Volume 3: Days of Working at the Manor
The Black Death
Stay away from me
However, there’s no need to tell Shen Maomao about these things yet.
Countless thoughts crossed her mind, but in the end, she just urged Golden Retriever: “After you’ve picked them up, hurry over there. If there’s any trouble, run.”
Golden Retriever nodded repeatedly and, trembling with fear, hugged the bamboo basket as he walked toward the stable.
Yesterday afternoon, the stable manager assigned him three horses in stable number three. Instead of requiring him to start work immediately, the manager patiently taught him step by step how to feed the horses, groom them, clean the stable…
The horses were like gentle cats under the manager’s care, but he didn’t think they would be so docile under his supervision…
The stable was filled with the smell of decaying plants and animal manure. The horses, who had awakened early, were snorting, while three stablehands dressed like him were busy moving back and forth.
Besides him, there should have been four stablehands here, but today one was missing.
He held his breath as he walked in, but even when he reached the end, he couldn’t muster the courage to ask where the missing person had gone.
An elderly horse stretched its head out from behind the fence, grabbed the basket from his arms through the railings, and large clusters of roses fell to the ground.
The three horses, as if seeing the finest hay, lowered their heads and began eating frantically. The first horse to finish eating snorted at him, showing teeth stained red from the roses, making him shiver twice more.
After the three “horse lords” had eaten and drunk their fill, he led out the most docile old horse, preparing to drive to the pasture.
Last time there was an NPC to guide him there and back, but this time, he was on his own.
“Sister Lou, what else can I do?” Shen Maomao rested her chin on her hand, watching Lou Jingmo trim the roses.
These enchanted roses dared to grow on Golden Retriever but didn’t dare approach Lou Jingmo with her large scissors, even trying to dodge aside. But they forgot their roots were still in the soil, so they couldn’t dodge far, and could only tilt their heads as that merciless woman snipped them “snip-snip” into strange shapes, with faint whimpering cries coming from somewhere unknown.
Shen Maomao: “…” Maybe enchanted roses weren’t so scary after all.
Lou Jingmo said while trimming: “Wait, after I finish this work, I’ll take you out to court death.”
Shen Maomao wiped cold sweat from her forehead: “I still want to live…”
Lou Jingmo’s lips curled into a slight smile.
Shen Maomao was somewhat mesmerized.
Is it only men who like beautiful older sisters? No! Girls damn well like them too! (LP: Yeah!)
The goddess’s beauty was absolutely irresistible to both men and women, especially her demeanor when she smiled. It made Shen Maomao want to buy a hundred copies of 《Stopping the Spirit》 for her to sign! And she even wanted to make a grand gesture and say embarrassing things like “I’ll contract the entire publishing house for you!”
Lou Jingmo worked diligently on the ladder, unaware of what the idle Shen Maomao was thinking about beside her.
Throughout the morning, there were hardly any people near the garden, and the occasional one or two who passed by were all hurrying through. Shen Maomao sat under a large tree, spacing out, feeling like a salted fish that had lost its dreams.
After noon, when the sun hung high, Lou Jingmo finally finished trimming all the plants and stood under the tree wiping sweat from her forehead.
Shen Maomao looked at the trees’ postmodern punk magical style shapes, swallowed, and hesitantly asked: “This… will this pass inspection?”
Lou Jingmo said coolly: “They only said they couldn’t be identical, they didn’t say they couldn’t be like this, right?”
Shen Maomao clicked her tongue in wonder: “Look at that middle finger pointing at the manor, isn’t it people protesting the unfairness of fate, expressing their dissatisfaction with life to God…”
Lou Jingmo gave her bottom a kick from behind.
The force wasn’t strong, so she didn’t roll away like that day.
Shen Maomao covered her bottom and jumped angrily: “From now on, if you kick my bottom again, I’ll turn against you! My bottom is so precious, how dare you kick it casually? What if you flatten it?!”
Lou Jingmo remembered that rounded curve and consoled her: “Don’t worry, it won’t flatten, your bottom is still very perky.”
Shen Maomao: “???”
If Lou Jingmo weren’t also a woman, she would have suspected her of being a pervert!
With all the work done, next they needed to find ways to investigate clues, after all, they weren’t really here to work.
Lou Jingmo led her around the manor and successfully found a small door that few people used. They hid outside and observed for a long time, and after confirming that those using this door were usually servants, they prepared to sneak in.
Shen Maomao seemed to hear a spirited and loud “Time for courting death!” in her mind.
But waiting around wouldn’t lead anywhere; if they wanted to leave, they had to take risks.
Lou Jingmo vigilantly looked around, then walked casually and unhurriedly to the door, her expression natural, wearing a look that said “I’m here on official business, not trespassing randomly, don’t disturb me.”
Shen Maomao cautiously followed behind her, watching nervously as she pushed open the back door. The space of the small room behind the door was revealed to them in its entirety.
Fortunately—there was no one here currently, so their cautious demeanor had been unnecessary.
The room had no candles lit and no windows. By the light from the doorway, they could see the piled-up miscellaneous items and thick dust on the floor, along with footprints from both humans and rats.
“Close the door,” Lou Jingmo instructed softly.
Following behind, Shen Maomao responded by action, directly closing the door. The room fell into complete darkness, leaving her sight pitch black until she adjusted after a while.
Now the only light source was the tiny bit coming through the gaps of the front and back doors. While she was adjusting to the darkness, Lou Jingmo had already started rummaging through the items.
Afraid of causing trouble, Shen Maomao felt her way to some stacked boxes to crouch behind them, covering her mouth with both hands, and watched intently as Lou Jingmo worked.
People kept passing by the other door of the room, their shadows flickering through the door gap, making Shen Maomao’s heart jump, fearing someone might suddenly burst in.
“Squeak squeak…”
An unidentified creature quickly darted past behind her, making her draw in a sharp breath, forcefully holding back the startled cry rising in her throat, her head trembling from the effort.
Lou Jingmo said: “There are rats.”
As her words fell, one rat after another opened their glowing red eyes in the darkness. These red dots darted back and forth rapidly, running chaotically while squeaking, and Shen Maomao even felt something furry brush against her feet.
Shen Maomao wasn’t actually afraid of rats, but who knew if these rats might be a death flag? Her whole body shook frantically, praying the rats would fear her, a living person, and actively avoid her position.
As she was shaking, the front door suddenly made a long “creaking” sound, and a flood of light poured in, illuminating the entire storage room clearly.
Shen Maomao’s body instantly froze—forget shaking, she barely dared to breathe.
Had Lou Jingmo hidden? She had been so focused on the rats that she hadn’t noticed where Lou Jingmo’s search had led her. With such a sudden development, had she managed to hide? If she hadn’t managed to hide and was discovered, would they end up dead?
She held her breath, her mind in chaos, and through the gaps in the boxes saw a shadow cast on the wall beside her, the shadow holding a bulging bag.
The shadow of the person who entered wore long pants and shoulder-length hair, making it temporarily impossible to determine if they were male or female. They threw the bag onto a crucial spot on the floor in the middle of the storage room, and the smell of cream wafted into Shen Maomao’s nose. The rats that had been circling around her rushed toward it like mad, squeaking chaotically, forming a black mass.
“How unlucky!” A woman’s voice came from the door. She roughly closed the door, and her footsteps gradually faded away.
Darkness returned, and Lou Jingmo jumped out from behind the boxes, watching the rats on the floor thoughtfully.
Shen Maomao also ran out, looking at the rats with disgust, and asked quietly: “What’s this about? Raising rats?”
Lou Jingmo shook her head: “Looks like they’re poisoning the rats.”
Within minutes, the rats at the front kicked their legs and fell to the ground, foaming at the mouth. The remaining rats, as if blind to this, continued eating the cream, along with their companions’ corpses…
Lou Jingmo grabbed her hand, saying: “Stop looking! We need to leave immediately!”
Shen Maomao was confused: “Hm? What’s wrong?”
Lou Jingmo didn’t head into the manor but instead circled around the rats, returning the way they came.
Shen Maomao was even more confused—they had snuck in secretly and hadn’t done anything yet, why were they leaving?
After leaving the manor, her pace didn’t slow at all but rather quickened: “Those rats might carry pathogens.”
Shen Maomao suddenly realized the historical context—Medieval Europe. Medieval Europe that experienced plague outbreaks due to natural disasters, famine, and poor sanitation.
The most well-known being the Black Death.
Her face instantly turned pale: “Holy crap? Sister Lou, don’t hold onto me!”
Lou Jingmo’s expression darkened, but then heard her say: “I just touched a rat! Stay away from me!” She paused, then gripped Shen Maomao’s wrist firmly: “You’re quite righteous.”
Shen Maomao was almost crying: “Damn, what are the symptoms of the Black Death? How many days do I have left?”
“I’m only guessing about the plague, it’s not certain,” Lou Jingmo said helplessly.
Shen Maomao calmed down somewhat: “Where are we going?”
Lou Jingmo: “Boil some water and clean ourselves up, better than nothing.”
Hearing this, Shen Maomao felt like crying again.
The two arrived at the servants’ dining hall, which was empty as it wasn’t mealtime yet. Lou Jingmo sent Shen Maomao to fetch water while she put a large pot on the stove and lit a fire with matches.
Shen Maomao didn’t encounter any lady ghost in the well while fetching water, returning safely with a bucket, feeling slightly disappointed… ahem.
After a large pot of water boiled, they mixed in appropriate cool water, then each carried a bucket of hot water back to their quarters and hastily washed themselves. Then Lou Jingmo threw all their changed clothes into a fire basin, burning them completely.
The author has something to say:
“坐鍋” (placing on the stove) is probably Northeast Chinese dialect, haha, meaning “to put”!
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