Wife, you didn't really drug me, did you?

Chapter 548 Chen Jiu Si: You're testing me with this! (Seeking monthly votes)

The Vatican's internal buildings are enormous, and can be divided into two parts: the inner court and the outer court.

The inner court is a relatively small area within the temple, but it is quite luxurious. This is where the high-ranking members of the Holy Church reside, as well as the residence of the Holy Church's leader, the Siamese National Preceptor, Pasong. Therefore, it is decorated with gold and silver inlays and all kinds of gemstones, making it look exceptionally opulent.

Moreover, the inner court has its own dining hall, staffed with the most famous chefs in the country, a total of thirteen chefs serving the officials of the inner court.

Besides the chefs, the maids serving the high-ranking officials in the inner court were also the most beautiful. These were beauties selected from all over the country. Every year, the Holy Church would hold an election, and the poor people of Siam would do everything they could to send their sixteen or seventeen-year-old daughters, who were in the prime of their youth, here to serve the nobles.

This is their only way to rise above others. If they are favored and taken advantage of by the nobles in the Holy Church, the fate of their entire family can be changed.

Of course, becoming the principal wife of these powerful figures is out of the question, and even becoming their concubine is a pipe dream. More often than not, these women are merely playthings for these powerful figures. But even being a plaything is an opportunity to change one's fate!
It is important to understand that the upward mobility of the social classes in the entire Kingdom of Siam was extremely narrow. Ordinary farmers only had two opportunities to change their fate. The first was to send their daughters to the Holy Church to become servants. In that case, their family would receive a generous settlement allowance. With this money, they could buy their own land and at least ensure that their family would not starve to death.

Another option was to have their children join the army and become soldiers in Siam. Only by becoming soldiers could they receive a government salary. If they could make meritorious contributions in the army and become officers or other management personnel, their parents could receive a good reward and buy land to feed their family.

Even if they die in battle, it's not a big deal. At least they'll get a resettlement allowance. Although they can't buy land, it will make their family's life a little easier.

Some people say, "Then why can't we change our destiny through reading?"
Because Siam did not have a civil service examination system, it was a very primitive country. Most of the officials here were hereditary or elected. For example, officials in charge of finance would elect the sons of officials in charge of criminal law to serve in the finance department.

When officials in charge of criminal law recommend the son of an official in charge of finance to serve as an official in the Ministry of Justice.

Thus, the entire bureaucratic system of Siam was so deeply entrenched that all official positions and benefits flowed only among the upper classes, leaving the lower classes with virtually no chance of advancement.

As officials' families, they would inevitably occupy a large amount of domestic production resources. In ancient feudal society, the greatest resource was land. Therefore, the country's land was basically occupied by these officials and large families, and land annexation was extremely serious. The final result was that ordinary people had no land to cultivate and could only become tenant farmers of large families.

The people's lives were miserable; they were so poor that they couldn't even afford to eat. It was not uncommon for several people to starve to death in the village every year.

Under such circumstances, the common people had no way out. Even if you wanted your child to join the army, the country sometimes didn't recruit soldiers. Therefore, the fact that the Holy Church regularly selected a certain number of young girls to serve as maids in the Holy Church was basically an immense blessing.

If a child is chosen by the Holy Church, the parents are expected to celebrate with drums and gongs.

Because the Holy Church gave so much. In addition to the money to buy land, there was also status. After all, their daughter was taken away by the Holy Church to be a maid. Who knew that she would be so lucky that she would be favored by a big shot in the Holy Church? Although she was just a plaything of a big shot, in the common people, she would be a very important person.

With such a person, who would dare to easily humiliate their parents and family?

If a woman is highly skilled and pleases a powerful figure, and you offend her parents, a single word from that powerful figure could cost you your life. That's her greatest advantage.

Therefore, every year when the Holy Church selects maidens, it is a fierce competition among the common people. Even some small families will send their second daughters to the selection, using it as a stepping stone. Perhaps their second daughters will perform well enough to please a powerful figure, and perhaps with just a word, they can gain enormous benefits in their small town.

To put it bluntly, it's all driven by profit.

Small families think about profit, while ordinary people think more simply about survival.

In this era, most families had several children, and all of these children needed to eat. However, if there was only one able-bodied man in the family, it was impossible to earn enough food. Therefore, it was common for people to sell their children.

If the daughters of these ordinary families are beautiful, they will try to raise them until they are sixteen years old, and then have them participate in the annual Holy Church selection.

If someone is ugly, or even just average-looking, many will be sold directly to local brothels to be entertained by the wealthy.

Only those who are so ugly that even brothels wouldn't accept them would be married off at the age of eleven or twelve, so that they wouldn't have to eat the family's food!

Therefore, for a girl, the best choice is to become a saintess of the Holy Church, the second best is to go to a brothel, and only then will she marry a poor local man.

That is why girls in Siam dream of becoming servants of the Holy Church, and thus such selections are called Holy Selections!
Yes, it's that ridiculous. A method of selecting playthings for high-ranking officials was eventually called a "holy selection" by the common people, who would do anything to send their daughters there, even knowing that they would become playthings of powerful figures.

Yet they take pride in it, which is undeniably a tragedy for the poor.

The plight of poor men is even more tragic. Women would rather be playthings for powerful men or even work in brothels to entertain them than stay and live with these poor men.

The world is so abstract!
It's also a bloody fact!
Poverty is the original sin of everything; it can even distort the morality of a nation.

The only way to change all of this is to become a superior person.

That's right, superior people.

Chen Jie is now a superior person. Although he is a monk, he is served by six beautiful and delicate foreign girls.

This was the treatment he received as the Right Protector. At this moment, the six delicate young girls looked at him differently, each of them filled with eyes that wanted to seduce him.

Yes, every time a great figure appears in the Holy Church, it is an opportunity for these young girls to be promoted. As long as they can be used by these great figures, their status will rise accordingly. Don't think it's all unbelievable.

There's nothing wrong with any of this; this is how they survive.

Even if the man in front of them is an old man old enough to be their grandfather, or even a monk, it doesn't matter, it really doesn't matter. As long as they are favored by this man, they can change their own fate, and the fate of their parents, brothers and sisters.

They have to fight for all of this.

The six girls stood there, their eyes filled with spring water. Two of them stepped forward and tried to strip Chen Jie of his clothes, saying in a sweet voice, "My lord, the bathwater is ready. Let us serve you as you bathe."

As they spoke, they tugged at their thin clothes, like delicious apples, juicy and sweet.

However, Chen Jie could not make any moves. It wasn't that Chen Jie was a saint, able to remain unmoved even with a woman in his lap; the main reason was that Chen Jie was currently disguised as the monk Xuan Tong. If he played any games recklessly, his disguise might be exposed.

In addition, although these six girls are juicy, in terms of looks and temperament, they are no match for his three beautiful wives at home.

In terms of looks, they are not as good as Su Yunjin; in terms of seductive skills, they are not as good as Huang Wan'er; and in terms of temperament, they are not as good as the princess. It can be said that these three women have already surpassed all the women in these three categories.

They had spoiled Chen Jie's taste with their excellence, and these ordinary women were really not worthy of his attention.

Moreover, having penetrated deep into the enemy's lair, why would he be so obsessed with sleeping with these maids?

Seeing the eager looks in the girls' eyes, Chen Jie resolutely refused. Fortunately, he was a monk, and it was not unreasonable for a monk to refuse all women.

The women looked at Chen Jie, who remained unmoved, and felt helpless. After all, they couldn't force Chen Jie to like them, especially since Chen Jie was a monk.

However, these women are all trained to meet any request made by the important person.

Therefore, he did not show any dissatisfaction with Chen Jie and remained respectful.

Chen Jie didn't want them to follow, so he sent the women away. After all, he had a main objective: to kill the woman in black.

At this moment, Chen Jie pushed open the door and walked out. He then saw that many guards had been added between the inner and outer courts, effectively separating them.

Chen Jie walked over and looked at them curiously, asking, "What are you doing?"

The guard didn't recognize Chen Jie at first, but when he saw Chen Jie dressed as a monk, and then remembered the requirements that had just been issued from above, he suddenly realized, "Could this be the newly appointed Right Protector?"

Thinking of this, the guard immediately asked, "Master Xuantong?"

Chen Jie said, "Yes, it's me."

The guard said, "Greetings, Right Protector."

"This is what you are doing?"

The guard immediately replied, "Oh, it's an order from above. From now on, martial law will be in effect in the inner court. No one may enter or leave the inner court without the leader's order."

Upon hearing this, Chen Jie said, "Oh, I see. Do you know why?"

The guard said, "We only carry out orders and don't ask any questions about anything else."

"Good, loyal and brave!"

Chen Jie praised him directly, then turned and left. The guards, seeing Chen Jie leave, immediately said, "Respectfully seeing off the Right Protector."

Chen Jie slowly left, thinking to himself, "What's the point of hiding this? Isn't it obvious?"

Who are you trying to protect yourself from? Of course, you're protecting yourself.

The Snow Woman's disappearance is what worries Basong the most, because the Snow Woman knows some of his past events, especially the identities of his two original straw dolls, which he had told the Snow Woman before.

Whether Zhu Chongba is holding him hostage or cooperating with Xue Nu, the fact that they are on the same side is a huge blow to him, and the information about his substitute straw man has definitely been leaked.

That's why Basong rushed back so quickly.

Actually, he had two ways of dealing with the man in the black veil. The first was to keep him under the control of the Holy Church, just like he is now, so that he would feel safe.

The second thing is to find a way to get the person in black to run away from this troublesome place.

But where can you run to? What if someone takes the opportunity to kill you? So it's better to keep it by your side; that's more beneficial for you.

That's why Basong is doing what he's doing now.

Chen Jie considered it in his mind. He had to admit that Basong's approach was actually quite reasonable. After seeing the layout of the inner and outer halls of the Holy Church, Chen Jie realized that even if he wanted to leave without anyone noticing, it would be impossible.

He could certainly break in himself, but it would definitely make a scene, and that scene would alert Basong, allowing Basong to know immediately. He had to admit, this arrangement was quite clever. Thinking this, Chen Jie quickened his pace and soon returned to his room.

At this moment, Chen Jie saw a house not far away with the door tightly closed, and then he saw maids moving back and forth inside.

Chen Jie stopped a maid who was holding a tray with some bath spices on it.

Seeing Chen Jie stop him, he dared not resist in the slightest. After all, the rule in the inner court was that all maids had to unconditionally obey all the demands of the nobles.

In other words, even if Chen Jie asked her to take off her clothes and crawl like a dog in public, she wouldn't dare to resist in the slightest.

This is the authority of nobles within the inner court.

She was summoned into the room by Chen Jie. The other maids saw this and were not surprised at all. On the contrary, they were a little envious. That damned fake monk was indifferent to us, but he favored that slut. She really got lucky.

The maid was summoned into the room by Chen Jie, and she seemed very uneasy.

Chen Jie asked, "Which room do you want to go into?"

Upon hearing this, the maid replied, "It is the Left Protector."

"Is it that person with the black veil covering their face?"

Chen Jie asked to confirm, and the maid replied, "Yes."

Chen Jie said, "That's good, take off your clothes."

"Yes!"

The maids obediently began to undress; this was commonplace for them, and they had to cooperate whenever the nobleman wished.

Chen Jie then took off his monk's robe, turned around and glanced at the maid, asking, "What's your name?"

"Gina."

As she spoke, the maid had almost finished taking off her clothes and said timidly, "Please be gentle, Your Excellency."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Jie pointed, and the maid instantly went limp. Chen Jie caught the maid, then carried her to the bed, turned around, removed his disguise, and immediately transformed into the maid's appearance, using his bone-shrinking technique to make his body match the maid's figure.

After putting on the maid's clothes, she turned to leave, but then Chen Jie thought for a moment, got up, grabbed the cassock from the ground, and draped it over the maid, saying, "Get a good night's sleep."

Then Chen Jie reverted to Xuan Tong's voice and shouted, "Get out! I don't need your service!"

After saying this, Chen Jie turned around, picked up the tray, and pretended to cry as he left the room. He then closed the door behind him. As soon as he looked up, he saw the mocking looks from the women around him.

Still trying to climb the social ladder? Serves you right!

Everyone watched Chen Jie's blunder with amusement. Then someone said, "Gina, with your two skills, you didn't serve the esteemed person well enough. Hurry up and go serve the Left Protector, otherwise you won't even have this job of serving people."

Chen Jie remained silent upon hearing this, lowered his head, and left with the tray. As he left, the women behind him continued to whisper among themselves, each one gloating.

Even though they all came from poor backgrounds, it didn't stop them from openly and secretly competing with each other and tripping each other up. That's just women's nature.

Chen Jie, carrying a tray, entered the Left Protector's room. He was stunned as soon as he entered. There were curtains hanging inside the room, and a maid was kneeling inside.

Inside the curtained room, someone was combing their hair.

In the very center of the room was a wooden tub, and inside the tub was a bucket of water. Was this for a bath?

Chen Jie was puzzled and closed the door behind him.

Just then, a maid saw Chen Jie standing there and said, "What are you standing there for? Quickly pour the perfume into the water. The noble lady is about to take a bath."

Upon hearing this, Chen Jie went straight over and poured the contents of the plate into the bucket.

Then he retreated, at which point the maid immediately shouted, "Kneel down, kneel down quickly!"

Chen Jie frowned slightly. He then crouched down behind her and saw the curtain suddenly open, revealing a woman wearing a purple bathrobe.

Yes, it was indeed a woman, and she was quite pretty. From her right cheek down to her body, there were disgusting black spots, and these spots were festering and emitting a nauseating smell.

Chen Jie recognized him at a glance; this was a Gu practitioner.

Chen Jie had a good relationship with the Gu Mother of Miao Jiang and the Holy Maiden Linglong, so he had read some of the Miao Jiang classics. For example, in the chapter on raising Gu, there was a very inhumane method of raising Gu, which used people as nests and raised Gu with flesh and blood.

How to describe this method of raising poisonous insects? It's evil, disgusting, and utterly insane.

The Siamese black magic is actually based on the same lineage as the Miao Gu magic, only with some modifications. But no matter how it is modified, Chen Jie can still see that this person is raising Gu with his body, a true Gu master!

Thinking about this, Chen Jie thought that such evil magic had actually been put to use here. It seemed that Siam was indeed a cruel place.

He knew that becoming a Gu person was not so simple. The whole process was extremely painful. The Gu worms would use the person's body as a nest, so they would drill holes in the internal organs, muscles and bones, causing the whole person's body to be covered with dense holes, just like a fleshy ant nest.

It can be said that this method of raising Gu is both cruel and inhumane. Chen Jie couldn't understand why this woman, who didn't look ugly, would choose to become a Gu person.

Chen Jie was thinking to himself when the woman came to the bucket, reached into it and splashed around to test the water temperature, which was just right.

The woman then took off all her robes, revealing her gruesome body. Her entire body was riddled with holes, and various worms were crawling inside them.

A stench filled the entire room, a sight that would make anyone with trypophobia feel uncomfortable.

Chen Jie was also forcing himself to suppress his nausea.

Then the woman slowly entered the bucket and sat down. Instantly, the water in the bucket turned black as if it had been dyed with ink.

Many insects crawled out and swam on the surface of the water, which looked quite exciting.

Seeing the scene before them, many maids lowered their heads, enduring the nausea.

No wonder no maids are willing to serve this Left Protector. Those who come to serve are forced into it. If they were maids who were doing well, they wouldn't come here.

Chen Jie suppressed his discomfort and looked at the back of the woman's neck. In the dim light, Chen Jie seemed to see a red scarecrow mark.

Upon seeing this mark, Chen Jie confirmed that there was no mistake; this maid was indeed the owner of the Basong substitute straw doll he had found.

Thinking of this, a hint of murderous intent quietly surfaced in Chen Jie's eyes.

buzz~
However, just as Chen Jie's murderous aura emerged, an insect in the woman's basin suddenly twitched. This startled the woman who was deep in thought. She narrowed her eyes slightly and slowly turned around.

Facing Chen Jie's direction, Chen Jie frowned slightly. Why did she suddenly turn around? Did she startle her?

Chen Jie thought for a moment, took a deep breath, and lowered his head even further. At that moment, the woman suddenly pointed to a maid and said, "Come here."

"what!"

The maid was greatly alarmed.

"come here!"

Another cold voice rang out, and the maid trembled with fear, but dared not resist. She obediently got up and walked toward the woman. When she reached the woman's side, the woman reached out and picked up a cup from the side, filling it with her own bathwater.

"Drink it!"

"what!"

The maid was shocked, but the next moment she saw the woman's cold eyes, eyes like those of death. At the same time, she also thought of how terrifying this Left Protector was. It was said that dozens of maids died here with the Left Protector every year, and all maids who dared to disobey her would die.

Thinking of this, the maid tremblingly took the water cup, and then saw that the water in the cup was fishy, ​​smelly, and black, and there were even insects wriggling in it, which looked disgusting.

"drink!"

A woman's voice came from behind her, icy cold. Hearing this, the maid looked at the woman pleadingly, but the woman remained unmoved, her eyes still so cold.

It was as if if the maid uttered a single word of refusal, she would kill the maid without hesitation the next moment.

Left with no other choice, the maid gritted her teeth, stamped her foot, and gulped down the water.

"Ugh~"

After finishing the drink, he collapsed to his knees and vomited uncontrollably. The woman's expression remained cold; she didn't even glance at the maid. Instead, she turned and pointed in Chen Jie's direction, saying, "You, come here!"

(End of this chapter)