Chapter 6: Regulations for Manor Labor Rewards
The next morning, just as the sky was turning a faint gray, Jian Xingxia woke up.
The night hadn’t been quiet; the mountains were alive with the chirping of insects, the crying of birds, and the distant, prolonged roars of nameless wild beasts.
Yet, Jian Xingxia slept exceptionally well.
Waking up, she felt completely refreshed, though a residual soreness from yesterday’s labor still lingered in her muscles.
The big black dog had left at some point, pushing the double wooden doors open enough to leave a wide gap. The hen squeezed out through the gap, embarking on her foraging mission for the day.
The first thing Jian Xingxia did upon waking was open the [Manor Management System] to check yesterday’s temporary worker satisfaction score.
[Temporary Worker Satisfaction: 99.]
[Temporary Worker’s Anonymous Message: The master sister is a very kind person. She gave me candy and allowed me to take the wild vegetables. It’s just a pity that the big bag of noon-meal she stuffed into my arms at the end couldn’t be brought back for some reason, even though the things in my pockets came back with me…]
“Hmm? The things in her pockets could be brought back, but the remaining half-bag couldn’t?”
Jian Xingxia mulled it over. “Could it be because of the packaging?”
Yesterday, Taoya had suddenly said “the time is up” and was in such a frantic hurry to leave that Jian Xingxia had stuffed the bread, bag and all, straight into her arms. Could that be why the bread inside the bag didn’t make it across?
Jian Xingxia felt a wave of regret. “If I had known, I would have taken it out of the packaging before giving it to her.”
According to Taoya, her homeland was suffering from a severe famine where many had already starved to death, leaving people with nothing to eat but tree bark and grass roots. Taoya’s mother was sick too, and the girl had come out to work at such a tender age solely to earn money for her mother’s treatment.
At the thought of this, Jian Xingxia couldn’t sit still. She summoned the system and posted her second recruitment notice.
[Recruiting one temporary worker. Job description: Weeding. Work duration: 2 hours.]
Jian Xingxia didn’t dare set the duration for too long, fearing that given Taoya’s physical condition, she wouldn’t be able to accept it.
The system posted the recruitment notice promptly.
Jian Xingxia went to the well in the back courtyard to draw water and wash up. The morning well water was crisp and cold—an absolute dream for chilling watermelons. She made a mental note to head out of the mountains and buy some watermelons once she finished tidying up.
Before she could even finish eating a piece of flatbread, a rustling sound echoed from the overgrown grass outside the back courtyard.
She looked up, and sure enough, it was Taoya!
Taoya was jogging toward her. Compared to yesterday, the timidity in her eyes had lessened a bit, but her face was clouded with worry.
Jian Xingxia opened the back courtyard gate to let her in, then locked it securely behind them. Having already guessed Taoya’s background, Jian Xingxia tactfully asked a few guiding questions.
The answers were exactly as she had surmised.
When Jian Xingxia asked Taoya how she knew about the job opening here, Taoya found it rather miraculous herself.
“There’s no grain left at home, and my mother is sick. I wanted to go up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables so my mother could eat her fill, and sell some to pay for a doctor. But even the grass roots and tree bark on the mountain are running low; I could only dig up a tiny bit.”
“My mother refused to eat. She said she was going to die anyway, so she shouldn’t waste any more grain. I don’t want my mother to die. While digging for wild vegetables, I saw the Goddess Temple, so I went in to beg the Mountain Goddess, saying if only someone would hire me to work, then I would have money to treat my mother.”
“I wept as I begged, and as I cried, I felt as if the Mountain Goddess suddenly spoke to me. She said there was a cave in the back mountain, and if I walked through it, there would be work to do.”
“The cave was pitch-black and I was terrified, but my mother was burning with a terrible fever. I needed to find work, so I listened to the Mountain Goddess and just kept walking and walking…”
“I don’t know how long I walked; it felt like a very long time, yet it also felt like a brief moment. When I emerged from the cave, I saw a house from afar, so I came over.”
Jian Xingxia believed Taoya was telling the truth. Looking up at the towering mountains, she knew she had only posted the [Recruitment Notice] ten-odd minutes ago. Even if one were a track star or cutting straight through a cave, it was physically impossible to cross this mountain range in such a short amount of time under normal circumstances.
She couldn’t explain it, but that didn’t stop her from accepting it.
“Taoya, you just mentioned your mother is sick. What kind of illness does she have? What are her symptoms?”
During her university years, Jian Xingxia had frequently gone to the countryside with her professors and classmates. Rural areas lacked convenience, and as agronomy students, they often encountered insect bites, bruises, sprains, fevers, and diarrhea. They were well-accustomed to stocking their own medicine packs and handling minor ailments themselves.
Hearing Jian Xingxia ask, Taoya seemed to realize that she might be trying to help, and said hurriedly, “It rained a few days ago, and my mother went out to help with chores. She was drenched in the rain all day. When she returned, she felt thoroughly exhausted. A day later, she started coughing, and then she developed a fever. This morning, her fever grew even worse; she won’t even answer when I call her.”
Taoya’s face was filled with pure dread.
“Then it must be a cold from the rain.” Jian Xingxia was no stranger to this. Agronomy students often had to work through downpours; while people could wait, the crops in the fields couldn’t.
She went back inside and rummaged through her backpack. Very quickly, she pulled out a small football-sized pouch. “Found it!”
The medicine distributed by her professor and the leftover prescriptions she had gotten from the campus hospital when she was sick were all kept here.
Taoya stood by the back door waiting nervously. She didn’t dare step inside the house; this building was vastly wider and grander than the huts in her village, with high ceilings and bright lighting. She didn’t know what the floor was made of, but it consisted of solid, uniform squares that were incredibly flat and clean. She shrank her mud-caked, dusty feet, trying her best to hide her exposed big toe peeking through a hole in her shoe.
Jian Xingxia sorted through the contents, selecting a box of cold granules, a blister pack of ibuprofen tablets for fever and pain relief, and a bottle of cough syrup.
“These should be enough. Since your mother has a fever, have her take one of these tablets first. If six hours… oh, that’s three shichen, pass and the fever hasn’t broken, have her take another one.”
“Then mix this powder with hot water for her to drink. If she’s coughing, pour a spoonful of this syrup and have her hold it in her mouth, swallowing it as slowly as possible.”
Jian Xingxia rattled off a long string of instructions, but still feeling a bit uneasy, she simply grabbed three bottles of antiviral oral solution and a blister pack of traditional cold tablets.
“Forget it, take these too. I don’t know if you’ll be able to come here consistently, so it’s better to take them all.”
Clutching a pile of “miraculous elixirs” she had never laid eyes on before, Taoya’s body suddenly dropped low.
Jian Xingxia was startled and nimbly caught her. “What’s wrong? Did you faint again?”
Held up by Jian Xingxia, Taoya was stuck midway, looking thoroughly awkward. “I didn’t faint, Fairy Sister. I… I wanted to kneel down to thank you…”
“Huh?” Jian Xingxia quickly hauled Taoya back up. “Don’t do that! How am I a fairy? And there’s absolutely no need to kneel!”
Taoya insisted in a small voice, “The Mountain Goddess guided me to find you, sister. You are the Fairy Sister.”
Jian Xingxia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Suit yourself, but just call me sister. Leave out the ‘Fairy’ part.”
“Alright, Fairy Sister.”
Jian Xingxia: “…”
But after offering her thanks, Taoya looked exceptionally troubled. “Sister, I can’t take these back with me.”
“How do you know you can’t?”
“The Mountain Goddess told me. She said something about… more work brings more rewards, rewards must be reasonable, and it shouldn’t affect things…” Taoya repeated the parts she could grasp.
A wave of realization washed over Jian Xingxia, and she secretly summoned the system to cross-reference the information. Sure enough:
[Temporary worker rewards are determined by their working ability, job description, and work duration. The following principles must be met:
- Temporary workers are paid on an hourly basis. The hourly wage must not exceed the level standard and must not be lower than 60% of the level standard;
- The form of reward is unrestricted, but neither currency nor items may exceed the developmental level of the temporary worker’s native world;
- If there are special payment requirements, the corresponding services can be purchased after unlocking the Manor Mall.]
[The current temporary worker’s capability level is: Level 1 Apprentice. The standard hourly wage is 5 yuan; the work reward must not exceed 5 yuan per hour and must not be lower than 3 yuan per hour.]
Looking at it this way, these modern western medicines definitely exceeded Taoya’s hourly wage limits.
Jian Xingxia began filtering through the items again. The unit price of store-bought medicine wasn’t low, so she could only distribute them by individual pills. Fortunately, the pouch contained prescriptions from the campus hospital. Jian Xingxia recalled that when she filled them, the prices ranged from a few cents to a few yuan; the most expensive item was under twenty yuan.
“Ibuprofen can’t be taken across? Then let’s use these cold granules—it’s traditional Chinese medicine. Take four packs first and have her try them.”
“A whole bottle of cough syrup seems a bit too expensive. I’ll pour a little into a small bottle cap for you… Oh, a bottle cap won’t work either. Let me think. When you leave, we’ll wrap it up securely using a large leaf.”
Jian Xingxia tested the items one by one. Estimating the granules plus about 10ml of cough syrup, based on the low prices she paid at the campus hospital, it should amount to around six or seven yuan.
Taoya couldn’t understand Jian Xingxia’s under-the-breath calculations, but she complied and tested the items.
“It works! The Mountain Goddess says these can be taken across!”
Jian Xingxia let out a massive sigh of relief. “That’s wonderful.”
Taoya’s eyes shone brightly. “Sister, I’m going to pull weeds!”
There were still plenty of weeds left in the courtyard, and the kitchen and washroom were entirely obscured by overgrown grass; she genuinely needed the help.
“No rush. Have you had breakfast yet?”
