Lining up to Get Slapped

Before long, the matron returned with someone in tow.

She swept her gaze over and saw clearly.

The person following the matron was neither the marquis nor his wife, but a minor steward above the matron.

Her surname was Sun, and she was known as Steward Sun. She handled the assignments and deployment of thirty or forty maids and older serving women in the rear courtyard. She was nobody of note in the Marquis's Household, but on this little patch of land, she was an uncrowned emperor.

Jiang Mi knew her.

Not only did she know her, but she remembered her vividly.

In the first simulation, the matron had made her living under this minor steward and suffered quite a bit of torment at her hands.

Steward Sun had a problem: her position was small, but her appetite for wielding authority was anything but.

Under her, the matron had been scolded, punished, docked her monthly pay, and made to wear shoes too tight for her feet-she had suffered every last one.

Now Steward Sun walked in with her hands behind her back, taking measured, self-important steps, and swept her gaze around the room.

Her brow furrowed.

"What's going on?" Steward Sun's voice was not loud, but it carried an air of arrogance. "What's all this fuss in broad daylight?"

The matron opened her mouth, about to speak, only to see Jiang Mi take a step forward.

Just as before, there were no wasted words, no explanations, not even a chance for Steward Sun to speak.

Smack.

A slap landed on Steward Sun's face. The force behind it was neither particularly heavy nor particularly light.

Steward Sun spun more than halfway around on the spot and staggered two steps, only managing to stay upright by grabbing the doorframe. Half her face swelled instantly, and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.

Steward Sun clutched her face, utterly stunned.

"You... you dare hit me?!"

Jiang Mi withdrew her hand, looked down at her palm, then raised her eyes to Steward Sun, a slight curve at the corner of her lips.

"You're exactly who I meant to hit."

Steward Sun trembled all over with rage, even the finger she pointed at Jiang Mi shaking. "Rebellion! Rebellion! Someone-"

"Someone what?" Jiang Mi interrupted her and took a step forward.

Steward Sun instinctively stepped back.

A steward, frightened into retreat by a maid. If outsiders saw this, Steward Sun could forget about getting anywhere in the household.

But Steward Sun could no longer worry about that, because Jiang Mi had raised her hand again.

"Wait!" Steward Sun hurriedly cried out. With a slap about to fall, she knew which concerns mattered more. "You... what exactly do you want?"

Jiang Mi's hand stopped in midair. "I want to see the marquis. The matron can't make that decision, and neither can you. Bring someone who can."

Steward Sun clutched her face, furious and afraid. Her lips trembled for a long while, but not a single word came out.

She wanted to make threats, but the pain in her face reminded her.

There was something deeply uncanny about this maid. She was not someone Steward Sun could handle, and her blows really hurt!

Steward Sun drew a deep breath, using every ounce of strength to preserve her last shred of dignity. "You... just you wait!"

Jiang Mi watched her retreating figure without a word.

She would wait right here today.

Other than the marquis and his wife, whoever in the Marquis's Household came would get slapped. If they came in pairs, she would slap them both.

Steward Sun failed to bring the marquis.

After all, she was only a minor steward overseeing thirty or forty servants, just one rung above the matron on the Marquis's Household's food chain.

All she could do was follow the matron's example and fetch her own immediate superior.

And so, after the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the chief steward arrived.

The chief steward's surname was Liu. She was in her fifties and had worked in the Marquis's Household for thirty years. What mighty winds and waves had she not weathered?

As she followed Steward Sun, who had hurried over at a jog to fetch her, she thought, What waves could a mere maid possibly stir up?

Then she pushed the door open and went in.

She promptly received a slap, then promptly came back out clutching her face.

The whole process flowed like moving clouds and running water, completed in one breath. She had not even managed a single line.

Chief Steward Liu stood in the doorway, clutching her face and looking at Steward Sun with a complicated expression.

Steward Sun was also clutching her face and returned an equally complicated look.

"You..." Chief Steward Liu finally spoke, her voice carrying the world-weary air of someone brutally beaten down by life. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Steward Sun felt so wronged she nearly cried. "I did! I said that maid was uncanny and her blows hurt. Weren't you the one who said I was making a fuss over nothing?"

Chief Steward Liu fell silent.

She had indeed said that, but who could have imagined a menial maid could be so capable?!

Steward Sun was an ordinary person, but she was a Martial Artist at the Houtian Second Stage!

Yet before that maid, she could not even see how she raised her hand.

"What do we do now, then?" Steward Sun asked cautiously.

Chief Steward Liu touched the swollen half of her face, drew a deep breath, and made a very wise decision. "Find someone who can handle this."

"Who?"

Chief Steward Liu thought for a moment and counted on her fingers. "Above me is the household's deputy chief steward. Above the deputy chief steward is the head steward. Above the head steward..."

Her fingers stopped.

"Above the head steward are the marquis and his wife."

Steward Sun looked at her, suddenly struck by a curious feeling.

She and Chief Steward Liu were passing this upward, rank by rank, along a chain of "whoever goes gets hit."

At that thought, realization suddenly dawned on Steward Sun.

No wonder the matron had fetched her. Watching a superior she normally had to bow and scrape before get beaten really did feel a little satisfying.

All right, more than a little, actually.

Whenever Chief Steward Liu lectured her, she radiated imposing authority in every direction.

"You can't even handle something this trivial," "What kind of steward are you?" "If this keeps up, you'd better step aside for someone capable"-Steward Sun had heard such remarks so often her ears had nearly grown calluses.

And now?

Chief Steward Liu was slinking off to find the deputy chief steward, clutching her face with half her cheek swollen.

That retreating figure, that posture, that dejected look-it was practically identical to how she herself had looked when going to fetch Chief Steward Liu.

Steward Sun suddenly felt that taking this slap had not been entirely a bad thing. A little anticipation even rose in her heart.

Soon, the deputy chief steward arrived.

She was a Martial Artist at the Houtian Fifth Layer and scoffed at Steward Sun's words.

"A menial maid? And someone at the Houtian Second Stage couldn't even see her strike?"

Deputy Chief Steward Qian sneered. Her gaze swept over Steward Sun's swollen face, then over the equally swollen half of Chief Steward Liu's face, her eyes full of the words, "You two useless fools."

Steward Sun lowered her head without speaking, and Chief Steward Liu did the same. The two maintained a tacit silence, both thinking the same thing:

Once you've taken that slap, you'll understand.

Deputy Chief Steward Qian straightened her collar and stepped into the room.

Her bearing was more arrogant than Steward Sun's, her steps steadier than Chief Steward Liu's.

She let a little of the aura of her Houtian Fifth Layer cultivation spill outward, making even the air in the room grow somewhat stagnant.