Looking up from the stairwell, the wooden handrails wound upward in layers; the ceiling of the stair hall was very high, and the dim light of the gas lamps diffused from the surrounding walls. Jenny lifted her skirt, grasped the handrail, and cautiously followed the senior secretary up the stairs. The senior secretary by the partner's side earned the same salary as the chief editor of the weekly, but held a slightly higher status. Jenny was very nervous, afraid that he would give her a difficult task. Benjamin Rog looked somewhat busy; he took out his pocket watch, checked the time, and strode up the stairs, with Jenny following closely behind. The mansion was too large, and the corridors had no distinctive decorations; they branched in all directions, but not even a single painting hung on the walls. If she didn't stay close, she might get lost if they separated. On the third floor, the senior secretary led Jenny into a long corridor lined with rooms on both sides. As she passed them, she saw many people inside, seemingly all clerks from Benjamin's secretarial office. Their desks were piled with documents; everyone was busy. Jenny was taken to a storage room a bit further ahead. Inside were brand-new filing cabinets, and on the floor stood several crates filled with old archival bags sealed with wax. Judging by the labels on the crates, they weren't company secrets—just newspapers and magazines from other publishing houses that the boss himself had read. In the room, a desk stood in the middle with a typewriter on it; beside it was a small messy pile of newspapers and magazines. Benjamin asked a servant to bring a few more lamps and told Jenny to help by using the typewriter to extract several columns from those newspapers and magazines. Benjamin also gave her the specific list. "May I ask what this is for?" Benjamin looked at her. He had intended to keep it secret, but after a moment's thought, he figured it might be fine to let it out, so he revealed it. "After the last book fair, the boss became very interested in the team of Otis, the chief editor of Life Weekly at Murray Publishing Company. We privately researched and contacted them for two days and found that one of the layout managers has good work ability. The boss wants to further understand this person's style, so we need to extract their past works for a longitudinal comparison. But something just came up, so we have to rush it now." Jenny actually wanted to know what the clerks next door were busy with, but she considered herself lucky that the senior secretary had answered her first question so seriously. If she asked more, he might think she was too nosy and untrustworthy. So she nodded, sat down at the desk, and began to look for what the secretary needed before starting. As she worked, Jenny pondered the implications of this information. If her guess was right, Mr. Zweit, the acting partner, wasn't just acting temporarily; he might be planning to make changes to the magazine department's management. He wanted to poach this person, undoubtedly to place his own people in the magazine department. But the magazine department was already fully staffed; if he brought in a manager, which publication would he put them in? Could it be her own weekly magazine? As she thought, Jenny suddenly noticed the secretary's demeanor. The senior secretary was a cautious man who rarely spoke more than necessary; he must have considered several steps ahead when doing something. Today, unusually, he had revealed so many important personnel changes to a junior clerk like her. Wasn't he afraid she would spread the news? Or perhaps he wanted her to spread it, preferably letting the people in her editorial office know as soon as possible. Jenny quickly looked at what this person had done. Fortunately, this manager was not good at collecting manuscripts and editing serial novels. It took Jenny an hour or two to extract everything needed from that pile of newspapers and magazines. She organized them, made sure they were all dry, and then carried the compiled booklet out of the storage room. The surrounding offices had all closed their doors. Jenny didn't see the senior secretary or any servant outside; it was dark outside the windows. Only at the end of the corridor, light shone from a room with double doors. Jenny thought the senior secretary was there and walked over. Slipping through the door gap, she peered inside. It was a study, and she happened to meet the gaze of the man sitting on the sofa nearby. He was reading a newspaper, with a cup of tea on the low coffee table in front of him. Now he cast a puzzled look toward the door. "Why are you here?" He emphasized the word 'here,' as if asking if she had come to the wrong door and should have gone next door. That was indeed what Zweit thought: wasn't she getting along well with the second son of her distant aunt's family who lived next door? Jenny was taken aback, sensing he was implying something. Her face flushed inexplicably. Pulling herself together, she simply walked in, stood to the side like a tin soldier, and began to explain from beginning to end. "Well, you've recently hired quite a few servants in your mansion. My mother is Mrs. Jones, who feeds the pigeons for you. I came here to bring her something, and I met Mr. Rog in the servants' hall." She paused for breath and continued, "Mr. Rog asked me to come upstairs and extract these things into a booklet. I've finished." Jenny stepped forward and handed over the booklet. Zweit reached out and took it, looking as if he understood. "I see. He really knows how to save himself trouble." He didn't tell Jenny to leave; he took it and flipped through a few pages. "What do you think of this person's ability?" "Me?" Jenny thought for a moment. "I think he is very good at column-type content; his writing topics are novel, but he always goes from simple to profound." "As for the others, they're just average. Their taste in selecting manuscripts isn't as good as Eliot's." The latter sentence was spoken by Zweit himself. Jenny heard her direct superior being praised. She was wondering if he might have a chance for promotion and was about to praise her boss along those lines. Suddenly, the clerks from the adjacent closed rooms walked along the corridor. They knocked on the door, and after receiving a response, opened it and came in. They made no sound at all as they entered, carrying some documents, and stood in a row on one side with their heads bowed. Jenny felt she could leave. With good sense, she took her leave, turned, walked out of the door, and closed it behind her. She had barely taken two steps when she ran into the secretary and the butler. "The work is done and I've delivered it," Jenny said to the secretary. "Mm, very good. Thank you." Rog, as a senior secretary representing the boss's image, naturally appeared friendly and caring toward a small employee like Jenny, very polite. He asked the butler to call a carriage for Jenny to take her back to the dormitory, and also to give her something to take along. "Since you helped me, I can't let you leave empty-handed." Jenny was indeed tired, so she didn't refuse. She went downstairs to the servants' hall and waited for a while with Mrs. Jones. Mrs. Jones was still asking what she had helped with. Jenny said it was typing work. Behind her, the butler came carrying two paper bags. The secretary hadn't said what to give her; he let the butler decide. Jenny saw that the items in the paper bags the butler brought were wrapped in nice packaging paper, wondering if they had been gifts from someone else. Sure enough, the butler said, "These were forced on the secretary when he went out a couple of days ago. It wouldn't have been polite to refuse. I opened them, checked, and registered them. They've been gathering dust in the warehouse. You take them and use them." Jenny hefted the bags; they felt a bit heavy. Her eyes darted around. The butler didn't say anything, but his eyes were glued to the bags, clearly wanting them. She excused herself, saying she couldn't carry so much, and returned one bag to the butler, asking him to take good care of her mother. Upon hearing this, the butler's face lit up, though he still refused verbally. Mrs. Jones watched from the side, not understanding what the two were going back and forth about. She thought Jenny was actively currying favor and bribing the butler, so she quickly urged the butler to accept, and he did. Jenny walked out carrying only one bag and rode the carriage the butler had arranged back to the dormitory. On the way, she had already opened the bag in the carriage. Inside was a set of Tiffany silver inkwells and a mahogany dip pen set. Jenny didn't find any hidden cash inside. When she got back to the dormitory, she went to her room and put it away. In the following days, she maintained her usual routine. During the day, she didn't have much work; Clare and William always took charge of everything. Occasionally in the evenings, she went out with Frank to wander around the city, and also had meals with Monique and the others. New York's winter gradually receded. Green moss sprouted from the cracks in the pavement beside the building, and a cold wind mixed with the fresh scent of new leaves swept through the streets. Two weeks after the book fair, word finally came that the collaboration project had landed. The Literature Department and the Magazine Department took the lead, selling the most copyrights, and the weekly magazine sold information channels to Europe. The entire editorial office received a bonus. Those responsible for organizing the exhibition, including Jenny, also received a separate bonus. Jenny privately counted her small savings; she now had a total of two hundred dollars. She shared the news with Monique and the others, but still hadn't seen any change in the weekly's management. Until Saturday noon. The sun was bright outside the window. Jenny had been busy all morning and was about to go downstairs to treat herself to some seafood. She walked to the stairwell and saw William leaning against the window alone, his face somewhat pale, seeming unwell. "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" Jenny stepped forward to ask with concern, but William shook his head and leaned against the wall to steady himself. "It's nothing, an old problem. I'll be fine after I go downstairs and eat something." Jenny thought for a moment; in her previous life, she had had the same issue. "Did you not eat anything this morning? Are you feeling dizzy when walking? I have some candy." After being scolded by Eliot last time, William still took the initiative in his work, refused help, and was even more meticulous and cautious than usual. He now came earliest and left latest. Indeed, Eliot had been showing him more favor these past two days, treating him much more amiably. Jenny wasn't jealous; in fact, she was happy to have an easier time for a while. Who wouldn't want to work less and earn more? She went upstairs to the office, got some chocolate, came back down, tore open the wrapper, and handed it to William for him to eat. Soon, William did feel much better. He actually didn't want to accept Jenny's help, but if he hadn't been unable to bear it... Seeing that he was improving, Jenny didn't stay long. She patted his arm and went downstairs. William watched her relaxed back view and felt inexplicably annoyed—annoyed at himself.
Preview