Yes, Madam Prime Minister

These past two days, Ronan has been planning to take care of his personal affairs. Since Alice and Elena have both started working for the government, their employment relationship with Ronan has naturally ended. They are no longer Ronan's maids, but nominally his tenants.

Of course, when they were still maids, they did a lot of maid work properly. When they were young, they were mostly studying, and they were more like noble ladies than the young ladies from small noble families in the countryside.

As the two grew older, Alice began to help Ronan with things that he couldn't do directly.

Elena did odd jobs at home, such as sweeping, washing clothes, and tidying up the yard. Ronan would share some of the housework because he wasn't particularly busy in Wright City.

Things are different now. If Dinia wants to reform, it's just a matter of the leader saying something, while the subordinates run themselves ragged. Ronan will be much busier than when he was in Wright City, so it's necessary to hire two new maids.

Ronan offered a package deal including room and board and a monthly salary of four silver dragons.

Two silver dragons are worth sixteen silver half-cents, and forty-eight copper muskets. One copper musket can buy three baguettes, while many poor people can only afford one baguette for a meal.

This treatment doesn't sound very good, especially compared to Alice and Elena.

You should know that Elena and Alice's pantyhose cost two silver dragons per pair. Although these pantyhose are magically created and are generally durable and self-cleaning, they still need to be washed. And you can't wear the same ones every season.

A person usually needs to buy twenty or thirty pairs of shoes, and they will eventually wear out after a year or two, so they need to buy new ones.

So it's no exaggeration for Ronan to say that the two of them lived better than the average aristocratic lady.

However, compared to the average person, this is not a low salary. It guarantees that you have food and shelter, and the monthly salary is enough to support another person.

The interview is this weekend.

The reason for the interview was that a written test had been arranged beforehand. The reason for the written test was that there were far more applicants than expected, more than thirty people, and they were all of very high quality. They were all literate and educated.

Taken in isolation, this situation is unreasonable.

It should be noted that the kingdom's illiteracy rate is over 70%. A complete illiterate person is someone who cannot read or write at all. Of the remaining 30%, 20% are only illiterate because they work in a certain profession and can read and write a few dozen common words and recognize the few dozen common words related to their profession. If you really want to say that, they are still illiterate.

Less than 10% of people are truly literate, and men make up the vast majority of that group.

Women who can read and write are extremely rare, about one in a hundred, a proportion similar to that of people with magical talent.

However, when considering the actual situation, this is not so unreasonable.

"A group of women with ulterior motives."

"Yes."

On this matter, Elena and Alice unusually stood on the same side.

If even the two of them understood, Ronan certainly couldn't possibly be oblivious.

None of the women who came to apply for the maid position were really interested in being maids properly, nor did they care about the meager monthly salary. They all hoped to get a government job by leveraging Ronan's influence, just like Alice and Elena.

Ronan figured that almost all the girls in New Sea City who had received an education but came from poor families, and who were willing to risk everything, even their reputation, to get a government job were probably here.

Since they aspire to be civil servants, let's grant their request: a written exam first, followed by an interview.

More than 30 people were eliminated, and only six people made it to the interview stage. Three of them were among the top three in the written test, and the other three were selected because they were good-looking.

The examiners were not Ronan, but Alice.

The last three weren't chosen by Ronan, but by Elena. In her words, since they all had ulterior motives anyway, she might as well pick someone prettier, at least someone more pleasing to the eye, since they couldn't possibly be prettier than her.

Before I knew it, it was the weekend, and it was time for the interviews.

The three interviewers were Ronan, Alice, and Elena.

The six applicants were not invited to come up one by one, but were all invited to sit together side by side.

"I'll go first," Elena said, "My first question is, can you cook?"

Everyone nodded. In this era, apart from the daughters of wealthy families, it was impossible for girls not to do housework. Even if their families were better off than most people and had the means to send them to school, they still had to do housework.

Their parents' goal was to marry them off to nobles, officials, or wealthy merchants, so that they could use their decent knowledge to help their husbands manage household affairs and, incidentally, support their own families.

This goal is not easy to achieve, so their parents are willing to send them to Ronan to give it a try.

"Okay, follow me." Elena beckoned a few people to follow.

The group went to the kitchen.

Elena took out a basket of fresh eggs that had been delivered that morning. "Make scrambled eggs with butter. Use whatever you need here. Whoever makes the best scrambled eggs will get the highest score."

Scrambled eggs with butter is a very basic dish. It's easy to make: just melt the butter, then add the egg mixture and scramble. The seasonings are just salt and pepper. But beginners will definitely not be able to make it well because it requires a high degree of control over the heat. The scrambled eggs should be soft and tender, without any burnt brown color.

None of the six were novices, and they were confident they could produce acceptable results, but was merely acceptable enough? Only two of the six would be hired, so they needed to ensure they were better than the others.

Therefore, we must add some other little tricks.

Since there were only two frying pans, they worked in pairs.

The first pair is Judy and Charlotte.

Judy added milk, making the scrambled eggs smoother and more creamy, while Charlotte added some black truffle crumbs on top.

Ronan, Alice, and Elena each took a spoon and came over to taste it.

Judy added too much cream to her scrambled eggs, making them too tender, and Charlotte added too much black truffle, which masked the egg flavor. Besides, Ronan doesn't really like black truffles anyway.

The second group consists of Zoe and Matilda.

The two seemed to have noticed Ronan's dissatisfaction with the previous two, so they didn't add any tricks and just cooked the meal in the most ordinary way.

However, Zoe added too much pepper and Matilda added too little salt.

The third group consists of Chloe and Lutas.

The two felt that it wouldn't be right to leave it without any tricks, so they decided to add something. They both chose to add bacon and then leave out the salt.

Ronan could only say that the idea was good, but the two people in the third group were not as good at cooking as the first two groups. One put too little oil in, and the other overcooked the food.

The six of them were all decent cooks, better than Elena and Alice, but not quite as good as Ronan.

"Let's leave it at that for now," Elena said, offering no further comment.

Next, it was Alice's turn.

Alice looked at the six of them and said, "I'm not as bored as her. I have a question here, and you can answer it together later."

"Tch, it's like an exam," Elena muttered from the side.

Chapter 116 Question, Answer, Rock-Paper-Scissors

Alice asked everyone the same question.

"If you were the head maid, and Ronan, as your employer, put you in charge of a task, assigned you three new maids, and sent an old servant who had taken care of him in his youth to assist you, but from the very beginning, your three subordinates only listened to the senior servant and not you, but you felt that your own plan was better, what would you do?"

Alice asked this question.

Ronan's household didn't have that many maids, nor did it have any senior servants.

Anyone with even a basic understanding of Ronan's situation, and who isn't stupid, should realize that this question isn't about how they handle family matters, but rather a civil service interview question.

The translation is as follows: Your boss asks you to do something and sends a senior colleague to help. Your subordinates listen to the senior colleague instead of you. What would you do?

Judy's answer to the question about adding too much milk to the scrambled eggs was, "I will try to communicate with this experienced old gentleman, express my respect for him and my opinion, and hope that he will agree with me."

Do not resist; be weak.

Charlotte, who had added a lot of black truffles, replied, "To get things done, I'll explain the situation to the employer."

Snitching, incompetent.

Next up is Zoe, who added more pepper. "During the process, I will learn a lot from the old gentleman and improve my plan. After the matter is successfully completed, I will emphasize the old gentleman's important role in this matter in my report."

It's harmful to others without benefiting oneself; it's scheming.

When it was Matilda's turn to put in too little salt, she said, "I will go and explain my ideas to the three new maids, try to get their support, and get things done."

Lowering one's status; lack of self-confidence.

Next up is Chloe, who put too little oil in. "I will explain to everyone that I am a young person, and emphasize that this old servant is old and experienced, so that everyone can work together to get things done."

They are secretly fighting amongst themselves and lack unity.

Finally, there's the veteran Lutas. "First and foremost, getting things done is the priority. I'll communicate with the old gentleman and try to integrate our plans as much as possible. I'll also involve the other three in the process. Secondly, I'll stick to the general direction of my plan, and then..."

Too much nonsense is the same as saying nothing at all.

After it was over, Alice told Ronan the whole story.

Ronan simply smiled, but seeing Alice's displeased expression, he asked, "Alice, what's the meaning of that expression?"

"It means they're all pretty mediocre," Alice replied coldly.

“I think it’s all good.” Ronan disagreed. “At least they all understand that getting things done is the most important thing. As for the rest, those are their personal issues. In the end, your question is too suggestive. You’re implying that you want to know how they will fight against the veterans.”

"So it's my problem?" Alice countered.

“It is indeed your fault,” Ronan said. “I only hired a maid, and now you’ve made a mess of it.”

Alice's turn is over, now it's Ronan's turn.

Seeing Elena and Alice giving scores to six people, Ronan really didn't know what to say.

The initial agreement was for them to rate everyone on a five-point scale, but the two of them gave everyone the same score: Elena gave everyone three points, and Alice did the same.

Therefore, the final choice is entirely up to Ronan.

Ronan felt that the two of them weren't really giving each other scores, but were just throwing a tantrum.

After shaking his head and letting out a soft sigh, Ronan called the six people to the courtyard where they had been sitting. The six people sat on chairs outdoors, all in the same posture, with their calves together, hands on their thighs, and similar expressions, all with their heads slightly bowed and forced smiles.

It's clear this is a lingering effect of Alice's question earlier; to be honest, that question was really difficult to answer.

This issue involves three types of people: superiors, subordinates, and senior staff, so communication is essential.

However, in this problem, no matter who you actively seek to communicate with, it will at least lead to one party looking down on themselves. If you seek out your leader, your leader will look down on you; if you seek out a senior colleague, the senior colleague will look down on you; if you seek out a subordinate, the subordinate will look down on you.

The real answer exists, but it's actually outside the scope of this question.

That is to get one party to take the initiative to communicate with you.

If it were Ronan, he would definitely try to stir up some trouble to get this veteran to take the initiative to communicate with him.

"In the end, it's just a boring question."

Ronan thought to himself.

Looking at the other six people, things seem to have improved.

"I'll ask a question too, but you don't need to answer it individually. You can discuss it and come up with an answer."

"Suppose there is a poor, lame old farmer without children selling oranges from a two-wheeled cart in an unauthorized area. Two kind-hearted women are about to buy oranges from him. You are the regulators of the agricultural market. You see this situation and, according to regulations, you should go over and confiscate the old man's oranges and his two-wheeled cart. But when you approach him to order him to hand over his goods, the old man says that he is not selling oranges, but that he is delivering oranges to someone. The two women are also willing to testify for him."

"So, what are you going to do now?" Ronan asked. "No need to give an answer right away. I'll go make you some tea and snacks, and I'll be right back."

After saying that, Ronan left, leaving the six girls looking at each other in bewilderment.

All six felt that the tricky question Alice asked was the kind of question Ronan would ask, while the question Ronan had just asked was more like a question a woman like Alice would ask.

Ronan's image is quite different from the rumored image of a ruthless young man nicknamed "The Sea Fox" who manipulates all sorts of schemes and tricks to torment a group of people to the point of death.

From the very beginning, they felt that Ronan looked very gentle and handsome, not at all like a ruthless person, or even a nobleman, but rather like the older brother next door.

This impression was reinforced after he asked the question.

Back to reality, this issue seems to be a matter of morality and law.

The six people began to discuss how to handle the matter.

In the end, the topic changed. The matter itself wasn't particularly difficult to handle, but it was impossible for all six of them to explain their discussion results to Ronan one by one. Only one person could explain it.

So, who will come?

They were all people who dared to risk everything to come to Ronan's place as maids, and none of them backed down; they all wanted to do it themselves.

"Rock, paper, scissors, quick!"

one person said.

Ronan brought this game to the world ten years ago. Since the troops that joined the kingdom were essentially private armies, there were often questions about who should go first and who should stay behind. Everyone was a magician and was afraid of someone cheating when drawing lots, so Ronan came up with this game. Now, everyone in the south, from the great nobles to the little beggars, knows this game.

Ultimately, Lutas was the luckiest.

Just as they decided who would tell Ronan, Ronan returned with a teapot and snacks.

The six people ate some snacks and drank tea.

Then, Lutas began to explain their solution, while Ronan sat listening with a mostly expressionless face.

Chapter 117 Pretty good, pre-arranged, let's conduct a small experiment.

The reason for Ronan's expressionless face was that after hearing the first sentence, he didn't want to listen anymore.