Chapter 403: Chapter 395: Treat the Servants Well_1

She should be the youngest of the three maids.

People with moles on their eyebrows are said, from the perspective of physiognomy, to achieve great success. Moreover, these individuals are especially intelligent.

Qin Niu had learned some wisdom from the Yan Family’s method of managing servants.

Although maids were servants, once they entered the household, they also counted as half a member of the family.

They might not amount to anything significant, but sometimes they could ruin their master’s important affairs.

If they intended to seek revenge on their masters, it would be an utterly terrifying matter.

It could even lead to disastrous consequences.

Qin Niu had heard of a case where a small landlord bought a maid who was made to work all day and was given only scanty meals, always the worst kind of food. And, if he was displeased, he would drag her into his room to vent his bestial desires.

One time, the mistress caught them in the act.

The landlord adamantly claimed that the maid had seduced him.

The mistress hung the maid up and beat her viciously, punishing her by making her kneel without food.

Everyone thought that was the end of it.

But after half a year or so, the landlord’s three-year-old son fell into a well and drowned.

A few months later, sores festered on the landlord’s head and his feet began to ooze pus and rot away. Despite seeing many doctors, his illness could not be cured.

The man grew thinner by the day, living in constant torment from his sickness.

Within less than a year, the landlord died in agony.

On the day of his death, he was skin and bones, his head covered in festering sores, his feet so rotted they were unrecognizable. His entire foot had turned black, continuously leaking fetid pus.

After the landlord was buried, only the mistress and the maid were left in the family.

Not long after, the mistress went mad.

The maid told outsiders that her mistress was haunted by the deceased master.

One day, the mistress was found dead in the river.

Everyone said the mistress had died by suicide, jumping into the river.

The maid took care of the funeral and asked the villagers to help bury the mistress. Everyone praised the maid for her loyalty and decency.

It wasn’t until later, when the officials’ constables came to the village and shackled the maid to take her away, that everyone learned the deaths of the landlord’s family of three had all been the doing of this maid.

Her intention was to seek revenge against the landlord’s family.

The landlord’s child was tricked by her to the backyard well, where she pushed him in.

He was drowned alive.

The landlord’s strange illness wasn’t due to doing too many bad deeds resulting in sores on his head and pus in his feet; it was because the maid had been secretly poisoning him.

The dosage was very well controlled; she would add the poison to the landlord’s tea or soup each day, eventually causing him to die in excruciating pain from the sickness.

The mistress went mad from being terrorized.

Her suicide by drowning was also a result of the maid’s manipulation.

A perfectly good family ended up devastated and decimated, all because they had mistreated this maid.

When Qin Niu initially bought the maids, he had ideas about how to manage them properly.

It boiled down to three approaches: first, maintain authority; second, show kindness; and third, offer help when they needed it, inspiring lifetime gratitude and loyalty.

As long as these three aspects were handled well, there would be no fear of their disloyalty.

After breakfast, Qin Niu mentioned to his wife that he was stepping out, shouldered a basket, and, with Green Ox, headed towards Black Tiger City.

He enjoyed taking every opportunity to walk to practice the Misty Rain Elusive Step.

This light-body cultivation technique was extremely useful for him.

Today, since he was alone and didn’t have to wait for anyone, his pace was much faster than usual.

In less than an hour, he had arrived at Black Tiger City.

With his Innate Realm cultivation complemented by the Misty Rain Elusive Step, it was indeed not too shabby.

A distance that took an average person four hours to walk, he completed in just one. His walking speed was four times that of a regular person.

And this wasn’t even his fastest speed yet.

If he put forth full effort, it would take him just over half an hour to reach Black Tiger City.

Once inside the city, he made straight for the Cultivation Market.

He had exhausted all his Contractual Talismans to subdue two Shadow Fire Bees, leaving only about a dozen low-grade Contract Charms.

He deliberately entered the city to restock.

Black Tiger City was shrouded in an atmosphere of war, with many shops hanging “For Sale” signs.

Some stores had closed their doors altogether.

Before a war, merchants would usually turn their stores and goods into Silver Money to minimize losses.

As for those who ended up with these assets, if they couldn’t sell them off, they could only blame themselves.

He went straight to Bei Bing’s talisman shop.

“Bei Bing!”

Qin Niu walked in.

Inside the shop, there was only her, and he didn’t see her grandfather.

Bei Bing seemed very happy to see him.

“Hasn’t your grandfather come back yet?”

Qin Niu asked with concern.

“Mmm-hmm!”

She shook her head.

Then she wrote on a slate, “However, my grandfather sent me a letter saying that he’s run into a bit of trouble and will be coming back two or three months late. He told me to look after the shop well and to practice my talisman-making skills.”

As long as the old man was safe, that was what mattered.

“It’s not easy for you to look after the shop by yourself. If you need any help, feel free to send someone to drop me a note. You know my address.”

Qin Niu considered her a real friend.

He would definitely provide all the help he could if she needed assistance.

“I want to thank you for attending my wedding last time and for the generous gift. I’m sorry for any lack of hospitality on my part; please forgive me. If you visit my home in the future, I’ll make sure to treat you well.”

Qin Niu expressed his gratitude to her.

“Mm-hmm!”

She gestured with her hands, indicating that she would definitely visit when she had the time.

“I’ll buy twenty mid-grade Contractual Talismans and five Advanced Contractual Talismans.”

Qin Niu found it too troublesome to enter the city repeatedly, so he intended to buy a large batch of talismans at once.

If he had the opportunity to subdue that Demon Bird, he would definitely need to consume a large number of mid-grade and advanced talismans, so naturally, he wanted to be well-prepared.

After hearing his request, she showed a troubled expression.

Then she wrote on the slate, “There’s no problem with the mid-grade talismans, but we currently don’t have any advanced ones in stock.”

Making Advanced Contract Talismans required not only high-level materials but also a high level of symbolism expertise.

Bei Bing was currently only capable of making mid-grade Contractual Talismans.

Her grandfather had been away for a long time and had not returned, which led to a direct shortage of Advanced Contractual Talismans.

“Alright, then I’ll just buy the twenty mid-grade Contractual Talismans for now!”

Qin Niu took out two hundred taels of Silver Money.

But she insisted on only accepting a hundred and eighty taels, giving him a discount of ten percent.

“Thanks!”

Qin Niu accepted her kindness.

Her family’s living conditions should not be bad, as the cost of making talismans was relatively low, and what they earned was mainly from their expertise.

The selling price for a mid-grade Contractual Talisman was ten taels of Silver Money, which was equivalent to the total income of an ordinary farmer over three years. Even if the cost to make one talisman was four taels of Silver Money, considering a certain failure rate, she could still make about two taels of Silver Money from each one.

In the talisman-making industry, the primary cost is the failure rate.

Even if making a mid-grade Contractual Talisman only cost two taels of Silver Money, if it took making ten to succeed in one, the cost would shoot up to twenty taels of Silver Money. Selling one would mean a loss of ten taels of Silver Money.

The better the Talisman Maker’s expertise and the more experience they had, the more they would earn.

Conversely, if it was a novice Talisman Master, they might well run at a loss.

“Do you know where I can buy Advanced Contractual Talismans? Can you recommend a talisman shop that sells quality ones for me?”

Qin Niu sought advice from her, an industry insider.