NOVEL NEXT Chapter 32: It’s a big group project
As more and more humans/heat-sources left the Rosewood estate, the better Ren Xiyang felt.
Ren Xiyang used his ability to avoid the nobles as he went around the Rosewood property. The Rosewood summer manor had water purification spells on the taps in the house, but they hadn’t been well maintained. Ren Xiyang fixed them immediately.
After lunch, all the extraneous nobles departed. The Capital Investigators also left. In the end, they never asked Ren Xiyang to clarify where he was living ‘before’…
In the afternoon, the employees remaining were all called to the ground hall for a big meeting.
Servants put down as many chairs as possible, but many still had to stand. The servants also arranged a raised dais at the front with some chairs. Solicitor Carmine and the Rosewood managers, including Managers Gregory, Ashdown, sat up on the dais. They left the central seat for Earl Rosewood.
When Ren Xiyang walked in and saw the chair left empty for him, he inwardly blanched. Unfortunately, it was too ridiculous to ask people to avoid looking at him. He walked up the short stairs and sat down.
Everyone became quiet, unconsciously relaxing a bit as Ren Xiyang took away the excess heat in the hall, cooling the air to a much more comfortable temperature.
“Hello everyone,” Ren Xiyang said. “I’ve called you all here today to brief you on my draft idea for the Rosewood fief and estate going forward, and to gather everyone’s opinions and ideas on projects, initiatives, and new laws.”
Manager Gregory inwardly complained What change? No change was needed! And even if that was the case, why did Ayden call all the lowly servants? Those farmers still had mud on their clothes, tch!
Ren Xiyang continued, “Areas of focus include food security and agricultural output, clean water access, sanitation, and hygiene, housing, health, education, infrastructure, and improving rights and protections of Rosewood fief residents.”
After reading the big list from his notes, he proceeded to call up multiple different people to give an impromptu report on what they had been doing so far, doing his best to have someone from each group or team to come up and speak.
For example, Mrs. Cooks talked about the charity lunches; some farmers talked about the new four-field crop system; the new teaching staff talked about their initial curriculum, and a manor staff member talked about the use of soap to remove and kill germs.
Solicitor Carmine and the Rosewood managers were the only ones in the room who hadn’t heard about germs yet. Some of the managers’ complexions visibly changed. Now they understood why there was a lot of soap at every tap!
In contrast to the new activities at the Rosewood summer manor, Manager Gregory, representing the managers, reported on their operations-as-usual: managing the estate and fief’s accounts, liaising with other nobles’ managers and the Imperial Council and government on various obligations, and managing bureaucracy for the fief, such as importer and exporter tariffs.
“Thank you, Manager Gregory,” Ren Xiyang said.
“Lastly, I want to discuss the new laws that will be gradually drafted and put into place. A few of you already know what I’ve been thinking about, however, a lot of details need to be figured out, exceptions, and intricacies. I want to abolish the death penalty, but then we must have a system in place to deal with it. In fact, we need multiple different services to prevent crime from occurring in the first place, and specialist groups who can support the aftermath of different types of crime.”
What followed with a moderately timid session.
Ren Xiyang would state a new law and ask multiple groups for their thoughts and ideas. Responses were hesitant, because they had to make sure they wouldn’t say something that would make Earl Rosewood angry.
Nonetheless, Ren Xiyang was still able to gather some information. On the matter of the criminal system, it seemed that most people were erring towards the side of hard labour for criminals.
Ren Xiyang realised that perhaps some things were going a bit too fast.
He wanted to get things done as fast as possible so that he could be free to do what he wanted to do. But this wasn’t a race with an end. This was an ongoing process that would continue long after Ren Xiyang died again.
After the big meeting concluded, Ren Xiyang pulled Solicitor Carmine, who pulled Manager Ashdown, to have a debriefing meeting about what to do next regarding the legislation plans.
The three of them sat in a smaller adjacent room and talked through some details and the initial priorities. Manager Ashdown mostly stayed quiet as he dutifully took notes.
“Is that clear enough for now?” Ren Xiyang asked.
“Yes, my Lord,” Solicitor Carmine said. “One final thing, my Lord.”
“Yes?”
“I heard that you have now interviewed all servants working here in the manor. When do you plan to conduct the remaining interviews?”
—By which he meant, when would the earl interview those working at the Capital, like himself.
“I’ll do it when I come to the Capital in the future,” Ren Xiyang said. It was much more difficult to replace senior employees, and they were currently doing crucial bureaucratic and administrative work. So…he’ll get to them later.
“Understood, my Lord.”
Ren Xiyang didn’t have dinner with Solicitor Carmine and the Rosewood managers, instead having a quiet dinner by himself.
The coffins were in the ground, the original Rosewood family was over. The funeral for Alyssa Rosewood was as true as the funerals for the other family members.
Perhaps he was feeling a bit unsettled.
The number of people he could sense around the Rosewood summer manor was different. There was no longer Prince Rian or Count Aegean or the entourage of Royal Guards.
The European-styled room around felt a bit unreal.
Why him? There surely must have been someone else dying during the zombie apocalypse as the same moment he died. There must have been infinitely many people dying at that moment across infinitely many worlds.
Ren Xiyang sighed out loud to the empty room.
Eventually, Kel returned to take away his dishes.
“Kel, before you leave, tell everyone to take the day off tomorrow.”
Kel startled. “Pardon, my Lord?”
“I don’t have any meetings scheduled for tomorrow. I want to take a break, so everyone can take a break too. The manor doesn’t need cleaning and service every day. As for food, I’ll trouble Mrs. Cooks and her team to prepare some breakfast and what not for Solicitor Carmine and the Rosewood managers until they leave. I also plan to stay in the manor, so the guards can also take a break. As for the rest of the day, the cooks are welcome to do whatever they want. Redmond town is in reach for food. You can leave the manor if you want, or rest, or do whatever. Wages will be paid as usual.” Ren Xiyang lowered his head and wrote all the instructions clearly before handing them to Kel, to formalise the declaration.
Kel gazed at the young earl for a moment as she took the notice. He looked a bit tired. She lowered her head. “Yes, my Lord.”
“That includes you too, Kel. I’ll gather my own breakfast tomorrow.”
“Yes, my Lord.” Kel bowed and took the tray of used dishes out, closing the door behind her.
Then, she hurried down to the kitchens to spread the news.
“The earl is mourning,” Mrs. Cooks said sympathetically. “Poor child.”
The other servants nodded. It was easy to forget when the earl was being earl-y, but the truth was that he was just a twelve-year-old boy who had just lost his entire family.
When Ren Xiyang woke up the next day, it was still predawn. He didn’t get out of bed.
What should he do today?
All the things he might have done back in his old world before the zombie apocalypse didn’t exist here.
He could go and farm and scare a lot of farmers by working in the fields himself. Or he could figure out the magic system here a bit more. Or he could go around the fief and survey the towns and villages and meet with the residents in person…But that was all still work.
…When was the last time he indulged in a hobby?
He sighed, placing his arm over his eyes.
Eventually, he got up and got dressed, before heading down to the kitchens, deftly avoiding the patrolling guards in the corridors.
Despite the early time, the kitchens were lit up. Ren Xiyang slipped inside, surprising Mr. Baker and the other cooks who were up early to bake the day’s bread.
“My Lord, how can we help you?” Mr. Baker quickly wiped his hands on the towel hanging on his belt before hurrying over. Thankfully, most of the work had been done, with the bread loaves either in the oven or proofing and waiting for some oven space.
Ren Xiyang glanced at the big sack of flour. “I want to cook. I only need a little bit of space.” He walked over to the sink and washed his hands with soap.
“Let me help, my Lord.”
“No, this is extra work and you’re all on break. I can do it myself.” Ren Xiyang’s eyes swept across the kitchens, locating the big mixing bowls. He took one and then went over to the open sack of flour.
Mr. Baker suddenly understood how Mrs. Cooks had felt when the earl first came down to the kitchens to make tofu. It was just wrong
in his heart to have the earl wandering around the kitchen like this! Suddenly, he thought of an idea.“My Lord, are you making a new dish? I’ll like to learn! Please teach me, my Lord!”
“Oh. Okay.” Ren Xiyang mixed in some salt with the flour in the bowl.
“Are you making a bread, my Lord?” Mr. Baker hurried over, taking a jug and filling it with water when he noticed the earl going over to the water tap.
“No, I’m making hand-pulled noodles. They’re long thing strands of dough.”
“Oh, does my Lord mean pasta?”
“No.”
Mr. Baker winced. “My Lord, are you kneading next? Let me!”
Ren Xiyang stepped back, letting the man knead for him. He turned around and started carrying over other ingredients instead, like garlic and tofu and soy sauce and chilli and an entire assortment of vegetables.
Mr. Baker felt like crying his heart. Despite his actions, the earl was still cooking!
Ren Xiyang steadily prepared all the ingredients. “You can leave that to rest now,” he told Mr. Baker. He went over and separated the dough himself into multiple parts, coated them with some oil and covered them. He also raised the local temperature to cut down on the resting time.
“My Lord, I can prepare the rest of these vegetables for you,” Mr. Baker said.
“Okay.” Ren Xiyang turned around and prepared and mixed the sauce instead.
Mr. Baker: “…”
With all the main ingredients prepared, Ren Xiyang found a big pot. Mr. Baker helped him fill it with water, which he then carried over to the stove.
The dough could have rested for longer—even overnight. But it was still good enough. Ren Xiyang wasn’t out to win any food awards. He took one portion of rested dough, rolled it out a bit, and cut out somewhat wide strips.
Mr. Baker shuffled closer, angling for the rolling pin that Earl Rosewood had set aside. “My Lord, shall I roll these out…?”
Ren Xiyang shook his head. He gently held each end of a strip of dough and started to pull. As it got longer, he bounced it against the worktop.
Mr. Baker wasn’t the only person in the kitchen watching with wide eyes. The dough was stretching!
Rn Xiyang quickly and efficiently worked through all the dough. The noodles weren’t as long as they could be—due to the shortened resting time—but they’d suffice. He carried some over to the pot of boiling water and dropped them in. It didn’t take them long to cook. He fished out luscious wide pale noodles into a big clean bowl. Then, he put a new pan into the stove. With his magic, fire flared up. He put in the vegetables one by one, stir frying them on the high heat and coating them with a lot of sauce. This was poured over the noodles and everything was mixed.
Ren Xiyang portioned out enough for himself into a bowl, adding in a few extra chillies. He put the bowl, with utensils and a cup of milk onto a tray. “Have a taste if you want,” he told the rest of the staff.
With that, he walked out of the kitchens, going back in his rooms to enjoy his breakfast.
The savouriness, spiciness, hint of smokiness, the bite and texture of the noodles…
It had been a while since he had fresh noodles that he made himself. Aside from the fact that he needed to hire someone to make chopsticks, the noodles were really comforting.
He had such big plans for the fief, but he forgot an important area: introducing ‘new’ food to the fief. He wondered if Rian would be disappointed to miss out…
Rian: *achoo!* Who’s talking about me? >_>
Also, let me give a quick thank you to the people who have supported me on ko-fi or tapas ink recently! Caro, Faceless, Maku'sCorner, aswolters04, CloverPayne, Momo, Sealunis, Catsfancy, Zen, and Ozzie_Roe! 🥰🥰🥰 And of course, thank you to all my readers and commenters! This novel is already 50k and I'm not sure we're half way yet...