There are countless such humble families in the capital; when faced with all-powerful nobles, what can they do but submit to their fate?

Lily Brooks could only hope that what that scoundrel said was true, and that he wouldn’t come to bother her again in the future—otherwise, she truly wouldn’t know what to do...

===Chapter 8: The Governor’s Daily Life (Part 1)===

By the time he returned to the Marquis of Wu’an’s residence on Yonglu Street, the whole city was already silent.

Beneath two lanterns, the tall and slender maid Lucy Frost was looking around, waiting. Lucy Frost was the adopted daughter of Henry Bennett; since she was a woman, she couldn’t become an official at court. Her gaze was too sharp for palace service, so she could only serve as William Carter’s maid. In fact, the two had grown up together, but Lucy Frost was quite afraid of William Carter, as their martial skills were worlds apart.

“Lucy Frost, still awake?” Master Carter, carrying his damp robe, jogged up to the gate and greeted her.

Lucy Frost let out a sigh of relief and hurried forward to bow. “Young master, I thought you had...” At this point, Lucy Frost felt she was being disrespectful and stopped herself.

Yesterday, the young master had mysteriously disappeared for a whole night. She naturally didn’t dare ask where he’d gone, but if he kept coming and going like this, with no one managing the Dian Kui Office, things would surely fall into chaos.

He chuckled, taking off his clothes as he walked. “Just went out for a stroll. Is something the matter?”

Lucy Frost called for a maid to bring a clean robe, then fetched a stack of case files from the study. “Young master, you’ve been busy with official duties these days. The case files from the Dian Kui Office haven’t been reviewed yet. Please take a look.”

The Dian Kui Office was nominally the emperor’s personal guard, but in reality, it served as his eyes and ears, with the duty of supervising officials. He didn’t really understand all this mess, so as he changed behind the screen, he said casually, “Lucy Frost, you need to practice handling these matters more. In the future, you can make your own judgments, and only come to me if you encounter something you can’t decide.”

A classic way for a boss to lighten his workload—he had mastered it to perfection.

Lucy Frost was both flattered and startled. She had never imagined she could oversee the Dian Kui Office. Suddenly given such great authority, she was stunned and didn’t know how to respond.

“I... I...”

He came out from behind the screen and sat in the chair, looking approvingly at the maid standing in the room. “Learning is endless. You must not forget your original intention. Don’t let a little bit of power go to your head. This is a good opportunity for you to grow.”

“Lucy Frost wouldn’t dare. Th-thank you for your great kindness, young master.”

Lucy Frost hugged the case files and was about to kneel.

He quickly raised his hand. “You may go. I’m going to practice martial arts now—I don’t want you to get hurt.”

In the capital, William Carter had a reputation as a fearsome figure, with a three-foot sword at his waist and a smile that could kill. His martial skills were said to be extraordinary. In reality, he didn’t know any martial arts at all, but he still had to keep up appearances.

Lucy Frost nodded quickly, got up and walked a few steps, then hesitated. She pulled a sheet of paper from the files and placed it on the desk.

“Young master, these are the people scheduled for execution in the past half month. Please review them.”

He was taken aback, picked up the execution list for the month, and glanced at it. It was full of minor officials and clerks—some accused of selling offices, some of seizing land from the people, and some spies from various rebel factions who had slipped into Bianjing.

Since it had been placed on his desk, it didn’t need to go through the review of the Three Departments and Six Ministries. He could just find an excuse to make them disappear.

“Most of these crimes don’t warrant death. Deal with the spies according to the law, but for the others, handle it as you see fit.”

“Huh?!”

Lucy Frost was stunned. The people on this list had all been named by various high officials for execution. Submitting it to the young master was just to let him choose the method of death.

“Young master!” Lucy Frost hesitated for a moment, then bowed. “If we don’t execute them, the officials will surely complain, and it won’t look good for my adoptive father.”

He rubbed his forehead, thinking for a moment. “Then just find some excuse to send them out of the capital on errands, give them a warning, and don’t let them come back to cause trouble for a while. That’s as good as making them disappear. Those officials probably won’t care about such small fry.”

Lucy Frost nodded, not daring to go against the young master’s wishes, and turned to leave.

William Carter only wanted to be a paper-paster, not get blood on his hands, so he added, “In the future, if the Dian Kui Office needs to secretly kill someone, you must get my approval first.”

“Yes!” Lucy Frost nodded seriously. This was the young master’s authority, so she had no doubts.

A little later, the maid Grace Green came in with a basin of water to help with washing up. She kept her head down, not daring to look around, but she knew the way well, and stood properly to the side holding a towel.

He wasn’t used to being waited on, so he waved her off to let her rest.

In the vast Marquis of Wu’an’s residence, only the maid Lucy Frost dared to speak up. The other two maids—Edward Hall, fifteen years old, clever and mischievous, would always hide in the kitchen boiling water whenever he was around, leaving all the chores to the slightly older Grace Green. Grace Green was a timid girl—just a breath could scare her into kneeling. He felt helpless about this, and sometimes secretly wondered if he asked Grace Green to warm his bed, she’d obediently make it up first and do whatever she was told.

Of course, that was just a figure of speech.

Sometimes, while wandering around his own house, he could hear Lucy Frost scolding the two little maids through the courtyard wall: “The young master won’t eat you. You were bought to serve him, and you can’t even do that...” and so on. Edward Hall would always giggle and try to please her, while Grace Green would just lower her head and stay silent like a gourd, making Lucy Frost quite exasperated.