each managing ten people."

"The Supervisor Leng who handed you over to me earlier is the assistant supervisor under Steward Lu. And I am a minor supervisor under Supervisor Leng."

"If you ever have any difficulties in the future, you can come to me. If I can't handle it, I'll go to Supervisor Leng. Remember, don't go to the wrong person."

Seeing Hua Changxi silent, Du Ruo smiled: "Did you understand?"

Hua Changxi nodded: "I understand. Supervisor Du, are the other offices as big as our Sixth Office?"

Du Ruo: "Some offices are even bigger than our Sixth Office."

Hua Changxi exclaimed, "Then the Chore Hall must be really big."

Three bureaus in the Chore Hall, each with ten offices, and each office at least the size of a football field—no wonder they had been walking for so long and still hadn't left the Chore Hall.

Du Ruo laughed: "The Chore Hall's only advantage is its vast land area. The Apprentice Hall and Disciple Hall combined aren't as big as the Chore Hall."

Seeing that Du Ruo was easy to talk to, Hua Changxi dared to ask more questions: "Supervisor Du, besides cleaning medicinal herbs, do we do other tasks on a daily basis?"

Du Ruo countered, "What, you want to do other tasks?"

Hua Changxi gave a shy smile: "I was just asking."

Seeing that she was young, Du Ruo didn't say much more: "Cleaning and processing medicinal herbs isn't the hardest or most bitter task in the Chore Hall. You just saw those people pulling herbs."

"The ones pulling carts and the menial laborers who go to the herb farms, herb mountains, and herb valleys to pick herbs are the most hardworking—those are all heavy physical labor."

Hua Changxi asked again, "Will we be assigned to pick herbs?"

Du Ruo glanced at her: "Unless you make a mistake and get punished. Otherwise, generally speaking, heavy physical labor is done by male menial laborers; female menial laborers only stay in the Chore Hall processing herbs."

As they spoke, the two finally left the Chore Hall. After exiting the Chore Hall, they walked another quarter of an hour before reaching the Internal Affairs Office.

As a new menial laborer reporting for duty, Hua Changxi received a menial laborer's waist token, two sets of menial laborer's clothes, and a set of bedding.

Du Ruo: "The front part of Bureau Six is where medicinal herbs are processed; the row of backward-facing rooms in the back are for eating and sleeping, ten people per room."

Hua Changxi looked at the bedding: "Manager Du, do I have to live in the Labor Hall?"

Du Ruo laughed: "You're not still thinking of going home to sleep, are you? You'd better get it through your head—in the future, you might have to work until midnight every day."

Hua Changxi went numb, hugged her things, and followed Du Ruo back the way they came.

When they were almost at the entrance to the Bureau Six courtyard, Hua Changxi saw from a distance a woman wearing the same steward attire as Du Ruo, chatting and laughing with a middle-aged man. Their manner was very intimate.

Soon, the two also noticed Hua Changxi and Du Ruo approaching and stopped their chat.

"Steward Niu."

Du Ruo took the initiative to greet the middle-aged man.

The man was the second steward of Bureau Five. Although Du Ruo was not his subordinate, she still had to pay her respects when meeting someone of higher rank.

Before the man could speak, the woman standing beside him spoke first: "Steward Leng is really biased—the moment a new person arrives, they're immediately given to Sister Du."

Du Ruo glanced at her: "Ling Xiao, if you want a new person, you can go and talk to Steward Leng yourself. I was really short-handed, so Steward Leng replenished my staff."

Ling Xiao chuckled and wanted to make a few more sarcastic remarks, but when she saw Steward Niu glance at her, she could only turn her head aside in displeasure and stop talking.

Du Ruo looked at Steward Niu: "There's still a lot of work to do today, so I'll get busy now."

Hua Changxi hurried to catch up with Du Ruo. Even after they had walked several meters, she could still hear Ling Xiao's snort from behind.

Du Ruo: "Steward Niu is the second steward of Bureau Five. Ling Xiao and I are both third stewards of Bureau Six. She and I don't get along. In the future, if you run into her, stay away from her."

Hua Changxi: "I'll do as Manager Du says."

Soon, Du Ruo led Hua Changxi to a room.

"You'll live here from now on. The people inside are all under my charge. Get along well with them."

Facing the ten-person communal bed in front of her, Hua Changxi—who valued her privacy—felt somewhat devastated inside.

"Get settled first, then come find me. Since today is your first day on the job, just clean and process 200 medicinal herbs."

After Du Ruo left, Hua Changxi sat on the bed and let out a breath.

She had underestimated the Labor Hall. When Manager Du explained its organizational structure, she already sensed that the personal dynamics here would be anything but simple.

Sure enough, on her very first day, she first discovered that Eunuch Xiaolu and Steward Leng had an unusual relationship, and later found that another third steward of Bureau Six and the second steward of Bureau Five were on very close terms.

What a tangled mess!

Hopefully, these complicated relationships won't affect her.