Hedrik got up from me with a small wave and went to his desk to grab a notepad, which I had, in all honesty, read a few pages of out of curiosity last night when he was asleep. There honestly wasn't anything that I didn't expect besides the fact that it was more him writing down how pissed he was getting than actual notes on the conference. I couldn't blame him, he always wrote about Jian Bai, who's a jingoistic traditionalist that doesn't know when to quit. Jian Bai is favored by a lot of the people within the palace actually, since it's thought that he'll fight for a fairer deal on our end, but it's far more likely he'll piss off the other side into making the deal even worse, which is why a lot of everyday common people despise him.

I waited a few more minutes after Hedrik left before I got up. As much as I wanted to sleep, I couldn't afford to do that. I had lied about a note possibly excusing me. There was no way in hell that was going to work for me. Maybe it would for one of the other girls, but sure as hell, not me. The only thing I can hope for is that he wasn't joking about personally asking for me, else I'll probably be working as a prostitute for the rest of my life.

I turned around and made the bed, trying to leave it as it originally was before I grabbed the hairpin on the bedside table and stick it in my hair, hoping it looked okay. I grabbed the note on the table before, taking a breath, I opened the door and walked out, carefully closing the door behind me before heading down the hallway to a part of the palace that was barely usable due to how destroyed it was.

With a small sigh, I took a final turn before I knocked on a door in a corner that would usually be ignored unless a person knew where to look. It opened, and to my luck, it wasn't the supervisor but instead Jing Zhang, a close friend. With a small curtsy, I said to her and the others in the room, "Paying my respects to superiors."

"That's not needed, rise," she said before she pulled me inside with a hug, shutting the door with her foot before continuing, "I was afraid that you weren't going to be coming back. It wasn't too bad, right? Don't tell me you got one of those assholes the others got. Mei got a guy who tried to strangle her."

"No, I think.... I think I got the best option possible," I said as I pulled out of her hug and towards our room, as I could see some other girls in the gathering room looking at us with disdain. It was actually refreshing to hear her swear; it's forbidden for us to do, but there are some times where I really just want to let loose a string of curses.

"What do you mean?' she asked as I closed the door behind me.

"I mean what I said. The guy wasn't interested in sex since he said he didn't want to rape an underage girl," I said quietly since the walls were thin, and people around here got jealous easily.

"That really is, but doesn't that mean that.... You'll be sent to do jobs like the lower girls now?" she asked quietly. She was the one I explained my plan to about be requested again, so it makes sense she's worried.

"That's what I thought, but the man said that he would request me again after he made me explain why I didn't want to leave," I told her as I sat down next to her on her bed and motioned to the paper in my hand.

"I find it hard to believe someone like that really exists," she said with a whisper as she looked at her lap.

"I did too. He said he's doing it out of pity and that he himself was lonely because he was the only Major General there, so his colleges look at him with disdain. This is truly the best thing that could have happened," I said as I held one of her hands in both of my two.

"It really is, it's amazing. Now, remember, look out for yourself. Try to get him attached to you, maybe he'll take you out of this hell hole," she said with a smile as she turned to me.

"I doubt that my luck will be that large. He'll treat me well while I'm here, but he'll have to get really attached to me to do that, which will be damn near impossible unless he's here for a long time. Though, that might be the case with what I read Jian Bai is doing," I said as I took out the hair pin that was starting to fall out and put it on the bedside table Jing and I share.

"You can be a charming person if you want to be, I know you can. Try to get out of here," Jing said with another hug.

"I really can't be as you say, you're being too kind with that statement," I responded as I returned her hug.

"With that done, I have your chores list. It's rather short since they didn't know when you would get back. You're on cleaning duty for the gathering room in one hour, but before that, you need to gather the laundry from everyone and take it to the washing room. Now change, you much be freezing in that," she said as she got up.

"Thank you, I'll get on that," I responded as I went to my dresser.

"Don't worry about it.... Didn't you say that the person you were assigned was a Major General?" Jing asked with a frown.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"What's his name?" she asked as her frown got larger.

"He said it was Hedrik," I said before continuing with, "You shouldn't frown like that, you'll get wrinkles."

"Yeah.... It's nothing, but.... Can I bother you to get his last name please?" she asked, almost pleading.

"Yeah, sure. It shouldn't be too hard, I'll get it done," I promised her as I started taking out more appropriate clothes to wear.

"Okay, good. It'll probably be nothing, don't worry," she said before leaving.

"I hope," I muttered as I watched her leave. I'd never seen her that concerned before.