Chapter 1463 - Late Night Talk
"Hmph, the glorious title of Chief Eunuch of the Office of Imperial Domestic Affairs I shall decline." Xiao Zishan drained several mugs of strong tea in his office, poring over the Jurisprudence Society's documents repeatedly. From the thicket of convoluted vocabulary and phrases, he finally more or less grasped the Jurisprudence Society's position.
The Administrative Office should meddle as little as possible in transmigrators' personal lives. If Xiao Zishan had his way, he would prefer to have nothing to do with maidservant training at all. But for now, this welfare system couldn't be shaken off.
Regardless, there was absolutely no way he could agree to Majia's proposal that anyone with "regular sexual relations" should be classified as a maidservant. Setting aside the administrative workload, just determining what constituted "regular sexual relations" would be difficult enough—would they need to organize a special review committee? As for maidservant management, he decided not to get involved either: whoever's bird should be fed by that person; the Administrative Office could bear no such responsibility. "Outings, expenditure, transit, communication, family visits, receiving guests..."—all this reporting and supervision was transmigrators' family business and should be managed by the transmigrators themselves. The Administrative Office had neither the obligation nor the responsibility to manage it. Otherwise, if some scandal really occurred, it would all become the Administrative Office's fault.
Yet if he truly proposed complete decoupling, the crowd constantly crying "transmigrator rights cannot be ignored" would seize the opportunity to stir up trouble.
"It seems managing maidservants for the Administrative Office is something I can't wash my hands of." Looking at the draft proposal documents now marked up with scratches and revisions, Xiao Zishan decided that Administrative Office management of maidservants would be limited to training, enrollment and exit arrangements, plus "maintaining files"—registry for reference. Other detailed matters would all be handled by transmigrators themselves.
As for maidservants themselves, Xiao Zishan decided to make clear: "Only those who sign maidservant contracts and cohabit with transmigrators can be called maidservants and be entered into the Administrative Office's registry. Those transmigrators push down themselves, those they keep on the side outside—none of them count. Unless the transmigrator agrees to accept her and processes the relevant paperwork can she be added to the maidservant registry."
"Living together but not marrying—that's a maidservant. As for women who don't cohabit—call them whatever you like, do whatever you want. The Administrative Office won't concern itself." Xiao Zishan organized his thoughts and summarized.
After summarizing, he locked all the documents in the safe, then went to Li XiaolĂĽ's apartment.
Li XiaolĂĽ had bought a ground-floor central unit. Just she and her mother Cao Shunhua lived there, with a maidservant Li Qiqi later added, who had to make do sleeping on a cot in the living room. Xiao Zishan had repeatedly suggested changing units, but Li XiaolĂĽ always refused.
"You're the Administrative Office Director. Nobody else has switched units. If you arrange a switch for a woman you've been sleeping with first, that's a political stain..."
Li XiaolĂĽ loved using such ambiguously provocative vocabulary to describe their relationship. It always gave Xiao Zishan goosebumps.
He knocked lightly on the door of the Li residence. Almost immediately it opened an inch, revealing Li Qiqi's small face behind it.
Li Qiqi was petite and delicate, with fine brows and fine eyes—the cute and obedient type. She somewhat resembled Li Xiaolü, which was why her rating was also A. Not only for her looks, but because she came from a servant background in a wealthy family and knew a bit about everything from needlework to cooking to caring for furniture and antiques. Li Xiaolü had specifically bought her for household work—which made Cao Mama quite unhappy, believing her daughter was trying to force her into "early retirement." This caused several scenes. Xiao Zishan had to intervene and explain that Cao Mama was so busy managing the transmigrator canteen that cooking at home again would be too exhausting. With a maidservant handling household chores, mother and daughter could both "focus on their careers outside with peace of mind."
"Chief, you've arrived." Li Qiqi spoke in hushed tones, stepping back to make way rather than opening the door wide—to prevent light from spilling into the hallway outside. Xiao Zishan slipped through the doorway, and the door quietly closed behind him.
A pair of house slippers reserved for him already waited in the entryway. Li Qiqi knelt to help him change out of his shoes.
Only a dim lamp lit the living room, and the large window's curtains were drawn tightly shut. Cao Shunhua's bedroom door was already closed. Li XiaolĂĽ's door was ajar, showing a sliver of yellow light.
"Please walk carefully, Chief." Li Qiqi kept her voice low. The cramped living room with a cot set up in it was packed full. "The old lady has already retired. The Chief is waiting for you inside."
The dim lighting, the maidservant's deliberately hushed voice, and the silence outside all gave Xiao Zishan the feeling of a clandestine tryst. He walked silently into Li XiaolĂĽ's room. She had already bathed, wearing sleepwear with her hair loose, glasses off, lounging sideways against the wall in a rattan chair reading a book.
"This late again. Meeting?"
"Meeting ended, then I spent a long time thinking it over." Xiao Zishan unbuttoned his jacket. Li Qiqi helped him remove it and handed him casual indoor wear. "A real headache."
"Still fretting over the maidservant school matter?" Li XiaolĂĽ watched Li Qiqi attentively serving him. "Must be quite the public outcry."
"It hasn't come to that yet. The reform plan is still confidential. But once it's announced, I expect more debate will follow." Xiao Zishan accepted the hot towel Li Qiqi handed him and wiped his face. "A hundred people, a hundred opinions. How can everyone be satisfied?"
He dropped onto the spot beside Li XiaolĂĽ and leaned back, exhaling a long breath.
"Bring the Chief some tea," Li XiaolĂĽ instructed.
"Coming right away." Li Qiqi turned and emerged from the kitchen with tea—though called tea, it was actually a cup of hot milk with cinnamon powder. Not too hot, not too cold—perfectly warm for drinking.
"Every time I drink this, it's always just right. How do you manage it?"
"Qiqi has her secrets," Li Xiaolü smiled faintly. "After all, she's from a great household. She has a full repertoire of service skills—you really should have her teach at the maidservant school. She'd be more practical than your form and dance instructors."
Li Qiqi hastily demurred: "This slave—I—how could I be worthy of such a position? Teaching others is something I dare not presume. These trifling skills, if they make the Chief comfortable and satisfied, I am content." She stumbled over her self-correction, awkwardness apparent.
Li XiaolĂĽ said: "Look, you've made the poor girl uncomfortable. Actually, I quite enjoy being a landlord's wife..." She giggled.
Xiao Zishan chuckled dryly. Li Qiqi, seeing the two chiefs apparently having private matters to discuss, quickly announced, "I'll go heat the bathwater"—gathering the milk cup and retreating, discreetly closing the door behind her.
"Come, tell me about your meeting. Let me consult on it."
This wasn't Xiao Zishan's first time discussing work with her. Li Xiaolü had considerable insight into problems; sometimes she could offer fresh perspectives. The crucial point was she could be called a sealed vault outside—never saying an unnecessary word, never participating in any clique-forming social activities.
Xiao Zishan spoke softly about today's meeting concerning maidservant status and the maidservant school. Though he hadn't brought documents, he had turned over the main points dozens of times and remembered them quite clearly. Li XiaolĂĽ listened carefully. After hearing his plan, she blinked:
"This matter—I think you're being too hasty." Li Xiaolü spoke softly. "Maidservants are a novelty. Everyone hasn't enjoyed enough of it yet. You rushing headlong into reform is bound to breed resentment..."
"Actually, it's not much of a reform—just no more death-contracts—"
"You're so naive. Some people just like that particular flavor." Li Xiaolü half-joked. "Everyone puts on a show of equality, forbidding maidservants from calling themselves 'slave,' making them call them 'Chief,' eating at the same table... But actually, more than a few secretly wish maidservants would kneel and call them 'Master' or 'Mistress' and enjoy the treatment of the feudal exploiting class—I myself quite like her calling herself 'slave.' Like watching a Qiong Yao drama or Dream of the Red Chamber..."
"What kind of hobby is that? Say it if you must, but don't take it seriously. Bad for the image."
"I know, I know." Li Xiaolü's body suddenly leaned close, her voice softening: "Master, don't you like it? Your slave thought master did. Since master doesn't, your slave will change—won't that do?"
"Stop, stop, stop—goosebumps everywhere." Though Xiao Zishan said this, he seized the opportunity to pull her into his embrace and began caressing those "beeps" that were modest but resilient.
Li Xiaolü let his hands roam while saying: "You see, plenty of people say one thing and think another. When I was little reading Dream of the Red Chamber, I never noticed any exploiting class or suffering masses, or any Baoyu-Daiyu-Baochai romance. I read it for the enjoyment of the ladies and young misses inside. That's why I never read the final forty chapters. My mom thought I was too sentimental to bear tragedies, but actually those last forty chapters have less of that—like cold ashes and dead wood. No fun to read." Li Xiaolü whispered: "The transmigrators—what did they come to this era for? Isn't it still to be masters? Do you really think they came to remake heaven and earth for the communist cause? Everyone's so busy now; maidservants are practically their only life's pleasure. You abolish their instrument for lording it over others, and people may not say it out loud, but they'll hate you in their hearts for sure."
Xiao Zishan's heart tightened. How had he forgotten this!
"Never mind that they all want to appear committed to universal equality—the condescending affability from a lofty position feels completely different from interaction on terms of genuine equality. In old terms, how can a transmigrator 'bestow favor' on a maidservant after you change them to free citizens? Things like not making maidservants call themselves 'slave,' not making them kneel, not beating or scolding them, eating at the same table—these would become matter-of-course."
"Good point, good point."
"Speaking of maidservants—you're also a fan of literature and history. How did you forget the old saying about 'the freedom to starve'?"
(End of Chapter)