USWHC -Chapter 253 Open Selection for a Maid (Part 3)

“Hey, Huaihua, why are you here too?”

After Zhu Jie had just sent the nun away, she noticed Huaihua standing under the willow tree in the distance. She wasn’t in the queue, yet her eyes were fixed tightly on Zhu Jie, and there seemed to be a faint glow of longing in her gaze.

“I—I was just passing by!” Huaihua said, turning her head as if she wanted to leave.

Unfortunately, Zhu Jie was still warmly holding onto her hand, so there was no way she could slip away. Zhu Jie said enthusiastically, “Since you’re already here, come in and sit for a while!”

“N-no, that’s not necessary!” Huaihua replied even more shyly.

Just then, murmurs rose from the crowd again.

“Isn’t that Huaihua? Why did she come here?”

“Yeah, I remember she was once betrothed to Ji Yi!”

“What bad luck she had. If she had known Ji Yi would turn out this well, how great it would’ve been if she’d married him back then!”

“Didn’t you hear? Something happened to her around that time!”

“Oh right, I remember now. Her fate is bad—she couldn’t match a man that good. What a pity.”

“If I were her, I wouldn’t come here. How embarrassing!”

“Exactly! And she’s even pulling and tugging at Ji Yi’s wife. She must be dying of jealousy inside!”

“Don’t tell me she wants to become a maid in Ji Yi’s house?”

“That can’t be that shameless, right? Not becoming the wife but becoming the maid instead? That’s downright humiliating!”

Listening to the aunts gossiping one sentence after another without a single kind word among them, Huaihua finally couldn’t endure it anymore.

“I should go back,” she said, forcefully pulling her hand away. Tears were already swirling in her eyes.

Seeing her like that, Zhu Jie couldn’t help but feel a pang in her heart.

Actually, Huaihua was quite a good girl. Just the fact that she had once deliberately run over to warn Zhu Jie about danger showed how kind-hearted she was. Moreover, she kept praising Ji Yi as a good man, which proved she had good judgment.

Wait!

Zhu Jie suddenly looked Huaihua up and down very seriously.

Now that she noticed, although the girl couldn’t be called beautiful, she was definitely clean and neat. There was even a certain purity about her, like the vast open fields.

An immaculate girl, carrying a simplicity that those noble young ladies didn’t possess.

And most importantly—she thought Ji Yi was a good man!

Zhu Jie suddenly began to scheme.

Yes, this time she really wasn’t just choosing an ordinary maid. She was actually looking for a potential wife for Ji Yi.

What? Was she seriously trying to find Ji Yi a mistress?

Not exactly. At least not a mistress—more like a confidante. If one day she truly left, it wouldn’t be bad to leave someone behind to accompany Ji Yi.

If Ji Yi really didn’t amount to much and only came back with the small achievement of passing the xiucai exam, then having a kind and simple wife like Huaihua wouldn’t be bad either.

A safe and steady choice no matter what.

Zhu Jie’s eyes rolled around mischievously. She grabbed Huaihua and pulled her toward the courtyard. Just before entering, she even waved her hand at the aunts waiting in line and shouted:

“That’s it, everyone! We’re done recruiting!”

“Done recruiting? Why?”

“Don’t tell me she really picked Huaihua?” The aunts immediately exploded with excitement.

“Huaihua? What kind of situation is this? Is Ji Yi’s wife stupid? Hiring a girl who used to have that kind of relationship with her husband as a maid?”

“Isn’t this just playing with us? I stood in line for so long!” The aunts began complaining unhappily.

But Zhu Jie simply led Huaihua straight into the house. Not only that, she politely invited her to sit in the main hall and even poured her a cup of warm water.

“I’m a few years older than you, so I’ll call you ‘younger sister.’ What do you think?”

Huaihua, however, was trembling with nervousness. Looking at Zhu Jie’s warm, spring-breeze-like smile, she stammered, “N-no, that’s not right. I can’t accept you calling me that. Just call me Huaihua.”

Hearing this, Zhu Jie didn’t insist politely and continued smiling.

“Then I’ll keep calling you Huaihua. Huaihua, how has your family been lately? Spring has arrived—are things busy with the farm work at home?”

“We can manage, we can manage! All the fields in our family are worked by my three older brothers. They don’t need my help!” Huaihua answered earnestly, nodding firmly as she spoke.

Hearing that made Zhu Jie even happier.

Good—if they didn’t need her, that was perfect.

She probed further, “You’re about thirteen or fourteen now, right? Has your family made any arrangements for you? Have they talked about a marriage for you yet?”