Chapter - 5118

Maria asked curiously, “Your Master has spent so much effort to get such a separate place. Why haven’t they lived in the courtyard?”

Sister Michelle smiled slightly and said, “I don’t know. Master just ordered that the place should be maintained and when daily maintenance is required, I must personally supervise it. As for others, they never told me about it.”

“Okay.” Maria nodded thoughtfully and then sighed, “This is really a good place to cultivate one’s morality. If possible, I would like to live here for 20 years, or even longer.”

Sister Michelle smiled slightly and said respectfully “Master has already said that if Miss Clark likes it, she can live here forever. As long as you live here, you are the real owner of this place.”

Sister Michelle, as the housekeeper, knew that Larry respected Maria very much, even to the point of being respectful, so Maria could never be a relative or even a junior of the couple.

Moreover, Sister Michelle knew best how much importance the master attached to this highest courtyard, and why everyone must let her follow when they came here. It was because the master did not want any of the servants to damage the furnishings and arrangements here. But now, he generously gave this place to Maria to live in. This showed that Maria holds a very special place in his heart.

Maria asked Sister Michelle “By the way, how many servants are there?”

Sister Michelle replied “There are sixteen working maids, four bodyguards and two drivers, a total of twenty-two people. Including me, there are twenty-three people in total.”

Maria asked in surprise “There are so many maids?”

“Yes,” Sister Michelle replied “There are four maids who are in charge of washing, cooking and are responsible for hygiene and cleaning everywhere. There are eight maintenance maids and four gardeners, but there are also some people who can be deployed temporarily if needed.”

Maria asked “Where are these servants from?”

Sister Michelle said “They were carefully selected from the servants at home in Malaysia when I came here.”

“Understood,” Maria nodded slightly and felt a little relieved. These people are all from Malaysia and have served the Cole family for many years. They are basically domestic slaves.

Maria's understanding of the tradition of domestic slavery is accurate, it is a practice that is still preserved in wealthy families. For the truly wealthy, the ratio of domestic servants to their own family members can sometimes reach five to one or even higher. In order to ensure stability and reliability, they often adopt this kind of domestic slavery. They recruit them to work at home when they are teenagers and stay at home until they retire. Most of these servants are from poor families and a large family member needs to support them, so one of them is sent to a wealthy family as a servant.

There are many advantages to being a servant. In that family, they eat well, live well, and earn a lot of money and almost all the money they earn can be saved to subsidize the family. The family does not need them to have high education and proficiency in other languages. They work hard and diligently.

Maria liked this place more and more and in a calm mood, Maria said to Sister Michelle with a little joy, “I have some things that I need. I will make a list later and you can help me buy them.” Sister Michelle said respectfully “Okay, Miss Clark, give me the list and I’ll do it right away!”