“Naturally, mom, you know that as well. Everybody wants to get their hands on our goods. Have we not arranged for the mythical beasts to block the paths, the visitors would have broken down our doors!”
“That is certainly the true!” interjected Cheng Biyuan, “But, these are just the small timers. When the others show up, I’m afraid even the mythical beasts wouldn’t be able to stop them without your commands!”
Mrs. Cheng paused for a second and looked as though she had though of something too. Cheng Xiao Xiao didn’t seem to be too concerned, “Dad, we don’t need to worry ourselves about big shots or small timers. Why don’t we cross that bridge when we come to it. It’s not like we can stop them from coming, would you agree?”
Cheng Biyuan nodded and said to his own wife, “Yuqin, why don’t you take a look and see what we need and make a list. I’ll have Innkeeper Zhu get them all for us. As for any items needed for the construction of our house, I’ll make a note as well!”
“Okay, I will do that!” Mrs. Cheng nodded, then looking at the two maids standing not far behind her daughter, “Xiao Xiao, we’ve added more members to our household but there are a lot to teach. I don’t think I can hand hold them too much. We need to figure out something.”
“Mom, I see what you mean!”
Cheng Xiao Xiao thought for a little bit, then said, “But, now is not a good time for us to hire from the outside. If we look for helpers from the outside right now, I’m afraid we will be bringing in spies and just causing ourselves more headaches. Since Innkeeper Zhu will be in and out of our place the next few days, why don’t have him give them some pointers?”
“Okay, I guess that will work.” Mrs. Cheng understood why her daughter said what she said, so there was no reason to ask for more.
As a matter of fact, Mrs. Cheng was born into a big family. It wasn’t that she didn’t know how to manage the servants, but that all the ones they have recently added were regular village girls. There were a lot of things that she couldn’t be too explicit about; she didn’t want the villagers to say she was bullying young kids.
According popular believe, follow rules is a person’s gentility and set of principles. Let it be a dynasty, an organization, a school, or a family, rules are always necessary. Whether you are the masters or the servants, there are standard set of rules. If these don’t become a natural part of one’s behavior, everything will be a mess, so everybody must follow these predefined set of rules.
Even though Cheng Xiao Xiao didn’t want to hire from the outside, nevertheless, they were too familiar with their families. They would only be able to list out the rules; as for formally training them, it’d be better done by someone else.
Of course, Cheng Xiao Xiao understood that there will be incidents and confrontations in the future. But the Cheng’s is still a small family right now, they will have to take it one small steps at a time.
“Xiao Xiao, is there anything else? If you have nothing else, I am going to go back and monitor the construction and see where they can use my help!”
After a couple cups of tea, Cheng Biyuan was ready to go back out to help. He was a sheltered young master before and didn’t need to worry about anything. After the incident, he had changed a lot. Now he wanted to participate in everything related to his household!
“Dad, I have nothing else. You go busy yourself!” replied Cheng Xiao Xiao.
“Okay, it’s four more hours till the sun goes down. I am going back to help out!” Cheng Biyuan stood up and headed out.
“Ye, be careful!” shouted Mrs. Cheng behind him.
Cheng Biyuan waved his hand without so much as turning around, “Don’t worry, there’s nothing dangerous!”
Seeing her father off, Cheng Xiao Xiao said to her mother, “Mom, we haven’t collected any vegetables yet. Let me go get some from the field!”
“Okay, you go. We have many mouths to get, get some extra!”
“Okay, mom!”