It's really hard to just farm peacefully.

Jiang Yan's office was located in the west wing of the courtyard where the master of the Fu family, Fu Jian, worked. There were also two advisors in the same room who were writing furiously.

After greeting the two men who had raised their heads, Fourteen introduced them to Jiang Yan one by one: "The one in the middle is Secretary Cao, and the one on the left is Secretary Yang. They are responsible for drafting various official documents and selecting confidential information for the Lord. From now on, you will follow their instructions."

“Secretary Cao, Secretary Yang, this is the new clerk, surnamed Jiang, given name Yan, he has a very good memory.”

Secretary? Clerk? This was the first time Jiang Yan had heard such formal job titles. In the past, they had always been told to call everyone they met "Big Brother" or "Brother" haphazardly.

Jiang Yan secretly analyzed that perhaps this was the first step in the transformation of the makeshift team into a regular army.

Cao Jishi was a middle-aged man in his thirties with a goatee, a thin face, and a serious expression, making him seem unapproachable.

Yang Jishi appeared younger, around twenty-three or twenty-four, with relatively fair and fleshy skin, making it difficult to discern his true personality; however, his gaze would occasionally drift towards Cao Jishi.

Jiang Yan initially concluded that this room was led by Cao Jishi.

After the introductions were completed, Secretary Cao and Secretary Yang nodded to Jiang Yan, who in turn greeted them politely.

Fourteen waited a while longer, and seeing that no one present had any objections, he left to let the three of them talk amongst themselves.

The room was quiet.

After carefully examining the layout of the room, Jiang Yan noticed that neither of the two secretaries had come forward to make arrangements, so she took the initiative to ask, "Secretary Cao, Secretary Yang, may I sit in this position from now on?"

There were four tables in the room. The two by the window were already occupied, and the two remaining tables, which were poorly lit, were filled with books and other odds and ends.

Jiang Yan chose the table furthest from the door. It was cold, and she didn't want to be chilled by the draft from the curtain as she went in and out.

Cao Jishi grunted in approval, and then the two of them continued to secretly observe Jiang Yan's movements, but remained completely still.

Jiang Yan: ... "What about these things?"

She asked the question aloud, while silently counting to ten in her mind. When no one answered, her hands automatically began to tidy up, stacking or piling the items according to their fragility.

"Eh!"

"Don't move yet!"

Yang and Cao, the secretaries, couldn't sit still any longer and quickly got up and came over. One said that my tea set was a bit expensive and couldn't be stacked casually because it would be easy to bump into things, while the other said that the stack of booklets had been arranged and couldn't be out of order.

Jiang Yan stood aside with her arms crossed, quietly waiting for the two to finish clearing the table, then sat down gracefully. "Secretaries, is there anything I can do for you?"

"Wait here, let's discuss this."

Jiang Yan waited until her shift ended. With nothing to do in the room, she even took a nap for more than half an hour. If her arm hadn't become numb from using it as a pillow and her body hadn't grown colder and colder, she could have slept even longer.

"Secretary Cao, Secretary Yang, if there are no further instructions, I'll go fetch dinner."

Jiang Yan wasn't sad or anxious at all about being sidelined. When she met the old gentleman she had chatted with a few times before in the cafeteria, she was just as candid, saying, "White-collar workers get paid monthly wages without doing any work. It would be best if this good thing continued for a few more days."

She didn't care whether the two secretaries were just not used to having another person or were deliberately trying to intimidate her. If she was uncomfortable working with women, weren't there plenty of women working in the mansion?

The old man laughed and said, "I'm afraid it won't be possible to do so. It wouldn't be right to leave you idle."

Knowing that Jiang Yan was worried about Jiang Ying and Jiang Ai, she subtly revealed, "They'll be able to return to the manor before the New Year, and then..."

Jiang Yan raised her eyebrows: "They'll be laughing their heads off then."

-----------------

The next afternoon, Jiang Yan's nap was interrupted by the noise of a large pile of books being placed on her desk.

Yang Jishi stood in front of her and said, "You should first memorize these contents thoroughly."

Jiang Yan, still sleepy and with watery eyes, stared blankly at the height of the table. Good heavens, there was so much stuff; it would take her four or five days to look through it all.

However, relying on her memory, Jiang Yan was not intimidated. After quickly sorting the books by type, she chose the one she was most interested in and started memorizing it from the beginning.

This was a pile of more detailed but long-past information. Before Jiang Yan could figure out the purpose of memorizing it, she was summoned into Fu Jian's study.

Besides Cao Jishi, there were two other middle-aged men who I had never seen before. Judging from their titles, they were Fu Jian’s trusted advisors.

Jiang Yan quickly glanced at the positions in the arena, found a suitable spot, and stood down. Then she heard the person at the head of the table ask, "Tell me about the situation in Zhongyang County, Pingling County, Changling County, and Zhongze County of Zhongyuan Prefecture over the past five years."

Jiang Yan was stunned for a moment, but quickly realized that all of this information was in the pile of books that Yang Jishi had brought over. However, the content was quite extensive and spanned a long period of time, so it was not recorded in the same volume and was somewhat scattered.

She painstakingly retrieved the relevant information from her memory, quickly integrated it in her mind, and then spoke it aloud, finally looking at Fu Jian.

No one answered, no one asked questions, and no one asked her to leave...

Just as Jiang Yan was hesitating whether she should leave the room quietly, as Yang Jishi had urgently instructed her to do before she came in, Inspector Fu spoke.

"Although Governor Mo Xian is lazy, his ability to handle civil affairs should not be underestimated. These four counties have basically recovered in just one year after the chaos in the capital. It is difficult for our people to interfere."

"Let me tell you about the current situation in Zhongyang County, Pingling County, and Changling County."

Jiang Yan hadn't read all of this part yet. She recounted the information she knew one by one, and then confessed, "I haven't seen any news from Changling County in the last half month. I need Cao Jishi's help to supplement it or go back and look through the booklets."

Fu Jian remained expressionless, while his two advisors frowned as if dissatisfied. Cao Jishi… Cao Jishi gave Jiang Yan a subtle glare before continuing what she hadn’t said.

However, compared to Jiang Yan's comprehensive report, which covered every detail and strived to include no single figure, Cao's report was much more concise.

……

Jiang Yan stood from beginning to end during the meeting. Not only did her legs ache from standing, but she also became parched from talking so much that she couldn't concentrate on listening to the content during the second half of the discussion and was often out of touch with the situation. In the end, no substantial action was agreed upon.

Jiang Yan returned to the west wing, poured herself three cups of water, drank them down, and then slumped onto a stool, lost in thought.

When Cao Jishi returned later, the first thing he saw was Jiang Yan, who was exhausted and barely sitting.

He tapped the table to remind him: "Hurry up and finish memorizing the contents. You couldn't answer many of the questions the lord asked you today. You shouldn't make the same mistake again next time."

Secretary Yang was quick to seize the opportunity. As soon as Secretary Cao finished speaking, he handed Jiang Yan another booklet: "This is new."

Jiang Yan forced her dead fish eyes, which were almost blackened by the soot from the oil lamp in the room, to ask, "...You all remembered everything?"

Jiang Yan wondered if they also had to memorize so much complicated information in such a short time before she arrived.