Chapter 55: One Cup
“Eating hours will be as follows: breakfast from 8:00 to 9:00 am, lunch at 11:30 am, and dinner after work. We’ll assign dedicated personnel to handle everyone’s meals.” Adele continued explaining the contents of her plan, pausing midway to see if the supervisors had any opinions. However, everyone looked utterly bewildered and astonished.
Especially regarding the working hours. They thought they had misheard, “Did you say… from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon?!” Under vampire rule, humans had to work the same hours as vampires. Vampires rested during the day and were active at night. How could humans be any different?!
Adele didn’t realize this, assuming they hadn’t heard clearly, “Yes, from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon. This is the designated working hours for most of the staff. But there will be adjustments based on specific tasks. For example, the kitchen staff will obviously have different hours, otherwise, they wouldn’t have time to prepare the meals.”
“Additionally, we need to establish a small defense team, selecting ten men from among the human males on a rotating basis. They will operate in three shifts, with monthly rotations. Spark Farm didn’t have a defense team before, which is absurd. If otherworldly beings attacked, there would be no way to resist them. Although the defense team might not be able to defeat otherworldly beings, they can serve as a warning system, alerting us to danger and sending someone to the nearest vampire administrative office for help.”
After explaining her ideas, Adele saw that the supervisors still didn’t seem inclined to speak, so she asked, “Those are my current plans. Do you have any opinions or suggestions?”
Only then did the supervisors come to their senses. They all shook their heads. Being able to work during the day and only for eight hours a day was something they could only dream of. How could they possibly object?
Besides, even if they did have any objections, they wouldn’t dare to voice them. What if they said something wrong and angered the vampire before them?
Seeing that the supervisors had no opinions, Adele frowned, making them flinch. She sighed, realizing that it was pointless to expect them to speak up. She could only sit there patiently and continue.
“For now, I won’t be replacing any supervisors. You will remain responsible for your assigned tasks and report to me. As you can see, I’m a vampire. Although I have arranged for the general staff to work during the day, you will need to work at night when I need your reports. In return, you will receive better treatment than the other workers.”
She paused again, waiting for their response. But all they could muster was, “Yes, ma’am.” They had been oppressed and enslaved by Oakham for so long that they seemed less like humans and more like machines. Adele couldn’t understand why they were like this.
After explaining everything, silence fell over the room. After a while, the steward led all the farm workers to the assembled platform. Adele stood up, and the supervisors followed her. She repeated some of what she had just told them to the other workers.
But these workers were even more numb than the supervisors. They simply looked up at Adele with lifeless eyes, seemingly not hearing a word she said. Adele frowned and repeated herself, but their response remained the same. She could only sigh and tell them to go back to their rooms and rest. They would start working again tomorrow morning, led by their supervisors.
After the workers left, Adele assigned the most important tasks for the near future: cleaning and building new houses. Farming and livestock management were pushed back. After giving her instructions, Adele asserted her authority as a vampire, warning them, “If you do well, I will reward you. If you do poorly, you will be punished.”
Seeing that the supervisors didn’t object, Adele nodded in satisfaction and left with Jasmine, Bella, and the steward.
Back at the manor, she summoned Bella and the steward again and informed them of the new working hours, instructing them to make the necessary arrangements. Adele wasn’t the type to micromanage. Since she had a steward and a head maid, she wouldn’t do everything herself. If they couldn’t handle it, she would replace them.
After Bella and the steward left, Adele felt deflated. Jasmine brewed a cup of black tea for her, but Adele was in no mood to savor it. She practically collapsed onto the sofa, abandoning her usual ladylike demeanor. With a hint of dejection, she asked Jasmine, “Am I doing a terrible job? They didn’t react at all when I explained the new rules. Am I really not suited to manage a farm?”
Jasmine noticed that Adele hadn’t even touched her tea. It sat untouched on the table, the sugar bowl beside it. She hadn’t even added any sugar cubes. Jasmine picked up the teacup and started drinking it herself. Adele, who had been wallowing in self-pity, was stunned.
Her gaze was so intense that Jasmine paused. Her first thought was: Could it be that the tea is poisoned, and that’s why Adele isn’t drinking it?
Then she thought, with her physical constitution and control over her body, even if it was poisoned, it wouldn’t affect her. And even if she did get poisoned, she could expel the toxins herself. Besides, she had brewed the tea herself. How could anyone possibly poison it without her noticing?
Jasmine calmly took another sip and saw Adele’s face flushing rapidly, “That! That’s my cup!”
“…” Jasmine understood what Adele was thinking. She replied softly, “I already washed it, and you haven’t touched it.”
Adele still looked like she was about to explode. Jasmine timely reminded her, “Miss, ladylike behavior,” causing Adele to suppress her urge to yell and straighten up from her slumped posture on the sofa.
She sat properly, her face still flushed. Adele looked at Jasmine for a long time, hesitant to speak. Finally, she couldn’t help but say, “You… even if you like me, you can’t use my cup… that’s… that’s…”
—Is she going to say “indirect kissing”?
Under Jasmine’s cold gaze, Adele didn’t continue. Instead, she stopped, covering her face in embarrassment. Jasmine sometimes wondered where Adele got these romantic notions. She had never taught her such things, and Adele wouldn’t have learned them from her private tutors or at school.
While cleaning Adele’s room, Jasmine had never seen any romance novels. So, she found it strange where Adele had learned these words. Perhaps it was a teenage girl’s secret talent to hide romance novels from their parents, but it was a bit much to hide them from her “peer” as well.
Jasmine finished the tea and then changed the subject, “Speaking of which, Miss, do you want to take a walk around the manor? With all the commotion yesterday, we haven’t had a chance to explore it properly.”
Adele’s attention was indeed diverted, but she wasn’t particularly interested in exploring the manor. She still felt that the place reeked of blood, making her uncomfortable. Jasmine, sensing her thoughts, continued before she could refuse, “Bella and the others have already cleaned the entire manor. They’ve also placed fresh flowers and sprayed perfume everywhere. Why don’t you go and inspect their work?”
Hearing this, Adele’s eyes lit up, but she still replied reservedly, “In that case, I suppose I’ll inspect their work.”
Adele got up from the sofa, her previous dejection gone. Jasmine stopped drinking tea and followed behind her as they left the room. Adele’s room was located in the southeast corner of the manor. It was well-ventilated, but because it was on a higher floor, it felt like the kind of room assigned to an unfavored daughter in a large family.
It took them quite a while to reach the ground floor. Adele, full of enthusiasm, didn’t seem to have considered this. But thinking about it from this perspective, Oakham probably didn’t want Adele to come, so he had resorted to these petty tricks.
It made sense. If it weren’t for Adele, he wouldn’t be dead. If Adele hadn’t come, he could have continued to be the tyrannical ruler of Oakham Manor. But with Adele’s arrival, he had to step down from his position and become a mere tool to assist her until she finished her internship.
This was unacceptable to Oakham. Being demoted from an emperor to a chancellor was something no power-hungry person would be happy about. But the difference in their status meant that Oakham couldn’t even utter a word of protest. He had to welcome Adele with a smile and couldn’t show any disrespect.
But he was still resentful, which was why he had arranged this seemingly decent but actually flawed accommodation for Adele.
Now, Oakham was nothing but ashes. Jasmine wondered if he was cursing Adele in the underworld.
She followed behind Adele, her thoughts a bit wicked.
Adele led Jasmine down to the main building on the ground floor. She cautiously sniffed the air and found that the smell had indeed dissipated considerably, masked by perfume and fresh flowers. She breathed a sigh of relief, “I thought I would be stuck up there like Rapunzel. Although there’s still a slight smell, it’s bearable.”
Jasmine seized the opportunity to take credit for Bella and the others, “This is all thanks to Bella and the others. I heard they didn’t even sleep during the day, working hard to clean the manor for you, Miss.”
Adele nodded, clearly pleased, “Such dedicated servants deserve to be rewarded.”
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