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Chapter 233 – The Buck Stops With … Me?
🕑 Added 2025-04-04 03:44:57 +0000 UTCSun Hua had settled into her role as the sect leaders lead administrative assistant, relishing the purpose the position had brought to her life. The whole situation was quite unbelievable, really. Before the founding of the sect, she’d given up hope of ever being more than a spinster who performed odd jobs around the village.
Since the founding, not only was she quite gainfully employed and using all the skills Mother had taught her, but her work mattered. She helped keep the sect running happily and efficiently. It was she who organized the move-in and she who resolved minor annoyances the members had so that those complaints never reached the sect leader’s ears.
Of course, the former villagers who were now sect members were all on their absolute best behavior. Their new status as cultivators was quite the upgrade from their previous mundane lives, especially given that they’d basically been locked inside the village walls for several years with no hope of escape while facing starvation.
Despite a vague threat from a rival sect, everyone was optimistic about the future. Their personal power was improving seemingly by the day, and they trusted the sect leader to take care of any enemy who dared to attack. No one wanted to risk drawing the sect leader’s ire by being anything less that the picture of a perfect sect member.
Thus, the main problems she had to deal with were minor things such as issues with arrays in the houses and pavilions. The sect leader had warned everyone that he had not personally built the houses and, for the most part, had not inscribed the arrays. Though he’d given everything a once over to ensure basic functionality and safety, he told them to expect malfunctions due to degradation from age.
Everyone was supposed to report any issue no matter how small. His plan was to use the repairs to teach the members of the Formations Pavilion how to perform maintenance.
To that end, Sun Hua was given instructions to evaluate the severity of each reported problem. If it didn’t have an impact on the “standard of living” of the occupants and didn’t represent a “safety hazard,” she was to note the issue on a “punchlist.” Anything that was major or seemed dangerous, she was to bring to him immediately.
Luckily, she had deemed everything registered thus far to be of trivial concern. Which was really fortunate because the sect leader was busy with a project. The entire sect was abuzz with speculation on what he was doing since his work was outside where the main gate was to eventually be placed in plain view.
With him being so obviously consumed by the project, she definitely didn’t want to bother him unless she could not avoid it.
The day after Senior Brother, Senior Sister, and Esteemed Kang Lin left on their gliders to go to Sixth Flawless Flowing City, though, a problem occurred that required the sect leader’s attention. The previously perfect behavior of the villagers turned sect members experienced a disruption.
Two young men notorious for being rivals got in a fistfight. Not in the arena or in the Martial Pavilion or any other location where such activities would be proper. No, they fought in the cafeteria.
One of them threw the other onto the buffet, ruining a great deal of food and causing actual damage. Two of the arrays that kept pans warm were broken. A portion of the buffet was cracked. Several serving dishes were destroyed.
Everyone was on edge waiting to find out what the sect leader would do about it. Would he execute both boys? Or maybe just the one most at fault? Cripple their cultivation? Kick them out of the sect? Imprison them?
Rumors and speculation ran rampant.
By dinnertime, complaints arose as the cafeteria’s capacity to keep the buffet hot was cut in half, meaning a lot of people had to eat cold food. There were murmurs and complaints, mostly directed toward the two idiots.
Sun Hua well knew, however, that such sentiment could find a new target quickly enough if something wasn’t done.
The sect leader, as far as anyone could tell, was too busy to pay much attention to any of the commotion as he was hard at work. Someone had to tell him, and that someone was Sun Hua.
Unfortunately, she hadn’t yet gotten over how intimidated she felt in his presence. Her feelings were somewhat understandable. He was, by far, the most powerful person anyone in the village had met in their lives. On the other hand, he had a reputation for being one of the nicest people anyone had ever met as well.
But it wasn’t like she was scared he would annihilate her with a blast of qi if she displeased him or anything. She was more worried that, if she made a big enough mistake or too many of them, he’d fire her. After all, her position was important. He needed someone competent. And though she hoped that she was the best person for the job, she couldn’t bring herself to be confident that she actually was.
She usually ended up making herself so nervous thinking about how many things she could do wrong when she talked to him that she became much more likely to mess up. And the situation grew worse the longer she had to think about facing him.
The walk to where the sect leader was working was dreadful. Sun Hua tried to go over the important details in her head to keep her mind off the prospect of being demoted. Two idiots got into fight. The cafeteria was damaged. They need to be punished. The sect members are on edge waiting to see how he will react.
Clear. Concise. Logical.
When she finally arrived, he was at the bottom of a large pit doing something to the dirt on the bottom. She, of course, did not interrupt him but instead waited for him to notice her presence.
After about fifteen minutes, he drifted up to her.
Hanging in the air in the middle of the hole, he said, “Sun Hua, I’m glad you came by. I meant to inform you that I would be consumed with this project for at least the next couple of weeks. Unless there is a dire emergency, I need to not be disturbed.”
She immediately cupped her hands. “Yes, Sect Leader.”
Apparently, he took her words as her not needing any further information because he immediately started drifting back toward the bottom of the hole. Which was the exact opposite of the truth. She needed direction on what to do while he was indisposed.
Should she try to gain his attention, or should she simply leave? What a disaster!
She couldn’t just let him go without giving her any guidance at all. The sect members needed her to find out how to handle those two idiots.
Screwing up all her courage, she called, “Sect Leader! Who is in charge while you’re busy?”
The mayor was clearly in charge of the village, and each pavilion had its own leader. But with Senior Sister and Senior Brother away, there was no one designated to be in charge of the entire sect.
The sect leader had already sunk far enough into the hole to be out of her sight, and she heard him laugh.
“You are!” he yelled.
Her eyes went wide. He couldn’t be serious. She hoped that he wasn’t serious. In her heart, though, she knew that he was.
She couldn’t be in charge. What if a real problem came up? How could she possibly take responsibility for the decisions? Even with the issue of the two idiots, she couldn’t bear the thought of everyone knowing their punishment came from her.
Sun Hua stood there not too far from the edge of the hole, stunned, for quite some time, processing what had just happened. On one hand, it was a complete disaster. She did not feel in any way qualified to make decisions that affected the entire sect. On the other hand, Mother would be proud when she found out. Really proud. Her daughter had just become one of the most important people in the village. Maybe even in more than just the village. The entire region.
Ugh. Mother would definitely try to gain any advantage she could from Sun Hua’s influence. Settling old scores. Gaining material benefits.
Sun Hua was much more worried about performing her job competently. Mother’s teaching had actually covered what to do in a similar situation. The assistant was supposed to pay close attention to her employer’s decision-making process so that she could anticipate those choices. Then, if left to fill in for the employer, she could, to some degree, replicate the employer’s thinking and thus be praised as a model employee.
The problem was that Sun Hua hadn’t been the sect leader’s assistant for nearly long enough to learn anything about the what and why of his choices. Not only that, but even if she’d been in the position for years, the sect leader was unfathomable. His age and level of power made his sensibilities simply beyond her understanding.
She could never replicate his decisions. Her only hope was that Senior Sister and Senior Brother returned before she had to commit to any action.
It was already close to evening when the sect leader put Sun Hua in charge of the sect, so she was able to put off any ruling in the case of the two idiots until the morrow. And of course, she spent a sleepless night worrying over it.
The murmurs grew louder the next morning, so she had to do something. She announced that the sect leader had put her in charge of the sect while he was otherwise engaged.
To say that the sect members and the villagers were shocked was an understatement. The announcement, at least, gave her leave to delay acting a little while longer.
Then, miracle of miracles, Senior Sister, Senior Brother, and Esteemed Kang Lin arrived back at the sect in the late morning. Senior Sister had taken over running the sect during the aftermath of the beast tide, even going so far as to appoint a new guard captain. She or one of the others could decide how to punish the two idiots.
Sun Hua was saved!
The trio immediately reported to the sect leader on arrival and, after, departed to the Marial Pavilion. Sun Hua found them there.
After greetings were exchanged, she got right to the problem, explaining in detail what had happened with the two idiots getting into a fight, the damage that had been done, and the desire of the other sect members to see them punished.
“What did Master advise?” Senior Sister said.
Sun Hua had honestly expected to hear an order telling her what to do, not the question she’d actually received, so an honest answer tumbled from her mouth before she had a chance to hone it into a more advantageous message. “The sect leader told me that I was in charge.”
The three looked at each other. There were some smiles and some nods.
“The ways of our seniors are somethings unfathomable to us juniors,” Kang Lin said. “Sometimes they order us to do something we feel incapable of doing. It’s possible that he believes you are capable of performing this task. It may be a test to see how you perform. It may be a way of him challenging you to hopefully propel you to new personal heights. Regardless, if it is Master’s desire that you be in charge, it is not for any of us to usurp that decision.”
Put that way, Sun Hua immediately saw the wisdom in the answer. The sect leader had put her in charge, and his command was absolute. For better or for worse, she had to lead the sect until he said otherwise.
Her heart sunk into her stomach. She was not qualified for such a task. At all. She or the sect or both were doomed.
Comments
BelligerentGnu
Oh, muffin.
Harley Shockley
Tie them both together until they’re no longer enemies. If they hate each other so much, they can stay together till they love one another.
