One Lifetime Is Never Enough

1.3 Uncertainties and Power

Mia sat silently on the carriage, observing the natural terrain and landscape throughout her journey. It seemed that the orphanage she came from was quite remote, the horse carriage steadily passed through acres of wild fields, some tall hills and mountains as the background.

Despite her uncertain destiny ahead, her eyes took all the beauty around her. After all, she had not seen this kind of scenery for a long time.

She noticed only rare occasions of small thatched houses that belonged to some local farmers. The girl called Hui was tightly holding her hands. She could feel the tremble of Xiao Hui's body from her grip. There was a male adult, another servant from the Ji household, who was holding the reins of the horse in front of the carriage. He never spared any glance to the girls since the moment they boarded.

The other four girls were huddled together, their eyes downcast, not daring to observe the scenery the carriage passed by. After all, they still did not know yet what kind of household they were going to work in, and what kind of work they would be required to do. All they knew was, they could never go back to the orphanage. Despite the harsh treatment of Han-niang, the place was their childhood home and all the girls resided there were like their sisters. There was next to no chance they would ever meet again.

Next to their horse carriage, a smaller carriage carried by two male servants also kept pace. Another two sturdy looking males with neat appearances followed from behind both carriages. Mia thought those two must be some sort of personal guards of the household that had fetched her and the others.

The plump woman inside the carriage was the head matron of Ji household. She was in charge of managing female maids and male servants for her master's household needs. She looked after everything that had to do with domestic chores and general needs of her employers and the family; from general house and garden maintenance, cleaning, kitchen, even to personal servants of her master, mistress, and their children. Under her management, were several tiers of maids and servants who must report to her. Of course, her authority was only after the master's or the mistress' approval of the selected maids or servants themselves.

The plump woman was called Meng-momo. She had no immediate family or kin as she had followed the Ji house Madame, Wu JianRui, from the latter's childhood. In fact, they practically grew up together. Meng-momo became a part of Wu JianRui's dowry when the latter got married to Ji ChanFang, the current master of the Ji clan. She was the most trusted person by Wu JianRui, and likewise Meng-momo dedicated her past youth and her now-advancing age to look after the Madame and her family. With Wu JianRui's care, her living condition and privileges were levels above matrons of the same standing in other households.

At the moment, Meng-momo was observing the young girls she had just picked from the orphanage, from behind the thin muslin curtain of her carriage. It was actually her first time to visit the orphanage. The time to travel to the location was too far from Ji residence. However, she could not find any suitable young females from other agencies closer to town. Most of the females offered by the usual agencies she had visited for the past few weeks were too old, too rough, or too ugly. The last condition was actually quite important as she specifically needed to find candidates to be personal attendants for Young Miss Ji.

The Young Miss was going to turn six in a month's time, and it was time that she had her own personal attendants. The ones that she had at the moment were Wu JianRui's maids and were too old to accompany her growing up. After all, loyalty from a servant to the master must be built since young. These new attendants, when approved by Wu JianRui, would follow the Young Miss for the rest of their lives, unless if they were to be released of their employment contract.

And just like Meng-momo to Wu JianRui, these attendants would form a part of the young miss's dowry when she got married. They would follow her to her future husband's household.