New Gods of North America

The next day, half of the detective agency gathered at Mr. Ben Harmon's estate.

Wayne, Doug, and Willy had all met the housekeeper before, so they were the open group, and they were officially here to "recognize" the other people in the manor.

If something happens later, everyone will know that Wayne and his men are bodyguards hired by Mr. Ben Harmon, and they will obey their temporary command.

Lina, Ryan and a trainee agent are considered the undercover team.

They all hid their identities and came to apply for the jobs of maid, valet and coachman that Mr. Ben Harmon had temporarily posted.

As for the remaining half,

Inissa and two other trainee detectives also met the housekeeper in the courtyard.

They belong to the rotating semi-visible group and are not needed here at the moment. They usually stay secretly outside the manor and only show up when something happens. They are also responsible for escorting Mr. Ben Harmon to Richmond depending on the situation.

The last few people will stay at home temporarily and make arrangements based on actual needs later.

Mr. Ben Harmon's estate was full of people.

There are four members of the family, Mr. and Mrs. Ben Harmon, and a brother and sister, the older one is thirteen years old and the younger one is ten years old.

The servants were arranged in a very upper-class style of the Kingdom of Windsor, with a total of more than 20 servants.

The butler, the housekeeper who is also the manager of household expenses, each family member has a personal male or female servant, a maid in charge of the bedroom, a maid in charge of the living room or the reception room, a male servant in charge of receiving guests, a maid in charge of the storage room, a kitchen maid, a washing maid, a maid who does miscellaneous work, and so on.

There are also chefs, gardeners, coachmen, assistants, etc. who rarely enter the mansion but work on the estate.

In addition, there are some black slaves who are mainly responsible for the rough work on the manor and labor related to crops.

Wayne only estimated the salary needed to pay the servants for their daily expenses.

Everyone thinks rich people are really hateful.

However, after he secretly inquired for a while, he found that the actual expenditure did not seem to be as much as he had imagined.

Myron, the butler, has the highest salary, $600 a year, which is considered high among ordinary people.

The average weekly salary for butlers, cooks, gardeners, coachmen and the like is around US$7.50, which translates to around US$400 per year, slightly higher than that of ordinary factory workers and roughly the same salary level as skilled workers.

Women's salaries were reduced by nearly half on average.

The salary of a housekeeper is only slightly higher than that of a valet, less than $450 per year, or about $8 per week.

The salaries of maids vary, but the highest is only a little more than half of the average salary of male servants, and the lowest is even lower, with an average annual salary of around US$220. However, it is much higher than the average salary of female factory workers and is relatively more decent.

Finally, the slaves.

Well... they are part of fixed asset expenses and do not involve salary issues.

Therefore, the commission of 1,000 US dollars from the detective agency is roughly equivalent to at least half a year's salary of all the staff in the manor.

Wayne thought about it and seemed to feel balanced again.

…

Because the detective agency and Mr. Ben Harmon had made a private agreement.

Therefore, Lina and her undercover team's application was kept secret from "everyone else" in the manor.

Ryan and a trainee agent's undercover job was relatively smooth, and they basically passed the interview.

Unexpectedly, it was Lina who was almost eliminated.

Mr. Ben Harmon's wife is in her fifties. She is the daughter of a southern plantation owner. She is not well-maintained. It is a bit too much to say that she still has charm.

She seemed to dislike the fact that a young lady like Lina, with blonde hair and blue eyes, was applying for a maid position.

Especially after Ben Harmon implicitly expressed his personal satisfaction and hope to hire Lina,

Instead, it becomes even more unpleasant.

As a bodyguard in public, Wayne had no right to interrupt his employer during the interview.

I just watched the show quietly from the side, and saved up some information to use to make fun of Lina's dark history later.

Fortunately, the Harmons finally went to a small room to have a private chat.

Lina's undercover identity was probably exposed, but there was no obstacle for her to get the job.

But Lina is indeed very suitable for doing this kind of thing. Before dinner, she followed Wayne who was strolling around the mansion and gave him the first batch of information.

It turned out that it was not Mrs. Harmon's fault for being suspicious, but rather that the poor boy, Mr. Ben Harmon, had a criminal record.

If Mrs. Harmon had not cooperated in denying the scandal, her family would have challenged Mr. Ben Harmon to a duel.

"Wuhu," Wayne thought it sounded pretty exciting, "either a dead husband or a dead brother, southerners really know how to have fun."

Lina rolled her eyes:

"You don't understand? The duel custom among the upper class in the South is a legacy of the knight duels of the Old World, the purpose of which is mainly to demonstrate bravery and humiliate the opponent, or to 'die for honor or love' or something like that.

"Usually both parties need to be of equal status, and arrangements must be made in advance for the funeral, notifications must be made, and witnesses must be invited. Most of the targets are parts such as the limbs or shoulders, and the mortality rate is only about one-fifth.

"Unlike some Westerners who would pull out their guns and shoot at others' vital parts when they disagree with each other."

"Yes, yes, I am wild." Wayne, a young man from the West, did not mind. "Let me ask you how it feels to be almost rejected when applying for a job as a maid?"

“Hehe.”

Lina put on a fake smile and said, "It's an honor."

…

That night, Wayne and Willie swapped shifts with two trainee detectives on rotation.

Then Wayne pretended to leave and then hid in Mr. Ben Harmon's study to watch the exercise.

Mr. Ben Harmon's safe hidden in the secret compartment of his study had been moved.

Wayne and his friends also wanted to conduct a secret experiment to see how difficult it would be for outsiders to sneak in based on the manor's previous daily conditions.

Mr. Ben Harmon knew about this, and he had already removed the important things from the safe, so he did not object.

As a result, Lina took Willy, who was almost the same as an ordinary person, out of the main house first, and then sneaked in from outside the main house step by step.

Without knowing the location of the safe in advance and without much time to check it out, he even didn't use his extraordinary ability, but he managed to find his way to the study by taking advantage of a loophole. It took him less than two minutes to find the safe, but it took Wei more than ten minutes to unlock it using his extraordinary ability.

The detective agency's few bodyguards who stayed behind were not aware of this "exercise" in advance.

Although using a professional like Lina was somewhat unethical, the bodyguards did not notice anything unusual, which was indeed a bit inappropriate.

In the end, even Doug's owl was unable to lift its head, and when Willy tried to touch it again, he was warned by a tap on its beak.

Compared with professionals, it seems that I still need to practice more.