The Country Maiden: Fields and Leisure
Chapter 676 - 675: Irreversible

Chapter 676: Chapter 675: Irreversible

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The personal attendant to Gao Jin refused to believe such news, spitting and kicking the door attendant, "What rubbish are you spouting so early in the morning?"

The door attendant fell over from the kick, and without managing to get up, he cried out in protest, "Sir...I’m not talking nonsense! It’s true! Laosan, who’s in charge of the purchasing for our house, was beaten half to death and dragged away by the soldiers—"

At that news, the entire courtyard exploded in panic, their fearful eyes turning to Gao Jin.

As servants to an official, who hadn’t heard of a few instances each year where officials were raided and their families sold into slavery?

Which official, in his right mind, would find his home surrounded by soldiers if not for an impending raid on his estate?

The timid maids began to cover their faces and cry, while the clever and quick-witted ones were already sneaking back, hoping to pack up their belongings and hide them.

Gao Jin, with a grim expression, reflexively went to instruct Lady Xia to keep the servants in line, but then he remembered that Lady Xia had just fainted.

So he had to hastily order people to wake Lady Xia up, and then, with his personal attendant in tow, he rushed toward the front of the house.

Seeing the grim look on Gao Jin’s face, everyone knew that the situation must be bad, and they all felt at risk.

At this moment, no one cared about Lady Xia, except for Sister Hu, who truly cared for her and was scolding the maids repeatedly, urging them to tend to Lady Xia. The maids, either out of fear or their own selfish concerns, were dragging their feet.

Sister Hu became infuriated upon seeing this; she had picked these maids specifically because they seemed honest and decent, and not the type to seduce their master to take care of Lady Xia.

She had not expected that these seemingly honest and decent maids would neglect their own young mistress upon hearing such shocking news.

"You worthless girls, have you all turned into stiff corpses? I’ll have you know, even if the master gets into trouble, our young mistress is still the niece of a Minister. If things come to that, our young mistress can divorce him and return to her family home to live as a wealthy young lady! When the time comes, see if I don’t flay each and every one of you!" Sister Hu was in such a rage that her eyes were practically shooting sparks as she took care of Lady Xia while scolding the maids fiercely.

When Lady Xia regained consciousness, she heard Sister Hu’s mixture of crying and scolding and frowned, "Sister Hu, what’s going on? What happened?"

Remembering what Gao Jin had mentioned before she had lost consciousness, Lady Xia wished she could have remained unconscious forever.

"Young mistress! You’re finally awake!" Sister Hu was so excited that she reverted to the way she addressed Lady Xia before her marriage.

As she helped Lady Xia sit up, Sister Hu immediately began to complain, "Young mistress, these servants are unpardonably negligent and even disloyal; we can’t keep them any longer. We should send them away tomorrow! Keeping them in the house is just an invitation to disaster! They get all worked up over nothing just because they heard there are soldiers outside! It’s clear they haven’t seen anything of the world! With our uncle, the Minister, around, what could possibly happen to us?"

"What did you say? Soldiers? What soldiers?" Lady Xia quickly picked up on a crucial keyword.

"Just now, the door attendant reported that the County Yamen is surrounded by layers of soldiers inside and out. In my opinion, it’s just a joke. In Qi City County, our master is the highest-ranking official, not to mention that even in the Capital City, everyone gives face to our uncle, the Minister," Sister Hu wasn’t taking it seriously at all, as in her eyes, their uncle, the Minister, had connections everywhere and everyone respected him.

Lady Xia was definitely not a woman without insight. Hearing Sister Hu’s words, she understood that the situation was irreversible.

In an instant, her vision darkened again, and she nearly fainted once more, but the last bit of her rationality forced her to hold on.

She couldn’t collapse; what would become of her children if she did?

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Thinking of this, Lady Xia bit her lip and extended her hand to Sister Hu, "Sister, help me up quickly and take me to the eldest young master and miss."

Sister Hu looked at Lady Xia disapprovingly, "Miss, you have just woken up, how can you get out of bed? If you want to see the young master and miss, I can go and bring them to you right away."

Lady Xia had a second thought and nodded hastily, "Please trouble Sister to bring them here quickly."

Only then did Sister Hu get up and leave.

The remaining maids glanced at each other after seeing Lady Xia awake, and approached with a sheepish look, "Madam—"

Lady Xia knew all too well what these maids were thinking.

She should at least have a few trusted maids by her side; originally, she brought four maids with her dowry, two of whom were sent to serve others and became her children’s wet nurses.

The other two were restless and were soon dispatched by her; she had trained a few others subsequently, but as soon as she turned her back, Gao Jin would either take a fancy to them and bed them or send them away as gifts.

She had had enough! To groom and cultivate a loyal maid was incredibly troublesome and draining; just as she got them properly trained, they were snatched away.

As time went by, she grew tired of expending such effort. Things were roughly passable as long as they didn’t misbehave or talk out of turn and could serve well.

If she had known what was to come, she would have endured and properly trained a few with ordinary looks; at least she would have had some assistance now.

Unlike now, apart from a loyal Sister Hu, none of the maids serving her shared her heart and mind.

With a cold expression, she said, "It seems that something has indeed happened in the residence. Should there be trouble, it will be our family to suffer, but as long as you servants behave and don’t cause mischief, your lives should be spared, even if you go from being private to official servants. I have nothing more to say, you may all leave—"

The maids curtsied and left the room.

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Gao Jin rushed to the back door of the County Yamen in a disordered and hurried pace. Peeking through the crack, he indeed saw the soldiers, thought for a moment, had someone set up a ladder, and climbed up to the wall to take a look, which scared him so much he nearly rolled off the ladder.

It’s over, utterly over! Gao Jin collapsed on the ground, completely deflated.

But after waiting for almost two hours, the soldiers outside had only surrounded the County Yamen but had not burst in, which slowly reignited a glimmer of hope in the despairing Gao Jin.

Could it be that his crimes were not yet confirmed, without any definitive evidence? Thus, they were merely surrounding him? Should he take a risk? Now that hope had been restored, Gao Jin was not the kind to sit and await his doom; his mind started racing instantly.

He scrambled up from the ground, dusted off his clothes, and turned to walk to the back of the house, ordering his servants to fetch his official uniform for him to change into.

In these times of panic within the residence, seeing Gao Jin so calm and even putting on his official uniform, everyone felt reassured and followed him in droves toward the back.

After the Young Servant helped Gao Jin wash up and change his clothes, Gao Jin took a deep breath, led the people to the front courtyard study to sit down, and then had the Young Servant open the side door to go out and inquire about the reason the soldiers were surrounding the County Yamen.

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