Servants (1)

“Many thanks for your advice Master Gao.” Wen Desi replied.

Gaoju didn’t continue asking about their ship, seeing their obvious reticence. He just asked the servants of his hideout to come out. Soon, a teenage boy and girl, led by a middle-aged couple, emerged from the building and kowtowed in greeting.

“They are all people I rescued from Jiangxi many years ago. They have proven their loyalty and reliability, even though they are not related by blood to me.”

Hearing this, the family of servants kowtowed again and again in gratitude.

“No need for that.” Gau Ju ordered. “These will be your new masters from today, and you must serve them wholeheartedly just like you have served me.”

“Yes, Master!” The family kowtowed to Wen Desi and the others. “We greet our Masters!”

“This…” The three travellers were stunned. Being as they were from the modern world, having an entire family kneel on the ground in subservience to you was an alien thing.

“This here is their contract.” Master Gao took out a few pieces of paper from within his sleeve. “They are hereby yours to command.”

Master Gao took out another document. “This is the deed for the house. It isn’t convenient for me to fulfil my previous promise, so if you don’t mind this humble abode, please stay here for now.”

The three looked at each other. This businessman was truly generous. However, upon careful consideration, there was a less than sincere undercurrent to Master Gao’s actions.

This house belonged to him. If he wanted to secretly monitor and spy on the group it would be far too easy. Moreso, this family of servants have been his for many years, and their loyalty definitely lay in Master Gao rather than these unfamiliar people. The servants would be able to surveil every single move and conversation of the travellers, and pass this information on.

It was like a house built from glass, completely exposed to the outside world.

Beyond just pleasing these Australian merchants, Master Gao also wanted to control them. The reason why was obvious: for the greatly profitable products they had.

Originally, the travellers planned to buy an empty residence as a foothold into Guangzhou. Unexpectedly they now had both a house and a family of servants for free. Wen Desi thought through what they should do. Refusal would not be a good strategy, as it might draw the displeasure of Master Gao, whom they still had to trade with. However, they didn’t plan to conduct too many more cross-time deals after this. So, as long as they acted carefully, exposure could be avoided. After they formally set up their base in Hainan they could rethink their activities in Guangzhou city. On the sum of everything, it appeared to be better to please Master Gao for now and sell their goods. The three exchanged glances. Wen Desi cupped his hands and respectfully accepted the deeds to the property.

Seeing no objections, Master Gao was delighted. He ordered the servants to transport all the silver and gold they had just traded for, and even for a lot of food and clothes to be supplied.

Xiao Zishan, Wen Desi and Wang Luobin huddled together and held a quick discussion. Since they were here already, they might as well make the most of this chance. They would inspect the house thoroughly first to ascertain how shielded it was from outside eyes and ears, and resolved to also investigate the background of the servants.

The male servant looked quite old, and Wen Desi estimated him to be more than fifty years of age. After Wen Desi called him over, the servant bowed respectfully before the three. Wen Desi and Luobin were a little uneasy at heart, but Xiao Zishan was very composed. After taking a sip of tea, Xiao Zishan started to question the servant.

His name was Liu Qing. He was originally from Jiangxi, and worked a plot of about 10 mu. In the 45th year of Wanli, the local area was devastated by flood, the harvest failed, and a famine swept the land. Him and his family were on the road escaping the famine when they met Master Gao. Master Gao took in ten families who were escaping this disaster as servants, and Liu Qing was one of the lucky few. He had been a servant in the Gao family ever since.

After starting work in the Gao household, he took on the Master’s surname, and so he became Gao Qing and his wife Gao Xian. The husband and wife worked as errand runners in the outer courtyard of the Gao residence. Less than half a month ago they were transferred here to keep an eye on the secret house.

Gao Qing said that he was only in his early forties, but he didn’t know for certain his exact age. Xiao Zishan wasn’t surprised by this, as many farmers in ancient China wouldn’t know their exact age.

“Is it better to take care of this back-house than to be a servant in the main residence?”

Gao Qing smiled bitterly. “The work here is less, and there are fewer restrictions, but it is difficult to make a living.”

Originally, he and his wife worked in the residence proper. Although they each received only two qians of silver every month, at least their meals were taken care of in the servants’ dining room. Not only this, their two children had more than enough food. Ever since he had been transferred here, his monthly salary had increased to five qians, but now they had to prepare their own meals including firewood, rice, oil, salt, and vegetables. Their two thirteen/fourteen year old children were in that period where they had large appetites, and so it was difficult for the whole family to rely on only seven qians of silver in income.

“Hold on, the children don’t get paid? Aren’t they also working for Master Gao?” Wen Desi asked.

“The children have never been taken up as servants.” Gao Qing shook his head. “If they don’t work, they won’t get money or rice. They have to rely on us.” He sighed. “I originally wanted my daughter to work as a maid in the inner house, so that she could earn at least one qian a month. But she isn’t good-looking enough, and was never selected. I pleaded with the housekeeper, but she asked for ten taels of silver to let my daughter in. How can my family save so much money!”

This sort of corruption was pervasive in history. The three sighed. It costs money to even become a maid. However, this wasn’t that strange once they thought of the Dream of the Red Chamber, where the entire Liu family put on a show so that Wu’er could work as a servant in the Grand View Garden.

“Are you willing to work for us now?” Xiao Zishan slowly asked.

Gao Qing took in the merchants, and replied: “We are servants, there is no such thing as willing or not. We belong to the masters’, and we are at your beck and call.”

Xiao Zishan nodded, motioned for Gao Qing to lead the way, and inspected the whole residence. It wasn’t that big. The first entrance led to the guest room and study, the second room led to a two-storied home, the third entrance led to the kitchen, firewood room, stable and a well. Although the complex wasn’t newly built, it was maintained well. Everything was masoned using solid bluestone. As it was intended by Master Gao to be an emergency shelter, the furniture in the residence was very simple, but the daily necessities were very complete. In the kitchen there were plenty of the staples, such as rice, salted meat, dried fish, firewood, oil and salt. All of it appeared to have been recently moved in, presumably from Master Gao’s place.

Gao Qing handed a letter from Master Gao to the three. Wen Desi wasn’t interested in these things, and wanted to just give it all to Gao Qing’s family. However, before he could say anything, he saw that Xiao Zishan was already reading the letter.

[TN]

The semantic line between servant and slave isn’t always clear. I’ve stuck to the rule of thumb that slaves were not paid, while servants were. In fact, the Ming Chinese tried to abolish slavery (to a debatable degree of success).