The next day, I decide to walk straight into the morning housekeeping meeting where the dayshift maids are briefed on their daily duties.

I still remember where and when it’s held. Even though I’m getting better on the crutches, I still arrive about halfway through the meeting.

When I open the door, the entire room falls silent. They all stare as I hobble inside. The head housekeeper rushes up to greet me with a very formal bow. She says, “Milady, how can we serve you today?”

With my best impression of the late mistress, I wave my hand for her to rise and say, “I don’t need anything at the moment. Pretend I’m not even here. Continue your meeting.”

It’s clear she wants to get me out of here, but I wave her back up to the front of the room as I take a recently vacated seat in the back.

All the maids near me are stiff as brooms and are carefully inspecting their shoes. The rest are watching the head housekeeper for either help or the cue to run for their lives.

It might take every shred of courage the head housekeeper possesses, but she seems dignified back at the front of the room. Only hesitating a moment before she resumes the meeting.

It’s surprising how similar it is to the morning meetings before Jun.

I guess it doesn’t matter who the Lord is, some things stay the same. A manor is still a manor. Laundry must be done. Floors need sweeping. And that’s before we talk about dusting or windows.

After she dismisses everyone to their tasks, the head housekeeper comes up and once again asks how to get me out of here as politely as possible.

I enjoy watching her grit her teeth even harder when I repeat what I said yesterday, “I’m sure your offer is well intentioned, but I do not require a tour at this time. And I would hate to waste the time of the head housekeeper.”

With that I hobble out of the room towards the laundry. After a quick whisper to her number two, she follows behind me at a respectable six feet.

The laundry is insanely different from my modern standards and if Lin hadn’t dropped off dirty clothes here I probably wouldn’t be able to recognize it as a laundry.

The room is very hot with large cloth filled cauldron being stirred at one end. The rest of the room is filled with women hitting the clothes or scrubbing the linens. A bunch of them are doing tasks I don’t even recognize. However, things are being cleaned.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

They are silent even before I enter, probably because they are on their toes from the meeting. My new memories tell me that this is the heart of all the housekeeping gossip and is usually filled with chatter. It was a safe place that the late mistress avoided in case she got splashed with dirty water or even worse stepped in a puddle with her expensive silk slippers. Even though I’m posing as a Lady, I’m willing to risk reputation just to see what I can glean down here.

Lin never worked in the laundry, because she was deemed too frail. And back on the farm, she just washed things in the river. I’m sure a washer and dryer could be built with qi, but why would the blood thirsty cultivators waste it when it’s so cheap to hire mortal servants.

Like yesterday, I go and carefully inspect what each person is doing. The most interesting is the spot removal section. It’s surprisingly organized and they clearly know what to use for which stain on which fabric.

But I move along when one of the girls starts sniffling back tears after I watch over her shoulder for five whole minutes. From there it’s an easy walk outside to where they hang the laundry to dry.

Many maids where hiding here and I watch them flee back into the manor as I approach. Each carefully trying to look busy by holding at least one rag or empty basket. I manage to hold in my laughter. The head housekeeper follows me trying to do damage control.

After the parade of extraordinarily busy maids, there not much to see out here. So, I hobble back into the manor and guiltlessly drag in mud all over the door. It doesn’t slow down the head housekeeper for more than a moment. With a snap of her fingers, a maid rushes over to clean it.

She follows me like a scared puppy all morning. We visit where they are mending and I can’t help but think it’s a bit dark to see their progress.

The room is basically a large closet stuffed full with three women surrounded by baskets. Poking around one of their baskets, I find a lamp that they tried to hide.

Heaven only knows why they’re hiding a lamp they need to work by. It’s not even a fancy one that would be worth stealing. Either the late mistress wouldn’t allow them one because she was being stingy or they are supposed to work elsewhere and I found their hiding closet.

I continue through the rest of the house making sure to drop in on every housekeeping department and each team of maids I can find. Never saying anything.

I even keep silent as I white glove test each room I find currently being cleaned. All eyes are on me as I carefully inspect my gloved fingers, before wiping them on my handkerchief regardless of the result. I leave them to guess the results.

The head housekeeper has a serious tooth grinding problem that gets progressively worse as I go through the manor. And I might even admit to enjoying it.

The only places I don’t actively try to inspect are the floors and the chimneys. But each cleaning closet is opened. Every storage room checked. The head housekeeper is using the same script as the head chef and has the keys out for the few locked rooms before I even ask to open the doors.

There are definitely fewer signs of looting, but that might mean that she put in late night effort to hide them. Mostly bolts of cloth were stolen, but only of the middling quality. I’m guessing it has the same fencing problems as the qi liquor.

Going around the manor checking up on all the things housekeeping is responsible for causes me to walk the most since I regained my footing.

I certainly feel accomplished with myself by the time I sit down for lunch. I might have found less looting (and blackmail material) than yesterday, but I can tell that I’m healing. And what do I really have, if I don’t have my health?